001Wait. >> Okay, >> we're on hold waiting for the live feed. So, I want to be sure that we get that taken care of. >> You'll be okay. [clears throat] Do you want us to start singing to you or something? >> I'm going to stare. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. >> I mean, we do have a comedian in the audience. We can just start a show. >> Yeah. >> Put them on the spot. >> Someone told me be prepared. >> We're good to go. >> Okay, we are good to go. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to go into open session. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Miss Robinson. >> Yes. >> Dr. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sam. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. Motion carries
00270. Thank you very much. Uh, >> we have public comments >> before before moving forward on the consent agenda. Madame President, I'd like to request per policy to remove from the consent agenda item three echo treasurers report and have it voted on separately later in the meeting. >> Okay. >> Second local vote. >> Miss B. Yes, >> Mrs. Cordon. >> Yes, >> Mr. Eastston. >> Yes, >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Town. >> Yes, >> Dr. Holland. >> Yes, >> Mrs. >> Yes. Motion carry 70. >> Okay, now we can have a vote to approve the consent agenda. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Thank you, >> Mrs. Corley. >> Yes, >> Miss Town. Yes, >> Mr. East. >> Yes, >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes, >> Dr. How? >> Yes, >> Miss F.
003>> Yes, Mrs. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. >> Thank you. >> Now we can move on to No, we still can't. >> It's not public, [clears throat] >> Mrs. Parker. We're moving on to Okay. >> Good evening, board. Mr. part. Maresha Parker, associate superintendent for Danville District 118. Tonight, it is my pleasure to recognize the recipients of the 2026 Dr. David L. Fields Excellence in Teaching Awards. Named in honor of retired District 118 Superintendent Dr. David O. Fields, who dedicated 41 years of service to this district, these awards recognize the outstanding hard work, commitment, and dedication of our staff. This year we have expanded the awards to include several new categories recognizing the contributions of our non-certified staff members. The 2026 Dr. David Ofield's Excellence in Teaching award recipients are, and if you are here
004tonight and I call your name, come up and join me. Our first teacher of the year um is our DHS orchestra teacher, Mr. Gage WAC. Our [applause] second teacher of the year, elementary, Kayla Drews, Beat Park music. [applause] A new category was for new teacher of the year, very first year in our district is Miss Jessica Garmin and she is DHS [applause] art teacher. We created a new another new award. It is the building bridges in education award and it is Miss Patty Wararez, our district family involvement. [applause] And last but definitely definitely not least um another new category educational support specialist which of the year which goes to Miss Angie Harden who is a KDBA teaching assistant. [applause] So, tomorrow evening, these fine young individuals will be honored at our Dr. David Lfields evening
005of excellence. Um, there will be a reception with light refreshments that will begin at 5:00 pm in the little theater followed by a program at 6:00 pm in the Dick Van Djk auditorium at Danville High School. Lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Chris Rice, director of early learning and the Danville Public Schools Foundation for their hard work and dedication in revitalizing this special event. So, can we give them another round of applause? [applause] Miss Parker, I believe that Gage is Wmech is at a concert tonight. He is at Danville High School doing his job. So, >> [laughter] >> We'll take that. >> Thank you. And thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. [applause] >> Mr. Thorton. [clears throat] >> Good evening everybody. Justin Thorton, assistant director of human resources, here tonight to
006talk about our retirees. So, last Thursday night at the Pawsum Trot, we honored our retirees. Uh, their principles and supervisors came and gave some nice funny speeches. Um, nice night. The board offered us dinner, drinks, there were some music from our orchestra, DHS. Very good evening. But tonight, I just wanted to say the names of our recipients. We have somebody made this. This is wonderful. Pictures of all the recipients, too, so you can see them if they're not here tonight. But if I do call your name, please stand up. You're welcome to join me up here as well. >> And uh we'll just start with I know there's two here. Kelly >> Tex, [applause] >> uh Marita Mo Kaiser, >> I see her in the audience. And uh so I'll go ahead and just read
007the rest. So there's a long list of retirees and hopefully they'll come back and join us in some capacity. Michael Doi, Ruthie Hannon, Mary Montard Hurst, Danielle Montgomery, Tony Montgomery, Harvey Skip Trux, Lorie Woods, Janet Deman, Jack Dwey, Kim Irwin, Jessica Hatcher, Janet Knight, Joanne Poor, Philip Shaw, Colleen Stacy, Christy Waggle, Betty Daly, Dorothy Carter, Jerry Ingram, Mark Pal, Rodney Streaming, and Christine Williams. Congratulations and thank you for your dedication and service everyone. [applause] >> I love that. >> Miss Robinson made that. >> Thank [laughter] you, M. >> I think they all look way too young to be retiring, [clears throat] don't you? My goodness. >> But congratulations. We've appreciated your years of service. Any other public comments? >> Now it's public comments. >> Those are those are agenda >> agenda items. >> Now we'll
008hear public comments. >> Um no just northeast. >> Yeah. >> Good evening um board. Mr. Hart, Mrs. Parker, um I'm excited because LA, was it last week already? Last week, um for the second or third year, >> Third year, um Northeast has had a science fair and it is always near and dear to my heart because that was one of the subjects that I taught for a long time. And it's so fun to go over there and see it because I ask the kids a million questions and they're able to answer all of them and they speak very um um confidently about the experiments that they've done. So we have three students with us today, Dominic, Riley, and Noah. And their um boards are displayed out here. And um they can tell you they're going
009to each quick tell you a little bit about the experiment that they did. They're going to take their turns and then um whatever you want to do after that is up to you guys if you want to ask questions or anything. Oh, and I forgot. Yes. And I forgot. Oh, yeah. And we've got Where did she Oh, there she is. She's hiding. >> M. Adams and um Miss Hustler in the um are the ones that orchestrate all this and they put a lot of time and effort into it. So, they're going to take over even though they don't like to talk. >> Okay. [clears throat] All right. Are you ready? >> Okay. Step up here. This is Noah. >> Mhm. and his is the bananas. >> Okay. So, my project was about what occasion will
010a banana rot the quickest. So, I did five occasions which were uh the counter in a glass container, one next to a fruit, one in the freezer, and the last one by a window. I recorded all the data of the bananas for a week to see which one out of the five bananas will the quickest. So, my hypothesis was that I thought the banana by the window will rot the quickest because I think the sunlight will make the banana rot fast. I measured this banana by the color, the smell, and the mushiness. >> And was your hypothesis correct? >> Yes, his hypothesis was correct. And if you look at his board, he has all of his data tracked on there and actually even has pictures and everything. >> Show them to you. [laughter] >> And
011then we have Mr. Lockhart being Vanna. Wonderful. >> Good job. Now >> looks good. [applause] >> I had a question. >> Oh, >> what bananas stay the freshest? >> Uh, I think that was the one in the glass container. >> My glass. Glass container. >> Thank you. >> Okay, [clears throat] this is Riley Pollson. >> Good evening everybody. I'm Riley Pollson. I'm a sixth grade student at Northeast and recently I did a science project for our science fair and my question was which water bottle could stay cold the longest and I chose this because my mom owns a lot of water bottles [laughter] and it this project was very fun because the least popular and the cheapest water bottle kept the water the coolest the longest which was a brand called Bubba and my hypothesis
012was that the aala would they called the longest because of the materials and the rankings, but that hypothesis was wrong. >> The kids are allowed to pick a topic that interests them so that they will enjoy the project and not just be a chore or something to do. So, thank you. >> Good job. [applause] [clears throat] >> And Riley's board got thrown away last week, so this is actually her second board. >> So, she put it together again. >> Oh my gosh. Mhm. Good for you. >> And then this is Dominic. Can >> I ask Riley a question? >> Sorry. >> Riley, did your mom have an Oala? >> Yes. >> Okay, good. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Dominic's project he's going to tell you about, but I loved it because we had lots of really
013good conversations and I learned a lot from him about his project. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Dominic. I'm a sixth grader at Northeast. I'm a sixth grader and I go to Northeast. My project was inspired of by golf because me and my dad love to go golfing a lot. >> And my question was, does the cost of a golf ball affect its distance? >> And um what I did was I went to the uh country club, hit got grabbed five common brands and hit three of each. >> Um and added up the averages to see which average the furthest. So my my conclusion came to that the cost of the golf ball does not affect its distance be because Kirkland which was one of my cheapest balls average the furthest distance and Titalist
014which is the most expensive and most well-known golf ball average the lowest distance. So this proves that the cost of of the golf ball does not affect its distance. >> Well done. [applause] I have a question. >> What kind of golf ball does your father use? [laughter] >> It switches a lot. >> That was rehearsed. [laughter] >> I have a I have a question also. Um, did you vary the order in which you hit the golf balls by chance? >> So, I just went off of like I just put them all in a pile and just went based off >> randomly. Okay. I like that. >> Okay. I was just curious if fatigue played into [laughter] >> We had that conversation, didn't we, Dominic? >> Yeah, >> I used the driver. >> Okay, >> nice.
015>> Well done. >> Thank you. >> Any other [clears throat] questions? >> I have one for Riley. >> Okay, >> it's easy. Did you have a Stanley cup in your lineup? You and it did not do well, did it? >> It got third place. >> Do you [clears throat] want to tell what other brands that you used? I did Hydro Jug, Aala, Stanley, um, Arzark Trail, and Bubba. >> Okay, >> which I've never heard of. Well done, >> guys. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you guys. [applause] >> You don't have to ask the banana because there's only one, isn't >> there? [laughter] Good job. Thank you. >> Good evening, >> Mr. Hart. Uh, associate superintendent, Miss Parker, Miss Howler and board. My name is Maria Parker. I am the seventh grade dean in
016Northridge and I am the sponsor of the future teacher leaders club. Thank you for allowing us opportunity to share progress of our reading buddies. We partner with Liberty and Edison. We partner with Edison's kindergarten class and we partner with Liberty's second grade class. We go there every other week with the help of my lovely family liaison, Miss Mason and Mr. High Tower. So this year with us partnering with them, we decided to develop a thing called reading buddies. And the reason we did that is to collaborate to build off of reading confidence with our younger students, strengthen strengthen literacy skills and create positive relationship through mentoringship and leadership. Our students have grown as leaders while encouraging a love of reading in stu in students they worked with and every other week to s to celebrate
017our reading buddies. We decided to create ebooks >> with them. And so we tried to we didn't get on the agenda to present them. So, we are going to read one of our lovely ebooks that me and Miss D almost cried over when we seen it >> because she did such a great job with the students as she's sitting here about to cry now and she doesn't want to [laughter] read it. >> But so, [clears throat] she took her time and she called it Liberty Stars. [cough] [clears throat] >> Um, she says, "Hi, I am Aaria Collins and I go to Northridge Middle School. I'm a part of a club called Future Teacher Leaders. And when I first joined, I didn't really show know what to expect. I just knew it had something to do
018with helping mentor young kids. One day, we were told that we were going to Liberty Elementary School to work with real classroom. I was excited, but also nervous. I was I kept thinking that what if the kids don't listen to me? What if I mess up? But at the same time, I was ready to try something new. The day we went to the elementary school, everything felt different. The hallways were quieter and the classrooms were full of colorful posters and drawings. It reminded me when I was younger. When we walked into the classroom, the students looked at us with curious eyes. Some of them smiled, some whispered at to each other, and some just started stared like they were trying to figure out who we were. We were split into small groups and I was
019placed with four students. I walked over to them, smiled, and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Aaria," I said. "I'm here to work with you guys." Then I said to them, "Do you guys want to introduce yourself?" >> Which one? >> This one. This one. This one. One boy finally spoke up and said, "I'm King and I like going outside and playing with my friends and my favorite color is blue." Then Kennedy said, "I like to go on car rides and my favorite color is purple." Next, Kinsley said, "I like to play on my PlayStation and play with my neighbors, and my favorite color is purple, too." >> Finally, Jules shared, "I like riding my bike and playing on my iPad iPad, and my favorite color is pink. As they talked, I could see them getting more
020comfortable. That moment helped break the ice, and I made every it made everything feel easier. As the day went on, we started working on assignments. I helped them read, answer questions, and stay focused. Sometimes they would get distracted or start laughing, but I learned how to guide them back in a calm way. We also talked about the things they enjoyed doing in class. Juel and King told me they their favorite activity was when they wrote letters to Ronald McDonald in Springfield Poria. They were Springfield and Poria. They were really excited talking about it. I [clears throat] could tell it meant something to them. >> Kingsley and Kennedy said their favorite activity we did together was uh taking Cornell notes about the War of 1812. They liked learning new things and organizing their notes. >> Listening
021to them made me realize how different students enjoy different parts of learning. As we kept working together, we started talking about things other than just school. >> Juel and Kennedy both said their favorite food is pizza. >> King said his favorite food is seafood, which surprised me because that's my favorite, too. That gave us something in common, and it made the conversation feel more personal. >> Kinsley Kingsley said he likes going to the gas station to get snacks, which made everyone laugh a little because it was so real and relatable. >> We also talked about my favorite part of class. I told them I liked when we had free time because it brought back memories when I was that age. That moment helped me see helped them see me not as just someone helping them,
022but as someone who understands them. >> Not everything was easy. There were times when the students didn't want to focus or got a little distracted. In those moments, I had to stay patient and calm. >> I learned that teaching isn't just about giving answers. It's about understanding students, encouraging them, and helping them stay on track. Even when things got a little challenging, I didn't give up. I kept trying because I knew they were capable. >> As the time went on, I noticed a change. The students started to trust me more. They would ask for help, show me their work, and talk to me more openly. >> King would talk about playing with his friends. Kennedy would mention car rides. Kingsley would bring up games and snacks. Juel would talk about her bike and iPad. >>
023Those little conversations made a big difference. It showed me that teaching is not just about lessons. It's about making connections. >> By the end of the experience, I felt proud of myself. I had stepped out of my comfort zone and learned what it really means to help others. Being part of future teacher leaders showed me that teaching takes patience, effort, and care. And it's not always easy, but it's always worth it. And then on the last page, she included actual all of these have pictures on them, but these are actual pictures that I took in my classroom when they came uh every week. So, >> working with students at Liberty School is something I never forget. It helped me grow as a person and showed me what it's like to be in a teacher's role.
024This experience made me realize that I might want to become a teacher one day because helping others learn and grow is a powerful feeling. >> Wow. [applause] We have a we have a total of we started with like four and then we've grown to eight eight to 10 and then at um running um Rally with the Ridge we had eight more students show up to want to join. >> So hopefully we can keep growing this program more and more. >> Wonderful. >> Thank you. >> Oh so >> here we go. This is Aaria Colin. She's the one who wrote her book. [applause] >> And this is Juwel. >> And Juel is in second grade at Liberty. >> Yes. [applause] >> We have Holden High Tower who's also in the group. He's in second [applause] grade.
025>> This is Ta. She's in my classroom. She's in second grade. And this is Oliver. He's in my classroom as well. So [applause] Thank you for coming. >> Good job. >> Well done. [applause] >> Great job. >> Okay. Thank you. [snorts] >> Ed Butler. Good evening. >> Good evening. Good evening. >> Uh, superintendent and the chairman of the board and uh to the rest of the members. I am indeed glad and happy to be here in the midst of you uh on this evening and it's been a long time >> and I'm sorry that it's been a long time. we've been uh extra busy and also that to to the parents and the rest of the teachers on tonight. Uh I'd like to say first of all is that uh Mr. Hollerin said something about,
026you know, that these retirees that didn't look old enough to retire. And I've been retired there, Miss Hollering, there over 20 years. >> And uh and some of the people here were there just about the same time, just a little bit after I came in. >> And so they they're older than they than they look. Uh we just aged gracefully. [laughter] Okay. and uh and also to the recipients uh of the Dr. fields uh award and you know some of those uh recipients I know and uh yeah mainly Miss Patty Patty I call them Miss Patty Patty >> and we work together with it within the district and uh and and we've had a lot of fun there during the time I was working in the district these readers and uh book book writers uh
027I mean there's somebody there need to get some connection there to Oprah and uh so that she can uh could grab those young people there while they got those young minds and put uh them in her book club >> and that would be nice. And uh and to the inventors >> and the golfers, you know, there's he'll probably be a great golf there one day. >> And and so I said that to say this. Uh I'm kind of wearing about two or three hats there today. And uh I flew back from Springfield today. We've been in uh advocating at the Capitol there all day today. and uh you know in honor of the uh the NAACP uh so we were representing you >> as well our school system advocating because y'all know that somebody's uh
028that sits high uh somewhere is trying to take all of our funding from education for our school program and so we're advocating and we were talking to the senators the representatives and all that today and telling them how we feel that we don't like And so we holding them accountable >> at the state level and once it get into the state level it should go a little higher. And so that's what we as NAACP is doing. And uh so we were from all over uh the state of Illinois uh you know from from Cairo uh to Indiana line to East St. Louis uh to way all up in Chicago. So, we were there today advocating therefore for our young people for fair housing and all of that there this morning there. So, we just had
029a great time uh uh trying to get our point across. So, I said that to say this. Uh we also pass want to pass some resolutions as well to deal with the violence and the shooting within our city. Enough is enough. Mhm. >> And so we trying, we going to be teaming up there, you know, with our school system, uh, at the Three Kings and, uh, and with the NAACP to make that happen, to make our city safer. Uh, also in that same vein, I would like to ask this board or the superintendent that maybe I should have tal talked to uh, Mr. heart first before I bought this up tonight. But [snorts] but anyways, danc we always touch and agree and your vest is about ready. >> Thank you. [laughter] uh before school's out
030uh I have three young men's uh well two of them are actually preachers and one is a businessman that before the school is out for the vacation we would like to do a inspirational uh pep talk uh with uh our young men's uh so we losing our young boys uh about a thousand rapidly we're losing them and we want to set a time uh they know all I'm asking for just a half an hour may maybe 45 minutes uh for our seventh and eighth graders and our fifth and sixth graders before school's out that I would like to bring these young young men's in uh like I say two of them is a preacher and then one of them is uh he work for for the Ford company here in Danville and I I would
031like to have them uh to come and talk to our young men's. I don't care if they black, white, Asian, or am I three minutes up already accused? >> Five minutes. I've been talking for five minutes. [laughter] >> Well, I am sorry. Uh so I would like to to see that happen. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> And this is my niece right here. [laughter] >> Good evening, Mr. Hart. Board of Education, Miss Parker. I am Zeta Pis, the director of food services. I am here just to share some information regarding the summer feeding program. We put out a survey that was out for seven days. In seven days, we received over 600 families that showed an interest in having in participating in this program. That 600 family was equivalent to a little over 1,600
032children between the ages of 1 to 18 years of age within the school district only. Um, there's some steps coming up that I just wanted to share real quick. The program is a USDA program that allows families to [snorts] receive meals for children 1 to 18 throughout the summer for free. There is no income requirement. All families are eligible. Each child will receive within one box once a week seven breakfast, seven lunch, a gallon of milk or two half gallons with white being one for breakfast and then half chocolate or strawberry. We will also have lactose uh free available for upon request. Important note, children enrolled in the summer school program, YMCA, boys club, or any licensed daycare, they are already receiving breakfast and lunch through the federal reimbursement program. So, they cannot receive the
033full 7-day meals. However, they will receive whatever their last day is in their program, the meals outside of that. So for summer school, Friday, Saturday, Sunday for those programs that go till Friday, they'll receive as they leave that day meal for breakfast and lunch for Saturday and Sunday. We will begin registration, open registration on May 28th, which is a Wednesday. We will start some special registration prior to the end next week and then open registration on the 28th. The locations that I'm looking for as far as distribution will be DHS as the drive-thru location and then I'm working on some community mobile locations which I will have more information on later. When you register the registration, we will have a total of six days. The reason we're registering in person is because everyone will have
034to receive this uh car tag. The car tag will identify the family and tell us how many meals that particular family has registered for. Right now the doors are open. I have started ordering food because I believe the need is there and I believe that the children and the families will come for it. So come get it. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Good evening everyone. Board, Mr. Hart, Mrs. Parker. I am Kim Papaps, director of human resources. And tonight I have the honor of introducing two individuals that will be stepping into administrative positions for the 2627 school year. I'd like to first start with someone who has over right around 26 years of experience in education. They have served Damville District 118 as an administrator for at least 17 years. They've
035um served Peoria public schools, Champagne Public Schools, and they will return be returning to their hometown Damel District 118 at the start of next school year. I'm sure before that even um to start getting back to the swing of things. This person is data driven, student first focused and has an open door policy. They put the students needs first and they are ready to be home. And [clears throat] that person is Miss Eliza Brooks. if you'd like to come forward. [applause] [applause] >> So, Miss Paps has known me almost my whole career. Um, and she called me Eliza. [laughter] >> Um, no. Um, thank [clears throat] you, John Hart, Board of Education. Um, all your familiar faces. Um, I am certainly glad to be back at District 118. Um, at my stway, I learned a
036lot of things, believe me. Um, bringing some of those skills back as well. Um, ready to take on the challenge. Um, ready to do what's best for kids. Um, and put students first always, right? um and just making sure that um my community um has citizens that are ready to also go into this world and serve. And so um my motto is if we can just get one, so if everybody gets one, right? >> Um but I plan to get a whole lot more than that. [laughter] Um >> it was hard leaving. Mhm. >> Um, but I knew I had to and and some people here know why. >> Um, but I am certainly glad to be back. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Congratulations. [applause] Sorry. Professional. >> All right. Congratulations to Miss
037Brooks and welcome back. Welcome home. We have one more position to fill tonight and this is for Edison's um elementary school. This person is coming from within the district. They came to Danville um as a dean at the high school in 2022. They've been an assistant principal at Mark Denman. They've been an assistant principal at South View Upper Elementary where they currently serve. They are in a team that I know will be very sad to see them go as they are very tight. They are a great group. Um but they all your team will be there to help you as you move on to Edison. Um this person comes with goals of communication, comes with goals of um knowing the curriculum. They're very data driven and again like Miss Brooks very student- centered um with
038their experience. We can't wait to see what happens at Edison Elementary School. And at this time I'd like to call forward Blake Boddine. Congratulations and welcome to Edison. [applause] [applause] >> Thank you board. Uh, thank you, Mr. Hart. Um, like I say, that's going to be hard to follow up, but [clears throat and laughter] um, I think I should have went first, but that's okay. Um, but I'm extremely uh, grateful for the time I've been in the district and thankful for the opportunity to work with a great staff and a great school and just looking forward to getting to work and work with staff and continuing to uh, make Edison a great school and continue to grow in success. So, thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Is that it? >> At this
039time, we'll hear the treasures report that we took out of the uh consent agenda. >> You just need to vote for it. >> Motion voting. >> Oh, we're just voting on the treasures report. We don't have an actual report for the public. >> Just the treasures report. Okay. Do I need it? >> A second, please. >> Motion. >> I second. >> Okay. We have a first and a second. Thank you very much. Any questions? Well, I just think uh again you should see on that treasury report for the public. Um way more spending than revenue as expected. Um but I think you everyone should look at the treasures report. Uh it's it's in there. It's out there for you to see. Um, that's all I have about that. Still spending more than revenue and we
040haven't uh paid all of first student yet. So, it should have been a lot more, but we must not have gotten all those invoices yet. >> That's correct. >> $1 million of invoices did go through on April 30th according to the treasur's report. And that's not all of it. There's still $4 and a half more million dollars to be spent from this year's transportation budget, not counting gasoline or I'm sorry, diesel. What am I thinking? It's not gas. I wish it was gas. It'd be a lot cheaper >> thanks to certain things happening in the world, but that is another discussion. That's all for me. [clears throat] And in fairness, we haven't had invoices from uh from the transportation department, so they're catching up now, >> right? >> Okay. Just to be clear. Okay. Anyone
041else? Roll call vote. Miss Robinson. [clears throat and cough] >> East. >> Yes. >> Dr. Holland. >> Yes. >> Min. >> Yes. >> Miss P? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Town? >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield? >> I abstain. >> Mrs. Yes. Motion carries six with one abstension. Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Hart, you're up for early learning center presentation. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. Good evening, Board of Education. I'm John Hart. I'm the superintendent of the school district, and tonight I'm here to talk to you about the restructuring of Mark Denman Elementary School. Um, I I think the information is already out. How clear the information is out is probably yet to be seen. So, hopefully I can clear up some rumors and um let you know how we will proceed as a school
042district. So I thought I would start with putting the the big one out there. It seems to be the question is Carl Clinic so north campus and um the rumors out there is are are that we are getting out of a lease that we are um not going to purchase the property. I can tell you with certainty that we are still in conversations with Carl Clinic. I met with them yesterday and um we've talked about both those things both leasing and purchasing. There has been no decision made. The decision made is that prek [clears throat] and kindergarten and our birth to 3 program will be at Mark Dendon School next year. Um so what does that look like? Um what it looks like is 13 cla 13 classes kindergarten classrooms moving to Mark Denman Elementary.
043This gives us an opportunity to be able to create a transitional kindergarten which I know people have talked about forever and ever and ever. Um so we will be able to take um maybe some kids that have little or no experience in education and maybe some kids that have experience in education and pair them together into a smaller classroom and be able to um better serve those students. Um looking at our prek program. So our our programs just prek operate under two grants. So both the preschool for all grant and the preschool for all expansion grant. So what are the difference between the between those two? Our preschool for all grant um is really our half-day programs. So we have an AM session and a PM session. Those grants are state grants and they fund
044the position. So the teaching and the teaching assistant positions. And to be quite honest with you, that's about all they fund. We do get a little bit of money in material, but it's it's very little. Um, and we haven't had an increase in those two grants for quite some time. Our preschool for all expansion grant again covers salaries and benefits and very little of um anything else. So again, we are hoping that one day, I mean, we've been told for the last three, four, five years that the state of Illinois will be funding preschool programs and we'll be able to expand our program. Um, the vision of of North Campus actually came from that promise of being able to expand the program then to be able to serve more kids than we currently are serving.
045And it at this time that's about 250 kids um across again some of them half day programs some of them in full day programs. Um so what did we do with the rest of the kids? Good question. Right. So we have first, second, third and fourth graders. So if you look at the left number that is the number that we are currently currently serving now. So you will see that some of our numbers go down. So take Edison Elementary. They're currently at 264 students and they are projected to be at 245 students. So can be somewhat deceiving. So we are moving two kindergarten classrooms. We'll go be going to Mark Denman Elementary and we do have two preschool classrooms at Edison as well. So, we're actually moving out four classrooms um and and moving some
046kids from the Mark Denman area into Edison School. So, that's where those numbers and that's what's going to happen as I go down the chart. So, me Park is currently at 318. They are projected to be at 333 students next year. are um underneath that. Those are the number of special education students that will be served at um Need Park Elementary. So, Southwest is currently at 454 students, which that's a very misleading number because of half days. So, if you have a student in the AM and the PM, they're counting as two. So, there's about you can probably take about a hundred off that number and you'd be a little bit closer. So there are probably 350 students and next year they're projected to be 355. At Liberty School they are at 3, there goes
047my vision. 389 and they're projected to be at 382. And again they'll have self-contained program there as well. Um they already have one but it it would be an additional program. And Mark Denman um has they have 563 students. They're projected to have 316 kindergarten students next year. And if I just use the number that we have this year, we have we're serving 255 students in preK. So, um, again, another misleading number. When you add those two together, it really looks like 751 students. And, um, you know, the the halfday kids definitely end up skewing those numbers. But, I did want to share those with you. Um, all of those buildings have had more students than you're currently looking at. I know that they hold the students. They hold more students. I can remember a
048time where meat park, Liberty, and Southwest were well over 400 students, more towards 420 to 430. So, plenty of room. And this will leave um room at Mark Denman to grow if additional funding would become available for prek. our special education. This is the location. So, we've worked with um Mrs. Bailey and or sorry, Miss Barton and Mrs. Nixon and looked at how could we get honestly some of our kids have moved and so this takes a lot of kids a little bit closer to home and um looked at our one-story building. So, at Mark Denman, we will have one [snorts] kindergarten cross categorical special education classroom. We'll have three life skills classes that are kindergarten, first grade. We currently have two crosscategorical classrooms at Liberty Elementary. We will move up to three. Me Park,
049we have two cross categorical classrooms and we will end up with one cross categorical and one life skills classroom. So, a little bit of change there. And Southwest um will now serve one crosscategorical classroom and one life skills classroom. And um a lot of that room was made available um by moving prek students. So, um it's it's nice to be able to share the newest building in the district with um some of our students with disabilities. >> Our MATS program. This is this is a question that has been brought up multiple times and we really do not [laughter] have an answer for it for this question yet. So I've spoken with Mrs. Button. Mrs. Button has looked to see what other schools in the state and actually across the country. A lot of the gifted
050programs have changed what they look like and how they're serving students. So while we're in in the process, we thought we would look at our program again and look to see what this this could look like. So these are the possibilities. So the the first bullet is really what we're doing now. We have a self-contained program at Mark Denman. We could pick it up and we could put it at me park tomorrow or the other options are cluster grouping where you would um have the Matt students in the classroom and you would just fill in so they can work together with the [clears throat] group. Um or we could do a a pull out program. We could work with retired teachers. We could have a resource teacher. So there's a variety of things that we
051could do. And moving along as quickly as we have, we really didn't feel like it was fair to the students or the staff to make a decision kind of on the fly. So um more information to come. So the the benefits this really does help us. Um, my goal has been to get licensed teachers in front of students and we're getting there slowly but surely. Um, we do still have some vacancies in the district. For the most part, they are PE and special education. So, if you know someone interested looking for a job, have them apply um in our human resources officer office. Um, by by having this center, we will there'll be zero mobility at kindergarten. So when our kids move, a lot of times it takes families a long time to reenroll in
052school, so they sit at home a little bit longer. We have some families that move multiple times in a school year. So it will be nice that our kindergarten students will have a home at Mark Denman. Um no matter the circumstances of their family, they will remain in that school for the year. So definitely a benefit for us. Um the prek schedule, the timing of prek classes um is not necessarily ideal in an elementary setting. Our administrators, our teachers have worked very hard to be able to provide professional development, um meet with staff, evaluations, what have you. And it is difficult. Can it be done? Yes, it's been done. Um but ideally putting them all the uh classrooms in one building really makes it more feasible for those things. >> Um we do have yes
053that says three playgrounds at Mark Denman. There are actually two playgrounds at Mark Denman and we've had a new playground um at the warehouse for quite some time and Mr. Widen Burner can't hardly wait to get that assembled and put in the courtyard of Mark Denman. So huge benefit um to our kindergarten and prek students. >> It will be um size appropriate, age appropriate. So um we're excited for that. Um room for gross motor and a gym. This does not happen. We've been crowded with our prek um students. There was a time where at Southwest if it rained most gross motor activities, jumping, rope, running, what have you, hula hoops, they happened in the hallways and woo, that's a lot of kids and a lot of [clears throat] times they come with equipment. So, it
054will be nice. There'll be designated places, multiple places at Mark Denman where those things can occur. Um, bathrooms, who knew bathrooms in the classroom. So, this will be um for the most part that's where we will focus. Don't know that we have 13 classrooms, but we're pretty close that have restrooms in them. So, um very convenient for the students and for the staff. Um a laundromat, so we do have a room with um washers and dryers that [snorts] we'll be able to utilize, the staff can use, the community can use. use our birth to three program. They're always having events and so it'll be nice that um we can help some of our families. They can visit that room while they're there and [clears throat] maybe have a load of laundry waiting when they finish.
055Um our our library will remain. Um there's been a lot of talk about that being a community room, a reading room. Um what that looks like going forward. I I I think we have a global idea and Mr. Ryson team will take care and and come up with some great ideas. Um, so I wanted to make sure that I focused on those things. Those are the things that really got us here today. And there are some unintended consequences as well. There is a financial um savings to this. It's not the reason why I've made this decision to go this direction, but it didn't hurt things either. So, we do have a um home program interventionist and we've had one at each location. We did have somebody resign and take another job. With them all being
056in one location, we will not be replacing that person. um with there being kindergarten students at Mark Denman Elementary and fewer um students that require service at me park special education services. They'll be able to split a special education resource teacher between those two buildings which has never happened as far as I know. Those are usually um two buildings that um get a lot of services. And right now we have two teachers at Mark Denman um or two PE teachers and two music teachers. We'll be able to take that down to one. So we'll be able to fill vacancies [clears throat] with um teachers and again that that just cuts cost and puts licensed teachers in front of our kids. And as you know that's the goal. And transportation will have fewer buses. They will
057be easier to route. >> [laughter] >> and our transportation um will be reimburseable and it it is not historically been re reimburseable in the state of Illinois. It's reimburseable for general education but not for prek unless prek students ride kindergarten buses. So, we'll be able to put pre-K and kindergarten on the same buses and we will be reimbursed by the state except for some early childhood special education buses. So, there may be some of that, some midday routes, but for the most part um we will be reimbursed for that transportation and that will make um that's quite a savings for the district. So, >> and as we went, this wasn't just throw something together. um wi without putting a lot of thought into it. And this this map I probably owe everybody tons of thank
058thanks. Um Mr. Rice worked on this, Mr. Thorton worked on this. Um got this map together pretty fast. There used to be lots of broken pieces where maybe you lived here and some kids lived here, but you all went to school at Mark Denman. So, I really looked at trying to put the areas together so the kids that live in the same neighborhoods would go to the same schools. Even though, yes, I understand that they're not neighborhood schools, it's very important to me to do that. There are a few outliers, but very few. So, I feel very confident with this map. Um, I've showed you the numbers, uh, the educational benefit and the cost savings. um that we will um gain from this move. >> And [clears throat] that is all the information I have
059to share. I thank you for um your attention. >> Does anybody have any questions for me? >> Can I ask you absolutely can ask? >> But I have a question on a slide. When you were talking about special ed staffing and then there was a number in parenthesis. What was that number representing? You'd have the for example >> Oh, that's those are the grade levels. So, first and second, I went Did I do that? That was the lucky guess, right? I was just pushing buttons. >> Mhm. So, grade levels are in Oh, parenthesis. Okay. Yes. Gotcha. >> So, that'll be a first and second grade class, special education class. >> Okay. >> You said transportation cost would go down. Now, you're pulling all the prek and kindergarten students from all over the city. >> That's
060correct. >> Wouldn't that require more buses going out? >> It should not. If it does, it would be minimal. We already go all over the the entire town picking up pre-K kids and there'll be a kindergarten uh person right along the the same route. So >> they're already going so they would ride the same bus. >> Okay. >> I don't have a question. I just have a comment. I think uh Mr. Hart, you and Miss Parker did an excellent job on this. Um and I think it's I think it's a good decision. Thank you for your work. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Hart. >> Thank you much. >> Thank you. >> And now we'll [snorts] have the first reading of um [clears throat] uh >> ownership and >> thank you.
061Ownership and education >> from our two principles. >> Yes. Good evening board, >> Mr. Hart, Mrs. Parker. I'm Brent Lockhart, principal at Northeast Elementary, and I'm here with Mr. Boddine, newly appointed principal at Edison. Uh we're talking today about the ownership and education committee, and we met um we're this is also first first reading as well, so we'll fill you in a little bit on what we did. We convened three times during the the year school year this year, March 5th, April 9th, and April 23rd. meetings were open to staff community members and input was gathered through both uh in person and both through virtual formats. The committee [snorts] discussions focused on several areas including student tardiness, whether formal definitions of disciplinary infractions should be included in the handbook, the use of smart watches and
062AI glasses. Then the committee recommends that administrators uh will participate in professional development prior to the start of the next uh school year and conduct monthly data reviews to support consistent application of disciplinary disciplinary practices. So our main uh thing that we looked at was we changed we were looking to change the language on digital watches to include smart watches because it's not just the digital reading it's you know incorporating the use of your cell phone through text message. So we want to make sure that that language was cleared up. [snorts] And then the other part was AI glasses because we had some questions on that. Wanted to make sure uh that was incorporated in there. And those of you that aren't familiar with AI glasses, there's a lot that they can do on there.
063So, >> any question? >> Did you have good participation in your meetings? Did you have good representation? >> Yeah, we did. Yeah. On each I'd say we've had close somewhere around 10 roughly around there. >> Okay. Good. Y >> anyone else question? I just I just have wondered if you considered uh maybe Mr. Ves can help you with this. Are there times when fitness watches would be appropriate for students and if that it doesn't seem like you've allowed for that. I just wondered if you had a reason for that. Yeah. So, the language stays the same on there uh at the very end. And so, it there there is preliminary uh language in there regarding special education students and certain times that they would need to use wireless communication devices. >> Yeah. I guess I
064mean like uh oldfashioned pedometers, if you know what I'm saying. They look like they're digital. It could be that they get swept up in the prohibition. I just wondered if Sure. >> you had any intent on >> maybe permitting certain brands like they make us do at the place where I work where they won't let smart watches in so that people do their jobs instead of not doing their jobs. I just wondered just a question for you to think about. >> Okay. Appreciate it. Yeah. Our our main discussion was uh you know centered around students using the smartwatches uh [cough and clears throat] for communication purposes. So through text messages So if their digital watch didn't have that, then you could >> okay >> correlate it to not in that category. >> Someone someone >>
065can protest and say this isn't the one you're trying to cancel. Then >> they could >> in theory. >> Who would they protest to didn't really say? >> Uh oh. At their school is what you're saying. Yeah. Be a discussion with their principal. >> Okay. Thank you. This is a first reading. You'll be back at the next meeting for a vote, correct? >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Uh our next agenda item is the Illinois Association of School Boards membership dues, which we >> number nine. Oh, that's because this is my least favorite thing because we talk about it all the time and we amend it all the time. >> So, I just assume you all know >> school calendars. How many times do we talk about school calendars?
066I'm told there really isn't a change. Uh I'm told that it's also posted so you all can see um final dates for everything on the school calendars. >> The only difference in this one is it gives the ending date for the school year. So that's why >> permanent won't change. >> Will not change >> unless we have a snowstorm, right? >> Yes. >> Who's saying? >> Okay. >> Illinois on that. >> Yep. No, not yet. >> Okay. >> Uh I will entertain a motion to approve the 2526 school calendar as amended. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> Yes. Um I It's so strange to me to see the last day for Northeast being the same as the traditional. Why? How did that happen? [clears throat] [laughter] >> Look at
067poor Mary Ellen. >> One of you. >> It just is how it fell with by the time. >> Good evening. >> It's just how it falls. And because we had makeup days and then there's so many little caveats that you have to do like when we have an early release day, Northeast can't. So like conferences >> or like with conferences, there's little strange things that happen. >> So um >> it it just with the holidays and everything, it just worked out this year to fall that way. >> Got it. a bonus, we have a year wants to join like to figure these. It's it's a lot to figure this stuff out. >> So, that >> caught my eye from past experience. >> Yes, [laughter] we've been getting closer every year. >> Okay. >> Any other
068questions? A roll call vote. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr. Eastston. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Dr. Holland. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes. Motion carries 70. Now we can talk about the Illinois Illinois Association of School Boards membership dues, which is an organization that we uh have been members of for a very long time. Do you want to talk about the advantages of membership? >> I do. Um number one, the Illinois Association of School Board provides professional development. So after school elections when we have new officials that's who we go to for um our professional development. They hold um are a partner in the um conference in Chicago in November. Um uh they provide resources for policy and practice as well. I would say
069it's probably more unusual that a school district doesn't belong to ISB than school districts that do. So, I'm the one that's making this recommendation and it is at an annual cost of 10,650 $10,665. Um, again, that's an annual cost and I recommend your approval. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve, please? Second. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Thank you. [laughter] We got it. Any questions? >> Well, the only only thing I'd like to add to Mr. Hart is they're also our advocacy group at the general assembly and they tell us when they're up to suspicious things, which I appreciate very much. That's all for me on that. >> So, you feel like it's worth the money we spent. It's worth it's not its weight in gold, but it's worth a lot.
070Yes. >> Okay. Okay. >> And it's also how we train our new board members. >> All of our mandated training is all through this company. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Roll call vote. >> Dr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. T. >> Yes. >> Mr. East. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cor. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. Thanks. Uh, our next agenda item is approval to change the June 17th regular board of education meeting to Wednesday, June the 10th, a week earlier. I believe we have administrators that are going to be out of district at a meeting conference um on the 17th. Um, hard to have a meeting without them. So, he'd like to >> I would like to ask for this um item to
071be tabled just because we do have our budget amendment tonight and it has to be on display for 30 days. So, Mr. Pence actually came to see me today and he said, "Well, I think we better look at the 10th. That's not going to work or we're going to have to have a special board meeting." So, um if it's okay, we can bring this on the 27th and we will have a replacement date at that meeting. Make a motion to table um number 11 tonight. >> Second. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tam. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Dr. Holland. >> Yes. >> Mr. E. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. So you're going to bring it back to us on May 27th for consideration
072for a different date. >> That is correct. That will be 30 at least 30 days from today. >> Okay, >> everybody got it? >> Okay, number 12, curriculum. Mrs. Button, [clears throat] >> talking about Panorama Data Warehouse. >> Yes. Um, good evening, Marielleen Button, director of curriculum and instruction. Um, we are excited to bring this um forward to you. Um, the high school has was our first school to use Panorama. Then this year we added three more schools. We wanted to see what it would look like K to 8. So we did Northeast, Southwest, and um Northridge. And we liked what we saw. We like the data that we can pull. It gives us a really great picture, a well-rounded picture of a student that includes um academic data, behavioral data, and attendance data. and
073it allows us to make groups to work with students specifically and really dig in. When we've looked at data like this before, it's been on spreadsheets that take hours for us to pull together. So, this is something that we would really like to have. Um the cost for next year is um $42,74.50. We've already paid part of it because we put part of the schools on this year. That's the 30,000 that we've already paid. And so we're going to pay, we would like, we're asking to pay the rest so we can get all of the schools online and look at this data for all of our students. This has been a long time coming, something that we've wanted for years and years and years and we will use title funding. >> This is a roll
074call vote, so I need a motion to approve. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> I just have I just have one question. Um, will it consolidate all of our referrals? >> I what I I'm need some clarification on that question. >> Some buildings use different ways to track referrals. Does it put them all in one place? >> The information about the we're pulling it from Swiss and from Skyward from Q so that it will help us look at all of that like information about a student. I'm not I don't know if I'm >> sure how you want to look at it differently, but like that's how we can see all of that from one place. >> Not all the data then most of it. >> Not every single time a teacher
075writes a note about something. >> If it's in Swiss or if it's in Skyward, it'll be downloaded into Panorama. >> Okay. >> So, will we still use Swiss? >> Yes, you have to. That's what makes all like the data really hard for us to look at because we've got so many different places to pull it from. So because those the way that those data sources are used is specific to events or specific to um like we use I A we use I ready we use so all of those things by themselves are really important and they run their own data but we we need something that helps us pull it all together so we can see a picture of a student in one place. So it's like that's why it's called a data warehouse because
076it's like pulling everything. It's like going to Sam's but for data. It's >> consolidating all the information. >> Yes. Into one place which is we will be able to like what we'll be able to do with this is unreal. >> And this is districtwide use. >> Yes. >> And just to clarify, you said that we're already paying $30,000. >> We've already paid that bill to get the the three schools on and the high school. The 42 will get the rest. >> Okay. So the 42 is in addition. So $72,000 total cost >> total. Yes. But we only need to ask for the 42 because you had already given us permission for the 30. Okay. >> And that's paid. That's already paid. >> And that'll make it easier for the principles to gather data and report
077back to the board. >> Absolutely. >> And for the teachers, too. >> Right. Yeah, definitely. >> Like every It's just going to make it a lot easier. It's going to take us a minute to learn how to use it and to do it. There's some really neat features with it as well, but we'll get a real good picture of students. It's triangulating data, which is a dream I've had. >> Does the Does the price include support for figuring that out or we have to pay? >> Oh, yes. Okay. And that's part of why we did what we did too is kind of slowly implementing the schools um so we could learn in steps and not just dump it like try to get it to everybody and not be certain that it would be something that
078we would be successful with. So they provide support and we can ask a million questions and then we have a lot of people that really like data in our district and so they'll jump in and start figuring things out and we'll help each other. We're good at that. >> What What kind of timesaving do you >> think this is going to be for administrator? >> I can tell you that Mr. Bretts can pull he can pull up data on his phone like instantaneously. And I I'll speak a little bit just on, you know, the year that I've I've gotten to use it. Not only does it help for data, >> but also, you know, it helps out too uh when you're trying to like set up different plans. You can set up, >> you know,
079a student maybe who has had a couple behavioral infractions, you're trying to, >> you know, put a plan together for them. It kind of helps mediate, gives you ideas uh for those students. You can go over quarterly data as well, uh which is really beneficial. So, like when we come to you guys with um just with our our quarter quarterly data that we're doing each time, a lot of us go on to Skyward and we have to pull that and then we forget which one we're pulling. Uh and that does it automatically there. Also, we'd be able to target students, >> you know, basically as it happens, you can set up kind of reminders where it can send an email to you to let you know so and so's missed five days of school and
080then being boom, you already have it there in your email. So, it's it's really intuitive um to kind of figure out how to use it and then the ways that we can use it. It's the nice thing too that I really liked about it and I think that um Miss Barton and I are excited about is one of the questions that we always have when we're working with students is is what we're seeing related because they're they're struggling with academics or and that's maybe why we're seeing some behavior or is the behavior causing some issues with the academics and this data will really help us kind of get clarity on that that question. >> And real quick [clears throat] things that are really good is our home for attendance. They can see who's missed the
081last three days. They make a list. They can see who's we're trying to keep kids under 18 days because that's when they're trying to deter. We make incentives for them. So, it's wonderful for home grades. We can look up and who's got passing. We can put them in flex. We can make groups. It it does a lot of great things. >> We're fans. [laughter] >> Still learning, but it's good. >> Yeah. It sounds like it it's going to give you an opportunity to basically be more timely in your response to what's happening. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. And really have a clear picture. >> Yeah. >> Because it's hard for us like we can look at um like I on one platform, then we look at I Ready on another platform, then Fastbridge on a third
082platform, and we're putting this data in on spreadsheets, but we it's really hard to do that. Like you might be able to down one like export one >> to like Excel, but then you have to hand like the the amount of hand recording that comes out of our office is unbelievable. >> So this will help. >> Tell me again >> time better spent >> where this comes out. What budget does this >> title? We're taking it out of title. >> Um Mrs. Trux and Mr. Rice worked really hard to make sure that we could afford this. Thank you once again. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Roll call vote. >> M. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Eastston. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Dr.
083Holland. Holland. >> Yes. I'm happy to say carry 70. >> Thank you. >> Good luck. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Special education. Miss Barton. Right. Got it. I did it. I did it. I did it. Uh, good evening board Mr. Hart. I am Molly Barton. I am the director of special education. I have several things for you tonight. It's no big surprise that the district is still searching for speech pathologists. So, I have a couple contracts for you. Uh, I'm trying to get everything done and be ready and prepared for next school year. So to maintain the level of speech that we need, I'm recommending the district into a contract with empowered communication for the 26 27 school year. We already have both of these um speech paths um here working
084with us. Uh Burgundy Nichson and Haley Kundiff will return to the district. Um Miss Nick, Mrs. Nickson wrote the contract is pretty open. Um 20 to 40 hours between the two of them. It will not be that. Most likely both of them will work approximately 10 to 20 hours per week about two days um for in-person services, paperwork, and meetings at a bill rate of $100 per hour. Um the hours would be determined by the by our office and the IEP minutes that we need to cover uh in the buildings. Um and the bill rate is the same over the past couple years. So I'm recommending your approval of the contract with the power empowered communications for 2627 school year to be paid from the IDEA grant funds. >> Thank you. I will uh entertain
085a motion for approval. >> Motion to approve. Sorry. >> Thank you. Uh what kind of evaluative service I mean who evaluates these specialists? >> Um they're not technically in our uh they're not our employees. So they're not evaluative. Although I will tell you that Mrs. Nixon and I work very closely with all of our contract um agencies and people and we did have uh one or two this school year that we will not be asking to return. So um we work with them, we talk to the principal and we we know um how they're doing in the buildings and then we would just ask them not to return if we did not feel they were their services were >> appropriate. >> So it's informal but you're on top of it. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you.
086Any other questions for them? >> How many speech pathologists do we have that are current employees? >> Not contracted out. >> Approximately 13, I believe, >> across our district. >> Remember, they're capped at 60 by by law. So, they cannot go above 60. >> I think it's a a shortage in this in the industry nationwide, pretty sure. Um, so you don't think if we paid them more we would get more people who were actually employed by us? >> I do think if we paid them more we would get more people. How much more would we have to pay them? Do you think if you had to guess? >> I couldn't answer that but you they have opportunities to work hybrid. They have um can work from from home um and they can also work in
087the medical or um like nursing homes and all of that. They're paid hourly at those places at at a higher rate probably than um we're paying. The reason I the reason I ask is if you have the need for speech therapy that's actual an actual need >> the likelihood of you remaining in a a poverty circumstance over the course of your life is very very high >> but overcoming the speech issue that requires therapy will get you out of poverty >> and um I just wonder if we shouldn't maybe consider paying these people more money to come and work for Yes. >> Especially since it's not local funds that pays for them anyway. >> Typically, it has been local funds. Mr. >> Right now, if there are employees that only one year, >> one year
088is what a lot of the um services that we put into our grants that the district receives. Um that money is available due to carryover money that we didn't spend this year that will be used in next year to pay for some of those services. So we will not have the amount of grant money available next year as we or the following years as we do next year. >> Very interesting. >> Also in special education you're required to provide to do maintenance of efforts. So the district has to spends the same amount on a special education student as they do every general education student before we ever expend any idea grant funds. So the best way and easiest way to prove that is to pay staff. So, our um special education staff is paid from
089um district dollars just like every other general education staff member first and then all the above and beyond things are paid for at the IDA grant. Typically, >> I would be interested in someone uh maybe it's not you, maybe it's someone listening close by to me uh doing a study on how much money they think we would need to pay to recruit people for this position. That's that's all I got to say about that. [clears throat] Anyone else? >> We have a motion and a second uh to approve the contract with Empowered Communication LLC. Roll call vote. Miss Robinson. >> Mr. Eastman. >> Yes. >> Dr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Coron. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. M. Tam. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. Now we
090have a contract with Love Your Classroom LLC. Do tell us what that is. I will. I'm very excited about this actually. Um so our district improvement plan includes goals to improve behavior suspension rates and also um social emotional um learning. And one of the things uh we just saw numbers about the number of kindergarten students that we have in our district um which highly out exceeds the number of students that are in our preschool program. So we have a lot of kids that come into our buildings that have never stepped foot into a school or maybe even um such a um structured situation ever. Um so one of the things that um I have been working with is Love Your Classroom who provides um board-certified behavior analysts to come and um we've done some functional
091behavior assessments and special education and we've also done some um coaching within special education classrooms that you guys have approved last school year and this school year. So, one of the things that I suggested is that since we have so many students with different varying behaviors and we're really trying to work on that, that we provide some coaching to our general education staff as well. It's just another tool in their toolkit. We often get phone calls in our office from from principles um and from teachers [clears throat] saying, "We just need some help with some kids. Is there another set of eyes? Can someone come help?" Um, we do have one behavior interventionist in our district. That's one for the whole district. So typically we reserve that for special education and not general education. So
092I'm recommending that we take the SP the um kindergarten classrooms and provide them with one quarter of classroom coaching which would be three hours per week of a board certified behavior analyst of BCBA to be in their classroom to be there and observe and to be there as the things are happening. It is the it is it's for for Mrs. Nixon and I or whomever somebody in special education to go and observe in a classroom we might be able to spend two hours max and then we can make some recommendations. But when someone is going to be in your classroom for an entire quarter they can see what that student or students are like on a regular basis and just offer some insights some researchbased strategies that can be utilized in each of those classrooms.
093So the recommendation is that we would purchase 20 classroom coaching packages which would allow for each kindergarten classroom and uh a few special education classrooms. Um a like I said a quarter of coaching which is three hours per week um from that BCA BA from um Love Your Classroom. We have worked with this company over the past two years. Everyone really likes the company um and they do a great job. Um the those packages would cost $72,000 for the 2627 school year to be paid with title funds. >> Thank you. Could I uh entertain a motion for approval? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Thank you very much. >> Money comes out of title one. >> Yes. >> The behavior analyst comes with the program hired by the company. >> Yes. >> Okay. Mhm.
094>> So we we have such a person. It's not like we have to go find them. >> Um they have to find them because we're contracting with the company. >> Okay. >> We have two postings for such a person. >> Actually, >> that's what I was worried about. >> So are you confident that they can find a person? So, I've been working with them for a while, and this would provide essentially a halftime person here. And she has been able to barely squeak by with sending us a person just for those um uh functional behavior assessments we've gotten. She's more confident that if she says a halftime person that she'll find someone that's willing to do that. Um it's not 100% because she still does have to, you know, recruit the person. But also there's
095the option um that I'm going to recommend to other directors of special ed in the area. Hey, would anybody else like to do this and and you know split you know they could have a halftime as well? She could hire a full-time person then if some you know if any of the other directors are interested in something similar. >> I just wondered the contract says and I know you I know you saw it because you approved this all here. It says mileage reimbursement will be added to the invoice at the national rate at the time of service to and from sites. >> Not from their house though, >> right? >> Um, no. >> We're talking about in between the schools, >> but not We're not paying for them to drive from wherever they're driving from.
096No. >> Is that correct? >> I do not believe so. >> Okay. Because that could actually be a lot depending on where they live. >> Like if they're from Springfield, that'd be like $200 each day >> in mileage. But if they're just driving around Danville, >> you're talking like 40 bucks a day, maybe. 30 bucks, maybe. >> I just wondered what do you know what that number might end up being? Like if you had to guess it, is it Mr. Hart drives a lot? You guys all drive a lot. Is it a lot? >> It's not as much as you think it is to drive around. So, >> a lot or is it a lot? >> I I My job coaches probably make $200 a month on mileage and they drive all over Danville every
097day. So, >> and this wouldn't be that, >> right? >> Well, kindergartener will be all in one place. So, >> now they won't be driving if it's all in kindergarten, right? >> So, there should be no mileage then >> as long as they're not trying to charge us from their way home, which is against the IRS rules. I know about that. Uh, got in trouble once. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Um, >> yes. >> What What's the credential? What's the training for this person? >> A board certified behavior analyst is major. That's why you can't find them. Um, they have to do 150 hours, I think, of work with others. Um, it's a master's degree program, a BCBA. >> It's a and a very difficult test to pass. It's not a high success rate in passing
098the actual test to receive the certification. I think this is definitely needed after speaking to some of our kindergarten teachers. >> So, I'm very excited to see this. >> Is there any way that we could get like an update to see how well it may worked? >> Absolutely. >> Sure. >> I'd be real curious to see if >> if it helped. >> Right. And you know, it's not to say that they're doing anything wrong. It's just to say, hey, can we are there any other tools that we can give you? Is there another perspective or is there anything else out there? You know, there's >> frustration in kindergarten. Sure. >> Yeah. >> Question. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Um I know this is a different um approach, but this brought up my um past experience
099with hearing from Hunter Le Fave, I think is how you say it. It's in your head. And the different um >> program that he had to try to help with um behaviors and trying to alleviate those in the classroom. So do you feel like this um type of of certification with this person and their their approach would be much different? >> Very different. >> This is a completely researched based approach. Um that's you know there's a if you talk to um Laney who is the owner of the company which I've talked to several times. There's a there's a very there's a large gap in the research and that actually making it into schools. And so these people have that research and they're going to come in and teach specific strategies for specific [clears throat] behaviors.
100Um and so they just have that ability to do that. A lot of students, have you heard of [cough and clears throat] ABA clinics? Um there's a new ABA clinic coming to Danville that board BCBAS teach ABA. So they go into the homes of students with autism often and teach those specific strategies and then they work themselves off off of that. teaching a caregiver or teaching the student or child to be able to do those things. So, it's much more of a let's look at a specific behavior um and what are the strategies that are researchbased and then how do we work ourselves out of a job essentially by working on those behaviors. [clears throat] >> I have a question for you. You mentioned that we have a couple positions that are already available in
101our district for the same role. [snorts] >> Sure. Is there anything in this contract that we would agree to that if say the individual that they provide for us part-time wants a full-time position that we couldn't pursue them? >> I don't know that typically when we do that we do a non-compete for one year when any of our contracts that [clears throat] we have had >> we have had we were able to house them ourselves we had huge success which is why we know that >> unfortunately just like Yeah, a lot of people not >> the salary is not competitive and >> they can work from home and they're making more money just like any other >> pretty much any related service provider you're going to talk to tonight. So when we had two that
102we were able to house, >> yes, >> they were in our classrooms and busy every single day. >> They can do it from home, >> but they know our school district. >> They do, >> right? Thank goodness. >> Okay, we have a motion in the second. Uh roll call vote. >> Mr. Gordon, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Dr. Holler. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. And we're not done with speech therapy yet. >> We're not. Um once again, um this is Taylor speech therapy. She has been here for several years. Um she works typically up to 20 hours a week, build at the same rate as $100 per hour. Services are hybrid. um she's very familiar with our district and um we'll just fill
103in those gaps wherever we we need the services. I will say that both of these companies helped us out tremendously. This at the end of this school year, we had um a speech pathologist who had to unexpectedly um take a leave [clears throat] and they stepped right in and added some additional service hours for us to help us um in that crunch. So, um I recommend the contract approval for Taylor speech therapy um to also be paid for my DEA funds. >> Do we have a motion? >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Questions? >> I just have one question because I see on here additional hours will be build at $150 an hour. >> Are you as the director your department still controls when those hours are being operated? >> Yes. >>
104Okay. >> And to my knowledge, she has not done that. It's still been the $100. >> Okay. Thank you. Roll call vote. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Dr. How? >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield? >> Yes. >> Mr. East? >> Yes. >> Mr. Corbin? >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. And she's not done yet. Seven mindsets SEL curriculum. >> Okay. Um, this is I'm super excited about and I've got some um some help in in the crowd. So, um, so the district's been utilizing the same curriculum, Second Step, for a very long time. Yeah, guys can come on up. >> Um, ladies, >> oh, I thought you were just here to support us. >> Uh, they are. Um, uh, but these guys are the experts, not me. So, we've utilized Second Step for
105a very long time, and we've heard our staff that maybe it's run its course, and we needed to to explore some other options. Also, Second Step was really the first of its kind, I would say. You know, there wasn't really a lot of the for the masses kind of um it was mostly curricular materials for social workers, not for general education teachers. So, um [clears throat] um these ladies and a a few more um I tasked them with help me um let's find something else. And um we saw a lot of demos. Um and some of them were good, some of them not so much. Um and this is one that comes very much recommended and the they've tried it out. It also has Aeron's Law and Teen Dating Violence Materials, which they've been piecing
106together for several years. The students are tired of watching the same video for five years in a row. Um we surveyed the staff. We ask what are they looking for? This one we really feel like kind of fits that mold. It will also provide tiered intervention. So, not only will the general education staff be able to easily click and provide the um lessons in the classroom, our social workers, um maybe home interventionists could utilize it um to um provide some tier 2 and tier three. Um it's designed to be teacherled and to be schoolwide. It is a datadriven approach. It's researchbased. It's castle aligned. It's a mindset based approach which I talked to Mr. Hart about. We feel like will fit with our district and kind of where we're going and and the direction. Um
107I I gave you lots of data um because I I wanted you to see what Seven Mindsets is doing. Um I have worked with I've talked with the um representative who would be kind of working with us closely several times already and they really want to partner with us. They know that we're a PBIS district. They will work with us to kind of combine that language. So, it's not confusing that PBIS is here and Second Step's here. You know, this would kind of be just a the full approach to how we provide SEAL and work on um those type of things within our district. Um I tried um you know, I I've worked with Miss Hart for a little bit uh now. So, I really said, "How can you give me a deal?" Um, so,
108um, [laughter] if we enter into a three-year contract to be build yearly, um, they did give us a 10% discount per year. So, the total cost for this school year would be $103,500, which would provide us the entire curriculum for all 10 buildings. Um and also the errands law and a another wellness te um teen dating violence materials another wellness aspect. There's also everyone would get an ebook of [snorts] a mindset approach so that for staff there's also some staff things some principles could do with staff at their staff meetings about a mindset approach. Um so it includes a lot. It also includes the all the partnering, the PD, all of that piece as well. Um, so that's what I'm recommending that we enter into the three-year contract for a total of $310,500, but to
109be paid yearly at 103500. And this is also title funds. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second if we have any questions for the team. You did say it was going to be it all. We didn't have a motion. >> Oh, we didn't have a motion yet. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> A motion. >> Thank you. Thank you. We have motion in a second. Thank you. Now, >> you did say all 10 buildings, correct? >> Um on here, it's just listing eight license accounts. >> It says quantity 10. for 81,000. >> Okay, I see what she's saying. I was looking below that. >> It's just where it's got the schools listed. It's only listing >> um it's on the next page. >> I thought that too. >> Oh,
110my mistake. Thank you. >> Yeah, Northeast and Liberty on the that second page. >> I should have read further. >> I did the same thing. >> I I appreciate you adding uh the details there that you've already seen. Urbana, Puria, and Decatur, and Bloomington. Thank you. You were anticipating one of my questions. Maybe not mine, but our questions. >> Uh, that is very helpful to know. Do you know though, >> do they like it or do they feel trapped in their contract? >> Um, from what I can tell, Peoria absolutely loves it and Arbana's like, >> you guys. >> Yeah. So, we we're all pretty much typically part. >> Yes. We are all pretty much typically part of the Illinois Association of School Social Workers. Um, so we follow a lot of other districts and
111kind of what things that they're doing. So we've been doing a lot of research on like Erin's law curriculums and things like that and getting feedback from other districts on what what they're doing and if they like it. Um, typically, you know, the areas that we mentioned, Bloomington, um, Poria, all those, they seem to like what they're using. Um, the social workers are the ones recommending it. So we trust that if the social workers are recommending it, they're the ones implementing it and helping support that. So most of them have had really good feedback and have recommended it. And I believe this is the one that Miss Parker maybe had heard about and recommended as well. >> And this was also >> So it's it's very widely known. >> During the interview with Miss Brooks,
112she uh was very excited to learn that we're going this way as well. So >> lots of information on the program. That is very helpful to know. >> The teachers too like we >> I won't hear you. >> Sorry. Um, we also when we took a look at it, it may look good really to us, but we also have to realize too that our teachers are going to be the ones that are implementing it. So, I know personally in my building, I went ahead and I asked um a few different teachers if they could take a look at it. We were able like two weeks of two, three weeks of a demo. Um, so shared the username and password with them and asked them just to start doing a couple of lessons, implement this one
113instead of second step. Um, just to see exactly how they liked it. Um, and the feedback that I got was really good. Um, one of the main things that they said is they felt like it allowed them to have more conversations with students that felt more natural and not necessarily a very scripted conversation. um they felt as if it would be easier to then implement some of what was done within the lesson into the rest of the day whether or not it had to do with that 20 minutes that we set aside for they'd be able to then carry it out throughout the rest of the day. Um so that was some of the things that some of my um teachers said. Actually I have one more. Hold on >> because I printed out her
114email that was pretty long. um she did like the books in for seventh and eighth grade. She did say that some of the books that they recommended were already ones that we had within our building and that the ELA teachers were already doing. So that was also a big plus for her as well. Um, so that's, you know, making sure that our teachers were able to demo it and not just us was a big thing to us because we wanted to make sure that they would want to be able to teach the lessons because that's one of the things like we require like we really rely on them to do the tier one part of it and so allow us to then be able to do the tier two, but to be able to support
115them in any way. And if they aren't feeling it at the beginning, it's going to be really hard to get them to buy in. >> Thank you. >> I think it's good that we It's not that the programs we already had on are working, but things change, students change, we have a a different culture now than we had even five years ago. So, I'm impressed that you are making the changes. I just want to share also at Danville High School, we don't have anCCL curriculum. Second Step doesn't go to high school level. So, the fact that this program includes the high school school level was really exciting to us. Um, that we could all be using the same program and we would have something to use at the high school because currently for the past
116couple years, it's just been some of us, our social emotional learning team at the school trying to put together some lessons and things for the teachers to use. Um, so this is going to be >> great for the high school to have. Yeah. >> Does it adapt to different grade levels? So you're >> Yes, there's there's each grade level has um all the lessons different. So >> So the kids aren't getting the same thing year after year. >> They will not. No, it's different. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. We have a roll call vote. >> Dr. Holler. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Gordon. >> Yes. >> Mr. East. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you very much.
117Thanks for all your work. >> Okay, moving on to 14. Human resources 14A. Motion to approve resignation and recision agreement. [clears throat and cough] I would like to have a motion to approve the resignation and recision agreement for Stacy Solers. >> I have a mo motion. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. >> I just have a comment. Mrs. Hollerin. Um, rescention of previous action of the board that was unanimous is something that I would rarely support and can't imagine any scenario in which I would ever vote yes. That's all I got to say about that. >> He always sounds like Forest Gump when he does that. I [laughter] thank you, Mr. Eastston. Okay. Any other questions, concerns? >> Sorry about that. >> Mr. Warfield, >> yes. >> M. >> Yes. >>
118M. >> Yes. >> Dr. Holland. >> Yes. >> Mr. East. >> No. >> Mrs. Holland. >> Yes. Motion carries 61. Thank you. And 14B. Uh, dismissal of educational support personnel employees for reasons other than reduction in force. So, first I need a motion to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support personnel employee Rashidita Williams for reasons other than reduction in force effective immediately. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Questions? >> Go. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. M. Mr. E. >> Abstain. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. Mrs. Town, >> yes. >> Dr. Holland, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. Motion carries six with one abstension. Now, I need a motion to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support personnel employee Trinity Lashure for
119reasons other than reduction force effective immediately. Motion. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. questions. >> Mr. East, >> abstain. >> Dr. Holland, >> yes. >> Mrs. Corbin, >> yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Town, >> yes. >> Mr. Warfield, >> yes. >> Mrs. Holler, >> yes. Motion carries six with one abstension. And finally, a motion to approve the resolution for the dismissal of educational support personnel employee Lori Frasier for reasons other than reduction in force effective immediately. So move. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Mrs. Corby. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pam. >> Yes. >> Mr. Eastman. >> Abstain. >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes. >> Dr. Holler. >> No. >> Miss P? >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. Motion carries six with one abstension. Thank you. Um, you have
120nothing else, Miss Peps. Thank you. Food service item 15, Mrs. Zeta Pujo. Thank you. >> Good evening again, board. I'm Mr. Hart, Miss Parker. I'm Zeta Pel and I am here to introduce our captain, Mr. Bassy. [laughter] >> Hi. >> Who? >> Yes. Yes, sir. Who >> that wasn't expecting [laughter] >> led I told you earlier. Yes, Captain. um he led the negotiation um discussion with the union for food service. I am just going to mention the points that he took care of. First one is that the contract will run from July 1st to July 1st 2026 through June 30th 2028. There will be a 4.2 two raise each year for the first two year I mean for the next two years the changes in the insurance will cost $50,000 each year there was language
121changed um regarding clarification and language was added for a sick bank for the employees you have any questions Mr. They see [laughter] >> I don't have any questions. >> Um it just a quick comment. It was a really productive um negotiations. We got it done in two sessions which was unexpected and both sides worked really well together. So we appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> I'll entertain a motion to approve the food service collective bargaining agreement. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. I just have one comment, Miss Hollerin. >> Uh, there are several school districts across the state, I've already told Mr. Hart this, and I I don't know if I've talked to Miss Parker about it yet, >> several school districts across the state that have figured
122out a way, maybe this is for our union president here, to get all of their unions under one umbrella. I I think I I I know that would be very difficult. I talked to several school board members who've done it in their school districts. It took as many as five years. One said it took 10 years. I just think it should be a goal of this district to get all of our u all of our all of our union people in one uh uh one collective bargaining agreement. That's my only comment. [clears throat] >> Talk to Mr. >> Okay. Any other comments, questions? >> Thank [clears throat] you for for your good work. We'll have a roll call vote. >> Mrs. Yes, >> Mr. E. >> Yes, >> M. >> Yes, >> Dr. Holler. >>
123Yes, >> Mr. Warfield. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Corby. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, >> Mr. Rice. This is Mr. Rice. Okay. Educational support policy. I need my glasses. 8.95. Family participation policy recommendation. Mr. Chris Rice. >> Good evening board. Mr. Hart, Mrs. Parker. Chris Rice, director of early learning, and I have one minor request for your consideration this evening. Um, in regards to our parent and family engagement policy, I attached this evening a copy of our family engagement participation policy 8-95 for Daniel District 118. The fiscical year 27 consolidated district plan requires districts to asssure that parent and family engagement is in compliance with title 1A requirements for districts receiving greater than $500,000 in allocated funds and that that policy submitted to the board of education for approval. Um
124the one change that we would ask for to our current policy is the following. uh create a district family advisory council for the purpose of involving parents and family members in the joint agreement of the consolidated district plan and supporting the initiatives with that plan. Um my vision for how that would kind of work is very similar to how our ownership and education committee is being utilized now. So just involving our stakeholders. [clears throat] >> I would ask for your approval. >> Thank you. I'll entertain a motion. >> So move. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Questions for Mr. Rice. >> How is this different than our family council meetings? >> So, family council meetings are at the building level. Um, we'll talk about building level initiatives. They will talk about things we're doing
125at the district level, but we are required every year to submit a consolidated district plan for our district. Um, it's everything from [clears throat] basically how we're going to utilize our title funds. So from instruction to professional development, preK, um curriculum, special ed, and making sure that we are getting parent input on those initiatives at the district level. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Thank you. Roll call vote. >> Mrs. Sam, >> yes. >> Mr. East, >> yes. >> Dr. Holler, >> yes. >> Mr. Warfield, >> yes. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. Motion carries 70. >> Thanks, Mr. And now we have business and finance with Mr. Todd Pence. >> I know. >> Mr. Pence is going to talk about the amended district 118 proposed budget and ask for permission to display
126it. >> Okay. almost ready. >> All right. First of all, my name is Todd Pence. I'm the interim business director. Uh, >> good evening to the to the board. Uh, I would like to say I'm kind of long in the tooth. Uh, I've been in education for I just probably my 40th year. Uh, retired, came back and uh, have really enjoyed it here. And I just want to say I I think I counted up. I've been in eight districts over the 40 years. And the things that are taking place here are really really good. Uh I think we're headed in the right direction. Uh we do need to get the money stabilized a little bit better, but the money that we do have I I really think focusing prek K is the most important thing
127because one of the things I picked up is that that our kids are coming in behind um for various reasons. It doesn't matter once we get them. If they're let's say they're 20 points below the state average on on a test scores or whatever, >> even if [clears throat] we meet the state in average increase every year, we're still staying 20% behind. >> So, the only way to really address that in my opinion is to get them early. Uh, and I we talked a lot about one the the Carl building, but also getting the preK and K together and making that transition a lot better for the kids. And I think this is a good first step. I hope at some point we can get full-time with these kids because that's what I think we
128need. Um, again, I just and again, just some of the things, the the presentations and stuff. Uh, I think the district's really doing a good job with what what what we've got. [snorts] We've got really good people. So, and nothing's easy. That's kind of what it comes down to. I've got two things for you. Uh, first one is to amend our budget. Uh, you might ask, why why amend it? Uh, this is going to be something we're going to have to do every year. If nothing else, the main reason is if you if you look on here, the original budget, you can look at the fund balances across across the top here. I might have cut off the the totals. Hang on. >> Can I get it on one page? Oh, it doesn't want to
129do it. That's all right. Even if I don't get to it, you can get there quick. >> If you look at the top, like in the edge fund, our when we when the budget was set in the fall, we haven't had the the audit and we we still don't necessarily have the audit, but we have our beginning fund balances finally and our adjusting entries. Uh that's what's changed between this month and last month when I came in and told you we were we're doing a little bit better. We are doing better than what we originally looked at. Um the overall so no matter what we're not going to get our beginning fund balances until the audit's done, okay, each year. So every spring or at some point during the year, we're going to have to
130amend the budget anyway. uh just to get and again it's just a good practice to get you want to get the numbers right before the audit takes place. Okay. Um on on this one you can see we we're still running we're going to run a deficit overall for all the funds as well but the ED fund is really the one that we we need to focus on. We're looking at a little over a $4 million [clears throat] deficit in the ED fund. So we're going to go into next year with about five million in it. So, if we continue on the same pace and don't change anything down to a million bucks in the ED fund next year, uh we know people are going to want raises. They deserve raises. Uh we know insurance is
131going to go up. You know, basically all our expenses are going up. So, um our only hope is to again utilize title the best we can. Uh we also need to do whatever we can on the revenue side, too. We know we'll see a little bit more in state funding. Uh that number isn't completely finalized yet, but we will see, you know, a couple hundred thousand more in EBF [clears throat] at least. Um and so on. Also, going into next year, you really need we need to look at the at the levy. Um a couple things, [clears throat] Mr. Arc came to me today, there's a couple tip proposed tip districts out there that could negatively affect us down the road. The one the city already has cost us about 1.2 2 million this year.
132So, the tiff districts are a big deal. Um, and I know I I I plan on working with Mr. Hart and the city to see if we can get a cut of that. It's not unusual when they form a tiff district to give a district a certain percent of that money back. Um, I think [snorts] that's would be wise for us to at least see what we can do if anything. >> Um, on that front. Uh, and again, you guys might not even have seen the the TIFF stuff yet. I know it's just a recent recent development. Um, going across I I I guess what trying to tell show you what it what this means overall. Oh, you got it over there. >> Um, [laughter] $3.6 million overall deficit. I think when we originally did
133the projections out in in June, it was like eight eight to nine or something like that. [clears throat] So, uh we are tracking pretty well. We do have there's some cushion in here. We know we have two bad months. We have a three payroll this month. Uh we also are getting caught up with with transportation. Uh there's about four million going into transportation, but I have I have those numbers built into here. Uh we're still looking at about $25,000 to spend the next two months. We won't spend 25. I I hope it's less than 20 to be honest with you. It's going to be spread out amongst the funds. Um like last month we've sent six million. So, but we know this month and then we do accelerated uh payroll for the summer. Uh the
134next two months are just tough. no better way to say it. They're they're they're expensive months for us to run. So, it is what it is. We'll but we plan for it. I think this is the worst case scenario. I honestly hope we come in a little bit better than this. Uh but that's that's basically the amended budget. I've gone through every line. Uh there's a lot in there. I mean, it's thousands of lines. So, I'm crosseyed. So, >> that's the amended budget. Any questions about I I do want to show you what this means. >> Um, have one other we didn't go that way. Open. There it is. I thought I put my days cash in here. Oh, that's hang on. >> Word. >> I open up Word. And what I want >> close,
135>> Mr. and you might not know this, but like first student. >> We can't yet. We haven't had a motion. Sorry. Sorry. >> Say that again. >> We haven't had a motion yet. So, we need a motion before we can ask questions. >> Okay. Uh, can I have a motion to approve the amended budget? >> So, >> thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call vote. Oh, no. Wait. Now we can speak. >> Now you >> So, it's not ideal that first student did not bail us until April, May. >> We can't do that next year. That is not ideal for us. >> They're right now they're they're running like last month's came right away. So, they're they're caught up on their side of the of the building. So we don't anticipate problem >>
136was on No, part of it was on on us too because we didn't have a signed contract with them. >> Right. >> So that that happened and then it took a while to get >> Well, there's some there's some debate about that. But that is one side of the story. Yes. >> Yes, that is one side of the story. >> I don't believe that side of the story. I don't think it's uh appropriate to go there though. I don't think >> either way the the billing is coming in as it should. No, >> we didn't have a signed contract with first student. >> That's not >> We approved that. >> That is Yeah, that's correct. >> That is correct. >> Like we appro >> That's a whole other conversation, isn't it? >> It is. >>
137Very good. >> I've been showing you each month as well. And this kind of goes along with the uh the amended budget. If it finishes the way that it was budgeted, we're looking at 40 days uh of cash on hand, which is >> not great by any means. And and again, right at the end of last month, we had 115. So that tells you the next two months are going to be rough. Um for the state in terms of how they categorize that, less than 30 days puts us on the financial. So, we're we're not going to be at that level, but we're we're trending that way. Uh the numbers will [clears throat] go up. We start getting our tax money in the fall. We'll go back up, but then again, it'll work its way
138down. It it just goes in a cycle. Um but that's kind of the that's where we're at with the budget. And I I'm I'm actually looking forward to putting together next year's budget and starting from scratch. >> But we're excited to have you. >> Glad to be here. >> Uh I I really enjoy being here. I I think we're we're trying to do the right things and the people I work with are >> getting it done. Um, so basically I'm just looking for a motion to put the the amended budget on display for 30 days. There there really isn't a you know, you handle it just like you do the normal budget in the fall. >> Do you have a motion? Any other questions, thoughts? >> Uh, roll call vote. >> Mrs. Corley, >> yes.
139>> Mr. Warfield, >> yes. >> Dr. >> Yes. >> M. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> Mr. E. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Town. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Yes. Motion carries 70. We will put the budget on display. It will it appear on the website. >> Where where can people find it? >> Yes, that would be office. >> Superintendent's office is where you can find it if anyone is interested. >> Okay. >> Um it's about 38 pages. To be honest with you, if somebody came and looked at it, they wouldn't make hazard because there's so many numbers that are lumped together. You couldn't really >> unless you had a little background in in ad funding. It will be displayed digitally, too. It's required by the state, isn't it, Mr. Hart? >> It will be on the website
140and it will be in the superintendent's office. A hard copy. >> Yes. Some Some people do know how to read it. You'd be surprised. >> That's good. >> Um, the other thing I've got for you, I met earlier this week with uh two accountants from the firm that used to do our audit. Uh, talking about our our situation. We again, we haven't received the final audit back yet. >> Okay. Uh I understand it was late a year like a a year ago as well. Um part of and I I talked with our current auditor [clears throat] too and uh part of their reasoning is was the transition going on here in the fall. Uh they started in October that was right when when things were changing in the business office. So that that might be
141part of the reason. uh explain some of our process process type things procedures that we use and we're really talking about two different things when it comes to the accounting firms like the auditing firm's going to come in look at your numbers make recommendations what I like to do would bring in a separate accounting firm and this is kind of what what the previous firm recommended to us too or to me was that we we hire a a separate firm firm to come in, evaluate our processes, help us get things set up the right way. Um, I'd like to say I could do it all, but there there's just no way. And again, if we can tell them the areas we want to look at to make sure, you know, we're reconciling everything, it all
142ties together, it's set up the way the the auditors are going to want it to be set up, uh, to help us prepare for the audit to make sure we've got everything. Um, once we get things cleaned up, then we would go out to bid the thing a year from now. Um, but I think like Mr. Hart and I kind of talked about, it doesn't do it good to keep spinning our wheels without trying to correct some of the procedures that we have. Um, help train get our people the training they need to have a a a firm that we can call. It's kind of like having a lawyer on speed dial. >> You know when to call. >> Um it could save you a lot of money down the road. Same thing handling your
143accounting issues. Um how do you want us to handle this so it's done correctly so we don't have to make a million adjustments at the end of the year. So you know I'm probably looking at 10 to 20 grand tops just depending on how much it they would they basically they bill you by hour and that type. It depends on who you have in and all that. So, um I will put that out and you know, I'm sure we'll get two or three at least firms that will actually bid on the thing and uh want to provide those accounting services for us. And again, it's meant to help clean up everything for us. Um make sure we're doing everything right. That way when we do and even again set up the budget, we've got thousands
144of lying items. I don't think we need probably a third of them to be honest with you. So again, to help us clean up, do the right count numbering, get the descriptions right, that way whoever comes in and replaces me in a few years. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> It'll be it'll be left in a better place for them. >> Thank you. >> So that's that's what I'm looking to do with the accounting services. >> Great. >> And this is anformational item. Yeah. >> You'll bring it back for Yeah. So, like I'm hoping by next month they come in and say, "Hey, this this is who we're recommending and how much >> after the bids go out." >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, basically, we'll go out and get quotes on them. >> Thank
145you so much. Um, I think the public needs to know that he's an interim business director, full-time and a half and a half. >> I mean, he works lots of hours and has really made a difference in our business department. So, Mr. Vince, we appreciate you so much. >> I need you to know. >> Okay. Informational items, Mr. Hart. >> Okay. I'm going to be quick. I have two items. Um, first of all, I just want to mention that Camp Invention, which has been held in the district for the last probably close to 10 years, um, they lost their funding. So they're funding one program in Illinois, one program altogether. To be quite honest with you, we're probably the longest standing school district left. It is 100% funded. Um but this year it moved changed
146locations. So it is at Shalarmman um with Lorie Woods who has been the director of that program since its inception. Um, so the camp is June 15th to 18th for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. It um reallyolves revolves around STEM and STEAM activities. The kids really seem to enjoy it. Um so if you're interested, you can contact um Lori Woods and that's lwoods shalarmman.com. I think all the kids should have flyers now and we have actually posted on Facebook. So we are sending it it'll be a mix of Danville kids and Schlarmman kids. So um first time in a long time. So um I'm excited about that partnership. [clears throat] Um another thing that I want to talk about is a partnership program with Carl Clinic. Um I've been in contact with them to
147bring a CNA program to um our high school students. Right now with uh scheduling conflict and logistics that we're having with DACC and College Express, it's important that we are um producing helping kids be exposed to medical careers. So, I'm working with them and I hope to bring at least two sections to Danville High School as early as next year. So, fingers crossed. Um, but they've been great to work with. So, I wanted to make sure that everybody was aware. >> Thank you. >> Board comments, [clears throat] Mr. Eastston. >> Uh, I'll be quick. I just wanted to say um Miss Pizzo Zetta Miss Zetta um the fact that you were proactive in surveying whether or not there was a need for food and then finding out how large that need is is uh I
148mean I'm grateful that you did it. I I wouldn't have expected such a response. You probably did. I think it's important for the community to hear those numbers again. Serving 600 families, 1,600 children, seven breakfasts, seven lunches, and milk through the summer. 1600 children's family members asked for help for this. This is a it's a great thing that you're doing. So, I appreciate it very much. um the community. I hope the ones that need it are going to hear that it's available and I think you've done a good job of letting them know. So, thank you for that. Um a lot of people do not have any clue what our families are going through. Uh I think you might uh and some in this room of course know, but a lot of people don't know
149how important that is. And uh so thank you. Thank you for doing that very much on behalf of the district and for our community. Um, I already talked to Miss Hollerin about this, but I told her I'd say it anyway, so I'll say it. Um, I think that, uh, Mr. Pence, you're doing a great job at getting the budget where, uh, closer to where it needs to be. Uh, I personally am of the opinion that the board needs to help you more and have more direction for you in ways we need to cut spending because we are not fiscally sound. We're spending more than we're raising. The current administration in the United States federal department of education is not going to give us more money. It seems the general assembly is more interested in the
150Bear Stadium than helping education. And uh I don't say that uh in just it just seems like there's different priorities at the state level. And I think that this board uh needs to consider having a special meeting uh to talk to Mr. Pence and others. You can call it a finance committee meeting if you want, but an open meeting to brainstorm ways that the board uh can help you all not have to make the decisions on what needs cut because things need to be cut from our budget for the fall. We cannot have a deficit again. Uh we can't go down 40 more days of cash. We won't we if we do, you mentioned already the tiff districts. If our government is paying attention locally, they're bad for school districts. I don't know why you
151keep passing them. Um, they just are they're bad for school districts. They're bad for education. They have unintended consequences that hurt us dramatically. We're going to have to borrow money because of these things. Uh, they look like they're helping redevelop communities and then we put debt on our kids' shoulders to pay for 30 and 40 years on a on a bond. We're going to have to vote on one. Uh this just this board's going to have to vote on one before the new board's sworn in probably because how bad things are financially and no one wants to pay more in taxes, but we're going to have to vote to raise taxes. The school board is going to have to vote to raise taxes. There's a county tax, a sales tax that the school districts across
152Vermillion County are going to need to vote for to put on the ballot 1% sales tax to pay for buildings because of we just don't have the funding. And I think this board needs to do more in helping our administration to know what the board is saying. They are willing to cut so that they the heat is on the people who were elected in this community. Uh that's my opinion. I hope that we will have a special meeting. I know everybody's busy in the summer. Um last thing, uh it's my opinion that every single place you can cut spending should be considered, including things like things we love. and it's just a drop in the bucket. But Mr. Pence, I hope that the board will tell you that they don't want to go to Chicago
153this year because we can't afford it. And uh I'm not going. So I hope none of my other board members will go either. Save some money on hotels. That's all for me. >> Dr. Hillary, >> I was honored to be able to attend the uh educational personnel retirement this past week. uh was well as I say it was an honor to be there among the people who had spent so many years and dedicated so much of their lives to the uh people of this district and so one more time to say congratulations and uh thank you for your service. >> Thank you Miss B. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't mention of the passing of a of a uh volunteer at Garfield School. Uh, William Numis passed two two weeks ago, I believe.
154But he was a faithful follower of Garfield um school crossing guard, worked in the cafeteria, volunteered. He was just a great guy. Um, kudos to Northridge and Northeast on their uh, presentations. I thought it was very good. I'm always excited when I see young kids getting involved, particularly when it comes to reading. um the Panorama data warehouse that was quite intriguing because as a former principal pulling and this was before the real technology of the day but pulling and trying to find data was a nightmare. So this is going to be u very welcome asset to the next to the district and we have what two and a half weeks left and there'll be time for vacation. We all need it. [laughter] >> Mr. Warfield, >> um I just have a few things here. Um
155first, I want to second that for the presentations we heard today from the Northeast students, uh Northridge Middle School students. Wonderful. I'm glad that they are that the programs are going forward, that they're confident enough to come and present it to the board. What an opportunity. And the fact that um Azariah created a book um essentially to share that that's phenomenal. I still remember myself in fifth grade reading to kindergarters. Like that's something that sticks with you. It gives you, you know, confidence in what you're doing, but you're helping someone along the way as well. It's a beautiful thing. Um, I want to say thank you to Mr. Rice and Mr. Delorey for letting me come in and tour their schools. Uh, since the last board meeting, I'm able to go to the north campus
156and also go over to uh, Meat Park in order to visit unexpectedly and felt very welcomed. Had some good conversation. um really got to understand a little bit more about the programs that they're running and their passion beyond their program behind their programs. I think it's phenomenal. Um you've got great staff and and really heard some positive things about the upcoming changes um actually in our district. So um I'm glad to see that there's a lot of support and excitement behind that from some some individuals there as well. Um over this month, I feel like it's been a very very busy month. I'm sure that you guys feel it more than I do with it being end of the school year. Um, but I've had the privilege to go to some of the honors um
157and recognition assemblies, the retirement dinner. Um, and I just think that it's phenomenal that we are continuing to support and acknowledge the hard work that the students are putting in and I want to acknowledge the hard work that you guys have put in this year as well. Um, you guys are doing phenomenal work and I and I really just appreciate what you're doing. So, >> thank you Tim. >> Um, I would like to have two things. Um just wanted to comment on what I think a great situation is with our kindergarten learning center prek and kindergarten. Focusing on those early years is vital um to success and in the classroom and not just in the classroom but in life and in their the community as well. Um the more we can help those younger kids
158the better um off they are going to be in the future and us as well. and the um putting all the teachers together, the consolidation, the collaboration that they can do, I think is going to be very very helpful. And um there's I think I just heard the saying that um in K through three you learn to read and then from three on it's read to learn. Um so if our kids are not good readers, by the time they get to third grade they have battles, they have struggles. It shows in our um test scores. It shows in um whether they graduate from high school. It shows in um daily things that we run across and we need to do everything we can and I think this learning center is one big step in that.
159So I am kudos to Mr. Hart and your whole team that planned that. Um that was wonderful to see. And talking about dollars and cents, I was looking up the $10,000 because I don't like spending money either. I don't like saying that we are spending $10,000 for our uh schoolboard IASB um dues, but this is what we get for the $10,000. There is an annual value for that of $889,000 um from press policy services and press policy is basically what we get from that membership. um they train us all the new board members and within our year there's also 44 hours of free web um training we can go in in addition just looked up something yesterday you know there's a a training um all throughout the year so we get a good amount the
160bang for the buck thing yes it is good um so that's all I have >> thank you >> it hit me this week that our seniors are almost when I read that they have to turn in their electronics tomorrow. I was like, what? So, kudos to you seniors. Um, congratulations for all the hard work that you have done. Um, graduation will be here before you know it. And the students that presented tonight, I I love seeing our students present to to the board and to the community. So, I hope you guys keep keep doing that. That is actually the better part of our job. >> [clears throat] >> The retirey dinner was wonderful. Um, I'm so glad I got to be part of that and I want to thank Miss Robinson because I know how
161hard she works to put that on. I know what goes on behind the scenes. So, thank you very much for all your hard work for that. And I think that was it. That was it. >> Thank you. I have to echo what everybody says. It's hard to go last because everybody says what I want to say. >> Um, but before I before I continue with my remarks. I do want to thank all of you for all of the hard work and we're we're at almost to the finish line. We can we can see the finish line and y'all have worked really hard this year and under some tough circumstances these last few months. So, we appreciate you. We appreciate you enormously. So, thank you for what you do. Um, I too got to attend uh
162uh the scholarship night along with several of my uh other board members and it's it's rewarding to see how much scholarship money goes to our graduating seniors to help them on to the next step. Uh thank you to the community uh members for stepping up in big ways uh to provide a great deal of scholarship money. So, thank you for that. um the departmental honors that were awarded at the high school to our seniors. Also such a very good thing to acknowledge the hard work that our kids put in. Thank you. Last night I got to attend the um theater department's end of the year banquet. >> Um I learned some very interesting things. Uh, one I learned that when the current sponsors, um, Jordan and Katie Richie took over the program, >> Mr. Warfield,
163there were >> I think they said like six or eight, >> six or eight regular theater club members and we're now up over 50. >> Um, so they're building a program and they're putting on some fantastic shows. We're getting acknowledgement from the state and beyond. We have schools that are contacting us wanting to rent our sets. They want to know how how we do how do we do a show like Chicago? How does a a school put that on? So, great things are happening there. And they shared this coming year's programs. Please go see these shows. They're amazing. It's going to be some real interesting shows this year. Um go on Facebook, we'll tell you what they all are. Um, and the last thing about that is that they were notified two days ago that
164we will now be uh members of the International Thesbian Society. And the reason that's so important is because it will allow our kids to qualify for scholarships to lots of institutions. Um, what I learned about that is that Danville High School had a charter membership. Um right now there are thousands of memberships across the country. Um but our and you're assigned a number as you get a a a new charter. We however are charter number 59. So that means years and years ago we were part of the international thesbianist society and we are awarded our number 59 um having recognized the number of years that we've done things. So, >> congratulations to Jordan and Katie Richie for bringing the program and they're they have people helping them. Um, and the kids that participate. Uh, it
165it was an honor to be there last night to see um all the great things happening. Thank you. This was a long meeting and we covered a lot of ground. Uh, appreciate your patience. Oh, and young Miss Pollson over there, >> she did her presentation and she stuck it out for the whole meeting. So, congratulations, Miss Poulson. >> I appreciate that. >> Good night. Let's let's have a good end of the year. Great graduations. Uh we appreciate all of you. >> Thank you.