001Mr present Johnson come back she's Dr Mar present Mr pres present Amy do you want to check to see if her thing got muted AC we have a board member who's coming in remotely please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we are moving on to he you want to just pull her into roll Jen Johnson Miss Johnson yes can you state your name for the roll call Jen Johnson okay all right good evening board uh this evening I'm going to invite uh Mr Bei um who's bringing to us an update on uh banking services RFP and we want to welcome um some of those uh guests
002as well Mr thank you Dr coatti I said District we have not uh we've used the same bank since 2008 which is really not best practice what we need to do we need to uh look out in the marketplace and see uh if the opportunities to get better service and uh better pricing for the services that we we get from Banks as part of that we went out and developed an RFP and during the RFP process I believe seven Banks uh responded to to the RFP and we vetted them and the bank that uh we thought B suited the the process that we put in place actually is right here in our backyard serve bank and serve bank is is actually a swo based they used to be called Ali bank they changed their name
003to serve bank and they're located uh in asgo and they've Al they've been an integral part of our community over the years they give out $1,000 scholarship to 20 of our kids every year to use to college and the uh the proposal they submitted was by far the most uh reflective of what we looking for that's why we recommending that the board approve that we we have serve Bank become our banking partner moving forward now we have three individual from serve Bank who are here joining us tonight to uh to speak to to uh give an overview of the bank and also to answer any questions that board member may have I have uh Joe valenci the branch manager of the Igo bank here we also have uh Richard toer Rich is the Chief Operating
004Officer of ser bank and then Michael Finn who is the vice president of Treasury management so I'm going to hand it over to them to provide an overview please almost oh no not yet now while he's working on the uh on the microphone too okay I think I got it all right there we go appreciate appreciate the the wonderful introduction my name is John wise um and Executive Vice President for for serve Bank um and I just wanted to thank the board and everyone in attendance um for allowing us to come in and speak to you today um it's much much appreciated um as most most of you are aware of um allied Allied First Bank which was previously um serve bank now um so we took over and really really what I wanted to
005come talk to you today about was not really the specifics of the RFP but more so our community involvement who we are as an organization and really the direction that we're going as an organization um you know Community is is number one um number two is also the way we serve our clients right we really treat our clients um as family um I call it for a lack of better terms old school banking really where you're shaking hands you're meeting with your clients you you have direct lines of contact we have three of my team members behind me here today um that are all an integral part of how we service our clients um day in and day out and then on top of that it comes down to capabilities right um as you know
006looking at combining you know the schools within within the district into One bank there's certain Solutions you're going to need um ultimately we're here as a partner um from moving money in and out to fraud protection um to adding additional products and services that you need to to ensure um that everything is running smoothly is all all crucial um to our partnership and then that open communication that we have between both parties um so really uh why I came here today is really to talk through that piece of it um the CRA implications as well as the community uh were heavily involved um as we have a long Legacy it looks like it's really really porn right now sorry serve and rain really coming down uh so getting back to giving back to the community
007obviously we have a a great relationship and a in a long-standing relationship um with the district and we want to continue to grow and and be a steart uh and a partner um as a banking partner um for the long term um and then obviously too as well as going out to Market and getting multiple rfbs you want to maximize the the dollars you have the way you do it as far as how efficiently you can do it and move money in and out of your accounts uh but also it comes down to you know the the that you can get on your your relationship as well um and so serve bank is really competitive we have a very strong balance sheet and we're going to continue to grow um within the local community here
008and continue to expand um on on the commercial banking side so we're really excited for that and I I'll pause um for any questions from the board um or any anywhere I can kind of dive into that you guys might have I would ask the question um are we going to see an even greater are we going to see an even greater experience with you all from a community perspective and the things that you do um in terms of you know relating to our students and the types of opportunities that might be available to our students I know Alli did a lot um will that continue and we we see an even more robust um opportunity if I can speak to that at the beginning then you can you can follow up we had a
009meeting during our interviewing process a meeting process one of the things that we requested is that Ali Bank offer each of uh two of a high school students from one of each o and OE an opportunity to do a paid internship every summer and they agree to that without without any hesitation and I think that shows their commitment to the community I think what is great about that is there's really no function that a child wants to learn that one of our students cannot learn working at serve bank if it's communication they do corporate communication if it's banking if it's Finance if it's advertising so that shows right there their commitment to being partner to be in partner with us so I'll let him uh speak some Rafael thank you uh so Rick tomman again
010delighted to uh to be here tonight a little bit more detail on that so I'm not sure out of the uh the student population that is here that if someone wakes up tomorrow morning and says you know what I think I'm going to grow up and be a banker uh or something like that however um the whole thought of what Raphael is sharing is that here in asgo and again we're right over on Orchard love to say that word caddy corner from Dunkin Donuts um and so again it's the bank that has the gymn uh in it uh and so with that from an internship perspective uh that one it can be very Finance specific but it can also be also incredibly um holistic so from Human Resources our people team our marketing uh compliance
011people don't think really about compliance or risk uh and these are critical critical aspects especially in the regulatory environment that we are in today so yes the ability to uh have paid internships not just during the summer uh but often times there might be uh the opportunity as well that you know they leave school at one um and get credit and come uh you know come over to the bank so very excited for that I love all that and I just want to comment like I think this can be a model for the way uh Industries and companies can engage with us as a school district I think sometimes Industries or people might think well what what could I do right um and I'll just I I hear you saying like we're going to accept
012students in for like internship experiences and things like that but I also think a lot of kids wake up like you said and they're not thinking I want to be in Banker but they don't know what they want to do so is there a way even to push into schools and offer and and just give like on you know job day or whatever like career day like you know here's some things you can do in the banking industry and we're right around the corner so I appreciate um um obviously the banking services uh but also the commitment to community so thank you and it is not I promise I I don't expect this to be answered but you know like here you can certainly get back to me on this but um I remember way
013back in 8th grade I uh I uh actually that was my uh report you know we had to do career reports right and it was banking right and I had an older brother who was I don't know in charge of the loan department River Forest bank which became chorus bank and all these things right reason I bring this up right is uh 2008 I know it was very traumatic for the industry uh my brother was one of those who was lucky enough to make it through all those he made good loans right and I'm just curious like if with the amount of banking mergers and everything I know this is a complete technical question I like everything I've heard but will if you're bought out right if you're taken over by somebody will those things
014how do we what reassurances do we have that those things will continue and and you know hope hope your balance sheet is is good and and and your loans are great uh I'm not going to get into all that I'm going to trust um uh you know Mr obafemi but I'm just just curious about that piece I can answer that uh in a prior District where I work a similar thing happened and I spoke to them about it uh there was a community bank that we bank with good relationship uh Community Based Bank and that bank got bought out by a larger bank and before the transition took place we interviewed the CEO of the bank we actually had a conversation where we ask about all kinds of things all the things that they'll be
015willing to do to maintain the relationship that we are with the Hometown Bank and the commitment was made by the CEO that it will continue to do that and I would say now it's been a few years and as I'm no longer in that District the relationship continues if with the new owner and they continue to get back and they continue to work with with the district as well as the kids in those District I think it's good business banks that are that have relationship with the community that they serve is good business for them because if you think about we also talked about the possibility of working with our staff member who need uh a place to bank who need to uh to get mortgages offer them competitive rate so that helps our employ
016employees it also helps the bank so it's a symbiotic relationship if you will it helps them and it helps us for us to have a good relationship yeah and I'm I'm glad you point that out there I'll be quick but you know I'm glad you point that out there you know there's a lot of small towns not far from here and one of the problems with a lot of those small towns they don't have Banks anymore right when I was when I was a kid you know growing up down the road we had a bank that invested back in the town so I I'm excited that that that's what we're doing all those things and and like I said I'm going to I'm going to trust you on on on some of these pieces and
017I know you do your homework so I appreciate it thank you and I'm glad you brought that up the key part of that also is if we bank if we use a a money a leverage that the taxpayer gave us and we keep it in the community it allows serve Bank to be able to provide loans and to be able to develop businesses that are based here in orgo or the surrounding area I suppose to a mega bank that this is just a place to do business there's no connection to the community so he serves a lot of purposes to bank with a HomeTown Bank with a commitment to our taxpayers and the businesses who are here to give them loans to open bank account for them to assist businesses that are trying to emerge
018to help them grow thank you and and just to add of Ro appreciate that that was very great context um great question right when you look at 0809 you can even look back in the beginning of 2023 a lot of regionals you know we all we all heard about Silicon Valley Bank and all those Banks having those issues right so picking a right partner is is so crucial uh especially where you know I don't want to get into an economic discussion but especially where um where where we're going these last couple days have been a little chaotic but um when you when you look at an organization like ours right it comes down to the relationship comes down it does come down to the balance sheet right having strength in liquidity having putting good quality
019loans out on the books and then lastly I think this is a crucial piece we're privately held organization right so when you look at the large guys that are publicly traded they make they make business decisions based on what their next call reports going to be so they make sure to take care of their shareholders right so we manage for the for the long term we manage really for the best interest of the business always and that's really helped the community community bank our size really give to our clients and then also save through kind of the longevity of the economic cycles that we're that we're going to see so a little bit uh more uh more color so thank you John um so we recently received our scorecard if you will uh we went
020through and this is a little bit a boring Banker uh so our fbic uh safety and soundness exam now I'm not permitted by uh regulation to uh share what our score is I absolutely wish I could but let's just say if we were a student here um or and any one of the 22 schools um we would be on high honor role um so just very very proud of that because again this is local um and this is a scoring system across the entire banking uh industry in the entire United States so to have that right here local and let's just say to be a high honor Ro students and we worked really really hard for that um and so just want to share again without being specific on um on you know what the
021actual score was but very proud of that and that's proud of our due diligence too it was fun when we met we had gone through the FDIC the FDIC research they provide information about banks that are insured by them and we read up on them and we were talking to it were kind of surprised that we did that but that's part of the process that we one of the many process that we went through in vetting the uh the banks that we uh we brought in for recommendation and and one additional sorry to interrupt if um one additional commentary as well as you know having having insurance right having whether it's collateralization the the district's total deposits or it's an IC product which gets FDIC Insurance to the collective dollar amount that you store at
022one institution um that also is another layer of protection as well right you you have collateralization or Insurance of the total deposits um of of the district and and that's a big crucial piece as well Miss Johnson did you have anything that you wanted to ask I do thank you so much president S I have three questions to for the gentleman and one fori um I apologize I can't see your colleagues behind you but I am interest interested is the bank invested in any Dei efforts uh so absolutely uh and a very important question um so we do have uh not just a Dei committee um but very active uh I think was mentioned earlier with our uh CRA which is the community reinvestment act um our plan right now is before uh the FDIC
023many of you may have actually seen it uh when I say it like that uh we had to publish that uh locally for 30 days um and when I say locally it's in the Chicago land market as well uh and so with that plan being reviewed uh right now a huge reinvestment back into the community so that's external uh from a CRA perspective but also internal uh from a Dei initiative uh one thing that I'm very very proud of uh we have a very strong women's leadership forum and so from uh again an internship perspective uh that would want uh young men and young women to be able to go through and experience that Forum as well um so again yes very much so and thank you for asking that question um my second question
024is and I incredibly lightly on this the school board is to be nonpartisan we try very hard to be nonpartisan unfortunately in the last election a lot of um different boundaries um kind of became blurred and I would say the election was one of the most the many of my colleagues sitting up there will tell you was incredibly complicated your bank made a very um specific endorsement of a candidate for the Phil Village president um unfortunately we had a lot of contentious um meetings with and discussions with um some former village board member how do you see that moving forward and will you continue to um endorse specific candidates in local politics so again a uh incredibly uh not just important but uh critical question and so as much as uh I want to share
025that uh things have stayed the same from a stability standpoint and absolutely they have but also uh we do have new leadership uh here at the bank and with that uh again to it's easy to stand here and say oh nonpartisan uh but at the same time yeah but at the same time uh the thought is we are here to bank we are here to support the community um and that support that we uh render whether it's in Talent treasure time um it does not need to be political in any way and and again it's uh incredibly heated uh world that we're in right now as we go into no November and and post November uh but at the end of the day there are some changes that have been made at the bank and
026that is one I would say that has been um a step forward I appreciate that we need partners that are going to support our students regardless of what's going on in a political landscape and work with and collaborate with the school district so thank you absolutely Mr um do we have any sort of financial return on investment with going with a specific provider do you see do you have any numbers behind going with a specific bank over another bank yes we have a we have a score sheeet that we use we're happy to share that one huge uh variable that I'll be very transparent in telling you is the fee structure and some of the fee structures from some of the bank was significant sign very significant they charge for everything heck they charge for
027blowing your nose they charge for looking around I mean it was just this is significant amount of money that will cost us over time now I will say with serve Bank uh one of the uh the attractive thing with them is no fees no fees and we know every we we recognize that our taxpayers work hard for their money and if we can get services from a bank that is stable that is solid without having to pay all those fees we believe we owe it to our you know to our community not to do that and some of those they they are bigger Banks who uh you know they are branches and uh in different parts of the of the of the state and they have to support that and how they support that is
028a lot of fees with serve bank they have one branch and the branch is here in nrio and nowhere else so they have the ability not to have as much overhead as some of the other banks that uh submitted uh RFP that was one one important and the ability to be able to walk in and talk to the Chief Operating Officer of the bank the vice president of uh treasury the branch manager to be able to have a face tof face meeting with them without having to call New York without having to call Chicago without having to schedule time ahead of time to be able to talk to a lowlevel person that makes a big difference too in relationship building so those are some of the variables that we we uh we use in trying
029to determine what would be the best fit for us and lastly what I would say is this is an ongoing relationship we hope it works for us but if it doesn't work for us we have the ability to go back to the market and see what else is out there right I love the idea of again keeping it on us weo or Montgomery planfield Aurora I think the more we pour into our neighborhoods the better we are we are so I appreciate the presentation okay thank you we're done any question okay thank you thank thank you thank you I'm not sure if we're uh permitted to ask a question but I think uh if we are so October 25th cross town challenge who is going to take it this year can we go on record
030not on the agenda principal Bowski ASO East so I I'll I'll give you I'll give you okay I'll give you a controversial answer to that question typically asgo High School wins the football game Ty typically asigo East brings home the overall cross town trophy am I wrong yeah all right okay all right didn't mean to hear state championships thank you we are looking for sponsors gentlemen well I've been a um member of Allied Bank as a customer for 20 years so I'm looking forward to continue in that relationship with you all appreciate it thank you thank you all very much appreciate the time thank you thank you all right we are moving on there are no public comments so we will move on to you Dr katti with your superintendent report 6.1 okay good evening
031board good evening everyone it is uh just truly uh incredible to be here at this uh this point where we are beginning to think about the start of the school year um I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break and we will be welcoming our teachers back on Monday uh for the uh upcoming school year and uh we are excited to see all the Fantastic things that have been planned um in preparation for our Educators to return and uh following that on that Thursday we will welcome over 177,000 students back into our schools woo woo we've been waiting we've been waiting excited uh there's nothing nothing quite like the energy that fills our Halls when our students return it's been a joy to run into some throughout the summer um I think Beckham's in
032the audience there is that Beckham all right he can't wait to get started uh this year our District's theme is centered around our bright sd38 life we're full of energy optimism and a shared vision for success and I can't wait to see our schools buzzing and I want to thank all our Educators who already uh supporting and getting classrooms ready we know what it's like and we thank you for your due diligence and care we will also see our buses humming around on our roads and all our young people traveling on bikes or walking to school um as a community I want to invite you to really uh be prepared to shift how you think about those roads and really increase our safety in our communities we really want to keep our students safe and
033so really thinking about that and we want to thank all our administrators and our village um partners for thinking about how we prepare to make our road safe as always this is a time with a lot of questions where is that list where's this and where's that and so how do I find this I can't remember this so again we're here to help you and I want to thank our Communications team for really working really hard to create that single place online um where you can track current information about all things and so on our website sd308.org you can find find a link to back to school that's it simple as that find back to school and on there you're going to see a chalk full of information and of course as always I know
034that our administrators are already always prepared and ready to help answer any question that may come up that does not help you um that that doesn't get you the answer you're looking for so thank you and so just want again board just uh wishing us a fantastic year ahead and to all our staff students students and community members we are ready and we are looking forward to it and I have to thank and I think there's some comments of this but our buildings operations team our finance department and our HR team who are really in the background doing everything possible to get our schools humming and ready I think we should give that one a shout out I I visited a couple schools today and I I'm I'm not kidding you could literally like lay
035on that floor it was so glistening with just Beauty so it's just smells fresh so um I want to invite the board uh to add some comments um that have been prepared related to start of school year I will go ahead and get it started so over the summer all elementary and Junior High School students were welcom to dive into Hands-On steam experiences at maker space here the students could explore with ozobots construct intricate Marble Runs play with green screens engage in interactive iPad exploration and bring ideas to life with 3D 3D printers pil pilot drones and indulge in arts and crafts kits maker space experience can be included in the school day clubs and other exploration opportunities the excitement generated in these sessions is just the beginning of a journey that will continue to
036inspire and educate sd308 students so last week administrators from across the district and all schools joined together to team plan and got to know each other ahead of the start of school uh the energy was definitely intense I never did find out though did did I a couple of people from no we didn't win air 308s didn't win we didn't win did we come in third at least no n there was a nway DI well I was appropriately exiting from that then I guess but I I I I um myself and uh Miss Johnson I know were there and I think um I'm not sure if anybody else was there also but throughout but we all um kind of uh showed up and know made our presence known I just failed sorry in my uh
037contributions but I'll try harder next year maybe I don't know uh but this year's leadership team is already rocking uh very creative I can tell you that uh can't wait to see our schools fantastic energy come alive soon uh in addition the human resources department and leaders from many departments and schools have been working together to host open interview events and today another successful event was um was hosted and candidates completed their preliminary interviews on the spot we're closing in on filling the remaining openings but hey uh 308 Community if you're interested in joining the team there's still time so visit our website today to apply well the blue silver bash and and the panther Fest are both coming up on August the 16th the blue silver bash is from 4: to 7: at asgo
038East High School and The Bash will include a kid Zone Pres presentations robotics team demos and more and pantherfest will be at asgo high school and will take place on the 16th again from 4:30 to 8: and both events have free adiss free admission free admission and include cheer dance performances Spirit Weare sales and activities open to the community so please come out and support on next week we invite all staff and their families to the second annual back to school bash on Wednesday August 14th beginning at 12:30 staff can come to learn about benefits always important visit area business booths pick up their staff shirt and of course and most importantly visit the board's Lemonade Stand we we hope to see lots of staff and families in attendance K I'm excited to announce this
039school Year's Pride program will be recognizing twice as many employees as last year we we will acknowledge a total of 86 individuals the board established the pride program in 2015 to recognize promote and celebrate the many contributions made by our teachers and employees Pride stands for proudly recognizing individuals demonstrating Excellence we look forward to sharing more about our fantastic Pride winners soon thank you and to finalize our superintendent comments this evening I want to invite Dr Z to share some hiring news everybody's wondering about the final Staffing and so Dr zmy I really like the way Mr ploger uh stated um there is still time um we are in uh we're in really good shape um we've been really working well uh with human re uh human resources in our departments Dr kelad has really
040talked this year about a profound interdependence amongst our departments um transportation operations is look uh extremely well um our teaching positions are looking extremely well we have um 14 teaching positions uh open right now uh about five at the elementary junior high five I'm sorry 15 and uh five at the high schools uh and goal um we anticipate being able to um fill those before the start of the school year we had a very successful um job fair today um we met people today that wanted to be uh Health occupation secretaries Health office secretaries to rbts to custodians um they did very very well uh today and we're looking forward to talk to them um special education openings are probably our number one priority right now uh we still have 10 case manager positions open
041related services and related services are things like Social Work psychologists rbts bcbas um we're still working through those um and we're going to we've been doing very well with contract Based Services our goal throughout our system is to eliminate first of all reduce if not eliminate our dependence on contract Based Services period um we have a shared interest with uh all of our unions with that with oea OA OTA and ocma uh to really to bring in our own 308 uh employees so I want to make sure that that's clear number two uh we've been very aggressive with our contract Based Services this year uh there has been legislation for a non-compete Clause within contract Based Services that we have use to our advantage um I want to give a tremendous um props and a
042shout out to Jamie Torres who works in uh Dr duell's Department as um a contract Based Services um we will bring you a total of um what we project in our savings um uh soon um and I i' like to uh perhaps get her involved uh you know in a report in future um we are doing very well with our contract Based Services uh right now um a couple other things so where we might be a year from now with our Residency program led by anamarie candelario 16 to 18 residents right now right so if I have 10 special ed positions and about 15 teaching positions I don't have any teaching positions next year that's what the teacher residency program can and will do for us because of the support and the vision of Dr
043Kade and the teacher residency Grant the support of our superintendent the support of our board and the work of Human Resources led by anamarie candelario Sarah law Claudia Ruiz and and others so bear with us while we look for some contract Based Services that's where we're at but we will be further ahead of school districts in our area because of the teacher residency program so um just wait on that um tomorrow we welcome more than 100 plus new Educators into our system we will yeah absolutely uh we will be working out of uh East viiew Academy for the next four days we have great Partners Chamber of Commerce is going to be there our Union partners are there as well too um also for the first time in a few years we have reinstated a
044mentoring program for all of our brand new first second and third year teachers with an option for our fourth year so it's not only important for us to recruit them but also to retain them and then to make sure that we reward them so they are successful in our schools with our students uh so those are a few updates related to HR that I wanted to share with the public thank you can I ask a question may how many do you recall approximately how many openings there were that we needed to fill over the summer between we started about 87 openings and new positions and what I don't need an exact number a lot yeah okay that's a technical answer we will bring a we will bring a more yeah we just just from um
045you know 7 from 61 710 when we kind of started tracking a a daily like have we made progress have we made progress have we made progress like for example on 7:31 teachers assistant we had 63 positions remaining open and now we're down to 46 and so we just keep meticulously um picking off those those numbers um couple things that are really really helpful we have very good union labor Partnerships and uh negotiating two successful contracts last year made it very attractive for staff members from local areas to come here um unapologetically we are taking the best and the brightest from local areas and we're happy to welcome them into asgo 308 and we anticipate that to continue I'll get you an exact number of what of what June 1st looked like yeah no I
046just wanted to emphasize the fact that you guys have done an awful lot of work over the summer and and have done a great job of total team effort Y and and it's nice to kind of be one of the almost cool kids for a change cool District yes [Applause] okay we're moving on to 6.2 board member comments do we have any board member comments I I just have one right it's kind of a Shameless plug but you know what are you going to do um just as as school returns you know sometimes we don't think about just kind of different perspectives or different things that are going on and um we have a place in the community known as uh it's called Pigford and it's where uh you have assisted living and it sits
047right next to Prairie point and uh uh my my mother happens to live there and I will tell you that um they are in anticipation there many of them to see the kids every day it's like a highlight um for them as they're eating breakfast watching them so you know sometimes I think we just kind of forget about the community aspect and and all of us that are touched by um you know and and affected by um you know all of what we do so just thought I'd throw that out there beautiful so I have a few things first of all uh Mr Gatewood I don't mean to correct you it was written incorrectly um but but the blue and silver and pantherfest are actually on two separate days so the blue and silver is
048on August 16th and pantherfest is August 23rd I'm sorry September 23rd August August August 23rd what month are we in oh it's August consecutive Frid yeah okay as I read a same day I said that okay good it's okay I almost made it twice as bad um but I just wanted to I just wanted to give some clarity on that which I sort of failed at but anyway you get the idea um aside from that couple things that um went on we had uh Community cares had their back to school bash or their start strong um back a couple weeks ago and we had several families coming in um picking up their backpacks um and their school supplies so it's nice to have an organization that kind of gets kids ready for school uh also
049this past Saturday I was at a BAC family event at Prairie point at the splash pad what's really nice about about the Dual language parents they have kind of a a fairly close-knit community so they're always doing something on a monthly basis so that the kids kids can continue to kind of hang out together and and and they do it over the summer as well so it was nice to see the kids it was nice to see a bunch of um parents that were really invested in their kids uh in their kids education and their future um so that's it they're they are also excited for the uh new school year to start Miss Johnson uh yes thank you so much first of all I want to thank Dr kelti for the invitation to join
050the admin Retreat last week it truly was an honor to come join the uh inside of what is going on and to see the joy and the hope and the Really the Brilliance of our admin and our leadership um the last couple of years I kind of feel like hope has been a little lost I think the teaching profession in general has been pulled down and I am so excited to see the admin bringing back the joy and the glow if you will um it was it was excellent and we were welcomed by the s weo High School meeting could start that way it was pretty um um remarkable I also just touching on the joy thing I've been feeling a little hopeless lately and when I do I always take to writing um and
051journaling and as everybody is probably watching the Olympics right now I just wrote a few thoughts if I could share them with you about how what's going on in the Olympics really parallels what's going on with um the Olympics have increasingly reflected diversity inclusion and equity in several very Global ways the Olympics brings together athletes from a rideways countries and backgrounds showing a broad spectrum of cultures ethnicities and genders this representation really is the beauty of diversity on an international stage there's been significant process towards gender parity in the Olympics for the instance the Tokyo Olympics saw the highest number of female athletes in history and the inclusion of women's events in the sports discipline Sports disciplines reflects the commitment to gender equality with the par Olympics held shortly after the main games focus on
052athletes with disabilities promoting inclusiv and highlighting the abilities of athletes who might otherwise be looked and called cultural rep representation often we see feature traditional ceremonies music and cultural displays from the host country which gives us an insight into diverse cultural expressions this helps in really promoting a greater understanding and appreciation of different cultures and then there is awareness of an advac such as issues with social justice and human rights and the VIS visibility that can help bring attention to important causes and really Foster a broader dialogue about what equity and inclusion really means while we seeing significant progress we all know challenges Still Remains but it's very comforting to see that what we're doing here in our district really does reflect in the global world and um I am had the privilege of working
053on the 2002 winner Olympics their Olympics have always been very near and fear to me so I just wanted to share those thoughts and I thank everyone for um allowing me this time thank you for those thoughts Mrs Johnson anyone else all right then I'll just wrap it up by saying a couple things one um I attended the operations and finance appreciation luncheon a couple of weeks ago and um you know I think Dr katti hit on it as well you know our grounds and our schools are always Immaculate and kept so well um our operations department just completed a project to make sure that all of our um staff from from the district office could be in one place and it's a beautiful um addition to to what we're doing and they brought that
054project in you know quicker than than than would have been uh normal and at a cost that was really great so I and and I just want to thank even the finance department that that um luncheon was amazing they had a huge pig roast an entire Pig was roasting on the on the skewer and um everyone enjoyed it I mean and then I think the highlight of the of the day was having all of these amazing prizes that the uh staff hold back from their vendors and I mean just some Yeti coolers and just I mean I can't even begin to explain it but there were so many of them and it was just such a beautiful way to show appreciation for what you all have done and so you know obafemi and Bill Queen
055thank you for your leadership and um everyone Amanda you know everyone who's making this thing work and it it's a beautiful thing to see and then I also went and greeted the um New administrators um it's amazing to see how many individuals we had that were new and so thank you to the HR department for doing the work in Dr kelati and the board for making this a preferred destination because it is definitely that and um it's amazing to see it and then lastly I also attended the administrative Retreat and you know it's it's important to to to our staff and our students to know that this is a place where everyone benefits from the way things are whether it's our our staff or our students and so that's the the message that we want
056to send I mean we're sending the message in terms of you know making sure that there's ad adequate pay for our every one of our um our unions every one of our our District staff our administrative staff making sure that you all feel and understand that you're valued and that you're seen and that we need you and that we want you here and this is not a place to come and get skills and then leave but we want this to be a place where you're you feel um that the culture here fits you and that you belong here and that you want want to stay and be a part of this family so I just want to thank you all for all the work that you're doing all the things that we've dreamt about in
057our hearts when we ran for the school board we're seeing those things manifest and we're just excited so thank you all right we're moving on to 7.1 the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 7.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on July 15 2024 open and close session 7.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district and 7.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and or over 200 miles are there any questions on the consent agenda second second Mr G hi Dr Mario hi Johnson Miss Johnson hi hi hi motion passes 60 action item 8.1 approval of building administrator contracts can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the building administrator contracts
058as discussed and presented second Mr hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss hi Miss Simon hi Dr Mar hi Miss Johnson hi motion passes 60 board thank you very much for approving our uh brand new administrators uh into the district we welcome you Dr conade and Dr dubiel will just take a brief moment to introduce our newest members of our 308 team yep so I have four people that I would like to introduce uh the first person that I have ACC companied by uh principal Kelly merits is Todd dudy so Todd is Todd is our newly uh appointed assistant principal of Churchill Elementary um he is a highly recommended candidate for this position with a broad uh teaching background extensive leadership experience and unwavering commitment to student uh success so these are the things that have made
059him uh not only you know Church Hill's recommendation um but our recommendation of our district strengthen um datadriven strategies relationship building and maintaining a safe and inclusive environment so Todd welcome aboard wel [Applause] welcome our second second uh administrative uh recommendation accompanied by principal Laura Bowski is Step llaa so Stephen is recommended and now approved so thank you for the dean of students at ASO East um he is currently a dean of students at planfield South High School um Steve began his career as a business teacher and throughout our interview process um really showed strengths in making meaningful connections with our students um building relationships with the intent of breaking down obstacles and barriers um for all students so his experiences in both the classroom and as a Dean will be a wonderful asset to
060our school Community thank you [Applause] Steve the third um person that I would like to introduce is Cody penberg so Cody cannot be with us tonight thank you kindly uh Cody was um our newly approved uh Prairie Point Elementary assistant principal so thank you so the fourth person that we're going to introduce is timony Francis so who is a who is accompanied by principal John Evans so Tiffany um has been a long-standing member of our not only School uh Community but our community also she is currently a teacher on special assignment so a tosa for our gifted students here in sd308 she began her career as a fifth grade teacher moved into a gifted education teacher and then obviously our Lead Teacher of gifted so through the interview process Tiffany demonstrated successful experience in both
061coaching and mentoring um teachers staff has led professional uh development both during the school and all throughout the summer um and has a strong ability to collaborate and communicate with teachers parents students and staff so her experiences as a classroom teacher mentor and teacher leader really stood out to principal Evans and his staff and Tiffany is our candidate for assistant principal at trar jior High [Applause] Aaron Paris is a now approved recommended candidate for tap it again [Applause] thank you D yes the next recommended or now approved candidate Denise McNamara she is now the approved candidate for the program administrator at oh I don't think I have this sorry thank you whoops Crossing in berari that's right um so she'll be serving as a program administrator for w Crossing and assistant principal for benari Denise
062has served as a special education teacher since 2018 through the interview process Denise demonstrated critical awareness of special education and the importance of care for families and students her experience in special education leadership will greatly benefit our students welcome [Applause] Denise okay okay 8.2 action item approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and presented second Mr gwood I Dr Maria I Miss Johnson I miss Simon I Mr I I motion passes 60 8.3 approval of the fiveyear superintendent contract extension can I have a motion please make motion to find that the superintendent has met the goals and indicators of student performance and academic Improvement in the superintendent July 1 2023 to June 30th 2026 performance-based superintendent contract to terminate the superintendent's July
0631 2023 to June 30th 2026 performance-based superintendent contract and three approve a new performance-based superintendent contract for the period beginning July 1 2024 and extending through June 30th 2029 in substantial the form presented to the board second Miss venm hi Dr Maria hi Miss Simon hi Miss Johnson uh really quick before I give my vote I just wanted to share that there has been a profound amount of work and intention that has gone on strategic planning and goal setting and I look for to working with Dr HTI and the rest of the board I'm providing Precision around these goals in the near future and excited to see what the next few years holds I Mr cler hi Mr Gatewood hi motion passes 60 [Applause] I I just wanted to say I hope that um that
064this is an investment in our district and in our community it's an opportunity for us to send the message that we solidly stand behind Dr katti and the vision that he has for our district and it it sends a message of or Pro provides for us stability and predictability and a commitment and I hope that um our community sees it as such um I know there's so many times I'm in the grocery store and I'm in many different places and I'm just getting such um accolades and praise for the direction that we're going and what we've accomplished so far and we look forward Dr katti to the next five years so that we as a District know that the vision that you set forth will be um that people can follow it that they're that
065there that there's a commitment here that we're not Here There and Everywhere but that we have a clear Direction and a focus and that we're going in that direction and we look forward to you leading us there thank you madam president do you mind if I real quick I I I got on the board in 2015 and it was um the best of times the worst of times the interesting most of times right and um lived through a few superintendents at this point and one of the things that I think was an over overlying theme all along was that we needed to really invest and I mean really invest doesn't necessarily mean Financial all the time but it it it does not also not mean Financial all the time and so um what I see
066now uh compared to what I've seen in the past when I came up in on this board in 2015 people were afraid I mean I don't know if anybody wants to be honest about it but there was a lot of fear uh in a lot of places and a lot of division and so I I am thankful for the the board that sits up here I'm I'm thankful for for Dr katti I'm thankful for Mr obafemi I'm thankful for your entire team what what I see are good things um and I know that for those who' Liv through those times there was always this division about upper admin building admin staff and and the divisions always worked against us um I'm not saying I'm not saying I didn't understand why they existed I 100% understood
067why they existed but uh what I see from you and what I've been very appreciative of is that we're not going back to that and so thank you and um please community board Dr kelani St continue to please invest in all of our good people because we have excellent people thank you Jared over the last several years I've it's just been an honor to be on the board and the last I'll say the first couple years on the board um it was my honor to spend time in the community clarifying the vision of the district and explaining what was happening but over this past year and I'll just give one example which is just a microcosm of of many conversations I spent a about an hour and a half in Walmart's parking lot talking to
068people that I didn't even know knew who I was and they approached me and just started to talk to me about all of the wonderful things that is going on in the school district and they just couldn't stop and they just kept telling me and and they talked about the four or five other kids that they've had that have gone through the district before and the morale and that and that has happened many times that people will approach and come up to me and just start talking about the community uh talking about um I work in another neighboring district and just uh talking to them even about hey what's going on over there in your District it's just a it's just a wonderful feeling to not have to explain but just to listen to the
069praise of not just you as a superintendent but your teams the teachers and so the morale is up um people I think um Mrs Simon or Mrs Johnson talked about the hope that people feel and so I'm just excited about this opportunity to give a sense of community a sense of consistency um to someone who has come in to give vision and forethought about not only what the district is but what it could be and and your vision to see Beyond Where We Are and to Envision uh who our children are and what they can be has just been amazing and truly truly appreciated and looking forward to um not only you but the staff and for our students as well as well thank you Mr G so this is the be so well yeah
070first of all ditto um but this is so so you you and I kind of started at the same time ex except you know I I had a couple months on you there um first of all you should appreciate the fact that we're not calling you at midnight like we did last time to let you know that you had the job but no having I was awake waiting we we did we discussed and discussed and literally called him at midnight to tell him that he was our selection um it's been so my my first year on the board has been the same as your first year on the board and and Dr Mario I don't know about you it's been um it's been fun which is not the word that I thought would ever apply
071that's great um well and I'm I there are several definitions of fun but I mean fun in its real sense um but it's it's really nice to uh to have the same vision and to be walking in line with you all of us walking together um and the leadership that that you've given to the district so far um I am just so impressed and so amazed and um I'm so glad you're GNA be here for another five years you're stuck with it I'll just add a few words I'd like obviously to concur with everything that was said so I um just appreciate your vision um and your um stamina just to work through all of the all of the work right like um thinking through it's a was a it is and continues to be
072a big project um and when we had um a bite to eat when you were first hired and we sat down and I said a couple things and I said one of the things I want you to know is that I want you to hire and have the team around you that is going to make your vision come to reality so I know that you walk in front but I know there's a whole team behind you and um I think the board is is um feels like a part of that team as well so thank you yes one more [Applause] time I'll I'll lecture us later about Robert's Rules exactly if I may just say just a few words one is um just I am so honored um that that the board um I want
073to thank the board um This truly is a team sport in our efforts to serve children uh this is not an individual this is not this is not about me this is about our students and the more we collaborate and when I say we from the board's vision for that collaboration that was the one thing I heard from the board is work work work with people over and over over so if you're listening that was the board's mission to me work with people and I was honored to have that mission and to see it Blossom from the superintendent's Advisory Group to our Partnerships in the village of asgo Kendall County Montgomery Aurora Yorkville to our politicians um to our school leaders um our union leaders our Educators staff parents and especially our students I see
074Tyler's here in the audience so great to see you um our students um are just we are so fortunate they're some of the brightest students I kept asking students I stopped are you a senior they'd be like no I'm a freshman are you a senior I'm an eighth grader like like you want to talk about Brilliance what so I just I am so honored and thank you for for your trust and confidence and my leadership and really in the team that has come together and we are excited to serve together and and to really build a platform we're just getting started this is not the end this is the beginning and and this is laying a foundation and when you built there's a there's a there's a proverb um is which is Nigerian just I'm
075so sorry I was like oh god I've never said that with Rafael in the audience which is that which is made with love cannot be broken that which is made with love cannot be broken thank you brother and so the board has set our our North Star we have a new Northstar our rightful and Equity policy raise that North Star we are going to fight for the Excellence of all of our students and not because one person is good or bad but because we are all going to engage in continuous Improvement and to be better so my good today is an opportunity to be better tomorrow right my good today is an opportunity to be better tomorrow and we will not rest until we see every student succeed I just again want to thank the
076board I want to thank the team um all of you um for your shared leadership and we let's get this year started yeah [Applause] yeah okay now it's your turn okay well we promised transparency so let's talk about financial statements 9.1 the uh the first month of the fiscal year what we have we have loaded here and there's there are no surprises here everything is going according to plan for the first month of the fiscal year and then as it relates to the Investments what we have here this is actually a good time of the year we received uh 55% of uh property tax receipt from Kendall County back in uh it started coming in in May all the way to to June so if you look at the uh the portfolio we were we
077in good shape we have close to 69 million doll cash on hand from uh from the general fund and we still have $2.3 million that used to be part of the health fund when was self funded still sitting there earning interest and then we have uh the D the proceed from the last Bond salale that was sold back in uh February of 2020 22 still sitting in there those are the funds that we've been using to do uh the capital projects that has been going on in the district so for a total amount of 85.1 million cash on that I I just have a real quick note it's it's kind of related but kind of not I'm not going to lie um I just want to take a moment to commend um the district itself
078because you know I understand that you know I've certainly heard things when we talk about like transparency and so forth and so on but I I think we need to understand we have we have Public Finance like openly finance committee meetings right we have lowered the bid threshold so that we're trying to monitor spending more um like I don't think that there are some people that understand that there are districts out there that are absolutely doing work in the dark and so um I I listen we we're a family here and we're going to have our disagreements out in the open and so I appreciate that and I just think we need to take a moment to to realize that and appreciate it uh doesn't mean that everything is you know where we want it
079to be and and it doesn't mean we're not going to have disagreements but at least we're having them out in the light thank you if I could just put an exclamation point on that Dr k k will I'm sure nod our head when we lowered that threshold you know admin is like just so you know you're going to have a lot more contracts and and uh proposals in front of you and it's going to cause a lot of work extra work and we really were committed to that you know at some point when we have all the systems in place and everything is firing you know the board at the time choose to you know um change that policy but we really have truly gone through the fine Toth home and are trying very hard
080to be as transform parent as possible so thank you for um bringing up Jared yeah and and I'm swear I'll make it quick but I very we're very much uh again ahead of things because you know and I don't I don't understand the law completely but the Secretary of State's office I know passed some um pieces or in implemented I should say not past but implemented some pieces where uh there's a lot more light on school districts than there was in the past when it comes to dealing with vendors and so forth and and it's a lot easier to find information and so I commend this board and and the administration for getting ahead of the game because like I said there's a lot of people out there dealing in the dark and and I
081I I challenge those other districts too to to do your work in the light because I think every student in this state and every family and every taxpayer deserves that so am meeting are so long I have a quick question um at what point I I know that we're into a new fiscal year um and I know that the last set of financials that we had were actually through July 31st but I know that there were still probably some residual items that hadn't come in yet at at at what point will we see the final final report so at the end of August we should have a final closing of the fiscal year what will also be very helpful is the the audit because the annual Financial audit the independent audit that will come in
082and they'll review our books and in the past our audit weren't completed until March than so one of the first thing that we talked to the auditor about is that was not acceptable we requested that our audit be completed which is what is required by Statute by the end of November no later on the end of November and the community doing that because we're required to file an audit uh with isby as well as the county by the uh by the middle of December and we intend to do that so the audit is the most comprehensive uh review of our finances for the last fiscal year because it's conducted by an independent entity not us right so we show are that ready uh to present to the board by November and we started the process
083and from what the auditor told me we we've never had an audit that early before as a district but by Statute we're supposed to there's a lot of Nevers so we started working with the auditor back in may we started providing them uh documents are required so that by the time they come uh later on this month to do their field audit they have everything they need great thank you okay um 9.2 purchase of jedar for operations Department Mr good evening hi welcome it's good to be back so uh we reached out this was through that law action suit with with several school districts with juel and we we won it so we got some funds and we would like to use those funds to uh do some sewer work and start a preventive maintenance
084program so we reached out gathered three bids and we are recommending that we go with the lowest bid uh Alan J Coleman and the sum of 24,79330 felt very strongly about this that this was a important Pur so what this is and unfortunately uh the district is actually not paying for it out of our own covers this was part of the jewel settlement uh payment that the first installment of the payment that we received and I believe we receive $70,000 of that amount we set aside money to be able to buy the Jetter and the thinking behind that is a lot of time when our kids uh vaping they put the cartridge down the uh the cod in the bathroom and we then have to hire a third party to come in and and R
085root the uh the bathroom to be able to get those uh cartridges out and it happens in not just in the high school happens in some of our other buildings by buying the Jetter we're saving money because we can do preventive maintenance instead of hiring someone to come in every time we need to have this done and they charges between I believe 2500 to as much as 5,000 if we own the equipment we can use it in properity yeah thank you for making that connection because you know I think some people might think wow we we spending in on that um and how does it relate to The Vaping scenario so thank you for that okay I think we're done okay last but not least on our updates uh Mr Queen I know we talked
086a little bit about this earlier but any other we have some big project and honestly if you if you look at the slide up there this is the first time I've ever seen us in in a situation like this where there's actually less coming to you for bid than what we have completed um we had a really busy summer and and capital projects were pumping thank you for that thank you for that so to replace the concrete you guys seen this back in the fall I want to say last year and we needed to bring that back to the table and res scope that work to get to get a better deal for for the district um Long Beach or the the roof project is another project that we will be uh going out and
087forbid in December so you will see both of those pieces come to you in December Fox Chase roof we're pushing a Finish Line we have had some challenges over there but we will still make that substantial completion and get it done before the 15th start of school 10year health life and safety that is just that ongoing body of work we're currently working through the junior highs now and you will see some of that information come to you in the next three to four months with with the proposal for the junior highs plank rtu replacement is done we uh set nine units on top of that roof come through the punch list and we're just debting up on there we have sus substantial completion on that project um Boulder Hill uh Long Beach cooling towers we
088will commence that work as soon as we shut these things down and we're in a little bit cooler weather and start that project and be moving through that through this winter and have that completed for the summer and I'm happy to announce the asigo track project and Os track projects are complete 100% thank you oh my gosh tennis courts are complete although Mother Nature did come through and and bend one of our polls up and we're getting that worked on through that tornado we had come through but we we will get that buttoned up but we were looking really good there and the asphalt Fox Chase and Hunt Club are complete 100% so we made a a great effort and got capital projects pushed through along with several other projects that you had mentioned with
089with the uh Renovations over at Dak and other areas in the district where we had to give some love and make sure those those buildings were ready to go for the start of school year any questions just one quick one since you brought it up you brought up Storm Damage I'm just curious if if insurance kicked in on anything absolutely absolutely and we we didn't get hit as bad as what we could have and what I did see some of the things happening but unfortunately there was one place that that storm wanted to go and and it was that tennis court of course of course absolutely marel and the the claim process with our new insurance company click easy painful no argument so yeah they're covering it painless painless was it just a painless painless
090yeah oh I'm sorry painless painless painless we know what you meant yeah so the process is been it's been going well of getting a rep that's great very good okay thank you very good thank you thank you wow all right action item 10.1 approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please thank you uh make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 10,2 92,83685 [Music] motion passes 60 action item 10.2 approval of Title One sip plans can I have a motion please sorry my computer Jam did that to you too yeah must I think it went down yeah hold on I got to find the I know I'm trying to find the actual motion sorry it's okay 102 oh we're at 10.2 oh here we go sorry about
091that make a motion to approve the title one school Improvement plans for school year 20242 for Boulder Hill and Long Beach Elementary School as presented second second Dr Maria hi Johnson I Mr hi hi I I motion passes 60 action item 10.3 approval of student systems supports can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the purchase of an additional plugin support for our student information system from MBA Marsha brener Associates in the amount of $144,950 second Miss Simon hi hi Mr hi Dr Mario hi Johnson I Mr hi motion passes 60 can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn