SD308 Board of Education Meeting (04/07/2025)

001April 7, 2025. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Cerone, here. Mr. Gatewood, present. Miss Johnson, present. Dr. Maria, present. Mr. Clover, present. Miss Simon, present. Miss Benmouth, present. Present. Callie Pel, present. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I 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. Student recognition. Good evening board uh and uh community. We are excited and thrilled to have some very important guests with us this evening to celebrate their accomplishments. I'm going to invite uh John Francis, our executive director of schools to come up and invite the board member to come up so we can honor our guests. All right. Thanks, Dr. Kgatti. The board of education is proud

002to acknowledge the award-winning efforts of our students who have received state and or national recognition for their school related and athletic related activities. This evening, the board of education and Dr. Kilgotti are proud to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of individuals from the following various teams and academic achievements. Asiggo boys co-op swim and dive team. The Asiggo girls co-op gymnastics, boys wrestling, girls wrestling, business professionals of America, valleys, and scholastic national merit scholarship corporation. Students and coaches, as your name is called, please come forward to the be congratulation congratulated by the board of education and our superintendent, Dr. Kilgotti. First of all, from the boys co-op swim and dive team, Chase Meyer Asiggo East. Chase is a senior and a state champion in the 200 free and 500 free. Next up from the girls co-op gymnastics

003team, we have Ava Sullivan, senior, state champion in vault. second place in floor and third place in the beam. And Sam Phillip Asiggo High senior fifth place in vault and sixth place in the floor. From our boys wrestling team, we would like to recognize Braden Swanson from Asiggo High, six senior and got sixth place at state. And from our girls wrestling team, Kaia Chavez from Asiggo High School. She's a senior and she got second place in state. And now we have members of our business professionals of America. All students from Asiggo East High School received first place at the state leadership conference. First of all, we have Ava Car Jr. She got the presentation as an individual award. Andrew Madano Jr. for extemporaneous speech. Kisha Majundar, senior for small business management. And Anushka Wanjara, senior

004for small business management. Also in small business management, Shria Mani and in visual design team, we have Abigail Hins, Hamida Bellow, Nina Fatima, and Lauren Fox in the FQL database categor category we have Aren Bra and final Cricelle Bautista sophomore for medical codings representing the valleys group we have McKenzie man Asiggo East senior she was the valley's region graphic student of the year. And we have three National Merit Scholarship finalists. First of all, Steven Balin, John Kellogg, and Jessica Vanvan. All right. At this time, if we have any faculty or staff that are present that would like to come up for one group photo, please make your way up front. No, no. Everybody stay there. We're going to let parents come up real quick. Yes. At this time, if any parents would like to come

005up, let's come up for some pictures. [Applause] Congratulations students and families. One big picture. They did before. I don't want to charm. Okay, we're moving to public comment. So, on behalf of the board of education, I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting. We value the feedback we receive from the members of our public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system. Residents interested in speaking to the board of education 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 three minutes per person and no responses

006to your questions are permitted. Comments should address the board of education as a whole and not be directed to an indiv individual board member, audience or staff member. The board of education will not address concerns against individual employees. Rather, a complaint against an employee must be in writing and signed by the person who makes it and the board of education. Follow up to your questions or concerns will be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card. Thank you. Quiz Jackson. All you're missing is a whistle. Thank you for your time. Uh my name is Chris Jackson. Uh, I volunteered this last year as a assistant coach with AB Abby Jamber as a head coach, Chris Valforte as an assistant coach, and Melvin stood starting the girls flag football team at Asiggo

007High School. And I'm here to advocate for them because uh they've done such a great job advocating for themselves. We had about 80 girls out this year as a club. Asiggo East had 100 girls. Um, it's uh it's been wonderful. It's pretty amazing. I know it's going to come up for vote and I know that uh there's challenges as always and trying to make things work financially. In my private life as a father of five, I'm a CFO and director of M&A. So, I deal with budget all the time. Raphael, I know there's hard decisions to make all the time. Um I've been coaching for 27 years from three years old up through college. I've actually coached three of Amy's kids. I coached Cali when she was this little. I coach her now when she's

008this big. I love it. Uh my motto is work hard, do your best, have fun. And uh girls flag football has it's super special. Um it's something where people are learning together. It's inclusive. There's joy. They're learning all those skills that I use every day as a business professional. Teamwork, leadership, communication. Pretty much the opposite of what's going on a lot in club sports now. High costs, exclusivity, not letting people play other sports, and pushing more athletics than just students. We're academically led at as a school sport and we hold those girls accountable. It's great. It's really what we need. You know, some of the stats right now are really terrifying. 40% of teen girl teen girls don't play a sport. Boys have 1.3 million more sports opportunities than girls. And a recent survey showed

009that of a million teen girls, 43% had considered themselves athletes but stopped playing after elementary school. Girls select football is perfect timing to help solve this problem. It's grown by 63% since 2019. Half a million girls are playing now. That's five times as many as we're playing in 2007. Olympic sport in 2028. Backed by the NFL. I'm going to Halis Hall next Sunday to be trained by the Chicago Bears staff to help coach this team. Free. They're invested in it. They just hosted the first Illinois girls university versall. There's 154 IHSA teams already, 200 by 2026, and just under 100 colleges have approved teams. We've already started. These girls advocated to start the program. After the season was over, seven 70 of them came with me to play in private winter and spring leagues and

010won the first trophy for the program. Okay. I like to say all the time, my grandma Joyce loved Notre Dame football. All she could do was listen to it on a radio. My mother loved football. All she could do was be a cheerleader. My wife was a US Olympic eluge candidate. She could go down an ice shoot 90 miles an hour, but she couldn't play football. My oldest daughter, Aurora, is at Johns Hopkins right now. No one loves bodying people up like Aurora. She couldn't play football. But now my daughter, Sen gets a chance to play. This is moving in the right direction. Let's be a part of that solution. Let's help move it forward and just keep it going. We're happy to help. We just need the same support you guys give other sports

011like boys football. So, thank you. Thank you. What's what's your other kid? All right. Hi guys. Uh, thanks for having us speak tonight. Um, good evening. I'm going to sit down. All right. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Um, my name is Abby Jambor. I am a current school counselor and coach at Asiggo High School. I've worked in the district for six years and in education and athletics for 21 years. This past fall, as coach said, I had the privilege to be one of our volunteer coaches for that club that the girls started and promoted and advocated for all by themselves. Um, what an amazing experience. Coach Chris, you know, talked about some of those facts, so I won't go over those. But what did I witness my firstand account? 56 young women, different

012shapes, sizes, all different backgrounds with variety of life experiences all came together. They learned a new sport with new rules and new coaches. They grew, they bonded, they supported one another as they experienced some tough losses and some life challenges that many of our students face today. Um, players who had played other sports, players who had never played a a organized sport before, and some with flag football all came together. Young freshmen had their first Panther experience being part of something great and senior leaders had a chance to make their final imprint, leaving their leadership skills and lasting imprint on OS athletics. They had so much fun. We saw so much growth. We had all these memories that are going to go beyond the last time of wins and losses. We also played tons of

013competitive games against local teams who went on to win regional championships and play in the inaugural IHSA state series this past fall. So many of these local communities around us are experiencing have it at their high schools. They see their friends on social media posting about it. We are there. We are right there. And we want to be competitive. We want to give these girls this opportunity. What does it do for them? It gives them this voice. It shows them that once they speak up for themselves, they can create a positive opportunity for themselves. And you guys have the opportunity to reward that. Saying yes to this gives this these athletes an opportunity to build confidence, leadership, dis discipline, and self-control. All these things that we continue to to need as leaders in the future.

014Um, it really recognizes the importance and value of girls sports, acknowledging that they are equal and deserve as much recognition as their male counterparts. So, we hope that you take this opportunity to continue to lay the foundation for the young girls of Asiggo to grow into tomorrow's leaders. These women deserve the chance to play flag football, to compete, to learn, and to grow. We really hope you can expand on what we've started and give them what they deserve. Thank you. The nurse Talia Alberto. Good evening. Thank you for giving me this opportunity today to speak. My name is Tulia Berto and I was a part of the girls first year OHS flag football program and today I wanted to share with you all about how flag football has impacted me this year. To me, flag

015football means everything to me. I take great responsibility and leadership and knowing I was a part. Could you hold the mic a little closer? Just do a mic check. There we Okay. A little Sorry. Should I? Good evening. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak today. My name is Tulia Berto and I was a part of the girls first year OS and flag football program. And today I wanted to share with you all of how flag football has impacted me this year. To me, flag football means everything. I take great responsibility and leadership and knowing I was a part of and able to advocate for the girls first year flag football team. As a multiport athlete, I have played flag football, basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse. But none of those sports h can compare

016to the way flag football makes me feel. Being a part of this team feels like having a second family. The coaches are always fun to be around and make every practice worth going to. They make it a fun and positive environment to be in. I love going to practice, but we were unable to practice every day since we were considered just a sport. And I feel that making it a sport will help all the girls on the team grow and connect and just make each other better overall and better the community. Thank you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak today. Callie [Music] Pel. So, good morning guys. I'm Cali Pernell. I'm a board member, but I want to take opportunity to talk about to talk about the flag football how and how

017it deserves to be recognized as an official sport. I know from personal experience that this is my first year as a club as flag football in the first year in general and this year in a short amount of time I seen how much energy, teamwork and dedication everyone brings to the field. All my life started when I was young my family has been putting me into many sports. I started playing basketball as coach Chris told me and let me tell you I sucked at it. Like I was so bad. So then as I was continuing on I started playing soccer and volleyball and many other sports but at the very end I decided to quit because it just wasn't my passion. Um, I don't mean to be putting someone out here, but Maddie Lisa, a

018junior in my high school, she showed me flag football and the poster signed up this summer as a club. Honestly, I thought it was something I thought that was something useless. It wasn't something I was really founding my passion for, but nonetheless, I tried to I tried and joined it. Black football was something new, was something new, and it changed my life permanently. Flack football isn't just a fun activity. It's fast-paced, strategic, and builds real athletic skills. It gave me the chance to be with people I would never have been with and I made a family my new family. Um I would take the opportunity to be a part of something new and advocating for women in history who have been silenced throughout their journey um throughout sports. Um I just want to thank everyone

019for being here and I really advocate for this being a sport later in the future. Thank you. Uh, Tegan Bwater. Good evening. Good evening everyone. My name is Tegan Bwater and I was a part of the first year of black football at OS. I played center and receiver during the school season and outside of school season I played quarterback. It's a privilege to be here before you today and advocate for something I believe will empower girls, promote inclus inclusivity, and level the playing field. I am here to speak about why girls flag football should be considered a sport and why it is so important not only for girls who play but for the broader community as well. Let's start with the fundamental truth. Sports have long been a space where people regard regardless of gender,

020learn valuable life skills, build teamwork, and develop their confidence. Black football is an incredible sport, one that focuses on skill, strategy, and teamwork without the amount of physical contact that often deters young girls from playing tackle football. In conclusion, girls flag football is not just a pastime. It's a legitimate, competitive, and exciting sport that empowers young women to be strong, confident, and capable. It provides a platform for girls to demonstrate their athleticism to compete and to grow both on and off the field. It is essential that we give the sport the recognition it deserves, not just for the girls who play today, but for those who will follow in their footsteps tomorrow. So, I ask you all consider girls flag football as a sport it truly is. Thank you. Ursula, the Ursula, the email that

021you sent. We don't read or the that you sent to us with the uh other public comment. Do we need to read that? No. Okay. We'll adjust it. Okay. All right. Uh, thank you. Inspiring night already. Um, really appreciated the opportunity to celebrate our students and also to to hear about the leadership and vision in our community. Um, reflected both in terms of the foremost celebrations and those to come. I'm sure of it. Um, this tonight Oh, it's wrong presentation. Um, sorry. Yeah. No. Am I out of order here? Got a little bit. This is not B. Okay. So, 6.1. I apologize. I'm jumping ahead. I was excited about my public comment. Public. All right. Um excited. We have We have tonight team board. Uh board we are very thrilled to welcome this evening. We

022have with us members of our building and operations team, members of our transportation team. this evening. Uh we want to welcome them for this annual facilities and operations update. Uh I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Obami and Mr. Queen to Thank you, Dr. Katti. I am really excited to present uh one of my favorite group in the district that I work with, the operational maintenance uh team. They are the ones who make it possible for us to achieve whatever we set out to. They keep our building clean. they keep the uh the inside of the building healthy and safe. And what we've decided to do is every year to provide an opportunity for them to communicate to the community at large how they do the great work that they do. Without much ado,

023I'm going to pass it to uh Mr. Bill Quinn, the director of operation and maintenance. Thank you, Mr. Opi. Um thank you for the board and this time I would also like to thank you for the three years of collaboration that we've worked over the years. We've had some great conversations um and and had some great wins. So, we will get started. I would also like to thank my team for the process of of building this uh report for you. Uh we put a lot of work into it and and I would like to thank the OCMA staff here in the audience today to come and give us a little support behind the scenes. Thanks. All right. So, as we present our second annual operations report, we we're proud to highlight our accomplishments over the

024past year, reflecting on significant progress in enhancing student experiences and strengthening collaboration across district departments. Our mission is to provide a safe and healthy space for students and staff for the district SD308. Our strategic goals are a key component to the work our team does every day. This one for me was a fun one and and we did it last year and I would love to do it again for you because it gives a g overview of what the district is as a whole. So 65 square miles. Within that 65 square miles, we have 27 buildings serving over 2500 district employees serviced by 171 operations staff. 4.2 million square foot of asphalt. That's a lot of parking lot and sidewalks that we walk on every day. Um 562 acres. We stretch over three counties with

025a student population of over 16 16,000 kids under 3.4 4 million square foot of uh building under roof. Seventh largest district in the state of Illinois for million. This is huge. With that 65 square miles, I think it's someday we could probably be the fourth or fifth largest district in the state if with our growth. What we what we were doing here was giving you a look. Picture speaks a thousand words, right? It was important for us to show you and I'm going to bounce back between the two as you look at this. The board members with your pamphlet, you get to you get the centerfold action. Um, this this is a this is a path that our young learners take to get to that ultimate goal that that G that diploma at at one

026of our esteemed high schools. So, we got them all in there all the way from bro call hiding down here at the bottom to back and forth to to all our schools going through to the high schools. This is a great format and and we wanted to show you what how truly big our district truly is. Mr. Sainty. Thank you, Mr. Queen. Hello, board members. I would like to take a moment to talk to you about our IIQ ticketing system. Uh since last February 1st of 2024, our team has been able to close out 400 or 4568 tickets. Uh we have an average resolution time of approximately 18 days. Uh on this first graph you will notice that as the tickets are submitted our team does a great job to keep pace to complete the

027tickets and close them out. Uh two things on this graph that I would like to point out is in the uh April and May months the uh tickets will increase. This is mostly due to our team focusing efforts on getting the uh air conditioning running in all of our buildings. Uh the second point of interest on the top graph is in August. Uh we have quite an increase in tickets and this is due to the staff coming back to the building. Uh finding all just the little minor things that we need to get back in order before the students arrive. Uh the second graph that we have there looks into our different types of categories that we have. Uh you will notice that over the last year some of our top categories are as follows.

028Uh maintenance and just general repairs. We had 1,290 tickets completed and closed. Uh delivery and security tickets came in at 1,127 tickets. And then heating and cooling tickets across the district we had 394 tickets. Um next we are going to have Amy Plant, our custodial manager. Good evening. As your custodial manager, it is important that we focus on professional development for our staff to enhance their skills and overall performance. I do four to five building checks at night to provide consistent support and guidance to our team while also ensuring they get proper training. I have set up training classes on chemicals, waxing floors, and proper ways to use our machines. That way, we stay on track with best practices and ensure our team is equipped to deliver high quality results consistently. I have Mr. Slide

029master facilities long range master facilities plan. This thing what can I say the word I I I have no words to to describe this this process is an amazing process that we get three phases to develop and hone where we want our future learners to track. Phase one was an ail fac facility assessment where we walked every the buildings me and Andre Siy inch by inch level by level uh which took up approximately two and a half to three weeks to get through that process. Phase two is more of a curriculum alignment. This is this is where we dive into what what courses and and what things we are teaching these students and if they align with what processes we want to move forward with. Phase three is when we wrap the whole piece together.

030Um, this is when we we we package it up. We make sure that everything is is going going great with with the system and it aligns with our strategic plan and pro projects and procedures that we want to move forward with. Um, Mr. Oafimi gets to tie a dollar amount to it which all ties in at the end and and we we move on for there for final approval where it will all be presented here at the board of education. Capital projects. We had a great year year with capital projects where we completed a roof replacement at Foxchase. We we worked through our health life and safety for the junior highs and we completed two parking lots that were in dire need of replacement. Still moving through as projects that we started last year the

031continuation of the RTU replacement at Plank. We're wrapping that one up and should be hitting substantial completion with here in the next week or two. Um, I'm I'm proud and happy to provide uh Boulder Hill, uh, Lakewood Creek, and Homestead with new playgrounds this summer, which is going to be a great addition to those facilities that playgrounds are in dire need. um wrapping it up with an asphalt and concrete rehabilitation just to keep on track with the processes that we started uh beforehand and and want to keep that track moving because these concrete and and sidewalk areas are very important for us to get into the buildings and and there's a lot going on there. As we wrap up with Long Beach and the cooling towers replacement, we will begin our processes in uh the

032phase two of our assessment for the um master facility where we will know more what that track looks like for our for our master facilities long range plan. Our organizational chart is just a small depiction of what these people do. underneath me are 171 people and I think it's important for you to understand that this is a workforce inside encapsulated inside of an education system. These people worked hard day in and day at night to provide the things that we need as a as a a school district to health clean safe environments to keep you warm, keep you cool and and keep you guys all safe. That's it. [Applause] I I just want to start by saying I I had a chance to visit a school today and and it is April and to walk

033into a building and for it to be so uh pristine in April is truly impressive and a testament to the work of your team. Um, it is not typical and I can't I can say with great confidence that I've experienced that many many many times over. Doesn't mean that we don't have bad days sometimes. It doesn't mean that. But I will say by and large you and you all should feel very proud and it's truly an impressive experience when I can walk in in April and not be thinking, "Oh, wow. Boy, we we can't wait till summer clean." Because we know what that feels like, right? And so for and it just builds on itself. So you really should feel very proud of your your team and I just want to just say that and

034and just to begin by saying thank you sir. Oh there's going to be questions. Hold on. This is where we shine. Mine mine's not a question um but a kind of reminder um to the community when we were talking about playgrounds. I remember we were talking about getting a new playground over at Boulder Hill. Um and then that uh became playgrounds at three different schools because we were able to find uh money from grants and um so you know great work great work from everybody um everybody here and uh I just you know that's something that we've got to remind our community about that we're we're finding value and um really appreciate it. So thank thank you I just I just have a quick question and it's actually very simple. Um on your presentation where

035you have the incident IQ ticket resolution, what month does it start with? It does start with February. Okay. Okay. Yep. February to February. And at the top it does say since February 1st. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, Amy. I have a question. I'm sorry. Just real quickly on the active capsule projects, those will be done in the summer for the most part. Th Yes, those will be done over the summer before the start of school. Okay. So, as soon as we let the little ones out and the big ones out, we hit the ground running. Okay. Thank you. And then we're doing we're starting new projects as well, right? We are. And we're going to hear a little bit about that later on. Um and someformational some big parking lot over at uh Brokaw. We

036got a lot of parking lot. Yeah. Yeah. We we got we got quite a bit of projects coming through in asphalt and pavement and concrete work. So, when you look at the uh ticket category, first of all, thank you all very much for everything that you do. You are absolutely the foundation and backbone of being able to um bring our students every day. There's so much that you have captured in here, but there's also so much that people don't realize also that you do that isn't captured in here. So, um, thank you all very much and please let your team know how thankful we are for them. When you look at these incident categories, like I'm specifically going to focus on heating and cooling, especially because we have had hotter summers and colder winters than

037we ever had before. Do you have any idea, and I don't expect you to have this number off the hand, but have we seen that number go up or down? Um and also does it also affect um when we're putting in uh new HVAC systems or um new any systems, do we see those numbers go down there? Is there direct correlation is what I'm guess I'm asking. So yes, I can answer that in both of your questions there. So for the first question, is it going up? Yes, it is going up. Um, and that that beautiful centerfold that I showed you, these buildings are reaching 25 and and and 30-year dates, right? They're getting up there in age and it's it's like just like with anything, right? You get a lot of miles on it.

038You you need to make those updates. So, we are seeing some some more updates that we need to to do and take care of to keep these buildings accumulated to to conditions and climate control. Um, and your second one again, could you give me that? um as we are moving um with and in deeply leaning into our master's facility plan and we are able to tackle some of those like you said for our older buildings, updating our HVAC units, updating our roofs, updating, you know, uh security systems and so forth, which is more Mr. Bell's area. But do we see some of these ticket items go down because we are bringing in and updating our systems? We we will with our utilities, right? When we replace a roof, we're we're getting different R ratings to

039where it's keeping that cold air in or that hot air in. With the equipment that we're buying, yes, because it's it it's better. Everything it gets better with time. And some of these high energy efficiency um equipment is is lowering the the bills. Yes. In that sense. Thank you. But the work's not getting any cheaper. No, certainly isn't with tariffs either. No. Yeah. So, I don't have a question, but I am going to piggyback on something that Miss John, Mrs. Johnson said, and it was on slide number nine because uh you all didn't actually go over it, but I just want to spend two minutes in order to give context because I appreciate the professional development that you all talked about. And we are all well, many of us in the community are homeowners andor

040we live in a home. So we understand contextually that if you have 58 heaters or boilers, 16 chillers, 97 HVAC, 609 bathrooms, that's a lot of clogged toilets. Yeah. And I can I can continue and to go on and on. 389 light poles. And we rely on your department and your teams to keep our schools functioning. And a lot of times what happens is that we take for granted that the heats work, that the lights come on, that the parking lot is smooth, I'm not tripping. Um that those are things that we take that we're not getting sick because the the building buildings are kept disinfected and safe. And so I don't want to take it for granted because over the la especially I'll say the last four years since I've been sitting here I

041have been on the teams and know how much money that it takes in order to maintain all of this and to know that we didn't have it but you all did it anyway. Yes. And so I don't want that to go unnoticed is that many of you went above and beyond to ensure that our students were safe, that our buildings were open. Um, and so I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything you did in order to ensure that this is happening. However, I also want the community to understand that it costs money. Money that we have to continue to figure out. Dr. Omei in order to not only keep these over to I know doctor sorry mister to keep these up to date. We're giving you an

042honorary degree. Exactly. Honorary to not only keep these functioning but as you all just talked about but there's many of them that need to be updated andor replaced. And so I just wanted to say thank you for the professional development that you continue to provide to your staff to make sure that many of these things are being fixed by your staff as opposed to us even contracting out work. And I just don't want that to go unnoticed by us andor the community. So thank you so much from the bottom line. Welcome. And who said a picture is worth a thousand words? Because this is a beautiful thing. like this is our second year receiving this, right? And for me, when I think about where we were and where we are now, I'm so appreciative of

043like the the data analysis of the systems because in the past it just felt like we were shooting in the dark that we were trying to figure out, you know, how many boilers and chillers and when we were going to repair them and all this, but this makes it so much more real for what we need to do and how we need to get it done. So that long range facilities plan um we're continuing to look forward to to what um you know how it comes to be and how we work it out. So I'm very appreciative of the work that you all are doing and um Mr. Obi um for your guidance and your leadership and for Dr. Kelgotti in the mass in the long range facility plan that we will see coming soon.

044Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah. Garren, [Music] who we want? Yeah. Do we want to join them? All right. They did all the work. They did all that. Yeah. [Music] I see that movie. [Music] Santa. No. Yes. Come on. Love it. Thank you. [Applause] It's only one minute. Okay, cool. We could just keep going till tomorrow. There you go. Hey, now Dr. K Dr. Kgatti, you can give your superintendent report. Uh, thank you board. Um this morning our leadership team had the distinct pleasure of the opportunity to prepare and serve an appreciation breakfast for our staff for the team over in our transportation department. Yes, we recognize and sincerely thank our incredible drivers, monitors, mechanics, transportation staff for their unwavering dedication to our students and school community. every day. Uh they show

045up with care, professionals, and deep commitment to safely transportate transporting our most precious uh cargo, our children, our students. They are often the first smiling and welcoming our students in the morning and the last in the afternoon. Our transportation team really makes a difference in the lives of our students and we are deeply grateful for what they do. Today was also a day of learning. I had a chance to visit some buildings and see the investment and collaboration that our educators and staff across the district um were investing in. And I think that's such a testament um to that support and vision for continuous improvement which is ultimately as a learning organization every minute spent in our learning practices is what leads to success for our students. The more we learn, the more students gain

046from that. Um April is autism acceptance month. We celebrate and honor the experiences and identities of autistic individuals. Um, this month is a time for us to emphasize the understanding, inclusion, support, and moving beyond awareness towards one of meaningful acceptance. As a district family, we strive to be open, accepting, inclusive in all we do, recognizing that it is one of ever learning. We are committed to creating these learning environments where students feel seen, valued, and empowered to thrive. Let us continue to learn from one another and celebrate the neurode diversity and work together to build a community where everyone belongs. This Wednesday, April, this Wednesday at 6:30, we want to invite again, and I'm sure you heard lots about it, our incoming kindergarten families toformational session about our dual language pro language program. It's an

047exciting opportunity. Cue, you can do it. And we are very um the students in our programs gained so much. One of the moments at the end of their tenure for those students who join our program is the seal of biiteracy. um a lifelong skill that those students walk away with uh for lifelong success. Um regardless of your home school, this is going to be at home club. Uh please join in this opportunity to learn about our district's investment in bilingualism. On April 1st, our community elected four new members to the board of education. These individuals will officially take office at a special meeting on May 5th where they will be sworn in and the board will organize its executive positions. This transition brings excitement for the future while also marking a bittersweet farewell to our

048four dedicated members whose service has made a long lasting impact on our district. We'll share more reflections and appreciation in the coming weeks. Another shout out to our assistant principles this week. As this is National Assistant Principles Week, we want to thank our each of our assistant principles for their dedication to their roles. I had the great bounty of serving as an assistant principal for five years. I won't forget a single one of those days. Um uh we know what you do and uh when many times no one knows what you do. Um, but we know what you do. And more importantly, I can guarantee you, assistant principles, that in every single space that you serve in, there are children, there are students who can't wait to see you in the morning and who know

049your name. While you may not know every one of them, but they know who you are and are so appreciative of what you do to make their schools a special place. So, I want to thank our assistant principles. We hope and we hope you are feel celebrated and loved this week. And please know of our gratitude to you. Um, what a what a what a moment to this evening. We have a number of ex additional exciting shoutouts. I'm going invite our board members to add to the celebrations we've had this evening. Thank you, Dr. Katti. The Gear It Forward 2338 robotics team won the Excellence in Engineering Award and were champions of the Midwest Regional Championships. Can we give my hand? Congratulations to our students from Asiggo East High School who recently competed at the

050Illinois Design Educators Association's Regional and I think it's CAD, not CAD, CAD design competition. Out of the 12 students who participated in this event, nine meddled and two qualified for state. That's right. Uh many of our junior high students recently participated in the fine arts festival hosted at Thompson Junior High School. Uh excellent showcase of our students hard work and talents in both the visual and the performing arts. [Applause] The following student athletes from Asiggo High School were named Illinois Wrestling Coaches All State, Illinois Officials Associ Association All State, and National Wrestling Coaches Academic All All Americans Aaliyah Ralden, Ra Loveson, Riley Wilson, Michelle Busussy, um Kaia Chavez, and Kaia Chavez was also chosen for the Character and Leadership All-American Award by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Congratulations to them all. Our district will be

051well represented by the Trover Symphonic Band and OS and OEHS Wind Symphonies at the University of Illinois's Super State Band Festival in May. Congratulations to these students for being selected to perform at this prestigious event. Congratulations to the OS Winter Guard who recently concluded an exciting season. Uh they took second in a in their division and third all overall at the Midwest Color Guard Championships. Additionally, uh Noelli Balinas was awarded the Commander Medallion and Liza Taylor Barry earned the McCormick MWCGC scholarship. Our boys and girls lacrosse teams started this year strong with their wins um with their season openers. Boys lacrosse posted a definitive 14-2 victory while girls recos celebrated their first win in program history. Congratulations. [Applause] We are looking we may have to the special board meeting for all our celebrations. So let's

052keep going students and staff and thank you for your leadership and thank you board. Okay. Now, we'll have [Music] our Well, let's we'll have our student board member report. Hello guys. We want to share what we discussed with SSA. Can you all hear me? Yeah. Okay. What we discussed with SSAC today? We discussed important points from our speak and spark event where students shared their voice, their views on various topics and the need for good relationships with teachers. These are the things we want to focus on for our next school year. Additionally, we talked about how mental health starts at home, but teachers can help as trusted adults that students can talk to. A trusted adult is someone who listens, cares, and gives support. This is important for a supportive school environment. We also discussed

053leveraging programs like talk to help students feel more comfortable talking about their mental health. This aim is to create safe spaces where students can talk about their feelings without worrying about being judged. Additionally, we reflected on the candidate forum and how important it is to for students to be heard in these discussions. Students asked thoughtful questions about how we can better build strong relationships at school. We appreciate the candidates attending and responding to our questions. Thank you also to the student leaders who came to out to support. So looking ahead, we are committed to focusing on one main goal, increasing mental health support and awareness. We believe that if teachers and students have a better understanding of the challenges and obstacles we face, the relationships will improve. We also understand that wellness for staff and

054students is an important part of our strategic plan. So we believe that this natural alignment for us will lift to create an impactful and widespread student teacher relationships. Thank you. Thank you. Great summary. Yeah. And now we'll have our board committee reports. We'll start with the equity and learning and innovation. Uh so a great deal of what we um went over on April 2nd had to do with um achievement data and um and kind of that switch over if you will. Uh was one from SAT to ACT. There's quite a discussion about trying to figure out if there was a way to kind of identify growth as you move from one to the other which is is kind of a challenge but I think it's a learning opportunity again for us to kind of engage

055with the community when it talks about some of these scores. We also talked about I AR and listen none of us are immune to some of the talking points when it comes to test scores that are out there. And one of the things that I know stuck out to me in our conversation was, you know, um I has not been around forever. And here we are switching SAT to ACT. And the one thing that people need to to recognize and realize is that if you're comparing test scores now as far as standardized test scores to test scores a decade ago, um you're you're looking at a different test, right? Um and that doesn't mean there is not room for improvements that need to be made. We all recognize that. We all know that, right? Um

056but I I think it was a point that we need to um to make sure that we're reiterating again um that when we change these tests which we are changing again right they are not the same tests that the the students have taken in the past. So uh I was also very uh pleased with how we're working in our um our priorities um that we've identified when it comes to looking at student data uh as well. So that was that was good to see. Um and um also providing if you will as we make these changes providing um uh assessment training for our our teachers as well was was another thing that stuck out to me. Um we had a big discussion on artificial intelligence as well. Um which I I thought was a a

057fascinating conversation. Right. Um, uh, Eugene certainly took more from, I would say, I don't want to say like maybe from the tech and the parent lens, and I certainly definitely took more of of the educator lens when it came to um, dealing with some of these things. And yes, of course, inevitably, you talk about cell phones, right? And and and and all these electronic devices. And I'm a true Libra. Sorry, but I believe in balance, right? And and one of the conversations we had is um you know we tal we had student ambassadors talk about mental health and and and listen there's a lot of people out there making these connections between mental health and always being plugged in never having a chance to be down right and the adults are just as much like

058us if we look around I'm sure there's adults that are probably on their electronic devices right now right um those things happen right we're we're plugged in as well constantly um but I think that one of the things that we need to understand is how do we balance, right? And so, how do we get those moments where we do need to walk away and and unplug? But I agree with you, Mr. Gatewood. We're going to have to navigate it. So, why not dive in, right? And and the the balance is that from a macro ecosystem perspective is the world is not going to be concerned about that and will continue to run 100 miles per hour or even faster in regards to AI because AI is going to develop so much faster than um the

059in this information age than even the internet did. And so if we're if we're if one of our priorities is future ready um we absolutely have to consider the health and the the mental health of our students. But we also have to consider um what do we what must we and should we do in order to end the balance of it to make sure that they are future ready because the world's not slowing down. And and I appreciated both of our perspectives on that. I did. I did too. I Anything else on that? All right. Finance and facilities. Um I could I could speak a bit to that. Um we went over the mass facility planning process. Um we're going into phase three. So um determining programmatic needs and so not not the uh the

060facilities, you know, and the improvements that we need to make there, but kind of what the students need, right? It's kind of you know, in those in those spaces for their that particular program or or um uh grade or whatever. Um then we are also talked about just a couple uh RFPs, the notebook or the Chromebook one. Um we talked about that last week and I think we're voting on that now. So you know again just a change in process um taking that extra effort and putting a little thought to it. I what was it? $320,000 or something like that. The savings. Yeah. 300. Sorry. 344,000. When you say change a process, could do you mean? Well, instead of just renewing, we instead of just doing what we always did, we went through an RFP

061process. Um, so and then same thing with the copy machines. I don't know what the outcome of that is, but um it sounds like that's going to be promising as well. That and it is looking promising. We have uh three top people that we're interviewing and uh even our current provider dropped their prices considerably. We've been with them for 60 years and they all they've done these 16 years all they did was raise price and change. Yeah. I you know I I love attending our finance and operation committee meetings now you know um just because we get a lot of that type of good news. I mean there's also you know there's also challenges but we all you know we're trying to overcome them. Um, so that's that was pretty much it. I I Jen

062Jen, did you have No. Okay. Okay. All right. Now, we'll move on to board member comments. Any board member comments? I I have one. Um, and I know Dr. Dr. Kelatti, you talked about um and I do I also reiterate uh congratulations to uh to those newly elected board members and I've I have faith that the the community has has made right decisions and and and they will do well. But I also like hey listen it's me. So I'm also going to say thank you to um those who ran um even if they were not elected I I I thank them. An election is supposed to be a conversation. It's supposed to be dialogue. We're supposed to we're supposed to debate. We're supposed to not agree. We're supposed to hear voices. Like that's that's the

063point of all of this. And I applaud the community uh for how far we have come just in my time here. We had students who ran a forum with candidates in our schools. We had multiple parent organizations who ran forums with our candidates. Like that doesn't happen everywhere. Believe it or not, there are school districts out there that and communities that are afraid to have those conversations. And what I'm most proud of is that won't be tolerated here. We will continue to have those conversations. We will continue to have positive dialogue and we will continue to listen to voices here in this community. And for that, I'm in awe and I am very proud of this community for the things that they do. and they should all be proud of themselves and especially those who

064showed up and had their voices heard. Yeah. You know, I I I did a you know, just as far as the the forums that were held by the parent organizations and the students, um you know, I kind of looked through to see how effective these were, you know, you know, particularly online. And I think there was, if you kind of added them all up, you know, probably six, seven,000 views. Um, so it was, you know, well worth it. Um, really great way to get the information out and that probably didn't include people that are attending on, you know, in person and, um, asking questions afterwards and stuff like that. So, um, yeah. No, I I loved it. So, I want to I want to tag on that as well. Um, I I as Mr. Plo

065said, I I genuinely want to thank everyone that made the effort to come out and vote. Um, it's a process. It's a chance. Local elections are extremely important. It's a chance for your voice to be heard. So, to those who did, congratulations. And again, I I applaud everyone who ran for office. Um I'd like to congratulate the four uh soon to be new board members. And um I've I've spoken to them all, but I do want to offer them a challenge because they are going to have some really big shoes to fill by the board members that are leaving. Um, I think they're up for the job, but I do want to acknowledge all of the um everything. Well, it's not the end of the It's not the end of your term yet, but let's

066just let's just say let's just say that they do in fact have big shoes to fill. So, thank you. I would like to add on that. It is a very bittersweet uh moment, but I actually really did me and Callie both she'll probably speak about it, but we really did like hosting and talking to the candidates that ran. It was really like engaging. I just loved asking the questions and I loved getting the answer and I loved getting the answer. It was just so like fun to see how adults interact differently with questions asked by students and kids at that. And then seeing them have questions on the spot was just like I liked seeing the reaction time. I loved seeing how they answered and some questions from students were so difficult. Like I don't

067know how an adult can really think of answering such difficult questions, but I liked how every candidate was open. None of them skipped any questions. That was really good. Um, and I loved it. It was so fun. It was scary, but it was really fun. And also, I really liked how it was student based questions because it really involves the students into what's going to be happening around this district and getting just getting them involved. And even though they're going to be coming into office, I'm really going to miss you guys. Um, so thank you. Well, I just want to say I loved how you you as students and Dr. Waller leveled up this year even more like the way that you structured it. I appreciated the fact that there were only students in the

068room and everyone else was either you know virtual. Um I think that really set a different tone for for the environment in which you you know you had the forum and I really I really thought that was genius. So, I think you got, you know, honest conversation, uh, focused conversation from the candidates as opposed to, yeah, I mean, this is what we're about here, right? Student le, you know, making sure that your voice is uh, front and center because it is your experience and we want to make sure that we as adults are collaborating and leading in a way that your voice is the loudest one in the room. So, thank you for that. All right, we'll move on to our consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Sorry, I

069adjusted my eyes there. Make a motion to approve all items under consent, including 8.1 minutes from the board of education meeting on March 17, 2025, open and close session. 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district. 8.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and or more than 200 miles and 8.4 to acknowledge the Casey's cash for classrooms grants. Second. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? Thank you, Casey's. Yeah. Thank you, Casey's. Thank you, Casey. Mr. Gabwood, I Dr. Mario. Hi, Miss Johnson. Hi, Mr. Ser. Hi, Miss Simon. I Mr. Cloger I Miss Venmouth I motion passes 70. Okay I want to invite Mr. Omei for 9.1 our bus lease agreement and we also have some special guests tonight as well. Thank you. uh in an in an attempt to rebuild

070our transportation department, what we've been doing is we've been looking very carefully at the resources that we need to to perform well to give a good transportation experience to our students. And as part of the process, we identified that we need 72 buses. Some of those resulted from buses that we returned previously in the last few years that we now need to be able to run our route. And what we did there is the timing. There's been a shortage of buses now than it used to be before the pandemic. And because of the volume of buses that we needed to buy and the timeline, we need to buy very quickly. We were not able to do an RFP, which is the preferred way for us to to buy something this big. So we enter into

071a uh a discussion with our current bud bus supplier Midwest Transportation and Midwest gave us a proposal on the cost of those buses and additionally they also provide us the leasing um rate for those buses. Now in the past what we'll do we'll just take the leasing rate and run with it. But this time around we didn't do that. We reached out to other finance company and tried to get some comparative pricing for the lease term and everybody sharpened their pencil. We went back and forth back and forth. Initially the initial rate that we got was close to 6%. Leases. Now when you buying 72 buses and you were talking about uh uh close to $12 million, that's a lot of money over over time. So by the time we went back and forth the

072winning uh amount was uh submitted by American capital and the rate that we agreed to was 4.2 million from about six uh 4.2% from about 6%. And so over the five-year term of the lease, we are going to save about $821,000, which if you think about it in terms of the number of teachers, that's about almost the salary of 12 of our teachers that we were able to save just from going back and forth and negotiating seriously. And the bigger difference that we made this time, in the past, we lease buses for five years, we give those buses back and start it over again. And what we decided to do this time around is we lease we pay for those buses for five years, but we keeping them for an additional five years. So we

073keep those buses for 10 years and we own those buses after five years. We're not giving them back for them to be resold to us or to someone else. So that's another substantial way for us to save money. Thank you, Miss Oafami. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Y okay. Um this year we wanted to do something a little different with our bus leases as he indicated. Um our funding source and streams um have been tapped as you all know for the last few years and in order to save in transportation um looking at what we do from a leasing standpoint like you said we normally lease those buses for 5 years and we turn them over and we start this lease all over again. But with changing our model and leasing them for the

074five years, um having a buyback um or buy out at the end of that lease and then own them for an additional five years, we're going to save a lot of revenue in a district um and and not expense that out. And so we, as he said, we went back and forth with our um financial companies as well as the vendors to see what we can do. And that was a huge cost savings. Something we haven't done uh in many many years here in Asiggo. And it's time for change and transportation and savings. Love it. That's great. Excellent. Two two questions. Um the maintenance of the buses, how do we handle it now and then how will it be handled in the first five years and then the second five years? Great question. So, we

075do have three mechanics that we have in our department. Um, this summer they're going to go through IC training. Our buses are IC and they're going to go through a week of training at their um facility in Oklahoma um to service them. So, right now they don't do a lot of that heavy lift because they're warrantied for 5 years. So, we pretty much send that back. The other cost savings we're going to do this year is with them being properly trained on how to service those vehicles. If there's a warranty item and Midwest can't get to that repair cuz sometimes that take, you know, several weeks or a month, they're going to repair them and then we're going to send um well, we're going to charge back Midwest for that work. That's very good. So,

076so all of the buses that we we will have, they're going to be brand new buses for this year and then Yeah. Okay, I get it now. And the goal is to keep them for 10 years. Got it. Because uh most of the time by the time we send them back in five years, how much mileage do we normally have? Well, it's it depends. It's not that much, but again, it's something that we get strategic strategically do in our department to ensure that we're keeping it low miles. um swapping buses around depending on the routes, depending on field trips uh when we send them out um with the diesel particular filter that's in our systems. Uh we want to get them out the first year on field trips and just blow that out that carbon

077out of that system. Um so we're going to work on a strategic plan on what that looks like to make sure that we can maintain our buses and keep them low miles out. I I have a couple questions just because I have people in the community that seem to like to ask me these questions. you don't have an answer, that's fine. You can get back to me. But, um, electric buses. So, um, I'll ask three questions on this. A, um, why why didn't we go the electric option? Two, if we went the electric option, could we get them for basically free through grants? And that was two. Three is um I if we were to go with electric buses, would that nullify the need for us to uh levy for CPI due to the savings

078from that? I'll take number three. I got one and two. Yeah, you're good. First question, um, we don't own our don't qualify. That's one of the issues and one of the things that we wanted to change. We don't qualify, right? And so why don't maintain and the other part that I want to lay on that is she's probably too modest to say that if you all have been following the story out of uh one of our neighboring school district that went all electric. Oh yeah. the firm that actually maintained those buses went belly up. So, they were left with buses that they couldn't run. So, they had to scramble to try to find buses. And the the supply chain right now for buses is really tight. So, I don't know how they're going to get

079out of it. The fact of the matter is electric buses are still experimental. And based on where we're located, the infrastructure required to service those buses, I don't think it'll be prudent at this point to invest that money in electric buses because of the fact that the firms that are servicing the day they're not making money. They depending on tax credit. When those tax credit run out, the revenue is not enough to generate there to sustain the business. And that's part of the issue that they were facing. Now, regarding whether if we had electric buses, we wouldn't have to levy. There's really no correlation between that because I just for starters, the price of a regular um diesel buses, it used to be $90,000. After the pandemic, the price that we got now is 165,

080166 approximately. Now, electric buses, the last time I worked in a district where we actually got one, it was half a million dollars for an electric bus. One electric bus only the bus and not the infrastructure for it. Correct. Just the bus. Yes. And then you have to invest in charging system. You have to invest in a partnership with a firm that will repair them because the way you repair an electric bus is different from the way you require uh you repair an internal combustible engine bus. So on the front end it's going to be very expensive or something that is speculative. And as a district, we're not in the position to be speculative with the resources of our taxpayer. We have to be efficient and manage our resources the best way possible. And and

081again, I I just want to reiterate like I'm I'm you know, I'm sure all of us would love for all of our buses to be electric and the infrastructure to just be there and all those things. It's just again I it's a lot of a lot of answers I kind of figured you were going to say. So I think if somebody has access to a grant that has the equivalent and relevant numbers of dollars that would actually allow us to do that I don't think anybody in this room would be by doing would would be opposed. In fact I've been a part of projects to do electric buses in other places but as Mr. Of shared the substantial cost and investment are are are challenging. The second thing I really pray and I and I

082and I cannot let this go, but the concept of not leving. In fact, I met with some parents last week who were who had a list of things they were hoping for for this district. And I talked about the number of years this district did not levy compared to Yorkville, Planefield, Neighborville 204, which we get many messages from families whose who live here but work in 204. Many of those families say, "Why can't we do X? Why can't we do that? Why can't we do this? And I look at the damage of not levying to the max all those years has done. It's the equivalent and I explain to these families that when you don't levy, it's the equivalent or there's a parallel metaphor I use is that you go to Starbucks every day and

083you get a venty cup of coffee and then one day you decide, you know what, I'm going to get a grande. And now when you go back to Starbucks the next day, you can only now buy a grande. You could get a tall, you could levy, and you could choose to not levy again, which would not put you at a tall. So essentially, for the years that this community chose not to levy to the max, we are now only able to levy to the size of a tall. And that means that the impact of those those not living to the max whatever the reasons were whether it was political expediency uh financial choices whatever those reasons I can't judge the community back then but what I can say is that the compounding effect of not

084living to the max if anybody has any questions about that I would be honored to sit down with those individuals not in a in a browbeating or upset way, but just to really help educate because Yorkville, which has traditionally been a very conservative community, has never not levied. And as a result of that, today that community, Planefield, we were borrowing money from Planefield just so we could do payday. You see all those folks who came here tonight and we celebrated, we were borrowing for 20 years. We did a payday loan for 20 years. And so I would say that, you know, Jared, you opened the door and I want to just take that opportunity to say that I think um I pray this community has uh reflected and um if anybody has any misgivings about

085levying, I would just be honored to sit down and help them know that the most precious and important folks in our district are our students. And when we don't levy, we basically say that they're not as important as that that that that investment. So Dr. If I may add to uh back in October, I did a presentation at the last Uni District Association in Neighborville in conjunction with my counterpart at Yorkville. And if you look at the profile of our district and Yorkville 115, our profile is very different. But the different or similar profile, are they similar or different? Similar. Okay, you said different. Very similar. As far as the sources of revenue, they're tier one. We're tier one. as far as the the makeup of the the the revenues that it get property taxes,

086state uh mandated categorical fund. But the difference is when we looked at our finances, which we talked about the presentation is the fact that they always led to to CPI and as a result of that today, they have a higher fund balance than we do. 50. They're thinking about building a school and being able to pay for from their fund balance. They having the same challenges that we having as it relates to transportation, but the difference is they have enough money in their fund balance that they can able to absorb the uh the deficit that is brought on by transportation where we're not in the position to do that. So those are the repercussions of decisions that were made years ago that actually have real life today impact. So put a dollar amount on that

087for us. So if I I know we did an analysis a few months ago about what that amount is. It varies between 55 million to 75 million that we could have right now in our fund balance that we don't have. Additionally, in later on this month, I'm doing a presentation with our counterparts again with Planefield, my counterpart at Planefield and also Yorkville at the Illinois Association of School Business Official. That's some of the things that we are talking about at the presentations because I asked them to join me so that people can know that what has happened here. Uh we were wondered in part by decisions that were made about the revenue that we needed to be able to run a school district well and we lost that and will we never catch up. But

088we're trying to be prudent and efficient in the way we manage our resources. Now I don't don't think people realize but and I know we're kind of going off on a tangent here so I apologize. I'll try to wrap it up. But um there was a time where not this board but a previous board, right? Like they literally gave a presentation at IASB um and they were like proud that they were a district that was quote unquote figuring out a way to I see that look over there from they're trying to figure out a way to uh do better with less and they were not levying, right? And then the problem was about four years ago that all came to a head and I'll never forget those bright lights. And to your point, one of

089the things I said is we're going to feel pain from this for years and years. So um I asked the question only because I respect um anyone who's in the community who approaches me with those um even if even if they're even if they are followed by disparaging words aimed at me. Um so that's the point of of asking those questions. So I appreciate it kind of what you said. I've kind of figured but so thank you. I mean just the fact of the matter is 80% of our of our expenditures come from uh from salaries of our educators. 80%. Yeah. So right off the bat 80% of the revenue that we get pays for our teachers and building administrators. We have a question. One more question. What's the uh what's the lifespan of a

090bus? the average life. Okay. So, in theory, five years leasing, buyout, we could have it for another, I don't know, say 10 years. Yeah. Awesome. And saved um in this case, it would be a savings of $12 million. Okay. Real money. Uh, thank you again. And you have with you some special guests as well. Came out to support. Just want to say thank you all for coming out. Okay. I just want to make a quick comment um to basically the work that you guys have done. very very important. As someone who was in a sport and cheer, it was really hard to get from game to game because we didn't have buses. Like it would be right after school. So we'd have to wait for football to go and then that football bus would have

091to come back to our school. We would go on that bus and then they would take varsity. Like it was such like a ripple effect. So I'm glad that you see the problem and you fix the problem because not a lot of like sports get that opportunity to just have a bus. It takes a process. I remember sitting down. We would have to wait hours. Like the game was starting at 4. We were not getting there till 4:45. Like we're not having a bus till 4:45. It was absolutely insane. So to see the work that you guys are putting to solve a problem really means a lot. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so appreciative because I feel like not enough people talk about it and by you coming here and explaining this to

092us, it's like a huge like eye opening. I remember when I used to play volleyball, it was a very hard bus situation to where like two events the bus didn't even come to the school to pick us up to where the varsity girls had to drive us to different occasions. So, I'm so I'm so happy you guys are talking about this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again this evening. Thank you, Mr. Buff Fei. Uh next, I want to uh welcome we've got uh Mr. Artson and Tony Mard for our update on uh uh flag football and uh thank you all for your leadership. I know Dan, you work a lot with transportation as well. So I feel like this is perfect segue. Thank you for your leadership and Dr. Conincaid as well if you

093have comments. Yes, thank you Dr. Kgatti. Uh good evening board and yes uh Leon and her team uh we've met a lot lately to discuss some things too and we are making some positive headway for a lot of things too. So I do appreciate all the work that she's doing as well. Absolutely. So uh we are here tonight. Uh my name is Dan Artson, the executive director of athletics and asiggo high school athletic director. I'm here with Tony Miller, the uh Asiggo East athletic director. We are here tonight to discuss the process for adding a new sport just like we did last year. This time in particular for girls flag football. This slide here represents um kind of the why behind we look to add new sports. Uh and we discussed this slide actually last

094year as well because really anytime we're offering new sports and new opportunities for kids, that's what it is. It's opportunities for students to be involved with our our school community. And not every student of ours fits into kind of the traditional path for athletics. If you're talking baseball, softball, girls basketball, boys basketball, we have a lot of students that have a lot of success uh in other sports and other athletics. Uh in fact, today I was meeting with um some some teachers and one of those teachers happens to be a a community member that her her son is playing boys lacrosse for the first time this year. Um in previous years they were ice hockey only and it was no interest in the traditional sports that we offer. Um but we offered lacrosse this year

095and for the first time her her student is actually participating in a school related sport. So she was very thankful of that. Um and I will give some updates on lacrosse too. I know uh Mrs. Johnson here was applauding lacrosse and how well they're doing here to start this year too. So I'll give some updates as we go. But yeah, it's it's to give opportunities to kids. Uh the last couple of bullet points here with the links really it's an article talking about the benefits of athletics um and really how they improve social emotional obviously physical wellness but really the second link talks about the role of athletics and kind of the world we're living in today. uh we live in a world that people disagree on a lot of things, but for whatever reason

096uh when you put a a ball in front of them, they can all kind of see on the same page, right? And it really breaks down a lot of barriers and that article kind of defines that and the importance of that. This slide here represents emerging sports and activities which um you can click through that there's a hyperlink there too that lists all the emerging sports here in the state of Illinois. And essentially um emerging sport is it's not yet reached kind of a 10% threshold mark that to bring it to a larger picture for a state tournament. Uh some schools offer it. Um for example, in the past uh boys gymnastics was a state sport. It has been since taken off that because fewer and fewer schools offer that. So it's still kind of

097on the emerging list. Um, but for us here in SD308, that state series length, uh, we offer every sport that's approved, uh, all I should say, all of our sports are approved on the IHSA state series. The only two that are not are boys and girls water polo, uh, which was offered starting 2001 2002, and then girls flag football, which the state series is, uh, started this past fall. as we go through our process to define and really kind of determine whether we should be moving forward or have enough interest uh to move forward with any sort of a sport. The first thing is an assessment of interest and um you know as this kind of came to be last year around this time and we and girls flag football became more and more of

098something that a lot of people were interested in. This was a process we had kind of laid out for boys and girls lacrosse and girls wrestling last year. Um, and if you recall in those conversations, one of the things we have with this, uh, number 10 up there is the pilot of the club program. Uh, we had yet to have a club program for girls flag football. So, we thought it was appropriate to continue this path is making sure to establish this process and and adhere to this process as we go on for girls flag football. Uh, we'll talk about the success we've had with girls flag football as a club team. But, um, this is the process that we've laid out and followed each one of these as well. and you have some of

099this information in your packets and I can speak to this later if need be. um 1 through 15 of course 15 being the board approval 1 through 14 uh we've created a rubric uh ranging from one to five one being essentially we shouldn't do it or don't have that ability to do it and five is absolutely yes and we've scored um uh girls flag football and we've scored um boys water polo and girls water polo as well I will give you kind of a a news breaker here we're not looking forward uh we're not asking to move forward with girls or water polo, but since it was something that's on the state series and we don't offer it, it's always something we should be evaluating as far as making sure that our rubric ensures that

100we should not be moving forward with it. Right now, it tells us we don't have the resources to do it. We don't have the need and desire to do it. It's something we should reevaluate every couple of years to determine where we're at with that. That's not something we're recommending at this time. I'm sorry. Can I ask a quick question about that slide? Sure. I don't see it on there, but can I am am I correct in making the following assumption that we currently have schools in our conference that are doing girls flag football, but we do but we do we are lacking schools in our conference that have water polo. Is is is that a correct statement? That's correct. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yes. So, uh, on the last side, it talked about the

101assessment of interest. And so, uh, just like we did last year with all of the sports going forward last year, we conducted a survey of all, uh, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th graders currently in our buildings. Um, and that was conducted over December through January. Uh we gathered their name, their school, their grade level, and then we just simply asked them if offered an SD308, I would be interested in trying out for girls um girls flag football, boys water polo, girls water polo, or none. Um and so on the next few slides, we'll see the uh go through some of the results that we found. Uh overall, we had just over 1,200 respondents to uh the survey that we sent out. And you can see the breakdown by school. Um the two high schools with

102the largest also the largest number of uh you know 9th, 10th and 11th graders. So there was more students who got the survey than the um than the middle schools or junior highs. Um and then on the next one, you do see though that our eighth graders were overly um ambitious with their responses. So over 50% of the total responses came from our eighth graders, which I think is a really good sign because those are the ones that are going to be in our buildings for the next four years. And they're the ones that are going to be participating in the next four years where as our juniors are probably already set in the activities that they are participating in and so uh adding something to their schedule is probably not something that many of

103them are looking to do at this time. So uh so anyway, so that's a breakdown. um there. And then by gender, you will see uh again uh we did have more females uh respond to uh the survey, which also is good since we were kind of specifically looking at here today uh girls flag football. As for the results, um you can see the green is none. So it was good to see the number of students who actually responded none because they weren't just responding to say yes I want to try out to this because they just were responding to it. They really were thoughtful in the fact that no I'm not interested in any of these three so I am going to select none. So you do see uh the total number there is about

104just over 800 just under 900 of the 12 um 1,200 that selected none. And then you see girls flag football uh just under 250 respondents said they would be interested in that. Uh girls water water polo just under 70 and boys water polo uh just under 90. So looking at next year the IHSA girls flag um football proposal. Uh a couple of things it's been mentioned a couple of times tonight. We're looking at, I believe the IHSA is anticipating over 250 schools having uh girls flag football team register for the state series next year, which is up from about60 I think that we had this past fall. So about 100 more schools looking to add girls flag football for next year. Every school in the SPC is anticipated to have flag football. Our conference is

105expected to have flag football as well next year. Sorry, I guess I could have skipped ahead and told you all this, but um uh so again, it continues to grow. As you heard from some of the uh speakers earlier today, uh the clubs that we both had uh at Asiggo uh they had about 50 girls registered for their club. We were right around 80. When we first did our interest at Asiggo East, it was over a hundred. But then when we actually made them start showing up to practices and stuff, that number slowly dipped down, but we stayed around 80 for most of the fall. Um, again, we had 242 girls in uh 8th through 11th grade that showed interest. And so based on that, you know, the the interest and the growth of the

106sport both here and around the state, uh we are looking to um you know, recommend moving forward with a varsity level at each school and the potential to expand into um to more levels as we go through in coming years. Uh last year the IHSA had a roster limit of 25. So you could have 25 per um per level. So again, that's where we kind of are looking at our numbers currently. All right. And as Tony had mentioned, uh we did have club sports um this past fall for both O and OE. Uh they don't require a ton of equipment really. Uh for the most part, it's flag belts, basic uniforms, uh footballs, and other equipment to be used by the program. Uh I believe that both schools at this point uh have received um

107NFL grants from the Bears. I know OHS had a $2,000 grant, I believe, that we were able to purchase some footballs, flag belts, things like that to get the program off the ground for this past fall. So, that's something we still have in place. You know, when we go through and talk about expenses of things, one of the things when we talk to vendors and things about uh potential the cost of things, they do mention flag belts because you do kind of get what you pay for and they they are going to be something that we probably do have to replace often because of the nature of the sport, right? So, it's things like that to take in consideration, but um there's not a lot of additional large equipment needed. Uh it would require, and

108this is where the cost comes in, stipen for the head coach, stipen for assistant coaches, additional uniforms, of course, we have officials, workers for home matches, and transportation for road matches. As we look at the year-by-year breakdown, uh so if we are having a varsity program only at OE and O, uh it's just under $60,000. We include all of those fees uh and the cost associated with that. Uh I will say that the OS athletic boosters has has offered to put 7500 in. Always had similar communications uh or Tony's had similar communications with his boosters. It's also willing to do the same. So we're looking at to get things off the ground here of a $15,000 starter which does help out quite a bit. Uh so then that first year updated cost would be about

109just under4 $45,000. As you see there in year two, uh a similar cost. Uh there are some other expenses that go along with that. Of course, we won't need to purchase uniforms, things like that because those have been already purchased. Um year three is where we potentially looking at depending on uh reviewing where our students are is adding that second lay or second uh level of of a JB. Um and then year four and year five for the estimated total cost of 420,000. And again, that in that's that's all including, right? It's transportation, coaching, stipens, uh officials fees, workers, everything. And as we follow this process along, you know, um as Tony and I kind of work through this, our recommendation is uh to add girls flag football for a varsity level for OE and

110O. Uh this would be, you know, how we did with with boys and girls lacrosse this year as a co-op. We wouldn't have that uh just because we have the interest at both schools. Uh so both schools would would be requesting a varsity sport and then of course a program re-evaluation uh in 2027 2028 for a JV level team. And now we will ask or answer any questions you have. I have one question. Sure. Um looking at slide number five. So given the previous trans uh previous presentation in regards to some of the challenges that we have, I'm assuming I don't see transportation up there, although I hear it in the budget and the cost. Yep. But if we're adding to transportation, I'm just wondering the feasibility or just a being able to support it

111in especially given uh the comments that came from Cali and uh Hope. So, I I just I'm just wondering where does transportation fit and I'm sure scheduling, but yeah, how does how does that play out? Yeah, I think it's something we could probably more clearly identify in the future. Budget and resources as part of that, too. Uh some of the scheduling is associated with that, too. As Tony and I talked about transportation, the one positive thing here with girls flight football is you you will have a a weekday competition, but largely most of the competitions are jamaries on Saturdays. Um so right now we we have a conference jamboree scheduled on a uh early September Saturday which all conference schools will participate in and from there you can play multiple games at a time. Um

112because the games are only are 25 minute half five minute halftime then 25 minutes second half they go quick. Um so that's where a lot of this this comes in. It does help us knowing the fact that transportation would be largely Saturday. There is some considerations during the weekday no doubt. Um and then with that too, you know, this past year, specifically at OHS, we largely had mini bus travel. Um so that was able something that our our our coaches were able to drive many buses and get kids to and from which was huge cost savings for us. There's no doubt. I have a couple questions for you. Um first of all, I want to thank um the community for coming out and speaking. um happy to see this proposal uh before the board. Um

113so and it's good to always have community members here speaking um about their wishes and hopes for the future. Um what I have two questions. My first one is about accessibility to the to um girls flag football. I heard you say that um the roster can be 25, but our club numbers now are more than that. So to me that says that there'll be less people, less girls that will be able to participate in flag football next year. Uh I realize that might be a tradeoff, but am I correct in saying that? And yes, the the numbers would absolutely show that um two levels would be absolutely more appropriate to some degree, but uh we're also aware that um and I I believe you have some of the financial numbers in front of you as

114well too once we start adding a second level. Um there is an opportunity for kids to still participate in a club format for like a JV level. Okay. Now saying that uh that's not free that's not free of cost though either because there'll be there'll be some cost associated with that. You would remove essentially some coaching stipens and some other things too. Uh but kids would still have the opportunity to play and grow those skills. Uh but there would be some cost occur to the district still because you would still need even for home meets uh or home contest you would still need officials. even need someone potentially to work the clock or something, right? Um and for if you're going any sort of away contest uh for that club team, transportation would have to

115be considered as well too, whether that be a yellow bus here, the district or a mini bus potentially how that looks. So yes, um there this is a growing sport. There's no doubt. And I I think for us that you know we would be thrilled to have a varsity sport. Um but but also to your point, our numbers this year alone dictated probably two different teams. And as Tony had talked about and some of our great speakers here, you know, some of the numbers they gave were were similar to ours, but when our final roster numbers kind of were shaking out about who was there, you know, for us, I think we ended up having 44 kids that were like every day there. Um and Tony even had more than that at his at his

116place as well, too. So yeah, I think my only cons concern and if this is the proposal, this is what it is. 44 kids were there this year, but next year only 25 are gonna be able to be there to play. And for for for me that's an equity issue, but I appreciate the proposal and the desire to make this a competitive sport. So, it's just something kind of I'm weighing. Um, and then I also wonder about the equitable measures between uh boys football, which is no cuts from my understanding. So as many boys that want to play football can play football and only 25 girls can play flag flag football for the whole school. Yeah. Um so I think that's a consideration. Um and I don't know what that would mean uh if there

117were if there were other options. Uh but I also wish that IHSA would get on board with some of those. I don't know if they were the decision maker on the 25 person roster. So they have the it's a 25 person sideline limit. Okay. Right. So, um Tony and I have discussed this. I'm sorry. That includes coaches. Uh no, it's player. Okay. So, there is a potential you could increase your roster size, but when it came to game time, it was it could be a 25 individual sideline and that that's where it's capped, right? So, there is some flexibility with having kids, especially if we went to a club level kind of back and forth where where they would be in on that too. Obviously, we wanted to give kids experience. Um we'd love to

118have every kid who tried out have a spot. That would be the ideal scenario. Um, that is the scenario for boys football. It is indeed correct. Okay. Yes. We I have a question following um her question. I'm not going to lie to you. I've been a cheerleader for four years and I still don't know anything about football. So, please please bear with me. Please, please bear with me. So, it's 25 girls on sideline capp. But for boys football, they let anyone in, but they only have a certain amount of players on the field. I'm just a little bit confused. Can you like explain to me like That is not our decision. Oh, that's not your decision. Correct. Okay. That is above us. Yeah. What's the cap? I don't know if they even have a cap.

119There is no cap. It's kind of ly everybody. Yeah. Yeah. If you can change the cap, if I could change this, listen, it would be capless. And we're I mean Yes. So, so I agree. Yeah. And I know that our district would like I know you all would support that. I just want to point that out and I just want the community to to think to understand next year there's going to be less girls that are going to be able to participate. Yes. Um is there I'm I'm hearing though that there will also be a club level still available for girls who want to play and and and enhance their skills next year or Yeah, that's that's something we're considering because of the fact that we know uh how this We want to give kids

120an opportunity especially what we don't want to do is not only reduce the opportunities but reduce that growth so when they to get better in the future right because obviously you're talking try out periods and things like that we could we could absolutely have that conversation about club I I don't have that cost figure with me of a club versus a sec flat out second level yeah I don't have that comparison with me tonight um you know we could talk about some things too is having an ex for lack of a better term an expanded roster of your varsity and have some rotations um of I'm not going to say an A and a B, but like an opportunity for people to compete at that level. Yeah. Um we can try to be as creative

121as possible. Obviously, it depends on, you know, what the board's appetite is with that, too, and some of the direction you guys give it here tonight, quite frankly. Yeah. Tony and I are happy to kind of run with any option you'd like to give us. was uh and maybe this is out of sequence for our process, but was there any given the limited roster is was there any consideration to giving given to um uplifting a JB and varsity at the same time? Yes. And the proposal is for I know but I mean she's asking if we can go 2526 for both. There's there's three there spreadsheet but for they they lay it out. Yeah. the cost she's asking instead of I'm saying is with this interest and if I'm speaking for you why are we

122I just have to say I sit in this seat over and over and hear justified reasons for why we spend money and we are talking about potentially less than $40,000 or there's got to be some sort of economies of scale if we add a JV team and we already have a varsity team and in the grand scheme of things this It seems like such a small amount of money and we're talking about equity about girls and it's it's just interesting and potentially frustrating um because and I appreciate the club idea but having an IHSA sanctioned sport opens up opportunities for scholarships for girls. So, while I think the club is great, where is the equity when it comes to, you know, a JV team so that more girls are playing, not just on a team?

123So, part of what and I want to um I think these are these are all very important questions raised. What we learned from last year that it's important to start the process of ramping up when we roll out a uh a sport, right? And so I would say that part of the proposal is to enter it from a measured perspective that is sustainable. It's not to exclude or to say we won't get to growth. But as we did with the cross, it's important to to build right to long-term sustainability. Sometimes you got to go a little slower to go fast. And we hear we say that often, but that literally means sometimes that we make small efforts in these ways. I think the questions that are being raised tonight, part of the reason that these

124came to the board in and for the community to speak was just to really understand again what are the various parameters, right? And so I would say that my recommendation in reviewing the proposal was to ensure that we were beginning on a strong footing that we could build from. Um I'm hearing very important points and so I just I would say that I take full responsibility reflecting on those to ensure that we can also not limit access for our students and right and so it's always a tension for me in terms of the systems capacity transportation is a very real issue so yes if you increase significant access you also have a a complimentary challenge so is it is it better to start on a scalable what we know especially with the known for the

125future in terms of the number of rides routes we're working on a hazardous route I mean there's so many factors right So for me, I don't want to I'm I'm not I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses. I'm just trying to explain the context of why the decision was to go for a smaller footprint in this first step. Um and then to ramp up. Now the the feedback, right? Because I always like to win, right? So the feedback gives us an opportunity to think about, okay, how do we do both? What are the other options? What are the other ways we can think about it that necessary can be still uh within a a smaller footprint but at the same time ensure that we don't cut off the energy and the access. So

126So can I can we can we go to page 14 real quick? Um I'm sorry. Page 14. And and let me start off. I want to preface this question with I'm gonna be honest with you. We should have brought this years ago if I'm being honest. So, I'm excited about whatever we could do to expand this and I I hope to heck that we vote on this before I leave. Um, I just it's I I just want to do this as a learning moment for the community, okay? I did some math and if we do $300, listen, I'm I'm not saying I like it either, right? I'm I have I have kids I have a son in the district that had had to pay these fees. $300 if I have 50 students, right? It's because

127I have two varsity squads. I'm I'm looking at $15,000 coming in for per for student fees, right? If I add JV, let's say I double that on top of it over 5 years, you're talking about 75. I doubled that. Uh or you 75 for the two teams and then double it. If you did JV, that's 150,000 in in fees coming in. I point this out because I hear this come up from the community so many times. Where did the money go? Right? Where did the money go for these student fees? And so I just want to point out that $150,000 is less than $420,000. That is not to say that we should not do this cuz I'm a huge proponent and thought we should have done this like we should have been more at the

128forefront and done this a couple years ago. So I want to make that abundantly clear. I'm 100% in favor and like I said, I hope I get to vote on this. It would mean a lot for me. So, I hope it's coming back as a voting method. But Jared, if I can just add something to what you just Yeah. I just want to make sure we take the teachable moment. Sorry, I'm a teacher. 120,000. We don't get that. No, but what I was going to say is we don't get all those $300 fee. That's the part that we don't talk about. Everybody says, "I pay my $300 for uh my fees. How come?" We don't get that. The percentage of the fees that we collect keeps going down. Last year at this time we were

129at 86% of the fees. This year we had about 72% of the fees for athletics. So the trend is going down. So by doing the calculation what we have to do then we have to multiply that amount by 70%. Which is realistically the revenue we're going to get from fees. So the 30% has to come from somewhere else. I just want to put that out and I just want to put it's five years. I did five years your argument stronger because the first two years is half. So it's 15 15 30 30 I'm trying to strengthen your argument, right? But the point is it's it's not covered. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Can I touch on what I want to touch on what Raphael said and I want to go back to when we talk about equity

130and I'm very passionate about this because I'm a girl and I think it's just really important for girls to have these opportunities. I went to a college where it is very heavily into football and our our our college is all about winning a national championship. But the money that comes in for football pays for our female lacrosse teams, our female softball teams, our female and that is what when you're looking at equity from a larger perspective is what happens. If we're going to be a district where we talk about these things and we prioritize these things, then this is something that would make sense to me if this is our values and our and our mission and our vision that this is something that would be prioritized. I totally get what you're saying, Jared, and

131I totally get what Raphael's saying, but that is where the money is going. People think that, well, I paid $300 for this, it should just go to this. That's not how budgeting works. That's not how it works in a school district. It's not how it works in a college. It's not how it works. You collect all that money and you spend that money based on your priorities. And anybody can look at a budget and know exactly what somebody's priorities are. So I'm just saying that with what both of you said, yes, the numbers aren't going to be apples to apples, but it what are our values and what are our pillars and if that is what we are going to say, then our priorities should fall in line with that. So, I appreciate what you're

132saying, Dr. Kagatti. You do have to crawl before you can walk. It's just very hard to swallow when you look at the I would say inequalities when you look at our football program, which also has its needs versus something like this for our girls. And so, I just I I needed to it's just very passionate for me. Um the only other thing that we haven't talked about is where will they play and what does that look like since we know that our um go ahead. Um I just wanted to make a comment about having that varsity first and then adding the JV years later. I will say as someone who participated on a cheer team my first two years, we did have a JV and a varsity. Coming to my junior year, we dropped down

133to only a varsity team. The participation and even the vibe of our cheer team became a little bit hostile because now the entire JV is fighting for their varsity spot and it caused a lot of friction. People lost friends. So, I really really hope that if we're going to do a varsity only team, all the girls that participated this year don't feel like they have to fight for that 25 number spot. But that's they will they will that's what's going to end up happening. And it was every I remember every single try out every single try out my junior and my senior year every girl from JV would be trying to fight for their vars competitively. This was comp we were competing competitively. They would be trying to fight for their varsity spot. And then

134that's when you had people either on mat, offmat or an alternate. And then it just became super hostile between coaches. Then you had coaches and teammate relationship being broken because oh I don't understand why I didn't mark make varsity etc. And then another thing is me and Cali have the opportunity to sit here and listen to you guys explain this other girls and parents don't have that opportunity to listen to the breakdown. So when this comes out or say we do approve on this and families are hearing oh we're only starting with the varsity there's no JV. they're going to be like, "Okay, but Oswiggo East football has varsity, JV, and a freshman. They have a freshman team, too." So, I just, and going back to your point, I just want to make sure that

135with equity, and that's what we stand for as board members, sitting here and talking to the public, that we're also being fair and just as well. and also talking to parents and communicating with students that especially the girls that want to start this and do flag football. Hey, this is what's going on and this is why we're making that decision. And I just hope that the energy is still up at that three-year mark when we're considering adding a JV team that girls still want to do this. I don't want it to feel like now the energy is low because we're only having that 25 mark and now oh I don't want to do it. I didn't make varsity. I'm I'm I'm not good enough. That self-evocacy. I don't want girls to feel like, oh yeah,

136you know, I didn't make varsity. That's it for me in flag football. My interest is done. What about three years? Then they don't want to try out for JB. Three years from now, they don't want that. These are very important points and I would definitely say that um we as a administrative team are going to take them under full consideration and we'll be reviewing them. I think the communication is an important part of that. Right. And so I want to make sure that nobody coming out of here that says that somehow that this is we are we are initiating something. So I just have to say that very clearly. Uh none of the programs in this district I can't imagine that they all start at the same point right and so I want to say

137that this journey is extremely important to me. Um this is why this team worked very hard to prepare their presentations for tonight. We have a lot of support to grow it. I think that the feedback is exactly what we need to be considering and be reflecting on and we we'll take into full consideration. So thank you. I just um so what's the difference between the commitment at club level versus a a sport level? Uh as I stated be uh previously I don't have the figures for club level as what's the commitment from the student I see um practice maybe two days a week um not a regular day like type of after school activity uh it would games are are more sporadic uh they're not as it's a much larger commitment to be on Absolutely.

138Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, when you have So, when you have 44 players that are playing, we don't necessarily know that all 44 would want to continue on and we're tripling the commit. I'm not saying that. Hey, hey, um you I want them to go back and kind of see what that looks like. Um the other thing I wanted to know was uh lacrosse, your initial assessment versus um it's a great question, the outcome. Sure. You know, like how many people wanted to join, how many people ended up joining. Yeah. You know, all those types of things. Do you want is that something you want to bring back next month? Maybe a couple of us. I can give try out numbers right now if you'd like just to have that. But um initially we had 44

139boys try out for the co-op team. And then we had um with 25 roster spots for that. And then we had uh 17 girls try out which all of them were. And then that was was that um similar to the expectations when when we when you had this analysis? Yeah, I I think we knew we had enough for a team. I I think that we weren't quite sure if we were going to have 2025 or if it was going to kind of for the boy site in particular to be fair, we weren't sure as we progressed with open gyms and people signing on, it soon became very aware that we were going to have to make cuts. Yes. Dr. Concade, did you want to add anything regarding the sports right there at this point? I

140just want Who did the decide? Four. No, no, no. Four. Which which sport? How many players are on a starting line? Lacrosse. You're talking about 11 for flag football. Football. Yeah. How many star rooms are there? How many starters? Seven. Seven. Okay. So, seven. So, how talk about last place? Yeah. Baseball. Who's on first? 25 players. You're rotating three plus. Yeah. And we have one of our coaches here who who presented tonight or spoke on on public comment who who did a fantastic coach. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Two wonderful coaches here tonight. Two wonderful coaches here tonight. They can speak with the intric intricacies more than I can. The flag football the what do you call it? Inter mural club. Club. How many who did they play against? So we were allowed to participate

141against other IHSA schools. Um the IHSA is allowing that again next year as well. So as a club team, we can participate against other IHSA schools around us, right? So the the same schools essentially. Again, it's it does cost to have officials. It cost for transportation, all those things are taken consideration. But I want to make a comment. When we're a club and we're going against schools have been playing flag football for like four, five years, it's difficult. It's really difficult because when we have a club, we're only go at practice two days a week on a field that's bumpy. People be tripping, falling, spraining ankles, and you're only there for like two hours. If we're going to practice a day, two days a week for two hours, that's like only four hours of practice

142and majority of it's warm-ups, passing the ball. But that's not that's not like good time because when we're doing this, sorry, no vests, but we're doing this and then and then we're going against teams who like buy all week good landscape, good grass, good everything, have good practice time. It's not fair. Like I'm not saying that our team isn't good cuz like we're really good don't play but it's just what it's hard like it's so hard because these girls have like so many skill levels know how to twist turn jump over us get into like the so it's just it's really difficult having a club and like you can see there's a difference between a club team and a sport team because just the time that we're given the location that we're given and the

143equipment that we're given. Thank you. So what we're going to do Dr. Okay, Dr. I Yeah, I think it's I think we've heard the feedback, but I just want to say to the the for the presenters and for all the hard work you guys, I thought the proposal is very well done. I think it's wellreceived. Um I was just thrown off by the 25 and so um well, this is what this place is for to give you some feedback and um we look forward to seeing uh where it goes from here. Yeah. So, we're going to you you'll get with the team and you guys will come up with some more ideas and thoughts and suggestions and then the dollar amounts for the club team and all of that and then we will get all

144of that information, you know, in the next two weeks. But then when we come back on the we so if possible I'm I'm hearing that the there's a a request that this come back April 28th. I think tomorrow I can speak with the team and we can reflect on what's what we can create and um Mr. Jackson has offered to raise $130,000. Mr. Jackson is on the side there to get us to the other side. So, thank you and I'll be working with Mr. Jackson. Um really appreciate that yellow that shirt has just told us that you're a beacon for this work and so we want to thank you for your leadership. But no, in all seriousness, we will commit to meeting uh as soon as possible and then giving the board really a realistic

145timeline. The financial considerations are real. Um but we also want to make sure that we are um making no excuses about our our commitment and what it means for our students. So I I want to thank our student uh board members for their feedback and everybody for their feedback tonight. I'm sorry. I know you're trying to wrap it up. Um, so if if we had a sport and a club, um, if we were to do a JV, would that eliminate the need for the club? And then that would be so an elimination of an expense. Uh, yes and no. More than likely, yes. But because of the number of students that potentially would want to participate, in theory, you could have a varsity, a JV, and still a club. That's where the creative part comes

146in, right? We are as creative as can be. Yes. um where where where are they playing is my last so um practice-wise Tony and I have both identified locations at our facilities and again being creative for this too like for OS in particular since girls flag football is a is a fall sport it does give us a little bit of flexibility where we have done you know one of the things we we have here both OE and O has OHS has is when we paint lines for fields it's all done via GPS so I can ask the people who operate that to plot top down kind of a football field anywhere in the anywhere on our premises, right? So for us, field five, which is our boys freshman baseball field, you a football field fits

147almost perfectly in the outfield with no issues whatsoever. So in the fall, that would be one practice location that they would have no issues at whatsoever. The grass wouldn't be worn down or anything else. It would be a good spot. And Tony has something similar. Tony has something similar at his place. he's identified and he's talked about a rotation of fields and we could probably do something similar as well. We have another spot in mind as well. When it comes to game fields though, they would be played at the stadium. Okay. Thank you. That's what I want to know. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Uh thank you. Um next I want to welcome uh we have a have uh Mr. Francis and Shan Deiden. We want to welcome you

148both. Um uh and thank you for your uh stick to itness and joining us this evening for your presentation. This has been a collaborative effort this evening that you're going to hear about. Um that's really been a two-year project to reflect on the ways in which we can support um our schools, particularly our middle schools. And I want to our junior high schools. And I want to thank uh John for his work as executive director and leading this effort this year. All right. Thank you, Dr. Ketti. Uh I am John Francis, executive director of schools. And we have with us I'm uh Sean Deid and I'm the OA adviser at large and a special ed teacher at Plink. Um and again, Dr. Kelgotti said this this has started I mean there are some dreams and

149some visions that have started in conversations in the hallways at Bernardik. um and and putting these ideas into place is is daunting, but we're we're doing one step at a time. Um so again, thank you for letting us come here tonight and talk about the work uh that we are are doing to outline some changes with just the overall bell structure to the junior high level for next year. Uh throughout this year, this really started in in late December when we really got a team together. I started to do a lot of research with some guidance from Dr. Zwanky looking at the schools to watch rubric which was created in the '9s if you believe it as part of the national forum to accelerate middle grade reform. Uh it just is a is a four-part

150area um tool to really help with some continuous improvement for how we can better service our students. The four areas are organizational structure, social equity, developmental respons responsiveness, and academic excellence. Uh, a lot of these pillars and domains is what they're called within the rubric are really outlined in work that we're going to be doing within our strategic plan. Um, a lot of that is going to cause um not cause, it's going to take a lot more work. It's going to take some financial um and district-wide push, but we wanted to to do something this year that we could at least get the the the the ball rolling and and do some work uh to better serve service our students. So with that, we took our junior high bell schedule um or our junior high

151members of the school day committee. There's a standing school day committee. We started with just the four or five of those people who are at the junior high level. Started with some initial reviewing of what we're doing, expanded our team and identified four areas that we really wanted to tackle. And this is the result of at least sticking within our school day structure of what we can do uh for our students. The following slides will outline the changes just to our bell schedule for next year in an effort to be more responsive to the needs of our students and Sean will take us for a little bit. We had plenty of time to practice while we were waiting with everybody's presentations which were fantastic. Um the over the overview the process has been very collaborative

152effort including administrations, teachers and most importantly students. Um we identified opportunities for the change that will provide more structure for our students and support instructional practices to enhance student learning. Uh compare our current structure and the changes for next year. Um and then review on how we can support students and how we'll be more responsible to their developmental needs. Um, looking at our members, um, our extended school day committee, we had teachers from all five junior highs along with a teacher and special assignment administration and district office administration. And then we also utilized the all AVID 8 students at all five junior highs. And then we also uh worked with our building reps too to look at the plan as well at the end. All right. So throughout this process uh we really focused on

153our work on making changes to best support our students in their growth both as both as learners and young adults. Uh we started again with with some school observations right more than just my knowledge of of being at Benarik and Sean's knowledge of being at plank while we were visiting schools kind of seeing how students are operating within the school how how teachers are supporting those students. We really focused on um organization planning preparation and time management. Again, these are grounded in that developmental responsiveness aspect of the rubric along with uh our organizational structure. We know students thrive on structure and you'll see in our current structure versus our proposed structure, we're trying to provide a little bit more structure at the start of the day so that these students can start the day uh

154in a more successful mindset. The changes that we will make will provide for structure within the day and it will provide opportunities, structured opportunities for our staff to help students strengthen those skills. With the shift in structure, it does um give us an opportunity and and personal belongings such as coats and backpacks will be able to be kept in lockers. Um we're going to talk more about the the impact of that and how we can support our students and our schools through that. Uh there have been questions as as this is rolled out. I remember when Jeremy was talking about student rights and responsibilities and there was questions about about this that was put in there about just this part of the overall district plan. So we will address those in the upcoming slides. Um

155but for now we just want to show you the overall structure of the day. Again if I'm going to look at this slide a little bit what what these structures and changes are going to do. It's it's providing less unstructured time to start the day. We really want again students at the junior high level need need things pretty clear-cut ages 11 to 14 as they're learning and growing within the system. So we really want to minimize the distractions uh that are within their day in and out of the classroom. We want to reduce their anxiety giving students more control over their environment giving more of the um self-efficacy as as you mentioned earlier the importance of that within our district. We also want to really maximize the space within classrooms so that collaboration and flexible

156learning and small groupoup instruction can happen more easily. Again, as as identified students, but even throughout this plan, a lot of this is also with the additional minute in the passing period. It will reduce anxiety for students. You can see and hear students, they don't have time within our current three three minutes to do what they need to do to get from one end of the building to the other. Uh and we really want to again support these students and and the essential skills of being organized, managing your time, uh giving them that sense of responsibility along the way. So as you can see here is our current schedule on the left. Uh all schools, all junior highs open at 7:45 in the morning. That's when when buses are waiting outside or students are waiting

157outside and buses are already on their way to their next uh pickup at the elementary level. But students can come in and they enter right at every school. There there are three different areas for each grade level. And then there's also the cafeteria for students having breakfast. So when students get in there anytime 7:45 or later, they are there for 45 minutes to hang out with their friends, do what they want to do, hang out with on their phones and and all of that. Currently, the bell to get ready for student support time or the rest of the day starts at 8. Again, if you've been in a junior high, these students are not using their lockers at all. They don't even know their locker combinations, both of them. So or where they are. So

158again, in our current structure, students have 10 minutes to just be around the building. So even if we're starting student support time as instructional minutes at 8:10, students are kind of in the building unstructured for 25 minutes to start their day. If you look at the student support time and the way and we're going to share share kind of how current is set up with what we want to do there is the potential for another 22 minutes of student support time with very little structure albeit within a classroom right sometimes students are working on um a success maker they might be silently reading a lot of times you know in in various areas they are they are just in the classroom getting ready for their day so again one of the things that we're looking

159at doing is just shortening that time to start the day at 8:00. Instead of having the kids walk the building for 10 minutes, we want to again provide some more structure, give them five minutes, get to their locker, get ready for the day, go to their their first hour class. The union, this has been part of that huge collaboration the union has in their contract that they need 15 minutes in a row of uninterrupted time for that to count as part of their plan time within their contract. Uh Sean and the union leadership has worked with with the union u since their contract starts at 7:55. They are willing to kind of concede this five minutes on that planning time to make this overall plan happen. And again, that five minutes is needed as we're

160adding a minute to every passing period. The rest of that passing period uh changes go to the the passing or the rest of the minutes for those passing periods come from student support time. So, one of the areas that we are um kind of giving a little bit is going from 22 minutes a day of student support time down to 19. Again, we feel that with the structure that we can provide and and put forth for our buildings, we're really going to maximize that time. Overall, if you look at the bottom, students have the same amount of times in the classroom. They have same still same amount of time still for lunch. There is um an additional of three minutes in overall passing periods throughout the day. And there's 3 minutes reduced from student support

161time to make this happen. Um, with all of this planning, right, from this point, we really wanted to get the the voice from our students. What would this structural change do for our students before we went further with our planning of how we're going to support them differently? We wanted to make sure that we knew the the areas that that they really wanted um addressed. And so we took to our AVID 8 students and they provided some excellent feedback for us. So we looked at or they identified the six following needs was the convenience and organization. Um many of them are worried about forgetting materials and being prepared within coming to class. that time management and passing periods, amount of time given for that passing periods because currently it was three minutes locker operation, organization

162and efficiency. Like we said, some of them don't know their locker combination or where their locker is located. So helping them learn that and then access to the person their personal items is what they were also worried about. Um, we talked a lot about this that first couple weeks of school, the significant 72, spending some time and giving them executive functioning skills that the students lack of helping them map out where do you stop at your locker between which periods. Um, advocating with their teacher if they're 10 seconds or 30 seconds late because their locker didn't open. Um, that's a life skill that students also need to learn as well. So working with everybody to make sure that the kids begin to learn those executive functioning skills, be more organized and be more efficient. Yeah.

163And I just want to point out right when we started this and and looked as the committee of our vision, right, helping students be be better at being organized, helping them with time management, helping them be responsible. Those were some of our driving factors of a of of our team. And then what was so interesting to to us as we looked at the survey results, it's the exact same areas that our kids said that they needed help in, right? How awesome is that? That our kids know themselves and what they needed for support is exactly what our overall dream and plan was of of providing that support for our students. Uh so again, looking at this um our changes are going to require us to support our students. Thank you, Sean. Um and so so

164we take this to student support time, right? and and we know that it's not a pocket of just supporting them throughout student support time. This is an area that we want to support in all contents in all of our classes across our building, across our district, right? When we talk about being future ready and I know we've talked in in the past about the PACE framework, right? Some of the essential skills for employability are exactly what we're talking about in this plan. Uh we want to help our students plan, prepare, and manage their time. This was echoed by our students. These changes will require us to support our students both as a collective whole and as students as individuals as those needs arise. But again, the fact that they identified the similar needs as staff,

165we know that our plan will better help students develop these essential skills and we know that it will help them in long-term success. The key to all of this will be our support of our students and we know that. So again, our current structure for student support time has been through a lot of iterations over the years. Those of us who have been here for for many years, this started as in between third and fourth period. This started in between eth and ninth period. It started with some code teaching. It started a whole lot of iter iteration. It is still pocketed at the start of the day if if we want to know the why of why we're needing to keep this here. This is to allowing or this allows for our high school students

166who go to high school for geometry to still come back and not miss any academics at that junior high level. I know that we we talked in the EL and II meeting about how do we shorten lunch and I know Plo and I have been talking about that for years. We would like to shorten lunch. We would like to put student support time with lunch. Again, there are some factors that our team still has to work out if we are going to change the time periods of lunch and advisory. Part of that is how do we deal with that staffing when the entire school is on different schedules for three periods. Currently, we have junior high students who teach all three grade levels at the same time. So, if we start doing lunches and advisory

167differently and changing our overall structure of periods, that just involves some more changes that we still need to hash out. However, with student support time being at the start of the day, currently on the left, I don't want to say that it's unorganized. Schools do their own thing, but again, there isn't this district-wide um consistency that that this is again part of what we want to ground our work in. How are we doing the same thing at Plank, Thompson, Benarik, Murphy, and Trober? And once we get there and we get this foundation right, we can continue to start building. So currently on Mondays, it's really up to the building. Tuesdays and Thursdays is a success maker intervention. Again, this has come from with our new math resource. This is an intervention that's part of it.

168It is something that schools use sporadically. Teachers use it off and on. It is used in some of our direct classes, but it's something that is rolled out as an option for all students. Wednesday is part of our literacy framework. We also have that independent reading and then we focus character strong on Fridays. Again, students have some autonomy of doing what they want to when they want to during the days, but this is really the overall structure. What we would really like to go to and that we've been working as a team um is really that support providing one of the things we've talked about and we've already put together a a framework for organization that we're just calling avid organization across our district. This is checkpoints on like binder binder checks, binder reviews, making

169sure that our binders are organized, checkpoints on our lockers. It is is leaving up for are we planning for the weeks, right? Using student planners, right? As of right now, not every junior high is using a student planner. That is something that we are bringing back as part of this plan. We will have not consistent looking planners, but consistent planners as far as the the process and then we are going to help students plan their weeks. All of that within student support time starting on Mondays, right? As part of this AVID organization, as the year goes on, there will be opportunities that we will as schools look at grade reviews. Let's open up our power school. What homework assignments are we missing? Again, some of this overall planning, time management, and organization that our students

170need. We're going to we've we've found this in talking with teachers. We need to increase our time within character strong. The lessons that are a part of that take more than 22 minutes. And and again as as we are really looking at the whole child and the mental health of our students this character strong it's a researchbased program there are a lot of resources in it Dr. Paul can attest to that that we're not even tapping into yet because we don't even have the time allocated for our staff to be able to use it. So we wanted to expand that to two two days again talking with teachers part of the middle school philosophy. How do we allow flexibility within our schedule for students to get what they need? We are going to carve that

171into Thursdays, right? We've talked with a lot of teachers where they might, you know, Sean might IM a student or email a student. Can't IM them in junior high? It's not open. But they would email a student, hey, we need extra time on this on this assignment. Remember to come in Thursday morning. I'm going to write you a pass. You can come to my room. This is the one time throughout our day where all students and staff have access to each other. So, we need to continue to capitalize that as we can. and Friday focusing again as a district we're working with our student services department we're working with Ben Owen we're working to implement the school links um really that career pathways a lot of that as this pace framework gets um implemented within

172our district a lot of that work will fall within classes within contents we are currently working out when and how and where that's going to happen but this also gives us another time um for us to do some more of those um surveys days and exploratories within the school day for students to explore career opportunities and we wanted to to pay tribute. There are some schools doing tremendous work. I will give a shout out to Trober with what they are already doing on that career exploration and they're bringing in guest speakers every month. We still want that time for them to do that and then again as we are getting more consistent expand on those opportunities for all of our students. I think uh John took a lot of my talking points here, but it's

173okay. Um so our student support time, we talked about the need for that organization piece of it. Students come in and they're very unorganized. I remember a couple weeks ago I opened a student email and I think they had 785 emails and they were all from Google Classroom. I'm like, why aren't you deleting this? Oh, I probably should delete them. So giving them the time and teaching them organize not only their physical materials but their digital resources and materials that they have as well. Um the character strong piece uh John mentioned that we haven't tapped into the full potential. A lot of the character strong have weekly challenges. A lot of people aren't getting to those yet and it's hard to do a weekly challenge on a Thursday or Friday when it's the end of

174the week and it's kind of just dropped out. So just to kind of put that priority piece on that as well. That organization will also give them time to go find their lockers. Maybe even those Thursdays pull students in and help organize their locker or make sure that they're getting their materials in the certain spots and going after third period instead of sitting and talking to their friends and grab their math book. Um and then that Thursday is really important to make up tests and quizzes, see students, reteing. And I have a lot of sixth graders that come and see me um for reteaching of that of math or work on their Excelss. And I think that's really important. And then that future ready piece, thinking about high school and even life after high school

175is really important. I I have a freshman and trying to get him to even think about something is is is hard. So it's just something that we really I'm glad that we're pushing out. We're down to questions. Anybody have any um before I'd love to ask Dr. and K to speak a little bit to um how the strategic plan influenced or didn't influence the presentation we heard this evening. Absolutely. As you heard from both John and Sean, this directly impacts our strategic plan. Um the priority two, which is our systems of support, our pillar two, which is educational access and supportive environment. And objective two specifically says reorganize the structure of student support time for junior high to be more responsive and student centered. So Sean and John mentioned the academic seal future ready and

176supports. So they're really rebuilding that student support time around what is identified at the junior high level for the needs of the students. So they're building on organization exe executive functioning and those seal and trying to reduce that unstructured time. So the work that the committee has done is absolutely paired with our strategic plan and the vision for implementation for next year. Thank you. One thing before we get to questions because it's it's it's a different order and again this is what uh Dominic you mentioned this when when Jeremy Bell you know presented on the the rights and responsibilities. One of the biggest things that have come up in just talking points to our student services team uh and really to our district is we still need to have some of that individual individuality for

177students, right? And and part of this is if we're not going to allow those backpacks in the classroom, how do students still have access to some of the materials that they need and they want? So again, in in collaboration with Jeremy and and his department, the students rights and responsibilities has reflected that we are allowing uh personal bags, cross body bags, wristlet bags, fanny packs for students to take personal items, pens, pencils. It's part of our our our um supply list every year, right? They within their binder, they have all all of the supplies to keep their school supplies in there. If they want to do that in another avenue, they can. if and when we need some student individuality, right? That's also part of this. We're not saying that, right? Things are either a

178yes or no. There can be exemptions made when students need that, but again, that is really at that individual level. So, I know that that those are some talking points that have been out there. Schools will be working with families through that process. I just wanted to say that before we get to questions because I'm assuming that's a question that's on people's minds. You took my question. Well, the we got a question via email. Um, I'll try to summarize it. Uh, well, I'm not sure um if that was just answered. Uh, the change not allowing backpacks excludes an already marginalized population. basically uh when they're carrying their backpacks, you know, it's it's uh presenting ev evidence of their or it's a reminder of their differences. So, that's that's the question. So, how do you respond

179to that? And I understand that um for people that might have exceptions when they're carrying backpacks, it would be a physical symbol of difference. Yeah. And and and I know like uh it's pretty common now for push in and pull out and you know and students are used to that. But that's that's the question. Well, I I if I may, I think that um the diversity of our student population extends beyond the background. There are lots of ways that our diversity shows up. So I would say that the core values in our system and the emphasis on really building that culture of diversity and celebrating it and honoring and also addressing when there's harm that comes up and that's a big priority for us and so this plan does provide us with a pathway to

180a build better consistency and what I appreciate is that this was the feedback on both of our educators and our staff along with our administration and the emphasis on character strong which is a program that addresses really helps build the character development practices in our district. So to that question, I would say that the that the response isn't whether one has a backpack or not because whether it's race, uh clothing, individuals experiences, um any one of these attributes, haircut, you know, I don't have my I don't have hair. So um any one of these attributes of who we are must be recognized and appreciated. And when something harm comes up because of a mitigating factor or the presence of a backpack or not, I think there's a much deeper issue that we have to go

181after. And that's what when we think about our our strategic plan that became a resounding message of our strategic plan. How are we building a culture that's consistent? We have so many bright spots. We need to get to consistency in our district and a systemic approach. And I would say that this provides that. I just had a comment, not a question. Just wanted to say thank you to the union. I mean, that's pretty um gracious give and so thank you. Yeah. Um I just kind of clarification. So the extension of passing periods, it would only be draw upon middle schools and would it be nine minutes? Is that what you guys said? Four. Okay, never mind. I had a question because for some reason I thought you guys said nine. I know. Wait a minute.

182Never mind. Thank you. My whole question. Oh, sorry. Wait a minute. Okay. Never. Okay. Thank you. There is a there was a lot of um conversations obviously that went into this with with students with teachers and I and I greatly respect that. Um as a mother of a junior high, this has been a highly talked about discussion in my home. Um and I think that they I think there are some things that are missing which is there are a lot of students who um do not get very get a lot of anxiety with regard to combinations and getting it at a certain time frame. And so um there I think that there needs to be maybe a a period of time where you know we're we're amping up to you know fully compliant. Um, I

183get frustrated as a parent when my son is tardy for whatever reason and I get a phone call and an email and I can just see those phone calls and emails through powers school going crazy the first couple weeks of this implementation. So, just some things to think about. But I think there is some some valid points from students and parents especially the parent that emailed us about um, you know, what those differences look like for different students. And we talked a lot about that for that first month. We called it, you know, the significant 72. Those first three days, we're supposed to be building relationships with students, but even spending more time with that and with students that are struggling getting from A to point A to point B, teaching them what route they

184need to take, following them around. We talked about as a committee making sure you just don't mark the student abs or tardy because they come in. What does that look like? Have that conversation. I mean, with three minute passing periods right now, my students, like I stand in the hallway and I'm like, "Just slow down. We don't need to run. I see you. You're making an attempt." You know, so just working with teachers and administrators to help give students that time and teaching, you know, I I get I hear what you're saying. I think that is definitely important that first month of school. For sure. Thank you. in in in agreement to that, right? A while back, this is how things were, right, without backpacks in there and then co came and we we've made

185these changes, right? We've always had to onboard our sixth graders. That's something that we've talked about just as principles. This is going to be a huge shift at the buildings that first couple weeks because we're going to have to onboard the entire system, right? We're going to have to onboard at 987 kids. I also think that gives us a great opportunity to come together as a school. And how are we going to do that, right? getting those teachers out in the hallways, greeting those kids, right? Talking just like Sean did of like of of just talking with kids, right? Why were you late, right? What what can I help you with rather than like you're late and you're tardy and there's a consequence. You hit the nail on the head right there. It is it

186it really to me it goes back to that supportive environment and and things that we should be doing across our system. And this is going to give us an opportunity to really reset that and and support those students. Um, and again, other comments that have come my way is, you know, how will my kid go to the bathroom holding their Chromebook in their head? Well, like again, to me, this is that self- advocacy for kids. When when when we rolled out the the no cell phones at the junior high and we've told every single kid, this is true at all buildings, no kids are going to be denied use of their phone. They just have to advocate, hey, Mr. Deliden, I need to use my phone and I need to check my my my messages

187because my mom's going to let me know what I'm doing after school. To me, this is that same thing, right? it's getting to class. Hey, I need to go use the bathroom. Right? I there's not going to be a teacher that's gonna say no. Right? And so it's again to me it's really those those skills that we really want our students to learn and develop that this gives us really those opportunities to do that. But again we we need to make sure that we are doing it in a supportive way and that's that's really my job and our job as a committee to to hold our ourselves accountable for that. I love the community aspect of it. Each school does need to pull together. And I will just say one more thing. So, it's on

188record that there are a lot of junior high boys that are worried about their aura without their backpacks. So, I'm serious. Sorry. I I'm trying to process that. You have to have a junior high boy to understand their backpacks are their thing. I look forward to learning more about something. I have a nine-year-old, so you know what I'm talking about. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much again. Thank you for your presentation. If other questions come up board, we'll definitely be able to send them to you all. So, thank you again for your effort. [Applause] Okay. Nice. We have uh Mr. Obi and Mr. Queen, we've got some updates regarding the Broker RTU installation. I'm on it. All right. So, this is a continuation of the approval for the RTU units himself. Um we

189held an RFP where we had three vendors um participate in in our event and we are asking them the board to approve the bro the installation for installment for 148,000 to Oakbrook Mechanical Inc. That's all I got questions. most vulnerable students. I think we need to make Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We We've had several conversations on on FFC. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thank you. And I think you're up next with the next I am up next. So, this is the big one with the uh project for asphalt repairs in the districtwide. Um we we put out a uh RFP in February to um have these areas addressed. I wanted to give you just that list of projects that we were looking at. A total replacement for Grant Grande Park Elementary. OS Plank Drive, that's the back

190drive that leaves from the waterworks department all the way up to the tennis courts. Um OS sidewalk, this is something a little different, but we need to address a situation where we don't have access for those young students to get from the gravel lot all the way up to the building. This would eliminate any of that. uh eliminating a big safety concern for those kids and those people traversing from the gravel lot to the building at OHS. Um OS bus drive here at Harvey or off of Harvey Road um or OE. It's uh it's it's ran its course and it's fallen off into the cornfield and we need to replace that one. So these buses have a a nice safe travel from um Harvey Road up to the building. And then Bro Call ELC. This

191is a big project. Um, we're stressed for a lot of things there. The the concrete has has deteriorated away to nothing. We're battling uh parking in that area. We we I currently, I want to say, can park 66 cars. This will bring us up to 200 parking spots for that facility, giving us ample space for visitors, staff, and anybody that wants to come to Brok. Uh we we held that. We had four people bid on the job with Abby being the low bid at 3,244,715 and we recommending that we go all in with Abbeby construction. Any questions? I know there's a lot there. I feel like the Brokoff project is a long time coming. I remember visiting there um when my daughter who's now in college was a preschooler and having parking issues there trying

192to find a parking spot. There's more employees I think than parking spots. Right. There there is there is. So I'm glad to see that one. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right, moving on to action items. 10.1, approval of bills for payment. Can I have a motion, please? Make a motion to authorize the payments of bills in the amount of [Music] $3,469,364.7 as presented. Second, Miss Venmouth. I, Dr. Maria I Mr. Cerrone I Miss Simolson I Mr. Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr. Flo I motion passes 70. Action item 10.2 approval of Chromebooks and personal computers RFP. Can I have a motion please? Make a motion to approve the three-year lease for the Chromebooks and personal computers RFP with a $1 buyout at the end for a yearly payment of $420,27646. Second,

193Miss I. Mr. Gatewood, I Miss Johnson. I Mr. Cerrone, I Miss Simon, I Dr. Mario. I. Mr. Blogger. I. Motion passes 70. Action item 10.3, approval of vending machine services RFP. Can I have a motion, please? Make a motion to approve the vending machine services RFP by I'm sorry, with Hometown Vending as our vending services provider. Second, Mr. Pler. Hi, Mr. Gatewood. I Miss Venmouth. I Mr. Cerone. I Miss Simon. I Dr. Mario. I Miss Johnson. I. Motion passes 70. Action item 10.4. Approval of vision 2030 board resolution. Can I have a motion, please? Make a motion to approve the vision 2030 board resolution as presented. Second. Dr. Maria. I. Miss Johnson. I Mr. Pler. Hi, Mr. Cerone. Hi, Mr. Gatewood. Hi, Miss Venmouth. Hi, Miss Simon. I motion passes 70. Action item 10.5 policies

194for second read and approval. Section 7150 and section 8 col35. Can I have a motion, please? Make a motion to approve board policies section 77 col150 and section 88 col 3535. Second Miss Venmouth I Dr. Mario I Mr. Cerone I Miss Simon I Mr. Gwood I Miss Johnson I Mr. Pler I motion passes 70 action item 10.6 Six, renewal of 202526 building administrator contracts. Can I have a motion, please? Make a motion to approve the 202526 building administrator contracts as discussed and presented. Second, Mr. Cerone. I, Mr. Gatewood, I, Miss Johnson, I, Mr. Pler, I, Miss Venmouth, I, Dr. Mario I. Miss Simon I. Motion passes 70. Action item 10.7 renewal of 202526 administrator contracts. Can I have a motion, please? I make a motion to approve the 202526 district administrator contracts as discussed and

195presented. Second. Mr. Gatewood. Hi. Dr. Mario. Hi. Miss Johnson. No. Mr. Cerone. Hi, Miss Simleton. I Mr. Cloer. Hi, Miss Ven. I Motion passes 61. Action item 10.8, approval of building administrator contracts. Can I have a motion, please? I make a motion to approve the building administrator contracts as discussed and presented. Second. Dr. Mario. I. Miss Venmouth. I. Mr. Ser. I. Miss Simon I Mr. Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr. Hi. Motion passes 70. On um item 10.7. So that 10.7. Yeah. And there was another one where you meant to say no then or or it hasn't come. Okay. I wasn't I didn't understand the difference between 10.7 and 10.9. Okay. Would you make another motion for 10.7 please? Sorry. Can you go back Jared? And I I think under if I'm if I remember

196Robert's rules correctly, it has to be a motion from the board member who wants to change their vote and then we can second it. I can make a motion. Yeah, I believe that's the proper vote. I believe that's the proper way to do that. Change your vote. call it out for a vote. So what you need to do I make a motion that to go return to 10 point or I make a motion to return to item 10.7. Second oh what does she have to return to it or can she just make a motion to change her vote? I I think the only if you have to make a motion to return to second to make it a new motion that sounds appropriate. Yeah. All right. So, she may and then Jared seconded it. Jared

197second. Miss Mr. Gatewood. I Dr. Mario. Hi. Miss Johnson. Hi. Mr. Cerrone. I. Miss Simson. I. Mr. Pler. Hi. Miss Venmouth. I. Motion passes 70. So now we need a motion for So she needs to make a motion to right because she's the one changing. Yeah, she just did. Yeah, we made a motion to return to it. And now we need a motion to change your vote. I make another motion. Yes. To change my vote. Correct. Is it to change your vote or change? I make a motion to revote. We have to reote. To it has to come from the person who voted no to going to yes. So re So you make a motion to approve just what it says. Can we just make a motion to revote on 10.7? Make a motion to

198Oh, I'm sorry. I make a motion to approve the district administrator contracts as discussed and presented. Second, Mr. Gatewood. I Dr. Mario. I Miss Johnson. I Mr. Cerone. Hi, Miss Simon. Hi, Mr. Clover. Hi, Miss Manmouth. I Motion passes 70. Action item 10.9, approval of district administrator contracts. Can I have a motion, please? I make a motion to approve the district administrator contracts as discussed and presented. Second, Miss Venmouth. Hi, Miss Simon. Hi, Mr. Cerone. Hi, Mr. Pler. I Mr. Gatewood, I Dr. Mario, I Miss Johnson, no. Motion passes 61. Well, do you want Let me make the motion first. Um, action item 10.10, approval of personnel report. Can I have a motion, please? Make a motion to approve the personnel report as discussed and presented. Okay. Now, now we can talk. Okay. So, I'd

199like to make a comment regarding tonight's approval for the that the board made regarding our investments in our administrators. Um, our strategic plan emphasizes the power of collaboration and uh a strong support for our schools and within our schools. Um tonight the board reaffirmed its commitment to recognizing, retaining, and rewarding our outstanding leaders who embody our district's core values, vision, and um demonstrate a commitment to reflection. In the past, our district has experienced significant turnover um where we have almost up to 83% turnover among our district leadership positions, making sustained progress and meaningful collaboration incredibly difficult. We are proud to say that the leadership team approves this evening approved this evening reflects a group of individuals who are not only committed to staying um the the mission but will also bring their diverse experience and

200expertise to the work. Together we will build stability, trust and a continued momentum and we are excited for what ahead. Yes, we are. Thank you. All right. Um at an I mean I'm sorry 11.1. Can I have a vote? Oh yes. Yes we got a vote. Sorry. Mr. Pogger I. Dr. Mario I. Miss Simon I. Mr. Cerone. I. Miss Johnson. Hi. Mr. Gatewood. I. Miss Venmouth. I. Mo. Motion passes 70. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Back.