001testing. Testing one, two, testing. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us at this committee of the whole meeting on December 9th, 2025. Um, I would like to call this meeting officially to order at 6:30 p.m. Um, let's stand to say the pledge said by Dr. Hall followed by our mission statement from Mr. Salish. I pledge algiance 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. >> Our mission statement is to engage and empower our students to positively impact their community and future. >> Moving right. >> Roll call. Oh, yeah. You're right. Sorry about that. Roll call. >> Ready? All right. Dr. Hall >> present. >> Miss Venegas >> here. >> Miss Wolffoke, Mr.
002Brown, Mr. Gyos, Miss Stumbris >> here, >> Mr. Swalish is here. And to kick this meeting off, I would like to get a motion to open the truth in taxation public hearing. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Moved by Bill, seconded by um Todd. And so we'll turn it over to you, kind sir. >> All right. Uh Miss Venegas. >> Roll call. Right. >> Yeah. >> I >> Dr. Hall >> I >> Miss Sombra >> I >> Mr. Swalish is an I. >> No. Right. Thank you. >> All right. Is there any public comment related to the truth and taxation hearing? >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Brian Johnson, director of finance for the school district. This is our 2025 truth and taxation hearing for property taxes to be collected in 2026.
003This is the same presentation that was given in November. So, it should look familiar to everyone. Feel free to ask any questions you might have along the way. Um, starting with definitions, the equalize assessed value or EAV is the result of applying a state equalizer to the assessed value of a parcel of property in Will County. This is one-third of the property's value. An example of this, a property valued at $150,000 would have an EAV of $50,000, which is one-third. The tax levy is the amount of money the school district requests from property taxes for our operations funds. The tax extension is the process completed by the county clerk of calculating the tax rate to determine the amount of taxes to be paid by the property owner. And the tax rate is a multiplier determined
004by the county clerk that is used with the property owner's EAV to calculate the amount of taxes to be paid. The requirements for our tax levy, the extension may increase a maximum of 5% or CPI, which is 2.9% of the previous year's extension, whichever is less. New construction and dissolving tiffs are in addition to this requirement. This year we do have the Mon tiff number three that has rolled off that we needed to capture which is why we're requesting above the 5% thus the need for this hearing. We balloon this just to make sure we don't miss those funds that are available because we only have one chance to capture those funds. We need to publish a notification in the local newspaper within 14 days. We did that in the Daily Southtown um published to
005the district website within 30 days of the hearing. that was published as well. And then once approved, the levy must be filed with the county clerk by the last Tuesday of December, which is the 30th. We can now file electronically, so we will likely follow or file on the 17th after the regular board meeting next week. So now, just some historical data. The district's EAV has been steadily increasing. The 2024 EAV was just over $1 billion, which is the figure we use to calculate our 2025 levy. And then the district's portion of a taxpayers's tax rate has been decreasing since 2017. So this year it is estimated to be around 6.67%. So the data used to determine the levy, the consumer price index, which was 3.4% 4%. Last time we did this, it's dropped to
0062.9%. Again, that equalize assessed value number is just over $1 billion. New construction is estimated at around $30 million. We get this estimate from the Will County Assessor. New TIFF revenue is estimated at just under $1.5 million. also an estimate we we receive from the Will County Assessor and that's due to Monet TIFF number three rolling off and then our annual bond payment is just under $12 million. So this is our levy. These are the amounts we are requesting in each of the different funds that our tax monies go into. As you can see, those numbers have gone up significantly from 2023 until now. Again, that is last year we had the tiff and University Park roll off. This year we have the tiff and mon rolling off. So again, we just balloon our levy
007to over levy to ask for above what we feel we're going to get just to make sure we're not leaving any of that revenue on the table. So this next slide is an estimate of what we actually think we will receive in our extension from the county which is again an increase of 7.7%. These are all still estimates until the EAVs are set at January 1st. Again, we're just going off the estimates from the county assessor. So, because that number is above that 5%, we do need to hold this hearing. And then this next slide is an estimate of the tax rate. Again, estimates based on what we've received from the county assessor so far. Our requested share of taxes paid is being lowered by 4% compared to last year. And again, it's been decreasing
008annually for the last several years. So this next slide is just what does this mean for a property owner? These are just examples of we based our examples on a 5% EAV increase for a property. So in these examples homes valued at 150,000 250,000 I'm sorry 200,000 250,000 and 300,000. If your figures are based on an EAV increase of 5%. So in this example, a home that was valued at $150,000 on your tax bill last year would be valued at $157,500 this year. So you would see a tax increase of the portion you paid to the district of $58. And then just same steps for different values. And then um the important dates, December 9th, today is our public hearing. Our board meeting next week, the board will vote to approve our 2025 tax levy.
009And then the deadline to submit to the county clerk is December 30th. And with that, I'll open to any questions. The only question I have is the only reason we're doing this the same as last year is because last year was University Park TIFF and this year we're trying to capture the Mooney TIFF 3. >> Correct. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Um may I have a motion to close the truth in taxation public hearing? moved. >> I'll second it. >> All right. Roll call. Uh, Miss Venegg >> I. >> Dr. Hall >> I. >> Miss Stumbris >> I. >> And Swalish is an I. >> Next up we have public comments. I've got two that were sent in. Do we have any oral comments tonight? >> Okay. So, I'll start with the first.
010Oh, we do. All right. We'll start with um oral comments first. >> Yeah. Did >> you for the >> Okay. >> Yeah. You go first. You do that and I'll read. Is that okay? Perfect. So, this is from Miriam Gay. Good evening. I am one of the many many thousands of food and agriculture professionals whose life has been changed for the better by a blue corduroy jacket and an agriculture educator. I am Miriam Gay, a sales territory manager for Cortiva Agracience, an agriculture inputs provider whose mission is to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume. I am writing in support of the Create Mon high school agriculture and FFA program and the students whose lives will be changed for the better as a result of their experiences in the program. As
011a past FFA member, I began my TA time time in high school as a shy, unsure student who was afraid of stepping up and speaking out. It was my agriculture teachers persistence, seeing in me what I could not see in myself, which led me to gain the confidence I needed to begin stepping into leadership positions and speaking out for the causes which mattered to me. With the opportunity to serve in leadership positions where I met many other FFA members across the state of Illinois and the entire nation, I saw countless more stories so much like my own. students who became confident contributors to their community thanks to the leadership development opportunities provided through the FFA. Strong, well-supported agricultural education programs are a gift to the students they serve and the communities in which they reside.
012Developing strong young adults with the confidence to make a positive difference in the world. Thank you for your time and support. Sincerely, Miriam Gay. And the next one comes in and I do apologize if I mispronounce your name um from Andy Vna to whom it may concern. My name is Andy Vna and I represent my family farm. I am writing to express my enthusiastic support for the cit program and FFA chapter. The invaluable experiences and leaderships and skills gained through this program not only enhance students understanding of agg but also foster leadership, teamwork and community engagement. The agriculture curriculum provides students with hands-on learning opportunities that are essential in today's world. Additionally, participation in FFA encourages students to develop critical life skills such as public speaking, pub, which I can't do apparently, public speaking, project
013management, and problem solving. Supporting our agriculture program and FFA chapter is an investment to our students future and the well-being of our community. I urge you to continue to provide the necessary resources and support for this vital program. Thank you for considering my comments. Sincerely, Andy Vna. We've got one more for filling out their final paperwork. Thank you. Let me read this introduc. And for a public comment speaking uh about FFA, we have Mr. Malachi Cliff. >> Hello everyone. I am well. Uh I'm here to give an update about the community garden community garden that's at the high school that you all are aware of. Correct. So basically we have grown 1,300 plus pounds of fresh produce that has been donated to the pantry and to the creek pantry that serves 200 plus families. And
014I want to give you all an update on our progress there. And then we have harvested all of our popcorn corn and we're chucking that corn and getting it ready to make the CHS popcorn kettle corn. So that'll be ready soon. and we're sending off uh more seeds to U ofi for research because they were the ones who offered us the seeds and gave us the opportunity to grow those. Um and as Marian said, FFA is growing our leadership skills such as me being here today. This is because of FFA. So, I just wanted to stand that out because if I if if if it weren't for FFA, I wouldn't be here today and I wouldn't have the leadership skills I have now to have the courage to even stand up to you all. And
015that's thanks to Miss Baki and how much she cares about our FFA program and how she pushes us to grow it from the students, not just the teacher. because she told us ourselves that FFA isn't meant isn't meant to be built by just the teacher alone. It's meant to be built by the community and the students in it. And that's my public comment. >> Thank you, Mr. Cliff. It's appreciated. Um, and next I'd like to move on for board updates. >> One quick update. Um, I just want to say congratulations to our cheerleading team who took third at the uh I think it was Samberg which is a really tough place to compete when you're competing against much bigger schools and programs. Um, the Chilean program has come a very long way. They now have
016a JV squad and a varsity squad. So, it's really growing and that's exciting to see. >> That's great. >> Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Moving right along. As long as Are we all good? All right. Moving right along. Administrative updates. Um we're going to start with good news from our superintendent. >> So, our our staff and our students are working uh quite quickly as I can't believe we have got a two weeks really before the holidays are upon us. So, our buildings are out doing a lot of work to uh get all that school work in ahead of time. The other uh piece I wanted to share is we had our uh third annual safety symposium uh here at the district. We had about 45 uh participants coming, some of them as far as Morris and
017coming and just listening to some of the presentations that our staff did. Again, I talked to every single person that left and everybody was just uh so appreciative of um having the opportunity to come and learn from our staff and really network with one another. Um I had a round table with other superintendents and we had an opportunity to share um just discussions about security and especially the topic that I've been really really pushing on right now with cyber security um and just talking a little bit about that. So anyway, huge success um and Russell was part of that uh symposium along with his handler there Brian. So um always seems to get a lot of um well attended activity over there. So anyway, we're really pleased for that. So just want to share that.
018>> Thank you and congratulations to all. Under business, we have one for the discussion on the bid results for the sale of the Mooney Education Center. MEC Uh good evening board of education Jamie say Summers acting as president this evening. Um other distinguished members of the board of education Dr. Kaglinise I'm here to discuss the bid results of for the sale of the Mon Education Center. On November 17th, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. we held a bid opening for the sale of that property. We were in uh receipt of one bid that met the minimum uh price established by the board of education in the amount of $500 and $53,500. So, I've been working with our attorney. He's in uh process of contacting the buyer's attorney and preparing a contract and a resolution to be uh
019so action could be taken on that next meeting December 16th. >> Did they put a deposit down or anything to hold? >> Correct. We have a a $10,000 cashier's deposit uh that was outlined in the bid document. So, they met that qualific that requirement. >> Okay. And do you have a time frame on when you think that will that be completed by the end of the year or is that a January thing? >> I think it'd be January given the times of the holidays. I don't necessarily know their financing options, but Mr. Gleason is in contact with their attorney to, you know, iron out the terms of the contract and then also work with the closing date. >> All right. Any additional questions? >> Thank you. And congratulations on getting that sale. Is there any
020old business? Hearing nothing, we can move along. Any new business? All right. We have no reason for a close session. So I would like to move um >> we need a motion motion to adjurnn. >> So move >> second. >> Can we get a unison to adjurnn? Everyone who's interested in adjourning say I >> I. >> All right. Thank you. We are adjourned at uh 6:50 p.m. Everyone have a good night and we'll see you next week.