Committee of the Whole: January 20, 2026

001I call this committee the whole meeting to order on Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 6 PM. If we could please take a roll call. >> Mindy Hartman >> here. >> Jason Janzik >> here. Here. >> Darling >> here. >> Julie Jetty >> here. >> Stacy Salt >> here. >> Bridget Sandlin >> here. >> Katherine Potter >> here. Okay. Next up is the acceptance of the agenda. Items for discussion may be added to the agenda at the start of the meeting at the request of the superintendent or any board member upon majority approval of those me members present. Does any board member have an item to add tonight? Hearing none. Next up we have community input doesn't appear that there's anyone here. So we'll skip on to the approval of previous meeting minutes. The approval of

002minutes from the December 8th, 2025 meeting. Does any committee member have any changes to the minutes? Hearing none. On consent, please. Items for discussion tonight. The first item we have is the district AI plan update. Miss Williams. Hello. Nice to see you guys. I haven't seen you in a while. Um, okay. So I'm here to share um our progress on the AI in implementation plan. Um the we're really focused on uh progress towards a thoughtful, ethical, and instructional approach to AI. Um ensuring that AI supports teaching, learning, and students success uh throughout Kerry 26. So in July in July 2025, the uh board charged the district with developing an AI plan. Uh we aligned it to the House and Senate bills and then the ISB press policy 6235. So this ensures that all of the

003work that we're doing is compliant, transparent, and grounded in policy and not trends. Um we then developed an AI implementation plan framework uh consisting of three phases and then um utilize the district technology committee that meets every month to help develop the plan. So as you see these are the three phases of the plan. These phases help us to be intentional in the pacing of our work and prevents reactionary decision making and keeps instruction at the center of the plan. So phase one is about the exploration and awareness. Um that was done October, November, December. Phase two is about the vision and guard rails development January, February and March. And phase three focuses on the finalization and the prep needed for implementation and that'll happen April and May. So I wanted to highlight some of

004the phase one um work that has been done. Again the purpose of phase one is to build an understanding of AI and education before making any decisions. So before uh designing our professional development plan or um our communication plan as um components of the framework or of the plan sorry. We wanted to make sure that we had a common understanding uh of what AI is. So we started with the learning sessions uh reading several articles about what AI and education is, what the benefits are, um what some of the concerns are from various stakeholders. Um through all of that reading of the different articles and discussions and activities, uh we drew or we created a common language for what AI in uh education looks like. We then moved on to guiding principles and we established

005those to guide the AI use um protect our data and ensure AI enhances not replaces professional judgment. Then moved on to um creating a vision statement. This is in draft form. Can't say that enough. Draft form. So we're going to be working on that uh next month and the following months. Um, but really that's about um that's going to be serving kind of as our northstar um for safe, ethical, and instructional AI use. And then we uh completed well designed surveys for our students in grades three through eight, our staff and then our parents and guardians. And so we were able to get those developed um sent out and we had over,200 responses. So we were pretty excited. And um just a few hours ago in our meeting we were starting our first look at

006that survey information. So there's a lot of really good information that people shared all those different stakeholders that's going to be a tremendous help as we move forward. We decid um developed these four guiding principles safety educational quality transparency and data privacy. Again, those go back to the House Senate bills and that press um policy as well using that language for consistency. It's going to serve as our guard rails as we continue on developing the plan and all the different components of that. It's going to help us to establish values that will inform decision making, guide the development of the plan, and ensure consistency across the district. So, here is um the draft of the um district aligned vision statement, though it's really a paragraph, not really a statement. So, we're going to be working

007on that and condensing that down a bit. But the draft emphasizes a human- centered learnerdriven approach. AI is a tool. It's not a replacement for staff or for critical thinking. Um the key message here is that AI can enhance learning, but human connection is what drives understanding. So when we drafted that um vision statement, we started with the articles that we had been reading and then we looked at the vis uh the mission and the vision statements from the district. Uh we looked at the strategic plan goals. We looked at goal one, two, three and aligned it with the student success, the learning culture, exceptional staff. We looked at the portrait of a graduate and we wanted to make sure we we're in alignment with that as well with the technology and digital literacy component

008of the portrait of the graduate the decision making and problem solving component and making sure it's inclusive and open to um all students all staff um as well as the instructional framework. So this ensures that AI is not an add-on. It's not a side note to what's happening in the district, but it's integrated into what we already value as a district. And then the survey data, again, there's a ton of data, but I just wanted to grab like the top three from each of the stakeholder groups. And so, um, this is in alignment when we look at national, um, survey data as well as with AI and, um, in education. So, uh, I was kind of encouraged by that. But, uh, our students, 877 students responded to the survey in grades 3 through 8, and

009they see AI as an academic support. It's that go-to when I just don't understand some concept or I want to dive deeper. So, it can be my personal tutor, whether that's in the classroom needing more work, whether that's at home so I can figure out how do I do that math problem or whatever it is. So they're looking at that as a positive, but they're worried about um the accuracy and the uh independent thinking, which was um encouraged to see that. I feel like the digital citizenship lessons that all of our students get uh three times a year. Every one of our students from kindergarten through 8th grade have a digital citizenship lesson once every trimester. So I feel like the message is getting there. like they realize that just because it's on the internet

010doesn't necessarily mean it's true that they have to look critically at that information and decide. So, I thought that was a big uh bonus. I don't know. I thought that was great that they realize that and that that they're concerned about um their critical thinking and independent thinking that they're concerned that uh they're not going to be doing the thinking anymore. The machine is going to be doing the thinking. So, I looked at that as a as a real positive. We're certainly going to be using that data again as we move forward um with our implementation components. The parents, we had 241 um parents respond to the survey. They are in support of AI literacy. They feel like their students need to know what AI is, how to use it, what some of the pitfalls

011are, what the benefits are. So, they see that as a real need. they um want privacy protection and academic integrity policies put in place before we implement and that will be part of our plan. So we will be doing that. We had 103 staff members fill out the survey and they see AI as a powerful administrative support. So many districts are reporting out that their staff are saving anywhere from two to seven hours a week just using AI for some simple tasks like helping them with newsletters or emails. And so now the exciting part is what are we using those two to seven hours with for now and we're using it to really engage our students to work with our students and collaborate with our students where they didn't have time so much before we

012can now push that off to AI. They're still developing it. They're still going to be learning about prompt engineering to how to create those things. They're still going to be writing the emails, but maybe they're throwing it into AI to polish it or to check for tone or something like that. So, um so that was encouraging. They are worried about student skill erosion. They're concerned um about um detecting AI. Uh they're nervous about how am I going to know if my students are using AI or not? um and what tools are we using and have they been vetted out? So those were some of the concerns that all three stakeholders shared and again some of the benefits that they saw AI having in education. We also had 39% of our students or staff indicating that

013they're interested in a pilot program. Again very encouraged by that. We had one committee member who said you can ask it but nobody's going to have time. Nobody's going to be interested. And I said it doesn't hurt to ask. So, we put it on there and so I was encouraged. We have a mix of classroom teachers, resource staff, administrators, and specialists that are interested. I'll be meeting with them soon as soon as we um get that pilot more defined. We just started working on that. So hopefully within the next week I'll have that better defined and I'll work with those that uh team that was interested let them know what the expectations are, what's going to be happening, the data that's going to be collected and then see if they're able to do that and

014still interested and then we'll take it from there. So the summary of phase one which was about exploration and awareness is that we learned about AI and education. We developed the guiding principles. We drafted a vision statement and we developed and sent out the staff, student and parent surveys. So key takeaways from our phase one is understanding first before decision making. We have now a strong uh foundation as a team of what AI and education means. Again, pros, cons, what to look for, how to meet the needs. Um, ethical and responsible of you use of AI is paramount and that the data is going to be used to guide planning. So, what's next? Um because we got so much done in uh phase one, uh the guard rails were initially in phase two, so we

015bumped that up and so we revised phase two, which is January, February, and March with a goal of going from high level principles to more concrete. We'll finalize the vision statement and guiding principles. We'll establish clear usage expectations and guard rails. will launch the pilot and then we will draft guidance and agreement documents. And so I have some uh language for the updating our AUA acceptable use agreement um to incorporate AI and Andy doesn't know this, but I'll be meeting with him soon. So we'll be uh going over that. Um and so then we we'll be bringing that back to the committee in February. After that is phase three, April and May. and that's where we're going to finalize the plan, the draft of the plan. We're going to develop our professional development roadmap and

016toolkit. We um already had a parent workshop last November with a representative from the US Attorney General's office talking to parents about AI, how to talk to their students or their kids about AI, what to look for. Um really super helpful practical tips on that. um lots of information that um some of it was a bit jaw-dropping but really good for parents to know be aware of so that they can uh have those conversations with their kids. So we'll continue um building out that professional development roadmap and toolkit uh design a communication and transparency plan and then um prep for that thoughtful roll out. So that includes the update of uh our AI implementation work. I want to take a second and just say thank you uh Miss Williams. Um it was at the beginning

017of the school year, right, of this school year that it was, hey, let's let's talk about developing a plan. And I came to her at the start of the school year and said, hey, guess what? I got a task for you. Um and she hit the ground and she ran with it. So, I just want to say thank you for the time that you've put into this, the thought and the collaboration as well that you've done with seeking input from staff, students, and our parent community as well. And thank you to Miss Sandlin for being at the meetings. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Welcome. And she puts us to work like there's homework, there's tasks they have to do, so she's >> she doesn't mess around. >> I'm a bit of a task master. >>

018Questions that we can answer at this time. Again, just this is just an update. Nothing was set and stuff. Um I remember um Miss Williams talking to you at the new student or new teacher lunchon about AI and you said you were going to be working on this and it's it's really this looks really nice. So if you're finishing in May so then basically you're implemented during the next school year with all staff. >> That's part of the plan. That's part of what we're still figuring it figuring out. Okay. So >> and part of the implementation you'll have some measurement of how successful it is or how well it's been implemented or something to report back. Do you have a date at which you'll report back to us uh another progress on it? >> No,

019I don't. But I'm happy to report back. >> Okay. >> I'm going to punch over to whatever she puts me on the calendar and Jen, I'm happy to report back. So, I think uh a fair uh update would be at the end of this school year to be able to provide you a a now another check-in, right? We did one right now in January. So, now letting them go through those next two phases and kind of tease out some of the questions that you've brought here. And then we'll bring another update to you um at the end of the school year. regardless of of when we look at some of the effective implementation that we've had currently in carry 26, it leads with professional development. It leads with the communication. It leads with the awareness.

020It leads with ensuring that everybody's on the same page. So that would be the first thing that we did as part of a rollout implementation plan. It wouldn't just be, hey, here we are. It's the next school year. Have at it. Um, so that's all of what they're going through right now is teasing out all of those finite details of what does that look like and when and what. >> Okay. Yes. >> So, may Thank you. >> I like I like the um the four principles that you have there. That that was good. >> Good. I'm glad you like that. >> Okay. I have a I have um a few questions. Um, will we need to approve this when it's finished? Does this come before the board for approval? I mean, if it's a policy,

021at some point it would come, but if it's a I I have a similar question to you because I think financially if there's a component where we have to buy a security piece, that's going to come back to us. But I think if it's a policy, not not if it's not policy, if it's not a purchase piece, I don't know that it has to come back. It's got >> policy is to develop this. >> Yes. So then they've got to but it's not an approval necessarily. They have to develop it. >> But I do think because we will talk about the policy um shortly and that number five in the policy could address Julie's desire for updates about it. um if maybe we just add with the board to it. So then those updates are

022made with us. Um but um that's just an I was just wondering if we needed to approve this if this would be coming back to us for approval when it's finished. But what other resources and um research were you using to um put together this plan other than the um I guess you say that you have HB2503 SB1920 and the policy but what other resources were you using or frameworks were you using to guide your work here? So it's a pretty exhaustive list that will be part of the plan. So I can I'll document that. But I've had like adminmmies on this. I've met with districts from around the state for a full day, couple days of um AI leadership uh with different speakers who have written different papers. There's it's an it's pretty it's

023a big list. So I'll make sure that it's uh noted. Okay. And then about the pilot if you do go it's just a general question about I guess pilot program. So um if a family is part if a student is partaking in a pilot does the family get notified or does some permission slip go home or anything like that? >> So yeah so since we don't have the finite details of what the pilot is. Yeah, >> we do pilots around here, you know, >> for sure. Like >> pilot stuff, >> right? Like we pilot curriculum and we don't notify parents that they're >> that's okay. >> Trying curriculum, right? Um >> Okay, then you answered my question, right? >> But that's a case by case scenario because we also understand the sensitivity of this topic.

024So it would be a conversation of discussion. So I'm not going to say no right now. U because I also understand that there are different levels of concern as it relates to AI. So that would be a conversation to take that into consideration of is this something we do want to communicate to parents because it's be better to communicate with transparency have people on our side versus hey we did this you didn't know and now you're against it for whatever reason right we want to do this in a collaborative approach so I don't have a direct answer for you as of yet but please know that it's not a hard no it's a we need to tease out the details of what this is going to encompass and what it's going to look like then

025I think we'll have a um gauge of what the next communication plan would be. It's all in thought process mode right now. Only phase one has actually happened in concrete form. The next part or all of these conversations. >> Okay. Cuz yeah, I'm just wondering what our standard procedure with that is. Um it is a lot of survey feedback for our district. It's an it's an incredible amount of survey. It's one of our largest. >> I I just want to be sure in thinking about policy that um our policies would align with the values of the community that the desires of the community. I would love to hear um the feedback from the parents just ensure just ensuring that all of this would align with our values um I guess as a community or making

026sure that any concerns that are raised um are addressed in the policy or addressed with the administration or in AP or whatever like so um >> don't get angry or anything like that. >> Yeah. So, I was just going to say that um we talked about it at the committee earlier as well. So, all of the information, so there was um intentionally a question on the survey asking if you have any questions. And so, what we're going to do with that then is create an FAQ um on most likely a web page, whatever it's going to be, but whatever that communication is and we'll address all all the questions that were put on there, we're going to address them because we want people to know, we want to be transparent. if you have concerns, you

027see this as a benefit, whatever it is, we'll make sure that we compile all of that and then we will have responses for that, it's also going to help us um draft again, whether it's the um where do we start the implementation or what kind of training or professional development is needed. So, all that's coming out of that survey information, it was quite a bit and as Bridget can attest, we're going to be using that. We used it today and we'll be using it throughout the remainder of the year. >> And that would include professional learning. They call it professional learning even for our our families through like a parent university, right? So if there is information that they need, we have a platform where we can get that information out to our community. I

028also just want to reiterate that the work that's being done here is rooted in our strategic plan, right? and our strategic plan was something that represents the voice of the Kerry 26 community. So, as long as we continue to use that as our north star, then we are aligning this work with the vision and the values of Kerry 26. That's awesome because I was so I was confused because when we looked at this it and we uh it's got the strategic plan alignment to the district, but it left out strategic goal plan 4, which is strategic partnerships, which is actively engaging the families and the community as vital parts in the educational experience. And I thought that should be on there, too. Thank you. >> And thank you for that feedback. >> We missed that

029one. oversight on our part. >> Yeah, that's all it is. It's is an oversight. Um, but we did when we drafted it, we all had copies of the strategic plan of the goals of the portrait of a graduate of instructional framework. We had all of that, the guiding the guidelines. We had all that in front of us as we were creating because we did want to make sure it wasn't just a kind of a side thing that's done over here, an add-on. We wanted to make sure that this is all rooted in the values of Carrie 26 and these are established values. And that's what we wanted to make sure we were in alignment with. >> Are do you have any kind of I know that the state has to is required to come out

030with guidance um gosh July 1st. >> Mhm. >> Um about what nine different areas. Are you afraid at all that any of this work is going to be or not? Well, those guiding principles, those four components are directly out of the house bill. So, did that intentionally so that whatever they do create, we will be in alignment. Other districts created other um pillars or whatever. But I wanted to make sure that we were in alignment with the house bill because of that reason. >> Okay. Do you know if there's are there any requirements that we have to list or any on our website anything about which tools we're using currently that have AI or >> um well currently SOAPA covers all digital tools that we are using. So that's on there. There's nothing AI specific

031other than they um mandate eight different components for internet safety and we have a ninth component that we're mandated to teach our kids and that will be an AI component and again that's already drafted into the um unless I said it at the committee meeting and didn't say it here but um but that's already in part of our uh districtwide technology digital citizenship plan and then we give in during the registration process us is just permission given, >> right? >> Okay. And how do we give permission >> for I'm just curious because this is I'm thinking about policy, >> you know, it's good to have the different thrilling. I just want to know. >> No, that's super helpful. Um and I do appreciate all of the diff the feedback. So, it makes the plan a

032better plan. Um, so, uh, right now it's they're digital tools, so there's nothing specific to AI. It's still covered in I don't remember what the verbiage is on the registration, but giving this parents giving permission for digital tools. It falls under that. It won't have to be anything separate. Again, we will include AI verbiage in our acceptable use agreement um specific, but it'll still be in alignment with the code of conduct for students, but we'll just add specific language that's AI related. >> I'm not an attorney, but if we're going to >> Me neither, >> we might want to add specific language to that so parents know what they're approving. But um thank you for the presentation and answering my questions. Can I jump in next with I' I've got two. Um >> I did

033take a law class on AF, so I might be able to. >> I haven't. It didn't exist when I was in law school. >> My notes. >> Um that's I'm going to jump on. I I'm with Katherine in the parent feedback of I don't know how you pilot this without telling the parents and getting the feedback. And here's here's the parent perspective of why because I think both my kids are going to could could fall into this. I've got a third and a sixth grader. Um, they bring their iPads home. They're doing whatever they were doing in school. They have figured out three sideways around to play games on the internet anyway. No matter the fact that we have disabled all of it, they're smarter than we are. We know that. Which means if we

034put this tool in their hand, they're going to come home and show us the picture they created, the something funny, the whatever it is, some of it's not going to be appropriate cuz my third my third grader makes bad decisions all the time. Not all kids make good decisions. So, if my kid was getting access to that, I would want to know as a parent because I want to know where the the dumb thing he's about to show me came from and to be able to send it back as teacher and go, "Hey, guess what's happening? You need to know, too. We both need to talk about this." >> Yep. That's good feedback. >> So, from a parent, I it's not that I'm I'm pro or con. I'm fine if it's being provided for the

035school. Obviously, I feel very good that we're going to provide a safe tool, but I would still want to know with the parent hat on that that's what's getting opened up just because it's wild, wild west right now. Um my secondary question is actually it may be a Mr. Sheepard question even is based on all the tools we have and the sub subscriptions we pay for and things like that is the AI tool we are talking about using something already covered under one of the many things we pay for or is there a new new thing coming our way? Uh would you like to take a stab at answering it? I'm interested on what you would say. Um, so again, we're figuring out what the tools are. There are some tools out there that are

036free that wouldn't cost anything. There are some tools out there that would cost something. Um, that is part of that next step. Um, I can tell you right now um I don't believe there's anything that we currently have that would um like it would fall under there and it's already covered, right? We don't have anything specific uh like what's >> I guess I guess why I was thinking we might is because we have Google subscriptions right and Google's pushed AI into everything. So, and that's the thing, right? Like we have Google and yes, they but even when you look at that, right, there there's like autocorrect, there's there's things that are already built into that system, but there are other additional things that we can look into and some of them are free, some of

037them do cost. I know we talked about notebook LM >> notebook LM is a ridiculous amount where I was like, nope, that's off the table. Let's not even look at that. Um but that's also part of the process of when we went and re-evaluated our which again thank you to you on helping spearhead that as well. It was the um all the technology um that we use currently uh subscriptions, right? And we >> the words weren't I was waiting >> the words weren't wording for a moment. We went through all the technology subscriptions and we you know got rid of some that were redundant, right? And so that helps in this scenario. Um okay, I just have to say we actually cut them in half. >> We did cut them in half. It was it

038was not fun but we did it and we're still >> and we're still working our way through that. I was going to say and if you recall we're still phasing out some at the end of this year which would then we could look and pivot say okay we're we're getting for example reading eggs at the end of this year it goes away because it will have we'll have I ready right >> so then it becomes okay there are funds >> right of course >> but is that what we want to use it for but some of them are free so we're still figuring that out >> that that and that's where I sit here on the board and you know Jason of course he's in a school environment you've got you you're leaps and bounds

039ahead What is going on on this one? I don't know this one. I know, you know, from my business when they're marketing me closed AI. Those dollars are never going to make sense. I don't know. I'm sure the same kind of price tag comes when you're marketing to schools. There's an uptick for the closed AI and all that stuff. So, that was just my question is whether we had it or not yet. If you come back to us, that my mind's not closed. I was just curious. >> Yeah. Okay. >> It will fit within the teaching and learning budget, whatever it is. So, that was actually going to be my question, too, because Gemini, I believe, is included in Workspace for Education or Gaff or whatever we're calling it this year. Um, changes every year.

040>> Google changes it every year. It's crazy. Right now, that's turned off for our kids. Is that correct, Andy? But is it turned on for our teachers? >> Okay. So, the teachers have access to it, but the students the student login are closed to it. Okay. Um, all right. That's what I was double checking because I know it's included, but I didn't know if you had the ability like where I'm at, it's open for everybody. So, I didn't know if there's an ability to turn it off for student versus teacher. Okay, that was the only and notebook LM >> it's it's been kind of a game changer for us. I know. But Dave's clenching is his wallet right now. I I understand that, but >> amount of them. There's a free version of it. >>

041Yeah. Within a certain amount of queries, but it's really changed our reassessment. I uh was not familiar with Notebook LM until one of my professors introduced it to me and when uh he did it was like my mind just >> the podcast and the videos. It's so cool. So it >> we'll nerd it out later, Lynn, but looking forward to that. We actually used it to create our vision statement. We drafted we did this activity and then we dumped it all into and then it pursed it all. It was pretty awesome. >> Very cool. Thank you for the clarification on that student versus uh teacher login. I appreciate that. Um, I just want thanks to the committee for their work. Um, I'm glad to hear that we're not increasing the amount of time that they'll

042be on their iPads. Um, AI is so unregulated right now. It worries me. And it worries me about the fact that our state has already announced that these data centers are consuming so much energy that our that our energy costs are going to go up in the state of Illinois. So for me, we can't increase the amount of time because then we're just all on our it's going to come back to all of us paying for that data uh consumption. So um I do support it being used as a tool in the classroom, but I don't think anything replaces that teacher human connection. >> Absolutely. Do you have thought about that too and how it AI and the environmental um impact >> it's going to harm the kids that were trying to help with it

043in the the long term is is concern. I listen to a lot of NPR so um it could be terrifying. Um there are policies we have about being energy efficient and stuff too. It's just it kind of they kind of contradict and resource um be mindful of that stuff. It's above our all of our peg right here. This is a for sure they need to figure it out at the highest levels on how to how to control and rein this in because there there are no guardrails right now for this as you can attest. Um so that's all I had. Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up we have the review of the bills. Did anyone have any questions for Mr. Shepard on those? Uh the one thing that I would add on

044the the review of the bills, you'll notice that in the packet for for this month, there were two styles of reports and that's because we officially wrapped up our time with SDS and we're we've now spent a whole two weeks in uh Skyward Land. So, um you're going to see these reports that we provide to the board change over time. Uh we're trying to find the style of report that we think is going to convey the information that you all need. uh the the the clearest way we can to to ensure that there's not confusion on what exactly you're approving every month. Um so we're going to take some time over the coming months to really look at these reports. You'll probably see in your weekend review um that uh I'll be asking for feedback

045at at times uh just to get a sense of where you're at with the type of reports that uh that we're providing. Uh lastly um a big shout out to uh not only my department but also the HR department uh for the work in implementing uh this software. Um I I think people um underestimate the challenge that this is moving from one financial software to the next. Uh and it proved to be something that I hoped only have to do once in my career. Um but uh uh we could not have done it without the the incredible work of every single member of the business office and HR department who uh were working um all throughout the holiday break uh while everyone was enjoying uh time off with friends and family to make sure that

046uh uh our first payroll went smoothly on January 5th. Um we continue to uh learn and adapt as we get used to the new software, but kudos to uh the HR and business office. No question. If not, we can move back to the consent agenda. Uh, next up, we have the treasur report. Mr. Shepard. >> So, we have reached the official halfway point of the the fiscal year. I I think I tell the board this year after year, but each year goes by quicker and and quicker. Uh, before you know it, we'll be talking about the fiscal year 27 budget uh in in June. Uh so my my hope is tonight we'll go through the slides like we normally do and then I have a couple of of takeaways for the board on where I

047think we're at uh in this fiscal year and where I think where we're going to end up and also looking a little bit longterm uh as well uh as as where we're going. Uh so let's dive right in uh to the the revenues. Uh I was very uh happy to see uh the revenue and expenditure data um as we've gone through this fiscal year because it's really lining up with with where we think we're we're going to to be. Uh you'll notice our total revenues are are slightly exceeding, but it it's about where we would expect. Uh local revenues are right where we would expect them to be. Our state revenues are catching up to where we expect them to to be. In fact, we saw um a bigger uh transportation claim payment in October

048than we initially thought we were going to to get and budgeted for. Uh so we should receive three more payments of those before the end of the the fiscal year. Uh we're still lagging a little bit behind in in state sources because uh the state has been a little putsy in uh issuing payment for the teacher vacancy grant. Uh what we've noticed is uh before last couple fiscal years we'd get a reliable payment every month. Uh now for whatever reason this fiscal year will go a couple months and then they'll give us two or three months worth of payments uh all at the the same time. So I'm confident that we will get those funds. I'm just not quite sure when. As far as our total expenses, uh again it it's right where we think

049we we we should expect to be at this point in time of the year. We're seeing our salaries come in slightly lower. Uh knowing that uh the acrruels will cause this to get caught back up in the summer. Uh and you'll notice that all other objects uh is actually not uh pacing as far ahead as we would have thought uh at this point in time in the year compared to where we were at in the beginning of of the year. So our our rate of expenditure seems to have have slowed. I think that's in part due to the fact that we've had fewer larger payments going out because we're not doing as much construction uh right now. Uh you'll you'll see this pick up uh as the months turn warmer and we start picking up

050for the summer construction season. But overall uh I think uh we're right where we need to be in the the first half of the fiscal year. Uh month-to-month fund balance. Again, you can see we're running uh very much in alignment with where we're at uh u in the previous year. uh in fact just slightly ahead. Uh this slide again is useful to show the difference uh from the this uh round December from the last year's December. Uh you can see that we received no federal funding uh in this past month of December whereas the prior year we received almost $143,000. Uh again a lot of that is is dependent on when we file expenditure reports. Uh what I was um unhappy to see this go around is usually we receive some sort of federal payment

051for food service. Um that actually uh was delayed and didn't come until the beginning of this month. So you'll see that uh uh uh on the month of January. Uh but again overall slide is useful to show monthto-month comparison. Uh from this slide you can see that uh um compared to where our budget is at versus the projections uh we're we're I think right in line with where we should be. There's nothing that's really outlandish uh compared to uh our our budget uh debt service. The one item of note here is we are going to be making our first bond payment on the new bonds that we took out last November. Uh that payment is going to go out sometime this week. So you'll see that in next month's treasurer's report. All right. Finally, the

052the most important slide of of the treasurer's report, the cash flow. You'll see that uh uh again, we are running a very small surplus at about $750,000. I'm not quite sure what my screen is is doing up there. Um $750,000. I I think this is the really our new reality. For the last couple years, the the districts all across the state uh have been spoiled with larger surpluses. Uh why is that? Because the the district saw an influx of federal dollars. There was high CPI that we were capturing off of property tax revenue and we had we had uh a rate of expense that was not increasing uh as much as our revenue. Right? Uh now that uh we are no longer receiving that massive influx of federal money. CPI is is no longer at

0535 6 7%. Uh we're going to see our budgets act like they normally would precoid and that is uh the uh the amount of surplus that a district is reasonably going to expect to have is actually going to be minimal. Uh keep in mind when we build our budgets we basically assign every dollar that comes in a a job. Um that's it. It's assigned to an expense, right? uh and we have a balanced budget by assuming that if we spend every dollar we take in on what we're allocated it to that everything is going to zero out will will equal a balanced budget. Um right now I think we're we're in good shape. Keep in mind that this fiscal year's budget uh did not include any federal funding with the exception of title one and

054IDA uh funding. Next year's budget I'm going to completely remove title uh and just leave IDA in. If we get title funds, great. Uh, but I think the the prudent approach would be to assume that we're not going to get those funds. We just can't trust what's coming out of out of Washington at at this point. Um, you're going to see in our operating fund summary, you see that our education fund is running a a healthy surplus. Keep in mind, we're going to have to reallocate some of those funds to uh say the IMRF, Social Security Fund, uh the O andM fund, uh to keep those balances from getting too low. We've been in a position over the last couple years where we've had some higher fund balances within those funds. We've been trying to

055spend them down uh to get them so that we're not being challenged u from for tax purposes. So, we're going to have to reallocate that. So, my main message here is that we're running a $750,000 surplus now, but there's a lot of unknowns out there, and it it's very possible that come the end of this fiscal year, uh, that surplus could be smaller than what it's it's projected to be. Um, just a couple of things foreshadowing where we're going. Uh, we do know that next year's fiscal budget, fiscal year 27, is based off a 2.9% CPI. Uh the CPI figure for this past December, which will guide fiscal year 28's revenue budget, is 2.7%. Uh so that gives the board an idea of what realistically our revenues are going to grow by uh at least

056from our most reliable source of of income, and that's property tax, right? Uh the state has said that they're going to try to commit to continuing to fund evidence-based funding. Um I I think they're going to be able to follow through with that this year. I'm not so sure about the future years with that. Uh and finally, uh if there was ever a time for this board and boards throughout Mckenry County, I'm going to go back to that facility uh uh the the countywide facility sales tax. Um, one of our neighboring districts uh recently uh did some preliminary research into this and determined that uh almost 46% of the revenues generated from that sales tax would come from people who do not live in Mckenry County uh that are coming here to travel through on

057their way to Wisconsin or going to any of the uh the Woodstock Square, the Mckenry Riverwalk. Uh these are people that are coming from outside that are spending money in our community. Uh of which if we had this uh countywide facility sales tax, those funds would be divvied up amongst all the school districts in the county and it would not be coming from our property tax base. Um the the board has always asked, well, what revenue options do we have uh that is not going to burden our our homeowners and our property tax base? This is really it at this point. This is one of those ways that if someone doesn't want to pay this tax, they simply do not buy the object uh that they're they're looking to to to buy. Um so I'm

058going to continue to harp on this. I know the superintendents in the the county are going to be discussing this at some point. Uh and this is going to be an item that's going to come back to the board uh as we continually look for ways to increase our revenues uh without burdening our prop property tax base. And finally, uh investments. You can see we we have a rather large uh uh list of investments still. Um very happy with how the the investments are are are turning out in that uh when we every couple months we have a certain amount that mature uh and at that point we evaluate whether we're going to need those funds to pay for construction projects. If we don't we send them back and we reinvest them. So, we we've

059got a nice little laddered approach here where uh we have investments maturing and then being able to reinvest uh as as we're we're able to. Just a reminder that the board has committed to using some of these maturing funds uh to help offset uh the transportation center uh uh project uh and uh initially our our solar panel project of which uh we're starting to plan for the rebates that we're going to get uh starting in fiscal year 27. Uh, and with that, I'd be happy to to answer any questions about uh our budget's performance uh through the midway point of the year. >> I don't have any questions. Um, congratulations on your transition. I' I've gone through data transitions. They're terrible. I do hope you never have to do it again. Um, thank you for

060your team's work and the admin's team's work on getting payroll out. Um, no one wants to be late on that. So, that is that is a big deal. And for the late hours that I'm sure everyone was pulling, I appreciate it. Um, and also I don't have any other questions about the budget. I appreciate your lattered structure. I'm looking at our investments. This I love that this screen has become a whole second slide now because it doesn't fit with the rest of them. You're doing great work and I I appreciate your approach to risk management. You're doing it well. >> Yeah, I'm learning. I mean, I learned how to invest just from you, Mr. Shepard. So, thank you. And I do want to um ex follow up what Mindy said. Um, thank your team for

061being away from their families and being in the building and working on the transition. And you've been very just very mindful to um just the the time that your employees have put in and it's and it's really nice to see that you really are um seeing them and all the hard work that they're doing and that you're sharing that with the board. um about the countywide sales tax. What is it that the board can be doing? Are should we be showing up somewhere and and supporting it? Is it a thing? What what >> So, in order for that to that would have to be on the ballot countywide. In order to get that question on the ballot for uh say November or or beyond, uh you have to have school boards that represent at least

06251% of the student population vote to uh approve that measure. If that happens, it then becomes a countywide issue and the whole the whole county will will vote on it. Uh so what what can this board do? I would highly encourage you if you have any contacts on other boards uh uh in the area to start the conversation of what can we do to to start talking about this within each of our school communities in Mckenry County. Uh to start educating uh our taxpayers uh that this is is not a tax on food or your essentials. Uh it is it is deliberately created so that's a tax on things that would be considered non-essential. Right. um and start educating the public on you're always asking us to reduce property taxes or reduce the burden that

063property tax uh uh payers face. This is one of those things that we can do. Um so a lot of it right now is educating uh those in the community. It's working with the other boards to try to to to um uh gain momentum to get this on on the ballot. Um, I I am, as you can tell, I am super in I am in favor of this. Uh, I will always be in favor of of this concept, and I I don't know of any of the the other business officials in the county at the school district level, that are against it. Uh, but really, this is going to, uh, require action from other district boards, this one included, uh, to try to get this on the ballot. And it's going to start with the

064discussion at the the superintendent level uh to try to see when we should bring this back officially to the board uh because what we have talked about is trying to move on this in a unified fashion uh with the same message. Sure. Right now, we're we're just we're kind of talking to whoever will listen at this point uh on this concept and why it's a good idea, not only to our our local boards, but uh uh those that have contacts in Springfield to try to get this uh possibly passed this spring uh so that it wouldn't have to be uh a ballot initiative. I don't know if they're going to have that be successful in the spring. We can hope. Um, so it's a very long-winded way of saying get out there, start talking to

065people, and let's uh see if we can't build this from the ground up. >> Okay. >> As Mr. Shepard said, this is on the superintendent agenda for the countywide superintendent meeting, which is in February. So, something that we will be talking about. So, there I I'm assuming there's likely going to be some guidance that we'll be able to give to the board. And as Mr. Shepard also said we're trying to do this in a unified fashion so that all of the boards are being formed about this and what it is and what can be done and all of that at the same time. So I would expect in February there will be more information to share. C can you point us to where we can get the details about the um the facilities tax like

066uh so if we are going to spread the word we can point someone if you want to know more about it go here. >> So I'll see what resources I have uh and we could possibly include it in the weekend review for for you to to look at. Um, I do know that of the counties in the immediate area, um, Boone County actually uh has this uh in in place. They were able to to pass it. Uh, so a good first step would be researching what they've done in Boone County. Um, I know for a fact that the the revenue that's generated in Boone County for they've got two school districts, by the way, uh, in in that county, Belvadier and and North Boon. Um, one of the districts uses the funds that they receive

067from the sales tax to provide property tax relief. Uh, they use those funds to u pay off bonds and then they abate other funds. Um, the other one is is uh funding their their capital improvements u yeartoyear uh based on on that revenue. Um, I'll see what uh information I have that uh may be useful for you to disseminate. >> Thank you. >> Quick question. Uh, Mr. Shepard. First of all, kudos to getting over to Skyward. It's thrilled that we're there and I know that wasn't easy and then the learning curve for that can be really steep. Um, on that $1.3 million, $1.2 million T bill that's coming up at the end of the month. Are we going to park that one again or is that going to construction? I'm just asking because T bills

068are going up and up and up. It'd be great to park it again for another 6 months. >> At this time, I think we're going to be able to reinvest it. >> Okay, great. That's that's good news for us then. I didn't know what the plan was if that was something that was coming due for transportation center or solar or something like that. But if we could leave that, that'd be great. >> I I'm I'm feeling pretty comfortable that I I think unless something changes in the next couple weeks, um we are going to be able to reinvest most if not all of that with the idea that whatever we have coming due in April is then going to start being earmarked for construction cost. >> Awesome. Thank you very much and nice work to

069you and your team. question. >> Thank you, Mr. Sheepard. Uh, we'll go on to the next item, which is the policy 6235, access to electronic networks. Dr. Thomas, >> so we brought this back in light of bringing back the information about AA that we discussed earlier. Um, and the section specifically that we wanted to look at was the it's on um, page two of the policy. If you look at our policy book, what we included in the board packet was actually the press policy information because press has the footnotes which are not actually part of the policy but give some additional information. So the AI uh when we talked about this, we talked about this back in June and Mrs. Potter, thank you for the reference to the where it was on the uh on

070the video. So that was really helpful. I've reviewed that today and uh we looked at that and so it um this particular section really talks about um that it's really that we recognize that we have AI tools. The district um will is charged because we have those that we will put together a plan. So that's exactly what's happening now. The plan is being developed. There's a lot of work left to do. Phase one is done and it's and as you all saw it's a tremendous amount of work. The board did approve the policy to include this section. Um, but I do want to remind the board that the section on AI that's in this policy is optional. It's not required to be in policy. Um, so at this point, we talked about bringing the plan

071and bringing this policy back at this time, which is what we're doing. I don't have any recommendations right now for changing the policy. I think where we're working with the plan fits very well with what's charge in policy. Um, but I would recommend because we're bringing the AI plan, which will be in a more complete form at that point at the end of the year, that we should also bring this policy back because as you pointed out earlier, Mrs. Potter, there are some items that we're going to need to reconsider in policy that might be a little bit more specific. We also might have more information from the state. Um, and and Miss Williams did a great job of taking the things that are in the House bill and pulling them in, which the committee

072did that. I think that's fantastic. Um so I again don't have any recommendations for updates but I did want the board to take a chance uh to look at this one more time now and I would recommend bringing this policy back as well um when we bring back the uh updated AI u presentation. >> Any questions comments that that October press issue is going to be a doozy it has. Yeah, that's what the noise is. So, yeah. So, there will be a lot with that. The other thing is just so uh that the board is aware related to this is that we're we just today Mrs. Dorfer and I talked to IASB about the procedure manual and that is kicking off now too and all of the procedure manual um that we start with is

073because ours is quite outdated um is based on the policies. So there might be some things in procedures that we don't know that they've already added or included for the AI component. We have that in our policy. So that may be something that's showing up in procedures. So we'll know that over the next uh two to three months as well. So we should at the end of the school year be able to present some more information from that too. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. >> All right. Next up, we have uh school district calendars for 2026 2027 and for 2027 2028. Dr. Thomas, >> thank you. So, we have uh for the board and I think this is the first time we've uh done this two calendars, the next two school years. uh

074the calendar committee met and actually drafted these two calendars last year and then we've met a couple times this year to review the calendars updates at the state level and we also surveyed the staff particularly about professional development and where the professional development days fall. Um there was some thought to move more professional development to the beginning of the year. So, we surveyed staff to see what uh they wanted and really overwhelmingly people wanted to keep with two professional full day professional development days prior to the start of school. One in January and I'm sorry, one in October and one in January. Uh change that we made this year was the January professional development day. We actually moved up and move moved it to the day after uh winter break would normally have ended and

075did it before students came back. So students essentially had one more day of break and uh the staff had one day to come in to do there's a lot of professional development offered that day but also had a moment to be able to just get their things ready get classrooms ready for the start of school. Um we got surveys back before we did that particular day but the feedback from that day that I have heard so far has been overwhelmingly positive having that day knowing that that was coming up. So we did incorporate that into the next two school year's calendars. um it initially had not been there. We made um some updates on the draft that had been done last year also to um Easter Monday seems to float around and sometimes shows up

076and sometimes doesn't. So we aligned all of those. Um and then also we made a move we took a look at uh the calendar committee looked at the absence data of certified staff members on those professional development days both full days and half days when they were attached to a holiday weekend when they weren't attached to a holiday weekend. beginning of the year, end of the year to take a look at that. And what we found was the October uh date had a very high absence rate uh that was connected to the Indigenous People's Day Columbus Day holiday weekend. Um so the calendar committee did recommend moving that up to a Wednesday instead because so many staff members uh were absent and we looked at data for the last two years and that was uh

077routinely a very high uh rate of uh staff absence. Um so the calendar is uh that you have is there before you with the start and end dates. Uh just two minor changes on the professional development days. The one thing we did talk about with the October day is we're going to look at student attendance this next upcoming year. Student attendance on the Friday of Indigenous Day uh people's weekend. If student attendance is very low that day uh because uh families are traveling and taking that day that's something that the the team may come back and reconsider for the following year. We got to we have to balance student absence staff absence and try to come up with a good balance there. So that's one thing that we are going to look at again next

078year but uh the team felt comfortable to go ahead and bring these two years forward. We do have the next two years after this also drafted. We're going to be doing one more meeting to kind of finalize that. Um, just trying to make sure that those are um, set up for the next person coming in. >> I have a I have a question. Um, when you're finalizing these, I I'm I think it is awesome that you are doing that much of an in-depth study as to who's where they're supposed to be and when they're there and what's causing them to miss. I think that is amazing because if we can realign and get PD to a day people are coming, obviously that is much more impactful. Um, but my question is as you're making those

079decisions or you got that data, does this information exist somewhere so that when you are no longer here or none of us are here, someone can be like, "Yes, we we did that. That one this is why this change came. This is why, you know, the Monday after winter break is now going to be a professional development day. We did that. Turned out surveyed. It was awesome." I assume the families I don't know what the families think. This family, our students were thrilled to have an extra day of winter break, right? So I'm just wondering if there's like any like any sort of historical anything that is tracking like this is how we got to this. >> So we do have that in our notes from the calendar committee meeting. Also that information uh like

080survey information and uh the staff absence information is also shared with the CA executive board. So we shared that at our uh meeting this past I guess it was last week. Um and I shared that also with um the administrative team actually that's up for tomorrow. So, um, that it has been shared so that that information is out there. And I'll tell you, the calendar committee, uh, the folks on the calendar committee are consistent people that have been on it for a long time. So, they have a tremendous history just within that group. Um, which is really helpful, too. >> Just to state the obvious because I can't imagine we have a conversation about this and someone doesn't say it. We are not aligning to 155 on this calendar. Correct. So, we're not aligned to

081155 directly because they start so early um because their the way their semester break is. We are pretty aligned. Uh we worked with district 47's calendar so that we are very closely aligned with district 47 and we're all aligned for things like spring break and our winter breaks are almost 100% overlap as well. The start and end dates are a little bit different because the high school schedule is so much earlier. And and I guess my concern is I I understand why we do it. I understand it's going to be an ongoing debate in this community probably until the end of time. But I guess my question is is there a concern of approving two years of calendars? Because to me that kind of forecloses the conversation and it's never coming back. I don't know

082if it's ever going to come back. Um and the secondary part of approving two calendars is you said you still wanted to get one more data. So since we've never approved two before, I've never been in a process where we have to revise a calendar. Can you just I I know there's a question in there somewhere even if it's not coming out. >> So, we have had to revise calendars periodically in the past. Uh the most common one that and actually we're just talking about it earlier tonight is election day. Sometimes shows up as it has to be a day off and sometimes it isn't and sometimes we've already approved the calendar. So, there is a process that we bring it back to the board if we're making an update and uh doing an approval.

083So, um it it can uh so if that were to happen with not well it could happen with next year's too. If they suddenly tell us November has to be off for election day, then we'll have to update the calendar. But there is a process for that and it it basically comes back to the board for approval and then we update that through Isby as well. And I will say and I think it is the 2829 school year. We did check with 155 and 47 and it does look in that year the way the calendar falls. We're actually going to be starting at the same time as 155 based on what they're looking at. So for that year, not these two, but the year after, um we we will align >> and then we'll have

084a test case to see how much better that all worked out for the community because right now it's something half of us want and half of us don't. >> Thank you. Are we good with putting that on consent? >> I have a really quick question. Do you know how many days how many days school days this is this calendar >> for students? It's a Sorry, it's 100. It's 176 school days students, but oh goodness, thank you. Two of those school days of the 176 are actually conference days. The two conference days in November actually count as student attendance days. So, it's 174 total of students in attendance plus two conference days and 180 days for the staff. >> All right, I have a policy question. Ours says uh our policy 620 um it says that

085we shall have a minimum of 185 days to ensure 176 days of actual student attendance. Is that the snow days? >> That's the snow days. >> Okay. Brilliant. Thank you. Are we all good with consent on this? Okay. You can move that to consent, please. All right. Next up, we have uh registration fees for 2026 2027, Mr. Shepard. >> So, it's it's that time of year again where the board needs to uh decide what the registration fees are going to be for the upcoming fiscal year. Uh this is historically the time that we bring this item back to the the board. Uh I don't believe registration officially opens until the beginning of of March. Um so, we wanted to bring this to the board now uh for discussion purposes. Uh my initial recommendation is going

086to be to uh leave the rates flat uh unchanged from the the prior year. Uh and here's why. I had toyed around with the idea of lowering the the rates uh again this year. However, when we look at the amount that we risk and the possibility that federal funding is not going to come through, um the amount that uh the uh registration fees uh bring into the district uh roughly matches what we would lose um from federal from the federal title funds if we do not receive any of those dollars. uh being that we use a lot of our our title funds for uh supplies uh and whatnot, I felt it prudent that uh uh registration fees are which are earmarked to help offset those costs uh remain flat. Um I am going to continue

087to look at ways to reduce fees in the in the future um uh pending the economic environment. Uh I I have made no secrets about it. In my perfect world, I'd like to try to get to a point where we can eliminate uh these registration uh fees in some way, shape, or form. Um I don't think we're there yet for this upcoming year. And my recommendation at this point would be to uh leave the rates flat, unchanged from the the the prior uh fiscal year. Uh but I'd be open to uh any suggestions or ideas that the board has um uh at this time in regards to registration fees. >> Okay. I have an idea and I know that we discussed this and if I'm I'm fine with the uh plan of leaving them flat,

088but I did want to um bring to the board um just in case you guys were willing to entertain the idea of streamlining our fee structure, moving from the tiered uh structure that we have now to a flat at fee structure if possible and my rationale being equity easier for everyone. uh the fees aren't a revenue generator, but um also D26 is kind of an outlier with how our fees are structured with the um other districts have them being more streamlined, but uh I didn't realize from like an equity standpoint until I had a student in the junior high that how much more expenses there are for the families in the junior high. There's the fancy calculator, there's the gym uniform, there's science goggles, there's sports, and there's clubs and we're paying the most for

089um registration. So I was wondering and I crunched some numbers and however much want to rearrange it we could come up about the same but I don't know if the board wants to look into that or ask for next year possibly to go towards if it would be possible to do or just bring whatever possibilities the business department would be able to come up with streamlining that for our families. >> When you say streamlining, you mean look at it from like a K8 perspective and then just average out that let's just say it's $50 on average it's $50 per family per year hypothetically, right? We would start at kindergarten, go 50 5050 all the way through eighth grade. Is that what you mean by that? Are you talking about it? I'm trying to understand. >>

090What I mean is like Yeah. Right now if you're looking at it >> like K is different than one through five is different than six through eight. Right. So you're just saying take whatever the the the cost it would it would be to graduate K through eight and then divide it by nine years and then just charge that per family every year. >> I didn't even think about it that way, but that I guess I that didn't even cross my mind like to think about it that way. And that's why I like uh brainstorming with you. What I'm what I'm really thinking about is K I guess in the simplest way is K through eight would be paying the same amount of registration fee >> a year, right? But we would figure that out based

091upon how as of like this year's numbers >> be instead of these tiered >> it would be easy. Oh, it's August 1st. my $75 to D26 is, and I know it's not 75, Dave, I'm not recommending that. Uh, but whatever that average is across all nine years would be due every year. >> No, I'm maybe we're thinking about the same thing in a different way. I'm thinking if you have a kindergartener, if you have a first grader, and if you have an eighth grader, it's $100 left. I mean, like $300 is what you're paying it. It it costs $100, >> but to figure to get to that $100 spot, you would take the cost it would be for all nine years. That way when it gets more expensive because >> kind or eighth graders do

092use lab materials, they do use PE uniforms, etc., etc., right? It isn't going to be more expensive here, but we would spread that out across all nine years for the family. So, they know it's going to be $100 a year. >> No. Okay. But it could go up. >> It could go up, right? >> But so I assume that the the difference in price represents the resource changes, uh the staff um commitment to a a certain grade level. Well, I assume that's why we have and then of course band and tech fees are but so was was that the thought behind it is this represents this is more money because this student costs more money. >> Yeah, I I I think the general the general rule is that as a student advances through their educational

093career that as they get to the upper grade levels that it does cost uh more to educate those students because the resources cost uh cost more. they're doing more in-depth uh activities that require more in the way of resources and and materials. So, um yeah, I think that's historically why you would see um registration fees get higher as the students age. Is >> is that typical in other districts? And do parents want that kind of transparency? Is that why it's, you know, um laid out in this way? Um, I don't know if there's ever actually been the opportunity to survey uh families on the the fee structure to get a sense of why it was uh formulated this way. Um, again, my guess would be uh that um school districts um generally have just looked

094at it and an eighth grader is going to cost cost more to educate and and therefore the the the fee is going to be higher. Some districts build in uh the like athletic fee and the extracurricular fee in within their registration fee. Uh it's just all in one. Um I'm not necessarily in favor of doing that because you have students that don't necessarily do uh track and and field. Uh so why should they have to to to pay for for that? Um but there are districts that that do that. Uh districts will combine their their tech fee and registration fee into one fee. Um there are ways we can we can we can do this. Um depending on how much the fee structure would change that would determine whether it would be implemented this upcoming

095year or we'd have to look at it over the the the next year for um the school year after that. So that would be the 20 uh fiscal year 28. Yeah. >> So Katherine, just to go back to your to our conversation here, just run the numbers quick while Miss Sandlin was talking. um it would be 1414 for all nine years. Kindergarten, full day, grades 1 through 5, and then grades 6 through 8. Given these numbers right here, we would divide that number by 9. It would be aboutund. It's $157. So, let's round it up to 160 for easy easy numbers, right? Kindergarten through 8th grade would be 160. Would still cover all of that unless you have it set up, Dave, where you take those kindergarten fees, Mr. Sheepard. Sorry. You take those kindergarten

096fees and you you you mark them towards Oakn Null or does it just go into one big pot? >> Yeah. So, the registration fees go into to our revenue budget on the the revenue side of the house. Uh and in theory, you could tie those into instructional resource materials. Um not necessarily uh if if a Oaknull student pays the fee at Oaknull, doesn't mean that those dollars that they particularly gave are going directly to an Oaknull resource. It's going to the resource budget as a as a whole. >> As a whole. So like if we were to do something flat K through eight, that would be that wouldn't screw anything up. Okay. >> Just an idea. Just tossing that out there. >> Just to clarify too so people know, these fees cannot be used for

097um chairs or staff. It can only be for things like consumables, technology um and things like that. And these fees represent a just a fraction of what those things actually cost the district. Um but just so people know that this cannot be used for um actually for staff. It has to be for consumable type items. >> Yeah. When I was crunching the numbers, I was using the 2526 staffing plan and I was only using full day K through8. Um, I was not considering the blended uh that in the ECE that was getting complicated. Um, and I wasn't considering any kind of fee waivers either. But, um, yeah, I I was I was I crunched numbers for a while. I did the all grades K through 8 at you know uh 148 and I timed it

098but 2249 which was the number of the students in that plan and it came up to a difference of 21,000 but then when I you know to do it were kindergarten that rate would just be 148 and then grades 1 through 8 would be 158 just like simplifying it and then that it I don't know I'm just I'm just wondering if the board would understand or want to take a look at simplifying this. >> I guess from my perspective, I'm not necessarily seeing the equity thing because we just went through the the thought process that eighth graders don't need the same things that first graders need, don't need the same things that preschoolers need. Um, I'm on board with keeping them flat. I do appreciate anything we can do to our community to provide some

099relief. Yes. And since we had already gone down, I I certainly didn't think you were coming back to us and saying, "Let's go down again." We're not there yet. But we'll take flat. Um, and if you want my two sons on any of the things on this list, if you lumped the tech fee into the regular registration fee, every one of our students gets tech now. So, kind of if you if I take my board member hat on and I'm only talking to you as a parent, I don't need to see the tech fee separately. If I have to pay it and my student is going to get tech, lump it into the fee. But if you want to be transparent and we did ear mark it differently, I see why it's there. But otherwise,

100that's the only thing I really have input on. >> Okay. So, what I'm hearing is nobody really cares. >> I'm just saying. >> Okay. Well, at least thanks for entertaining that. I mean, I don't know. wait till you get the all your kids in the junior high and you have to pay for all that extra stuff and you're still paying the most in fees. I'm trying people. >> So, if there's consensus to uh keep the rates flat, um my recommendation would be for the board to uh approve this next week at the the regular board meeting. Okay, next item we have up is the Oaknull window abatement bid. Mr. Shepard, >> this is actually going to be uh Mr. Martin is going to be our closer tonight. Uh he is going to uh take us

101home um with the um the abatement bid results for the Oaknull window replacement project. Um just a little bit of background here before Mr. Martin reviews uh the the bidding process. Uh, keep in mind this all came about uh last year as we were getting ready to replace the windows at uh at Oaknull and discovered that there uh was asbestous in the sealant that was used around the windows despite the fact that the windows had been I believe replaced in the the 1990s. Um there should have been no reason why asbestous was ever used at that point in time. Regardless, we we discovered it so we we have to uh abate it. Um, so we went through the the bidding process and I'm going to toss it over to Mr. Martin who will give a

102brief overview and our recommendation. Good evening everybody. So um the uh uh bid uh we had uh conducted by Integrity Environmental Services. They're our consultant on the bid and again it's for the asbestos abatement work at the Oaknull Early Childhood Center and we're scheduling those windows to replace and um that abatement being done in June 2026. So the it supports planned construction activities and ensures continued compliance with all the applicable state and federal asbestos regulations. So we did have to comply with uh those regulations. So the bidding process summary uh we had a mandatory brid bid meeting uh to talk to all the potential like uh contractors. It was well attended. We had 25 uh excuse me 12 qualified abatement contractors. So there's a lot of interest in the project and a lot of competition.

103Uh at the bid nine contractors submitted bids and the January 15th uh bid deadline. All the bids were publicly open, reviewed for responsiveness, required documentation and acknowledgement of the agenda. So the one agenda we did add to the um uh project was about boarding up the openings uh depending on if the u the window company Auburn windows when they are ready to install the new windows so that if there was any openings they would be totally sealed and weatherproofed. uh and then the abatement company could work ahead and then the window company would follow them and put windows in as the openings were available and uh to make sure everything was nice and secure uh by the end of the day. So addendum number one was to clarify again the window opening boardup and protection

104requirements. This addendum was properly acknowledged by all responsive biders considered for the award. Uh the bids were reviewed again for the uh 10% bid bond contractor qualification statement and the acknowledgement of the agenda. So the bid results um the lowest bid uh was by the same company that did the brigate windows. So that was EHC Industries and they came in at $64,850. Unfortunately, they were nonresponsive due to missing the addendum acknowledgement and that board of uh agenda was it's a big uh expense and important to that project. So, them missing that kind of disqualified them as being non-responsive. Uh the second lowest bid was by Husar abatement and that was in the amount of $66,000. So, just a a slight difference there. And then the other bids, the other seven bids ranged from 70,250 all

105the way up to 115,500. All the pricing was reviewed against the project scope and the engineers expectations. So they all looked good besides that one uh missing agenda uh contractor evaluation. So the uar abatement so they submitted a complete and responsive bid. They acknowledged the agenda, provided all required bid documentation, and received a positive letter of recommendation from the integrity environmental services. They worked with them in the past, cited uh satisfactory past performance, regulatory compliance, quality of work in similar school districts. So even though they were just the the second highest bid the they had all the same qualifications as the company we used for uh Brierggate. Uh so our recommendation in the the uh finance and operations department uh based on the bid responsiveness completeness past performance the pricing. So we recommend to award

106the Oaknull Early Childhood Center Abbeestos basement, excuse me, Asbestos Abatement Project to HAR abatement in the amount of the $66,000. And our rationale of course they were the most responsive bidder and second lowest in price. And then that represents, you know, full transparency uh had all the information there and uh great value to the district. And then last but not least, the requested board action is uh to approve the award to Husaro basement for the asbestos baitman services at Oaknull Childhood Center to be reformed in June 2026. Any questions? >> I have a a question about process. If we have worked with EHC before and they came in really close, does someone pick up the phone and say, "Hey, did you mean to not do this? Did you leave it off or because it's sealed,

107we're not allowed to do that? >> Well, like after the fact. So, um the company EHC, so in their letter of recommendation, they did have um uh full, you know, recommendation for both companies because they did work with both in the past. And me myself, like I was like, "Oh, great." You know, everything went so well in that really condensed time frame at Brierggate that EHC was the lowest. But then again, they weren't the most responsive. So, and um EHC, the gentleman we work with, his name's Guy, uh he did call him and say, "Hey, you know, like uh this is what happened." They totally understood like, you know, we know we we kind of messed that up. And uh there was actually another contractor whose car broke down on the way in and so

108they weren't be able to weren't able to put their bid in as well because they were going to miss that uh that morning timeline. So So we we did have to disqualify you know like a couple of contractors not just uh not just EHC not well just mark them as not the not responsive. So, so I would when we receive the bids, they are sealed and we we then evaluate them based on what is being opened at the the open the the bid opening which is held in public uh and we tally the the bids at that time. So, uh, in order to to shield ourselves from any challenges that could come about, um, as as technical as something like that is, we could, uh, if if the board were to recommend, uh, the true

109lowest bidder, um, we could open ourselves to a challenge on on on this uh, simply because someone could come in and say, "Hey, their bid was not the most responsive because they were missing this at the time of the the bid opening." So uh that would be the the the reason for the the recommendation. >> I am all for certainly following the rules and making sure that we are not doing those challenges. I don't want to pay any more lawyers about I know how much we charge. >> So I have a question. Um they're all working with the same amount of square footage for this for this building. Who fills out this tabulation? because the first one is a dollar a square or $1 a square foot and their price is $79,000. Our bid that

110we're going with is $2,400 a square foot and they're 66,000. So I don't know how these numbers are. >> So So that one that should have been more clarified. That was going to be a deduction in the pricing for any square foot that wasn't needed to be abated. So looking at that column, so that should have showed deduction of um square footage from the pricing of the bid if they didn't have to do some of the openings. So yeah, there's a there's a great range and deduction of possibilities like in that square footage. Yeah. So that that should have been clarified a little bit better on the tabulation sheet. >> Calculator, but something's not making sense. No, we and and and we we actually asked that uh after the the bid opening uh when we

111were looking at the tabulation sheet and and then we realized that's that's the deduction amount >> um at that point. >> Okay. Just just so I'm really clear, black and white, it's not 2,00 like if we go with usar because that's the responsib $2,400 per square feet. That is up to $2,400 could come off the top of this if they don't have to do that work. >> Correct. Wonderful. All right. Any other questions? >> Thank you for clarifying that we are going to be protective. I am certainly in favor of being protective and so next week when you come back Yeah, let's do that. That That's the right way to go. >> Oh, it's over 35. Yeah. Well, no, we'll have to vote on it. Yep. So, bring it back again. All right. Uh, next

112up we have >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Close session for the purpose of the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body 5CS120-2C1. May I have a motion to adjourn to close session? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Can you take a vote, please? >> Jason Janzik, >> yes. >> Darling, >> yes. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt. Bridges Sandlin, >> yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Motion is approved. >> Uh, open session ends at 7:28 p.m. >> Thank you everyone. >> Thank you.