001Nice work from first on [Music] She just got back from southern Illinois. She had to take a friend home over, but we are going to go in for a very good time. Hold on. Um, I'd like to bring the meeting to order and ask the role be called please. Felman here, here I here. Tyra here. Wagenbot here. I ask everyone to please stand and say the pledge of allegiance. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Now we'll move on to the public participation portion of the meeting. We're going to begin with Dr. Dear superintendent report Dr. First request since our last meeting we've had eight requests has completed all of those requests. Um just
002some general information today we hosted our grounding ceremony for the activity center very well cooperated. He's been on the local news. Thank you to the board members and staff that were able to attend that next update on architectural services for weight. We are still in the process of securing an architect for our next project building with the board election that has adjusted our timeline. I work with Kirk Anderson and DJ hair to inform all the architects of 11 that shows great interest in our project. this submitted that we are adjusting our timelines at the May 21st regular board meeting have something for approval at that time as we adjusted speaking to May 7th be a special board meeting to see the new board members and that meeting the only agenda item that will be the
003seating of new for that and then it's required because of time associated to that. We've had DEA and DESA negotiations both are progressing. Neither one of which are settled yet, but we are moving in the right directions with both of those. Um, thank you to Mrs. Ellis. She helped a safety communication meeting today with our SRO's and our local fire department. And then lastly, a few things to present. Um, as you know, we have some outgoing board members. I promise not to make this mushy for some will be very short. The first board member I would like to recognize for her years of service is Dr. Abby Humbles. Dr. Abby Humbles, thank you for your service to the district. I will read this one. She can show you if she likes but I want to
004thank you personally for the work you've done school. Thank you. Thank you. It's been Could we speak individually? Yes. Generally we do this. We allow board members to make comments if they so choose. You allow me to make comments. I'd prefer you not but I will anyway. Um, just a few things. Um, Aby's been on the board. This is This is your eighth I'm sorry. This is your eighth year, right? It's been a long time. I'm sorry. Can you turn it up a little bit? It's on. I got a green line. I got it. Let me turn it off. Let me turn it off. Okay. Um so from I think he started in 2017, four years after I did I believe. Um and so many things happened during that time. Um I can recall when
005we were in that room over there, right, and there was a lot going on and the peacemaker over here to my right, uh Mike, uh he helped out with that one. But we went through a lot during the past eight years, right? Um, co was one of them, but that was really tough, right? I mean, we made it through that. You served as How many years have you served as president on the board? Three cycles. So, six years. Six years. Six years. And And if anyone knows that is that is a that's a job that's not not paid in dollar signs, but other other compliments. Let's say compliments. We'll say compliments. Abby, you've done a great job. I mean, you served on every on several committees. anytime there's something that needs to be done. Um
006I will say that's probably not the the funnest committees, right? The handbook committee, the policy committee, there's just a lot of work that goes into that. During that time, we did the addition to DBMS, uh the new district office. Um if you recall, that was done. How many years have you been there now, Dr. Gar? I've been here at the district office. Has it been four years already, or more? Going on our fifth. one on the fifth year. So, correct. And then we just just today did the new training center. Um, groundbreaking and then we'll be doing Wilder Weight here moving forward. So, want to thank you, Abby, for your time on the board. It is it takes a lot of time. I know she probably puts in more time than anyone on this board
007with all the committees she's on, but I do have a little something for you, Abby, from me. Um, just a little card and a little gift. And so the next third Wednesday of the month, you can go out to eat while we're here. All right. Thank you, Abby. Thank you, Teresa. Abby shaking her head. The fact of the matter is she forbid me to speak tonight, which those of you who know me, that's pretty impossible. But I won't keep it short. I just want to say, Abby, that I second everything that Teresa has said. uh and add to that that for me personally, I know how tough it is, but you've always treated everybody on the board and outside the board and everywhere else fairly and professionally and evenly. And for me, it's been an
008honor and a privilege to work on this board with you. So, thanks for your all your efforts and everything you've done for the school. Thank you, Mike. You've done a great job, too. With that, one thing I failed to Dr. Humbles various two days. One that she was serving on was negotiations. She was going to be part of that, but then in speaking with the DA presidents, they were disappointed that she wouldn't be because she has, you know, a lot of those conversations at the table. So, I went to her and asked her to reconsider and she did. Um, so I know we have our three new members here. We have Mr. Ty on that committee, Mrs. Moltzer. So, voting fill in at some point that thank you for filling in on that, Dr. Holmes.
009Next person I have not new um has come back to Mr. W. Thank you Mr. [Applause] Wis not leaving you out Mr. Wilson. Um Mike I think started the same time you did right Abby 2017. Is that right? No it was afterwards 2019. Was it 20? I thought you guys were at the same time. Anyway, are you sure? Okay. Well, two years kind of seems like that long. Seems like that long, right? Um, worked with with Mike ever since I've been on the board. Of course, I'm the uh the senior on the on the board here. Um, it's been a pleasure working with you with Abby. If I didn't say that, Abby, don't leave out there. Um, I've worked with Mike very closely. We did the district office project together. Kind of challenging, but uh,
010I believe we were on time and under budget, which is exactly what what we do in the world that we work in, right? Uh uh he was part of the pool repair which was is that three years ago now? It's been more than that maybe it's four. Boy time flies right. Um he was instrumental of course in the training center that we just did the groundbreaking today as well as uh working on wilder weight and getting all that in order for us to move forward. Always always willing to um compromise. Like I said he's the peacemaker. I will tremendously miss working with him on the board. Both Abby and Mike know that I'm kind of a number cruncher. So, I'm always gonna call them and say, "Hey, listen. The numbers don't support that." I'm sure
011you've heard that from me more than once, Abby. So, I want to thank you for your time and please, you know, um while they're waiting, we're still doing that. So, we're all I I I uh reserve the right to call you at any time. Okay. So, once again, I have something for you, Mike. the third Wednesday of the month, you can go out to eat in Florida with me. Anybody else want to speak? [Applause] Yes. Thank you, Mike. Uh you've always kept us in financial uh oversight as well as Teresa and Tim and the rest of the board. Um I appreciate my service on the board. I've had a lot of good memories. I appreciate all of you. Mr. total your short time on the board. You've done a great job and it's been a
012pleasure. Anyone else want this because it's not about us, it's about the meeting of the kids. So, we can end this at any time. All right. Very good. And last but not least, like to thank Steve for his service on the board that we have and he's done a very good job. Thank you. I can't bring you out, Steve. Um, I can't imagine what you're going to get in this whole thing here, but um I think you started in August, right, last year. So, not too long. But one thing about Steve and and I haven't had the chance to work with you very closely, but you you dig in and if we needed you, if we needed I think it was principal interviews you sat on and others, you're always willing to step up, dig
013in and do the work that's necessary. Um, and I know we we did see you there today as well. We'll definitely miss you. Uh, once again, on the third Wednesday of the month, you'll be enjoying a nice dinner while we're here. So, I want to thank everyone. Thank you for your time, your effort. I I I know from being on the board for so long, it takes a lot. Um, and a lot of us, most of us work another job at this time, too. But we do it we do it for the district. We do it for the students. We do it to make sure that we continue to be the great district we are. So, I want to thank every all three of you. Last word. I would be remiss if I didn't thank
014my husband, family, friends, and Mike, your spouse, and Steve, your spouse as well. So, thank you everyone. And let's get on with the public comments. Are you finished? I'm okay. At this time, we'll move on to public comments. Is there anyone who wishes to address the board? If so, please raise your hand. All right. Before addressing the board, I'd like to remind you of our process. doesn't have to do this. The board policy 2 col230. We ask that when addressing board, please identify yourself. Be brief. Comment shall be limited to 5 minutes. The speaker is asked to please conduct oneself with respect and civility towards others. Individividuals with less than 18 years of agement are permitted to address the board if accompanied by his or her parent or guardian. The board typically does not engage
015in two-way conversations during the public participation portion of the meeting. Any follow-up response will be addressed by the administration at a later date if necessary. To be respectful of others and to protect confidentiality, complaints against individual students, staff members, or 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. At this time, I would like to ask you to come before the board, sign the public participation sheet, and then uh then the speaker may come to the podium and begin speaking to the microphone, stating their name and the topic they will be addressing. That's a mouthful. It's time that you can go now. Yes, you're
016the I think you're the only hand I saw. Was there a second? Oh, a third. Hi, my name is in the district. I have four white schools at high school and um I'm here tonight to advocate my family. If you don't know, one of my many many jobs, I'm the assistant swim coach for the boys high school swim team swimming and back team and the girls team. Um and what I am finding is that people do not know just because you are not involved in school the way that my family is that our school is down all the time. Right now it is down. There are a few kids that are swimming in it because they're hand feeding the chemicals into the pool right now. That is a very labor intensive job and more people
017that you put in the pool more off the chemicals get. So I think they're spending about three hours a day but only about 15 kids being full day and then a couple times a week you off it's not safe. But this is the seventh time in less than a year and a half that our school has been down for more than 3 to five days at a time. So that means that we have kids not only on the high school team that cannot practice but also that lap golf which usually has close to 125 to 130 kids practicing every day. All those kids cannot be served. So right now Dolphins is renting out pool space at Bradley and at River City. Um during the school year just this school year in August the girls high
018school swim team that team had to rent the whole space multiple times. We had to use girl country club all the weather was still nice. Um, boys high school team pull us down to four different times. I'm not talking a day at a time. I'm talking multiple days at a time. And we were at um over at pool at Richwood. We've been all over. This is not sustainable. The pool is not going to make it much longer. And there are so many kids in our district that use from grade school all the way up through high school. We need a new school is older than me, 49 years old. We're building an $8.5 million training facility, but the pool was left out then. I think that's a real shame, a wasted opportunity. If we had
019a pool that is a part of our community, we could be offering swim lessons, which is a life skill to students throughout our district year round instead of just in the summer. The summer swim lesson will offer a skill like that because everybody knows that they want their kids to know how to swim because it can save their life. So, I guess my point is I'm just advocating for the pool. I don't think if you're involved, you don't know that the pool down all the time. It's been down seven times in the last year and four months. That's crazy. If that happened at a football field, we'd have a brand new football field. That happened at one of our baseball fields or the soccer field. We have new fields for them as well. We need
020a new I would also like to just take a moment to advocate to all Caterpillar employees in the district. I think most of you probably know that Caterpillar is turning 100 this week, next week, whatever it is, and they are offering a 10 to one match. If you have a Caterpillar employee in your family, I believe it's also retired most likely. If you just employ regular employees, it's a 10 to one match. So the minimum donation is $25. I would encourage everybody in the district who has every employee and family donate on the first available day that is next Monday the 21st and put it in for your match immediately. That means on Monday do it right then. It's very easy if you wanted to go to one of the parent boosters at any of
021the schools when you go into the match system type in parent booster [Applause] USA for the school address of your school. That is how you will find it. I know that's where a lot of people get held up. You can't type in your school name, you will not find it. Booster USA. Thank you. Anyone else wishes to address the board? Please raise your hand. I just had a question. Um when it's the high school team and when it's sir Hi, my name's Bob Funko talking on behalf of the school counselors at elementary school. Uh, good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on something my wife and I feel concerned about. We've learned that Dant is in the process of taking school counselor Mrs. J and split her fate between Dant and
022Hick. Our concern with humans so is the lack of consistency, trust and bonding the children have with M through throughout the day. I know other children along with Miss J. I'm sorry. I know our children along with Mrs. Chapman has been a godsend. two have a 504 that need accommodations with a huge part of what the counselors need. One child has anxiety who has learned coping and strategies with Miss Chapman's help with splitting counselors. This puts more responsibility and burden on staff and teachers to pick up that load. government passed an $8.5 million athletic training center that is funed entirely from the district's reserves. And I want to make very clear, I'm not downing or putting down this training facility. I think it just want to bring that up because I I I please please
023tell me that it's not is is more important than a school counselor who supports child's academic, personal, social, emotional development. And here are a few more things that help students conflict resolutions, bullying prevention, mental health support, and social skills development. In closing, please consider hiring more school counselors rather than short changing the children that need full time and not part time. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to address? Is this young lady going to address too? Yes. Okay. Hi, my name is Josie and I am a fourth grader at D grade school. I am here today to tell you that there is one main reason why I'm here today. I stand up for what is needed. I have having guiding my entire life. It is something I have to work very hard with
024on daily basis. I couldn't have gotten through many days without M and Mrs. Katy. I'm only one student. Think of all the other students who need Miss Shaven. Hire another counselor and do not take away from what is working already. Yes, I wouldn't have been able to talk today if it weren't for Mason helping me find strategies to get me through my anxiety. Thank you for listening to me and I hope you can make change. [Applause] Hello, my name is Jean Smith. I am a parent of a couple of students. One datab and one who should be in great shape. Um unfortunately my 10-year-old who should be at grade has multiple uh behavioral problems. Um and at this time is home. I have actually four points to make. I'll be very quick. Point number one
025is I want to give a thank you to the special education department for all of the efforts that they have made over the past year and a half to try and find my daughter Susanna uh a place where she can learn and grow. Uh they were able to get her into East's Autism Academy. She was there for six months and unfortunately her behaviors were more than they could handle. That's not anybody's fault. Uh she's homebound right now. I'm not happy about that, but I understand that that's the way things have to be. The uh special ed department is working on some ABA therapy and I appreciate that. So, this this is a sincere thank you to the special education uh director and all our staff for what they have done. But I've learned three things
026that I think may help students in the future as I've been on this road. Number one, there are there's a posity of homebound teachers. Not enough teachers to take care of the students who have to be homebound. My suggestion for this, which I'm hoping has been taken up by the special department, is look to your homeschool parents around here. Homeschool parents have shown their dedication to teaching. They're good at oneonone, and all they need is help with crossing the tees and dotting the eyes to make them compatible with what none policies and procedures would be. That's that uh point three really is applications for residential schools is um is a a challenge in itself because each school has its own application. These need to be standardized so that parents who are already dealing with a
027challenged child does not have eight different applications to fill up. I have in contact with Dr. Nadia Douglas with the Illinois State Board of Education and I'll keep you up to date on what she says on it. Uh lastly, I'm going to um dotail off of uh what the gentleman and his daughter said, and that was the impact that mental and behavioral health have on the education of students. And central Illinois is a desert for mental and behavioral health resources. I'm talking about outside of the classroom and in the community as well as in the schools. And it doesn't take a lot to see how mental and behavioral health can impact education abilities of children. I have contacted my state. I'm going to be contacting my state senator. I ask you to do the same
028and or give me their contact information and I will contact them because this is a statewide problem. This is not a DAT school district problem but it impacts school district as well as it impacts every other place in the state. Amen. Thank you very much. Seeing no one else just one more. I do one other please. Sorry I wasn't gonna talk this but since it was brought up I will talk a few things. So um what the Clint were addressing was everyone know about this yet at this time. I believe the plan is um the current plan is to reassign school counselors from BGS and Banner to split their time at Hickory Grove rather than hiring additional dedicated sign. While we understand the need to support all students in the district, we strongly believe that
029this plan underlines quality and consistency of counseling services for students of all three schools. Um, keep it short here. The American Association, American School Counselor Association, the ASCA, recommends a ratio of one counselor to 250 students. Right now, the grade school, which is the small, so our district has roughly 250 students, but they have one counselor. We need to keep that one counselor there. Banner has a few more students than that, about 500 or so more. They have one counselor. That's still not exact. But it's close. However, I believe that's about 600 students, right? They need another full-time counselor. Instead of disadvantaging the students across all three schools, I think our district can hire another counselor, let them grow instead of short changing the students of all three schools. Um, I've heard lots of people
030tonight talk about the excellence of our community and our school. Um, I know it's not state law that we have to have counselor 250 students but I didn't think that we were doing either. Okay. Is there anyone else who wishes to address the board? Seeing none, this concludes the public participation portion of the meeting and Mr. Wagen Ball would like to uh make a comment before the board moves on to the information discussion items. I just wanted to report that I I and two of my employees went to the career summit on March 20th at ICC where we showed several of our occupations hands-on experience to the kids that came and they saw our drone sitting there and they used impact wrenches and they tested grain and soil and it was just it was well
031attended and I thought it was just a good thing and I just love if this board and the staff and everyone can help push the trades in Dunlap like we've always wanted. So that's just my experience. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Wagba. The school activity account reports are included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Information regarding the early admissions entry agreement with St. Francis College is available in the board packet. Are there any questions? Next, Mr. Ethridge will present information regarding the 2025 Chromebook hardware refresh. Mr. I he's our IT director. I need Okay. interview last week. Good. Talk about purchasing Chromebooks for the next school year. Uh the currently used devices are Dell 3100s. We purchased those back in 2021. We purchased those with a 4-year warranty. Uh that warranty is
032expiring at the end of the school year, which will put about 1300 out of warranty and move on to us on us. We're starting to see more failing screens, failing batteries, general hardware. The new device we're looking at is the ESUS Flip. Uh it's latest model has a 10 year end life. uh has a real glass recogized screen which should help tremendously with the screen breakage that we see uh most of all middle schools uh does have silence capacity which Mr. Andrews has uh asked us to look into for uh additional capabilities with certain math classes. The original upgrade schedule that we have uh thus far upgraded or achieve accomplished was in 22 23 replace K through 3. Uh then had an off year last year that was originally planned from the original from plan.
033Uh for this year we would like to replace sixth through 8th which is what this request is for. Uh next year we will replace the high school and then after that if we uh don't replace them this year uh we'll have increased costs possible tariffs. Uh I've already had to talk to our vendor once uh to verify the pricing is still good on the he gave us. Uh there was a few days there where we thought we might have to go back to the drawing board and everything could jump up the price by 40%. Um middle schools cause most of the damage to the uh devices. That's that's true pretty much in every school district. Every vendor, every repair will say the same thing. Uh so those ones getting out the warranty that need to
034uh to replacement. Uh if we don't replace it, it will be approximate $50,000 extra in parts that we need to uh replace the out of warranty devices. And if we don't upgrade this year, then the ones that were planning to replace the high school next year, which would just cause the issue of being particular as well. Uh the device we're looking at uh $320. The four-ear warranty is $92 and license. These are all standard payments for any criminal that we get. Uh total $575,250 uh about what was estimated at the beginning of the year. And if you have any specific questions, thank you. Anybody have any questions? I I believe am I correct that there will not be tariffs on computers? Uh yes. So from my understanding which given the past week anyone understanding this
035question uh the tariffs were initially implemented and then were part of the 90-day pause. Uh but there has been talk of more tariffs specifically for uh computer chips uh cell phones. They are they are currently paused. They're currently exempted I think. Okay. Okay. So uh five can you go back to the previous slide? Yes. 575. So like McKenzie Mike does that come out of the education fund? Yes. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Over the period of a student's lifetime, they're paying what? A fee every year, which pretty much pays for this Chromebook. Would you say it's $50 for the technology fee every year, which does settle a good portion of this. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Information regarding the administrator contract renewal renewals are
036included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Information regarding the GGS title one schoolwide plan is included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Information regarding the Wilderweight Title One schoolwide plan is included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Information regarding the federal grant consolidated district application is included in the board packet. Are there any questions? Thank you for those of you who work on those grants and title one programs. Very involved. Thank you. This concludes the information discussion segment of this meeting. The board will now move on to the consent agenda. Are there any questions or discussions regarding items on the consent agenda? May I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Mrs. Holouser. Is there a
037second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Wisdom. Any discussion? Roll call vote. Feldman. I motion carry. The board will now move on to action items. The bill list, treasures report, district investment report, and bank statements are included in the board packet. May you please have a motion to approve payment of the bills. I move to approve payment of the bills in the amount of 5,18,17921 is presented. Thank you, Mrs. Full House. May I have a second, please? Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Wagen. I heard you first. Any discussion? Well, call vote. I Hi, Tumbles. Hi, Tyra. Hi, Wagen. Hi, Wisdom. Hi, Felman. Hi. Motion carried. Information regarding the resolutions to intervene on property tax appeals included in the board packet. May I please have a motion to approve the resolution? I had a question for Are we
038getting results on this? I mean, I just tend to think we probably spend legal fees to do it and there's always progress that's made. I can get a summary report for you if you would like. I think these these companies are trying to save their own dollar. So, I mean, why wouldn't they? Sure. We can get a report for you, Mr. Wagen Bach. I'll get that to you. Do I have a motion to approve? Can you find out what those dollars are? Yeah. Prior to I mean, what's the success rate? Do you know, Mike? Uh, I have a report. It's kind of old, so I'll get a new one. But uh no, we uh it's kind of a negotiated process to some extent. Sometimes we'll get a uh a appraisal and then sometimes it goes
039to the state level, sometimes we settle it before it goes to that state level. So it all really depends. uh we have been getting a lot of them and uh our lawyer is of the opinion that we need to approve these on a case by case you know basis and that's why we have these uh but no I work with lawy you know the lawyers quite a bit about you know uh they're offering this we're we're going to offer that you kind of a thing and and should we get an appraisal sometimes we'll split a appraisal with the county but usually it's us finding it because we're the biggest piece of property there. So, it's a net gain for us after. Oh, yeah. It's definitely worth having the uh first of all, they know you
040people know that we're not going to just automatically approve everything. Uh and secondly, yeah, we do definitely uh we don't just accept anything without really pushing back on it. So yeah, it's definitely you know one of those things cost doing business I don't think there smart way we can do it other than have a lawyer that we're going to have you know challenge every every large and it's not residential it's companies just it could be Okay. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the resolutions? I move to approve the resolutions as presented. Thank you, Mr. Hold. Is there a second? A second. Thank you, Mr. Tyra. Abby, I have to abstain. That's right. Thank you. I understand. There's no further discussion. Can we please have a roll call vote? Iouser I. Humbles I.
041Tyra I. Wagenbach. No. Wisdom. Hi. Motion carried. Information regarding the Fortress Bank sponsorship contract is included in the board packet. Thank you to Mr. Wisdom, Dr. Darman, Dr. Adrien, and Mr. Feldman for making sure that language was fine-tuned. May I please have a motion to approve the contract? I'll move to approve the contract as presented. Thank you, Mr. Wisdom. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Take a back seat. Any discussion? Roll call vote. Humbles. Ira. I. Wisdom. Hi. Belman. Hi. Hi. Hi. Motion carried. Information regarding the eighth grade Washington DC trip is included in the board packet. May I please have a motion to approve the trip? I move to approve the eighth grade trip to Washington DC as presented. Thank you, Mr. Tyra. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Wisdom.
042There's no further discussion. Please have a roll call vote. I wisdom. I Felman I Humble I motion carried. This concludes the action item portion of the meeting. We are going to move uh to adjourn for close session. May I please have a motion to adjourn for brief close session. I move to adjourn to close session for the following purposes stated in the open meetings act. The appointment employment compensation of the employment of specific employees due to disciplinary cases discussion on minutes of meetings multially closed. collective negotiation matters [Applause] and security procedures purchase of or lease of real property and litigation. Thank you, Mr. Souser. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Tyra. Any discussion? Those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed? Nay. It is 6:43. Okay. [Applause] It's so hot in here.
043They just perfect. Can you look at that chicken ball? Let's look at it now. Is it May please have a motion to return to open session. I'll second and wagon. Thank you. All those in favor say I. Oppos? Name. Could I please have a motion to approve the human resource consent agenda? I move to approve the human resources consent agenda as presented. Very good. We have a second. Second. I'm going to give it to Mr. Hod. For sure. Roll call vote, please. Felman. I. Hodal. I. Holouser. I. Humbles. I. Tyra. I. Wagon. I. Wisdom. I. Motion carried. I have a motion to adjurnn. Last motion. Move to adjurnn. Good job, Mike. Have a second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Hodel. All those in favor say I. I. meeting is adjourned 702. I'm going to keep these
044uh