2024-12-16 301 BOE Live Stream

001e e e secretary pleas take aif here Fulk president Gorman Hil here papis FY Nolan so move second you yes yes Gorman Hil yes papis yes py yes Nolan yes motion is carried uh business manager fluke will review the 2024 Levy and truth and Taxation information um so included in your board packet was a memo um there have been no changes to the proposed 2024 Levy since last November's board meeting um this is the truth and Taxation hearing notice that we are required to do because we are requesting over our 5% um for um pel cap we are requesting a 6.42% increase to make sure that we capture all of our new construction um um according to just to kind of recap last month um the school tax rates will drop from 6629 to $586

002which is a 43 C decrease um if the assumptions of new construction for 23 million come in eav is 1 bill1 15, 300,000 um CPI is 3.4% um this will give us an approximate $3.4 million in new money over last year's extension um we're requesting 58,4 180,000 we only expect to receive about 57 million 979 th000 um our Levy receipts um the revenues for total revenues of all the entire budget 70% of our revenues makes is this Levy these Levy receipts um if you were just to take it based on the local Revenue it's 91% of our local Revenue receipts um and then um half of these Levy receipts were included in FY 25's budget that we adopted in September um also included you can see that there are our um cash balances as of

003November 30th and that's from our Treasures report which is also included in your board packet um the fund balances as of June 30th audit um is listed there and then the threeyear average expenditures operating expenditures is they're all listed there on that paper um the cash and fund balances will be used up throughout the year um until we can get to the spring um we use these fund balances um fund balances help us for emergencies like our well that we just had um for any boiler that may go out or for any um future projects that we want to use them for it helps with cash flow to get us through the September or through the spring to be able to continue to pay payrolls and everything and then it also um helps with our

004credit rating um when you go out to get new bonds your credit rating is very important it also helps with the ISB Financial profile score um which we've always been in recognition um I've had I had a couple questions come up of um comparing us to a couple other school districts and why their fund balances seem a lot lower than ours um I did reach out they were um questioning Canin and Sycamore um their similar in size to us but they do their accounting based on acrel either a modified acral or a hybrid acral so all of their Levy receipts that they get in May June they don't record them till July so we are Cash basis all of our funds are reported when we get them so if we get them um June 20th

005you there's two weeks left of the year that you can't spend all that money so our our balances will always be inflated compared to those um and then there was also a question um that I received for um transfers we can transfer funds from One Fund to the other um or a baiting we've done both of those and my I've been here for 12 years and we've done both of those um during my time um not I wasn't the business manager back in 2015 um but back then we did aate $1.5 million so the board decided to aate um a million dollars in 15 and then another 500 and 16 so we have taken advantage of that option um when that time was right for us um we also transferred 4.8 million from Transportation fund

006to Ed and onm we split it 50/50 so each fund got 2.4 million and I believe that was in June of 2016 as well um so the board did Abate and did some transfers during that time um as we were going into probably the referendum so those are viable options um not one I'm proposing at this time but sometime in the future as balances you know get up there or if our funding and um the way we want to do things differently we can definitely take a look at those things any questions no uh business manager flug review the fund balances I did see you went right for it all right uh in Person Public comment will be heard at this time uh Steve jurer evening thank you for ask notification for exceeding Maxim Central

007fund balance operating fund balance which includes the education fund the operation maintenance fund the transportation fund and working cash was 4.6 million now if you look at operating Bal that report report 11.6 mil differ between cash and that's quite a difference and to see why centrals is four times larer particular F educ reports that their f bance is under milon Central almost 27 of sense but don't know2 will spend 5.5 million why does the Deb Services fund continue to grow 2018 de fund was4 million 5.6 million by 2024 so even a c Bas that continues to grow but year District comes back and says we need more money for the bond pay down some of that time to for that inrease if we um L at Max we would need a taxation since I think

008we have sufficient funds to cover the expenses you talked about transfering funds state code allows for the trans between as as transp work Cas can EAS consider come they should V against tax can we ask you a question can we ask questions no yes we can it's a test it's testimony this is not open meetings act this is testimony under go for it so your position is that we don't need the additional funds in order to operate for the next uh budget that that's your position okay Dana what like is that an accurate assessment um you know for us to decide um you know the monies that we're asking for if we don't get those additional funds if we don't go above that tax uh that that that that cap that causes us to have

009this hearing what would happen if you don't Levy if the levy doesn't go from based on my recommendation then we will leave money on the table and we will lose it the revenue compounded going forward and can you can you can you explain what that means like uh uh when you say um it get it gets compounded going forward um so the tax levy is based on what we received previously the last year and then the next year will be based on what we got this year correct is so when you say compounded if we don't get everything that we need and and are entitled to now that's going to have an impact in perpetuity going forward is am I understanding that correctly yes okay thank you y I don't I don't think you're I

010don't think unfortunately I don't think you're allowed to speak again million and next be at million at Milli you're not allowed to speak again thank you very much okay motion and a second or require to adjourn yeah that me motion a second to motion second we go hul yes bman yes pil yes papis yes buy yes aif yes noan yes e e e to call the meeting to order M can you take uh roll call please aif here ful pres Gorman here Hil here papis here buy Here Nolan uh here um I need to request for motion in second to approve the agenda uh president uh before we go to that I'd like to remove the regular meeting minutes of November 18 2024 from the consent agenda and address it separately perfect a motion to

011approve the amended agenda I'm moving the approval of minutes from the November meeting to separate action item so moved second a yes Paul yes yes Gorman yes pil yes papis yes FY yes Nolan yes uh please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to flag the United States America stands indiv right uh thank you visitors for coming we have a lot of people here tonight thank you very much for joining us uh M yes thank you all I love seeing all the festive wear out there um some of the pajamas and stuff so thank you and trying to figure out is that your pajamas there that you've got on we were lettering of what fight that was came from got okay that's why it's that way all right everybody have happy holidays

012if we don't see you and enjoy your holiday break so we'll start with uh R uh from principal P Gori recognizing our 2024 State Scholars thank you good evening everybody very pleased to announce our Illinois State Scholars for this year again this is something each year that the Illinois Student Assistance commission honors based off GPA test scores and class rank uh in coordinance with school size so each student that is awarded this we do a state walk which we did today which was really cool to share with the CMS students and let them see that tradition firsthand we will be doing a breakfast which we will be doing we've been a little crowded and I don't want to overwork our food service crew right now with the parking and stuff that we have going on

013with the staff so wait until we get back from break and let everybody know that so we can bring in some more families and they also get the digital badges that they can go and put onto their resumés uh CVS all those other great things as they graduate so I have the list here um a lot of these kids are really busy they're are go-getters so I just told them I would read off the names and please hold the Applause to the end so in alphabetical order we have kolina ESO zarena fief soan AA Seth Blazer Ellie bachin Elliot Campbell tan Cathcart anir danan Ashley Drummond Mia Estrada Alex G Logan Jad Samuel kiski car meta Julian an Amy Arian Patel matus pazik Chase par roic Andre Gaza Haley Ridner Chase ruckle Canal Shaw Shu

014Shaw Pina Sony Luke fos Alex vutov men Wang Jackson wherer and zenan zuker so congratulations I don't believe anyone came tonight oh get one that just showed up and took my seat behind me thank you very much thank you that's awesome that's awesome thank you time for public comment uh we'll start with Micheline Welsh and just a reminder we'll keep our comments to three minutes everyone thank you I had some prepared comments tonight but I'm I'm going to go off script just a little bit um I wanted to raise the issue of the property tax relief grant that was available through isby um in talking with is recently about teacher attention and how it's calculated we got on the topic of Grants and it was raised to my attention that there is actually a grant

015that we qualified for this year for the first time and it was a property tax abatement Grant um our District was notified in October that we qualified out of the 850 school school districts in Illinois we ranked 76 out of the 850 um we were the most qualified out of all nine districts in King County there was even a floor chart that was provided by is um that showed the timeline to from notification to application the deadline is January 8 and that Boards of Education were supposed to be discussing this November December June January depending on when our boards meet because obviously January 8th is before our January meeting but it could provide a $5.8 million Grant relief for taxes from our annual Levy we have to apply by January 8th midnight and with the

016holidays and our board schedule at this point it's not on the agenda tonight either so that doesn't leave any time really unless you all have a special meeting to discuss maybe there's a downside to applying for this grant that it's I know that you have to participate for like a two-year time frame um I know it impacts our evidence-based funding calculation but my question is more whose responsibility is it to make sure that these things are raised to the board's attention so that you all can have the conversations with in front of the community again maybe it's not a grant that we should take but I think we should all hear the conversation and if we're not going to take it it seems to me from what I read on isby um about this program

017that you all are supposed to vote to either pursue it or not and so how is stuff like this how are these steps getting missed it's hard to understand we have a director of Grants we have District administration we have a business manager whose responsibility is it to make sure that you all are receiving this information in a timely manner so it can be discussed in this forum and voted on this is something that you all should be hearing and discussing and deciding so I wanted to just raise that issue to you all again this is not the first year that this program has been offered but it's the first year that we actually qualified for it we didn't qualify the last two years so something to put on your own internal agenda maybe is

018to figure out how that information should or should not be getting to you for discussion in front of the community thank you next up uh Mike McMahon hello I was um I had too had some comments I was going to talk about but I think I just want to pass on that for now and I just as I sit here and I listen to things and I listen to people come in and I watch how you're voting and stuff all I got to say is I can't believe the utter disrespect you all have for the community that's paying for things completely disrespect us that's all I going to say uh PK K thanks Dr Nolan if I get close to three minutes uh would you prompt me maybe 30 seconds uh away all right so

019um as as you can tell obviously two speakers already talking about um real estate taxes that's kind of essentially what's on people's minds is that um taxes here are relatively higher than other districts uh in in the suburbs and most of the taxes go toward funding the school district um uh so you know we've got the tax levy which is above the 5% um you know pel pel limit um on the agenda today and um and and also uh the union president Mr Chapman in a previous meeting had pointed out that the district did not fully utilize the teacher vacancy Grant funds and and some of those reverted to the state when when we had some appropriate uses of that that we could have made use of either to uh forestall some issues related to

020teachers or to um offset uh use of the district's operating fund for those purposes um Miss Welch just now I think um has done a service by informing you that uh there is presently an opportunity to apply for the property tax uh abatement Grant um which I believe the deadline is January 8th um so I would encourage you to take a close look at that and see if that is something that is appropriate the district to utilize um certainly uh anything that can provide a source of funding other than from the taxpayers directly would be I think a strong sow community of your commitment to to fund District Operations continue to improve the district without um having to undo burden on the taxpayers so i' would encourage you to do that uh even if that

021requires adding it to today's agenda or it requires a special meeting between now and the eth in order to properly review and approve an application all right uh secondly um just generally on the point of communication I've talked to Dr Mong in outside of meetings a few times that um you know when we think about uh the turnout at some of the fors the district is organizing which I think are good fors most recently the strategic planning workshop where we discussed the strength weaknesses opportunities and threats related to the board's drafted priorities for the district the turnout was very low and in fact about only about half of the people that signed up even attended so it's a very small percentage of the community that's participating actively we saw this as well with the Strategic

022uh with the um uh design design Dives on the the new High School uh last fall um we've seen it a few times now that there's very turnout it was also in the original form to look at the three or four different options before the referendums were pursued you know where where the new high school was kind of identified as the most popular one it was a very very small turnout that that did that and so I think the challenge was to figure out alternate ways you know continue to those things but find alternate ways to reach more people in the community and in particular what I discuss with Dr Mangan is that you know many of us are connected in some way to the school district so we get the electronic communications we get

023we get the Friday facts or Tuesday tidbits or we get the others you know 301 we get the union Communications we get different things from different people but there's a large segment of the community that is not connected to the school district they're not on the electronic distribution and in every other place that I've lived in the Chicago suburbs and I've lived in many different places in Chicago land in my life every other community I've lived in you get something in the mail multiple times a year that keeps you informed on what the part is in the school district What's happen from a funding perspective what are the issues coming up that require public support you know you stay informed because there's a means of doing that you also see that in community in terms

024of Library districts communicating on a regular basis through the mail and the cost is very low relative to the district's overall funds so I'd recommend that is another means of reaching more people in the community and then um finally um I know on the agenda today we have a topic in special education I'm happy to see that at least three of the teachers have been recommended by the union look to be funded by that um I'd encourage you to continue to find an opportunity in the agenda to talk more about the needs in special education in kids that uh programs for kids that need intervention and also to talk about opportunities for uh Advanced Learners acceleration options our district is lagging uh other districts in the Chicago land area and also currently has gaps relative

025to the requirements of the Illinois uh advanced placement act and uh we should work together to try and close those gaps and make our stronger thank you D Chapman right good evening um you know although we we might not have agreed how to handle the things with uh the new Wing at at CHS with moving eighth graders there for this week I do think it's important to take a second to thank a lot of people for the extraordinary you know work and time it took to to get that Wing up and running on such short notice I think first and foremost the teachers the amount of time they put in and the flexibility and adaptability is is quite large um things as small as just you know you got to change your lessons you got

026to make your seating chart um we're getting bust there and and from every single day so that eats up your morning time and your afternoon time the plan so I know personally being a teacher at CMS I'm very proud of each and every one of our teachers and the flexibility that they showed um to make things as as best is possible for for our uh students this week I think also it's important to thank buildings and grounds the custodial staff tech department they were running in and out getting things wired um and I think definitely building admin you know we were seeing Patrick um Sarah ra Alex running in and out helping people so thank you to everyone who who helped make this as best as possible um I think also we want to thank

027the district for posting most of those positions that we asked for you know I know although it took a long time took a lot of conversations you know we didn't get all the positions that we feel that uh the staff needs I think it's still a step in the right direction and you know we need to keep having these conversations we need to keep talking with our our staff talk with our students and and keep better supporting um them in any way possible so thank you thank you Sheila Gorman I do have prepared comments but this really isn't my for so let's see how this goes I'm sure it'll be interesting um good evening I am actually here tonight to address a very important issue that seems to caused some confusion in this community I

028am indeed a real person separate and apart from my husband I I can see why the confusion might be there but here I am but in all seriousness I I want to emphasize that why my husband and I may share a sarcastic sense humor that admittedly doesn't always translate well to others um our identities our actions our motivations are uniquely our own um I can't believe it's almost two 2025 and here I am having to say but I'm here on my own merits and experience and frankly with a whole lot of disbelief over the fact that um my opinion my personal opinion now carries so much weight uh but since I've now been deemed some sort of authority uh here you are you get to hear my opinion um I I don't know how your

029relationships work but I can say that ours at home pretty much sounds like hey what do you want for dinner and sweetheart have you considered a haircut um but between these vital conversations we're managing our independent lives are careers this is not what we talk about at home um so a long time ago and several superintendant ago uh before there were online forums I walked across the street to a referendum meeting at my neighbor's house that ultimately resulted in the construction of Country Trails and PK Mass honestly at the time we thought we lived in district 303 it was a bit of a shock but it was a moment that led to our involvement in the district and for the past 23 years we've had the privilege of getting to know and work with so

030many of you um we have watched our children play on cdbl together we stood side by side on the sidelines when efl began transition to CFL I probably handed you a water or a pork soot sandwich at some point at through a concession we've been fortunate to work alongside our neighbors and this community to build something that I think is been pretty great um it's been my honor or was my honor to serve for the L Lake PTC for over 14 years the CHS boosters for four years and to witness the creation of the Central Foundation um it's these invaluable parent and teacher committees that I've had the privilege of collaborating on that have introduced me to an amazing group of parents teachers community members many of which I am now fortunate enough to call

031friends however therein lies the difference um I get the Board of Education plays a very different and vital role in this community as elected volunteers and I'm going to skip this for brevity but the board of education is tasked with navigating collective bargaining addressing legal challenges revie budgets making the budget work even in the most challenging of financial times and those legal and ethical applications come with a responsibility um that demands just demands a higher standard um I recognize this role requires neutrality that frankly no one in this room is going to disagree with me when I say I don't possess um however I am not now nor I ever been a candidate for this board and I chose to volunteer where I could support my kids our schools and our teachers the neutrality of

032a school board is entirely different and and any candidate or member has to possess and remember that because that level of Integrity cannot and should not be compromised and and while I'm under No Illusion that the multitude of unanimous Decisions by this board by any of the previous boards result in some sort of Perfect Harmony it has to be recognized these independent conclusions were Guided by the expertise of our dedicated Administration who has consistently worked to ensure the best interest of our students and this community was always prioritized so thank you um unfortunately it just seems that the community that we once had that was so unique and welcoming has now been irreparably damaged um I recognize that the growth of this District prevents a significant challenge I don't think anyone here would disagree with

033that it it comes at a cost and there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus how to move forward and that's no longer any of my concern but the erosion of of the district and this community is disheartening um the whispering of Gossip the at times ridiculous notion of some sort of political gain is as troubling as it is unproductive Ive um we need to get back to meaningful discussions about what's best for our students and get away from this increasingly polarized view of US versus them mentality anyway regardless this board um thank you I hope we can get back to where we can actually just start to work together thank you I need a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda just a reminder this is only two through five on the

034action reports because we out number one separately so motion a second please so move second is just question um included in your board packet are the revenue and expenditure reports um re revenues are currently at 38.6% compared to 3957 a year ago expenditures are at 3946 compared to received two months worth of impact fees fees um October we received $88,700 475 to The Amalgamated Bank of Chicago um then tonight we we'll be discussing the finalizing the aggregate tax levy for 2024 and then I just kind of wanted to make mention um give pudos to the payroll HR Finance team um we've been going through a computer conversion with Skyward we went from Skyward um SMS to cumulative they call it um we started this back in May um going through all the setup and everything

035behind the scenes we went live November 4th um so big shout out to the teams along with technology technology has been also a huge um huge help in this smooth transition um coming along through that that's payroll that affects every employee in the district for payroll their um time clocks clocking in and clocking out um HR is all the onboarding paperwork and everything finances everything that we do um from reporting to all of the balancing the bank recks all of that stuff so um so over time as you see different reports are starting to look differently it's because the cumulative reports are way different than the old version um a lot of them none of them came over so we're starting from scratch um so a lot of service tickets are going in to try

036to get all the exact data that we had before um so it's not intentional that we aren't getting everything in there I think this month we've got our bills payable to include everything that it had last two times ago or in the old system um so just wanted to point that out that you that's why see reports looking a little bit differently um and as we continue to get more and more reports right now the revenue and expenditure report never looked nice in the old system so I'm confident it's not going to look very nice in the new system um that's why we dump it to Excel and that's why you really didn't see a change in that report but if we can get that automated for the ease of just efficiency and not having

037to put that into an Excel um those will be coming forward as we get them so I just wanted to than that thank you um so I need a motion to discuss and approve the minutes from the regular Board of Education meeting on November 18th 2024 Eric I'm sorry we need take a for first sorry go ahead thank you all right Fulk yes Gorman yes Hil yes papis yes buul yes aif yes Nolan yes now back to a motion to discuss and approve the minutes from the regular Board of Education meeting from November 18 2024 second um so on the uh minutes uh I think that item 8C needs to be revised I don't think that it is an accurate or fullsome representation of what we discussed when we came out of close session um

038it states the board discussed options to respond in a general way to public comment when appropriate such as through the proposed board bites and highlights format I think what we disc discussed when came out of Clos session uh was um based on what was discussed in Clos session without disclosing what was discussed in close session um we had agreed as a board to respond to the young man's situation uh with the parking with additional information so that we would be more open uh with the community about what uh was happening and we agreed that that would go out that following Monday and um that is a more accurate representation of the board discussion so I'm moving that that more fullsome and accurate recording of the discussion be added to the minutes thoughts I don't remember

039that but I remember the discussion but I don't remember a decision being made I thought we all made our what we wanted to say known before I had to leave at 9:01 I don't a conversation to what he was saying I remember that's just a reminder you be very careful as that's thank you yeah question sorry no that's sry go no I I didn't remember it being a voted item where we said yes or no it was more of a discussion yeah and and that's what I'm saying that it was a board discussion but it was much more folsome than this and it was much more focused than this and and reviewing the board minutes for the past two years there have been many instances particular with the lson and Darby uh contract where we

040had similar like board consensus notations in the minutes so um it would be appropriate for us to note that there was a discussion and an agreement by the board in that same vein that we've done multiple times in other situations and um make it more accurate than it is right now so one option that we have um specific is to review since legal council was present during that part of the meeting and when we came out in the open session and R man's notes um personal notes are different right they're not they're hers um so we could come up with language and see about we could we could represent that next month yes at the board meeting yes we can do that good with you okay anybody else have any concerns about that no that's

041f y I'm in agreement with that perfect okay um so we'll table move to table this agenda approval yeah so we'll table the vote on approving the minutes at this point and we'll take it to the January 21st 22nd whatever that day is at Tuesday next month yeah to be reviewed with M's notes or personal notes and legal councel so it'll be a motion to table anybody second second second sorry j was that your motion it's my motion to table to to table and further review and for the revie okay uh fi yes aif yes Fulk yes Gorman yes henil yes papis yes Nolan yes the motion is carried a motion and a second are required to discuss and approve the resolution for the 2024 tax levy so moved second so we had our truth

042and Taxation hearing prior to this meeting um cash balances fund balance reserves and our expenditures for threee averages disclosed in that hearing um I nothing else really to report um after once this is approved um then we'll deliver it to the counties all the different reports that are in there um it's um our recommendation that we approve this final level does anybody else any other questions I don't have any questions I have uh a comment it's um you know with respect to you know our our our community member that came and and testified during the hearing um I think that uh Dana has provided ample information to support why we need this particular tax levy and it's not a disrespect to you sir or to anybody else in the community that disagrees it's just we

043need these funds to operate our school district and it would be irresponsible not to pass this particular tax levy and that's why I'm going to vote in fav of it anybody else Dana I mean not Dana Mandy how about you I'll take it Gorman yes Hil yes pepis yes fuli yes aif yes Fulk yes Nolan yes um uh the motion is carried uh the motion and a second are required to discuss and approve uh J board member Jan aif as an additional authorized board member to confer with the board attorney on its behalf pursu to Schoolboard policy two or other Schoolboard member I apologize pursuant to Schoolboard policy second FP it going I don't care so this is on the agenda because it's important for us uh moving forward to have somebody else also be

044able to confir with the attorneys I'm asking that that be me I am an attorney and I have found just in the last week um where I didn't ask to speak to the attorney but the attorney's asked to speak to me that I've learned things that um I wish I had known earlier and why this is important is this a lawyer isn't going to your lawyer isn't going to misdirect you but here she is also not going to answer questions you didn't ask so you've got to ask the right questions and you've got to ask for the right information one of the things that a lawyer will do is if you say tell me how I can do X here she will tell you how to lawfully do X if you ask the broader question

045do we have to do X or you know is there another way for us to proceed and you ask a broader question you'll get better advice and then it's up to the client in this case the board to decide okay which way do we want to go I'm not not satisfied at all that we've received the information that we need to make good decisions and I think that it's important that somebody other than the superintendent and the President also have the ability to confer with the lawyers and I think that in this particular constitution of the board having somebody who has 30 years of legal experience talking to the lawyers will make us a stronger board going forward anybody else my only concern is naming a name I think it should be a position and

046you can go for vice president but I think the positions would probably hold more weight because then if you don't get reelected we'd have to do a motion which isn't the biggest deal obviously um but yeah it seems like the president vice president should be able to confer with the attorney yeah I would that that's not the motion um I think the motion should be that I be appointed as the additional person for the reason stated and just to clarify that I'm assuming if at any point I'm not on the board then that no no I was G ask that if at any point somebody wanted to change that or you were like yeah I don't want to do that anymore another board member said hey I think ex other person should be on it

047we would just make another motion to move whatever on the same page about that yeah agreed anything else no no Manny pil yes papus yes fuli yes aif yes Fulk yes Gorman no Nolan yes uh the motion is carried a motion and second required to discuss and approve the renewal of the cash Farm lease agreement second included in your board packet is um a memo to approve the um cash Farm lease agreement um in May of 2024 we accepted um vesda 07 inks bid to rent out the Route 47 property is the 254 Acres um for a year um we've got a good working relationship with them they communicated very well with the maintenance crew um on all the different deadlines they made their payments um so tonight we're seeking to renew that lease with

048them um and the we kept the lease um it still be an annual lease um for the same amount $4,5 54 paid into installments um so the lease agreements included in your board packet for for you and we're recommending that we renew this lease any questions n man pepus yes Bui yes aif yes Hulk yes Gorman yes Hil yes Nolan yes uh motion is carried a motion and second or required to discuss and approve the renewal of the veterinary affiliation agreement with the Animal Medical Clinic of St Charles that's it second so today I bring in front of you the Animal Medical Clinic of St Charles which we have used in the past with our Ved Tech program seeking approval for it to be an additional site uh to provide options for our exter ships

049to occur they are a past vendor that we've used uh site location uh the only thing I'll tell you is they uh reached out to us um which I think needs to be highlighted that you know not only do we seek places they're seeking us and our programming of of success that's occurring thanks Mandy fuli yes fafi yes Hulk yes Gorman yes Hil yes pepis yes Nolan yes motion is carried thanks uh a motion and second required to elect a vice president so moved second nominations are now in order for the office of Vice President I nominate darra Hill any other nominations all right um D Hil being the only candidate nominated for the office of Vice President the chair hereby declares D Hil elected by acclamation and directs the recording secretary to record so

050in the minutes you have to vote no we do not need voice that was that's okay thank you all right on information items oh yeah student services director Nolan and assistant director nki will present information from the special education listening tour all righty so Kristen and I are here tonight to talk a little bit about um the special education listening to we completed over the course of November I think was right after November and the beginning of this month with um all the buildings here in the district we met individually myself um Kristen and eser met with each of the building staff special education staff to talk about kind of the strengths so what's going well within each of the building and also talk about those areas for improvement um as you know Esther's had

051listening to our starting last year as our first year superintendent with um all the buildings and through those discussions things were coming up related specifically to special education and so we wanted to reach out to all those staff members to have those smaller group meetings to to talk more speciic specifically about what they're seeing and you know those areas that we're doing well and also those areas for improvement um so every year we do evaluate Staffing Services programming kind of everything under the sun related to special education um but one thing that you know we haven't really adjusted much would be our overall Service delivery model and so throughout this it really came to life that there are probably some things that we need to look more closely at and so really what do we

052need to change what are those things that we need to to Target moving forward so tonight we're going to talk a little bit about each of the different levels and what themes kind of came through um at each of those levels which in some cases were similar and in some cases were different um but going into this process we already know we have really amazing staff at all of our buildings we have amazing teachers related service Staff Care Professionals um you know great teams who work together to meet the needs of students and we know every child's needs are different and every IEP is different so while we try to work on program programming that will meet the needs of you know the most uh the meet the needs of the most students we know

053that um every students's needs are different and we need to adjust accordingly um but overall four the biggest things that came out throughout all of the levels um were an increased need for some flexibility um for staff to meet the individual needs of students whether that be through resources available schedules of when students can receive their services um and just the frequency and duration of the Services overall um our teachers shared that more time is needed uh paperwork expectations have continued to grow and morph um with different regulations and so that has a big impact on teacher responsibilities and workload um our service delivery model as Sarah mentioned there um is some room for some tweaks uh at the different levels and really another thing that came through at all levels is our students needs

054are changing students who are walking through um our doors are much different than they were 10 years ago um for a variety of reasons right um but that is kind of causing us to need to respond differently and take a look at if our Continuum of services is um comprehensive enough to meet the needs of those students so our current Continuum this is just sort of a snapshot of what our Continuum currently entails down there on the Cor we have a link to the full Continuum which is available on the website um but we service students Early Childhood through 22 within special education here um we service through IND District programming whenever possible in the students home school um through a variety of different Service delivery models resource collaborative classes uh self-contained direct instruction classes

055um and we provide related services including speech and language therapy Social Work occupational therapy physical therapy and as needed hearing itinerant Vision itinerant um and then we have several specialized programs within our district so at the Early Childhood level we have our instructional classroom which um is smaller in size Sarah will talk a little bit about what that looks like um to serve our students with um more needs who aren't quite ready to be in the general EC classroom we have a specialized program for grades three through five the star classroom that's hbt um Aspire at the middle school level um that filters into our life skills program uh 9 through 12 High School for students whose needs we cannot meet within District we do partner with Mid Valley special ed Cooperative um they have

056some more specialized programming um that is appropriate often um and for students who require support even beyond that we do partner with therapeutic schools and residential facilities when needed so looking more specifically at the so this is related to our early childhood students so our students who are age three through five and Elementary K5 um so as Kristen mentioned at the Early Childhood level we really have two kind of strains of programming so one would be more of the instructional program so self-contained for students with IEPs only and these students have more significant needs um more a lot of times the students within that classroom are more significant with cognitive disabilities or Autism more significant development of delays and then uh students in the Blended section combination of our general education those tuition based students

057and students with IEPs as well and for the Blended Blended programs are currently housed at hbt per Country Trails and the Country Trails houses that instructional program as well um for elementary at all five or all five four of our elementary buildings um they provide services through either a pullout academic services in a small small group so your math you're reading you're writing some executive functioning type skills and then also pushin skills or pushin Services related to academic function needs as well and then as Kristen mentioned the St program is hous at hbt and that is for students in grades three through five that provides more specialized targeted instruction for both academics and those functional skills as well at our Middle School our service delivery model is um near identical at both pkms and CMS

058um we offer collaborative classes which are um it's another word we use for a caught we have a general education teacher as the content expert specialized teacher as that process expert working together to support students within a general education environment so we have students with um with IEPs and without IEPs in those setting um and then from there we move to we offer self-contained classes in math and Ela so for students who are not able to access the um General Ed curriculum we do have a modified curriculum and those classes are taught just by special ed teachers um we also have a resource support which is more you know individualized support as needed for students with IEPs and that takes place during students tasks periods currently at the middle school um and then Aspire uh

059house at pkms but students six through eight uh do attend that program and that's the self-contained program that's a completely alternate curriculum um which is the next step from our students who are in Star that's the next up on the continum high school is similar to middle school with the collaborative academic classes um so we offer a variety of academic classes English math social studies science um a little bit of CTE um and same uh kind of model we have gen special ed teachers in there together students both gened and special ed um and the idea in those classes is for the special ed teacher to help provide access help help our children access that um grade level content uh s contain academic classes again with that modified curriculum um where middle school has the

060resource T classes at the high school during academic advisory special ed teachers teaching resource advisory class um what's different there it's you know individualized tutorial support you know kind of depends on the students needs but high school students do have the transition plan um aspect which is different where you know they start working on different assessments and activities to help prepare students for post-secondary Life whatever that is that resource time is often used for that um and then we do have our life skills program which is working on daily living skills vocational skills and functional academics so now we're going to get specifically into what we discussed at the listening tour for each of the the overall levels so whenever we met with the Early Childhood team again we had kind of those strengths and

061areas for for improvement um you know definitely this goes for for all of our our staff members but really the commitment to Student Success they noticed that you know this is the first experience a lot of these kids have within kind of a more typical School environment coming from maybe a daycare into into school and so they really focus on creating those overall environments where students can can be successful and so it could be looking at inclusion for their strengths looking at their more specific developmental needs um definitely focused on using data and observation to help TR track their progress and form decisions and then definitely you know a student centered approach for for all of our our Rel childhood staff looking at at the students and you know again as we noted in the

062beginning just very dedicated teachers pair of Pros you know without especially at the Early Childhood level level the par Pros are very instrumental in the success of of those classrooms as far as targeted areas for improvement you know as we noted just the increase in student complexity that we're seeing so we also serve as so whenever students are having more um more children are having more concerns as they're growing up we take students who are receiving early intervention support So students who from that birth to three range and then transition them into Early Childhood than at three and so we're definitely seeing a lot more complex student needs it could be medical needs it could be more developmental needs coming into our school system from the early intervention aspect of things and so again just

063more complex needs again you know we're seeing the need for more early intervention whether it be you know in the early childhood to have that successful transition into the kindergarten um time and so that's something that notice that we see a need to address um something additional there and then just at times there's some incons inconsistencies in practices and expectations across classrooms across programming because just because how the the classrooms are when in the three Elementary buildings and so just to have kind of more consistency across classrooms and programs would be helpful and two um just looking at philosophies on inclusion opportuni so there is some differ um opinions and thoughts on kind of that inclus for students who are in our instructional program into those Blended um Blended environments to just to make sure

064that we're providing the students the supports and those experiences that as are appropriate for them for the elementary level again you know strength and targeted areas for improvement so again you know the strong dedication from both staff and administrators um within those buildings to address the individual student needs and improve outcomes overall um so in these meetings it was not the building Administration it was just staff and definitely the elementary level that was something that was all staff members spoke very highly of their um their supportive administrators um they definitely noted overall collaboration and teamwork how this the teams work very collaboratively within the school but also across the schools um sharing resources supporting one another um because in elementary school you know there's four um special education teachers at the most of the buildings

065and so you know that's a team of four where they definit defitely lean on each other and pick each other's brains when it's coming to you know ideas for goals or services or things across the district so it's a really nice overall team that the elementary has um again going back to the leadership piece that um the staff noted that Administration is open to feedback they definitely hear hear what their concerns are um overall looking at you know long-term plans things like that to address the needs and then resourcefulness and Innovation so um teachers are definitely utilizing tools and strategies starting to pieces of things whenever we're looking at um you know helping to support our students in the buildings um and at the elementary level especially we did um partner with a company called

066goal book that helps the student or helps the staff to identify specific present levels and then write specific goals for their IEPs and so this staff um we piloted it this year and so there are some staff who you know definitely speak very highly of that program as as a support there and as well as a 95% group reading intervention this is our third year impation so we piloted it in two buildings two years ago brought it on board for all four buildings last year and so definitely an appreciation of that intervention because it Target is more spe targets more specific um early reading skills to help the students be more successful as far as um targeted areas for improvement again looking at kind of that increased workload increased um comp increased case load complexity

067um is is there for elementary teachers and so just noted this is something we need to definely Target for improvement um overall paperwork demands again you know as we noted there's always new mandates from the state from the federal government as far as what we need to do what we need to include and so that just continues to add on um the workload um they also noted an an a need for um of curriculum resources um for a broader menu of aligned curriculum resources progress monitoring tools for math um writing and executive functioning um and two just we need to kind of look at our overall continu Continuum of services for our uh kindergarten through fifth grade students to make sure we're we're providing the level of support that students are are um needing um

068for Behavior andal challenges again you know we've talked about before the rising student needs postco strain staff and systems Whenever there are um concerns that come up either behaviorally or for the need and then just overall systemic barriers you know kind of Kristen mentioned in the beginning kind of that lacks of lack of flexibility with scheduling at times impact how the students are are serviced or how the teachers are able to pull the students and then overall space challenges as we know especially at the elementary level we're getting we're getting tight and so just needing kind of additional space and flexibility for that the Middle School some of the strengths that came out was again that commitment to collaboration and teamwork so teams work very you know closely together always keeping you know student needs

069at the center problem solving getting creative and they really have that shared commitment to meet the needs of all students um again at the middle school level they felt that they have some really strong leadership support the administrators are responsive um and you know really allowing for staff to talk about different solutions and try different things and they really value the staff input um for programming a strengths that was identified in the Middle School level was that collaborative teaching mod model is beneficial to serve our students in the least restrictive environment um the self-contain provides that alternative curriculum when needed so they appreciate it at that level having the options um within that Continuum um and again Aspire has a strong link to prepare the students um bridging between star and life skills so those

070teams have really developed and that's a really nice uh Common Thread throughout our Middle School programming um some targets for improvement so that workload and time constraints that was the theme that I mentioned earlier that's going to hit every level um that those paper and the quarterly progress reports are very time consuming a lot of data collection goes into that um progress monitoring demands also increase um as student needs increase um multi-ub planning there were a lot of conversations about this um in terms of what's the best way to uh deliver instruction in the collab model uh having our special ed teachers be more content experts so maybe you know one teacher focuses only on math and um another on E La we talked a lot about pros and cons of that versus being able

071to support students in all content levels um because with you know teaching multi subjects is you know extra planning so there was a lot of pros and cons with that um our current Middle School schedule causes lopsided numbers in classes and the schedule to be inflexible um so again some scheduling challenges there um seal needs we're seeing increased Behavior concerns social emotional needs postco lot of refusal which starts to really kind of peek its head here in the Middle School level and into high school um which adds complexity to the case loads um which brings about their need for social emotional learning curriculum executive functioning support um to build in to be able to support our students in that manner um along with the complexity of case loads one thing that that came out a

072lot we hear a lot about case load numbers right what are your case load numbers and what came clear to us through this is the number doesn't always uh directly correlate with the workload right um different students needs you can have a smaller case load of students with significant needs that can be you know very lopsided um in terms of workload as somebody with a higher case load but maybe has you know just maybe some consultative services or things like that so that was important for us to keep in mind uh when we're considering case load and workload um another challenge or Target for improvement was inconsistent co- teaching experiences so the relationship plays a big part A Jen special a teacher in the classroom um and when that's working well it's beautiful and the

073you know students are are benefiting from that um the teachers have kind of a seamless connection um sometimes we have pairs that maybe have different philosophies and the students needs are being met but it just might you know have some friction uh kind of with the planning or bumps along the way so we talked about you know some issues with that and maybe some ways to um address that moving forward and that resource task time so the time is limited um task is I think 36 minutes at the middle school and um students are often using that time to they need help on homework but they also need some of that specialized instruction they might need reteaching um progress monitoring and that it's hard to fit a lot into that time so brought some conversations

074about what we can do with uh our resource programming I have a question you mentioned team of four are there teams of four at the middle school level or what does that look like when you were talking about like the teams of Bo yeah so at the middle at CMS there's currently two um special education teachers okay and then at pkms there are four that do kind of six eight and then we have um the one teacher who is the aspired teacher so four that do either the self-contained ad or the that collaborative Kat and then we have M Miss Kirby who is the aspired teacher okay um some similar themes with the high school um with the middle school so the strengths goal book has really been a great resource that the staff is

075uh utilizing to help support their writing quality IEPs um teams are working collectively together we have really great PA of professionals who are jumping in and helping support students however they might need um the staff is really flexible so as things come up student needs change people are always willing to jump in and you know kind of adjust their schedule if needed to um make sure to meet the needs of the students um and even though you know the workload is increasing and they are feeling the pressure they're really there supporting student needs and they felt like they have a strong team uh with that um workload again those legal and procedural requirements continuing with the complex case loads um and that's just overall requiring a lot more time than it has previously along with

076that multi-ub planning some challenges with that um gen Ed and specialed role Clarity so as content gets more difficult right as you get into the high school um level there's often you know with our our collaborative pairs you know figure out who's going to do what and what does this look like um whether it's delivering instruction whether it's delivering accommodations whether it's modifying cont content um it seems that there is some room for growth in terms of kind of outlining who does what and what each of those uh roles are in the classroom um some procedural challenges at the high school level so some inconsistent systems for providing testing accommodations and instruction and collaborative settings so um space is limited um you know staff is limited in terms of making sure um you know we

077have somebody available in a place for people to take assessments um in an environment that is that um and then our the resource advisory classes during that academic advisory we're seeing that our special ed teachers are having a very large amount of students in those sections which again as I mentioned with the resource task just makes it difficult to kind of get everything you need to get done in that time when you have a lot of students to get to um and we're hearing a need for more direct executive functioning support we have a lot of students who um you know are qualifying with social emotional challenges and are having executive functioning uh IEP goals and um just wanting to maybe have more of a systematic approach to be able to deliver that specialized instruction

078okay so overall um Next Step so the first two are things that we have already done so posted for the additional three uh certified teaching positions one at middle school or one at elementary um one at PK and then one split between CMS and the high school to support those case load and workload challenges as well as posted for an additional parro the EC um classroom to help um more with that with the blending piece so the students who are ready to be have some exposure with more typically developing peers um to help support that student within within that classroom and then what our next step is um in terms of addressing some of the gaps in our Continuum um and some of the priorities that came out in this is we want to work

079and um get some subcommittees together in each of the different areas Elementary Middle um and high school to really kind of through all of this information figure out what is our priority um what are we going to address and tackle and what does this look like really on a long-term basis right because there's a lot that needs to be done but we can't do it all overnight um but we we realize all of this is important and we want to have a plan um to make sure to address all of this in a way that um will continue to meet the needs of our students but make things a little bit more seamless for our staff so they're not feeling so much pressure I guess my question is is it enough though like the three

080FTS the PA Pro I feel like in some ways we're playing catchup because this has obviously been an issue that you know we're trying to address so are we ready for the next school year with with this the way we're kind of laying this out I know you said that you know we're going to have committees we're going to continue to have this conversation but I'm just wondering is it enough to just this because it seems like at least from what I understand the numbers are just growing right if we look at what we had last year as a case load to this year I'm assuming it's going to be even more next year because our population is growing so is it enough what we're trying to do here or are we going to be

081playing catch up again next year I would say for the immediate right now yes are we going to continue to look at um Staffing and needs for next year we're just starting that process now so we could add additional at this point I can't yes or no just because we haven't really started that that process that looking at okayy what are we going to be you know recommending as we come through talking with our building administrators see okay what are they seeing on a daily basis what do we have on our end as far as what's within the IDS um so right now yes but moving for the 25 26 school year I don't know yet and as our service delivery model might change right that could change the way like right now we have

082X amount of teachers delivering instruction in this way should we change that that might adjust things so maybe we will need more um maybe we'll find that we're good with where we're at but we that's why we want to really dig in at each level because it's not just as simple as you know and the other thing too you know looking kind of right now how we look at Staffing at times it's Elementary Middle School and High School are all kind of looked at the same way and they're definitely different Beast for better term at each level and so we want to make sure that we're looking individually you know what does that look like Elementary what does this look like Middle School um more in high school than more specifically in early childhood and

083I think to figure out what to the East Point like what are next steps so you know looking over this for the second with committees does this become I know obviously we have to look at Staffing patterns every year that's already part of what Mike did for his 10 years and obviously you know stepping in the same thing with the support of the building people in this building um and it to like the formalization of this process obviously it was time consuming but necessary right so to to your pointy how do we end up getting to a point where we you know we have our stakeholders we are trying to get again this balance like Kira said after the meeting last time you know this balance of like the emotional side which just oh my

084God this is a lot this is data side we don't want to be living either one entirely drive any decision maker we have to find like a happy medium right and if this is it for now I think as long as you know there's a commitment on the part of the administration of course and on the part of this board to say you know we need to still be open to say we might need three more we might need no more we might need seven more I don't know depends on what happens right so just you know and to be fair I've what six plus years on the board at this point I've never heard the board say we don't agree with recommendations that have come through specifically to address these needs I will just

085reflect that back out loud but that's not been the case I was kind of curious who was involved in the next steps was it just you guys or I mean I know you had a lot of feedback in your listening tours but um did you kind of voice these next steps we heard from the president of the Union saying that thanks but we'll see if it's enough it just seems like three isn't that much and who knows if we'll even get three um you know committees take a while to work you know get together pan out you know it just seems like yeah so I was just curious who was involved in this so it would be representatives from kind of each of those levels so some Early Childhood representation um elementary middle school high

086school so each kind of group then assem your specific information for that level yeah and we also have coordinators at each of the level who are out in the building things more um than we are so they have a good pulse on what's going on and are talking you know with the teachers more regularly so I think collaborating with them um but I don't think it can just be us I think we need to hear from the people in the classrooms and getting their perspective and looking at it from multiple ends did they always give you feedback previously or where was the disconnect that it got there's so many targets compared to strengths when you look at that it's definitely imbalanced so like how did it get so imbalanced if there's coordinators out there already

087relaying this information it didn't seem like anything got relayed well this is just the second year of that coordinator position at at each of the buildings um so previously yes it was more contact I would say with our our building administrators but also you know kind of funneled through them so having not the the building administrators didn't convey things or we didn't have those conversations but I think having more um direct kind of input and information from this the teachers who are who are there every day and doing the job every day um will help kind of el a different process this start so we're having more Comm communication going on continual communication going on so that this process doesn't necessarily have to be so lengthy again and that we can come up with and

088discover that we need more help sooner right okay and we've kind of we've had a similar Service delivery model for a while right and it's you know it's is a time to look at that again and like Sarah said we always are collecting information numbers on case loads and things like that but that doesn't always tell the story right so now that we kind of know know more what's going on I think that we can be more strategic and in tune with um keeping up with that and not letting it go correct and I think too you know like Kristen said this isn't something that we're gonna fix everything by August and so I think it's then mixing or having those meetings having those priorities as far as okay this is something you want to

089definitely adjust for you know the 25 26 school year and then having kind of a longterm plan to make those adjustments and changes as as we move forward then you also have to find them correct yeah which is challenging it Le I mean a lot anything else no thank you so much thanks thank you next direct P will provide an update on construction and maintenance projects [Laughter] yeah I'm always entertaining um first thing I want to talk about is the well I was going to have Alex do that for us but she's feeling she didn't want to be up here in her pajamas so I'm I'm G to do the speak I'm going to do the speaking for her um so the well uh CMS as well uh last Tuesday um our staff noticed that

090we were lacking water pressure and had no water in the Middle School um led us to start doing some investigation and we realized that our well was not functioning um so we proceeded the process of elimination to try to rule out what the issues could possibly be naturally it was the coldest days we have uh since had which was challenging for working with water through that process and late last week we realized it was not the well itself it wasn't the well pump which we originally processed through and thought was the issue come to find out that it was the actual electric feed coming from the building out to the well which is a 480 volt electric service so as we process through what we could do to get that building back up and running

091um working with our well contractor Suburban well and with our electrician pack electric who have been instrumental in helping us process through all this we decided we could come up with a plan pretty quickly to run a temporary feed to get us through so we can get school back in session um we work pretty closely with the health department on what their uh qualifications would to keep us away from a boil order and all the things that make having students in a building a challenge um so we're pretty confident that we'll have that electric feed up and running this week um where we'll be able to start testing water towards the end of the week do our chlorination and all our building flushes and all the things the health department requires and have everything back

092up and running through the break so we can get Alex through staff and everybody back to the middle school right after the break so that's the that's the plan right now I think it is important to recognize that even in the best case scenario had it been a well pump and had we gotten one right away there still would have been all these days from the health department that they put on top so it wasn't as simple as a just find one and put it in and then we're fine correct I mean in well pumps we come to find out well pumps aren't pre-fabricated they're not sitting on the shelf there's a lot of specifications and changes with them so that was a process we are well contracted ear started doing all that even just

093getting the piping because we wouldn't know what the piping was like you know once we pulled it out of the ground I kind of equated to your car your furnace I mean these things go out they're mechanical systems that can and will fail I mean it's the way it is I think just the way our staff and that's the other thing I want to the sentiments that Dave said I mean between our staff or our Grounds Guys or maintenance guys or custodians the teachers the administration the way everybody came together and we all work through this to get the kids back in school as quick as possible I think was awesome and being able to have the facility and what Pat and his team did at the high school to allow the kids to get

094in there I think was was awesome so I want to Second all those kudos for everybody involved in this so and have this ever happened before been here a long time so I'm sure ironically my very first day in the district um we replaced we replaced prair reviews well so I don't know if I'm the Jinx but yeah we've we've had well issues well pumps we've worked through this we're I mean I'm not an expert in Wells but we've kind of got got this process down pretty good yep any other questions about the well way to Pivot I'll just second what Dave said in the beginning which I was fortunate enough to walk around with Miss Posh with Alex for 10 minutes or so and just kind of peruse and it was quiet and calm

095in the building that Friday morning I think the kids did great the kids that I was able to talk to directly outside of school that I knew that were in eighth grade um thought it was you know a scary at first and experience in the end uh you know and you know apparently the bacon cheeseburger is very good I heard about that so now not want to go back to CMS so you know well in the other I mean between The Tech Guys and transportation I mean that that wasn't an easy you know I mean everybody involved I think it was great I mean it just shows what we can do as a district I mean we can we can punt when we need to punt and we get it done and we are get

096back to our job at teaching kids so I think it was awesome um the second update was the RFQ process so we talked about at that the board meeting last week so we worked with our attorney we're still working on that draft I kind of had a few things going on the past week or so so we kind of but the the goal is to get that out in the next week or so and then after the holidays we'll be receiving those rfqs back and then we'll go through the process of evaluating all those um we've been Gathering up a list of Architects between our construction manager my previous experience that we're going to send it out to but then obviously we'll publicly post it so any architectural firm that's interested and we're we're we

097brought in the scope of that to look at a large architect that would cover our major constructions as well as the secondary architect that could help us out with some of our smaller projects so we thought that would be a good good way to cover all of our bases for the future um and then uh winter break so obviously coming up on winter break well will be kind of our priority we're working on uh some more um details in our the remodeling project we're doing here at the district office um some paint and some other things like that working on uh flooring upgrades and updates stairwells stair treads getting our contractors in to do we're keeping up with some of those aesthetic upgrades that we started doing this past summer we're going to continue those

098into the break here um I think that is it any questions about anything no just thank you I had the easy part thank you next we have the bus bit information from uh business manager flute um included in your board packet is um our school bus bid um specifications we're um going to write up the draft to send out the bus bids we usually do a two-year bus lease um so we're looking for the 2025 26 school year 6 27 school year leases um we're recommending that we move forward with 61 buses listed in the memo um we are actually requesting to go to 78 passenger buses instead of the 72 um gives us a little bit more room and um more flexibility um the 32 7 32 passenger gas buses um 3 21 +

0991 and 12 plus three wheelchair bus um we removed a 52 plus two wheelchair bus because it's not needed at this time and then we added an extra um white activity bus um we have a lot more clubs um smaller clubs Le fa bowling golf cross country has used them so it kind of adds a little bit more flexibility um so we did add one extra bus and those um activity buses are on a three-year lease so um we're looking to prepare the bids um get them out and hopefully bring back the results in January um I'm just recommending that we um move forward we the last time we did this we could not get the 78 passeng ones right because they were not constructed wasn't there didn't we attempt to get some 78 passenger

100W that we just couldn't it might have been two years ago yeah yeah so and then we just and now are they more readily available we're going for 48 of them yes okay and we're doing it we're doing this in December to try to get out there ahead ahead of that okay next we have sorry this information uh next the data presentation curriculum directors Burke me books will present data from the 2324 report card so Stephen and I are gonna walk you through um our achievement data from this past year 23 24 um here to begin most of the beginning of this about elementary perspective so I'm going to run you through um this pie chart it's very similar to what we had looked at last year the largest piece of that pie so 50%

101of what is um our Summit of designation is is U created from is from growth so 25% comes from Ela and 2% comes from math that is the largest piece of our pie at the backside of this presentation St is going to go a little bit deeper into that summon of designation that is equated for the high school the secondary piece to that for elementary perspective before we get into some of the data is the proficiency level so 7.5% is equated from math and 7.5 is also equated from Ela so those are the proficient proficiency targets where are students falling within that are they Meeting those targets really the biggest push is on growth because 50% of our designation is coming from that so just to as we get into some of these slides those

102are key pieces as we're looking at our data so here's our Summit designations across to all seven of our buildings you'll see there um we've either fell within the commendable or expl I've been funneling bubbling all over my words all day today so this is step one um but hbt really has um been within that top 10% of the state really some great honors there but again every one of our buildings are falling within um those top honors so we'll begin here enrollment and demographic data um throughout all of our slides we've highlighted blue is our Central data on the far right side you will see that in that a goldish color our state so very interesting to see you look across the top on our comparisons to other districts in our uh local area

103where we're falling out um we are really neck and neck with Geneva and bavia across the board kin's much smaller than us at this point in time and certainly St Charles's has got a large large um um enrollment numbers what's key here on this slide is our demographics on that far right side you can see as where we're sitting and compared to our local districts um some interesting perspectives is our white um students we're at 59.1 look across the way we are much lower than any any of the other districts in our surrounding area so something to consider when we're taking a look at what are we doing within our classrooms and how are we supporting our students that is a population that we really we need to H that a little bit more um

104our Asian and Hispanic populations are much larger across the surrounding communities um and then you'll see that next little bar down our IEP our multilingual our sces and then we also have our chronic um truant and chronic absenteeism rate um for chronic absenteeism we want that to go down we want to be the smallest um which right there when you're looking across the way we are falling in that realm we want to continue to close that close that Gap as we're looking forward in uh supporting our students so to begin here this is our I cohort data for ELA um what's important here is we're looking at cohorts of students so how are they performing over time this we've got some great things to talk about here so from 23 to 24 on that far

105right side you'll see the change and the Improvement that we're seeing so our third to fourth grade students grew at 19.2% um and then on down that track really highlight is our fifth to sixth grade made a 24.1% increase so really some great gains we did take a dive from 6th to 7th that's an area that we will continue to explore was it a new adjustment to curriculum um as our students are aging out and they're transitioning into the middle school just some things to consider um but some huge highlights we keep 2019 because it's prior to that that closure if you look at our fifth our sixth and our eighth grade from 2019 to 2024 we close gaps so we are outperforming where we were in 2019 now there's a ton of room we

106want to continue to grow um but definitely some things to highlight there um in Realms of ela and math here's that same chart here we're looking at our cohort data over time for math we do not see those great increases that we saw in ela it is our Target area we've done some things um recognizing that we had the same challenge we put some things in place this year regarding PD targeting some of those structures that are in place from our IC team we are also going to talk about a little bit later but we are um looking at a math review in elementary and that will age on into our middle school as well so we are targeting these specific things an area to really highlight is our fifth to sixth grade you see

107that 15.3% increase um and then if we hone in on six grade 2019 to 2024 we close that game Gap so there is there are some things to highlight there are also some things that we continue to um need to close some gaps on and really hone in on what are those layers of support we need in place um so this chart if we think back to that P this is that 7.5% on that larger pie larger piece of the pie um this is our meets and exceeds and again you see Central and blue go all the way to the far right you see the state and all those districts districts in between so where we in comparison we're just below actually we're just above Geneva um and bavan cin just below St Charles in

108that area significantly higher in comparison to the state what's really critical here to hone in on our demographic groups as well as our special population so you can see some real highlights there our Asian population our Hispanic population are growing great across um all of those comparable districts um our IEP students are little performing a little bit lower than some of our comparable districts again an area as you heard from Sarah Kristen we're talking about what are areas we're going to Target and how is that going to move forward whether that's continum of service is it programming where are those Lin is going to come alive at another huge highlight is our multilingual students and their performance 28% we look across that way into comparison to the state as well as other districts significantly higher

109here um is the math uh for meets and exceeds again that's at 7.5% of the proficiency targets and where are we falling out um we are lower than what we were anticipating um or where we were for our for our Ela so again this is our Target area you're going to see it in the next few slides math math math that is our Target area um you can see where we're falling out in comparison to the districts we are again significantly higher than the state but not where we want to be this is definitely our area Focus some things to highlight our Asian population and their growth rate um again our Hispanic populations how well they are growing and you see our black population at 37.9% in comparison to the state as well as the

110other area or other districts in our local area the next two slides will be on growth so here this is that 50% so half of the pi the pie chart for our elementary is coming out of these next two slides 25% for ELA the next one will be 25% for math this is a huge celebration so you can see where we're Landing blue across to where we're where our state is as well as our our uh neighboring districts we we are right there in fact we're number one in the area just slightly but we know um the race is on behind us and we want to continue to improve that area and show that growth again it's really talking about what are we doing for our special populations and demographic groups so our white population

111is is the lowest functioning in that area or performing in that area we really want to hone in on that what are we doing for those students and those populations how do we continue to increase that some great areas of strength our Asian our Hispanic population um our black population they're significantly growing at a greater rate we want to hone in on what are we doing for those supports for all of our students um you'll see again our our m lingual population 55.8% take it all the way across to the surrounding districts and state significantly higher um here we are for M again not we're a little bit lower this is definitely an area again that we want to continue to focus on but you'll see some strings we are just below um Geneva but

112we beat St Charles in growth so there and they they were beating us in some of those proficiencies in other areas so we have a strength area there we want to continue to improve and close those gaps for mathematics um but definitely um you'll see where we're sitting in in accordance to the state again our white population we want to hone in on what is that structure what is the application of these materials within our classrooms how are we thinking about our instruction differently um and then you'll see the breakdown of our other demographic and subpopulations and the next two SL are going to be about sat so Stephen will talk through those so on your slide here you're going to see that we are not doing as well as we'd like to be doing

113um right now Central at the high school level has 42.2% um area for meets and exceeds as you compare us to our neighboring districts we are not on par with where we need to be um but we are moving in the right direction we were moving down very rapidly in ela so we are happy that we are starting to go back the right direction we'll see that in a little bit here but um while we are outperforming if you compare us all the way over to the right on the state um we aren't satisfied with what we want our students to compete with academically so this is an area at the high school level to be focused on um you can see that you know some of our our sub areas you know that you're

114able to see that we're close you know uh and doing better in some of our sub but still um as it comes to Performance we need to focus and continue to work on identifying what the problem is identifying an intervention implementing the intervention monitoring and move forward when you want to look at the proficiency change so this is what I was talking about um the direction we were going uh we were at you know going back to 2019 50.2 is where we we really want to get our goal back to um we were we were going down drastically okay uh and the change you can see is is negative but in the and in the overall of of where we're going we're actually slowing down in some sense compared to what some of the other

115districts but we want to be on the positive side we want to be you know St Charles and betab in the middle that still have positive numbers coming up around that curve and going back the other direction um so that's really where we need to go and we are a little bit excited about what we're doing with uh some uh writing uh Revolution stuff that we'll be talking about at the end uh specifically in our classrooms on the math meets and exceeds you'll see um this is very disappointing um math has been a targeted area uh we brought it up last year uh specifically uh textbooks were brought up and the fact of getting textbooks for our math one math 2 and math 3 courses supported with textbooks um we are recognizing that this year

116is the first year math three is actually running we know dips occur um we're not happy about uh any time you dip academically but we do know we need to address this because um even if we are uh above the state with that all 27.6 uh and and being close to the 26.1 uh we don't see that as an acceptable level for our students and we don't believe our students are actually at that level uh we need to challenge kids we need to we need to trust kids to be able to step up to those things and and provide a different aspect so uh with within this slide you can again see uh some of our demographic things that are still consistent with that 27 you can see uh with the exception our Asian population

117uh 52.9% uh but still below the state average so we have work to do here it is one of our major goals um and we'll be talking a little bit about the p coming that's happening this year and plans moving forward on proficiency change um you know there's sometimes you just got to be honest and truthful and when you look up there um the negative 13 and the negative 11 is is where we're at I mean I we could try to say it's positive that now we're only negative 11 but we're not happy with negative at all um but it is where we're at uh and and we need to make changes now in what we're doing just to put that in a frame of reference reference so proficiency um so that was that 42

118and the 20 value that's making up the 7.5 and the 7.5 both in uh math and Ela but when it comes to the sum of designation you need to be aware that the biggest Pi part is the total graduation rate which includes four five and six year GR graduates uh so that's something to understand because you might be wondering like wait a second I know our school our high school is actually graded well how can that be possible when you're you're conveying this information about Ela and math uh then based off that the next largest area is chronic absenteeism and then ninth grade on track and you can see the the others that are listed there so I'm going to go in and provide a little bit more detail on some of these last year

119we didn't provide this detail but I want to make sure you're understanding how this is uh working and and have a better picture of the pie chart versus I I think we focused a lot on that 7.5 for both math and Ela alone so graduation rate um again it's a three-year combination foure five year and six year to get the understanding where that 50% is coming from but I've broken this down into four years meaning a student takes four years to graduate five years and six years because the majority of our students do graduate in four years if we're being honest with everyone uh so the one thing you want to do is compare year to year how are you doing with fouryear graduation and you can see here that we have moved up we

120did dip but then while we've jumped here uh jumping from that 94.8 to roughly I think it says 96.9 so we are headed in the right direction when it comes to the fouryear fiveyear and six year what I'd like to highlight is our numbers are in the 90s mid 90s roughly and it's positive show that we don't give up on students you know there are students that struggle and have different things that happen to them in their lives that sometimes they need an extra semester that that's a reality and I just want to mention here that we We are continuing to support students past that that point of maybe the planned traditional approach of you know four years but that doesn't actually match the mold of every single child out there so it is important

121to see that but to figure out the the 50% it really is a combination of those colors so the blue the blue three columns together creates where our percent averages for that 50% you would do the same thing with the red and the yellow as it follows all the way to our current one tro which is the bar furthest to the right the next area is chronic absenteeism uh this takes the 10% uh category the next largest one and the thing here is you can see uh 2019 we at 14.5% we increased absenteeism we had a slight decrease and then we jumped up to that 23.7 for two years in a row and then now based off last year's data 17.7 this is good because we don't want a high number so I'm just reminding

122you know we want that number to continue to Trend in a downward Direction so that we're able to make sure we're meeting the needs uh did provide a little bit more detail about what is uh Illinois Law as defined for chronic absenteeism and one of the things here I wanted to mention was uh communication making sure that we are communicating to our public really the not not just the law but really the impacts of what this means so when you take that 10% and they use an example here of 180 days you know that's 18 days so nine a semester a student is classified as tronic chronically absent but if you step back for a second and think nine days in a semester that's roughly two weeks of instruction for that semester alone you know

123you could go the other direction to toll for a year and be like you're missing almost a month of school and then it starts to explain some of the reasons why this is a a high priority to make sure we're we're taking that number we're focused on it and we're intervening um the other communication thing uh would be 10% of the school days within an academic school year with or without a valid excuse I think sometimes we we need to make sure we Express that it's not just as simple as calling in and saying they're absent for for this reason and that somehow it's a pass you know it has an impact on their academic understanding and learning and then it also has an impact on on what's Happening Here so making sure that the

124public knows those clear outcomes ninth grade on track uh this is a super powerful um area if you think about it ninth grade is the beginning of the high school experience so four years uh with that uh this projection is four times a student who meets this ninth grade on track is four times more likely to graduate and be successful uh moving forward so monitoring this during their freshman year is a major priority because if you intervene early the likely of changing the success of the outcome later you're able to recover from if you're waiting and waiting and waiting we all know the end results of that that delay is going to be hard to overcome but as you can see here um at 2019 we're at 92.9 we did jump uh in 2020 to

12597.3 we dipped and then now we've recovered now we're at 95.6 which is above that 2019 but we want to continue to make sure that we are monitoring accurately we are you know putting those interventions in and contining to work forward on it um just to understand a little background on what nth grade track means because it's just a phrase um you have to think about it by every nth grader must pass Five year-long courses or the equivalency including that four of them have to be core classes if they fail a semester of core class they're still considered on track but if they fail anything more than a semester of one of the four cores they're technically not on track for graduation it's one of those those situations you can imag a student does fail

126a full year of math they have to take that math and then take another math like it's a it's a domino effect so just making sure that we understand that um that if you think about their their regular schedule and requirements you got your core you got a physical education and then they might be in something else it's not that they don't have the ability to do it it's not like we don't offer the expansion and they're locked into that it's just making sure that we're putting those supports in place and we're catching them quickly so this next um is an informational item that is has put out a part of our interactive report card it's the equity Journey continues so in three specific areas student learning learning conditions and elevating Educators we are falling

127on that pathway the process going from step one all the way to step four large gaps all the way to minimal gaps obviously the goal is to get to minimal gaps and so this is an informational item what opportunities are available what are the programing opportunities um practices what of those resources in that entire Continuum where are students and how are we how are we providing that layer of support So in this particular area so 23 is in red and you'll see where we are today in 24 some great things to highlight so we've moved um from student learning from step two moderate gaps to small gaps so we're on that pathway moving forward um and addressing some of those challenges um The Learning conditions again we were right at the beginning of step three

128so small gaps were moving and that right direction towards minimal gaps and are elevating our Educators so what layers of supports practices are we evaluating different things how are we supporting our Educators in the classroom we're moving further into that minimal Gap so this is just an informational item it's no additional data that's pulled it's just pulled together in that nice Continuum so we can see where we're falling as a district on that Journey oh you go we go we have the best slide for the last one uh so where we are today and where are we going to continue uh throughout the presentation you can see the growth in our enrollment and demographics how are we addressing that where what are we doing for levels of support um and programming and practices and resources

129how are we evaluating what is occurring so that will be a continued area to um develop and discuss um this year as as stepen had mentioned earlier we have implemented targeted professional development obviously our greatest area was in that and we're hoping when we come back next year and talk about our 2025 that we will start to see the fruits of that labor um but some continual pieces that we will we have in place this year and will continue moving forward is our base camps our IC te IC team came last month to talk about um some things that they're doing we have three different camps uh Peak Performance Peak pros and Peak strategies each staff member throughout the district chose a peak that they want to work on so what are some of those

130professional opportunities for their own internal growth we targeted those they created goals um and and we want to celebrate that we are not hoping to you know to to pass this by but to continue to expand upon the peak so that every staff member can rotate through three of those three so Peak Performance just to highlight that again that's the one targeting those math um activities so what's happening in our classroom what are the strategies that we're using how are we implementing some of those practices and doing things a little bit differently um that's the Peak Performance Peak strategies is all about the social emotional behavioral aspects in the classroom what are we doing to meet the students needs and how are we developing maybe some different practices to implement and then Peak Pros is

131all about Ela so what are those strategies and implementation of um some different thinking pieces in that Realm that we can Implement into the classroom so that is a big huge professional development opportunity this year that we will continue to expand upon the other piece we have a a group of about 50 to 60 staff members that um have participated it's called Minds emotion it's centered around the book um building thinking classrooms which is all about how are you instructing math differently so a lot of standing up working on ver vertical whiteboards um it's the thinking behind the process the why behind it um it's very active and so we have 50 60 staff members that are engaged in that that is an opportunity we're hoping again that we'll start to see some um we're

132addressing some of those gaps and closing some of them as we continue to expand upon that uh we also have brought in writing Revolution it is a text that our staff engaged in last spring um they read through that we had probably about 40 or 50 started with our our Ela sack teams we're diving into text LED Again by one of our ic's or two of our I's to dig in a little bit deeper on Ela instructions what are some things that we can do differently how are we incorporating that cross curricular opportunities in our classroom so we'll continue to expand on and Target um professional development based on where we're seeing our needs are additionally we have brought in nwaa map as our Universal benchmarking tool that was new this year prior to that

133we used five or I'm sorry fast break see again there was number two today um we had fast bridge and it just did not give us the data that we needed for a usable aspect for students and teachers in the classroom so we have just we just got done with our fall um this past fall um implementing that we'll do winter coming up here in a few weeks in January when we get back and so that will show us our growth where do we where do we start in the fall where we at after one an additional um benchmarking piece but again very much tied to our I very much tied to our our resources that we're utilizing and then also gives our staff members what where our students at where are the Peaks for

134them and where are those areas of growth and opportunities to continue to curtail that in the classroom um Additionally you to so last year we all know map textbooks came up uh we brought them here voted past purchase textbooks so this year is the first official year of actually rolling out those new implemented textbooks that are for math one math two and math three and also Hors level courses for math one two and three and then uh those textbooks we're hoping okay right will assist us on moving that needle along with that minds and motion the building thinking like not just the the material but the how to get there and change the thinking process so um that combination is is currently ongoing we're not going to see those results you know on day one

135but we're hoping that's going to go well we have good feedback going on um from those rooms already uh and so we're we're excited about what that may look like in the very near future additionally recognizing that um math and focus for our elementary was not we we have not been as successful as we were intending to be through implementation of just the resources as an entirety we had determined as a as a math sack that we would engage in a math review so our K5 team um is in process of piloting come January two different resources one is called I ready mathematic classroom mathematics the other one is into math which is an hmh product additionally both of those tools will have a diagnostic piece that will give teachers an insight as to where

136their students are falling out so each one of them has um it's usually AI generated a personalized pathway so students will take these personalized test they will find out where their skill gaps are or where their strength areas are and then those domain are embedded within the foure classroom so they have four classroom they also have a electronic 10 minute additional piece that is embedded within the core classroom this is not separate because a lot of districts will hear oh we do I ready outside of the classroom no this will be embedded within our mathematics block K5 so we're tring both of those this is our fifth year of math and focus this is our sixth Year Ma so we are we are finished with that that contract at this point in time and evaluating

137it through our team felt like we needed to explore other options and so that's where we're at right now um you know we'll see what we get we we also did different than before are we have 14 people triing the various tools we ask them to trial both so if you are on our pilot team you're triing not only um I ready classrooms math mathematics but you're also trying the into math product so we can get a side by side what really is going to be the successful tool for us um so that we we know we've got some work to do um so that's we're asking that um of our team and we'll continue to to run that come January our pilot will run January 7th through the end of February and then I'll

138bring forward a recommendation at that time as we see fit the other piece this is Brands banking new so as of last Thursday our sixth through eth grade team had meant to review two different tools one was a mid School map which was built off of the building thinking classrooms model and then we also did reveal math which is is buddied up very nicely to our math one two and three it's a product in their wheelhouse so we um in having conversation with our sixth through eth grade teachers evaluating mid school math it did not provide enough of where we are today and what our needs are and so the team would like to um to Pilot reveal math come January that date we're looking at the end of January this was literally La the

139end of last week so I'm in the process of getting contact with the vendor to see how quickly we can get materials what's going to be encompassed within within that that pilot so again hoping that this spring brings something forward for recommendation for implementation next year and during that pilot the one positive thing is the teachers are GNA uh provide feedback throughout it instead of waiting to the end you know sometimes you'll do a pilot and then you do like let's evaluated it at the end we're going to do it uh weekly I believe right ongoing as you go through it so that then we colle dat through the whole series then can come together and be like okay what did we see and not miss out on some of those you know you had

140a great thought in week one authentic but you didn't actually record it so that's another positive of the pilot questions for us all right thank you you thank you we can't get rid this yet we're going to be the quicker thank actually going to St to do the clicker for me because it brought up and going um so we wanted to look at some considerations if you recall last year you adopted two Calenders you adopted the calendar for this school year and then you adopt the calendar for next school year um one of the things we talked about last year was just coming back and taking a peek at what the input is from staff um I know we had some input from community members as well so we're going to try to address those

141um here I did give you guys a copy of the survey results so you can see them from the old so you have 23 4 we'll look at the surveys here so a few questions that we asked this time um we wanted to know would teachers prefer a two two-day teacher in service or a three-day we asked the same question last year um at the beginning year we we hearing feedback from staff that they really wanted to move to three days of inservice so they had more time at the beginning of school year um but you can see in the survey result of 354 respondents um that we received here that actually they'd like to stay with the two teacher Institute days at the beginning begin of the school year uh 50% wanted to do

142that uh change to three was only 25% so our recommendation you'll see in the proposed is to actually stay with those two days um the next survey question that we had uh we were looking to say do you prefer a full day of teacher today after last student Day in June 2nd So currently on our calendar if you look at the um current calendar you'll see that the students day ends on Monday the 1st it says 252 six the other one says proposed so look at the one that doesn't say proposed uh last student day is the first and the second day is a full teacher day to get their rooms and everything in order we have heard some people uh talk about could we combine that into a half a day student full day

143teacher so the teacher would just stay half a day um if we want with the proposed you'll see that we're adjusting that uh to a student be they'd be there on the second and I'll explain why in a second so a student day would move to the second um and actually we at this result you can say stay with the full teacher is to day at the end of the year uh is 39% and changed to a half day with students full day for teachers is 42% so we about a two to 3% uh difference my guess is that's probably Elementary versus secondary I was going to guess um I can't really see that because Elementary has a lot more work that they a lot times have to do to get their rooms ready a

144lot more bulletin boards those types of things uh middle school and secondary or High School sometimes they can do it a much shorter time frame it has conversation many years I've heard staff talk about this um and so really we just need to decide which way we would go here um and we can look at also what the community side I think it's split so to make the determination we did show that just for you on the proposed so you can see what that looks like uh based on the 42% because that's the higher number we also have 19 people or 19% could paralized which way we went um the next one was would you prefer to stay with the lat start the school year we were hearing some people wanted to come back earlier

145um and interesting compared to last year if you look at the 2023 data from staff they actually wanted to come on Wednesday August 14th at 43% and our families are the ones that we bent on our our families really wanted to go later than August 19th and so we kind of took a a middle ground there and said let's start on August 19th this year uh but you can see our staff likes that they would prefer to stay with the August 18th start dat that later start 55% and that definitely is not in um it it does not align with our neighboring districts so part of our challenges that our programs are dual credit uh we'll talk about that a little bit why that's creating a problem it does not match d303 u46 or District

146300 uh they only manches Geneva which we don't have shared programs with Geneva we do have shared programs with 30346 and 300 so that's a challenge for us if we stay with the later date but it is definitely the preference of our faculty uh to stay with that date uh 55% and then regardless of the school start date would you prefer to maintain the semester break in January or would you have a would be a more balanced Day Count or would you prefer to move that to the end of semester one and again I think this is probably a high school middle school high school uh Elementary issue um they would prefer to change it to the first semester before winter break at 40% so I would recommend we do that the other reason i'

147recommend this and you'll see us in the proposed is we marry up El Community College for dual credit and part of our challenge with dual credit is we're finishing at the end and so we have some challenges with our kiddos who are taking those dual credit course work uh because they don't come back in January they finished before wi so it would be my recommendation we would move that to make sure that we can uh have ECC and our kids with um dual credit be able to do that and we do have a 40% of our staff saying that would be better um to do that even though a difference the big difference is really spring we have a lot assessments that happen you have the PSATs act now you the act the pre act

148information um in this spring so you do lose some dates to assessment that being said there's still a pretty big difference 20-day difference um to do that so with no other changes making this sh mean semester one would be 77 days and semester two would be 97 days good news about that for AP coursework it does give them extra days at the end of this time for AP coursework I know one of the parent questions was about uh AP us uh because it's a semester class we're doing a first semester now so pushing that back to second semester gives them a lot more days for AP uh so that does kind of take care of that issue um and then just to see the breakdown of this is the positions that answered the survey the

149354 respondents you can see the breakdown uh 266 of the 356 certified staff respondents we to 75% rate of response of our certified staff only 70 of our 255 non-certified staff respond so we only had a 27% rate of that group uh but 18 of our 35 administrator responded to 51% so certified staff is pretty well represented in these uh in these results so we had some questions that came came alive out of some Community feedback I just wanted to address those a little bit so we can handle that um they wanted to align with majority surrounding school districts you can see that's in complete um complet ends of the spectrum versus what our staff want our staff really want that 18th day which is the opposite of aligning with the majority of surrounding uh

150school districts um first semester should end before winter break that definitely was addressed and would be in alignment with what the community would prefer um reduce the number of days off during the school year to lengthen the summer break so I want to address that a little bit there are legal requirements of 174 student days so you must do7 for student uh educational days and our contract for our teachers requires two days and so those days we really can't alter from um and that's kind of what locks you in obviously we have holidays that are required by law uh that we have to um provide there are some holidays that we actually could say let's just give them take those back put them into school the challenge is we have another uh Union the support

151staff that has it built in their contract so you'd either have to figure out how to give them additional days off um to to allow for that so we Martin Luther King holiday is allowable by the the code the law that we could give that day have kids come in like we do vet's day and teach about Martin Luther King uh challenge is that uh for our support staff contract it would be a challenge uh president day is one of those days that we could also come back to school teach them about President's Day um during the day like we do Veterans Day and Columbus Day those are three additional days we could get back in um but understanding we still have to fall within the 174 the 182 which would shorten up the day

152uh but we would have some some contractual issues uh with our support staff group um to be able to do that so those are some things we can discuss um full parent teacher conferences early in the semester to allow for adequate Fallout for issues um this has been a topic for our staff um quite a bit over the course of time and I think it was here uh in our 2023 staff if you look at the results I gave you um for the respondents last year we had pretty pretty much a break of third third we 29.8 say the week of Thanksgiving uh 31% of our staff said they would like to have it um early November and 27.7 said early October our staff would like it a little bit later if possible they prefer

153the later November just because it gives them time to get to know the kiddos to see where they're going and kind of move that versus families uh families actually wanted early October at 346 we like we bent on the side of the teachers because they're the ones that have to be able to be prepared for last year we went what what our staff had asked for not what our community had asked for and you can see our community still asking for the same thing but it really is spending down more on what our faculty need that's actually working with those students um APG in the fall should return to the spring so that the end of the course can culminate in The Taking of the AP exam um I was not aware that we had

154moved the AP do uh but CC director was aware as well as the high school in the SAC meeting I think it came out in May of last year to move that teacher wanted to do it because of the number of days that she could instruct um and so the disadvantage is right they have to wait now second semester they won't have the content test uh so I think our recommendation we move it back to a second semester course uh so that it's always fing up with the AP exam um equalize length of second semester to allow AP exams to coincide we're not recommending you equalize it but in our proposal you'd be actually extending it so 20 extra days that they have for instru which could be a benefit with the assessments and some

155of those but that short period in the first semester they're 20 days short so some got a semester one you had the quarter classes at the middle school that would be impacted our quarter classes are all of our Encore will so that Encore coures be shortened up quarter one quarter two versus what they might get in quarter three quarter four so there's challenges whichever way you look at on impacts um so we need to consider that and then start the school year after Labor Day if we start after Labor our our teachers will be going somewhere into mid June which is the opposite of what our parents are asking for which is to get out and have more summer so it's it's a buy off in terms of some conflict there I have provided for

156you we'll take this to the DLT in January as well but I provided for you the pro proposed what it would look like we did add the 24th on the original was a half day and service day in September and our recommendation would be to move that 24th to the 25th and make it a half day and have the 26 be a full day of in service which would allow us from PD and our teachers to be able to frontload especially with new math curriculum some of those new pieces having that extra day at the beginning of the school year could help provide for some of those ins services that we need um and then that would shift that student Day on June 2nd instead of June 1st and then having a half a day

157for our our staff to be able to check out and do what they need to do on the second versus having to stay just a full day to to check out the rooms so those are the major proposal we're not changing the beginning of the year recommending staying firm with that it's just those two changes that we basically made as well as the adjustment on December 19th ending semester one on the 19th before winter break um oh the other way we could gain days is we could take less DEC less winter break you could just take the days you have to take but only a Wednesday Thursday Friday you could shorten up Thanksgiving and you could also shorten up spring break those are all options of how to gain days within the calendar but otherwise

158there's nowhere else to kind of pick up extra days um for us to have a longer supper so we have to buy off what those are any questions kind discussion no go ahead no go ahead I I I pulled of course every school calendar in the King County area Geneva's unofficial calendar they're moving their date up as well so we are no longer align with them they are I think students are starting now the 14th but they they did three in student sip days at the beginning so they move to be in line with 4633 and St Charles because that's we they're all three starting and I did also check out because I know there's some spring break technically is the last week of March every year sometimes it starts the 30 or something every

159single School District u46 D300 Geneva bavia everyone somehow magically aligned next year with the same spring break which thinking about child care Elgen Park District all that they all somehow aligned which usually doesn't happen but the calendar somehow did next year it is just jarring for me in the first nine and a half weeks of school we have two holidays two teacher Institute days two days of conferences and one half day that's a lot of days off in the first nine and a half weeks of school I still don't like the day off before Labor Day 4 Day weekend for students I'm may not saying what it is for the teachers but to have a three-day week then a 4-day week then a 4-day week then a 5day week um I I find that unnecessary

160that's all I will say about that and I I would say our staff really prefers that and that it gives them time to kind of readjust things so that's coming from um our staff really appreciating the time to reset um after getting started so that's where that came from initially where do we get the community feedback from aard member had subed to me nice and then AP go in the fall she go spring um so the additional 10 days proposed for the adjusted calendar would give them an extra 10 days in the spring for that class but but B test is at the same time no matter what right so that doesn't impact that well the AP test varies so um College Board dictates so the first two weeks of May always is AP y

161I think they do a rotation this year and I think the reason that the teacher requested this in math or in sack was because their date was actually May 6 it was the first week of AP testing so they're much earlier this year could be that next year they're in the second week just so they rotate those College Board tests and we get it's dictated to us days it's always the first two weeks of May so the days after that don't matter days before the test yes all that may would night that's true yeah right that's a lot so what about next year then you don't know what we do here this would be 16 days Sor talk this would be 16 day difference is all less so you'd be about equal you're right so

162I guess it wouldn't be much difference there would it be worthwhile to get student feedback on what they might want because they're the ones actually taking the test to say oh well no I'd rather have more instructions so I wouldn't mind waiting the spring I'd rather take the class in the fall community and teachers I it's just an idea I mean we can ask about the fall because this the first we've done that I think the question is is it too long of a wait to take an AP exam it's a long that's what I mean students would they mind waiting would they'd rather have more more instruction I guess right yeah we can surely ask the students in the districts around us there's you know H like the AP macro AP macro AP micro

163economics those are semesters as well I believe so like they're not all second semester right they're not all second semester it just doesn't happen that's exactly what I was going to do yep yeah keep the momentum going right can through it thank you I didn't mean to put you on the spot but since you were an award winner and a congratulations oh okay thank you we worked it out thank you students congratulations I think we have to think about how do we one of the things we talked about when this was brought to our attention is how you develop a study second semester to try to get them back up the speed before the test that we have to do this year that's tough that's tough other thoughts uh the enrollment report is in the

164board packet any questions or comments on that guys no before we go to Foya um I know it's not on the agenda I was just hoping to get it out now rather than later after executive session and Open Session I was wondering if the board members that attended triple I could give us some feedback on the sessions they attended y I did not attend so I did not do I I attended but go ahead D you put me like yougan yeah no Morgan and I tag teamed on um I know one of the sessions that we went to was teacher retention um and that was you know and then Stephen was in that with us but um I thought that was a really good just trying to understand what other districts are doing um as

165far as with student and staff retention um that was a big one I know one that I thought was really big and you being a newer board member tell me but um we went to like Financial um session where they talked about you know basically what Dana loves to tell us about you know as far as how the finances in a in a school district work and how all those things are allocated and honestly I thought that session was something that any new board member should take if if possible so that was a really eye opening one for me and there was a third one but that one was weird it was it was I don't feel like the summary of what it was supposed to be was it was not what it was supposed

166to be be yeah but no the expenditure one and understanding that was very eye openening and lightening for kind of just understanding more of what you're presenting to us and what we're putting it into you know use for us here yeah what are some of the retention things that other districts are doing well and it's interesting enough I know Stephen said that we were already doing them but you know and and there were smaller districts I honestly can't even think with the name of them they ones I had never heard of I think they were more like in Central Illinois but they had more of like a buddy system for new teachers as they came in so when a new teacher was hired on they were budded up with more tenure teacher um and that

167was kind of like their go-to person to kind of help them through their first year um I think we do that right it was Mentor prot it's a mentor program it was our induction program basically um I think that was you know and also another thing too that I kind of you know even for like AP staff you know like it didn't just it wasn't just what the new teachers those also folks had been promoted to an assistant principal and new principals like they had a really big um defined um process of that mentorship for those I don't know if we have that though for the APS and the principes yeah we we we we have mentors we hire for APS in our principal so they're not in District they're hired on okay well they

168also use each other okay yeah okay um what was another one with the retention Morgan there some team building stuff that they were doing yeah so just a couple ideas I think the biggest thing was the mentorship that was huge Stephen did you have some things oh yeah the book study think thank you I um I I just took notes in each of my sessions so um the first one I went to was please don't read them yeah don't read them I'm not going to read them all but I could I took cop not the first the first one I attended on Friday was uh trust Edge experience uh there was the author there horse shagger he talked about eight pillars of trust um which I thought were excellent um I'll just go through the

169I won't read it all Clarity compassion character uh competency commitment connection contribution and consistency so that was that was a really great session um lot of uh different topics that if anybody was interested they could contact me so that's that uh Saturday I went wolf and went by myself um to a actually an interesting session which which am I wearing uh board board member conundrums um the panelists were uh two attorneys a superintendent and a board member and what they talked about was uh different scenarios as far as um what board members can and cannot do um different sessions that they've seen um this uh this superintendent uh talked about board uh complexity um because there's a lot of people that don't understand what the board does and how they operate um so I thought

170that was quite interesting um you know the dos and don'ts uh setting expectations uh policymaking board approval evaluating and uh and hiring uh basically who we manage which is the superintendent and how we work with that person also the community engagement piece um then uh um you know I went to some of the challenges uh so there was on Saturday afternoon uh there was don't post that um as you're seeing tons of social media craziness that goes on on a monthly and daily basis um I try to stay off the posts other than uh remain positive and true to my beliefs um but they had a panelist that was an attorney uh there was actually uh three attor and one school board president I found that was interesting um as far as it related to

171social media First Amendment rights because there was a lot of things that were spoken like it's my first amendment right uh it talked about um the impact of foyers and om and different things like that I thought that was interesting um and then Saturday afternoon uh they had a session with um uh ISB they had two people um uh I just took high level notes Eric um two uh what would you do and there was different scenarios and I realized in the table that I was sitting at I sat with uh school board members from McKenry um Moro uh greylake gurny and then we had this little um School District down south in Middle Illinois and um you realize how how um uh indecisive uh people are in each district and how it gets a

172little bit crazier as uh the district evolves um the one that stood out the most was um the central Illinois person um and I won't name the school district but uh they had a officer uh that uh the parents wanted the officer to follow this kid that was being bullied from the school to the ice cream shop and back to the school during their open school open campus and uh they couldn't understand it and the parents even um uh went on to talk about you know that they would they would expend their own money to help which I thought was interesting because it's you know I mean there's always limited resources um and then on Sunday the keynote speaker um two superintendents they talked on leadership ship and service you know this is a community

173uh you know uh contrary to the belief of the gentleman that screamed at us earlier um this is a volunteer position and I think it's uh you know until you're sitting in the seat you don't realize what the seat holds and neither one of us or any of us on the board has any um uh Power it's a collective group so you know if I only have one seventh of the vote my vote matters one sth of the time so I just I I found that interesting and the superintendents were very uh uh Mike L and Nick P um uh you know they spoke on leadership in different services so I I got a lot out of it I kind of went towards uh things that matter to our community um you know when I

174first joined the community um it was a friendly community and there wasn't us against them and it sh could be that way um but recently it's taken on a a shift and it's gotten pretty ugly in some respects um based on what I'm hearing from the community um so I think that you know uh until you're in the seat don't don't attack the seat is what I would say so um and the superintendent that stood on these panels I mean they were open for some pretty rough uh comments and some of them had uh questions of the motives of the parents and motives of the teachers and motive I mean it was it was an ey openening experience and how you know uh to Jay's point you know attorneys rule the world so you got

175to always have an attorney handy so how many photo evidence that Morgan and D were there I know this this notes thing this is just me this is just aever this is just me no it's not an overachiever it's just I I I have to take notes so I remember points that are taken so my apologies so but if anybody has any questions they can certainly reach out to me more I'm always available to talk let's move on let's move on to please so we had quite a few foyers uh we had a foer from Miss haggy we received a request for emails text messages memorandums and phone notes between various District administrators Andor the board president as well as photos and video related to the student request was denied under Foya but the information

176requested was provided under the isra ACT which is the Illinois school student records act and some redactions and limitations were there by law uh Miss haggy we received a request for Central High School parking policies procedures and requirements for student parking we able to comply with that request uh Miss haggy we received a request the number of Central High School students who have been issued any parking violations at CHS between August 20th and November 15 2024 we were able to comply with that request m Miss Keeny we received a request for a list of fees with descriptions we were able to comply with that request and Miss Welch we received a request for information regarding start and end dates of employment e s reports for Lindy sharp and we were able to comply with this

177request any questions on the for no uh motion second I required to adjourn Open Session move to close session for the following exceptions 2c1 2 C10 and 2 c21 f yes Gorman yesil yes papis yes py yes a yes Nolan yes yes thank you all for coming thank you