001Mhm. >> All right, 7:00 we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Welcome everyone and we'll start off with our pledge of Oh, I'm sorry, roll call, please. >> Reading? Here. >> Kempken? >> Here. >> Corey? Absent. Moyer? >> Here. >> Meyer? >> Here. >> Schumacher? >> Here. >> Search? >> Here. >> All right, now we'll do the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you so much for that. Welcome visitors, got a good crowd tonight. Had to park in the overflow, so that's always a good sign. Do you have any public comments tonight? Welcome, you would just state your name, please. >> My
002name is Kevin Kieninger, I'm the Monroe County Treasurer here in Waterloo, Illinois and representing Monroe County. I just want to give a handout here of the taxes and the tax rate for the past 10 years to Columbia School District. As you can tell by the chart, this tax rate has been going down for the past 10 years. Even though last year we levied more, but I think the big part is that you've increased taxes 35% over 10 years, which is about 3 and 1/2% per year, which it fits in well with a PTEL limited amount of tax increases on a yearly basis. PTEL meaning you can't raise taxes more than the rate of inflation plus new growth. You're standing well with under that level even though you're not a PTEL limited taxing body. I appreciate
003that you are not over taxing the citizens of the Columbia School District. Uh tax bill assessment notices are going out the first week of February for the county and tax bills should be going out this summer. So we'll look forward to collecting taxes for you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Great. This is a great report. All right. Have we also had any other public comments? No, we All right. Any correspondence? None. No correspondence. Okay. We'll move right into our consent agenda. Dr. Rowden, if you'd walk us through that, please. >> All right. We've got no resignations. Thank goodness. Uh McKenna Litikin custodial and Nathan Schwartz for CHS Cook. Both of those would be employed for educational support personnel. We have Laura Yarber in the audience as she came around and introduced herself to everybody.
004She's going to be the curriculum director. Um and then we've got some vacancies. We are looking for a possible director with responsibilities in human resources and operations. We are looking for a lunch recess supervisor. If you'll remember the aid we hired last um month was taken directly from that position. So that's just filling a position that was moved to another. We've got three teachers that are retiring, two second graders and an RTI over at Eagleview. We also have our music teacher um at Eagleview retiring. So we're posting for three elementary teachers and elementary music teacher. And then we have a science teacher, chemistry at the high school, which we would like to post for. So the postings for that, with the exception of the director with responsibilities in human resources and operations, would all be
005filling positions. So given all of that, the administration recommends the board approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Any questions from the board? Concerns, comments? Suggestions? If you're not ready, would you like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Tyson. Second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Adam. Roll call, please. >> Fredrick? >> Yes. >> Corey, absent. Himken? >> Yes. >> Meyer? >> Yes. >> Moyer? >> Yes. >> Search? >> Yes. >> Schumacher? >> Yes. >> Perfect. Move on to our communications reports and presentations. Enrollment report, I believe is in the packet. >> Yes. >> We have a We have a mega building report tonight, I think. >> We do. So we're going to skip the building report and the assistant superintendent report,
006and kind of just segue into the dullest of the three reports, which is typically the superintendent report. I do want to say, because if I forget, Erica Lenny would be very upset with me, but we've got birth to five developmental screenings on February 19th and 20th. You can call the Will they call Eagleview to set that up? Cuz it's at Parkview. >> Yeah, we posted all through social media and and through the district, but they can call Eagleview if they have questions. >> Yeah, if you basically if anybody to check if those children are hitting the developmental milestones, if you have a question regarding your child, you can bring them in and we will do the assessment. We also are looking for tuition pre-K enrollees. The seats are going fast. It's 600 a month. It's
007Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 3:00. There is no after-school care for our tuition-based pre-K. Um, but it is a a good program and you can call Eagle View school to get information on that. I've been working on facilities and we're going to discuss more of that a lot later in the agenda, so other than that, there is going to be a brief a brief closed session, but there's no action afterwards where we can talk about personnel. So, that's the superintendent's report for this month. >> Perfect. Thank you. All right. So, we'll move on to our items for action and then we're going to back up and do the discussion, correct? I'm sorry. We're going to move into our items for action. >> Yes. >> Okay, perfect. All right. Item for action is the first one
008is approval of the early release Wednesdays. >> Which that is our mega mega report. >> Okay. Look at that. Segue right in there. >> All right. >> I knew something was going to trigger the mega mega report. Just didn't know when. >> [laughter] >> All right. Well, is this okay, Taylor, for me sitting here? Okay. Um I am going on about a year and a half of working with this amazing admin team that you have [snorts] sitting in in front of you. And I kind of wanted to paint a picture before I let them take it away because the work that they've been doing has truly been tremendous. One, they had to learn another assistant superintendent. Two, they had to learn new ropes with curriculum and instruction, which as we always talk about sometimes can
009be very challenging. Something that was very important to me on the forefront of learning my building administration was that I wanted to have one-on-ones with them. I wanted to see where they were, so I didn't change too much too quick. And what they don't even realize is the presentation they're going to give you today, they built because I listened to where they were and we moved forward together as a team, which I just can't tell you how proud I am of of what we've done in the short time we we've had together. I start with Mrs. Vinny. I had a one-on-one with Mrs. Vinny, and and they have no idea what I'm going to say either, so they might be nervous. I had a one-on-one process >> [laughter] >> I had a one-on-one with Mrs.
010Vinny, and something that she said to me that sat with me, that really did navigate our process moving together as a team, and she said, "Dr. Gainey, in order to grow together, we have to learn together." And I was like I didn't tell her then, but then I started scheduling the trainings. We had leadership training in August. We had a trip to Naperville in October. Because she was right. In order to grow together, you have to learn together. Mrs. Miller She loves to collaborate. One of my favorite experiences with her was at the middle school when we were doing walk-throughs together. None of them really knew where where I was coming from. No none of them really knew what my end goal was, but I still showed up. And her and I would go into
011rooms, and my favorite part with her was her facial expression after we came out of a classroom. I knew that she saw something. I knew she felt the impact. Collaboration is huge when you're learning and you're growing together as a team. Mr. Dugan Mr. Dugan You are a risk-taker. He will get up in front of the admin team, and he will practice presentations just like we want our teachers to do. He will publicly roast himself because he's not afraid to make mistakes, and that is how you learn together, you grow together, you make mistakes, and you fail. And that's amazing. Mr. Reese I think >> [laughter] >> I think it was our second or third time of meeting on the half-day PD schedule. And what I would do is I would create a master schedule,
012and because I wanted to have their input, I would meet with them, or I would talk to them on email. And I met with Mr. Mr. Reeves and Mrs. Bedard and I think Mrs. Miller was in there, too. We were in my office. And at one point, Mr. Reeves sat back and said, "You think maybe we could consider going back to early release Wednesdays?" Time with purpose. And at that point, I knew with this team, we could navigate anything together. And I knew that they could instructionally help the growth of the student instruction in this district. You have time with purpose. You have a risk-taker, willing to learn, fail, and make mistakes. You have learning by doing, and you've got true collaboration, which is what it's all about. So, with that being said, I'd like
013to start our presentation. >> Thank you everybody. Have a great night. >> [laughter] >> And we're done. Just kidding. Um I want to start with this quote. Student Students deserve best practices, and by giving our teachers set time every week, we guarantee regular, consistent reflection on best practices. >> So, we have it divided up into three groups. We have the district and building admin teams, which have gone to some trainings. We've had several sessions here, whether it was over the summer or during the school year going away on a trip, learning to work together. Uh we are we have selected building coalition teams from each building, who will then be our go-to. And then beneath that then is the CUSD teams. It's not beneath, but we just have different levels of who can help who
014as you go up the rung. So, we've we've moved into uh the building teams, the go coalition teams, and our team our staff teams. So, how to do this is on our Wednesdays, we would have our we would have the early outs. We had the early outs before. This would be a remodeled version of it. Every end of school day and in our half days, we have staggered exit times. We would keep those staggered exit times between buildings to keep it consistent, and that would allow for at least an hour-long collaborative team meetings in each building, which is more than what we had in the past. >> Uh one obstacle that we know this is going to cause parents is child care Wednesday early outs. It's going to be a change in their schedule. We
015have done this before. Uh it was 2:00, so this will be a little bit earlier and it'll be a challenging for parents to figure out what they're going to do with their kids during this time. Um so we've been working with Eagle Zone, Mrs. Serda, uh trying to figure out if we can uh provide more spaces for for kids. And uh she believes with the staff that we have to help from the high school students, uh the and the adult uh supervisors as well that we can add uh a pretty decent amount more students on Wednesdays. Um we're also continuing to try to come up with more uh creative ways to to add more uh positions for students and talking with transportation and um you know, other options. So we're we're still working on this
016one. Our three big ideas is uh it's going to be a focus on learning. So during this time uh teachers will be together um and and looking at assessments, looking at data, and kind of determining what's working in the classroom and what's not. Uh collaborative culture. Um this allows teachers to to be together and and talk again. Um our five essential survey came out and uh I think at many of the buildings one area that we were very low in was teacher collaboration. Teachers just feel like they don't have time to come together and talk and collaborate. And I I back to uh our time when we had even just that one hour. I felt closer to the teachers. I felt like I knew more of what was going on and um when I was
017teaching as well during those PLC times, I felt like our teams were stronger. So, um then results orientation again, it's going to be data driven. We're going to be looking at data and determining what is working and what's not, looking at um instructional strategies. What what is getting the results? >> So, now that we've talked about our vision for this and our logistics, then we get to like roll up our sleeves and get to work, which is my favorite part. So, there there's a saying that, you know, there's genius or there's beauty in simplicity and that's what's wonderful about this. So, at all levels, pre-K through 12 will be focusing on these four essential questions or critical questions. So, what do we want to our students to know or be able to do? How will
018we know that? And that's a major topic in education. All districts are wrestling with this right now. How do you really know what they've mastered something or if they're acquiring it? How what will we do when they you know, they're not learning that? Which we already have a great scaffold for RTI interventions. And then my favorite question is what do we know when we already know or you know, what do we do when they already know that? This is your great to greater. So, we have lots that already are achieving great in our in our community. But we want every student to grow and every student to really get the maximum learning and growth from their experiences in Columbia. So, these four questions regardless of what department you're in, what grade level you're in, what
019building you're in, we're all talking about the same thing. And then this is where we also get our alignment and we have our common vision and goals that we're working pre-K 12 to give the most cohesive educational experience to our children. >> [clears throat] >> And so, ways we do that, Mr. Reeves already talked about the different levels of support. I will piggyback off of a metaphor you all have been doing much construction going on lately, right? The key to that is you have to have a solid foundation. So, we've already been building our own layers of foundation. We continue to build that with our guiding coalitions that we've just established and we begin training later this month on that. Then we also have our other district and building leaders helping with us. Mrs. Gocher
020with special education, our team leaders, lots of grow your own kind of leadership in our buildings. We'll have our weekly weekly meeting agendas and again, while we're all teaching different grade levels, different needs of students, different strengths for students, different subjects, we're all saying the same kind of agenda. So, it's the same scaffold. So, we're speaking the same language across the district. Our four questions I just mentioned about and then these guiding coalitions are going to be really great because they support us up and down. So, they're the ones that are helping bridge teachers with staff, with leadership, and then also we can help get you know, use them and pick their brains for buying as well. So, we can be truly responsive and authentically supportive to everyone involved [cough and clears throat] in the
021endeavor. I'm going to skip the last one cuz we already talked about results. >> All right. And I am talking about our cultural shift at its core. We are moving from teaching to learning. We say that it's not what is taught but how effective is being taught. We want to know what the students are actually learning and how they are learning it and what do we do once they have mastered it. That means common assessments. We are shifting to that for continuous checks for understanding because we want to make sure all students are making progress, not just some. And it also means that um we have many methods. Students learn differently, just like teachers, and we want teachers to see what other teachers are doing. Um we don't want that to feel like their their
022classroom is closed and what they're doing they can't share with other people. We really want them to be able to have the conversation as departments and as teachers of this is what I'm doing to help my students be successful. It's an idea for your classroom or what are you doing that I can learn? And so that they can learn from each other as well because coalition helps create those structures where teachers can share their strategies, analyze the outcomes together, and then adjust their instruction accordingly. We really don't uh want to take away from what teachers are already doing. We just want to make it better and really have them ask those questions um and we want them to have the time to do that. And for that we want to move from isolation to collaboration
023where they do have that time across not just their grade level, but across the content areas. Um there are some external um to internal factors. Obviously, we can't control the outside, but we do have control of the inside. We love our students. We love our staff, and we know that we can shift from great to greater, and um we just want everybody to have those experiences, every student learning to the best of their potential. Which means we are moving from learning by listening to learning by doing, and through this initiative, like the Eagles Collaboration Wednesdays, they will engage in doing the work, and we can all say we're all in this together, which then brings us to our accre- >> [laughter] >> So, ultimately, this guiding coalition centers on the educators aligning goals for that
024was my extra ad there for learning engagement and >> [clears throat] >> success so every student benefits. This is not an additional initiative. It's a cultural shift in how we work, learn and grow together. >> [applause] >> This is where we kick off. So what do you say? Do we get an EARLY [laughter] RELEASE DAY? WITH A TEAM LIKE THIS YOU HONESTLY COULD DO ANYTHING. So thank you so much all of you for coming and attending. >> Are there any [clears throat] questions? >> Yes. >> How do the teachers feel about all this? >> [laughter] >> Well, >> I can answer some of that from my building. >> Well, I I did send it out last week um to share with them and I will tell you teachers I I had some positive feedback. Um
025there's been no negative feedback from teachers as far as going back to the early release. With a lot of the work that I've been doing on the half days, I have collected some survey even from January 5th um the junior high and high school teachers they made notes. We we need more regular time. We need to know what to focus on, what data are we looking at. I think culturally the teachers are ready. But principals have you had more to add? >> Yeah. I would just say that I have several teachers here if they want to comment they certainly can but the teachers that I have had multiple um teachers have said throughout my survey my mid-year survey that they just need more time. They need more time to be able to come collaborate together
026um and they it not just in their grade level but departmentally and this will ultimately give them more time but the students will benefit in the long run because they are collaborating and making decisions that's going to help the students grow individually and as a whole. >> Our our teams were much closer. We understood what was going on departmentally when we had the early out Wednesdays. I really liked it and was sad that it ended and I I think that we've lost something by not having that. Every other week we met with department and or we met team. That was how it was then. I don't know how it will be this time, but there was there was a big advantage to that. And we've we've lost we've lost that that glue that we had.
027And I think it I think it will help. >> And >> Oh, go ahead. >> I think that before we had about 40 minutes and that did not feel effective. Having the elongated time seems like we would actually be able to settle in and have constructive conversations, whereas before we were just wrapping up our day and then we got to sit down together for 20 minutes. So, this seems like it it would be more effective. >> And I think this will be effective as long as it's protected time. When we first went from early out to half days, that was supposed to be protected time and it has over the over the years become filled with PD. That has taken away from us spending focus on students. And so, as long as this is protected
028time for us to actually collaborate and work with our fellow teachers in the benefit of what's best for students, it will be beneficial. >> I think that we share the time. I don't think that's an issue. >> And then is the training building specific or do you guys do district-wide or does it matter? >> Um it's kind of one of my big goals when we started having these conversations is I didn't want to put the professional collaboration to fit Columbia. I wanted Columbia to fit it. So with that being said when we went to Hinsdale, one of the most beautiful parts of their um PLC learning community processes each building on their campus had a set non-negotiable set of standards or expectations, but depending upon the building and the teachers and the grade levels, they
029would use the time that was fit for them in that building. So it's kind of a combination of both. Um as an administration team we have some non-negotiables that we have kind of set and we're working on setting and then they will further that conversation through collaboration with their buildings and their teachers. >> Perfect. Do we also have any questions? Comments, suggestions? >> I've been around for both sets. The teachers on the Wednesdays but >> I see value in it so. >> And by the way, we had no idea you were going to ask us our opinions. >> We also didn't know what their presentation looked like. So we were not like paid to come here. I'M JUST >> [laughter] >> YEAH, BUT WE DIDN'T BRING ANYBODY IN FOR THAT. I LIKE WHAT LISA was
030saying, that I appreciate that. >> I like the unpaid endorsement disclosure, that's great. >> [cough] >> All right, well it is an item for action so we have a Would anybody like to make a motion to approve the early release Wednesdays? >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Lisa. Do I hear a second? >> I'll second. >> All right, roll call please. >> Fredrick? >> Yes. >> Himken? >> Yes. >> Moyer? >> Yes. >> Corey absent, Meyer? >> Yes. >> Search? >> Yes. >> Schumacher? >> Yes. >> Perfect. And the next item is the approval of the job description for the curriculum coordinator. We recently added a section. >> Turn that over to Dr. Yianni as well? >> Yes. >> Great. Job description for the >> I'm sorry, I can't hear you. I'm fighting
031a cold. >> Job description for the curriculum coordinator. >> Yes, yes. So, we are bringing on a new curriculum director, Laura Yarber, as was stated in the consent agenda. With that, we have been working on a comprehensive review on job descriptions, and that is what you found in your board packet today. Everything that was in there the the last time is still in there. We are working too with it being a director, we want to make sure we're specific as far as who would be the next person in charge in line if the superintendent was off campus. All of that those pieces of information can be found in in the job description as well. >> Can I tag in for a second? >> Yes, absolutely. >> people that may not be as in in step
032with us, so what we're doing is changing our leadership model for the district, and going from assistant superintendent with assistant superintendent to actually removing the assistant superintendent role. And that's where the curriculum director is coming in, and then we're going to have discussions on another the HR the other director discussion that we're having. So, if people are trying to wonder where is this coming from, who is this person, what billet are they filling, this is essentially what we're doing here is filling the assistant superintendent billet that we've reallocated. >> And to further add on that as well, is as I've shared with curriculum and instruction, like you had spoke to, protected time, it's so important for any leader being in a leader position of curriculum instruction to have that protected work. Um because when when
033you don't have that protected work in your job description, sometimes many other things get in the way and when you're trying to do continued curriculum and instruction work, you know, it it's hard to to remain consistent. So, that was another reason we we decided to go with a curriculum director um as a piece to the assistant superintendent. >> Well, then to add to that, we've noticed our job descriptions are a little uh have not been touched for years and years and years if at all. So, it just just improvement and uh moving forward always. >> Absolutely. >> Any other questions regarding the job description for the curriculum director? If none, may we like to make a motion to approve the job description for our curriculum director? >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Kelly.
034Second? >> I'll second. >> There's no money involved, so all in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? >> Any abstentions? All right. >> That carries. All right, that concludes our items for action. And I take it your super assistant superintendent report was kind of in that, or is there anything more you want to add? >> Well, the only additional thing I had for the assistant superintendent report >> something. >> was You're right. But, January 5th, we did have a whole day of PD. Um and kind of leaning in towards the teachers' training for the early release Wednesdays, we spent a whole day with the junior high and high school teachers, our elective teachers as well, and our special ed department to really start having those conversations of what does true collaboration amongst everyone in the
035district look like. Um in addition to that, we had some ELA trainings. Uh Dr. Grody and I, we were in the um junior high high school um training first, and then we were able to go around to the other trainings to pop in and see how everything was was going. And it was a good day of learning for our staff. So, continued um excellence has been happening with the ELA program. Um we have a lot of uh curriculum work to do with the ELA program, and we're going to continue that just next month. So, many good things on the horizon. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll go on to our facility study. Our discussion item as it pertains to the facility study. >> There's been a lot of work going
036on in the facility. >> That's an understatement. >> A lot of a lot of details. I did ask um the Petka representatives to come to next month's board meeting to discuss our progress and and our finals, but we are getting very, very close. I'm still extremely hopeful that we will be into there sooner rather than later. We took a tour of it before this meeting, and uh the parts that are done are looking very good. And it's just a matter of getting the auditorium back. We're working backwards from the play, and uh the the rigging needs to be installed for the lights and for all of the curtains because after they're installed, there is a commissioning of the equipment that takes a week, a week and a half, maybe 2 weeks, and then training on
037how to use it before we can actually start using it. We did have the ROE come in today and look at look over it. Everything's looking good, and we've got a detailed list of what we will need for partial occupancy cuz the goal is to get the students into that um space to start practicing while they're still finishing up some of the details. So, they kids would be able to get in there after school when no construction's happening, do their practices, and then during the day they would be finishing up. Um our next walk-through with the ROE is the 29th of January. So, we are hoping to have our occupancy and have the students able to get in there at that point in time. Um So, right now, knock on wood, everything going according to
038plan, things are working well. Um One little bump in the road, though. It's construction. It is >> There's always bumps in the road, and we are are working to fix all of those, but um anybody that took a you you you saw it fresh tonight, Mrs. Schumacher. What did you >> really nice. Really nice. Guys did a great job. >> Still going, but Mr. Hampton, do you have any Mr. Search? Really? Nothing? >> I'm speechless. He's speechless. >> I need a minute here. >> [laughter] >> So beautifully speechless. >> Wow, I >> We're all still waiting. >> I know. I know. >> [clears throat] >> I'm good. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> Just checking. >> that look, Adam. >> Exactly. All right. And the uh I want to add to the Dr. Brody's thing, the
039especially the auditorium. This is just a massive project, and there's so many working parts, and we are we we call it CS you CUSD Thursday. >> Thank you. >> That's right. So, our pretty much our Thursdays are dedicated to nothing but the project, and uh line item and line item and going through, but what's really neat is this auditorium is going to be just such a huge jewel for this district. And when you walk actually backstage, and you see the rigging that's going up, and all the curtains, and the future of mansion, and it's just really, you know, I've been involved from day one, and approved all the plans, and seen everything, but really seeing it come together, it is just such an amazing project, and something that the community should be really proud of.
040So, it's exciting, and it's it's getting really close. >> And the the the we're allowed to talk about the first show, right? Mamma Mia! >> [laughter] >> And I believe the goal is to have our students and other people in the pit playing the music live. >> That is the current >> That is the goal. >> Um students started rehearsals this week. So, they're all very excited. That's all that they're talking about is that this is going to be on the new stage and they're excited about the the idea of the pit. They're excited about the idea of like the new backstage area. Um the just the size of the stage in comparison to the middle school space. Um they are like on pins and needles ready to get in. >> How many students did
041you have trying out for this? >> We currently have 43 students performing. We typically have about 15 to 20 who work with us on a technical crew. And then we have a team of parents who volunteer for tickets and concessions as well. So. >> Apparently the word's out there cuz no kidding, we have a request from a studio in New Jersey to rent our facility for a dance competition. They were They were turned down. >> [laughter] >> Somehow a studio in New Jersey wants to do a competition. >> [laughter] >> If If there's revenue to the district, we might want to reconsider that a little bit. So. Keep those taxes down. And I I will add one more thing, you know, is Adam and I are usually the ones that are pushing, pushing, pushing and
042with Mr. Reeves and Dr. Grody, we don't have to do anything. They These two are bulldogs and they are attention to detail and they won't let anything go. Believe me, anything. >> Mr. Reeves is a little bit more attention to details, but it's it's that has always been his skill set. >> Yep, so they they especially like Mr. Reeves' list, so they kind of tend to jump right on those, so. Thank you for that. All right. Individual board member comments. Anybody have anything they want to say tonight? >> Were you going to talk about our meeting? >> Nothing. >> Yeah, we're going to and take care of that. Um we'll on the board president's part. If I got a couple things this this evening. Most importantly, I wanted to welcome your Lori Arbor to the
043group. Um, we did through it the just the consent agenda, so we didn't do any hype that you probably deserve, but this is this is another really exciting time for the district. Um, Dr. Gainey has she's our everybody knows she our first year superintendent. And she has very big shoes to fill with this guy sitting next to me and and she has well hit the ground running. Um, just the improvement that I see from kind of standing back. Um, it's nothing is it just because it's been done that way doesn't mean we're going to keep doing it this way and we're finding ways to improve and she's this curriculum is really huge. Uh, we approved a new set of books. Was it last year? >> Yes. >> And which she was instrumental in that and
044now it's you know, she and I talked a lot about the assistant superintendent and we talked about our needs and our needs is really in the curriculum and so she had the idea to to move forward which is an idea a few of us had years years ago that she never knew about, so it's kind of the interests are aligning, but uh, you know, we have a wonderful district and things are just getting better and better and better and it's thanks to her leadership and and what she does behind the scenes is amazing, so thank you for that. And welcome Lori, you got a >> Excited to have you. Welcome. >> Exactly. Exactly, so All right. And then uh, the county was in and talking about our tax rate which we are very proud of
045and that's one of the focuses of myself and several other board members is to keep our taxes low and reasonable and not increase them and like when the high school project came, our number one goal is to not increase the tax rate. We want to live within our means and get it done. It takes some tough decisions sometimes, but we want to make fiscal responsibility. Speaking of that, on our CSU do >> CSU >> CUSD. I got to get that. Thank you. >> The Thursday thing, uh we met with uh a contractor and we're talking about some improvements, uh energy mostly. So, we're going to do a study on our lights and we're going to see what changing to LED would do for us. I think we're going to save a little bit of money
046doing that and there's some incentives with Ameren and that sort of thing. So, that ball is rolling. Uh the survey has cost nothing to the district, so we obviously want to take advantage of that and we did. Uh the next thing is solar. So, as everybody knows, utility costs are going to just keep increasing and right now there's a lot of incentives for solar, but these incentives are coming to an end. So, in July a lot of them are going to going to end completely. So, with solar, the problem is we are we have no land. If we had land, as Adam said, we'd have a parking lot. So, we can't do ground-based solar. So, our only option is on roofs. So, when you put solar on roof, you can't put solar on an old
047roof because when you need a new roof, you got to take the solar down, redo the roof, and put it back up, and again, we want to keep your taxes down. So, we do have a couple buildings that have newer roofs. Uh the middle school is um one of again, I keep saying Adam here, but he's he does a lot of work behind the scenes, too. Um he's been monitoring the utility costs for the middle school and we're trying to figure out why and we're working on the systems and controls and we're actually making progress and our our bills are starting to come down. So, um that work is paying off with the middle school would probably be our choice. We just had a brand new roof put on. So, the middle school would probably
048be the first one we'd want to do solar on. Um again, it's early stages. We'd like transparency, so we are looking at solar. Just want the community to understand that. Um again, the idea was we do have some working cash that would be available and what we would pretty much are contemplating initially is an investment. So, we invest in solar in one building and then with the rebates when they'll start coming back, we use those rebates then to do the other buildings and we just keep going. You know, utility costs are just going to keep going up and up and up and if we can control our destiny, we're just going to be better off doing that. So, again, just some exciting things happen behind the scenes and and we don't want to give up.
049Did I miss anything? >> No. Broad strokes. >> Very. Very so. Perfect. All right, well, we do have an executive session this evening. There is no item action action items as a result. So, I as always you guys are welcome to come back in and see us adjourn, but we certainly understand if you don't want to, but we are going to go into the executive session for where the purpose of employment, appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of a specific employee of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against the employee of the public body or against the legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2C1. Would anyone here like to make a motion to adjourn into
050executive session? >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Adam. Second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Maureen. Roll call, please. >> Greene? Yes. Corey? Absent. Hemken? >> Yes. >> Meyer? >> Yes. >> Moyer? >> Yes. >> Search? >> Yes. >> Schumacher? >> Yes. >> Perfect. It is 7:39 and we will now go into executive session. Thank you all for joining us tonight. >> Mhm. >> All right, we'll resume our regular scheduled meetings at 8:21 p.m. There are no action items as a result of our executive session. Our last item is a motion to adjourn. >> I'll make the motion. >> Thank you, Kelly. Second? >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> All right. That concludes our meeting at 8:21 p.m. Thank you for joining us. >> Mhm.