SD308 Board of Education Meeting (01/26/2026)

001Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Cerone >> here. >> Dr. Martin >> here. >> Dr. Mario >> here. >> Dr. Pock. >> Miss Robinson >> present. >> Miss C >> here. >> Miss >> present. Let's all stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic nation under God indivisible and justice for all. >> All right. Okay. 4.1 our fall recognition. >> Yes. So board, we ask you to please join us in the middle. >> All right. >> Tonight we are going to recognize several of our students for their recent athletic achievements from this past fall. We're going to begin with the story of two amazing athletes from our swim and dive team. Unable to

002attend tonight, Katie Malm, a senior at Asiggo East High School, defended her title as the IHSA state swim and dive championship. While in route to becoming the back-to-back state dive champion, she set a new state scoring record of 515.75. So, congratulations to Katie. And now we're going to ask for Miss Addie Miller to come forward. Addie came home from the IHSA state swim and dive championship with some serious hardware. In addition to claiming the state title in the AWD 100 breast stoke, Addie also took second place in the AWD 200 free, second place in the AWD50 free, and second place in the AWD 100 free. Congratulations to both Katie and Addie. We're going to pause for a photo and invite any coaches and administrators to come up and join us. congratulations. [laughter] Thank you. unable

003to join us this evening, but we feel like we can't miss this opportunity to acknowledge Ally Wle, who's a sophomore from Asiggo High School. This past fall, Ally won the IHSA Class 2A Girls Golf State Championship. Her impressive score of 136 allowed her to claim the state title, winning by five strokes. Congratulations to Ally. Our final recognition for students this evening is our Asiggo High School football team. The players and coaches representing this amazing team please come forward to be recognized by Dr. Concaid and our board as we read about you. This fall the Panthers had a historic playoff run leading them all the way to the IHSA state championship. Supported across the community, this team captured the attention of many both local and around the state as they made their way through the playoffs.

004Asiggo hosted the class 8A semifinal against Lockport, winning 10-7 to advance to the finals, marking the first time the team reached the semi-finals since 2003 and only the third time in school history that asgo has advanced to the state championship. Notably, head coach Brian Cooney, who previously won a state title as a player for Asiggo in 1992, led the team to this 2025 milestone. The Panther Panthers finished this incredible season as the IHSA 8A state runnerup. Congratulations, Panthers. All right, we're gonna try for a photo here. [laughter] >> Right. board. We're going to ask you to stay there. We're done with our um student recognition. Congratulations to all of our athletes. Thank you for being here. Um before we move forward, um we are going to do two additional photos just for um time sake

005here. Uh we're going to ask first if we could have our inaugural residency cohort stand and come forward to join the board for a photo. Any administrators that would like to join them? Wow. [laughter] Awesome. [laughter] Congratulations. [laughter] We'll hear all about you guys in just a moment. But board, stay there. We have one more exciting recognition. We would like to ask our ESL cohort to come forward. If there's any administrators that would like to join them for the photo. >> [laughter] >> and a round of applause for you or you can return. Thank you. [laughter] Okay. And briefly before we move forward with the rest of the meeting, we just want to take a moment and um acknowledge that uh this evening we have Dr. Conincaid, our deputy superintendent, serving here alongside President Cerrone

006in Dr. Kgatti's absence. Um, our thoughts are with him as he is currently out with a loss from his family. >> Thank you, Teresa. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> wait. >> Don't all leave. Don't all leave. We have your We're going to celebrate you still. >> That was just picture time, right? [laughter] Let's get you out of here a little bit quicker. Not that quick. [laughter] >> We're going to hear all about your great work now in our presentation. >> Yeah. >> And then >> so 5.1 we have our nextgen residency celebration of inaugural residents and ESL endorsement graduates. >> Good evening board. I am excited to present to you the first presentation this evening by Reagan Sergath, our director of schools and staff development. Hi board. Um I have the privilege and

007honor of being here today to share um some celebrations with you all. So I want to start out by sharing a little bit about our residency program here in SD308. Um our residency program is the NextGen residency program. Um and we partner with Aurora University and we actually have um three of our representatives and our partners. Jan Gant, the chair of initial lensure and college of ed and social fellow. Thank you for being here. >> And then we have Emily Morales, the assistant vice president of graduate enrollment and Brenda Barnwell, the dean of college of education and social work. um our partnership with Aurora is critical for this programming. So I wanted to make sure that um we recognize them today. So if you will click on to the next slide. Oh, I have it.

008Look at that. I'm going to double I'm going to do a microphone and a clicker. [laughter] Where am I going? Okay. Um so I wanted to just start out with sharing the residency mission and vision with you all. Um really when we created the program it was to equip future educators future educators with the knowledge and skills that they need in order to help our students achieve. So um when we created the program we looked at really how do you grow your own? We have um all of our res wonder wonderful residents back here um along with two other cohorts that are currently in action. Um they are all district employees or have been for an average of seven years. So we have teaching assistants uh substitutes and everything that have started um within our

009residency program. So not only are we building our own but they are invested in our kids already before they started this this journey with us. Um so click um and the reasoning why we created this programming is because we need highquality educators. And um so if you'll see up there I just put a couple of stats. one being that we have 92 teachers that will be submit that have already submitted for retirement over the next four years in SC 308. That is not including those that will submit for retirement between now and March 1st. So we have a lot of teachers um that are leaving us and we need to fill them with wonderful highquality educators. Um some statistics from the National Center for Education um in May of 2024 was that our tra traditional

010teacher preparation programs have dropped 23% since 2010. That means college and universities are not producing teachers or teachers people are not going into education. Um so this is even more of the reason for the program. Then lastly, um between 2010 and now there has been a um upward trend of teachers leaving education 16 to 18%. Um annually and that's that's sad, right? We see our teachers burning out and leaving um where we are hoping within um our residency program that they are invested in our district and they will stay with us. We have three primary goals for the residency program. One is to increase the number of certified teachers in our high needs areas. That includes special education. Um our ESL which is our fastest growing subgroup. Actually in 2016 we had 5.5% and now

011we have 15% in 2025. Um as I mentioned before all of our residents um for that goal number two is to increase that retention um for our highquality educators. All of our um residents in our bachelor's program. I'll go through the different tracks here in just a moment, but one of our programs are bachelor's um in special education with an ESL endorsement all currently serve as special education TAs in district and as I mentioned before have served an average of seven years in SC 308 already. So, not only have they um invested their time, but they want to stay with us to be teachers. Um our MATS MAT students um we have two MAT tracks running right now. um one just finished, so not really running any longer. Um but they are working on their

012endorsements at this point to be special ed or um ESL teachers. They all serve during the programming as a TA. Um but they get paid as a TA, but they are serving as a teacher of record. Um during that time, they are co-teers of record. After the programming is over, they commit to our district for anywhere between four, it depends on the track, but four to five years. So, I just wanted to share with you um some demographics of our current residents. Um right now, between the three tracks, we have 42 total residents. That's between MAT1, which is our master's first track, um our master's second track, which is MAT 2, and our bachelor's track. Of those um current residents, you can see the statistics here. Um and we have 12 currently. If you look

013on the right hand side, we're showing female versus male. Um these are in all three of our cohorts. We had 31 females and 11 males. However, um in our current cohorts that are not finished, so our not our MAT1, our MAT 2 and our BA, both of those groups, um we have 16 women and well, I'm sorry, in the first cohort, we had 16 women and one man. And this time, um we have 12 females and 10 males in our programming. So um and you can look at the demographics here and on the left hand side and you can see that we had four Asian um people who identified as Asian go through our program and we have 10% of our students in district that are Asian. Uh black and African-American. We had three um

014of our residents identify as being black African-American or um AfricanAmerican with another race. and we have 11% of our students in district. Um, and then Hispanic, we had 13 um, residents identify his as Hispanic where 27.5% of our students um, are Hispanic. And then 22 uh, residents were white and we have 46.4% of our students. So really when I when I outline those numbers, I outline them for the purpose of showing you that we are um in line in line with our students. We want to make sure that we are representing our students with the teachers in our district so they can see themselves within um their teachers as well. Um I really wanted to share this because this is something near and dear to my heart. Um I am a first college first generation

015college student um in my family and so that was something I asked our residents and as you can see out of those 42 20 of them are first generation college students. So um that's very exciting. So we're really breaking down those barriers and building long-standing um staff into teachers. Here are some of our um key success metrics. So, so far by so far that growth mindset um we have had 17 graduated MAT teacher residents all here. Well, not all of them but a majority of them here tonight. Um we had nine of uh graduated leadership residents and I'll share that in just a moment when we get to that slide. Um we host hosted a leadership track so they could be principles or work in administration um last year and we had nine people graduate

016from that program. We have 11 new master's residents um that have just started their journeys over the summer and um we have 12 bachelors of special education with the ESL uh teacher residents currently. We have 16 people who completed the ESL endorsement who are also here to be celebrated tonight. And um we have new cohorts that just started up in January. We have 15 people going through the ESL endorsement and 17 going through the um learning the LBS or the learning behavior specialist endorsement. Um those are all internal staff. So I think that's worth noting that we are also building within like building those um endorsements within our programming. Um some other statistics you can see up there is we have 44% of our residents are bilingual. 27% of our residents have expressed the desire

017to be dual language or ESL teachers while 65% of them have said that they want to be special ed teachers. Um the exciting part um here I think and this speaks for the people in this room um is that we have 119 individuals that have filled out the interest survey in wanting to be part of our residency in district. >> So I wanted to just share a little bit about what our current tracks are and what what the details behind them. So um it's really working on merging coursework with coursework theory with practices here within 308. So our MAT program is a a year and a half program um and they are able to work as a teacher of record or a TA um per contract um while they are completing their graduation requirements. We

018work with Aurora University and through Aurora we um offer different pieces here in district such as hiring our own adjunct and um supporting the site schools or supporting like our programming within the schools here in district. So with some of those commitments um we are able to get a significant tuition discount for our our residents um equaling between 47 and 52% depending on the track. Um, so they are able to pay um less than you would pay if you were going through a traditional program. Um, then after the MAT, after they graduate with their elementary um, PEL, elementary education PEL, they then get to work towards an ESL or a special ed LBS endorsement. Um, they have co-teers uh, of record and they're co-teers of record and they have mentors. And I just want to

019acknowledge some of the mentors that are here with us tonight. If you're a mentor, could you stand up, please? They're really intricral in um the the working with the residents and making sure that they are um uh really learning more than we can offer just in coursework, right? This is that on-site job training. Um and then all of our um coursework is taught by internal adj adjunct and that was a lot of who you saw come up here. So if you just raise your hand if you're an adjunct show. So um that's our MAT track. Our BA track is a two and a half year program. It's a special education um PEL with and then they also have weaved in ESL classes. So they get their ESL endorsement while um completing that. They also get

020that significant tuition discount. Um they are excuse me [clears throat] paid during their student teaching and right now they all serve as a special education TA or an RBT or a BT. So that's at registered behavior technician or behavior tech. [snorts] So they are serving in that capacity in our district right now. um they they go through professional month or monthly professional learning and um all of their coursework is also taught by internal adjunct. So just thinking about the future um we currently um offer those three tracks. However, uh we've been able to build a lot of different components. one being that we're offering that ESL and sped um endorsements at at the discounted rate with our partners univer um Aurora Aurora University. Um and we are also looking to possibly run another leadership pathway.

021Uh we have had significant interest. Um I probably get an email a week asking you know if they have that opportunity to move into a leadership track. [snorts] Um our adjunct as I already alluded to uh are our current staff members and our new pathways. We have had many discussions about where we want to go next. Uh we have talked about grants and what we want to look at moving forward um including some ideas about our related service pathways psychology and um even into our CTE pathways. So, here are the names of our wonderful inaugural residents who are here tonight. Our leaders, I don't think any of our leader residents are here tonight, are they? Nope. Um, so I just wanted to share these are the nine um leader graduates. They graduated last year um

022in December and we have two of them are currently that are currently serving as administrators in district. One assistant principal of special education and one district um director. We also have three that are serving as a in a coaching role. Um one that's serving as a resident mentor. Um one that is running a student leadership team in their building and then two that serve within their building leadership teams. our ESL endorsement graduates once again. And I just want to take this moment to say thank you first of all to the board of education um for supporting this program and our residency partners over university. Our our union leadership has been integral in this process when it comes to recruitment. So, I want to thank them um as well as supporting us in in every little

023bump that we've hit along the way. They've been right next to us in partnership. Um our site school building administrators and some of them are here today. If you'd raise your hand, our adjunct professors, our resident mentors, our teacher and leader residents, and of course, our community. Thank you so much. Go ahead. >> Yeah. I just want to say on uh behalf of the board, thank you very much. Um this is this program um I mean I've known this for a while but has all the quality components of a really quality, you know, teacher residency program. Um, and I know the board of education is happy to invest in those that are already invested in our community to have so many of our residents come um from our current, you know, staff is is really

024great. And I will just also comment it is I mean when we when I when some of us were running for the board like two and a half almost three years ago I forget how long it's been now but we this was just like an idea that we had and to see from that moment to now um is just to see the success from that moment to now is just really tremendous. So thank you to you to all of our partners to our residents mentors everyone. So thank you Absolutely. >> Yeah. The fact that there's 119 people uh on the waiting list uh says that there's a good word of mouth out there and it checks a lot of boxes. I mean, it gets our our people uh better positions and better position in life.

025It gets our students better um not better teachers, but teachers, you know. Yeah. And uh wow, dual language and special education. Those are very hard to find. So, thank you everybody. >> They they all want to be they all want to be one of the cool kids >> like everybody back here. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Anybody else? >> No. Um, thank you. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Yeah. Now, now it's time. But we will be talking about early childhood and finances. >> Don't [laughter] move. >> I did it. >> What did you do? >> You know, >> oh. Oh, that's Yeah. >> You know, I talk by hand so much. [laughter] >> A weapon. >> I love it indeed. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, a lot of the topics that we talked about during

026the campaign. Yeah. Um, so we're moving on to 5.2 two early childhood programs. >> Good evening board. The next presenters on early childhood programs, we really wanted to take an opportunity to provide you and give you some insight about our early childhood programs, we have Dr. Jennifer Groves, who is our director of early childhood and our principal of Brocall Early Learning Center, and Julie Frankino, our director of grants. >> All right. Thank you very much. Um, I'm Jennifer Groves and I'm happy to share an overview of the SD308 early childhood program. Um throughout this presentation, we're going to provide an overview of the early childhood program, the purpose, the requirements, and the current enrollment around EC, as well as um an overview of the revenue and expenditure funding sources for early childhood in the state

027and here in SD 308. So, as always, we ground our work in our mission. Um, the mission for SD308 early childhood is to foster the learning and growth of all children. In early childhood, we strive to empower, support, and motivate our youngest learners to thrive by providing an excellent early childhood program that's grounded in research that's focused in the emotional, physical, mental, and social well-being of each social emotional well-being of each child. and we're committed to partnering with parents recognizing them as the first and primary educator of their children. This mission very much aligns with the work in our district strategic plan. It emphasizes the comprehensive educational programming, integrated social, emotional, and behavioral supports, equitable access, and developmentally appropriate student- centered learning experiences beginning at the early childhood level. There are three ways that students

028come to the SD308 EC program, and I will walk through each of those. Um the first way is to qualify for the preschool for all um PFA programming. This is a statef funded grant and it serves children who are 3 to 5 years old although 5 years old not old enough to go to kindergarten. It's very specific in that but it serves 3 to 5 year olds who are identified as being at risk for academic failure. We are currently funded for 420 students. This grant requires that we use a standard aligned and research-based curriculum. It requires that children attend school for 12 and a half instructional hours per week. That aligns to a 2 and 1/2 hour day. It requires that we do um developmental community screenings to identify if chi children um would qualify

029for the program. It requires that we have a family support program which includes regular parent education opportunities and students who qualify for the PFA program are placed in what we call blended classrooms. These are a gened setting classroom. The second way that children would qualify for our early childhood program is by requiring special education services. Um, students who would be identified as needing special education or an IEP are identified through the child find process. That can be at those community developmental screenings or it could also be students that are referred to us through the early intervention program which is the birth to three year old pro three-year-old program in the county. So all students who qualify for early intervention EI are then screened to see if they would also qualify for an IEP. Once students

030are identified as needing special education services at 3 to 5 years old, we're required to provide education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their needs. We meet that LRE requirement in one of three ways. Students with an IEP can be included in a PFA blended classroom. That would be more of that gened setting. Children with an IEP can also receive their services in a self-contained special education classroom. That is a smaller setting that is very specific to their um identified needs. or students can receive their IEP services through a walk-in speech model, which is a um typically a once a week service that is provided at their home elementary school. The third way that children qualify for the 308EC program is through a tuition program. We offer up to 50 tuition spots for students.

031These would be students who do not qualify for the PFA program and are not identified as requiring special education services. Students who enroll in the tuition program pay $400 each month in tuition. And these students would be placed in that PFA blended classroom setting, that gened setting. When we look at our current enrollment, we can look at it in two different ways. The very first pie chart shows an overview of the entire early childhood program. At the beginning of this month, we had 609 students enrolled in early childhood. Our numbers continue to grow throughout the year as students are identified as require meeting um either the at risk criteria or requiring an IEP. But at the beginning of the month, we had 609 students. You can see in that first pie chart that of our

032entire early childhood program nearly 83% of our students are placed in those PFA blended classrooms that more gened setting. So we had a total of 504 students in those classrooms. We had 77 students or right under 13% that had their services met in that self-contained special education setting. and we had just under 5% of our students receiving walk-in speech services at their public ele at the elementary school. The second pie chart breaks down the PFA blended classrooms. So um as you can see with nearly 83% of our students getting um their early childhood programming in that setting, we can look at what those classrooms look like. At the beginning of January, we had 504 students in our blended classrooms. Of that, um, just slightly more than half of them were identified as being at risk

033for academic failure and qualified for that PFA program. We had 40% of the students within that program receiving IEP services. And again, this is more of that gened setting. So that's meeting their special education needs in that least restrictive environment. And then a small number of students right around 6% qualifying or enrolling in the tuition program. So a total of 31 students at the beginning of January paying tuition. As part of our program review, we felt that it was important to examine how other early childhood programming compares in the large unit districts that are close to us geographically. So this slide highlights the type of early childhood programming offered in Asiggo, Indian Prairie School District 204, Planefield School District 202, Valley View 365, West Aurora School District 129, and Yorkville School District 115. And you

034can see the different programmings that are offered in each of those districts. We're now going to shift into a review of how early childhood programming is funded. To walk us through this portion of the presentation, I'd like to introduce Julie Frankino, the director of grants. >> Thanks, Jennifer. Hi, I'm Julie Frankino. I'm the director of grants for the district. Nice to meet all of you. and I will talk to you a little bit about the funding for the early childhood program here at 308. So this slide shows our revenue for the early childhood program. We have three main revenue sources for this program. The first uh revenue source is the PFA grant that Jennifer mentioned earlier. It's also called the early childhood block grant or commonly we just refer to it as PFA. That is

035a pretty consistent revenue source. It's around $1.3 million a year. Um, you will see there's a little spike there in FY24. The state of Illinois had some extra funds that year. That was very much an anomaly. It had not happened before. We do not expect it to ever happen again. Um, it was just kind of a blip for that one year. Then we also get some funds from IDEIDA. That's the special education uh federal funding stream. There's a portion of that that is set aside for preschool specifically. Then that is pretty consistently around 35 to $45,000 a year. Uh and then we also have our tuition which has been consistently around 90 to $100,000 a year. Obviously these vary a little bit but those are pretty consistent. You'll also see that we had some ARP

036idea funds. So ARP was some COVID funding that we also had in 2024. again a one-time thing that um we don't expect to happen again. The next slide shows our early childhood expenditures. Um you can see we have relative consistency from year to year. The bar graph shows total expenditures and how those expenditures are met between grant funds and local funds. You can see that it is mostly local funds with the exception of FY24 when we had that little spike in the grant funds. And then this slide is a comparison of the four years. It's really the same information just presented in a different way. Uh it goes left to right and kind of it was hard to get the piraphphs to fit on one slide. So each pi represents the full uh cost or

037the full expenditures for that year. The green is our local funds. Blue is grant funds and the tiny little wedge of red is the tuition funds for that year. So you can see most of our costs uh our revenue is comes from local funds. So the previous slides showed our trends over the last few years. This slide shows projections just for the current school year FY26. You can see that was with with respect to grants revenue and expenses are roughly even. That's always going to be the case because grants are are uh um they're a reimbursement basis. So whatever money we spend, we get reimbursed in grants. there there's never going to be a big discrepancy there. >> Can I can I I'm sorry. Can I ask a question kind of a slide back? >>

038Why was there the big jump in non-transportation expenses from 24 to 25? I mean, you're going from 5.7 million to 7.1. >> Uh I defer to our fearless leader for that. >> Fearless leader. There were there were a number of things that that impacted that. I think there was a bit of an inspection in the program if I'm not mistaken. So, we had additional staff that were hired and also we negotiated a really good agreement with our TAs >> who make up a big chunk of the program. And if you remember before then we uh we had problems keeping our TA. We depended heavily on consultants who were paying sometimes twice, three times as much as we were paying our internal uh employee. So we we reach an agreement with them back in 25 and

03926. So those are the uh those are the factors that made up that significant jump in uh in [clears throat] its manager uh expansion in the program and uh reward our recruitment paying our TAs better than they have been paid in the past. >> Okay. >> Thanks Raphael. Um so the projections for FY26 again local revenue because as it's represented in this slide that consists of uh the tuition funding only. So the local expenses are significantly um you know the expenses are going to out outpace the revenue because revenue in this slide is reflective only of tuition that we take in which is as you've seen earlier very very small >> and in like six months they'll be like even right >> I'm sorry can you say that again? No. >> What is the typing?

040[clears throat] So, local revenue though. Oh, >> so a little bit confused. >> I guess the takeaway from here is that >> the program is funded disproportionately by local funds. >> Mhm. >> Which is property taxes. Now the program if is is supposed to the majority of the fund is supposed to come from the grant and we can expect some subsidies some small subsidies from local funds. But the way our program is run right now is the local fund is taking up a big chunk of the program which long term is not sustainable. So the majority of the funding is coming from our general funding. >> Yes. General revenue from this. >> It's not being funded by the tuition or by the state grants. >> That's correct. The tuition is a very small sliver. Yeah.

041>> Of the about 100,000. And [clears throat] the uh state grant the state grant it's about 1.4 consistently which is reimbursement based. And then IDA is about 38,000 on average. So the big bulk of the revenue that we use to fund the program is from uh general revenue, local property tax uh fund. >> Is that typical? Do we know if that's typical of like surrounding districts? Is that how you know 204 funds theirs? Would their numbers look similar or are we supporting preschool at a higher rate with our early childhood at a higher rate with our uh property taxes? >> As far as we could tell, we did try to analyze their AFR data. It did appear that way. It It's a little hard to parse that out in an AFR. >> It appears that

042we're that's similar or that >> Yes. >> But the difference though, >> but it's really hard to parse that. the district that we compare ourselves to financially they want a better footing than we are. So it's kind of like looking at your neighbor who makes x amount of money living a certain lifestyle and saying we all spending the same amount of money except the neighbor might be bringing substantially more money in every month than the person comparing himself to the neighbor. >> So that's that's the difference. >> We use local funds for lots of >> lots of different things. So um >> and the local revenue here is just tuition money >> in this in this >> in this graph. Yes. >> Okay. >> Raphael, when you say it's not sustainable, what does that mean?

043>> What it means is that if you have a program where revenue is coming from local fund and the program doesn't sustain itself uh over time. The goal is whatever program that we have, we want the uh the expenses and the revenue to mirror each other. I mean there could be years of slight variance a year or two >> but when you uh in this particular case at the end of this year we projecting revenue >> uh the uh the expenses to outpace the revenue that we get by 7.7 uh million. That's that's a significant difference. >> Yeah. I just But we do this is >> but we're still funding. >> We do this for every single thing that we do pretty much. >> We use local funds, >> right? >> But the difference has

044to come from somewhere is what I'm saying. >> Right. >> It has to come from somewhere. >> What the state or the fed federal government don't give us, we support with local funds >> to some extent. To some extent. >> To the extent. >> But if you look at that >> Well, to a decent extent because a lot of our money comes from local taxes. Yeah. But if you look at that though, the revenue in this case for the program that is dedicated to that program, which is the preschool for all and IDA, we're looking at $1.4 million. And the expenses is $7.7 million. That's a significant >> I would get into a philosophical argument that we would end up paying more in the long run if we don't support our earliest students. So I'm

045I don't unsustainable to me that means the short term that's not thinking long term to me. So I I I'm going to push back pretty hard on on on that because >> but I think this is just the current snapshot as it is. >> I'm just saying >> yeah I think it's just something >> the word unsustainable >> something to consider in our financial conversations. Is that right? Yeah, >> I think it is important to consider considering the fact that um we have some headwind uh with the the district's finances from now uh for the next 5 years and uh part of that which I'm doing a presentation about right after this part of that has to do with things that we have no control on which also impact us state revenue. the state is

046uh structurally in a bad place financially and federal revenue which impacts the state directly. So every little bit counts. So we have to look at everything as a whole and just try to make sure as much as possible that the revenue we take in uh matches the expenses that we spend. >> Yeah, [clears throat] I would I look at it from different pots. Um and what would we prioritize? So yeah, I would have to see. Um, yeah. Yeah, to me it's uh there's priorities that we also have to consider because if if >> there's no recommendation right now to like be cutting something. It's just like a piece of the puzzle. And if it were to come down to, hey, we're in this, you know, we need to cut this much money. I'm just putting

047that out there. >> We could decide, >> yeah, that >> early childhood. Yes. eat some or whatever it is that we decide. >> And and if I may add, when it comes to early childhood, no one in any way is suggesting we compromise early childhood. We know early learners are some of our most vulnerable students. We value unequivocally early childhood in this district. I mean, it's a growing population in different ways, >> giving opportunities, being more efficient. I have no problem with that. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's just an opportunity. a whole picture of the amazing program that we have and then think of all the you know what what it means to to have that program and sustain that program. >> And one thing that I will point out if you look at the transportation

048expenses that has been presented to to us here. >> Mhm. >> The uh the total amount of that [clears throat] is very very similar to how we ended fiscal year 25 in the deficit. The amount mirrors each other. So, I just for one, I just wanted to point that out. >> Oh, yeah. We Let's talk about that. Yeah. >> Can I ask a quick question before we go to that? Is there a way at this point to um provide us with data on like the success of this program? Like how many kids in the PFA program are actually succeeding once they get into elementary jun is there even a way to present that data at this point? >> Um the Sure. at at the early childhood level, our grant requires that we um maintain portfolio

049growth for students and that that's unique to early childhood. So, we can look at growth over time within the early childhood program, but there is not an equivalent assessment tool that we use at the elementary to be able to break that down. >> So, we wouldn't be able to present that. And also I is there data on special education students that start in the brok program that eventually wind up not needing services? I that might be a question for a vet. >> I I can speak to um students within the program and we do look at data in terms of students that are moving from less restricted environments into more restrictive environments in preschool and the other way. And so that is something that we see frequently within early childhood is students that are starting

050in that more restrictive um when I talked about those three different placements that special ed smaller classroom and um we do have a good number of students that move into the less restrictive environment and then go on to gened kindergarten. So we see that >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> It's very fluid. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yes, because you get you're going to get students that if they never had prek, they would not have any potentially well potentially not have the manners to even be in, >> you know, like a lot of it social emotional, a lot of it is getting along, a lot of it is um taking turns, >> understanding how to go to school. Yeah. >> What you need to do at school. you know this some of these uh these are

051some tough cases too. >> Yeah, I was going to add in that when you you know kind of getting back to what SD308 early childhood is, it is taking the students in our community that are identified as having um at risk factors and special education factors and we do keep data through either the IEP or through that portfolio to make sure that they are making growth throughout their time in our program. But it is a very unique population that we are serving because all but those tuition students are being identified as having those at risk factors. >> I I have one other quick question. It if a child fits in both category of PFA and special ed, where are they put into your pie chart? >> Yep. So um part of the PFA program does

052serve special education students. So those PFA classrooms are really the gened classroom and they have students that only qualify for at risk factors and students who qualify having an IEP would be an identified risk factor for success. And so >> so if they have an IEP, they're pulled out of the PFA category. >> So the so some of the kids in the PFA category also fit the special ed, but the special ed category does not include PFA. Yep. So there there's kind of three ways to come to Broka and two different types of classrooms. Once you get to Broca, the PFA >> classrooms include students that are only PFA and students that have IEPs that they meet. They can count toward those 420 PFA spots. Then and and that's 82% of our kids. About half

053of them have an IEP, half of them are at risk. Very very few pay tuition. Then we have another group of students that are not appropriate for that least restrictive gened setting. Those students only have IEPs and are in smaller classroom, self-contained classrooms. So >> there's >> there there's a just kind of touching on there's so much research that this is the biggest bang for your dollar uh when you're spending on prek. My worry is you do anything there, you're going to pay triple in three years. >> No. And I understand. Yeah, I just want >> and then you know like maybe we maybe we you know like have because you don't even know that the kid has a problem right from 3, four and five. >> So that's why I'm like >> yeah I

054want to think long term >> and Dr. >> about the buses >> right Dr. Gross and Julie are presenting information just about the program. There is no recommendation to change our current program. Um but there were pieces of both the programmatic um review and then also some of our expenditures that we just wanted to make sure that we were sharing in light of our preparation for next year. >> I just heard a you know got a got a little bit into yes [laughter] so there is >> into my wheelhouse. So >> okay so we do have a little more detail about early childhood transportation specifically. So, this slide shows our projected transportation expenses for early childhood for the current fiscal year. We're projecting about uh 4.9 just under $5 million in early childhood transportation expenses.

055That consists of 1.9 million or 39.7% in salaries, 2.6 million or 53.4% 4% in external contractor costs and 341,000 or 6.9% in overhead which consists of fuel, insurance, in-house fleet maintenance. So pretty unavoidable things. I want to explain a little bit about how early childhood transportation claim reimbursement works. So unlike with K through 12 students, districts are not required to provide transportation to regular education preK through preK students regardless of where they live. Districts are only obligated to provide transportation to special education prek students whose IEPs specify transportation as an educational requirement. for those students whose IEPs specify transportation, the district only receives 61% of the cost uh of the reimbursement or 61 cents on the dollar. So, the reimburseable cost, we only get 61% of that. We currently transport 397 early childhood students, but

056only 75 of those students qualify for that 61% reimbursement. Our transportation department in an effort to bring these costs under control or just analyzed that they conducted a cost analysis and assessed some ways that we could realize significant savings over our current operational model. What they have discovered or determined was that the current early childhood transportation expenses, as the previous slide showed, they're projected to be 4.9 million this school year and over half of that comes from external contractors. If we reduce the early childhood transportation services to transport only the mandated students, we would elim be able to eliminate 17 bus routes. Eliminating those routes would allow us to eliminate external contracts and that would give us greater control over the safety of the driver the the safety standards of the buses in general, the

057driver training, the routing efficiency, all sorts of factors that are really hard to control with external contractors. The plan then would save would be projected to save us 4.3 million because we'd be able to repurpose our own drivers to to cover the routes that we needed to cover. That would save us 4.3 million, relieving most of the three, I'm sorry, the 4.9 million cost of early childhood transportation and making a huge impact on the overall transportation fund deficit, questions. >> Can you go back a slide? >> Sure. >> Does that include the reimbursement, those the the savings? Like if we're if you're talking about only transporting the kids who are required to because of IEPs, does that reimbursement I never mind. I answered my own question. >> Like is that factor? >> So I have

058a question um real quick. So that's 322 students that would go without bus or transportation. That's a lot. So how do we navigate that? especially talking to parents if we are to go down this pathway because I will say even being a stay-at-home well not stay at home but working from home the bus transportation is huge it's monumental and I can only imagine the parents that have to go into the office what that would look like so have we thought about if we again are to go down this pathway as as a true consideration what that will look like for parents who do not have one the affordability uh accessibility and all the things to get their child to Early learning center. >> Now, one of the things that we just did just out of

059curiosity, we did a survey. One of our team member reach out to every large unit district luded district in Illinois and that offers EC program to see how many of them offers transportation, how many of them don't. And what we came away is that the majority of them only offer transportation to students who have transportation in the IP with IP and transportation in the IP. So since the program, just to speak bluntly, since the program doesn't require that we transfer uh early childhood student, [clears throat] A B we as a district could not afford to keep paying for something that we're not mandated to do. We just thought it makes sense to bring it to the board for discussion and review. >> Well, I'm going to say sorry. Um cuz I my youngest went to

060bro call. I love brokall. Huge staple in the community. Um so it would be what I think as a parent before my son went to bro call we were paying let's just say $1,000 going to daycare, right? So hypothetically from an educational lens the child is still kind of learning maybe um the same curriculum per se that they would learn at Brokhall. So to me, if I was in that predicament per se, I would probably pay that $1,000 a month knowing my child would have to be at that particular location from, let's just say, 85 until I'm done with work. So I think we would lose out on the headcount because 322, that's a lot of kids. And again, when I think about affordability and now as a parent, I had to find transportation. I

061have to find maybe all the things. That's that's money from a parent stands. >> I have a quick question for I know you two were up here probably far longer than you anticipated. Thank you very much. [laughter] Um I think this is actually more of a question for Mr. over. But um I know this probably predates your time in this role, but do you know why the decision was made or when the decision was made to bus all students and what went into that versus only busing the ones for whom there is reimbursement? >> I would defer to Dr. Groves about that. >> This is my I believe ninth year in a role that has early childhood. I was previously an elementary principal with a satellite EC program. So, I can only speak um for

062the time that I've been in the district, but we have had transportation for all students in early childhood up until, I believe, the 2016 year. At that time, we removed transportation for tuition students. That was no longer an option. And we've remained with transportation for PFA and special education students since that time. I don't know prior to that if there was a time when transportation was not afforded to all students. Okay. As far back as the records I have, we've had transportation for students in the early childhood program. >> Okay. >> And we started in 2012 and we had busing. >> Okay. >> So, just to add to that, there are things that we've done as a district as a legacy, >> right? >> I think there may have been time when as a district

063we can afford it. There may have been time as a district we did not look at the financial impact of decisions that we make but I think looking at the way things are financially from the state from the federal government and I think it's important for us to revisit every and all opportunity for us to be able to provide a good education for our kids while coming up with different ways of making sure that we make financially prudent decision patients. >> My other question, I think uh based on the numbers you gave, I think we were at maybe like 60 to 70% capacity of our tuition students. Is that typical that we have a gap there? And what do you if so do is there something you attribute that to or is it just kind

064of >> um when we look at numbers for tuition, it has been decreasing. Okay. And I I think you know we have not surveyed families as to why we did as I had indicated in 2016. Um we changed the program to no longer offer transportation for those tuition students even as a pay for um option and we did see a decrease. That's when um we lowered the number of spots and we did see I think I can't remember the number. Math was not my forte. Um, but I I think it was around a 30% decrease when that ended. And we have steadily declined in tuition. Again, it's a 2 and a half hour program and there are other programs in the community, so that may be a factor. >> Thank you. >> So, yeah, I

065just what Brandy was saying, it's tough because you drop your kid off at 7:45 or whatever it is and the pickup is two and a half hours later. It's not like Yeah. So, it's um >> economy is changing. >> That's it. >> The economy is changing. >> Yes. Well, it's tough. Um I'll let everybody else go. Um, I've got >> Yeah, I guess my consideration is I I don't know if this is a recommendation or if it's if this transportation piece is a recommendation or if it comes to the board for or what that looks like or if you're just looking for conversation, but >> yeah, this is just kind of an intro to >> Yeah, I think I'm I'm I'm weighing in my mind um what the costbenefit analysis is of spending, you know,

066four plus million dollars on early childhood the transportation. Um I don't know how many students would not be afforded wouldn't be able to go anymore to early childhood um because we wouldn't provide transportation um and how that would impact all sorts of things. So I don't know just something I feel like I need to think more about in regards to the cost benefit analysis of educating our students at such a young age. But I understand your point like we're we are in a financial like we can't control the outside financial features and so are we at a point where we need to say right now we can only do what is mandated or can we think about other areas that we so that we can support this area if it's more bang for our buck

067in regards to early childhood. So, I just did I I sent some questions earlier and I I sent them like at four o'clock. So, [laughter] um it was pretty >> Yeah, we can talk about it. We can talk about those questions. >> So, I I [laughter] you know, I took a look. You know, we have we're busing 400 kids. Um >> you know, that's about $12,000 a kid for transportation. That's a lot of money. >> Um and I was asking, it sounds like you know the answer. Why is it so expensive relative and compared to >> because unlike um the regular transportation we they because of their schedule right they ride alone right we can put them in with regular students regular students they um they normally go to school for six hours so we

068cannot kind of like insert them with regular student transportation because they only in school for 2 and 1 half hours. So they have their own routes, their own drivers, they own everything which is separate and distinct from from the regular transportation that we run. And additionally uh even when we get reimbured, we get reimbured this year 61 cent on a dollar. I want to point out last year it was 71 cent on a dollar. Do you see a a trend here? It's a race to the bottom. So what I suspect is that with the way things are looking for the state um this year and into next year, transportation is considered mandated categorical funds. It's not required >> for state to fund. So when state when the state government is tight with money, they tend

069to prorrate transportation even lower. So I'm saying that so >> for the 75 kids, for the 322, we're we're getting nothing, >> right? We get nothing. People pay 71 for the Yeah. So >> go ahead. >> If I can also add in addition to the number of routes for early childhood, most of our early childhood routes require a monitor. So there's an additional human >> and are they generally smaller bus? >> Yes. And they actually also have car seats. I'm just trying to figure out why more than others. >> They have car seats that they also put them in because you're talking about three to five year, right? >> Correct. and our K12 routes um kind of congregate at different stops where our EC routes are essentially doortodoor so there's less students on a bus

070whether it's smaller routes or um additional services not only in um uh different apparatus but also um >> we could do it more efficiently if we um had them on the bus for two hours right >> I'm not saying that we do that we talk about best in order to get kids to school in a timely manner. It costs a lot of money. >> No, but these are small buses. Like even >> not necessarily small. We don't have enough small buses. That's the other part. It would be nice if we can put them just in small buses, but they are not enough small buses to go around. >> So what we have to do a lot of time put them in regular buses. We have to try to modify those buses to accommodate them because

071of their size. So, you've got the expense of running a full route, but you're dividing it among fewer students, >> right? And longer distances probably on average. >> Yep. >> Um, yeah. So, that kind of one of the things that we were discussing is, you know, how do we can we charge for transportation, but you can't charge 13,000. I don't think it's practicable to be able to charge the real cost of transport in a >> um you know I put I am concerned about potential declining enrollment without transportation and how do we mitigate how do we make sure that we're servicing the kids that need it. Um because uh you know like you said there these are students that might have they have challenges and so um family might have challenges. Um do you if

072we were to let's just say do we have do you think that if we had unlimited enrollment that we would be able to that qualify for PFA we would be able to like put a thousand kids in this class? You know what I'm saying? like are we going to be able to service enough the same number of students it might not be the same cohort of students do you think >> I don't understand so um >> I can try to answer the question >> I mean I when we we have community screenings and they are filled over the summer for the entire year we are even with the program as it is we're not capturing all of the students who could potentially qualify >> right so my point is is um we're servicing what 600

073students 500 for the PFA. Um, would we expect to still have 500? >> Well, but we are servicing currently more than what the PFA grant aligns to, >> right? That was like 420, but then 30 but then 30 of them was a tuition and so we were probably like 50 over. >> So, we're about >> in that PFA >> about 100 over. >> Correct. >> Um, and then I Yeah. Yeah. How would I I I know that you know the tuition program probably doesn't pay for itself but um what would happen if we did expand that? Is there what's that break even number? You know >> we can do that calculation but I suspect it would not be programmatically v physible because the cost of running that by purely tuition I don't think the uh

074the folks that we targeting will be in a position to afford. >> Yeah. is 100 grand as one one class >> and and even with that >> meeting >> no but I'm saying if we were to figure out some way of lowering the cost um >> so I have a question hypothetically if we're looking to go down this route are we also looking to decrease the teacher assignment because my gumption would be there would be less headcount right from a kid you know so would that mean we'd have the same necessity need for teachers at this point so let's Just say the 322 students and half of them decided to no longer go to bro call. Are we still keeping that same headcount from a teachers? >> Well, that's why I was we think that

075we would be able to fill those. >> So, how is that a growth for our program? How is that a growth for our community? I just I think we're missing >> I think what we're doing is just sharing information with the board as it relates to the early childhood uh program. No determination has been made. No decision has been made. No. >> And I think we're sharing this in view of the fact that uh >> our budgetary picture in the next 5 years you looks very challenging and >> [clears throat] >> uh we have to come up with ways to to manage the limited resources that we get uh which I suspect is going it was lower this year from the state in the form of EBF. It's going to be low. It will be

076at least frozen if not lower or 27. And based on what we hearing from the federal government, the flow through that used to the state used to get from the fed all indication is that it's not going to happen. So there will be some financial challenges at least for the next five years for the district to do to to manage. So there has to be options to be considered and what we're just doing is sharing this as an option. No decision has been made as to what direction to go but there's a limit to different options and we're sharing all those options with the board for the board to make uh give us directive as to how you all would like for us to proceed. So the purpose of really the presentation was to to

077share information not only about the program but about the current revenue and expenditures. There is no recommendation at this time as Mr. Dr. Obafi shared over the next couple of months um we are facing you know some concerns related to state and federal funding that we then will be bringing a variety of different um options looking across our system um for some uh cost-saving measures. So at this time this was just information through the presentation. We would of course um bring any formal recommendation both for information and for action um at some time as um Mr. Robi and his team prepares the budget for our next fiscal year. >> And just the last thing just to point out so the $4.2 million savings is equivalent to the salary of 60 of our teachers here. >>

078Wow. >> Just to put it in perspective. C >> can I ask a quick question? Are do we still have satellite locations for early childhood? >> We have currently two satellite location. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you very much discussion. Thank you ladies. >> Yeah. [clears throat] Um, all right. 5.3. Um, financial savings and cost management updates. Um, >> kind of a >> Thank you, Mr. President. >> Things today, right? >> Yeah. More to come though. Well, we thought it would be it would be a good idea to provide an overview to the board as well as the committee of the financial [clears throat] savings that uh we've been able to achieve uh in the last couple of years as well as uh cost management update of how we've really

079uh tried very hard to manage the uh the funds that the community and the taxpayers have entrusted to the district. Now, uh, one thing that we we wanted to show is that we really really work hard from day one to, uh, to be very transparent with the community as well and our my colleagues about how the different steps that we have taken to manage the money and to ensure that we can provide an excellent educational experience for our for our students and also So to allow the community to get an insight to how we are managing financial resources both short-term and long-term. Now, as I've mentioned earlier, and I think last board meeting, I included a summary of the governor's office of management and budget financial projection in [clears throat] the board package that shows

080I I can't overstate this, how tough things are going to be uh in the state and consequently how it's going to impact education. And so, we're in some uh some tough financial position moving forward. So in in the uh the decisions that we've made over the last couple of years as far as savings uh what we've done we've we've used four really key uh compass if you will to guide us in making decision. One thing is to protect classroom uh instruction from any cuts. Prioritize student safety and services. Use data in making decision instead of just making decision arbitrarily and looking for ways to achieve efficiency without uh negatively impact the uh the quality education that we provide to our students in the district. So wanted to go through some of the savings that we've

081been able to achieve over the last couple of years in the area of staffing and benefits. We've been able to save $4.8 million. And that's right. And we did that primarily by getting away from an area where we used to employ a lot of consultants to provide us with staff members. What we did in negotiating uh collective bargaining agreement, we tried to pay uh a staff member more than they were making before, but still less than what we're paying consultants who provide us staff members. Now, those consultants when they provide us staff, those staff were not binded to the district. They were just they just came here to work and those people shifted from day to day. There was no consistency. there was no commitment to to the uh mission and the vision of the

082school. So by bringing that internally it results in substantial savings and as it relates to benefit what we also did we moved away from uh from self-insured it used to be that health insurance was self-insured health general vision and that is a good thing if we were a wealthy district I mean we're a wellresourced district but we're not a wealthy district so what we decide to do and when you selfinsure what you do you put a a set amount of money in a segregated health savings account, if you will, and [clears throat] you hire Blue Cross Blue Shield or United Healthcare, a firm to help you with your health system. And what you do is every time you incur cost, you have to then pay for from that segregated account. Even though you may need

083that money for other things, you cannot use that. So what we thought was a better idea is to actually look for a co-op that is made up of other school district such as we are the educational institute school district and they have similar risk profile as we did. So we joined that. So the first year alone in doing that we saved over a million dollars just the first year and the savings has continued. So, if you added the staffing decisions that we've made, coupled with the uh the way we've decided to uh to pay for benefits, what we've done is we've been able to save the close to $5 million that I pointed out. Something similar here with uh insurance risk management, particularly in the area of um uh liability uh property and casualty insurance

084and workers comp. Previously, what we did as it relates to property and casualty, we were a member, we used a broker and the broker uh placed us with a county uh co-op. Now, I don't need to remind anyone that we're not a county, we're a school district. We don't have police officers who carry guns. We don't have nursing home. We don't have jails. We don't have any of those things. So, we were a different risk profile from that of a county. And the slap on the face as it relates to that is we were not allowed to sit on the board when the decisions were being made because we were told you're not a county. We just want your money. We don't want you to have any input. At the end of the day, what

085we were doing was subsidizing insurance coverage for county when we were not a county. So we moved into a a collective liability insurance co-op made up of 300 school district with similar risk profile. and what came up that the beautiful thing about that too is even though we are paying less we have better coverage the prior coverage that we have with the county co-a we didn't have uh for example sexual molestation insurance we didn't have cyber coverage currently we have $50 million in sexual molestation insurance we have uh $2 million in cyber coverage so we have a more robust coverage even though it's costing us less because the group that we share risk with in the pool they have similar uh risk profile >> and I I cyber insurance is expensive uh savings uh purchasing

086is contract negotiations that we've done I will talk about that later on in the PowerPoint but we've been able to achieve $2.1 million in purchasing and contract negotiation savings the last thing I want to point Now is the refinancing. We had bonds that we issued back in 2016 that were due to be refinanced because it's been 10 years. Once you issue public uh bond, you can refinance at the collable as it is, which is a fancy word to say refinance after 10 years. Well, we're able to do that. And now with all the smart financial decisions that we've made in the district over the last couple of years, when we went to a rating call with Moody's, there has to be an independent entity has to rate the district's debt before we can we can

087put it on the market for sale. We had a rating call and uh we we were rated well. Moody's uh provided a rating that shows a really good outlook for our finances. So when we went out to the market to sell those bonds, those bonds were over subscribed. What it meant is that there were more investors willing to to buy those bonds that we had available. And when [clears throat] that happens, what happened is the interest rate goes down that we ended up paying. So initially before we went through the overrating process, we projected we were going to save about $5 million working with our municipal advisors and our underwriters. At the end of the subscription period when the sale happened in October, we actually ended up saving $1.3 million. And I want to point

088out those savings went directly to taxpayers. Those interest rate that they would have paid in the bond and interest portion of their property taxes. uh that would not be paid because of the savings that were realized. >> Mr. Trip, the four different uh categories of estimated savings roughly over what time period was that? So >> over just the last couple of years. Okay. Over the last two years. >> I [clears throat] I have one other question. Um the money that we are now making from putting our reserves into interestbearing accounts is not on there. You should >> It's not on there. I was speak to that. Yes. that was [laughter] speaking. Thank you for bringing that up. >> Oh, I have like two pages of them. Okay. Checking [laughter] them off. >> And then some

089of the other things that we've done is for 20 years straight, we did what is called tax anticipation warrant, which is that we couldn't manage our money. Uh we didn't do cash flow projections. So what we did when we got our property taxes, first installment in June, second installment in September, we just put in a savings account because we didn't know how much we needed to be able to finish the year. What we've started to do is we created a good cash flow projection working with our municipal advisors and now we know exactly how much money that we needed every month. So the excess amount we did what was called lathering whereby the money that we did need we invested it in a conservative conservative investment that complies with Illinois municipal uh investment policy which

090means we're not engaging in any casino. We engage, we put the money in, uh, US Treasury, uh, bonds, bills, uh, CDs and money market accounts that are fully insured and, uh, that serves to preserve the capital. So, by doing that, we were able to get some significant saving uh, investment income. Just the last couple of years, the conservative estimate of how much we've saved is north of $3 million. And by also not doing the tax anticipation warrant, we've saved $600,000 in cost of insurance just over the last couple of years. And then something else I wanted to point out, transportation, as we've mentioned before, has been a significant pain point for us as a district. We're a big district. We transfer kids over 60 square miles. That's a big district. in any given day we

091transferred between 13 to uh 14,000 kids every single day. So there's a lot of buses required to do that. So there are ways that we've done things to be able to realize some savings. We we saved uh a million over a million dollars when we did 72 leases. We leased 72 buses to replace the ones that we do last year. The $1 million is just from the uh the finance cost. In the past, we bought we leased our buses from a company and the company also did the financing for us. It's kind of like when you go out to buy a car, you buy your car and you get your finances from the car dealer, too. And we all know the car dealers, they don't really finance that car. What they do, they look for

092financing from a third party and they get points put in on the finance cost. So they make money on the sale of the car, they make money on the financing. We were not willing to do that. What we said is we went to a competitive process. We asked the bus the bus company to provide us rates and then we went out to other finance company whose sole job is just to provide financing just like you would do if you were buying a car. You can go to the uh finance uh the uh the car company say finance it for me or you can go to a credit union or you can go to another bank and just have them compete for your business. And in this case that's what we did and just from doing

093that we were able to save a mill over a million dollars. >> Can I um jump in? So transportation is dear to my heart as a parent. Not just playing. Um, so when we say leasing, do we feel like there could have been and I'll use again the statement hypothetically another opportunity because when I think about our current state with transportation and since these buses are not our buses, right? And yes, we went through um contracts and I would believe that there are probably standard language stating, you know, if we'll call it requirements, right, in order for, you know, this to happen, then this needs to happen. In regards to just maybe our transportation as far as the delays, our students not having transportation, our students, all the things regarding the transportation issues we've had,

094honestly, probably since the beginning of the school year. How has this lease brought to fruition? Yes, we've saved a million dollars, but from a parent stance, I don't think that saved me and I'm sure probably a lot of other parents in the district who are still currently probably still going through transportation issues. >> Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. the issue as it relates to what you brought up has to do with the driver shortages and um there's a significant number of folks who used to drive buses before CO who decided they didn't want to drive buses anymore for the longest time before CO the folks who drove buses for us were retirees they were retired they were pensioners they were looking for something to do so they'll drive 2 hours in the morning

095for pickup and they'll drive another two hours at the end of the day for drop off. Those folks were really really negatively impacted by CO. We lost a lot of them. They had underlying health issues. So when they got CO, it was really bad for we lost a lot of our elderly uh committee members to CO and the ones that didn't die who got really put down by CO, most of them decide they didn't want to drive buses anymore. So what we've had to do, we've now had to look for other folks to drive buses. We've tried to do things to make that process attractive. We've turned driving a bus into a full-time position where it used to be 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours, we made it into a full-time position. When we

096did that though, there was some significance financial cost to us. We now had to provide health insurance to them. We also had to provide uh pension benefits from them. Even with that, we know driving a bus is a calling. It's not really a job. So even right now, there's still a shortage of bus drivers. We're not the only one who is experiencing that. It's actually all over the country and even in Canada. So to to answer your question, part of what we're dealing with is that there's just a severe shortage of drivers. We don't have enough drivers to go around. And some of our drivers too, they get sick even though we don't have enough to go to begin with. Then you have folks who get sick. Some of them, you may have 20 of

097them who call in in a given day. Then we have to scramble to make up that route. We're doing everything we can to recruit as many drivers as as we get. But is it's a lengthy process from wanting to become a driver and getting your CDL, going through training, getting that license, going through safety before we can let you drive a bus with our kids on it. And what we find out sometimes is even after we get those folks hired, we get them their CDL, we get them driving, we realize school bus is not the calling for them. They are not suited to drive a bus with 60 kids in the back of it whom you're trying to drive, they don't listen to you. It takes a kind of person to be able to work

098the magic necessary to be a bus driver. So to address the question though that the buses being leased are not impacting how we're staffing that a lot of the delays that we have experienced and potentially continue to experience is really derived from our current levels of staffing not leasing versus owning our buses. And to to even address that as it relates to leasing I was going to talk about that in the past what we did we leased the buses and after 5 years we gave them back and then we started over again. The last lease that we did last year the 72 units we actually did lease to own. We didn't and lease to own we paid slightly more over the next five years. And what we we were doing instead of then giving the

099buses back, we kept we planning to keep those buses for five additional years. So we actually own those buses after 5 years free and clear. What we found out in doing our analysis is that at the end of 5 years on average our buses only have 22,000 miles on it. It's no reason to rent buses and give them back with 22,000 miles only for the bus company to now turn around and resell those buses or release those buses and make double the amount of money. We're not doing that anymore. We're keeping those buses for 10 years. And by doing that, that was where we got the additional 12 million. So 12 million will be used for another 5 years by extending the useful life from 5 to 10. That's an equivalent savings of 12 million

100that will be paid for lease and acquisition. >> And just my last question, was the OTAA a part of the whole transportation leasing agreement and so forth as far as just having um conversations what that looked like and they had their buyin, right? >> Absolutely. Absolutely. [clears throat] We've never had a a better relationship with our colleagues at OTAA. Yes. We made it a point to extend uh to to extend oursel to make sure that every decision that we make as relates to the work stream they have a say in it >> and in addition to our OTAA um uh Mr. of FME and our transportation department has really tried to move um he mentioned earlier our contracted buses and decrease our level of uh routes that are under contract to then be inhouse and

101really covered um through our OTAA members. So that's something in partnership with OTAA even amongst the shortage that we're trying to move um just because it not only gives um you know tighter controls and oversight for student um experience and safety um but better communication within uh the transportation department. >> Thank you. And related to that uh the contract that we are with our third party provider used to be they will guarantee payment for so many routes right and what we trying to do we're trying to be more efficient with how we do transportation they will guarantee payment sometime they didn't even have the drivers to do the work but they were gr guarantee extra amount of payment we negotiated the contract we got attorney involved and say if you were not doing the route

102we're not going to pay you and those are some of the things that we've done that actually get out of here. So, we're doing everything we can to be more efficient with how we run transportation. We know there's a cost overrun there. So, we're doing everything within our power to make sure that we reduce cost without impacting negatively the experience of our customers or our students. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. So, another area where we've had savings was copier and duplication aware. Now, we've been with the same copier company. I came to we came to the board uh last year or since 2016. And what they did is every year when the contract ran up every couple of years, they increased the price. No question asked because we didn't go out and and bid on

103it. But for the first time last year, we said once the contract was up, we're going to bid it. And initially I had some on my team who say ah no one is probably going to show up to bid on that contract. When we had the bid uh release we required a meeting for the prospective biders to be able to ask questions about what kind of equipment we had any questions they have. We are standing room there about about 15 to 18 companies there attending with interest in bidding and at the end of the day once we did the bidding the company that's been charging us all this money they were the winning bidder and the savings that they provided us with new equipment better services amount to a4 million a year for the next

104five years same company just because we went out we said we would just not take the prices that you've been giving than us in the past without seeing what the market can provide. And then the last thing I wanted to point to that is the computer devices. Same situation. We have the same company. Every time we need to buy computer devices, we just order it from the same company. We decided last year we would not do that. We'll let the marketplace determine what the best price uh going in the marketplace and some of the service that we felt we needed. We did an RFP. We released it. This is the saving that we realize. Additionally, we had better computer than we've had before. And we also received what is called a white glove service, which

105meant they programmed the computer in MJA by the time we got it. Savings of $1.1 million. Better equipment, better service. So essentially this is a recap of the things that I've talked about earlier which is that we're trying to make sure that we negotiate a better uh better contract with our with our staff member. We're trying to make sure that uh we negotiate better benefits so we can save as much money and we can strategically make sure that we use our taxpayers money well. And this is insurance and risk. I talked about this earlier where the savings that I mentioned earlier came from and transportation leases. I I mentioned that earlier and uh I just wanted to focus on the fact that what we doing right now is RFP which is request for proposal when

106we needed to buy instead of just saying you've done business with us. You're a legacy vendor. We'll continue to do business with you. We send we do business with whomever it is that can give us the best product as the best price and RF uh uh request for bid and we also use RFQ. If you remember, we having the uh the pack space uh fixed right now in uh OE since the repair that we needed was more standardized. Only a handful of people, architects have the ability to be able to respond and do the work we did we needed. So we did an RQ for that where we had the design of what we needed to be done and we just needed to have qualified people provide us pricing a description of the work they

107needed to do in order to get it done. So those are the process that we've been using to uh to get better pricing. Something I wanted to point out though, what we inherited was that for our drivers at at uh car leases, we had a company I'm not going to name, we actually they were charging us executing us a lot of money for it. And uh when we came aboard, we had a conversation with them. They would never provide us the contract that we signed with them. We had to go back and forth to find it because they knew as soon as we saw that contract, we will be just outdone by what we signed. So, we fought with them. We're able to get the contract. And what we found out is if we had

108gone outright and bought those six drivers uh cars instead of leasing them in perpetuity from them, every year we'll be saving over $100,000. Now I just mentioned that the average salary of our educator is 70,000. So that's a 1.5 teachers achieve that we could have saved by just buying our own car. There's no reason to lease six cars and pay the leases in perpetuity and also pay for repairs on top of that too a repair contract. We have mechanics that are employed by the district. They can do the work required. And I talked about the uh taws that we've done over over the last 20 years that we're not doing anymore. So each year we save between uh1 to $200,000 depending on the amount of the issuance. So over the last three years we saved

109about $600,000. And I mentioned I talked about the computer devices and the savings of 1.5. And so in case folks are wondering, have we used the savings that we've realized over the last couple of years, what we've done is we've shored up the district finances and which was one of the reasons when we went out to do the refinancing on the bond uh that I talked about. We're able to get a lower interest rate, higher subscription rate because the balance sheets look better. uh we uh we use some of the savings to provide instructional support. We are buying more resources that our educators need to be to provide better services to our kids in the classroom. And we've used some of the money to do some of the capital and operational needs that we have

110as a district, but we know we need more than we'll ever be able to do as far as capital and operational need. And what we've also done which I mentioned earlier, we've been able to recruit, retain, and reward our staff by engaging in bargaining where we actually respect our staff member. We pay him well. And then what we've also been doing is trying to increase our fund balance for rainy day because we know there are times when there volatility. We want to be able to have enough money screwed away that we don't have to borrow money at the payday loan rate like I always say. So by doing this we are hoping that by not borrowing money unnecessarily we are doing a better job of of using our taxpayers money. We're making financial decisions that

111ensure that our money are being spent effectively instead of wastefully. And looking ahead, we plan to continue to uh to do cost control and to be efficient in how we spend money. And we continue to monitor the economy and to be able to react in case there are things that are beyond our control so we can plan on how we can we can adapt without taking on unnecessary debt. So the the closing summary that I would like to say is we've worked over the last two years to really do a good job of managing district resources resources that have been sent [clears throat] to us who recognize our taxpayers are hardworking. Uh they no one wants to pay property tax but we know we need to do that in order to have an excellent educational

112experience for our kids. We know one of the key reasons folks buy house in a community is the level of education that children get in there. So we know we recognize the sacrifice that taxpayers make and we've made it a point to make sure that we use those funds well. We use them the same way we would expect them to use it if they were sitting in our seat by making prudent decision uh conservative financial decision making. Investment of the resources in education and also investment to make sure that when the money is not needed is generating yield that we can use for for capital reason for educational resources to make sure that we do right by taxpayer. Any discussion questions please? >> So just to kind of maybe add a little funniness to this

113because typically in corporate America these are the hardest conversations to have when it talks about budgeting and finance. So Teresa just sent an email and I thought she was trying to say school was closed tomorrow so I was going to be the transportation for 308 because every kid needs to be in this classes. I'm just saying [laughter] >> now we open tomorrow. We will be in person. We're going to be here. >> No, we will be. We will be here too. >> Yes. >> I just [clears throat] wanted to say thank you like thank you for the overview and I know we've talked about a lot of these components individually as they come up, but um I think seeing them kind of all together was really helpful and you know I always appreciate your emphasis

114on a competitive bid process. So thank you very much for highlighting it and for sharing. >> Thank you. I think that's that's the list we can do uh to manage the district's uh resources. There's really no way to know if you're getting the best prices for anything. The market will tell you that through a comparative bidding process >> and and that's what we do. >> Thank you. >> I think this presentation was something that I was looking for because I think it's an important presentation for the board because we often hear Mr. Obami say and then that resulted in $2 million savings and then now we didn't pay $250,000. We paid $ 250 less. So to have a little summary I think is important. But I think this this presentation in combination with the memo

115from the last school board meeting I think is are equally important for the public because I think they give a good representation of our district finances. Um the memo it's a tale in two parts right the memo from last board meeting was all the external stuff that we can't control right it was you know as you as you've said a couple times even in this meeting like the outlook from the external funding piece whether it be the state or federal is is challenging uh for to use your word in the next few years. This demonstrates I think to our community um that in the last couple years we have done some internal work. Uh this is the internal story of 308 by being able to put us in a better financial position to um move

116forward even in challenging times and put us in the best position possible. So, um, [clears throat] and I, as you were talking and listing things, um, I was thinking of other things where we've saved money. So, I know this isn't an exhaustive list. >> No, it's not. >> Uh, so it's, and I know it's sometimes hard to put a number on the savings that you've, you know, you've incurred in different situations. Um, so I think these are important. I I think it's important for the public to know that yes, we have some challenging times coming, but we have done a good job as a board in in with the district administration and putting oursel in a much better position than than in previous years. Um, and so I want that message to be heard. >>

117Thank you. What I always say, and I I say this to my team all the time, we have control, we have no control over revenue. We depend on other people for it but we have absolute control over expenditure. So if we manage our expenditure well we will be able to realize more savings than if we don't. >> Yeah. >> So thank you. >> Thank you. >> You know I this should be quick. Um >> so essentially by not spending on health insurance or by not spending on cyber or you know other insurance we're able to retain our teachers. >> Absolutely. you know, we're able to pay our people better. Um, we're able to look for better outcomes, okay, for our students. Um, I just a couple things. Um, playground grants, >> um, teacher training grants.

118>> Um, >> retirement incentives. >> Yeah, retirement incentives. Yeah, that saved us quite a bit of money. >> Um, there's there's quite a few things. Um, banking services. >> Yes. Um, I don't want to go too too far, but >> that's true. We used to pay for we used to pay fees [clears throat] to uh for folks to uh to be a banker. We did an on too >> and they held our money and this is my, you know, wheelhouse. They held our money. >> We got nothing for it. So now at least we're investing it and still saved on banking fees. >> Yes, sir. >> So there's um >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Can I make a comment? >> Yes. I know [laughter] we're >> I am um not sure how

119to uh say this, but I'm like frustrated with the idea [snorts] that for a decade we've been talking about how the district has no money and um they're doing everything they can. And it feels really aggravating to know that um we've found all this savings in the last like 2 years and I I just I want us to continue going forward and I'm going to try to forget about what happened in the past. I think that also has to do with investing right in in in district administration that knows how to um realize these savings. I don't think anyone, you know, in previous administrations was trying to, you know, put us in a bad position, but it's it's I think it's a testament to investing in and and in people who know um the ins

120and outs of how to to to to realize those cost savings and those efficiencies. So, yeah. And I think also having enough staff so that we have people who have time to look into this instead of just going from emergency to emergency to um keep going. I think it's also a good thing. So >> well said. Let's move forward. I will say there's a big kudos really to [clears throat] the board too because the board empowers the administration to to be bold to do what is necessary to be efficient in how [clears throat] you run the district. So I really I really believe a big uh appreciation and kudos to the board for giving us the charge to be able to uh to do what is necessary to be better fiduciary of the public uh

121funds. So I just want to say that for what thank you >> appreciate that and that that was the intent. >> Yep. So >> yes, thank you Mr. Omei for the information that you and your team shared throughout the presentation. >> All right. Uh moving to 6.1 the superintendent's report. All >> righty. So um good evening board. Um on behalf of Dr. Kagatti, I would like you to first uh thank you for joining us on this uh chilly Monday morning. Um Monday morning. It is Monday evening. Dark [laughter] outside. >> A long day. >> It has been um >> Monday morning at some point. >> Correct. Want to thank everyone for their flexibility and cooperation. Uh e-learning is never easy. Um but we did um uh have e-learning both today and Friday. Uh while we

122much prefer having our students learn within us in person, uh the safety of our students and staff should always come first. Um so during the inclement weather, um we have uh moved past. We are welcoming everyone back in person tomorrow. Yes, we are very [laughter] excited that our hallways will once again be filled. So, um we started off this evening with some uh great excitement recognizing our outstanding student athletes and celebrating both our residency and ESL cohort. Um definitely great reminders about uh a variety of reasons to be proud of our district. So, in addition uh to celebrating this evening, um we're incredibly proud of some of the important work taking uh taking place across our buildings and the district. Um one example that Dr. Kgatti wanted to share was the great collaboration and innovation

123at Homestead Elementary, uh which held recently a data day where staff across grade levels come together to review student data and determine ways to support their learners. This is also currently a practice amongst many of our schools. Um, at the district level, our strategic plan continues to take shape day by day. Um, recently we've had significant conversations around our long range facility plan as we learn more about the condition and needs of our buildings. So we've assembled a task force made up of community leaders, business owners, parents, teachers, principles, alumni to review the needs and explore possible um options for addressing them. So many re people uh do not realize that 17 of our school buildings were actually constructed within a 15-year period. So what this is uh happening right now is a lot of

124our facility needs are coming due at the same time uh just based on when our schools were constructed. So we look forward to sharing the task force's feedback with our community in the near future. Um so at this point I would like to welcome our board to share some highlights from across our district. Uh the orange and silver Wildcats special Olympics team uh basketball teams recently earned gold medals at regionals advancing to the state tournament. Yay. >> Um the junior wildats also earned gold at their regional tournament and will compete at the state games. Additionally, Andrew uh buys thank you [laughter] uh and Davis Watson earned gold at the skills regional tournament last month and will also go to state. Congratulations to the Wildcats and good luck at state. It's tournaments next month uh around

125March 13th. >> Um a number of OS and OEHS students received honors in a in the regional scholastic art competition that took place earlier this month. Their work will be on display at Downer's Grove North High School from February 1st through the 6th. Congratulations to all these students. Additionally, congratulations to Matthew Miller of OS for earning a best of show award for his piece in the film and animation category, which is one of just five selected as American Vision nominees. >> Wow. >> Asiggo East Model United Nations had a successful showing at a recent competition. Congratulations to Arouche Sherpi and Sami Maduratov, I apologize for winning the outstanding delegate award. And to Kaylee Busat, Taran Puri and Aki Lu Sandash, I really apologize. I'm sure I've massacred your names uh for earning honorable mention in

126spite of my pronunciation. Congratulations to all of them. Shout out to the two incredible basketball athletes. Congratulations to Aubrey Lamberti, my apologies, um for becoming Augo East girls basketball all-time leading scorer. And cor congratulations also to Asiggo High School sophomore Ethan Val for hitting 1,000 high school career points. The Asiggo East boys bowling program won both the regional and sectional championships. Derek Saharak was the individual regional and sectional champion and Gabe Raina finished fourth at regionals. Asiggo High School freshman Nathan Byer Waltus uh advanced to state as an individual. Congratulations and good luck at state to all of our bowlers. >> Congratulations. Um, the Asiggoi dance team plays second at sectionals, qualifying them for the IHSA state finals taking place this Friday. Congratulations and good luck in the state competition. Additionally, the Asiggo East chess

127team recently won the Southwest Prairie Conference Championship. Their time, focus, and hard work has paid off in a big way. Congratulations. >> So many award winners. >> Yeah, >> talented people. Um, Madura Ray, OHS science teacher, has been nominated for the life changer of the year award. She now has the opportunity to be selected as one of 17 prize winners. Cong congratulations, Miss Ray. And then additionally, congratulations to student Marv Marvis Cox of Wolves Crossing Elementary School for receiving an outstanding leadership award at Aurora's for 41st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. Woohoo. Congratulations. All right, we're moving to 7.1 opportunity for the public to address the board of education. Um, we do have All right. On behalf of the board of education, I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's

128meeting. We value the feedback we received from our members of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system. Individuals interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card, presented it to the secretary to the board. Uh any members of the public who are who have not yet turned in their public comment card to the secretary of the board are asked to do so at this time. Uh when the secretary calls your name, I ask that you come to the microphone, state your name uh for the public record and provide your feedback. Please note your that comments are limited to five minutes per person and no responses to your questions are permitted. Comments should address the board of education as a whole,

129not to be directed to an individual board member, audience, or staff member. Followup to your questions or concerns may be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card. >> Jacqueline Bay. >> Oh, >> does it work? Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you to everyone who is here tonight. Um, good evening. My name is Jacqueline Bes. I'm a 20 plus year resident of Asiggo and a parent of three students at OS. I'm here to address concerns regarding the systemic failure to support students with disabilities within our district. I'm also here to address a culture of data manipulation and the systemic push out of students with disabilities within the district. Both this board and the parents of our communities must be aware that when staff and administrators manipulate data to justify

130moving students to restrictive placements, they are not only failing our children, they are potentially violating federal law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. I will give you an example of this. There has been a trend where behavior intervention plans or BIPS are not being followed with fidelity. Instead of implementing the agreed upon supports, staff are focused on documenting internalizing behaviors such as crying as justifications for removal to a behavioral school. Instead of focusing on ensuring full staff implementation of supports, they choose to take data on disruptions which directly correlate to the failed implementation of a BIP. A BIP is a legally binding document. It is not an optional set of suggestions, nor can it be altered to fit a school's administrative agenda or a desire for convenience. When data is skewed to show a

131student in a negative light, while mandated supports are ignored, the data is invalid and the resulting placement is predetermined. Federal law requires education in the least restrictive environment. However, when data is inflated and interventions are ignored by staff who prefer removal over support, the district risks risks of violating the free and appropriate public education act. We have documentation showing a stark contrast between daily classroom reality and reports being generated to justify changes in placement. I'm asking the board to ensure that staff are implementing BIPS with fidelity and to ensure that data is audited for accuracy, not for ulterior motives. In a perfect world, data collection would be a tool to help students succeed, to inform an educator's instruction, or to see where a student needs further support. But when data is manipulated, inflated or skewed

132to show a student in a negative light and a BIP is not followed, this data is invalid. This trend is not new to the district and has been seen at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. A student should not be penalized because an educational system finds their needs inconvenient. I will be honest. I was nervous about addressing the board for fear of retaliation against my children. How awful is it that our family even has that concern? But I felt compelled to bring this to your attention. I believe it will not be difficult to find other special education families with the same concerns. If you would like to follow up with me, I will provide you with documentation, names, correct data, and inflated data of what I am referring to. Thank you very much

133for your time. >> Thank you, >> Phil Torres. Thank you. >> Good evening, everybody. Uh my name is Phil Torres. uh 10-year resident of Asiggo and 19year career educator. Um I do want to thank the board cuz I reached out with concerns about transparency on salaries on job postings and I noticed that the principal posting for Asiggo East now has a salary range. So, I do appreciate the transparency there um because hiding it kind of leaves questions to the community and then you can only find out um the salary after a board meeting and somebody's already been approved. So, I appreciate the transparency with that. That being said, I'm also here because of what's going on in this building at WeGo East. Um, it sounds like there was a personality conflict and the result of

134an overzealous and overreactive leader um that is costing our district as much as I just sat through presentations on saving money, but it's costing the district a six-f figureure salary for somebody to go away for a year. The irony is not lost on me that once somebody has a 5-year contract and the safety and security it brings, they reveal their true colors. This is why the school board should not hand out contracts that long. Uh, ruling with fear does not work in education. Uh, you've lost this building. The staff is too afraid to speak out. Um, I think the district realizes they've lost this building because I've heard that district office personnel have been stationed here, tasked with being stationed here to try to mend fences and uh, hear out people, but who's going to

135say anything um, when there's a vindictive leader and repercussions to be had? So, um, with the district leader being that vindictive, seemingly a my way or the highway kind of person, who's who's going to speak out? Nobody's going to speak out. I challenge the board to take it upon yourselves and come talk to people in this building. Um, and get a real taste of what's actually happening here. Um, it's going to take years to recover. This community and this building was a shining star. removing a leader under these terms that you've lost the culture and community that is that was once here. Um we are too broke as a board member mentioned the you know the narrative is we're too broke and we have to charge $300 a sport at the high school which is

136the highest fee in the state but we can drop $150,000 uh because a district leader has hurt feelings. We're too broke. The CFO at the last board meeting mentioned maybe sending families to collections that uh don't pay their fees, but we have $150,000 to make somebody go away and push papers at the district office. We are too broke, but we charge families at the junior high $35 for a walking club. They literally walk around the building. But we have $150,000 to spend on this nonsense. uh we are too broke, but we have over $5 million in salaries and benefits at the district office. Or if you look at their presentation, they hide behind 1.97% of the budget. I know why. 5 million is a hell of a bigger number. Um but we can drop 150,000

137again because of maybe stubborn pride and ego. I also question how most the community finds out via a Facebook post. I don't know whose decision that was to post a job opening via Facebook and then tuck your tail and run because of the comments and people wondering what's going on and what happened to the current principle. Um, somebody should be held accountable for that. I don't know who it was, but taking down Facebook posts and tucking your tail and running, that's not a good look for the district. Um, either we're broke or we're not. So, the question is, are we broke? But judging by this board's willingness to dump 150k plus, it's probably gonna be more than that of our taxpayer dollars, we can't be that broke. There must be a magic money tree somewhere

138hidden in the district that when a district leader has hurt feelings or has a personality conflict, they can just go to the money tree and suddenly the district has money. So couple thousand here, a couple thousand there. But then we hear presentations, every dollar matters. Does every dollar and every penny matter or doesn't it? That's the ultimate question that the school board is faced with. You guys are churning through there's going to be a referendum. Might be 8 months from now, might be two years from now. How can you look at taxpayers in the face and say we need a referendum when you are wasting our money on this? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Maxwell Gilbert. Good evening. My name is Max Gilbert. I have two children at SD308. And on December

13917th of last year, my son and I were struck by a district school bus in our car while trying to drop him off at school because there was too much snow for him to bike the 1.4 miles we need to travel ourselves. Today, 40 days later, my vehicle is still damaged, has not been assessed, and the footage of the accident has not been shared. I'm here today to ask this situation finally begins to get resolved. Since the day of the incident, I have made multiple attempts weekly, if not daily, to get this matter resolved. I [snorts] made attempts to communicate with the school office, principal, superintendent, transportation office, safety coordinator, and the board. I've gotten little to no response. It has taken two 22 days to start a claim, and it has been 18 days

140of waiting for the footage in order to proceed. After multiple requests by myself, the claims department, and the Asiggo Police Department, the footage has still not been released to anyone involved in the situation. If I am at fault, it would show in the footage, and I would accept the outcome. But I have not been given that opportunity and have been left to mitigate the situation myself for over a month. On the day of the incident, between 7:40 and 7:45 a.m., my son and I were traveling southbound on Boulder Hill Pass towards Thompson Junior High. A district school bus was following dangerously close behind us, and I could not maintain a safe distance between us without breaking the speed limit. At the first open roadway, I saw I signaled left and attempted to turn, but was

141struck on my driver's side passenger door while crossing through the oncoming traffic lane by the bus before I could complete the turn. After unwedging my vehicle from the bus, I parked at the nearest safe location and checked on the bus driver and students. The bus driver told me he thought I was pulling to the right, so I assume he was attempting to speed around me in that moment. After making sure everyone was okay, I remained in my vehicle till police arrived. I told the officer I attempted to turn left and was struck and pointed to the location of the impact while I was experiencing panic attacks, but refused medical treatment. He later asked me again what happened and informed me that the bus driver was giving a conflicting story. The video footage should show everything

142I've told you, including the conversations with the bus driver. I'm very disheartened at how this process has gone. gone this far. I had no reason to believe I had anything to worry about. But here I am today speaking to you, still asking for this situation to be resolved 40 days later. I'm a Marine Corps veteran and I suffer from a panic disorder. Since the incident, I have suffered multiple panic attacks that takes days to recover from. My son is very worried in the car and riding his bike home from school. I've had to learn how to do my own maintenance on my car since the shop will not work with the condition that it is in. and I've had to cancel a a family vacation. Uh, and I haven't worked since June of last year.

143Just started a new semester to become a special education stu uh teacher and can't afford to pay for somebody else's mistake. I am not a greedy or vengeful person. I do not wish for anyone to lose their job or for this to be resolved in court. I just need my car fixed and I would appreciate it if somebody would ask my son if he is okay and assure him that this won't happen again. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Are there? >> No. >> Okay. >> All right. 8.1, our student board member report. I >> Oh, hi everyone. I'm representing our student board members this evening to give you the report um from their recent meeting on January 22nd. Um, I do want to lead with there are two lunch and learn

144dates coming up. Uh, they wanted me to share with you. They are February 19th at Asiggo East and at Asiggo High School, March 3rd. They have been preparing this year as um an SSAC to um really have a facilitated conversation with our teachers. And um in the most recent meeting, we did go virtual. The students were very engaged, very excited about what this um opportunity will look like for these upcoming lunch and learns. Um in addition um some of the questions the students were talking through um about discussing with teachers and also sharing with themselves as students to their teachers where at school they feel most comfortable being their true self and why. Uh students also discussed um engaging in conversation about what makes you feel noticed or valued by a teacher or a student.

145Um, as we know, SSAC has been focusing on student and teacher relationships. That's based on data that they've gathered from the student population at both high schools. Um, students are really enjoying having a voice in the event planning process. They're learning a lot about all that goes into it and all the logistics that go behind um making this a very successful experience. Um, the students really do believe this is a way to strengthen connections with teachers and like I said, foster a positive school environment. Um the students also talked about doing um the logistical pieces like having music to welcome staff coming in as well as um station themselves around the room to help the staff feel comfortable engaging in this conversation. Uh the lunch and learns I mentioned the dates already will u be

146held in the high school's respective community rooms um during staff and student lunch periods. So periods 4 through 7. and uh they're hoping that this small setting um will be able to um create great discussion. Um the students are working on an action plan for both schools to emphasize the teacher and student relationships like I mentioned and their next SSAC meeting in February. They'll set up those action plans and continue to collaborate with other students to make this a successful event. So they wanted you to know you're invited and to let them know if you would like to attend. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I got it marked down. So, let's uh see if work allows. Um 8.2 board member comments. I'll start. Um Randy and I'll work my way around. No. >> Okay,

147Kristen. So, I'm gonna bounce off you. So, April 16th, >> February 19th, >> no, the April um the big career fair. >> Oh, the career fair. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. April. Please speak on it. You got it. >> Can you share with the broader team and obviously the public what's happening and upcoming dates and so forth? >> Yes, absolutely. I'm so excited to share that we are doing for the first time ever a district 308 uh career and college fair. Um we've been planning all year for this experience. It's open up to both of our high schools. We are um really advocating to partner with some industry partners to come to the event. Um in addition to our colleges as well. Uh this event will be tailored primarily for our high school students. Um but

148we do welcome the public and any student is welcome to attend. Um we are also partnering with school links. They're our platform that we use to engage our students in career and college readiness planning. Uh they're offering parent workshops as well. Um, we encourage you, um, it is posted on our socials to, um, connect with our industry partners and encourage them to come so we can talk about those future careers with our students, um, and what that would take for them to get there. Um, and again, we're so excited that we're collaborating with both of our high schools. It'll be held here at As Wego East um, as Brandy said, um, on on April 16th. Anything else you would add? >> No, thank you. Yeah. I don't really I was going to go I was

149going to go through my calendar, see what I done these past couple weeks while uh you guys were talking, but [laughter] um I'm sure it's been quite a bit. We're always busy. Um but we'll move on. 9.1 nine approve consent agenda. I have a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I make a motion to approve all items under consent including 9.1 minutes from the board of education meeting on January 12th, 2026 open and close sessions. 9.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district. 9.3 to approve field trips for overnight and or more than 200 miles. 9.4 to approve the resolution to request Kendall County Land Cash in the amount of $3,27.93. >> Second. >> Are there any questions on the consent agenda? >> No. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Miss Robinson.

150>> I. Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth. I Dr. Mario >> I >> motion passes 6 move on to 10.1 the asiggo east diving board repair and replacement boats for me >> yeah the uh I'm sorry the diving barge here at the swimming pool is original to the building and it wasn't designed to last for as long as it has and we were hoping to uh to repair it as part of a larger capital project repair of the pool, but uh we didn't quite make it. So, at this point, we we need to have a repair and we reached out for quotes from uh three companies that we know to have the experience of doing similar work. And um based on the the submission that we got, we're recommending

151Landmark to be approved by the board to do the work. the uh the bids that was submitted are included in the communication. And the reason why we we are recommending Landmark in addition to the fact that they have really great pricing is that they've done work here before and they have a reputation for doing good work. >> So Mr. Of just to clarify, we're replacing the diving board, not repairing it. >> Yes, we're going to take it and replace it with a new one. So, the bid is for a replacement. Um, and the information is provided um in the agenda. >> Is it not functional right now or is it just >> you can't like >> it's it's not right. >> It's not doing what it's designed to do. >> Okay. So, it's >> and

152the level of repair outpaces the it would be better just to replace it at >> But yes, we did just celebrate a state champion. >> Absolutely. Um and I would just like to point out the stakeholder engagement that Mr. Oafme and Satara had um from not only administrative and athletic staff but also um some of our new aquatic staff also. >> Thank you. >> Any questions? I I just want to confirm we've talked to the diving people, the diving team people >> and they are cool with it. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> People, >> one thing that we've learned uh being here is that we always consult with our customers before we make decision. Yes. And we we engage with them. And in addition to that, um, so this request will come for approval at

153our next meeting on February 9th. Um, but it does take four to six weeks to replace, which would then occur after the end of our boys uh dive season. Um, the board is not part of a high school athletic season. The girls are in the fall, the boys are in the winter, so it will not disrupt uh the diving team. Okay. All right. Moving on to 11.1. Approval of student assignment proposal. [laughter] >> Can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to approve student assignment phase 2 proposal as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I just want to reiterate my gratitude for the job done on that because I know it required a lot of engagement and a lot of time and a lot of heavy conversations. Um so thank

154you to the team that did that. >> Yeah. >> Um any other questions or comments? No. Okay. >> Mr. Cerone >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. Dr. Martin >> I. >> Miss Winmouth >> I >> Dr. Mario >> I >> Miss Robinson >> I >> motion passes 6 action item. >> So in just relation to student assignment um Dr. Dr. Kagatti asked that I share um just that communication to all of our addresses impacted will be coming out later this week as well as launching um a uh student task force related to helping with the transition that we discussed with our families that that came in. So really thankful not only for the staff work um but also our parents and our community members that either participated on our task force or attended our

155meeting. So just wanted to share that and um those zones impacted will receive communication uh later this week. Okay. Um action item 11.2 um approval of board policies. Can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to approve board policy section 7 students 7 colon 150 as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Okay. >> Miss Robinson >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth >> I. >> Dr. Martin >> I. >> Dr. Mario >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone >> I. Motion passes 6. Approval of posted personnel report. Um action item 11.3. May I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to approve the personnel report as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any further discussion? >> Dr. Mario. >> I. >> Miss Robinson. >> I.

156>> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth. I >> Mr. Cerrone. I >> Miss C. I. >> Motion passes 6. And I have a motion to adjurnn. >> I make a motion to adjurnn. Second.