Dunlap School Board Meeting 08/20/2025

001[Applause] I'd like to bring the meeting to order and ask that role be called. >> Budron >> here. >> Belman >> here. >> Paul >> here. >> Holouser >> here. Tyra >> here. >> Wagenbach >> here. Yan >> here. >> I'd like to ask everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> The board will now move on to the public participation portion of the meeting. Dr. Beerman will begin with the superintendent report. [Music] All right. Uh, first item we've had since the last meeting five year requests, three of which are outstanding and Mr. McKenzie is working on those. uh 25 26 enrollment depends on

002the day. We have a lot of kids coming still. Uh but we're right at 4823ish somewhere in that range. Um 4813 14 23 you know 23 give or take which is up about 50 to 65 kids from last year. So uh enrollment continues to grow. Uh first thing I want to talk about is traffic flow. Miranda, can you pull that up and then just jump to 20 seconds? Uh, with the closure of the entrance to the high school off Cedar Hills, uh, go ahead and pause it first. Jump it to 20 and just pause it for a second. Uh, obviously that caused some concerns about getting in. Uh, credit to Dr. Adrian Drew Brandon, our transportation director, um, our SRO's and Katie for coming up with a plan to address it. So with that um

003this was taken this morning by the way um at 803 804 to roughly 805 806 which is you've been that's prime time. Um that's obviously a look at Cedar Hills. You can see where the old entrance was. Go ahead please and it'll kind of zip around a little bit here. So there's Cedar Hills entrance. And then you have 91. 91 especially last week was a bigger issue. Um we've made some adjustments. Dr. Her was helpful to put in a turn lane there to help. That was at the suggestion to our SRO's. So, you know, we're at prime time here. And as you can see, traffic is still moving. Um it's got a decent flow to it. I went through the line myself on Monday, I believe, at prime time and it took me 11 minutes

004from the time I I came 91. I came this way. From the time I hit my brakes, which was about as you can see where they're lined up there, the softball field all the way through to DMS and out where I was turning back out onto um 911. That wasn't too bad. And according to Katie, and I do not want to jinx this, the best start we've had so far with buses getting to school on time. Folks are probably second that motion. Hopefully I don't chase it. That's usually a concern we have in the morning. Buses getting there having adjust those. It's not uncommon the first week or two to have some issues with some rounds and we address those accordingly. So, thank you to those people uh for making those adjustments and continuing to

005work on those. Um, next one is Wilder weight. We'll have more discussion on that here in a bit. We have ratio and BJ hair. Mr. Felman, I would like to make a suggestion since they're our guests in here. Could we bump them up in the agenda? I think I've got a second. We could probably be courteous to do so if you don't mind. >> I've got to be here for the whole thing. that up. >> So Fran, if you want to pull that one up if it's operating while >> Yeah. And then bump it to 15 seconds. So this is a view from the back of Wilder weight. Um if you haven't been back there, that piece of property is huge. Um it's bigger than what you realize when you're standing out in front of

006Mrs. Bird's building, you know, dropping off kids, picking them up. Um, so that is all ours. It goes all the way back. Um, you can't see the undulation of the ground from this view obviously, but it is rolling a little bit, but it's for the most part fairly flat. Um, jump it up if you would to the 205 2 minutes 5 second mark. And I'm hoping that I know PJ here was looking into this. And when you get to the 205 mark, pause it at 212 when it gets there. So you see that little road cutting across there. So we're on the left hand side, you're leaving while they're waiting. Look, that's Allen Road out there. And that little road, I can drive my truck through that thing now. Man, if we can get access

007to Allen Road uh when we get this project complete, that would alleviate a lot of those concerns with that fiveway stop there by the last chance. Um, so I I know that's something they're looking into and will be a consideration moving forward. Um, the last one I want to touch on, update training center, if you pull that one up. Last one, I promise. I think it's easier just to see them than for me to try and talk about bottom. You start that one at 23 seconds. Kind of jump over there. That was taken again this morning as well. and and that's our current construction site. As you can see, you can get a little bit gogg of a footprint of what the building's going to look like. It's not obviously complete, but it's a pretty

008good idea. And then the the big change is going to be obviously that closure where all the materials are stacked now. And then what we're flying over now is the new road. Uh we met with uh Estus today and architects the cohort uh should be going in next week I believe is what they said to because there's a creek that runs through that care that bond situation and get that taken care of. Uh we were given a timeline. Not going to hold anybody to it yet. Our original state estimate we've been telling people is u per semester. It will be sooner than that. Hopefully quite a bit sooner. I've been saying optimistically midocctober. It may be sooner than that. I'm not make that promise. So, thank you for the patience on those. >> As far

009I'm sorry, one question. >> That date is for the new entrance driveway to be >> to open that road back up. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, anyway, that's just kind of a view of you can shut it down, Brand. Thank you. I just wanted to share some of that. Um I did attend the puria the safety day that we ho sometimes we host it here. It was hosted at the new roe office. Um so I went to that. It's Puria County schools. All the first responders are there. Just some information that came out of that. First of all, let's start with some good news. Um the good news is that active shootings are down uh way down from 61 in 2021 to 24 last year. So, still not great, but better than what it

010was. Um, just some data on those. Most incurred in June or September. Um, which I thought was kind of unique, especially since we're not in school in June, but other schools obviously are. Um, and then there was no specific day of the week that was more prominent than another for these unfortunate events to happen. uh 22 of the 24 um asalants were male and only one of those had more than one shooter. It was almost all photo evidence except for one. Um so some concerns we have these are not going to be new to some of the people in this room especially if you're an educator uh or in law enforcement. Uh in our area specifically the biggest increase they're seeing is in domestics. I don't think surprises anyone. Um what is very alarming is

011a large increase in exh sexual exploit exploitation of children um from financial in that um a child unfortunately sends a picture or video of some nature that is not something they want shared and whoever has that is basically blackmail saying pay me x amount of money or I'm going to share this with all your friends I'm going to put it on the website you never get a job. All these different things. Um that's one. Um the other which is new to me is uh these children doing this these students um to gain followers and likes on the internet. I guess that's a a big thing on social media platform uh where people are promising them, you know, so many followers, so many likes that they'll do this and so they do that and then they

012keep ramping it up. Well, now you got to do this, now you got to do that. Um, that's something new to me, but that's something they've seen in our area as of late. Um, unfortunately in Poria and Tesla County, suicides amongst youth is up. I think some of that could be traced back to some of these incidents that are happening that I mentioned earlier. Um, measles is a concern in our area with the health department. Um, mainly because it's airborne. You can send your kids to school with all the Clorox wipes you want. According to Monica Henderson of the health department, it won't do any good because it's an airborne disease and um if someone were to get that, the quarantining and stuff that goes with that is um rather lengthy and pretty severe. So

013hopefully we don't run too much into that. Uh with that, let's celebrate some other good news. uh US News World Report. Duncap High School once again the chief status as a 2526 US News uh best high school ranking as the number one high school area in the pury area and number 41 in the state of Illinois which is the top 5.7%. Uh truly something to be proud of is the high school. Uh it's on the list where students are excelled beyond expectations on state assessments in math, reading, science, and achieve qualifying scores on a range of college level exams and graduate consistently high rate. Congratulations to our students, teachers, and their families. What a great way to start off the year. And then last reminder, September 22nd is going to be our next regular board

014meeting. That is a Monday. That is not a Wednesday. Um that is done because by law we have to have the tenative budget which Mike is going to go over tonight on display for 30 days and there's not 30 days between the regular Wednesday meeting between August and September. So we have to bump it back to be in compliance. Um Mr. Fman, that's all I got. >> Okay. Thank you. Still thinking on that date change that September 22nd is my birthday. I don't have to think on >> May 21st is my birthday and we had a board meeting so we get to celebrate the same way I did. >> I've got a gabble here. >> Um at this time we'll move on to public comments. Is there anyone who wishes to address the board? If

015so, please raise your hand. Okay, I see a couple three people. Did each of you uh already write your name on the form? Okay. Um, ladies first. >> Yes. Before addressing the board, I'd like to remind you of our process per board policy 2230. We ask that when addressing the board, please identify yourself and be brief. Comments shall be limited to 5 minutes. The speaker is asked to conduct oneself with respect and stability towards others. Individuals less than 18 years of age are permitted to address the court if accompanied by his or her parents or guardian. Board typically does not engage in two-way conversations during the public portion of the meeting. Any follow-up response will be addressed by administration at a later date. Be respectful of others. Protect confidentiality. Complaints against individual students, staff, members,

016or board members, either named or unnamed, shall not be orally presented to the board of education. Such complaints should be put in writing, signed by the person or persons making the charges, and delivered to the board of education secretary. This time, like to ask anyone who wishes to address the board to come forward, sign sheet, then each speaker come to please go ahead. >> My name is Annalie Huntington. I'm a parent of four children. a sub in the district and I'm also um the assistant high school swim coach for the boys and girls swimming and diving team on the entire football. Um I don't do any of that. I'm a stay at home mom to a swimmer. >> Annie, will you just bring the mic down a little bit for you so we can break

017it up? >> Um we're both here tonight to advocate for our pool. I've got a friend with me tonight. If you were here last year, you know, um my main goal here is to advocate for the pool because we need a new pool. Um it fortunately is working there. It was broke for several months and um but now that part has been fixed the but everything the premise everything is old. So we need a new pool. I saw all that beautiful land behind um the other great school. Thought that would be a great place for a new pool. Um this I think I don't know who to do this. I need help because I don't know who to talk to but and I don't have the connections. we could do something with the community. The

018village of Dunlac create some kind of community center. I think it could be very popular and very beneficial to everyone. Um I don't think a lot of people know that um the the pool where um at P the central park in Poria that has been condemned. They that pool is now closing. Pools are closing everywhere. There is a great need for pools. If we built one, we wouldn't have people using it here all the time. It would be a great future. >> Um my daughter's been swimming with the Dunlap Dolphins since she's been seven. Um she's now with Paul, but um she grew up here going swimming and now she's a freshman now. Um our hope five years ago was that we would have a working pool that worked the entire time. The kids were

019displaced all the time. And that is my biggest fear this year. My daughter is a state swimmer. She decided to actually come and swim for Dunlap because this is her sport. This is her jam. this is her thing. So, she was super excited to come and then we get here and we look at the locker rooms and look at the pool and we look at all the things and we're like, "Wow, this is Dunlap. This is our pool." So, I'm here just saying, "Hey, if we can do something, anything to spruce it up, make it look nice, for it to work, that would be amazing." Um, we have great swimmers coming in this this freshman year. We have a couple of state swimmers. We have nine girls this year. It's going to be an awesome

020team. And I'm just here to say, hey, let's do something. Anything. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Matt. Okay. Uh, my name is Matt Marquette. I am a a parent in this district. I lived here over seven years and we have six children in the district. Three in high school, two in middle school, one in elementary school. I have here today to talk about um something I brought to my attention just real recently, which is excessive times that some of our children are spending on the school bus every day. Um just for reference before we get into all this, I live 10 minutes from the school. Um like 6.4 24 miles is what Google Maps said. And it takes my daughter over two and a half hours every day to trans to commute to and

021from school. That's like essentially the same amount of time it would take any one of us to get in the car, drive to Molen, Illinois, and drive back. And I know my daughter's not the only one because even though we're the first stop, the very next stop is maybe 10 minutes after us and that child is sitting with us for 2 hours and 40 minutes or something like that. The next one half of that is still in excess of two hours. I looked up the ISB guidelines for all this. There is no official laws or rules in the state of Illinois, but the guidelines are that we should try to keep our ride time on the bus to an hour each way at the maximum. And again, my daughter was on the bus for five

022more than that. This isn't a story just about my daughter, though. Um, we've heard stories from other parents that we've talked to, not only about the excessive ride times, but the overcrowding on buses. A lot of our buses have children sitting three to a seat. I think that's been going on for several years now. Uh we heard a story from a parent that child had to sit on the floor one day, which probably not something that happens every day, but there just wasn't enough space for every child to sit on the bus and all the sports equipment those kids brought with them and um they end up having the floor. Like that should not happen in the school district. Um, as I've mentioned, uh, we got a lot of pride about being in Dunlap and

023folks around the community when they hear that we're in Dunlap uh, school district, it's like, "Wow, you're in Dunlap. It's so amazing." And they're always shocked to hear some of these kinds of things that we bring to their attention. So, I'm not looking for a particular solution just for my daughter. What I'm asking is I'm asking for the board to recognize that there's a challenge here that needs to be addressed. I'm asking for someone to figure out what is a plan that we could come up with in both the short term and the longer term to address this need that's there and it continues to grow. Dr. Gearan mentioned that we had an increased enrollment this year and that our enrollment's been growing year-over-year. I don't understand why it's always a surprise that we haven't

024buses like we obviously need to do something and I don't have the magic bullet or the magic solution. I also understand that if some special arrangement gets made for my daughter, then that likely means that some other child has to then sit on the longer. I'm not suggesting that uh something's made just for my kid, right? Like it's an overall problem and we need to address it somehow. And um lastly, I just wanted to to make a shout out for our bus drivers. For any of you that have a child riding the bus, you know those are our unsung heroes. They show up punctually with a smile on their face. They're the first uh person within the school system that our kids see every day. They're the last ones they see when they get off

025the bus at night. What What are we doing to recognize these folks? Like we do plenty, but we do some things to recognize other folks within the district. What are we doing to recognize bus drivers? They're unsung heroes. And um oh, one last thing just really quick. One of the solutions that I was given when I I brought this concern to the transportation department was well sir how would you just take your child to school if it's such an issue. I'm here to say that that is not a solution for every family. Some families have two working parents with flexible schedules and or you just one parent that's works the other one can take the child to school. Some families have two parents that work with not flexible schedules and they can't do that. Not

026only can those parents not do that, I especially cannot do that because I would need to park in the handicap spot that's in front of me that middle school. And as we all know, those handicap spots are completely blocked by traffic during pickup and drop. So my daughter has to ride the bus to get to school. It's not an option for us not to put her on the bus. And the more that parents get fed up with the bus, the more parents that might start driving through the the parking lots here and we already know we have a problem. Why try to make it worse, right? Like we should be encouraging people to take the bus and decrease the amount of traffic in our in our parking lot while all the the new entrance get.

027So anyways, those are the only things I want to say and thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Matt. Is there anyone else? Oh, sorry. >> Sorry. I missed you. >> That's all right. >> I didn't see your hand. I'm sorry. >> I would have had you go ahead. >> Go after that. >> Um, so I am Erin Borick. Um, I have lived in the district for a really long time. Uh, my husband is Coach Pat Borick. He has been the tennis coach for 18 years now, 35 seasons. Um, I'm here to talk to you about the training center. Okay. Um, some of you may not know how good our tennis teams are, both boys and girls. So, I'm going to run through some stats for you. Um, Coach Burn has had 416 regular

028season match wins. He's the winningest coach I think in this high school's history. Um, the boys have won conference eight times. The girls have won conference six times. The girls have won sectionals nine times. The boys have won sectionals uh eight times. And when uh coach Hornet was an assistant, they won. Um, the boys won first place state 2017, second place state 2024, third place state, the boys won both 2022 and 2025. Um, the girls, third place state 2023, fourth place state 2019, fourth place state 2023, and then back in 2018, the boys won sixth place state. Um, we've got 64 allconerence boys, 74 allconerence girls. Um for all state boys, 11 singles players, 14 doubles players. Um nine singles girls all state players, seven allstate boys doubles teams. Thousands of future Eagle campers have

029come through um on Friday nights. Dunlab just this year they've won their own class 1A sectional for the eighth consecutive season. Uh Adam has been uh class 1A state coach of the year, class 1A regional coach of the year, and he is the president of the Illinois High School Tennis Association, coaches association. So I am telling you this to say I think that it is unfair that the tennis team will be the only team that does not have indoor practice space with this new training center. Um, many of you were elected to write the training center from where it was um to make it fit everyone. Uh, taking one of those basketball courts and making a a tennis court is not going to cost you that much more money. Um, money that we do have.

030I did look at the the budget and all of the financials. So, we do have that money. Um, I think that it's wrong to assume that because you play tennis outside that it's technically an outdoor sport. The boys start in February and it's cold and it rains. The girls go into October, it's cold, it rains. During the summer, we have many days where we we've got to be inside because now for some reason it's a thousand degrees. Um, and we still need to practice. So to be that good, you have to practice. And coach Barnick does not cancel practice when it's when there's inclement weather. You know what we do? We go to River City. That is not okay. How does the tennis team get the money? Go to River City. It's not the $700

031the team gets each each semester that only goes to pay the tennis balls and it doesn't cover tennis balls, which are nonproable goods and do not uh transfer from season to season. By the way, um we get this money through fundraising which occurs every summer for 3 weeks tennis camp. Um Coach Hornet keeps the rate for a week's worth of tennis camp as low as possible. And he does not pay himself ever. So he is spending a good 120 hours during the summer for free to fund raise for the tennis team so they have money to go to River City. And I'm not telling you folks this to make you feel um that you know I feel that Pat isn't getting enough or um isn't receiving enough accolades. I am telling you so that you

032understand the financial division of where we're at and what um my family has invested in Temptown and Treasure over the last 18 years into this program. So, I would like to see the school district invest back into the tennis team that has brought so many families to Dunlap and is one of the most popular sports in our community. If you take a look out at those tennis courts, even on Friday nights during football games, there are still people under those lights playing tennis. Um, it it's really important to have the kind of fairness and I think that there is a theme going on here with all of your public participation tonight. having a vision, doing things right the first time. Um, for example, if you had graded the land correctly, the water wouldn't be an

033issue under the tennis courts and you wouldn't have to repair them every few years. So, if you had just had and not you, because you weren't here for any of you for this, this was many years ago. Um, if that had been done correctly, the water wouldn't be an issue and you're spending a lot of money uh more often than you need to repairing these tennis courts. So if you do this right now, then the tennis team is not spending as much money going to River City and you have the fairness equivalent where all of the teams are represented within the training center. If you're going to do it right, now is the time to do it right. Um, and I just want to say as an aside, I know your position is really difficult

034and I very much appreciate every single one of you sitting on the board. Um, being married to an educator, being married to someone in public service, I really appreciate every single one of you because, you know, listening to someone like me thrown on is probably not um what you thought would be, you know, going on tonight. So, thank you for your service and um have a good evening. >> Thank you, Eric. >> Anyone else? This concludes the public participation portion of the meeting. The board will now move on to information discussion items. Where did you want to throw those? >> Okay. The school activity accounts reports have been included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Information regarding the semianual review of close session minutes have been included in the board packet. Are there

035any questions or discussion? >> Hang on, Mike. >> Mike, we're skipping you, buddy. >> Mike. Mike, >> we're skipping you. >> Oh, we're skipping. >> Sorry, bud. >> Well, we're gonna come back to you though, sir. Don't go too far. >> Uh, next, Dr. Dearman will give an update regarding Is that what we're doing? >> Y >> regarding the bun funding for Wilder Wave Grade School. >> Dr. Dear, >> if I could, I have the gentleman from Ratio MPJ hair here. if he'd like to come up and address the board. I ask them to come here tonight because we've been having discussions. Gracio's been conducting interviews with key stakeholders um primarily with the school personnel that inhabit the building or in charge of programs, gather some information, and we're getting to the point uh where

036we're looking at more secure financial numbers and uh I wanted them to come kind of give the board an update on where they believe we're at and where this is going. So that's why they're here. You guys can share that one. He doesn't have exact one here. >> They've got one. We'll just go with the with the handouts then put it on the screen. So, thanks for having us again. Very excited that we have the the design. Will you take a second and just reintroduce the team here and reset for everyone that maybe doesn't know anyone? >> Okay. Mark B ratio architects archite. So we're excited to to begin the pre-construction process of Wilder weight. It's off to a great start. I believe it was from July 14th is when we kicked things off. So,

037we're a little over five weeks into it and it's gone very well. Um, as Dr. Dearman said, there's been two meetings with stakeholders from Wilder Way, the administration. Those meetings have gone fantastic with the design team and we've gone through several iterations already in this five weeks and I think it's important that we explain the process forward as to how this is going to go. So right now we've been doing programming mainly led by Graio and their design team getting information from the stakeholders putting that into a program laying it out. We're going to show some of that tonight as to where we landed where we are right now. It's grown in size a little bit, shrunk in size a little bit. This will yo-yo for a while until we until we we we land

038on where this wants to be. Thank you. So, we've been charged with a $40 million all-in budget to stick within. And John talks about numbers in a little bit. You'll get a better understanding about all means, but that's the kind of terminology we've been using. And so, we want to share with you uh over the next really six months through January, we'll be in this reconstruction stage. Monthly, we bring you updates on design and budgets. It's important that we explain to you each time the decisions that we need from the board in order to keep this process on schedule and we will do that. We will have a little homework for you tonight already to discuss here with different options. So with that again, feel free as we always have jump at any time with

039a question, interrupt us, whatever you need. We're here for you, but we'll start um we'll start with a look at where we are on design. Then we'll move to where we are with budgets and along with a couple other options that we'd like to throw at at the board for you to make a decision on to see where you really want to land. But the idea obviously is to meet the program of a 700 student school and we landed on what that wants to be square footage wise. We think we've got everything that we need for a few days. Um we have some discussions about the site plan as well. So, let's try. [Music] >> Okay. >> So, I'll turn it over to Nathan and Mark will talk about where we are with the site

040plan and with the layout of the post grade school. Okay. So, we're going to walk you through the current concept site plan. Dr. You're going to show us the area you just showed all that grass area behind the current way. You kind of bra yourself a little bit. You see the existing building there, the parking behind them where the building is sitting. It's really on that that grassy old there. The guy showed us earlier. So you can see coming in uh from the the north existing building there's an existing drive that would be extended back to have the car rider drop off the line. You can see that shown they kind of the original point that you so that current drive extended back to the current building kind of see what's proposed there the lake

041for the new elementary school kind of sitting back there um to the west of the current um there's an option we're also showing a dash line to the south you can kind of see that label as a a secondary entry for buses that that could come in at some point that could be a secondary uh needs in there. Um the you can see in the as we look into the site plan uh the parking area there's separated bus drop off from the car ride for safety and security of the students uh where the students would all be brought to a single point of entry uh the front door where cursor is right now that would be the main entry for the new building where both students would come together the car riders and the bus

042drivers would come to the single um entry point thinking about increased visibility and supervision and security uh from a single And then uh you can also see the building's laid out way where the the play fields the playground is all separate the very back of this building. So we've got the vehicular access all in one side player on the back for again for safety and security of the students. Uh the there's a drop off or a food service and a delivery um entry to the south of the building where Nather now. Food service and trash pickup etc would be um handled on the south portion also where the those the bus entry is to again keep that separate from the car riders from allowed with the streamlined flow of activity there. The building is laid

043out very kind of a simple way where you can see the um where the entry was there at the front. Um as the plan you'll see that the a lot of those large group specials and the shared spaces gym cafeteria center they're all right near the front of the building. really kind of maximize access from the parking for the visitor use of the building after hours and weekends. And then there's sort of there's two horizontal um wings that come out. Those are the academic lanes. Think about positioning those in a way where they're again toward the play area um and and situated in a way where they can't actually be um isolated. So when the building is used after hours or on weekends, this academic needs to be isolated. And then the very center then

044um you can see between the two academic buildings is we're building a space for the certified outdoor learning space. The current building has this really exciting certified outdoor learning space that we're looking at relocating in that that central location to really maximize visibility increase uh the educational opportunities for that. Maybe I'll pause for a minute in case there's any questions about this site before we get into other components of the design. Sound good? Scroll through. So, we'll flip next to the floor plans and Nathan will walk us through where we're currently at. And again, as K mentioned, we've had a lot of great feedback from a lot of stakeholders. So, um so through um the conductive generous connected to a lot of folks there. So, this input you're seeing here has um a whole lot

045of input today. We're really excited to to show you where we're at. >> Yeah. So, just kind of again walk through where we are. Um this is main entry mentioned. It's directly adjacent to this area. It's an open dining com that that entry as well. visibility. One of the central highlight and celebrate that learning center. These two wings are the classroom wings and we've got the third grades on the lower levels, the older grades on the upper levels. Um the gymnasium support spaces around it are the school shelter on the second floor. Um again center was special classroom art music and upper grades through through fifth grade. Um what we're maybe ask for some correction about some options where we're showing right now this cut off line that's about 77,000 square feet for the if

046we were to um include and so that excludes classrooms we could add four different classrooms. Um that would bring us up to 82,000. And then we could go with the six classrooms that were identified as ideal number and that would bring us to 87,000 square feet. So trying to reconcile with the priorities of the district and um that's kind of where we're at right now. So, you know, I think the um you know, the 77 or whatever the number was, I mean, that was the number that we were kind of tossing around when we met um back mid miday, right? Middle of May 14th, whatever the date that was. And so I would and maybe not just from the table here but maybe from administration or I'm thinking Dr. Andrews, Dr. I mean, maybe I

047would want to have a little more information about the need or the anticipated need for um those additional prek classrooms because that was that wasn't in what we talked about mid and maybe it should have been, I don't know, but I'm trying to get a better s because we didn't come up at least I wasn't a part of the conversation that even came with that initial square footage um uh plan I that was done with some looking at enrollment and you know future potential etc. So, I would want um I don't I mean the board's going to, you know, approve it or not, but I think we need a little little more information as to what the need is for those uh for those classrooms. >> Whether that's now or conversation later, but yes, >>

048going back to the onset, the reason we're able to do this without running a referendum is with the new legislation, you had to meet three criteria. you have the debt capacity, which we obviously do. Um, you have to have a standalone facility, which this obviously is. It can't be an addition or renovation. Um, which is a standalone facility, so that qualifies. Uh, and then thirdly, um, you have to expand either preK or K uh, seat offerings somewhere in the district. It doesn't even have to be at the new Wilder weight, but we do need to expand it. Um, Dr. Hastings is here. She can mention Kaitlin's here as well. Um, you know, we have a waiting list now of students wanting to get in. We have what, two bright futures. We can potentially go up

049to four. Those are funded almost fully through grant opportunities and there's a need for those for our students. So, I think that's the driving force of why we wanted these additional uh prek classroom. The question comes in, if we don't put them into the new Wilderweight, do we put them at some rooms that should open up at Hickory Grove when we move kids out of there or we also have the Wilderweight building which is still going to be standing there. Do we continue to service students within the old building at the prek level? Those are all different things the board will have to discuss and decide. >> What do you um I mean just ballpark, what is that waiting list? Now, >> we have extreme interest in our preschool programs here. Um, at any given

050time, um, Bright Futures runs those weight lists. So, I don't have, >> okay, >> I don't have access to the number, but we are on a constant waiting list and we screen approximately 30 students a month um that are looking for entrance into so the interest is very much there. that John and how many futures room there can be 15 non students and five items in a single session >> and when you mention that's grant funded um what exactly do those grants fund I guess >> like the teacher expense >> the the major expense Yeah. So, just one more followup to that. Then, um because you talked about six, I hear you say six. Six rooms, >> six pre, >> but it was it was two or it was four or was zero. You want

051to go to six? >> Four. And then through conversation through >> ideally six would be >> the ultimate goal if feasible. >> But again, we're we're up here. We know we need and everyone knows that is in the meetings and we share this conversation. There's a difference between needs and wants. We would love to have everything with no limits, but we do have limits and we need to work within those. So, if we need to do some adjusting, we'll do so and people will understand that's coming. >> How do we come to the conclusion whether Hickory Grove can accommodate the prek rooms versus needing to add it to the project now? because we have some classrooms there now. So, I mean, they have had it before and it would be nice to have everything in

052one location if we could instead of having them spread out across multiple buildings. Has there been any um I guess uh math done on when you when we do rebalance the student population to to this larger Wilder weight, what that will do to to Hickory Grove. My goal is to take it. It's right at 8:50ish right now. Um the sweet spot according to Mr. Edner who's been in that building forever. Um is about 650 600 to 650. So that would be the goal is to move 200ish students out of there. Have no idea what that looks like, where it's going to come from. We're not to that point yet. So that was part of the discussion I had with these gentlemen was I know we're building it for a capacity of someday potentially of 750

053but it's not going to be 750 day one. Um Mrs. Bur's building is about 350ish now. We put a couple hundred in there. We're going to be 550 would be 600. So probably look at 600ish to start. But the same thing was said said with Hickory Grove. Why are you building it so big? he'll never fill this thing up. Um, well, we know how that turned out. We just want to be prepared and not caught in that situation again where we've got 850 kids in a school that really wasn't designed for. So, right now with the 77,000 square ft, we're roughly right at 7 capacity of 700 students. If we add the additional space that's another 120 potential uh with the two uh options option option two and option three we are also designing into

054the south wing that that could potentially be expanded in the future and give you four more classrooms that would even up the capacity another 100 so that you're not going to get stuck in the future if you need a building that is expandable because of enrollment, you'll have that option and that's how it's being designed right now. So, >> they've been very attentive, pardon my interruption, very attentive to what's our issue at Hickory Grove. You've been there. The lunchroom, it's a cow shoot and it's it's landlocked. We can't really make it any bigger uh without doing some major reconstruction, which we looked at before going this route and it was extremely expensive. So, this lunchroom is going to be designed so that if we have to, you know, go into some overflow type areas similar

055to what we're doing at the high school now, uh we could do that if the district really really booms uh in the next 20 years. >> So, looking at that diagram, that expansion potential is the bottom left of that diagram, the southwest, I guess, of the property. >> You really either that we're working on would really design that you could accommodate. >> Yeah, I see the dotted line diagrams up top for option two and option three. >> Yes. >> Okay. But anything above and beyond could be extended on each of those wings. >> Correct. >> Potentially. >> You could do four classrooms on the south wing before you get into a code issue where the stairwells at. >> Okay. >> Joan, can you update the board? I've asked this question every time we've met, so

056you've heard it multiple times. The importance that was stressed to me when we started this endeavor of public participation and community input. You've done a great job and I know we're early in the process. I'm not saying you're I'm not upset. Need to can the board time. When is that going to happen? So those people have their voices heard. >> We're looking forward to that as well. um you know, we really feel like there's some decisions here um that we'd like to kind of get resolved in terms of preschool before we we get in into that kind of community engagement. But we're looking forward to that. But then if we can get through um this this kind of this based decision, go to the community and have a sort of an open forum um kind

057of explain where we are. Um call it a kind of an open town hall. we can we can present the concept and um we even did a lot of surveying with students we love with teachers with staff um you know I think we'll share in the the interview that we do a lot of uh audience um smartphone surveying you doing some of that as well just to to kind of gauge uh you know from the community you know what are the elements from current wild we hear a lot about the the community impact there are so strong and and we feel like we really want to see that be part of story for the new building. So, bringing that that community element um into the the final design is what we'd love to to do.

058So, we're looking forward to as well. I think the timing um is probably soon after we can sort of resolve the question of of preschool within the design >> with the current design. Can you maybe share with the board what your per square foot cost is right now? fit and finish everything in kind of. >> Yeah. So, right now we have uh for option one, which is roughly 77,000 square foot, our uh total project budget is around 40 million. We're at 40.1 right now. That's a construction cost of 36.3 million. Plus, on top of that, we have design fees, furniture cost, and then testing. If we go to option two, there's a construction cost of 38.9 million. You add the design piece furniture testing, we're up roughly about 42.8 million. If we go to option

059three, which is the the largest square footage, that's right now sitting at 87,000 square foot. We're at a construction cost of 40.9 million and an overall project cost of 45 million. We've also looked at other options that we don't currently have included in the project. The south entry road that we talked about that's for potential bus traffic and maybe a new entrance exit to get to Alter Road. Um that is roughly $556,000 is what the budget would be for that road. Uh we've been asked to look at sustainability items such as geothermal and solar. um we're in the very early stages of looking through that, but right now to add geothermal to the project is about 1.9 million. Now, there are incentives for these that we just haven't got the information back yet. Um there's

060also the life cycle cost that we're looking at, then what that payback to the district would be. Right now on the geothermal, it looks somewhere between 8 years to 11 years. Uh so we're trying to get all that information to give to the district to see if that's something that it's a higher upfront cost but may be beneficial uh down the road. So we're looking at that now and the same thing with solar. Um you know we're looking at this building to be completely electric. Uh so right now we're waiting on Amron to get back with us of what the incentives are for initial construction costs. Um, we don't have those finalized yet, but we're looking probably about 1.3 million additional to put solar arrays up on the uh the education wings. So, we're in

061the process of looking through all that. We just haven't haven't had enough time with the design uh to get there with the utility companies yet. >> So, quick math. 540 bucks a square foot. Does sound about right? That's all in too with >> all in >> with with furniture contingency sight work everything. >> Yeah, there's quite a bit of sight work on this project that's above and beyond what you would normally see on a project. We've got a large swale that comes through here for storm water runoff from the subdivision that's adjacent. Um, so on the roads, that's why the the bus in entrance for the bus lane is an expensive item because we've got a bridge over that soil to keep that storm water running. So, there's a structure that has to be built

062there that'll accommodate the bus weight traffic. So, we're we're five weeks in into the programming and schematic design of this project. And we are on schedule with that for a January bid which is the ideal type of business project that we're looking for. So in order to maintain that schedule and keep things moving forward there are things that can be done on the design site without this decision being made. But certainly we hope by two weeks, four weeks a couple weeks >> that we get the board to say >> How about four weeks? We can make that happen. >> Were we good on your birthday? How about that? >> Fantastic. >> But we need to know that sooner than later in order to be able to keep the keep the design in the next phase

063of the design moving forward. So that's the challenge. There'll be things like this that will come up. Again, we want to give you an executive summary every night before you all the details, but certainly keep you close as to where we are and what we need to be able to stay on track. And this is the next thing we need to decide option one, option two, option three, and then anything else you see as you're looking at these drawings and come what about this, what about this? That's part of the involvement that we look forward to hearing back from everyone else. So, just get those to Dr. company those costs. That's that's where we are. >> Is there just for so that everybody watching at home that when we talk about option two or option

064three each one you're adding roughly um about 6,000 square ft right on on each one of those at the $540 a square foot. Does that change at all when you're adding that? So, in other words, it I'm looking at, you know, again, rough math, 540* 6,000 square feet is an additional 3.2 to go to the next option. And so, is that roughly what we're talking about or is that all come down? >> We're using the same per square foot price for the building for each square foot option. Okay. You do the math. It's $390 square foot for the building. Your site works the same in every option. You can see it. We will get you a copy of this. What's up on the screen? Apologize about any here, but then design fees stay the same

065all the way through. The furniture will go up because we're adding classrooms, but it goes up 100,000 each option. And then testing stays the same. So contingency goes up a little bit as a percentage of >> So option B was the four, option A was the four. Which one's the four question? Am I >> option two? options, the four preschool classrooms, and then how much was it to add the exterior bus road? To me, that's >> half a million. >> Just wanted to make sure I had those numbers correct. That that's important with that traffic flow situ. It's a mess over there. If we can do something to alleviate that, that'll be big. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That one would definitely be important to to get in that two to four week time frame.

066Also, the the solar or the geothermal. That'll come in time. We have time, but we can't decide to do that without affecting the state. >> Kirk, you said you had homework for the board and myself. What What do you need from us? >> We need to know the decision. We stay with option one. We stay with option one, the 77,000 foot version, where we go to the add four classrooms or add six classrooms. >> Okay, >> that's the decision. That's the homework we need for you to make that decision so that we can stay on track. >> All right. Any other questions for these guys while they're here? >> I just going to have a question. You got all electric heat. Is that >> be the force there? Heat or you go that way? >>

067It's all electric instead of gas. >> That's what I mean. Yeah. >> And you chose that for cost up front or what what was the purpose? >> No, it's it's just not having to run the gas line to the building for that. Um the electric is going to be as efficient with the units that we're providing. And then if we could do the solar um as well, that's going to help offset any of those costs. >> Okay. >> And that's kind of still discussion and solar. There's no then >> I just don't know what what determine that. So >> if we're looking to be all >> I would look at that I would like that you have my opinion >> and our plan is >> yes to we will give you a at the next

068at the next board meeting we'll give you a formal schematic design submission that'll have a summary. It'll have all these drawings. It'll have a breakdown uh detailed breakdown of all the costs so that you'll have that at each one of our design submissions >> as we go through this. >> And we'll get this budget update to you in the morning so you can distribute it to the morning. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. >> Thanks for moving us up. >> Yep. No problem. Thanks for coming. >> Okay. Next. Next. Mr. McKenzie will present information on the FY26 tenative budget. I'm really excited about talking about finance. >> Yes. Very All right. Um, can't hear me? Let me know. As usual, I can't hear anything. for years are so bad, but uh

069not yours back right now, but it's getting better. We're good. All right. Uh this is the second presentation that's in in the board package. Um but I always like to start with reminder of the dates. Um uh as a school board, there's very specific laws about how you can pass a budget. So tonight we're uh doing the um uh presentation of the public uh meeting or the petition of the budget. I mean uh we'll have to do a public notice that is available for uh viewing. Um, we will put everything uh on our on our website tomorrow and we will have a uh a copy in the office if anybody wants to come see it. I always lay it on the front counter. I don't recall in my all my years of doing this anybody

070ever coming into the office looking but it is on the internet. So, uh or will be tomorrow. Um and then on September 22nd, we will have to do a public hearing and we will do uh uh the formal adoption of the final budget. I don't expect a huge amount of changes between now and then. There'll probably be some little refinements as we do it and then uh as part of the this legal uh requirement I'm required to you know state what I'm expecting the total revenues and the total expenditures they're very high this year because of the way school districts should budgeting that 112 million assumes a $44 billion bond issue and that 81 million assumes we're going to spend about 12 million on construction costs this year, which actually I've heard more numbers this

071week. Uh I probably need to bump that up a little bit before next week. So So that those numbers will definitely change. I put this slide on uh on here mainly to the new board members. The rest of you heard this before, but I would like to remind everybody as a school district in Illinois, um we can use the cash basis accounting. most school districts do. Um I'm an accountant so I'd rather use uh cruel accounting but I don't have staff enough to you know do full acural account so uh we use cash based account. Um, that being said, even if we use a coal based accounting, when we did the budget, we would still uh recognize uh two things differently than you do with your financial accounting. You used to in the business world.

072In uh in the business world, when you borrow money, you would consider that a liability on your balance sheet and an increase of cash, an increase of a liability. You would never see a record. But in a school district, you know, cash is coming in, so we see a revenue. Uh, same thing with construction costs. When we do a capital improvement, we recognize an expense immediately in the in the for in the, uh, regular business world financial accounting, uh, gap based, you know, financial accounting that you can do in most businesses. You would recognize, uh, the new building as a asset and you spend down cash. you build something and be an asset and then you would depreciate at that over time. So that expense, you know, show up on your building, your expenses show

073up on your income statement over 30 years. But for school district, we show it as an expense writer and that it just makes the financials different than what you would see in regular financial accounting. You know, our fund accounting uh is different. So that's uh why some of the numbers get a little skewed when you do these big projects. Um my key assumptions this year, big big things that uh are affecting the budget this year. Um evidence-based funding used to be called general state aid. That's the big amount of state funding we get every year. Um uh we're expect uh we've already started getting it. So we're going to get an extra $1.6 6 million in evidence-based funding. When I originally did projections earlier, you know, a few months ago, I was assuming about $500,000,

074which is what people were telling me. It's assumed the increase that we had two years was about $500,000. So, I was assuming that. And so at when the final numbers came out because our our enrollment keeps going up and our needs keep changing uh uh we had we had bigger increase than the original expected. So that's very positive news and it has been positively affected. Um other thing about corporate personal property replacement tax that's been you know that went really up during COVID and everything and now it's been plummeting the last few years. is finally leveled out and they're expecting basically flat funding. We get about a billion dollars a year from that. Um, every year I check with the county assessor's office and they give me an estimate this time. They're usually very accurate.

075Last year they told me 7.5% it ended up being 7.49%. Uh, year before it's like they said 7.9% ended up being 8%. So they're expecting an EAB increase uh this year of 7%. So that's what I've included in the budget. When I was doing tentative budgets last a few months ago, I was assuming 3%. Which is kind of a historical number, but they're expecting 7% increase. So that is uh in this budget because we get about 45 to 49% of our uh our taxes that we levy in December, we will get them in June. So, you know, that affects our budget. About half of that increase affects our budget this year. Uh, we're going to issue in this I have 44 million. We heard numbers today. It might be, you know, plus or minus a

076little bit of that. So, and then construction costs. I'm assuming in this I'm assuming uh we're going to finish the training center uh kind of that way. Um, and we're going to uh uh start the process at wilder weights. That's the $12 million. It's probably a little uh uh little it probably be a little higher than that based on some estimates I got from J hair yesterday, I think. So, so that might change a little bit. I have this and it's too big and the next couple slides show it in the smaller version, but I always throw this up on the on the website or on the not website on the board book in and on the official budget that will be on the website tomorrow. There's the 20ome page detail of the budget that

077we that in the state's format. It's very difficult to read. Um I understand it but you know unless you do this for a living, it's very difficult to read. So I created this onepage version of the budget. So we see each column is a different uh fund and on the left hand side of the gray column is the operating funds on the left or the right hand side of the nonoperating funds. Um so most of our day-to-day activities are in that left hand side. And so that's that's this slide. So most of what we do is at the education fund, the operations and maintenance funds and the trans uh transportation. That's our day-to-day operations of the district. And mo uh the largest fund by far is the education fund because everything has to be in

078the education fund unless it's specifically allowed and told we're told it has to be in a different fund. So most things are in the education fund. So the total expenses in the education fund are 47.7 million units. So the number that everybody's always interested is down near the bottom about uh four rows up from the bottom is the revenues over under expenditures. So, and if you go all the way to the right hand side of that number, it's the 3 uh 69,000 uh uh 369,000 in this version of the budget. I had to change that a little bit. I've made some tweaks even since I did this. Yeah. So, it's 320. So now it's more like 320. But um regardless um uh it's you know in the in that 3 to 400,000 is what we're

079talking about across all the operations. Last year it was about uh uh 1.6 million at this time. Now it's 300. You know we're talking 300,000. Um, and that's with we just bought Chromebooks here in July. We approved them maybe in May, but we didn't actually get them and pay for them until July. And it's got half a million dollars in the budget to buy Chromebooks for the next grade level in the spring, you know, because we kind of put them off, you know, kind of, you know, waiting to make sure we know what we're doing. Uh, so that's all in here. Um actually I was very pleasantly surprised by the by this budget. Also if you look at the near the bottom there the third line from the bottom it says fourth line from the

080bottom building fund transfer. We have to transfer some more money into the building funds for the additional size of the we transferred 8.5 million last year and we need to transfer three and a half million somewhere and right now I have it coming out the transportation fund. uh to uh finish off the uh the training center. So, uh that's in the budget and we'll do a more specific number as we get closer and we know more, but right now that's in the budget. on the other side of the budget and the uh nonoperating side um it's I don't I don't like to say don't worry about it to some extent but some to some extent the money that's in those funds can only be used on very specific things. So, uh, like debt service, we

081issue bonds. The county, uh, issues, you know, levies our taxes for us or, you know, collects our taxes for us. If we were to go out of business, the county would continue to do that and pay our bonds. I mean, you know, it's it's kind of, you know, so we get we get property taxes in that fund and we're we can only spend it on, you know, existing bonds, I'm saying. And there's always a little bit of timing difference. Sometimes there's a little profit in that, you know, and there sometimes there's a little loss. It's just a timing difference. Um the IRA social security fund for the last two years we have not levied in that fund. So this year I have us levying in that fund again. Uh because we did that specifically because

082our our IMRF fund was so overfunded. So we uh did not levy at all and instead paid for uh some other things and now this year we're just have to start levy portion again. We'll still take a loss in that because we only have the the June portion of the levy in there and and going forward we'll have uh we'll get that back to basically trying to break even every year. uh capital projects in that fund is they issue bonds up top 44 million uh interest and some other things uh in that fund. Uh and then down lower uh the $12 million of uh of wilder weight in the training center and then about another 600,000 of other projects. We pay for boilers. We pay for, you know, some roof things, things that come up

083through the year. There's always you have 800,000 square feet under under roof. There's always big capital for, you know, things that come up through the year that we have to do. So, we we fund 600,000 of that. And that money comes over the other billion dollars of that capital, the revenue for capital projects comes from the county school facility sales tax. And so you're, you know, I I put a number in there to pay for things. And then tour, again, you can always vent for very specific things in there. Insurance, risk management, things like that. Uh so we levy for that. We pay that down. We try. We try to break basically break even. And then life safety, same thing. We can we levy for it every year. We can only pay for capital things

084that come up as life safety. So those are very specific things. Um and then in the end it shows a profit of 31 million. That's where I say it's very misleading because it's all cash county if you take out uh that it does. So uh the next step step obviously is like I said we're going to have the uh uh the budget uh posted tomorrow and available in the office tomorrow. Then September 27th, second we will do the public hearing and the board approval of the final budget. That's all I have for you. >> All right. Thanks, Mike. Questions for Mike. >> I have a question. >> Teresa, >> I apologize. I didn't get to this sooner. We've got two. Thank you. If you go back to slide the first slide with all the numbers

085>> as fun. Does that say 46049 for revenue? Is that what that says? I can't see it from here. We have two things in the board packets. That is 300,000 greater than one other one um for revenues there, which you have a $669,000 deficit potentially. Do you know what that is? I can show you these sheets. This is one sheet that was in the board packet right there in the top. See how the numbers off? There's a $300,000 there. Which one? Which one is See, it's just this number here. It's exactly $300,000, which makes that one exactly $300,000. Just this is correct, right? I just >> um I'll check. >> Okay. Okay. Another question I have. Thank you. Just Yeah, just check it. See what's going on there just to make sure. >> Which which

086one though is she looking at? She was looking at the one of the financial reports where I I threw in the intentive budget and that as well >> and something I didn't copy over properly obviously. Um I'm not sure what I understand that is I copy or I I created that using the budget. So I mean some somehow I okay there's a lot of numbers there Mike just a few. Okay. >> Yeah. um help me understand the transportation why we're taking three and a half million out. Do we have enough buses? What's going on that we're taking three and a half out? Are we just good on the fund balance? Why are we taking out of transportation? >> Uh because we have a fund balance basically. We don't have to take it out of that

087budget that fund. Uh we could take it out of the education fund. Um uh we obviously could take 900,000 out of the working cash fund if we wanted to. Um uh uh but we've been running a slight surplus in that in that budget every year for the last several years. And so um uh >> and maybe this is a transportation question I can put transportation just want to make sure that >> we're looking at that right. Okay. That's just a where it seemed the most logical to be. We can always make that decision somewhere else. >> That's a pretty big pretty big hit on that fund. That's a big hit to make that back up. >> So what fun out >> but still I mean we you know uh >> but that fund balance is

088what close to double what the yearly expenditure is. I mean our fun our total revenue our total expenditures in that fund in the budget bill say there's 2.9 million almost three almost 3 million and our fund balance is 5 a.5 so that's almost you know a good portion of two years of uh fund of expenses in the fund balance that's too high it should be at least 6 months you know having uh so it should be uh at least a million half dollars and this thing it still be 2.7 so it still be not a year's worth of expenditures but it'll be so it really gets it down more to what it should be. I mean in an ideal world you you have you know you would have two years of expenditures in >> I

089completely understand I guess my question is I've heard the same same concern from parents that the kids are there's not enough room on the buses long. So I just want to make sure that we're taking that into consideration as we as we look at this here. >> This will not hamstring the transportation. >> Right. Yeah, understood. >> Bus drivers is the thing that is the biggest uh limiter in buses right now. >> We have more buses than we have drivers right now. That that's that's the issue. If you the board said, Scott, you could add 10 buses tomorrow. That'd be fine. I got nobody to drive. >> Right. I mean, that is the case with every school district probably in Illinois right now. Bus drivers will stay this year. >> We would hire more if

090we could hire Other questions for Mike? You know, I'll echo what uh you said. Uh I don't remember exactly what you said, Mike, but I was you said pleasantly surprised actually. I remember it now. And I was as well when I looked at the budget um Teresa's um error that she found of yours notwithstanding. We'll see how that rounds up or down, but um yeah, came in better than I thought it was going to. So, good work. >> Yeah, we uh uh I was very happy with it. I mean, you know, I was using what I thought were fairly conservative estimates when we were talking last year, six months ago. Uh obviously, we got a little bit more money than I was expecting, but you know, you get an extra million dollars, that that really

091changes, you know, right into your operations, that really changes the complexion of things. So, I know Miss Holouser had emailed the board or at least myself and Tom maybe, I don't remember who, asking about a financial presentation. Um, I would like to do that next month with the board's approval permission. Uh, because there's several factors at play here. Uh, I'll just give I know we've talked enough tonight, but Dr. Adrian gave me a list of major projects off his 5-year facilities plan that are coming up that these are not luxury items. We're talking roof replacements, boilers, HVAC units, kitchen equipment. I mean, stuff we have to have to operate. I ran the numbers on that today, including some summer project stuff. We're looking at $17 million just in those. And those are not again luxury

092items. And he hasn't gone to a single principal yet, asked for what their wants are for their buildings. And here what a million and a half for next summer already. Is that correct? Um, you know, we saw a 7% increase. Awesome. Or we're expected to see that. The county is usually right. So, I don't deny that. I'm sure that's correct. You know, we saw a bump in evidence-based funding because we're tier one. Yay. That's great. But at the end of the day, we're still scraping by to break even uh with these increases and they're not going to last. I mean, we've all been here. They're not going to last. uh we have other needs that need to be met. Um so we need to kind of have a long term longer term projection of what

093the uh expenses are, what the revenues are and how we're going to address that or how we present to the board and let the board decide how to address that if that's all right by you for next month. >> I just load up that night >> Teresa. That is a that is a present time to talk about more about it. Teresa, >> okay, >> maybe more for me than you. >> If as always, if you think of anything else, either email me or call me at the office got something. Sorry. >> Thank you, Scott, for bringing that up and you know, I don't as we were looking at this and I I know that I've have concerns. I've expressed my concerns about this. I pulled up the the last report um last report from we've

094been in a deficit for several years in a row and I think we know that um our revenues are significant. They're going up and and we still cannot balance a budget with the increase in revenue and just like Scott said, we're not going to see 7%. We're not going to 7% of EABS. I think we all know that, right? It's not going to continue. My question to you and that that's part of it. Absolutely. We need that because in a few years, you know, I I can see the writing on the wall with the numbers and I think Scott, you know that as well when when we see our expenditures just, you know, in the ED fund alone grow doubling what the revenues are coming in, that's a problem. But I guess my question, one

095of the questions is and I want to ask this in um we're seeing such increases in utilities. Are you seeing those as well or are we on a fixed type rate for so long? What are you guys seeing in utilities? >> Most of our rate is the same. Um uh we're in a fixed rate in mo in most of our buildings. >> Uh what you're seeing is an increase in uh supply or in supply but in transportation >> and so yeah, we're seeing those also. >> How big of a jump did you see? So, I have a a hefty increase in budget. We're assuming that uh but also, you know, uh we should have the solar panels on this building coming online soon. So, that will won't have that uh transportation cost for that that

096that energy obviously. So, that will help a lot. Um but yeah, I have a hefty increase in this budget for utilities because everybody's seeing it. So, >> Oh, exactly. Is there a way that we can sharpen our pencils and get this balanced budget this for this upcoming year? >> Well, we'll do continue to do that through the entire year. Um uh uh as we know more things and we'll uh and we always have >> Mike Mike won't say this, but you've heard me say it at the table before. He overestimates expenditures, underestimates revenue because we run into it every year that he's been here. And come May and June, the budget's always better than what Mike presented because he's covering his rear end. Okay. He is doing that here. >> As an example, salaries in

097this budget is 5.6% higher than we paid last year. And we're not really planning on adding a bunch of new people. It's just mainly raises. We're giving you existing employees four to 5% raises. Well, that's not 5.6, you know. So, you know, there's probably a little bit of fluff in there because, you know, fluff, but uh uncertainty because, you know, we don't know what how much subs we're going to have. Are we going to have big, you know, flu season or something, subs get real, you know, a lot more expensive. So, I use an average. I don't look at last year's and just budget like that for subs. I kind of look back what's kind of higher number and that's what I budget. So, I mean it's, you know, I budget line by line. I

098spend a lot of time just looking in every single line trying to figure out what I think is going to be. So, yes, I am very conservative. I uh if if I know a specific number on revenues, that's what I'm putting in here. But on other numbers like interest and things like that, I'm I'm estimating probably a little. And same thing with expenses, you know, when it comes to a lot of subs and things like that, I'm I'm estimating high hoping that I'm wrong and that will bring it back. So, >> all right. >> Um, at $300,000, $400,000 out of 55 million, 56 million. That's a very small percentage. So yes, we will definitely, you know, be tightening things and as we go through the year, trying to bring that closer to zero. >> All

099right, Mike. Sounds like you're coming back next month, so we'll get more then. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks, Mike. >> Okay. Next, uh Dr. Hastings will present information on the state of special education. [Applause] Take this. It's not that we go. >> Maybe we can stick a microphone in the project. >> Okay. >> Add it to the list. >> Hello. I'm excited to come before you tonight to give you an update on the state of special ed. This is my third year here with the district. And when I first arrived, I noticed two things. First, we have tremendous staff, a lot of talent and expertise, and most importantly, can do this position. Secondly, I noticed that we need a lot of systems and structures. So, that has been my number one aim since

100I've been here. continuing this work and I'm not doing it alone. I'm backed by my team of certified staff. I want to point out some of the celebrations because of the support we've been able to these goals. First, we reopen successfully the elementary instructional program. This is one of the students who are three years or more behind their age care. We've made tremendous growth in the structure of our life skills program and it may be in the best shape of our bed. There are a lot of research based practices and materials now embedded within this program. We've also launched our first ever special classroom for students with most significant cases of we have excellent staff retention. If you look at these photos, find the two golden stars. Those were the only two positions out of

101eight that turned over this year. The people that have the arrows pointing to them, those are three new positions that you granted us last year. Unfortunately, we were not able to fill our life skills position with a certified teacher. So, we have a retirement helping us out for now. The other two ladies that don't have a star or barrel, these are positions that went fill all last year. So due to education of qualified speech language pathologists. So Hannah and Eaton are the newest therapists and we're just elated to have them because this allowed us to walk out of a very expensive speech therapy contract. Last year we had our first ever professional development series for our teaching assistants and it was attended on a regular basis by about 60 of them between both grade centers.

102And I would say about this group that they really have a desire to learn more about their position in special education so that they can. We continue to work on our campuses and we really program my site manager Steph Megan and then some of our precious students on the right. This year we defined our last school year and defined our mission which is working together to empower learners. We've also created a vision. Basically, our goal is to take our most exceptional learners and help them sort of the highest ambition in life. Our assistant technology coordinator, Melissa, created this AT guide. It is tied to the practices of the office of special education and the individuals with disabilities education act. Basically, this guide is an outline for us of what service is coming to practices in

103this district. It's describing our AT processes and explaining how we will implement and monitor AT. AT is a legal consideration in IEP process. The teams are to be considering every single students needs in regards to technology. I have a core group of people that help me with laying out these structures and making decisions around these important things. I call them the foundry. This is collaboration of our psychologists, social workers, behavior consultants and our assistant technology coordinator. This is so important because our sites and social workers are gatekeepers of eligibility. So the lenses that they are looking through on the different tops that we're working on are so important and the greatest product that we have made as a result of our collaboration is this program guide which I've given everybody a copy of. program guide

104does a very nice job of outlining all of the different academic and emotional settings that we have within our school district. The guide outlines what the considerations for goals are, what program offers and benefits of being part of the program. And lastly, we have created a strategic plan. We have one in the district. There's one for curriculum instruction. And now we have the first ever plan for special ed. So, some of these goals are already in progress, but I shared with you that guide was Melissa's primary goal. She's the leader of this goal. Now, this year, she'll work on rolling out these systems to our team so that they can get acclimated to how we're going to further advance the system of technology for our students. our behavior consultants, psychologist, and social workers at Foundry

105Group. Carlos Evans, he's gonna be our leader for this, we're going to revisit our local considerations for students that are deemed eligible for service under emotional disabilities. All right. Within special ed case manager group, these are our teachers. We have worked diligently on refining our practices when it comes to writing those. They're very sensitive documents and they've been given specific direction on what to write in each section and have had guided practice so that we can write the most clear documentation of who our students are so that anybody they left us tomorrow pick up that document and be able to get a picture of who that student is. All right, ECE, our preschool team is working on creating a smooth transition to kindergarten. Our motor team is the most ambitious group. They have a couple

106different tiers. Basically, they're working on refining their practices with referral process and supporting staff with supporting students inside the classroom that have more. And lastly, our speech team is focused on developing resources that can be utilized by staff and parents to help with the generalization of communication skills from their spaces into classroom spaces. So I asked my team on institute day, what will we achieve in the next nine months? And given all that I've shared with you of what's transpired in the last two years, I think it's just a continuation of more great work. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any questions for Dr. Hastings? >> No questions. I just want to say a great job to you and your team. You guys do amazing work and you know, I was glad to see

107that you're able to add some headcount to your team, but I know there's still work to be done and you guys have your hand in school and you have a lot going on. So, we really appreciate what you guys do. Does anybody have a guess of how many kids you service? >> Oh man, really? >> It's 750. >> 750 kids you service right now. >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> Thanks for putting this together. This is great. >> Thanks, Jack. [Applause] >> Okay. The uh 2025 2026 transportation contracts have been included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Information regarding the pool filtration system has been included in the packet. Not sure if there's any questions, but I'd like to ask Dr. Adrian or Dr. to say a few things. >> You want to see

108some pictures of it? Got some pictures there. >> Well, to be honest with you, I'm not sure I know exactly what I'm talking about. >> Just through this together, so don't compare my presentation to Dr. >> Start with your celebrations. All right. So, the reason why I'm bringing this to you before all the summer projects is if you're familiar with our latest uh application for the health department permit to install the chlorinator. I worry that if that pool filtration system goes out tomorrow, the filtration system takes much longer. I spoke with our representative. He said 18 to 22 weeks at the earliest to get a permit to do that. So you can imagine as big of a headache as that chloration system was, if that filtration goes down and have to wait longer, that's going

109to be a real problem. Um, so this is just these are some pictures of our current filtration system that in the packet you can see it's outlived its lifespan by 12 years. Um, knock on wood, it's kind of like a hot water heater in your house. You know, as long as it's running and not leaking, you're just going to roll the dice till it goes out, right? We have a lot of heater kind of get put in the next day probably. We don't have that level here with this pool uh filtration system. Um so that's why I'd like you to approve, you know, not approve information item this month, approve next month uh budget for $200,000 so we can see proposals, get a proposal decided on and then apply for that application and replace this

110while we can. Well, that's why I'm bringing to you now instead of waiting for the summer, holding our breath, hope it doesn't go out. It's simply just because of that permit process. Okay? And these are some of the patches of the roof. If you go in the pool last time you toured the pool, these were not repaired. These have all been repaired. They've been insulated because they caused the condensation from not having insulation cause some some issues with water on the floor tissue. So, we had those repaired. We had some of the rusty areas of the beams. And this is this was painted in 2019 2020, but the chloromines in there, the pool, they just rot away everything. So, uh we we've had that taken care of too. So that's been addressed and certainly it's

111not perfect, but it is much better than it was. So the full the coration systems in there that the water gets checked every morning uh before the students swim. So we feel really good about how it's performing. We're just concerned about this the filtration system. It looks like something from World War II to be honest. So that's all that was about. Just putting that on your docket, bring it back for action next month so we can seek something and get some death. Okay. Any questions on that? >> That's original, right? >> What's that? >> It's original, too. >> I don't think it is. No, >> it's not. >> No. >> What? >> Not original, but it looks like it. >> Those aren't originals. You don't think so? >> I don't think so. >> You don't

112What do you think, Tim? >> Why would it be? >> Well, because they don't last very long. For one, that would be 50 years old. So, I mean, you you you debated replacing that in 2019. talked about. There's some notes on that, but time has decided not to. >> Can anybody check those tanks to see if they're actually rusted out that bad? >> Yeah, they get inspected every year. >> Could they be paid? Could they be paid? The painter check them out and see if they're >> a painter. >> Yeah. Sand blast them off. >> Painter can paint them, but it's not going to help them function. >> No, but they're rusting while you're changing them. Yeah, but I don't want to spend the money on sand blasted and powder coated then replace it. >>

113I know. I'm just telling if he would if he can test them that way. >> I got a 1949 an address tank that I'm redoing. >> See, just telling um Dr. You also did you want to show us your house? >> I have those handy. >> Oh, sure. Go ahead. Dr. Adrian. >> So, this is from the opening. Uh >> you just want to buzz through. Yeah. Real quick. Yeah, bud. >> Sorry, I know you guys haven't seen these. >> But this is the current design. That's obviously the front entryway. It's been extended. Uh that's the vest tubule as you walk in. One view of it. Another view of it. This is the main hallway. When you walk down the short hallway, restrooms are on your left. That door on your right, that maroon door

114is a conference room. These are a sample of what the restroom will look like, boys and girls. Uh this is the conference room. is 19 roughly by 15 about the same size as the one in the district office which will be good for the curriculum department, student services, special ed, they need meeting space so they can they be able to utilize it for that. Uh that's the dance room we talked about and that's the overall floor plan of it. This court down here is a different texture because the batting cages are on it. It'll get a lot more different different use with the high jump shot down there. So they recommend a different texture down there. But that's the basic floor plan. I think you're going to be really happy with the way it is

115uh when it's finished. But that's pretty much it. >> What's the surface for the basketball courts? >> What's that? >> The surface for the basketball courts. >> It's called a Mondo surface. I can bring one in next month. I got some examples of it. >> It's it's a rolled material. Um it's kind of the the the industry leader in those type of multi-purpose floors. >> Yeah. >> Not hardwood obviously, right? Something that we do a lot of activities on. I mean, to the to the point of the tennis uh conversation, just out of curiosity, I mean, those type of surfaces are lacking some quality for Jennis. >> Yeah, I'm not they're fairly thick. I'm not sure if there's a barrier between the concrete in there or not, but uh these guys have installed the store

116before and I do know that when we compare it was the one to go with as far as seemed to be like most people were happy with that product. Yeah, just thinking of it from like multiport option kind of thing, but >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's a good question. You could drop nets or something or have nets or something. >> I mean, don't they make like movable tennis nets and >> Yeah, it's pretty it's durable, but I'll bring them in so you guys can sample it. They feel like I was pretty impressed with that how durable they seem. >> Yeah. >> And then that's obviously what the nutrient way looks like. And this black area is a term lane that we're going to have to add to allow our traffic to flow out of that

117appropriately because if you were to stop here and wait for somebody, they're all going straight. They would never be able to get to the right and we have to have them access. So just that simple turn lane we put in off of uh on the Legion Hall helped immensely. So if we can get a real turn lane in here, that's really going to help us. >> Okay, great. >> Any other questions? Thank you, Dr. Adrian. uh the 2025 2026 non-certified starting wages uh information regarding that has been included in the board packet. Are there any questions discussion? Okay. Information regarding the outofstate and overnight culinary trip for DHS students has been included in the board packet. Are there any questions or discussion? Okay, this concludes the information discussion items segment of the meeting. The board

118will now move on to the consent agenda. Are there any questions or discussions regarding items on the consent agenda? Could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve agenda. Teresa, is there a second? >> A second. >> Thank you, Andrew. Any discussion? Roll call vote. >> Hi, >> Balfman. >> Hi. >> Paul, >> hi. >> Public. >> Hi. >> Wagenbot. >> Hi. >> Y >> I. >> Okay. The board will now move on to the action items. The bill lists, treasures report, direct district investment report, and bank statements are included in the board packet. Could I have a motion to approve payment of bills? >> I'll move to approve the payment of bills in the amount of $6,9249 as presented. >> Thank you, Comm. Is there a second? I'll

119second. >> Thank you, Yousef. Any discussion? Roll call voteman. Hi >> Paul. >> Hi >> Holouser. >> Hi >> Tyra. >> Hi >> Wagenbach. >> Hi >> Y. >> Hi >> Ber. >> Hi. >> Okay. Motion carries. Information regarding the destruction of close session audio has been included in board packet. I have a motion to approve the destruction of the closed session audio. >> I move to approve the destruction of the closed session audio is presented. >> Thank you. Andrew. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you Tim. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call vote. >> Paul. >> Hi. >> Holouser. >> Hi. >> Tyra. >> Hi. >> Wagenpot. >> Hi. >> Y. >> Hi. >> Uron. >> Hi. >> Belman. >> Hi. >> Information regarding the contract for the architectural services has been included in

120the board packet. Could I have a motion to approve the contract? This is for Wilder W. Yeah. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve that contract? And this is towards Wilder W. >> I'll move to approve the contract as presented. >> Thank you, Nick. Is there a second? >> Second, Tim. Any discussion on this? I'll just make one comment, I guess. So, it did I know there was a lot of back and forth for a while. This was a protracted uh but in the end we were comfortable and there's nothing that the board or the public needs to know. It was what we thought it was going to be and it all worked out in the end. >> Correct. This was negotiated by Carrie Piple with Hajes in Louisiana who is an expert in

121these matters and negotiates him on a daily basis. Great. >> Any other discussion? >> Roll call vote. >> Helper. Hi. >> Tyra. Hi. >> Wagenbot. Hi >> Yan. >> Hi >> Beron. >> Hi >> Felin. >> Hi >> Paul. >> Hi. >> Information regarding the FY26 tenative budget has been presented this evening and has been included in the board packet. Do I have a motion to approve the FY26 tenative budget? >> I move to approve the FY26 tenative budget as presented. So Andrew, is there a second? >> Second. Okay, Nick. >> Any discussion? >> Okay, roll call vote. >> Tyra, >> I >> Wagbach. >> Hi. >> Y >> I >> Bron >> Hi. >> Belman. >> Hi. >> Paul. >> Hi. >> Hol. I'm just going to make the comment till we can get

122it balanced on the note. >> Okay. Motion. Is she the last one? Everyone else? >> Yep. >> All right. Motion carries 61. Okay. This concludes the action items portion of the meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn to close session? session. >> All right. Now, wait. You have one of these. >> Have to say >> it's going to have to be for one of these topics. You have a specific one that you want to go after. >> Right. I like the engagement. You said we changed this around a couple months ago. So, >> I know it's confusing. Does anyone have anything uh regarding A through G employment disciplinary minutes collected collective b uh negotiating matters security real property or litigation? Okay. Hearing none then um we don't have to go into close session. So down

123to here. Could I have a motion to approve the human resources consent agenda? >> I'll move to approve the rehuman resources consent agenda as presented. >> You volunteered. >> Okay. Andrew, is there a second? >> All right. Yousef second. Any discussion? >> Roll call vote. >> Beron Feldman. >> Hi. Paul. >> Hi. >> Whouser. >> Hi. >> Tyra. >> Hi. >> Wagenbach. >> Hi. >> Y. >> Hi. >> Is there a motion to adjourn? Tom, before the motion journ finish, would like to encourage everybody to come out to the stadium Friday night for the maroon and gold night um for the introduction of all of the kids who participate in all the sports uh for the fall uh between the and yeah being on the scoreboard that that new media board is supposed to be

124installed between weeks two and four of the football season. And did you say what time that starts tomorrow? >> Um it's or Friday. >> It's 5:30. I believe 5:30 is the start of the uh fresh soft football game. And then we introduce all of the kids to participate in all the sports for the fall. And then there's several different things. There's a soccer inner squad scrimmage. There's a swimming diving inner squad and there's a volleyball also in squad. >> Okay. After that, now would you like to make a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll move to journ. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Nick. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The meeting is agenda at 7:50. [Applause] willing to volunteer any of my time

125if you have questions. I feel like [Applause] so if you have any questions I am happy to honestly see any more questions but it is practice I know >> I couldn't hear what Matt said as far as [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the few years ago it or anything. Appreciate that. [Music]