001I call the special board of education meeting to order on Monday, June 23rd, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. If we could please take a roll call. Stacy Salt here. Julie Jetty here. Darling here. Bridget Sandlin here. Katherine Potter here. Jason Janzik here. Mindy Hartman here. Next up we have community input. I nobody's here so there is no community input today so I'll skip that. Uh next up we have the fiscal year 25 amended budget hearing. Mr. Shepard. Yeah. So as uh we discussed this really this entire fiscal year we were going to need to amend our budget most likely in the event that we had a successful referendum in which we did. Many thanks to our community again for supporting uh that uh uh that effort. As a result uh the amended budget that you'll be
002uh asked to approve tonight uh uh eliminates the $2.4 $4 million uh expenditure that we were going to use uh our maturing investments on a capital improvement uh and instead we're reinvesting those funds. Um it also takes into account the fact that the Maplewood property uh was sold. Uh it takes into account that we purchased new property using those funds. All of that is accounted for along with the referendum bond funds that we issued in December. Uh it also uh it also moves uh uh funds from our O andM fund which is one of those funds that uh we have been challenged on in the past through tax challenges. Uh we're making roughly a million dollar transfer from that fund to capital improvements uh to further our capital improvement efforts. So those are really the
003big reasons why uh we needed to amend the budget. All other parts of the budget are remaining the same. Uh, and so I' I'd be happy to answer any questions. Uh, but we would be recommending uh, the board approve the amended budget tonight. May I have a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 amended budget as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? I do I do want to thank uh, Mr. Shepard and his team. I know that there's a lot of uncertainty when you're putting together the budget, a lot of guessing, a lot of of that, and we did know that this was coming. So, I do want to thank your team for for doing that. Thank you. Any other comments? If not, if we could please take a vote. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes.
004Bridget Sandlin, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Jason Janzit, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Stacy So, yes. Okay, that motion is approved. Uh, next up we have the approval of the monthly bills and payroll. Uh, did anybody um we'll go to discussion, we'll ask questions after. May I have a motion to approve the monthly bills and payroll budget as presented? So moved. Okay. Any discussion? I would just add that on this item, we appreciate the board's flexibility being that the last day of the month, June 30th, was also our board meeting. Uh it just made sense to bring this to uh to the board for approval tonight. Uh that way we have more time to get checks out. It will uh hopefully lessen the amount of outstanding checks that we have at the end of the fiscal year,
005which in turn will make closing out the fiscal year uh a lot easier for our team. If there's no questions, can we take a vote, please? Darling, yes. Bridget Sandlin, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Jason Janzit, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Stacy Salt. Julie Jetty, yes. And that motion is approved. Next up, we have the approval of the 2025 2026 school year interim administr administrative team. Okay. Um, may I have a motion to approve the 2025 2026 school year interim administration team contracts addendums for Dr. Jennifer Thomas, interim superintendent. Mr. David Shepard, associate superintendent of schools. Miss Evette Rivera Wigle Wiggle, associate superintendent of schools, and Laura Dorler Dorfler, executive administrative assistant to the superintendent and board of education as presented. Second. Any discussion? Uh, Mr. Darling, uh before we vote this evening, I'd like to take
006a moment to share my thoughts on this interim superintendent plan before us. Uh over the past several weeks, I've had meaningful conversation with staff who have voiced concerns about this transition. I want to thank those individuals for reaching out. Your voices are valued and have played an important role in shaping how I view this decision. In weighing our options, I kept returning to the two essential questions. How do we keep the momentum of the past two years moving forward for students and staff? and how do we do so in a fiscally responsible way, especially with contra uh contract negotiations ahead. While some may see an external retired interim superintendent as a neutral bridge, I developed serious concerns as they learn more about the cost, often between 750 to a,000 or $1,100 per day and the
007potential impact of bringing in someone who doesn't know our district, our vision, or our culture. There's a risk that a shorterterm outsider might inadvertently stall the progress we've worked so hard to build, or that a staff may simply wait out the year without meaningful forward movement. From a financial standpoint, I also found it difficult to justify spending close to $200,000 on a figurehead with limited long-term investment in our schools, especially when we are asking our staff and community to make thoughtful, sustainable decisions. The plan before us allows us for continuity, preserves district momentum, and is more responsible of the use of our resources. Continuity matters, especially during transitions, and this approach helps us preserve that stability. That being said, uh Dr. Thomas, should the board approve this contract, I expect you to maintain the same
008consistent and highly visible presence in our buildings that Dr. White has demonstrated throughout his tenure here. Both our students and and staff deserve that level of presence and engagement. I also want to be clear. I recognize that this there may be areas of growth uh that is needed with this interim administrative model and I'll be vigilant alongside my fellow board members in ensuring that those areas do not negatively impact the growth of our students and the support of our staff. This plan is clearly defined as an interim plan and the long-term leadership of the district will be determined through a full and inclusive search process beginning this fall. I strongly encourage staff and community be to be part of that process. Your voices will be critical in helping us find the right leader for the
009future. The situation is not ideal and none of us would have chosen the timing, but given the circumstances, I believe this plan strikes the right balance between leadership stability and financial responsibility. And I'll be supporting the recommendation tonight. Thank you. Well, I was going to say I wanted to say something, but I think Mr. Janzik just summed up what has been a month of very difficult phone calls, very difficult conversations had amongst the board, amongst our administration team, amongst the staff, amongst just the community. So, I'm not going to try to follow up. I am just going to share that I think you took the words out of my mouth. I think we agree on I agree with everything you just said. Um, I look forward to conducting our search. But I really look forward
010to and thank our administration team for stepping up for taking on this very hard responsibility for a year as we conduct this search. But I think that working together as a D26 team is going to be the best way forward for us. It's for one year and I think we're going to have a very happy year at the end of that is my hope. Well, I believe this is best for the district, the kids. the alternative is far more costly, far more disruptive to the progress we've made, and um there's nobody ha would have a stake in the outcome of the district the way that our administrative team um would. And I do want to say that Dr. Thomas has shown a lot of integrity um when she's truly needed. She's come through for us
011and she gifts us um that information when needed most. And so, um, I'm going to put all my faith and backing behind Theo and, um, the administrative team here, and we are going to find, um, work together this year and find the next great superintendent. So, thank you all of everybody, including Jason and all of his comments. Any other comments? I just have one thing. I just um I also have heard concerns about where we're going forward and stuff over the past two months. Um, but I hope everybody here at this table remembers that they are stepping up for us and helping us out in a pinch and we need their help. and making demands of them, I think, should be maybe put to the wayside a little bit and understand that they need to
012move us forward and remember that we are a board of oversight and we need to trust them um while we look for a new superintendent and not make unnecessary demands of them as we go forward or tell them ever that they're making their own job descriptions. Thank you. Any other comments? We could take a vote, please. Bridget Sandlin, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Jason Janzic, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Stacy Saul, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Motion is approved. Before you go on, can I just say one thing? I didn't want to do it before the vote. Um, but one, um, it's I feel a very awkward situation because I'm the one who put you all in this spot. Um, I have apologized. Evette told me to quit apologizing, so I'm not apologizing anymore. I've said
013my sorryries. Um, but I will say this is a very innovative way forward. And I would say that I've never worked in an organization where three individuals work so well together and collaborative. Um, the work that has been done was not me. Um, it was the team at the table, all four of them, those individuals that work in the admin center, our building principles, but most importantly our teachers because they are the ones doing the work in the classrooms each and every day. I don't get to teach anymore. Um, unfortunately, um, but I just want to and I'll say more next week, but I want people to realize that the momentum we have is within them. um I just helped set a vision, a way forward, but they're doing the work. And so I just
014hope people continue. And I think you have um an amazing team, not just the three, but also um Mr. Daroo that will continue to support this district um and move um us forward in a good direction. Thank you, Dr. White, for saying that. I really appreciate it. Gives great insight. All right. Uh, may I have a motion to adjurnn this meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? Yes. Okay. This meeting adjourns at 5:43. So we'll break now till 6 o'clock and then we'll start up for the cow. All right. I call this committee the whole meeting to order on Monday, June 23rd, 2025 at 6 PM. If we could please take a roll call. Katherine Potter here. Jason Janzik here. Mindy Hartman here. Stacy Salt here. Julie Jetty here. Darling here. Bridges Hanley here. Hey,
015next 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. Next up is community input. Did you sign up? Okay, we'll skip that section. Uh, next up we have the approval of previous meeting minutes. The approval of the minutes from May 19th, 2025. There were no changes, no notations from anyone. Okay, put that on the consent agenda, please. Next up, we have discussion topics. First up is the treasures report. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Shepard? you want me to go I'll I'm gonna go through and do the the highlights of it.
016Uh we won't hit every single slide, but there are a couple things that I'd like to uh touch upon. So, uh the first thing that I'd like to touch upon is the revenue. Uh the revenue is coming in uh pretty close to in line with where we expect. Uh the one note that I'd make on section is that in the month of June, you'll notice that uh we received our first uh rounds of property tax installments. Uh and actually they've come in at a higher pace this year than they did uh in the past year. So uh the month of June may look a little inflated depending on whether we can allocate it uh to the proper fiscal year. So um it's it's been good to see that those uh revenues have been coming in
017and coming in strong. Uh with the expenditures, uh again, they're coming in right in line with where I think they are are going to end up. Uh I will caution the board that I I do think there's going to be some tightening in June. Uh June is always a very expensive month. Uh not only do we have the summer payrolls that are lumped in before the end of the fiscal year, but it's all of the various uh um invoices that we try to get in the the current fiscal year, so we're not burdening the the the next fiscal year. So, it's going to be a a hefty month. Um, I still think that we're we're doing uh uh fairly well. We'll get to that in just a minute with the the the cash flow slide.
018U month end fund balances. This just shows how we compare to uh this at this point in time last year and where we're going to end up. Uh and you can see that we're ending up uh at the end of this fiscal year ahead of where we were last year, which is where we want to be. Uh on on this slide, the the main takeaway is that uh the expenses in a lot of categories were actually down uh compared to the same time last year. Uh while our revenues were were actually up, our property tax revenue actually started coming in at the very end of May, which we were thrilled about because we don't generally see that. Uh generally our our first uh installment comes in early June. Uh again, no surprises here. our model
019is holding up well compared to our budget. Uh that that uh variance uh that you see in local funding that again is the the property tax. I anticipate that'll be rectified in the month of June. Uh there's also an element there. Keep in mind that we're we're anticipating an additional amount of money uh from maturing investments uh that we're not going to be using. We're going to be reinvesting those. Uh no major changes with uh uh debt or or capital projects. Um, we have started to receive invoices for the the work that's going on uh this summer and uh uh we'll be hearing later from Mr. Martin in his inaugural presentation uh to to the board about the the progress that uh we've been making so far. Finally, the cash flow slide. You'll see that
020uh again those infamous lines, they do not cross. Uh I think that uh our surplus here is inflated. Um I really think that it's going to tighten up in the month of June. Uh I would anticipate uh running a very slight surplus. Uh probably if you had a timy to a figure two three $400,000. Uh but I do think it's going to tighten up as as we uh make sure all of our expenses come in this fiscal year. Uh and you can see our operating fund summary for each of our operating funds. Um keynote here. Yes, there's a lot of red there. Just a reminder that is especially for fund 20. That's a fund that we've been trying to spend down. Uh we've been trying to spend down the IMRF fund, fund 50. I think
021I've been trying to run a deficit in that fund since I got here. Uh and we just haven't been able to do it because we've never been fully staffed in a lot of our IMRF positions. Um so I'm thinking we're going to be drawing that balance down. So we should be shielded from uh tax challenges moving forward. I can never guarantee that, but I think we're in a lot stronger of a position now uh than we were this time last year. Uh there is our investments. No major changes here. Uh you will uh see uh some new investments being made in the month of in when we cover the month of June. Um we uh reinvested one of our investments that matured. Uh we had the option of 3 6 9 12 and going out
022a couple years. And actually the best rate of return was I believe a 3-month uh option. Uh that had the highest interest rate of I think the interest rate was about 4.2. 2 uh%. So, uh that was uh that was uh nice to see. Uh so, we're continuing to work with our partners at PMA to make sure that our our funds are invested wisely. Uh and you'll see we earn $53,000 roughly in interest on our bond funds. And again, any of the any of the the the funds we raise in interest, that just further enhances our capital improvement projects. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Articulating. I know I like to ask you about the lines crossing. And I don't know that I'm going to that you're going to have
023an answer for you tonight, but I'm just going to kick out the thing I'm thinking about and we can talk about it, but at what point do you feel we have sufficient funds where those lines can cross, where we are okay spending more than we bring in for a year? when do we have the cushion from your perspective? So, I actually think that we're in a good position if that were to be the case now. Um I would not advocate for doing that year after year. Um but if there was a difficult year where we had um unforeseen expenses, uh uh I think we are in uh well enough shape to be able to withstand that. Um take this year for example. Uh I was looking through some of our onm accounts uh which are
024over budget. I can pinpoint why they're overbudget. Kerry Junior High was the chiller issue. Uh when you subtract those unforeseen expenses, our budget number was actually pretty darn close to what we would have ended up spending. So, uh, the fact that I think you were able to see all that red on, uh, those operating operating funds, uh, I think is a testament to the strength, uh, of the district that we have high enough fund balance, uh, to be able to withstand, uh, unforeseen expenses. Any other questions? Okay, hearing none, uh, next up we have the fiscal year 26 budget. First look, Mr. Shephard, I see the the treasurer's report was just my warm-up for the the main feature. All right. So, we are pleased to present uh the tenative budget for the 2526 school year.
025Uh before I dive into this, I I meant to touch about this uh in the treasures report. I just wanted to commend uh my team for their work. Uh uh as the board knows uh we received the the certificate of financial excellence again for our reporting and our transparency. Um those reports are made possible by my team members. Uh if it weren't for them uh I can guarantee you our reports would not look nearly as pretty. Uh so kudos to the the business office, their hard work. Uh they really go above and beyond to make sure that this district is in solid financial footing. With that said, let's dive into the 2526 uh budget. Uh so we know based on our strategic plan, one of our pillars is fiscal responsibility. Uh we aim to maintain
026a a balanced balanced budget. Let me try to get back on here. All right. Uh, goal five, fiscal responsibility, maintaining a balanced budget. We know that the board approves a a resolution every year um mandating that uh we create a balanced budget. Uh we deliberately budget for recruiting and trying to retain exceptional staff. That uh is one of our pillars uh and create a proactive capital improvement plan that address current needs. Uh we are actively working on this. That's going to be part of a a two three-year project as we uh spend down our our our bond funds. Uh but then prepare for future building needs to we we've talked a lot about getting on to a a standard rotation of repairs. Uh making sure that uh we're not throwing everything off to the last
027minute. Uh we are actively working to to get to that point. Uh so some of the the the purposes for the budget uh we know that the FY26 uh uh budget continues to invest in the the various changes that were implemented in FY25. Uh a lot of our curricular gains, our instructional framework, the curricular adoption cycles, a lot of those gains that we've we've really celebrated over the last couple months. I think back to the the last board meeting where we talked about our our successes with our our EL uh program. uh a lot of our budget resources go to make sure that we're maintaining those programs and continuing to invest in in what we know works uh so that we can continue to build s uh sustainability within our district. Uh just as a
028reminder, the FY26 tenative budget goes from July 1 uh to June 30th. Uh and we do maintain a balanced budget and provide the district with flexibility to handle those unex uh unexpected events. Um, I will always show you uh at least as as long as uh economic conditions are what they currently are, um I will always attempt to show you a budget that uh is balanced but also has some emergency uh funds built built into it uh so that we can um try to um save off any of those unforeseen challenges. So, some of the unknowns, uh, this is probably one of my favorite slides putting this together because there just really are so many unknowns in in school district budgeting. Uh, and, uh, how how often is it where you have to create a
029budget and you start it before it's approved, right? Uh, that's just the the nature of the the game that we we face in in education. Uh, Illinois national economic conditions, obviously, that's at the forefront, I think, of federal issues with uh, the tariff concerns. How is that going to to handle pricing? Uh especially with our our capital improvement projects um you know state funding distribution delays uh that are starting to get pretty lengthy in in certain parts. Uh and we know the state is is starting to experience some fiscal difficulty themselves. Uh so we are attempting to work that into the future budgets. CPI changes. Uh what is CPI going to do on top of all the economic certainty that uh that is there? Of course, we know that our our revenues are heavily tied
030to CPI. Uh and then of course continued staffing shortages, reliance on contract agencies. Uh we'll touch briefly on that a little bit uh in a little bit. Uh but that is also a big concern uh and was a huge drain on the FY25 budget. Uh I think our final tally for contracted services, which was primarily nurses, I want to say uh was just at a million dollars. Uh and then uh we had uh roughly $330,000 worth of outsourced uh transportation expenditures. So it's it's a huge expense that the the the district incurs uh every year. So some of the revenue assumptions that we use when we when we build the the budget uh the levy collection rate 99.5% uh we have a historically strong uh collection rate. Uh the CPI for uh levy year 2024
031was 3.4%. 4% uh for this upcoming year. The levy that I bring to you in the fall will be based on 2.9 uh%. Uh evidence-based funding we know is going to increase. Uh we basically use last year as a guide uh for this year's budget being that the state allocated the same uh level of increase uh for this upcoming year. Uh CPPRT funding drops uh by about 50%. We're anticipating that to go back to precoid levels. uh which was about $250,000. At one point in time, two years ago, we were getting $1.2 million from that tax. Uh that uh was obscene then and it's coming back down to to earth. Uh federal revenues return to pre-COVID levels and stay flat. Uh we are anticipating, and this is a biggie right here, that the reimbursements from
032the annual transportation claim uh and Medicaid reimbursement are going to be slashed by about 20%. uh specifically the the transportation claim. Uh there was no additional funds allocated to the the state budget for this and this has been an area the state has been neglectful of for many years. Uh so while they continue to appropriate money to transportation claim, uh the amount of money is remaining the same but district expenditures are continually getting larger and so the amount that goes to each district uh continually starts to to dwindle. So we have slashed that by about the 20% in this budget. Uh and again we've continued to budget for increase in interest revenues. Uh we will need to keep an eye on that for future years because I I cannot uh uh see the district continuing
033to make uh as much as we're currently making off of interest. I think that's going to come back down to earth as well. Uh but for this upcoming fiscal year, we are showing that to be relatively high. So the revenue summary, you can see how this uh this breaks out in comparison with the prior uh fiscal year. Uh you'll see that uh the tenative revenues are actually lower uh this uh fiscal or for fiscal year 26 than in fiscal year 25. Uh that takes into account that we're not using any of those investment maturities. Uh but it also reflects that uh u reflects the the lower amount of federal funds uh and some of those reduced state funds that uh uh we anticipate. Um moving forward, I really think that our our budget revenues uh
034is going to be focused right around that $40 million mark. Um I don't think that we're going to see a budget next the following year that goes lower than this. Uh but I don't think we're going to see our revenues inflate to 446 million like they were during the the the pandemic. Uh so just in comparison with the prior year, you can see that uh uh we are primarily funded through local sources, property tax, uh registration fees, uh and then the state and federal uh are smaller chunks. Uh but you can see that uh uh you know local funding it says that it's coming down. Uh but that again is because we're not using those those um investment returns. When we look at it uh in pie chart form again local funding accounts for about
03580% of our revenues. State and federal funding uh is a much smaller chunk. Um this is what gives me uh some uh relief especially with the uncertainty at the federal level. Uh 4.6% yes it is a significant chunk of our budget. Uh but it would be uh a lot more nerve-wracking for me uh if uh we were a primarily funded by the federal government. Um we are going to be able to withstand what whatever craziness transpires at the federal level. uh and we're going to be able to do it better than uh many districts that rely heavily on the federal government. When we look at revenue by fund, again, you'll see that a lot of our resources uh go towards the education fund. Uh we may have to uh look at that in the the
036future and take some of those funds and and you'll the board is aware that we've been running surpluses in the education fund uh for quite a few years. That's what allowed that fund to become so strong. uh we may need to reallocate some of those funds through the property tax to hit some of our other funds if they become too low. On to the expenditure assumptions, our our salary increases uh 3.55% uh was the average increase for CA. Uh we use that uh percentage for non-UN and administrative groups. Uh our CESPAR rates increased uh to reflect the new contract going into effect July 1. Uh that was when when we were in negotiations, I was working on my budget presentation. I had that marked as one of our biggest unknowns. So the fact we were
037able to settle that and get it in in time for the first look in the budget really takes a large unknown off the the table. So uh those compensation increases have been factored in uh to this this budget. Uh and we also uh have budgeted for a full-time superintendent, both salary and benefits. Um we know that Dr. White will not be here uh in the superintendent capacity. However, uh those extra funds there again, that could be some emergency funds that we we could use elsewhere uh that we're not spending on the superintendent. Do do you anticipate if we decide to go with a firm for our superintendent search that that funding would come out of that kind of line item in the budget or do we have money set aside? could, but I also uh
038put uh uh what I think is enough um money in a board account uh specifically for the superintendent search. Great. Thank you. U if the superintendent search were to be more expensive than anticipated, yes, we could draw on those funds uh for that endeavor. U benefits, insurance costs, medical projected to go up 7%, uh dental 5%. This is actually a smaller increase than it was in the past. I think last year it was something ridiculous like 10 12%. um which was uh definitely designed to make up for the the COVID uh years. Retirement contributions remain split 50/50 between employer and employee is one of the things that I really appreciate about this district is that it's really a shared effort retirement um split between the employer and the employee. Uh no changes to employer or
039employee contributions towards premiums. Uh there were no changes to the CESPA contract in that regard. Uh and uh uh we are still following the CA contract. uh purchase, service, supply assumptions, uh we increased most supply and purchase services by about 1%. That's that's a very minimal uh amount. Um purchase uh services and supplies, that's really the one area that we can control or we have the most amount of control over what we we purchase, right? We don't have much control over salaries and benefits. That's pretty well uh you know, charted out. Uh but this is an area that uh uh we feel pretty confident that we can uh increase by 1% and a lot of that's coming in the O andM supplies which we've seen um really uh go up in in price. U but
040Mr. Martin has done a nice job of of searching for the best deals uh so that uh we're maximizing our our buck. Uh we know that uh the price for custodial services increased um from I think we were supposed to we were supposed to pay if the contract would have gone through this year without the custodial drop about $548,000. Uh that went up to 797. Um the bus lease increased to 615,000 for the 2526 school year. uh special education services for outside support is expected to remain high although we we're hoping that that is going to start coming down in in the near future. Uh same thing with contracted services um projected to remain high but decrease in the future. Uh outsource transportation services uh to remain flat uh but we are hoping to make
041decreases here. One of the the parts into in this budget that we are proposing to you is that uh the transportation department uh purchase a van uh that will allow the district to go on further uh longer distance out of district runs uh at a much more economical price than driving a school bus. Uh we know that our our transportation center for the most part is fully staffed now. Uh so we have a driver uh and this is one of those areas where if we can uh bring some of those out of district transported students back in district for transportation uh we really can save a lot of of money there. You're talking $150,000 uh of savings right there year after year that we're not relying on a cab company uh for that. So, uh,
042that is one of the things that this budget does feature is the ability for the transportation department to go out and and purchase a a van or uh uh some sort of smaller vehicle uh to transport out of district students. Uh the expenditure summary uh you'll see uh the difference between the 25 and 26 tenative budget. Uh the one thing I'd like to highlight here is the total expenditures. the 51497019. That's a huge number. And for someone who's looking at this on on Zoom right now, uh you're probably thinking, "Well, wait a minute. I thought you said you were running a balanced budget." Um we are. Uh we are running a balanced budget because we look at our operating funds. Uh the 51497 that takes into account our capital improvement projects uh that are funded
043through the bonds we issued in December of 2024. We have those funds. that are currently been recorded in this fiscal year, fiscal year 25, now we're drawing those down over the the future year. So, while it may seem just at face value, wow, you're running a a pretty hefty hefty deficit there, we're not. We are simply spending down those those bond funds that uh we have accumulated from the bond issuance. Um, so I anticipate that over the next couple years we're going to see budgets where the revenue stays fairly consistent, but you're going to see uh expenditure the total expenditure number be pretty high as we work to draw those those funds down. Uh so just how uh the the two budgets compare, you'll see that uh salaries, benefits show minor increase. Same thing with
044purchase service. The biggest uh increase there is in capital um because of our capital improvement projects. Uh and again this slide is skewed by the the capital improvement projects. Um the actual amount of resources that go towards our our education fund are substantially higher, but when you include that that big chunk of referendum spending in the overall budget, it does bring down that overall number to the education fund. But for the most part, our education fund is uh the fund where most of our resources are are utilized. Uh transfers uh we know that uh uh the budget is the ideal time to authorize transfers. Uh that's the generally the time that I like to do it. I'm I'm generally not a fan of of just bringing resolutions to transfer money throughout the year. I like
045to do as part of the budgeting process. Uh so this budget does feature some transfers. Uh we know that started in fiscal year 24 uh we could no longer pay the bus lease from the transportation fund. Uh so we have to thank you the great state of Illinois. We have to transfer those funds to the education fund uh from the transportation fund to the education fund then to the debt service uh fund. So it it's like the the L in Chicago. You just go through all the the stops. U there are no other proposed transfers at this time. This could change uh depending on where our our fund balances end up at. If we start to notice that uh you know the the revenue pictures are are much better than we anticipated, we may start
046moving money more money from some of those uh operating funds to capital. Um I don't think that's going to be the case. I think we're in a good spot, but uh uh if we need to u amend the budget, I would imagine we'd be doing it around this time again next year. Uh reasons for amending the budget would be a a fund transfer or um the fact that our our capital improvement spending did not line up perfectly with how our budget um uh projected them to be. So bottom line by fund, you'll see uh how what our projection is based on the FY26 budget where we're going to end up with in each of our our funds. And you can see that uh we are anticipating a pretty heavy expense in capital. This takes into
047account not only our referendum spending but also our our spending for our transportation center which is being funded um through uh proceeds from the the village and uh funds that the district had previously earmarked for that endeavor. Uh you'll notice that we are are anticipating that the IMRF social security fund will will run yet another deficit. That's by design. uh transportation. This one is not necessarily by design, but more reflects the reality that our transportation funding is being squeezed. Uh if the transportation claim is higher than anticipated, u that number will come down. If we're able to bring more if we're able to transport more of those out of district students uh inhouse, that uh deficit figure will decrease. Uh but that's where I think we would end up at now considering the same rate
048of spending um that we we've had this past fiscal year. Uh our debt fund of course is um debt neutral. Uh the money comes in and it goes uh to pay our our our our bond payment. Uh on&m is another one of those areas that uh um we're anticipating a pretty pretty hefty uh expense year. uh this is to take into account uh unforeseen expenses that we have with some of our older facilities. We do anticipate that this would be an area that over time as our buildings are modernized that we will start to see some savings. Um I would also highlight that in the month of July we are working to bring allied facility partners uh to the board. Uh they are currently working with the high school district on a um solar project
049putting solar panels on their their roof. uh they are going to be doing like a energy analysis uh for us uh and also uh look at the feasibility of putting solar panels on our roofs uh to try to help lower our our utility costs. Um we thought this was a good project to uh have them get started with our district and in the long term we hope that they continue they can help us uh realize some more cost savings. So be on the lookout for that in July. So bottom line in total uh the FY26 tenative budget uh has a beginning fund balance that is is inflated that takes into account our our our bond revenue uh from the referendum. You'll see our total revenue uh figure uh and expense figure. And we do anticipate
050our ending fund balance being at about $26 million. That is I I believe our current uh um fund balance is around 20. Uh so this is still higher than we're we're currently at. Uh our operating funds which are education on& and M transportation, IMRF, social security are all balanced. Uh um when when you put them all together, they they do uh equal a a balanced budget. So a lot of this spending is simply uh spending from from capital improvement. And of course operating fund balance is about 47% which I believe uh the board has dictated 25 or or 30%. So again, I I we're in a pretty good uh position with our our fund balance. I I threw this slide in just because I like to see uh where we're going in in the future
051and where we've come from in the past because there's a lot to celebrate here as this district has made tremendous amount of gains over the the past decade and a half. Uh and you'll see that in 2025 when we end this fiscal year. Our fund balance is projected to be quite high due to our revenue our referendum proceeds. Uh I would anticipate 26 and 27. and you'll see some fluctuations there as well with the fund balance as we work to spend those funds. Uh but then by 28 and 29, uh you'll see that level off and you can see there's no big increase, no big decrease. Uh that's what we like to see uh when we're doing our projections. Uh so some of the budget highlights. Um again, uh the we're continuing to invest in
052the initiatives of the past two years which have shown solid growth. uh included in the FY26 tenative budget uh the adoption of the UFly foundation's early literacy curriculum uh which uh aligns to strategic plan goals one and two uh investment in new financial software skyward we had started talking about that this past uh fiscal year uh implementation of I already benchmark assessment to enhance student goal setting uh and support differentiated instruction uh renewal of various curriculums um enhancement of our multi-tered systems of support to provide uh support for all of our students. Uh ensuring equitable enrollment opportunities and compliance with language uh access requirements, continued investment in technology infrastructure and improvements. That's been a big focus of our referendum funds. Uh and the implementation of resource allocation to support instructional software tools uh that are
053strategically aligned with the district's uh framework. Uh kudos to uh to Miss Rivera for taking on the task of really streamlining our uh our um instructional tech offerings uh and uh helping the district realize some savings there. So again, current areas of uncertainty, supply chain, economic concerns regarding construction projects. Uh the future negotiations with the CEA, those will be upcoming. Uh it's important to note revenues for FY27 will be based on a CPI figure of 2.9%. Historically CPI is about 2.5% 2 to 2.5. Uh state funding uh is always a concern. Uh and uh we will be updating revenue numbers uh as they occur over the next two months. There's still some updating that needs to happen uh in that area. Uh so just a review of the the budget timeline. Uh this is the
054first look. Uh next week you will be voting to place the budget on display. Um that that's the the whole point of that action. Uh what that does is we then take the the budget, we post it online and I print out a copy uh for all the eager uh community members that want to stop by district office to um go through the budget. Um and it has to be on display for about 30 days uh per state statute. Um we will publish uh the legal notice uh in the paper. Uh we anticipate uh providing the board with updates either in your your weekend review or at the board meetings uh in the months of July and early August. Uh and then we have this slated for approval with the budget hearing and approval in
055August, August 26th. Uh we will then file it with the county clerks uh and ISBY. And then the next day we will begin working on your tax levy presentation uh for the the fall. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I don't have any questions, but I I wanted to echo your congratulations and thank you to you and your department for your excellent accounting. Once again, we really appreciate the transparency. I really didn't have questions. If I was going to make any suggestion, it might be just to put a reminder on this the bottom line slide of how much we're pulling out of our referendum money. Because when you do that, our budget doesn't really change all that much. We're really not spending down the way you're projecting. It's like 130,000 I
056think is the change in growth once you take out referendum money. And I'd be happy for the budget hearing I'd be happy to include a little more information on that particular point for that slide. And that's all I've got for feedback. Otherwise, congratulations. Any other questions? Sound control set up for the people that are going to come in to look at it. I prepare our office receptionist every year. I say, "Here's the budget. I I want to know as soon as someone comes to look at it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Shepard. Uh, next up we have district policy manual review sections seven and eight. Mrs. Potter to I'm totally unprepared for this. You want me to help you out there? just um let me I'm learning here how to use this iPad still. Um, we
057went through I went through sections seven and eight and I only I only brought the student athlete concussions and head injuries really after um asking a question about why are we you why is the language IHSA? Um, and why are that I mean I just submitted questions and and this is one that we were going to go back over as a board. I Dr. I can add to that if if that's okay. So that that was the question and on this list it's number three that says requires all student athletes to view IHSA video about concussions. So I did talk to Mr. Shirley, who's our assistant principal at the junior high, as well as our um athletic coordinator at the junior high. And uh because we're an elementary district, we actually follow IESA, which is
058the elementary equivalent um which does not require all student athletes to watch the video. They do we have a concussion protocol. There is training that is done for all the student athletes. All of the coaches do have videos that they have to watch. So, they are trained in that. So all of that is in place, but it's not through IHSA that we don't have that same rule to have all of our students have to see the video from IHSA because we are IESA, although most of the concussion protocol is aligned. The two are aligned. Um so that's why that line is highlighted. Um so thank you Mrs. Potter for bringing that to our attention. So, I think the thought on that was since we are not governed by um IHSA and we do not have
059every student athlete watch the videos that this line may uh come out of uh policy. I'm I'm going to push back on that. Uh just being a former coach, like having the kids and it's not the most exciting movie, but it's very informative. Um there's a lot of peer pressure. Uh suck it up, get back in there, rub some dirt on it from peerto-peer. um and having the it's 15 20 minutes out of a season and letting the teacher letting the student athletes realize the gravity of of concussions especially at this early age might be helpful. Um so I would be in favor of actually keeping it uh just for the safety of our our students. Yeah. I mean so one of two ways. We either take the line out because we're not doing it
060or we then have that video shown to all the student athletes. either are great. We just want to make sure our practice is is reflected in public. Absolutely. So, I would I would I would say keep it in. I I have to tell you, as I was listening to the explanation, my gut instinct is why aren't they seeing the video? Like, this is very serious business. The studies that are coming out tell you one, two, three concussions could be lifealtering. So, you might as well learn it as soon as sixth grade. I would be with Mr. Janzic on this one and very pro education on on this. So, we'll keep that in there. The policy will be unchanged, so it won't come back then next week. And then I will talk to Mr. Shirley and
061make sure that he uh sets that up with all the coaches to make sure all the athletes in each of the sports um have the video and watch the video. Thank you. Thank you for looking into this, Dr. Thomas, and then explaining it to everybody. Okay, next up we have the press issues 117 and 118 policy update review. Dr. Thomas, so this is the first two rounds of our new press plus service, uh, issues 117 and 118. So, um, I hope I found that it was much easier to look at these policies because now it's our current tailored policy with just the changes recommended um, on there. any change that was done that was very minor. So we've sometimes sat through many policy meetings and changed the number five to the word five and things
062like that. All those happen automatically and don't come to the board. So anything that's just a change like that. If it's a change just in the um uh legal references, the legal references are updated to reflect that. Um, so the ones that are in the packet today, there's not we have some questions that we want to make sure, but these are all uh policies that had something in there other than just those kind of minor updates. So, we wanted to make sure that the board had a chance to look at each of those. Um, but again, the bulk of these changes are not significant. So, I'm going to just go through each one just to point out what the change is in there. Um uh but again with I think one exception we would recommend
063that we adopt the changes and I'll talk about that one exception in just a moment. Um so the first one is um 4150 facility management um and building programs. The primary change is sort of right in the middle of the first page there um where it talks about um uh the total cost not exceeding they changed it from 12,500 to 17,500. this is to be more aligned with um policy I think it is 460 that has the um spending limits that we have $25,000 for single purchases um that we can't spend more than $25,000 on a single purchase without board approval or $35,000 on like supplies and materials and things that are go that go out to bid. Um so this is adjusting that in ch in light of the change that went from 25
064to 35 on the one portion of our policy. Um so that's a change and um and what happens it's and this is specific to buildings and grounds. The other changes on really just to legal references and updates. So our recommendation would be to make that change. Um, but because this was a financial one, we wanted to make sure the board um had a look at that and if you wanted to keep it at the 125 or a different amount that you let us know. Say, is there anything that I I can't think of an instance where the buildings have been permanently altered before with something that hasn't come to the board. That usually comes as part of a building update of something that we're talking about. But I don't know that anyone has spent 10
065grand on flowers or signs or whatever without talking to without without us having a full discussion. So I'm kind of indifferent to the amount. I took that as like an economic update of hey everything's more expensive. You're not ever going to spend this much. This is your new threshold. So I'm in I'm generally indifferent to which number. And most of larger building projects are not $17,000. they're, you know, a million dollars or, you know, they're quite a bit more. So, and they go out to bid because they're over 35. Feel strongly about one number or the other. I'm good with the press recommendation. Yeah, I'm good with the press. Okay. Consent agenda. Okay. For that. Okay. Um, the next one is for uh colon 170. That is safety. Um the change is really at the
066top of the second page. Uh and it's about AEDs, the automated external defibrillators that requires at least one AED uh to be present in each district attendance center during the school day and during any district sponsored extracurricular activity on school grounds. So we actually already have that. In fact, most if not all of our buildings have two or three now that we have gotten um Mr. Martin got us the grant and we got some additional AEDs that are portable. So we actually exceed that currently. So, we would recommend accepting that. Do we have the expectation of our coaches, let's say cross country, that if they're running in the field here or the 24-hour run, like there's an there's a portable AED on site, or would they have to run into the building in that situation?
067Have we put that expectation in our in that situation, they would run into the building, but we do have now the portable AED. So, actually, those are times that we could have an AED outside if it's not if and we have a couple of portable ones. that if it's not being used on a field trip would actually be a great place to have them. Gotcha. I don't know if that would be a policy or just an expectation from the buildings or I think just an expectation. We just need to let because we have we have them available. We just need to let them know that's the procedure we need to take those out. Thanks. Everyone good with consent on this one. Okay. The next one is 6235. And this actually has the section that u
068for the board to really consider. So this um adds on the second page an entire section about artificial intelligence. This is optional. Um we have not at this point we have not um accepted the um any AI uh updates. Um but what it basically does it just talks about AI and then it um says that the district has to develop an uh district-wide AI plan that addresses our approach. Ensure that AI enabled tools comply with state and federal law. ensure that staff receive training and students receive instruction on the use of AI and that we review the district's AI uh plan and AI responsible use guidelines on an annual basis and update them as needed. So this is still an optional section for uh policy. So uh it really is just the preference of the
069board if we want to go down that path now if we want to do more work in investigating what we want to include in that. We don't currently have those pieces in place. So that would be something that we would have to work on and put into place. So this would I'm guessing this would be Lynn, right? Or would this be Miss Rivera in terms of developing the AI guideline use or a combination of both? Yeah, it would be a combination. You can go ahead and do that. And it would um Mr. Fitz Simmons would also need to be involved in that. So a collaborative effect, right? Um, I I don't want to speak for the board here, but I think getting out in front of it, if this even puts us out in front
070of it, I think this puts us closer to the front of it, uh, would be would be a good idea. It's it's pretty ubiquitous right now amongst the around the schools. So, I think having a policy where we're teaching responsible use um, and then also having consequences for when it's used inappropriately um, would be helpful. And I think this starts the ball rolling down that path. So, I would be in favor of adding this, but again, that's just my voice. Um, I actually had a question that this policy brought none of what you said was wrong. AI, I watch it be used and abused daily in work. It's not pretty. People need to remember that AI it doesn't actually think for you and you still have to think. And hopefully that's probably the meat of
071the message that our students will get is that you still have to think. Um the vague question I had that might help me think about this is um and I think it's for Mr. Mr. Fitz Simmons is you know how Google and Adobe and everyone else is enabling like AI stuff. Does our policy automatically kick that off so the students can't access the AI generative summaries generative predictive text things like that or are those maybe on maybe off or we don't know at the moment and if you don't know at the moment that's okay things like Gemini are from Google are not turned on on our domain at this time. uh we block other things like chat GPT and things like that from our students using them at this time. Perfect. So the students can't
072use it on our devices, but as soon as they pull out their cell phones, they certainly can use all of these things. And it's naive not to think we have to do something. So I think we I'm with Jason. I think we need to consider this as a board and figure out if this is the plan or if we need to tailor it to what we do here because it's probably impacting what maybe like fourth and up. I don't know that. I don't know how young they're picking it up, but it's a thing. It's It's not going away. I feel like we can't really add any like keeping it off until we do step one, which is developing a district-wide plan and how we're going to Yeah. Well, I think this policy gives us the
073authority to do that, right? Is that Am I understanding that correctly, Dr. Thomas? That Okay, we you know, have if we put this into place next week, right? Then we've charged the administration with developing step one and then following through on steps 2 3 4 5. Is that right? It would require us to do that. Um we also you could still charge us with doing that. We could just hold on this policy for now and bring it back once we've had a chance to go through and work on that development which hasn't happened yet but it's something that we could still be working on in the meantime if the board wanted to do that. What would be a reasonable time frame to have that completed? That is a great question because this one's brand new
074to me, too. Sure. There's your curveball for the night, is Rivera. Yeah, if you were asking for it to be done by the end of the summer, I would probably panic because I think there are some key stakeholder conversations that need to take place. Um, just like any of our other curricular review type things, we want to make sure we have right voices at the table and that we've done our due diligence of research. Um, there are pros, there are cons, there are things that are real right now in our classrooms. Um just recently talking with junior high teachers who were doing ELA curriculum mapping. You know, they talk about the student who chooses not to do the assignment in class, but then comes back from home to the class with this well-developed uh you
075know, paper with vocabulary that they don't typically use. Um so it is real, right? And so I think that there are just key stakeholders. So, if you're looking for a reasonable timeline, I would say this coming school year, it could be definitely something that we can um put at the forefront. Sure. Like like a January 1, like have the stakeholder meetings in that first trimester, first try and first half. I would say, yeah, we could use the first trimester as a hey, let's let's figure out what the game plan is, right? I don't want to necessarily commit to a game plan right here, right now without researching what would be an effective approach to do something like that. Um, but I would say for sure given the first trimester, that would be a sufficient time
076to be able to say, "Okay, here's kind of where we're headed." Okay. Um, with the we can set a goal of let's say January 1st, January board meeting. Let's give you that month too, right? So, yeah, I would be in favor of that too. I think you're right. Having those key stakeholder conversations. What are you seeing? Right. What needs to be addressed? Because I would imagine what needs to be addressed at Briargate and Oaknull is different than what needs to be addressed here. Um, but making sure that we address all of that. So, sounds like great conversations for our technology committee. Well, actually, I was going to ask, have you thought about AI detectors? And then what role would the teacher is it is it up to their um just not their discretion but how
077are they ensuring that it isn't AI that's being used or is it just the experience of the student and knowing they don't use this vocabulary or are we going to have tools for them to use to sort of detect and deter so yes and currently it is more of the latter than the former where they are just going based off of what they know and how the student typically right like how you how you talk and how you interact in class discussions maybe what you submit in class um all of that is very telling and so they're using a lot of what they know with their relationships that they've been building with students uh I say yes and because I think we also do need to equip our teachers with understanding it kind of feels
078like the wild wild west with AI, right? And that's the reality of where we're at right now. And so being able to educate and empower our educators with the knowledge of AI is where I believe we are at currently. How can it be um leveraged in a way to enhance student learning, right? And bring them into this 21st century uh experience. But at the flip side of that as well is what are the things that we need to be teaching them, right? You still need to think for yourself. So none of that has really transpired. I would say right now it's teachers just doing the best that they can with what they have. That is our current reality. Okay. But conversely, just to add to that, empowering our teachers to use AI to unpack standards,
079etc. Right. So like having a plan for that as well. I think that's something that we can flush out in uh in step one here too, right? Like it can be a powerful tool in planning and all the things, right? Um but guidelines, guardrails, as Dr. White likes to say, guard rails. I'd love to know how we enforce three when there are no regulations on AI as it stands. I'd love to know how that happens. So um they D you asked that sorry not me. Yeah. Okay. When I was at the the triple I conference I did attend the AI um seminar and I guess are we does D26 have AI? it are we using AI in the classrooms are the students using it are the teachers using it so to Mr. Fitz Simmons point,
080there are certain AI features, right, that they don't have access to. However, if we're typing in, let's say, Google, that right there is going to tell you if there's misspelling, right, or things of that nature, that we can that's somebody or something else thinking for us. So, if you're saying chat GPT or if you're talking about the other platforms, no, they do not have access to those. No, I mean like if we are using if our district uses like I ready that is a form of predictive like AI in in like a way I'm not calling out I ready in particular but the different programs that are able to like differentiate the in yeah stuff like that is a kind of use of AI right so to clarify feel free to jump in on this
081AI, NWA, a lot of them have an added AI feature where the students can interact with that whatever tutor name it is. Um, we have not selected to be a part of that. Okay. What you're talking about in relation to like they take an assessment and it is um identifying where they're at. That is data for teachers. It's not something that the students are interacting with where it could manipulate anything, but it's still a form of AI. It's just not I'm not saying like that children the students are in it's not a whether or not it's not about whether or not the students are interacting. It is not my question or the staff. It's just the district has AI as a in in different forms and and has is using it as a resource because
082I would say correct me if I'm wrong but a teacher has access to chat GPT on their computer. So yes there a student wouldn't have access to chat GPT a teacher would. So yes. Yes. Carrie 26 and it is and it is uh in uh and so AI is there's so many different forms of it and what it looks like and it's going to keep progressing. And at the conference that they they did say um if your district is using AI in whatever form um you need to have a policy about it. your district should except the issue is is that we're waiting for the state guard rails to be approved. I I don't know if ISBE has come out with those guidelines yet or if or No, not that I nothing that I've seen.
083No, it's like it's fixed it. It's been like it's been approved. everybody's just waiting for them. And I and I believe the last time that I was reading policy or something um they had said August, I don't know if you've heard that that the state would be coming out with guidelines. Um, but the big takeaway from the triple I conference seminar was is if your district in whatever capacity is using AI, there needs to be some kind of policy in place. And I think that this is really super generic. I think I I don't I don't think I could do better. I would just say never ever use it. But um that's me. But I guess that this is is is generic. And I do think that um we have policy that addresses the misuse
084of generative like images or something or is I don't know if that's coming up later in this packet. Um, but I think that there is already policy that addresses the misuse against like of AI in the buildings and stuff as part of like a discipline thing. But that's like what I don't see in this part, but I do think it is addressed somewhere else. So I was just gonna So the IASB has captured um the federal guidelines of to develop um that is to help school districts build their their um their AI plans as well as those those responsible use guidelines. So there is a starting point that's that's been released um and it's on the ISB website. Um, I was asked about this when I came on board to Carrie. And I think also
085the the challenge for all of our districts are to create a policy and guidelines that capture what we want to do to be able to kind of monitor and track, but AI exists everywhere at this point. So to really make sure that we have a good a broad enough policy that's protecting our students, protecting the integrity of the assignments, instruction on both sides, I think from the staff point of view and from the teacher. Um, but I've always been hesitant to create a policy to really capture to understand where does AI exist right now in our everyday. I mean, when I log into my my Outlook now, it is there regardless if I want to use it or not. So, I think that's the challenge and and I believe having all of those individuals at
086the table to have those conversations. Magic School is one of the big AI tools right now. We don't have a subscription to it as a district, but I've had salespeople reach out to me and give me a list of 25 of our teachers that are using it and how much they're using it. So there it's going to be hard to capture it and say there is no AI or to even kind of quantify it is. So I think more general and kind of going around misuse and what are the goals of AI for the district to use would be a good direction. I do agree with with Miss Potter. I think regardless of what side of the coin the board falls on regarding this language. I think it's appropriate because it doesn't necessarily say a
087plan has to be developed by this date or it does it says that this is happening. So, just like with other policy, the board establishes the policy and then that gives administration the charge to then work through this plan. I think it would be okay if all of this wasn't done right away. But I think as long as there was work moving towards that, it would be appropriate. Or if the board wanted to wait and not do the language until that was done, I think that'd be okay, too. But, um, I think it's just a challenge all the way around. And that's why I've kind of been hesitant to even put a policy in place because I don't even know what I'm writing it about. Totally. And that that was the issue at the at
088the triple I what do you do? But if you're using AI, you have to have a policy or but how do you address every different aspect of AI and how it's being used? And I it's just my cons my con from the balcony of the district is we need to um in my opinion train this the staff because that's going to be there is a big security risk involved with AI and the ability to look certain ways and look legit and stuff that could that could pose security risks as well um to anybody who's on the district system or at least that's my understanding of how computers work. Um but um I'm I'm fine with having something in policy since we are using it. Um but that's I I'm not really even sure, but since
089yes, the district is using it. We need to have something in place. I don't know about a certain date. I don't want to um put more on your plate or anything, but um I don't know if the state's going to come out with something in a month. As long as this gets the ball rolling, right? Totally. Proud Magic School AI user. Unabashedly proud. It's a phenomenal tool tool. Um it's it's really really powerful, right? And so as long as this allows us to get the ball rolling, right? and make sure hey is are we still doing this and we don't have to necessarily hold our feet to the fire on the January 30th right um I think this would be helpful to include and to that end um also the training component right um using
090chat GPT to write IEPs there's some certain privacy issues that come into play that if Jason Janzi has a you know LDBD situation and my case manager types write an IEP for Jason Janzic and puts it into chat GPT now my name is in the ecosystem, right? Is our staff aware of that and and getting out in front of those trainings and making sure that the staff and I'm not I'm not picking on special ed in this case, but this just the example that popped into my head. Um making sure our staff is aware that we can't necessarily put kids names into a open system like like chat GPT um and do they know that making sure that there's responsible use not only on the teach on the student side but also as on the
091teacher side as well. So, I would be in favor of including this uh including this add forward. I don't know if I've heard any opposition from board members about it it being in policy. So, is it okay if it goes in consent? Because I what I think I hear is everybody's okay with this, but I think a lot of the conversation is what are the next steps after that? And I think that's a longer conversation. Should we set like a time though to come revisit it? Can we just say, "Hey, Jason, we'll we'll go with that January date to re to just see where it's coming like, oh yeah, we'll push it once once we have meetings again. I think we're not having it until after school starts, correct?" So then we can So January
092at the very earliest for sure. Maybe even further, but yes, sure. We can put that down as a status update in a in a meeting. Okay. Um the next one is 7.60. This is um about residents. Uh just one change at the top of the second page and it is language that is added based on uh a law that went into place. So it um just talks about um according to an inter governmental agreement including but not limited to an agreement for interd district transfer of students and uh who are parents expected parents or victims of domestic or sexual violence under 105 ILCS uh 526A. You're going to see that language come up in a couple of different policies. That was a new law that was enacted and that language is um has been added
093to a number of policies based on the law. All good with consent. Okay. The next one is truency. This has a couple of um updates. The the main two I think are really on the first page. So the uh center third paragraph down middle of the first page talks about um valid case for absences includes and it adds in their attendance at a uh verified medical or therapeutic appointment including a victim services provider. And a little further down for students of parents um again here's that language. Uh expecting parents or victims of domestic or sexual violence. Valid cause for absence also includes the fulfillment of parenting responsibilities and addressing circumstances resulting from domestic or sexual violence. On the next page, there are a couple changes that are really just single word changes, but that those
094are the primary changes on that. Are we all good with consent? Okay, next one is 7190. That is student behavior. Um, and there are a couple changes. Um, the I would say there's a strikeout on one section of section six because it was moved to its own section which is number seven and it actually is information about sexing and a policy regarding that. It gives a definition and then talks about that it is not allowed is essentially what that language is under number seven. Are we all good with consent? Um and then the last one is 7255. This one would actually be new to district 26. And this um goes along with what I said about the other ones. This is 7255 is students who are parents, expecting parents or victims of domestic or sexual
095violence. And it is a policy that the intention of this policy is to make sure anybody falling into one of those categories has the ability to still access the curriculum. um and essentially get their degree. They need to be able to do that in an elementary district so that they can in a secondary district be able to graduate. So the information that's in there, again, the whole policy is new, is really aimed at making sure people in those categories have the ability to graduate from high school. Are we all good with consent? Yep. And that is all of them. So that's all of those two additions. And just uh today we got or maybe it was Friday we got the next one. So um the next uh issue I whether we'll do that in uh
096we'll do it in July if we can. We haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet or August. But the next um policy pack will come out. It will only be one at a time though. So it should only be a handful. in board. I'll be sending you a copy of the 119 edition that came out. It came out after well, I didn't see it until after I sent you the weekend review on Friday, but I'll be sending you all that one out so you can take a look at it prior to it coming before the board. Okay. Uh, next up is the approval of the math savis adopted materials. Miss Rivera, thank you. So just to clarify what will be six years ago in this coming school year um Kerry 26
097adopted Envision under the name Pearson. At that time 2020 Pearson was bought out and became SAVIS. So that's why it says SAVIS now but it is still the same curriculum that I'm going to be talking about today. Uh the same one that you adopted six years ago. Thank you, Miss Potter, for catching that, by the way, that clarification. Um, all right. So, starting with our board goals, uh, as we know as a district, we try to ensure, um, in our power that every decision that we make is for the benefit and the success of every child. And so, today's presentation is really centered on goal one, student success, and goal two, the learning culture. So I want to walk you through first the math committee process and then I'll share with you uh the proposal
098as a committee uh our math team which was uh consisted of educators ranging from kindergarten to 8th grade in addition to administration. Um we began by analyzing and discussing our district-wide data as it related to mathematics. From there, we then engaged in some professional learning and reflective discussions centered on what were those best practices and had some pretty open and honest feedback conversations related to the implementation of SAVIS. Um, it was brought to my attention when I looked at the adoption timeline and through the educators on this committee that SAVIS or Envisions we'll say envisions was adopted during CO. So the integrity of the implementation was a bit compromised due to the fact of this pandemic. Um it was out of anybody's control and so that did though have an impact on the way SAVS
099or the way envision was rolled out. Um to nobody's fault as educators I was in the classroom at that time. You were just trying to figure out how to be the best teacher you could be for students during a pandemic. So what that meant was some of the more rigorous learning components of Envision were removed out of the curriculum and then didn't really make its way back into the curriculum when we came back from the pandemic. And that was some of the honest feedback that I received from the educators here in Kerry 26 through the math committee discussions. Um, I do want to do a quick shout out to them and thank everybody that was on that committee um because they had some of the most honest raw conversations possible centered on mathematics and just
100the current state that they felt uh carry 26 was at. So, we did survey the committee to determine next steps. They were given three options. The first option you'll see in blue is to renew with Savis Envisions for another six years to focus on curriculum mapping. And you'll know that is what we chose to do because we've been focusing on curriculum mapping. Um and basically was let's choose to renew so we can hit the ground running with curriculum mapping and then this coming school year for 2526 we'll focus on professional learning for our teachers. The other option was to schedule um a February March uh a meeting with I Ready because we knew that we were looking at I Ready as a potential assessment platform. I Ready also has a math curriculum. So we threw
101out the potential of then having them come in to look at their math curriculum or we could use March through May to go through the full process that we typically do when we are evaluating uh publishers. They had time to talk through that, the pros, the cons, and ultimately 76.5% of our staff on that committee opted for let's just renew based on the premise that they themselves said that what Savis and Vision has to offer was quality stuff. They just hadn't implemented it with integrity. And so what they needed and what they told me they needed was professional learning and then those curriculum maps to get us back to where we need to be with math implementation. So then we spent this past school year 2526 developing standards by trimester and a district-wide curriculum maps
102for grades K through 8. The next slide takes you through how we determine standards by trimester. Um all the bullet points on the left they are hyperl. So, families or anybody wants to go and explore them, you're welcome to see what we used. Um, but essentially, and I wish I could show it to you, and it might not make sense because it's just a hot mess of different colors, but what I did was I took all of the ISBY state standards and mapped those out for each grade level. Then I pulled the AR assessment of readiness mathematics blueprint. That's what you see in the center visual. It tells you the percentage that certain standards are found or show up within the IR assessment. So then I was able to go and identify which of those
103standards show up the most on an IR assessment. Then I pulled the Illinois priority learning standards um and then I highlighted those a different color. So by process of elimination, I was able to identify which standards would show up the most across whether it was IAR or whether it was Illinois determining it as a priority standard. So then we prioritized those standards to be taught prior to trimester 3, which is when the IR assessment typically occurs. So then from there, what you see the third picture are the standards by trimester. That's trimester 1 for grades K through 8. I wound up creating the same thing for trimester 2 and trimester 3. Share that with the staff to get input from them. And then what they did was say, okay, that's great in theory. Let's see
104if we can put it into practice. So then came the curriculum maps which is on the next page. What they did is they curriculum mapped and said, "Okay, trimester 1, here are the standards we're supposed to get through. Let's open up our Envisions books that we have currently and let's go through all of the lessons from beginning to end to see does it fit and if there were certain standards that maybe needed to fit within let's say shift from trimester 1 to trimester 2 that was possible because it was still going to be taught before trimester 3. So teachers were able to go through to actually now make it reality not just a theory. So this what you see right there is a draft form of our math curriculum maps that exist for every grade
105level kindergarten to 8th grade every trimester. So every lesson is going to be clearly detailed and then we can actually check off that we are in fact teaching and leading instruction with the standards. We'll get to a point where then we'll follow up with our formative assessments to ensure that we are assessing our students rigorously as well and mirroring uh the question types of like part A, part B, the way they see on AR, giving them that preexposure. Um we're not there yet. The first part was just to get solid with the standards and to ensure that we had lessons that addressed every single standard. Any questions so far? You guys real quick? Um, so Miss River and the team, um, and and myself, I use a website called edreports.org. It's a third-party, um, kind
106of think tank research. They research tons of, um, curricular materials. Um, although I love I Ready, Envisions is rated, it meets the criteria. So, it's green in all grade levels, all categories. the most important being rigor. It scored, I think, at every grade level 18 out of 18 points. So, I think the piece Miss Rivera brought up um and I appreciate the teachers being candid is really making sure where that we're not watering down those lessons and the activities. they're there for a reason and just making sure that they then have the support to know how to implement those um well cuz sometimes I've been in the classroom where you're just given a book and told to teach but if you really don't understand the why it's constructed that way I think we're losing out
107on some good stuff that's already in our classrooms we just need to make sure our teachers have the support so they can do it well and as I've shared previously these curriculum maps along with every other content area will be up on our teaching and learning staff site, not the public main site, but we do have an intranet. So that means that during new teacher orientation when we're meeting with those new educators, we literally will pull up that staff internet site and let them know here are our curriculum maps. This is what it looks like to teach here in Kerry 26. And now we've set this expectation and standard for everybody that comes through. And then we'll follow it up with professional learning to Dr. for Dr. White's point. So, now comes the SAVIS um
108K8 math renewal proposal. Um we know that we have a budget of 500 to spend on curricular materials and I'm always trying to look for a good deal uh and and haggling with the publisher as much as possible. Um what you see in front of you is the K5 renewal contract for six years. Please remember that grades K2, you'll see both English and Spanish because Spanish math is taught in Spanish for this dual language program in K2. And then there's English obviously for the general education monolingual classrooms. Grades three through five, you only see English because then that core instruction shifts to only English. They'll get additional enrichment opportunities through win time in Spanish if they are demonstrating that they are at grade level and ready for that next uh level of of uh enrichment.
109So the contract for the six year uh six years for K5 comes out to two uh 256,695. And then when we move to the 68 contract renewal, that one is 129,121 with 40 cents. So in total, what we're looking at is 385,816 with 40 cents um for another 6 years uh to sign on with um Envision Savis, formerly Pearson. Any questions that I can answer at this time? Are there reoccurring costs like with consumables or anything? No. So the six years. Yeah. No. So the consumables this is all like grouped into it. So the price point here includes their online platform which we will be shifting to their most recent online platform um which gives us all the updates and uh bell what is it bells and whistes. Um in addition to the consumables. So
110the consumables are included in this price point as well. So one of the biggest issues we had when we adopted this six years ago is that this was new for our teachers and then COVID hit and the PD centered around the switch was subpar if not non-existent. Um, is it possible to polish up your negotiating skills to have maybe a day's worth of PE or PD available or negotiate that into the price? I don't see it in the contract right here because we are still in the process of discussing that. That's why it's not included here, but it is a topic of conversation. They have different models of like train the trainer models. So, we were looking at potentially uh doing something with our instructional coaches. um we were going to set aside time to
111have them come in and meet with the teachers, but they have different offerings. So, it is a conversation um that will be included. Okay. So, so it would be included in the It's a Let me rephrase. It's a conversation that we are currently in that I will wind up bringing that back to you, but this is just for the curricular resources and materials. We want to make sure we're really thinking through the PD that we are bringing to the table. related to here's where we're at as a district. Here's what we've done with curriculum mapping. This is the direction we're headed. And please Yes. I mean, it was some part obviously out of their control in some part, but then also it just the teachers didn't feel supported at all. So, we have that wiggle
112room, Mr. Shepard, my understanding. Right. There's 115,000. It's not going to be that much, right? But it's it No, but just making sure that our teachers get that support as we Yes. build into another six years of this. We're looking at, if I can recall correctly off the top of my head from our conversations, we're looking at like a $10,000 price. Making that a priority, though. I appreciate I know the teachers will appreciate that, too. So, thank you. Are you trying to tell us that with PD negotiations, you're still looking at coming in 20% under budget? Yes, sir. You missed that slide. That's a good celebration slide. We like that slide on our end. I can do the math fast. Congratulations. Um I like anything that sounds like you're coming in under budget. Um and
113I assume the $500,000 budget is one that's kind of worked out big picture by you. It's not. Okay. Well, that's generally been the number that the department has used in the past and I've kept that. Uh um there's I think was one year where they went over, but we had other funds to cover, but uh Mr. Rivera's done a nice job of sticking with that that budget figure in this case coming in under budget and again that's uh goes back to that flexibility of the budget those funds if needed can be used elsewhere or to enhance other uh parts of our curriculum. I will say part of the strategy is also recognizing what it is that we currently have. And so since we're sticking with the same publisher uh Deb McDonald I cannot thank her
114enough for what she does. She is the heartbeat of the teaching and learning department. she has um extra materials. She always has enough in the event there is a classroom that is added. It's also looking into those materials to see what we have cuz then when it comes down to assigning what number of materials we need, we may not need as many because we have an excess already. So, it's tapping into what we already have in addition to what we projecting what we might need. I like the famili the familiarity that the teachers will already have with this curriculum. I think that that's really important. Um we're not trying to throw new maps and and all that. I actually think that the the curriculum mapping I have no idea what that was until you showed
115up here and started talking about it. So I do think that that is going to to be some of that support. I had no idea. Um, when I saw this on the agenda before I saw the presentation, um, how are we supposed to, um, as a board decide or determine the effectiveness of this curriculum that we've been using? Are we supposed to look at the end ofear STAR data? Like, how are we supposed to do this? But, um, I I am in support of this. I like how you're how you've explained it. I I totally understand that the implementation was um flawed, but um not by any not by not not staff or any um situation other than that. But um I like that we're going to give it a go again and with the
116maps, with the support and um I appreciate that because I I think that that it doesn't add extra stress on our staff either. There's a lot of familiarity with it and for the students. Correct. You hit the nail on the head. That was a reoccurring theme in those very honest conversations with the staff where they had said if they stick with this because they recognized it was quality. They're like we don't have to learn a new curriculum. We can just focus on the professional learning. Like let's get back to the basics of like what is quality math instruction. How are we ensuring that we are engaging students um in a way that you know I love this quote because it's not just about the procedural process of doing math right but it's the the part
117about can they understand it can they talk about it can they go on a deeper level it's not just about 2 plus two right where I think that is an archaic way of looking at math is it just can you just plug and chug and complete it. That's no longer what students are being asked to do. There's a conceptual understanding to mathematics that we're missing in our instruction right now. And that's what the teachers are like, it's familiar to your point, and now we can truly just focus on this professional learning to get us to where we need to be, the mastery of it. Yeah. And I see and I see what you're doing, Miss Rivera. I see it because you're you did with the ELA. We started with the English language art ling English
118um reading and because math is not just two plus two like it was it is fullblown word questions. I've looked at the envision and and it's very complicated. You're not going to be successful without that base of the reading. So, I really like this and I and I see what you're doing and I just wanted to tell you I appreciate this and every all the feedback from the crew that you got too. Thank you. Is a question is 6 to 8 years typical contract term for this kind of platform? Yeah. So, I actually pulled um the timeline and I see Mr. Jansik shaking his head. Yes. Yes. method is um on average for the math curriculum back in 2005 there was a nine-year contract and then it went six years and then six years and
119now again six years and one of the things that I was trying to um provide our staff the committees who evaluate everything I wanted to get us out of this every six years you have to adopt something new right it's a every six years let's evaluate where we're at what is it that we need? And that might mean that we're sticking with the same thing and that's okay. Why recreate the wheel if it doesn't need to be recreated? And so I think that's uh a little bit of a shift as well because we stayed with the same thing for ELA and then we stayed for the same thing uh for math as well and let's just focus on the teaching practices and six years from now they may not like this one any longer and
120then what a great opportunity to pivot because we've really been able to just build up on the instructional practice side of things. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Uh, since we didn't ask for any further information, are we all going to be putting this on consent? Isn't it? Uh, yeah, it's over 20, right? Don't we have to vote on it if it's over a certain amount? Say we we we vote on consent and non-consent agenda items, but I if we want to see the presentation again, we could. I I agree. I don't have any feedback on this. No, I think I'm on board with I just want to make sure we follow the letter to the law agenda. We're vote we're voting on it. Yep. I can double check it and if it's on consent
121then you know you can and if I put it in action there but something told me you could. So I like my sixth year I'll Okay. Next up we have item 9.6 the streaming of board meetings. Dr. White. Yeah. Sure. So, this one um should be I just wanted to bring this to the board's attention because there were lots of moving pieces at one time and I was like this is a conversation I want to bring to the board. Um there's not one way we fall on this. So the so again Miss Rivera and the technology committee has done a lot of evaluating um the various subscriptions applications that we have. One of the things we realized is we were paying for Zoom for the entire district and we also have Google Meets which does
122the same thing. So we are discontinuing Zoom as a district everyone having access to save money. Um but when that happened there's one piece that we wanted to bring to the board's attention to continue to use Zoom as a platform to um stream board meetings. it will cost the district $3,400. Um there's a quote in there um for that. And at the same time I got this why I wanted to bring it to you all is the the communication survey data that I gave you all a few weeks ago showed that we're getting um and um Mr. Fitz Simmons also pulled some numbers. We're getting low return on investment um for that. So, I just wanted the board to be aware of that if if we want to go in a different direction. Um, then
123Miss Dorfer also said she knew this was something that started during COVID, so she wanted to see how many boards were still both live streaming and uploading. Um, and so you have that information as well. Um, so again, this was just brought so you all were aware and you can make a decision of if this is something we want to continue to do, we want to continue to do it through Zoom, we will proceed as such or if there's different ideas or recommendations um we can look into that as well. I'm all for um doing away with the Zoom subscription. Um, but is there a reason like I know I brought up previously using uh YouTube since we're already uploading our videos using the YouTube Studio to also do live streaming right from there and
124then it'll automatically upload our videos. Um, so we did discuss that briefly. I think we would just need to make sure that we gave our technology department um the opportunity to investigate would that work for us, but I know that was one item or one idea that was brought up. Um if again if the district I mean if the board decided yes we want to continue to live stream. Sure. Then what is the best way or the most cost-effective way to do that? Yeah I I I feel it's part of the transparency. It's in our it's in our board policy. I feel it's transparency. It um not this is not a convenient time for most of our families um to be watching a meeting. Um, I did see that our website at the YouTube, um,
125we had 2,123 views. There's 37 videos. That means 57 views on average per video. That's 57 families that were able to watch. That's 57 people that were able to watch. So, I mean, I I feel it transparency wise. If it's it shouldn't be it should be less work for us to be do all of this directly on YouTube. There's a 24-hour I tried it with my own account. It's a 24-hour wait period. All you have to do is activate it. There's no charge for it. Um, and you can then start live streaming. The village of Carerry does their meetings that way. So, uh, my input on the matter is the live portion of it is less important than the video recording and archival access to it. I think the transparency and the ability to go
126back and view it for whichever families are watching it. To me, that's the valuable piece of the video recording. We have the transparency. We have fidelity. People can go, you can go get the fact checks of what was said tonight because you can go watch it. It being live streamed for four people at a cost. That one's the harder pill to swallow. So, I don't necessarily have a preference on how it's recorded. We obviously own a camera. It can be recorded and uploaded. It can be live streamed and uploaded. I don't know that I feel very strongly about it being live streamed now that hopefully we're never going to have another pandemic again. Um, and if we do, we can always pivot and re reook at the live stream need. I think the video portion
127is the important part. I would agree with Mindy on that too. As long as it's posted in a timely manner too, um, next day or within the policy, I think you have 48 hours. Um, I think that fulfills the transparency part of that. I would agree. Does anybody Does anybody know why we're we're using Zoom still to do this? It has like um I have received, you know, feedback that why do we have to sign in with our name and our email address to watch these meetings? you guys are the only ones that are doing that. Um I I don't know why we're doing that. I guess I would like I completely agree with everything um Vice President Hartman uh just said I and um about the video, the recording actually being the uh most
128important thing, not not necessarily live. I am a little bit disappointed though that we're not, you know, I'm not I'm not the person to look into it, but um that there's no like alternatives or anything kind of what are we supposed to do? I I don't I do believe that this board um believes in um communication and and transparency with the community. I do believe it's in line with strategic plan goal number four um to to do our live streaming uh among other policies as well. Um as long as we can make sure that there's equitable access and stuff to it. I I think and and again uh what Miss Sanlan said um having the videos up in a timely manner um however we do it I I think it is important to keep going
129forward with this. Okay. Yep. And this conversation was exactly what we needed. I think before um anyone invested time looking at a bunch of alternatives, we didn't want to do something and the board says no, we like Zoom. we want to keep Zoom and we want to go that direction. So, we just want to be sure of that. Um, and then we can investigate and look at some other ways to still have the video footage, have videos collected, um, and and to still make it um, accessible to the community. So, that's exactly what we needed. This was, again, like I said, this came up at the perfect time that we got the communication survey data back. We were ending Zoom. We were doing the reink. So I was like before we try to decide what
130we believe seven people want to do, let's go ask you all um what direction you want to go in. So I believe we have enough information to kind of move forward some ideas together before you move forward. Sure. Um so all those other districts, they don't post to YouTube or live stream and that's more than the ones that do. So, can you just So, we're averaging 4 minutes of viewing time on the video on YouTube. So, nobody's really watching it anyways. And how many people are logged on right now? One. So, how much So, yeah, we'd save the 3,400 for the the subscription, but how much I guess of your time do we save by changing it? Like I mean like how much are we I it seems like so little. I don't want to
131say waste of time cuz transparency is important but like I feel like if nobody's that's not and that's not a lot of people. It's it's just not and there's so many districts that don't do it. So I guess is it making your life easier to change this and and everybody other people's jobs easier who's ever doing it? because it seems like four minutes on whatever 50 videos, that's just not a lot. It's not a significant amount by any means. I know transparency is important. I just am kind of on the fence about it because it feels like it feels like a lot of work with no return because people are not coming. People I don't know about you, but I'm not getting constant emails about something that happened tonight. So, it's like I I get
132it, but people aren't doing it. Like, we've give we give them everything. We've given them we we are transparent. We've given this them this for years, but nobody's tuned in. Not well, very little. Can't say nobody. So, I'm sort of I'm definitely I guess the minority but on the fence about this one. Making your life easier would be very important. Making the whole district everything easier would be very important to me personally. I've been thinking about this for a while and I guess I on the same topic um in in to what Miss Salt was saying um yet there are a few um people who are uh tuning in and that could just be because some of these meetings are um uploaded like a month later. I don't know. But we do send I was
133thinking about how can we increase um because that's part of our job is to have the community um engagement and to have that um outreach and to ensure that they are that the community knows that their desires are being represented here as well. Um, and I was thinking, well, our district, I don't know if it costs I don't know. I'm I'm thinking, right, so this is where I've been. I don't know if it costs every time that we send out an email that says school gets out at noon today, like on half days. I don't know. Um, I know that D155 has um you have the ability to sign up to if you're like me and you just want to know what's on the agenda or whatever, you can just sign up and we'll send
134you the agenda as it comes out. I don't know. I I think that we as a board or as a district or something, we could probably promote our meetings a little better, whether we put it um out in an email or have people sign up who are interested or say, "Hey, this is we're having there's a meeting tonight here in our socials." I don't know how you guys feel about that, but I feel like we don't do any of that either. So, it's not like a huge surprise to me that nobody's except our f our number one fan is here, but I mean like um and non relative by the way. Um, but other than that, I mean, I don't even know if you have any idea or why you come or keeps bringing you
135here, but I I feel like we could do better uh with outreach. And I don't know how the board feels. I'll give you a quick the only quick push back I'm going to have about more emails coming is how many we are like While we may not communicate about that well, like as a district member and as a parent with two kids in the district, the amount of communication sometimes I get is overwhelming and I'm going to miss this announcement just like I might miss I don't know the other thing that I missed. And I know you were telling me about the end of the fifth grade thing that I missed. Just there's a lot of communication. So I don't know that it's about the amount but just about the ease or the routinness of
136you will find this in the same location every time. That's my That's my feedback is one more district email is one more that confuses me. But you need to reach people you need to reach people that don't have children in the That's other parts. Yeah. Um and we do get a big turnout when there is something pressing like um in the in the community um like when with some baseball fields and uh you know um so I I think that you know even when we did our last superintendent search we had a good turnout and stuff. So I I you know maybe we do maybe this is we're spending a lot of money on a few you know the in the vein of transparency but or just a few views. This is this is also
137an area where now we have a a a communications uh person on staff who's been uh maintaining our our social pages and currently working on revamping our website. We were just uh discussing over here. We've seen other districts where they'll send out like a a board brief um after the conclusion of of each board meeting. Uh perhaps uh we can talk to our communications uh specialist and and see if we can put uh start thinking about how we we could put something together after a board meeting that provides the community with uh the general um points that were discussed at the at the board meeting so that at least the community has an idea of of what is being discussed in a nice short simple format. Uh we've oftentimes seen uh uh districts then post
138it to their social media um uh pages as well just to kind of get it out there to uh to the community. So that's something that we can discuss uh uh internally on our end to see what suggestions we can come up with to help uh the transparency effort. I actually like that because I think um something like that's more likely to be posted, I don't know, on the mom's group or on the district 26 voice page, you know, like that's more likely to get around than clearly these videos are or this live stream is cuz people are addicted to social media and their medias, right? So, I I think that's probably a better idea than continuing to require all of this for such a little return. And it's a still a way to be
139incredibly transparent. I just want to add to the idea that um I was about to say Dr. Sheepard, Mr. Sheepard uh shared those are also things those are also communications that get archived that people can go to and access at any point. So what goes and and any community community member was able to sign up to receive that. So you have to just be a parent, right? And then if you signed up for it after that board meeting, it went straight to your inbox. And then if you ever wanted to go back and look at other ones, you could go back to the archive on the district web page to get access to all of that. Um, but it was basically like the Chicago Tribune but for the school district. So I think, you know,
140the goal, like I said, was to have a conversation and to get the board's input. I think um speaking with um Miss Neil, Mr. Fix Simmons, Miss Dorfler, and kind of thinking about what are some ideas or or some or some strategies that we could have to get the information from the from the board meetings out to the community in a more preferred way. We can bring that as well as other alternatives to possible continuing to stream. Um and then the team can bring those back. I won't I won't have them by next Monday. So, it won't be me, but they could bring those back once they can kind of look at what are, you know, some some other districts doing as well outside of this, those that aren't doing the videotaping. Um, what are
141they doing to get that information out might be a helpful next step before any final and again, this wasn't to make a final decision about we're going to stop live streaming. It was just to make you all aware of the call. So I think we did hear um Zoom may not be the be the direction or it's needed any longer but we can look at alternatives in that way as well as like for example YouTube and there's some other um tools out there as well. So when you're coming back to us can you talk about more than just the dollars? Miss Salt just asked how long it's taking Mr. Fitz Simmons to and we heard set up and tear down something I would not have thought hearing an hour on each end that was immediately
142a surprise to me. So if if we could hear what that investment is too, I think that's a helpful point in the conversation. For me, it's um you know, it's the families being able to listen to it. It's our staff for certain meetings. We have union members that sit down and watch certain parts of our meetings when they're discussing something that pertains to them. Um, and I feel like personally I feel like a summary like it it'd be like looking at our minutes that are not really in-depth. They're not really telling the whole story about all the conversation that we had during a meeting and um it's one person's perspective of who's writing that, giving their summary of the meeting um and leaving out a lot of really great conversation that we have at these
143meetings. And we've already paid for all of this already. We've paid for the cameras. We've paid for the speakers. We've paid for all of this already. So for me, it's like that. What do we do with that then? Is that going to sit in a closet? But I I agree. I think bringing you back and bringing alternatives. But for Zoom, I don't think anybody loves Zoom. I mean, that's that's that to me is a go ahead, get rid of it. But perfect. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Uh, if not, we can go on to the next item, which is 9.7 summer construction update. Mr. Shepard and Mr. Martin, you're up. Yes. So, as as mentioned, this is Mr. Martin's inaugural uh presentation. uh he was very eager to to give the uh
144the board an update of of all the the happenings of this summer. And I will say that uh thus far from what I've seen when I've been uh at least at Briergate, it was amazing the transformation uh that occurred from the last day of school to literally two or three days later the the building was unrecognizable. And you never thought you'd see a cafeteria so full with all the furniture that had to be moved from all the the classrooms. So there's been a lot of good work that's uh been going on. Uh and I will quit talking and Mr. Martin is going to take over. Hello everybody. So yeah, uh a lot of work being done this summer at all the schools, not just Brigate. They're definitely the focus this summer. So, at the Briergate
145Elementary, uh we're getting uh projects going, the renovations. They're building new learning areas. Uh the gym floor this past week has started to took out the old gym floor. They're going to be putting in the new one this week, this this week, and next. Uh new LED lights, new ceiling tiles, uh basically a brand new nurse's office and bathroom. Uh, a couple new faculty bathrooms. Uh, painting all the classrooms. Uh, brand new roof. Talk about energy savings. Uh, it was a surprise to me when we were up on the roof the other day. 12 in of uh, insulation foam goes in on top of like the substrate. So, that was amazing that I saw. I was like, "What? 12 in?" I was like, "All right." And uh so that's definitely going to save us a
146lot of energy, you know, like uh with that brand new roof on there. Uh fixing up the HVAC, you know, like uh optimizing it and improving it. Uh the security upgrades, you know, the cameras are going in. Uh card readers and all the doors. Uh we're going to do new interior signage. Uh so like, you know, for the room numbers and um and areas, that's all going to get updated. Windows are coming at the end of August. Uh and uh the audio enhancements uh to help with the learning. Um that's coming in over the summer as well. And everybody's like, uh working very well together, collaborating to make sure they get everything done. Uh we've been taking a lot of pictures and uh we are working with u just Neil to get that onto uh
147our website like under the operations tab. We're going to have a new uh area called the summer projects and we're starting with this summer you know using the referendum money. So, um, the Brier Gate's definitely going to have most of the pictures on there. And, uh, we put out a nice big banner to thank you to for the community, uh, for, you know, believing in us and getting these, uh, buildings fixed up and renovated. And, uh, we put that out the other day as a big thank you like for for the support. And I I will just add that that banner is uh, generic enough that next year you'll see it out in front of Deer Path. Uh it's just going to travel around as we continue to renovate our buildings because we want to
148thank the community uh for the support that they've they've given us. And we like your savings, too. Yeah. And living in the Briergate neighborhood, I can tell you that that was a very nice step uh and appreciated by the residents both with kids that go there and without or that do not. So, thank you. So, Kerry Junior High School, like uh not too much uh going on here besides a lot of preventive maintenance, so we don't have those uh huge outlays for uh emergency situations. Uh we're going to be uh redoing a bunch of the spots in the parking lot out front um that have been worn out and uneven. Patching, striping in the gym. like it's been a while since the stage curtains have been fixed, cleaned or certified for fire safety. So, that's
149coming up as well. So, besides, you know, the normal like day-to-days, uh making sure everything runs smoothly here, um Carrie Jr. again is scheduled to get those big improvements in two summers, so 27 and 28. And deer path, we just went alphabetically here. So, Deer Path is uh coming up next summer. Uh but this summer uh we are doing um like bunch of the landscaping enhancements we took care of before the end of the year to make it look nicer. Uh we put some interior card readers in their vestibule. You have those two sets of double doors and the um the administration in there, they had to buzz people into that second set of doors all the time. and uh through another grant through Title One funds, we're able to get that paid for as
150far as like a security upgrade for them. Um, so their referendum improvements, you know, 26 27 school year and uh in the next few months we're going to do a detailed walkthrough of deer path to make sure we've got everything uh listed out correctly and then uh get going on those uh bids like in October, November so we get the best pricing and best contractors versus waiting till like uh uh later on in the year. Uh the planned upgrades uh right now we got the fire alarm panel that needs to be upgraded. They're going to get the audio enhancements epic system HVAC again and uh the security cameras. So next summer on to Oakn Null and our kindergarteners. So uh right now they're uh getting wiring done for like the security upgrades, all the cameras.
151Um, again, the audio enhancements, uh, that's, uh, scheduled to come in at the end of July. And same thing, crack filling and striping to make the the lot parking lot look better. So when you come into the school, it looks nicer. Can I um interject one second? What did we decide for the windows? Because those were on back order, right, for So yeah, I'm I'm I'm glad you brought the the windows up because that that has been a source of of frustration. uh the windows for Oakn Null, that's going to be a project that has to be done next summer. And and here's why. Um they discovered that the sealant, the glue that was used to install both the exterior windows and the interior windows in the the hallway, uh despite the fact the building
152had been renovated um at one point in time, I believe in the very late 80s, early 90s, uh contained asbestous. Um why there was glue being used at that point in time that contained asbestous is a mystery. Um we uh we were rather shocked when uh our environmental engineer came and told us uh this. In fact, I I told the environmental engineer that I I don't ever want to see him at a project site ever again. Um because it it really set the project back. Uh and you are right. There was some lead times with the the windows. We are most likely going to end up having to do the windows in uh phases during the fall. Uh but we can't do uh an abatement during uh school. So the abatement is going to have
153to occur the very early part of next summer and then the windows will will go in. Thank you. Right. Three Oaks. Uh so again, they're getting the security upgrades this summer inside and out. There's all the other buildings and the audio enhancements and again the parking lot improvements and then the transportation. So like our new sixth building it's coming up right. So u we were at the u the zoning uh planning and appeals like u that was all approved on the the 12th of June. So the next step, yeah, the they're they're um the village is in much more support of this project than the last one. So uh we're definitely getting a lot of cooperation from uh from them this goound. It's what I've been told. So I didn't I didn't get to witness
154any of that. So everything's been really nice, you know. So uh so the next uh approval date is uh on the 1st of July and everything looks like it's going to get approved and then from there we'll move on to the next steps uh as far as like getting uh permits uh secured like um the lighting comed items taken care of and then uh get some shovels in the ground pretty soon after that. When are they going to break ground? So, I was just going to add that uh we're really pushing uh our design team to to get out to bid as soon as as humanly possible. Now that we know that we've we've cleared zoning, we're most likely going to clear uh July 1st at the the village. Um we are going to be
155moving into the the bid phase. My hope, my goal is to have the board if we could approve a bid at the end of July, that would be phenomenal. uh more likely be August with the caveat that as soon as bids are approved, we're we're literally going to be um getting those shovels in the ground in early fall. And we we have the ability to um continue to work during the fall unlike during a normal school year with a school building where you're confined to working uh just during the summer months. So, as soon as they get going with their work, they're going to be able to work as long as the weather's nice. So fingers crossed that we don't have any snow uh at at any point in time this this fall or or
156winter, but uh we're hoping for early early fall. Yeah. So, uh fortunately that's all looking good this time around. Maybe it's me. Oh. Uh on that topic though, how is the current transportation center looking? Is it going to hold up that long? Oh yeah. Yeah. Um the uh Will Cabala like he's he's done a phenomenal job making sure that his little offices there are taken care of. And over this past winter we did uh fix up the HVAC, you know, the heating for the bus garage and seal it up real good. And uh Will's been adamant about uh saving the funds for the new building. So we're only doing necessary repairs there and uh preventive maintenance. Okay. cuz yeah, we were like when um I went to the Christmas party there, the people, you know,
157they can see the a light at the end of the tunnel and I think they're a little bit, you know, um more willing to put up with the inconveniences of that, you know, trailer and stuff because they know the new place is coming. So, yeah, it's definitely going to be night and day as far as like the facility. Yeah, it's long overdue. There's no saving the facility. We can uh celebrate with some uh sledgehammers. Thank you for the presentation. Yeah, you're welcome. And thank you like uh for this opportunity to take care of uh carry 26. Excellent. I love these updates. All right. Next up, we have 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
158adjurnn to close session? So move. Any discussion? Can we take a vote, please? There we go. Jason Janzic, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Bridget Sandlin, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. And the motion's approved. Open session ends at 7:59. 7:59 p.m. Where is the sheet, David? Do you have the sheet of signatures? Oh, okay.