SD308 Board of Education (10/21/24)

001order the asigo community Unit School District Board of Education meeting for October 21st 2024 can I have a roll call please Mr Cerone here Mr Gatewood present Miss Johnson present Dr Mario present Mr bloger Miss similon present Miss venoth present our student board members hope rier and C Parell present present please stand for the pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance 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 good evening board uh this is uh one of those special evenings where we get to honor and celebrate the the hard work and impact of our Educators and all our staff in our district and we are thrilled this evening to start our pride Awards uh celebrations and

002so I'm going to turn it over to Teresa and invite the board to the center as we hear Reflections on some of these incredible uh staff members and all their hard work um in service of our students [Music] [Applause] tonight the Board of Education acknowledges Pride winners from the following schools Boulder Hill Long Beach Old Post and broa for the month of October Pride stands for proudly recognizing individuals demonstrating Excellence the Board of Education began the program nine years ago to recognize promote and celebrate the many contributions made by teachers and employees across our district we thank our generous District part Partners Chick-fil-A Culver's imagination Print and Design Huntington Learning Center serve bank and the scoop for helping make this program a success we'd also like to thank everyone who nominated individuals for consideration awardees

003after your name is called we ask you to come forward and be congratulated by our board and Dr katti and then wait there for all the individuals from your school to be called up so we could do a group photo we're going to kick off our celebration tonight with Boulder Hill Elementary School [Applause] schol we're going to invite up Miss Elizabeth Medina fourth grade dual language [Applause] teacher Elizabeth's nominator exclaims she constantly and consistently demonstrates her commitment to Boulder Hill the Dual language program the community and her school district District she co-founded the Bobcats celebrate diversity club which encourages and nurtures the identity of all Bobcats and all students in our 308 Community congratulations Elizabeth next we celebrate Heidi pazik lrc [Applause] director Heidi is described by her nominator as a student focused honoring the

004identities of all staff and all students as she advocates for all and brings Joy to the entire Boulder Hill population Heidi is noted as one of the best things that ever happened to Boulder Hill staff in the community she consistently educates and enriches herself and then shares that knowledge with the Boulder Hill Community to help it grow and Thrive congratulations [Applause] Heidi next we invite up Amy Wyland teaching [Applause] assistant to give us all hand in her nomination Amy is described as one of the most dedicated in versatile teaching assistants and as a prime example of what an excellent educator should be Amy advocates for students during the school day every day making sure that students succeed in and outside of the classroom when a classroom needs a last minute coverage Amy's ready to help

005in addition to her teacher Assistant duties she is also Boulder Hills social media contact runs maker space sessions creates Lego art for the display case and so much more [Applause] congratulations at this time we're going to invite up our building admins that are here from Boulder Hill to join us and we're g to do a group photo let's hear it one more time for Boulder Hill principal Toya and assistant principal Pete thanks guys congratulations our next school up for spotlight is Long Beach Elementary School [Applause] we're going to invite Ally quill instructional coach [Applause] forward Ellie's in her first year at Long Beach as an instructional coach and has already made such a positive impact she came in and had to tackle a new Ela curriculum and her nominator says she handled everything in such

006a professional way that you would have thought she'd been here for years she shows up works hard and is eager to help anywhere she can she's approachable inviting and helpful her infectious laugh and great sense of humor make her a pleasure to work with every day congratulations [Applause] Ellie next up is fifth grade teacher Andrea [Applause] Del Andrea's passion advocacy for all students and dedication to teaching makes her an ideal candidate for the pride award noted her nominator Andrea's students know that any space with her is a safe one where they feel a sense of belonging and can grow both academically and emotionally a former student stated Mrs Delon is one of my favorite teachers I've ever had she always listens to her students and always supports you when you try your hardest so you

007can excel at anything congrat [Applause] ulations ficia [Applause] Schuster she greets everyone with a big smile her nomination emphasized how she is there for every single student and staff member at Long Beach who enter the lunchroom every day she has hard working kind helpful and always ready to conquer the day one of the amazing ways she makes all the students feel so special is that she knows each and every one of them by name congratulations the students and staff at Long Beach are happy that you call the beach [Applause] home invite our administrators from Long Beach forward and air mark sorry let's hear it one more time for principal Phil in Long [Applause] Beach now we're going to celebrate Old Post Elementary [Applause] School we invite for award instructional coach Anna Gibson at the start

008of the school year Anna graciously accepted to temporarily teach the second grade asci position when there was no teacher or sub hired yet in addition to attending to instructional coaching duties her nomination says Anna puts a heart and soul into everything she does she goes above and beyond to make sure every student feels safe supported and welcomed at old poost she is a wealth of knowledge and always puts others needs before her own thank you Anna for always having a smile on your face and stepping in where needed [Applause] congratulations next up Carrie Jones second grade teacher her nomination states that she's the best choice in recognizing an individual for Pride recognition she leads many classrooms effortlessly even when students present challenges she is a positive role model always bringing out the best in others

009and lifts everyone up to do their very best Old Post is lucky to have an individual like M Jones congratulations [Applause] next up is teaching assistant Jessica [Applause] osar she assists daily with challenging student behaviors in both general education and stars classrooms at old poost she also substitutes as a onetoone ta a classroom ta and a classroom teacher in Stars she uses simple language and visual supports to assist all students in crisis at Old poost her nomination explained she is the member you want on your team no matter the goal congratulations [Applause] Jus we invite our old post admin to come forward yeah working check that [Applause] bag congratulations Old Post principal Mike miton and winners and our final building celebration this evening we will move to broa Early Learning Center intervention teacher Jalene front

010jene is a positive and supportive intervention teacher at broa our nominator says she supports every teacher and student at broa and very ious ways whether it be by Leading the mtss team bringing an element of fun and games through the social committee volunteering when needed or greeting and welcoming every student who enters through the doors every day her work ethic genuine empathy for others and team approach sets a positive tone for all others at broka [Applause] congratulations next is our Blended teacher Mary Beth Patrick [Applause] Mary Beth is described as an extremely dedicated and compassionate teacher always working with her students to help facilitate their learning and fully engage with her kiddos she is very patient giving students the time they need to calm themselves or process directions a parent said Mrs Mary Beth is

011an outstanding teacher who has already taught my daughter to love school congratulations [Applause] [Laughter] teaching assistant Randy [Applause] Reynolds described in her nomination as an unsung hero in the building Brandy does what is needed to support the students her teacher and the staff at broof she is the first to jump in and lend a hand where needed and if she sees a need she'll help Brandy is humble never asks for recognition and always downplays any praise sent her way but tonight we congratulate you [Applause] Brandy invite principal Groves forward and we'll do a photo snuck congratulations [Applause] fora let's all join in one final round of applause as we recognize and celebrate everyone [Applause] tonight honor we ask that you would proceed out into the hall and gather at the Landing there of the staircase

012so that we could do one group photo and we want to thank all the families and colleagues who joined us here tonight to help support our winners thank you um as for exi I just again want to congratulate our our families just let him go quite the crowd exciting stuff Madame President um I just want to take a minute thank our Communications Department Cindy and Teresa for really organizing and launching this this year so I know I know Cindy is exiting but uh Teresa if you just extend our appreciation to your team for organizing this evening's uh Pride recognition are they going to shut the door maybe we should okay we are moving moving on to 5.1 public comment so on behalf of the Board of Education I'd like to thank the public for attending

013tonight's meeting we value the feedback we received from our members of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System residents interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to five minutes per person and that no discussion of personnel matters State stating staff names or responses to your questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment followup to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment hard thank you Michelle

014trer District um Elementary High School outplaced dual language special education um first um I'm a band parent so I just want to say to both the marching Wolves of East and the panther marching band that they did a great job down at ISU this past weekend um so I'm I'm going to address like three things um first as I always do I'm going to um encourage our district to investigate approaches to work with our students with brain-based differences including fasd um as I've mentioned we probably have about 850 students um possibly impacted in a district this big by uh prenatal alcohol exposures but brain based differences for all neurod diversities um including trauma including ADHD including autism spectrum and someone did actually reach out to me from climate and culture and I need to get

015back to them so thank you for that um I just wanted to talk about mental health a little bit kind of having gotten into the high school rhythms a little bit now um because we talk a lot about concern for our mental health of our students and everything we do is basically reactive like we need to hire more C cers um partner with Community Mental Health agencies sometimes we have special assemblies and I I've had such great experiences with our counselors they have a lot of programs on so many different tiers um levels of intervention with our kids but you really start to see the root causes when you have kids going through the high schools and we have student ambassadors who might be able to speak to it a little bit and and by

016that I mean sleep and and we all know it you know if you're weightlifting you're at school at 5:30 in the morning or if you've got a club before school or you're just going in to get extra help then you've got something after school some of our students have jobs some of them have to take care of their family members after school in addition to carrying their case load they're just not getting enough sleep and that can go so far towards alleviating depression and anxiety there's also a constant barrage of information I have my Google Classroom notifications turned on and all hours of the day and night Google Classroom notifications um your coaches are posting your instructors are posting people that lead your activities are posting there's the remind apps going off there's the text

017there's the Gils um it it's constant and we we can Muse about whether or not they should have their cell phones at school but it's scan the QR code if you're going to fill out this Google form for this club scan the QR code to make an appointment with your counselor um get out your phone and pull up your power school app um we want them to be in constant contact so that constant barrage of information and that like that constant pace and I know it's the system it's it's the society and everyone does it this way and goes at this pace but I feel like we need to be really honest about that when we're talking about the mental health of our students because we're definitely looking to support them but we're not really

018able to address these root causes Power School alone gives you anxiety because if you have an assignment and it's only worth three points and you get one wrong that's a d automatically and a big old D shows up and you might have students with anxiety responding to that in a negative way and then I also wanted to address dual language um and I I don't know if you're aware of this and so I mean this completely respectfully because initially I was quite Furious and now I just feel disappointed last year a dual language Improvement committee came into being because parents refused to let the DL program at plank go down in flames basically not just parents but staff gave much time energy and dedication to meeting several times we had a list of concerns and

019needs signed by over a 100 dual language families and we didn't make it through that list now I hear rightful presence used a lot in these board meetings and it doesn't feel like that applies to dual language families because no one has if we're nine weeks into the school year and no one has reached out about continuing this committee why I know that we have new directors in place in this program but someone needed to communicate this to them they should have been asked when they were hired how do you plan to continue the work of this dual language committee because I can tell you I'm not the only one but people are mad people are hurt by this and so I I didn't know if you're aware of that and I wanted to make

020you guys aware of that I'm going to try to go to the bpack meeting tomorrow night and meet the new directors but I also wish that they would reach out directly to the families to introduce themselves I saw the letter they sent staff they have good experience I think our our families would like to know here's in who's in charge of our program now especially after the tumult that occurred last year thank you so much thank you thank you that it okay all right I'd like to move on to 6.1 and ask Dr kelti to provide us with his superintendent report well I'm on a high from that celebration from from our staff um uh recognizing so many of the faces of Educators and staff coming up here it was just really thrilling to see

021of the recognition and it's important um we know education is uh repeatedly Under Fire from our communities at large and it's good to know that in our community we take time to appreciate and be grateful for our front really our front and the core of our practice because outside of um our schools and the spaces and places where those individuals are working is there any more more any place more important sure is more important than us here it's important than our district work it's the most important place and we want to thank again those Educators and our and our staff for prioritizing that um you know really we're looking forward again to the next coming months the next couple months to really bringing in other folks to really speak to that and to nominate folks

022to that and so I just would encourage the community to speak and to submit those recommendations and those celebrations um and at the in our schools we have individuals who we often think of as the the selfless uh Giants of our school buildings which is our principles and our principles this month we are celebrating our principles for their leadership they carry a unique responsibility um in terms of balancing leadership uh prioritizing their school Improvement plans for Student Success staff development Community engagement and the list tying shoelaces I'm sure that was a priority for those of us who've served as Elementary principles making sure we took time to see um even in the Small Things um their efforts have really been um instrumental ensuring that our schools are safe welcoming and thriving environments and I want

023to thank and extend an appreciation to each one of our principles for their dedication perseverance and Leadership you embody the core values and hold that of our district and we thank you for really holding our staff and our students so dear to the work and especially our community members as we work together our schools are better because of you truly and I see our ambassadors are shaking their head so really echoed um yes that's a great moment to pass I could go on and on and not but I'm going to pause because I I'm so a part principles are important um in a couple weeks we want to invite our parents we've this year launched over the summer our parent University this is a unique opportunity we have a we are developing the kinds of

024structures for our parent engagement um we have successfully launched again this year our bpack which was really having a hard time last year and we've really successfully launched it this year there have been a number of events um another opportunity for our families is the parent University and this will be this coming Saturday at the Junior High um if if you are well sorry it got moved oh it's at Boulder Hill okay so it got to move got moved to Boulder Hill all right so not a plank at Boulder Hill um this is an opportunity to engage in conversations with other families around um trauma development U thinking about how trauma shows up in in our in our experiences in our lives and how that impacts our parenting or in schools um it's an opportunity

025to engage in uh reflections about healthy homes and school life uh safety and Technology usage um many uh area business will be there to offer many resources and so I would say that if you are interested in learning about these Partnerships that we're developing please come out we also have a raffle and a bag of goodies to win U uh through local businesses including laptops what okay um board members you cannot I'm just kidding um can attend of course uh Child Care is provided um and also breakfast and lunch will be available at no cost uh to learn more I invite you to our website where you can learn more about these opportunities and the way in which we are partnering and I want to thank our department for Equity engagement for their organization U

026of planning of this event um it's truly really a Wellspring of initiative that's uh really moving towards being parent L and we want to thank our families for their support on the student achievement side of things I want to congratulate both of our high schools for being named to the AP honoral the number of AP yes another round of applause let's do it the number of AP courses offered the number of teachers teaching AP courses the number of students enrolled the number of students who score well on AP tests and the number of tests AP stents take all way into this honor rooll placement not an easy placement we are very proud of our high schools and the effort of our Educators to really champion this and our leaders and thinking about how we strengthen

027this process and to grow their learning congratulations to OE for their silver distinction and O for their bronze with access uh distinction so again thank you to those um and uh also one of the wonderful practices that the board has really promoted over the last couple years is a public forum so Monday um November 7th uh November 4th at 700 p.m. we want to remind the community that we will have our public forum and all families and community members are invited The Forum will be held at plank this one will be held at plank Junior High and we invite staff students parents and commun members to join the board an opportunity to learn and engage together and the board does have meetings twice a month so you're always welcome to come make public comment um

028to the board but also this is a unique opportunity to go a little deeper into certain themes and topics and now I want to invite board members to join me as as our tradition additional comments because there are just so many good things happening around the district yeah thank you we're going to uh start uh on behalf of the board Echo some of Dr katti's comments about our principles we want to celebrate and thank the principles who lead our schools with dedication and care this weekend every week throughout the year we appreciate all they do to inspire students support staff and to and create a culture of learning and joy so happy principal's Appreciation Week to our incredible School leaders we really appreciate you it's national school bus safety week October 21st through the 25th

029the transportation department and many others in the district work very hard every day to ensure the safety of our students on and off the bus as a reminder when you're on the road please be observant and follow the rules about stopping for buses it's all of our responsibility to help keep our kids safe thank you to our hardworking staff keep up the great [Applause] work our District's food drive is in the final stretch we need a lower we need to break last year's totals and invite the community to join in this excellent giving opportunity please visit our district website ite for a link to the online donation page we look forward to announcing our winners at Friday night's 20th anniversary cross town football game again this makes a huge difference can can I expand on

030this and correct me if I'm wrong um but I believe for every dollar that we donate it's eight items so not only can you you know represent the school but you can do a lot with the dollar um so if you don't have cans of food in your pantry give a buck give five bucks 10 bucks makes a big difference so thank you thank you congratulations to asigo e Alum Ray J Dennis the Washington wiz Wizards announced Saturday that they are signing the guard to a two-way contract coming from the Los Angeles Clippers where he was on their training camp roster the Mac Player of the Year in he was Mac Player of the Year in 2023 his career continues to gain success congratulations Ray J we all love you and are watching you play

031and can't wait to see that all you will accomplish your ouro community supports [Applause] you oh wait there's more congrats to OS freshman Alie werel on her fourth place finish at the ihsa State girls golf finals at Hickory Point Golf Course IND decator on Saturday we look forward to officially recognizing your accomplishment in an upcoming meeting and on another speaking of sports um I I wanted to congratulate the um o football team for clenching first in their division with a uh 42 42 to 10 was it I think win on on Friday so um they are incidentally ranked number 10 in Illinois wow before you get started Dominic Kendall Grant also made it down in golf to to um our to the state tournament so I just want to recognize her as well K very

032good um one of our valued District Partners Chick-fil-A and asigo is hosting a Spirit Week competition today through Friday each time you visit the restaurant you can mention either ohos or oehs the school with the most mentions will be announced on Friday night at the cross toown game the winning school will receive $1,000 and the other will receive $500 so you're going to be there [Laughter] anyhow last Friday the Ascend event was held at Aurora University this incredible event included over 300 students from 11 Area School Districts The Learning sharing energy and hope that sprung from the Gathering helped equip and Empower students as they travel their educational Journey special thanks to Dr Waller for her leadership and helping to organize this fantastic event thank you Dr wer thank you board thank you Dr katti

0336.2 student board member reports I don't believe we have any oh I'm sorry I'm sorry wrong nope nope student board member reports I was I was thinking about something else I know go go right ahead okay this is our uh brief summary on the SN program I would first like to thank Dr kagati and board members Miss W mouth Miss Johnson and miss Mr ploger for attending thank you Miss Shannon Gil from Ro University for hosting and Dr Evans from aond and Community College for creating the event alongside our very own Dr Waller thank you to the student District Coalition students and sponsors for their leadership and participation in the event thank you to miss Simmons Miss Anderson Miss Gelson Miss rocky rocky B Miss prior Miss Palumbo and several other Scholars from Au wans

034Val View and imsa for presenting sessions and thank you to the 300 students from 16 high schools and 11 school districts um and there were at least 75 adults who had a hand in making this event a success so now I'll talk a little bit about the Ascend program asent has provided valuable lessons on valuing others for their diverse cultures and backgrounds it has fostered an environment where individuals are encouraged to stand up for their rights while promoting rightful place in respect through a variety of activities workshops and discussions Ascend has highlighted the significance of embracing diversity and understanding different perspectives this program has shown that when we appreciate the unique qualities that each person brings to the table we create a more harmonious and productive Community by teaching the principles of respect rightful place

035and cultural appreciation Ascent has played a crucial role in helping individuals develop a broader more empathetic empathe empathetic view on the world these lessons are a essential in creating environments where everyone feels value valued heard and respected ultimately leading to to a more stronger and more cohesive communities um with this we aim to ensure that students can access more trusted adults within the district the ascent serves as an excellent opportunity for individuals to cultivate a broader empathetic perspective of the world leading to the classroom environment it enables participants to re to recognize differences and appreciate various viewpoints essential for the understanding understandment between students and teachers ultimately leading to a greater sense of trust also for a side note unfortunately I was not able to make it however I want to thank everyone that we

036just listed for making it happen because what I saw was a great opportunity and I hope to be part of it next time okay thank you very much thank you 6.3 board member comments any board member comments I have a few yeah we'll start over here with you go ahead um I've just been to a couple different events in the past couple weeks so I just wanted to give a really quick shout out um first of all I I was able to attend the Hispanic heritage presentation at Plank and um it was it was great students put in a lot of work there was lots of really good food which I I smelled but didn't taste but anyway take my word for it it was good um they also the students also put together little

037presentations on um uh Hispanic people in history that they admired so just want to say that my favorite was Roberto Clen because he's always been one of my favorite baseball players so anyway shout out to them they did a good job um Mrs Johnson I'm going to defer to you on the details but um I did spend a happy day um Distributing sorting through Distributing I think it was 3,800 uh Bunt Cakes uh that was done by bionic I'll let you elaborate on that later that was that was fun um I also I'm wearing this today uh stopped in at one of the robotics meetings uh last Tuesday there were a hundred kids there at robotics HQ um working amazing working on apps working on new robots working on all sorts of stuff uh fair

038amount of of women were there too which I thought was very encouraging so um those kids are always great um I wanted to add on Ascend um the one of the keynote speakers there was Lauren Underwood and um Miss Underwood was encouraging everyone that would be of voting age by election day to come out and vote and I would like to encourage everyone to do that whether whether you turn the appropr whether you turn 18 today or several years ago like some of us just go out and vote um um I already I already mentioned oh football um probably me um and I also wanted to reiterate too I I did get the opportunity to go to a couple uh couple band meets this year for both o and and OE and um another separate

039groups of students doing a lot of hard work so thank you everyone and I'm done okay anyone else um Ascend was wonderful thank you all so much uh there was just a lot of Joy there that day and it was nice to see Smiles on faces um and I've been to and done a lot around the Dei space and just when you think you have a grasp on it you still learn something so I also just want to give a shout out to aora University it was a beautiful day on campus they are incredibly gracious to um sd308 and I'm grateful for their partnership um it was a beautiful place uh to host Ascend um I also got a chance on Friday um and Maya force my husband who was leaving for a business trip

040to attend with me uh you can't take it with you at OS um I just want to give a huge shout out to them uh it was fantastic I these I sometimes forget um I've seen a lot of Broadway that I'm sitting in a High School production and it's absolutely phenomenal and also to watch um kids that you watched grow up turn into these you know incredibly um talented young adults so uh just shout out to the cast and the crew and the technical uh Team for you can't take away you everybody else was at the game I was like I need a little theater in my life um I knew the football team would take be taking care of it and I just want to suggest and I don't going to step over the

041line here from board member but we really need to look at the um o the pa the system the sound system in O I was in the fifth row I'm defin heart of hearing um and could barely hear them my husband who was fully hearing had a hard time hearing so if we could look into it and get these students um so we can ampli amplify their voices for real um in um but for whatever reason that we're in the um ohos Auditorium or OE Auditorium it would be great if the sound system could be as optimal as possible so thank you very much Amy oh no I was just gonna ask if um that would be part of the um comprehensive building facilities the building facil plan that could be an addition if it's

042not already included look at that sound system because I agree at o yeah Capital Improvements um but also really um upgrades to our technology um our those kinds of things can really be a part of that if anything they can be also part of kind of Staggering how we dedicate our resources whether it's a a soccer field or turf field or a PA system and thinking about how we balance our funds um or Transportation improving our transportation so these are all part of and the master facility plan definitely is really important and I would and our strategic planning process is also a really important part so these are both really important plugs and I want to thank you all for bringing those up I'm so sorry really quick Mary Mary Joe did a great job

043um I just want to congratulate bionic they sold a thousand more Bunt Cakes than they did last year um and so just so everybody understands these students sold $25,000 worth of bun cakes to make3 ,500 and so I'm just going to say this without Mary Joe we would have not made it because we still have to be ready at 226 when those kids line up to pick them up and with a thousand cakes more it was a little stressful so it's a lot of calories that room her there in a bun in 3,800 bun cakes yeah I didn't want to see another bun cake for a while all right thank you for that um 7.1 consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please I like I would like to make

044a motion to approve all items under consent including minutes from the Board of Education meeting on October 7th 20124 open and closed sessions and to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district second are there any questions on the consent agenda Miss ven I Dr Mario I Miss Johnson I Mr Cerone I miss similon I Mr Gatewood I motion passes 60 action item 8.1 District Administrative contracts can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the District Administrative contract as discussed and presented second Mr Cerone hi Mr wood I miss vmou I miss Simon I Dr Mario I you have a question I do have a question do we need to add as discussed in close session tonight I did oh you did I did I apologize I checked you I thought

045I checked you Miss Johnson hi motion passes 60 action item 8.2 Personnel report can I have a motion please I would like to make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and presented second Miss Johnson I miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss venman hi Dr Mario hi Mr Cerone I motion passes 60 I acknowledge Dr wimy good evening board uh we're excited tonight to welcome two uh new administrators that you just approved this evening so I'm going to invite Dr dubiel from our diverse Learners Department to introduce our newest administrator congratulations welcome to the rec for the recommended candidate or the approved now candidate uh for program administrator interim is Mrs Flur pavela Mrs pavela has been in special education for over 17 years she has served as an lbs teacher teacher

046leader and coordinator of special education programming her strong background in therapeutic day school and working with all grade levels combined with her current graduate work to pursue the administrative endorsement which is to be completed by February 2025 makes her an excellent candidate for the program administrator interim to support East viiew Academy and ASO high school please join me in welcoming Mrs delela welcome welcome thank you Dr dubel uh Dr Paul from your department if you can introduce our newest member of learning and Innovation absolutely good evening everyone the candidate you just approved is our new Este steam coordinator Hano Becker he is currently leading a startup company Hano began his career as a high school chemistry and physics teacher and instructional coach at Indianapolis Public Schools through the interview process Hano strengths identified included his

047considerable steam background his knowledge of effective systems his considerable background and high quality instruction his appreciation for equity and engagement of all students and is working internationally his experience and steam our foundational practices and leadership are needed for this position please join me in welcoming Hana Becker welcome okay I'm going invite um Mr oemi regarding updates uh our financial statements and investment schedule so we lean it to the uh pull the mic forward I'm sorry we are sharing the monthly uh investment so a couple of things I'm going to start out by showing that we share this CPR um memo with you and the reason why we share CPI memo is because CPI is fundamental to the levy that we uh that we do for property taxes and the um the multiplier that we use

048for the levy is based on CP so we track that uh every month to see where we are so the last couple of months uh this is from the August CPI it's always a month behind so the August CPI comes out in September around the second week in September so it shows that uh in August the CPI is uh 0.2 same as it was in July and the next item that I would like to uh to talk about is the financial statement for uh for the year which is the the budget as it stands right now the uh the expenditures are in line with uh with what we'll expect at this time of the year and the last thing that I would like to point out is the financial statement if you've been uh someone

049who pays attention to the financial statement over the years you will notice that we have significantly more uh document in the investment report and the reason is uh in the past we only had a page on half and what we did is whatever money we collected we just kind of left it in the bank if you will what we're doing now we're doing more Investments we're looking for a way to leverage the money that we have in hand instead of it having instead of just the money sitting in the bank and I want to caution by saying that in doing this though we're still in compliance with illino Municipal uh investment policy which is to invest in conservative instruments that preserve the original capital that we're talking about so what you will see is we

050are invested in CDs and also in treasury these instruments are permittable under the Illinois Municipal investment strategy the upside of it is is that uh we know the feds have been lowering interest rates and that is impacting yield so we're trying to get in front of it and what we did we have a pretty detailed cash flow so what we've done is we' structured the investment to make sure that we're making some uh some yield before we need that cash as a way to help us financially can I just clarify prior to so prior to your tenure what we're what you're saying is prior to your 10 year we weren't making these Investments we were just having our money basically in a savings account yes it just yeah well it was probably something not we

051can be candid here not as coordinated as it is now yeah as fast one of the things being intentional I'm I'm only asking because it's just interesting to me um I see we're at uh $250,000 or below and that's to keep us at FDIC that's exactly we're investing in the banks I'm assuming these are CDs yes they are okay they are and then when we're at the higher dollar amounts it's because of we're investing in federal government or Freddy okay yes yes yeah no it's a I don't know that's that's are you working with like a particular company that's that's coordinating that or we work with PMA PMA is as our advisor so and the yield is a probably a little lower but we're staying FDIC um the yield is actually averaging about 4.5% which

052I'm say yeah if we were to go out and get A10 million non FDIC no we would never do yeah yeah yeah that's because but it's worth what I'm saying is then you're Insurance yes I don't know which is why we structure it so if anything goes wrong we we uh compensated by the FDIC Insurance you got a lading yeah that's exactly what we do that's think any other questions cool no okay thank you thank you board um next I want to uh invite Miss Mosley lesan is here this evening to speak about the for information the transportation hazardous route study should we do drum roll too for this one m m good evening it's very important and I want to just thank you for you and your team's leadership I know that as we

053enter the school year uh you were all but six weeks on the job and we went right into the fire of starting the school year and so I want to just thank you for your perseverance and your team's efforts throughout this period I know that it's very challenging we are very unique in that we have such a complicated system um and we want to thank you so you bring some recommendations this evening for the board um the recommendation that we have up can we can you guys hear me on here yep okay speak speak a little louder you're is the um hazardous study we haven't done a hazardous study in The District in 20 since 2015 and with all of the growth that we've seen and had in the district um we have a lot

054of hazardous um routes per se that could be changed to um areas where we can use Walkers or crossing guards and from a eon um Financial standpoint it would help our district tremendously with our financial budget so that is why we're asking for that Hazard study any questions board regarding this fud request I didn't I don't have any well I have one question on this one but I more have a comment the layout the presentation and the way that your memos are done should be an absolute template for this District when we get information when the board gets information to have the background the purpose of what we're doing um the scope of work the next steps and where the funding is coming from and what the fin Financial impact and the next steps are

055are critical to making decisions and to limit us then having to go to Dr katti to do follow-ups and stuff so I just want to commend you on the layout of this I had no questions that have anything to do with you other than that we do try to um extend our uh when we're looking for vendors out to have multiple vendors was this the only type of vendor that does this or did you have other vendors that could no we reached out to four vendors but they were the only one that could provide us quotes and that would take the bid perfect I appreciate that if you would just stick that in next time who you reached out to that would be great so we know that there was that due diligence but this

056was so well done thank you thank you so I just have a real why did they not want to come back with quotes well one couldn't meet um they said they couldn't do it I don't know if they didn't have the staff to do it um but they said they couldn't do it and then the two others didn't respond at all one of the key reason just to be blunt is that we're big District we have 68 square miles it's too much work and uh so you have to have the scale to be able to do the hazard uh study that we require in our district and we have firms they do smaller School District they just don't have the bandwidth is what we got to be able to do us we we just we

057will be yeah I was surprised by the $2,200 that we have a sense like a lot of work for 2200 hours yeah I agree do we have a sense of how often this should be done um like it seems like we should have been done it at some point prior to this but is this like usually in every fiveyear thing is it like when we have some new construction yeah we did a a study in 2019 but that was just the wolf crossing area okay and um and so we haven't done a districtwide study since 2015 it depends on the the growth that's happening in the district so each district is different yeah I would I would think you can correct me if I'm wrong that some of the some of this is construction areas

058that are now built up so do we have a can can we have a future plan where we have new stuff going up it's a hazardous route this year and then next year Market to like reassess to see so we can track it to point a district as dynamic as we are uh that is growing the way we are it makes sense to look at doing um hazardous route every couple of years because change happen very quickly now if you're talking about a mature District that is landlock where there's not that much in the way of growth you can probably go five years but uh definitely 9 years is too long for the the profile of I District not to have done a complete hazardous R go ahead go ahead um so can I think

059of this a little bit as a cost benefit so I want you know just making sure that this is easily paid for itself paying for itself you know about how many routes would need to be uh improved or you know like how quick could we recoup the cost of this St it all it all really depends yeah we don't want to go with any preconception what we're doing is we've been reimagining how to run Transportation efficiently I think I've mentioned this in the past that is one of the funds that's really really negatively affecting the bottom line of the district uh the the r projection that I did which I'll present to the board in February shows that if we do not do anything uh significant by 2030 we'll be looking at about $26 million

060in uh deficit just in the transportation fund which we cannot afford to do so what we're hopeful is that there's been significant change in the development of uh subdivisions in the district that some of the areas where uh students are being driven to school right now with the um with the Hazardous route they should be able to walk if it's within a mile and a half of their home school so to tell you what that impact will be right now I think that would be speculative I think I'm fine if you're looking at a trajectory like that and I my question was mov so yeah my question is really um if piggybacks on Dr Moro was saying what partnership or how are we partnering with the village in this is um because as I drive

061around and I'm looking I'm always looking do we have sidewalks and many of the subdivisions don't have sidewalks going in and so that's the part to me that I know that will impact Ian especially like right across the street from even where we are now um and so what partnership are we doing with the village in order to ensure that sidewalks are going in as they're building thank you for asking that question we've actually been working very closely with uh Municipal partners uh the village of asgo as well as the the road construction uh Township County of Kendall County and as a matter of fact there's a subdivision that's close to O OE right now yeah where we transport the students and it's actually close enough where it's less than a mile that if there's

062a sidewalk those students should be able to walk to school and we had a meeting two weeks ago where there was a commitment made by The Village as well as the county of Kendall where uh We've agreed to build the sidewalk I believe it's Brighton Meadows from Brighton Meadows all the way to O OE and the cost of it will be bor equally by the three uh Municipal entity 33% so that's an example of partnership that we're engaging in and we intend to continue to do that whenever possible so we're not bearing the burden alone because we know we all have responsibility to make sure our children are safe to R from school and I'm sure you'll figure this out but there's another subdivision going in at like 30 and half in Rector and I'm

063sure it's over 100 100 rooftops and so I'm sure it's a half mile down from the wheatlands but I'm sure that that's another opportunity but that's just my question yeah thank you oh I had a question sorry um I was reading the end of the like towards the conclusion and I'm guessing the total is $66,000 and 3,000 per school is this for the actual study like is a study that payment different from the actual like forming these sidewalks like or are they one like is this like assoc like little ericsen engineering ass are they paying for all of that like is this like one study is 6 to $6,000 3,000 per school and then plus paying for sidewalks like sidewalk is different that's something that we do separately with the village and that's like its

064own separate costs yes okay that my only question when you estimate 33% um of the sidewalks from here to without without biding it out we are we estimated it but I'm just I'm always reluctant okay without going to bed to share a number then it becomes a problem for say you said it was going to cost this much so we're going out to bed and whatever the uh the B amount is we agree to divid up by 33% so when a developer comes in and they build a subdivision um why are not sidewalks included in the the price or the cost or whatever it is the negotiate why is that not a part of the negotiations like we need sidewalks some developers will come in with mining a variance um they'll have unique product they'll

065say you know we need in order for it to be economically viable we need a certain amount of houses you know and a certain amount of space um kind of like the the rental unit that's up on the wolf there um speak Planning and Zoning but Rafael you probably no what I was going to say that's that's a good point is that uh one of the key thing that will make that happen is to maintain the professional cardio relationship that we have with tax uh all the tax and bodies now I think once we we make sure that we continue to do that when they need something we we try to assist them when we need something we work collaboratively with the recognition that we serve the same Master if you will we serve the

066children and the family of this community I think as long as we do that the conversation is easier to have and as long as we have that conversation it's more likely than not that we'll be successful in the partnership yeah yeah so when we start talking about our comprehensive Master facilities plan and is this these are the kinds of considerations that we have to think about right they're part would they be part of that it's like we will invite them absolutely that's a absolutely we will we will yeah and my experience we would always ask you know is the school district going to be fine you know and this and that if they said well the school district would want sidewalks you know that might have you know what I'm saying um so so being

067just having that communication um could have a lots of benefits the community at home yes yeah that was evidenced a couple weeks ago the village invited us to come present at their Village trustee meeting to talk about the expansion and what would be the impact and how they're considering those proposals um and what our thinking was around the demographic the the the kind of population Improvement in our area and how to balance the tension for them in terms of approval of Economic Development Ventures versus the impact it would have on us as a district and I thought that was a great example of that partnership coming out in the public I any Ventures like that um I think to your point Madam president that we have to think about um also the system's ability to

068manage itself I think Mr Obi and M Mosley are bringing a particular skill set and knowledge base around this work and so they're able to inform and make decisions tonight we have two proposals the the route study um the routing up upgrade to our routing software and as well as the study it's been nine years so the question becomes that as we strengthen and we provide coordination across the system we're able to take on bigger projects and big on and and that's the that's the result of the the board made last year let's just be very clear the investment of the board in terms of Staffing and supports are yielding the kinds of recognition of required improvements that we may have foregone not for anybody's uh purposeful fault but just because the system is now

069shifted one one other consideration excuse me one other consideration is I remember the village talking about roundabouts going all the way down uh 30 and if we start considering considering kids walking across those streets I would just ask that we also reconsider stop lights versus roundabouts it would be very hard for a kid to walk past a roundabout then it would be a stoplight and so those are the considerations that we should have with the village just to talk about um a continuous flow of traffic roundabout versus how will they cross the street right that's a good point thank you but I think and also I think all this is relevant but that stuff is another subject matter another agenda item this in front of us what this study will also do is give you

070an opportunity to just maybe move a bus stop from one cross street to another because of the results of this so I just want to make sure that we are staying in line with specifically what this is asking us for will give you you we hope the data that um if we have some bus stops that need to be reconsidered we can do so with this information and we know we've had Parents reach out to us and say we don't feel this stop is very safe can we look into moving it or something so well the reason it was relevant is because they're considering kids that can walk so if you're if you're considering them with this study if they can walk but there's no sidewalks then that's the reason why oh I agree but

071I know we started talking about the other sidewalk we're going to talk about that later right the inter intergovermental questions don't that's the same one yes I had a question I had a question sorry for you again my bad um in the introduction um you stated we're strongly um recommending hiring Ericson Engineering Associates to perform a detailed assessment of hazarded walking routes um I just wanted to ask a little bit in detail why you would want us to hire them and um how thorough they are with this study because I understand the purpose of the study but I kind of want to know a little bit more about what goes into study and why you would want to consider this specific Association good question yes um they are a leader in the um study a

072pitor studies and so they are one of the main um companies that do that that provide that but out of the four they were the only one that gave us a a quoteback um the other two did not respond and then the the third one that did not respond was not able to handle it so very good question um they they actually go out and they survey the areas to see if they're safe walk paths or patterns sidewalks like U Mr Gatewood mentioned some of those things that would um consider that would consider our routes safe um and then what what routs are or what paths are considered hazardous and so they go do a vast study of our entire dist district for that amount um I don't know if you ever know this but

073do you know what criterias they cover on whether or not uh location is hazardous or not so I can try to answer that okay thank you the uh the Illinois Department of Transportation actually have a guideline that uh that is huge that's the Benchmark So based on the expertise what is haard us what is not the volume of traffic uh the ability of uh students to be able to walk across uh safely those are the criteria that they will use in doing their study okay thank you um next on our agenda uh if you don't mind waiting staying for the next topic uh I know that you are bringing a recommendation to upgrade the service that we have currently with versatran so this would be an an upgrade to that current software so we are

074currently with versus TR so this would be expanding and basically bringing their software into the 21st century cuz right now I understand they are using a Dos system in the particular software we're using anybody remember the floppy discs that we used to use yes so Versa TR we have the older model so when we called for tech support a while back they said what version are you using turned out we were you we've been using for a long 20 years maybe uh the one that was the Doss version of it so their tech support had to call somebody in uh wherever they still use Doss and get for support so are you familiar with I can do it for you can do it in for so it was close to for so this is a

075true story so the vers the version that we've been using for our geom mapping and so we really need to urgently move to essentially move that and so we're bringing tonight so you want to talk a little bit about how that has hindered your ability recently and what has led that has led to us there's several things with that software that hindered our ability to efficiently route students um our maps are not updated um all the growth that we've seen over the years is not in our mapping system and so we are handrawing them in and they're not efficient um some of the uh programs that we've changed our system like power school with that was new over a year ago um we didn't do a proper uh migration with uh Bursa trans and that

076system being so old couldn't handle the lift and so this year we kind of went back to the old school days of manually routing with with the map um to can you remind the board how many students we we move on buses please we have over 12,000 on buses on buses okay yes so our that is just an update that software that we currently use is is old I used it in 2005 so it's the same system we've had for over 20 years um this system that that we're asking to upgrade it will modernize our system um that mapping will be updated regularly um so when there's growth in this and we're talking about all of this growth that we're doing in asigo that will be updated in our mapping system um and it's a

077web based solution so it will help us be more efficient over the years as we move and grow um as a district but yes it's just really outdated system a lot of manual work has to go into that system Bard I I want to say that this matter was brought with some urgency because of we are we are already planning our timeline for the start of the school year next year and so because we are in a position where we are currently partners with versatran that company this would really be a upgrade to that software application the the the we had the possibility of going to another company at this point would be to to turn the system around even currently with this opportunity we're really pushing the I guess it was even said to

078me we can't even do initially I was told we can't even potentially upgrade this dos system for next year and you can be candid I came back I said no I cannot accept that we have to change this now but that means the the window essentially to try to bring in other vendors we really needed to go with our current vendor because the the the opportunity to consider other opport options would have essentially made next year look like this year in terms of the software nobody would have been able to do that and so that's the why the recommendation from the Transportation depart well then we need to really work on upgrading this system not another one questions yeah I please this has nothing to do with you at all I am I'm so frustrated

079every year we go through some version of this and every year we hear that it's different which part the the routing system yeah okay and on April 11th of 2023 we put in Tyler Versa trans routing and planning we approved it and the acquisition cost was 320,000 with an annual service and Licensing licensing of 44 so I don't know if we're talking about different versions but we just did this in April of 23 and so to hear that we're doing this again or to see this I'm not saying it's not right but I would very confused because I feel like every year we're doing this and I'm must not be understanding something this is the f I I wasn't here in 23 so I apologize so thank you for that historical context historical context I

080think what I'm and I so I think in terms of a question to look into to is a great question so what happened then and so between now and the next board meeting we will definitely look into that and I appreciate the feedback and we can look into what exactly was purchased in and why what what account was not brought for it and let's let's bring it we'll bring it back to the next board meeting so I really think it's important to understand the Investments that we've made in the last couple years when it has come to us and been told that we have to do this and these were the reasons student um getting checked in on the buses Tyler Drive would allow us to check in and out through the software urgent route

081changes and additions and then it would help new and substitute drivers not familiar with the area so I just need to understand I'm not saying this doesn't need to be done but we literally have done this three times since I've been on the board this would be the third time and so I don't know how we can keep coming back to the drawing board every year um do we even know do we even know Teresa 00,000 was spent yeah on what so that was the acquisition of the what we kind of referred to as like the here comes the bus software yeah I was going to say that's not the routing software it's not the routing software it was the implementation of the GPS and the contracted bus routes and the ability to have like

082the turn by turn and the iPads on the bus and eventually be able to take attendance of students getting on and off the proximity cards that was what our approved in 2023 are we using it portions of it we do have implemented now not all of it yes yeah it was all done so there's two different tools part of the problem we're running into based on my understanding is that since the versitron software is uh it's a legacy system is uh outdated the architecture doesn't work well with the air comes to bus but but I'm what I'm saying is before we do something new we've already we already made an investment of close to $400,000 is all this stuff going to work together and can we just understand where we're at what I'm trying to

083get to is and you guys walk in you've walked into a system that was already set up and you've seen the chaos and the problems what where can we get to and what decisions can we make that honor both what we've already done and what we need to do to make sure we're getting to a better system and I just so this is part oh go ahead I'm sorry I can ask the direct based off of what I heard you say Tyler Drive in the system that has nothing to do with the routing software that is like Teresa said that is our um GPS system that was to purchase tablets and put them on our buses and those tablets would give you the ability to uh for the drivers to see their turn BYT directions

084as well as operate our parent app um check students on and off a bus which is something that's beneficial from a Medicaid standpoint that we need that um I will say that it's not fully functionable but we're working on getting that um product so that we can utilize those services that we purchased last year that's that's a question with our new routing software all right okay so would you and then I know this is probably water under the bridge but would you say that what what would if you were sitting there last year would you have said that the priority was the computers on the bus or was the priority the Versa TR updated software I would say the routing software would have been my first priority okay all right we yeah I remember a

085lot of these conversations and I remember we outsourced it remember that there was and we brought it back by the way there was a lot of we actually we came last year hold on raap can you just yes you were saying no no go ahead I'm sorry no uh Dominic said iour and I wanted to just clarify uh if you remember we came to you in the spring to our through rout it and the uh The Firm was having problem with uh with doing what they they sign up for y and we fir them right away you said we fired them we fired them and we negotiated uh an exit to the contract and of the 300,000 that they were hoping to get we negotiated that they get 8,000 and nothing more and they signed

086an agreement and we all walked away so what we're trying to do we're on it I mean if we if we agree to something if the vendor is not doing it we're very quick and saying we will not go for that we will hold you responsible for what you promised if you can't deliver what you promis we're not going to stick around and play with you so that's what we've been doing okay and so then I understand I do I hear that there's a time sensitive nature to this um request ver TR to ver to ver because we bringing it back internally we had outsourc and they didn't do a good job so we fired them we brought it there we we we're bringing it back in because the skill set of the person who

087is managing Transportation now feels comfortable and as experience in being able to Route internally understood yes I get it and this is an infrastructure upgrade one of the advantages here is that we're not talking about a purchase of a new system for 350,000 we're talking about 46,000 which is really going to be upgrade to the current system and we can move quickly because those relationships have established what we are doing and we weren't it is coming to your question about it may feel like sometimes peace meal yes you want to avoid that right so I can totally agree with that and so what I will I can assure the board that within the next two to three months we are returning to the board with a comprehensive review of the transportation problem we actually met

088with principles today and invited principles to join that process we're going to be inviting parents to join that process and thinking about how we can improve once and for all the transportation problems but it is to be honest with you there is a bit of a uh factor of like collage where we're we're we're working through like okay so there's an infrastructure issue Miss Mosley's been working with just getting it off the ground versus fixing it I talk to parents quite often why can't you fix it today what is wrong with you all you know and I totally understand that but when and I explained to them that we have an older system for routing and then they're like well this sounds like it's going to take a long time yeah we UND they're like

089well that's going to take for yes but no now we have the individual who understands the comprehensive nature of it and is working very closely with Mr oemi School leaders to bring it and we will bring that both a up update to the board about where we are and the future of thinking around how we will fix this permanently so and we know that financially the transportation department is in need of ideas and Creative Solutions to get us out of uh deficit but I'm wondering if in the past all these patchworks have created kind of the deficit that we find oursel in so I would rather take our subject matter expert that we have finally have confidence in and say this is what we really need this is what's going to be a game Cher

090for us so that we don't have to go into couple weeks of school in chaos like we always do so yes I'll give you an example um the union has been asking for a number of years for just some basic information around routing impact and busing fees so if there was a potential hypothetically we're talking about schedule changes right so I'm G these are all this is not a decision please anybody listening I am not proposing any chimer disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer however through transportation department has said okay so they said we'll get back to you right but then when you look at the software you look at the the erroneous uh routing structures or the the routes I I I apologize you can speak more clearly you know can you tell me exactly

091how much we could say by doing this and that it's really uh almost impossible task because you're talking about 12,000 writers and so to manipulate the system to give you a more efficient system is really challenging right am I speaking truth to you're absolutely right correct yeah so to say to the union here's what the cost saving would be you know the union has stories about like once we were told it was 4 million then we were told that if we do this it's 160,000 and then we were told it's this amount so now we understand why that was a challenge and I think that that is um I I I just want to say that we don't know what the conditions were that caused those challenges we weren't there right and those are real

092I believe in all my sincere of hearts that people do the best they can all the time and they were doing it back then with what they had well today we know that in order to do this well we need to upgrade this and we need to also start to pay attention and Dr dubiel has been thinking about this as well it's like how are we how are we thinking about our programming how are we thinking about our our Bell schedules how are we thinking about the way in which we are uh supporting writers who may not who may be with within the mile but they have the Hazardous routes which is why we brought to you so in order for us to even do the analysis right for a comprehensive plan so in order

093for us to even get to the point where we can do an effective analysis of what's happening with transportation we needed some basic things like let's put some so we can use this table of analysis we need some legs and the legs are a better improved routing system Hazard we need a baseline thank you and I and I'll be the one that steps in it with the disclaimer but it's something that Patrick and c will tell you that years ago we were really fighting hard for was to talk about maybe changing the Elementary and high school schedules to give our high school students more sleep because we know statistically that they need that sleep and so forth and we could never get past transportation that you're familiar with the conversation yeah and so it would

094be great if also when we know we're moving forward that this is what's been holding that up or challenging that and being able to have the opportunity to even have those discussions because Transportation will look at us and say we can't even talk about this right and I'm going to put a plug for our public forum on November 4th at 7 p.m. it's a great opportunity for families to come and speak to these kinds of concerns because at that night we will really think about our strategic priorities that we'll be launching in the spring not everything can be done at once so what comes first right so is it the bell schedule is it the transportation is it the right resources is it New Field what is it that's going to come first so we

095want to invite everybody on November 4th to our public forum will you the board will be there to engage in this discussions thank you Miss Mosley thank you miss m thank you so much talk about a master closer November 4th y'all November 4th I also just wanted to highlight real quick like this is like the third or fourth time this meeting that I can see the investment paying off in the human the humans that we put into the system last year um so thank you to my fellow board members obviously and um you know the team is doing a great job great job okay um I want to invite um Mr Obi to discuss the school maintenance project Grant thank you uh board around the same time last year we brought this uh to you

096the uh the state of Illinois appropriates about $48 million uh every year to be distributed to school district and uh this is in form of a grant and this is a matching Grant the uh if the district comes out with a maintenance uh uh project that is 50,000 the state will match it for the same amount it could be more than 50,000 but no less than 50,000 so what we're requesting is we are doing some uh some work in in gr Park the payment replacement project that uh we teed up is going to cost $1.4 million and we asking to use 50,000 in the uh School maintenance the managing Grant to pay 50,000 towards that $1.4 million in order for us to be considered for the award the board has to approve this in a

097in an open session that's why we bring it to you and last year we we requested the same amount we were awarded and we used that for the rtu at plank replacement I PL so just so I understand so it's it's potentially a $1.4 million project and the grant States the maximum that the grant will return is dollar for dollar up to 50,000 that's correct okay that's correct now there's a possibility if not all school districts apply for it then if there's extra money then the state may then inform the folks who' have applied for there's extra money and then we can apply for the second round but with 800 and something school district that is highly unlikely unlikely and the one go ahead no the 1.4 that we've already discussed that that's been yes

098that's part of our capital projects yeah no I think you answered just a question I had was so $50,000 per District basically and then the okay so it's the six biggest yes I mean this is in Li of the if you remember that a waited thing huh right a few years ago the state actually had a list the capital project uh grant that we still been waiting for we were top of the line we were looking to get about $42 million when the state stop appropriating that so we're still working to try to see if we can uh get that funding for the appro 50,000 is good though okay any final question thank you Mr uh next uh uh Dr concade and Mr Robi will be speaking to the Early Childhood block grant refund okay

099so this is an interesting situation that is not in my nature to do is to return money to the state uh oh so in this particular case the uh the district received a set amount uh of of $1.3 million through the uh preschool for all and then to in May you know the allocation the fiscal year starts in July then in May couple of months before the end of the fiscal year the state said oh we got more money and you all can get an additional 2.8 million and the year was almost over we're like we're game we'll try to see how we can use the fund to supplement our preschool program and as much as we try to we couldn't spend all of it because the timing was late and what we also have

100to be careful about we can't Supply which means we can use the money to pay for something that we should be paying for out of local funds so the the the limitations to how we can spend the money so we got $2.8 million we were able to spend just about everything 20 and 35,000 and that's a feel a good story I thought ready to say we got to give them $2 million 235,000 this was a right it's only a quarter of a million that's all the this situation normally you spend the money the state then you file for reimbursement in preschool for all they actually give you the money up from which we love and uh but we couldn't legally without getting in trouble spend all the money so the part that we couldn't spend

101because we try because there there's certain limitations to what you can use it for and we want to be compliant at all time and this is the amount that we have to give back to the state 235,000 so they called us last week uh they sent us an email said we want our money back it's not an issue for I but I will say that I think this uh again speaks to the importance of our strategic planning process because it's not what we will do and and and I'll bring more information as we move deeper into our strategic planning work is that what this will the tighter strategic PL then the more you understand what is being spent for what and we can better invest in those areas that become supplemental and not our required

102so and Mr beem is launching the budget process this evening so we will hear more about that tonight so other questions so if we all vote no do we have to send it back we still have to send it back by St actually it's more information yeah it's not because we owe the money we didn't spend it we got to give it back I'm going to right I'm not going to nobody including EF and everything else we got big money coming from the St I heard it was the the timing so our other districts in the situation as well that they also receive money see I don't know you don't know I don't know yeah okay um thank you uh next uh 2526 B budget calendar and design uh Mr oi uh first I'm going

103to just acknowledge last year when I did my own search and if anybody can find it I think last year was the first time that this was really brought as a item to the agenda for Board review and approval I had not seen it in Prior year agendas upon my review so I want to thank you Mr obafemi for bringing the board and um this process up to uh legal code requirements Mr so by state law and I cited the uh the school code and the state law there there a school district is required to designate someone to prepare the budget and also to have um a timeline of the budget development that's required by and that's essentially what this is so the board uh approving this today officially kicks off a budget development process

104for fiscal year 2026 I know when I tell folks that they look at me sideways they're like we're not even done with 24 you talking about 26 but this is the budget we always uh almost two years ahead of of the Cur okay all right thank you Mr oemi um next I want to invite Dr mudio uh uh and Dr K new I oh no this is Dr mu new aisb resolutions um so next so when I will be representing the school board at the delegate um uh assembly at um the triple I conference that's coming up during that assembly um there will be some resolutions proposed um and as a board we would like to hear uh or come to a decision on what my vote will be as a representative of the board

105uh just a little background um at the policy uh policy and legislative committee um Mary Joe myself and Jared uh looked at all of the resolutions um and have some recommendations but we also would like to hear from all board members about um how they would like us to vote or how they would like me to vote during the the delegation process um so all of you should have a sheet that lists the different um um resolutions um so I'm just going to read from that sheet at the top so that we know what that first section is and I'm I'm speaking correctly about it so it says all the below resolutions will be placed on a consent a consent agenda for a vote during the iasb delegate assembly if any are removed from the

106consent agenda what is your board's direction as to whether the following resolutions should be adopted by the iasb delegate assembly so for these resolutions uh we should determine whether or not I as the representative will be voting yes or no to these um resolutions I will say uh just a summary of of the policy and legislative committee uh for all of these resolutions both um Jared myself and Mary Joe agreed that uh we would likely be inclined to vote Yes to these um but I invite the board um to let us know if you want to talk about each one individually uh or what would be the best direction to take a little straw poll um so that I can vote in representative as a representative of the board I will say last year or

107and the year before we all voted individually and then consensus one and then first will put it on the website so I don't know if we want to do that as can do we want any discussion before votes or has everyone had an opportunity to review the resolutions well I've had an opportunity to review the resolutions um I agree with all except for number three so I don't know if I don't know how do you want to discuss or you I would like a discussion sure on number three or yeah number three well why don't we just start the top right let's start at the top and then go down and then if there let vote and then when we get to a no vote we'll yes discuss fine so the first one is a

108resolution uh related to dual language uh if we could we're doing a straw poll not an official you know vote so um I guess if you would like to vote Yes for this one you want to raise your hand and I think that includes everyone on the board so and Jared has also left me his suggestions here he's also like to vote Yes oh okay um it's basically just for the public it's affirming that the attainment of the Illinois sa seal by literacy satisfies the Illinois World Language requirement for graduation so we would like to support that yes uh the second res resolution uh resolution is about ebf authorized charter school funding um we also suggested a yes vote here um we can do a straw poll by raising our hands yes and anyos Jared

109also votes yes on that one so that'll be a yes so this holds private schools to the same account as public schools as far as how they are funded rather than an average of the public schools I wouldn't say private I would say Charter State authorized Charter yeah State authorized Charter School very specific yeah right now they get I wasn't reading it right now they get a per um head student fee and um it could be you know 12,000 or 14,000 or whatever this would basically show that they would get funded with evf just like the rest of the schools based in their population of students the third one refers to tax agrement financing or Tiff accountability um we had suggested a yes vote on this we can do a straw poll um before we

110do this dra poll can I hear what um oh oh sure yes please yes um you know I agree with create a tiff approval process and empowers taxing bodies to ensure fairness um this is kind of on the page 12 specific measures this is where I have kind of some of the problems authorize a joint review uh board to approve or disapprove the creation of a tiff uh ensure the voting structure reflects the proportional impact of a proposed Tiff um but then the next one require disclosure to taxpayers on the cost of a tiff to the community prior to its approval so Tiff to me isn't if a building is if something is built because of the Tiff what what is what is the cost what is what does that even mean I don't understand

111what that could even mean because we're we're basically you know would have getting let's say $1,000 for that property we could have gotten that forever but because it was built we're getting it $1,000 for 20 years and then a lot more after that so what's really the cost if it wasn't for the Tiff would that have been built so I don't really to me this is this is definitely has a slant to it um include information about the impact of a tiff on tax bills of all taxpayers impacted by a tiff to me this is kind of the same philosophy it's basically saying um and it's not even taken into account the impact Fe that are provided we there's per student you know fees that we get in from a tiff District there's per library

112card the library district gets so the cost part is kind of also very gray it but the cost part could also be the impact on your tax bill that's what I was so impact is again kind of depends on whether that would have been built without a tiff so if that would have been built without a tiff then yes but I think it's assuming that it's going to be because it's a tiff right so then there's no real cost transparency kind of so yeah maybe maybe cost is well it says cost but I want to ask an opposite question could this be because I read somewhere earlier where it was the potential loss of revenue for the district um and so could it be that this is really just to influence more transparency yeah that's

113why I like one two and three and six I like you mean as far as the bullet points yeah the bullet points publish annual tax revenues from the Tiff and make that information available to community ensure the voting structure it's these disclosures and it's only talking about the cost yeah and I don't know the answer but I'm assuming and I this is not a reason to vote yay or n to make an assumptions but when it when it was talking about transparency in my mind those three were to prevent something that had happened yes that they had that had happened and so that's the reason why I don't know how it would be executed but after since everything else was really talking about making sure there's more transparency around it my my assumption was that

114those additional bullet points was to cover what had happened that's a good point no yeah and I get that but I I feel like it's a lens no I I hear that it's not a story no I I hear it yeah I hear that they're asking for they're they had a problem this would resolve their problem exctly I agree you know it's not necessarily everybody's problem and this is this is uh um I mean I don't think we can Nuance right it's either yes or no yes no I don't so no and you so to me it would be a no because let's take the straw Po and I've done this before and those nuances cause these things to be voted no because yeah we're not voting we're voting for the entirety of the correct

115you know of it we're not we're not voting for bullet points one two three and six and and to your point and a couple excuse me a couple of the other ones that were recommended no it was basically no because of how it would be executed so I don't know how how you would calculate the cost if I could I could I could picture how they would calculate the cost but again it's dependent on whether or not something would have been built because of the Tiff or not these are it sounds like Sky I can't even imagine that there should be a tiff District in SK because it's so landlocked yeah um we're not Sky yeah and the Tiff district will be will be approved prior to possibly knowing what was going to be developed

116on it later so it's is that typically the case but I think this also helps us get to the point of we can have you weigh in you know that's that's why is it impacting the school district and I think that's the potential of what we need to know correct what is the spirit of this correct particular one what I would say is they're good Tiff and they're bad Tiff yes that's the thing and in my opinion having the school district weighing doesn't prevent a tip from taking place I think all it does it allows the district that depends in property tax to have a voice in the process because I've seen Tiff used just to be frank as a political uh give me to friends and people who are highly placed and that's what

117I to be able to develop property that will otherwise we this this this is us wanting to create a tiff approval process that empowers taxing bodies to ensure fairness so this this changes that which I love yeah it's like this is I don't know you should vote your yeah yeah I mean that's probably that's that's good I don't know man but but it feels like it's just it's designed to make tiffs good tiffs fail as yeah oh I got you all right St PA St straw straw straw Paul I got to get my bobles right uh yes for this one and no um the next one is uh regarding Faith laws centralized state agent Agency for ehrs uh or employment history reviews this would advocate for a centralized entity responsible for employment history reviews and

118streamline the process and allow for more accurate and consistent completion of employment history reviews any discussion yes straw pole yes oh yes yeah uh by the way Jared also voted yes on number four and or three and four uh number five healthare coverage is can I give a quick summary here sure um the committee determined that the high cost of providing high quality health insurance to District employees and The Limited availability of insurance plan for school districts in multiple counties throughout the state is a serious problem providing school districts with the option to join Central Management Services would allow more health insurance choices for employees while decreasing costs for school districts discussion straw P yes okay Jared was also a yes vote for that one and then number six is regarding polling place amendment to

119B to position statement 7.08 um so just a quick summary the committee determined that if a school is not being used as a polling place the safety of the students is not at risk therefore it should be left up to local control as to whether the school district observes election day as a des uned state holiday any discussion I just take first of all for voting I'm voting yes but it gives the school the power to refuse to be a polling place which is not there before I believe strongly in this because it represents local control and keep local control for our school districts so does it do that yes it does it says if it's not what did it say it said if it's to be used as a polling place during election for

120student safy reasons yeah if it gives the public access to the building or refuse to shut down if something if they're not a polling place if they're not a polling place corre to lose a day of instruction and and they are the ones that determine whether or not they're a polling place who gets to deter school no that your county clerk does well okay so then well the county clerk deter this would overrule that allegedly it would okay allegedly so that that first sentence is a change right allegedly I cover every so call you to say hey scho District they call you to say we want to use you as a holding Place yeah I mean typically that's there's a partnership between buildings and operations they'll put in a permit request and then they'll open

121PR request that'll be reviewed I've never heard it um it's often coordinated with the superintendent and it's really a Civic there's a Civic kind of uh handshake common courtesy if I say courtesy to do that I think um it does I I have observed and so it does require a lot of coordination which is why some districts have moved to that being a day of no school um across you know a lot of places to because it does create a burden for the school particularly with safety for our students absolutely okay but there are some districts don't have pulling places in their District so they're getting unfairly burdened by that all right uh straw pole for number six yes um Jared also uh Mark yes for that one as well he's coming he's coming um

122the next section on your document um glad you came back for this part are resolutions that received a do not adopt recommendation from the iasb resolutions committee so I'll just again read from the document so it's clear the below resolutions may be appealed by the submitting District any resolution that is appealed requires a 2third vote at the delegate assembly to be reconsidered if a do not adopt resolution is appealed what is your board's direction to its delicate as to whether the following resolutions a should be reconsidered by the delegate assembly and B if reconsidered should be adopted by the iasb delegate assembly so these uh most likely from my reading would not be called but in case that they are called we wouldn't want to um determine one if we would recommend that they be

123reconsidered and then if they are reconsidered and brought to the floor um if we they should be adopted so the first one is about cell phone us message and if that should be Rec ladies the first resolution on the do not adopt um item is about cell phone usage um and so we need to decide if that should be reconsidered um ex can you give a yeah I'll just read real quick the committee agreed that cell phone usage during school is a growing concern and that research shows that it can negatively impact instructional time and student mental health however the committee did not support a Statewide man mandate and found that cell phone usage is best governed locally committee members determine that cell phone policy should pose could pose sa safety student discipline and fiscal

124challenges for school districts given these challenges this is the is best left to each Local District uh last there is a current iasb press policy already available to districts press policy provides school boards with flexibility to create a cell phone usage policy specific to each district needs um so we need to determine if we want to reconsider that can can we just just can we just clear that in this category no means do not adopt right means because we had that confusion last year no means do not adopt do not reconsider well no I'm just saying overall but no it's do not adopt right and then the second no is do not adopt okay so so if we say Do not reconsider we would likely vote do not adopt right yeah no I'm I'm just

125saying for because never mind I remember last year it was my problem we want each of our we want to have local control over the policies on cell phone usage we want local control we want local if we would want that then we would vote no in regards to the reconsideration yes so no no no no but let's take a straw poll are we no no on the straw poll no no John yes she go ahead Sor that's why they're doing it I'm so tired all right the next one uh 8A office of Inspector General um I'll just do a summary again um while committee members agreed that oversight and accountability for public schools is of the utmost importance the committee identified many laws and pro processes currently in place that already apply thus legal

126remedies already exist to hold school districts accountable in expanding or creating a new state agency is not necessary the recommendation is do not adopt I'd actually like to talk about this one a bit um is that okay yeah yeah BEC yeah because um I'm a firm believer that any like election or or or a vote like this um I think sometimes we've we've lost sight of some of these pieces and I think this is a great opportunity to have this conversation I personally would be somebody who says you know yes let's reconsider but this going to sound strange but I'm a no vote in other words I want the dialogue because I think the dialogue is necessary for people on the local level there are too many instances of local level leaders taking advantage of

127gaps in the knowledge of those they serve and so I think this is something that they need to discuss this is not the right way to go about this but I think the dialogue is important and if it does get to that point Amy I would really like to hear uh from you how that dialogue went um I don't support the measure because of the way it's written and I agree adding another layer of government and all this but I do believe having the conversation is important because it acknowledges there is a problem out there I don't disagree there's problem I just don't think that that's going to be the solution that's why I'm a no for the solution but I'm a yes for the conversation yeah so we're going to vote as straw poll

128for 8A do we yes to be reconsidered yes sure reconsider yes okay three are you a yes L you are a yes so that's 8 B right no no 8A is reconsider so how many is that should be considered we lose it yes we are reconsidering do you want yes to be reconsidered okay raise your hand if you would like that to be reconsidered re if it's brought to that so yes to re reconsider yes to reconsidered based on what you just said yes reconsider but vote no but what if we haven't gotten to vote and no yet we're just reconsidering the measure right now I'll reconsider the meure okay so that's five considered ra rather considered now reconsidered is on the table five if reconsidered should be adopted by the delegate assembly that's where

129we are now yeah so if reconsidered should this be adopted no no I'm a I'm a no I'm a no no okay we're all KN that good point all right N9 a is Faith laws um committee me Members determined that um employment history reviews for current employees could cause confusion impose legal and collective bargaining challenges for school districts given these challenges these employment decisions are best left to each district do we want that to be reconsidered yes or no no yes why Recon reconsider okay but in the top one you voted yes for face law that was that was for something else two different things though yeah that's forting AG the top is about creating a centralized agency which I want them to do the bottom is about not only should new employees but old

130employees should know as well I'm a Hardline on faith law Brian don't kill me I'm sorry so is the word current that you're I know that it requires a lot of work but just because you're a veteran employee doesn't mean we shouldn't know that your you have information in your background that you should not be working with students so in other words if somebody got over if if the vetting process didn't produce or disclose discover something correct oh so prior to Faith's law it correct oh yeah I get that I I get that too I I want to hear from Dr zumy Dr swy Smiles so you're you're correct in the sense that prior to July 2023 no employees uh background uh goes through the process with the three misconduct questions that somebody that just

131got hired this evening okay so that was the cut from when the law was passed so if we have an employee that has been here for 20 years and got their background check and within the last couple years before pH law did something that should be reported and it hasn't been we're just going to let that go and I just reported or convicted of I mean and I'm whatever shows up in the history whatever shows up on a report so how does it get there if they're if they're convicted of a crime or if they're convicted or if they're arrested we wouldn't know that arrested don't we get that how do we get that be notified okay so wait a minute a minute they're convicted and arrest they convicted yeah we will know that how

132would we not know that if they come from how would we not know they're convicted if they come from another District I don't understand that we're talking about if they're I I understand that how would we not know if they weren't convicted of another no we talking about current employees not okay didn't we just have that it used to be uh Governor B passed this law back in 2003 I believe or there be so all employees who were employed before then they were grandfathered in so they didn't have to if they were continuously employed here since then they didn't have to go through a background check before Fate's law was passed so you say yeah I I so you're saying before 2003 or 2023 no it was 2003 okay before 2003 there was no uh

133we had no background check before 2003 we didn't it was when bovic was in office that he passed the that he signing into law the legislation that requir that anyone who was hired from that day on so I just background check right so so anyone who's B who is born anyone who was hired between 2003 and fai's law and has we're going to know if you were convicted of a crime so are we checking all those people who already passed a background check too I I'm just asking when it comes kind of the point is it becomes burdensome on the district right and you guys can I just don't 100% I I think I think I have a problem with Hey listen if if what you're saying and I don't know why you wouldn't be

134accurate right I mean this why you're here but if what you're saying is accurate I I understand the conversation about before 2003 but I'm I'm struggling with understanding why we're looking for 20 years of people who already had to pass a background check do you know how many how many people have seniority and it could be that's iess I don't I don't no I'm not following that I'm not I'm not understanding that like you're saying somebody before 2003 possibly okay I don't have a problem with that but that but then that's not what this reads is it it's not making the distin it's not making the distinction of before 2003 everybody yeah right well I'll I'll I will say that it reads to be granted the ability to require current employees so school districts wouldn't

135have to they would just have the ability so it kind of goes to almost a local control type thing I don't know just okay I'm just reading it everybody can have their own vote so let's just vote say you um all right 9A oh I'm sorry no so again the top resolution I I would recommend the centralization of of a database for the state so I I would agree with that um in terms of you know reviewing staff members for face law Mis cond those would be things that if we had found out um or an allegation had been posed we would be investigating through our due process with our collective bargaining agreement and our Union Partners okay uh is this would not be us reviewing people's cases for a DUI or for something else

136that unrelated so we have to stay focused on what facei law is for which is misconduct for sexually inappropriate behavior toward as an adult or or a student so um it's it's not fully flushed out yet um just being you know uh fully transparent in terms of post July 2023 but there's you know imagine there's a there's a teacher uh hired at this school and then the teacher that was there two year two summers prior has a different set of hiring rules so it's not ideal and that I believe was is Miss Johnson's Point um so I I agree with what your approach is in terms of the central a and then I think that this resolution is going to continue to get flushed out over um the time I think that some partnership and

137some good dialogue at the state level and with locals is necessary before making a recommendation to uh go much further at this point I really do hope that they take the centralization up the ladder and continue to go because I think that will be for all school districts the safest for our students okay so okay straw poll for 9A um are we voting to reconsider this reconsider are we talking about 9A 9A it means that this likely will not in order for this to be discussed at the assembly the district has to that that um submitted it needs to yes word I'm looking for two yeah and get third of the boat on the floor to re have it reconsidered so would you like it reconsidered yes so we have one two three four five

138okay and then if reconsidered should be adopted by the delegate assembly um straw poll yes ad four okay what you have Dr Mar yes all right last one criminal background check I didn't so uh just as a summary the committee agreed uh that this is a crit that it is critical that Schoolboard members maintain the highest ethical standards however committee members determine that background checks for school board candidates create a different election standard for school board members as compared to other elected officials also it could cause financial and procedural challenges for potential school board members MERS these challenges could deter qualified candidates from running for school board do we want that to be reconsidered I my stance personally is that the difference between us and other elected officials as we are involved with students we

139are in schools and for me I I absolutely think a background check is necessary Absolut The Village doesn't necessarily have students the uh Park District does like you know that's their business whatever but as an elected official who is who is in contact with not just students but students that may not have the ability to use their voice I absolutely think that board members should have a background check because what if what if they didn't and one of them was elected and they were they were you know and then they're in contact with all with students and just just so we're just so we're able to well just so we're clear if you're convicted of a felony you can't hold this office that's already a thing so if I but if you're not if you

140haven't been convicted of aelony and then you become convicted listen I I'm I'm in agreement with you I'm just I'm just saying like I I I just for full transparency I I just want to make sure because I've talked to the person who devised this particular one one-on-one and just so we're abundantly clear I want to make sure we're conveying proper information to the general public you can not be convicted of a felony and sit up here in in in this capacity right okay so let's let me ask you this so does that mean that every every board has to create their own policy around someone who is not convicted now but what if they get convicted while they are in off in this office you can't serve so okay I mean that's what and

141again I'm just going to keep look let's put a belt in sup around it that's what I say belt and suspenders like you might not need them but just in case I mean I I just think like one thing to consider here I just got okay and doesn't doesn't apply to me doesn't apply to me but one thing to consider here we're talking about criminal background checks on everyone like all of us were were young at one point I'm not talking about felonies okay that's a different topic but if you're convicted of something that's like a misdemeanor and and you grow up right uh like like is that what just just making sure we're looking at this from all angles I totally agree with Jen I I I don't I don't want I don't want

142people who um harm kids or or convicted of felony up here and walking around in our in in in our schools with without you know um you know the proper authorization and all the channels that that have to be and all that stuff I I'm I'm with you Jen but it just just okay that's my consideration how do they how do they know maybe somebody here knows how does how do they know now the criminal background check having a record doesn't actually preclude you from being a teacher or from working in a school they enumerated offenses whereby someone has hurt children someone is uh sold drugs someone is yeah so they enumerated offenses so having a criminal background in and of itself doesn't disqualify someone for working for a school district but let's also recognize

143and I'm going to really tread this line very carefully where you find yourself in a position that you don't have a policy in place and the situation arises did the United States ever you know consider um that potential presidential candidates could be um elected and be felonious so you know if I I'm going to every day for myself vote that I don't want unfortunately they're going to put Infamous crimes as bribery and forgery in the same place as a sex offender I can't change that but what I can say is I just don't want any sex offenders around schools so and if you if you you there are a lot of people that are certain ways that just haven't gotten caught so I'm always going to side on that for me unfortunately it's black and

144white hold on a second I I get your point and I totally agree but if they haven't been caught I'm not sure how this deals with that no I I'm just saying my whole point is is that if there's a situation where there's indicators or there's reasons that you might I want that information out for the public when they're running our campaigning go ahead you go ahead was thinking if if it's already in the statute right it's already in the statute we we had they can't sit on this they can't sit in this space or our committees we had that happen in this community where we had someone who was convicted of a felony it was a financial felony piece they could no longer sit on the committee here we had that situation occur can

145we be on the can we on the ballot with the felony who checked I don't know if I I don't recall anyone that checked ever that's why I'm wondering yeah I don't know I don't I just don't know listen hey I'm all for and let's look at the district rationale Juliet is saying there's a current law that states no school board member can be convicted of an Infamous crime and we've talked about this I was on the policy committee we don't have any way of knowing like you know what I mean Amy myself Jared if you've worked for latata we've all had background checks because we've worked at the school district but there's no mechanism in place on on the laws that say that you have to have a criminal background check so this does

146that this gives us that option I mean I don't see what the harm is I mean if if if everyone is clean then what's the problem with having a background check no I I um I lean into Jared's point that I'm one my I have the same consideration like I'm between like I have I have two you know shoulder opinions um is that I don't want this to negatively impact those candidates who might be ready able and willing to serve and run for a school board um spot um but they had something happen when they were 22 uh and they decide not to run because they don't want that out in the open which I would understand but I but I also understand this point so um all right I think we should vote our

147the okay kind of speaking from a student perspective how you guys are very like involved with our district and come to our schools and like very Vol volunteering from a student perspective if I were to be in contact with one with someone different and new and I were to form like a friendship with them just to later find out that they were a convicted felon or something of like a high degree I would feel that it would kind of make me mistrust you guys in a way cuz like why didn't you guys have a background check because if you guys did it'll kind of make me feel more safer but if I were a former like a friendship with them and would talk to them just to ler find out it would kind of make

148a student feel again like mistrusted and unsafe because it would be your guy I would think it's your guys' responsibility and and would be obligated to do that but I kind of see how um you guys were talking how someone doesn't want their business out there and I kind of understand how when you guys are younger you guys have your moments of doing whatever dly dling which I do understand but I feel like background checks are necessary when it comes to bigger higher higher roles because you just never know what someone is was doing or is doing and it's just like a big priority that should be you know I think it's very tricky I think it's a tricky wee I mean let's let's be real let's be realistic these are the ones that are

149probably not going to make the floor anyway yeah so yeah 66% is now the threshold so um 10 a should this be reconsidered do we have yes votes reconsider five five and I think that was I think that was six I was marking it was it six six okay now it's one um if reconsidered should be adopted by the delegate assembly two that's two three three it's four okay you guys are late voting I'm not got four yeah some of the things can be misdemeanors and Infamous crimes so it's one of those where the wording is not like but I'll say yes yes whatever okay let's vote let's let's like officially vote now I vote all right four two I was a yes put down a whole oh boy how long how did I don't

150know all right I will happily take these ideas as a representative of the board and I'll report back Mar it is kind of interesting and are we reporting obviously I mean we going to go ask you but like oneon-one oneon-one but but are is this maybe something we report back at the um policy legislative committee then it comes here yes and we can do it during board comments or at committee report all right thank you Dr muo uh next uh we have a Dr concade board policy first readings yep we have several uh board policies coming for your first read um and review most of the changes that are being recommend recommended is around um Federal changes to Title 9 um if you review policy uh 2260 2265 5100 720 and 7185 all of them

151are related to changes in Title 9 UM there are no additional changes above and beyond um what is being recommended by press uh plus related to again uh Title Nine changes also in 5100 there is some recommendations um to be in alignment with school code of the removal of some staff development some addition of Staff Development um which the additions are focused on trauma responsive environments um and then also changes in Title 9 and then the remaining policy 22 excuse me two 125 is related to expenditure reimbursement when we went through the Press uh policy alignment we wanted there to be consistency across our district in related to um per DM reimbursement um this is periodically reviewed in order to be in alignment with State guidelines we had set the threshold so that no matter

152the funding source um particularly our grant funding there would be consistency in our reimbursement so the level of which we are able to reimburse has risen the recommended value is uh $54 again to be in alignment across the district which would then be $13 for breakfast $15 for lunch and $26 for dinner are there any questions not going to get you much these days but we'll it's higher than the current yeah the current rate of 650 650 and 19 thank you thank you thank you okay any other questions okay um Mr Bei radio and repeater RFP I'm going to call uh Mr bran Kyer and McDonald to uh to speak to the board about the RFP process good evening guys good evening evening I'm just going to hit the highlights of this uh proposal um

153uh we are asking or reviewing the RFP for a uh radio and repeater refresh uh we're talking about over 1300 uh two-way radios in the schools and repeaters for all the buildings um these devices are vital to the day in day out use uh of the buildings uh whether it be at Athletics or emergencies or uh whatever constantly being used um uh the last refresh that we've had never uh as far as I'm aware uh everything's been uh Band-Aid on um and uh we have uh when something breaks or we need something new it's add another device to the system um it isn't uncommon for radios uh at multiple schools to be over 10 years old uh and a variety of different models um why now we've had an uptick of radio issues uh with

154braking um we've also had environmental issues causing interference with the current platform uh the refresh will move us to a digital platform rather than an Antiquated uh analog system um which will also give us uh additional capabilities uh the RFP process uh we released it originally on August 23rd uh the deadline was pushed back for a month due to incomplete and lack of bids uh so it was pushed back to October 5th uh since that time October 5th we had two submissions uh that were uh given to us and one uh that was disqualified because it was after the deadline um our recommendation we are recommending that abep be the choice vendor uh for this refresh uh not only because of the cost uh of the project but also they have been our U vendor

155uh for the last two to three years and we've had a very positive experience with them during that time um and as far as funding is concerned we know this is a significant cost 5117 we are not uh thinking about paying for that out of our regular operational budget what we are looking at is doing the lease uh a lease and uh three to five years uh we're talking to to a couple of uh Ling entity and after three to five years we'll pay a dollar to retain the uh the equipment you said a dollar to retain it so it's a lease for three to five years and then at the end of it it's a dollar to retain the Equip to retain it yes okay and where where this is coming from operations uh

156the the lease this will be it can you um um tell me what a repeater is I should probably know this sorry sorry yes a repeater is a device I think of it as a booster it will amplify a particular channel on the radio system so it goes further in the building oh okay okay what is do you have any is there any relation to this AB LLC company because they've come up before and I just wondered I I feel like every time they come up that this RFP process automatically pushes them forward and I just wonder what is the relation to AB LLC uh previously to choosing them as a replacement vendor two years ago uh we had no relationship with them okay now as uh Brent mentioned earlier we had another person who

157submitted but the person submitted late and by law even if a second late we cannot consider we didn't open it we didn't consider it because they were late it will be violation of the provisions of the RP and by law you said yeah we can if we set a deadline the a date and the time when the bids have to be submitted if it is a minute later than that by law we cannot open it yes um and why are we and I did hear I don't I'm not being koi when I say this but instead of just a huge amount of money is why are we not making this a part of our maintenance facil Master maintenance facilities plan why are we pushing this forward now uh I think Brent mentioned it before with

158as Spate of all the complications that we've been having in that building safety security our radios is the shortest way for us to communicate uh districtwide and the longer we wait with a a radio system that is not consistent reliable uh the more the more problematic it gets for us for daily operations can you describe what the alternate Transportation proposal is so what we had uh thought about is uh replacing the radios on the on the on the buses so when we ask for the regular bed if you asking for an additional Bay uh in addition to the regular Bay you call that an ultimate Bay so what we're saying is give us pricing on a on the radios and the repeaters in our building and we wanted to know what will it cost to

159provide radio just for our buses so that would be the additional 239 or 103 depending on okay thank you so we're only looking for the buildings though for right now yes okay for we may do the uh trans uh the transportation later because financially this is we think this is prudent to do the buildings now and consider doing the uh Transportation later on a a key function and of our safety approach is the fast and efficient communication and my understanding is that these will uh whatever we purchase eventually or these are the exact ones um in this solution have interoperability with police correct so they're able to work with police if not we need to really understand that because U being able to or at least give police access to them so that they can

160engage in our communication uh so far the uh plan has been that should we need to communicate with police or whoever shows on site um we would end up giving them a particular radio to communicate uh it's also our understanding that there's already some uh police configurations they have our frequencies and have pre-programmed them into their radio and and this is something that's gone on for a while so I I I would say that under Oma we are allowed to discuss some of this in close session around safety considerations and so there are some aspects of this that I'd be happy to bring the board at our next session in Clos session why this is a crucial ort so I think that there are important considerations that I want to discuss in Clos session okay

161thank you thank you gentlemen thank you thank you um Mr oi the next two are yours if you want to walk us through the next two right so this is uh the intergovermental agreement Uh Oh Land cash I'm sorry I'm jumping ahead of myself the the uh County of Kendall collects money from developers on behalf of uh of the district and after it's accumulated to a certain point the board has to uh approve a resolution in public in order for the funds to be transferred to us and the funds can only be Ed for hold on second Mr I asked them to stick around through the intergovernmental agreement okay so they could weigh in on that and told them they could be okay okay so uh so that's what we're bringing before the board the

162resolution to allow kendle County to transfer the 50 uh 56.99 that has been accumulated to us okay questions for Mr we saved we saved we saved yes it's nice to hear that thank you Mr oi next up we have 911 inter agreement this is the intergovermental agreement that I mentioned earlier that uh would lead to us cooperating with the uh the village as well as the uh the kendle county to build a sidewalk from uh on Arvy Road and bring it to OE what it will allow our students to do is to be able to walk instead of being transported and to do it safely now the one question I would have is if we were to put that there would that then satisfy the safety audit that we're about to do I'd like to

163know that you know what I'm saying uh hour Zone there the we talked during our meetings about the configuration right making sure we move it uh far away from the road so he's not sitting next to the road so we also talked about what side the engineers The Village talked about uh positioning and designing the sidewalk in such a way that is safe so the engineers would they would they would know that answer as well yes I'm good yeah we brought it up to them okay I'm good that's a concern I I wouldn't want to put the investment and then be told that that's not is it possible to get some advice or Council from the whoever is conducting our our safety or what do we call the uh he said that the engineers the

164engineer from the village actually we are yeah we had we had really really deep discussion with them okay and just reminding that we're in the business of children children safety so the placement of the uh sidewalk is such is got to be in such a way that it protects the health and safety of our kids so where they were going to pres uh uh located before they moved that to accommodate what we brought up with them there be like are they adding a curb are they one no no both they're far away from the road like a Parkway there so if you look at uh the road there's um there's a a real actually it it also involves getting easen from a firm if you there's a firm that's been there for a while and

165the owner of the firm is actually been trying to sell it to us except we we don't need the land so part of what we're doing is getting an easement from their farmer to be able to to locate that sidewalk through through the firm the uh the attorneys through wi actually had a compensation with the uh the attorney representing the owner of the firm but the placement of the sidewalk is such where we feel comfortable that it'll be safe uhuh with the traffic over there is it the east side of the street or the west side of the street I think is the side uh on the side of the high school the high school to that point when people have come to us yes I'm sorry I guess I'm just trying to understand like

166I want to be collaborative with our intergovernmental agencies what why is this in this subdivision our responsibility I yes our students I'm not questioning that I'm questioning that but this is off of our campus right but what it does is though the kids right now we have to transport them because there's no way from the Sidewalk Ends in the subdivision so there's no way for them to be able to make it to school without us providing Transportation because Harvey Road is a major road right and there's no sidewalk they couldn't walk to school by having this sidewalk constructed it serves all the the uh the municipal the tax body because the uh the county has an interest in health and safety of the resident The Village since the subdivision is located in uh iggo as

167an interest and we as folks who educate small children we have a and respons I agree with that I guess I'm really questioning the 33% I'm guess I guess I'm trying to understand the equality of what we're paying and is it a third of 360,000 no they just to be to be honest we don't know what the price will be until the uh the RP comes back but the estimate that we talked about ball PRK is about $100,000 so we what we talked about and then the ballpark comes back at 500,000 where I guess where are we and it says we are also solid soliciting cost to expend the multi-use path who's we us or they are the entity but we're cooperating together governmental group yes it's it well there's a cost Advantage because we

168are we are currently so to your point so I think one of the things that's been brought up in this meeting earlier is how do we think about these development properties economic development now because we've entered a new phase in these relationships with our entities I have a strong inclination to believe that that is not a bigger priority um and it's also something that is important to the Village as I think [Applause] but is is it going to be 360 or is it going to be 500,000 and that depends on the day that you ask because the cost of materials goes up and so forth so do we have an opportunity 3 of of 360 is 100 roughly 119,000 sounds great but if it gets to three or 400,000 then what I can assure you

169is that if you get no one wants to save money more than I do I wake up and go to sleep every day counting the I was just going to say Can Can I can I can I ask for this what's I think this would be good for us to see the offset so can you give us some figures on I understand that you're saying uh and I don't disagree with you okay $190,000 when need to be cognizant of the money that we're spending so we're spending it in the hopes that there's a savings due to the transportation so can you show that to us and then I think that would help sure yeah we does that make sense yes yes we can and do we but it it will be that one of the

170key thing will be looking at reasonableness if it gets expensive pricey we not we can't afford it but yeah yeah I guess I I think that you were concerned with capping the financial impact so by signing this are we saying that there is are we are we signing away that c it's not it's not Bing it's a it's an agreement that we reach and and every time we do something like this we are we are not doing something else and you know we all know we have a list seven miles long so that's why I'm trying to be cognizant about yes this is important I'm never questioning anything that has to do with the safety of children please don't think that want to make sure that we all when we go into an intergovernmental agreement

171we get what we think we're getting well that's why I was I want to make sure that it's does what it means to do yes and yes seeing the cash flows you know if it's got a year or two payback period then that's then I mean kind of it's no-brainer but um everything that we're investing in is for the public good so you you are correct yeah have to prioritize one or two year pay back would be very when we get the RFP we'll bring it to the board that's what I was going to ask to the is there a reason that we have to sign the intergovernmental agreement before we have the RFP I think the intergovernmental agreement is more of intention to cooperate and and get this done now if we if we

172get the RFP and if it's too rich and we can't afford it we can always say this is beyond what we had anticipated and it doesn't no Money's been committed because all all that would have happened is there were conversation that was held with the uh the attorney for the for the owner of the firm where we're requesting isman and there's going to be an RFP done and once we get the RFP we'll bring it to the board we would never obligate the board to expense it I agree with that without approval help me understand why we wouldn't complete our comprehensive facilities Plan before we did this I mean because if you think about it there's safety issues all over this community with that don't have sidewalks so why this one right now what I

173would say is that we have we have an opportunity to to cooperate with uh with our with our partners Municipal partners and not to often kind of school district say you have the county and you have the village where you're located they willing to pay 66% of the cost of doing something you know it's not something that happen after and I think all that speaks to is the ability to even develop a closer relationship and and do more partnership so instead of us paying 100% of things if we can find a way to only pay 30 30% of must stuff it just makes the leverage better so that's that's that's one thing you know it's like this is something that that didn't get done in the way that it should have been done but now

174we have an opportunity to get it done without having to incur the total burden of it we're also PL and I think to the question two question two points in terms of the master facility planning process we will also invite them to participate in our work as we go through that process which will also inform and we don't know what that will yield right so that's number one number two we are planning seeds for future projects that may also have significant support for us uh Mr ploger often talks about the infrastructure in the area whether it's writing grants for big projects I mean those require a deep level of shared commitment this is a to be honest with you in a construction project world this is a small small project right and so I do

175think that Mr be has been very clear and I appreciate that about this will come back to the board for full review regarding what the fin cost numbers are and the board will then at that point has freedom to say you know thank you very much but this doesn't fit with our potential cost what I'm hearing is that if it overburdens the district and takes away from our opportunity to do other projects it will do that there are there are this one is one of safety and there are other areas but I don't think there is one as pronounced as this one but can I can I just bring up uh because we had talked about signing this agreement I mean it says this agreement shall be in full force and effect beginning after all

176signatories have signed and accepted this agreement and shall endure through the completion of the project that seems to me that once we sign it we're we're in it now if the board doesn't feel comfortable signing the the agreement now we can talk to our partners and wait till till after the RP is uh received and then bring it back for Signature yes do vote for that I think that and again I'd like to see the transportation savings piece to Dominic Point like what is that like in year two years whatever so I like I'm going to differ where I don't know if there's a cap because I don't know what the savings are if you tell me we're going to save a million dollars then the cap to me is I know we're not going

177to I'm just throwing I know we're not but my my point is if you told me we're going to save a million dollars then my cap isn't 500,000 necessarily you know what I mean so I need to see that piece to I think as well is there a way to do an inter intergovernmental agreement so that we show good faith our partners that says pending finances or something like that because I don't want to I want to keep the momentum going with our partners in a way that says yes this is these are the types of things we want to do together but we're also you know cognizant of of finances yeah no I I like that signing it with the pending RFP you know outcome or whatever we'll go back to our partners and

178express the uh the will of the board that there's a level of uh of feeling that we're putting out the the cart before the horse and see what the RFP numers says before we we all put a provision in there that allows so we would do that we will certainly do that it's not un reasonable yeah I think they would understand that too this is not the first time we've been approached with something and then the costs have come in significantly different so I think that's where everyone's hesitation is certainly is understandable we would do that we'll take that uh Dom message back thank you all right moving on 10.1 action item approval of Paper Supply RFP may make a motion oh yes okay I make a sorry I make a motion to approve Veri

179of paper company to provide paper supplies to our district second Mr pler hi Mr Gatewood I miss venm hi Mr Cerone hi Miss Simon hi Miss Johnson I Dr Maria hi motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of game time playground Grant can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the playground replacement repair of Boulder Hill Homestead and Lakewood Creek with the grant support from game time I second Mr gwood I Dr Mario I Miss Johnson joyfully I Mr Cerone I miss similon I Mr pler ecstatically I miss ven I motion passes 70 action item 10.3 approval of board member travel expenses can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the board member travel expenses to attend the triple I conference in Chicago before we do roll call I

180just wanted to say something we we need to make the we need to Second and then we discuss oh did he okay S I didn't hear it s question um not a question more of a statement but I received some uh feedback from the community um and questioning why we needed to spend the night at the triple ey conference so I wanted to share the benefit of the answer for the community when we go down there people people said well I work in the city and I'm able to come home every night and go back when we go down there during the day we are in sessions all day learning sessions and at night we are all um either coming together to have dinner and working sessions or we are or or share what we've

181learned without violating om or we are going to meet with vendors Andor other people who are providing learning opportunities for us I also heard that they didn't feel that we um gained anything from triple I so I just want to be very clear that while it may not be something you agree with and that's fine you can agree disagree with it there are opportunities for us to learn where it may not have an immediate impact but it will have a long ter could possibly have a longterm or future impact so I just wanted to share with that I appreciate all the feedback we received from the community um but I just wanted to address that publicly um for for uh the comments that were made we have brought back many of the um learning tools

182um that we um were exposed to while at um triple I that have benefited our our Effectiveness and efficiency as a board um as well as um supporting and um helping um our superintendent uh to to be accountable to our board for us to be accountable to ourselves there's so many things that we we have implemented and so I would just say it's it's money well spent also I would say that we when when um when we are at triple I we are gaining um best practices around how we run our organization and uh that is invaluable that's not information that we can get being in a cocoon and not um networking with all those five or 600 uh representatives from all the other districts so that would be my thoughts and I'm GNA piggyback

183on that real quick just because of of um what Jen had mentioned just because the expenses are listed doesn't necessarily mean that board members submit those and collect there's been talk about um all of us getting huge amounts for travel expenses Etc um maybe I missed out last year but but you know it's the travel and all those things are are kind of are on us so um just because it's allowable doesn't mean that it's I've never submitted a reimbursement the the other piece too that I just want to touch on as far as the the the wealth of this when I came to the board in 2015 I remember going down and like nobody was even going to be the delegate delegate here to have a voice and and the mo was well they

184don't really come asigo doesn't really show up for that and I I I think as we look I'm going to try not to get out my soap box too much but as we look at the area that we're in that has all of this these um you know large unit districts connected to each other I think it's important for the general public to realize how much they've divided us um you know some of us are in Kish some of us are in Three Rivers some of us are in DuPage and and yet we are all this kind of area dealing with all of these pieces together and so I think it is also vital when it comes to talking to these other boards um that are in our area that do share kind of similar

185characteristics to us and and commonalities and so forth and so on we are in the business of Education if I may board and uh if the if the board of if the board of education is not committed to to invest in itself and its learning along the process then I have a lot of questions because we we invite Educators and this really represents 0.005% of our total budget so I would just invite um anybody who has questions I'd be happy to speak to that um I would say that having observed this board and its deep commitment to really learning bringing that learning back to this board and this community is crucial and there is nothing more important I remember last year sitting with board members from across the state and so both you're learning practical

186but you're also learning current trends in the field of Education our board member was invited to serve on a on a committee uh we have multiple board members who participate in panel discussions and so really being leaders of the good work in the community and so you know the learning does not stop um just because you become a board member in fact you model to the community in the small invest M that you are committed and you expect the staff to do the same for themselves so thank you and there is some personal development as well where you learn how to be a good board member to your cohorts and um I attended last year Breaking Down the Walls which is something very important that I needed personally to help be a better board member

187so I just needed to address it obviously um I was you know disappointed to receive it but everybody has their opinion you may not physically see it but I I know that the benefits outweigh the cost greatly no I was just on November 4th if you'd like to join us for um Dr katti just said it way more eloquently than I would than I was about to say it so I thank you for shutting my mouth never never Miss's let's business of educ in the business of Education I'm ready I'm ready to vote mrone I Mr Gatewood hi Miss venth hi Mr hi Miss Simon hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi motion passes 70 action item 10.4 approval of school year 26 new High School courses and title changes can I have a motion

188please make a motion to approve the new High School courses title changes and curriculum updates for the 2025 26 school year second Miss Simon hi Miss vmou hi Mr Gatewood hi Dr Mario hi M Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Mr bler hi motion passes 70 ex I just want to say one thing I want to thank the team and the leadership team for their work on this and also to the committee um the teaching and learning committee for their work the other thing I wanted to and and as part of that commitment to continuous Improvement I know that they will be bringing to the teaching and learning Equity teaching and learning committee um a process to reflect on the learning for how we reflect on courses and we want to thank everybody for their feedback

189along the way and our Union Partners our Educators who've been a part of this process and we want to thank them and 10.5 approval of no trespass order can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the no trespass order as presented second Miss mmth I Dr Mario I miss Simon hi Mr Cerone hi Miss Johnson hi Mr bler hi Mr gate I motion passes 70 can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn all in favor