SD308 Board of Education Meeting (09/22/2025)

001Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Cerrone >> here. >> Dr. Martin here. >> Dr. Mario >> here. >> Dr. Pak >> here. >> Miss Robinson. >> Miss C here. >> Miss Wenmouth >> here. Let's stand for the pledge. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Well, thank you board. Tonight, we are super excited to welcome a number of our operations staff members here with us this evening. We want to take this opportunity to formally recognize their efforts in responding to the storms that impacted many of our school buildings over the weekend of August 16th and 17th. These staff members went above and beyond their everyday

002responsibilities to make a meaningful impact in the midst of a very challenging situation. We have a certificate for each of these staff members to express our sincere gratitude for their extraordinary time and effort dedicated attending to our school buildings with the utmost of care. Board, I would invite you to come out into the middle here and join us and we will call them up and congratulate them for their efforts. Operations staff, as your name is called, will invite you to come forward and receive your certificate here from Brena and then be recognized by making your way across the line of the board of education and Dr. Kgatti and just kind of hang up there at the end for a minute because we're going to do a photo when we're done. We have a number of

003names. We're going to read them all. If you're here, we ask you to to come forward. If not, just know if you're tuning in later that we sincerely appreciate all of your efforts. So, we'll kick it off with Jay Doris, Gabe Torres, Bill Tiffen, [Applause] Heidi Brackett, Ivan Rodriguez, John Rogan, Amy Plant, [Applause] Aaron Brown, Don Cino, Andre Shanzy, Bill Leman, Joe Michael Lunis, Bob Hodell, Jamie Queen, Rosalio Navarez, Nick Fasinelli, Mike Rubolino, Tim Lindsay, Oralia Hernandez, Joe Bennett, Wana Rev Ravalo, Nick Calibesi, Jose Gagos, Mitch Green, Dean Collins, Mike Roar, Chris Shield, Craig Landorf, and Ava Hernandez de Cruz. Thanks to all of you. Raphael, would you like to come up and join your team for a photo? Okay. [Music] >> Yeah. Next item on our agenda is we're introducing uh our student board

004members and their alternates for this upcoming uh board year. Um thank you for being here. Uh the board of educa of education is pleased to announce the selection of Dewick Mural Mural Litaran, a junior at Asiggo High School. Uh and Kelly Parnell, a senior at Asiggo High School as student board members for the 2526 school year. Um, in addition, the board has selected Joelle Spooky, a senior at Swiggo East High School, and Morg Morgan Esborne, a junior at Swiggo High School, to serve as student board member alternates. uh we look forward to the valuable uh perspectives these outstanding students will bring and we invite the community to join us in welcoming and congratulating them on their appointments. Thank you for being here [Applause] will say that our former student board members and Kelly was here

005last year has had a great impact on our district. um whether you know it or not, you know, um we definitely listen to everything that you have to say. Um and let us know if uh you know if we can improve as well um as a board. Thank you. We're moving uh 6.1 uh superintendent report. All right. Good evening board. Uh this evening I first of all I want to welcome our student uh board members again to the board of education. Uh your role is extremely important as we center the voices of our our students in all that we do. We are an educational enterprise and for those reasons um this is a powerful statement that this district and this particular board of education has led um through the years to continue to center the

006voices of our students. And I and I really want to give a shout out to this board of education of just recognition that when the board of education does this, it sends a message that our students voices matter and they are at the center of everything we do. Tonight we also took a minute to pause and extend our gratitude for the operations team. And really I want to add that for all the other uh members of our district leadership team um school team who were part of this tremendous work of responding and engaging in the cleanup and the recovery of the intense flooding of August 16th and 17th that impacted so many of our buildings. Uh those were countless and uh many times thankless hours it felt and I just want to thank um everybody

007because it was truly all hands- on deck from um educators who had to shift in terms of their practice to go remote in the first couple days of school to uh to e-learning to all the additional changes that happened. So I want to thank them for their leadership. Um it really exemplifies how we unite in times of challenge and ensuring our schools are safe and welcoming learning environments for all students. This is directly correlated to the work happening on our schools board. Um, as you know, we have we are in the first year of our strategic plan and one of the major objectives of our strategic plan is an effective long range facility plan to ensure that our buildings reflect the values and the excellence we believe need to be for our students. Throughout the

008next month, as you heard, we will be supporting interactive school-based engagements. come out and show out and and speak your voice community as part of the final phase of this facility planning process. These are sessions and these are an opportunity for every student, staff and community member, parents to come out and and lend their voice um for the people who use our schools every day to share your voice. We want to know what is working, what challenges you face, and what you hope for in the future. As a way students learn and the tools we continue to evolve, it's important that our buildings keep pace so we can prepare our students in the very best ways possible. I'll take a bird here. Can you imagine if somebody said, "Oh, we want computer labs in every

009one of our schools." Well, we'd say, "Okay, well, that's a little dated. We don't want a computer lab right now." So just as a point of reference, we got to think about how do we prepare our schools to be the schools of the future and this is that time. Um over the last week, we've received numer numerous messages regarding comments and actions in our community. I want to reaffirm, as I did in my communication last week, our district-wide commitment to creating schools where every staff, every student member, every family is treated with dignity, respect, and integrity. This is not aspirational. It's an imperative we must commit to work on. We stand firmly against discrimination, bias, or any harm that undermines belonging and safety in our school. Guided by clear board policies and our district's mission

010and vision, we ensure we address issues directly to ensure accountability and uphold the values that SD308 has through our process and commitment to due process. We are taking action now while building sustainable systems for lasting change. We invite you to be part of this discussion. your perspectives, your ideas and needs, or how we can continue to grow together. Our progress is strongest when it reflects those we serve. Through our story, as reflected in our strategic planning priorities, we are committed to continuing to ensure that every voice shapes our collective future. And with that, I want to welcome board members to add to these superintendent comments in terms of things that we've been celebrating and also opportunities that are coming up in the next month. So, please board members. >> That's me, right? >> Uh we

011are excited to share that the start of the 12th annual SD308 and serve bank food drive for the Kendall County Community Food Pantry will be starting on Wednesday, October 1st. Be on the lookout for additional information. Tomorrow, September 23rd, OHS will host the Panther Marching Band Review. This event will offer the opportunity for several high school marching bands to showcase their halftime performances. Come out to Ken Pickerroll Stadium starting at 4:30 p.m. to support the OS and OEHS marching bands. And I just want to add a couple of comments to it. I've seen both of these bands over the past couple weeks. Um, they are both of our bands are fabulous. you really need to come out and see them. And along that line, if you are coming, they are very short on volunteers for

012tomorrow. So, if you have a couple minutes and have some time to volunteer at that um at that event, please do so. Thank you. >> Our district's deaf and heart of hearing program recently hosted its annual popcorn in the park event. It was a fun and inclusive space for students, families, and staff from across the community to gather and connect. Homecoming week for both OHS and OEHS kicks off next Monday, September 28th, September 29th. Uh we are excited to see and hear about all the fun traditions our students get to take part in. >> The BPAC bilingual parent advisory committee welcome back picnic was a success in partnership with the SD308 multilingual department. BPAC hosted this great opportunity for community members to gather and celebrate 20 years of dual language in our district. We are

013proud of our dual language program and all the students and educators who have been a part of it for the past two decades. SD308 joined with schools and districts across the nation to celebrate AVID day, reflecting on the positive impact that this program has had in the lives of numerous students and their teachers. We are constantly impressed by the skills gained and goals accomplished by our AVID students and we are grateful for the educators who dedicate so much time and energy to helping students succeed. Our pride staff recognition program is currently accepting nominations for employees at Brocaw Elear Learning Center, Boulder Hill Elementary School, Old Post Elementary School, and Asiggo East High School. Nominations can be submitted by students, families, and fellow staff members. Please consider showing your appreciation for staff at one of these

014four schools by nominating them now through September 26th. >> Okay. Uh thank you board for your support and that concludes the superintendent's comments. >> Um item 7.1 the fiscal year 26 budget. >> Thank you Mr. President. It is that time of the year when we have to approve the budget. your mic just a little. >> It is that time of the year when we have to approve the budget for fiscal year even though the fiscal year started on July 1st. And uh as part of the process we had three committee engagement session, two of them in person and one virtual and then the board uh was presented with a tenative budget on August 11. At the time when we presented that, the budget that we presented was showing a deficit of $3.9 million. And since

015then, they had been a significant positive shift in the um in the situation with our budget. a couple of things that we did. We did uh we decide to change our levy strategy, which is that instead of levying what we would have liked to levy in the education fund, when we do our property tax levy, we decide to shift some of that levy to transportation will help that transportation fund which we've had significant problems with transportation fund. And the reason being that over the last uh four or five years, we've lost more money in transportation than we've taken in in revenue. As a matter of fact, when the uh fiscal year for 2025 ended, we actually had to transfer money uh plug the negative balance in the transportation fund. Just to be clear, it's not

016possible to win a fund with a negative balance. And the analogy I would like to use is that of your bank account. It's not possible to have a negative bank account. You have to find the money from somewhere else to plug the difference. >> And what we ended up doing is transferring money from a different fund to be able to make up the difference. So the significant change that we've made additionally to that too, we received we had an an estimate of what we're going to get in corporate property replacement tax. The allocation was not provided to us until after the August 11th presentation. We so we were very conservative as we always uh with revenue projection. We only projected $1.7 million in corporate uh placement replacement fund. At the end of the day when

017uh the state actually gave us our allocation, we received a million $96,000 more than what we had estimated. So, the reduction from fiscal year 25 to 26 came in at only $200,000 instead of the uh close to $1.2 million that we got. So, that was helpful. That helped us to be able to fill in the gap, too. And additionally, we received some funding from the federal government, most slightly more than what we had anticipated that help. But the critical things are the increase in allocation of corporate property replacement tax as well as the adjustment in our levy strategy which is to levy less in education levy more in transportation help us fill that hole. So I don't I don't think it is necessary to go over the same presentation that we gave before. So I

018just wanted to point out if you look at the uh the revenue comparison from 25 to 26 the changes that I mentioned before you will see that change in the increase that we have in local funds which is where the revenue from the CPPRG is reflected. What you also see, you will see slight increase in allocation from federal government compared to when we presented the budget in August 11. And uh >> you're saying a reduction? >> No. Uh a reduction the deficit got >> from the August 11 presentation. So I just wanted to go back and show you the uh the revenue as well as the expenditure by funds. So if you remember the folks who saw the presentation that we gave on August 11, we were looking at uh an ed fund a surplus

019of only a million dollars. Now with the uh with the additional allocation from CPPRT, we directed all of that to the ED fund. So it helped us increase the projected surplus in the education fund to $2.1 million. Now the operation fund the projected deficit is still 1.2. But what is different about this is that we have a significant reserve in the on&m fund operation maintenance fund where we will be able to uh to handle the projected deficit here without any problem. And with transportation, since I mentioned earlier, we changed our levy strategy to levy less in education and more in transportation. Instead of looking at a deficit of $3 million in the transportation fund, we are now looking at a projected surplus of three of 531.7,000. Now that is all contingent on making sure that

020we continue to be efficient in how we run our transportation operation in the district. >> And then question >> I'm I'm sorry I thought that I had um Okay. So when you look at the total, the total revenue, the total expenses, >> right? >> What changed in the total? >> What changes in the total as far as what fund are we? >> The total column. >> So the total column is >> before we define, >> right? $3.9 million deficit. We are the way we are going to do a levy. We're going to levy more in the transportation fund instead of the >> I want to understand how that impacts that total column. >> So what it is is you have additional revenue >> like a shift. It doesn't seem like an incremental difference. >> It

021isn't. It's just a strategy that we're using. >> So are we getting are we getting so we're expecting more revenue from the CPRT >> right? A million dollar >> and then are we expecting decrease expenditures than we used than we were expecting? >> No. The expenditure in transportation still stayed the same. The difference is that we'll be getting an additional $3 million in property tax revenue that will have gone into the hood fund that we're now going to levy transportation fund. >> So we're expecting more total revenue >> in property tax revenue >> than what we were expecting before. And a lot of that would be due to >> we expecting the same level of uh revenue. We just shifted it. It was supposed to go to the ed fund. Now we're putting it in

022the transportation fund because the transportation fund needs it more. At the end of the day, we cannot leave uh the transportation fund with a negative balance. We have to fill it anyway just like we did last fiscal year. We have to shift the uh the the revenue from ED fund and know and m to be able to fill the hole that the transportation fund ended us with. So it's a levy strategy levy more in property taxes that would have gone to the ed fund is now going into the uh uh to the transportation fund. Tom, are you asking then are you asking then what happened to that three million that would have been used in the education fund? >> Yeah, I'm I'm not quite understanding how how that changes the total. >> So, but the

023way I can explain it >> is does it have to do with beginning balance? I'm trying to >> No, what we're going to do, we're going to levy we're going to levy more in the X when we do our a 2025 levy, right? So what we decide to do is levy less in the uh when we do our 2025 levy and put the and put the difference of what we will levy into the transportation fund. Levy more in the transportation fund to cover the deficit because at the end of the day that's what we will have done anyway because when the fiscal year ended we cannot have a negative uh fund balance in the transportation fund. I I I probably should have I probably should have prefaced this with I I didn't tell you I

024was going to ask that question. >> No, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. >> So, I I might need more >> That's fine. >> more feedback. >> I have the previous budget, >> right? >> Uh summary up and there was a surplus of 1.06, right? >> Million in the ED fund. So, We're not trans. What are we making cuts to the ad fund? >> We're not making cuts to the ed fund. No. What we are doing is when we do a levy in uh when we do the levy in December for 2025. What we would have done is we would have asked for more money in the ED fund because it's the largest fund. It's got the most flexibility. But what we are saying is when we do the levy, we will levy

025less the edge fund and we will levy more in the ed in the transportation fund to make up the difference because at the end of the day we do not have enough revenue to uh to match up the expenses we're driving in the transportation fund. So instead of waiting till the end of the year which is what we did when we bring the uh >> So so you're saying that that transfer would have occurred post budget 26. >> Yes. >> Instead, you're bringing it forward to the 26. >> Yes. Which is >> during the budget process. >> Yes. >> Which is what you should be doing. >> So, you see what I'm saying? That's why it's like I don't know where >> which is what we end up when we bring the uh >> the

026audit the financial aid 2025 financial audit which will be presented on November. I'm looking forward to >> you will see that because what happened is at the end of the fiscal year in 2025 we had I believe about close to $6 million in deficit in the transportation fund. So since you couldn't it's like a bank account your personal bank account you can't have a negative bank account you have to find revenue to cover that what we ended up doing we end up then transferring money at the end of the year to plug the home >> think I get it >> um >> so that that's what we're doing so instead of having a $3.9 million deficit at the uh at the end of the fiscal year we're now looking at close to a million dollars

027in surplus just based on two things, two major things. One is the uh CPPRT. Another one is levy more in uh transportation and lev less in education which you actually have done before. The last levy we did the same thing except it still wasn't enough. The hole was still bigger than than that. And which is why when I've talked in public before I said this process is not sustainable long term >> because the majority of >> transport I think just to be clear for those listening. >> Yeah I was going to clarify >> because the majority of the expenditure that we have in the district is funded out of the ED fund which is why the way the law is written when it comes to property tax levy. You have more flexibility in the ed

028fund than you do the other funds. But just let's be clear, the aggregate amount that you can levy doesn't go up. It's just a m matter of shifting how you levy the money. So since we know that at the end of the fiscal year, we are going to have a deficit and that deficit and there wasn't enough money in the transportation fund to be able to absorb the deficit which you have in some funds. For example, uh in the operational maintenance fund, there's a surplus there where you can use to uh observe a deficit. In the uh uh IMRF, Illinois municipal retirement fund, social security, you have a a surplus there you can use to observe the projected deficit. But in transportation, there is no surplus. So at the end of the day, we are

029going to have to do this anyway. So what we're doing is we planning the budget, we're doing it on the front end instead of doing it at the end of the fiscal year. And I think to be clear, Mr. B, can you talk a little bit about the reason behind the heightened costs in transportation? These are not due to >> it's not from lack of it's not from ad management. It's just that the cost of running transportation is just gone up significantly. I can talk about the fact that precoid you used to be able to buy 7277 passenger bus for about um $90,000. The same bus today that we bought actually at the end of last fiscal year we pay $165,000 for the same bus. The cost to stop the cost of manufacturing those bus

030gone up. That's one reason. The other reason is pre pandemic, we had our bus drivers who were part-time workers. They worked two hours in the in the daytime in the morning to drop off the kids. They work two hours in the uh at the end of the day to drop off the kids at home. But what we found out, those folks were retired folks. They were retired. And they did that just to to have something to do a couple of hours in the morning, couple of hours in the afternoon. And most of them were negatively impacted the most with uh the impact of co because they had underlying health problem. So we lost a number of them and the ones that were left they were just too scared to drive school bus anymore. So there

031was a shortage and it's not just here it's actually all over the country and also in Canada you have that situation. So what we've had to do is to make what used to be part-time jobs now full-time jobs. We had to make it attractive to folks who ordinarily would not drive school buses to drive school bus by giving them six hours minimally 3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the in the afternoon. When you do that though, you're required to have to provide them benefits by law. If you are remember ACA affordable care act, when someone is working six uh six hours a day, they're required to get health insurance. So now we've had to provide health insurance which were benefits we didn't have to provide before. Additionally, based on Illinois law, if an

032employees working 6 hours or more, they're now entitled to uh to to retirement uh benefits, which means now we have to enroll them in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. So if you add the cost of all those additional cost for health insurance uh dental vision that we didn't have to offer before additional cost of providing pension which approximat is approximately 10% on top of their regular salary and it's just and the cost of fuel has gone up. So the cost of everything has just gone up significantly and so we just we've been trying to manage we just and uh lay on top of that I can't forget that is that we get reimbursement from the state. The state has been prorating what they should give us back in reimbursement. Just last year the amount of

033reimbursement we received from the state for regular transportation was 79 cent on a dollar. Every dollar we spend, they gave us 79 cent back for regular ed for special ed transportation. Every dollar that we spend, we got 71 cent back. Starting in fiscal year 26, which is the year that we're in, that amount has gone down to where we're now getting 69 cent on a dollar that we spend on regular transportation, 61 cent on a dollar for special ed transportation. So the ironic part is as cost continue to go up, the state is actually giving us less amount of money in the way of reimbursement. They never reimbured us dollar for dollar before >> and we're ahead, >> right? So the cost of everything is going up. >> The uh the cost of reimbursement is

034going down. >> Thank you. >> So that's just part of part of the situation. And then the other part that I want to point out that I've been driving up costers for the most part everyone who needed transportation will provided transportation whether they were eligible or not. And by state law only three classes of students are eligible to receive transportation. Students who live beyond 1.5 miles students who have IEP with transportation specifically called for in the IEP and then students who live in designated hazardous route. the only people even with all those qualification we only getting cents on the dollar. Now when we allow everyone who's not even eligible to ride transportation then the cost of providing that is even more upside down than if we only allow folks who are eligible for it. >>

035Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> I know I derailed it. >> No, I mean I was suspecting questions. That's the whole point. We hope there are questions. >> Well, no, I'm just saying >> because I I want I want everyone to be engaged, which is why we at community budget meeting. We we look forward to folks giving us feedback uh asking question so we can sharpen our pen and make their pencils and make things uh more optimum. So, thanks for asking the question. >> Oh, no. Well, no, I meant I uh wanted to make sure everybody else had their questions answered. >> Question there's any other questions. I was just wondering about the IMRF deficit. Is that because we have to offer like pension options to more of our employees? >> It's actually not

036a true deficit. And I will explain that to you. >> The way the law is written for IMRF is that we only supposed to levy what we need to pay IMRF uh expenditure. We're not supposed to levy more. Now over the years we've accumulated more in our reserve or MRF than we are required to buy which can be referred to as excess accumulation in order to make sure that we balance out what we supposed to do. We're running a deficit now to make sure we don't have too much in the way of reserve >> just for this year. So that was intentional because at the end of the day at the end of the last fiscal year we had a reserve of close to $7 million. We don't really need so we intentionally ran 11

037less last year in order to spend it down because that's what the law there are some funds that you can accumulate excess amount of money. You only supposed to leverage what you need and spend what you >> Thank you. All right. Nobody no other questions. Okay. Any questions? No. Okay. Moving on to uh 8.1 public hearing on fiscal year 26 budget. Is this uh We will have two opportunities for public comment tonight. The first opportunity will be the during the public hearing on the fiscal year 26 budget which we are about to con convene. If you wish to make a comment about the fiscal year 26 tenative budget, please do so during the public comment portion of this hearing. If you wish to make a comment about some other matter unrelated to the public hearing,

038you may do so during the second opportunity for public comment. Please make sure that you noted on the comment card during which portion you wish to speak. We will now hold a public hearing on the fiscal year 26 budget. This is the public hearing convened by the board of education of community unit school district 308 regarding the fiscal year 26 budget. At this time I would like to ask Amanda Satar to give information updates on the fiscal year 26 budget. >> Actually that's >> actually me. >> That was the update I just gave. I'm sorry that >> so the update was um given by Raphael. >> Yes sir. >> And there's also a memo that was included there that shows uh explains the differences between what was presented on August 11 uh to what has

039been presented today. difference in revenue just to a different uh >> that leads us to a different uh bottom line going from deficit to now a slides. >> Great. Brenn, are there any public comments? >> I have one um Mike Litman, but it might be for regular public comment. >> No, >> excuse me. >> So, that'll be for the next when we get to the regular public for the >> Okay. Okay. Uh Dominic for the budget once we do a public comment we open it. If there are no comment then we at this time we will close the public hearing in the fiscal year 26 budget. Okay. 9.1 opportunity for the public to address the board of education. And this is where we have public comment. So, all right. On behalf of the board of

040education, I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting. We value the feedback we receive from our members um of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system. Individuals interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary of the board. 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. Please note that comments are limited to five minutes per person. The board does not participate in discussion during public comment. Comments should address the board of education as a whole and not be directed to an individual board member, audience, or staff member. Follow up on your questions or concerns

041may be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card. Thank you. >> Mike Litman. >> All right. >> Hello everybody. >> Hello mate. >> Uh thanks for allowing me to speak today. My name is Mike Litman. I'm here tonight not as a parent but as a taxpayer related to what we were just talking about. I'm resident of Lincoln Prairie. Lincoln Prairie is a senior community the intersection of Eola and Route 30. We're one of, I believe, four senior communities in this district. Uh Lincoln Prairie has currently 300 homes growing to 850 and we're going to have about 1,600 senior voters. More on that in a moment. As with most senior communities, we're not allowed to have school age kids in our homes. That we sign an agreement to that fact when

042we move in. We get no direct benefit from the schools and the school district manages no expenses from us. Despite the fact that most of us are retired and on fixed incomes, we pay the same high tax rate that everyone else does. And the tax dollars that we pay to the schools comes from our retirement savings. Think about that for a second. Now, in the last few months of these board meetings, we saw a presentation on the upcoming maintenance costs of the school buildings, which the district doesn't have the money to pay for. It was discussed at that meeting. We've seen a couple meetings on the budget and the budgetary issues. Don't need to go into those. And then two meetings ago, your consultants were talking about changes that could be made to the existing

043buildings. The common item for all these things is a significant need for money from us, the taxpayers. Now, I'm assuming a tax referendum is coming in the next few years. In fact, it was a bullet item from your last consultant's presentation. that'll likely be done in a minor election year like 2027 to try to keep the number of voters at a minimum making the votes that do come in very important. Now, for seniors and from a senior's perspective, understand a few things. First off, unless special accommodations can be made for us seniors in regard to the tax rate for this school district, we have no reason at all to approve any tax increases at the ballot box and every reason to reject them. Seniors are very mindful of their expenses and retirement savings. And we

044are very active voters. And with thousands of voters in the senior communities, this board needs to carefully decide its next steps on both funding and spending. Now, while you may be interpreting my comments as someone who is anti-schools and education, that is not true at all. My wife and I are both college grads. Our two sons graduate from district 204, went on to earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees from top universities. I'm definitely in favor of providing the best education possible for students. However, it needs to be done cost-effectively and funded fairly. In closing, just a couple things. I ask you please to think of two things. Be thoughtful in how you get your tax dollars. Be mindful of the senior communities who can't get any benefit whatsoever from your spending. and we're on fixed

045income. And second, when you spend the money, spend it as it's not yours. It's ours, the taxpayers. I thank you all for your time. >> Thank you. >> That was it. >> All right. First presentation today, uh, we have an update from Aramar. >> Thank you. Um, we're thrilled to recognize Aramark and share some exciting updates about the progress that we made with their team in over the last year. What started as a focus on improving our food service program has grown into something truly remarkable from major upgrades across the district to a stellar NSLP audit result and now national recognition from the USDA award. Representing the incredible Aramark team tonight are Patty, Chef Natalyia, and Jared to highlight some of the key wins from this past year and give us a look at what's

046next. >> Good evening. Thank you. My name is Patty Alexos and I am the general manager for the Airmark account here at school district 308. To my right is Chef Natalyia Leeshik and she's our executive chef on site and our um district manager um Jared Haxton. He's also present here today. Um we thank you for your time. Um we're going to start off our presentation here with a kind of a recap of school year 2425. It's just a short video. Heat. Heat. [Music] So, that was just kind of a quick um overview of some of the things that happened last year. Um we did do um some chef popup stations. We um overhauled and revamped the two high school cafeterias in the last two years. Um bringing our um customized rally cafe, which is um

047a bunch of made to order bars throughout the cafeteria. And what we spent time with, we focused on junior highs last year um by focusing and bringing some chef popups once a month to them to kind of prepare the students for what's ahead um in the high what they're going to see in high school. So we did um on our next slide, we'll show you There we go. Our little chef popup station. So once a month um we started in February last year um for the junior highs. Uh we provided them a taste of what's to come in high school. So one of the um bars that we provide at the high schools is our stir fry bar. Um our ramen bar. We did some made to order paninis um as well. Um, so there

048you see Chef Natalya doing, um, one of the customized stir fry stations and I'll have her speak to some of the >> Right. So, um, hearing the students feedback last year about, you know, they want something new, they want something more. Um so we kind of like said like okay well let's see if uh students in a junior high school are ready for for what's next when they going to jump into high school as the high school is really sometimes overwhelming to navigate through the stations open and made to order um meals. Um, so I think our biggest one was the ramen bowl and stir fry where they were just um everybody was just amazed about like wow like it's it's it's so unreal having at school a stir fry bar or having a ramen

049bar. So anything I think Asian is very popular lately. Um and we're going to be continuing doing that this year as well. um you know as we approach um April and May where it was a little bit more of like you know summertime and that kind of like went easier with the paninis. However, that was still very popular item too. So we've seen increase with from 10 to 11% increasement in meal participation. um students will come and grab a second entree um as being pleased and asking the cashiers or the lead of the school when's going to be that one coming up again and we say like well we'll have to see and assess the results first once we implement and doing it more so this year is more to come um as Patty said

050before that the enhancement that we did at the junior high school we're adding um to the non nacho station. More of the toppings, rice, beans. Um cuz again, hearing the students feedback coming from elementary schools, they like, okay, nachos, but kind of like they want them to be a a bit more filling. Um, of course, we can't double the serving of, you know, chips and meat and cheese sauce. We just decided, let's just elevate the experience with more flavors. So, that's how we end up, you know, adding more rice, beans. beans will be rotating reffried were char black beans. Um jalapeno salsa cheese um what was that there? Uh and sour cream huge thing I guess uh for that for the grill station uh we had lettuce tomatoes pickles and the funny thing about students

051grabbing pickles saying like well this is my s vegetable like nope that's a topping you still have to pick your fruit or a vegetable. Um amazing thing was with uh bringing up the little station for the condiments and the sauces. Um and there's just a huge wow. They just you know I'm wrapping these sandwiches and they put whatever sauce they want. We do rotate the uh scratchmade sauces on a weekly basis. There are like couple being standard the most popular one and then like mayo Sriracha will be swapping with atomic sauce or with um burger sauce or 308 or Chick-fil-A sauce name it whatever but it's a great sauce um and spices by the grill by the uh pizza with a grated Parmesan cheese and everything all all of the toppings you might think of

052or spices but no salt. So that was great addition and I think it was going really good and we keep doing it. Um so yeah that was what was last year the end of the half year uh end of the yeah end of the last year and moving forward this work probably will get me doing it because it looks to be very popular and uh kids appreciating it. Um and so at the end of the school year, we were able to apply for um a healthy meals uh recognition award. Um the USDA sponsored um a um healthy meals incentive innovations awards and actually we were awarded the um innovation and preparation of school meals award. So, we um submitted three different recipes um on behalf of the school district um as far as um what

053we offer here and the fresh selections that we use. Part of the criteria that um was used to um determine the award selection was the use of local produce um the use of the USDA um commodity type foods that we offer um as well as keeping the actual um state of the product as natural as possible and um the scratch cooking methods. So, the three recipes that we submitted, um the first one was the kale and carrot salad, and that was um an accompanyment, a side dish that was featured with our April limited time offer. Um and the grain bowl, which is pictured there, a Meditaran and grain bowl, is one of our um rotating test kitchen um items. And all of those items within the bowl that the students can choose from are scratch

054made. So, there's a base of the rice, the quinoa, and the lentils. um the diced chicken, savory um a Greek inspired beef um base on there as well. Um we make a chickpea salad, lettuce, um a Greek tomato and cucumber salad. Um the chef has um had them make some um homemade sun butter hummus and sadiki sauce. Um we also do like the pickled onions as you see there in a feta. Um as well as um the parmesan whole grain flatbread. And then our last selection is the black charro beans which is a selection that we have throughout the district and it was actually served today at the elementary schools which the students really love as well. It's a homemade pico in there as well um with the black beans and so the kids are

055really enjoying that. So it was nice to get the recognition and highlight some of the hard work that the staff is doing um bringing some fresh selections. >> Thank you. Congrats. >> Thank you. Yeah. So, um, for this year starting off, we have a lot of new menu items that we're featuring. Um, one of them is, um, offered at all of the locations. It's our new bento box. It's a pimento cheese, hummus, and a chip bento box. Um, uh, Buffalo Max Stickixs. We have a Cubano panini that's offered on our deli rotation, as well as a turkey chef salad that we're offering at all of the locations this year. These are just kind of a snippet of all of the new menu items that we have this year for both breakfast and lunch and allocart

056items as well. Um, one of the things that we are focusing on this year that we started off with the district was awarded a um expansion grant um for breakfast. And um what that entails is we had 12 locations that um were awarded this uh grant. And the purpose of the grant from the USDA and ISBY was to um provide more breakfast. What they found was the reason these schools were selected is the it's based on the percentage of participation of the free and reduced students from lunch versus breakfast. So they saw a disparity in the amount of students that were coming in at breakfast time. So part of the goal was to kind of analyze and figure out the reasons why the participation isn't there. Is it like the location of the cafeteria? Is

057it the timing and things like that? Um as far as elementary students go, if there's late arrivals, things like that that might be a deterrent from people coming in just to the traditional method of cafeteria service. So we've met with about half of the principles. And with those schools, we're starting on October 6th. the um we're still receiving parts of um with the funding uh the equipment that we need. So, we're going to be setting up breakfast carts at um the locations and we'll be doing a um second a secondary method of delivery for breakfast. So, outside of the traditional um cafeteria service. Um so, we'll have a breakfast cart depending upon what works best for the school. if it's at the same time but a different location from the cafeteria at breakfast or if

058we're going to model like we did at Churchill a second chance breakfast at a different time um at Asiggo East High School. We're also going to be doing um it during uh between second and third period as well. Oh, I'm sorry, Asiggo High School. Um so it's going to be based upon what each school wants. So, we're super excited about that um for the kids to kind of get fed and have their day start off right. So, this is kind of a look at um some of our breakfast carts that we have. Um currently, the second chance breakfast is we're still doing that at Church Hill as well. um the increase in participation. We're averaging somewhere between 50 to 75 additional breakfasts just from that cart instead of the ones that are coming down into

059the um cafeteria first thing in the morning. So sometimes they get there a little bit late, they're not really ready to they're excited to talk with their friends. They want to get in line. They're not coming down to the cafe. So, we take the carts out to them and they come out right before snack time and they can use breakfast as a snack as long as they have not um received a breakfast in the morning. So, in the cafeteria, I'm going to have the chef talk about our pop-up. >> Yes. All the excitements. So um this year we start off um our um breakfast excitements with popups as we said like okay last year we achieved the junior high school with some excitement and they're waiting for the popups. Now this year let's do it

060across the board and for breakfast because I think breakfast is our um target point this year. Um so we did a waffle bar which was an amazing um popup. We run it in uh on the 11th and we saw a participation increase for um about 472 meals more for breakfast just doing the um breakfast popup for the waffle. The principles were very receptive. They uh sent the communication to the families and community and they were like just yay we're going to get waffles. They got a little bit of you know sprinkles and a whipped topping and it was just uh different fruits as a toppings. We yes it was just amazing. warm cinnamon apples, um blueberries, strawberries, and all that. So, it was it was a great um a great morning seeing kids smiling and

061being happy about um about popup. Um a second members, did you have that day? >> You sorry. >> Yes. >> No, I just um the more I go through this like like more go through the presentation, the more it's just like I don't know. It's just really like making me hungry. So like >> truth >> like I haven't had my dinner yet. >> The second popup we did on the 17th, it was a smoothie day and I was surprised to see how actually elementary kids are liking smoothies. I thought it will be more popular junior high and high school, but interesting fact. So we served two different smoothies was a banana blueberry one and a peach strawberry. So, we've seen that elementary students were so into the blueberry um blueberry what banana. Yes. The color

062was a kind of like purplish and they loved it. They were like we have what I think South Berry waiting kids are asking when the next time popup is coming. I'm like okay. So, that's a good one to repeat. I guess junior high and high school they into like peach and strawberry. So, that's that. And it's coming up the quest. We kind of like name it that way. So, it's very intriguing. It's a kind of a breakfast taco cassadilla, if I may say so. It's something interesting. It's something new. So, we'll see how that's going to go. We don't have the feedback yet, but it's the last uh day of the month, the September 30th. So, looking forward for that. The other thing that we did um this year, we started off the school year

063with our chef video series. So, what we did as our first videos as an introduction to our cafeterias so that you could see. So, we made three different types of videos. The first one is our mascot, Ace, and we sent this out with our principal communications. and Ace is our ma elementary mascot and Ace was teaching the elementary students how to order their lunch and how to go through the cafeteria line. So we started off in a classroom and we filmed Ace choosing their lunch selections A B C or D turning in their sheet just like they would um at school and then coming down how we go through our lunch line and what we ask for and how we um fill our plates. Um, so we went through that and it taught them how

064to do uh their ordering and getting their lunches. Um, the middle video is the chefs uh going through the junior highs and walking the students through um the different doors and what's available as far as selections, where they would find their topping bars that we were talking about, um where the different stations are and how lunch works at the junior high level. And then we made two different videos for the high schools um as the chefs introduced the different stations at um the different high schools. It also um fell it also feeded in with a map of the different stations within the cafeteria. So this would be great for new incoming students as um a way that they could navigate their cafeteria because again it is really overwhelming when you walk in there and you're

065new as a freshman, you don't know where to go. um just as a refresher for the older grades as well what the different options are that we have. So this was our start and then we um introduced our limited time offer video. So Chef Natalia went through and every month we'll explain to the families and the students on our limited time offers like how the recipe is built and we will send those out. The first one went out for September for our chicken fajita sandwich that we um featured last week. Um, our October one will be coming out in about a week and a half or so and it is our cheesy sausage and potato soup that's served with a pretzel um in honor of Oktoberfest. Um, so we will be doing that as well

066and any of the um we're trying to get on a rotation where we can do at least like two videos a month of like the different items that we're offering as a look into the kitchens so you can see what we have to offer. or if it's a local produce that we've been featuring. We started off the school year um offering local peaches. Um we've done watermelon and I'll have the chef talk about our different local produce that we have. >> Right. That's another excitement thing and thank you Patty for always giving me the exciting thing to to talk about. Um, so yes, I think this is a great opportunity for us to utilize our local uh fresh produce and not only um so this year we're getting yogurt, strawberry yogurt and vanilla yogurt from

067our um Country View Dairy in Iowa. Uh peaches are from Flemis Orchard in uh uh Cobden, Illinois. Kla, cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini are for the claims produced in Burlington, Illinois. Uh jalapenos, fresh jalapenos. Um it's a family farm fresh co-op in Rockville, Illinois. So we're proud to partnership with them and bring those, you know, farm-totable almost um um things. So that's that's exciting. Thank you. >> Is that is that a a newer endeavor? >> Yes. So the district also received some grant money for the local produce as well. And so we've been trying to incorporate more and more of those as we're using it. Um, we do have produce that we use from a little bit not as local, but we try as much as we can to get that. So, we every week we

068kind of go through um and see what's available for us to order and bring new and exciting things in. Like we started off with the fresh peaches, which we've never offered before. Um, now the um crop is turning to pears that we'll be doing and um some other different types of melons. So, as it comes up weekly, we've been just kind of perusing and um partnering with Common Market, who sources from all of the local vendors. So, it's been great. >> Well, we look forward everyone this school year in the cafeteria to enjoy our new flavors and meals. Thank you. >> And and congratulations. >> Thank you. Does uh anybody have any questions? >> I just had a quick comment. I remember when I came on the board two and a half years agoish, something

069like that, right? Um there was a lot of discussion about the quality and the value and the experience of students not being kind of up to par with what the board wanted. And I think based on this presentation, we've come such a long way. Um and I appreciate all the innovation and all the fresh meals. um and uh all of all of these ideas kind of coming together. I remember specifically talking about the breakfast parts and making sure we expanded that. So, I was happy to see uh that come to fruition at a grander scale. I think that's, you know, can be really important. And I won't put our students on the spot, but I don't know if they haven't had any experience recently with the the cafeteria that they want to share. Um I'll

070hand it over to you all. I just want to say thank you because I know I see the time you guys are taking into this to make an improvement. You guys are taking your time, your effort, your love and I like really see it not even on the presentation but also engage in it at school. I know like in my freshman year I'm like okay like what do I want at school? But now I'm like oh I enjoy this. This is like it brings like pleasure to me. So I just want to say thank you because I see it I see it happening and I know it's a lot of work. So thank you. >> We appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. I also just want to say thank you and um it's actually

071funny because uh today my friend was um he got hot lunch so from the cafeteria and um I was like wow the the food is really upgraded here like oh my goodness like what is I like I remember back in middle school like there was like very limited options and especially like during co like there was like not like it was not in par with what the students want but like now I'm like what it's like crazy like the options are so like varied and everything. The amount of food is more like so I'm like just I can see the effort you guys put. I'm really happy for you guys. >> Appreciate that. Come down. Every week it changes. You'll see all sorts of different things. So we appreciate that. Um our October menu October

0721st we'll be celebrating um World Vegetarian Day. So our whole menu we have like vegan chicken nuggets on there for everybody and different options. So um we look forward to celebrating with everybody. A >> as you close out just thank you again. I'll just echo that. Um, and maybe uh give us a couple names of shout outs of district partners because I know that on the the management team, there are people you work very closely with to make this a reality. So maybe you want to give them the nod because we recognize the improvement of our system to make sure that our students get excellent service. >> Yeah, we appreciate Amanda and Raphael and all of their hard work and help with us and Teresa's group over in communications um by pushing out all of

073the information with us. So we really appreciate that. We're really trying to connect and do the communications to highlight everything that's going on here. So, um, thank you. >> And I I can't say enough too though about what I what I saw when when I got here was that I remember talking to board members who were there who hear that and a number of them made it clear whatever happened her is not coming back. What we recognized is that they were not set up for success. They really were. They were not a bad company. There was just the the structure that was put in place did not make it possible for them to give their best. So we went back when we did the RFP, we did it in such a way as to make

074sure they get the uh they can showcase their very best. I remember when we made the recommendations, some board members said no way. They just want we would just like just give us time. in those days the same company it was a different structure and we I had no doubt that they were going to do exactly what they and more so I'm just happy to to actually see that thank you >> Erica Rall do you have any questions or >> No I don't have any questions just a comment I think that we um sometimes take for granted or don't acknowledge how what we serve our students contribute to the culture of the learning environment and so this makes me really excited excited to see. Um, and just thinking about my baby at home. I can't

075wait to go home and talk to her about this. Like, have you been eating? So, yes. Thank you so much. >> I So, you you talked about breakfast cards and second second chance carts and working with the the principal um to determine whether you're going to do breakfast cart or second um I'm going to continue to try to push second chance carts until our buses are always there on time. um you know until I so I I really want to make sure that you're stressing the reason that these second chance cards um you know are um valuable and a great service to our students. Um so just uh I want to make sure that that's vocalized and um you know hopefully our buses will be seven minutes early every time and you know for the

076forever and ever but um >> Yeah. Yeah, that gives me that gives me lots of other thoughts. Um but yeah, because those days, you know, like Yeah. Um no, I appreciate it. But yeah, I also want to acknowledge that um seems like everybody's seeing lots of improvement and substantial improvement at that. And uh so I thank you so appreciate it. >> Oh, >> thank you. >> And a gentleman at that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. We're moving on to uh 10 two our strategic plan update. Looking forward to hearing more about this. >> All right. Good evening board. Um next up we want to welcome with members of our senior leadership team who will be sharing some reflections on our impact monitoring tool um that we've done as we prepare or we've

077moved into our first quarter of our strategic plan of our three-year plan that is on deck. So I want to invite Dr. Concaid and Teresa to lead off. >> Well, good evening again board. Um we are excited to bring you our very first impact monitoring report for this school year. Um, we're going to take turns kind of tag teaming the updates here, but just to give you a feeling for where this came from. Um, we've included the the full report for your review as well. There are a number of work groups that are working across all the objectives that are currently in play. Um, and we've kind of rolled up all of that work into the five priority priority areas of our strategic plan. And so you'll see some of the highle updates as we

078work through that. We anticipate that as the year goes on, these will become more substantial for you. We're at the very beginning here, so some of these work groups are just kind of kicking off and a few of them haven't started yet. So, um I invite our leadership team to um popcorn and we'll fill you in. >> All right. Good evening board. Uh the first priority we're going to highlight is future ready. Uh you can see that we have illustrated for you some key takeaways of this work plan and then at the bottom you'll see all the corresponding slides have the same uh percentage of whether we're sustaining developing approaching or not yet started. Uh you can see that we are solidly in the approaching area for future ready. Uh some key highlights is that

079we have completed and received approval from Isby for our application for the college and career pathway our first one. um and our education endorsement in human and public services. In addition, we've started work on the introduction to education curriculum map and scope and sequence. We have successfully launched the new school links college and career platform. This included communication with staff, students, families, and administrator training, alignment planning, and initial onboarding of students in grades 9 through 12. And finally, we've continued to strengthen family engagement and post-secondary planning through partnerships for the college and career series, collaboration on a college and career handbook along with our communications team and communication about the new platform and its features. >> So, our district leadership team in partnership with an CEO is really leading the work around MTSS. We're focused

080on tier one for our instructional framework. Um, we're also looking at tier 2 and tier three in conjunction with onboarding educ uh which we have previously discussed which is our new data warehouse. We're looking at interventions and the cycle as students move and uh seek additional support from tier 1, tier 2 and tier three. And we're in the um approaching as we're forming level specific committees for tier 2 and tier three. um really through the work of our district teams and um both content and level specific workg groups. >> Additionally, our junior high student support time has been redesigned around these three priorities of social emotional learning, college and career readiness, and individualized student needs. Assistant principles and counselors aligned character strong lessons with school links to create consistent student centered experiences. A cohesive rollout

081plan with professional learning and monitoring will launch districtwide this year. We are currently in the approaching area. Additionally, school leadership teams have advanced their work by sharpening action steps tied to foundational practices and school improvement planning. Principles and teams are aligning efforts across schools to ensure coherence and shared accountability. We are also in the approaching category for this as well. Priority three, academics. In the coming weeks, our K8 teachers will evaluate student performance data to strengthen our English language arts curriculum. Our K5 teams will focus on districtwide item analysis to refine lessons and assessments, while grades six through eight teachers will align their revisions to priority standards and AR expectations, ensuring consistency and rigor across the junior high level. We're excited that in over a decade we have self-contained classrooms in special education that will

082be emphasizing and continuing the work in the curriculum stage. Those self-contained classrooms are DHH, STARS, RISE, ISP and skills. Before we progress forward, I just want to add regarding our school leadership teams. Um they I'm sorry professional learning my bad has been built into a phase plan beginning with a strong structural framework. The school leadership paradigm has expanded to all principles and assistant principles are um in their pilot phase with ongoing training reflection and collaboration through our boost meetings um and work with our Illinois principal association. Additionally, culturally and relational responsive curriculum development is also well underway. Phase one of professional learning is nearly complete with resources in progress and a roll out and communication plan being finalized to support educators and families. In response to priority 4, um we have made significant strides in

083working with our community partners, uh notably ongoing meetings that have been held with uh OPD, OFD um around a full-scale emergency drill, um including kind of developing that timeline and implementing um those practices. We have had initial training sessions for all administrators on crisis response protocol. We're looking to set up some additional crisis response protocol um trainings for our um operations side of the house such as transportation um and operations and maintenance. Um and we are still in the early stages of uh looking into our security infrastructure audit um and those things will be coming shortly. Um I think I covered both of those. You're cover number. The third one, labor management. >> We have expanded our labor management partnerships through weekly um union and human resources meetings. Um my team and myself, we meet

084with our union leadership every week. Some of the ions twice a week when needed to make sure that we stay ab breast of um current issues and also in a preventative measure to make sure that we address things before they become issues. Priority number five, systems management. Uh part of that critical work that we're doing is the long-term facility and we are completing phase three right now. with the support of widen company partner in doing the master facility planning and uh we've had a number of uh committee engagement meeting we had one in person I believe last week uh a week before last and we had one virtually last week so we're working diligently to ensure that we get uh inputs and voices from our committee member as well as from our staff member to

085make sure that the final plan reflects the value and input from all stakeholders. We're very excited about that. >> In terms of recruitment, we maximize our postings of openings and for high needs areas on both our district our district website and our Facebook page. We advertised and hosted virtual interviews for bus monitors and TAS and out of that 14 candidates did indicate interest in proceeding to the next stage. We also called all bus monitor applicants personally to gauge their interest and schedule interviews and reached out to each individual recess supervisor and lunch monitor to find out if they would be open to an opportunity to be a bus monitor in the AM or the PM shift. One area of focus that we have been really really making sure we touch is the making available financial

086information uh of the district. We've been working on being very very transparent in making sure all the information of the district that relates to finances is available for everyone to see. One of the key step that we took on that this will be the second year we've actually engaged in community budget meeting. We had two sessions at two of our schools at different location representing different parts of the district. We also had one that was virtual that was available for anyone to be able to jump in. During those meetings, we went deep and provide information about revenue sources as well as expenditure. goal is to make it as as easy as possible for our taxpayers to know how the funds in the district has been spent to let them know that as we believe that

087the budget should uh reflect the moral value of the district. We are doing that very specifically reopen >> um in conjunction with um some of our local communities and our district departments. RSP has completed uh both the student enrollment projection report and with the assistance of our building leaders the building capacity analysis. Uh Rob Schwarz will be with us on 106 for our next board meeting to present both of those reports. Um in a few minutes um we will have kind of the launch to our student assignment. So we'll discuss in more detail uh the progress that has been made so far. And finally related to systems uh management one of the uh one of the outgrowth of the master facility planning is the recognition of the need to actually engage in preventive maintenance. If

088you remember phase one of the master facility planning is the facility assessment which lets us which provides us a very detailed information by the states of uh different equipment that we use to run our building and in making sure that we get a handle on that. We are uh we're actually making sure that we use our ticketing system to ensure that we engage in preventing maintenance instead of the past practice of fixing things when they break. What we are doing right now, we have a pretty good information about when things should be should be serviced, when should things should be maintained, and we're following that with fidelity, making sure we extend the useful life of all the equipment that we have in the district through a comprehensive ticketing system. >> Okay, that concludes our update

089for this evening. Um, we are happy to answer any questions you might have in regards to this check-in. >> Not yet. >> I want to just um make sure I'm understanding the numbers at the bottom. Um, those are the percent of the 2526 objectives for our basically year one of the strategic plan. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. And then um I'm just thinking about the word sustaining for the some of the because this is the first time we've seen this kind of update, right? And so um I'm thinking about that word sustaining because when I look at the different, you know, goals or objectives, some of them are like one and done and some of them are like >> begin this and then next year we're going to do something else. Next year

090we're going to do something else. So I don't know that just doesn't capture for me I think some of what the objectives are like one of the object I'm just like I just pulled up the strategic plan evaluate implementation of a shared definition like okay so did we or did we not check are we going to continue to do that year overyear and then there's some you see what I'm saying >> yes >> so I don't know if that's I don't know if the verbiage is off or the way it's presented seems off because I'm I'm not sure that some of these will be sustaining it is the goal that 100% will be sustaining because I'm not sure that that vibes with some of the essence of the objectives that are if that makes sense.

091>> Yep. And what we're currently aligning the verbiage here too is really obviously not yet started. Um then approaching really is aligned to the planning because we've talked a lot about we need um to make sure that we have comprehensive planning to the developing is really implementing and the sustaining is the revision reflection and review of that objective. So, um, Amy, to your point, we can add some more, uh, >> kind of differentiation between accomplishment and it now goes into that cycle of improvement, >> active or ongoing versus something that's going to be building towards a good point. >> I think maybe as a public document. So, this is I think this is a pro like a, you know, it's a a template of what we're going to be using, right? uh maybe a slide

092for for the public and for us it just explains what the percentages are like what those definitions are and then these are the 25 26 objectives. Um and then I think it would be helpful just to understand to maybe have somewhere like how many objectives do we have for systems management for 25 26 uh because the percentage I think is nice to see progress but it's also I think um important to show the amount of work that we're work right is it 15% of 100 objectives or is it 17% of three objectives right >> so it's just a couple >> that's great feedback um suggestion. But I like this overall. I like this format. Any other questions? No. All right. Um well, Heather or Dr. King to say that. Um, it's been brought to my

093attention that there were a couple missed public comments and so I think we need to um allow those uh commenters and so we need to do we need to amend the agenda. Um, >> we return to an agenda. Can we return? >> I think if you motion to return. >> So just having simple. >> So can I get a motion to return to agenda item 9.1? >> Is that is that an appropriate motion? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> I make a motion to return to item or to agenda item 9.1 public comments. >> Second. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I >> Dr. Pock. >> Hi. Miss C I, Dr. Mario, >> I >> Oh, motion passes. 6. >> You probably want to read the

094opening again. >> I'm going to go ahead and reread that. >> Give me a second here. On be on behalf of the board of education, I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting. We value the feedback we received from our members of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system. Individuals interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board. When the secretary calls your name, I ask that you come to the microphone, state your name to the for the public record, and provide your feedback. Please note that comments are limited to five minutes per person. board does not participate in discussion during public comment. Comment should address the board

095of education as a whole and not be directed to an individual board member, audience, or staff member. Follow up to your comments or concerns may be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card. Thank you. >> Dvita King Brown. >> Yep. There's a microphone right there. Hi, good evening everyone. Good evening. Thank you uh for allowing me opportunity to speak to the board. Um my comment is regarding a staff member that you all have here. Um there were um there was comment that was made on by this staff member who is also a member of school board of a neighboring school district. Um the comment that was made was did not sit well with the community there. Um I was present at that school board meeting. I heard every comment that

096was made by the community um by teachers, by students um and it I did not prepare um a speech because I wanted to make sure that my comments were generally coming from the heart. Um, personally, I would say that if this individual were a custodian or some other level of employment, this could potentially be a non-issue. However, the fact that this potential person is in a position of power when it comes to the hiring and also the retention of staff that's hired here is concerning. It is concerning because this school district has made great strides and I I've been a parent here for many years. >> Has made great strides. um in an effort to create that level of diversity, equity, and rightful presence. Thank you, Dr. Waller, for your efforts in and making that

097possible. Um, and I think this is a grave setback when you hear that if a black employee who has identified as black or African-American and has also identified as someone that is bilingual >> decides to set their their application that it could be a bias against them because of the comments that this individual made. It is it is extremely concerning considering the fact that we are already a district that although those numbers are growing, it it is st it is staggering that we have not been able to retain that level of employment when it comes to black African-American teachers and staff. So because of that, I feel like that individual should not be in the position that they are in. I don't think it is representative of this school board. I don't think it is

098representative of the parents of the district 308. >> That is my comment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi Bice. Good evening, Dr. Kalcotti and elected members of the school board and to the administration that's in the building as well as to our community members that are here this evening. My name is Kiwana Berice. I am a parent of district 308. Three boys, two have gone through this wonderful system. I have another one who's a senior. I'm also an engaged parent. It was only a the school board prior to you all where we advocated parents that we needed a full-time diversity, equity, inclusion director. And so therefore, we advocated for Jadon Waller. And we are so pleased. This district has come a long way. So we are not going back. I want to piggyback on

099Dvita's comment. Um, our district has pride itself on being a place where students are given equitable access to opportunities regardless of their background. We know that true excellence in education does not happen when some voices are silenced or when some children are made to feel less than because of the color of their skin or the circumstances of their lives. You can imagine on September the 15th, I received a notice that in district 131 that there would be a meeting, a call from the Urban League and a call from the NAACP to ask a member of their board to step down from their position. What does that have to do with 308? It was my surprise that the person also held a position of influence in district 308. What is the why is that relevant? What

100is the correlation? The pos the person who held a position is seated in a position of influence. HR is not about just hiring just about compliance. Those people and even the people you all are seated in a position that shapes our culture. And so because this person is seated in a position that can shape our culture, it was very concerning. I call people who sit at the table. They're gatekeepers. They decide who comes in the door, who aligns with our values that all of our students should receive an equitable access to the best education while they're in here at this school district. that will prepare them either to work in a trade or to go off into to a college university. We are preparing our students to be global citizens. I just came back from

101Europe. There are many students who I asked how many languages do you speak? Not one, not two, some were multilingual. We want to provide those opportunities for our students and I believe we do. More important more importantly, I just want to extol you all as the board members to remember why you were elected elected. We must ensure that not only voices are not sidelined but are centered in decisions that affect our students. You all are in the business of making decisions for our students. And we are also in the business of ensuring that our students and that our staff are building a wonderful culture for our students to thrive in. And that is my comment. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I don't think there's anything we need to do as far as moving

102on to next presentation item 10.3 assignment uh planning updates. So, as Dr. Concincaid prepares, I just want to um echo the comments around the strategic plan connected to what you're about to hear in terms of our student assignment planning work. These are all very much connected. the long range facility plan, student assignment planning work we're doing are all part of the vision that the board really approved back in the spring regarding the work to come. And I want to thank in advance of this presentation Dr. Concade for leading this uh next part of the presentation. >> So what we're going to focus on in the next couple of minutes is our priority five systems management um from our partnership and collaboration. So the objective that I'm going to launch today is focus on not only

103our comprehensive analysis. So we'll talk about our student assignment patterns but then enrollment trends and um finally our student assignment. So what we started last year was the phased approach to student assignment. The work that was done last year focused on phase one and was implemented this fall. um with our specialized programs. So, we reviewed our specialized programs, both special education and our multilingual learners to really create hubs of learners to anchor our specialized programs within our district. We had decided over the course of last year that we didn't want to move any students based on attendance zones before we anchored um our specialized programs. Now the work shifts into phase two and beyond. So our immediate um focus will be on new growth where we will look to implement some student assignment changes for

104a year from now um fall of 2026 and then also really looking ahead. So the focus will be on not only the planning but the preparation at both realignment and then potentially redistribution. So we want to be cognizant of our current reality of the growth within our district but also really be planning for the future. So as both Dr. Kelgatti um mentioned and Raphael, we're really looking at intertwining both the partnership and planning um of our long range facility plans and our student assignment. RSP has been our partner for many years related to both student enrollment projections and our building capacity analysis. So we have um redone both of these studies because of phase one and because of the new growth. So just to kind of refresh the timeline for our long-range facility planning, what

105we've done is really partner our student assignment discussion to follow not only alongside but to um with follow the conclusion of our long-range facility planning. So our long-range facility plan will come to the board in November with action in December. So, we're looking then for our student assignment to follow that. So, what we're doing is we're launching um our committee this month really to focus on processing the information and discussing um different options. As I mentioned in our strategic plan update, uh Rob Schwarz will be here in person um from RSP to review our student enrollment projections and building capacity analysis um with um our board of ed. We then return back to committee meetings to refine our scenarios uh discuss options and then reach consensus. Um we have several community engagements planned in November.

106Uh then we take that information back to our committees. So our committees will be a balance of committee and workg group. Um so our roof group will contain not only building and district administrators but also um parents from our schools, members of our student advis I'm sorry our superintendent advisory committee and then also staff. Um and then we will come in January uh with the recommendations for info and action. The reason why we're recommending this timeline is because again kind of anchored in that both discussion and planning, we want to make sure that we have clear guidance and information um prior to the launch of student registration for school year um 27 and staffing for 27. So that is kind of our two anchor posts of why we're recommending a January info and action. So

107the focus of our new growth is really on uh the new growth across of our district. So right now um looking over the next couple years the immediate impact will focus on Southbury, Graham Park, Punt Club, Wolfs Crossing and the Wheatlands for our elementary. Um obviously then we will not only look at these schools that are experiencing new growth but then also where could we potentially also service um additional students from schools seeing the largest growth. Our junior highs that are seeing and are currently impacted by new growth Murphy and Benarik. and then both of our high schools um are seeing zones of new growth. So looking to the work of our uh work groups. So things that we will be discussing um right now our school that is most impacted by new growth is

108Southberry. Um so that will be our primary focus. But as we talk about phase three and phase 4, some of the things that we need to talk through is determining priorities. So as we look at in phase three how we could potentially realign some of our student assignments, um we need to decide do we want to keep our feeder patterns. We have pretty strong alignment currently between our elementaryaries, our junior highs and our high schools with the exception of one elementary. Um, so what are our priorities as we look at student assignment? What would we look at in terms of grandfathering or a phase process? If we are moving our student assignments, what would our ATR or attendance transfer request process look like? What will transportation look like? How will we be able to um

109potentially reorganize some of our student assignment to support our transportation planning? Um as I mentioned, South Berry um as we talked about last year and at the beginning of this year is our primary concern based on our current student enrollment projections. But then as we look um not only years one through five but beyond um we do see growth in all three of our levels elementary, junior high and high school and how could that potentially impact um realignment and uh reassignment. So we will uh be back at our next meeting with um the report from RSP and then we will be launching this month both our committee and our work group. So this was just a preview of student assignments and more to come. >> Any questions come up that are important as we think

110about the next presentation? Amy, Dr. Mo, >> I had more of a question on timeline >> please. Um when when when I'm looking at the timeline of student assignment January 1 uh board of education meeting and then action on the second uh board of education meeting in January, we're taking action on just that phase two of reassignment due to growth. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, and so what you're highlighting in the previous slide, these are potential pools that could be impacted by those reassignments. >> Correct. What is the difference between new growth and realignment? >> So, can you review that again? >> Absolutely. As we look at our maps right now, um we see especially um Hunt Club's boundary, Robert's boundary, and O's boundary. when um our current student assignment zones were determined um most

111of the kind of large scale of oh um Troberg and even Southberry was there was no broke there was um it was farms. So the realignment was is really what we need to discuss is how can we start to look at our attendance zones in advance to start to shift um really kind of from our northeast to our southwest um to be proactive about the growth. So that is what we would be looking at potential realignment. Um, you know, we've got some, uh, attendance areas that decisions were made 10 years ago when different, uh, areas, for example, um, Prairie Point, um, uh, uh, Church Hill and Benedar were seeing large growth, and we've seen our attendance in those schools come down as our homeowners are staying in their homes, but the students are are aging

112out and, we're we're seeing decreases. So, as we're now seeing areas of new growth um coming really from that Wolves Crossing corridor and even further south um we really need to reexamine those areas to start to shift to be proactive. So to then kind of repopulate Bed Narsk, Churchill, Prairie Point so that we don't see um student uh enrollment exceed the capacity of South Berry and uh Trobert and potentially O. >> Dr. Canc phase one specialized programs and perhaps I missed it so I hate to be redundant but exactly what's happening right now phase one specialized programs file 2025 >> um and what specific specialized programs maybe I missed that >> so that was um discussed approved last school year and it was implemented this year so um what we did was we um this

113the focus and I will invite uh Dr. Dubiel to supplement because I'm sure I will miss something. Um uh we created hubs for our RISE programs so that students would potentially be able to stay in the same elementary K5 uh because previously we had students that might have to attend multiple elementary during their K5 experience. Um we also then the year before started um a third dual language site um at Wolves Crossing. So what um really the specialized programs were really to make sure that our specialized programs were in locations to provide the full K uh five experience for students. Dr. So, so last year in collaboration with the OEA, we put two task force together, an ML task force and a special education task force. The ML task force had to consider the three

114programs that are under the ML umbrella and the special education task force had to consider both different programs under the special education umbrella. Um, >> knowing that possibly we were going to do a review in the future, we didn't want to wait two years. This is time to do it. So the staff members, the stakeholders that collaborated together identified areas of strength and areas of attention within those programs. And so the ML task force identified SEI or sheltered English instruction as a program that would be phased out over a number of multiple years. And then with our special education uh program, it was decided to look at ISP. So um previous to last, for example, we had students in the ISP program who went to one junior high. So they did not have an opportunity

115to attend their home junior high. So we were able to redevelop a structure so those kiddos can go back to their home junior high and be rightful service in their home school. STARS program which Dr. Canincaid was referencing. We had quite fragmented clusters of grades spread out in seven different schools. We were able to create hubs into five that allowed really deep focus and concentration on related services. Um it allowed us to increase some of the teacher assistance in some of the self-contained classrooms. Um the uh crosscat program at the elementary it really was a mix of students who were light skills and students who needed more instructional support that were multiple grades behind. Um so we were able to divide that so that we can have just an ISP program just a rise program.

116Um so those were some of those um specialized programs. Um and we really focused on ensuring that as best as possible students were attending their home school close to we don't have a program in every building. Um so we were very thoughtful on that and we worked with multiple teams once it got approved to roll this out and implement that. So would you say there's still work to be done or will we continue to assess the accessibility that students need for special programming? Okay. >> Yes. And um I believe um a few meetings ago we talked about potentially um based on increase of a skills program. Um so right now our skills program at the elementary is on the east side of our district. um and really re-examining to see if we needed potentially a

117second site. Um so that is something that is under consideration. Um but really the launch of the work last year came from the the expressed desire and and need and concern from our parents about consistency and program in um really kind of coming closer to their home school. Um, so that was also some of the work that the committees had done last year. >> Yeah. Well, thank you for acknowledging and addressing that. >> Any other questions? >> Looking forward to the next few months. >> We will be back probably every meeting with additional updates. >> Yay. >> Today was just the love. Just the love. >> It was just a cheese. Thank you for the work. I know I know you've been the whole team has been doing a lot of work on this. So,

118thank you very much. >> Yeah. And the South area boundaries are definitely >> Yeah. So, we have to preempt it. Um, moving to Oh, board committee reports. So, looks like we had a uh our first policy and legislative board committee, equity and uh learning and instruction and finance and facilities. Um if anybody wants they can give an overview of uh those meetings or if you feel that it's represented well in the the documents that are included then just >> the notes are representative of the policy and legislative committee. We really dove into the uh recent issue of press um and um that you know most of the recommendations we took. We had some discussions uh about board member oath uh and conduct uh some fundraising discussions uh but all the policies um should be there

119for review for our other board members as well >> and then those items are coming for first read in a minute. So, >> yep. >> Um, anything from the equity and learning and instruction? >> Sure. I attended that committee meeting and I think that the notes are indicative of what was discussed. Um, I think what's really excited about CP career pathway endorsements is that um, we have like the early childhood endorsement and then we have the endorsement I want to say for the the education endorsement. And I I don't want to misspeak in terms of what those endorsements um the grade bands, but something that we did talk about is how do we support students beyond just like getting those endorsements because there are tons of opportunities as they pursue um their um college um

120career for them to get essentially um scholarships, right? Um based on these endorsements. And so we talked a little bit about that. Uh we also talked about readying our our system for the multilingual programming needs and the expansion of that and maybe there are some subtle things that we can do um even this school year in terms of as we recruit. And then I think the last piece of it was just around curriculum and how we are taking a deep dive into our curriculum. And the one thing that I pushed and I will just bring that into the space is that we think about work recovery and how we can anticipate like students misconceptions and then how we're addressing that because I think it's really important that students are able to master standards specifically those

121standards that are cyclical or they there's just this direct vertical alignment. So those are some of the things we talked about. >> I remember uh when we first like within a week of you getting uh appointed or or not appointed but elected had a long discussion on that. >> That's really important for me. Hence why I wanted to committee. >> Very heavy talk and thank you for bringing it up. Yeah. >> Anything from the finance facilities. >> Sure. Um again the notes are pretty representative of of what we discussed. >> Okay. Uh primarily um we did recognize Aramark for their achievements that was presented today. Um we did kind of get an update on the repairs at both um Asiggo and Asiggo East. Um Asiggo is well underway with floors being ripped up and and

122new flooring being put down. So we're we're making some progress there. Um the uh performance arts center at Asiggo East is still kind of in the earlier stages. We're just kind of making sure that we've got everybody in line um and everything in line. And then finally, we did uh talk about the radio installation updates. We've been talking about new radios for I feel like it's been a couple years, but anyway, that's finally been accomplished. Um we have kind of reduced the number of radios we have across the district by about 20%. Um because there was just a whole lot of redundancy. Um, and the really, you know, shocking thing is that all our radios are are virtually the same now. And and as opposed to having several different brands or several different models um

123and communication among um admin primarily admin staff, etc. is uh has been streamlined. So what a concept. So that was probably the bulk of it. >> Great. I'm going to miss my finance facility. >> I know you will. I The radio conversation is fascinating. I'm serious. >> We've been talking about it like forever. >> If you if you ever want to take a day off. >> Oh, and the >> um All right. Well, uh next item is 112 board member comments. >> Does anybody have any >> Oh, I do. But you're smiling. Do you want Do you have something? Oh, do you? >> No, I don't have anything. I feel like I've talked enough tonight. That's the reason I have >> I have two, but I'm gonna keep going. >> Yeah, definitely love to hear

124yours as well. Um, >> yeah. >> Oh, >> yeah. It doesn't even have to be anything. >> You were just so happy to be here that you were smirking. And that's what that's what I figured. >> Um, I have a couple things um that I that I just wanted to recognize. I I mentioned last time that I had been uh to a couple of the the flag uh girls flag football um games for both OE and O. Um Kelly, I want to I want to recognize you as being on, you know, the O team. Um but there are um three things I want to talk about tonight. Number one, um I went to the Fox Chase reading night and I have to give major props to Mr. Raldi and the staff over there. Uh they

125had like practically the entire school covered with um with games, with reading sources, with the um with a book fair. Um they went all out and their attendance was phenomenal. So props to them. I know that there was an awful lot of work that was put into that. So that was that was kind of fun. Um football, boys football. Um I have again I want to recognize that both OE and O are 3 and 0 at this point in time. Um, so, uh, they've been pretty successful so far. Uh, got a chance to attend part of the OE game last Friday, which was 77 to nothing. Um, but I left when it was 28 to nothing. Um, and raining. But, um, this Friday, O is playing Yorkville. And what's significant about that is that Yorkville

126is also 3 and 0. So, should be a good game. if you can come on out and and and be there for that. And then finally um and I I guess I don't give him enough attention, but um I have been to two band performances. Um first of all, I was in Tinley Park with Andrew or at Andrew High School in Tinley uh to watch OE's performance and um I got to tell you that the color the band was great. Color guard especially was amazing. um they color guard did win outstanding performance um from that particular competition. And then last week I was at Northern where OE was performing and or excuse me where O was performing. Got to get these straight. And um O did come in second in their division. A great performance

127as well. And I swear to you as as the students got out there and started performing the rain just started to fall on all of them. So, um, extra credit for to them for performing in the rain. Uh, but again, just recognizing all sorts of great effort across the district and, you know, we really appreciate everything that everyone does. And now I'm done. >> Um, just uh attended the uh the food pantry um distribution last Friday. Uh, was my first time directing traffic. only got hit um I got close to getting hit once um but it was a lot of fun. Um we moved the line pretty quick. Um so anybody I think that that's once a month, right? And then we're no matter what happens with old travel, we're looking at continuing it. So

128um attended the DL picnic. U Dr. Katti was there, Mary Joe was there as well. Um lots of dancing, music, >> um conversations and a crate full of puppies. Um that was uh >> somebody had fostered um a dog and went and had uh seven puppies. They brought him to the picnic and so that was fun. And then also attended one of the uh long range utility plan sessions and that was the inerson one at Murphy. So if anybody can attend any of these uh discussions about the long range facility plan, I think we're going to three, right? >> Um, please we'll have many more. >> Yeah, there'll be lots of opportunity at each school site. Um, we're going to be launching series throughout the >> Okay. Yeah. And I think the one that I

129attended even made the news. Um, so it's it's it's um, you know, it's a way to get your voices heard for sure. So, please attend. All I have Moving on to consent agenda. >> Thank you. >> Seeing none. >> Thank you all. >> I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, please. I make a motion to approve all items under consent, including 12.1 minutes from the board of education meeting on September 8th, 2025, open and close sessions. 12.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district. 12.3 to approve field trips for overnight and or more than 200 miles. 12.4 to acknowledge the administrator and teacher salary benefits report for fiscal year 25. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I have a quick question on 12.4 the administrator and teacher salary report. There's um are

130we in the the item is last year's salary and benefits? Is that what we're >> It's in our rear. >> It is in the rear. Okay. I'm just double checking on that. Thank you. That's all. >> Yeah. I guess it's just a standard report to approve. >> Yeah. I was making sure I was looking at the right one. >> Okay. Um, >> Miss C. >> I, >> Dr. Martin, >> I, >> Dr. Pock, >> I, >> Mr. Cerrone, >> I, >> Miss Wenmouth, >> I, Dr. Mario, >> I. >> Motion passes 6. Moving on to 131. Uh, for information, financial statements. >> Thank you, Mr. President. So as it stands right now for the month of August which is the financial that we presenting for September uh there's nothing uh out of the ordinary. If

131you look at the member that I included as of August we've actually received uh 14.8% more this year in August that we did the same time last year. As far as suspensions are concerned, since the budget that we presented that has been approved tonight, we've looked at different ways to do things more efficiently and that that seems to be trending right now. So on the revenue side, we receive 14.8 million more than we did. 8% sorry 14.8% more than we did at this time last year. We have uh on the expenditure side, we've uh spent 14.5% less this month uh uh in August compared to the same period last year. So we're trending in the right direction. Then uh as as it stands at the end of August, the fund balance we have 18 85.8

1328 million on balance and investment. We have $76.2 million under investment. And uh and then the current uh budget report, if you look at it, we actually on the revenue side, we're in a pretty good shape as was uh was uh mentioned earlier before. On the expenditure side too we are within trend if you look at historically total revenue uh on the revenue side total revenue historically we at uh we should be at 7.8 year to date we at 6.4 which is you know it's so and historically looking at the last five years. So local revenue we uh historically 6% we had 4.19%. and state revenue. We uh historically we had 9.26, we had 8.2, but we did not know that we're not getting the same revenue this we did last year. So, we just

133wanted to point that out. And then on the expenditure side too, total expenses, uh year to date, we at 5.76. Historically, we should be at 7.94. So, we're in good shape. Salary and benefits. historically is 6.45 45 we're at 5.17 but in all honesty though we know it's the beginning of so August is not a good gauge of what is going to happen rest of the fiscal year I just want to now other object historically we should be at 15.52 we at 8.75 the biggest source of that to date has been the bus we pay for the bus lees out of other objects which we paid close to 2.6 in the the new bus that we have and then we paid for tuition at the district tuition out of that. So uh CPI is another

134thing I want to share. So uh from August 24 to August 25 as it stands right now we have CPI index of 2.9%. Which is pretty high. They have been trending down but it seems to the last couple of months it was at uh10 basis point in May uh 20 basis point now it seems to be trending back up again and uh we we monitor that because as the largest source of our revenue uh property tax we use CPI to determine how much we get right so I always point out it's just the December CPI that we use which comes out in January But it's just a good gauge to see what the trend is and also the things that we buy in the real world is price CPI impacted. So that's another reason why

135I think it's very important for us to know what the trend is. And I believe that is that is all. One thing I would like to point out though, we get the second installment of a property tax payment in September. So it will be reflected in the September report that we present in October. Second board meeting in October. So the money that we then get in September, we have to couple with the one that we got in June, we have to make it last till June again when we get the first installment of the fiscal 2025 levy. So this is also the time September is when we start talking about investing in real earners because we have a pretty good chunk of money in our reserve end. We try to make sure that we put

136it to work, maximize the amount of yield that we get without gambling. We don't do anything risky. Our goal is always to preserve capital or do it in in a in a smart way where we can get the most return for our money. I had a quick question on the um fee collection rates. I just noticed this is just a wondering because I noticed that the activities were already above the collection rate that we were at. >> Now the activity funds we actually >> we have no input with that. >> Activity funds are funds that are raised by the schools they use in the school. We have oversight over there, but it doesn't impact us financially >> because they belong exclusively to the school. >> We just have to make sure they explain appropriately. >>

137Yeah, I think I'm talking about something different. I'm talking about the collection rates, >> the uh the activities >> the okay the fees collection rate >> the fee collection rate. So in activities for example I know it's been a struggle to collect all of our rates or I noticed though that for example our rate it makes sense that like the instructional fees were at 43% last year we ended at 73%. But the activities were already beating like the rate >> as we did from last year. So I don't know if there's been a change in practice in how we're collecting those or if >> people are just what what what it is is in the beginning of the school year people tend to pay their fees. >> Yeah. And then it kind of peters off

138as the year goes. >> Activities get added. >> Yes. Yes. So I was I was I was debating whether to include August uh because August is an outline. We've only been in school for a couple of weeks >> when this report was generated. >> But just uh just to be consistent, since we shared every month our school is in session, we decide to include it. But it's a really really bad data point. Just wanted to point that out. So, I wouldn't read too much into it. >> Yeah, I was just wondering. It just stood out to me. >> Context. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> No. >> All right. 13.2. >> Thank you, Mr. >> All right. First read on bunch of policies. >> Yep. So um today our policy and legislative committee is

139bringing forward uh first read. These are policies from press issue 119 that was released in 2025. A majority of the changes that you can see in the attachment um which are available through the redline version focus on minor wording changes uh legal references and craft references. Um but I would like to highlight uh four policies from that list where we're talking um about some additional changes. So the first one that I would like to highlight is 280 um which is our board member um oath and conduct. If you take a look at the top of page three in the red line version, um the recommendation from the policy and legislative committee is to add the statement that is being recommended by press um which states a board member who fails to abide by the oath

140of office or the code may be subject to action by the board including but not limited to formal center andor referral to the regional superintendent for removal of office under board policy 260. So that would be added at the end of the policy. So that would be one change that would be recommended to this policy. >> What page is that Dr. >> It's at the top of page three. So it's under policy 2 colon 80. The next two policies that I'd like to highlight is 740 uh which is non-public school students um and then also 7325 which is student fundraising activities. While the committee is recommending these two for first read and approval at our next meeting for the recommended legal and cross reference change. Those two policies we will be bringing back to the

141policy committee um and reviewing the policy um first looking at the administrative procedures and then potentially bringing additional recommendations to those two policies. Um so again we are recommending right now in 740 and 7325 that the recommendations in press issue 119 referring to the legal and cross references are approved because we do have a timeline for the press issue um 119. Those are two that we anticipate might come back to the full board for review um in the next few months. The last policy that we're kind of putting in the same bucket is 880 which is gifts to district. Again, we are recommending it um to move forward for the legal and cross reference changes recommended by press. Um but the committee discussed additional legal guidance and potential re-review of the policy 880 for gifts

142to district. So in terms of the request during second read for action at our next meeting um the only substantial change recommended by press is to uh policy 2 col 80 which is the board member uh oath and conduct. Um and then the remaining changes would be again minor wording which you can see in the red line, legal references or cross references which with potential re-re which we will we would bring back through a first read and a second read if there's additional recommendations to 740, 7325 and 880. >> Can you repeat that? No, just kidding. any Did I miss any? Any question? I I do unless anybody else. So 280. Um so that was recommended in press correct to include verbatim. >> Okay. So we could default um and not include it. So we

143do have the choice of recommending that it be included or not be included. We did not change any of the recommended verbiage from press. Um but we do have to decide whether or not to include that statement or not. Um the committee decided to bring forth the statement as a as a whole. um as inclusion within that policy. Um but the full board would have to decide yes, we want to include it or no, we do not. That's what we have to submit to press. >> Thanks. >> And so everybody on the policy committee was in favor of including that. >> You're talking 280. >> 280. Yes. >> Board member fails to abide o >> so on and so forth. >> Yeah. We I have a discussion on that. >> Yeah. >> You have other

144thoughts that you want to share? >> Well, I just I want to make sure that we're not unique, you know, in that um and that we treat it very it's it looks like it has to go to the regional superintendent. um it wouldn't be something that we would unilaterally be able to decide. would have to also um because I don't know what the saying you know we we can have uh you know disagreements isn't a reason right you know right so >> um I just don't want it to be abused I guess so but there are safeguards for that as well okay um my question is more so around 71 140. I think Dr. Ken Kate, you talked about the board would essentially approve this policy in the next two weeks, but then we will

145revisit this in terms of protocols to put in place for this search and seizure >> or 7 140. >> Yeah. No, >> that's not what I heard. No, the 3 7 col >> 7 325 and 8 col 80. So the changes to 7140 there is a minor uh language change in the first section um to denote onschool property and then there are both uh legal reference change and cross references. Um so there is no substantial change to the policy. Um, so then there is no at this point recommendation to a change to the students rights and responsibilities. >> Okay. I guess what would concern me about the policy is just parents being notified, but I do see some language around parents being notified in the event. >> Yes. And that is also detailed in our

146students rights and responsibility. >> Okay, perfect. Anything else? All right. Moving on to action item 14.1, approval of a fiscal year 26 budget. I have a motion, please. >> I make a motion to approve the fiscal year 26 budget as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All right. >> Mr. Cerrone, >> I >> Miss C. I >> Dr. Martin, >> Miss Wenmouth, I >> Dr. Mario, I >> Dr. Polar. >> Hi. >> Motion passes 6. Next action item 142, approval of personnel report. >> I have a motion. Can I have a motion, please? >> I make a motion to approve the personnel report as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> No. All right. >> Miss Wenmouth. >> I. >> Miss C. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> Hi. >> Dr. Pock. >>

147Hi. >> Dr. Mario. >> Hi. >> Dr. Martin. I >> motion passes 6. All right. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I make a motion to adjourn. Second. >> All in favor?