001I call this regular board of education meeting to order on Monday, February 24th, 2025 at 6 PM. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. If we could do a roll call, please. Darling, here. Mindy Hartman here. Ann Sanucci here. Stacy Salt here. Katherine Potter is absent. Jason Jans here. Julie Jetty here. Thank you. Next up, uh, we have the community input portion. First up, we have a school highlight this week, which is Kerry Junior High. Mrs. for actually and Dr. Clauss. They have the wrong name on here. I didn't I recognized you. Dr. Paul's Dr. Claus was originally not
002to um was not going to be able to be here this evening, but her schedule changed and so we're happy to have her. I answer to anything. So, welcome this evening to Kerry Junior High. Um tonight, I am joined by a few of our Kerry Junior High students that I'll introduce in a couple of minutes. Um we're here to talk to you about Windtime. Windtime is one of our programs is our program where we deliver our multi-tiered systems of support to all of our students. So for 40 minutes every day, all of our students participate in wind time um with a v a variety of activities. Some students are looking to close academic gaps. Some students are looking um to make gains with behavioral or emotional supports. Some students are working on grade level materials
003and others are working on gifted level material. Tonight we have some of our general education students who have been through win and have been our trailblazers um this school year as we this is our first year with um win time. So I'd like to introduce our seventh grade students here who's Audrey Podic. Audrey, come on up. in the seventh grade curriculum. Um, actually, I'm gonna let Audrey tell you a little bit about our seventh grade curriculum. Hello, I'm Audrey Paddock. I'm in seventh grade. This year in win, we learned about public speaking and finding career paths. I think this is a very engaging and useful topic that everyone needs to know in the future. Um, what makes this topic so special is that no other class in Kerry Junior High teaches about this. Um, while
004doing a project in which you're finding a career path, many kids found jobs that they were interested in. For me, it was a patent lawyer. Not only did we learn about the job itself, we also learned about finding the job and gathering information into slides. Along with the project we had to present this strengthens public speaking skills and many kids got out of their comfort zones. So to sum it up I think we should continue to learn about this because this is important to know and can make things much easier for you in the future. I wanted to leave a little extra time if you guys had any questions about it. No. Okay. Thank you. Audrey, I um are you thinking about um joining speech team in high school or anything like that? Maybe. I
005mean, it does sound interesting to me. So, it's a really fun program for Yeah. at the high school level. Yeah. So, it's consider it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, like Audrey said, our seventh grade students study the 16 career clusters. They take um career inventories. They take the MyersBriggs and they start looking at what do their personalities match to? What jobs do their inventory show that they are leaning towards? And then they start researching different jobs um all in these different 16 career clusters and ultimately find one that they're interested in um that they give a presentation on to their class. Um and so they hone in on those research skills, those speaking skills um and um some career exploration which is also required by the state of Illinois. Um, so Audrey
006was so so excited about finding out about being a patent lawyer that she was talking all the time to Mrs. Brchier about that and so we thought she would be a great representative of seventh grade. So congratulations Audrey. And this year in our seventh grade we have a new curriculum or sorry in eighth grade. Um so 8th grade they are looking at um research and finding what their passions are and creating a passion project that they work to implement then throughout the year. So our students create business plans. Um they make business calls. They reach out to experts in the field in our community to help implement a project. And that might look at like maybe someone wants to write a comic book and they actually get to do that or start a business. Well,
007we have two groups that have trailblazed and have already implemented their projects. So, they're here to talk to you about their passion project this evening. Um, first is a group of girls who have completed their project. Um, so I'd like to introduce to you Amelia Anderson and Kaylee Bostik. Hi, my name is Amelia and my name is Kaylee. In our win classes, we were assigned the job of creating a passion project for something we felt passionate about. So, Kaylee and I, as well as Abby, who unfortunately couldn't make it tonight, decided to make our passion project a donation drive for a local homeless shelter. We chose the We chose the Pad Homeless Shelter in Mckenry to donate to. The pet shelter houses people from 3 months to 74 years old and lifts those staying at
008the shelter onto their feet by allowing them to apply for housing and make their own appointments and schedules. But before we could begin our donation process, we had to do some research. About a week before we had our donation drive, we contacted the PAD shelter and asked what specific items they needed replenishing. They expressed their need for deodorant, shaving cream, puzzles, planners, juice boxes, and a few other small things. After getting this information, we wanted to begin advertising our drive to the whole school. To do this, we talked with our principal, Dr. Clauss, to approve our plan and get it into full effect. We explained that we wanted to get as many items as possible within our week-long drives. Dr. Qu suggested that we make it a competition to get all students involved. Whichever first
009period class in the whole school could collect the most items in four days would receive an would receive an ice cream party. To spread the word quickly, we created posters to put around the school, reminders to put on school TVs, and spoke on the announcements each morning of the drive week. On top of that, we created anformational video that was played for the whole school and their advisory class on the first day of our drive. As the drive began, we all came into school early to collect and organize donations. And during our win class, we would go around to every classroom to count and collect the items donated. On the last day, we boxed up all of our donations and made a final item count. We were able to to collect 745 items schoolwide in
0104 days. But this wasn't the end of our donation drive process. We still needed to drop off our items at the shelter. So on our half day before winter break, we came back to the school to load up all of our items and made our way to the pad shelter. Our win teacher, Mrs. McCann, came with us. We weren't able to see the inside of the shelter to protect the privacy of those staying at pads, but we did talk with the staff and learned how our items would be going directly to those in need and would benefit all staying at the shelter. After our visit, we felt extremely proud and accomplished of what we had done. Once we came back from break, we created a and gave a presentation to our win class on all
011we had done for our drive. We really enjoyed this assignment and felt that it was a great opportunity to be hands-on in our community. Thank you. Thank you. And as you can tell, I'm sure their presentation was very articulate. So, um, then we have I have a second group of eighth graders here to talk to about their project and their project is going to come to fruition this Friday. So, welcome Isabella Franimore and Gabby Walwrath. Hi, my name is Gabby Walrath and I'm Isabella Branchmore. And for 8th grade, we had to create a passion project with things that we wanted to learn more about. Um, our passion is connecting with other people and just learning more about others in our community. For our project, we decided that we wanted to try to host an art
012class for the kids that are in our TLC program. We wanted to learn if neurody divergence has any effects on uh the creative aspects of your mind and how to plan a um a prosperous event. While doing research, we found out that most of the famous artists were claimed to be neurode divergent. Um to research event planning was kind of difficult. So we decided that the best plan of action was to just go through trial and error. The first thing we did was go to Mr. for sure who has helped us so much throughout this entire project and she suggested that we go see Miss Feldy and ask if we can use the art room for our project. Then we had to create posters to advertise our event and let people know when, where, and
013why it was happening. So we put together a bunch of posters and had Miss Matsy hand them out to the parents. After we were done with that, we went to go see if any of the craft stores would donate. So like Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Joan Fabrics. Unfortunately, none of them could because they said that they had to talk to corporate and it would just be a long process. But Dr. Pauls was super kind and she offered to pay for all the supplies so we could hold the event as soon as possible. And we are actually, like she said, holding it this Friday. We're so excited. We learned that neurode divergence does have a creat uh sorry does have an effect on creativity, but it's a positive one. And we're so proud that we got
014to learn and see how other people can connect with us. We also learned that event planning has multiple different aspects of it and that it can be difficult, but it is possible for people, even young people like us, to hold successful events. We're so happy that this is part of the eighth grade curriculum, especially since it was new. And we're so excited that we get to connect with other people. Thank you. One of the things that I really like that kids are doing these projects is that it connects them to some nonprofit organizations that when they're in high school and they choose to do service hours um especially when they join National Honor Society or Key Club, they're already connected with organizations and don't have to work to find someone to work with. So, it's
015been a really positive experience here in our building to see our young kids develop projects, their own passions. Um, we're not twisting arms to get them to do their work. Um, they come in and they're loving to do this. Um, it really was patterned after the 20% time that Google did when they first came in. Um, that's how we got Gmail. They gave their employees 20% time to just explore their passions. Um, and so I don't know, maybe we have a future Google owner on our hands here. So, it's been exciting to see and um, uh, hopefully we'll be able to put together a little presentation that maybe Miss uh, Rivera can show us at the end of the year of all of the wonderful projects that our eighth graders have created um, through the
016course of this year. So, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. I have a very easy question. What happens when they've already finished their project? What are they what are they on to next? So they uh the next section of wind time will be financial literacy. Um and they'll be exploring things like the stock market. Some of them have already done that and I've had a couple students in my office because they've been overly passionate about their stocks of losing money. Um and so we've had to talk about how do we adequately express our frustration um appropriately in the classroom. So they'll be talking a lot about financial literacy and what that looks like. That's phenomenal. What time Friday is the art after school? What time are 3:00 to 4:30? She says. So
017I do have um just a little something about wind time. Um so you can see what all of our students are doing. Um, this is just a small portion of what happens during win time. Um, we're proud of all of our students, even those that are really working hard to close their gaps, um, and work their way out into other programs. So, thank you. Thank you. And thank you, girls, for all that you're doing in the community. It's really important that we're all sticking together as a community and you're doing as a lot more work than a lot of the adults in this town. So, kudos to you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have public participation. The board and administration welcome your input. When recognized by the board president, members of the public
018are welcome to supply information for the board's consideration or to express their opinion of district policies. However, dis public debate between members of the public and the board of education members or the district staff will not be permitted. We ask that individuals speaking before the board identify themselves with full name and address and be brief. Comments shall be limited to three minutes. And we have one name on the list, Stephanie Schwall. It's not going well so far. Hi everybody. Um, so actually in the district there is a speech uh activity for fourth to eighth graders now and I just found out because my daughter is joining it. So I think that's really great. I was so impressed with the students that came up and presented to you guys. I love that my kids are part
019of a district that teaches you to stand up and communicate because the in-person communication skills are fading fast and uh and that's something that I think should really be focused on. So, I love seeing that and having the speech opportunity even for the younger kids. Um I forgot to bring the the sheet of paper. Um but we are still teaching cursive in second grade. Happy to report my son is learning how to write his name or sign his name rather in cursive and he's working on his cursive book. So I will make sure to bring that form for you guys to see his beautiful handwriting next time. Um one just one comment on uh the budget. I also like hearing that the kids are learning about financial literacy. That's super cool. Um, and to transition
020to the finance question that I always have, um, this month looked to be a big month when it came to, um, accounts payable. I'm following most of it, the payroll and the expenses. Um, and also there were two bonds that came due and the purchase of the transportation center property. So that those were really big ones at 3.7 million for those. The last line item on the budget here um is a PC card for 7,47144. I I couldn't find it, so I'm just curious what what a PC card is and um what that money is going for. That's all. Thank you. Okay, next up we have um there were five foyer requests this month. Voyer requests can be found on board docs. Uh, next up our member board member comments. Uh, first up is Ms.
021Mrs. Hartman. We do not have any tonight. Okay, Mr. Janik. Uh, good evening everyone. Just real quick, we've got an opportunity in a few agenda start spending some referendum money on some exciting changes that are happening in the district. I just want to thank the community again for their overwhelming support in in giving us this opportunity to make our schools stronger and safer. Uh and so I'm looking forward to seeing this all play out and appreciate the trust that the community has put to us with this with this referendum. Thank Thank you. Uh next up is Mrs. Judy. Um yes, I would like to encourage all parents and community members to take the time. This this isn't probably the most uh exciting thing that you'll ever read, but to read through our policy manual, and
022I'm I'm taking Katherine's banter up tonight. But no, it the information in there is very very important, especially for parents to know your your students responsibilities within the school and the school's responsibilities to them. Um and also if parents have any kind of questions on curriculum development there's the policies are laid out in there and the school board always uh governs by policy. So if you know if you have a question on policy any community member is um there's a you know free to bring that up for discussion. So, it is very important as a parent, I think, that you become familiar with a lot of the policies in that manual. And I I also noticed that we've hired another bus driver. So, I think um we're probably in a very enviable place among local
023districts of we're probably almost full staff with our our number of bus drivers. And that's oh, that's been hard to do the last few years. And I think that, you know, um, these people do just an awesome job in taking our children to and from school and and watching over them for the time going to and from school. So, I'm glad that we're really up to almost full strength. Thank you. Knock on wood. Next up, Mrs. Sanuchi. Um, I first wanted to I think Dr. Qu is gone. Um, I um I think it's amazing what Wind Time is providing for these students. I'm hoping that um we hear more about these passion projects. I think the organizational skills as well as the speech skills are going to be important as they move on to high
024school. Um I also wanted to real quick thank uh Mr. Block over at Three Oaks. um they're they've been doing this soaring student where they're bringing attention to students throughout fifth graders as well as other students throughout the school year and I think it's been um very good for the school culture and so I wanted to thank him for bringing that program to Three Oaks. We were there to witness one of the assemblies and um the way that he organizes it, he has a one clap method so that there is not any um undo applause at any point and everyone is celebrated the same. And I think that's important. The strategies I think behind the management of these um types of events, parents probably don't notice as much as maybe some of us who are
025in education understand the equity piece. But it was really important for me to see how well um how thoughtful the staff was in organizing this and making sure that every student felt very special. Thank you. Uh Mrs. Salt, I have nothing to add tonight. I have nothing either. Just what a great amazing weather day we had today for a change. We're not freezing. All right. Next up, we have the superintendence report. Dr. White. Thank you very much. Good evening to the board and to the community. Want to say thank you again even though they're not here but publicly just want to thank Dr. Qualls, the teachers of the junior high. Um and Audrey, Ameilia, Kaylee, Isabella, and Gabby for coming out this evening to share their amazing work. Um I'm happy to announce that one
026of our three Oaks teachers has been awarded special recognition in the category of early career educator by the Illinois State Board of Education. Miss Slack will be recognized at an award banquet on May 17th in Normal, Illinois. This month is Black History Month, which serves as an opportunity to highlight the achievements, contributions, and sacrifices of notable black Americans in classrooms across the district. This month, students have participated in projects and other activities to learn about the impact of black people within our country's history. I hope that each of us take a minute to learn or read something about the rich history of African-Americans in this great country. Um I share Mr. um Janzik's um thoughts about I'm excited this evening about the possible action that the board will be taking dealing with the construction and
027safety projects at um our buildings this summer um particularly Briergate and Oaknull. But I think we'll be touching each building um with with some various projects. Um, the work that we are moving forward with is the first phase of work that would truly not be possible without the taxpayers and the community of of Kerry. So, I'd like to just say thank you once again to those who supported the referendum and showed their support for ensuring our students have updated and safe learning environments. Last week, principles, I don't um share often about the adult learning that takes place in our district, but I wanted to share that last week, principles and coordinators from all departments engaged in professional learning that allow them to better understand what a literacy lesson looks like from the lens of our
028students while also engaging in walkthroughs. Walkthroughs are non-evaluative quick observations of instructional practices in order to guide feedback to educators. Again, the goal of walkthroughs is not to evaluate. I say that over over and over again when I say walkthroughs. They are not to evaluate, but rather continue our shift of ensuring that our building leaders are focused on instruction and enga and can engage in conversations with teachers around instruction in productive ways. We will be continuing this work by referring by refining our walkthrough definition, practices, and protocols. And then lastly, it is that time of year again for five essentials. So I just want to highly encourage our parents and teachers to complete the five essential survey that was released by the state last week. The information from this survey truly helps us inform our
029progress on many of our strategic plan goals and informs our future plans of how to continuously improve in the five areas assessed. effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supportive environments, and ambitious instruction. That survey will be open from February 18th through March 28th. And that wraps up my comments for this February. Perfect. Thank you. Uh, next up, we have the curriculum report. Miss Rivera, before I dive into our middle of the school year start date, I just want to remind parents that our digital report cards do go live this Friday, um the 28th at 300 p.m. I believe um a text message or email has gone out today alerting you, reminding you how to access the digital report cards. You're always welcome to reach out to your schools as well if you have additional questions
030or need assistance with that. Um, so I get the opportunity of delving into our midyear and let me preface bi oi uh about a year and a half ago. Dr. uh I have to call you Dr. Brandon. Uh Dr. White Dr. White was in the middle of a very in-depth conversation where we were talking curriculum instruction data and he was going BOI MOI EO and I was like pump the brakes. I was like what what are all these acronyms? and he goes beginning of school year, middle of school year, end of school year. So I have therefore now adopted his BOI MOI. So let me preface and share what that meant because if you're like me, you would have been lost in the conversation. Um, so the data you're going to see right now is
031going to be a comparison of beginning of the school year to middle of the school year right now. So that means that in the summertime when I present data, you're able to look at cohort data from year to year. That's not going to be this case. It is just where did the students start at the beginning of the school year and where are the students midpoint this school year at this time. Um this is one data point I want to preface one data point. Uh there is no one singular point of data that truly gives us a snapshot of an individual student because they are so unique and individual and multi multiaceted that we have to take into consideration so many different data points. So we do look at STAR, we look at AR, we
032look at DESA, we look at SECA, we look at the whole child, social, emotional, academic, um, and everything in between. So just want to remind you this is one data point. Another reminder are our instructional shifts for the 2425 school year. We have been hitting the ground running since day one. Our overarching emphasis has been on literacy instruction. As you know, we started that last school year and the re rationale for that was that literacy is truly the gateway content area into all other content areas. Every other content whether we talk about science, social studies, literacy or math, reading is a foundational piece of those courses and that is the reason why we chose to start with literacy. Some of the things that we have going on this particular school year is implementation of our
033teacher created standard aligned K8 ELA curriculum maps in tier 1 instruction. That has helped us create more of an equitable learning environment across the district ensuring that students are learning similar standards at the same time with similar uh texts. However, there's teacher autonomy and how they are um teaching the students and interacting and getting them engaged. In our K2, not only do they have the ELA curriculum maps, but what we asked them to more so center their attention on because it's hard to balance everything at once. So, we said, "Okay, K2, we know you have curriculum maps. However, you're also piloting the early literacy phonics. Some of our K2, half of our K2 are piloting UFly. The other half are pilot piloting benchmark phonics. We will receive their input on which one they think fits
034best in tandem with our reading curriculum because we need to still be able to do both of them, reading and the early phonics. We will select one for next year to be our tier one early literacy phonics curriculum. The other one will then be used as part of our tier 2 intervention support for students who need additional support specifically in phonics instruction across K8 as well because we know that not everybody is going to be teaching the ELA curriculum apps. We've got junior high science, social studies, math. We wanted to make sure everybody had a goal and objective with their instruction. And so across the district, we implemented our instructional framework specifically focusing on the carry 26 lesson delivery model, which mirrors the gradual release model. We wanted to really make sure we were shifting
035our instruction to be more student centered in active learning environments versus passive learning environments. And so we've been working with our teachers across all the content areas to balance out that explicit teacher instruction, but then also releasing for students to be able to work in small groups and independently on their own. And then the last thing, as you saw, um K5 wind time is the one that shifted to 30 minutes math, 30 minutes ELA. Previously, it was 45 minutes for both math and ELA. And um at the junior high we kept it that way where it's still one block of time um where they have their win time as you saw today. It could be for students and again truly it's what I need. So if a student needs an intervention that's what they're receiving.
036If a student is on grade level and maybe needs some reinforcement then that's what they receive through best practice instruction. If a student is performing well above and beyond, then we provide them with enrichment opportunities. We're trying to create this second dose of instruction that really is tailored to meet the individual student needs. So, all of that has been on our plate, the 2425 school year, and this would be a great time for me to say thank you to our amazing and phenomenal teachers for this tall task. This is no easy feat, especially if you're in education yourself. You recognize this is a lot. while it is only four bullet points, it is a lot. And so kudos to our teachers and to our administrative staff who are um really on the front lines doing
037all this hard work and to our students as well whose brains I'm sure are being uh exercised even more so. So when we look at kindergarten CBMs, CBMs are um letter names, letter sounds and numeral recognition in English. they have one minute to come up with as many names, sounds um or recognized numbers. Um if it's answered in Spanish, um it is considered wrong even if the response was correct. So this really is only assessing the English side, right? And so I tell that to you to keep that in mind because we are a dual district as well. And you'll see that as we uh move forward. So these are kindergarten CBMs in English. You'll notice from beginning of the school year to middle of the school year, we have seen great gains in our
038kindergarteners in their ability to recognize letter names, letter sounds, and numbers. Um the jump from 42 to 74% with letter sounds is essential because I think oftent times when we think of literacy instruction we think oh letter names is where to start but really it's letter sounds is where we should be starting because that's how they start to make sense of words and piecing those together. Um so to see that jump from 42% to 74% for sure is a celebration for our youngest learners here in Kerry 26. I I just oh I have a question. Okay. So for these three categories, sounds, names, and numeral recognition. So if a student was performing at 100% uh proficiency, they would know all 26 letter names. They could make the sound for each of them and they know
039every numeral from 1 to 20 or something. So you the key thing that you just said is that they know all 26. Remember, they have one minute. And it's not that you have to identify it once, okay? It's literally you've got like a you've got one minute to come up with as many names and sounds. So, it's going over and over and over. So, you have to demonstrate that you actually know this, not just like a you got it that one time and now you got that score. You've got to be able to demonstrate that you've actually retained this information cuz 30% just seems like wouldn't seem like a goal. Oh, I see what you're saying. So we and now I'm with you. So our as a district, remember this is our final year that
040we're saying that we want students to be at the 30th percentile, right? So the data that you're seeing is reflective of that 30th percentile benchmark. So that means that we want our students, right? If they are showing proficiency, can I go to the next one and then we'll come back? Let me explain. Yes, I know where you're going. Let me go with the reading. Let me go with the reading because it's a little bit more clear and then we'll come back this way. Okay. All right. So, let's go to reading. When students take the reading assessment, right? Remember, students are nationally normed. And so, you've got a student one to 100. If a student is performing at that 30th percentile or higher in carry 26, we have said that is demonstrating proficiency. So now I
041go back to the other one. If a student is performing at that 30th percentile or higher, we are saying the students demonstrating proficiency. That's for this year. We have bumped that up for next year to be the 40th percentile because we've looked at research and we've seen that that's what they're recommending that students should be demonstrating proficiency at the 40th percentile and above would be performing at grade level. So go ahead. only 40% of the students that are proficient in the school. No, no, no. So what you're seeing on the chart, so let's take for example letter names, okay? 71% of our kindergarten population is showing that they know 30% of the letter sounds and more. Okay. 74% of our student population is demonstrating proficiency with letter sounds. Okay. 86% of our student population, kindergarteners,
042are demonstrating that proficiency with being able to recognize numbers. So, we're working with two different percentages here. Okay. And that's where things tend to get confusing. So, I get where you're coming from. If I could just explain a little bit too about the percentile, it's different than just a regular percent. So, on a normal curve, if you think of the normal curve, the 50th percentile is dead average. So if you're scoring at the 50th percentile, you are exactly in reaching average scale. The broad average range is the 25th to the 75th percentile on a nationally norm test. So if our kids are at the 30th percentile or higher, that means they are within the average range or above on that. So, it isn't um necessarily just that they got 30% correct. Is that the 30th
043percentile, which means they are within the average range all the way down to the 25th percentile is still the average range, but we're looking for kids to be up above that. And as M. Rivera said, next year we're looking at shifting that to the 40th percentile so that the kids are like that's a really solid average and above for when we're looking at the the mastery of those skills. Sorry, just to be clear, the 30th percentile is is a national norm. It's not the 30th percentile. It's not the the the bell curve is nationwide kindergarteners, not carry 26 kindergarters. Correct. Correct. So, it's they took let's say you line up all the kindergarteners right on the United States around the United States. If a student is performing at 30th percentile, they're performing we'll say better
044than 30% of kindergarten kindergarteners nationwide. And so that the growth uh in letter sounds is impressive. Are we finding that one of the two pilot programs is or is that am I giving that is the milliondoll question that you're asking which of the two? Um it's interesting because throughout the school year we've heard things about one and then we've thought like, oh that's going to be the one, but then we've heard things about the other one. We're like, well, no, now that might be the one. Um it's a win-win scenario because one will be used for tier one instruction. the other one will be used for then tier two to bridge gaps. Great idea. So really it's a it's a win-win scenario. I think what we need to be considering as well is how does
045it fit with our reading comprehension curriculum as well because our kindergarteners we want to make sure that we don't the pendulum doesn't swing all the way to one side where we're so focused use your analogy where we're so focused on the um early literacy phonics that then we forget to address the reading comprehension. So, we're trying to find that balance where I think we've been on one side, now we've got to swing it, find that balance. Thank you. So, um to me, this doesn't re I mean, it's not your fault. This is the test, but it's not really telling us of our students, how many of them are like where are they at? Like, we're saying that they're meeting the third 30% that's the national average, but maybe our kids are at 60%. We don't
046know. Right. So I hear what you're saying. Let me see if I can answer that. So when we look at assessments like this, they are nationally normed. So it is about comparing across the nation. Um so in that sense, but if we're looking to delve deeper individually, that's where branching minds and then the actual data platform come into play. Because if you have an individual student, let's say they're performing at the 15th percentile, right? Um we can then go into currently Star Renaissance and figure out, okay, in Star Renaissance, what category of literacy or math are they struggling in and really try to narrow it down to the specific skill or standard that they're struggling. So, this data is a district-wide general data, but we could sit down and delve into very deep data on
047individual students. Our buildings do that. Um, we actually met with our principles and did school improvement plan meetings where they were able to delve more specifically into what specific standards are you noticing within your data that need to be addressed at your schools? And then the teachers are able to drill down even further and see okay within my classroom what am I noticing trendwise you know where are students performing above grade level on particular standards or where are they performing below and then that's where wind time comes in because if you narrow down for a particular student using the star renaissance platform what they need then that becomes the focal point during that win time of what I need. Okay, perfect. I think it's a probably confusing to a lot of people like just looking
048at this graph to say, you know, you come back with only 30% of our kids are passing whatever and it's like no, that's not like that's to give that explanation that you're giving is much better and it makes more sense. But it we like I would like to see that on graph things so that people that are looking at this from home understand this is a national comparison. This is not just our district. This is nationally. So, absolutely. Yeah. So, next up we have reading. So, again, similar to what we were just talking about, how many students population are demonstrating proficiency? Again, as defined by that 30th percentile. And so when you look from beginning to middle of the school year, let's say second grade for example, 81% of our second grade population is demonstrating
049proficiency in reading. Um again using the STAR assessment. And so again, we our goal when you look at MTSS and tier one instruction, um the goal is that 80% of your student population would be responding to tier one instruction. So that's why we say our goal is to get 80% of every grade level demonstrating proficiency because that shows that then your tier one is in motion and it's effective based on star data currently right here. It's telling us a narrative that we are headed in that direction. Right? So that is a celebration um for us as a district. Everyone has either grew or maintained. I think seventh grade was the only one that maintained at a 78, but every other grade level showed a an upwards trend and upwards growth, which then gives us also
050input and feedback based on the the literacy um initiatives that we are implementing, right? We want to see this trend upwards based off of all the things that we are implementing. Are we seeing positive results from the horizontal articulation that we're doing at tier one across the elementary schools, especially one through five? Like, wasn't the the objective to make sure that if a kid comes out of Deer Path and gets plunked into Brierggate the next day, they're pretty much at the same spot at the same time. Is that working? Yeah. So, that's the beauty of branching minds is that we can um pull data based on individual schools. Now, I wasn't going to put individual schools up here. Um, but but is that is that so at the beginning of this presentation, you talked about
051the tier one work for literacy, right? And is that working well? Are we are we progressing to the point where we want to? Are we a little behind, a little ahead in terms I think we're on the right track. Okay. We're we're in the direction that we need to be shifting and moving towards. But there's obviously change doesn't what's the phrase happening in Rome. Yeah, that too. That too. I get that. I just I it we talked about it. We we talked about some hesitancy with teacher buyin and then we haven't really talked about it for a few months. So, I didn't know if this was a result of of that work or if that work is progressing as we meet across the district. Yeah. No, I would say as we have been walking around
052schools, even just doing the um the PD that we did with the the principles last week, you see a difference within our classrooms. You feel a difference within our classrooms. the interaction that's happening amongst the students and the level of engagement that's happening. Um we can walk into a classroom and know what standard is being taught across the grade level. They might be teaching differently but I we walked in and was like okay we knew right what they were focused on in reading or what they were focused on in writing. So you started to see that like you're saying that horizontal connection regardless of what school we were in because they're functioning off of the same curriculum map. Great. Right. And so that keeps them roughly it's like a pacing guide for them. Yeah. Um
053and then our instructional coaches have been supporting them in their planning time as well to make sure um that they're on pace because that was part of the curriculum map was how many days roughly is this supposed to take to teach? Right. And that's universal now across the district. Awesome. So, we are headed in the right direction, but like anything would change, it takes time. Takes time. Absolutely. Can I say a couple things about reading before you move over to math? Um just one um the teaching and learning department as well as I've been involved in those conversations and brought in some administrators and some some teachers are reviewing various benchmark assessments and project um project um progress monitoring um assessments because although the district's used the star um assessment for a while, what we
054want to make sure is that we're giving teachers the data they need to make informed decisions for students. especially during the win time. So I think kind of to um some of the points I heard here, one of the things that we're definitely looking at is how can we capture growth of individual students in those students making adequate or above growth. We want to start to also look at that, not just the achievement piece. And then also one of the good things that we're discovering with the phonics program is we we went into it thinking one was going to be better than the other and they're actually kind of playing 50/50. But I think that really goes into um the teaching and learning department um and Miss Rivera leading that team to really beef up
055how we identify what to adopt. um we only do things that are researchbased that have evidence that they are effective with 80% or more our students. So I think that is paying off um because it doesn't matter if it's UFly or benchmark we're seeing growth and gains and we see teachers who use benchmark like benchmark and teachers who like who have UFly like you fly and so there's lots of conversations ahead. So thank you Mr. No problem. I mean, I'm going to build off of that as well, right? He alluded to, it's coming in your we can review this this week. Um, he alluded to that we are looking at different benchmarks. Um I think STAR has served uh its purpose as an one of the things that we're recognizing um with our review committee
056is that it does not provide the rigor um of knowing a deeper level learning. It is an assessment that students can complete within a quick 20 minutes. um the text the passages aren't as rigorous as let's say for example they would see an I or that they see within the classroom and so that's why I preface at the very beginning this is one data point right um because if we looked at other data points let's say I it tells a different narrative all of these though together give us a big picture not one of them can give us the complete picture of our students we have to use them all in tandem together all All right. So, next we have math. Um math again, as you see, all of our um grade levels have either
057remained relatively um I'm missing out. I'm missing my words right now. Uh remain steady, right? So, second grade we see a 1% drop, but they they remain steady. Uh seventh grade as well remain steady. Everywhere else you see this upward momentum and growth in math as well. Again, I'm going to remind you the goal is that 80% of a grade level demonstrates proficiency. And so this is showing that we're moving in that direction. Again, according to STAR, any questions before I move on to the last one? Any additional comments? Dr. White? No. Okay. All right. So, this next one, if you're like me, the big question becomes, wait a minute, let's point out the obvious. third grade. Anybody say that? Think that when you saw this? All right. So, a couple caveats with this. This
058is now the same star. Well, not the same. It's the star assessment, but in Spanish. So, we also have to remember that when we're talking about students within the dual program as Miss Ozmeck, now Miss Kramer um presented, it's apples to oranges. We cannot view this data of English, right? Because this data includes all students who are in a monilingual classroom and a dual classroom. This data only includes students who are in a dual language classroom. So what that means is you have a group of students who are doing double the work than a student in a mono classroom because they're learning the language. They're learning the math in both English and Spanish. So double time. It's apples and oranges. You can't compare the two. Um, also a couple reminders. Math is taught in Spanish
059in K2. It switches over to English in third grade. In addition, K2, there's an audio feature where the test is read to the students. In third grade, they now have to read it on their own. Research also shows us that third grade is where that transition um happens where students are learning to read and it starts to shift over where they are reading to learn and understand. So third grade there's a lot of policy and information in and research specifically when it comes to third grade specifically because of these different data points. We also know research shows us that learning a second language takes 5 to seven years. So, let's look at that research and notice that when students start to hit that sixth grade level, we're seeing exactly what research shows us, that spikes
060upwards. So, take again this one data point with a grain of salt. Um, it is definitely when you first look at it, you're like, what? If we really wanted to delve deeper into this, what I would look at and what I would do um and what I would say uh three oaks has been working on, they are tracking what language students are receiving math during win time, right? Because third grade and on, it's in English. However, during win time, they have the ability to get it in Spanish. So, they are tracking that information. Also, when you're looking at students within the dual program, you actually should have up both how did they perform on the English and how did they perform on the math. And you add those two together to see the full picture,
061right? Because that's how they're learning. She again gave you the example in that presentation. It cannot be compared apples to apples with just a straight mono monolingual classroom. What do you attribute the eighth grade loss to? What' you say? at eighth graders. Um, as a former eighth grade teacher, um, that I think that there could be some truth into what you said. They get a high high schoolitis is what we used to call it. Um, where it's kind of like, well, I'm already in high school, right? I'm I'm exiting out. Um, that is a great question and it's something worth delving a little deeper into. Um, I don't have that answer for you offhand, but I would gladly look further into that with uh the junior high to see what they think that could be.
062Um, we've also have new teachers across the district. And so I would say across the district, across programs, across teacher experience level. Again, this is one snapshot. If we take STAR out and we just if I could bring you into the math committee, the conversations that are being had is that we need professional learning on math that a lot of our mathematical mathematical instruction is focused on computation and not that deeper level thinking of math. Um this was a result of during COVID I believe we adopted SAVIS new curriculum right when COVID happened and so the integration of that it was as teachers you did the best you could with what you had right and trying to engage students and so pieces got taken out and again these are all from the mouths of of
063our educators and this recognition that they've identified areas that we need to strengthen. So I think across the district again one data point if we look at IR it tells us a very different narrative that parallels with what the teachers are saying that we need to improve upon our professional learning that the teaching and learning department is providing to the teachers. So that is a main emphasis and goal for us heading into the 2526 school year. We'll layer math on as we've been doing with literacy and we're going to get the EOI one of these right at the end of the year. in the well in July. It's also interesting because you think about just how people are feeling in the middle of winter when they're testing, right? This has been a disgusting winter of
064kids. Like I'm thinking kids under the weather could account. Not that I'm making excuses. They're still doing very well. It's a small loss, but there are so many things to consider in terms of testing and what kids are going through. And I also just want to acknowledge the grade three growth. Like that's a big shift when you're shifting in languages. That is a significant jump they have shown despite how gross and awful winter has been and other things that could be impacting them. But it'll be interesting to see this again at the end of the year. I agree. I would just say also with that the eighth grade I wonder because again I think it would take some true investigating but if you look at the eighth grade common core math standards they become a
065lot more heavier in um algebraic reasoning where those are that's a lighter standard I would say all the way up to middle of year seventh grade um but then they become really heavy in algebraic reasoning um in those eighth grade standards and then layer on Spanish on top of that. That may be why we see because it's like you're introducing something new that they've really not dove into like they do in the eighth grade preparing them for algebra 1. Do you know if other schools see that same trend with eighth graders? Like if they if they're collecting star data or So again, remember this is dual language eighth grade. Well, the one before um yeah, it's so we would have to look at a district specifically with dual language eighth grade. So, I just want
066to clarify it's we're not talking about the whole but even even still you look at eighth grade English are our 77% of our eighth graders are showing proficiency. Um 8th grade it's at 73% of our student population is demonstrating proficiency. It's still it's still a celebratory number right like I know we see a dip from 77 to 73. The goal is to get to 80%. We are still there and this is one data point out of the school year. Who knows what we're going to see when we head to to the end of the school year. [Music] Yeah. So much to be celebrated. Moral of the story. Awesome. This Yeah, this is I agree, Mr. River. This is great. Um I I just would encourage your team to continue uh to reflect on ways and
067bringing parents in, right? And you know, we get we were just looking up here um for the star scores electronically, right? And so I know you guys sent them home paper copywise, but like even on infinite campus or something like that, we can't find our students scores or some type of score that the parents could access. Um just to kind of keep track of that because I know my wife looked at it, but I didn't get a chance to look at look at ours. Uh and then also continuing to educate the parents. we've been working on that like what does this all mean to Julie's questions about like the percentile within the national norm and all the like I get these numbers and I don't know what it means so continuing to grow in that
068area too so we could have the the parent partnerships and they understand what they're looking at um and they understand how their son or daughter is doing I I would appreciate that I appreciate that feedback part of the we developed a rubric as we're evaluating different benchmarks and one of the sections of that rubric does include um the reports that are AAIL or the platforms that are available to inform parents and get them to be a part of understanding that as well. So I agree with you as a parent myself like that's important. How can I contribute and be a part of my child's education? Great. So thank you. Is it possible to get the electronic are we able to publish those for the parents on like infinite campus or power schools? Sorry Andy. Um
069I would say let us look into that. you know, I'm a person who wants to say, "Of course, anything's possible." And then Andy humbles me um to be like, "Okay, hold on." But I'm gonna say, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I'm sure we can find. But again, looking at um some of these platforms, looking to see what they offer to parents as well, um and how to make the information accessible to parents. Some some of these other platforms have something already built in. Um, but I do like the idea of it being an infinite compass. Sorry, my mic's going to get cut off here in a second. So, thank you very much. I'm going to go ahead and second Jason on that one because I it's a piece of paper that goes home
070along with 50 other papers and sometimes it makes the pile that my husband sees and sometimes it does not make the pile my husband sees. So, it is it would be one that it would be nice to also be able to see my child's score beginning of year, end of year, like make sure she is, you know, each year he is tracking upwards. Hopefully, we want to see our students grow. Um, and I have to go dig that old paper out to find it and compare. So, I agree. Anything else? Any other questions? Thank you, Miss Rivera. Uh, next up we have the committee the whole reports. Um, basically what's on tonight is what we talked about. We uh review of the bills, the treasures report, the intervention staffing plan, we discussed the tech plan,
071finance piece, uh the science curriculum renewal, the construction, the 2025 construction update and bid recommendations, and the fiscal year 2026 budget resolutions. Uh so next up, we have the consent agenda. Included are those items that are routine in nature. Should any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda, the item will be discussed at the end of section 8. 7.1 is the open session minutes from the January 8th, 2025 special board of education meeting. 7.2 is the closed session minutes from the January 21st, 2025 committee of the whole meeting. 7.3 are the open session minutes from the January 27th, 2025 regular board of education meeting. 7.4 4 are the total bills in payroll for the board approval and they're in the amount of 5,442,764.99. 7.5 is the treasurer's report. 7.6 is the
072resignation dismissal retirement. There were none. 7.7 is the employment. 7.8 is the destruction of closed meeting audio recordings. 7.9 is the disposal of assets. There were none. 7.10 10 is the 2025 2026 balance budget resolution and 7.11 is the resolution to approve a designate to prepare this fiscal year 26 budget. May I have a motion to approve the following 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 and 7.11 as presented. So moved second. Any discussion? I just wanted to call out that I saw that we have a certified district nurse on staff for next year. And that is very exciting news. Okay, if we could, if there were no other comments, if we could get a roll call for approval. Mindy Hartman, yes. Annne Sanuchi, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Jason Jansen, yes. Julie
073Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. That motion is approved. Next we have the agendas items that are requiring discussion and board of approval. First up 8.1 is the approval of the settlement agreement and general release. Dr. White. Sure. So this was discussed um by the board in um closed session. Um and per Illinois law we do have to make that agreement public. Um but um other than that, I don't know if there are any other questions or anything, but um the agreement is part of the public record and we are bringing this out of close session for action this evening. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the settlement agreement and general release as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, we can take a vote, please. Ann Sanuchi. Yes. Stacy Salt, no. Julie Jetty,
074yes. Darling, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Jason Jansik, no. Okay, that motion is approved. Next up, 8.2, we have the approval of the staffing and intervention plan for 2025 2026. Dr. White. Sure. So, just briefly, let me get to There we go. Um, one of the um the items that Mrs. Potter, I know she's not here this evening. Um, wanted to review is if you look at the, um, staffing plan attachment, slide 29, um, we did combine all of the, um, recommendations that are that make up this year's staffing plan that include the general staffing plan as well as the um, I'm sorry, I said 20 I said 29. I apologize, I'm tired. Slide 27. It does have the information there. Slide 27. um outlines all of the changes and recommendations that we have as um
075this part um as this year's staffing plan. Again, I broke out the interventionist piece and had a separate plan on that just because it involves some program programmatic changes as well as normally we don't include non-certified staff in in the staffing plan, but I did include it in this table. So, you could see that it is we are being able to do this as a net neutral situation. We're bringing on the 8 and a2 um FTE inter certified interventionist will not increase cost to the education um fund for the 25 26 school year. Okay. Are there any questions? So just to confirm Dr. White Deer Path and Briargate uh specifically fourth grade at Bargate and fourth grade at Deer Path um we have or Mr. Shephard has should that tip over to 27 like we're
076we're going to be really quick on the trigger with with posting that position. I just So we really are going to take um a really good look at that after registration opens which is March 10th um which will still be in time to align with the staffing plan if we need to increase um those those sections. I think right now we just want to want to see do we have you know a large number of moveouts or perhaps because if we were to allocate a teacher at this point it would really bring those classes even smaller than some of our kindergarten classrooms or or the first grade that we like smaller. So that's what we're just watching but we have no problem adding an additional um teacher if if needed to keep those um class
077sizes um below that 26 threshold. We're keeping an eye on that just because I know there's a lot of new construction over off of like Haber Court and the condos on Main Street if Yep. And we've actually look we've even added um the one that we're watching. I believe the second grade is at 24.5 at Three Oaks. I'm watching that one as well. It's not highlighted. The third grade is higher. I'm sorry. Thank you. It is third grade. Sorry. It is third grade. I apologize. Um yes, the third grade we're also watching because it's at the same threshold as the Deer Path. Okay. Um class. So, I'm watching that section as well. Okay. Yep. So, I just want to make sure like I'm glad you just said that because we have had I have had
078feedback as a board member about us being proactive and we know that we have these additional teaching positions that we have to fill this year with those the a lotment of those new positions. So, um not last minute and I know you talked about that last week, but I just want the community to understand that you are going to be on top of it when enrollments are coming in. So, Sure. Yes. I mean, my goal in um Mr. Shepherd's goal is we also we have to balance looking at those and I don't want to run a lot of sections that are at 18 20 kids because then that does impact then what dollars we have for compensation and um things like that when we get to negotiations. So we try to make sure that we're
079allocating those appropriately and still staying in those ideal or the recommended um class sizes. So then we just have we have three y kind of like an emergency fund that are ready to go. Is that right, Mr. Shepherd. Yes, we we when we looked at when we're starting to build the budget, we looked at those numbers and we built in a contingency for I believe up to three because that's what we foraw. Great. Thank you. Yep. Hey, if there were no other questions, um may I have a motion to approve the staffing and intervention plan 2025 2026 as presented? So moved. And there was no other discussion. If we could take a vote, please. Stacy Salt, yes. Jason Jansen, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Ann Sanucci, yes. That motion is approved.
080Next up, 8.3 is the approval of the technology plan. Miss Rivera. Yes. There are a couple questions or um wanting all the information in one location. And so I just wanted to point out um if you're on the PDF of the technology purchase plan on page eight, if you're in the slides, it would be slide 15. In there, you have a breakdown of what funds would be used for or what funds which title one funds versus referendum funds would be used for the uh purchase of the classroom displays. In addition, there's a overall breakdown again, page eight of the PDF or if you're in the slides, slide 17, that gives you a overall breakdown of the technology plan. An additional question came up regarding the phase 2 um breakdown. There is no specific breakdown because
081it is a one software that that is what it is. It's one software component at 72 uh,200. And if you're looking to say like, well, what is this software? What will it do? If you're in the PDF, that's at the bottom of page five, top of page six. It details what this software encompasses. If you're in the slideshow, that would be on slide nine where it details. It's all listed right here. Um all those page numbers and slide numbers are available in board docs. I've detailed that in the uh public notes section. So with that we are um recommending that the board approve the what school year 25 26 um talk plan. I always have to remember that it's for the year that's coming up not the one that we're in. Okay. Um, I believe
082that the board asked for um, there was that information that we couldn't go into because the security details um, on the specifics. I don't believe that the board was provided that information. Can that get sent over to us, please? What was that? And during Andy's uh, presentation there was he kind of glossed over the one part and he said he couldn't get over couldn't get into it because of security reasons. Um, so wanting like a deep deeper breakdown than what's there for what the software encompasses. So we know exactly what it is that is being covered exactly. So okay, I got it. So within what is being approved this evening is not necessarily part of that. that is more about the um the infrastructure infrastructure as well as some of the increased um security measures
083which are the spec the specifics of those security measures aren't identified but those um what they are or what they include or were on I believe you just said the last pages at the bottom of page slide slide nine or bottom of five top of six. Thank you. Okay. I'm sure I'll email you with more questions on a breakdown. Sure. If there's Yep. If there's anything else. Um but we had tried to go through all those questions that we received to make sure that we hit those points and covered um what was what was asked, but I know for phase two. Um again, it's the main purchase is that that software that's outlined. there's not a lot of um equipment and things of like of that nature that I think maybe that was referred to
084as part of the phase one when we started doing that were those those specifics that we really didn't want to go into detail publicly. Okay. Andy um or Mr. Simmons, sorry. Uh, with the with Lightseed and AI, we have the ability as a district to open up certain websites like Magic School could be an AI based thing where the kids could create chatbot or something like that. We have the ability through Lightseed to say, "Okay, you're okay with Magic School, but chat GPT is no." Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. And the $72,000 something dollar software we're approving. This is it's not just a software. It's all the licensing that goes into like every hardware that we have. Correct. That's going to help. That is also correct. Okay. So, it
085helps you with the efficiency. It also helps with all of the the reduction in login and things that we're really looking for to focus on the education, not signing into apps. Wonderful. Okay. All right. All right. May I have a motion to approve the technology plan as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? I just have one comment regarding the classroom displays. Um I appreciate uh Dr. White's answering uh my questions during the week and I know you went back to Mr. Rare and Mr. Fred Simmons and stuff. Um, I did have some questions from some staff that I felt needed to be answered and so I asked the questions. Um, I'm not totally on board with these things, these displays yet that I know that we don't have the money to put the updated smartboards
086in every room, but I'm kind of looking at this as a trial program on these because we've just barely scratched the surface and on how many we're going to need. And I would like to see some polling of teachers, demonstration of how they use them in the classroom and, you know, an update if they feel this answers all their needs and and helping them implement and and teach in their classroom. And I think if a teacher made a really good case for an updated Smartboard, I think we'd have to look at where, you know, the finances a little bit more. Um, also, you know, we had a discussion on the whiteboard. I guess that's coming. I'll I'll save that comment for another minute, but I do appreciate the followup on that. But I would like
087to see, you know, keep a keep an eye on how well these are received and how well they're used in the classroom in the next year once they're installed. So, and the technology and teaching learning departments have already started some of that work with some teachers that have come and and said, you know, shared I use this feature or I use this software where kids may have to move a manipulative. So, we're already trying to work through some of those things to show how the alternative is. Um, but again, I just wanted to, you know, kind of reiterate that we do appreciate teacher input. We do survey a lot of times and gather data. Um but with this when it came to the display other than the size of the display which we went with
088comparable size to what they have in in the Smartboard one display over another display other than the ability to have the interactive touch. There's not a difference between one display over the other. We are p we're not purchasing the bottom of the barrel because we want something that's going to last. But again, when we looked at even the bottom um or the entry point for the interactive um smartboards, when I was just running very rough numbers, it could be in excess of $800,000 additional cost to go from what the display is. So, we have that cost plus $800,000 additional if we wanted to really look at interactive display. Um and then then the second piece was um you know we've even considered we had K2 teachers reach out concerned about losing that as well as
089math teachers. The struggle with that is these aren't movable. Um and so a classroom could be a kindergarten or first grade or a second class um grade classroom today and then in a year from now it could be a third grade or a fourth grade classroom and then we're we wouldn't ever be able to keep that structure or that pattern in place where some classrooms have interactive and some classrooms um don't. And then that that equity issue came into play of well who gets an interactive and we have some teachers who don't use their smartboards really at all or um don't use the interactive piece at all either because it's no longer working like this one's um missing components to it. So some of them have just stopped using it or they've never used it
090at all. I also wanted to add that while this is newer, right, to carry 26, it is not new to education. And so, beginning last school year when we went to go visit different classrooms, um after we went down to um our our Apple experience, um we were able to see the displays in action. And speaking for myself, I as well have taught from a display. So these are things that are prevalent in in the school setting. I think it is now just bringing Carrie up with the times of technology of what is seen in the classroom. Um I don't know. Do you have a display in your classroom? I have a chalkboard. Um wow. Wow. I I Yeah. I don't We don't want to go there, I guess. Um, but I I was just
091out of curiosity because I wasn't here for the conversation. Um, from what I'm reading, what I'm also hearing is that there's no need for a projector that saves a lot of cost projector bulbs and all that, right? So, um, and I'm just curious, are these uh wireless or is it still wired into the computers? So, it'll be wire. Oh, you take the floor. Go ahead. So the TV or display itself has the ability to be wired or wireless. The teacher's laptop will connect via HDMI and the iPad has the um ability to maintain the interactivity and be wireless throughout the classroom. I think that's awesome. I the mobility piece I don't know like so yes I have um a chalkboard, I have a screen, I have a projector. I'm not completely out of touch but
092um but the I think for teachers to be mobile and not be completely wired in all the time is also very important. So if the iPads can connect to these with ease I think that that is a huge selling point. Um mobility in the classroom for classroom management is just a really important part of every day not just the touchcreen. I just wanted to add on to that. Not only will it be the teacher's ability to project and display, but a teacher could then tap into a student to have the student project and display and show their work to the class and be able to explain their logic, their thinking and whatnot. We also have taken it um you know into consideration how can we help our teachers truly implement that gradual release model and
093that interactivity within the classroom. And so the ability for me to be able to have this and I can really walk anywhere in this classroom and I could be writing on here and have it project up to the screen and doing math in real time and them seeing it. That allows me as to your point, I could come over to Dr. Thomas who's chatting away with Mr. Sheepard and just be in close proximity while continuing my instruction. So for different classroom management reasons, sorry Dr. Thomas. um or just student engagement. Like I said, students being able to project and now involving students in that learning environment. It's really an opportunity to bring Carrie forward. Um see what I did there? See what I did there? Uh bring Carrie forward into education of today with technology.
094I um I see both sides of it. Like I totally get it. Like I'm the first one to buy the latest tech and I'm I'm a nut. But I do also think that um before we rubber stamp something that going forward everything's going to be this way. Kind of like jumping on board with iPads. It's like we're in we're all in that we need to get some feedback and we need to see from our staff how these things are working before we say okay here's a rubber stamp now from now on all the classrooms we're phasing you all in. It needs to be a a buyin from the people that are using it every day. We need to hear their feedback. and th those costs to buy additional um displays will highly go over the
09525,000 threshold. So, they will come before the board um before we before we purchase um more of them. And I would agree, I think, you know, um Mr. Fitz Simmons, if we get um I think it's the Sony Bravia is what the brand is. If we aren't seeing that display is meeting the needs, we will look at other displays. We also know just like with any other change, we are going to have to provide training, professional learning. Um, one of the feedback that um, Mrs. Jetty shared with me was teachers concerned about writing with their fingers. So, we're looking at what is the best stylist. They took mine to try it. Which one can we purchase for our teachers? Um, and give them to teachers to try out. Which one works best? because that was
096great great feedback. So we are this is going to take some some time to transition. It's going to take training but absolutely if we find out the Sony Bravia is not the best deal and meets our needs then we can look at other items as well. So no what you're approving this evening is the 23 at Brigate the six at Oaknull and the 12 at at three Oaks. Okay. Thank you. I just for me it's just making sure that we're getting the feedback from those teachers that are using those screens. All right. Um so if we could take if there was no other comments if we could take a vote please. Jason Jansik yes. Julie Jetty yes. Darling yes. Mindy Hartman. Yes. Ann Sanuchi? Yes. Stacy Salt. Yes. Okay. That motion is approved. Next up
097we have 8.4 for the approval of the sixth through 8th grade science curriculum renewal. Miss Rivera? Yeah, that's that's basically it. We are looking to renew the same curriculum that we have been using in grades 6 through 8. Um the renewal quote is available on board docs. you. May I have a motion to approve the 6th through 8th grade science curriculum renewal with McGraill for up to five years in the amount of $17,26352 as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Just what a great deal that is for five years. I'm excited just about the price tag. If we could take a vote, please. Jason Jansig, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Ian Sanucci, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Motion is approved. 8.5, the approval of the Briergate roof replacement bid. Mr. Shepard. All
098right. So, I guess this is the official first project of our our referendum funded construction project. So, so here we go. The district solicited and received uh seven bids uh for the replacement of the Briergate Elementary School roof. Um our architect had the opportunity to vet the bids and determine the lowest bid submitted by Robert's Restoration did not provide the evidence of school-based projects, evidence of similar projects, the size and scope and cost or evidence of being certified through uh various roofing manufacturers. As a result, it has been determined that it is not the responsive bid. However, the lowest responsive bid uh submitted by DCG Roofing Solutions was vetted and determined to meet all of the criteria we were looking for within the bid. I'll remind the board that they did a nice job with
099our Oakn Null uh roof replacement, which was just three or four years ago. Uh so, as a result, our architect has recommended the district approve the lowest responsive bid from DCG Roofing Solutions in the amount of $1,31,000. Uh, we concur with this recommendation and recommend the approval. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the bid submitted by DCG roofing solutions in the amount of $1,ion31,000 on the nose as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. If we could take a vote, please. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Ann Sanuchi, yes. Stacy cells. Yes. Jason Jansik. Yes. That motion is approved. 8.6 is the approval of the Briergate Oaknull window replacement bid. Mr. Shepard. So also as discussed at the committee of the whole, we are looking to replace uh the
100windows at Briergate and Oaknull. This is a separately bid project uh since it is more specialized uh in nature. Uh both bids were uh that we received two bids uh and both bids were vetted by our architect and it was determined that the bid submitted by Auburn Corporation in the amount of $838,250 uh and that is the cost of of window replacement at both Briargate and Oaknull was the lowest responsive bidder. Uh the recommendation to approve the bid uh by Auburn Corporation uh and administration concurs with this recommendation. Okay. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the bid submitted by Auburn Corporation in the amount of $838,250 as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? One question. Uh so these windows are just like direct replacement. The same shape, same size as the windows that
101are currently there. Yes. So can children get out of those windows like if there was a fire? do not believe that these uh windows are designed nor was it recommended by our our security um u consultant that these windows be uh used as an emergency exit. Okay, any other questions hearing? None. If we could take a vote, please. Darling, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Oh, and I missed you. Anni, yes. Sorry. Jason Jansen, yes. And Julie Jenny, yes. Okay, that motion is approved. 8.7 is the approval of the Briergate renovation ah renovation bid. Let me start that approval of the Briergate renovation bid. Mr. All right. The next next up with the Briergate renovation. We received uh uh let's see received seven bids. I'm getting my papers confused over over here. Uh seven
102bids for this project. This project includes renovations to the 1990 edition uh to bring classrooms uh uh bring some equity to the the building with the classrooms, providing new case work, classroom flooring, building wide ceiling replacements, uh move to LED lighting, which hopefully will uh see some savings in energy costs, which we know are are increasing. Uh we're also looking at the replacement of a water fountain that uh uh has not been usable for years. Uh so that's going to be taken care of. uh looking at a renovated nurse's office, a new door and lock replacement with key card entry uh and an expanded teacher uh workroom. Uh so we received seven seven bids and received seven bids and the renovation uh the uh lowest responsive bid as vetted by our architect was provided by
103Manus General Contracting in the amount of uh 1.9 a little over $1.9 million. Uh we have worked with this uh this company before, this contracting firm before, I believe, uh on projects at Three Oaks. Uh so the uh their bid was uh vetted by the the architect. They recommend that we approve this bid. Administration concurs. May I have a motion to approve the bid submitted by Manuso's General Contracting in the amount of 1,931,367 as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Shepard, we have guarantees from Anusos that this will this work will be done before the start of school next year that it won't impact the opening of Raggate. Is that correct? That is correct. In the bid documents, we specified, I believe, that they needed to be done by early August to give us
104a little bit of a buffer. Great. Was it August 11? Wow. Okay. Thank you. Missed that part. I again, um, like to thank Dr. White and Mr. Shepard for answering my questions during the week. Um, I know there was some concern by staff that um of the some of the areas being made into for storage, but I do think every building needs a certain amount of storage. You just can't be packrats and, you know, be saving stuff from 20 years like a lot of our basements. Um, but when Dr. White explained what this was going to be used for, I I I thought, okay, that makes that's makes pretty good sense. So, I'm on board with this uh this renovation bid. And I do appreciate the answers during the week. I know you're busy on
105other things. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none. If we could take a vote, please. Mindy Hartman, yes. Ann Sanucci, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Jason Jansik, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Motion is approved. 8.8 Eight is the approval of the audio enhancement proposals for Briargate, Three Oaks, and Oak Null. Dr. White. Sure. I don't know why I got this one. Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Shepard could have done this one, too, but I will take over and give him a break. So, um, when we began looking at the projects that we wanted to complete this summer, we knew that Briergate had an aging intercom system. We experienced some major issues with the Deer Path system and by the grace of God, it started working again. We don't know how it started working but it started working.
106What we what we noticed though during that time also is that the company that u manufactured our current intercom systems in our buildings um no longer are in that line or that sector of work. So finding parts for our intercom systems um has become um kind of like antique shopping um so to speak where you're kind of searching around trying to find the parts. So Mr. Mr. Shepard and I spoke about um the overall plan and although um one of the buildings in this was not identified for an upgrade. We felt though be for the for the safety reasons that we needed to make sure we had working intercom systems that were updated. All of our our systems are pretty old. So it's not like any of them have been replaced and we're just replacing
107them. Um, and so when we looked at that and then when we got the quote back from audio enhancement and each of the prices for the three buildings that we're bringing forth this evening actually fall below the um estimates that we received from the architect for replacing intercom systems and then with the added um safety features as well as the audio features that classrooms would have available to them, um we saw that this was definitely one of those projects that we needed to move forward with sooner rather than later. Dr. White, can you speak to why we're not doing all of our buildings at the same time? Just very briefly. Sure. So, the plan is um to bring forward um Deer Path and the Junior High um to the board for those replacements when we
108do those renovations in the in the next two summers. So when we were done, the other thing that this would add is all of our buildings would be on the same system, which gives us extra features like district all calls on intercom systems and um emergency kind of situations as well as announcements. We can actually have the capability to do it across the district, but we're going to wait and do those buildings when we do their renovation projects. So it'll be 20 summer of 2026, summer of 2027. And then did we decide that the door the door um is going to be part of this as well monitoring the exterior doors? Sure. So that is part of the scope of work um at the buildings. However, when we did um a cost analysis and looked
109at our current systems, Genitech is the current provider of our door sensors and the um the card readers um and so we would rather integrate into Genitech. So that is the same but Genitech then integrates into the audio enhancement system. Okay. So that will be updated when is that part of Yes. Yes. So that was part um you Yep. That was part of the package that was included in the Briergate renovation and then we'll work on the other buildings and bring those forward as we um do additional projects. Right now though we have a lot that we're doing this summer. So yes, by the time referendums work done, all of the buildings will have that feature. Okay, perfect. Thank you. All right. May I have a motion to approve the proposals by audio enhancement for
110installation at Briergate, Oaknull, and Three Oaks for a total of $886,3441. The breakdown is as follows. Three Oaks, $347,45127. Oaknull $285,3001 penny and Brigate $253,292.13 as presented. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. If we could take a vote, please. Ann Sanuchi, yes. Stacy Salt, yes. Jason Jansen, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Okay, that motion is approved. 8.9 is the approval of the transportation center site layout. Mr. Shepard. So, at the committee of the whole, we unveiled the the site layout for the transportation center at its new site and the property we just uh purchased next to Aldi. Uh the basics of the original plan for when it was going to be housed at the Maplewood property uh were the the base for this and it and then it just became
111more of how do we get it to fit uh within our our new property space. So, uh, the the benefits of the the new property location allow us to, uh, increase the size of the the facility, the the building, possibly increase storage space, uh, storage needs. Uh, but it also gives the the transportation center more flexibility with washing buses, fixing the buses as well. Uh so tonight we're pleased to present to the board for their official approval of the preliminary site plan which after tonight we'll be moving forward uh with. Keep in mind that there's very limited avenues to to make changes. Uh the uh design team spent a lot of time trying to make sure that everything would fit uh during our due diligence period uh with this new property. So uh we're uh
112pleased to recommend this site layout. Um, I'll wait for my questions in just a second. So, I'll do uh May I have a motion to approve the transportation center site layout as presented? So, moved. Second. Any discussion? Uh, very briefly, uh, if presuming we approve this tonight, it goes to zoning next. Is that correct? Yes. And that uh that process is all spelled out in the the IGA that was uh was created and agreed to by both the village and the the board. Um we are uh on track to have uh that paperwork in uh to go through zoning I would I believe in April with ultimate approval of all of this uh in May. Uh which does keep us in line at the throughout this same process. We're going to be working on the
113bid package possibly go out to bid while all of this is working its way through. This final uh plan was run by I've seen transportation first, right? Like correct. I I actually uh um actually met with the transportation leadership team uh the morning of the committee of the whole and shared them uh shared this uh layout with them. I have a question. Do we need 55 staff spaces? I mean, personally, I'd rather see more storage space in the building that our district is utilizing storage space there instead of taking up classroom space in our schools. That seems like a lot of parking spaces for a transportation center. So, I think the the thought behind that is u that uh the the training room over there uh is going to be um available not necessarily just
114for transportation staff. on days that they're not holding meetings or trainings. Um it would be an ideal spot to possibly host other trainings uh that we can't accommodate at our our our building. So there may be more visitors over there. Uh they may be hosting uh uh trainings uh from other parts of our our region right now when we have uh drivers that need to take training courses. Uh if it's a course they can take um sitting at one desk in their current transportation office, they do so. Uh but uh it would be uh it had been expressed by our tra trans transportation staff if they had the ability to be able to offer these training courses at their facility, but also bring in other people from other districts to also take those transportation courses
115uh at the the site as well. Uh so yes, the 55 spot seems um seems a bit much, but keep in mind too, we also have uh if we're fully staffed with transportation, we have uh 30 staff over there. Uh so we definitely would need the ability to have extra space. Okay. Um, and then another question upon looking at this layout um to the south there's we're hooking up to the AC the existing Aldi access at that's right by their building and closing off the access at the bottom that's in that paved road that's being demolished. What what is the reasoning? I mean, I'm just thinking like why would we invite Aldi traffic to come through the middle of our transportation center? Yes. So the reasoning for for that uh uh was when our design
116team was looking at it uh and uh our transportation staff actually concurred with this uh felt that having uh uh cars uh being able to enter into Aldi uh or exit from Aldi so close to the intersection could cause issues with our buses um trying to approach the the light. um our civil engineer uh felt that in his experience the number of cars that would be looping back to go into Aldi um would be um it's not like it's a full functioning uh street. Uh and it would be more beneficial uh for buses to be able to have clear access going up to that light rather than have to worry about cars pulling out in front of them uh right next to the light. Couldn't they just put a little stop sign there? I mean,
117to me, it I like to me, I wouldn't want cars coming through at the top part of the middle of all of our activity going on at the at the bus at the transportation center coming out of that parking lot. Just me personally, my also and Mr. Shepard, you may remember this better, but I also believe in our conversations with Aldi's in order to get the agreement to move forward with the project. They were thinking more of that being for their delivery trucks and and service vehicles. So, they preferred also that back link versus the front link. So, they're going to so maintenance on that road is going to be shared between Aldi and us with their semis coming through. So the the thought process as part of the IGA was that maintenance of the
118that access point was going to be shared by not only us and Aldi but if there's any other developers of the front two parcels. Okay. Can we get that in writing from Aldi? I believe that's that was part of the the IG. Okay. I just want to make sure because otherwise we're stuck with it. Do you know what I mean? Um, and then this is are are they absorbing any of the costs to get rid of this demolishing the the road at the bottom or is that all on us? That would be on us. Okay. All right. And so, um, I had the same thought as as you D about the conflict there, but I I have to remind myself at times that when our buses are running are not the peak times for grocery
119shopping. So, we're not going to see the heavy traffic and Aldi. Um, so we have to keep that in mind, too. I'm just thinking even after hours, like when we're not there, we've got people driving through our parking lot and I don't know why they would need access to that to that portion of the transfer, like driving right through the middle of our property. Well, keep in mind they're just go beyond that that access road. Our lot is going to be fenced off and secure. Okay. Any other discussion? If we could take a vote, please. Stacy Salt, yes. Jason Jansik, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Darling, no. Mindy Hartman, yes. And Sanucci, yes. Okay, that motion is approved. There are no other topics for discussion tonight. Uh, may may I have a motion to adjourn the
120meeting? Nope. So moved. Close session has been we've removed it. So moved. Stacy and Jason. All in favor? I All right. This meeting adjourns at 7:41 p.m. Have a nice evening, everyone.