001I call this regular board of education meeting to order on Monday, September 29th, 2025 at 6 PM. If we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. We can get a roll call, please. Mindy Hartman >> here. Julie Jetty >> here. >> Darling >> here. >> Stacy Salt >> here. >> Katherine Potter >> here. >> Bridget Sandlin >> here. >> Jason Janet >> here. >> Uh was there anyone from the community that wanted to speak? >> You're going to speak? >> Okay. So, I'll read you the paragraph. >> The board and administration welcome your input. When recognized by the board president, members of the public are welcome to supply information for the board's consideration or to express their opinion of district policies. However, public debate between members of the public and the board of education
002members or the district staff will not be permitted. We ask that the individuals speaking before the board identify themselves with full name and address and be brief. Comment shall be limited to three minutes. We have Nancy Schwart. Got it figured out. Apologies for not being here for a while. I had a family death and had to go back home and take care of the some of the estate. So, u um it's good to be back though. I think I'm glad I left home when I did. I'll say um there have been a lot of things going on these last few months and uh actually the last couple of years and so there are some things that I just kind of want to talk about a little bit with you or let me give you my
003opinion or ideas. So I want to say good evening to everybody. It's good to be back and see you all here. And I'm just going to read this because I tend to get long- winded so I don't want to get off task here because I can easily do that. Okay. As we all know during the past five years, public schools have been in a crisis mode. I have said in these board meetings over the past several years where I have seen curriculums being vetted and changed, financial obstacles overcome and a valiant effort put forth in providing new homes for our bus drivers who love our children and their vehicles. However, there are some concerns I have in other areas that directly affect our children. Even before 2020, our academic proficiency was not even at the
004good level. As the attempt to close down schools and do online learning became an epic failure, we have instead seen the rise of ideas that have no bearing on the primary focus of education, the so-called three Rs. Like the frog in the pot of water, we have seen the slow rise of concepts such as DEI, SEAL, natural sex education standards, which include topics such as gender identity, sexual orientation, and consent, personal surveys, and questionnaires. This summer, Governor Pritsker approved Senate Bill 1560 amending the Illinois School Code, which is will be effective in January of 2026. This quote includes a tool for measuring capacity and readiness to implement universal mental health screening of students end quote. Upsets me. Has anyone ever heard of HIPPO or opt out? Also the opt out is available as a form
005on the D district 26 website. One must ask if the schools are making any or all of the above a priority instead of making the academic excellence of our children a priority then do we not need to re-evaluate the district's priorities? June of this year 2025 the Supreme Court handed down a decision which I know you've all heard Mahammu versus Taylor. The court reaffirmed that parental rights and religious liberty carry significant weight in education especially for young children. Parents are their children's first teachers and they know their child best. School should be there to support them not to work against them. If the schools teach our children how to think and not what to think, they will have done their job excellently. Let 20 district 26 be called an excellent school and one that others
006will want to follow. May we always lead by example. Thank you so much. >> You Next up, we have uh open forum. Uh there were eight foyer requests this month. Voyer requests can be found on board docs. Uh next up we have board member comment. First up, Mrs. Hartman. >> Nothing tonight. Thank you. >> Mr. Janzik. >> Uh good evening. Uh thank you, Miss Wart, for your comments. Good to have you back. I'm sorry to hear about the loss in your family. Uh Miss Rivera, just one quick question. with the scores being released um for I Ready there's been some concerns about the sudden I don't want to say downgrade of of students some students this is the concerns coming from me from comm uh from committee members that were reading at a level with
007STAR and everything else suddenly are seeing their scores drop um with this new I Ready test and I'm wondering and I understand that I Ready is a whole different battery of tests and the algorithm that exists and everything like that, but it's causing a little bit of of concern uh with some folks uh and wondering asking the questions why it was changed and everything along those lines. So, I'm wondering if it's possible to I I know you had the Zoom last week and I apologize for not being able to make it, but send another communication out saying that this may happen because of this is new to us. Um it's not a cause for an alarm or maybe it is, but I I don't think it is. Um, but just kind of reassuring some families
008and some students who now have access to it, our older kids now have now have access to it that it's it's one test is just a data point and it doesn't define their future. I I think some messaging on that would go a long way for the community and for some of our more of our test anxious uh students and families with that. If that's something that you're willing to explore, I would appreciate that. I can also help you with that if you need to. So, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Jetty. Uh, nothing tonight. Mrs. Potter, >> thank you. Um, I too want to thank Miss Wart for coming to speak tonight. That was lovely. Um, I I am excited about the um, superintendent survey being out and hopefully a lot of people are participating.
009And if you're watching and you haven't taken it yet, um, it's on the district website. It should just pop up. um a a window should and give you instructions, but I did attend the uh I Ready Parent University uh put on by the district and I thought it was really good. I you could, you know, as she was going along, you could ask questions and and have those answers. The only thing I think the only thing that I think that wasn't I guess could have been reiterated more was is that this is not just one test that we're going to see growth three times a year. It's not you know and then it'll be adjusted from there. So your kid is here now we're going to take it in the winter and it'll keep adjusting.
010And I'm not sure that that was understood. I obviously understood it because we talked about it a whole lot here and um all the benefits and stuff of it, but I think it was actually for other things that the district has put on. I like to attend the universities and I thought it was well attended. So, uh bravo Miss Rivera. Um and that's all I've got. Oh, yeah. And Miss Kramer did a great job at the committee meeting. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Uh Mrs. Sandlin. >> Uh, nothing tonight. >> Okay, Mrs. Salt, nothing tonight. Uh, I don't have anything myself either other than please everyone take the, uh, survey for us. Um, it includes not only parents, students, community members, um, our government, local governmental agencies. Uh, please take it so we get that
011feedback. Uh, next up we have the superintendent update. Dr. Thomas. >> Well, just as the board members said, tonight our superintendent search is uh in full swing right now. Um, literally right now we have students who are in a student forum uh answering questions and giving their input, which is great. Tomorrow night, we have at 6 p.m. uh in the band room, which is right next door to where we are here at the junior high, uh is a community forum. There have been forums yesterday or I'm sorry today, tomorrow and uh Wednesday and as was mentioned the survey is online. It's open till October 3rd and it's a great opportunity to provide some input into the superintendent search. So we are appreciative of everybody who is uh able to do that. Um just a couple
012other notes, physicals and immunizations are due uh for students who require them by October 15th. um information went out in all the school newsletters uh regarding the grade levels at which uh immunizations or physicals are due and nurses are in the process of reaching out to parents if they don't have that information. By state law after October 15th, we do have to exclude students from school who don't have that information in. So, we really encourage parents to uh reach out to your nurse if you haven't already done so to get that in. And then just a few notes about the district calendar coming up. We have October 10th, a teacher institute day. There's no school that day. And then on October 13th, Indigenous People's Day, which is no school. Uh on the 20th, we have
013the committee of the whole. And then on the 27th of October, we have the board of education meeting, and it will be our first building spotlight of the year featuring uh students from Three Oaks. So, we're looking forward to that. And that's it. >> Thank you. Uh next up, we have the curriculum update. Miss Rivera. >> Yes. So, as you pointed out, we did just finish our first round of I Ready assessments. Um, it is a different assessment entirely from STAR. I was actually having a conversation with one of our educators today about that and they had commented on um, especially for the older grades, the lengthiness of the passages and how the students um, we'll use the word overwhelmed by it. um they're used to getting that on I AR and not seeing it
014beforehand. So this is a pivot, this is a change for them and it's an opportunity for us then to better prepare them for assessments like the AR, ACTs or anything else that comes beyond right um so I do appreciate the feedback on how can I help ease the nerves of families and parents and remind them that this is one assessment out of many, right? and it is one out of three benchmarks and the purpose is to see growth. And so with that, we did have our um parent university. We had 116 families sign up to either attend or receive the recording. I had many families who said, "Hey, I can't be there, but can you please send me the recording?" So, I at least know that 116 families have access to the recording that that
015was uh that we did live in conjunction with I Ready. Um, as a reminder to our families, K2, there was a paper copy that was sent home in your child's backpack regarding their scores and their assessments and their um, performance. 38, you can see that on the iPad. So, to your point, kids can see that now. Um, which also I think is a difference, right? Before was kind of out of sight, out of mind. Now, we're going to be looking at goal setting, right? Where did we start? Where do we want to be? And that's another uh, life skill to teach students as well, right? that we set goals in life whether it's fitness whether it's medical whether it's personal whatever it is um so I can definitely work on that um as well our
016schools have already embarked on data conversations across the board regarding this data we provided principles with um a pre-training we'll say uh on how to analyze the data and how to help facilitate those conversations with our teachers and I've had the opportunity to sit in a couple of them and they are just if I could bottle that energy and bring it here and showcase it or record it and show you. There's a lot of rich conversations and discussions happening. One of the things that I love the most is I was sitting there listening to a math conversation and they had the data pulled up, but then they had also administered some classroom based assessments as well. And so when they said, "I'm not sure." They're like, "Wait, we have some more data here." And they
017lit they came with their file folders, the teachers did, and they were able to pull out stuff that they had administered in the classroom. It was just beautiful to see how they're using multiple data points to really pinpoint and know the students by name and by need. And so it starts getting more personal and specific. There's um a sticky note with the students name on there and the kids are getting placed into groups and shifted and moved. And so it's very intentional and these are um groups that are being made for wind time and so it's it's fluid, it's flexible and it's just great to see the rich conversations happening amongst our staff. Uh to your point, October 10th is our PD day. That's where they will get more formalized training on the data portion
018of I Ready. How do we delve into that a little bit more? Um what are the different reports that are available to the teachers in the morning? There will be a training for building administration to help support them with looking at academic data um to support buildingwide goals. And then in the afternoon, I already will do a PD for our teachers. So then we could look at how do we support classroombased goals. Um so we're trying to hit all the components of educating our parents, educating our administrators, educating our teachers, and everywhere in between. So that's October 10th. Um I do also want to thank Miss Kramer, let's call her by her previous name. uh Miss Kramer for her presentation last week on lost links. Our next parent university is surrounding loss links. How do
019we how do we read the data? How do we parents got a report that went home? How do you interpret it? What does it mean? How does that apply to the dual program? And it's it's helping to educate. The dual program is about biiteracy, multilingualism. Correct. And so it's how do we help all the parents whether you're native Spanish speaking or native English speaking? How does this affect you and impact you? Uh and so please October 6th uh 6 p.m. you can sign up via the link that was emailed to all the families. Um obviously for families who are in the dual program, but even if you're not in the dual program and you want to learn more about the dual program, I'd invite all families to attend uh to see what's going on in
020Kerry 26. And then likewise, just like we did with I Ready, if you can't attend, still please sign up because we'll send you the recording afterwards. We know that families are busy and so if you can't make it, we'll send it to you afterwards and you can watch it while you're sitting back. Um the last thing I want to speak about is this week um is our DSA and Sika screeners. Uh social emotional learning for our students is of the utmost priority to us. We know that students as educators, we know that students can't access their learning until their basic social emotional needs are met, right? And so that has to take precedence. And so this week, our students are our teachers, they do the teacher facing portion of the assessment of the DESA, which
021they answer eight questions in relation to their students. >> Yes. And you're going to ask me what it stands for, and I don't have it off the top of my head. Um, it's like the Yeah, let's not. I'll email it to you. Um, and I think based off of what was shared, maybe a presentation is uh needed to just maybe refresh the community on what we do in Kyrie 26 related to SEAL. Um, but the DESA, it does stand for something. I'll let you know. Um, it is eight questions that the teachers take to get a general overview on the students social emotional well-being. If a student is flagged as wait pump the brakes then there is a more intensive questionnaire that the teachers fill out that delves even deeper. That one's a lot more
022than eight questions. That's on the teacher facing side. They use this data then to help support wind time. So wind time is not just for academics. It's also for the social emotional piece. So if there are students that need specific um small groupoup instruction on on social engagement uh functioning what whatever maybe it is something related to counseling right that would be a time win time where they would be able to receive that it's not just for the academics it's also for the social emotional side then our grades 58 they take the Sika yes that stands for something I'll get that to you as well um the Sika is the studentf facing survey. Um there are opt- out forms for these as well as you pointed out on the district website, but the SECA for
023grades 58, the students take the survey and help us get another data point into their social emotional well-being. So that's occurring this week. Um opt out form should have been sent to schools already by now. Uh if you want to know the specific times that your schools are going to be administering the survey, please reach out to your building admin. Um and that is all I have. Mr. Vera. Oh, >> go ahead. Go. Are you sure? Okay. Uh, is it possible are we able to post the I Ready video um online by chance or is it like embargoed or do you know by because I know I was >> Let me check. Yeah. Yeah. >> It's possible to push that out. I think that would be helpful. >> Yeah. Let me check. I'll see if
024I can do that. Or maybe what I could do is send out an email to the community again and say hey for those of you that did not well not hey but for those of those of you that did not make it if you did not get access to the recording and you would like access and maybe I can put some of those clarifying points in there >> email or fill out the form and then once I get the email I can send it to them versus having it >> voting around. I totally get that too. I appreciate you on that for sure. Thank you. Thank you. Uh then next the uh committee of the whole >> sorry I sorry I have a quick question. Um for the teachers who assess the social emotional needs
025are they very generic questions or do they have some kind of training to be able to accurately identify them? So the first eight questions are general um it's we were just going over the questions today uh with Chase our MTSS coordinator. And of course, I'm not going to remember any of the specific questions right now, but it was a um like how did the how do they interact with their peers? Like that was one question. I'm going to paraphrase it, right? But it was in relation to the interactions with someone else. Um it was a question I want to say that had to do with like conflict resolution. So they were general questions. The other question, so if a student's flagged on that, the other questions are much more intensive. And then it's our social
026workers who wind up going through and analyzing the information. So we're not asking the teachers to necessarily analyze the information and see who needs that extra support. We do have people uh on our teams who specialize in this area and they utilize the data to see okay what is it that we need and then that's where they might make goals specific to the student based on their need. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? Okay, next up is the committee the whole update. Uh basically we did a review of the bills. Uh the treasures report which there was a change made to that you'll see now. Uh had a presentation by allied facilities solar proposal. uh changed the date uh uh brought forward to change the date for the December regular board of education meeting
027and reviewed policy 7180, the prevention of and response to bullying, intimidation, and harassment. And then as we all said, Mrs. Kramer gave a great presentation on less links to language uh data review. Next up, we have the consent agenda. Included are those items that are routine in nature. Should any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda, the item will be discussed at the end of section 8. 7.1 is the open and closed session minutes from the August 25th, 2025 regular board of education meeting. 7.2 are the monthly bills and payroll. The total bills and payroll for approval are in the amount of 3 million. 396,176.114. 7.3 are the resignation dismissal retirements. 7.4 is employment. 7.5 is the destruction of closed meeting audio recordings. 7.6 are the disposal of assets. 7.7 are
028the December regular board of education meeting date change to Thursday, December 18th. 7.8 is policy 7180 prevention of and response to bullying, intimidation, and harassment. May I have a motion to approve the following? 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, and 7.8. So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Hearing none. If we could take a vote. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Darling, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt, >> yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Jason Jansik, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Motion is approved. Next up, we have item eight, which is the agenda items requiring discussion and board approval. We have the approval of the treasures report, Mr. Shepard. >> Yes. So, good evening. Uh, last week we looked at the treasures report and we
029I told you at the outset of that presentation that there was an error on the expenditure side. Uh, so my hope we we've got that rectified. Um, it was an error with the how the data was being inputed into our our projection model for forecast 5. Uh so that has been corrected and uh we will go through and highlight the expenditure uh portions of the treasurer report and then a couple of uh uh notes uh from last week uh as well. So no changes on the revenue side, it was all on the expenditure side. Uh so when we look at the expenditures, the thing I'd like to highlight is I believe last week when we looked at this and what set off alarm bells was that we had already gone through upwards of 10% of
030our salaries and benefits uh year to date for the month of August. Uh we know that is not accurate based on past data. Uh we are much more in line with where we should be and you'll see that salaries and benefits is now at 3.42% 42% uh which is below uh where the model has shown and that is consistent with where we've been at uh the past few years. Uh this chart actually showed that uh our our month-end fund balances were actually in a minor deficit. Uh you'll see all the way at uh the very end of the fiscal year, it does show that uh at the end we're now projected to run a very slight surplus. Uh so you can see how uh the changes in the expenditure data have affected uh this particular
031slide. Uh and this was the slide that really spoke to me with uh the error that was in it when uh uh salaries was up by like 670% uh last week. Uh that is much more in line now at 6.7% u and is is much more realistic. You'll also notice that the benefits are also much more realistic uh as as well. Uh so the next slide I want to show you is uh at the very end the the cash flow slide. It does uh project a slight uh surplus. Again it's very hard to take anything uh to this far out from the end of the fiscal year uh with any certainty but we're always looking at the uh the the trends uh in the model and this is where we want to be. Uh as
032mentioned before, the deficit in transportation is overstated because uh the bus lease is still factored into that. Uh keep in mind it also uh in our transportation budget, we factored in a 20% reduction in transportation claim funding uh from the state. I think we're actually not going to see a reduction in that amount. It will be a reduction, but I don't think it will be 20%. Uh so we'll actually see revenues rise uh in in that category. All right. So overall, uh I think we're right where we need to be. Uh finally, the the yellow uh portion of the investments slide, those were the recent investments that uh uh were made at the beginning of August. Um this past week, uh we actually took some of our excess funds in the tune of about 3.25
033or $3.5 million uh and invested those in short-term opportunities. uh that will become liquid again in February and March. Uh this is the point in time where we have the most cash on hand and it's going to be maturing at a time where we might need it uh in the spring. Uh those interest rates are yielding about 3.7 3.8 uh%. Uh if we have additional opportunities to invest excess funds, we will. However, rates are starting to trend downwards. So, just to clarify, when you say short-term opportunities, you mean CDs, not like some guy on the street like with who's got a deal, >> correct? >> Okay. So, we're locking in on the rate. Just to clarify for folks that are listening. All right. >> Uh and that uh would be it for the treasures report.
034>> Exactly. All right. May I have a motion to approve the treasures report as presented? >> Move. Who was the second? >> Bridgets. Okay. All in favor? >> Oops. Sorry. Discussion. >> None. Can we take a vote, please? >> D. Darling, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt, >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Jason Jansik, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Julie Jedy, >> yes. >> That motion is approved. Next up, we have item 8.2, to the approval of allied facilities solar contract. Mr. Shepard. >> Yes. So, this is the culmination of many many months of working and exploring uh various options that the district could uh partake in. Uh this was driven by the the the rise in electricity costs. Um, just for uh the community to know, in
035the 24-25 school year, uh our electricity budget was about $462,000 uh with about $200,000 of that being for for this facility alone. Uh and the fact that uh electricity rates are expected to rise dramatically for this uh fiscal year uh made this even more of a necessity to try to re in our electricity costs. uh we worked with a variety of uh vendors and contractors and we are pleased tonight to make the recommendation to uh go with uh allied facility partners uh to assist us with this endeavor. Uh it was decided as we were going through the exploration of this that we would focus in on Kerry Junior High, Brierggate and Oaknull. Oak Null and Briergate being the facilities with the newest roofs. Uh and then with Kerry Junior High slated to have a roof
036replacement, uh it just seemed like a natural time to uh tie this into the the project as well. Uh the for funding for this this project, it's it's important to note that for the solar uh project, uh the district will utilize maturing investments to pay for the installation of the solar system of the sites identified. Uh no referendum funds will be utilized for the the solar project. Instead, we like to equate this as another uh a different type of investment opportunity. So, we've had these investments that we continually reinvest over the years to the tune of about $10 million in assets. Uh and with interest rates coming down, the rate of return that we will see on our our solar project would be far greater than uh the interest rates that we could possibly see
037uh in the future. Uh we have enough uh in the way of funds that are maturing over the next year to cover this project. Uh, also by doing it now, we're able to capitalize on almost $2.2 million in rebates that would come back to the district immediately. Uh, followed by uh more assets from the state of Illinois over the next 20 years. Um, as part of this project too, we also decided that uh Allied facility partners would be responsible for the roof replacement. Uh, it is important to note that this would be paid for via our referendum funds. uh allied would be billing this project separately so that we ensure accurate recordkeeping. Uh and by doing this we not only maximize our rebate opportunities but uh uh we are getting a very good deal on
038the the roof replacement and repair for this building. I believe in our original scope we had estimated it could cost upwards of $4 million for a roof and and HVAC. Um the provided price not to exceed by Allied is a little over $1.9 million. So as a result uh we are uh recommending that uh the board of education approve the solar panel project for Oaknull Briergate and Kerry Junior High in the amount of 3,396,831. Uh, and we would also recommend the board approve the Kerry Junior High roof uh replacement and repair project not to exceed $ 1.922 million. Um, we do have uh our representatives from Allied Facility Partners that are here to answer any last minute or final questions, but again it is our our recommendation that we proceed with the entire project as
039presented. May I have a motion to approve the allied facilities solar contract domestic content and roofing project as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> One one quick question, Mr. Shepard. Uh so when we get the 2.2 million back in rebates, that's going to have to go back to the O andM fund. It can't go anywhere else. Is that accurate or >> do you know by off that off the top of your head would it have to go back to the 10 is it building >> those funds would most likely go back to O and M or the the capital fund. Uh that would be once we uh approve the project. We have a couple of things on our to-do list. One of them uh being uh talking with our auditors who
040will uh help us with uh the proper accounting of those rebates uh as they uh come back to the district. >> Yeah. I mean, this is the first time we've ever gotten money back from a project since I've been on the board. Like, I I didn't know where that how that worked. If we could park it in those CDs or if we could use it for something else. I if just in my uneducated guess here, we would probably have those funds either they would return to one fund and then if there's an excess in that fund, there could be opportunities to move those funds around, but most likely would be um utilizing those funds uh for either other investment opportunities or uh to further enhance our our building project, >> stretch it even further. Awesome.
041Thank you for the clarification. >> And uh since uh I'm looking right at you, Mr. Jansik, I know last week you had asked about uh um presenting this to the community. Uh there will be a section on our web page uh that will uh discuss this. We'll actually utilize one of the the charts that breaks down the project that Allied uh provided uh with some additional information uh for the community to peruse uh about this project. >> Fantastic. Thank you for doing that, Mr. Shepard. Appreciate it. Um, I wanted to say a quick thank you and in part to Mr. Janzik, who I'm sure didn't see this coming, but I feel like since I've been on the board, I have been listening to you push for ways for us to find money and solar has
042been at the top of your list for five or six years now. So, I think you get some credit for nudging everyone along this path. And otherwise, thank you to the admin for doing the work. Any we are not going to find revenue outside of the district. So, saving money inside the district is one of our best ways to be good fiduciary stewards. I'm excited about the fact that we will be cash positive on this at year 9. Um, so we know that this is at like a 25 year plus solar panels and we'll be so, you know, cash positive after 9 years. That's huge. So, thank you for all the work that you all put in on this. If there's no other discussion, if we could take a vote, please. >> Stacy Salt, >>
043yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Jason Jansik, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Darling, >> yes. Motion is approved. There are no other topics for discussion. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Any second? >> All in favor? >> Yes. Okay. This meeting adjourns at 6:34 p.m. Have a nice evening, everyone.