001e e e morning turn are we there she is aif FK present Hil here Nolan here papis here vuli here Gorman here any motion second to approve tonight's agenda second aif yes Fulk yes henil yes Nolan yes papis yes Huli yes Gorman yes motion is carried please join us in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for stand one nation under God indivisible withy and jusice for all I like to thanks everybody who came out this evening and those watching at home I'm Dr Morgan yes thank you to everybody that's here tonight and for those coming home I just have a couple things I want to restate also I want to um thank the board uh Friday was actually national board of education a
002day so I wanted to thank you for your service and for all that you give to our we appreciate that this week actually marks the um American Education week so I'd like to thank all of our staff and employees that uh work here at the district um for all of your due diligence we know that it takes a lot of hard work education is definitely not something that that is shifted over time and definitely not the same as it was even a decade ago so uh some major changes have happened so we definitely appreciate and thank all of our our staff members who uh work here in the district and we're thankful for the work that they do all right before we get into the public comment period i' like to share a statement on
003behalf of the board to address some concerns we've heard from the community about student matters in general uh District 301 and its board members do not comment publicly on matters involving individual students however the district does take all student matters very seriously when a student matter requires the board's input the board discusses it in closed session at its meetings this is out of respect for the privacy of individual students students and their families and due to student record confidentiality laws when we discuss student matters the safety of all of our students and others in our school and Community is our top priority I'll repeat that one sentence I it hit home with me so when we discuss student matters the safety of all of our students and others in our school and Community is our
004top priority because the board discusses these matters privately in Clos session that leaves the community hearing only one side of the story without all the appropriate context and at times without all the correct information we understand the community may wish to know more about the details of these matters but for legal reasons and to respect the privacy of individual students the board is not in a position to share more specific details about these cases we value your thoughtful consideration and perspective as you hear about student matters in District 301 while we understand that not all details are always able to be shared your engagement and willingness to approach these situations with an open mind are greatly appreciated we'll go into public comment we have quite a few so if you can keep your comments to
0053 minutes at Max it would be appreciated we'll have you come up in the order received so first up is Olivia skirmont good evening I am a resident of through one district and I have two sons that graduated many years ago and I'm here to represent Gavin I've never met him but I feel my thoughts need to be expressed to this board I think it's awful that a child that has gotten a sticker to park in a handicap spot is not allowed to he can park anywhere in the state but not at his own school this is flat out breaking the law and I think you should step up and allow him to park in that spot there's 10 open spots at that school think about the fact how what will his memor be of
006301 when he looks back in a few years is it going to be great I don't think so you need to think about this and make the right decision this is not the district I remember my kids going to school to many things have changed but you're flat out breaking the law and Jeff I ask you what if this was your son or daughter what would you do would you fight for that spot so please the community is definitely watching do the right thing his mother was here a month ago nothing changed listen to the taxpayers pay attention stop breaking the law and allow him to park in that spot there's no reason not to please pay attention the community is watching thank you thank [Applause] you all right Ken sh good evening my name
007is Karen shell my husband Mike and I have been a part of District 301 for the last 11 years we have a senior and a sophomore at the high school and an eighth grader at CMS we've been proud members of District 301 and have actively supported numerous areas within our district my husband and I are here tonight because our family is shocked and ashamed by the way the District administration and School Board are handling the parking situation involving Central High School junior Gavin haggy due to a traumatic brain injury from Sports Gavin has a legally obtained temporary Illinois handicap parking placard which gives him the legal right to park in any handicap spot at any time anywhere in the state of Illinois Burlington Central School is not exemp from this legality Gavin does not need
008the district's permission to park in a handicap spot at CHS the handicapped placard is the permission granted by the state continuing to deny him proper parking is just cruel what Gavin and his family do need from this Administration is to step aside and simply offer kindness compassion Grace and empathy Gavin is a 16-year-old Young man whose High School Journey has been completely uprooted no fault of his own and this Administration is making it significantly worse due to his medical condition he cannot play with his high school soccer team a sport that he has played and loved for 13 years he has not been able to attend many social events that students look forward to and enjoy as they create longlasting fun High School memories he's had to take online and summer courses to keep up
009with credits needed for graduation which has caused him to miss out on the critical component of traditional in-person learning and let's not forget during all of these changes he's suffering daily from concussion symptoms including but not limited to intense and prolonged headaches and severe sensitivity to sound and light this young man has handled and responded to all of these challenges with maturity resilience and perseverance this Administration has chosen to respond to Gavin brain injury and legal parking protection with continued parking spot denial threats of punishment creation of a disciplinary report for parking violations causing Gavin stress anxiety and embarrassment this district is also forcing the hand of this family to pursue expensive and timeconsuming legal battles to ensure that Gavin's legal rights are protected and upheld as they should the mission of 301 is Engage
010The Mind Empower all Inspire Excellence influence the world how does the district's conduct towards Gavin achieve any part of our mission simply put it does not the response by this Administration is wrong it's immoral and it is illegal please do the right thing follow the law and treat Gavin haggy and his family with respect and dignity in a way that fulfills this District's Public mission statement doing so will make our community and future 301 families proud to be a part of this District thank [Applause] you thanks Karen next up is uh Debbie fringle good evening I'd like to start by also saying thank you to the board and to the staff for all that you do for the community it's very important and president Gorman I really appreciate the statement that you started with my
011name is Debbie franel and I'm mom to two District students and honored to be a friend of the Hai family in today's world we often see opposing sides of an issue stick to their position without ever really listening to the point of view of the other I believe it is important to seek to understand why someone maintains that point of view and start with an assumption that everyone is seeking what they believe to be best however I hardpressed to understand how there are opposing sides in the case of Gavin haggy how is there any reason for denying Gavin his legal right to park in a handicap space on the 301 campus he has legally obtained his placard and he has demonstrated good faith in his continuing commitment to excelling at his schoolwork he's being discriminated
012against and punished during a time that was already hard enough for him and his family that discrimination and Punishment coming from this Administration whose primary goal should be to protect the children in 301 as you stated is an insult not only to Gavin and the Haggen and the hay family but to everyone in the district spending taxpayer dollars to fight against him creates significant badwi for the administration and lack of trust in the district it's seeming to allow ego Pride to win out over doing what is legal required and right it is incumbent upon this board to take measures to stop this Behavior immediately to issue Gavin his parking pass and to take action against the behavior exhibited by the administration thank [Applause] you thanks debie Jean Meyer I may have left the potatoes on
013the stove I hope my house isn't burnt Jean Meyer resident I hear that our school has enough lawsuits that are possibly going against it at this time but when a student such as this gabin is recovering from a brain injury his doctor statement that he needs to drive to school and has a handicap placard the school I believe is risking a lawsuit and it's going to be the taxpayers that is paying for that so it's not the job of the school to determine what an injured student needs it's between him and his doctor no matter what we think and as to the proposed ta tax ly I say no no wonder our school operating fund can pull off such amazing feats I've always wondered to fund a 20 classroom addition to our high school or
014fund a new high school's additional needs above and beyond what the referendum would pay before two months ago a school board member in referring to the possibility of a new high school said it would help students meet their dreams Chicago spends $30,000 a student with that idea in mind with some schools not even a single student meets the state standards it has become the American way to pour more and more money into failing things that aren't going to change because of money time to evaluate and look to our past when we were a country of rugged individuals who did not expect the government to raise their children or subsidize them in any way hard work and doing without was the way towards Prosperity my father was born in 1917 a poor Oklahoma Farm Boy often
015only he said often he only had potatoes to eat and sometimes not even enough potatoes he finished high school in his 30s and had many hours past his Masters when he decided that at least for him his doctor's degree would just be piled higher and deeper so he quit um but he gave me two books that he had collected during his childhood just two um those books lack the shine the color the bells and the whistles of the many many books our young people have today human nature is so perverse it often requires having less and working hard to make a person want to reach the heights having too much is usually not very good for us plentiful food leads to school children throwing away their entire lunch hunger would remedy that I smile remembering
016my friends much beloved adopted boys from Haiti when they ate my chicken they gnawed the cartilage off the bone and they were in this neat little order with nothing left to eat um and even after they had plenty of food they continue to eat that way so our young people need the bounty to buy homes and have jobs when they get done and every level of government is bankrupting them so I would ask you to consider trying to keep taxes down thank you [Applause] thanks Jean Katy petkovich good evening my name is Katie petkovich and I'm here to address the concerning issue regarding the district's refusal to let Gavin heggy the student who has been provided with a handicap placard in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act to park at Central High School the
017district is denying Gavin's right to park in a handicap spot a right that is explicitly protected under federal law Gavin's legal Illinois issued handicap parking Placer allows him to park in any handicap spot in the entire state of Illinois well this with the exception of his own high school which seems pretty ridiculous how does a school district's parking Lottery system outrank an Illinois issued handicap placard the fact that you are IL legally preventing him from parking in a spot that would allow him some Grace and some ease to navigate his injury is unjustifiable the additional fact that 30 new parking passes were just given out last week to Juniors at the high school and that Gavin was not one of the students to receive one is absolutely absurd to me why we would not make
018this situation right when there was such a simple way to do so is beyond me I am honestly dumbfounded by the fact that you are not working together with the py family in order to ensure that Gavin is supported and given every opportunity to attend school we are in fact talking about a junior in high school who wants to be at school right I think that's so important he wants to be at school he wants to be able to attend his classes to see his peers to have lunch with his friends and to have a high school experience like everyone else if you even knew Gavin you would know he is smart dedicated and a hardworking student who would never break any rules or try to take advantage of the system and if you really
019knew him you would know how devastated this injury is for him and how he is still actively fighting and trying to attend school when he is physically able and your job is to help him do so the hegy family has done everything in their power to support Gavin and to work with medical professionals to help him heal these same medical professionals have stated that Gavin should not be taking the loud busy and overcrowded bus that will exasperate his symptoms these same medical professionals have stated that Gavin has every right to a legal handicap parking placard and that that is a sa safe way for Gavin to travel to and from school as his symptoms allow the hegy family is not asking for anything outlandish just for their son to be able to drive to his
020own school and park in a legally provided handicap parking space Gavin's experience where he is being denied his right to use his handicapped parking plaque record demonstrates a failure to uphold the values of diversity equity and inclusion the Ada is not just a guideline it's a federal civil rights law By ignoring it the district is showing that its commitment to inclusion is conditional and subjective your job is to support Gavin to help him heal and to make accommodations in line with his 504 plan to ensure that he has access to his education please do more today than simply listen and Nod your heads please take action to correct the situation and to support Gavin higgy thanks Katie next up Andy dogen good evening everybody I'm speaking tonight in regard to the item on the agenda
021for a new agreement for Larson and Darby the district's architectural firm I urge you all to vote no to the agreement before you this evening you will hear some other issues about this agreement tonight from some other commenters but I have separate concerns I wish to bring to your attention for nearly the past 20 years individuals connected to this firm have made what now appear to be questionable decisions that have led to questionable outcomes for our district in particular the new addition to Central High School that was designed to be constructed excuse me of loadbearing masonry added months of construction super Vision time in Winter conditions expenses to the project those expenses that come close to paying the salaries of the special education teachers that have been requested by staff and denied by Administration by
022the way these missteps combined with a new high school referendum proposal that is now soundly been defeated three times indicate to me that it is time for fresh perspectives and ideas from a firm that serves as the district's architect rather than trying to push through this proposal one more time to a community that has clearly said no to it I urge you all to reject this agreement before you this evening and instead issue a request for qualifications for a new architectural firm that can analyze the data provided in the RSP and Associates enrollment forecast lead Community engagement and develop a master plan indicating multiple alternatives for our future facility needs that can be the basis for future referendum projects to address growth so we can all say yes to something to move forward you'll likely
023find that there are many qualified educational Arch tchs in the area who have an even greater degree of experience in track record of innovation than your present firm you could invite Larson and Derby to submit their qualifications and compare them against other firms and maybe you would even decide after that process to retain them but at least you will have evaluated your Alternatives and learned what other companies can offer the district the only good thing about the agreement in front of you tonight is that it contains a termination for convenience without cause Clause with no termination fee so if if you approve this agreement tonight and a new board is seated in April that represents the true will of our community that provision for termination very well may be brought forward before the board at
024that time and tonight I am pleased to announce my candidacy for that board in April again I urge you to reject the agreement before you this evening and issue a request for qualifications for a new architectural firm who will be able to creatively move our district forward with quality Innovative and cost effective facil outcomes for our future so you can return your Collective Focus to what is most important successful outcomes for our students thank you thanks Andy next up michine Walch good evening um I would like to start my comment by acknowledging that the enrollment report has been somewhat restored with more detail details um so thank you for bringing some of that back um unfortunately this month the report that's been changed is the bills payable report we taught the community how to tie
025back expenses to the budget through GL codes and now the GL codes have been removed from the Bill's payable report after being there for decades we've wasted a total of 9, 36,990 on a referendum that's now failed three times we could have added 40 full-time teachers five sped teachers and elll teachers in every building and still not hit the $9 million Mark and you can't say well that would be a one-time expense because the proposed new high school would have added another 25 to30 million annually to our operating budget we're about to exceed the 5% tax cap for the third year in a row we've spent over $18 million from our operational budget over the last two years on capital projects that should have been funded with referendum funds municipal bonds or District fund surpluses
026200 students denied a small engines class without justification nor approval of this board to remove it a journalism class in school newspaper canel for years without so much as a discussion by this board the worst teacher retention rate in Kane County over the past decade that no amount of memor writing can justify and now we're locking horns with a family of one of our own students Gavin haggy a student being denied the ability to park in a handicap spot presumably because we think our parking pass policy supersedes federal law for yet after releasing 30 additional parking passes this past Friday not one was set aside for Gavin to accommodate his needs staying on this path will result in a lawsuit we will not win that will be fought with our tax dollars for a fight
027we should not be fighting not to mention why are we putting a District student through so much hassle here when we should be rising up to help support him in every way possible if you're willing to do this to Gavin with a federally protected right to park in a handicap spot what else is happening to our students that don't have the cover of the Americans with Disabilities act on a different note tonight you're being asked as Andy mentioned to approve a new contract for lson and Darby the community is still waiting to see the executed $4.2 million phase fee agreement against which Larson and Darby build their work for the new proposed high school they performed the work throughout fiscal year 2023 and were paid with a check dated 9823 the same date the fiscal
028year 20124 budget was approved in the same meeting where they unveiled their detailed architectural plans for the high school this work was done outside the scope of their Master agreement and an addendum should have been brought before this board and approved by vote prior to any work being performed where is that agreement why was it not discussed in an open board meeting before the public who signed it and when you can't put $4 million in a line item in the budget and Skip these other processes we have everything it takes to be the top school district in Kane County and our inability to achieve that distinction is a direct result of poor leadership a lack of Direction and most importantly no governance by our board that changes effective April 1st 2025 where I am confident
029our community is going to vote a new board of education in that will bring the change that is so needed here to write this ship my name will be on that ballot as a candidate for seat on our Board of Education and if I am lucky enough to earn the votes from our community I look forward to ushering in a new chapter for our district together with our school community and the community at Large [Applause] thanks M uh next up um Miss martiners good evening my name is grac Martinez and I am here today as a president of District 301 a bilingual educator in District u46 a proud Mexican and some excuse me and someone who intimately understands the struggles and triumphs of both our immigrant community and our teaching Community I once was an
030undocumented immigrant in this country and my journey has given me a deep understanding of resilience determination and the transformative power of Education I hold a bachelor's degree in Spanish business and translation a master's degree in secondary education with an endorsement in ESL and bilingual and I am currently pursuing my doctorate degree in education with my desertation focusing in the struggles of third culture kids I work in District u46 a district that is often criticized unfairly sometimes by the very board present to me usually by people who don't truly understand the complexities yes u46 has its own set of troubles it is not perfect but what we don't have are the blatant systematic and discriminatory issues that plague our district under its current leadership it is a shame that 301 with all its potential has allowed
031these inequities to go unchecked as someone who works in education every day I know firsthand the barriers our children's face especially those from immigrant and bilingual families I also clearly understand the challenges our teachers and staff face managing students classroom expectations IEPs 504s deficiencies in our curriculum workload and case loads I understand understand the struggles to meet the expectations of administration while making sure I take care of my students representation matters leadership matters our district deserves leaders who will hold every individual accountable regardless of title we deserve leaders who prioritize transparency integrity and the needs of every student over agendas we deserve leaders who will fight for every student regardless of regardless of race language and socioeconomic background because every student deserve the opportunity to succeed to my fellow community members this is our fight
032this is our time to demand better for our children it is time to elect leaders who are not afraid to call out wrongdoings who will stand for what is right and who will ensure that our school district reflects a community of Excellence a community that is collaborative where fear has has no place among the students the families the teachers and staff I am announcing my candidacy for District 301 Board of Education because it is painfully clear that this District's leaderships especially under the current superintendent has failed our students especially Gavin and his family I bring to this board my life experience as someone who has walked in the shoes of the very teachers students and families who are too often dismissed in these meetings I am running because I believe in this community and I
033will not stand by why all children's Futures are compromised by leaderships gracias thank you next up M Larson sor I did want to mention um initially I'm not associated or related to the Larson and Derby group that you guys are talking about so um I've been a resident here it just marked 20 years on Friday that my husband and I moved back in the district we both graduated from Central a few years ago um but we're we're back and we love the district and we've gotten to know a lot of people over the years and the referendum you know that has been on the the ballot the last three times has brought out a lot of conversation from people that I know a lot of people that I don't know and I just really sense
034that there's a a lack of trust because we built a brand new Fieldhouse added um classrooms changed the comments all this just recently and now all of a sudden it it seems very sudden that it's not going to be enough we've heard that the building was designed that a third floor could be added but there's some push back on that um I personally am very happy that there have been community members here that um or in the area that have done a lot of groundwork on their own to come up with facts that we wouldn't be aware of otherwise and they put a lot of time into it um I I hate to see the us against them that is going on right now I would hope that that would lessen over time but um
035the community is just really not on board with this new school right on the heels of building a brand new Fieldhouse and um having land in the area my husband and asked um Dr Stern quite a few years ago when they were talking about the the parking issue well what about the land to the West you know that is sitting there he said well that can't be built on it's not suitable and um I don't know if anybody else has been to Florida but you know there's 40 story condos on the beach in Florida so I think there's Engineers that could figure out how to build a parking lot on some low land in King County um so we there just seems to be a a disconnection with what we know what we don't know
036what we're being told um I don't know if there's a a public site that people can go on and really see this laid out in a very neutral way of you know just the numbers just the facts the people that are involved and and what the processes because you know you hear little bits and pieces here and there and from people you know from um things on social media and it it's hard to get it all really gelled in your mind so um the people I know or and the people I don't know we do love this community and you know we're spread out a lot a lot of us live out in the sticks here a lot of them live in Elgen now so there's they're such a mix of people and that's great
037you know that's you know I'm from Elgen originally I I grew up in u46 schools and and moved out here when I was in high school so um you know it seems like we have the best of both worlds you know some peace and quiet but all the conveniences of town but um just from my point of view it would um I I really do hope that there can be some resolutions and that the people are heard for what their concerns are and that there's there's just a lack of trust and it's not personally against you know the board as a whole or maybe it is for some people but I don't think anybody wants to go into it with that that you know that they're just going to automatically assume that somebody else is
038wrong because they don't like the solution that's being offered you know so thank you for your time very much thanks l chrisy hi my name is chrisy and I currently have three children attending schools in the district and a toddler who will be attending in the coming years I came tonight to show my support for Gavin his family and all handicapped people I'm very sensitive to handicap needs and rights as I have a sister-in-law and my mom who are both wheelchair bound when I became aware of this situation through social media I was immediately outraged and so disheartened I do not understand why this student is not being allowed to park in a handicapped spot with his medically necessary obtained handicap placard I'm aware that he was not a student that was given a parking
039pass through the lottering lottery system but why should that matter a legally obtained handicap tag should supersede that he is not taking away a parking spot from another student who has a pass I can only imagine what this poor student and his family have been going through it is so very disappointing to hear of the people of authority and our district not supporting a student not doing what's best for them not trying to help frankly it makes me concerned for every single student in our district while I do not know Gavin personally what I do know is What's Happening Here is wrong legally ethically and morally please do the right thing something every single parent teaches their children to do do the right thing thank you thanks Christie uh Virginia Romano hi there good evening
040thanks for letting me speak um I haven't really followed the situation with the student and all that but I don't know from from my perspective he's he's got a legally obtained placard and end of story so um anyway uh the main thing I wanted to talk about was this truth and Taxation um I don't know how you guys can think you can keep giving it to us you know it's just it it just boggles my mind the um the even the county now has been emboldened to um create tax levies that they haven't done for years and even the forest preserve and what there were three well the school referendum there was a library referendum the forest preserve wanted more money from us and then next year in April the County's going to want um
041a 3/4% new sales tax that's supposedly going for Public Safety but I've got word that it's going elsewhere so anyway um you know one's enough enough and then you you guys are asking for like way more than then you really I I just don't get it you're people's taxes have increased double digits property taxes everything's increased I get it you know even school you know you got expenses too but to actually go above and beyond your you know to have a to have a hearing is kind of a little especially when you've been able to take money from from your coffers to put 20 thou million dollar into an addition and different things like that um and also I hope that you'll listen to the taxpayers the the taxpayers that are west of 47 are
042pretty fed up with things I don't know if you figured that out but um I know Burlington Township for sure had about an 86% turnout um as 67% of them all voted no for any kind of tax increase they voted a resounding no for the school um so I don't know the definition the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and getting trying to get different results and when will you realize that money doesn't really grow on trees [Applause] thanks thanks for J next up cure grav good evening as Jeff mentioned my name is Cara grait and I've been teaching special educations district for 20 years and I'm one of those Gravely impacted by the fact that the district chose not to hire more sped staff I have the highest class list in
043my afternoon than I've ever had along with my colleagues we have been speaking to you about hiring new staff for months now and yet it doesn't go on the public agenda but you'll put foas on there and Foya fees do you how insulting that is I understand that someone might be overworked and overwhelmed so you're looking to HRI what about your sped staff what about the students in this District what about your teachers when are we going to do the right thing we appreciate that recently one of your board members came to the workload committee it's something in the contract it has equal representation of the district and teachers and at that meeting they heard firsthand that we have the lowest morale we've had in years we cannot keep sped teachers in here we either
044burn them out and fire them or they burn out on their own and they quit when are we going to stop this pattern it I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when I was sitting here last month and heard that you had four your fees on the agenda but not sped these are our students in here we're telling you that we cannot meet the needs of these students because we are not properly staffed we need more staff this isn't hard it should be an easy fix you don't have to negotiate this you have the right to post these jobs tomorrow to make sure that the needs of our students are being met and that your teachers aren't overwhelmed and overworked I had student start today I love all my students but I'm only one
045person within a given confines of what my contract is and I will never be able to do that within that day you guys have got to make you're the board it's your decision to make this right for our students for our teachers and for the community we have to do something we have to change it now thank you thanks Kier Dave uh I'm going to start off just uh by thanking our staff it's American Education uh week um our Educators go above and beyond to meet the needs of our students so I greatly appreciate everything they do um all of us as CA really do appreciate the the commitment that they take on a daily basis so thank you very much um I wasn't planning uh to give a comment on retention this month how
046however I saw the board packet memo released on Friday uh first thank you for putting on the agenda um this is obviously a really important topic to be discussed um we actually think it should be on the agenda all the time um since it's such a big issue um second to briefly comment on the information and example in the memo all districts have retirees that could impact your retention rate additionally if growth impacts retention rate the same would hold true to districts who are losing enrollment uh like in some districts in the area um all districts follow the same metric for reporting retention and we are consistently the lowest retention rate by far the mental gymnastics need to stop here like we're trying to justify that we're all good but we have so many issues
047kir has spoken on it so of the community we need to stop this um specifically with retention like we have to stop doing this this game here and ex and make an excuse to justify our low retention rate um we think you as a board can see through this lastly the first step to fixing anything in life is admitting there is a problem we hope the discussion later in this meeting centers around acknowledging retention in this district is not only a concern but a major roadblock to the success of this district from there we can work toward correcting this issue and developing solutions for the betterment of the students staff and Community CA has already offered countless Solutions and will continue to do so but we are always willing to sit down with each and
048every one of you to collaboratively create a plan of action to resolve this we are here to work with you we hope you're willing to do the same thank [Applause] you thanks Dave uh Julie woo good evening I want to say thank you for your time thank you for volunteering for the positions that you hold um and helping our district be the best that it can be um as mentioned my name is Julie woo I've been living with the within the boundaries of this District since 2014 I'm a parent to a middle schooler in an elementary age child I am also a pediatric occupational therapist with 21 years of experience in both the clinic setting and the school setting in the Elgen area uh awareness inclusion and rights for all of very important to me
049we have heard the emotional plea as well as factual evidence from Gavin's family and and fellow community members in support of why he has a right to drive to school and Park using his ADA Compliant handicap placard this situation should easily be resolved by looking at objective facts to qualify for a 504 plan a child must have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity accommodations that may be suggested may be related to seating time technology curriculum environment instruction presentation other and him being allowed to drive to school use his handicap placard Falls within those guidelines of accommodations I've heard some illusion to safety student safety not being able to discuss the issues regarding to a specific student and while I I certainly understand those boundaries and um it
050is important to make our community aware of what guidelines and what um what objectives we're looking at in this situation because it's making a lot of people feel very emotional in this pos position um as I've mentioned um this situation should be resolved by looking at the factual evidence to obtain a handicap placard the person with a disability must have a valid Illinois driver's license their physician must certify that they meet the criteria as outlined on the certification form so there his physician has certified that he is safe to drive to school and use the handicap placard our district up on the walls we see are Inspire Excellence influence the world Engage The mind so please Empower Gavin to be the learner that he wants to be thanks Julie move on to action reports any
051Motion in second to discuss and approve the consent agenda so second included um in the board packet is the revenue expenditure reports um revenues are currently at 35. 58% compared to 37.0 a year ago expenditures are at 3449 per compared to 28.75 um a year ago um we received impact fees for $3,652 129 for four home starts and there were no transition fees the Bill's payable reports for Central and Northern cane are typical for the month of November um included in there is a payment for our bond um our bond series 2013 for 6, 975,000 um next on the agenda we will discuss the tentative Levy for 2024 and then also um the Illinois State Board of Education um back in February um requested documents to kind of um do an audit on Northern canes
052financials for fy22 and fi23 um there are a couple accounts that were just miss coded like a 2210 should have been a 2110 whatever um but in total all the dollar amounts tied out so there were no findings the the only the only finding that we had was um just moving forward how we're going to prevent this so we put a report in place we're running reports from the accounting department now to give to Doc um Terry stro to file those claims so that way what he's claiming matches our expenditure reports monthly and isb's accepted that correction action any questions right maybe Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes papus yes fuli yes aief yes Gorman yes motion is carried any Motion in second to discuss and approve the tenative tax levy so move second sorry
053um attached in the board book is this um PowerPoint um is for the 2024 tenative Levy the presentation in the board memo and the resolution are also included in your board packet um tonight you'll be asked to adopt the tenative tax levy resolution resolution for the next school year um in December next month at our regular board meeting a truth and Taxation public hearing will be held prior to the regular board meeting on December 16th and then that's when you'll be asked to approve the final December Levy as it as in in the past it is necessary for us to request a little bit higher than we anticipate getting um because the new construction amount that we um the new construction estimates that are out there um and that will ensure that we get full
054access to the the dollars that are generated for the new construction eav um the law provides that a district cannot receive more than what's entitled um to us and we cannot receive more than what's requested in each fund so you have to put a little bit more in each fund to be able to um receive all the dollars that you are ow so this slide just shows the levy timeline um it starts When the Levy is due at actually at the bottom it starts um the levies are due December 31st and then you can kind of see work your ways up for the day count um because we are having a public hearing the publication timeline that we'll put it in the newspaper is um between December 2nd and December 9th um we're going to
055put it on December 4th so on Wednesday December 4th was when we will be posting that notice into the newspaper um tenative Levy estimates need to be presented at least 20 days prior to the adoption of the final Levy and then the truth and Taxation notice which I just said was 14 days but not less than seven days so that's why this timeline was created just to keep us on uncheck so this slide shows eav history um I usually start with this just so you can kind of see the trends of the levy year the the eav which is our equalized assess value um new construction and our total tax rates so you can see that um back in 2019 and even back even in 2016 our rate of eav increases higher than the CPI
056and the percent of increase in our debt service payments which results in our tax rate to keep declining this holds true as long as our percentage of our eav is high enough to cover the bond payments um we do have a slight increase in our bond payments this year um but because of the eav percent growth is higher than that we're still seeing a decrease so in my 2024 Levy estimated I'm estimating eav to be 1 bill1 15, 300,000 and the new construction is going to be estimated at 23 million and then the total tax rate which we currently at 6.31 it will decrease 43 46 cents to 5.85 this is just a representation of those numbers on the prior slide in just a graphic form to show you kind of how eav when it
057goes up the tax rates go down in the fall the tax K County tax extension um publishes this P this out for anyone to see online it's called the assessor estimated eav report and they do it for every single Township every single School everything in K County um this is Central 301's page um they usually do this in September and I always call the tax extension um director John Emerson to get a more current one right before I do this just to see how much has changed and every time it does change so this one is through November 12th um it's the most recent that we could get and here's where you can see in the middle in that bottom where it says rate setting eav that's 1.1 million 1.15 million and then over to
058the right is the new construction the new construction shows you the 19 million eight something that's too tiny 923 um so those two numbers are what we put into the tax calculator formula to calculate it all out um and then based on the history of the eav always going down from this this projection and my new construction always increasing that's where I added the 3 million to the new construction and brought the rate setting eav down here we see the September numbers from that same report so you see them from the last prior years um you have this the September new construction September eav columns are what comes from that report the final new construction have been updated to what it finally where it lands in March when we get our total ending numbers um
059and so you can see in 2024 that was at 19 m923 and we're projecting new construction ction to go up um another 3 million so that's where I got the 23 million and then the September eav is the 1.11 billion 154 million um and I'm decreasing it down about three million for that so this is just a slide that shows you the four main variables that that are put into the tax levy calculation um so you have your known which are your actual variables your 23 extension base at 54,9 51,54 that that we know and then we also know that CPI is at 3.4% this year the projected variables are those two that I had talked about on the previous slides and then those two amounts get put into another formula um that kind of
060projects out the the costs this slide I I include every year um because this is why I think central and even we we unique um is that we lack commercial eav um if we had a lot more commercial in industry in our in our boundaries um we wouldn't be so heavily reliant on property tax um and on the on the residents but because of this you can see Central is always at the bottom we only have 41 million um this was based off of last year's numbers so we had 41 million kin the next closest was at 70 million um and then the ones at the at the top the dundes um I think it was 618 million um between their two different counties and St Charles 472 million so it just goes to show
061why we're so heavily reliant on on our taxpayers um and why some of the surrounding schools can maybe have a little bit lower tax rate sorry um this is our tax levy page this is a slightly different than the ones I've used in the past this one is um PMA Finance Company put this out for a lot of people um to use um so this year I did use it and it has a lot of really exciting formulas in there if you're an Excel person like me um but all the same information's in there um a lot of the information feeds from tab to tab so this slide it basically shows you um in the upper right the assumptions that we had so you have your CPI at 3.4% your actual eav for 20 2023
062at your 1 bon6 million um and then it has those estimated numbers that I had put in there for the 23 million for new construction and then your estimated eav at your 1 billion 150 million um so all of those will calculate out and then the green boxes is where you can play with Levy amounts by fund so you can make sure that you are not going to be too low in any One Fund so even though I can ask for I mean a levy is what you ask for it's not what you are going to end up with um I know some schools they balloon Levy and just say I want 50 million in every one of those which is not realistic um I try to get it as close and accurate as I
063can um but in order to make sure that we don't leave any money on the table going forward um this is the page that will calculate all of those different scenarios and stuff for you so on the bottom right corner you can see that yes that um red little it says yes we're we are over um our truth and Taxation 5% there doesn't mean that we will get more than the 5% um the the amount that is asked for some houses their eav their house value may go up more than 10% it might go up 13% so they're they may pay more in taxes than somebody whose eav may go down so it all depends on their home value and then their um in aggregate we from all of the commercial all of the taxpayer
064we're expected to get about 6% so some may have 3% some may have 8% it all is it depends on each person's situation so because that box is red and it says yes we're over the 5% we will have a trth and Taxation hearing um next month so the recommended 2024 Levy um we're requesting 58 m480 58,4 180,000 which is a 6.42% increase and the truth and Taxation hearing um we expect to only get 57 m97 because we're going to be kept at our amount that we're allowed to get so we're going to get an increase of about $3 million um and to to kind of put that in perspective if you if your salaries and benefits for the whole District are about 53 million and they have a 4.2 4.6% raise um that's about
065two two $2.4 million in just the raises that will eat up this 3 million so you're left with about 500,000 for capital projects and curriculum and everything else that we need to do to run the district so if you think of it in that perspective there's really not that's not a big ask over our total budget um our bond and interest Levy has gone up it went up $400,000 so our total Bond payment is going to be $9.4 million um which was a 4.57% increase and then um total all funds increase with the bond and the levy or the bond and the operating funds is $3.4 million our anticipated tax rates are um as I said earlier is probably going to go down 43 to 46 cents um I think that's a typle it says
06643 cents but I think it is 46 cents um so our operating rate is going to be $54 our bond in interest is going to be8 one and then our total tax rate would be 5.85 and that's only if our my projections come true this slide I created um to kind of just show how the levy receipts are distributed um this is normally we get 50% of our levies in the spring and then 50 50% in the fall sometimes it's 49 51 um it's been consistently about 50/50 um the last few years so I'm confident is going to be staying on that Trend um and just to show you that 2023 is Levy we received 50% of those funds in the 2024 budget that we adopted in September of 23 and then the other half
067of it came into this year's budget which we're getting right now 2024 Levy is also for this we receive it this budget year so you're in the 2025 budget but then you're going to get the other half in 2026 budget and this 2024 Levy is for all of FY 26's expenditures so so in summary this should allow us to receive all the money that we're we're allowed to to receive um without leaving any money on the table and then just we should get our final notices in the spring any questions I have a question Dana like uh the hearing that we're going to have at the before the the next regular board meeting is that going to be um uh like what what's going to happen there so it's just a it's a it's a
068board meeting that will present out um the same information pretty much um if there's any changes and then it's it's a more of a public hearing so if the public wanted to come and speak then they could make their comments okay so if they have questions based on what you presented today and whatever they uh research between now and then they'll be able to come and ask those questions it would just be public comments okay it would just be public comment okay if they have questions they could reach out to me before then okay and then um you make this comment that uh we want to get we don't want to leave any money on the table um that's is that because you you've done the budget and we need that money it's it's it's
069not that we're trying to take taxpayer dollars that we don't need correct okay and you you need to be able to like I like your your amount of money that you get you get a p of money say you have it's like a size of a penny is your pot of money is your normal eav your new construction numbers you don't know what those are going to be so I'm projecting that it's going to be the 23 million so in order to capture all of that that if you leave if you short yourself and you don't take all that money then the following year your penny would not be like if it through to the size of like the quarter you're going to leave some of that money so you're not getting your full new
070construction amount that you were trying to capture okay thank you what the increase that we're getting here I'm like looking at I guess it's not numbered but the different things that you listed here for educational you know the uh Social Security all these different amounts that you're listing so I'm seeing special education so is there potential that more dollars could be allocated since we are looking at an increase of this or is there C ways to I don't want to say move the money around but like you said we don't want to leave anything on the table so if we do have some accxes are we able to put more towards that or is this kind of in stone of what you're thinking so the special ed and the education fund go together okay um
071and the amount here is um your special ed fund is capped at 80 cents so it can't go higher than that it can't go higher so um I don't it doesn't show it on this slide but and a different one of my forms we were really close to that so I think I maxed out as much as I could ma out that's 7.93 yeah million okay but it doesn't mean that it's all that that that 7.9 million is the only amount that can be spent on sped because the Ed fund has all of the social workers and the syes and everybody in there um so all it's it's essentially one big pot yeah so then for some reason we didn't go like if we I don't know voted not to right increase it then obviously
072the dollars that you've allocated we'd have to decrease like some of the things that you maxed out we'd have to I guess so if that was maxed out I would just plug it in the Ed fund so I could use it for other stuff okay correct yep got questions Hil yes Nolan yes pepis yes fuli yes aif yes Fulk yes Gorman yes motion is carried next a motion second to discuss and approve the renewal of the contract with Larson and Darby second so lson Darby has been a contractor for us for well over two decades so over 20 years uh have a very good work relationship with not just Dan P our buildings Grounds Maintenance as well as Shel mcnut who we work with for our construction management company um this is a contract for
073the master agreement that we've been under for quite a while um so we've been working on trying to get this updated for several months it's been back and forth to try to get it completed um they obviously know the history of our district very extensive they work with Dan and his team um relevant to all of our community our facilities that we have very well acquainted with our district facilities and our needs um as well as our 10-year Health Life Safety plans that we work with one of the things that Dan has talked about you know bringing the board at some point in time time is a different architect for other elements that we might have for smaller projects somebody that's a smaller architectural firm um but we have found this partnership to be very
074invaluable in terms of he does know our buildings does know what's going on he's been the person that has constructed Country Trails additions PV hbt constructed prol Middle School addition U works very closely with Shel mcnet which is our construction management company that we have as well um so there's a recommendation that we would for with Dan can you come up for a sec I'll just I'll just be direct have we had any concerns about the ethical workings of this architect in any of our project no not at all and as a matter of fact the partnership has has grown to a point where when we did have some issues or questions about things within their firm or individuals they've work very closely with us on making sure those issues were remediated quickly and get
075to a point point where we're very comfortable with them the time period I've been here we've had a great relationship with them and with shales withn my recollection we this has been talked about a couple times that you know we've always come in under budget nothing has ever been concerned sh mcnut because they work directly with it that they're the ones that work in partnership with that specific finan Financial component as Dr manga mentioned we've talked a couple times about looking at a second architect which is not uncommon within districts for smaller projects and other things so we've talked about that option as well I have a question uh when is the last time we rfpd for this ask when have we marketed this for an architect that would have been like for for the
076the the role that uh lson and Darby play for us uh uh the school district when is the last time you know we rfpd for that like for that role that was previous to my tenure here when Larson and Darby um I believe the the previous architect was uh Gillian yeah yeah guilin and Gillian um I think that was the last time the district did you been with the district long uh going on 12 years so it's been 12 years since we marketed it roughly what we've done an RFP or anything correct I guess that was my question too like how do we know that we're getting you know I don't want to say the best bang or just you know I understand that we've been there for two decades but I don't necessarily know
077that that's reason to continue so I guess my question is how come we haven't marketed and looked at other firms just to make sure that we're getting all that need from them well we believe in looking and you can talk a little bit too um but talking to our legal team who actually works with us for our contracts right I did ask are we Fair within what's reasonable she said we definitely have a good rate from L and Derby within this contract believing that that relationship and I think now if you want to talk a little bit about that yeah it was roughly three years ago we had a conversation about looking at a second architect that was the first time that that kind of came up and we am not directly but we talked
078especially with shales mcnut about other OPP options other opportunities other vendors that were out there I've been doing this for 20 plus years I work with many architectural firms and I think the working relationship the district has with this particular firm is very good or I wouldn't have you know supported moving forward with them how much money do we spend per year on them it depends it would depend on their projects and what they on average capital projects like well not the capital projects are major construction projects like the high school we just spent lots of money last year the 20 pass condition but that's not you don't you don't do that every year yeah correct I don't know there's an average number okay yeah it fluctuates all over the place so um and I
079have another question um I looked at the contract and uh it uh doesn't have an hourly rate listed in the contract is that still under negotiation this we well we don't usually have the we we do it by Dollar of project which is pretty standard for Architects so but there's a there's a section in the contract though that um says uh if it's under a certain dollar value it's an hourly rate and it has an X in it because we had ranges if you look further in the country we have a range from zero up to a certain level it's a certain percent and another range it's another percent and that's what the contract's under um I'll just make this comment um it's not a question uh i' I've worked in government for 20 years
080and um you know like uh the the value of having uh somebody that we have experience with and that we have a relationship with uh that has done good work for us is uh definitely valuable but the flip side we don't know what we don't know unless you RFP things are they they may be the most have the best expertise at the lowest price that's that's that's definitely possible but after 20 years or at least after 12 years how do we know that there isn't somebody with equal expertise at a lower price or somebody with higher expertise at the same price right we don't know that unless you from time to time RFP things and in most agencies uh at the state you know you you can enter into a contract for two three four
081even five years but there's a limit and then you have to send it out for another RFP because you want to see what's going on in the marketplace so um if we have not done an RFP in over 10 years I that that concerns me and I'm I'm gonna try to find the section where I couldn't find the hourly rate uh if anybody else has questions please feel free and I then let you know when I find it well what would be the downside to doing an RFP now I don't think there's really any downside I mean just it's just the time to do it there's not really a downside I mean because I'm I'd be sure that Larsson and Derby would would resubmit yeah definitely oh for sure so I I I found it
082it's on um it's on page 24 of the contract and cost of work under 500,000 is hourly rate it say it literally says hourly rate but um and I may have missed it but I don't know what that hourly rate is it's not stipulated in the contract it's probably not because the cost of work would always be more than 500 is what I'm guessing I don't know sure but if if you do go forward with this you got to put an hourly rate in there you can't just say hourly rate when does the contract with them end it's long standing right now yeah it's just long standing so we could potentially Market this and see what else is out there and it's not going to necessarily derail or we did not have mate on the
083contract the reason we went forward with a new contract to try to get some stipulations okay current contract we have does not I personally think we should Market it just to make sure that I agree it makes sense concur yeah so you want just table a vote then yeah table and maybe see what a marketing would look like je yeah that's fine you know if you have the RFP from the last time so not from the last time we did an architect we could tweak it we just did the RFP for civil engineer and and MEP Engineering Services so we could tweak that RFP and use something very similar to that would sh that do it for you like would they go out and Market no because it would kind of be a conflict of
084interest for them to to have any say in who we yeah so it would solely be on our on our shoulders I would probably reach out to them for some local contractors or other options as I reach out to other districts kind of see who else everybody else is working with so okay I guess if this is a new contract it doesn't matter if we don't approve this tonight correct it's in existence it's in existence currently right this was just trying to re reop and try to get some timelines established well would you mind updating us next month with RFP and the timeline for that absolutely thanks yep so do you need a motion to table Yeah so moved than second well do we vote on the other one first or no we have a
085motion in second to vote on there we should vote and then or change the motion or change motion which is what they did to change the motion table it all right fine so to clear by the motion is a table to vote cor and we're going to that okay Nolan yes papis yes fuli yes aif yes Hulk yes Hil yes Gorman yes motion is carried ex a motion second to discuss and approve the 2025 School maintenance project Grant second good evening um the new school maintenance Grant is coming due to be submitted in December uh before we can move forward with that we need board approval to spend the $50,000 local funds because the grant calls it provides 50,000 with a 50,000 um dollar match we have used this grant in the past it was
086for those of would like a reminder we've put um generators on some of our school buildings pkms um PB um and so this year um we were looking at um some of the areas that we could um attack with these dollars and we thought enhancing some of the school uh security Fe teachers um specifically some of the Locking mechanisms in our classroom doors to make sure that they stay locked for student safety was something that um director paway had done some numbers on and so that is our plan right now that still has to be approved by is we just can't submit the grant until we have board's approval so I'd be happy to answer any questions that would be for all building all classrooms in the district yeah yes we would tackle that that
087time frame might not toed the $100,000 but the $50,000 Grant would help offset some of those cost yes years correct correct any other questions thanks welcome pepus yes FY yes aif yes Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes Gorman yes motion is carried a motion second to discuss and approve the cost country overnight trip the state competition in Pur Illinois that occurred November 8th and 9th 2024 moved so this is our standard operating procedure I would just more so give an update and see if you have any questions about it but Abby Burke was our sole Runner to go down to Poria um she placed 27th so she didn't place at the top she did achieve her personal record for the season which very impressive she shaved 2 minutes and 1 second off for beginning time
088this season didn't she almost have the school record too was she close to the school I thought I saw something online about that I'm not positive about that she might have approached it I know she was at like 20 minutes and she did 1759 down there so aesome and that's the end of The Fall season basically which Ted could not be here tonight sends his apologies but do a update as we kick off all of our winter stuff and we do have the Mark ewick uh basketball tournament starting tonight so we're excited to get everything kic going and kicked off great thanks Patrick thank you thank you ful yes a yes Fulk yes Hil yes Nolan yes pepis yes Gorman yes motion is carried move on to information items first up is our facilities update
089move oh yeah not doing moved on sorry trying to throw me off aren't you um so the first thing I wanted to to talk about is so we completed um our electric uh reverse auction um that you approved last month for us to go ahead with that and we came in you have a memo in your board packet we did come in um closer to the lower end of that range right at the low end of that range which is about uh little little over a cent higher than we paid in the past we did a one year just to give us the options and the flexibility to go back out again it's not a huge it's a lot more work for Nani energy it's we kind of just participate and kind of let them
090do their thing so we thought you know going out one year and then kind of seeing what things happen was the best idea so that's how that turned out the other piece that um we attached in there is Nan wanted to make sure that they know that's our energy advisor that they have a program um where they plant trees to offset our carbon emissions from our energy usage so right now our district they have planted in our name 81 new trees across the country so they uh Becky Thompson our rep wanted to make sure that we shared that that there is you know something that they do to give back so just thought that was kind of interesting Dana thought it was really [Laughter] interesting um so then moving on um so we're kind of
091wrapping up the uh high school edition um completing some of our last of our owner trainings um getting the closeout docks kind of getting that all wrapped up we did get first wave of furniture delivered um so we'll be working on getting that built the next wave um I believe Grady has coming in uh December so we'll get all that built and be right at occupy for that second semester um kind of moving forward some things have been working on with Dr mongan and Dana is kind of our plans for over the breaks projects we're going to continue with some of our flooring and some of our painting projects that we were doing over the summer continue those through the breaks the holiday breaks fall at an interesting times we have a lot of Staff
092utilizing some vacation time so we're going to be a little thin but we'll still have plenty of time to get some work done um we've also been working on updating our capital projects so kind of trying to plan for summer of 2025 um and then you know five years out we always try to have that um Dana is great about creating those spreadsheets getting us five years out so we kind of plot those projects out in in big scale kind of about five years so we're kind of working on this summer right now so we'll bring have some more to bring to the board the next month or so and then final thing is we've been working with uh Ted and the athletic department and and Dana and Dr mongan on updating our facility use
093documents we brought that up um last month um we'll probably be still working on that updating some of the fees updating our groups and kind of getting those documents updated so that'll just be an ongoing thing we'll be kind of just talking about every month and that'll be starting next year presumbly next yep yep our next fiscal year y any questions thank you thanks Dan all right curriculum director bookme is here to discuss the instructional coach good evening we have a few of our instructional coaches here that are going to walk us walk you through um some of the work that they do throughout the year they are a critical uh component of our curriculum team and providing that professional development throughout the course of the year so they're here to highlight some things um
094and I'll go ahead and introduce them come on up here guys there is a team of nine um we have here this evening yes oh no I join using so we have Kim paus we have Michael Doyle we have Leah Harold and Katie we are a team of nine or they are a team of nine there's four here that'll walk you through some of the things color coordin assing I can connect say connecting it connecting I this problem Play-Doh the other day let's go back and try it again do you want to email it to okay it's canva I have to invite you I know me neither you do Dana I'll s it to you Dan oh the whole thing the whole thing going on sorry guys sharing while doing that we're gonna move do
095you have a mouse Transportation update while they're working on that we'll go on because I'm gonna have to I'll have to like maneuver from your computer Kim do you want Pam let's have Pam's come up y don't we do that while we wait I'm gonna send it to you right now D good evening is it national school bus safety week was held October 21st through the 25th we good go ahead okay keep going um during this week uh the district was audited by the Illinois Department of Transportation the audit consisted of inspecting our entire bus fleet of 80 buses inside and out out and I am pleased to share that all of our buses passed with flying colors except one and uh this is really a tesate to our drivers uh for reporting their bus
096repairs as needed and to our Mechanics for providing quick res um repairs and quality preventative maintenance so we can keep our buses safe for the community also during national school bus safety week um daily bus safety informations was shared through the district's um media platforms with items such such as the 2024 national school bus safety week theme was driving safely into the future Central transp Central School District transports over 4,000 students each day across approximately 87 square miles and Beyond the importance of stopping for buses whenever we see right red lights flashing there were over 43.5 million School Bus passings during the year of 2223 identifying the danger zone as the 10 ft surrounding the sko bus and the dangers that distractive driving brings to the community that's it what was the minor repair I'm
097f um lug nuts we had a leak ex y that was it so the Eng I'm assuming we have good buses our buses are really good they take care of them so keep them safe for the community thanks for your work Pam thank you thank you I don't think the driver would know that did you guys get up do I need this or no is that the west or is that the North View east east there we go y are you staying there or coming here go ahead start uh thank you to Shane for the kind introduction uh thank you to the board and District administration for allowing us a few minutes to present here tonight and the members of our community for staying here long enough to listen to us uh my name is
098Michael Doyle this is Kim paus this is Katie normo this is Harold we're part of the instructional coach team here in the district um ah and click to the next one thank you uh so our roles as instructional coaches are these kind of main categories this is where we work most um new teacher induction program every new teacher comes into the district they're assigned one of us that they work with throughout the year as well as the new teacher induction days where they kind of learn their District systems and learn their way around the district uh we're also working in tandem with the district leadership on Institute days including January 6 which we'll talk a little bit about as we go here um we do some curriculum training when there are new curriculum materials we
099assist with that we also do ongoing opportunities for professional development over the last nine or 10 years we've done all kinds of professional development everything from coffee in the morning to lunch breaks to something called py and your PJs where we did py from our homes to people in their homes at a time that would work best for them we also offer instructional support in the classrooms for those teachers who want to work towards a goal that's another thing we do and then any kind of new systems that we have in the district we also help with some of those new systems particularly when those systems are something that the teachers are using on a regular basis and real quick this is kind of our philosophy on that professional development so obviously because we work
100mostly with teachers our philosophy is based in adult learning so we want to make sure the instruction that we give them is focused into a a specific point and a goal that the teachers can get to that we try to keep the learning very active so it's not so much just sitting there and getting it's maybe we present give them a chance to work with it and then go back and reflect on that um job embedded and modeling these are things that we'll do with teachers to work with them provide them a model of what something might look like in their classroom and working with them to help develop those kind of things uh coaching opportunities the can these can be as small as working on a specific lesson or something as big as working
101on a unit plan we're also involved with that is Teachers request um we also one of the most important things I think that we look for is feedback we want to go back and reflect and get feedback with that teacher to help them move forward as they desire to and then finally the last thing up here is sustain all of our programs we try to make sure that these are opportunities that go from semester to semester year to year maybe over a period of 10 years as we've done something one of the first things that we're really excited for this year is um called Adventure so in the beginning of the school year teachers were able to pick a base camp and it's all based off of research based books so there's three different base
102camps Peak Pros which does writing across the curriculum and then we use the writing Revolution book for that we also have Peak Performance movement in the classroom getting the students up and moving while learning and they used the book building thinking classrooms and then the third one was Peak strategies which did a lot withal multilingual and um instead and that was removing labels so again these are all tied to District goals and sit plans across the across the district one because we don't have the live links but go ahead so again how it applies specific targeted strategies used um and again teachers get to pick the base camp they create a goal and it's a lot of it's voluntary and the cool thing about it is that so many teachers are coming to us they're
103excited to use the strategies in their classroom and we've been able to go in there and watch them and then support them along the way and again we're going to do it over the year um some of the examples are spark boxes it's once a quarter again it's to your base camp the teachers base camps and again it's voluntary but we've had so many people sign up and it gets us into the classrooms to see the great things the teachers are doing um we have L newsletters so each month a newsletter goes out for that Peak and it has different strategies that they can use um coaching Cycles so three hour or one hour PD that teachers get to earn when they um when they finish a coaching cycle with one of us so it's
104a pre-conference planning observation and then the feedback reflection and then we're also working on Institute right right now so we're excited to roll that out in January 6 in addition to that we're also doing a program called Minds in motion and Minds in motion is based on the book uh building the thinking classrooms by Peter LOL so it's actually both we're doing two things with that we're doing the the peak um performance is one of the things that we're working on with that but we're also targeting math and um so it's targeted math instruction k12 and the premise is is that that student discourse about math pract they're going to the students are actually practicing talking about math and then doing the math with each other um when we pitched this idea with Shane and
105and Stephen and we were really kind of talking about it we um knew that it had to be a volunteer basis so we did a call for volunteer we did a road show we went to the each building and we were able to get approximately 50 teachers um across all seven buildings that are are working with this and I'll tell you more on the next slide here um and we shared the wrong presentation so there's no like links in there oh um but um we've got that collaborative planning with the um other teachers to increase the math practices as coaches um there's four of us assigned to the um minds and motion program and we meet with them on a regular basis um the first quarter we met with them as individuals or their teams
106um the second quarter they are required to actually have us in during a lesson um and so we're obviously working on that now through January um so that is um the regularly scheduled um grade level meetings um and we work with them on modeling lessons and we co- plan and co- te with them um again like Michael was saying the feedback is always non-evaluative for observations with reflective conferences and it's sustained um if you don't know anything about building the thinking classrooms I wanted to tell you a little bit about that it's centered around thinking tasks and So within the first five minutes of the class the the teachers give the students a thinking task um it started off with some non-curricular tasks at the beginning of the year but now we've moved into curricular
107tasks an example of a curricular task would be like for maybe a fifth grade would be how many ways are there to make a dollar out of quarters nickel and dimes and so they're talking about different ways of adding things um so the kids get to work on that um they work in visibly random groups so every class period every time they get up to the board to work on their um which are the vnps is the um vertical non-permanent work surfaces um always acronyms in education um so those visibly random groups they're always grouped with somebody different um I will tell you that this has been very um it's it's been great in fact meeting with the high school teachers about a month ago we heard that the the kids in the high school
108were getting up in class and shaking each other's hand and saying hi I'm Kim because they don't know everybody in the class and so they're they're really introducing themselves and um working with everybody it's it's been really great so those visibly randing groups have been phenomenal with our for our teachers and for our students those soft skills as as long as as well as the math skills the vertical non surface just is a fancy way of saying they have to stand um we know that look at us right now we're standing in front of you we're the ones giving you the information the students realize that they do school really well um they know what they're looking for so giving them the marker giving them the stand and having them explain to each other and
109to the class um is what we consolidate at the end so um it works well with all of our multilingual Learners our special ed students our regular ed students and and our teachers we've had nothing but really positive feedback um we even had kindergarten um students um last week um self-checking so they um we were were we were able to provide them with ways to selfcheck in kindergarten with their math so it's it's been a really great program Kim's being really nice here she's under selling this when you see second grade kids peeking in the classroom door and they back from PE class wanting to know if the boards are up so that they can do math they want to do it they're excited to do it that's amazing and that all that credit goes
110to Kim and Rachel who designed this whole program from the starts I think the self-checking is kind of awesome honestly you should see the video is super duper cute when I was that age I was just eating R crackers I wasn't self check I think that's amazing personally but yeah I mean they were able to they we had them on you know they were able to take their card fill it out and then um bring up the card flip it over and then self check to see if they got it right yeah um and like I said that that's our kindergarten kids so awes and we're second quarter so I can't imagine what we're going to look like by fourth quarter they're they're doing great yeah so teacher induction not is it still me okay
111still me oh we were gonna start one to um that's right um so our new teacher induction program we have our new teachers um for two full days at the be in August um and we help create the handbook for them with that um that includes um with our monthly meetings which somebody's going to get to here in a few minutes and um this year we tried something new and we had a mentor training so a lot of times we heard the feedback that we've heard from being reflective is the mentors weren't really sure what their role was and um so we had about a three-hour Mentor training with our mentors this year and we we heard feedback that that went really great with them as well one of the other things we do is
112we found out early on when we started doing this program was that you cannot have new teachers come in and sit there for two days straight so we used to go through a is it like 60 slides PowerPoint presentation on on Gmail and then we do Google Calendar and then we and next thing you know three hours later people hated that so we did is we created this thing called Adventure awaits kind of like The Amazing Race So they work with their their mentor and they go around to seven different stations we have a couple of roadblocks thrown in and they have to go through the necessary District systems with their mentor and figure out how to do certain tasks and that trains them on those District systems in real time and in real task
113super successful they love it we do after school month six times a year um to kind of get creative with some of our time as well we take out boxes for November December so they work asynchronously they work with their Mentor with some of the strategies we shared with them and then they observe mentors and teachers observe each other doing one of the strategies it can be the same it can be different and then they with the coach to kind of De and um so we delivered their takeoff boxes start November um Cup theme art group loves a theme we really run with it and so they got a few goodies as well and then when they complete their task they can with us and get our and then for monthly we meet once a
114month with Mentor prot um just as a way to reconnect kind of catch up with like catch it check in with them and then we also do a theme we feed them they love that um and then like we go over data how we use data to um help instruct our students so just there's usually one type of them and then something to go on so when it comes to new teacher training we've talked about these same common themes with each type of programming we do so you'll see some common terms up here it's instruction focused Active Learning job embeded modeling feedback sustain so these programs are things that are that we think are well thought out we try to keep things the same with every program we do so that the backbone is nice
115and strong for all the things we hang out with the most important thing here is the feedback making sure we have those conversations and reflect back and then finally sustaining a program there's nothing worse than doing a program for three months and then never going back to it so we try to make sure that we finish a program when we started and that we build the next year and build the next year towards the goals that our teachers need assistance with and um this one we are continually fine-tuning and being reflective in our practices um and that is that piece of we sometimes we're not sure what will work unless we try it um so we our team like I said the the nine of us are extremely Innovative we run with themes and we
116go for it and we we try different things and we we keep tweaking it until it works um the takeout boxes um and our our spark box that we've had um kind of EV and flow um we're trying them again this year and it has been um a great success where last year they kind of you know tapered off a little bit towards the end of the year um we like to always remember that we need to listen more than we talk and and get that feedback from the staff as to what they need from us as well you wouldn't necessarily know that by this presentation but we do like to listen right and uh so thank Youk thank you anyone have any questions like to ask no but I want to thank you Bill
117and especially everyone doing building thinking classrooms it's amazing and Peter Lyell is amazing and I will never say his name right but it's the best thing that has ever happened to math so just plug in that a little bit you guys are awesome it's been it's it is it's just been great I can't even tell you how great it's been and it just touched K2 so great right cuz seeing like kindergarteners all the way up to seniors who like probably never spoke to each other for 10 years all of a sudden like knowing that they're in a safe space to talk to each other it's amazing so cool it's been wonderful thank you move on to teacher attention so as Dave mentioned last last month we actually had a Community member also ask us to
118clarify what the definition is so obviously I wanted to bring forward what the definition is there was a sh a shift at the state level so pre 2023 uh which wasn't that long ago it was teacher renion rate as we talked about at the district level as a ton full teachers in the same school in the past three years it was a threeyear trends of school to school if they move from one school to the other which we are a very mobile District it definitely impacted our retention rates post 2023 so 2023 forward is when they shifted it so the rule change came through December 22nd December 29th 2023 where we actually saw the marker and the way they calculated the actual retention uh to still keep the school rate the school rate is still
119consistent on the school report card school by School uh but they've also moved to a teacher retention rate the district level where they're actually looking at from District loss year to year and it's a threee again it's a threeyear um average percentage for those three years so it's total number of full-time teachers staying in the same district in the past three years divided by a total number of full-time teachers from the past three years um the mathematics problem that I gave you here was not about us having retirement or any other District it was just a sample of who could be leaving we have lots of reason why teachers leave we just use we used retirement because it was an easy one to use but we used a 100 teachers because it's easy to understand
120the math behind that we are a growing District part of the challenge of a growing district is that obviously the denominator gets higher the more the more kids you have the more teachers you have so your denominator increases districts that lose it their number goes down so mathematically when you divide by a larger number Pi is a little bit smaller where it's a smaller number and so we showed you there is a difference about a 4% difference if you just had a 100 teachers um and you had four teachers that chose to retire or leave whatever you they chose the distribut left with 96 teachers out of that 100 teachers if the Staffing numbers did not need to increase and District remained with at 100 teachers the retention rate would have been 96 out of
121100 or roughly 96% however if the district increases their need by four additional teachers because of growth so we have to add four additional teachers the total number of teachers that we would need is 104 teachers not a 100 teachers thereby a retention rate of 92.3% because 96 teachers divided by the 104 we now need is 92.3 so almost a 4% distance due to growth so our retention rate has been exactly the same since pretty close to exactly the same since 2014 so retention rates for the State Board of Education began being kept in 2014 and then every year thereafter somewhere we sit somewhere between the mid 80s to the high 80s and it ranges within there um so a 4% difference can make a difference there in terms of just the growth not people
122that leave the district as well um and so when you look at our compared to St Charles bavia Geneva they've been losing enrollment keeping teachers and even adding some teachers but overall retention does matter in terms of how you do mathematics and how it affects or impacts the overall retention rate not saying that we can always do better nobody's arguing that you can't always do better but it's important to understand the calculations that are utilized for retention rate at the State Board um so any questions regarding that I think are we going to say something no go ahead okay because I know you're the mathematician I guess for me and I'm just going to kind of dumm it down I guess my biggest issue is if we we take retirees out of it we just
123look at who do we have you know in buildings right now and who's leaving and what that looks like and are we losing more teachers compared to other districts you know I guess that's what I'm looking at fundamentally are we losing more than another district is if we take out retirement if we take out the shift between buildings but literally just who's leaving our district that's not an easy answer because we have it's multifaceted first of all we we hire teachers every year and do we have teachers that leave us we don't keep teachers that aren't of quality we do have teachers that we release this is the retirement was not about retirees this was really about an example St Charles matavia Geneva kanin when you look at them they're all losing dramatic enrollment so
124even if they lost teachers probably would imp pack their their atten R somewhat but they also have a much smaller denominator when you look at um just their total enrollment and what they do in some districts bavia has pretty much stayed pretty even to us where St Charles Geneva and Cana have kept their teachers and increase in that do I I don't I don't know I don't look at their retention I don't look at their numbers it's not a true comparison I don't know how you compare I don't know if that data will be available though either right no I have no idea I have no idea what their retention I mean I can see the retention rate but I don't know all the ins and outs of that I just know that not a
125growing District we are which has an impact I also know the difference between central St Charles Pavia Geneva is they have communities that teachers belong to we don't we have Virgil and udina and Burlington and parts of Elgen we don't really have a true Community for teachers which I'm sure plays a role I haven't done the research I don't have not looked at research that supports that there's a multitude of reasons um we have teachers that decide to stay home teachers just like any other District I mean I can't answer that question with a sort of I just know this is been since 2014 since we've kept the data we're pretty consistent this isn't a new trend this is kind of where we've been why I I'd have to go back and I I guess
126it's a research study I don't really know I think it's important the most interesting thing to me is that it's on top of each other we've not seen you know a 10% difference four years ago with the pandemic or something two years ago or eight years ago that was super low I mean so I think the consistency is an important factor just with if it's in that few per I mean you know I think that's extremely important to recognize I think that even the concerns about retention I to your point like of course we can try to do better and I think the idea of exploring like you're doing right now right going to schools and trying to understand what workloads look like and and you know I can appreciate Dave and car and other
127people with emails great like but we have to have some data to support that right so I think it's extremely important that this board the seven of us uh with what you and Sarah and another I forget who else is doing CHR there you go so some of the the meetings to try to meet with these the our staff members especially the ell special ed as we talked about um they know that's something we're going to be talking about next month I believe right so I think it's important to highlight that you know we're not oblivious to this this is something that I think it's important that we have information and data to support because the same I want the same data if all of a sudden somebody says well we need three less teachers
128well okay well we're not going to just say okay we're going to say what what data supports that so I think to I will speak for myself I want to know understand what the case loads are like what are the minutes like and yes to you know we can feel overwhelmed and I want to make sure that there's data that supports that and if that is the case I'm confident that this board will support the recommendations I personally believe that we would do that yeah based on what our conversations have been otherwise like like the data for me is it's kind of a mixed bag because I'm not seeing like I feel like if we have different things thrown in there like retirees and people I'm not talking about retention well yeah but I'm talking
129about the needs in the classroom right and if we're talking about the needs in the classroom people feeling overwhelmed and then a a lower retention rate because of that I think that that is you know Dr mongan and the support staff are are our leaders on that department are the ones that are taking the lead and trying to get the information necessary um to help us this seven of us right to understand what the next steps are and what the recommendations will be I think it's important to recognize that that you know um you know to understand the passion of our CA leaders and I absolutely appreciate everything that you guys do I hope you know that right like I think that's fantastic but we also want to make sure that there is a measured
130approach to how we go about doing this um and so sometimes data collection sucks and it takes time but I think I I want to understand how we're coming at that so there is consistency yeah right so you you know we we all know we got negotiations coming up that's something that surely is going to be talked about right that's fine that's that's great and what can we do now what needs to be done now what needs to be considered moving into subsequent school years I think with hope that we're all in agreement to some extent that that's what we want to do want to meet the needs but we have to understand what the needs are before we can do that that's the variable for me so it seems like the retention calculation kind
131of got better in 2023 it's not looking at the specific School true so I would anticipate it slightly increasing who knows we see I know well that was always an explanation right was that they were switching schools so I would think it' be better I think some of the stuff you touched on Eric for me is what are we doing to raise that retention rate too um how much can we keep teachers here it's really kind of cool when siblings get the same teacher or you know you I've actually at prayer review there is a teacher there who had his teacher is actually still there too and that's really kind of cool to have that and you know passing down from generation to generation oh I had that teacher too I know that one the
132really good one like and keeping good teachers and so ask for me what are we doing to make sure that we are kind of retaining those quality teachers and raising that retention rate I agree agre agree yeah and I I don't want to hear what other districts do because because I I want to be a leader you know what I mean let's let's find our own solutions that make teachers want to be here or not it I don't really care what other districts do and stay yeah so what are we doing uh to to that end right now what are the things that we're doing right now towards working towards that like what uh Moran and Jennifer said well we we try to do culture climate I do a listening tour to do a listening
133tour now for two years to go and hear what's going out in the field I give you guys Recaps on the listening tour so you're well aware of what we're hearing we're definitely doing a listening tour in terms of special education and other related Service Groups to find out what's happening out there so we get true action what's going on out in the field um obviously our principles work very diligently for culture and climate within their own buildings working consistently to try to improve those cultures this isn't you know one person's responsibility it's a two-way street I've talked to Dave and kir about they have responsibility as we do in trying to promote a positive culture within the district this isn't one way where it's just Administration or just one group it has to be
134both parties working together to have a very positive relationship and having those conversations um and so those conversations have occurred between myself and CA um I see for the most part I hear very positive things is what I'm hearing I think our Administration feels that they're they're hearing very positive things they work very hard out in the field and so trying to build systems inside buildings to make those connections for staff but I do think the reality is we have to recognize that we are a district as hard as it is to say that we don't have a community the community is Central High School so how do we make everybody feel like they're part of being a rocket or part of being a coyote or part of being a you know Falcon so they
135make those connections is important um but I think you know Pam does a great job with her bus drivers I mean I think everybody tries to look at those things um promot it um and as a follow-up question um so you know you talked about if the feedback that you get when you do these outreaches is really positive but then we still have this like significant attrition rate um or or like you know like a low retention rate so when administrators like the principls or you you know go out and talk to you're talking to teachers right yeah I mean I'm talking to any staff all all staff yeah all staff um maybe they don't want to give candid feedback so maybe there's a way for us not cea but for us I don't know
136if this is allowed um to you know create like uh methodologically sound like surveys to assess you know like what they think in a uh what's the word for it in a confidential way where where they they can speak frankly without their identities being shown but then when we get that data we can also see I mean if I get like really negative data or really positive data with a 10% response rate doesn't mean anything to me um you know if if I get data if I get anecdotes if I get a hundred anecdotes in a community of 800 people um doesn't mean anything to me like I need to see you know what the feedback is and I need need to see that it's somewhat representative so is there a way for us to
137do that we've done surveys before I mean we have a five essential surveys that we do those are building wide so sure you can always do surveys I think sometimes staff get tired of surveys there's a lot of surveys that happen in our district um but sure we can do that Ian I would want to look for an agency that has something that's evidencebased not just me writing that's why I said methodologically sound yes I mean I don't know what's out there i' have to totally do that absolutely we can always do that isn't enough when you've done them the other surgeries those um sorry surveys but homemade I've not we've not used one that's been yeah think it would be more sound to go Jay's route I agree with you say it again like
138something that's more method I can't even speak right now but something more where it isn't just homemade like a Google form it needs to be something that is going to collect correct data sound and anonymously yeah where you actually feel safe because I know if I don't trust that it's going to be anonymous a lot of times I won't fill it out I think the challenges data is great but what are we going to do with it if you don't know where it's coming from right I mean I think you have inherent challenges with getting a report that has 120 responses of words positive negative neutral critical highly supportive how do you aggregate that into actionable items right so in a meth like so so in a methodologically sound survey uh there there would have
139to be some demarcation of where that data sets are coming from the concern is below a 3.2 average what are you going to do with that what's what's the what do you do if something needs Improvement if something's going well if it's something going well we have other people saying well that can't be right because look at these five people that say it's horrible or vice versa these people say it's great and then there's something that comes back right the data cannot be The Driver what can't be the driver that kind of data because what are we going to do with it well the the the data by itself may not be like the singular Factor uh that helps us formulate solutions to improve retention rates but it can be a component right it's a
140start I would argue that's not a start it might be one piece of a puzzle there's no doubt about that yeah that's what I'm saying it's it's a piece all right so I guess you want to look for the first piece or a piece for a certain and then next one do you want to discuss anything with anyone all right that was pretty clear can move on to four fores uh we've had quite a few forers again uh Mr Carlton we received a request for the names titles positions email addresses date and of hire and building of office locations for all full-time employees uh we were able to comply with that request Miss Martinez we received a request for all meeting minutes phone notes and emails between Aron Mark and Dr M between April 1st
1412023 and October 1st 2024 related the proposed service for current current or proposed high school we were able to comply with this request however there were no records regarding proposed services for the current or proposed High School Mrs carus we received a request from Material provided to the board of education at September 21st 22 board retreat we were able to comply with that request Miss car says we received a request from Board of Education Clos meeting minutes that have been approved to release between August 21st and June 24th we have to comply with that request Miss W received a request for invoice toar D from April through September 2023 and payments issued toar D between August and September 2023 we able to comply with that request and Miss Tesa we received a request for Master's
142agreement addendum on agreements Darby IM and er engineering proposed new high school and we were able to comply with this report or was that request any questions on the all right need a motion in second to adjourn Open Session and move to close session for the following exceptions 2c1 2c9 2 C10 and 2C 21 so move second a yes f yes P yes Nolan yes papis yes BBY yes Gman yes motion is carried take a five minute bre guys