001e e e a here Fulk yes Gorman here papis here FY wson here Hil here all right approval to allow member vuli to join the meeting remotely is allowed by board 222 need a motion on second or required to allow member V to join the meeting second all in favor I hi no names no no names noes no names oh that saying all right we request the motion second to approve the agenda second there's no Mone no all right motion is carried all right please what no you you have to voice for you w you Motion in a second yeah then she's going to call it you can voice okay all in favor I I can we stay with her change I know hard I know it's so hard um please join us in recite
002in the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands under God indivisible with liy and justice for all I want to thank everybody for coming this evening um also the folks on the phone thank you for joining us any words welcome folks if you were a little confused on the roll call versus Voice vote by state law you only really have to call a roll call vote for when there's money involved or if there's policy involved or when you roll call going in the close session otherwise it could be voice vot and I'm suggesting just go to voice voice voice Voice vote uh for efficiency purposes just makes moves the the entire agenda pass moves along quickly so I welcome everybody and thank you for the warm
003welcome that my partner and I have had in the last two weeks here two weeks and one day in County Griff you want turn your mic on well he's loud but I'm louder I'm sure everybody could hear me anybody in the back did not hear me I have a study hall voice or cafeteria boys I can get to the other side of the the road if necessary go ahead all right we'll start public comment first up is uh pkps minutes related to um input from the public and public questions uh the first thing is about competitive bidding and vendor evaluations uh the board packet for this meeting and also in Prior meetings uh the material Administration the administration presents the board the stuff that public sees does not include the vendor evaluation criteria and how
004at least three vendors compare to each other on those criteria so for example um the math curriculum proposal in today's packet uh the external auditor Ral that's in today's packet uh the transportation bids from a month or two ago um they don't have uh three vendors being compared on objective criteria so the public can understand um you know objectively uh how was the best Fender Chosen and also the board isn't getting that information when it's then taking a vote to approve a particular proposal so I think that can be strengthened um that would follow the principles of competitive bidding benchmarking uh and public disclosure around uh you know how large contracts are being awarded second topic is related to board policies um the board policy 7180 which is up for approval today this is the
005one on prevention uh of and response to bullying intimidation and harassment uh it's seems to be missing some of the projected classes under Article 5 of The L Human Rights Act I made this point at the last meeting as well in regard to uh some of the other non-discrimination anti-harassment policies that were approved in the last round um and it's been improved so it's got more of them in the red line but it still seems like it's missing a couple of the protected classes so encourage you to take a look at that and make sure everything is included and then um another point I made last month uh which is not reflected in uh in in today's packet for board policy 2260 which is the uniform grievance procedure uh when there's a complaint about a
006senior person so a superintendent or a member of the board um the policy says that it's investigated by a complaint manager who is an employee of the district and I think that that presents an inherent conflict of interest or puts that complaint manager in a precarious position because they're investigating a superior right uh and so the policy should be improved to provide for an independent investigator in those situations similar to provisions and other policies that allow for uh other board policies allow for independent investigation and then lastly on policies for board policy 8100 which is about community relations it should cover not only written Communications from the community to the board or superintendent but it should cover the things that people raise in public comments right we've talked about this before that people are raising
007issues in public comment typically the board and district is not responding to those issues when they're raised and I think that's a huge opportunity it's it's a missed opportunity um to kind of you know convince the public or incorporate input and improve the the things the district is doing uh and then lastly there are a few uh questions or topics that have come up in some of the community forums that uh are not official District Community forums but that people engage in uh there's a question around whether or not there will be a Middle School Graduation Ceremony this year and if not why not um questions about uh How spelling is taught uh in elementary and middle school uh questions about uh whether our cursive is taught and uh students graduating without the ability to
008even sign signatures uh and then also uh some discussion around uh inconsistency of ability based groupings uh across schools and grade levels and subjects uh and that actually is is um one of the ways that we could Implement an accelerated program and stronger intervention in elementary and middle school without requiring additional teachers right um and supporting not only Advanced learners but also those kids who are uh in lower teers so um those are my comments thank you thank you okay next up Jean Meer Jean Meyer resident teachers and administrators must not teach or enforce moral Val values or religions to the district's children that do not meet the district 301 residents values on 3:14 of 25 a number of local newspapers reported on the comments a parent made at the Deerfield School District board meeting
009this could so easily be District 301 let's not let it be when three District administrators found that middle school girls were refusing to change in front of a boy in their locker room they tried to force the girls to change in front of him this activity went all in all week with the parent speaker's daughter refusing to have her privacy breached she's an amazing girl the vast majority of the taxpayers in this District would be vehemently opposed to this a student forced to change in front of anyone at 6 5 years I have never felt anything but uncomfortable changing in front of anyone as a transgendered middle schooler that I was in 1971 due to my Agony over puberty this kind of activity would have multiplied my Agony by a th% in fact it it
010brought back a memory of my Middle School gym teacher she stood where she could watch us girls come naked and wet out of the shower to get our towels under the guys that she wanted to make sure we got wet in the shower and now I'm starting to think maybe she was stimulating herself this almost killed my TR transgender shy uh middle schooler that I was at the league of woman voters candidate Forum a couple weeks ago every candidate there replied to my question similarly my question asked if teachers should be required to teach only academics and not indoctrination that was beliefs not held by our community the basic reply was that teachers will and should teach their values just like the three administrators enforced their values most likely saying locker rooms and bathrooms of
011schools that take State funds must be open to all 60 genders the law does not say that schools are to force children to strip naked in front of anyone our society has diverse values much more diverse than they used to be from satanists and pedophiles now heading towards mainstream to those who cover females except for a slot for their eyes whose values are we going to teach we have to decide a pedophil offering some of what public schools are teaching to a child would be arrested as for me my values are unchanging coming from God's holy word any one who would coer a student to change in front of anyone should be criminally charged and lose their job without benefits or pension I wonder if anyone on this board has the fortitude to take the
012same stand protect our children from indoctrination please thank you J okay now we'll have facilities director h will introduce our four architects who will each share their proposal presentations with the board hello again um we're going to take this opportunity for our four um finalist firms to present about a 15minute presentation to the board and then give you an opportunity to ask questions the first one will be architectural Resource Group the second one will be Str Str then Larson and Derby group then cigan and Clark leave and his team to get us started good evening it's connecting ready good evening Central 301 board members and guests architectural resource Corporation is truly honored to be shortlisted for this opportunity upon receiving the news we looked into your District its achievements and the values that drive the
013district's mission in fact your mission statement to engage the Mind empower the learner Inspire excellence and influence the world resonates deeply with our firm's commitment to delivering quality projects and education Central 301's prominence over 10 communities in King County is remarkable your central status amidst one of the fastest growing communities in the United States is remarkable yet your achievements in leading the national standards demonstrates in dedication to Excellence that we deeply admire we understand that Central 301 is striving to reach its full potential while navigating the challenges of growth we believe that strategic resource planning combined with well-designed architecture plays a pittiful role in addressing these issues our experience allows us to help you develop strategic plans to transform challenges into positive experiences and realize possibilities that help plan for the future this collaborative approach
014is what truly strengthens our our communities since 1980 our firm has been dedicated to award wording designs for schools and educational facilities my name is Ari bruus and I serve as president and will be your key contact person about 27 years ago I was a ufi graduate and intern when I joined Arc even then I recognized the firm's passion to achieving a quality design I had the privilege of working on school projects a Cornerstone of our practice I remember our design team collaborating closely with clients engaging me in meetings and assignments it was truly a wonderful experience to be mentored by principles and Senior staff who encouraged taught and nurtured my growth this immersive experience characterized by Dynamic energy and collaborative leadership was pivotal to my professional development my career has since been dedicated to
015educational projects driven by the belief that Architects have a profound responsibility to ensure educational facilities positively impact their communities we understand the challenges facing educational growth balancing resources space and student to support ratios we work with districts to translate their Vision into practical Sustainable Solutions that address immediate and long-term growth needs all shaped by Community input we are proud to be exclusively local deeply invested in Illinois we do not Outsource to other states nor do we have digital satellite offices we have a proven track record of delivering successful education projects solely in Illinois in our 45 years experience we have enjoyed partnering with school districts to Envision their district and delivering Master plans that brought it all to fruition the Synergy created in this type of work is how projects in education can Will and
016should bring communities together our experienced team which includes founding principles mix with emerging talents integrates a balance of Forward Thinking solutions that shape a quality design being small enough to ensure personal attention yet large enough to manage complex projects we offer a unique blend of agility and expertise our in-house construction management firm provides us with the superior insights into Chicago construction Mar markets enabling us to deliver cost-effective and impactful spaces our combined resources in both the AE and CM arenas have served several other Illinois districts facing similar challenges to Central 301 with fantastic results our methodology is a comprehensive datadriven approach designed to create educational spaces that not only meet the highest standards of functionality and sustainability but also achieve award-winning recognition we believe that a deep understanding of a school district vision is fostered
017through a partnership built on asking the right questions our studies include land analysis strategic building planning circulation needs and program studies to map parameters that help design shape and design a process our programming and process is intended to enhance the district's ability to integrate short-term challenges into long-term sustainable results this ensures a design that is insightful creative and highly functional our design philosophy centers on creating environments that nurture both learning and wellbeing we prioritize natural light healthy air and an optimal learning environment for students we design spaces that encourage social interaction and Recreation fostering a strong sense of community with care to accessible needs creating an inclusive environments for all students we seamlessly integrate technology providing robust infrastructure for digital learning and future advancements Beyond this we are committed to environmentally responsible Construction prioritizing sustainable
018materials and practices that set standards we design buildings to serve as a Vibrant Community Hub reflecting local culture in context to foster a sense of belonging our approach to ensure long-term value and Innovation includes utilizing durable materials and robust construction for longevity designing for flexibility and adapting to Future needs committing to a responsible financial management plan and modern izing existing facilities with Excellence to award-winning standards is what we stand for it's our history our ability to respond to the district we're local we're 80 minutes from Central 301 it ensures that we can provide a rapid in-person response to any urgent District need our local knowledge AB building codes regulations and jurisdictional authorities allows us to facilitate expedited timelines we use advanced technology Bim and project management tools to streamline communication and coordination enabling Swift adjustments
019and keeping projects on track our contractor relationships cultivated through our construction management division concept Development Group with our history of managing billions in Illinois educational projects ensures a rapid resource mobilization and seamless integration with any construction management firm above all we're committed to creating inspiring educational spaces that support students in the community working closely with your team to deliver projects on time within budget and to the highest standards possible to Central 301 we believe that architectural resource Corporation offers not just architectural services but a partnership built on shared values deep experience and a genuine commitment to your District's success we understand the unique challenges and opportunities before you and we are confident in our ability to translate your vision into real ity we're ready to engage our minds Empower your learners Inspire excellence and together
020influence the world we're eager to begin this journey with you and we thank you for your time and consideration any questions oh yeah let's open up for questions so I question so as part of your uh request you know like responding to this proposal have you familiarized yourself with sort of the circumstances that are unique to our school district I believe so okay so um knowing that uh we have a need to expand but we don't necessarily uh have a uh clear picture of how to expand and where to expand how would your firm uh tackle that that is the question and let's put it in perspective because our deep dive into your District suggest that what we learned is you're a central unit district K through2 One-Stop shop for educational excellence and you guys
021are not just expanding it at an exponential rate but you're top 25 in the state and you're in the leading growing School District in the nation so that being said I think it's a significant step in the history of this District I think what you do moving forward and working with the proper design firm is find a firm that can really ask you the right questions the right questions are we've been around long enough to understand models of smaller districts growing into longer range needs we've worked with districts that temporarily solved space Problems by the age-old mobile classroom solution and what that does to District's long term I think that we have the experience and knowledge to guide you to extract what is the vision what is the program what is the short-term problem and
022how do we reach the long-term Vision I believe that we have the experience to ask you the questions that you may not have considered I believe that in working with other districts in Illinois for 30 years plus we can show you models of how districts have grown how they've handled expansion quote unquote problems but I believe that your design firm and everyone you interview tonight should express to you their ability to communicate with you to understand your needs to project how fast you're growing and to understand every aspect of the district from Land planning to infrastructure to the age of buildings and the possibilities I think if a proper design firm explain this upfront I believe together in that partnership the questions and answers that unfold from there can lead to wonderful things thank you
023how does your firm engage with like the community in the design and planning process and what specific tools and techniques would you use the school board will direct us on what the vision and the goals are in short that means if there's Community engagement in the pre-design program we can create the kid parts that allows how to form questions how to gather information from the community and how to form that into a program tools that we use are really based on tools that are comfortable with the district we can operate in a digital environment we can operate in person we can have community outreach programs to which we come to the district and the community can answer any questions they have in an open form or we can host in our firm Summits to discuss
024any potential problem that may not be related to The District at hand but might become an issue down the road so to answer your question we can accommodate and be flexible to any Pace the district moves in so to set you apart from the other folks that we'll see tonight what is the one thing that you would say that your firm can offer a District 301 that no one else can I think we're dedicated to projects and education exclusively the fact that we reside in Illinois means that we're small enough yet large enough to handle any project the district has faced her encountered I believe that we have experience to navigate a process that leads the district to a proper solution and the fact that we are exclusively in education means that our nucleus we
025truly believe as Architects that projects and education have the biggest impact to any community and for doing this for 50 years I can tell you that if we were bad at it it wouldn't look good for us and it wouldn't look good for any district and so uh we like to think we stick our necks out we like to think that we're dedicated in our area and um not only are we Professionals in an office but we're also GR program that we're all local we've all been through the same educational system and we're proud to work here questions thank you for your time thank you very much you thank you thank you did stand why is it so cold too that's a little turned it down thank you it's all toin messing with it Ser
026app you messed with that I saw you I know I did why turn up the heat you got your coat on right see it's ridiculous you're trying to freeze me out what is that went appreciate you you4 you gonna be okay why did you wear long sleeves just I make some jokes but I I promise good so grip is like black and Stu I can take yours you want like serious no I got paper oh okay thank you Alan you appreciate you so ridiculous than thank you there we go thank you if you could if you could do it there with the mic because uh our audience that's watching remotely they won't be able to hear you if you're oh would be happy to um so our our talk tonight is organized into some really
027simple ways um first we'll tell tell you a little bit about us uh show some of our work talk about master planning um into um some uh referendum and Grant uh discussions so um feel free to jump in if you want to uh we'll keep it as informal as as as uh as you'd like so um uh we have a great project team we proposed um and uh we have three people from the project team are here um again Mike Henderson so uh be the Principal in charge um Jennifer Stan she's be the technical principal and Alan AR who's in uh communication uh in community engagement and grants we'll be talking a little bit more about that later um so uh We've um uh Str strr Partners has been in business 56 years so um
028and we have um 35 different school districts that we serve um a number of them kind of surround Central so um and who we've been at for literally decades um um you know 27 35 22 45 years so kind of you know in a in a big area around um and um we're very proud that we were able to um serve these districts for so long and have such longevity and um partly because um we see a role as a district architect in doing kind of everything for a district um going from very small projects um you know let's say a toilet room renovation or boiler or something like that uh to uh me Renovations uh additions and um up to you know entire school campuses brand new high schools um so kind of very
029small projects very large projects so the small projects are just as important um they just have a shorter time frame so um s Str partners because um we focus on on um on uh educational architecture our practice is focused on um uh serving public public schools and because of that we've organized our practice around a couple of big ideas and that is enhancing now and envisioning Futures we found that a lot of our practice was um you know roofs and and infrastructure and things um keeping the the students warm safe dry um but um also forward looking um uh where you know to helping to to align your facilities to where you want to be so that your fac support your educational goals so um uh and enhancing now is also you have a lot
030of score footage you have a lot of facilities so how do you bring those facilities and and um align them to the educational goals right now and so all of those are important and it's a big part I again of what what we do every day you have a very big school district so um take 20 minutes to drive across it you have a lot of very old buildings and you have newer buildings so there's a big range and because of our practice being um focused on small things and big things and and all the different aspects we think we're we're hoping where you see us as a good fit um so uh I'm just going to briefly go through the range of the different projects we have talk about with high schools Middle Schools
031elementary schools prek so um high schools we we serve uh 22 different high schools uh in Northern Illinois and and um again we do brand new high schools high school campuses um this is a Sarah good Academy um uh additions uh do tons of additions to high schools because there there's physically very large buildings with a lot of different needs Renovations of every sort uh do field houses Tech Technology Centers technology classrooms all the different different types um um stem labs culinary arts uh and of course stadiums we've done you know ton of uh of different uh turf fields and entire stadiums and U Leach ATT tracks and things uh for middle schools again we've done new middle schools junior high schools this is the Manhattan Junior High School we just opened it up um
032very recently actually we started in addition onto a building that wasn't quite finished yet um which was pretty exciting the their um the project came in under budget so they had money left over and they wanted to spend it on the building so we actually building another gym to it and the District administration Center onto a building that wasn't we started before it was quite open um so uh again middle schools junior high schools U do a lot of additions to them Renovations this is Thomas Middle School um of course classrooms um where they you know so much of the education happens um lrc's Learning Centers libraries lot of different names for these typ of spaces uh stem Labs at at a middle school level you know athletic facilities PE gymnasiums music areas um and
033science labs science lab can take a lot a lot of different flavors in Middle School um and you know an important aspect in Middle Schools is Commons are that where teams can be organized around and this is a common area that at one of our middle schools um elementary schools um just like the high schools just like the middle schools we've done lots and lots of new elementary schools um this is Prairie East Prairie um additions to to and Renovations uh common spaces we we found that um a big part of Education now is that um education happens in a lot of different places a lot of informal spaces can be important for breakout areas this is one of those breakout areas um lrc's Learning Centers Library um in in elementary schools it's also um
034important to understand that things are scaled down um you know middle school and high school kids can be you know very big people um when you get in down to Elementary and and kindergarten they're physically small and having areas that actually scale to to those students is incredibly important um this is an art space in elementary school um classrooms um we're doing a lot of these um marker walls markerboard walls where we can hide a lot of storage behind um those spaces cafeteria um uh again the gymnasium for a elementary school can be very different you see all the letters on the ground and that's part of their curriculum and um getting down to the smallest students Early Learning Centers um this is a gross motor skills area and of course um you know Play
035Arts and and so that they can have those gross motor play areas so at this point let me turn over to Jennifer good evening I'm here to talk a little bit about master planning um so a master plan when it's set up properly and um used effectively it's a very powerful tool especially when we have a district that's experiencing or potentially experiencing a Latin growth so um basically the master plan is is kind of a a take take look at what what is it that you have what is it that you need uh then we talk about what's possible and how we can afford those things so when we break down a master plan this is an example some phases that we would go through uh we we get together we plan we set our
036expectations set some guiding principles and your your goals for these plans and then we get together and we have what's called um an assessment and a discovery phase so we really do a lot of different studies so that we can get to to know the buildings get to understand um what it is that you have and what challenges you have your internal challenges your external challenges so internal really talks about the maintenance needs that you have or the curriculum needs that you have an external is kind of this enrollment projection that may be causing outside forces um stresses onto your buildings we take a look at all of that we gather that data and evaluate it and then we talk about different ways we can conceptualize and address those challenges and then we help you
037under your framework of guiding principles prioritize and work through with your budgets how you can prioritize these things across a few years so I have a couple of examples of some of those studies um this is something we're doing recently with another District they're calling it a district vision card or facility vision card where we have um identified their ideal U number of spaces and programs that they would like to have in their facilities whether it be elementary middle or high school and then we can evaluate the actual facilities against that card so we we do a space utilization plan we highlight those challenges and then we can check off and evaluate against that vision card whether or not they're meeting the goals of the curriculum or they're meeting the goals of those progam program
038needs additionally in tandem with that we do a capacity study where we are um also looking in and analyzing that enrollment projection but we're comparing it against the actual physical building so that we understand where there are gaps or where there really are going to be challenges or if there are spaces that can be repurposed or take advantage of other ways so a lot of different studies go into those things and then we can work on um conceptualizing ideas later I'll let Alan start talking about okay thank you I don't need to tell anybody in this room that referendums are really hard they just are it's the nature of the Beast even the ones that from a distance that look like they passed very easily there's just been a ton of work and a lot
039of positioning behind it so just last November uh both we had Mount Prospect for 85 million and Indian Prairie School District really really happy both of those passed uh Herculean efforts in both cases and you know we we do this a lot we've learned a lot from it every Community is different that way um but we're pretty skilled at it and we have teams of consultants and help fill the gaps that we can't do uh I think the one big takeaway I've learned is there's very little you can't find out about there's no reason to run a referendum and not have a really good idea of how you're going to do next please the through processes from communicating with your public uh hearing from them uh is really the core here and across the bottom
040you know we've engaged students in you know help helping us design a stadium uh in the middle their parents committee really digging in really motivated really great group that passed just a crazy high expensive referendum because that's what they wanted and they were willing to stand by it and make it happen so the graphic here really is just to take the whole process and make it just as super simple as possible so this District across the top they created their guiding principles and so just things they wanted to do as a district kind of a master plan but you know kind of a short form version of that on the left hand side there are four different schemes so really just with the committee go through it see which schemes really solve their problems and
041you can kind of do the squint test and yeah obviously all green is easy all red is easy but you know how much what can I get for my money can I get 75% of what I want for half the money okay you've got my attention so this process again just just really simple for communicating with big groups we found really be effective uh next please I think the other takeaway is that we are big Believers in public surveys everything you want to know you can know uh this is an example of a recent one where in this case this cell we're really just trying to figure out what projects will the public support you know we know what we want to do the school district knows what they need to do but if there's
042a gap there in terms of the understanding of the community they're not going to support it it does doesn't make any difference how good it is doesn't make any difference how much you need it if they don't believe it it's not going to happen uh and the different committees so you can understand that you can know with great specificity of what projects they really are excited about which ones they're not you can also know that by geography you can know which developments support which projects and the answer there isn't that oh they don't want it we're not going to do it no that's not the answer it means there's a gap in their understanding so it gives you the ability to focus on trying to con communicate and convince them that you need this for
043this certain reason and if you can communicate that well enough you can get it done next please similarly when it comes to money uh it it's really amazing to me how accurately You can predict what people will support and again survey is asking the right questions asking them the right way and asking them of the right people and the right people is really the key and how you go about the survey has everything to do with it you know online surveys and things like that really don't work because they really don't reach a broad enough segment of your population is what you're interested you want to know what the likely voters think you don't really care if they're old people you don't care if they're young people you want to care if they're voters and
044knowing what they want and what they think and what they'll support so that'll really point to you where you really need to expend your effort so here's this small dashboard and that's in the handout here the red boxes are really the projects they'll support we we learned with great specificity of what they would support What percentages people would support on and then the blue boxes similarly with the money you know everybody has their own opinion the problem is literally everybody in this room is too close to it you know we want to believe we're looking for that affirmation but that's really not what we want we want to know what the likely voters will think what do they really believe so that gives us the ability to change their thinking but also gives us the
045ability to Rack to their thinking where this really comes into play is duration of projects if you're trying to do something that's going to last 20 years there's very few voters that are have that much foresight to support so you can find what is their sweet spot what do what's the time frame that they're interested in supporting you can know that you don't need to guess um so we we strongly believe in that so there you go thank you very much I appreciate it and hopefully you have some questions I've covered everything so completely I do have a question so um the master the the phases of a master plan uh that sir Alan what you covered is a component of of what goes into the master plan I really follow it so the master
046plan will set up your guideline now there's there's communication back and forth because if we discover that the master plan develops a plan that that wants 10 and we recognize that the community will only support six we know we have to go back and either from a education convincing point of view or from a duration planning point of view so both speak to each other but you start with the plan see what you see what you want see what you need particularly as driven by educational needs and then see what you can really support and how quickly can do it I I just it just drove me nuts when I was driving around the district looking at your building seeing the mold mob and I just hate spending money on mobiles because it's just not
047a great investment so the master plan is is your firm is this something that's common you do this when when you're looking at a district like ours which you've studied and you've seen that we are growing we need to expand our facilities but how and where is the question um when you engage a community like ours is a development of a master plan like this always done or is from your firm's uh philosophy this is what we do this is how we do it or do you ask communities do you want to do this or not it's it's ultimately your choice I I would say the larger the district the more likely is to have a master plan just to generalize however there are other districts that are just very linear that's the way they've
048always done it the community buys into it and they can do that but I will say over time in our practice the bad news is I'm old enough I have some perspective on that that I would say the percentage of districts that have Master plans is 50% higher today than it was 15 years ago so as you were driving around our district and you were like you said you saw the mobiles what other sort of challeng do you see that we face I know you've done your research on us so like what are some of the things that you would say are challenges or that we're going to have to overcome I know the mobiles is one thing but what else did you see well from what I saw and from what I've gathered from
049the the results of of kind of your your previous efforts and things like that it's interesting and I think this is a real challenge for your district is your geography you know you have a strong central campus that's really at the heart of the district was built on and over time that's expanded from there I'd be really curious survey wise how the public thinks about that you know certainly I recognize the ones that are in a specific development okay I get that but what about the others you know what does everybody else think about that um I'd be really curious I don't know the answer to that and I don't pretend to know the answer to that but I'd really like to know I I think the other thing that I didn't really touch on
050is U we've seen this and Mike referred to the project in Manhattan which was a referend I'm just last year and there was a Tipping Point in the district where the number of long-term residents versus the new people at coming in and we could see how that changed the expectations of the people in the district uh note what was perfectly great 10 years ago that people loved all of a sudden doesn't fly and to recognize where you are in that I think is is really challenging but I also think the locations I think the intra District Equity I think is a real challenge for you um you know I think it's fortunate you have the one big campus Because I think people really do kind of hang their hat on that so that gives you
051a real Direction a real guide but I think some of the other U you know Lally like jumps to mind um you know I think that uh to get some intradistrict Equity I think would help the educational process I think it help your teaching environment and I think it could ultimately help in passage of a referendum but again it's a supposition I out of the districts you worked with a lot of those have you know industry we only have a lot of farms and rooftops you'd be amazed how many bedrooms we have in our clients we have we have shockingly little industry in any of our clients we're jealous of all the other Architects that have all the big uh data centers and U and factories in their pieces yeah it's so how do you
052deal with that challenge it it is literally that that's what makes the referendum so tough and makes the survey so important because you can you have to know you have to react to what those people think I think the one thing and my my last slide if you could go ahead um the I think that we do spend a lot of time on grants I think there is the prospect of some grants that'll be speaking to your District in the relatively near future and you know nothing is more effective um in aiding a referendum than a successful Grant um you know just a a couple here Round Lake Jennifer uh assisted Round Lake with a $5 million Early Learning Center Grant the other year and I realized it as I was driving out today I
053said and even uh the grant process for the public schools is exactly the same process it was for Early Learning Centers which is exactly the same process it was for public libraries moringo we got them a $700,000 uh grant for their library because it's that process we really know that process and we can position your District to be ready for that that gets into that point of that timing you know do you want a 20-year plan do you want a fiveyear plan we've seen some districts try to do 30-year plans but I think is folly um nobody's crystal ball is good enough to be 30 years out but I think all those choices but that's why the survey is so important because it's the people in the bedrooms that are making those decisions you don't
054you have no you have no fluff from retail you have no fluff from industry it's it's everything is bedrooms yeah it's a tough spot you're not alone though if if that's any consolation thank you so much very thank you appreciate the opportun just I was pausing right good one ma'am a lot of those schools industry STS connected here thank you yes thank you thank you there we go yes we go all right thanks everybody glad to be here we want to be very conscious of your time we know that's 15 minutes we're going to try and be as close to that as physically possible we are going to be very concise we might move a little fast but feel free to ask questions at the end happy to go back at any point and look
055at anything that you may have more questions on so here's our agenda for tonight we'll talk a little bit about us some project experience a little thought leadership our approach and then I would ask after questions if I could have 45 seconds for a very quick closing that would be great so we'll introduce ourselves let Andrew go first sure Andrew mlin architect and principal Larson I've been at Larson and D for about 10 years practicing architecture for about 20 and a chunk of that time been able to work on some District projects so it's great to do that president of theast chairman of the Discover Center Children's Museum Science Children's Museum great I'm Steve Nelson um I feel compelled to give you a little bit of depth and background on me so we clarify everything
056um I've been practicing architecture for 37 years 34 of which included Public Schools um I have uh grown up in the rural area I graduated from Sandwich High School in the University of Illinois uh both of my parents were in public service my dad was a police Chief and my mom was the school secretary in my elementary and worked as a bookkeeper for the uh build business manager at my high school district um I live six minutes from this door right down Plank Road I can get here faster than I can get to downtown Sycamore I have served 19 years on the Sycamore Education Foundation board I served 17 years um the Sycamore School Board 14 of them as vice president I served 14 years on sycamore's uh Planning and Zoning Board as the school
057district's representative I was also eight-year member of the iasb Kishwaukee division executive board and I was your resolutionist chair because you are in the Kish Division I have served uh 12 years yeah 12 years as an iasb service associate I'm current chairman of the board so I also sit on the IP State Board of Directors we just had a meeting this past past weekend um on top of that I also um was the only one of two board members appointed to a Statewide U inclusive American history curriculum commission uh which established new guidelines for inclusive American history in the state of Illinois in 2021 it was interesting because it was all done online uh during covid and I am then married to my lovely wife who is a middle school teacher for for uh 32
058and a half years so I have a good perspective on what it means to be on that side of the table as well as this side of the table and I wanted to share all that with you real quickly here's our org chart we are 40 person firm these are all people that have worked on projects here in central um many more in the office have done so as well I would be your principal in charge as I have been for the past 20 years uh Jed trius is our design director Andrew is our senior project manager and a principal we worked with a number of Consultants here in the district including imeg and Ericson for many years which you have chosen to hire independently and then other Consultants although we have Structural Engineering in
059house they do more smaller projects concentrated projects so we will use DC engineering who we just used on the 20 classroom Edition that we completed for this school year as a structural for a new major project and then we'll bring in specialty Consultants as need be theater Acoustics whatever that might be and we would also uh recommend using Amy earo from brain spaces if you want to enter into any industry thought leadership with us or uh Master planning or Community engagement she is a great partner that we've worked with just recently in Bader we went through all of their Community engagement uh for their master plan and facility assessment just the last two years what do we know today I can tell you we know all this stuff about you guys you know that's the
060current enrollment according to your website 5150 as of March 2025 97% graduation rate 11% ell 11% IEP students uh you're 40 5347 male to female in your District so those are all the statistical data things that we're familiar with in your District um what's more important I think is this slide this is by building every project that I or Larson Derby have done for Central in the last 20 years it's important to know that we did not do these alone this was a partnership it's always been a partnership and it's been a partnership with your construction manager for 20 years board whoever was on the board at that time and your Administration and your community we have been here to do what the board and the district has asked us to do for those now
06120 going on 21 years and they include building uh Country Trails they include building Prairie NOS they include all the recent major additions onto the high school including the one this past summer and the one that was right before covid and that was a referendum and operating fund project totaling $30 million and it came in $2 million under budget which allowed you to do some other things which we'll highlight here a little bit not going to read them all they're all in the presentation there for you keep things moving a little bit about project experience we're not going to stand up here today and show you all the cool pictures of all the other districts that we worked on that's not what we're here for we're here for to talk about you this is a
062list of all the districts we've worked for there's 48 of them all over Northern Illinois um to highlight a couple of things the very first client for uh Larson and Derby group was Collins Aerospace there's still a client today 63 years later the second client was Rockford Public Schools still a client today 61 years later we've worked here for 21 as I've mentioned Bureau Valley 27 dimick 18 and we have new clients like putham County two years beler three going on four years so we're always adding people to that list and we look forward to continuing our partnership with District 301 so this is the one quick slide here's a bunch of schools we've done for other people one Awards with them they range from mlan unit 5 South booy Rockford Public Schools dimmick Lena
063Winslow the seow center down at the University of Illinois superc Computing Center at the University of Illinois number of projects and highered that have trickled down and informed us on how we engage and push and lift up K12 education so with that you might be familiar with this project this is the one that was finished right before Co um again came in well under budget which allows you to U build your vet tech facility as well do some additional Renovations in the high school it included Your Fieldhouse wrestling rooms music gym classrooms locker rooms cafeteria all of that was redone as part of that referendum and operational fund expense it's the premier fieldhouse in the region by far um everybody loves that Fieldhouse particularly my wife's a track coach so they love coming over and
064using the facility but that like I said allowed you to do some of the things like vet tech you see here in that main lobby yeah I think one of the other things that's shown in this slide is the business incubator which is a great example of some transform work that we've done um renovating some spaces we love to build buildings we love to put additions on but sometimes what makes the most sense if you have enough space already is to take classrooms and make them just more functional make them a little larger fible fible Furniture can modify that space as down the road whats and makes most sense for space a couple of other pictures the 20 classroom Edition which we just recently finished up a great project and a great example of us
065working together collaboratively saving the district M and it was under a reasonably tight time frame to through planning design and construction so that they'd be ready for the students to arrive because we know they're still coming for you they're they're not stopping so and then of course all the other buildings in the district like you said I was involved you leite designs for Prairie nles and for Country Trails we put additions on at hbt additions on at Prairie View we've done AC hbac upgrades Roofing Replacements Paving work placed all the mobiles that unfortunately you have to have right now to accommodate all your students um we've done Renovations here in the admin villing and at Lively Lake and many over at Central Middle School when it was in all different functions when it was a
066full middle school now that it's an eighth grade Center all of those things and another thing to point out is when there are projects that the district can execute themselves we've been I think a good partner in with Dan and his crew to say hey here's what you need to get your Roe permit but you guys can go out and functionally do this yourself many of the renovations recently done here in this building were done that way so a little bit on industry thought leadership what does that mean that means that we don't just design in a silo that we actually are out there learning from other clients pulling from other Market sectors like higher education we work at Rockell College raford University University of Illinois um Northern Illinois University we're pulling those things down
067and using them in the schools that we're designing when they're appropriate for middle school high school age students uh we pull from other areas uh that also inform education at the elementary level and we do read uh quite a bit in the area of Education normally the leave behind we have when we go to an interview is the book list I put together for my clients every year and the book but we already gave you guys that this year in November so I didn't want to duplicate that but every year we do that because I I and our our group read what's happening in the industry and what's informing design and decisions that boards have to make this is where Amy yurko also comes in she's a principal at brain spaces they specialize in this
068type of thought process and uh she is also a degreed as an architect and as an educator she has clients all over the world literally Central America Europe Mexico South America all over the US based out of Michigan and Chicago we worked with her on a number of things including what we just did at belvadere um which encompassed uh all 14 of their buildings we did a full facility assessment and a full master plan that took well over 18 months and hit a considerable amount of community engagement and then steering committee work that was brought back and then the board went different directions with different things one things one thing that we will show is a different project is another example of transformative design just to illustrate what that is this is Rock Valley College
069sure I worked on this projects and I think we show this one just as a start transformation of what they had what we to with what they had and turn it into something that was very useful for them they had a nonfunctioning space the structure was in good shape group was in good shape we were able toose that them give them a brand new Lobby space that was much more stud we also buil out some transformative design is kind of the trendy buzz word you he now and educational designer to as it really integrates principles fromers Des down not just need today great example that is we've been you Curr design twoes for them that are taking what they've got asge some small classes making larger more flexible spes that they they can use for
070of different classes one of them that we completed a couple years ago creativity lab the profess to because it's fible because it's got modular furniture that it can arrange in a variety of different ways to teach I and tri down from the correct so sometimes repurposing what you have and using your existing footprint makes the most sense doesn't always have to be an addition or or a new building wrong so our approach has always been designed with not for you I can't emphasize that enough and mentioned at the beginning it has been a partnership Larsson and Derby's mission statement it's on our website it's in our booklet is building trusted Partnerships the very first sentence through a journey of inquiry and Discovery to create exceptional environments period but it starts with partnership and that includes
071everybody that includes the board that includes the community that includes the construction manager and the engineers and the Consultants all of that we have been here to execute whatever the board and administration's Vision has been over the last 20 years and the last four plus superintendent the best way to pred the future is to design it I truly believe that that's a quote that used to be credited to buckminister Fuller but that's not accurate he never said that just to say everyone thinks he said it but we can't find any record of it it's just a good quote so along those lines part of that is community engagement wanted to touch on that uh having been on my board I've been through a number of community engagements as a board member we did it when
072we wrote Our strategic design we did it when we Revisited our strategic design twice and when we built a new elementary and repurposed our Middle School from a junior high to a middle school and I was involved as a board member in that Community engagement and all of that took and redistricting and I was through two redistricting and four superintendents when I was on my board just came off two years ago but I've also facilitated and led those Bel again being the most recent one but we've done them in a number of districts for a number of projects whether they are new additions whether they're referenda based projects or whether it's we have only this much space and only this much money how can we SHP things around maybe that's changing to grade level centers
073maybe it's changing to a different schedule at the high school moving from a block schedule to something else because they need to more efficiently use space so we've done it for all types of of scenarios and we've LED that here knowing the challenges the community is facing now with growth is why I think it's important to talk about that and it's important to for us to bring up that Amy uro and her firm could also provide some support and guidance for the whole team the partnership that we would have going forward real quickly there's three C's to community engagement it's communication collaboration and commitment I'm not going to read everything but basically what you have to do is you have to listen actively listen to the community give them their voice and then provide them
074feedback on what they have have to say even if not what you dis not what you agree with or if you decide to go in a different direction you still have to give them feedback so that they know where they stand and that they feel heard and there's often good ideas that come out of that collaboratively have to work all together you have to put everything aside and say I don't have an agenda I don't have anything I have a clear and open mind what is best for the kids because that's why we're all here today what is best for the kids that's was our mon through when I was on my board that was the first question that was always ask what's best for the kids so you have to do that set it
075aside and truly collaborate with everybody the community your your Consultants whoever they may be your Administration and then that also means commitment and it means you can't just talk the talk you have to walk the walk and your partners have to do that with you so you have to commit the time you have to commit the resources and some of those meetings may not be fun they're not always fun because there's sometimes challenges you have to answer or respond to uh that the community brings up so that's part of the process of being transparent part of P pure communication with your community so you have to have a level of commitment to say I'm all in to do this so once you're doing that we have to wrap it up Mr so sorry yep there
076we go no saying we have to wrap it up okay no problem go I only got a couple slides left so this is the process community community engagement on the left design team you work through that think Circle that you get all that information it goes into a steering Community to direct it and out of the school board for the decision real quickly yeah I'll just go this we use all the the latest technology used VR headsets with clients to kind of so they can walk through some of their projects before they're actually built just go to the next slide key things about that is we save cost up front by making decisions when it's in through design process it saves you guys money having the v head uh is part of that in order
077that clients can put that on see what's going to happen in the design make the decisions on what they like or don't like to change on process allows us to balance the scope in the budget and the quad the project questions given the things that you know about our district um what are you what do you see are some of our greatest challenges and moving forward what kind of ideas do you have for solving some of those challenges well I think um I'm going to be as honest as I as honest guy so and I've been through it on my own board because we had some challenges too so I think regaining Community Trust is something that the district has to do uh through Community engagement that level of communication you do have growth coming
078in I did a number of projects for Huntley School District 158 back in the early 2000s when they were seeing a massive growth uh literally uh at one point their District in the late 90s was 850 students give or take k12 and by 2002 they were getting almost 800 new students a year so they were put we were designing additions on buildings that were under construction because they were coming so fast so I've been through what it's like to to go through that process I'm not sure yours is quite as Extreme as that but you're seeing growth just from the numbers that are on your school report card from last year 41 4817 I think it was or 87 to 5150 now that's significant growth during your school year and you're only a little over
079halfway through so how do you house those students so that they don't um lose out on educational opportunities and the short-term answer is you put them in mobiles that's that's what a lot of people do but how do you plan forward to repurpose space to reuse space to maybe not allow people to this is my only space I never leave the space I'm G to have to move out so someone else can use that space in the inter room and then you need to look at how you want to align your facilities to your growth model so going forward that means probably putting some additions on on at some point is there grant funding available I the state is hit or miss on that and maintenance Grant is not going to help you there $50,000
080po so are there other grant opportunities we're we have a marketing staff that'd be happy to help research some of that for you and help you fill out some of the grants we have three people on staff that can help do that um but I think building trust in the community and and determining the best way to house the students without impeding their educational process is are two biggest challenges from what I see another question for you a little to the board being here it says that there are two campus Master plans that have been done on the under the General District on that site when were those Master plans done the one we just did as part of the high school process on the Moss property so we looked at what would fit on
081that overall property as far as how much acreage things would take what roadways that was in conjunction with Ericson engineering the most recent one the other one goes back to the rorison property okay back with Dr hawk in 056 I want to say that was done if I'm not mistaken so those are the two larger ones also on that list that I mentioned was uh districtwide facility Capital assessment plan which is different than a health Life Safety survey we've done both of those too for the last two cycles but that Capital plan I think Mr prob way would agree has been the Bible that he's used in making his maintenance priority list each year as to where things are and it doesn't mean that things haven't moved up or down the list based on how
082they've performed but it gave them a guideline with a 1: three 3: 5 5 to7 7 to 10 and above priority listing of what roofs what Windows what doors what floors all the maintenance based things for all the buildings in the district and he's been using that for a number of years I want to say we completed that in 18 I think so pre preo so another districtwide approach that we have provided for Central one final question for me I know you mentioned the history um that you've been with us you know for 20 years and obviously you're very close um to the location appr proximity of our district um as we look back over the three referendums you know the failed referendums and obviously you being in the community what would you have done
083differently or maybe advised us differently as you look back sure um so let me step back and say just to clarify you know we didn't come in one day and say you should build a high school or you should build a middle school or whatever we were reacting to that we did actually a number of studies on what the current High School could or couldn't do what would fit where what would require more property um I think maybe the thing looking back at it right now is I think the first one out of the need perception of the amount of students that were arriving was pushed a little too fast didn't have all your ducks in a row for that one and really it wasn't even a design at that point because we didn't have
084time to really put one together other than enough for shales mcnut to put a a budget number together for you you had a target number for the referendum it was a conceptual plan but it but was no way worked out it was it was probably um you know there was there was efficiencies that could have been developed through the design process but it gave us a perspective on are we looking at 150 million or are we looking at 200 million that that was really the quarter of magnitude that we were dealing with and I think additional Community engagement and as you may recall we weren't asked to participate in all of that Community engagement or really any of it U we did the steering committee we were doing steering committee uh which was very successful
085group I think that was a good process for those that were around that committee but we didn't do as much Community engagement so I would I would recommend that you involve your design professional in the community engagement so they can talk specifically to that piece in those meetings and even help facilitate it a little bit to take pressure off of administration um and then I would say maybe the third thing is uh particularly knowing that you've had failed referendums now that you you would probably be wise to invest in a referendum consulting firm that does the background data there's a couple that we have worked with in the past um that have been successful I just recently heard of uh another one and I did some research on them that has been very successful at
086the at the tri conference in November I was in that sat in that session to learn a little bit and that's the only reason I went to it I wanted to learn if the guy was good or just talking out the side of his mouth so he had data to back it up so those are probably the things I would recommend going forward that would hopefully open up that and it really all goes back to building that trust back with the community that's got to be your foundation that's my board member hat that's not my architect hat so thank you any other questions all right thank you for your time this evening thank you thank you very much um I just wanted that 45 seconds at the end I'll do it real quick sorry no
087problem it'll it Rel less than 45 seconds so it's just a closing you know they they always say you don't get the job if you don't ask for the job so like we said we want to continue as your partner that's why we're here tonight we know you've got challenges uh that you have to face and we want to continue to face them with you we don't want to abandon you we don't want to not support you we've always done that so we would like to continue to do that so I'm not going to read them all but there's the highlights we have a very deep knowledge of your District your staff your personnel how you operate not just the buildings and we we have think shown through what we have done in the past
08820 years that it's had Superior performance that it's been enduring and it's been distinctive without being overly expensive uh we've picked areas of impact to have design impact and focus where the kids are going to benefit the most in the other areas and we feel me personally and Andrew the same having been on school board we can provide some resources Beyond architect I have many of our clients my clients that call me superintendents that call me business managers that call me and say I'm not asking you as an architect I'm asking you as a board member a former board member how would you handle this situation what would your perspective be if I presented this to you and I try to give them some insights and help them out that way Beyond just being your
089architect so we'd like to ask for the job and to continue our relation ship and I can provide you lots of references if you want more but throw one up at the end there for one just down the road at moart so we thank you for your time appreciate it very much good luck with your exp thank you very much thanks just exit out real quick go how long thank you very much that stain's castle in Germany that's exactly I went there and where Disney got his idea Castle went through Germany in sou Stein's Castle now is it architectural firm claiming they worked on that Richard Blair and team from I'm Brian crwi nice to meet you all so it's uh Windows V2 right oh oh look at that fancy this is [Music] fcy thank
090you thank you than you know K right it is it we ready all right thank you thanks for having us uh we're cording and Clark uh we got 15 minutes to walk through some of our thoughts on your process on your projects and quick introduction our agenda is very simple three three sections we're going to walk through a little bit about our company some uh previous experience and then some things about project approach uh introduction wise I'm ran crowter principal and Executive Vice President with the firm um 35 years plus in the business most of that spent with K12 districts Richard I'm Richard Blair vice president Cate Clark have over 20 years of experience worked in various Fields but K through 12 has been my Mainer project manager at cord clar CCA about seven years
091working basically so a little bit about cigan Clark you've probably seen our presentation materials before we have various offices in the midwest which allow us uh to really understand a lot of the the cultur of the Midwest K12 districts most of the the offices specialize in K12 or St L Lewis office has even got a longer history than we do over 100 Years of doing K12 we have an office in Madrid Spain too we have 25 or six 26 people that work there and it really allows us to be uh reactionary to CL cents who come last minute for trying to get Services done and projects done because we're 247 firm and allows us to react and be able to deliver projects in a very quick time frame Richard can speak to that and how
092that works for us from a production standpoint so as as our Spain team works with us they're part of our team so as we build a crew to work on any of the projects that we're on we'll have a team here and a team in Spain we work together as a crew so it is it is fluid it's not like they we give them red lines they Mark things up they are part of the team they're part of the process of what's going on and have that knowledge as well so works really well for us at 247 carries over and we can keep your projects moving forward additionally we are a full service firm so we do architecture the engineering disciplines which is Mechanical plumbing electrical we have an interior division we also have a
093Construction Division so we do construction management General Contracting we do about 75 100 million a year in that you know explain you the benefits to fir to company or clients that use us k for architecture engineering because we fully do integrate our construction teams as we're designing our projects as you can see the list of services we provide as we mentioned you know the the engineering disciplines as well as construction so you get a full service uh uh delivery model with us um Richard talked a little bit about collaboration okay so collaboration is an essential essential part of the process so if we don't work with you guys well the projects aren't going to go smoothly so our goal is to work with your team make sure that we understand what you guys need and
094make sure that we hear what's going on there are multiple ways in which we make that happen a few of them are listed up here on the board uh facility surveys and assessments understanding your buildings what's good what's bad what needs to be worked on and talking about those with you guys uh understanding what your stakeholders need whether that's theard itself that we're talking to here whether it's admin staff students and even the local community and what their thoughts are as well um developing budgets and design that's sensitive to those budgets are very important as well as uh looking at Target value design um and how that approaches we'll get into that a little bit more down the line and how that will work for you guys uh but we're definitely focused on Communications making
095sure that we get to the success that you guys need and being part of the presentations we need us involved with in as well so uh looking at some of the districts we've worked with in Illinois uh pretty broad list of various districts from uh K12 to K5 to even smaller districts so we do have a tremendous amount of experience with uh districts much like um Central 301 uh quickly I want to walk through some District projects that have a variety of different uh projects that have gone on within the district District Butler School District 53 actually is a project all three of us worked on over the course of three years we first started out with some master planning and then broke the project to about $25 million worth of work over three different
096phases at their Elementary and their middle school buildings it was a phase project we were the construction manager on this project too so we did uh all the work in house uh bidding and so on and then building the projects over the Summers uh the elementary building on your left you can see the three different phases colorcoded the middle school is on your right we haven't completed the entire renovation of the buildings but getting close so we ran out of some pictures of that this is the library at the U school library at the elementary building and Byron yes Byron's a school district uh just Southwest of brockford we've been uh we've had a relationship with them dating back to early kind of 2007 2009 did some really big additions Math and Science we and
097then as of late with them been focusing in on some more specialized spaces we just finished last summer a full renovation and modernization of the library space It was kind of outdated underutilized space we kind of brought brought some new life into that space that's what we're seeing on the slide here and then also diving to how this coming summer to a bunch of athletic facilities so Fieldhouse Aquatic Center the football stadium are all getting fully renovated just this summer Plano School District we've been involved with for over 10 years done a lot of facility improvements for them uh whether it goes from roof improvements tuck pointing site improvements but uh we've been doing a lot of work for them recently we did a new maintenance facility for them and then over the past year
098we've been doing some uh work in their gyms updating those in athletic fields one of the great projects for them kind of going back to lrc idea is you know revitalizing that making it a place where the students and staff want to go uh this space uh it was in the center of their High School uh the students and staff love it they actually kind of fight over who's going to get uh the space even that staff goes in there and fights for it too so it's been a great uh addition for them Easter School District we've been working with them for over 30 years now uh we've done over $150 Million worth of work over those 30 years a lot of Maintenance work uh for them uh there schools a lot of old schools
099that need a lot of work whether it was mechanical Replacements roof improvements window replacements uh so we've done a lot of work for them over the years uh going into uh back in 15 we did a large High School remodel big addition football improvements so we redid their full athletic fields and that department as well went into their uh music department in creating new spaces for them that are more usable for their students and work well for them as well as improvements to their Library upgrading that as well one of the last projects we did was created a new facility is called the rec center which is resilience education center which offers a lot of after school programs for their students that are different than what the school offers for them uh this building offers
100a stage uh where they can do after uh School bands perform lectures whatever they might need as well as um they have a music studio where they can do some recordings it's after school they can bring in their personal bands and do stuff like that as well as different things like um art uh food and bringing in people for that as well as therapy uh offices as well so they can bring outside staff in there to work with their students separately this was anly Childhood Center we as here we see for zum a school district in the St Louis area over the last five years or so a really big budget $150 million or so there were a lot of bigger additions we got to do a smaller addition on a autism focused school which
101was a very interesting project serving that user and then on two additions to a middle school and a high school that both included storm shelters given the addition size we triggered that storm shelter requirement so had to work storm shelters into those additions to that school district then the last district is Evanson skoki School District 65 uh pictures you see here are for the new Foster school which is a new Elementary building that is under construction in in evinston we also have performed numerous other projects for uh their District over the course of the last few Summers but this one is a pretty significant project it's about a $45 million new new building for Evanson skoki we just uh we're the construction manager on this we uh opened bids up in December for 90% of
102the work and the district has been going through some Financial struggles so they were you know tasked us for to come in lower than what they had budgeted for the project and our bidding came out right now we're about $3 million under budget so they're very excited to save some money and get a new building that they love so uh there were some uh intricacies in making that work which we call Target value design which is we're going to bleed into next so project approach is very important for us you you know obviously you understand you as a district have needs we had a chance to read some of your information available on the web and um you know the project approach is important to get the project off on the right foot and that
103it generally focuses on getting the budget set properly and making sure we design to that budget you probably have heard the term maybe have maybe have value engineering you've heard that word so it's not a very friendly or or positive way to uh go through a project we we start with a different methodology it's called Target value design it start with the budget in mind and then design to that budget maybe uh Rich you can speak to what that really means in in addition to keeping the budget in mind it's also leveraging our inhouse obviously we've got our construction team to leverage that helps with cost estimating keeps us a lot sharper on cost estimating but also our inhouse engineering staff we get to bring them into the building a lot earlier in the process
104so that there's no surprises in the back end surprises in the back end are what make us value engineer and then we've got to cut this so making sure that there's no surprises keeping that Design Team all integrated throughout the process help us avoid surprises at the end well said so it does save time and it saves money end of the day so project budgets you know there there are things out there that that are beyond our control in the economy and we ran through a significant amount of escalation in 21 and 22 and that's you know 30% so you hear the term things aren't getting cheaper well there aren't and unfortunately construction was a big belt lender of of having to absorb a lot of that so what what what it means though is
105making sure you design to a budget and have good budgetary information what's going to happen in 25 you know there's a thing you probably been paying attention to called tariffs right it's going to have an effect on construction cost we we've seen it in some bids that were opened up by another contractor uh just recently and we're we're seeing it leaking into the the bidding process right now what's that going to mean is it going to mean a four to six% escalation Factor we have to fact to that end we're doing our budgets for you this is a a sheet we like to to show is okay talk is cheap right what your what Your track record you can see the various phases our team as as rich and and and Nate just said we're
106doing estimating with the team regardless if we're building it or not and we're going to make sure we're watching that budget throughout the various phases the final thing is the variance between the final estimate and the actual bids that average of you know negative. 27 or1 and the volatile times which are these green bars means we you know we actually can talk the talk and walk the walk as important that you have a a partner who you can trust is going to deliver good budgets and designed to that budget which I think we're about at our 15 minutes so it leads us to the final slide here just kind of recapturing what it means if you hire cing and Clark as your partner um obviously important to have good experience our team's got you know
10770 plus years of experience combined and a lot of that's focused on K12 so we are driven to deliver Services we're working pretty close by inkley Big Rock as well as Indian Creek so in the um important to you know get your your projects designed and built to a budget and that's something we pride ourselves in and we have a very robust process to make sure we can deliver what we promise the other thing is you know we we we have the ability to construct your buildings if you don't want us to construct it you have a second opinion to make sure we're delivering on what we say we can deliver on and that's you get an added value to that so with that I think we'll Le turn over for Q&A that may come
108from the board questions well me personally I was a little disheartened to see so much East Aurora seeing as I came from West Aurora so but that's fine that's fine because I so you built the police department yes we did okay people get the wrong idea of it's pretty slick Police Department so I've seen that um the question I have for you though is I know there's a lot of you it's you know is there a single point of contact for us or and who would that be so yeah Rich would be the project manager okay and I'll be the Principal so the helping contracts and all that stuff and anything related to all that stuff that you got n riches yes so we we would build a team and you'd have us as your
109points and then if your projects expand we bring in the people that we need under us so you would want to come to us we would have those conversations with you so you're not talking with multiple people and then we make the teams larger and smaller based off the projects you guys need to move forward and the estimating side we have a an individual Ben Nelson his kid actually goes to Central so he's a taxpaying member of your community he's the estimator and he was I was talking to him as I was driving up over here and he go oh my gosh yeah we got to got to win that one and make sure we're hitting those budgets because that's my tax dollars okay question how does your firm engage with the community for the
110design and planning process Richard you want to take that sure so we'll work with you guys to decide how you want to move forward and that would be involving we'll we can set up meetings for you so we'd want to talk about how you want to engage people how many people you want to engage we could hold that in our own facilities we can hold it in your facilities and we can lead the charge on that uh but the goal would be to understand what the what the tasks are here from the community what's going on and then we would do it in a forum where we bring people in we would present something and then we would talk with those community members to get their feedback it could be breaking out into groups to
111get different opinions let people talk meeting with those groups and getting that feedback from them it could be written or it could be a vocal where we talk back and forth so we havep options in which we can work with your your community to hear their voice i' I've done some podcasts you know you do an a one-on-one you inter discussion with the superintendent on the board president and talk through the wants and needs and some of those things are very effective uses to get the message out there's lots of ways to do it you know social media there's plenty of different ads to getting that the information dispers to the to the community what would you say set to your part we had very longstanding relationship with one particular architectural firm and so what
112would you and obviously you're saving the best for last what would you say in comparison to the other firms that we've seen and just our own you know personal experience what set to your part so I think in a nutshell you know we do offer a a different service and and construction is a component because we we integrate that into our design and engineering and budgets are always on especially Boards of Education Minds no matter how you look at it because you have you know you want to maximize your your value of what you're getting for that budget we're gonna we're going to make sure that we're we're engaging together with you and showing you how you can get to those goals and attain those goals in addition to that the The Firm has great
113resources you know 150 plus people mean that we can on a dime you know turn over rendering of know in a visual of after you know we've had this we do this you know we have a meeting board meeting tonight and then hey we want to look at this option can can we see a visual of that and we could turn that over in 24 48 hours because of our Madrid you know group there in Spain and that's that's a service that you can't often get for smaller firms who may need more time to do those things so I I think that's a uniqueness and of course our K12 resume I think speaks for itself you know the wealth of experience K2 and looking at the list of some of the projects that you've done
114what are some of the issues that have caused a project to kind of go over budget and then again what are some of the reasons that you guys have been able to come in under budget maybe you can speak to Byron right in our yeah yeah some of the inflated some things about the project so that's nothing nothing we can control if that's what if that's what the client wants then that's what we're going to do so that that would have been something that would have come in over the budget that I put together it was based it it is managing they call a thing called scope creep you probably heard that before and scope creep is one of the harder things to to manage because there are personalities and you know politics to some
115degree that come into play and and as long as the group understands and you know explains that here's what that's going to cost if you really really want that if you want to keep your budget here but you don't you want the scope creep to be included what can we pull out know it's a it's a back and forth goes back to the value design that we're talking about through the process so as we're going through each phase of the project we're going to be looking at the cost and the estimate for that and talking about all right well you guys wanted to add this and this is the scope creep you know now either we got to raise your budget or we got to pull something out and we're having those conversations and dialogue
116as we're moving through the project so it's not all at one time where you get the bids back you're like well whoa how do we end up with an extra million2 million dollars here it's a conversation through the whole process that prevents you from getting there in first place yeah I think the Evanson skoki new school building is is one of those you know we we had the the budget set over a year ago and it's you know it's 48.3 million and during the design process we we had to keep pulling them back and you know they kept one in the ad scope and we pull them back and end of the day we we said all right well here's we're we're actually going to do a very efficient exterior structure and skin it's actually
117pre-cast concrete you saw the pictures it doesn't look like it's got thin brick in it but that's a very efficient uh way of building a an economical building that's still very long lasting and looks good and very much fits in the neighborhood but that saved us a significant amount of money versus a conventional build project in today's new buildings you have to build a storm shelter you guys are familiar with that need now yeah storm shelters are almost one to be pre-cast concrete are some kind of very heavy duty you know next year so we were going to do pre-cast there anyway let's look at doing the whole project in in pre-cast and end up economizing and saving them significant amount of money on the project so I think did that answer your question so
118thank you all right thank you so much for your time this evening thank you app we'll be coming back with a recommendation in April or May all right thank you good night go back to your R back to the r all right me I need a motion and second or requir to discuss and approve the consent agenda second can I just say one thing I want one of the board members called me about a question we were able to give the proper answer when you get a new superintendent you want to make that superintendent happy before before you meet if you have any issues on the agenda the more you can share it and get it clarified before the meeting uh the better so that's extremely appreciated by a superintendent so when we get to
119the public meeting things could be changed and cleaned up so the public sees exactly what you're looking for all in favor roll go ahead Gorman to break papus yes bulby yes Watson yes aif yes Fulk yes Hil yes motion is carried motion second required to discuss and approve the resolution of dismissal of part-time teachers it's not it's right here your oh excuse me sorry I I that was that was under consent correct no the resolution for dismissal is not under separate okay yeah are you ready for a vote okay pepis yes bupy yes Watson yes the thief yes Fulk yes Gorman yes Hil yes motion is carried motion second required to discuss and approved the contract renewal with Exxon for auditing Services second discussion no FY I I couldn't hear the thing on that one
120you me say it again okay yeah I'm sorry it was like muff oh sorry um we're talking about the auditing firm we have a motion second to approve the contract renewal for the um Exon auditing firm so now she's taking a vote okay yes sorry thank you Watson yes aif yes Hulk yes Gorman yes papis yes Hil yes motion is carried now we go on to committee reports um Watson will share an update on the district leadership team just real quick um I had the honor of being able to go to DT uh last week it was it was really uh eye opening for me a little bit um a couple of things that they discussed was the calendar for 26 and 27 school year um and there was a kind of a consent between
121uh everyone there that the calendar starting August 10th would be a better um calendar for them and there was a presentation by facilities and some conversation about um the mobiles which seems to be kind of a Hot Topic lately um and and kind of some issues that were brought up with with the mobils that we're having now can you explain more on the August 10th date because I know it's at one point we had heard that they wanted school to start later in the month of August and now you're kind of pushing it August 10th which is kind of aligned with some of the other districts so what was the thought process on that so I think it aligns better um and I'll refer kind of this note here um it it aligns a little
122bit better with our regional pathway partners and the Mid Valley partner schools and our ECC programs um with their start dates and so I believe that they just because of that and because we have those Partnerships with the other schools it just seemed to fit better with that schedule okay all right thank you for that update I'm going on to facilities um Mark um and Jeff we'll share an update from the cities committee yeah I can talk to it um you can add to it Jeff if you'd like um talked about capital projects uh h CT's roof uh chs's track um and then CT's mobils um and then we also talked about some of the other projects that are coming up in the uh summer as well as um the facility rental agreement um update
123uh which Dan will speak to a little bit later today and then also uh the RFQ for The Architects which we all just spent the last hour and 10 minut time so you anything I got nothing that was good okay great job all right moving on to Old business um we'll need a facilities update from director paway update on construction and maintenance projects in the district so just a quick update on kind of where we're at with projects we're working on uh bid documents for the PT Ruff um so we're hoping to get that out in the next week or so so we can bring that to the board in April for approval that's pending all our dates line up that's tentative right now but that's the goal we're shooting for we're also working on
124uh surveying and all the related parts that go with uh getting a good track design in um so Ericson's helping us out with that and we'll be working on those uh bid documents with them as part of what they're doing is they're serving the whole Athletic Complex area so to look at Future bleacher work or Stadium Renovations or any of the other stuff that goes with that because we don't want to just do the track and keep that separate we want a whole encompassing project for you know what the future of that Stadium could look like so that's part of their process um and then we're working on the documents for the TT mobile that we're going to purchase through the tips Co-op so that won't go out publicly bid that'll be purchased through the
125co-op so we're working on Gathering the documents with that and then we got to get those submitted to tips to get that process rolling um as Mark alluded to facility rentals is something we've been talking about for a year now um kind of just looking at that been working with uh with Ted jusy on getting those documents prepared and getting that all together where we really need to start recouping some of our our dollars back from our um groups that utilize our facilities right now and unless you're um an outside group I.E like your chess Scholars and some of those group groups they are the only ones who pay a nominal fee everybody else is in our buildings for free so I think we're at the point in time where our buildings are being used
126so much that we're going to have to start recouping some of those fees so we've been surveying area districts kind of U making sure that the money that we're looking at receiving is in line with what other districts are doing so we're hoping in April or May we'll bring some documentation that we update those procedures and and update that stuff um and and just another quick little update obviously we had a little weather come through this past weekend that created a lot of electronic challenges and alarms and power outages nothing drastic from any of that just you know some headaches from ourm a lot of phone calls and stuff but we did have some minor damage out at the uh softball field on the complex so we had part of a fence that blew down
127and a small light pole in the parking lot nothing catastrophic not even Insurance claim wise just some things that we have to deal with so knock on wood we weathered another storm very well so that's all I got the we weekend two weeks ago with the water issue at Lily Lake correct which somehow we were pull it off so we'd open school on Monday good job appreciate it yep yep that worked out well quick question for you on the architectural firms that we saw tonight how did we get the four out of the 11 like how dides so the the there was a document that was shared with the board that our team used to kind of we came up with some criteria that we thought would kind of separate firms from each other so
128we had some simple things like there was specific things I think we included the RFQ there was simple things like we required an electronic version of the of the um RFQ two firms didn't provide that so we had to come up with a way to whittle that down so we use some simple things like that and that's all listed out in that document some of the specific questions in section e of that RFQ are things that we thought was really what our district would was looking for in an architect so that section e of the RFQ was kind of the important thing and we kind of weighed those all those different firms our team did and that's how we got down to the four I noticed that some of the firms didn't submit did they
129give reasons as to why what do you mean didn't like submitted it didn't seem like they provided a proposal like I think it was like d i saw duberry a Aran like why didn't there there was a couple I some of them that there a couple of them I got feedback that they just had too much work already oh um some of them I just never heard anything from I mean we reached out to there was probably a total of over a dozen firms that we reached out to specifically that I have either worked with in the past or you know had contacts from other facility directors at districts and you know some of them that we didn't even reach to was the 11 that we ended up with were there some firms that you
130were hoping to get feed that you know like some of the larger firms I think no I think I think the firms that I think we got a good representation you know firms that are are large and Grand in scale that are Nation worldwide to firms that are smaller and even the presentation we listed out like the number of districts or in the the um synopsis listed out like how many schools they've worked for how long they've been in business some of those things if they've had you know legal issues I mean we looked at every component we could to try to whittle that down to something that that we felt was kind of in our best interest ready for a recommendation on on this issue what's up are you ready to give a recommendation
131yes I I think I think I want I want to these these presentations were different than what we received in the RFQ and I think you got sh so I think we really want to sit back and I want to think on that I want to kind of process through those I don't think I'm ready right this minute to oh you made it sound like you wanted it this minute oh April oh we'll be good by April nervous I don't mind pressure but that was a little too much pressure I know guy I well up and running but but you'd be ready by the a oh yeah yeah we'll definitely yeah absolutely I won't do that to you yeah you would that awesome all right thank you you thank you all right on a new
132business um the elementary math curriculum adoption recommendation um director Burke Meer will recommend a new elementary math curriculum Stephen's going to grab the books so we've got them for you we completed our K5 math review at the end of February I met with our 14 uh elementary teachers and IC team to go through the recommendations again as I talked about earlier they completed weekly surveys inputting their feedback we took a look at that data we were looking at two companies into math and I ready classrooms mathematics with which is a comprehensive component and uh per conversation on the 28th the recommendation from the team coming forward is to move forward with I ready classroom mathematics that has a multitude of different components as you see on the memo it's got classroom consumables what you have
133there is the teacher manual as well as online access there will be um in-person manipulatives that this that the students will have access to along with our classroom teachers as well as digital components so everything that you're seeing there student students will have a consumable workbook and teachers also will have digital components the additional piece to that we are adding is the my path which is part of a diagnostic component that staff will take or I'm sorry students will take one time a year they take that in the fall that will level them based on their skill that they've completed on that Diagnostic and then that will give them an individualized personalized pathway that they will complete throughout the year that is embedded 10 minutes within the 80 minute map math block that we're presenting
134going forward for next year questions so this is the teachers guide so the students it's like it's not really like a workbook it's more like your text it will be there's as like a workbook that's consumable they can write in there correct and anything that you have here the teacher manual you will also have digital access to so you'll have manipula that students will use and teachers will use you'll have the online app access you'll have the digital my path and then uh teachers will have these hard copies students will have consumable workbooks I'm sorry I might have missed it but how we were looking for new curriculum so we are looking for new curriculum right now we are we have math and focus this is the end of our contract it ends this year
135and looking at our data and the progression that we've made we've made some huge gains this year by bringing in our BT BTC model building thinking classrooms we're looking at comparable components classroom I ready classroom mathematics is comparable to that many of those Hands-On activities real world problems math discourse mathematical practices all are all embedded within this tool this is kind of all-encompassing correct gives teachers everything giv they need they're not having to go out and find material on their own however there's always scaffolding right a classroom teacher's not going to just open up a book and read directly from that they're going to put their spin on it they're going to put their autonomy based on how students are performing they may adjust feedback and instruction accordingly yes um but this gives them everything
136that they have in One-Stop shop rather than that need to have to go out and find something else correct a big plus to this um is the I ready so I ready has I ready classrooms which is the whole comprehensive piece a piece of that that many districts in our surrounding area have brought in I ready I ready Standalone is a computerized person personalized pathway students take a diagnostic and then they get put in an individualized pathway we are asking everything to be included so it's not an additional expense that we will be going back out and asking to purchase which is huge and we got Buy in from all of our schools all the elementary we had 14 pilot teachers at least two per grade level except for fourth grade I had one um
137and multitude of of um staff and um IC were a part of that process as well so we gave Hands-On instruction we had both companies come out um they met with us virtually I shouldn't say come out um they met with our team virtually and walked through how to access things how do you begin navigating all of those pieces were part of this pilot as well you say the teachers are enthusiastic yes yeah I mean there there was feedback both ways but consensus was to move forward with I ready at this time yeah yeah both tools were really good how do that indiv individual pathway for each student kind of work within the classroom and for the teachers yes so you could do it a multitude of different ways um it's a they'll take a
138diagnostic assessment at the beginning of the year you have access to take it three times a year we're opting right now year one to start just once right get them in there that yes um yes you will get an individualized then pathway so students based on skill level will be starting on their individual pathway it's 10 minutes per day so 50 50 minutes per week we are asking to embed that within their small group instruction so right off the bat you'll have one station or Center however you want to call it that's already done for you it's not an additional piece that staff have to create students will get on that computerized pathway and build those skills in which are identified to their individual need yeah math fluency that's always a big um a big
139question I know that we had talked about earlier I think it was last month I brought forward we were not going to continue with spring math there is fluency built into this tool as well so it's not again an additional piece that staff have to go out um and and partake and find it's built within our curriculum it looks different K in one than what it looks like two through five but all comparable based on the developmental level of our students this is in your memo it's five years I know there was a big Hefty price tag on that if does it is over five years so we'll do um split that up into two one completed by July 25 of this year if um per your your um approval and then it'll go next
140year as well so it'll be split in two but then that's purchased for five years so based on that based on our enrollment numbers this is current data based on where we're sitting today um that can be adjusted so as a student uh a grade level population rolls up then that is adjusted uh based on consumable purchases for the following year questions okay very much all right thank you you be ready to put this under consent in April yeah okay yeah we'll have those out for review for anybody to come in then out front okay all right thank you thank you um as far as the 2026 2027 draft calendar I know um wson you already went over this you don't have anything to add nothing more then we'll keep moving um next up board
141policy revisions first reading first reading should never go under consent they should be uh reviewed by the board two weeks ago we had a meeting of just the staff to review the first reading last week Jay and D were both part of the open meeting that's open to the public uh there was a lot of added language for clarification legal reference changes uh minor things like we've changed in this state we call now rather C certified teachers called licensed teachers so they have to clean up all the language uh in that area there are small things like reimbursement of business expenses for board members they put District defenses so uh a district business so Monkey Business not would not work but District business is the only way you get your money uh there're very specific
142changes for example SmartWatches was added to technology some something we didn't have a few years back when the original language was written but the extent of of each one of these uh all all of these things come from press which is the Illinois School Board Association legal division sends drafts to us we take a look at it make sure it fits this District we go to our legal council only on those exceptional things that we need to question we don't want to spend a lot of money on legal costs if it's not necessary and the the I guess I have to turn to our two committee members uh anything that popped up that needs additional legal advice from my point of view there wasn't anything did did the committee say anything we didn't have no
143I I didn't think so and um I think one one important point to to share with the board and with the community is like when we when D and I went into this last meeting um you know there were some of the policies had a lot of red lines in them and there were legal issues and um uh Kyle was able to explain to us that whole press plus and that organization that does this for all school boards and they have a legal team that evaluates the what's the new law uh in all these different areas and how is that going to then uh impact the policies and so that was actually very helpful because I wasn't sure what like you know who came up with the need for this and um his explanation of
144that process was really helpful because um that made it more systematic right and uh process driven as opposed to just like ad hoc right if you go to press plus there is a dollar amount connected to it and we'll review that with you in in a future meeting but we do get additional services and might be worthwhile and that's really up to the board yeah we talked about and most of the districts I've been in have that press plus it's less work for the administration I think it's important to know because I know we've had public comment around this as far as the language that was used in the policies so I think to your point I think it should definitely be understood that that language is coming from press plus and a lot of
145the other districts almost all of them are using some of this same language now not to say that you know a district in the state that doesn't use it go ahead exactly and and as a test I actually asked I had a question on on board policy and Kyle looked it up for St Charles and he's like see it's right here and literally was the exact same language so I think it's just important to note that you know with some of the language that some of our community members may be seen it's coming from from a certain place and this place as you mentioned attorneys are reviewing this and this is how that language has come up we just get additional Services is what Jay was mentioning if if we want to cost us a
146little more money correct so okay again this is first reading no action yeah all right uh next up changes to board meeting agenda back to you in the future uh when I when the new board is seated I I suggested at one point that you have a close session at the beginning of the meeting and and keep keep it to like 30 minutes and then have the public session start at 6:30 that's something uh that it forces the board to get to the issues very quickly and you always will have at the end of the meeting Clos session if needed however I found by doing this at the beginning of the meeting it it reduces the amount of time in close session which I think the longer boards stay in close session you want to
147build that trust with the public you don't build the trust to the public when you're out two or three hours in Clos session just for whatever reason you may have really good reason to be be there but I think this is something I would bring up to the new board yeah uh the other other thing minor things that uh D is having fun with me about I said you only have to Voice or roll call vote policy money and go close session otherwise you want to move your meeting along a little faster uh you do it a little different um and then use a Voice vote uh reorganization meeting is coming up we don't know for sure by the 21st of April the next meeting we'll whether we'll have the certified votes or not I've
148been told that it's going to be very close it'll be close it'll be very close if we don't get it by the 21st to certifi then we won't do the reorganization meeting probably till early may maybe the the last Monday in April is possible uh now the reorganization meeting the business end of the meeting you can swear in the new members but the old board takes care of business first the cons set agenda any other business items takes action on everything then you ajour seen die it's a Latin word without another day in other words this is it for the board then somebody nominates a President Pro Temp could be anybody member of the board in the new me Members or or the current members that are going forward and then that President proel ask
149for uh nominations for president vice president secretary and then you and then the only agenda item for the new board is to S to take the calendar of of meetings and and agree upon what the calendar of meetings are now you already have a calendar but they have to re the new board has to reaffirm it so they could say possibly could say well we can't meet Mondays the majority of us have to be on Tuesdays but I don't expect that to happen but that that's what the new board would do uh in order to be more efficient uh for example this foer request you don't there is no legal requirement to read all the foyer requests when I was in Oak Park sometimes we had 40 different foyer requests a month uh and to
150take public time to do that but in terms of transparency the entire public has all of the Foy request in board book so every everybody there's nothing that we're trying to hide or anything uh but it is a lot of time in the board uh so to me um the other the other thing that we're going to be adding and it's actually added on this is changes changes to the board agenda or agenda items for the next meeting is really the item on that one if you hear something in public and you would like to respond and I know that many of you very often would like to respond to public comment however the Schoolboard associate every Super you ever meet this is a a business meeting of the board in public not a public
151meeting of the board there's a big difference so to me at the end of the meeting if you have something that you would like follow up on uh somebody said Flack football for girls give you an example somebody said I don't know why we're not doing that and it goes on and on in public comment during that this item say Griff Kyle would next month we'd like to talk about this and here's the qu questions we want answered and we want to and bring bring the following information then it's on the agenda for the next meeting and and you address those issues usually just discussion at first and that could be lead to action but that's the way you listen to the public you get the administration to do their job give you all the
152answers you need before you move forward and make make make decisions so to me adding just that it's on this agenda uh you can pick up on anything uh and there should be a consensus and do everybody's Haven agree consensus are you willing to live with this and going going forward and I most of the boards that I've seen work this they very seldom diss another board member by if that if Mark wants to talk about something I think Mark should be have that opportunity to put it on the agenda next next meeting and talk about it so those are our changes I think that will make be better for this board and better for the community if we bring about those minimal changes and hopefully we be more efficient and get you home earlier
153I can keep going enough for me um moving on to agenda items for the next meeting does anyone have any um agenda items for the next meeting that they want to have added well first of all good I've asked Mandy said go back to last year and typically in April of 24 23 what are some of the typical carryover items so for next month currently I have anticipated to approve the interim superintendent as check signers the paper refu and hbt roof bids approval of the architect contracts approval of the 26 27 school calendar approval of the elementary math textbook adoption and if lection was also certified then of course the new board and reor meeting okay you want to add to that anybody we're always open and you can always of course call the board
154president if you if you have something that pops up in the next couple of weeks no problem but we we right now can't tell you whether we're going to have a reorganization meeting or not on the 21st and I've told it's going to be a day or two different which is uh it's going to be really tight it's going to be tight so they they're talking about two or three weeks April 1st of course is the election so hopefully well we hope hopefully we'll get it done on the 21st but we'll see all right moving on to information only the enrollment report is included in the board packet as well as the Foye report is also included in the board packet um adjourn to close session um a mo I need a motion second or
155requir to adjourn to open session and move to close session for the fallowing exception 2c2 2c9 2c1 2c1 move second Watson yes yes yes Forman yes keus buby yesel yes motion is carried thank you everybody