001testing testing one two testing e e e all right I would like to call this meeting to order special school board meeting for creep Moni 201u today is Tuesday December the 10th 2024 6:30 p.m. Mr secretary roll call please okay do we have Mr Alber no um gyos is here uh Mrs SW walish here miss Z stricks here miss worfolk here uh Dr Hall here had a l my voice like you make it deep and and president Brown here thank you like us to stand for the pledge been led by secretary Mr G followed by a mission statement led by Dr Hall 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 our mission
002statement is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and future thank you both need a motion open I need a motion to open up the open okay all right I need a motion to open up the truth and Taxation for for the public hearing I have a motion to do so moved moved by Bill second second by Dr Hall questions or comments roll call please all right um gyo says an i Mr swales hi miss zus I miss worfolk I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion pass all right Jason or or Brian is on you Cheryl are there any public comments regarding the truth and Taxation hearing okay thank you good evening everyone my name is Brian Johnson Director of Finance for the school district we're here to discuss the
0032024 truth and Taxation hearing if you tuned in last month this is the same presentation we reviewed last time so just let me know if we have any questions otherwise I'll get to it um to start definitions equalized assessed value is the result of taking a third of your property's assessed value which you are then taxed upon an example of a $150,000 home valuation would be taxed at the $50,000 equalized assess value the tax levy is the amount of money the school district requests from property taxes for our operating funds the tax extension is the amount of money the county clerk gives us and the tax rate is the multiplier that the county clerk applies against your equalized assess value to know the amount of property taxes you are required to pay the requirements for
004us we can request an increase of taxes each year a maximum of 5% or CPI which was 3.4% so that is the max we could request for the 2024 Levy new construction and new tiffs rolling off are not part of this calculation the levy is more than 5% which ours is this year due to those tiffs rolling off that we'll discuss later um we do need to hold this truth and Taxation hearing our notice was published in the newspaper the week of Thanksgiving and we we have had this notice published on our website more than 30 days in advance of the hearing the board will vote to approve the levy next week and then it must be filed with the county clerk no later than December 31st which is the last Tuesday of December historical
005data equalized assess value throughout the district has steadily increased the data we show goes back to 2016 it's been pretty consistent because of that our tax rate that we've requested annually has gone down because we need less of a percentage of a higher dollar amount and that's going to remain consistent moving forward the data we used to determine the levy again Consumer Price Index was 3.4% so that is our cap maximum that we're allowed to request the eav throughout the District was just under $832 million the estimate of new construction is around 100 million doll based on what we received from the Will County Assessor because of the Moni or I'm sorry the University Park Tiff that's rolling off we're estimating approximately $4.9 million of additional revenue and our annual Bond payment will remain stagnant
006at just under $12 million annually the yellow column in 2024 is the ballooned levy that we are requesting from the county for this year the reason those numbers are so high again is because we have a tiff rolling off and we only get one chance to request that additional approximately $5 million in Revenue so we increase this by an amount much higher than we think just to make sure we're not missing any money because again we're working off of estimates at this time so we just want to make sure we're covering all of our bases and just a reminder we do have the Moni Tiff rolling off next year so we'll be in a similar boat where we'll Bel next year to make sure we get all of that Revenue as well our estimated extension
007the funds that we think we will receive is in the yellow column here again not as high as what we're requesting but we want to make sure we're getting everything and again the bond and interest payment is staying stagnant and then here is the historic view of our tax rate that we are requesting again you'll see that that has decreased annually and this year with that Tiff rolling off we're requesting about 6% less than we did last last year that 5.45 is about 6% lower than the 5.8 re we requested last year and then again because of that Tiff the bond and interest share that each taxpayer is being asked to pay is lowered as well by about a little over 8% so what does this mean to a property owner here are some examples
008of a home that was valued at $100,000 historically 150,000 200,000 and $250,000 we are estimating an increase in total taxes paid which we don't get any say in a lot of properties were revalued at a higher eav than they have been historically and again we get no say in what the taxpayer actually pays we just have a say in What proportion we are requesting and we are always very concerned conservative in these numbers last year the actual payment that came out after all the numbers were finalized was lower and we expect that to be the same for this example of the $100,000 home we do expect that $16 number to be high and the actuals to come out lower but again we're conservative in our estimates so that there's not any surprises so with that
009if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them otherwise just a reminder of the important dates our hearing is today next week you'll vote to approve the tax levy and then everything is due to the county clerk by December 31st which we will likely get that submitted on the 18th once everything is finalized and approved are there any questions thank you Brian Bill did you say no I said thank you oh just a quick question U this time of the year you know the public is looking and seeing that their taxes is going to go up and a lot of times the finger get pointed at us being the big contributor of the tax increase and so I I do want to reach out to you to see if next week the both tax
010assessors that's in our district here being money tax assessor andc tax assessor attend our meeting next week just if there's some questions to be asked from the public about tax increase that the assessors are the ones that increase the eav or the assessment values of the homes not the district correct so I know we have the biggest rate for the property owners but nonetheless we have nothing to do with the assessed value correct and I've seen in many meetings where the public came out and hammered us as being the ones that caused their assessments to go up but that's not the case so we have had in the past where not all the time but assessors have showed up just to speak on that okay yeah we can reach out and see if we can
011get if you could if they you know it's not available that's fine but if we can extend an offer to now sure okay thank you and going back to the CPI if you can just clarify the CPI that's on the requirements PowerPoints the first couple sheets there the third sheet tax extension may increase a maximum 5% or CPI 3.4% of the previous year extension whichever is less so that CPI was based on this January number right December 31st of 2023 2023 2024 2024 23 the year before right it wasn't this January 20 December 31st 2023 CPI was 3.4% which is what our 2024 tax levy is based on I thought it comes out and it's well just if you can provide Clarity on that I thought it comes out and we capture it on that
012January like this January this past January we take the CPI of this past January I thought December okay let me clarify that okay okay do you know where CPI is running at now roughly not off the top of my head but could look it up and get back to once I get back to my computer it's a president Brown there'll be announced CPI tomorrow on a monthly basis it's hovering around 3% it's fluctuated between 3% and 3.2 on a monthly basis but I'm looking right here and uh Mr Johnson's correct compared to December of 2022 CPI inflation CPI inflation fell by 3.1 percentage points from 6.5% which probably led us which led us to Levy at 5% previous year in December of 2022 to 3.4% in December of 2023 2023 so that's the number we
013use the end of December or December one so this one that's coming up this December is going to be next year for next year correct next year okay so it's not January okay I thought it was January I thought we used the January CPI problem okay thanks thanks thanks Brian appreciate it any other questions any other questions board members right thank you okay thank you all right I like a motion to close the truth and Taxation public hearing moved move by Bill second second by Jamie questions comments if not roll call please okay uh gigos says an i Mrs swsh I miss zit somus I miss War folk I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion Carri okay coming up at number seven we do have a reason to go into close session and it
014is for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees can I have a motion to go into close session for reasons just stated second any questions or comments if not roll call please miss War folk Miss zeit stumber I Mrs swsh I Kos say an I uh Mr Alber I Dr Hall I president Brown I we will be in close session for about 15 no longer no longer than 15 minutes and when we come back we will continue on our meeting including taking actions as necessary thank you e e e and a little later than what we anticipated I got a question did we feed the dog he's good okay all right as he as he should okay okay um we're back here for public comments and we do have any electri
015electronic public comments none okay we do have two public comments Mr Bruce bar for yellow bus Group Transportation bid results and regular education all right please the mic uh my name is Bruce bar I'm the owner of yellow bus group I've been in the bus business for 48 years um used to own Illinois Central School Bus I submitted a bid here at your school district I want to let you know that your bid was very fair transparent um Jason was gave us all the information we needed gave us it was almost a perfect bid um because that's not always the case when you put bids together um I operated with Illinois Central about 3,300 school buses in 11 states so I've done a lot of bids but I just want to give him the Kudos
016that he did a very nice job and I also want to tell you that even though we're going to get kicked to the curb um thank you um for giving me the opportunity to give you a bid and maybe we'll see on your special ed bid we'll see thank you oh thank you well received and Jason the checking in the mail may have all zeros on it but the check is in the mail okay FR or behind I appreciate that comment there next up we have another public comment if I'm pronouncing this right right U Mr Tom Sebert okay regarding Mac scho bus or Knack School Bus good evening Tim Ste from North America Central School Bus uh thanks for giving me a minute today and I think he heard my notes because I said
017the same thing I was going to come up here hey oh wow we all work for each other sooner or later heck I started this business up 10 years ago for First Student whenever they came in here wow Bruce started it up before that on Illinois Central with his team so we all come around we know a little bit about your business I want to thank you for allowing us to bid I think it was pretty competitive you if there's any questions on it later on down the road or something you know you always feel free to give us a call and we look forward to the special needs bid if this one doesn't work out so thank you very much wow thank you wow that was uh great to hear you know uh been
018out there hearing a lot of contracts and been bidded on the bidding process have been seen just in my private life out there as being challenged and questionable for you guys to come and say that the bid process was fair and Equitable that says a lot about our guys again thank you appreciate it all righty next up board updates uh so I attended the uh the triple I conference and on Friday uh was in a session about bringing the student voice to the board um so there's a lot of uh a lot of discussion it was a it was a morning and afternoon session um I got the name of a lady a board member from asigo who has had um students on their board for the past two years um and uh I got
019her number to bounce ideas off of um she said that there's a there's a a separate meeting of students that meets with the superintendent prior to the board meeting so they can uh add things to the agenda um or discern which one which issues should come to the board and which uh and which shouldn't come um so there's uh they they spoke about an an application process where uh students uh Juniors and seniors in the high school would um present uh applications and then I think a total of like six uh students would be in a meeting with the superintend it and then they would rotate out um uh unless there was an issue that carried over to the next meeting then that person would have to uh see if they can uh adjust with
020the with the next person in line um so uh so I guess we need to um if we're serious about bringing a student voice to the board uh I guess there's some things that we should iron out here M uh so we can bring that back to the high school um there were some middle schoolers at the uh at the training um and we have we're unit district so we have both Middle School and High School uh I was I was asking how uh how to how to incorporate both schools into our board meeting and they said Slow Down slow down pump the brakes just do your high school first get that going and uh make that succeed and then we can talk about you know bringing in the middle school later um so that
021was that uh training and then I uh I got to hear um Dr Winkleman from uh District 220 it's uh the the district that I graduated from uh they he was talking about uh Innovations uh that was the session that he was talking about uh he had heard that there was going to be like a mandate for full day kindergarten or something like that and he didn't have a place to put all these students so what he did is he sectioned off like two classrooms in the high school so that uh the high school juniors and seniors could teach The Kindergartners and um I would like him to uh maybe present here or if we could go over there and visit and see how it how it works out uh cuz it's it sounded like
022when he talked about it it sounded like way out there uh but he says it works really well uh he's like if you've ever seen a high schooler defend a little guy a little kindergarten like they they they defend him pretty well so um he says it's it's been working out uh really well for both the uh upper classman and and the little gu so uh just for clarification purposes there are like licensed teachers with them okay cool just wanted to make sure cuz I was like oh no no but oh okay I down all right uh so it's it's they're they're doing like chemistry they're doing like chemistry classes and stuff like that and they're teaching the the kids how to do uh what they're learning in in school it's it's really cool uh
023I guess I haven't seen it in in practice yet um I got to make a trip up there and uh what else it's been so long since our last meeting couple weeks yeah um what else do I attend um I attended the the Creek Country Christmas where our show choir um performed and our choir kids um performed um what else there was uh there was a family night with the ELC that was in the gym uh with dinosaurs and stuff um so that was really cool I get to bring my little one she get to see all her friends and teachers uh so that was really good um and uh I like those because I'm not the focus nobody knows who I am like they don't care so I get to blend in it's really
024cool uh not blend in with the kids yeah they're they're tall no uh I'm trying to remember everything that I did since the last meeting but it's a lot of stuff while you're trying to remember just kudos to every all of the musicians that played at the holiday concert yeah yeah including your son right fine they were all great my son was as great as all of the other children I swear yeah right Alex uh I think that's it I think that's it for me okay that was a lot and thank you so much for all you do both you thank you and again and then the parade we were in we were in the parade that was on Saturday yeah uh we got new lights for the van yes they did a phenomenal job
025yeah they did really good app we did Christmas story that was a big hit people were laughing as we were driving up and down Main Street I I missed I missed it I where were you in the audence no I know wife M I was on the other side of the bus you didn't see me so but thank you Alex and again thank you kudos for you supporting the building principal visit thank you for that too as well okay yeah going we visit a couple schools okay doctor okay Nelson anybody else is that better oh it is a lot better um I also attended the triple I conference and so I was three days into my appointment so that was fun and educational um I did attend the supervisor evaluation so I I learned about
026that also learned about school finances come to find out I was in two workshops that I think I was supposed to pre-register for but okay um the one oh I did go to four and the one that actually kind of stuck with me was learning about how school districts partner with their local foundation and so I did want to know who I can talk to to learn more about that how our foundation works with our school district if we have one I I did I did hear we did have one um so I'm curious and interested to see how our foundation supports the board and the district in general and uh may not be at this moment but I would like to learn more about how the foundation H okay okay yeah that is the
027end of my report that was quick I like you [Laughter] quick all right uh I'll save my uh updates for the tripley that I went to and some other things for next week given that we went longer than we supposed to in our close session so thank you all board members that attended all the functions throughout and very busy oh Alex I will get with you and Bill because I did kind of reach out to you guys to kind of move forward with having a student having a seat at the board I did talk to our principal uh Mr holy Phil hly holy Hil and he's ready to go he's ready to go and submit a person to us even the first part of next year he's ready he's just ready to go okay we're
028trying to get this in before the school year so I'll be talking to Bill and and Alex and we have a building meeting with the principal on the 17 we're not going to really discuss that but that's offline I'll talk to you more about that okay and I don't want to surprise us think we don't want to surprise our superintendent and our superintendent should not surprise us okay so more on that okay all right no other board updates superintendent administrative updates uh just to say our our students and our staff are working really hard to uh get that last bit of instruction uh in these next few weeks um and then the other thing I wanted to highlight is you should have at your table a lovely note that was given to to us um
029I'm not going to read it all for you but this was in reference to the waiver the boundary waiver that was received and like I said it's not often that we get thank you notes um but I just wanted to read the bottom so the uh Community knew about this and this was from Carla Mike Caleb and Dylan gadusi and again this was just saying their gratitude for um taking the time to do the waiver it says there is a Bible u a story in the Bible that teaches the importance of never forgetting to acknowledge and Express gratitude Dr K my family and I want to express our sincer sincerest gratitude to Mr surma President Brown and the school board members and the attorney who pursued the waiver solution at your Direction please feel free
030to share this letter so I just wanted to uh certainly uh publicly thank the godlis for that kind gesture but also just wanted to uh thank the board for their continued support and helping us get this done for our families thank you thank you the only question I have on that Jason is just moving forward all the existing families are going to you know finish their tenure but to make sure that no one else is added to that list correct so that that if they move into one of those streets they go to their school district correct Mr swsh when I issued the certifi letters to those 24 students I addressed them specifically to those students and their parents and I've communicated that with registration that it is specifically those students not that home address
031yeah so if anybody else moves in on that street it doesn't accidentally get enrolled here right correct that's my understanding and I'll double check with Dr Milenko that there I mean I believe there was a couple people that recently tried to register uh one of the streets of denell um was one of the streets in the subdivision um they were told that they're to go to another district and when uh subsequent addresses in that area come up from my understanding registration checks the Will County uh property tax records and verifies the school districts to that address thank you just for clarification should there be an expansion in any one of the families that is already been grandfathered in when their child or new addition be allowed in I don't think so from my understanding it
032was specifically for those students perfect thank you and that's the way I addressed it was those specific students given that the people are aware of that that they can make those arrangements I think it was a specific an amount like 24 24 students specific students right correct and that's sorry no no perfect I just wanted the clarification thank you and I did take the time as I said to look up each and individual student and their parent or Guardian that was listed in Skyward to send the letters directly to them perfect thank you you're welcome okay so this is the good news really good news that was a collaborative team effort all right all right business oh you go ahead that's still on you yes well number 10 um B business and call up Jason
033there yeah um good evening president Brown distinguished members of the Board of Education Dr Cara Kagan e I'm here to present the bid results or discussion on the bid results for our regular pupils transportation services for the district um in November of 2024 we issued a publication to go out to bid for those Services uh mandatory bid meeting was held six companies attended the mandatory bid comp uh bid meeting we received competitive bids from three companies um first company being yellow bus company the second company being first student and then the third bus company being Illinois Central positive connections kicker and alltown all attended the mandatory bid meeting but submitted letter saying that they were not in position to bid on our services at that time um the bid specifications uh were laid out I
034was seeking a three-year bid for regular Pupil Transportation Services and i' like to share with you the bid results of the bid summary including the route pricing I have revised these from the ones that were in your board package just to be some bring some clar uh Clarity I'm sorry regarding the activity routes um so those numbers changed based on when I submitted it uh last week so the lowest bid came in and was submitted by yellow bus compan uh yellow bus group of America over a three-year estimate of $18 mil $1,375 the second bid came in from our current provider first student at a three-year estimate of1 19 m712 $51.1 and the third bid came in at a very close amount submitted by Ellen Illinois Central 9,734 55092 um my recommendation is to award
035the bid to First Student our current Transportation provider I would like to thank Mr bar and Mr Tim for those very kind words I apologize Tim I don't remember your last name off the top of my head um but I do want you guys to know that that the bid was done um in good faith and an effort to provide the best services and the best cost effective service to our district um well Mr bar his company did come in at the lowest bid um and he spoke to his knowledge of having 48 years in the transportation services his Corporation was incorporated in July of 2024 and um while I have faith that they will gain business in the area um I wasn't ready to make a recommendation based on that I felt it was
036in the best interest of the district to remain with first student um till we receive more established companies and bids in our region of the south suburbs so basically yeah you're good go okay so basically you're saying you would with the lowest responsible bidder correct and where the most responsible bidder to provide safety Transportation all right that makes sense in a form of you know in a form of familiarity considering sure consider sir sure okay so do I understand what you're saying is yellow bus company got Incorporated in July correct okay may may I ask another question how long have we been using for student um I want to say that since about 20 we've been using 2011 maybe uh I I don't have the exact date but it has been quite some time they
037have been our provider in the years that we've used them have we ever had a successful first week of school I'm seriously asking because I know we haven't while my son has been taking bosos I'm Ser so I'm seriously asking what makes somebody a responsible bidder when their first weeks of school an ability to maintain Staffing and transportation makes what it's Staffing was a problem for everyone I'm not doubting that but our students are and I'm sure all of the school buses had it that's fine I'm worried about our students in the district and their transportation and ability to get our students to and from their destinations in a timely manner has been lacking over the years so what are we doing to ensure that first student is actually maintaining their contracts and ability to
038pick up our students and deliver them on time instead of leaving them on Street street corners for sometimes two or three hours the first weeks of school that that's a great um question Jamie um what I have begun to do uh not only in the transportation department but also in the uh business department as we began to enforce liquidated damages with first student uh year-to date we've assessed about $6,400 in liquid damages which uh primarily are due to uh timely bus situations so that's an effort that a goal that I put out this year to ensure that we get the best service that we can okay and that'll be going forward as well with them yeah we continue to try and do that um each month and and there's very specific uh language in the
039contract um we need to notify them within a certain amount of time frame if we didn't receive notice so we continue to try and do that in the business office um and I I know you're speaking to the first week of school but after rolling out the my my ride K12 app and things um I'm I'm receiving a lot less Transportation complaints than I did uh last year so that was about the the one piece of Leverage that I could have um aside from you know frequent Communications to not only dispatch in Glenwood and also South Holland but also to the reg regional manager from first stent perfect as long as there's something happening for that I'm all about it cool thank you yeah we we continue to work with the building secretaries because they
040are first line of defense in terms of services um Marsha from the creep M Middle School is wonderful at at um uh notifying us and and documenting those violations and then uh Miss Katie Cooper verifies those via GPS that way we communicate those with the bus company thank you I appreciate that appreciate you well I can tell you over the years you know I think first student has been kind of a soul bitter I don't think we had much competition with other bus companies bidding against them so so being the only one out there you have a the propensity to do what whatever I'm the only one here so I think they got competition and seeing the competition I have never in my life seen bids so competitive of this magnitude of just all the
041people that bid it so this was a this was tight this was good so I'm sure they're going to tighten them belt on some loose ends so they have came to the plate uh Jamie when we had brought issues to and kind of straighten up some things but as Dr Cogan is alluded to that that's not uncommon for bus companies to to miss the boat the first day of the week uh and leave students but that doesn't make it right right and say like I know there are problems and that's cool like all of the world is having problems like that but like I'm concerned about and I think a little bit of that too kind of falls on us not meaning us our district because some of the communication is from registration to the
042we have someone that handles all the routing right yes so we have someone that hands all that routing so I think it's the way the the the information trickles down from there to there to there gets at a bus company I think it's collaboration of all of them I think a little bit of his us I think definitely the bus company because I will tell you my daughter's a junior and two first days she has not been picked up but I'm not offended by it because I'm a little bit outskirt but I already I know that process and we just called the uh somebody at the high school and they route us over and then it's it's taken care of after that yeah no I'm not I'm not saying right I get it I think
043it's a collective I think it's a collective thing too I think the bus companies definitely got a good portion of that but I still think a little bit of that is on our district from fueling that or uh sending that information down too absolutely we all got to do that better and I think in the last three years registrations gotting much better cuz before that it was it was way worse it was it was thank you okay like I just wanted to check so thank you didn't mean it to be that bad of a and that that was my intention to go out to bid this early for next year's Services was to solicit competitive bids in the market you know a lot of bus companies need to prepare staff prepare um Vehicles if they
044are awarded a contract um our special education Transportation contract is also up at the end of this year I've began um talks with our current provider about extending that and then going out to bid is still a possibility also to ensure that we have the best possible service and the most competitive service for our students I think the last contract no one bid but for a student I think they were the last the only one exactly yes so Jason will this be on the agenda next week for a vote Yes sir okay so is there anything think in the contract any provisions in the contract if first student was awarded the contract and down the road they just was not meeting our expectations can we relieve them of their contract uh I'm I'm not a
045lawyer but I'm sure there are uh you know they that we are going to ask for them to put up a performance bond that is in the bid specs um that kind of a I don't want to say a cash Bond but a deposit that they will perform in a certain manner what what percentage of contract 10% as a performance bond yes sir 1.9 $1.9 million okay okay thank you any other questions no I just know from uh personal experience uh uh our uh speed um transportation we we did have uh a new company I don't recall who it was but uh we had to end their contract and then start a new contract uh with a different bus company because of um uh their performance yeah because of their performance and their um training
046of their drivers a lot of those um drivers need to have like they need to know uh how to do with wheelchairs and things like that so right dis disabil exactly and so uh they had to uh cancel that uh the first uh contract and and get a new company to do it but yeah the and and the lawyer was really involved with the contracts and and going over uh telling us how to go about doing that so different language in the contct yeah it's it's too bad that our lawyer is not here so sorry yeah yeah yeah yeah okay well no further questions for Jason thank you so much thank you is kind of odd never seen a consent agenda so sure yes ah please I I'll spare you this one I'll spare you
047on this next up is the consent agenda on personnel and culture a to approve Personnel report a one a approve educational support staff employment can I have a motion to approve as what I just read so moved move by Nelson second second by Alex any questions or comments if not roll call please Mr secretary all right Mr Alber I Mr gigos is an i Mr swsh hi Miss zit stus I miss woolfork hi Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry do we have any old business hearing n new business well it's not new business for me I guess maybe it is Alex can you get with Dr car on what's involved with policies as the secretary and the superintendent kind of work together with policies so she can if you can talk to her
048give her an email call her that's is no responsibility press plus and all that stuff yeah all of that okay and there something in actually something in our board policies that says that and also there something in there that said that the secretary should get $500 skip that part okay skip that part we're best practice zero okay I have any other news new business if not can I have a motion to adjourn moved second moved by Nelson second by Bill all in one voice say I I any Nays we are adjourned thank you thank you public for joining us