SD308 Board of Education Meeting (08/11/2025)

001Can I have a motion to go back to open session? >> We did that. >> We already did. >> Oh. Oh, sorry. I called to order the Wheel Community Union School District Board of Education meeting. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Cerrone >> here. >> Dr. Martin >> here. >> Dr. Mario >> here. >> Dr. Pak >> here. >> Miss Robinson. >> Miss C here. >> Miss Wenma >> present. All right. and stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible. Okay, we're uh item 4.1 is uh >> yes, John's. We're gonna go ahead and get started. >> All right. Yeah, >> you guys can come on out to the front. Okay. Thank

002you. Good evening, Board of Education and everybody listening and watching online. This evening, we would like to take a moment to recognize two remarkable students whose quick thinking and compassion made a difference. Mason Traaser and Alex TR. Recently, during a time of need, these two students acted without hesitation to help and support their peer. Their actions showed tremendous courage, kindness, and empathy, qualities that reflect the very best of our school community. On behalf of the board of education and the entire district, we want to commend them for their bravery and for demonstrating how we can all look out for one another. Their example reminds us that leadership and heroism are not defined by age, but by our willingness to act when someone needs us. To these students, we say thank you. You have made us

003all proud, and we are honored to celebrate you tonight. With us tonight, we do have Mason Traaser. Come on up, please. [Applause] Everyone, come on up. Love to have you join us. No hiding. My hair was out of >> I was say you got to find the exact Good. Welcome to Thank you. >> Thank you for coming. >> All right. >> Moving on to item 51, the fiscal year 26 budget presentation. Good evening board. Uh this evening we are going to I've invited uh Mr. Oafami and Samantha Satar who are going to present on this coming budget presentation this year's budget. I want to thank you both on the outset for your leadership and the countless hours and I also of working with the community and with staff to really prepare this budget presentation and

004really unprecedented times in terms of budget season I would say. Uh I also want to thank our staff, principals, district level administrators for their support in the coordination of this. This is really a representation of countless hours of attention to how we think about our financing and ensure ensuring that every dollar is going to our most important resource which are our students and our schools. And so I just want to thank you on the outset and with that I'll turn it to you Mr. Benny. >> Thank you Dr. Katti. I want to start out by saying uh we appreciate the uh the trust and the responsibility that the board as well as the community is placed in us when it comes to managing uh hardearned taxpayers money in the district. So what we've done, we've

005done everything we can to develop and create a budget that we thought is representative of the uh of the vision and the mission of the board and what the community deserve. as far as spending plan is concerned. And with that being said, I'm going to have uh the director of finance, Miss Sitta, to start out the uh the presentation. >> Thank you very much. >> Do you have the clicker? Okay. I'm sorry. >> We're having a technical difficulties with our our batteries here. So, oh, there we go. Thank you. >> There we go. Okay. A budget is a moral document which reflects the district's values, goals, and objectives. It complies with all applicable laws and regulations. It provides spending authority and essential financial information as required by the state, local and federal agencies. SD308 has

006five strategic priorities. Priority one is future ready. Priority two is systems of support. Priority three is academics. Four is wellness. And five is systems management. Finance and the budget fall into priority five. We want to increase fiscal responsibility, transparency, and engagement. Implement a zerobased budget and focus on shared accountability. A zerobased budget is essentially spending for only things that we need. We start at zero and build the budget based on need. In order to promote transparency and trust, we held budget community workshops at different locations and times to try to accommodate as many people and schedules as possible. Here is our budget timeline. Phase one is the initial planning stage. Phase two are first drafts of the budgets where we collect materials and needs from budget managers for zerobased budgeting. Phase three is the phase

007we are in now where we present the tentative budget and hold workshops. And phase four is the adoption with public hearing. We are all here for the same purpose, student success. >> And now I'll turn it over to Mr. Obi to talk about the numbers. >> Thank you. So uh I always say when I talk to folks in the community, we're in the people's business. We educate kids and in order for us to do that we hire a significant number of educators in the classroom, coaches as well as support staff who actually provide support to the kids. And so of the we are currently have approximately 2300 staff members FTE and which is a decrease of 1.5 from fiscal year 25. of that amount clearly 95 plus% of the staff members that we have in

008the district directly support students. I'm talking about our teachers, our teacher assistant, our building administrator, our bus drivers, our building secretaries. They actually work very closely with the student. So at the end of the day it's important that I think our community knows that 95% of the expenditure that we have that goes to salary directly touches student and just 1.79% is dedicated to administrative salary in the district office which is actually lower than what the average in the state of Illinois is and surrounding area. The typical percentages for administrative salary as a component of the salary budget runs between four and 5%. So uh I mentioned earlier >> that is you're basically saying directors and >> so we're talking about the superintendent the assistant superintendent the directors the assistant directors the folks who lead the

009district centrally are the ones I'm talking >> just want to clarify >> yes thank you so of the 95% of employees that I mentioned earlier who directly support students in the uh of those folks. We're talking about building administrator, teacher, teacher assistant, bus drivers, bus money, office staff, uh folks who serve our students food in the cafeteria, our custodians who clean our building, the maintenance folks who keep our buildings running, as well as our librarians. Those are the core people that actually consume 95% of the of the of the cost of running our schools. And then the other 4.7% I just wanted to give an example of those who are not directly located in school but they support our students in the background if you will. They serve as the back office of the enterprise

010in the district. They're talking about the HR specialists, the folks who actually go out and do recruitment for the district. Without them, it will be just a little harder for us to be able to find teachers and other personnel who support our kids. The bookkeeper, when we receive money from the state or from the federal government or even from taxpayers, they book the bookkeeper book that in our books. Then accounts payable. This is the individual who actually pays our bills for the for the things that we buy as a district like any other business. Benefit coordinator. This is the person who actually goes out and shop for benefit for a staff member. We're talking about health care, dental, uh a retirement planning, so many retirement plan, payroll specialist. These are the folks who actually pay

011our staff twice a month. Uh purchasing agent, the folks who actually go out and negotiate the best pricing for the for the things that we acquire that makes it possible to educate our kids. I'm talking about textbooks, an instructional supply, even cleaning supplies that our custodian personnel use to keep our building clean. And then another example I wanted to share is the claims analyst. Those are the folks who actually go out and file claims, federal government claim, state claim, and other uh neighborhood school district that actually send their kids for us to educate. and we have to build them to uh to pay for the services that receive from us. So wanted to give a picture of what changes between what was budgeted in fiscal year 25 FTE to what is in the current year

01226 FTE budget. As you see there, we have an increase of 18.06. And what I would like to point out is the majority of this increase is actually tied to two key programs. Special education, which we know when it comes to special education. If a student is got an IEP, we have no option but to provide them with the services that they require. So we've hired additional staff because of the increase in population of our special needs students. The other class of students that we provide additional support for in this budget are the English learner. We have an increase in uh growth in our students who come to us uh with who are equipped with with a different language and we need to work with them to help them master English so they can perform

013at their best. And then the staffing changes that are not related to to licensed folks. We're talking about administrator. There was an increase of nine school administrator. And those administrators are actually related to special education too because in order for us to make sure that we are efficient in how we provide special education support, we hire some APs who will help us with planning special education. And if we do this well on the front end, it will save us money on the back end as far as avoiding due process and claim bought by brought by parents because they did not receive the service that they were entitled to. And so if you look at every other class of employees, we actually reduce staffing. This is an attempt based on the directive that we've been given

014by this board to try to be efficient with how we deploy resources, especially when it comes to personnel who do not directly touch our classrooms. So, we're going to go over the uh the numbers the budget estimates for this fiscal year. So what I think is important to note is that the total amount of the budget in fiscal year 26 is 316.6 and that consists of the 278.5 million in operational budgets. That's the budget that we use for day-to-day. We talk about salaries for all for our staff member, the benefits that they that they receive, supplies that we buy for them, the consulting services that we have, such as the services provided by Air, the company that feeds our kids, utilities that we pay for, uh, gasoline, water that we pay for, those things are

015actually paid out of the operating budget. Then if you add the 1.27 27 in facility repairs to that and then 36.9 million is the cost of debt service. This a bunch that will issue that we actually have to pay for out of property taxes bond and interest. If you add that up, that's how you get the 31 uh 316.6 million in total budget expenditure. So, we wanted to show the highlights of what revenues look like. The majority of the funds that we use to operate the district comes from property taxes that our residents pay to us and we are very grateful. You all make it possible for us to operate a first class worldass school district. Without you, we would not be able to do what we do for our kids. And that particular uh

016sets of revenue is projected to go up by $5 million or 4% in fiscal year 26. CPPRT what that is is the corporate property replacement tax. These are taxes that municipality actually charge businesses that operate in their in their in their unit. And that amount actually is expected to go down by close to 50%. And that's driven in part that right after the pandemic there was a pent up demand in business transactions and we saw an increase in the amount of taxes that were levy uh against businesses because of increase in revenue right after the pandemic. But we know we're back in the regular business cycle now. So the last three years of increase this year that is actually gone down which is what accounts for the decrease of $1.6 6 million in corporate property

017replacement tax and EBF is the second largest source of revenue. If you remember earlier I said property tax makes up the largest. The second largest is the state funding and what that stands for is evidence-based funding. And that amount actually even though it's going up by 1.4 is actually a decrease from what we've gotten the last couple of years. I'll give you an example as an illustration. In fiscal year 25, which is the prior fiscal year, we received an increase of $7.7 million compared to what we received in 2024. So, in planning the budget, when we're doing projections before we found out what the actual amount was, we assume conservatively, we we thought that we will receive 4.4 $4 million more than what we did last year, which was still lower than the 7.7 that

018we received in 25 compared to 24. As it came in, we actually only received 1.4. It's a significant decrease in what we're expecting from the state. And the reason that was given by the state is the fact that there had been an increase in property value in the community, what is referred to as local wealth. Even though the value of homes in the community have increased, that doesn't have any direct impact to the amount of money that we can get in property tax. The amount of money that the district receive in property tax is limited by CPI, which for this fiscal year, that CPI is 2.9. We will we not get any more money than that. So, we didn't think it it made sense for us to to to see a decrease to what we

019had estimated, but that's where we are in fiscal year 26. Other state funding are projected to increase by 1.5 billion which comes out to 14.43. Those are the reimbursement for regular transportation, special ed transportation, uh early childhood uh funding and other funding from the state that we refer to a mandated categorical fund. And then the last source of funding that we wanted to highlight is federal funding. As it stands right now, we're looking at a decrease of $600,000 compared to what we received last year, but that's still in flux. There's a possibility we may get more than that, but as it stands right now, that is what we're looking at for fiscal year 26. >> Mr. Femi, can I ask just a few questions? For the federal funding um part, um what is the reason

020behind the the decrease in that funding? So it was really a decision made by the current administration. >> The the core of those allocations is made up of IDA which is special aid funding that we get from the federal government that flows through the state and that money actually goes to supplement the money that we spend for special education. Mind you, I mentioned earlier that is a population that is growing. And when it comes to special education, a school district such as us, we have no flexibility. When we get uh students, we need special education services, we provide them and they tend to be expensive. The other component of that title funds title one which is geared towards lowincome students title two which is uh teacher training title three which is bilingual which I mentioned

021earlier that's another population that is growing but instead of seeing an increase in the allocation what we've seen is a decrease so it's been a decrease in title one title two and all the other titles essentially from what we received last year >> so that's a federal decision federal that by the conf federal administration >> and then um CPPRT the other way to increase I'm just checking my understanding the other way to increase that would be for businesses to do more business >> yes >> or to add additional businesses in the community that would do business or correct my understanding >> right so except when this uh this tax was put into place back in 1978 it was benchmark >> okay >> in order to to be able to convince all the municipalities to come

022together and allow the Illinois Department of Revenue to be the collector of these taxes. It was benchmarked to that period. So there were communities that the industry that were there back then and no longer there, right? But it was still still being used as the benchmark. >> So if we see overall increase in business transaction, business growth, we will all benefit from it. >> Okay. commercial properties. >> Yes. >> Residential, >> any business, any business, >> any business >> that uh >> any business like limited partnerships, LLC's, corporations that are located here in Illinois, does business here in Illinois, they pay taxes and those taxes are distributed based on the benchmark that was set in 1978 to municipalities that received those funds back before the new Illinois Constitution. >> Thank you. So we wanted to

023show a comparison between budgeted fiscal year 25 to uh what we proposing for 26. And as you see uh property taxes, local revenue I should say. The largest component of which is property taxes. The other revenue includes food that we sell to our kids from uh from Aramac fees that we charge our students, athletic fees and rental that we when we rent our facilities out to third party companies, they pay uh they paid for those spaces. That's what made up the local revenue and we anticipate that will grow go up by 6.54. State revenue overall which is a a combination of EBF evidence-based funding and mandated categorical fund is projected to go up by 2.59 and then federal revenue as I mentioned earlier is projected to go down by 6.58 and then the total revenue

024a combination of local state federal is estimated to go up by 4.35 So I mentioned earlier before that the most reliable source of revenue that we have as a district is local revenue which the biggest component of that is property taxes. So state revenue makes up 43% and the federal government revenue makes up a poultry 3.1%. And so again, we we just wanted to show this uh with a picture what we're looking at and it's essentially a pictorial view of the table that was presented in the last uh chart. The flip side of that is revenue, which is how much we spend. And as I always say, we have less control of revenue than we do about expenditure because we rely on other people to provide us revenue, but we are totally responsible for how

025much we can spend. So what we try to do, we try to be very prudent and very very calculating with how we deploy the revenue that we get, the limited revenue that we get. And I'll say before I start on this, this was actually a very collaborative effort. Everyone in the district work very hard together to make sure that we're efficient, we're thoughtful with the budget that we're presenting today to look at different ways that we can reduce expenditures without negatively impact instruction in the classroom. And this is what we came up with. As I mentioned earlier, when the people's business, it's no surprise that the vast majority of the expenditure is tied into people salary and and benefits. And that makes up uh the majority of the growth too for the most part. And

026then purchase services, we actually were able to reduce by being efficient purchase services by over 20%. And I I believe that's a testament to the hard work of the folks in the district and the realization that we need to do more with the resources that we've been given. >> So yes, sir. >> Sorry. I I um so this is budget to budget when just uh for the rest of the board when will we get the audited statements for >> so the audited statement should be available by late October and it'll be presented to the board in November like we did last year >> because this is uh some of this is a process that we have to go through. >> Yes it is. We have to go through this before we get those auditive statements

027>> and it's because of the accounting system that we use in the district. So we budget based on cash basis. So for the budget reason when we get the revenue we book it when we get it for budget and expenditures when we spend the money we book it. Now for accounting purpose we have what is called acru basis. So it's so there's a difference between how we budget and how we do accounting. So at the end of the year we do an audit and the adjustments made between cash and budget and actually the acral accounting which is why we have to wait for the audit to be finished for us to know what the final numbers will be. So the other thing I would like to point out is uh a decrease in capital outlay

028and that's really driven by by the available resource. As much as we would like to invest more in capital outlay, we have to kind of limit what we could spend to what we have and that's that's what we're looking at. Other objects an increase of 20.53 and that's driven by a number of things. Key part of that though I want to point out goes back to special education too because we have some out of district expenses students that we place out of district and that we pay their tuition. their residents here and the level of services that they need in the district, we're not able to provide those services to them. So, we send them to what we call a therapeutic special schools where they get the the resources that they need, but we still

029have to pay for the cost of providing that and non capital equipment a decrease of close to 50%. So at the end of it, the increase between budget to budget 25 to 26 is an increase of 8.96. So this is essentially what I just spoke to, but we just thought it would be helpful to have a pie chart because we know we all learn differently. Some like table, some like pictures. But what I think the big takeaway from here is what I've said repeatedly. The majority of our resources is geared towards people. We need teachers. We need educators. We need principles. We need folks to support our kids in order for them to get an education. So the majority of our resource is people. We are in the people business. I can't say it enough.

030So the rest of it is 16.3. And this is how we spend the rest of it. I mentioned earlier food service a contract with Aramac is a big chunk of it utilities light gas water that's that's another big part of it like any other business we have attorneys that we engage to work with us we have audit firm they conduct independent audit we're not allowed to conduct our own audit it has to be done by arms length it has to be done by third party accounting firm we have to pay for that at a purchase services software that We use we use software for doing assessment. We use software for our computer system. So we use software for all types of things. That's paid out of purchase services too. And we also have third party

031consulting services for transportation, special ed for the most part. They transfer our kids from uh from home to school and back home. And then like any other business, we spend money on property and casualty insurance in order to protect the interest of uh the district against losses. And by law, we have to our workers come. When our employees get hurt on the job, that's how we pay for the cost of uh of their of their losses. And then essentially, we pay for facility man maintenance and repairs out of the 16.3%. So there's not as much flexibility as most people would think when it comes to a school district budget. It's strictly mostly people. Now this is uh I I believe a significant information that I think we need to share with our community. the district

032has a a significant debt low and uh if if you look at your tax uh tax bill, you will see that there's a section of your tax bill that talks about bond and interest. And this came about really back in the early 2000 when Kendall counties was the fastest growing county in the country, not just in the state of Illinois, in the country. At that time there was a need to build 12 schools all at the same time. In Illinois when a school district needs to build a school the only way that school district can pay for it is to issue bonds which is a form of debt that are then sold to bundle investors who expect to get paid. Most people believe wrongly that the state helps a school district build school. The state

033of Illinois doesn't do that. the local the local district has to go out and issue bonds. So in order for the bonds to be issued a referendum has to be conducted. So a referendum was conducted in 2006 and the community that had been educated here voted to actually have the bonds issued and in addition to that we needed legislation from the state to allow us to be able to issue the huge amount of debt that we needed because it was huge to build 12 schools all in that short period of time cost a lot of money. So, we issued debt of $250 million. Of that amount back in 2006 that we used to build this 12 schools, we now owe an amount of $185.5 billion in principal balance. Now, the interest on that $250 million

034that is still owed is 88.9 million. So for a total outstanding debt of 274.5 I want folks to think about if you when you take out a mortgage the the first few years when you pay your mortgage if you look at the amortization table for your money this is no different than the first 10 12 years where you paid for your mortgage you're paying just principal then the the longer that you've been paying that you start hitting the the uh I'm sorry you pay the Then the next 13 years, I'm sorry, you pay the the interest the first 12 years, then you start paying the the the principal when you go beyond that. That's no different from from bonds for bonds. But I will say we've made a significant uh progress though. We started out

035at a 2 uh 250 million. We're now looking at a principle of 185 million. So and as I mentioned earlier, this debt was taken out primarily to build those 12 school and nothing else. So the debt service of paying back those investors who invested in those debt currently is close to $37 million that we pay every year. So when you look at your tax rate and you see that the tax rate relatively is higher is because of that $37 million that we still have to pay in debt service for the construction of those 12 schools. I know a lot of time I get questions from folks who wrongly believe that $37 million is used for daily day-to-day operating funds. It's not. It's to pay back debt for those 12 schools. So this is the tenative

036budget that we have by funds. So if you look at that the ED fund is actually the largest of our funds. This is where most of our expenses are paid out. We what we have right now the projection is showing that at the end of the fiscal year we should have a surplus of just about a million dollars. Now the next fund is operational and maintenance. Excuse me. the projected end of fiscal year, we're looking at a deficit of 1.2 million. But I'm not that concerned about it, and I think we shouldn't be because we actually have a pretty decent reserve in the in the operations fund at the end of the fiscal year before the audit is cond uh finished, we were looking at 10.1 million in operation and maintenance reserve. So we should

037easily be able to observe that $1.2 million without any problem. Now the the next fund that is really concerning and should concern everyone is the transportation fund. We ended the fiscal year with a transportation fund at a deficit of close to $5 million at the end of 2025. Now, I also want to add that even before the end of the year, we transfer $8 million into that fund to try to balance it, and we still didn't balance it. We ended up with uh a whole of $5 million. Now, what you have to know, it's like your bank account. You can't have a negative bank balance. The money has to come from somewhere else to be transferred into that fund. So, we will have to transfer $5 million from somewhere else to plug the end of

038the year fund balance in transportation of $5 million. And even with that, at the end of this fiscal year that we're in, we're still looking at a 3.3 in transportation. So, transportation, the way it's operating right now, we need to to be more efficient in how we uh we we run transportation. And we also have to follow the rule and the laws set up by the state board of education. Previous to this year when we are trying to make some changes, we provide to transportation to just about any of our students who request transportation. By law, we only require to provide transportation to three classes of students. students who have IEP, not just IEP, but the IP has to call for transportation to be provided. The second class of kids are kids who live in

039designated hazardous route. We just can't arbitrarily designate an area as been hazardous. We have to consult, we have to engage the service of a specialized firm who has expertise in hazardous route study. That has to be done and the report has to come before the board for approval. Once the board approves it, it has to go to the uh Illinois Department of Transportation to confirm that that was actually the report is actually accurate. Only then would the state start reimbursing us for designated hazardous route. But since we're transporting everyone, we're losing money. And to make it even more complicated, I just mentioned the three class of kids that the state will reimburse us for. We get 69 cent for every dollar that we spend on regular ed transportation. But for special ed transportation, we only

040get 61 cent for every dollar that we spend on transportation. So right off the bat, we're behind the eightball, if you will. We're in a hole. So we have to be really really careful careful to make sure we only transport folks who are eligible for transportation. I know it's very difficult for parents to accept that. But if we continue to to build holes like we've been doing for transportation, it creates a significant financial challenge to the district. We did a projection last year and what we saw is that the rate of deficit will continue to build every year till 2030 when that total amount becomes $26 million. Money we can't afford to lose. So we have to do something about transportation quickly and forth with >> is the answer to this deficit um mostly efficiency

041making the system more efficient. >> Efficiency is part of it and we got here to I guess thank you for asking that question. What happened is transportation didn't get here overnight. What happened before pandemic and the inflation that came with pandemic, the cost of transportation was relatively lower. We used to buy a 72 passenger yellow school bus. We used to pay about 83 $85,000 for the same bus. Today is $165,000. >> So cost is more >> for Yeah, it's almost double. We used to pay 12 to $13 an hour to our bus driver before the pandemic. Since the pandemic, what happened is the folks who used to drive buses for us, they were retired folks. Our retired folks who have a pension somewhere else and they just needed something to do. They'll drive for us

042two hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon. And most of them were significantly negatively impacted by the pandemic. We know they are committed. So when pande co was around a lot of them got sick. We lost a chunk of them who decided they would no longer drive us because it was just too dangerous. So what we have had to do is we have to it's not just us actually it's every school district all over the country. So there was intense competition for drivers because in the marketplace anytime you have lower supply and higher demand the only way that you can reach equilibrium is that prices have to go up and that is what has been going on. So the wages have been going up. So we're competing not just with our neighboring school

043district but just about everywhere else. So we go we went from paying 12 to 13 to now paying $23 an hour. And even with that, we're still struggling to f to find qualified bus drivers. That's another that's another factor. So now, in order to make the job attractive to those folks who can pick and choose where they want to work, we are now making those job a full-time job. Where it used to be a 4-hour day job, we've had to make it a six hour a day to make it attractive to folks. Now when you do that then you have to offer benefits based on the affordable care act. When you hire someone to work six hours a day you have to pay for health insurance, dental, vision. So that's another added cost that we

044didn't have before. Additionally, you also have to offer pension IMRF. When someone works six hours a day, you have to provide pension for them. So if you think about all that cost added to the cost of transportation, that's where we get to where we are. >> Can I there was there's one other layer. Um we were getting reimbured 79 and 71. It's going to 69 and 61. >> Yes. >> And then if you think about the geographic, you know, the radius or you know the amount of miles that we drive, that's going to impact our district >> more relative to others to many others, especially in suburb. >> Am I >> absolutely >> accurate to that? So, >> yeah. So, that's so there's there's a series of things that are all negative. >> And some

045of our neighbors were in a better financial position when we this whole thing started in that they had a higher reserve. I know just about every school district that I'm aware of is bleeding money in transportation. But the difference between us and them is number one, we don't have they don't have as big a radius to transport kids as we do. We transport 12,000 kids every single day, 68 square miles, >> and then we have a lower fund balance. So, we couldn't observe the cost, the excess cost of transportation. So, we in a in a worse shape that are neighboring school district. So, but we absolutely we're doing things to try to address that on our part. Things that we can do efficiently. One example I'll give which was presented to the board in April.

046We used to lease buses every five years. We'll lease them. We'll give them back. And when we'll give them back, they will have 22,000 miles on which you can tell it still got a lot of life in it. So the last 72 buses that replace the 72 buses that we gave back, we did a lease to own, which meant that after the five years of payment at $12 million, we're going to keep them for another five years. and we will save $12 million that we will pay in five years. We'll plow that back and that will help us and we we're optimizing our routing and we're limiting the amount of third party providers that we using. So we're doing all kinds of things that we can do internally to create efficiency. But make no mistake

047though, we need to make sure that we only transport kids who are eligible for transportation. And so that el el el el el el el el el el el el el el eligibility comes from state guidance and if we adhering to state guidance then we aren't funded for that. Correct. Absolutely. >> And that would be any special program. Absolutely. Right. >> So even when you think about special education we have to adhere to the state guidance. >> Absolutely. Yes. So being having an IEP does not automatically >> qualify a student to ride the bus. The IP has to specifically say transportation is required for the child's special need in order for them to be eligible for transportation. So the next uh fund is IMRF and social security. IMRF pays for the pension contribution for a

048non-licensed employee. And as we know every employee pays per biker. That's what that is. Now, the way the law is written in the school code, you're only supposed to levy what you need and uh we have about $3.1 million in reserve in IMRF. So, we have the means to be able to absorb that $1 million deficit without it creating any problem. And then working cash, we're looking at uh a surplus of 617,000. So in aggregate, we're looking at a projected deficit of 3.9, but the only amount that is concerning that we don't have the way to pay for out of reserve is the 3.3 in transportation. But for transportation, we'll be in a good shape even with this challenging budget year. So, I wanted to wrap up by talking about all the things that uh

049as a district that we're grappling with financially. One, the number one thing is state funding. We know the state of Illinois tries, but the state doesn't fund us adequately or equitably. As we mentioned earlier, we were anticipating getting prior funding in ABF, which is the second largest source of funding. We are not getting there. It was the decision was made based on local wealth. But we don't have the ability of tapping into that local wealth without doing a referendum and asking our taxpayers to even give us more of their taxes. We know our taxpayers are contributing abundantly already. So that is that is something that we need to keep in mind. And the state is underfunding early childhood education. I mentioned special education. The state is not pulling its weight. uh reimbursement for regular transportation

050and special ed. Every dollar that we spend, if we're lucky, we get 69 cent for regular ed and 61 cent for special education. So, right off the bat, we're in a hole. And we know there's a rising cost to everything that we do. Salaries makes up a big chunk of our expenditure. Our employees live in the real world. We know inflation has been rampant the last three years. So they expect to be paid more because food cost more, utility cost more in the world where our employees live and even in the world that we live in too. The cost of heating is going is going up. The cost of electricity, we received notification last month at the end of last month saying the cost of utilities is going up by 22% for the rest of

051the year. But fortunately, we had a contract already where we locked up the rate that we're going to pay till the till the end of the fiscal year. So that doesn't impact us, right? But it just illustrates how the price of things are going up. Special education services is growing at a higher pace than our revenue. Our revenue, the biggest source of our revenue this year is from uh property tax which is governed by CPI. That CPI was 2.9. We know we're spending significantly more than that in special education, in utility, in transportation, in salaries and benefit cost. And the state there's a level of uncertainty with uh state funding. Even when the state allocates money to us, that doesn't mean we get that money. The controller of the state still have to juggle and

052decide who she going to pay. Is she going to pay us now? she gonna wait till three months from now because revenue is not keeping pace with expenditure. So even though we think we're going to get this money but we need the cash to be able to meet obligation on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. The other part I want to point out point out is the federal uh federal funding is not as predictable as it's been the last few years. As you all are aware on July 1st, the current administration delayed release of $240 million which at that time we thought was going to be $9 million for us but has since been reduced to 8.5 and uh we are hoping that they will come through with even that 8.5. So at the end of

053the day the only dependable source of revenue that we have is is uh property taxes and that only makes up 48%. So let's do the math. 278 5 million in operating fund. 48% of it is predictable. The rest of it is kind of iffy. So we have property tax in the middle and we have two unreliable partners in the state and the federal government. So those are things that we have to worry about and we have to plan for because there's no other way that we can do it. So we have to be mindful of how we spend the resources that we get. >> Discussions. Thank you, Mr. Obi and Amanda uh Satara. Thank you so much. Before we have questions, I want to invite Dr. Concaid. One of the to speak a little bit

054to the title one work and uh thinking about our title work that we did this past spring as we thought about these efficiencies that were coming our way. Um Dr. King really worked very closely with the programmatic side of our district. Um we spent a lot of time thinking about taring what were essential things that we needed to invest in and really ensuring the protection of our programs for our students and our schools. And so um Dr. K, if you would just for a few minutes talk about that because I think it was very important the work that the team led and and you led in supporting these in these big reductions that really kept us afloat this year. Um, as Mr. Oaf mentioned, um, currently we have not received title 2 allocations. So, what

055we had to do with our title one funds for this year was, um, complete different set aides really focus first on professional learning. The professional development that we had started last year, both really at all levels from EC through transition, we wanted to continue for both our teachers, our staff, and our administrators. So we wanted to prioritize that for the benefit of our students. Um other things that we have um put kind of aside as Mr. Oafi mentioned uh we're hoping that additional funding will come through is some summer programs for next summer. So we wanted to make sure that we are investing in our students for right now to not see significant change in programming. Um so we first prioritized our direct supports to students through our interventionists and our interventionist assistance. Um we

056also saw some decrease in our title one SIP money. Um so which was in in our district because of our uh school improvement due to our summitive designations. Our four schools that receive additional funding on top of their title one funds are focused on children with disabilities. So we wanted to really make sure that we were focused on what would be the strongest uh benefits to the students in terms of programming and direct services. Um so through the work with the principles and with their school improvement teams really tried to relook at some of those plans that we had discussed over the last couple months but where did we want to uh prioritize that funding and kind of unanimously it was upfront immediate direct services. Um so we're hoping over time um through both title

057two and um what we consider carryover so any unspent funds from this year's title one will then um move to summer programming for next year um for our title four prioritized uh the student supports and then um some direct uh for example uh we use funds to um help progress monitor our students in world language for our Apple testing. Um, we wanted to make sure that uh we provided additional supports to our teachers and social workers um through Aeron's law. So, we wanted to make sure that we continued the funding connected to the programs for our students. So, we've kind of shifted some things around through the work of um our team and we're anxiously awaiting additional allocations. >> Thank you, Dr. I guess all my questions. Yeah. >> The the $4 million uh deficit

058is coming out of reserves or are we hoping that we're going to get more funding than we know of right now? Honestly, when it comes to the the deficit from transportation, um there's no way we're going to get additional money. Uh because the way the the budget works is that the state ISBY Illinois State Board of Education makes a recommendation to the governor's office and then the governor looks at all the all the um the expenditure that needs to be funded. And quite frankly in a yearly budget as much as 60 to 70% of the of the funding is already is spoken for. It's mainly tying to Medicare uh Medicaid and um entitlements right in the state. So the rest of it has to go towards everything else. And then the the governor then looks

059at all that and makes a recommendation to to the uh to the legislature for appropriation. And then the legislator will look at how much the state is going to get in revenue and make a determination of how much they will approve in appropriation. So the appropriation for fiscal year 26 was approved on the last day of the regular legislative session on May 31st and that it required only a majority vote. Now if he had gone beyond that it would have been a three4 majority. So, so essentially to say that it's highly unlikely that we will see any more money because the the legislators have voted and they've approved the budget for fiscal year 26. >> I'm talking about the overall budget deficit on page 21. Um there's still the possibility of getting some federal funds

060released. It's it's probable >> they've been appropriated. They just have been held back by the administration. >> So whatever have been appropriated that we know of by the federal government, we booked that as revenue. >> Okay. >> So now there's a possibility if the additional revenue from the feds and last year they did that they did additional allocation uh when additional money was available on the feds. That's a possibility. But for the state is highly unlikely because as a matter of fact the EBF that the state had promised since EBF came into being in 2018 of $350 million $300 million was going to go to direct EBF $50 million was going to go to tax abatement. So except for this year it's been allocated the the legislators have been allocating 350 million. This year they

061only allocated $34 million, not only $350 million. That shows that the revenue picture for the state is going to be very challenging. So I don't anticipate us getting any additional allocation from the state or from the federal government. It's possible. >> So for this year, we're going to be covered by pulling money out of the reserves to cover the deficit, but that can't continue. No, we cannot. Especially for transportation. We cannot. I mean, the part that I didn't even mention, we've actually changed our levy strategy >> to accommodate the sinking fund in transportation. When we did our levy, the 2024 levy in last winter in December, we levy less in ED fund, which is the largest source of uh expenditure, source of revenue and the one that bears the most expenditure. And though that $5

062million, we put it into we levied in transportation. And even with that, we still ended up with a $5 million uh deficit. It's not something that can continue, >> right? Okay. >> So, first of all, thank you for the presentation. I think you did an amazing job. I am a visual learner, so I really needed that and I was able to follow along um pretty well. My question is just relative to EVF funding. So, we didn't necessarily lose money, but we didn't get what we had initially anticipated. How many um what are the different tiering systems? Is tier one and tier two? Is there another? >> No, there. So tier one uh the the way EBF worked is when it was approved back in 2017, it was determined that in order for a student regardless

063of where they live in the state of Illinois to get an ad adequate education, they need x amount of money, right? And then then it was determined based on local wealth and a few other variables, local wealth being a big part of it, how much a district would need to get to adequacy. So that baseline was referred to at adequacy. >> So the further you are from adequacy, that's what determines where how much money you get and where you tear. So the lower your adequacy the the the more likely that you will be in tier one. >> So the higher your adequacy then the higher your tiers. So in the past since EBF went into being if you will in 2018 we've been in tier one because we've been far from adequacy. But this year

064because of the increase in property value here we move from tier one to tier two. So there's tier one gets 50% of all the funds. The first 50% of the funds go to tier one. >> Then tier two and gets the other 49% is divided between them and then tier three gets some of that too. >> Tier four gets nothing. So the way it works is when the law was passed, in order to be able to get all the legislator to rally around and support the legislation, a decision was made to create a baseline for whatever money school district throughout the state got back in 2017. They will never get less than that. So that was the baseline. It was called holdless. But then depending on where they tar they will get the majority of

065the money will be tier one the second uh level will be tier two tier three tier four and get anything else but they would not lose anything from their baseline in 2017. So to answer your question, we actually no district is going to lose money. They will never lose what they got the prior year that was hold. But what we had been get receiving is a higher amount because we're in tier one. We got the majority of the appropriation every year. But by us moving into tier two, we didn't do that. So there was a difference in revenue of $63 million that we should have gotten if we had stayed in tier one. And that's a significant amount of money. >> So if we were still if we were at 73% instead of 78%, we

066probably would have got another 6.3 million. >> So it's a it's it's >> it's literally just we're teetering the line. Um, and it's it's not due to um the revenue side. It's due to the the value side of the property. So, it's uh >> local wealth as it is. >> Get it. >> I mean, it's better than it better than the pre 2018. So, >> Oh, absolutely. When everybody got the same GSA as you know. Yeah. Based on your enrollment. Yes. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. I know that's like at least the fifth time you've given that presentation in a week. So, thank you for uh for your time at least. Appreciate it. >> So, learned a lot. Um do we have >> Okay. Um item 61, public comment. On behalf of the

067board 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 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. Followup to your questions or concerns

068may be addressed by administration to the contact through the contact information provided on the comment card. Thank you, >> Michelle Triger. Um, I really appreciate that. Thank you. And um, I really needed So, I'm gonna I'm gonna talk a little bit about not the 10,000 foot view, but like a really sort of specific here on the ground things. And I'm just going to trust that you know me well enough by now. I'm going to speak really because I believe it's important for the board to some of the conversations that that go on. So, one special ed teacher told me how demoralizing it is when she looks online and she said the amount of a raise alone received by a single administrator is greater than the amount of this teacher's yearly salary. I've been told about

069situations at DAC in recent years where don't spend the full amount that was allocated in the budget for specific departments that amount would be taken out of their budget for the next year. So, money on things that we never actually use. Yeah, just sharing some of the information that is out there. Um, meanwhile, you know, we have elementary schools worrying about running out of paper by the end of the year. We have NextGen to help staff in our district get their necessary teaching credentials, but to my knowledge, we still have no similar mech. And we need social workers to So I recognize that there are separate funding streams. They're probably not stream. Please immediately put a plan in motion to help qualified staff get their necessary credentials and certificates or related services in the same

070way teachers for next year. For dual language, please immediately begin considering qualified DL teachers with the necessary credentials for administrative positions. in that program. In short, stop hiring outside. Last year, we had an assistant director for multilingual learners and the feedback was that this person was helpful and brought useful resources to the program, but she left that and that is not an understanding that the position was not the position itself for an EL program that serves I think 14% of our students and that will only We have talented staff in the program with the necessary credentials have their own children in the district who will stay need language guidance educator support. I also want to offer this back Fifth graders become sixth graders and in dual language fifth graders become sixth graders. Yet it's been

071at least a decade and a half this program and we have yet to the improvements. It's as if we're caught off guard that fifth graders language. I have a fourth grader in based on my But why should I think the inter we've also talked about the intersection dual language and special 15% I I don't think there is an intersection many years older students from they don't receive special or other interventions that this is an urgent very urgent issue And lastly, I want to say that we had a dual language improvement committee made up of parents, teachers, and district that existed in the 2024 school year. That was due to over 100 dual language families signing on to letter that described necessary. It felt like we were starting to work on these things. But last year

072with many never communicate with the parents and the families of this program, some of whom are very interested in being a part of seeing those. Thank you >> Vanette Goyle. >> Hey. Hi. Uh good evening everyone and thanks for giving me the opportunity for I mean speaking on behalf of my community the Lincoln crossing and from the last two months we are continuously reaching out most of them and all of you the uh all the board members regarding the transportation for uh I mean reinitiate the transportation right and uh first of all just want to say thanks to all of you for listening our concerns and uh whatever the safety measure and help or support you are providing to fix those problem but still there are some some of the issues are not fixed and

073we have a lots of concern for those I mean even in terms of community if we check I mean it's a one community but we are representing of approximately 100 students is a 25%age of the school strength right and now uh I mean from this community we were getting the from the last two years we were getting the transportation but this year we get the information okay transportation will not belong no available for students right and the reason was uh they have given because we have a bridge for now so that's the safe path or safe route so transportation will not be available so initially when we moved here and we discussed with the uh school and school board of some of uh I mean members right so they said even if bridge will be

074there but community will continuously get the school bus because we have a highway in between and as per the state law I mean uh the student cannot cross the highway right so that's the reason I most of the I mean residents choose the community near to the school itself because I mean they got the about the school that we will get the bus so I mean that's the two years before but now I mean things are changed time to time and now uh we we everybody know we have a bridge also there so uh and now school are looking for the student to take the bridge for the school so our problem is our concern not the problem our concern is I mean out of 100 we have approximately 20 or 25 team members who

075will go the first time to the school and it's very difficult for them to walk the one mile I mean to and some of them living in the I mean the first corner of the society and we have a bridge in the last corner of the society right and between the bridge and the uh community and the school path there's so many concern which we have raised and everybody's taking I mean uh talking about to take the uh safe route or save the uh I mean the bridge route but no one is talking about I mean do we have any chances for in state the bus services in case is school are not able to fix the safety concern which we have discussed and which we are writing on in the emails couple of times

076from the last complete approximately two months we are continuously reaching out to everyone to passing our concern what are the safety concern we have uh I just want to highlight some of them maybe uh most some of them you are already aware like uh I mean uh uh for the bridge right initially when we reach out to schools clearly said I mean this brisk was I mean they have no concern was the you have to reach out transportation department right they have the decision they took the decision to uh I mean u remove the bus services so we reach out to transport department and they said okay we got the city approval that's the only reason we I mean we uh we are going with the bus uh uh bridge route so we reach out

077to city department okay what was the reason for providing the approval and why and uh do we fulfill all the safety measurement and everything so they clearly said I mean uh I mean they did not provide any approval and there is no participant of the city within approval process of the bridge it has been built by the PA engineers and the uh I mean the district has to uh school district has took the decision for removing the bus services. So then we reach out to again the district uh I mean and they provide I mean there was some uh engineering uh I think Ericson something Ericson engineering the based on their report they remove the bus services because we have safe pathway. So we we follow the uh report and within the report is clearly

078said we have a safe pathway but we have a path there only to uh from community to school but how much is the safe they did not describe those things. So if we check the path I mean uh within the path we have a gap in within the bridge we have a uh the railing of the bridge not is is not the 5 ft we we don't have the uh uh I mean uh railing also near the bridge and on the on the one side we have a corn cop continuously from brisk to school that is uh that is a very dangerous for the kid and even it's a agricultural land right and the most probably is a I mean we are uh I mean it can be in the future it can be a

079accidental for the wild animals as well and we have within the community also in the daytime we have seen lots of I mean coyote in daytime as well and uh it's very difficult for the smaller kid or younger kid to pass out those I mean those route and the main major concern is the bus bus route right the bus entrance bus entrance route and the and the when the our bridge route is ending right they both are uh on the same path and uh kids has to have cross the bus bus route to going to the school that's the very very dangerous in case I mean we have reached out to school and they said they will put it the yield sign there but still it's a I mean safety concern for us so I

080mean now our ma major concern is as we have already gone through the operation also and every uh district every having the budget consent also so we are just looking at what are our option here right I mean now we have only two days to school going to start and still we did not get any confirmation we will get the bus or not still we are working on the fixing the safety is or major concern issues right and now we have a winter also in next 2 months and in the and the sunlight will be very limited right so after within a 3 or 4:00 I mean we can see the darkness and so how the kids will be moved we don't have light also there and uh and there is no I mean as

081such no one has about tell someone who will take care the I mean bridge maintenance in case of know in case of raining and all those most of the time when we walk there I mean most of the time bridge are closed and uh they have a board case is not for safe walking and all those things so I mean after all those safety concern I mean uh I'm not sure I mean what were the decision I mean uh district had taken to uh the bridge for the I mean kids right and our request is I mean this safety concern will not be complete or fixed at least we uh I mean school district provide the bus service to the community. So uh and once it will be fixed then we can revisit again. I

082mean the safety concern is everything has been taken care then I mean kids can okay to >> one minute please. Thank you. >> I'm done. >> Oh yeah I I yeah >> no no actually we have on this from the la we are struggling uh to I mean raise our voice from the last two months and we are sending so many emails. We spam I mean your inbox also for a couple of emails but we did not get any uh I mean I mean uh I mean the solid answer kind of I mean what exactly will be the next step for our community kids perspective or safety prof perspective I mean if it's a fund issue then we are ready to go with a paid service or paid bus also I mean uh we are

083gratefully I mean district can consider those point as well so we are just looking to solve this problem ASAP so that I mean kids will not be impact or this study will not be impact and even some couple of things also I mean uh this building this community was sorry >> um yeah um I've let you go go over time quite a bit um so yeah I'm sorry >> no I mean I have so many points so I'm representing I mean the 100 right so at least I'm if you can give me five more minutes. >> No. No. >> Oh. Um. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Um item is there any other >> No. >> Moving to item 71. Uh superintendent report. Okay board. Uh good evening.

084Uh what a today's a really a market milestone as we welcome back our educators and staff. Um the school year has officially begun. I want to thank our school leaders, all of our custodians, our teams who've been working profoundly across this summer to really prepare for the receipt of our students. Um, receipt of our staff members and I know that school improvement teams were very excited about really setting the foundation for the year to come. Um, across our schools, classrooms were filled with collaboration, professional learning, and thoughtful preparation to welcome our students back. Our kindergarten through 12th grade students will return this Thursday and our early childhood program will begin on Monday the 18th. We look forward forward to this energy and enthusiasm that they will bring. I as a principal for many years uh

085uh felt like the boring the most boring months were those summer months and uh nothing brought us more joy as principles when uh staff and students return to the building. So, welcome back everyone. Um, I also want to thank our community members and our staff leadership who participated in last week's community budget meetings. Your participation and feedback, whether it was online or in person, are invaluable as we work together to make the best of the best decisions for our students. Um, if you weren't able to attend any of these sessions, uh, we do have, um, you do have access to these meeting to this meeting, the virtual session especially. Um, it's now available on the finance page on our district website. Um, I encourage everyone to take a look and stay engaged around the financial

086priorities and planning that is shaping taking shape in the months and year to come as we begin to take those next steps into the first few days of the new year to come. Um, in our district, we have some core values that really are the foundation of our work. And I want to invite everyone to to really think about what it means to humanize the problems that we face in our district. Um, when facing challenges, we're going to face challenges. That's a reality of just uh our human existence. And uh I want to invite us all to think about how we approach those. Um, and this may be a time for a little extra grace for those team members who've been working really tirelessly to prepare for the school year. Um we are all setting

087new schedules to place, classes and peers. Um it can take a bit of time especially even for our students who've maybe had uh a little bit too much screen time. I think of my own children. Uh YouTube is no substitute. Um so I know that my son may need a little grace as well um as they enter our classrooms. Our transportation teams this week have been also practicing and refining our bus routes and thinking about the ways in which we're going to stay on schedule with all the construction happening around us. And uh I want to also thank our district level team and schoolbased teams for working with our transportation team to refine our communication and to ensure that we are thinking ahead around any challenges we may have in terms of timing. And so

088reality is that the first couple days because somebody may have moved here or there can be difficult and uh we want to thank you in advance for your patience. We also know that teams have been working hard and diligently to get prepared for the school year. We appreciate everyone's patience and we are excited for the year to come as we begin our next step. And I will turn it over now to we have some board uh initial uh kind of highlights from across the district that board members will reflect on and then there will be also time for board comment tonight. >> Shout out uh to all of our teachers who returned to their buildings today for a few days of learning and preparation. Thank you also to our staff who have continued working throughout

089the summer to get our buildings, classrooms, and materials ready for students. We know everyone is excited as we gear up for the first day of school on >> Thursday. >> Yes. >> I thought it was Wednesday, so I'm just double checking. >> Oh, yeah. >> All right. Health requirements for the 202526 school year are due September 15th. Please turn in all requested medical forms to your uh student school and visit the health services page on the district website for more information. As a reminder to our junior high students and families, this year students will utilize lockers to store their materials rather than carrying backpacks to class. This will allow greater space in classrooms and encourage students to use lockers responsibly. Small personal bags and pouches are permitted. Questions should be directed to your school office.

090Thanks for your help with this change. Uh we are excited to be joining many of our schools in the celebration of some big milestones this year. Several buildings will be recognizing their 20th or 25th anniversary since first opening their doors. Please be on the lookout for ways that you can help us celebrate throughout the school year. >> And asiggo celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. >> Oh, really? >> Yeah. >> Well, America >> and our community. Okay. >> No. >> Oh, sorry. We'll come back. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 18 183 >> was as old as >> maybe it's 150. >> maybe it's 150. >> 1833. Whatever it was when it was incorporated. So whatever. >> So 192 a memorable number. >> Both Asiggo and Asiggo East high schools are participating in T-Mobile's Friday night 5G

091light sweep stakes. The nationwide initiative celebrates the power of school spirit and community support surrounding high school football. Participating schools are in the running to receive a number of awards, including the potential for a football stadium upgrade. Congratulations to OEHS for winning one of the $5,000 Friday grants from T-Mobile's Friday Night 5G lights sweep stakes. Be sure to check out our high school social media pages to learn more about how you can help both schools in these sweep stakes. >> Ever there was a time. >> Oh yeah, right. >> The IHSA fall sports season officially began today. We are eager to see all that's in store for our athletes this year. We hope for lots of great state finishes to celebrate at upcoming board meetings. This Wednesday, our district will be hosting our back to

092school bash, welcoming our staff and their families with area businesses and organizations. This third annual event is an opportunity for area businesses, organizations, and benefits providers to provide valuable information to our staff and their families. We look forward to hosting the board's lemonade stand at the event. >> Thank you, board. And that concludes the uh superintendent comments. Item 72, board member comments. Anybody have any >> I do, but I'll defer. >> I just wanted to share one a conversation I had uh in the last week with um a school nurse uh who was excited because her as well as other nurses were um you know happy with her new negotiate with her contract. Um feeling the impact of that in their in their personal lives. uh and also noting that we have significantly decreased the

093amount of contracted services and nursing uh and they are really feeling that as well. So kudos um to everyone that that had a hand in making that happen. >> That's awesome. >> Making that a priority. Yeah. >> Yep. >> And then >> Okay, >> I have a couple shout outs. >> Yeah. Uh first of all, on behalf of Community Cares, I want to thank everyone that volunteered um and participated in the Start Strong program on the 2nd of August. Uh Start Strong is a way to give students to make sure that students have sufficient supplies. Um and actually this year there was kind of a kind of a new thing. Uh not only did we give out supplies to in the neighborhood of about 300 students, we also offered free haircuts and vaccinations which was

094new. So it was uh it was quite a program. I also need to give a shout out to um to Boulder Hill and to because Principal Meismmer brought this to my attention and it was true. uh we had a lot of volunteers participating and um he did point out to me that probably half of the volunteers there were uh were staff at Boulder Hill. So a special shout out to them and actually everybody else that participated. Um last Friday was the um oh marching band family picnic which a number of us went to um and it was great and to um to to the marching band parents of Asiggo East because we we didn't go um please invite us to these things. We did get an invite from O. Um did not know about OE.

095So please make sure you send us invitations. We go to this stuff. So, just so you know that in the future. And then finally, um, yesterday I had the privilege of being at the, uh, Distinguished Young Women of Illinois program, um, at uh, Sandberg. And um we did have we had one Asiggo East student, Carly Gregory, who had made it down to the 22 finalists, which was the program that took place yesterday. Um, Carly, I mean, I could go through all of her um all of her accolades, but um, suffice it to say that that group of 22 from all across the state uh, was a pretty it was a pretty competitive group and I was very impressed with all of those young ladies and their talents and their accomplishments. And I know that all

096of them will do well in the future. But special congratulations to Carly uh, for making it into that group. Yeah, that's it from me. >> Oh, >> all right. Um, sure. Last, uh, it was a very long week. It was last Sunday. Last Sunday, uh, Mr. Cerrone and Dr. Kgatti and Dr. Concincaid and I had the opportunity to attend the DuPage County NAACP 67th annual freedom and scholarship gala. Um, so that was uh it was a great experience. We got to interact with a lot of community members. um hear really inspirational speeches and we got to see a lot of our students. Lots >> of students. >> Yeah, a ton of our students. I think as soon as we walked in the door, the first thing that happened was one of our students greeted us.

097Um so it was great to see Yeah, great to see a lot of our students um engaging in their community and um it was fun to see them in a different environment as well. Um so that was great. And then also I um there have been a lot of uh kind of streamlined video communications coming out from the district on Facebook. It seems like there's been a bit of an uptick in viewership. I think a lot of the videos are getting up to like 2,000 views. So I just wanted to encourage everybody to follow the district and the schools on social media and to thank the communications team for getting those communications out. Erica >> Revol I didn't get to talk about this at the last meeting. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> But I was

098my fault. >> I was able to attend the uh Limelight Theat's production of Wizard of Oz >> and it was pretty amazing to see all the talented I assume they're all students uh up on the stage. I know a couple are from the district and uh everyone did a really great job. They always do. Moving on to item 8 8.1 consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, please? >> I make a motion to approve all items under consent, including 8.1 minutes from the board of education meeting on July 28th, 2025 open and close sessions. 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district. 8.3 to approve and accept a $5,000 donation through the T-Mobile the aforementioned the T-Mobile Friday night 5G lights program. >> Second. >> Anybody? Any questions

099on the consent agenda? >> No. Okay. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Dr. Martin >> I. >> Dr. Pak >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth I. >> Dr. Mario >> I. Motion passes 6. Moving on to item nine, operations update. >> Mr. uh Femi, >> Mr. Quinn is under the weather today, so I'm pinch hitting. >> Well, it gets better. We just wanted to give you a quick update of the capital projects that we uh that we're able to complete this summer and just to give you a visual and also quick update. So these are the uh some of the things that we did. We did some concrete work at uh Broco, Grand Park, Oiggo High School as well as East and then we uh we did a rooftop unit replacement

100at uh Roco too and new playground were put in at uh Boulder Hillstead Lakewood Creek and we did some much painting at Boulder Hill, Lakewood Creek, Long Beach and Southberry. I just wanted to show you the pictures. Now, this is the parking lot at uh Broker. And as you can see, the contractor did a very good job and they were able to finish on time as they promised. And it looks much better than uh what it looked like before. >> Well, and it's enough parking now. >> Yeah. More important. >> Yeah. You don't have three-year-olds crossing the street in between cars, >> right? And now this is the concrete work uh at Grand Park. I want to point out on the left when the excavation took place before the concrete work can begin. We found

101a river under there. So that's what you saw >> left >> under the parking. >> Yeah. >> I don't even know what. >> So it's on the left. That's the same. >> So the contractor had to install piping to actually divert water away from that uh from that space. this district, >> which is why we were wondering previously, there was always standing water >> by that uh parking space and then when they started digging, we found out what it was. So, that was completed. It was literally a river under there, as you can see on the picture to you. And this is the uh work that was done at O here. Look at the before and after. Significant difference. And the one that uh is just still the same place, just the walking at the

102same building, just the walking part is so much better than it used to. And it's more flush to there was no longer a gap between the path uh the way it looked before and the way it looks now. And this are the playgrounds that we are really really excited about to have gotten done. And we've gotten some feedback from folks about the fact that they thought it was smaller, but it's actually no smaller. What it was is the newer uh way of building playground. And this playgrounds are now more accessible to uh kids who need some support to be able to get around. So, it's different, but it's actually the same size. It's just designed different. And this is the uh the painting project uh that was done in Boulder Hill. You can see the

103before and after and it looks much better. There's no chipping at the bottom anymore. It just it just looks much nicer. So we can't wait for our colleagues in Baldi ill to come in and see it. Same thing with Lwood Creek here. You can see the before on the left there and what it looks like now. cleaner and fresher and uh yeah, we're ready for for our colleagues to see it as well as our students. Long Beach, same thing. It It's cleaner. It's one color. It doesn't look as closed in as it looked before and it's just a little wider than it did before. Sberry, same thing. We uh you know, the wall was painted and uh it looks much nicer. So this is some of the projects that were completed this summer and we

104just want to share that for you all to see what you approve and what the uh the result has been. We're very proud of the work that we've done. Thank you for your support. >> So So what did the piping I mean where did So we put the piping in at Grand Park because of the because of Lake Planefield. Um >> where does it drain? Does it just drain off to the street? Yes, it drains up. Yeah, it's draining much better. >> Okay. >> And there was I believe among a contractor that it was probably an underground uh irrigation system from the farm that used to be there. >> Oh, wow. >> Before that was their theory. >> Interesting. >> But we were shocked. It was But we also noticed that it was always public.

105Every time it rained, the water would just be there. But once we dug it, it was shock the amount of water. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you. Moving on to uh action item 10.1. Action item. Approval of bills for payment. Can I have a motion, please? I make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of $6,82,6412 as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Dr. Mario. >> I. >> Miss Wenmouth. >> I. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Dr. Pock. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I. Motion passes. 6. Action item 10.2 two resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed 88 I'm assuming million million dollar general obligation refunding school bonds for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding bonds of the

106district providing for the levy of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the principal and interest on said bonds authorizing the proposed sale of said bonds to the purchaser thereof and authorizing the execution of certain escro agreements in connection therewith. Yes. Can I have a motion, please? >> What you said? I make a motion to adopt the resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed $88 million general obligation refunding school bonds for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding bonds of the district. Providing for the levy of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the principal and interest on said bonds. authorizing the proposed sale of said bonds to the purchaser thereof and authorizing the execution of certain escro agreements in connection therewith as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Who says therewith? It's

107my only question. >> Well, this is, you know, let's let's hope that um it comes to fruition. We save the full $4.5 million in present value um if not more. Um but uh I think I'm good. We can go to the vote. >> Dr. Martin >> I. >> Miss Wmmouth >> I. >> Mr. Cerone >> I. >> Dr. Pock >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Dr. Mario >> I. >> Motion passes 60. >> Therewith. Moving on to action item 10.3. Approval of water billing repayment agreement. Can I have a motion please? I make a motion to approve the water billing repayment intergovernmental agreement with the village of Asiggo as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Dr. Pak >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone >> I. >> Miss Wmmouth >> I. >>

108Dr. Mario >> I. >> Miss C. >> I. >> Dr. Martin >> I. >> A motion passes 6. Item 111. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> No. >> Oh, 104 action item. >> Thank you. >> No, thank you. Seriously, don't let me >> There would be a lot of >> We need staff. Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. That would We'd all be here. We'd notice this. >> Yeah. We'd be here in the morning. Yes. Or in two days or whatever it is. Um Okay. 104. Approval of personnel report. Can I have a motion, please? I make a motion to approve the personnel report as discussed and presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? No. Okay. >> Dr. Martin. >> I. >> Mr. Cerrone. >> I. >> Dr. Pock. >> I. >> Miss C. >> I.

109>> Miss Wenmouth. >> I. >> Dr. Mario. >> I. >> Motion passes 6. >> Okay. Item 111. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? I make a motion to adjurnn.