001I call this committee the whole meeting to order on Monday, November 10th, 2025 at 6 PM. If we could please take a roll call. Jason Janzik >> here. >> Darling >> here. Bridget Sandlin >> here. >> Mindy Hartman is absent. Julie Jenny >> here. >> Katherine Potter >> here. And Stacy Salt is absent. >> Okay. Next up, we have 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 members present. Does any board member have an item to add tonight? Hearing none. Uh next up we have community input. I don't think anybody signed up so we'll skip this part. Uh next up we have the approval of previous meeting minutes.
002The approval of the minutes from the October 20th, 2025 meeting. Are we all good with putting that? Um, yep. Our items for discussion tonight are first up is 5.1, the status of the review of bills and treasurers report. Mr. Shepard. >> Yes. So, good evening. Uh, due to the tight timeline between the October regular board meeting and our next set of meetings this month, um, we were not able to get the treasures report completed. It was actually completed this morning. So, it will be available for the board meeting. Uh with the bills, we are trying to consolidate the amount of times uh consolidate bill reports. Uh as you know, we are moving towards Skyward January 1. Uh and so we're trying to capture as much uh as we can with payments prior to the end
003of the year, and we want to do that as efficiently as possible. So, in an effort to try to capture as many payments, we're going to do a bills report uh in one in November, and then we're going to hold off the bills report again in December uh until the regular board meeting. That'll be the only time uh with the exception of uh other times where the the meetings are bunched together that we will be doing it like that. Otherwise uh normal routine will be uh bills and treasures report at committee hall. >> Any questions? Next up we have the fiscal year 25 audit. Mr. Shepard. >> Yes. So, we are pleased to be able to present to you the uh audit for fiscal year 2025. And I think uh uh if you've had an
004opportunity to go through the report, you'll notice that I think it really does speak volumes of the strength of the the district currently uh with where we at uh with our financial position. Uh just a little background on the audit. Uh you know that government bodies are required to have an audit conducted annually. Uh this is also directly related to our strategic uh plan goal five. Uh the district chose once again to create the comprehensive annual financial review. That's the the booklet that you have in front of you. Uh the AFR or the annual financial report is the Excel document uh that was in your board packet. Uh that is what we actually submit to the state. Uh so only the annual financial report is required by law, but the district has made it a
005practice to uh really take a deep dive into its finances uh and present the public with uh the comprehensive report. Uh the district 26 business department uses this uh annual audit as a guide and you'll see in our slideshow just how that's occurred over the last four or five years. Uh and it's our our guide for continual growth and improvement. Um we do have a representative from our auditing firm Lauderbach and Aean who is here tonight. Uh and Mr. Paul Rosario uh will guide the board through key parts of the audit uh and highlight uh uh some of the strengths of the district. So, at this time, I'd like to welcome Paul up to the podium uh and he can uh review the comprehensive report and also answer any questions you might have. Thank you,
006David. Uh hi, >> [clears throat] >> uh my name is Paul Rosario. I'm the audit manager at Labbak and Aean. Um I'm here this evening to walk you through the pieces of required communication that we rel uh published related to the fiscal year 2025. Uh to start off I wanted to have two thank yous. Uh the first one to the board for allowing me to speak today. Um and also I wanted to give a special thank you to David Shepard and his team. uh an audit process requires a great deal of time and effort outside the scope of their normal job functions and we are very appreciative of those efforts as they set forth the audit process and also to provide everything on a timely basis in order for us to present tonight. So without
007further ado, I would like to present to you the annual comprehensive financial report at a high level. And if you have any questions at any time, please feel free to interrupt me and ask any questions. Um the first thing I wanted to start off with is on page 16. This is called the government finance officers association certificate of achievement. Uh this award is typically based on the annual comprehensive financial report and it's based on last year's reporting and we anticipate that the district will be receiving the same award for this year. So overall congratulations. Um on page 29 uh 19 to 21 sorry this is the uh independent auditor's report. Uh this clearly establishes the line in which uh we are participating in the reporting of the annual financial report. Um primarily that the management's
008respons responsibility is the preparation and the fair representation of the financial statements and lbach and as the auditors are to generate an opinion on those financial reports. In our opinion we have expressed an unmodified opinion which is the cleanest form of opinion and the highest level of assurance that we can issue. Uh this also states that the financial statements are free from material misstatement and that the district has sound internal controls over their final financial reporting system. On pages 23 to 30, uh these are the management discussion and analysis, also known as the MDNA. Uh this is a great narrative uh summary for the fiscal year's uh financial highlights. And we understand that uh the financial statements can be pretty daunting and hard to comprehend. So this report is simplified to the way that you
009can actually uh get a summary of a high level that has been going on within the district and it pro provides words, charts and graphs to help illustrate what has happened throughout the year. Uh so whenever you have a chance, I would highly re encourage the board to read the section at their leisure. On page 32 and 33, these are the fund level income statements for the government funds. Uh primarily the general fund that we wanted to uh bring up to the board's attention is that uh the operating income for this year ended up being $40.5 million with an ending fund balance of 15.7 million which shows that the district has a very healthy fund balance and is continuing to operate at an optimal level. Okay. On page 44, uh these are the notes to
010the financial statements where you can see the following information for the district at a more granular level. It will provide budgetary information, investments, leases, uh capital assets, long-term debt, as well as any other information that'll be pertinent to the financial statements. And lastly, I would like to uh direct the board to page 81. Uh this is the required supplementary information where you see the budget to actual reporting as well as supplemental schedules uh in order for you to plan for the future. Overall this is the um overall this is the basically the annual financial comprehensive financial report and um I wanted to see if the board had any questions before we move on to the next regarding our fund balances. >> Regarding our fund balance and for a district, do you make um a recommendation
011if that fund balance is too low or too high? >> Definitely. um typically it's more if it's lower um because of the fact that with that it's based on historical information that's presented and along with current activities. >> So if the fund balance tends to be lower or in the negative that's a sign that something must have gone lower or the um maybe the expenses exceeded the revenue that was being received. So there has to be some action being taken to the district. But with a uh a margin of 15.7 million you have a pretty good buffer. >> Okay. in that regard. Um and then it's also a good idea with the partnering that with the required supplemental information that you have you can see the budget to actual so you can plan for the
012future in case of any emergency you can increase that margin as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Right. >> Um so the next uh piece of uh communication that we wanted to present is the management letter. Uh the purpose of this letter is to convey any internal control recommendations. >> Yes. Uh Paul, just so the board is aware, the management letter is in the separate uh packet. >> Thank you, David. Sorry. So, um this basically conveys any internal control recommendations, best practices that we see in the industry and any upcoming Gaze pronouncements uh that we may have to incorporate uh in the in it in the report. Um so the current items that we wanted to point out first and foremost is the IT security awareness and monitoring of emerging risk. Um this is we're
013presenting enough because of the fact that there has been an instance where a cyber attack has occurred with uh the district. What we wanted to present with this is just a consideration for the board and anyone that's in the uh financial department to actually take into consideration the risks that are associated especially with the emerging times. So, we provided some points um to recommend as um part of your operations and hopefully you'll take that into consideration um to prevent any particular disasters that may occur at the district. >> Um >> I have a >> Yes, >> I have a question about that. Um these recommendations are they um are they being recommended because they're not currently in place or um are they recommendations as best practice? >> It's really best practice. um we use this
014note across all districts because we wanted to bring this to the attention. So these recommendations are pretty much a wide umbrella scope but um when you um when your team actually goes through and does a deep dive into the operations they might be able to find the pinpoints of risk they may want to address and then establish a policy and procedure over that particular risk. >> Okay. And then um along the course of of the audit process, if your um Lauderb Bakan team um came across one of these, is that something that you point out um specifically to our management team or um >> yes, during wellur within the course of the audit scope, we were able if we were able to come across an item that is worthy of uh the management's attention, then
015we bring it up to them so that they can um find some remediation in order to address that risk. Um, but in terms of the overall scope and a really deep dive into that, that's more of the management responsibility to be able to do that. But within the scope, we will definitely let you know. >> Thank you. >> So, I do have a question too. So, of the recommendations, are we doing some of these things? Any of these things? >> I want you to hold that question just for a couple minutes. we will address that. >> Okay. And then um the next B bullet point that I want to um bring to your attention is the accounting software being outdated. Um I think this was something that was brought up last time and uh we
016were already in discussion with uh David and his team and we are aware that um the with Skyward going up in uh January this is going to be addressed. So once this been this has been implemented then we will move this recommendation and u it'll be a lot cleaner going forward. Um and then the last item was the funds over budget. Uh so we wanted to bring up the items that we noted were the um the expenditures were higher than anticipated for the according to the approved budget. And if you have any particular questions, we would uh direct to David or um we can also refer back to the required supplement information to help you in determining what the the causes were associated with that. Okay. And then for the upcoming items that are indicated
017in the management letter, I wanted to bring your attention Gazby 103 and 104. um those are primarily uh report writing uh items that will need to be addressed next year. But with regards to where the board needs to be in participating in that, it's not really necessary. But if you have any particular questions, you can reach out to us or to David with any concerns over those. Um and without further ado, uh we'll open up to any questions, any additional questions you may have. hearing none. Sounds like you answered everything. >> Great. Good. >> Thank you, Paul. Uh, so just a couple other um comments on our our audit and we are going to get to that question of what we currently do for our our our TAC procedures. But I just wanted to give
018the board again a brief overview about how my team uses the the annual audit report. Um so the slide this slide shows the prior audit action results and you can see from year to year starting in FY21 we had quite the list of of items uh that we have been making improvements over the last uh uh five years four years. Uh and so with each passing year we're happy to report that the the list of improvements is getting fewer and fewer because uh we were really frontloaded when I first came on board uh in fiscal year 21. So really this is really our our continuous improvement plan. Every year uh we review this and figure out what we can do uh to constantly uh strive to be a better department. Uh so as noted the
019FY24 audit action items, the accounting software uh that was on our report that will be taken off because we are moving to Skyward January 1. Uh fund over budget was also in the FY24 report as it was in the most recent one because as the board will remember these were uh due to expected draw downs uh with some of our funds. Uh in FY24 fund 30 was over budget due to unexpected interest payments. Uh but for the most part if we're over budget it's because it's a planned draw down of our our funds. So the FY25 audit recommendation, the IT security awareness, I saw this as part of our our management letter and I made a beline towards Mr. Fitz Simmons office uh and had him review uh these items and um I I don't
020want to speak for Mr. Fitz Simmons, but in talking with him, uh we pretty much do almost all of these particular items with all of our our various programming. So, uh, we do have policies for password strength. Uh, multiffactor authentication is something that I know, uh, we implement because I am constantly booted out of some of our systems and I'm constantly, um, prodded to put in a new authentication code. Uh, and so, uh, we are regularly, uh, working on, uh, ensuring our vendor contracts are addressing security. Um, we keep in touch with them as well in regards to any, uh, data breaches there might be. Uh and uh I believe as part of our staff training, there is a training on on fishing. Uh that's part of our our yearly yearly training. So um again,
021we'll be uh going back uh with this report to Mr. Fitz Simmons and really diving in detail to see if there's anything else we can do. Uh but for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from him that a lot of this is is already in place. Uh I always like to show this slide after the the FY25 or after the the fiscal year audit. Um this is our fund balance history and again it speaks volumes u based on where the district was to where it is now. Uh you'll see our fund balance uh uh chart is multicolored in 2025. The orange color represents uh our funds that are currently held in capital. Uh so the blue is really what our our operating um uh fund balance is uh not including capital. Uh
022so our fund balance totals for 10 fund 10 20 30 40 and 50 uh is uh 20.3 million. So a nice healthy healthy position for those funds. So FY25 and beyond again the business office team strives to continually improve and keep the district on solid financial ground. Um and a special shout out to my team. I could not do it without all their hard work. Um we look at this report as an opportunity to continue to grow and move towards excellence in our field. Uh we continue to thank Lauderbach and Aean for their work and support of the district. They not only tell us what uh we are doing incredibly well uh but they also pull us aside and very gently tell us what we could be doing to improve and we greatly appreciate that
023uh with each passing year. Uh and we do just a side note for FY26. Uh we do anticipate there could be some delays with the FY26 audit as we get accustomed to the new financial software, the reports that are required, uh and uh really making sure that all of our data is carrying over um that in the way that we expect it to. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. >> I just want to say thank you Mr. Shepherd and team for all your hard work and Mr. Rosario for keeping him in line. I'm sure there was a lot of that but no thank you. >> Yeah. >> Is this we renewed the contract last year with and was it a two-year contract or >> I believe it
024was a fiveyear. >> Oh, five. Okay. So, we're in the So, this this finished first year. Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. Have a nice evening. Thank you for coming out and presenting >> as usual. Great job, Mr. Sheepard and team. >> Is that everything? >> Okay. All right. The next item for discussion is the press plus policy update. Dr. Thomas. >> Okay. So, as promised, we got our fall packet. This is the one that we have to have approved for the uh procedure. uh uh project to get started. Um and it looks like a lot. It is a lot, but the vast majority of these have single word or very small changes. Typically, those have been pulled out and just automatically approved, but sometimes a change a single word to a different word, not like
025the letter or the the word one to the number one. So, they threw them all in there. So, there's a few that have more changes than that. Um but just um to let everybody know, most of it is pretty minor. So we will uh work our way through here. So the first one is 2 colon 120 board member development and that on page one there is one minor change. They removed a line that you can see there kind of on the middle of the first page. Um and that is the only uh change in the entire policy. So on that we recommend accepting press. >> Are we good with that to put on the consent agenda? >> Okay, we can move it to consent. >> The next one to colon 150 committees. Again, very minor
026change. This is on page two. They added the word civil on the middle of the page toward the right. criminal and civil offenses. That is the only update. So again, we're recommending accepting press. >> Is the board good with consent? >> 2:12, discrimination, harassment on the basis of race, color, and national origin prohibited. This again has an even more minor change on page one. uh the word incident to or in in I'm not even sure what they had, but it's incidents now instead of whatever they had there before. Um they had an ees on the end, which doesn't make any sense to me, but anyway, that is the minor change. >> Is the board good with consent? >> Okay, that consent, please. >> And I didn't say this, but I should say this. When there's
027a minor change, there's often also changes to the uh legal references. So those will be done uh automatically as we update. Okay. 410 another uh this is fiscal and business management uh race color and national origin prohibited. On page one again a minor change they changed the word before to the word by December 1st >> with consent. >> Hearing yes. >> Okay. >> 430 is revenue and investments. Now we finally have something to look at. Um, so this is a change. There's a couple changes on page four and five um about uh the IKRA, the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act, and um what districts how we can or cannot uh put our funds in different places. There's two lines. Number two, you'll see. And then underneath uh the one through six, there's some additions there as
028well. We did have Mr. Shepherd look at this to make sure that this was aligned with what we are doing or should be doing and we said yes. Um so we would again recommend um accepting press. >> Is the board aged with consent? >> Consent please. >> The next one is 480 and that's accounting and audits. Um on page one you'll see some updates there. Um, and this has to do with um the audit, how it gets submitted to ISBY essentially is how this is done and the AFR. So, some of this comes directly from the auditors and goes directly to ISBY. That was a that was new. Um, and again, we had Mr. Shepard look at that one and he said, "Yes, that's the appropriate process." So, we recommend updated good with consent. >>
029Shouldn't that like shouldn't it say the superintendent or designate the green area. >> Yeah. I mean, we could say or designate. This one ultimately is the superintendent has to make sure that happens. Anything that gets submitted like that has to go in, but it really is Mr. Sheepard who makes sure that happens. So, we we could add or designate. >> I guess it doesn't matter, but it seems like that we've done that on most of the things. And then it says down below there, the superintendent or designate shall annually prepare. I think it's just though the overall superintendent's responsibility to go to consent. >> Okay. 510 is equal employment opportunity and minority recruitment. And on page one, you'll see there's uh the addition of a line there or use of district issued equipment to record
030such types of violence. This has to do with um classes that you cannot discriminate. You have to follow the Equal Opportunity Employment Act and you can't discriminate against somebody who has used district equipment to record violence which makes sense. So we would recommend uh approving that as well. >> Florida with consent. >> Yes. >> Okay. Five colon 90 abused and neglected children reporting. There is a language change on page one based on a change in the definition of the law. Um so they changed um the word pornography to sexual abuse material and then put the reference from the law that that comes from. So we again recommend accepting >> is the board with good with consent. >> Okay. >> Um 5 col 100 it actually although it says the policy and footnotes are updated. Um
031the policy isn't updated. The only thing actually updated is a legal reference that shows up within the policy. Um so that again we just recommend accepting press to add that legal reference. It's in the body of the um of the policy itself as opposed to just at the end which is a little different than sometimes. >> Are we good with consent? >> And five col 200 on page one. You'll see a minor change here and this uh has to do with compensating uh breastfeeding mothers for reasonable time uh reasonable time to express breast milk. That same line is going to show up in a minute on 5300 as well and we would recommend accepting that >> for consent. >> Okay. And then five col 280 duties and qualifications. There's a change on the first page
032there from certified or certificated to licensed referring to staff. And then on the second page um talks about a bus driver permit holder who is a service member is what the who is a service member was added. So again we would recommend accepting those. We're good with consent. >> Yes. Yes. 5300 schedules an employment year and this is on the first page of that same line and compensates them for a reasonable time needed to express breast milk same as 5200. So we would recommend accepting that as well 620. This is school year and calendar a school year calendar and day. On page one, there is a minor change the word shall to may and then legal references are updated. So we recommend >> Okay, we're good with consent. >> Yeah. >> 6 col 40 page
033one. There's uh updates defining the timeline to review kind of up at the bottom of the page there. It used to be a little more open-ended periodically and they want that to be every two years. And then just that that it has to be substantially related to the achievement of the uh important objective for the class or activity. This is about having uh single gender classes and if you have those needing to review why you have those. That doesn't happen very often. It happens I think in fifth grade um with our uh education that we do um for growth and development. You boarded with consent. Okay. 6 col 60. This one has a little bit more in there. Um, so 6 col 60. There is a change. They struck a line on the first page
034and basically took that line and expanded it into number two and added in number two. I'm sorry, I don't know if I I said this is 660 curriculum content. Um, so that is the expansion that they did there on uh page one. Um and then down a little bit further down on the page, um there's just they're updating a little bit the grades with which we do some of these things and the timeline for that. So you'll see like in kindergarten uh kindergarten through 8th grade for 2026 27 that gets changed a little bit under number five it's grades 3 through 8. Um and I should also mention we did have Miss Rivera also review this um as well. Um, but those are the first two as well as Mrs. Williams because on the next
035page there are there's some information um about uh health education and um some other uh issues that are also related to STEM. Again, a few things are stricken. These are all in uh relation to updates to the laws is why these adjustments were made. Is the board good with consent? >> Okay. And on this one, there's also a question um that the board needs to answer. And the question is um about including um information about the curriculum. So, if we include the if we're recommending we answer yes to the question, you answer yes to the question that they have. if IB um it has information about the Irish famine. So if we cover the Irish famine in our curriculum, which we do, one period 45 minutes, then they recommend using the alternate language that um
036IASB has recommended. If we don't, which we do use that, um if we don't talk about the Irish famine because it's not required, but we don't talk about it, then we should use the standard language. So, we're recommending that um the board say yes that we would use the alternate language because we do include the Irish famine in our curriculum. >> Am I good with consent? >> Wait, what number then is that going to appear as? Do you know? >> I'm trying to back it up here. >> Uh let's see what else is 650. >> This is still 660. Yep. Um >> 616. I think when you go back again right now I'm so sorry to ask you >> uh it is under 16 question one. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. Somehow I flipped my documents
037upside down here. So, let me [laughter] find the right one. Back to 6130. Well, I'm somehow out of order, but that's okay. 6130 is program for gifted. Um, the change in here, we are recommending accepting press is kind of an unfortunate change. They took out the language that was related to the state doing a uh request for proposals for funding because they're not planning to fund gifted education. So they basically are saying we can do gifted education in within the parameters of our own budget which we knew was coming. >> Okay. Do um do we have a plan in place that we're going to potentially get funds together for that? Since Title 4 is no longer an options, we do at some point. We don't >> Well, I would say >> um it's part of
038the work of what we're doing, right? When we audited our software and cutting back there, right, and just getting a little bit tighter with the belt in the teaching and learning department and ensuring that we are spending funds in areas that um align with our goals. And that's why we looked at redundancy within the um technology software, right? And so the the benefit for us here is that remember we looked at it, it's gifted and enrichment >> and so it's embedded into our curriculum. It's embedded as part of our MTSS process. It's embedded as part of the wind time um at the elementary level which doesn't cost us extra. And at the junior high, they have the advanced placement classes, which again doesn't cost extra. What we wound up using title four funding for um
039is a lot of the extra materials. So looking at novels that help extend uh you know, student learning um activities, things of that nature. And so we'll just have to shift that towards our teaching and learning district funds um and just being strategic with how we're using our our funding within department. So yes, we have a game plan. >> Thank you. Is the board good with moving that to consent? >> Yeah. Okay. 6160 is English learners and the change here is on page one adding the word guardian kind of toward the bottom of the page. That's the only change. So we're recommending accepting that. >> We all do the consent. >> Okay. Next one is 6210 instructional materials. This is another one that has a question on it. Um let's see. So the question in
040here is um a board does not have the capacity or desire uh to approve all instructional materials may use the following alternative. And we are actually recommending yes to this. So that I'll just read this out loud. The superintendent shall recommend to the board for consideration and adoption of uh all textbooks and primary instructional materials and shall include the following information. The rest hasn't really been changed. So the difference the distinction here is that's exactly what our process is right now. So any major curriculum adoption always comes to the board. That would stay the same. Any adoption of materials that is $35,000 or more comes to the board. That doesn't change. What this prevents is we literally can have at any given time hundreds of supplemental curricular materials that might be for a small group
041of students or a small uh one grade level or a group of special ed students. We have those happening all the time and those are usually pretty minor. You know, it could be $100 worth of uh curricular materials. But if we don't um take the alternate language on this, it means every single one of those very minor things that we purchase has to come to the board. And I think it would just jam the board up with um constant review process. Everything big that comes to the board as it does now still would come to the board. And anything that we're buying, even if it's not part of the core curriculum or primary instructional material, if it's over the threshold, it still has to come to the board. That's policy. It's all the little stuff
042that that we routinely uh approve and purchase. you know, for textbook adoptions, we typically have a group of certified staff review everything. Uh, you use it in their classrooms for 6 months or something. Um, but this doesn't say that. But is that like in your your procedure book that you do something that that stated where that is your your desire to bring in a committee or something? It's part of our current practice and it is best practice and it will be part of our procedure somewhere around um June of next year. >> Okay. >> Though yes, um >> that wouldn't be part of policy though because that's we're just trusting the administration to do what what they want in that case. >> This looks like you know you could the superintendent could just you know
043pick a math textbook from his buddy or something and present it to the board or something, you know, but Okay. >> Right. But you couldn't because that would be a primary instructional material. So anything like that has to come to the board and those are usually >> hundreds of thousands of dollars that we're spending. So that definitely is over the threshold. >> So it doesn't change our current practice with what comes to the board, I guess, is what >> Right. >> Are we good with consent? >> Okay, the next one is 6280. And did I not? Yeah, 6280 grading and promotion. Sorry, there's so many. it's hard for me to keep track of them. Um, so this one is unusual. This one was included only for uh review and monitoring. It's part of the 5-year
044cycle that they do. And actually, because we've actually just reviewed and uh updated this back in I want to say it was this was um in January, I believe, when we did the update of all the policies. Ours is actually consistent with the current update for press. So, we're not recommending any changes. We recommend we keep the policy just as it is. Um, but we included it because it is a recommendation of press to review and monitor this one because it's it's fallen within the five-year cycle. It just happens that we've already updated ours to be consistent. So, there's not really a change on this one. >> Working with consent, correct? >> Yep. >> That's just going to update the adopted >> the adopted date will update. >> Okay. [clears throat] And then if it
045if it's not updated between now and five years from now, it'll just circle circulate back in in the five-year process. Um the next one is 6 315 high school credit for students in grades seven or eight. Now this uh update doesn't actually apply to us because we don't uh issue and the high school doesn't issue credit for students in seventh and eighth grade. Um but because that's where the change was, we went ahead and included this. We're recommending that we do not adopt it. What the high school does right now, they don't grant credit for students who, for example, maybe are taking algebra or geometry, but they do place them in the correct level that they need to be in. So, if they've done geometry, they would then as a freshman in high school going
046to the next math up. Similar with students coming from our dual language program, they don't get credit say for Spanish one and two, but they might be placed in Spanish 3. So, they do start advanced at the place where they should based on what they've done here. It's just our high school doesn't actually grant high school credit for those courses, but they do the placement accordingly. So again, this came in here and it talks about grades seven and eight, so we didn't want to ignore that, but just wanted to explain that's why we're still recommending that we don't adopt this one. >> Okay. I know that we talked about that in in depth because I can't wrap my mind around how I I can't wrap my mind around how this doesn't pertain to D26. Um,
047only because I think it does. We have se seventh and eighth graders. And so I went to see what D155 has on theirs. Um and they haven't reviewed their late reviewing their policies, but um it is basically the same except the recommendation is they're putting in what a high school district is supposed to be. Um what we're looking at on our screen here um they do say that you would receive their current one right now says that um a student who successfully completes their course for a high school diploma while in grades seven and eight shall receive academic credit for the course. So they do >> right. So >> the credit >> sorry could I >> um like in district 300 that has K through 12 right if there's a they have those standards all
048the way across um we do not have whatever D155's high school math curriculum is in 26 or in 47 or in three right so if they pass our algebra class sorry excuse me right that doesn't mean they're going to get credit in 155 they're just going to get placed into a different algebra class or a different math class as freshmen because it's not their math curriculum. It's Miss Rivera's math curriculum or district 26's math curriculum. And so that way it's not going to transfer. We've had this the only reason I ask is we get this question a lot in grades late too or the answering because of that like why doesn't my kids's US history count again as a junior when they took it in eighth grade? It's the same reason. It's not the same
049exact same curriculum. So, we're not going to give them the credit that they earned in eighth grade for it. Does that make sense? >> No. No, it doesn't. No. I Yes. What you're Yes. What you're saying makes sense, but reading through it and saying that what it's saying is is these certain things have to be met. I know um just from talking to Dr. Thomas about it that no right now there isn't anything coordinated in between the two schools like Kerry Grove and and Kerry Junior High there's nothing going on now but I I just feel like why pre why prevent it by not having the policy in case because nothing says um that the district is required to implement it. But I do think um the district okay the district is not required to
050implement this but if something later future comes along I wouldn't want to not have that policy there. >> I I get what you're saying. I just my concern would be is if we have this on the books right now, then there will be a parent that will come to 155's curriculum meetings and say, "Well, they passed junior high math or they passed junior high US history. How come they're not getting credit for it now? Look at what it says in our policy." If we don't have this in our policy right now, [clears throat] District 155 could point and say District 26 is not incorporating that. Now, if they ever reach out to us, I would imagine we could revisit this policy. But to have that even open for that conversation, I'd be worried to that
051teachers would [clears throat] start asking for for credit. >> And we can't we can't force the high school to grant credit >> if a if the high school doesn't grant credit, which they've said we do not grant credit for our high school at your junior high. If they don't grant us credit, there's no way that we can implement this or have this in place. If they were to change their minds and say, "Okay, now we're going to start granting credit for your Spanish classes, your math classes." Those are the two that usually pop up. If they were going to actually give us high school credit, then we could go back and add this in. But without the high school saying, "Yes, we'll give you credit." There's we can't do anything about this anyway. >> Right.
052And Right. >> But the fair enough, the policy says though, if a program is available, if >> But it's not right now. Not as if >> I understand what you're saying like you're saying because we are working closely with the high school district now to try and you know get them ready for high school when they go but this policy isn't going to go anywhere in press. It's only going to be expanded upon and changed and altered as time goes. So, it will be there for us to adopt at any time when we do have those pieces in place in order to be teaching high school level math to our seventh and eighth graders that are accelerated and can get credit. Until we have those pieces in place, it wouldn't apply to us because it's
053not apples to apples >> in my mind. >> And I also add I just want to clarify because we've said a couple times that like the collaboration isn't there. It is. it's just not in the form of credits, right? So, we do have collaboration. Our students who are in the dual program um they don't start in let's say Spanish one to begin with. So, our connection that we have with them isn't in relation to credits and it's in relation to providing students access to different placement levels in the high school which then gives them different access to college credits. And that's the connection that we have currently with 155. Our service right now is not credit based. Our service right now is supporting students with obtaining those higher level courses. That's the contribution and the
054connection that we have currently. Um it's not focused and centered on credits. It's focused and centered on the experience and what courses we can get students access to at the high school level. then we leave the high school up to determine the credits because that then carries over to college credit as well. So that's just I just wanted to clarify there is a connection a collaboration between the two. I would like to see our accelerated students though be given high school classes so that that do count towards and then we know the high school already knows they're already at that level and like they're just take like yes they're testing in but they're not getting the overall picture of where they actually really really are as far as based on their academics >> for sure
055and and I have been a part of uh my prior district where students who were a part the magnet program. They got bus to the high school um and they received math right at the high school when they were that higher level. That does come with a cost as well to do that because you are now increasing the class sizes of the high school. Um and then you also have to take consideration transportation. So it's a much larger discussion and conversation. Definitely something that's that that could be done. Um what we do have though is we have teachers who are certified to teach that next level rigorous um geometry or or whatever it might be. Um and we do collaborate with the high school currently to see what is their curriculum to ensure that we
056are in alignment with their curriculum if they're get receiving that um let's say geometry here at Kerry Junior High. I would also add when we're looking beyond high school, I'm much less worried about them getting high school credit for it as I am the access to those higher, more advanced classes because if they're doing that as a freshman and a sophomore, that opens up the world of dual credit college classes that the high school offers, AP classes that the high school offers at an earlier age, which is much more beneficial in going to college, walking in with credits, walking in with classwork done. the high school credit to us doesn't really make a difference. It's the placement so that they can access when we're looking beyond if they're going beyond high school, I think is
057the critical part. >> Add one last thing. If they get their credits here, that does also take away from the experience at the high school as well, right? Because then it's like, oh, I got those credits at the junior high, but they're in high school and that's a different life experience freshman to senior year. And so you really do want them to get those credits at the high school level to experience that learning that happens freshman to senior year. So it's there's arguments on both sides, right? Pluses and minuses on both sides. I get what you're saying. It's definitely something we continue to look into doing um in a way that we can continue to enrich their learning without taking away from that high school experience. >> So it's not like they're going to have
058to repeat the same. >> Correct. they wouldn't have to, >> right? Because they're because they're placed in a higher one once they go to high school. It's not a repeat of what they took in junior. >> Okay. >> Whether we're talking math, whether we're talking literacy, whether we're Yes. It's I don't want to use the word tracking, but there's a track. >> Absolutely. And some students are they still need that support, right? And so some students are, hey, you need to revisit this mathematical concept or something like that. So, but they're not all placed there. I'm just looking at 155. There's alge, there's intermediate algebra, algebra 2 with trig, honors algebra 2 with trig. So, there's a bunch of different options >> for freshmen. >> And there's a lot offormational exchange that happens behind the
059scenes between D2, all of our elementary districts, right? Um, and the high school. So, for example, they've already reached out to us to ask uh for test scores. So, we've we've shared test scores and we're talking about current students going into freshman year and they reached out to us regarding the students that they have currently who are freshman, right? And so, they want all that up-to-date information. So, we share I AR, we've shared STAR in the past, we've shared uh this year I Ready. Uh we have teachers that collaborate with our teachers to get actual now observational information. our students who are in the dual program take a placement test uh that Miss uh not Osmeck Kramer that Miss Kramer is working with the high school on um where they will be taking an assessment
060that will help determine that placement. So there's a lot of behindthe-scenes collaboration. By no means is it a the student took this class and now we're just going to plop them here. There's there's a lot of dialogue and professional conversations happening behind the scenes. Are we good with consents? >> It It still makes no sense to me. I'm I'm just I just got to be real with everybody. It It doesn't make sense to me at all. What But what is What is it? What happens when you get put in those higher placing classes than you at the high school than you? So, for example, you're placed in Spanish three as a freshman because you've gone through dual language and you have proficiency in their one and two, you're placed in three. So, maybe you do
061Spanish three your freshman year, Spanish 4 your sophomore year. Then you might have an opportunity to do a dual credit class with say MCC that they're offering at the high school where now you're getting college credit for a class you're taking as a junior in high school. That counts as a college course for whatever university you're going to. Not everybody goes to university though either. So, >> um I I I know that there's not a program currently again, but maybe some I mean some students would want to graduate high school earlier or something. Do you know what I mean by getting that credit? I'm just saying I know that's not a possibility now, but the question is really if a program is available, they can enroll in that course and follow the requirements of the
062high school basically and then get the credit for the high school. >> That's I guess that's what I'm not understanding. Yeah, you're doing advanced. I don't know. Hypothetically, I'm you're doing geometry here and you're in advanced, which in my mind presumably means you're probably 8, ninth or 10th grade or whatever. whenever whatever grade you're doing geometry in, if if you can meet the rigor, which is what the D155 policy says about this is if you're meeting the rigor of it, then you do get and you can pass that then you can get it um that credit, but I know that they don't offer it. It just it doesn't make sense why to limit it. But I just wanted to say that yes, I know we discussed this. I looked into it and it still just
063doesn't make any sense to me. Um, but consent agenda, I guess. Yeah. >> Does this close the door though? So, we can revisit that, >> right? If the high school were ever to say, "Yes, we're willing to give credit," we could come back and put the policy right in. >> Okay. So this one would be um rather than accepting press we our recommendation is to still not adopt this policy at this time. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Um the next one is 770. This is attendance and truency. And on page two they have an added section number 14 about an approval process for students who attend activities that are allowed under uh that particular law. um meaning that students don't get penalized. So it's things like if they were doing some type of internship or
064if they were doing some type of dual credit or things like that, they're allowed to do that. They can make up their work at school and they don't get that doesn't count as an absence toward truency. So we would recommend uh accepting that >> with consent. >> 71 150 agency law enforcement requests. Um on this one they have rewritten the policy. So, we gave you a copy of the old policy, the current, I shouldn't say old, it's the current policy with the new policy. Basically, took the current policy and pushed it all toward the bottom of the first page and onto the second page. And the top of the first page is really the new section. And that has um really beefed up information about perceived citiz actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status. The
065bottom line with this is we have to enroll students that live in our district. The status of their immigration doesn't matter. we still have to provide a safe school environment for them and all students. Um, any student who is in our district is a student that we educate. So that's in a that's bullets one through six in a very short summary. So we do recommend uh accepting the rewrite as it's done. And I'm sorry, there was a title change too. This was called um agency and police interviews and now it's called agency and law enforcement requests. We're good with consent. >> Okay. 7180 is prevention and response to bullying. So, this has a few changes. On page one, there's an addition here uh a definition of artificial intelligence that came uh through the law. And
066then uh again on page two there are some updates where they just clarified some language essentially in a couple places added some information about cyber bullying and definition of digital replica. So that information was added here as well and we again would recommend accepting press. >> Are we good with consents? Okay. 7190 student behavior. I swear this is on the list every single time we ever look at policy because it's a big one. Um page six is actually where the change is this time. And uh the change on here um talks about the possible threat of firearms and reporting requirements around the possible threat of firearms. And then uh having administrators need to reach out to the families of those students if there is even the report of a threat um to find out uh
067to let the parents know first of all what they have heard and also to make sure that the student does not actually have access to a firearm. So those are the updates which we do recommend accepting >> through consent. >> Was there a redundancy in this about um the reporting to the um I'm trying to look at it while I speak. the reporting the to the local um law enforcement there. >> Are you in a specific place? >> Yeah, under required notices right >> on 7190. Where's Where's my mind? >> Okay, I'm looking. So then, okay, that's that second paragraph, right? >> That's highlighted green as a the building upon receiving the report, the building principal shall immediately notify the law enforcement. Then they notify the superintendent and then receiving the report the superintendent shall
068immediately notify local law enforcement. That's like the version of >> is there like a redundancy a little bit there or no? I mean it's not bad to have them. I just thought it was I'm not I don't have any suggestions to change it. I just thought it was kind of redundant. >> Yeah. I mean, I see what you're talking about that the principal has to if they find out has to report it, but the superintendent doesn't always receive that information from the principal. So, I think just in all caution, you know, if the person who reported it was Miss Rivera to the superintendent, the superintendent still needs to call. Same with it might be a principal, it could be an assistant principal. I think just double-checking that that has been done because that's a critical
069feature for the safety aspect. So, it it does I get what you're saying. It does sound a little redundant like they're going to report it and I'm going to report it and you're going to like somebody's got to report it. So, it's more a matter of making sure it's gotten done regardless of where it comes from. >> Okay. And then your Thank you for your answer. And then your response sparked it in my head. building principal. We have vice principles too. Is should we do anything about that or just keep it building principal? That's funny. In the first where the first change is it says shall immediately notify the office of the building principal. So that could be the principal or the assistant principal. And in the second one it says the building principal or
070design shall notify. So I think they do cover it just a little bit differently in each of those. >> So when you're going to because this will get right this will get updated and then staff will become aware. Right. >> Right. >> Just like um >> Right. Right. With one. Yeah. With one like this, we do need to like this is something we would include like at a staff meeting so that the principles would let the staff know that this is an update because it's something that they need to be aware of to be reporting to the principal or the principal's office. >> So yeah, on this one that's one that staff get updated. These also the uh almost the entire policy if not the whole policy also shows up in all the handbooks. Um
071so that information is repeated in the know your school's handbook and then in the school handbooks as well. Are we good with consent? >> Okay, the next one is uh 7290, suicide and depression awareness and prevention. Just a minor update on page one um that they just rewarded how they talk about uh mental health and illness as opposed to sound mind and healthy or healthy body. All >> good with consent. We're in the final stretch, I promise. Um [laughter] 7340, two more. 7340, student records. Um this has just a very minor change on page one. Changing officers or I'm sorry, yes, officers or officials to professionals. We're good with consent. So I guess my question on this is define professionals. >> It could be anybody that works at the police department. I mean essentially could
072be the note that press has on why they changed that in numbers two and four was to match the text of the Illinois school student records act. So that's how the language actually appears in the student records or the student record act. It's pretty broad. The board is okay with consent. Hold on. I would be more fine if professionals was broken down with what who that exactly entitles us to give student information to with regards to records. >> Well, I don't think it can only be officers, >> but you're right. Which professional >> 100%. But I do think that they need to defi set set a uh title on who that really >> I mean these are student records so >> I think that that needs to be bro you know defined it's too broad.
073>> Yep. So, I think we move this to discussion again next week and maybe we get some information from uh Isby or whoever that can maybe answer our question. >> I'd be happy to put in a call to uh it's IASV that does the policy and they have a whole team of attorneys so I can call over there and ask them. >> That'd be perfect. I'm not sure if they'll have been answered just because it's the purpose is aligning it to the law and but I can ask if what's included in professionals like if that's defined somewhere else somebody else in all of school boards had to have asked this question like we aren't the only ones but >> Okay. So we'll put that in section 8 and we'll revisit that next video. Yeah. Um
074and then the final one uh for today 8:30 visitors to and conduct on school property. This is another minor change. Again on page two they change certified to licensed and that is it. So again we recommend accepting. >> Are we good with consent? >> Thank you very much. All right. Okay, next up we have closed session for the purpose of discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purpose of approval by the body of the minutes or semianual review of the minutes as mandated by section 2.065s120-2C21 065 ILCS120-2C21 and for 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? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? We take a roll call,
075please. >> Darling, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Jason Janzek, >> yes. >> And the motion's approved. Open session ends at 7:05 p.m. Have a good evening, everyone.