SD308 Board of Education Meeting (01/12/2026)

001Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Cerrone, >> here. >> Dr. Martin, >> here. >> Dr. Mario >> here. >> Dr. Pock >> here. >> Miss Robinson, >> present. >> Miss C here. >> Miss Wmouth, >> present. >> Okay. All stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, and justice for good evening board. Uh, welcome Mr. Francis and board. We are here this evening for our Pride Award winners. So, I'll turn over to Mr. Francis and if the board would meet me in the middle. >> All right. Welcome everybody to our packed house for our January 12th board of education meeting. Tonight the board of education Oh yeah, let's clap for

002attendance. Tonight the board of education acknowledges pride winners from Grand Park, Homestead, Wols Crossing, and Murphy Junior High for the month of January. Pride stands for proudly recognizing individuals demonstrating excellence. The board of education began this program 10 years ago to recognize, promote, and celebrate the many contributions made by teachers and employees across our great district. We thank our generous district partners who support this program which is presented by Serve Bank and supported by donations from Chick-fil-A, Culver's Imagination Print and Design, Huntington Learning Center, The Scoop, KCT Credit Union, Texas Roadhouse, and 113 Maine. Your contributions make this program successful. We would also like to thank all those who nominated individuals for consideration. Each nominee has been recognized with a certificate. Awardees, after your name is called and we share your nomination, please come forward

003to be congratulated by the board and Dr. Kilgotti. And please stay up front until the rest of the individuals from your school have been called up. Our first school for the night is Grand Park Elementary School. First, we have Britney Sherman. Britney, come on up. Britney is student centered and her approach has allowed her to create a classroom culture where all can thrive. She conducts herself with a high level of integrity and holds both herself and her students to high standards. Her collaboration with all stakeholders ensures the educational success for each student. As shared by a nominator, she always treats students with respect and appreciation for their differences, strengths, and needs. Congratulations, Britney. Next up, we have Lindsay Kadich. Lindsay serves her students and colleagues alike in a warm, helpful, and responsive manner. She prioritizes

004making her students feel valued, going so far as to lead her students through positive affirmations in the morning. Her care for and dedication to her students runs deep. Her nominator said, "Lindsay honors and values all learners, their similarities, their differences, and her classroom and school are a place where every child can belong and flourish." Congratulations, Lindsay. Next up from Grand Park, Aaron Boowberg. Aaron has touched the hearts of those around her. She cares about both her current and former students, displaying kindness in all interactions. She has even initiated a group of staff members to provide support for a family going through a difficult time. One parent shared, "She is the epitome of what every teacher and human should be." Congratulations, Aaron. All right. At this time, any building administrators, Mr. Mr. Smith, come on up.

005We will take some pictures and recognize the group as a whole. Oh, and last. >> All right. Congratulations, Grand Park. Our next spotlight school is Homestead Elementary School. First of all, we have Julie Cumlad. Julie focuses on building upon students strengths and works to develop positive connections with all she serves. She is always eager to help in whatever way she is needed. In addition to carrying out her roles as a reading specialist, Julie volunteers to organize Homestead's Veterans Day assembly every year. A nominator shared, "Julie's calm demeanor and positive attitude are contagious, contributing to a positive school environment for everyone." Congratulations, Julie. Next up, Tara Storz. Tara demonstrates excellence in all she does. Striving to create a positive and inclusive learning environment where students feel encouraged to succeed. She works to build meaningful relationships with

006students and her strong work ethic and care for students growth sets an example for all. One nominator said, "She lovingly guides and cares for these kids, all while showing them the joy and pride that can come inside their own independence and responsibility." Congratulations, Tara. And finally, from Homestead, Laura Fitzpatrick. Laura's care for both students and staff is appreciated by those around her. She's quick to comfort students who visit the health office and always follows up to see how they're feeling. Laura also serves as a dedicated member of the community by volunteering for various events. A nominator shared, "Laura always shows up to work with a smile, positive attitude, and is always ready to lend a helping hand. Congratulations, Laura." And now, administrators, come on up, and we will take a group picture for Homestead. going

007off script. >> I I just want to say that the presentation I had the I had the privilege of being here at being at the Pride presentation. Homestead had the most awesome presentation. >> I mean, we were followed by music. We were like a band. It was it was amazing. All right, one more round of applause for Homestead. And next up, we have Wolf's Crossing Elementary School. First, we have Joy Barney. Joy has made a lasting impact on students. She helps students succeed in the moment and equips them for their time in junior high. Her nominator, now a senior in high school, was one of her fifth grade students. This student wrote, "From critical thinking skills to life lessons that went far beyond the classroom. Mrs. Barney shaped me not only as a student, but

008as a person." Congratulations, Joy. Next up, Danna Cavillo. Diana works hard to support the learning of dual language students and beyond. She shares her ideas with others and is invested in seeing her colleagues improve. Additionally, her kindness and strong classroom management skills are admirable. As shared by a nominator, she is very professional and truly cares about the students well-being. generously sharing everything that benefits the first grade teams. Congratulations. Next up, we have Beatatrice Dilman. Beatatrice knows how to keep the Wolf's Crossing office running smoothly, even on the busiest of days. She has the ability to anticipate needs before they arise, manage multiple responsibilities, and communicate clearly with others. A nominator stated, "What truly sets her apart is her dedication to people. She welcomes everyone with patience and kindness, listens without judgment, and brings calm to

009stressful moments." Congratulations. And now, Wolf's Crossings Photo Pop. Congratulations, Wolf Pro. And finally for tonight we have Murphy Junior High School. First of all is Daniel Tomththeetti. He is not able to be with us tonight but Mr. Tometti has made Murphy's industrial education program his own. He is dedicated to helping students grow in knowledge, skill, and self-confidence. He takes pride in the work that he and his students do on a daily basis. A nominator shared, "Mr. T has the respect of his students because he treats them like individuals and makes connections with them on their level." Congratulations, Daniel. Next up, Tracy Phillips. Tracy makes it a priority to serve her students, especially if they are struggling with the content areas they're learning. She wants to see her students succeed. She also makes it a priority

010to connect with families. As shared by the parents of a student, our daughter went from being intimidated by this class to it being one of her favorite classes. Congratulations, Tracy. Next up, we have Martha Calvio. Martha works to support students in all areas of life, both in and outside of the classroom. She forms strong, trusting relationships with her students and also hosts a cooking club, providing students the opportunity to build valuable skills and connect with each other. As stated by one of her nominators, her compassion, professionalism, and positive presence make a lasting impact on students, colleagues, and families alike. Congratulations, Martha. Next up, Becky Howard. Becky's innovative, handson learning experiences allow students to easily engage with class content. Known for her compassionate nature and as a safe space to students, Becky cultivates a classroom environment

011where all are welcome. A former student shared, "She was a teacher who always made class enjoyable and someone I felt like I could go to." Congratulations, Becky. And last for Murphy is Dorothy Sandburn. Dorothy was not able to be with us tonight, but Dorothy knows how to relate well to students. She helps students understand material on a deep level while making learning enjoyable. In addition, her positive attitude is contagious. One of her nominators shared, "She is a student centered person with an outpouring of empathy for others stories." Dorothy champions students to rise with her passion for helping people, especially those who need extra support or compassion. Congratulations, Dorothy, and all of our Murphy Pride winners. All right, let's have One final round of applause for Murphy and all of our amazing Pride winners for the

012month of January. Honores, please proceed out into the hall, gathering at the landing of the stairs for one large group photo. Thank you to our families and colleagues who were here tonight to support our winners. The next round of Pride Awards will be open for nominations starting Thursday, January 15th. Are you okay? Oh, okay. >> [clears throat] >> We're going to uh move to presentation 5.1 for the asse uh forming air center update. >> We've asked Thank you, Mr. President. We've asked the uh the architect who is the project manager on the Oiggo East High School project to come and present an update to the board. Mr. Alex Lopez from performance. Take it away. >> Good evening. How do you follow that? [laughter] >> Uh my name is Alex Lopez. I'm one of the principal

013architects at performance services and I just want to take a couple of minutes to give you an update >> uh on the performing arts center. Thank you. That would help. Um >> is is the mic on? I'm >> It's on. Okay. >> Is it on? I just need to speak louder. >> Okay. Sounds good. Can you hear me now? >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. >> It's more for the people at home. >> I hear you. >> Yeah. >> So on your screen, I just want to give you a quick update. Uh for those of you that don't know either uh some of the steel in the uh performing arts center is protected by a film that's called an intimcent intent paint or intscent coating that protects the uh steel in case of a fire,

014god forbid. And so the way that works is once the fire hits it or the heat hits it, uh the the film blows up into uh something like popcorn and it u protects the the steel. So um having said that um over the last 20 years or so there's been some dilamination uh lately uh pretty pretty severe where to um um due to potentially many things. Some of it could be uh improper formulation. Uh maybe it didn't cure right. Maybe the temperature or the humidity was a little bit higher than optimal. Um really no way to tell. uh we move forward and we're going to uh where we've been in the process of fixing it. Uh one of the things that uh we had to do is strip the entire um area meaning the acoustical

015ceiling tile, the electrical light, the electrical fixtures, any devices that are in there. Uh and most of them were going to uh ended up in the garbage because we're going to replace them with uh with um new new systems. Uh the new work scope uh basically uh provides a new intent coating uh for the entire structure and uh there's going to be a new finish coat of paint on top of that. Uh pretty simple um in theory. Uh the new finishes will will have acoustical ceiling tiles or clouds uh new LED lighting in that area and uh there's going to be a number of devices are going to be either reused or salvaged. Uh it's hard to tell on your pictures, but on your board docs, you can see some of the work that's currently

016going on. Uh as you can tell, there's scaffolding uh uh plywood flooring for the workers to work uh to be able to work uh pretty easily. The picture here is is a little funny on the right here cuz that's one light fixture and there are many light fixtures there. So, it is an involved uh project and we are well on the way. Um this schedule is about a week behind. There's a little uh a little bit more work that um has been going on. Uh essentially the intimac uh is complete. Uh there are some finished painting there uh is is going to or it has started. Uh the cloud installation will begin or has begun uh in certain areas. There's a lot of staging that needs to happen uh during this time and then the

017light fixture installation will follow that. And as you can see right now, we're tracking very well for cons uh substantial completion uh roughly the first week of uh Thursday. So >> like quick question for you to a lay person. What does substantial completion mean? Does that mean the uh we can use the space for performance? >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Substantial completion is the portion of the project where uh the pro the the area can be used by the uh faculty, the students and and the public. There may be some punch items you know that we need to uh perform and come back for but uh those are very very small. >> Thank you. >> And and the February 5th date already takes into consideration the week behind that you were talking about. Um, no. The

018fe the the the week behind as far as the the updates, uh, because I had to turn in the presentation last week, we're a little bit behind, but the February, uh, date is what we're tracking to do, and we're hoping to, uh, you know, definitely try to hit it a few days in advance. So, >> the February 5th. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Can I ask about the paint itself? >> Yes. it. As far as the um the substrate, the metal >> um did you find any issues with that as far as going forward, do you think this is going to stay on there? >> There there is no issues with the structure at all. And and again, this is based on just an an abundance of caution. Uh

019but no, there we did not find any unforeseen circumstances or any issues with the structure at all. >> Okay. And then the the fireproofing paint, is it white? Um, so it depends. >> And then it's covered with black paint. >> Correct. So it's a it depends on the manufacturer and the formulation. Most of them are white or off-white. I've seen some black, but that is meant to be painted over with any color. >> I'm I get I'm I'm asking because it's really difficult when you look at a auditorium ceiling to see anything. So I'm just wondering that if this >> if we have staff looking at it to just inspect it. Is the paint, the black paint, if it starts to come off, will we see white behind it, making it easier to identify any

020future issues? >> It it may be. The the the difficult part was the actual delamination. It was coming down in in thicker chunks as opposed to uh you know, paint flakes that you would see. That's not something to be concerned about. Sure. >> Uh because that would be the top coat of the intimac coating. >> Okay. So as a followup to uh what uh Miss C just asked, what would be the regular useful life of that pain? If there was no defect initially, >> it should last for the life of the of the structure if there's no additional movement or um you know a huge amount of uh um moisture in the environment. But because it is an um interior space, it should last the the life of the building. >> Um so if you

021ask that that could be 80, 90 years. >> I was going to say. Okay. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> That's what you guys put in now. >> Correct. Correct. >> So I just want to So the repairs that are being done once those are completed it should have a useful life of 80 to 90 years. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And like anything um that you purchase, you know, there's there's warranty, but at at the end of the day, that that stuff is art and it's it sticks. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Anybody else? >> No. >> Thank you so much. Thanks for coming out. >> Go Bears. All right. Item 6.1, superintendent report. Back to the guy. >> So, I'm actually going to invite the board to start. We're going to do in reverse.

022We're in the new year. So, I'm going to invite the board to share the shout outs that we have of some good news and then I'll wrap up with some of my comments. So, invite the board to start. >> I'll go ahead and start about our basketball program. So, our crossound basketball games took place last Friday. Congratulations to OS for winning the boys varsity game and to OEHS for winning the girls varsity, boys sophomore, girls junior varsity, and boys freshman A and B games. Such a great tradition. >> Yeah. >> Cool. >> Um, Garrett Forward Robotics kickoff event this pack this past weekend was a success. The team is heading into a new season with new goals. Feeling excited about the future holds. Good luck to the team in the season ahead. Uh, Elizabeth Stoers,

023principal of Hunt Club Elementary, has been named a 2026 elementary school principal of the year by the Illinois Principles Association. >> She is uh she is joined by elementary principles from across the state in receiving this award for their respective regions. Congratulations on this achievement, Mrs. Stoofers. Y >> coach Brian Cooney of As Wego High School had the honor of coaching the Navy All-American Bowl in San Antonio this past weekend. He served as the linebacker's coach and defensive coordinator for the rest for the West. Sorry about that. Congratulations to Coach Cooney on this achievement. >> Congratulations. >> Rachel Maxwell, band teacher at Trrower Junior High, is being recognized by the Illinois Music Education Association as a recipient of the Mary Hoffman Award of Excellence. She will be receiving her award at the Illinois Music Educator

024State Conference later this month. Congratulations, Rachel. Kevin Schubach, I apologize if I said it incorrectly, band director at Asiggo High School, was selected as a top 10 finalist for the Grammy Music Educator of the Year Award. This is his second time accomplishing this. Congratulations, Kevin, and best of luck. >> Wow. >> Yay. Jessica Zambo, OHS class of 2022, has an upcoming solo exhibition featuring 18 oil pastel pieces. The reception for her exhibition is Thursday, January 15th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. at the Olterly Library in Neapville. Congratulations on this achievement, Jessica. And you know, when you think about this evening, us celebrating our Pride Award winners with our educators and then you hear these accomplishments, are you not surprised? Right. We're so fortunate. We have such a community of dedicated educators. I got to tell

025you, um, every time it doesn't it it's so impressive, but this particular time because it's so fresh right now, >> every one of the educators was like shocked like me being honored. Really? tears. A lot of tears >> all around. >> I It was very moving. It was very moving and and many and then the principal would we'd walk out with the principal and they'd say, "Yeah, they don't like the attention or and that was the case with almost every single one of them, right? This this tremendous dedication to education." and you see it in our students and we're so grateful from from the arts and all the way to the the the field athletic field to the sciences to robotics. You see this level of commitment and it's it's very inspiring. And with that,

026it's refreshing, right? So, welcome back from the board from winter break. Um I hope everyone had a restful period and time to recharge and spend time with family this holiday season. Um, I want to I want to bring our attention. So, right I want to think because right before the break we heard news that the IHSA, so this isn't not the best news, but we're going to take it on. Um, the effect of this coming fall cooperative team sports are going to be with a combined enrollment of 3500 that these will no longer be eligible in the IHSA for state series team awards. So, in our district, we have a number of co-op sports that we're very proud of. sprinting to bowling to um uh uh not bowling, sorry, um gymnastics, >> um >> golf.

027Um these are really incredible opportunities where our schools come together to show the best of who they are. And this has uh this new restriction will directly affect our teams that are competing cooperatively. And through the collaboration between the two high schools, we can offer great opportunities which this would start to break try to break that. Um our athletic directors, our high school leaders, we have board members um kind of pulling in their their energy around this. We've been meeting with other impacted schools and we are going to be advocating. So I want to share this message with the community. We are going to mount an advocacy some advocacy work around this. Um, we will keep you informed as this moves forward, but I want you to know and I want our athletes to know

028that we know this is a concern to you and we are going to be working the we as a adult community are going to be working to to bring this attention up because we really see this as it could really harm the spirit at the very minimum of collaboration between our two schools and we just don't want to get in the way of that. So, whatever the reasons might be, I'm sure somebody had some reasons. We don't agree with them and we're going to work on this. We've got some plans in the works. Um, on on that note, I do want to say this coming Monday, we have Dr. King's um rec holiday coming up. Um, this is a day that really was hard fought for in our history, you know, both in terms of

029his leadership. Um but he represents I would say not just a generation but a movement and and a focus on our history and uh this is an important holiday. We think of it not just as a day off but a day of service of me of remembrance and um one example of this is that our high school uh student black student association will be getting together knot blankets and um different resources for premature babies at the niku at Rush Copley. I want to thank them for that. Teresa, is that information accessible on the website so you can get more information about how to support this effort and I want to thank them for their leadership. Um, anyone else can join in and meet in the Asiggo High School cafeteria on Monday starting at 11:00 a.m.

030Uh, please bring some fleece along to work on. So, I apologize for my voice and fighting over. With that, uh, I want to, uh, invite us to move on to the next item. Um 7.1 public comment. We have any >> Yes. >> On behalf of the board of education, I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting. We value the feedback we receive from our members of the public and encourage uh 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 and presented it to the secretary to the board. Any members of the public who have not yet turned in their public comment card to the secretary of the board are asked to do so

031at this time. When the secretary calls your name, I ask that you come to the microphone, state your name for the public record and provide your feedback to hear from as many pe uh as possible and my authority as board president. I am limiting comments to three minutes per person to give the maximum number of people an opportunity to speak. The board does not participate in discussion during public comment. Follow up to your questions or concerns may be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card. Thank you. >> Stacy Ree, >> can you hear me? >> Uh, not yet. >> Not yet. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um, good evening members of the board, administrators. Um, and most importantly, the cast and crew

032of the Asiggo East High School winter play, Heaven Can Wait, that are in the audience along with a bunch of supporters, which is why I'm here to talk to you. Uh, my name is Stacy Ree. I am a 20-year resident of Asiggo and I believe I'm in my 16th year of having consecutive year of having a child in this school district. So, I want to talk to you about the rescheduling of the As Wego East winter show, which usually takes place the end of January, but because of the presentation you just saw and things you couldn't control, the show got moved and instead of getting moved to a weekend performance, which is usually a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and it's very well attended. I've been going to these performances for four years and it allows members

033of the community to come. It allows out of town folks to come. Um, and that pack is full on Friday and Saturday and they put on a heck of a show. But this year, because of the delay and the push back, which I know happens with construction, and you can't help it, the show got relegated to a Wednesday, Thursday performance, um, which really short changes these kids who are your varsity theater group to really put on the show that they intended. And I do know that there are two dance competitions scheduled in February which are not district sponsored. So what I would ask of you and I do have um a handout. I don't know if it was Pat. >> Okay. Fantastic. Um it's a policy you're already probably well aware of but just to

034refresh your recollection. >> Um policy 8.2 20 which is community use of school facilities specifically says that the use of school facilities for school purposes has precedence over all other uses which I think is something I really need the administration to take into consideration. I like you am also an elected official. I serve as a trustee at Wansi Community College so I understand the fiduciary duty. I understand the stewardship of the tax dollars and first and foremost whenever we as a board or administrators look at a decision it's based upon number one the students because that's why we're here and number two um what is my fiduciary duty and what is my stewardship and I think in this case in my opinion humbled opinion this is an easy decision based upon a policy that you

035already have in place to reschedule one of the dance competitions um and move this show where it belongs. Thank you for your time and your attention. >> Thank you. >> Where's the next person? >> Rachel Keys. Good evening. Uh my name is Rachel Keys. Um and I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm also speaking on behalf of of Asiggo East Theater. I'm a parent of two Asiggo East alums and a current senior. I've had kids in SD308 for 15 years, Aiggo East for 10 years, and East Theater for eight years. Uh this has been one of the most disappointing years by far, all due to the closure of the PAC. Concerts held in gyms with terrible acoustics or at a different school. The theater students forced to transport costumes, sets, and technology

036to a middle school and then have to perform in that small venue to a greatly reduced audience. These are not small inconveniences. They have directly affected student morale, pride, and the quality of their experiences. If you've ever attended an East Theater performance, then you already know the level of excellence that Mrs. Chandler and Miss Bowski bring to this program. Their shows are consistently highquality, student-driven, and something this district should be incredibly proud of. These students don't just participate in theater. It's part of who they are, and they rise above expectations. They deserve the opportunity to showcase their talents when the majority of their community and supporters can actually attend. Theater is not meant to be performed to empty seats. Just as athletes need fans in the bleachers, actors need an audience to perform for. Weekday

037performances simply do not draw attendance. East Theater also relies on ticket revenue to sustain the program and they already took a major hit in the fall. Last month I sent a letter out requesting a timeline for reopening the pack and a plea for putting the students first. I received a timeline from Raphael Obami much which is much appreciated and it follows pretty much what uh the gentleman explained tonight. But also in in uh Mr. Obafami's response, he stated, and I quote here, "We also recognize the need to prioritize our students in all scheduling decisions. As we continue to shift events to alternate spaces, we are working to ensure that our performing arts programs receive the strongest possible support and the highest priority in rescheduling and facility use." End quote. And yet, here we are. This

038is the moment to act on on that belief. This is about doing the right thing, about choosing students over outside groups, about recognizing that these students have put in countless hours of rehearsal. In fact, they a lot of them came from rehearsal tonight just to come to this meeting. Their preparation and passion and they deserve to perform on a weekend when their families, friends, and community can fill that PAC and support them. These theater students don't ask for much, but they do ask for an audience, and they deserve a great one. I believe you all ran for the school board because you care about our students. I believe you support them and this is your chance to prove it to do something amazing for East Theater and show these students that they truly come first.

039Please allow East Theater to perform their winter show on a weekend in their own PAC like they have always done. I ask that you put students first where they belong. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Leah Gullet. >> Hello. >> Hi, my name is Leah Gullet. I'm a senior at Asiggo East High School and have been a dedicated member of the International Thespian Honor Society all four years of high school. I'm here to address the decision to give the weekend to an external dance competition over the Asiggo East Theater program. This year, with the pack under construction, our fall play was performed at Benarc Junior High, which was especially upsetting for me because I had the lead. But like our program program always does, we cooperated and made

040the best show we could. Now, I don't know how many of you have attended an Asiggo East Theater production before, but if you have, then you know how much time, effort, commitment, and love that is poured into making sure our performances are successful, meaningful, and reaches its intended audience. The weekend enables us to have our families and friends who work or live out of town come see the show. But more importantly, it honors months of dedication to our craft by allowing our work to be witnessed, understood, and reflected upon. Our work deserves the time and space it normally has to be shared properly to everyone who wishes to experience it. We aren't asking for special treatment, but to be valued and supported in the same way we're told our activities matter. Disappointing, especially as a

041senior, to think that the school board would choose to not give us the opportunity to perform in the pack on a weekend. We have given so much of ourselves, our energy, passion, and heart to this work, and it is painful to feel it overlooked and dismissed. As an asgo student, I sincerely hope that my perspective is taken into account and that the decision is reconsidered with the care our work has rightfully earned. Thank you. >> Thank you. Emily Keys. >> Hello. My name is Emily Keys. Um, and I am currently a senior here at Oiggo East High School. I've been doing East Theater since my freshman year, as well as being an active member in the Thespian Honor Society. I've also been participating in theater for as long as I can remember. I want to

042start off by saying that me and many other East Theater students are grateful to have this opportunity to speak and express our feelings over the current situation. Over the past months, not having the ability to perform or practice in the pack has brought many emotions, not only for me, but for fellow theater, choir, and band students. The pack being officially closed has brought many tears and lots of frustration. As a senior, I have performed in the pack for all four years. And since I was young, I've always looked forward to performing on that big stage. To know that my last year here in high school, I could not perform on that stage during our first show this season was hard to overcome, as well as the prolonging of when it will reopen. And although we

043still get to perform our show in the pack for this winter show, the students should get the priority. Our performing arts center is a place for us to show our work. To me, it's a second home. For every single show we perform here at East, the directors, cast, crew, and stage me man managers put so much effort into it. We rehearse almost every day after school, memorize and practice lines, and block each scene and build each set from show to show. Every show deserves an audience, even this one. It truly makes a difference to have a audience full of people. However, if the show performs on just the Wednesday and Thursday planned, many people are unable to attend, such as relatives, friends, other people who can only attend on the Friday and Saturday night show.

044So, we want the show on a weekend, not only because it is what we are used to, but because we deserve the full audience. I have two older siblings, one of which my sister, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and cannot easily travel here on the weekdays. When I'm on stage, I think about who in the audience is watching me. My sister is one of those people, someone I watch for in the audience and run to when the show is over. I perform better when I know the people I love are there to support me, especially her. I not only want I not only for me, but for fellow peers. Many of their family members and friends can only come on the weekend and they deserve to be there. As a senior, this is one of

045the last times on this stage. We've put in months of hard work so far. Not only for the applause, but to share our passion, to share our creativity, courage, and the story of the winter show, Heaven Can Wait. We are asking that you choose the students of Aiggo East High School. We are important and we deserve to showcase what we have created for everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you. Conor Ree. Hello. Uh my name is Connor Reese. I'm also a senior at OSGO East High School. I have been in the East Theater program for four years now and I serve as the drama captain for our program. Uh, as I'm sure you've heard so far, it's very clear to you how important the pack is to us. Considering like all these people that have showed

046up to this meeting, but I wanted to begin by sharing my story about what the pack means to me. I used to dance for Storm Dance Alliance, a dance company right down the road. So, naturally, many of our competitions led us to the PAC and its stage. Little seven-year-old me didn't know at the time that this auditorium would eventually become my home. I remember the glory of winning awards, dancing my heart out, and most of all, having fun. As a choir student, I've also performed countless concerts on that stage and know more than anyone how the pack can be a sort of hub for celebrating the arts. That is why we've come here today to express how much a weekend performance would mean to the East Theater family. As I entered high school, terrified of

047all these new experiences, I found myself supported by theater and the people surrounding me. I've been acting all my life, but until I walked into the doors of the pack, I never truly knew how it felt to express one of my passions such a healthy and amazing way. Theater has become my life as a senior in the program as well as drama captain. It's been so fulfilling to hone my craft and forge these unbreakable bonds throughout my high school career. Specifically, our winter show this year [clears throat] holds the utmost important to my fellow seniors. Many this may be the last chance they have to showcase their talent on this stage, our home. As several people do not perform in a musical in the in the spring. That's why we deserve to have our talent

048showcased on our normal dates, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Just like the seniors before us, we deserve to have our families in that audience as they wouldn't be able to come to see us otherwise. Me, I know that their present presence in their audience is crucial to making our hard work worth it. I act for myself, yes, but I act for those that I love. I act to show them my talent, to feel proud of my work. and I get up on that stage channeling the energy of everyone in that audience to make this show better than ever. I know many in our program feel the same. I love the feeling of giving my uncles, aunts, and cousins and friends the biggest hugs after the shows, but with the current dates, that won't be possible. Won't

049be possible for most of the actors in our play, not to mention the crew who put in the hard work to build the set. For the sake of our theater program, please consider moving the dates of our show in order to give us the appreciation we deserve. Allow us seniors to perform for one of the final times on all three nights on the very stage that we found our home. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Okay, thank you everybody. We're moving to uh 8.1 student board member reports. >> Hello everybody. That was really beautiful. I'm so sorry. Like I was really taken aback by all your emotions. I think I've obviously seen the arts. My friends are like a part of like the OPAC at Austral. And I think I've been here

050for your shows and you guys are incredible students and your words have brought me to tears. I'm so appreciative of the arts and having a student voice. I want to voice your concern and I definitely think from the bottom of my heart that you guys will be able to get these dates approved because you guys are the people why me. I'm so sorry. Your words have truly brought me to tears and your art is so inspiring and I've seen your work and I hope you guys get the dates moved and I really hope I'm so sorry. You guys are just works of art, honestly. Oh, no. I love the arts. My friends, I see them act all the time during their musical plays and their fall plays, and I think you guys are amazing, and

051I truly see this happening for you guys. And I will fight for this for you cuz I will not take no as an answer as well. Thank you so much. You guys deserve another round of applause. Thank you. Wow, the emotions are up tonight. [laughter] Already got my New Year's resolution out of here. Well, hello everyone. I hope everyone has had a great evening so far. I know I have. [laughter] Um, on behalf of the SSAC, we wanted to take we wanted to thank Miss Spankowski, the assistant principal of Asiggo Ougo East High School that attended our last SSAC meeting. She pro she provided us valuable perspective from her experience um about talking about our lunch and learns. Um, we have exciting news. We have found two official dates about our lunch and learns. We

052don't know yet what schools are going to be which date, but with the help of Miss Prior who has excellence experience in this as well. Um we decided on late February on the 19th and then March 3rd which um our next board of education meeting I believe is on the 23rd. So we will come back with new updates. Um right now we have over 18 clubs participating in our lunch and learns and we are really excited to work with every clubs especially the minorities such as BSA, Lasso, MSA and other student led organizations such as student council and bionic who are very excited to present to every teacher in our school building. We are holding these during lunch periods which are fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh and um we are working alongside the department of

053communication who sent out a questionnaire on last week on Wednesday and it will be closing this Friday. And we asked grade levels from 8 through 12 to answer that question to help us sorry to help us um prepare questions in the theme of our lunch and learn. Um, and with all those updates, by our next SSAC meeting on the 22nd, we will finalize our plans and choose which school decides to work on the 19th or the 3rd. But by our next board of education meeting, we hope to have some results for you guys to share. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for adding to the perspective. >> Of course. Thank you. >> 8.2 two uh board committee reports. We had equity uh and policy committee meetings. Would anybody like to summarize? >>

054Um I can real quick. So for I can for the equity one um and teaching and or equity learning and innovation um we heard several presentations uh an update on some course proposals coming for ESL um an overview of multi-ingual learners and the dual language program um a wonderful presentation on our teacher residency and its impact um which I think we're going to be honoring some of those graduates at an upcoming coming meeting. So, I'm excited about that. Been a great program in our district. Uh and then we had an opportunity to talk about the high school experience and we had some good conversations about um you know what the academic experience looks like uh for our high school students including supports, opportunities for um uh coursework and redoing coursework and and things like that.

055And so um some great conversations. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. Anybody want to add or move on to the policy. >> Well, she did a wonderful job. >> I can touch on policy real quick if >> Sure. Um basically what we reviewed in policy um had to do with agency and law enforcement requests which has come under quite a few changes based on um you know based on ICE based on all sorts of different things happening um today. So we did review that policy um which we will actually we were pretty much in agreement for it with it. So uh it'll be presented for first read uh for information later in this meeting. Um, and uh, Mr. Bell actually put together a list of administrative procedures that would fall into place if and when

056policy 7150 goes into effect. I believe this is supposed to go into effect the beginning of next school year, right? >> July 1st. Okay. Um and it was really interesting to see how just because a policy is there um it can say one thing but there is a whole list of procedures backing it which kind of give you the which which gives you basically step steps A B C D and kind of a flowchart of what happens. Uh so that was that was pretty much the extent of the meeting unless Eric Erica Amy Nope. >> Hey appreciate that. Move along to 8.3 board member comments. Did anybody um want to share anything? >> Oh, you know I do. >> Well, anybody else? >> Go ahead. >> Eric, I was going to say you I always

057go you go first, sister. [laughter] >> All right. Um tomorrow, uh Epic is hosting another open gym night. It's at Churchill. It's from 6:30 to 7:30 and it is at door 12. Um, and I believe they're going to have therapy dogs there. So, if your kids like dogs, go and play in the gym and hang out with the puppies. Um, the Asiggo Wildcats are playing in their regional Special Olympics basketball tournament on Sunday in Cicero at Unity Junior High. And, um, on Saturday, I was able to attend the parent university uh, for for special education. And it was uh a really great experience. We had um a choice of four breakout sessions. I happened to go to the one on um uh working with the police uh the different police agencies and it was a

058really great conversation. Um a lot of our uh local agencies are opening up programs to um work with special needs um citizens I guess or people. Um, so in case there's something that the police should know ahead of time to make any interaction that they have go smoother and be safer, um, they're open to getting that information to be able to use it in the future. It's all voluntary and, um, they also are sharing a lot of the information amongst each other to, um, because we have so many different intersections of agencies. Um, we also had uh a lot of exhibitors out here and um there was some really great groups there and it was wellrun all around and I look forward to next year. >> And that's all I have. >> I always enjoyed

059the universities. So if you see them coming, you should attend. >> Yeah. >> Shout out to the staff that put it all together because they did a great job. work back up. Um, so I I already kind of hijacked part of the Pride presentation, but I did want to point out the um the awesome presentation that was done at Homestead. So, we won't talk about that anymore, except it was great. Uh, I want to um actually I want to just kind of thank some people real quick. I want to um thank the um admin and staff that attended the various lunchons that we had actually since the last meeting. Uh we spent some time at Long Beach, Old Post, and actually today we were at Prairie Point. Um we did we learned a lot. It's

060interesting because they all three schools have uh a different perspective, if you will. Um you know, we're all in the same district, but everybody's kind of got their same uh everybody's got their own unique personality. So, it's really interesting to hear what the issues are at all the different schools as well as what all the positive things are. So, again, thank you to all the teachers and admin that took the time to um to have lunch with us and talk. Uh the last thing I want to mention um hot topic transportation. Um I had the opportunity prior to uh winter break to ride a couple buses. Um, and just to kind of give you, um, I did I did special ed to for Wolf's Crossing and for Thompson, I believe. It's been a while. Um,

061and I did gened for Trrower and Boulder Hill, which was really fun. Um, and and I elementary school is definitely is definitely a challenge if you're driving a bus. Let me just say that. Uh, probably out of all of them. What what I wanted to say was I mean certainly the routes that they put me on were probably the probably the better the less challenged routes. Um and I know that doing those four runs I didn't get a true perspective. However, um I would like to say for those drivers um that are that do come every day and that are, you know, dependable and and and do their job and and deal with our students on a day-to-day basis. Um I think you're rock stars. Um I think I I got a better appreciation of

062that. So again, we all know transportation has issues. We're short-handed and and people don't show up. But but for those that do, um again, I don't think I could do what you do on a regular basis. So I give you all the props in the world. >> And that's it. >> Yeah. >> Randy, Amy, other 9.1. Consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent the consent agenda, please? >> I make a motion to be really confused. Oh. Uh I make a motion to approve all items under consent including 9.1 minutes from the board of education meeting on December 8th, 2025 open and close sessions. 9.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district. >> Second. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? >> No. >> Miss C. >> I. >>

063Dr. Pock. >> I. >> Miss Robinson. >> I. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I. >> Miss Wmouth. >> I. >> Dr. Mario. >> I. >> Motion passes 70. >> 9.2. Acknowledge acknowledgement of freedom of information requests. Um >> that was the consent >> we Oh yeah yeah yeah I'm sorry sorry that was 9.1 9.2 and then information 10.1 financial information Raphael >> you Mr. President, in the uh financial package that is included for in the board package this uh today, I included um an analysis of uh financial report that is normally released by the governor's office of management and budget. They normally do a projection of what the state's financial picture looks like for the year as well as going back the next five years. And um normally it's pretty mundane.

064Nothing. If you look at the one from last year was pretty standard. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But the one that was released in October of last year, I felt compelled to to do an analysis of it and to share that with the board as well as uh with the public. And what it shows is that uh the state of Illinois is facing some significant headwind in the next 5 years. And uh since we get about 50% about half of the revenue that we use to run the district, it will have a negative impact on us moving forward. And so we will have to make some tough decisions uh as we budget for 2027 now the way to 20 uh 31. If the analysis and the uh the uh the forecast that is um

065that is released by the governor's office of budget is to be believed which they do a very good job. But I will say I used to work there at some point so I know how well they they go in in trying to do the analysis. I mean just to point something out just to give you an idea the state approved a 2026 budget which is the current year budget that uh the state is operating on. Even though the budget was balanced we know budget is based on best uh estimate. Uh even though the year is not even close to being over yet, uh the revenue for that for this for 2026, we the state is going to end up with a deficit of close to $300 million from an approved budget. And if you look

066at the uh the memo, then it gets worse over time. And so and I just I wanted to point uh bring it to the attention of the board as well as the public. So as we develop the 2027 budget, uh we will have to make some some tough decision in order to have a balanced budget. And part of it is that revenue that we use to run the district. Uh a good size of it comes from local revenue, which is property taxes is the is the biggest source of revenue followed very closely by state revenue. Now, and a bigger part of that is actually EBF, which is the general state aid. Now, what the state has done since EBF was uh became law, if you will, back in 2017, the state is committed to funding

067$300 million that is then divided up to school district based on the uh what they call adequacy. Now the state >> incremental 300 million >> $300 million >> on top of what the >> Right. Right. Right. So um the state has been able to fund that because the revenue has been there except for during the pandemic in 2021 when the state wasn't able to fund that. Now, with the revenue projection that um that was just released in October, it's highly doubtful that the state will be able to do that. And uh if we're reading between the line, if the state is not able to do that, we should be prepared for the possibility of the state not being able to uh to provide that level of funding, then it will have negative impact. we have

068to prepare a budget in 27 and up to the to the out years with a recognition that it will impact us negative. So I just I just wanted to say that. So next month I will be uh coming before the board to do a presentation of our district uh financial projection for the next five years. It will be from the same same time period they did from 27 all the way to 2031. And what it means is that we have to we have to align our spending and we also have to align our projected revenue with the reality of what faces us. Any question? Now I uh I attended a governing group in for playing field and they're they have similar challenges. Um, Yorkville seems uh impacted the collar counties a little bit more than

069much of the other parts of the state. >> I think uh for example, districts that are located north of the uh of the state, I would say northern Cook County, Lake County, those districts tend to rely more on property taxes. And so property taxes tend to be the most reliable source of revenue school district. Uh we appreciate the the percentage of property taxes that we get as a district. However, it makes up about 44 45%. Which means we are more we are more subject to the beggaries the beggaries of state funding right >> which we know the state of Illinois has some significant structural deficit problem which means it will impact us >> so there are some I know there are some district north they only they only receive as little as 5% 2% from

070the state so the states suffering from uh structural deficit doesn't impact them the same way it would impact us in some of the districts that you mentioned in uh in the gulla. You mentioned that you're going to come to another board meeting with another present presentation, but that presentation will be based on like possibilities like if this happens because we don't know that any of this or on your best guess is that because none of this some of this seems like this is likely to happen but we don't know the the the total impact. Am I stating that correctly? >> That's correct. Except when we when we are building budget, we're doing projections on revenue and expenses. What we have to do, we have to use what is more likely than not in developing what

071the revenue is going to look like uh 1 2 3 4 5 years from now. So in order to be prudent and careful with the way we manage our resources, we have to take this information into consideration in in developing those projects >> and are those going to be consumptions of of adjustments or this first go around will kind of be a flatline, >> right? this first go around. There are some assumptions that actually have it developed. I'm just waiting to what I'm waiting on is the CPI for for December. The CPI for December comes out. If we're lucky, it will come out this week. There have been some changes to the way economic datas have been released. It used to be an article of fate that the third week of uh of the following

072month, you get the prime month CP uh CPI data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But I know with the uh with the government shutdown uh last month or couple of months ago that delayed that. So hopefully we'll have that by this week. And since uh property taxes makes up a big component of our revenue, what CPI does for the 2026 levy will pay play an important part in our revenue for 27. uh so that's why we have to wait till February to present that but to to the question that was being asked what we will do is we will assume that without making any cuts right now what will the picture look like we will assume that uh the uh state contribution to our funding stays flat we don't get any new money for

073from 27 all the way to 31 one that's that's what we assume and that's DBF and we also assume the same thing for mandated categorical funds which is the one the one level of funding that the states doesn't have any same level of commitment they've had to EDF what they've done what the state has done over the years they prorrated that so whenever even when things were good the state prorated that fancy work for reducing the amount that they they give So now that things are looking a little tougher than it look before we anticipate that there will be more proration. I know when we met with the speaker of the house when uh he came to the village of Asiggo that was some of one of the things that we talked to about trying

074to see there will be less proration in addition to continuing to fund EBF. But we also are realistic in knowing that the state only has enough revenue and um the uh the the majority of the commitment that the state has is mandated by by the constitution. So the state doesn't have any flexibility. For example, pension contribution, right? >> It has to be made. Uh commitment to Medicaid has to be made. Those types of things are required to be made. Now, mandated categorical funds, there's no provision in the uh in the constitution that requires that to be done. Those are what you'll call discretionary funding. Funding for transportation, uh regular special ed, funding for prek, those types of funding. The state only those are after unfortunately whenever everything else has been plugged, whatever is left over

075is what they provide for mandated categorical fund. Even though the word said mandated, it said mandated, but it doesn't say how much that we'll get. >> Yeah. >> We are also subject to market forces, we have contracts, you know, we have to make sure we have teachers. Um, >> you know. >> Yeah. So, if you look at the analysis here, what uh what the state said is they expect annual revenue to go up 2.1, but projected expenditure is going up at 3.7. So right off the bat there's uh there's an imbalance between >> they're going to have to make some decisions on where they're going to spend their money. >> So the projection >> hope is education. Right. >> Right. Right. So the projection that I will bring in February assumes we haven't made any

076cuts. We just make assumptions on revenue. Now as we develop the budget which will bring before the board in the spring for 2027 then we will make recommendation for reduction the expenditure and what we hoping is the board will give us direction as far as the priorities of the different options that we present to you all and then you can say we feel comfortable with this we don't feel comfortable >> this is uh how many times a year about that over the years. >> So, >> am I right to say would you if I say that the federal programs although a much smaller portion of our budget are um we might feel less confident in those in our current climate than previously. So, that's also kind of like an unknown. Is that a good characterization?

077>> Absolutely. It actually is direct and indirect. direct the money that we get directly from the federal government >> for such things as IDA, title one, title two, those are direct and child nutritional services and NSLP. Now the one that is indirect as most states get a significant amount of money from the federal government that flows to them and then that we get part of it. Now if the state doesn't get the amount of money that the state is suspected that means the state will have to make cuts. So it will hit us in two ways. Directly from the feds and indirectly from flow through from the fed to the state. >> So basically when you cut Medicaid and the state of Illinois picks it up. That's less money that we're >> Yes. >> that

078that's more money that they have to you know allocate for that instead of schools >> etc etc. when I I'll offer a couple comments and and I don't know if there's more questions, but when I was reading this memo, um you know, we've always I feel in my opinion underfunded education, right? Um in and not just in Illinois, but uh across uh the country. But as I was reading this, I was struck that well, these are kind of outside these are forces that we can't necessarily control. Like we don't have control of these. They're not a lot of them aren't positive when you think about cuts and things like that, but they're not something that we can necessarily control. What we have done, I feel, in the last, you know, few years is gotten a

079better, um, hold on what we can control. And absolutely, >> um, our fiscal responsibility, I think, is more sound than it was, you know, three years ago. Um, you know, think about just we could just not name off some things, right? like our our entrance into the insurance collective or whatever the name is for that. Uh our work on some of our contracts um cutting being able to negotiate a contract that allowed us to cut contracted services. So we've seen you know what we can control internally. I think we can be proud of that and now we're just going to have to respond to the things that we can continue that and then also respond to the things that we can't control externally. >> Absolutely. I could not argue with that. That's that's a great

080assessment and we will continue to do that. And what I always say is we have more control over expenditure. We depend on other people for revenue. >> So on the expenditure side, we're doing a lot of things to control expenditure. Some of those things that you've named and we will continue to do that. >> But we need we need folks other folks for to help us. And one of the area where we've been struggling in the local fund revenue part is fees which I will talk about in a minute when when we get to that that area. For example, just last year at this time of the year we collected about 78% of fees. As of the same time this year we've only collected 58% of fees. Our expenses hasn't gone down. Our revenue is

081challenged, but we need our parents to pay the fees that we need to be able to give them the world-class education experience that they're used to. So that impacts us too. So for example, at this time last year, I believe we've collected close to 4.5 million and as of today, we're looking at just slightly north of 3 million. That's a million dollars that we can use for programming because as you mentioned uh Dr. Maria we are doing everything we can to be to be responsible to be responsive to be prudent with expenditure. We are >> yeah there were some changes changes at the the state level as far as collection of fees and things along those lines but >> I like to talk about that too much because but that contributes to this downward trajectory.

082Yeah. >> So, will we be able to see kind of a crosswalk between um I know in the memo and thanks for the memo um you talk a little bit about state reimbursement um pressures. Will we be able to see like what the state actually reimburse us for like specific to some of our specialized programs versus what we actually spend? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. That that's a great idea. Maybe um at our next board meeting we'll come with some examples of that because I think the community understanding even I was even fees and how those impact us um is an important thing. So we'll bring some examples next week. >> Thank you. >> I know sometime it's easy to say you know get your house in order before you start asking for more

083money >> and we've absolutely have done that the last two plus years. We've looked at every single expenses even the way we budget is different. It used to be we just added 5% to all the expenditure class and we we moved on. We don't do that anymore. We have zero based budget. Every expenditure has to be justified line by line before we allocate. And if it cannot be justified, those allocations are not made. I mean, we're doing everything we can to be as efficient as possible. Why not impacting the educational experience of our children in the classroom? I have some questions. Um, we this year we went from tier one to tier two. >> Yes. >> Do you think is it possible for us to go back to tier one or are we going to

084be in tier two for a while? >> To be honest with you, I don't know. Okay. But if you want me to have a guess, which is what I'm going to do, I don't want anyone to hold me to something I say I don't know. But my my guess will be that will probably be tier two or >> cuz my the reason I'm asking the question is because it feels like if they don't increase the EBF then the tier one schools are going to be impacted more than the tier 2 schools because we don't get as much of an increase in new funding anyway. So I would want to be in a tier one [clears throat] with everything they even get any new money. >> So >> but if there's no new money then we're

085not going to be getting our hopes up basically is what I'm trying to say. >> We will still be in a better position if it were tier one than being tier two. >> Okay. And one of the reasons why I don't think we'll get to tier get back to tier one in the immediate future is that CPS went from tier two to tier one and the majority of the expend of the revenue that state gets when it comes to education CPS is the pound gorilla they get the majority of so as long as we I think we'll be able to get to tier one if CPS goes back to tier two. Okay. So, so and the the financial challenge that they face is even much more significant than ours. So, that's that's my guess that

086will probably stay tier two. >> Okay. And then I had a question about um you talk about the federal tax code change resulting in less income tax for the state. >> Do you um I know that involves deducting all the business expenses in the first year. Do they project the second year? I mean, are people going to be spending those business expenses in the first year and then not in the second? >> I think what they're talking about part of that is the base. If you shrink the base the first year, it's hard to catch up, >> right, right, >> with money. So, if you if you lose billions of dollars in the first year, even when [clears throat] things kind of level out, you're still in a hole. So what you're doing is filling

087up if you will. >> So even though it's the first year, it will still have significant ripple effect if you will in subsequent years. >> Okay. And do you know is that federal tax change >> for the future or is it just for the >> now and into the future? >> Oh, it is into the future. Okay. And then my last question was um transportation funding. Do you project that they might be reducing it further the reimbursement or no? My thinking is every time even when the state didn't have any financial issue the last three years has been beautiful financially for the state for a number of reason uh during co the u the um essa money the state got essa money too significant amount of money from the shutdown the economy revved up because

088there was a pent-up demand so there was increase in uh business revenue that the state got increase in taxes is there was a lot of revenue that came. So everything was was doing well. Even with that we went from in 2025 we went from 79% for regular education to 69%. Special education we went from 71% reimbursement to 61%. That's when things were good. So now that things are challenged, I anticipate that it will be proration in in in order to be able to to try to stick as much as possible to funding EBF. >> Well, it kind of feels like they increased the EBF, but then cut the transportation to kind of balance that up. >> They actually didn't they didn't increase EBF. EBF has been in in place since 2017. >> No, no, but

089they were talking about not increasing not giving any new funding to the EBF >> and they haven't. >> Well, but no, they they they gave the 300 million, >> right? Which is what they promised. >> The baseline. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's a baseline. They promised even when they had more money, they didn't say, "Oh, we're going to increase it." They they just made the the fact of the matter is the state of Illinois got significant budget problem. I mean really and um if you look at I that was one of the reasons why I included in the memo the rainy day fund that was set up that was only set up a few years ago. Even that rainy day fund even though it sounds like it's a lot of money is only going

090to last us 15 days >> in the case of a rainy day. So, it's got to be not even really rain. It's going to be a spittle if it's only going to last us 15 days. So, >> I'm I'm good now. >> Oh, yeah. >> I don't mean to get in the weed. >> No, it's important. >> That's fine. >> This is the time. Anybody else? >> No. >> Okay. Okay. So the there's a memo that I also shared that normally the monthly uh budget memo that shows how we looking revenue compared to the same time last year and if you saw the revenue there was a decrease and I I suspect that's in local fund that's got to do with the fees that we are not getting from >> okay >> and then uh

091the fund balance this is all November because we were in the board meeting in December was so early. We didn't get our bank statements from the bank to be able to provide the financial. So, this is on end of November. I just want to point that out. As of the end of November, we had about $119 million in fund balance. And right behind that, we have uh investment statement at that at the end of November, we had about close to $93 million invested in the bank. And then if you look at the next uh sets of data, it's comparing where we were at the end of November uh 25 to where we were at the end of November 24th as far as expenditure and revenue. And what I will say is we're tracking pretty close

092if you look at the revenue historical trend total revenue uh 23.75 and um we are lower right because of those things that I said one key factor is the last three years we had deserves God and uh we also uh we went from tier one to tier two so that impacts us and so and And if you look at the uh the local funds, the local revenue, which you know, property taxes, we're doing fine. It's the the local contributions from fees that is that is impacted us. And if you also look at the uh the state revenue here is the same thing I just mentioned. EBF is lower this year than it was last year. And on the expenditure side, we actually doing pretty good. historical trend uh we will have been at 35.8% of

093the budgeted amount by the end of November we only at 31.45 so we are doing the best we can to watch how we're spending money uh even in salaries we're lower than what the historical trend has been even in all objects we would have been at 43.6 six. We only at 30.36. We are doing everything we can to manage our money, to manage your wealth. >> All right, Mr. Um Oh, go ahead. >> I just had a question. I was just thinking um about the the fees that we're not getting. Do we know if um other districts are having the same issue and if they have any tips or tricks that we might use in regards uh to that? The answer is yes and yes. >> Okay, good. >> So what a lot of districts

094are doing is they um they've actually resorted to collection. >> They hire collection agency because the law does not forbid you from doing that and they they employ the service of a collection agency to go out and try to get the money. That's >> And are they generally >> paid by what they recover? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> So the other memo I wanted to share it relates to what we talked about a little earlier. CPI the CPI for uh for November was actually um an increase by 20 basis point. So for the 12 months uh it's uh 2.7. More likely than not, I'm forecasting that the CPI for December that we will use for um the 2020 six levy is probably going to be closer 2.7 2.8 Mr. Obi, I'd like to could

095we have a because we have the student assignment presentation >> and I know we'll be back to finances next president board if it's okay I'd like us to to move and then if there's additional questions we can just but I want to just thank you for being so thorough. is very timely and relevant to everything we're doing and I want to thank you and your team and I also want to thank really the the district community for its attention to fiscal responsibility which is what's yielding the the report he gave tonight. So I want to thank everybody for >> Thank you sir. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay let's see what number are we on? 10.2 two student assignment proposal. >> I'm assuming that's Dr. King. >> Yeah. >> So, I will definitely uh

096kick us off. Um what I would like to do though is recognize and honor some people that we have with us tonight. Um we have spent many hours, days, weekends, nights, um pouring over data, maps, um feedback. Uh really first would like to thank our community for coming out. We had several sessions in December um at OS. We also had um specific meetings of our impacted neighborhoods um also uh and really had some great turnout, some good dialogue and conversations. Um our task force uh was a wide kind of cross-section including parents, teachers, staff, um admin and both at the district and building level. But here with us tonight, and very soon you'll see why, we have um Jill Decker from Southbury, Sean Smith from Grand Park, Kelly Merritts from Churchill, Courtney Russell from Wolves

097Crossing, Jeff Raldi from Foxchase, Laura Bingham from Murphy, Brian Hessik from Plank, Jennifer Prior from Benarik, Margie Hardigan from Asiggo East, John Francis from our district office, Jeremy L also from our district, Teresa Kamidus from our district office and also serving on our task force was our board president Dominic Cerrone. So, so with that um one of the first tasks of our task force uh was really what are our priorities as we look at potentially looking um at changing our student assignment. Um so yes uh student assignment is essentially where are students attending school. So we really wanted to make sure um working in partnership with RSP um that is our company that we work with that does our um not only our student enrollment projections but then also our building capacity analysis. Um they

098were here and presented to us in October and has been an ongoing partnership um throughout meeting with our team and our task force. um monthly. So looking at that data um for this first uh phase of student assignment movement, we really wanted to minimize um in phase two, but as you'll hear on our next slide, we wanted to take a phased approach tackling what was our greatest need at this time, but really making decisions based on their students proximity to potentially a new home school. So last year we talked about the realignment of our specialized programs um both special education and English learners. Um we focused on our um stars program establishing hubs. Um we have made some movement in our SEI programming. Um but then also uh started a new third site for our

099dual language at Wils Crossing. In phase two, we really looked at our student enrollment. So, what is that new growth, especially along Wils Crossing? As we got deeper into our analysis, um focusing on two schools impacted uh the most, both Southbury and Graham Park. Um, we will also be talking, as we've heard earlier today, about a recommendation really tied to transportation efficiency. So, that really encompasses um the recommendations you will hear from our task force today. Um, and again, really trying to limit the specialized program movement. The reason why we're going into a phased approach is because while we recognize uh the differences amongst our junior high enrollments from Ben Narsk around 500 to Troberg just over a thousand um in order to um impact the student assignment boundaries of Troberg it is a much

100larger impacting both elementary junior high and high school. Um, we also identified through the work of the task force, there are a few geographical areas um around our district that we might want to consider uh student assignment changes that again would require um additional uh changes above and beyond what we're looking at at phase 2. So the team is committed to a uh phase three and phase four looking essentially across the district both elementary, junior high and high school. So we first started in where was the new growth um in working with RSP there is new growth projections both happening now. So the areas in green is current uh new construction. the areas in yellow um over the next potential five years. And then purple based on um growth, development, and um partnership with our

101local communities, potential growth over the next 10 years. Um, as we talked about before, all of three schools that we currently have are in uh the top third geographically of our district with Hunt Club, Murphy, and Graham Park resting in the middle third. But as you can see, most of our growth is in that middle to bottom third. Right now, Southbury um so you can see in green is seeing the most impact in terms of new student enrollment um on a weekly sometimes daily basis. Um but very soon we will see an increase potentially um at both Graham Park and uh Hunt Club. So even with this projected growth um RSP is projecting that we will still have sufficient room across our district in district capacity. Um it's just a matter of do we have

102projections um in the right areas of which we would have room in our corresponding schools. So even when we look at every level being elementary, junior high, and high school, we do project over the next five years having sufficient seats across the district. So looking at phase two, um, as some of our priorities, we wanted to look at our feeder patterns. Currently, Southbury is our only elementary that does split to two different junior highs with a majority of the students um moving to Troberg, but some of the students and we will hear about that area tonight um moving to Murphy. So, the focus of our phase 2 recommendations are at South Perry and Graham Park. So I know this is a lot of data but this is something that we um have looked at quite

103extensively over our time. Um this is our current enrollment and projected enrollment. Um, so as I mentioned, RSP did reook at our functional capacity because of part of phase one. We did have some movement of our specialized programs and when we move our specialized programs, we do see changes in our functional capacity um just because of the need for additional rooms with some of our specialized programs. Um we have been looking at our enrollment because we have seen some increase in enrollment um across some of our elementaryaries um from our projections last year and then we do have projections from RSP. Um as you can see uh right now Southberry is projected to be over 100% capacity. They are the school that is highlighted wrong button. >> [snorts] >> I seem to be going backward.

104There we go. Um I apologize. Um Southberry highlighted in orange. Um while they are growing um in terms of over the next uh two years, they are projected to be over capacity. um Grand Park um while not projected to be over 100% capacity, still at um the mid to high 90% in capacity. So when we take a look at our current class sizes from Grand Park and Southbury, um a majority of our class sizes are in that uh mid to high 20% while the schools that we are looking at um for our recommendations, Wolves Crossing and Churchill are primarily in that low uh 20 per 20 students per section. So as a committee what we did was we kind of talked about what happened you know when deciding to make our recommendations. What do we

105have to consider when our schools are at or exceeding capacity and everybody kind of came to the same conclusion? This is not an ideal educational environment. We have to start making decisions that impact our educational not only space but environment. And then also the delivery of our education where sometimes we have to move our specials. Um while we already see some challenges especially um because some of our elementaryaries have what we have lovingly called cappatoriums in which we have uh schools where they have shared space with the cafeteria and the gym. So during that middle part of the day, we're already trying to drop curtains, drop walls, and schedule PE and lunch at the same time. So, um, some of our schools that are here tonight are already seeing challenges. As student population grows and

106sections grow, we have even more scheduling challenges. um to the [clears throat] point where if we do not make any changes, you saw South Berry's enrollment projecting over 900, we would have no choice um but to exceed the actual square footage of our building and approach some potential mobile units. So, in partnership with RSP, um what we are recommending in phase two are the following five recommendations. Our first recommendation is Auburn Lakes, which sits um to the east of Route 30 between 111th and 119th. Um they historically have gone to Wolf's Crossing um in a previous student assignment move. They were moved to Grand Park. So the recommendation based on the proximity to Wolves Crossing, so um circled in red is Auburn Lakes. The arrow is uh pointing to the campus of Wols Crossing and

107Benik. The recommendation for elementary proposal number one is to move Auburn Lakes from Grand Park to Wolves Crossing. Elementary proposal number two um in red which we consider um in our work zone 4 because as we've talked about in previous meetings we were looking at multiple zones along Wils Crossing. Um, zone 4 though, to the north is Wol's Crossing, to the west is Harvey, to the south is 111th, and to the east is Route 30. It includes both Hudson Point and Evelyn Bosiggo um off of Wils Crossing. The recommendation is they currently attend Southbury. Um so it would be to move from Southbury to Churchill which geographically proximity-wise is about half the distance from um that area of zone 4. So from Church Hill to um I'm sorry from Southbury to Churchill. >> Can you

108repeat that it can you repeat that one more time? Is the distance so the students are traveling half the distance with this proposal? >> Correct. Okay. Correct. So currently, in order to get from zone 4 to their current attendance elementary, which is Southberry, they in fact drive past South uh Churchill to get to South. >> So that's where we might see some transportation efficiencies as well. >> We would definitely see some routes will be uh essentially cut in half time-wise. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And you know, one of the questions that came up is why not go to Wils Crossing and Ben Arctic? And I think that's part of uh phase three and phase four considerations. So that makes it uh because there's some crazy things where Homestead's going to Grand or Murphy and you

109know things like that. So looking at this map um right here the orange that you see the sherbet color this is currently the South Berry's boundary which of course extends even further off um the map. Um so as Mr. Cirrone just said there is additional considerations um as we watch the growth and development along Wils Crossing um that we would be looking at. Also um this purplish color right here is currently the boundary of Grand Park. So um the recommendation again is to move zone 4 from Southberry to Churchill. Our third elementary proposal is um what we have considered uh Orchard East. So it includes Redwood Asiggo. Um so this is a boundary of um Orchard Road on the west, route 30 on the south. Um 34. Thank you. I appreciate it. you. [clears throat]

110Um um and then uh the northern boundary is Mill. Um so Redwood Asiggo uh resides within this boundary. They currently travel to Hunt Club which is further south. Um they would instead um go to Fox Chase which geographically is much closer to this area. So this is um a transportation efficiency um in terms of the distance traveled to elementary. Dr. King, can they um walk? Can those be walkers to Fox Chase? [snorts] So I believe Crossing Mill is considered a hazardous crossing. >> Mr. Raldi says no. >> But I So Mr. Raldi is telling me no. So thank you, Mr. Um, but the route would be much much >> shorter. All of our students on the south on the other side of Mill get bus over to Fox Chase. >> There's a crossing >> right

111by the Okay. So, it's just that they're farther down mill probably. >> Maybe there's not sidewalks or >> there's a connection >> cuz I live there. >> A little bit more. So all that other yellow that that's all Hunt Club. >> Yeah. >> It's kind of >> Oh, yeah. This is so much closer than Hunt Club. >> Well, yeah. So, >> looking I was wondering if they could walk >> looking at this map. So, um this yellow right here is Hunt Club. Hunt Club's boundary extends from 30 all the way down south of Kaitton Farm. So, Hunt Club Elementary is um one of the most uh geographically um expansive uh areas. So, that will be something that we will need to look at as we see um growth, you know, along the Collins corridor and

112um uh you know, 111th, 119th, 127th, 135th um along for Grant Park. So um yes, we we are quite aware. Um we did look at Orchard West um but then we decided that would need to be re-examined in phase three. So those are our three elementary proposals. Um moving on to junior high. um aligned with elementary. Thinking about our uh elementary to junior high to high school um current alignment. Um our recommendation as Auburn Lakes moves uh elementaryaries from Graham Park to Wolves Crossing. The recommendation would be to parallel and move Auburn Lakes from Murphy to Benarik so that feeder system would stay consistent. All of our recommendations tonight, both our elementary and junior high, there is no impact to high schools currently. So, there will be no changes. All of these areas that we're

113discussing tonight are all aligned to the same high school um at the beginning and at the end of our presentation. The second uh junior high proposal coming from our task force again aligned to our elementary proposal number two is zone 4. Um, so it would be recommending zone 4 to move from Murphy to Plank, which also is much uh closer, similar to um the movement from Southbury to Churchill. >> That keeps their pattern the same. >> Correct. Correct. So that was something that was uh prioritized. So um by moving the elementary and junior high, it keeps um the pattern consistent. It does then also decrease some of the uh split pattern from South Berry. It does not remove all of it, but it does decrease that percentage of uh split. So for this evening, those

114are our five proposals, three J uh three elementary and two junior high. Um so what that would do then is it would stretch out the time that we have um with Southbury. Um while you still see uh Southbury um growing because there is growth still happening along Wils Crossing um we do not exceed uh capacity at Southbury now until year five. So you will see more recommendations for Southbury in phase three and phase 4. Uh we are not done with the recommendations. All phase 2 has done is kind of give us some breathing room uh for Southbury. Um but the recommendations do not put any other school um over capacity and it does bring Graham Park down out of that high um 90% capacity. Um we will need to continue to watch the Grand Park

115and Hunt Club area as potential new growth comes. Um but that's part of the phase approach looking at phase three and phase 4. So, in terms of the impact on junior high, it brings the population of the three junior highs that we've been talking about, Grand Park, Murphy, and Plank all um definitely nowhere near our 90 to 100% capacity, but it does rebalance um some of the student enrollment at those three junior highs. As I mentioned, it does not impact Troberg. So that will be one of our focus as we watch the growth to look at TRA for phase three. So in terms of our students that are impacted um by this um we did look at students currently um enrolled geographically at Graham Park. Now, as we know, not everybody that lives in the

116geographical area attends that school because of special programs. They could attend a different school because of dual language or a specialized program. Um, but the students that are currently attending Graham Park that would then be reassigned to Wols Crossing um in kindergarten through fourth grade are 66 of them. students that live geographically in Southbury, currently attending Southbury, which then um would be reassigned to Churchill are 63. And of our third recommendation, um students currently um we have students living in the Hunt Club area that would be reassigned to Fox Chase is five. Can I on this slide were we able to contact those those that small amount of families? >> So we have are actually uh principal Stoers has already contacted um by phone um all of those families. So she uh called and reached

117out to them last week. So um those five families are um uh aware of the proposal and the recommendation. So in terms of the other families, they were personally invited to our sessions um >> preceding the recommendation and then pending the approval of this proposal. We will reach out um with the information again and some more information that Mr. Bell will share in terms of some flexibility for next year um in a few minutes. Um but yes, we have been reaching out um either via email, mail um when we sent out the invitations, we both emailed and mailed information. We will continue to do that um to be able to reach families in a multitude of ways. So there were like uh general sessions open to anybody in the public basically meant for anybody in

118the public and then there were those those individual for there were one for each group um you know of students that were moving um >> I don't remember the the group that's moving to Wolves Crossing is um >> that's Auburn >> that was that was well attended. Yes. >> Um the other one was pretty well attended as well. So it would probably represented a decent percentage of of parents there. I heard a lot of the concerns. Um I mean when it was all said and done it felt like uh you know everybody kind of understood um that there's some value as well as you know >> it's going to be hard for their students and we need to make sure that we're taking care of them. >> It's never easy. It's never an easy change.

119I also note too these are individual students and so the the the number of families affected is probably less than that considering you might have like a first grader and a fourth grader or something like that. >> Yes. Yes. And and while it is never easy, um that really was demonstrated by the care and attention of our building admins about what are some of the recommendations to help ease that trans transition. Um which we'll talk about in a few minutes also. But just the ideas that were shared not only by our building admin but then also by the parents and um by the end of the session really the formation of partnership between parents that would potentially be impacted and our building leaders um I think was some of the special opportunities during that really

120targeted uh session that was unique to both Auburn Lakes and um Elba Masiggo and Hudson boy. So I think we'll continue to see that partnership um if we move forward with that proposal. So, in terms of our junior high, um, geographically, uh, we have, uh, students that currently attend Murphy and then in terms of the ones that would be impacted by the change, about 31 students would then attend Benedict and 31 students um, attending Blink. So, moving to our transfer recommendations. At this point, I'm going to turn the presentation over to Mr. Bell uh to talk about some transfer request options. >> So, we've talked uh at length with our targeted groups and through our community engagement events, with our steering committee and our building admin about how to support some of those hardest hit

121uh students. These as we would like to think are our current rising eth graders. So your seventh graders right that have been attending the school for the ent for the uh entirety of their junior high career. So those rising eighth graders and then same with our rising fifth graders maybe those kids that have attended with us since they've been in kinder at that same building. And at the recommendation and the feedback we were able to kind of uh consider what that would look like. Uh so we have developed uh what's called a student assignment transfer request. This is for uh a one-year only for those individual students that are impacted that are rising eighth graders or rising fifth graders. We do currently have an attendance transfer request process. We do offer attendance attendance exemptions for

122many reasons. Um there could be uh court proceedings. There could be uh you know some some daycare things. There could be some uh any number of parenting agreements. Any number of things that may uh provide us the need to offer an attendance exemption. In this case, this would be considered an attendance exemption because that family or that student would not be residing in that school's designated boundary. Um but we were really wanted to tailor this to those rising eighth graders and those rising fifth graders. And so that student attendance transfer request would be open to those students. Um we would look for that to open at the uh conclusion of this proposal if it was approved for those students and then we would close that pretty quickly so that we could make sure that those

123students get slotted in those necessary sections. Transportation for that student assign student assignment transfer request would not be provided because it would be very difficult to route kids from one subdivision to two different school locations and it would uh kind of negate that transportation efficiency um and and those things that we would be looking for. Moving [snorts] uh forward one slide you can see I identified an attendance transfer request as an attendance exemption that already exists. We do this also for students ma maybe that attend a specialized program and have a sibling in a in a different school. So, if I have a student that is a special education student, um, and I have a third grader and a second grader, and my third grader attends STARS or Skills or another type of specialized program

124that is not their home school, and I want both of my children to attend together, that attendance transfer uh, request could be applied for that sibling who is not in the specialized program, and we would honor that request. In this example, because we have a a student assignment transfer request for those rising eighth graders or those rising fifth graders, if they have a sibling that may be [clears throat] in third grade, maybe in second grade, maybe even in kindergarten, we would want to allow those siblings to potentially stay in school together for that one more year while that older sibling was attending either in eighth grade or fifth grade. We would then ask for that family to complete that attendance transfer request as we would for any family, right? They may have a sibling that

125they were looking for them to stay together. And then we would uh process those uh in kind attendance transfer requests as they currently sit do not honor any transportation. So transportation is not provided. District transportation is not provided to any student with an attendance exemption. So, SATR, ATR, yes, we may look to approve those based on those criterion, but transportation would not be provided. In our breakout sessions or in our community engagement uh sessions, we were able to kind of put a scenario up here because people like to hear things in multiple different ways, right? And so, one of that examp one of those examples looks like if I have two students, one sibling A and one sibling B. One is currently entering fifth grade. So, they're going to be a rising fifth grade student

126and the second one is a rising third grade student. And I want my fifth grade student to stay at Grand Park. Option one, stay at Grand Park or fifth grade. I would need to complete that SATR, that student assignment transfer request form. Transportation would not be provided, but we would honor that rising fifth grader remaining at Grand Park next year. Likewise, then that sibling who is a rising third grader who we as a family I want to keep my third and my fifth grader together. That third grader would need to complete that attendance transfer request form. Again, transportation would not be provided, but if approved, we would allow that third grader to stay with their sibling for fifth grade. That following year, then that third grader, which would then become a rising fourth grader, would

127need to move to that new school location. So, this is kind of that annual one-year uh opportunity for them because obviously if that fifth grader next year moves on, there is no sibling that would allow that ATR to continue. So, parents have an option for that younger sibling to adjust to a new school next year or to wait one more year and then look to try and transition and adjust to that new school. But, we would keep the siblings together for those rising eighth graders and rising fifth graders. If you elected to say, "Nope, I don't want to do any of that. I want my fifth grader to move to Wils Crossing and I want my third grader to move to Wils Crossing. Transportation would be provided as we would for any typical student within

128that attendance zone. So as we mentioned before um really through the support of the people that we have here today um we have been already talking about how do we provide additional um support for both our students and our families through the transition. Um so not only communication following potential approval um but looking at cohorts of students um different transition activities both from elementary to to junior high but then also within elementary and junior high. Um opening the doors. Um some great uh examples even from the parents were you know potential pen pals or um from our building you know swag bags just to to start kick you know kickstart um the uh connection that they feel with their new school. Um so one of the commitments that we wanted to make as a task

129force is these two areas um both Auburn Lakes and zone 4, we would not be moving them again in phase three or phase 4. So any area included in phase 2 would not move again. Um so as you saw from the very beginning, we're looking at um a student assignment transition taking a few years really to be able to monitor the growth um but then to realign based on that growth. Uh so looking at our next steps, as Mr. Bell mentioned, we have some uh pretty quick turnaround timelines for these um assignment transfer requests. And the reason why is because we launch new student enrollment um in February. And in February, we're finalizing um both at the district level and at the building level staffing for next year. So, we want to make sure that

130we have good communication to any new family starting in our district about what school that they're attending and that we're also staffing our buildings according to where our students will be attending. Um, so as you see, we're here tonight uh just to prevent the information and recommendation from the task force and then we would be uh looking for action on the 26th on our five proposals so that we can then launch our student assignment transfer request to then provide our information to our buildings in regards to um the decision of our families either to uh submit the trans a student assignment transfer request or to transfer to the new recommended building. Um at that point we would then start our transition activities uh directly with our students, staff and families. >> The [clears throat] that

131is a tight timeline from the 26th. So the 27 they have 27, 28, 29th, 30th and so they would have about a month. So the student assignment transfer request would be due at the end of February. If we approve it at the end of January, then it launches right away. >> Yep. So, we would be >> Yep. We would >> go back to that. I saw something about 131. >> So, we would be seeking approval on the 26th. Yeah. >> Then we would be opening the transfer the student assignment transfer request form on the 31st of January and then it would be due on the 27th of February. So parents will have a couple weeks to receive Teresa's department. We'll be sending out um directly to impacted families. >> So if they're enrolled by the

13231st, which is >> correct. Correct. So and the reason um why is we didn't necessarily want someone who would enroll in April to then try to transfer back. We just wanted to be very clear about who the student assignment transfer request process would be open to. A month is a lot of time. Just needs to be robust and >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> So, and as we've mentioned, we are looking at a four-phase process. Um, really the recommendation for today came through the the dedication from the people we have here tonight and uh that joined our team. Phase three and phase four, we're hoping everyone will come back and join us again. Uh but phase three and phase four, we're going to need even more parents, staff, and leaders. Uh because we will be looking,

133while we did focus on a kind of center uh location in our district, phase three and phase four, we will need representatives from our parents, our staff, and our leaders across our district at every building. So with >> Dr. Kate, I mean, I I really want to thank you for the thoroughess of this process. I think you brought a tremendous amount of both the details but also the humanization of that. So we want to thank you for that. I I wonder if it would be possible to invite one of our colleagues uh principal colleagues to speak to a little bit of a what you noticed in the process just the complexity of that. So not to uh put you on the spot but I'm putting you on the spot just I think if you could

134speak to a little bit what you saw going from a lot of big data which we know RSP was very good at giving us and navigating that. I think the Okay, Brian. [laughter] >> So, just I think it'll be important for the the board, but also the the public to hear what you saw in terms of the ability to take really a lot of information and really dissect that. >> Well, first of all, thank you. Uh thank you for my teammates behind me. I mean, we spent a lot of time together. Um and we just start off just looking at the data, the big picture uh and broke it down into where we are today. like what what can we focus on right now to make this transition easier for our community? Um we saw

135a lot of numbers, a lot of maps like Dr. Cade said. Um it it's just a lot of work and just being at those community meetings and just hearing the concerns of what the families wanted and and needed is what we brought back to our team and we had discussions three four times a month at least uh mornings, evenings um and we really want to take our families in consideration how we can make this transition um you know good for them and we know it has to be done. I think that's the one thing that we said as a team. We know it has to be done. How can we do this in in phases? Um and it's just the community was great just kind of supporting us and coming out asking the questions what

136can we do to support them and um you know I'm looking forward to that. >> Thank you. >> There there was a lot of challenging. >> There was a lot of good discussion. I don't think it was challenging. >> Do we really need to do that? Do we like Yeah. I mean um >> we start off looking at the big picture and we broke it down to what do we need to do right now um you know coming up in the next school year and then we can focus in on what do we do moving forward. So, I think we did a great job to kind of get us in this spot and we have a lot of work ahead of us and um you know, we're looking forward to it. >> Thank you. It

137>> was very appropriate. >> It was. Yeah. >> Does any do you have any questions or things that you want to, you know, maybe share with us from your perspective? From what I've heard, I've definitely see like a lot of like benefits to especially with transportation because uh even though I didn't grow up here in this district, at my old district at district 204, there was a lot of um difficulty in transportation cuz our school because there was much of the population that was like multiplying every single year. We had to like split our gym into classrooms and it was really difficult for like us to focus. And I remember like having lunch one day and like a ball was thrown in my head and I was like what is going on here kind of

138learning English. >> Was the gym carpet too? The cafeteria was the carpet. >> No, it wasn't even carpeted. So it was like I don't know who approved that decision at all. But I just remember being like this is going so off. [laughter] Um, but no, I definitely realized with transportation cuz I did take the bus for like majority of my youth in elementary through middle school and then moving to junior high, it was definitely difficult and I give a lot of grace to our bus drivers because they have to handle a lot. So definitely with this new plan and like seeing like all the new boundaries, I had no idea how like one school's close to the other. Um, I do see a lot of benefits with this though. I don't really see anything negative

139coming out and obviously like appreciation to all the team that also came here and is looking out for their students. Um yeah, this looks like an amazing idea. I was really impressed with all the data as well even though I was trying to like go back and see the numbers but Dr. K, you did a beautiful job with this including with your team. So thank you so much. >> What do you So sounds like what I'm hearing from you is you want you know like our kids to have class and uh >> Yes. and not get hit by balls while they're >> as far as you know as far as another priority would be just the limited time on the bus, right? So, which would essentially mean more efficiency in transportation. >> Um, so it

140solves a few different problems if you can do all of that. >> This definitely outweighs more of like the negatives that I've seen in previous years for sure cuz even when I was taking the bus maybe my freshman year like cuz there was like a shortage on shortage of buses. I remember we would have to cram like three, four kids in a seat, which was >> kind of impossible. >> That's That's not always not That's still happens sometimes. >> Sometimes, but I know everyone tries their best in the end of the day. >> Yeah. So, yeah, hopefully this would help alleviate that a little bit, but then phase three, that would be the bigger >> thing. So, thank you. I wanted to hear you because I knew you'd have something. >> Yeah, I was definitely

141thinking about this while everything was going on, but I see a lot of benefits to this. It's really impressive. >> There was definitely um a wide variety of ideas brought to the table. As kind of uh Mr. Hess alluded to. Um there are already ideas and suggestions for phase three and phase four, but as he mentioned, we really wanted to what was essential now to start the process. Um, so we we know that there are other areas that we could be more efficient ideally with transportation and um we well looking forward to maybe isn't the right phrase. Um we we are looking forward to phase three and phase four just for some realignment um to hopefully better the experience across the district. >> Yeah. And it'll be necessary. Trevor is ridiculous the number of students

142there. >> Trevor came up at every meeting. Um but yes, we we are well aware. Um so it's just we're we're going to have to impact even more buildings um than we currently are. In order to to do that, we're going to potentially have to look at our high school boundaries. So >> any questions from the boards? >> Um phase three realignment beginning 2728. That would be for the changes to start 2728. So that work's going to start. >> So um so the work will Yes. Um I promised a a month or so off and then got it. >> Um we will start uh back into that. So um >> All right. >> So >> thank you. I thought this was very thoughtful and easy to follow and appreciate it. >> Yeah. I just want

143to say thank you for the work you did, Dr. Concade. I know you've been like eating and sleeping and breathing this for months. Um, and like the building admin and everyone in the district team that contributed, I know like I appreciate the phased approach. I appreciate you minimizing the impact broadly as much as possible and not to diminish the impact on those 130 140 kids, but um I really appreciate the care that you all took. And for those families that are moving, I appreciate the attempt at the gentle handoff. Thank you. Randy, Mary Joe, >> I would just echo. >> What's that? >> I would just echo everybody else's sentiment. >> Okay. >> I uh I really appreciate the priority to uh commit to not moving these students again. I think that's been a problem

144we've had over the years and I like to see that not happening anymore. >> Yeah, that that came up quite a few times. and um but from the parents um how do we know how do we know it's like that was a a huge priority I don't even know how else to say it so >> well and I >> and mathematically it's makes sense too >> right and that is what really guided the recommendation um we really did try to start um while especially for Southberry we looked at uh four different zones along Wils crossing we started at the furthest east uh possible so even if there is some increased um growth. The currently the potential increased growth by Southbury is closer to the east and to the south and Graham Park it's to the

145south. Um so we wanted to make sure even with additional growth we wouldn't be moving those recommended areas again. So that's why we started geographically. Not only was it closer to Wolves Crossing and Church Hill, but then it was in an area of the district where in three years we felt as a as a committee that we would be making the same recommendation geographically. >> All right. Well, I think we're probably going to stay with you, Dr. Concade. Um 10.3 policy first read section seven. >> So, I am going to turn 10.3 back to Mr. who will be talking about. >> Well, thank you everybody. >> Thanks everybody. Have a great night. >> I think they owe you Brian. >> Thank you, >> Mr. B. So, uh item 10.3 um we have brought several policies

146forward for first read. Um, this one was an exception because of uh many uh many things that go into this. Our current board policy 7 colon 150 is titled agency and police interviews and uh legislative changes as well as ISB press plus policy um recommendations for updating this um are listed uh in the board docs here. Um this is a complete rewrite, a suggested complete rewrite from uh IASB and press. Um it is set to include legislative changes that are scheduled to take effect July 1. And although this may be uh you may feel that this is an implication directly related to immigration enforcement, this has much more of a broader context. Put it in perspective when we talk about agency or law enforcement interviews. This could include a variety of folks. Could include Lutheran

147Social Services, DCFS, um any number of outside agencies or municipalities that are seeking to interview staff and students in our spaces. Correct. And so we currently have process and procedure um in place for when an agency is seeking to interview um a student or a law enforcement partner seeking to interview a student. um and uh those administrative procedures are already rolled out. This is going to force us to increase right the capacity of learning for our staff and for our building admin because there are nuances to some of these things when we talk about immigration enforcement or federal agency enforcement and when that that may be a request to interview students. That's one aspect. We've rolled out administrative procedures for immigration and those types of agencies when they show up at our door. We have

148law enforcement and as I said DCFS and some other different types of agencies, but this is going to allow us to build to build more robust structures um in order to do that. And what it does is it really protects the privacy of kids. It protects the privacy of our families while still maintaining a working and cooperative relationship with our law enforcement partners or our outside agencies. And so, uh, the complete rewrite in here, um, does allow for some notes that you can see as to why press has made some of these changes. It does give some local authority to the board to omit some of these different um, enumerated pieces in this proposed change. Um we had a lengthy conversation at policy committee um over this uh particular um rewrite um and with an

149with an option to not necessarily change anything that was being suggested. And then I was able to provide kind of a draft administrative procedure for what that would look like in practice for our administrators as well as some exhibits of like this is exactly what a form would look like. not just an itemized you have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this, but what would a form look like where an officer is signing off, a building administrator is signing off, a district a supervisor is signing off. And so we kind of walk through some of those nuances to what that would look like. It won't vastly change our practice because I will tell you, we have worked very closely with our law enforcement partners and our outside agencies that

150when they show up at our door, I've had many a difficult conversation with the DCFS supervisor or caseworker. um or even um our our top officials in some of our municipalities and our agencies. Um they are very clear as to what we're not going to honor. We're not going to honor you coming in and serving a warrant and doing some of those other things without the proper um documentation. But even if we do have DCFS show up that is looking to engage in an interview with a student, we try to be as uh as non-disruptive as possible. Can we do those interviews at the end of the day? What does that look like for that student integrating back in once they've sat with an individual that is a complete stranger to them? How do we

151support them with our administrators or our social workers in those spaces? And it's really about minimizing that disruption and still allowing that agency to get that information because we want that student to ultimately be safe when they leave our doors. So, a lot of time and energy um kind of processing through this and looking at what that looks like, developing some protocols and procedures and itemizing that for staff and for our leaders and then putting some exhibits in for some documentation for us. Um I don't know if if I Mary Joe, Amy, Erica, you guys were there too to also kind of work through some of this. So, I would honor any of anything I may have missed for you to jump in. I think I I don't think I have anything additional. I think

152um you know as a pol as the policy committee I think we really um took especially this policy to heart considering you know the state of affairs sometimes and access students who gets in where and things like that and so I thought it was a good conversation but I don't have anything additional to add. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. The last thing I would say is we're continuing to um even with policy changes, administrative procedures, and exhibits that come out, put this in front of our building leaders because they're the ones that are impacted and then go further to say put it in front of our front office staff because they are often [clears throat] the front lines. And so we want to make sure they have clear understanding of our protocols and procedures

153and understand what needs to happen, how to remain cordial, how to remain comfortable even if someone's escalated or maybe unwelcome in our spaces. Um and so those are th those are the things that will continue through the course of second semester as this comes online then for July and then any new staff we have um kind of onboarding new leaders, new front office staff, onboarding them as the onset of the next school year. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Moving to action items 11 uh 11.1 Approval of B uh bills for payment. Can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of $3,569,955 and no cents as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Okay. >> Mr. Cerrone, >> I >> Miss C. I >>

154Dr. Martin, I >> Miss Wmouth, I >> Dr. Mario, I >> Miss Robinson, >> I Dr. Pock, >> I. >> Motion passes 70 11.2 action item. Uh, approval of health life safety survey for elementary schools. Can I have a motion, please? I make a motion to approve the health life safety survey for elementary schools as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Okay. >> Dr. Pock. >> I. >> Miss Robinson. >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth. >> I. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Dr. Mario. >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Mr. Cerone. >> I. Motion. Motion passes 70. 11.3. Action item approval of Chromebook collection refresh. Can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to approve the Chromebook collection refresh plan as discussed and presented. >> Second. >>

155Any discussion? >> Dr. Mario. >> I. >> Miss Robinson. >> I. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Miss Wmmouth. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I. >> Dr. Pock. >> Hi. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Motion passes 70. Action item 11.4. Approval of decommission devices RFP. Um, can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to approve and award the decommission devices RFP contract to Cornerstone Technologies as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Miss Wmmouth. >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I. >> Miss Robinson. >> I. >> Dr. Pock. >> Hi. >> Dr. Mario. >> Hi. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. Motion passes 70. Action item 11.5, approval of security window film RFP. Can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion

156to approve and award the security window film RFP contract to Tint Nerds LLC as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Okay. >> Mr. Cerrone, >> I. >> Miss Robinson, >> I. >> Dr. Martin, >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Dr. Mario. I >> Miss Wmouth. >> I Dr. Pock. >> Hi. >> Motion passes 70. I can tell Mary Joe was >> got a kick out of that name. >> You can't turn down. >> She liked saying it. [laughter] >> Action item 11.6 uh board policies for second read and approval. Can I have a motion, please? >> Here's what I really like. Uh I make a motion to approve board policies section 7 students 770 71 180 71 190 7 col 290 7 310 7 315 7 340 and section 8

157community relations 830 as discussed and presented second >> any discussion >> okay >> Dr. Martin >> I miss >> I >> Mr. Mr. Cerone >> I >> Miss Robinson >> I >> Dr. Pock >> I >> Miss C >> I >> Dr. Mario >> I >> motion passes 70 action item 11.7 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please? >> I make a motion to approve the personnel report as discussed and presented second >> any discussion okay >> Miss I. >> Miss Robinson >> I >> Dr. Mario >> I >> Dr. Martin >> I. >> Mr. Cerone >> I >> Miss C. >> I >> Dr. Pock >> I >> Motion passes 70 12.1 and I have a motion to adjurnn. >> Gosh, let me think about it. I make