001[music] Heat. Heat. [music] I'd like to call this meeting to order. Regular board meeting, Monday, December 15, 2025. Can I get a roll call? Yes, you can. President Sterling, here. Vice President Thompson here. Board member Mcnite here. Board member McKenna here. Board member Carlson here. Board member Johnson here. Secretary Meeks here. Recording secretary. Terroy Yarro superintendent. Shelley Wagner human resources. Michelle Herb curriculum and instruction. Jason Bloom communications community relations. Josh, business and operations. Well, good evening. It is my pleasure this evening to invite some special guests up for our pledge of allegiance and a few extra little special treats for us. So, if you guys would come up Good job. So this evening we have our third grade students from our Friday nights program at Machznney Elementary here to lead us in the pledge and
002to do a few songs for us. Kind of had to laugh because they were questioning why they're facing the wrong way. But we will make sure that when we get to the point where they actually sing a few songs for us that we will face towards you all. But um they're going to start us off in our pledge this evening. I'm going to turn it over to uh Miss Edwards because we're going to do some quick introductions and then they will lead us in our pledge. Okay. So, again, this is our third grade fine arts class. We have the majority of the class here. We're going to start at the beginning of our line and work through um Scarlet, Mila, Caliana, Eileene, Riley, Macy, Willow, Gabby, Samantha, Kendall, Josephine, Aora, Elizabeth, Kate, Cameron, Graceland, Murray.
003Nice job. Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to face the flag and we're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Are we ready? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So now I'm going to invite admin and board members to take a step down so that you can have a view of our singers. Now, our students are going to turn and face the audience. Yep. So, you're gonna follow this way. Come this way. Yep. Yep. Go around behind. Perfect. Front row. Stay right where you're at. Okay. Front row. Stay right at the middle. And now it's uh my pleasure to turn this over to
004Miss Nelson, who is going to lead them this evening. Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you for having us. First of all, we are excited to sing tonight. Uh we at we have our very own school song. So, we're going to start by singing that and then we're going to sing one more song after that called Snowman, where' you go? Snowman are still around right now. We like them to go, but we'll sing the song Snow Where' You Go. All right, here's our cool song. Thank you. There's a [music] school that we all know where we come to learn and grow. [singing and music] Friendly faces everywhere. Always [singing] showing that WE CARE AT THE ELEMENTARY. We'll open [music and singing] every door. We are the majestic pilots and watched [music] [music] we'll be there much
005[singing] is a school that shares showing [music] our generosity. That's how every school should be. like the elementary will open [singing] every door. The art [music] of the trans pilots come [singing] and watch us [music] reading, [singing] writing, science, math. We are [music] on a learning path. Teachers here are really [singing] great. They help our growing minds create. Majesty Elementary will [music and singing] open every door. We are the majestic pilots. Come on and watch us [music] liers. [singing] We will be friends [music] and happy days. [singing] These memories won't fade away. Much as the ele [music] will open [singing] every door. We are [music] the riches behind us. Come on. The [music and singing] elementary will open every door. We are looking [music] at the pilots [singing] and sword. Snowman, [singing] snowman, where do
006you go? You were just here [music and singing] in the snow. I look high, I lookman. [music and singing] Snowman, where' you go? Snowman, [music] snowman, where are you? You were just here [singing] in my view. I [music] looked high, I looked low. [singing] Snowman, [music] snowman, where where you [singing] go? I can't find you anywhere. [music] Did you run away? You were standing [music] over there on [singing] that sunny day. WHAT'S THAT CARROT ON THE GROUND? It's [music] a mystery. Snowman, snowman, [music] where could you be? [singing] Snowman, [music] snowman, [singing] where do you go? You were just here in [music] the snow. I looked high, I looked low. [singing and music] Snowman. Snowman, where where you go? Snowman, where are you? You [singing] were just here in my view. I [singing] looked high.
007I looked low. Snowman. [music] Snowman. Where? Where you go? [music and singing] Man of snow. I don't know. [music] Where did you go? [singing] SNOWMAN, WHERE DID YOU GO? [singing] [applause] Nice job, third graders. Thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Nelson. What a fantastic job. Before you go anywhere, though, we have to get a photo. So, I'm gonna invite our board members back up. This is common tradition that we always get our photo, but that was one of the best ways of starting this board meeting. Nice job. And I don't think the snowman's leaving anytime soon, so which is okay with me, right? Did he get treats? Yeah. Did he get candy? Apparently, I was supposed to bring treats and candy, but I didn't get the memo. Thank you guys. That was amazing. Can
008I get a motion to approve of the agenda? Motion. Second. Vice President Thompson. I board member Mcnite. I board member McKenna. I board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. Hi, Secretary Meeks. I President Sterling. I turn it over to Dr. Yarro. All right. Thank you. I want to say thank you again to our our Machznney pilots because that was that was an awesome song. Um the mission of the Harlem Consolidated School District as a vital part of the community is to help diverse learners realize their limited potential by providing educational program dedicated to academic excellence and the development of a strong character in a safe and respectful learning environment. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the board meeting minutes from November 17, 2025? Motion second. Board member Mcnite. Yes. Board member McKenna.
009Hi. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meets. I. President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. All right. Thank you. Thank you everybody for coming. Uh at this time just wanted to make a statement uh a little bit of what we've heard over the last two months. Um just to go over some things that I I feel is important to get out um while we go through the decision process and we go forward. Um originally in 2019 uh the district had uh done studies. Uh Jason, you were doing this at this time. I know uh Josh was there and so was uh Mickey. Um that 2019 2020 there was a a thing to come out with CTE building. Okay. Thank you. Uh the CTE building moved sixth grade up uh closed school due
010to uh enrollments. Um at that time it did not pass. Um, I know the board was hoping that uh over the next couple years we could get families to move back in um to this area. And over the those timelines, you've seen that uh students are still not coming into Harlem. Now, when we look through our neighborhoods, um they're full. There's no large subdivision that is empty. Um so as this has gone through um I'm just going through so 2019 to 2026 which is going to be for the next school year um we've had a decrease in student enrollment. So through those years we've had surpluses and I know we had comments stand up and people ask what we did with the money. Did we overspend? Did we did we act foolishly? We haven't uh
011our audits have came back good. They we've been commended multiple times. We has had our newest audit who came uh the at the last meeting at the COOTW which will be presented tonight. Um even in there they stated that we are a district that is living within its means. Um so where's that money? Well, it's around 19.5 million in the the rainy day fund they would call it. Is that correct? In the in the ad fund. In the ad fund. Yes. 186. 186 at this time, but it's still was Yeah. Thanks, Josh. But that's because we have a person like Josh who treats pennies like manhole covers. Um, so that was that comment right there is where the superintendent saying that we're not broke and we're not in a bad financial situation. We're not. But
012when you project multiple years of deficits, couple that with the lack of enrollment, we can't keep kicking the can from 2019 to now that we have to have this discussion of the the schools closing. If we close the two schools, any two schools, and we put students back to 300 to 350, which is what the utilization rate should be roughly, correct? All right. That means the two schools that are empty, we are approximately missing three uh 600 to 700 students for them to be properly reopened and utilized. That is an average of two uh two kids per house, 300 homes. We're we we have a housing crisis. We have a lack of student crisis in this area. Now, at the same time, throughout our region, you're hearing Rockford Lutheran consolidate. You're hearing Boland talk about
013moving their middle schools to the high school because they don't have students. It's not just Harlem, but Harlem's been very open about it. In March of this year, before a contract was signed, we made statements saying if a contract is signed at what was being presented that we would have to start making some tough decisions. We can't project a budget until the contracts get signed because they are signed for three years and that got signed in August. And as soon as that happened, this board look looked over to our superintendent and admin team and asked them to start doing the hard things because we have run this district correctly and we want to keep running this district correctly. So now it's the time and this is a big ship. It just I I I have
014two personal businesses out in the community and when I want to make a change I can. This doesn't steer like that. We have contracts. We have unions we have to work with. And also I also had the conversation to with people and they said well why why do this first? Why don't you talk about lowering admin, reducing admin, may look at certain positions in the district and talk about reducing those. We will, but this is the hard one. This is the one that affects the most people, takes the longest to do. So, we had we had to start this early because we have to hear from our community. Changes that might be made might happen or or whatnot. But you do the hard things first because to to go back and talk about admin pay
015or or uh certain positions in the district that could happen over two meetings. We will ask justification and then have discussion about it and and can be done. But this this one takes a whole community ask. So when hearing from the community and saying like why are we doing this and why are we doing it now? Well, when you project multiple years of deficits if we don't do anything and we don't have enough students in each building to properly run them at an efficient rate for the taxpayer, it doesn't it doesn't equate. We can't kick keep kicking the can. That's why it's now to have this talk so that we can better utilize these buildings and we can be ready for the future. In 3 years, we we're going back into another contract. You can't
016run three years deficits and then go back into another contract and expect good things to come out of it. So, it's trying to do all these things and we can weather the storm. We can we can get through it, but it's to have these talks now so that we can be set up for the long run, for the future. And when some buildings and some classes have 15 students for a teacher, that's great for that students. That's great for that class. But other students are in full classes and the taxpayer is paying the same amount for both. Like that doesn't equate. that's not that's not equitable for for everyone. So that's why we're having these conversations now. That's why we're having these talks. And I'm I'm thankful that we have such a great community that
017comes out and supports and comes out because the kids matter. I mean, I had a I had a whole bunch of people come up and tell me that I need to take a pay cut and I'm we do this for free. like this is a not a paying job and I'm just trying to help. This board's just trying to help. So in the long run, we need to hear from our community that we also live in. So I just want to say thank everybody for for all the comments that's come out. It's really helped. The decision's not done. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to my board and uh have you guys make some statements or just go ahead. Go ahead, Erin. All right. So, all right. Where Okay. So, I kind
018of did some research. I mean, this was even before um before the teachers contract looking into things and and like Mike said or President Sterling [clears throat] said, this isn't a spending problem. It's a population issue. Um, so I went and, you know, called the county tax assessor's office and said, "Hey, you know, what percent of the the homes, the individually owned homes in the Harlem school district are receiving a senior exemption. It's over 50%, almost 60%. So what does that tell us? People love this community so much they're not moving that those people are also paying less in tax dollars. That's something that once again a lot of people move out to warmer climates as they as they age. People are not leaving this area. Um, another thing is is Mike kind of or
019President Sterling kind of touched on it. We had in in the Harlem school district last year we had $1.1 million of new construction. I don't know if anybody's looked at what lumber cost, roofing, siding. That's like four to five houses is all that's been built new in in our district um in the last year. The year before that, I don't even think it touched a h 100red,000. I think it was closer to like eight or I mean, sorry, I don't think it even touched a million. I think it was closer to 800 thou th,000. So, it's not a spending problem. It's it's a population. I wouldn't call it a problem, but it's it's a kind of an anomaly that obviously we saw coming, but it it's finally hit. Um, a as far as the scenarios,
020um, I talked to, um, Dr. Terrell or Dr. Yarborough. I'm I'm hard with titles. We are we're on a firstname basis here and I'm trying to be, um, I talked with him and I about what I want to ask the admin team to do and, you know, I told you at the last meetings that we're hearing you, we're hearing you. I would like to see a plan come back with neighborhood schools and and and you know whether we run a K through five model in there, whether we run a first through fifth model in there, bring something back. This is what our community wants and this is what that I feel that we should try to come up with. So um and a lot of people don't know how this works. So, the admin team
021gives us, we give them kind of a suggestion, they come up with the numbers, and the board shoots holes through it, or the community shoots holes through it, for lack of a better term. Um, and we make the the board makes the final decision based off of the recommendations from the people that are looking at the budgets, looking at the students, looking at the buildings every single day. These are our experts that we're using. Also, the community, you're our experts. There were so many scenarios with families and stuff that I heard, I think the rest of the board heard that we could not even fathom. Um, I didn't realize how many families we had with more than, you know, more than the nuclear family of two children. I didn't realize we had so many families,
022large families in our district. I I didn't realize that and the impact of, you know, the banning of the schools and stuff. I heard you. So, no surprise to to Dr. Yarro and team, but I'm looking to bring something closer to the neighborhood schools. Are buildings going to need to close? Yeah. I mean, when we're short 6 to 700 students that would fill our buildings to to o, you know, to a 80% occupancy, it's a tough choice, huh? That's 70. That's at a 70% occupancy if we added 600 students to our district. So, yes. Now, as as as you know, as things change, the people with the senior exemptions, you know, leave or you know, what have you, and we got young families coming in, that's going to be another board's decision on what to
023do there. So, I just want to say I heard you. I've had conversations with a lot of the board members. We're looking to go in that a little bit. I personally want to see a proposal come up with going in that direction of neighborhood schools and and you know like whether it be a K through five, whether it be a first through fifth, um keep it similar to the way that it is but different. So with that being said, I yield my time. I did want to mention another thing. It threw me off and I'm I'm sorry that it did. Uh there was a comment made that the we gave a 50 or 60% pay raise. Um it I it threw me off. This would have to be when Dr. Yarro went from uh principal
024to superintendent. That is uh the only way that that that percentage would work. And if someone didn't understand the difference between uh a high school principal and a LUDA superintendent um pay, that's that that's the difference. Um you're talking about that that amount. Now, when I'm asking about that, Dr. Shelley Wagner, you're the HR person. Can can you teach uh touch on what our admin or even our superintendent and what our teachers make compared to the surrounding area? I mean, we have to compete, but where do we normally stand? Generally, we're right around in the center um with some of the categories trending a little bit lower than um the the area pay rate and Luda pay rate and some slightly higher but generally generally right in the middle. We we um with the exception
025of the superintendent who is at the bottom. The our superintendent is one of the lowest in the area. Yes. And also somebody was talking about the pay increases. We also had another member of the admin team that got a PhD in education. I think that deserves a raise. I I mean to to take that um you know I I truly believe that that is a pretty big incremental pay increase for getting your PhD in and in education to help lead this district. So that was another anomaly that that I think was spoken on that I don't think enough people looked into the reason why. Okay. No, I just wanted to put that out there that like and I put that out there. All right, Kurt, you got anything? Yeah. Uh, great uh words that have
026been uh said so far uh covering a lot of the reasons. I remember the first time I saw the scenarios, all of them that were there, and was like, "These are interesting. Let's see where the blind spots are. There's only so much that that you guys can see and we can see as a board." And oh boy, there were some blind spots. Uh they were called out and I appreciate that. And I have uh a list as well that I'm looking towards getting answers so we have the right steps to move forward. Right. So hearing no arts on carts is stuck with me. uh seeing the great work that we've got with our fine art kiddos up here, making sure they get the right education and getting the feedback and comments from right here via
027email. Those stick there and there there's quite a few of them. I won't go through all of them, but uh making sure our administration has those items. So, we t them to do this again, we get the right results, right? We're still up against a time crunch. You said, "We've got the money that's here, but if we don't get the right steps in place shortly, then we don't give our teachers, our parents, our community the time to get everything in place, our buildings in place, which means we miss another year, which we have to be ready for the costs that come with it with not taking action." But it's a big step. So, we've got to make sure those are done right. So, you know, if it's family, you know, neighborhood schools bringing the K
028back in, I think we need to look at that. I've had some interesting feedback of having sister schools where it would be instead of, you know, every two years, you split it kind of like a Marquette to Machznney. Right now, we've done that for quite a while. you get more students in which lo which lessens the burden of going to a middle school where everyone's kind of coming together and all the the the actions from meeting new students coming through there. It lessens that on a greater scale. Does that make sense? I don't know. There's probably blind spots to it. Does that help at all? I don't know. That's why we've got a great admin team to look into some of these things. So, I have a large list of all of the feedback, everything
029that I've seen to see what we can do, what we can tweak to make sure we've got the best plan because I also heard you guys are just you're just up there. You're you're you're you're just listening to us because it's the law. We have no choice and you're going to rubber stamp it. And that hurts a little bit, right? Like, you get it. That's what we're here for. But we want to listen to everything. You know, most of us we Let me phrase this here so I don't ramble. Sorry guys. We have all been touched or impacted by Harlem through our lives for so many different reasons. A lot of us either have had our children in this district or have our district children in this district currently. So that's why we're here. That's
030why we're volunteering our time. We went through all the the craziness of elections to hear to make sure our community is on the right track. And uh yeah, so we think we're looking through the different ideas starting to ramble again to make sure it's set correct. and I look forward to hearing the corrections that are made and the additional feedback. The forms are still open. The email is still there. You can reach out to any one of us right now and keep doing so. If there's something that you see or hear, you want clarification on it. We're trying to make ourselves as open as possible. I think most nights it's from a meeting and then I try to make myself accessible for a few hours afterwards, just answer it. This is confusing important stuff. I'll
031turn it back. Thanks, guys. Thank you, President Sterling. I do have a few words. I think what what board member Thompson said is a good plan. The sister cities that would still give us a option like we were talking about. We did receive a very nice email from someone that put a very nice plan out there and I think that would be something that we are looking into because it would be a variation and might be helpful to us. I do believe that, you know, when everyone was up here, they're like, there's nobody that spoke, you know, in favor of option seven, but that's not true. I heard from a lot of people that were in favor of it, but they didn't want to come up and talk because of the clapping and cheering. They
032were intimidated, but they would talk to me in the when I was out in businesses doing shopping, they'd call me on the phone. So, there are people out there that are in support of it, and there's people that aren't, and that's a good thing. That's what it's all about, to get the feedback from the community. But I think we also need to realize that we have stakeholders. And you're right, stakeholders are the parents and the children, but it's also the taxpayers and not just the seniors. There's people out there barely making ends meet and they can't afford to have their property taxes go up and up and up. So, we're trying to find a way not to have that happen in the future. So, that's what we're looking at, too. So, we need to remember
033there are stakeholders that besides being parents and things, there's they're taxpayers and they're and they're worried. I mean, everybody's worried the way the economy is right now and with inflation, trying to make their budgets at home, just like we're trying to do here. So, I think we have to be mindful of that. My suggestion was if we tried to do this sister city thing as Kurt called it, which I think is a a good plan, do north, south, east, west so that it's not so far or even a middle third one, not so far for the people that travel. But also, you know, maybe give it say that we'll review it before the teachers contract comes up or whatever contract pick a year, but we we will review it in four years because we can't
034say it's going to work, but you can't say it's not going to work. So, that might be a good option is to give it a try and then we review it and see if we're coming along and saving money and doing like we thought it was going to work for us because sometimes we just got to just got to try things and see and work together. I know we're a positive community. We are Harlem as we keep saying. We can work through this and we can do it with a positive attitude on both sides. Thank you. Thank you. I just said a couple things. Um I appreciated all the people that came out. I thought that was amazing. I've had some great conversations with um community members as well. And I know they had talked
035about starting a new in January with uh some more information and and putting together a new scenario and seeing what else we can come up with. And I personally would like to be on that committee team scenario if it's possible. And so I would like to possibly be approved to be I know we had volunteers from the board in different situations where we had the medical clinic and we had other things, but it would be nice to be on a committee and and to have possibly another board member or two and sit in and listen to what's going on and and be be an only stakeholder as well because I'm my children are gone. And so it's it's to me it's the kids and the taxpayers. I know our teachers are important and our um
036schools are important, but I think I think our number one is our our students and our taxpayers want the best for our students as well. So, we want to see them in a good place and in good directions and I I personally can't do the the bands because I've had too many people tell me I I can't get my kids to school. There's no way I can get my kids to school. So, I I would like to see something new and I would like to be on that team if possible. So, um, she's asking if we would like to create a a committee. I don't I don't know that it the committee works in this this this instance. And the only reason why I say that is, um, two board members on a committee trying
037to go over options that they're going to then present to the rest of the board. Um, because you only two votes. We couldn't put three on there because then it would be a quorum, right? So I don't know if two would work. So I mean at at this time though she's asking for that. Do would you guys entertain uh a committee for uh board members? I like where she's coming. I like where you're coming from. I would just call out as the board it is our duty to task the administration with a goal. They bring back their fightings and then we can modify it, approve it or shoot it down. Right. So that's again I you know I the same way I get my hands dirty with things but in this case I don't know
038if that works and also the expedience of the the time conrints right like if we miss this and we go another year we're talking oh no I'm not talking go another year my my thought is there's already a team that has come up with these scenarios that are already there correct and there will be a new meeting from what I understand with a possible new scenarios that will come together out of this until we vote again on it in January or have more hearings in January. Mhm. And I would like to be in on some of those meetings even to put in, you know, information or to get information and to just kind of be ears on the on the team, you know, kind of like we did with the medical clinic where no, we
039don't have anything to really vote on as a scenario, but to at least have that personal and and get in on it from the from this side of the team. I think that's when you give [clears throat] admin team what you want. Mhm. That's what that's what the email that that that that we all received today was. Hey, tell us what we want, right? It would just be a part of that email discussion is all it it would be it'd be helpful to be in the discussion just to listen and learn and and I think too many different things with it. So, I mean, if it's not possible, it's not possible. I can get behind maybe maybe there's the the middle ground and with that would be just, you know, more frequent updates, right? Like
040we're getting updates currently from Dr. Arbor about all manners of things just with this as we go into it now that we know the general groundwork just go hey we looked into this and A B and C are not looking strong or whatever that directly looks like where we can then collectively still get that without having a quorum without anything that's voting and still getting those updates and you know that would be yeah well do we even know who is all on the team that is deciding these scenarios just these five? Well, no. We're deciding it. They're giving us recommendations. Who's Who's coming up with the scenarios is what I'm, you know, because I We are. We just gave them We just said the walk. We just said this is what we're looking for. So,
041if there's something that you're looking for about the original, you know, it's okay, Mr. Mr. President. Can I can I? Yes, sure. So, we have we do have a team as you mentioned, everybody that's sitting at this table. We include our um other directors as well. Also obviously Don West in transportation Anna Louisa you you heard from our special ed uh folks last week or yeah last week. So uh we have a pretty good team. I I would maybe add into if it's appropriate the conversation that you know really like the amount of work that a core of that team is doing is is pretty I mean it's hours a day that and especially if we're looking at a a new plan versus just tweaks like that takes a lot of time for our team.
042um especially, you know, for Mickey, Shelby, and Josh to really cost out to all the pay or all of the personnel stuff. And so, um, you know, obviously we're going to do whatever the board is telling us to do, but just just so you aware that the amount of time that's spent on this is is pretty extensive. And so, um, I think it, you know, I just want to make make you guys aware that that it would be hours each day that we spend on this. So, um, but we do have a pretty robust team across the admin, um, that work on this within different components of it. [clears throat] Well, I appreciate knowing some of the other names. So, that that does help. But, yeah, if we can get even more updates would be
043wonderful. Just maybe daily, maybe every other day. Maybe it would be great to have just constant updates of this is what she thinks and he thinks and they think and and where do we go from there? So, something that's hard though, too, because I mean, I'm a as a project manager, like there's things where I'm like, I'm really excited. I can't wait to say this. And then something changes one day to the next and it changes the whole approach. You don't have all the information. You're like, how do I present this without, you know, you're trying to work through your own biases. So, I mean, what that frequency is fine, but like on demand updates is is difficult, dangerous, and and again, it adds time, cost or both. I think it could be included in
044our weekly board memo. Yeah. Correct. But that's also why it's very important when that question gets presented through that email for you to respond as soon as possible so that they understand which direction to go. And I I think that's where you know for us what I'm hearing and and you're naming things as board members like that's that's crucial for us that you know clearly articulating what are those pinch points for you? what are you I mean we're all hearing the same stuff but as board as decision makers like really knowing exactly what it is that you're looking for and clearly articulating that to us is really the biggest help for us as a team for us to understand how to how to proceed and what things you're looking at. Um, and so the more
045that you clearly articulate that back to us, the easier it will be, right, for us to Correct. And I I reached out to Josh about uh a thought about moving EC into uh elementaryaries and then there was a comment that we would most likely have to lose our our uh the grant if we did that. Is that correct? Because of the playgrounds and different rules, that would be you'd be able you'd be able to talk a little bit about the specifics of that. So, there are specific uh early childhood requirements. I would say that um at first we as long as we're working on getting the playground and everything, I don't know that we would necessarily uh lose the grant. The big thing that we would want to make sure is that prior to any
046type of audit, we would have things in place. Unfortunately, this was supposed to be our audit year and it got kicked down the road. So, um probably next year will be our audit year. Um and that's where we do want to keep our gold um standard gold circle standard. Uh where our teachers have worked really really hard to get to that point. And um the playground is one of those things and making sure the latch is 4 foot high. I mean, if everybody knew all the specific requirements of the grant, I think they'd be surprised. No, I get you that. That's why I mean, you don't know what you don't know until you ask. So that's why I was just wondering. I mean, I know it would have saved on transportation because we were going
047that way anyways and all those kind of things. Um, especially it would have been a double ding like they're like they're treating it now. Um, which you didn't really understand and a lot of people don't is that the state treats EC like it's nonclaimable. Yeah, nonclaimable mile. So, it hurts us in the long run for I mean they treat it like it's daycare and but they want you to have it at school. And then they take it out of our transportation fund. The last one you said it was almost $700,000. It was It was in the sixes. Sixes. Close. Yeah. Always with the correct numbers. All right. Let's turn it over to any other board members. Evelyn, Rebecca, you already Excuse me. Um Um Excuse me. I just want to thank everyone that came out
048last week and those of you that are here tonight. One thing that I know that I want is for our students to be able to be safe and get a good education. And I'm going to do the best I can to make sure that all of our students in this district are going to be able to get the get good education that they need and be safe and travel. But trust me, we're doing the best we can. And I know it's hard and it's hard for people to understand um the things that we're trying to do. But when you say that we're being paid, this is a I became a board member because I love this district. My kids all graduated, grew up in this district. I have grandkids and nieces and nephews and cousins
049in this district. This is a good district and I want to continue to make sure that our district is still at the top and to let everyone know that we do care. Although it may not sometimes with the things happen, it might not seem like like we do care, but trust me, we do care. And we're going to do the best we can to make sure that we can keep this district moving smoothly. And sometime change is good and sometime is bad. But we want to make sure we can continue and do what we can to so all our parents, students, especially our students, everybody in this district can have a good outcome. Thank you. Okay. I'd like to say something. No. Um I came to this board and [clears throat] was elected because I
050feel that I have had experience in the schools. Um 34 years of it. I've gone as a special education teacher to regular ed back to special education. I understand where the teachers are coming from. I really truly do because special ed is really important. The language, the OLA program is very important. There's so much that's important to everybody in this community and it is difficult. I went through a lot of changes as a teacher. Okay. Went on a lot of strikes. Um lot of movement. I had carts. I had three carts that I went around from building or from one building to another. Um it wasn't easy and life is not easy. Okay, we know that. But I'm here to help everybody make a good conscience decision. And I've looked at these scenarios and it's
051really hard to give up your neighborhood school. Um, I went to a neighboring school here. I taught in neighborhood schools. Um, those schools become your own when you're a teacher in that building. You become close to everybody as much as you can be. You talk to parents. I understand that. It breaks my heart that we have to do this. Um, but we have to do something financially. I'm thrilled that you guys got a raise. I rooted for that. I wanted you guys to have that because once again, that's real difficult too to not be respected or not feel like you're compensated for all the hard work that you do. But in the community also, people are worried once again like um Mrs. Johnson said that they're really worried about losing their homes if they can't
052pay for their taxes and things like that. We have to come up with something, okay, with some agreements. I was 47. I was, you know, it's not like what I wanted to do, but I knew that would help the deficit 100%. And I'm thinking, okay, that's good. Then we can start a little bit better and have a little bit more money. Um, but then I looked at the other ones, too, and thinking after I heard everybody speak and everybody's torn, um, that I'm sending it back to our administrators because they have done a really good job so far putting out and trusting all these scenarios and saying, "What does the community want? What does the board want? what does what do we need in this district to help support everybody? So, I'm bringing it back
053to them um to give us some ideas. Once again, we're sending them information. We're listening to you guys. There was things that I heard the last two or three nights when we had those meetings that I didn't think about even as a special ed person, even as a language person when you hear all the things that they have done to build their programs. So, I'm hoping you'll bear with us. I'm hoping that we will be able to go back, go to the drawing board, get some information, do what we need to to do, and if we have to come up with number seven, great. Um, if we have to do with one, we have to do two, whatever we need to do. Um, we're going to try hard to get as much as we can.
054Um, giving them sub suggestions and letting you guys know um, what's out there. So, bear with us. We are supporting you. At least I know I'm supporting you. I know these people are supporting you. So, give us more information if you need to. That's what I feel that we can take that and move it further and do whatever we can to make it best. Thank you. When's when's the next meeting? What is that? January 20th. Yeah. Can we I'd like a consensus from the board to is it January 5th when we come back and you there's a SP day. All right. Yeah. But can I would like to uh request or we can make a board meeting for January 5th at uh 5:00 p.m. at Hack and what's the what's the purpose? Like what do
055you that that's where so we have from now until January 5th you you have time frames to discuss because if we if we go through the next two weeks or [clears throat] roughly right it's really yeah it's really only this week because you got the holidays so it's really only this week and so we're going to need more time January 5th. All right. What's what's your what's your what's your ask then? What time are you saying that you'll present on the January 17th or the 12th? What you guys 12th? So the 14th is cow. Could we incorporate into that somehow? So we can Yeah. Yeah, we can. Or we can call a meeting. We have enough time to call a meeting now. So, let's let's do it around that time because then that gives us
056some time to obviously hear everyone's thoughts because you're going to share with us. Our community is going to continue to give us feedback. Um, well, you guys did most of the hard work. It's not just figuring out if it's all of them. But we got we got to pull it all together. Very modular. If we didn't have the holiday break right now in this, then we could but we we got to be able to pull this together. Okay. Can we do it Thursday after the CO2 or do you need to do it on a Monday? No. First, the the plan would just need to be presented and articulated to of any school closures, right? So, that that'll go out and then it will go 10 days for community in uh involvement. It has takes 10
057days, three meetings and then we'll we'll go to the to the to the meeting. So, whatever needs to be presented needs to be that time because we we're running out of spring. [clears throat] Do we want to give a date too for like I know we're all kind of submitting questions and things like that but for board members to give administration by midweek end of week something of like these are you know there's going to be small items but these are my big sticking points right like maybe you guys already been doing this but I was like here are my kind of general question but put a time limit on it just so that you guys have got time to think about it over uh over winter break and it's not going okay I figured
058this out and And then one of us as soon as you get back hits you with 12 more questions that derails the rest. Kind of putting that time frame on initial questions. Is the end of Wednesday feasible? A couple days because then that's only two days to break after this. Yeah. Yeah. And we don't need answers. I just want to make sure that at least our big ones are at least submitted. Submitted. Yeah. Yeah. We can do that. Okay. Perfect. Because that way it's like I didn't get an answer but it was you know two days before we're trying to give a recommendation that we can't do that to you guys anyways. I'm just going to set up a meeting. Let you type. I'll talk. Okay. So, we'll give an update. The next meeting that
059the next official on the calendar meeting would be the committee of the whole which is January 12th, 14th, 14th. And then the was it the 17th? The 20th. The 20th. January 20th is an a regular scheduled board meeting and there could be a meeting in between. I would have had that if I don't have my phone. Yeah. [laughter] Feel weird. Um All right. We good? We can always bring good. Yep. All right. Now we get to do approval of the bills. Comments from the committee. There are zero comments from the community. Come on. All right. Well, you ready for me? I am. All right. The total payables this period were 3,751,316.99. There were void checks of $156,450.25. Um most most of that was due to a remmit that was wrong on a check. So, we
060had to avoid and reissue a check. Um there was one payroll this period in the amount of $3,610,9916 for total expenditures of 7,362,226.15. Split out by fund, the education fund paid 3,972,142.38. The tort fund paid $122,855.75. The operations and maintenance fund paid $458,693.50. The debt service fund paid $2,434,25. Even the transportation fund paid $248,82327 and the IMRF social security fund paid $123,93625. There were life safety expenditures of $1,750. again for total expenditures of 7,362,226.15. Are there any unanswered bill questions? That is it for the bill. Did you put in the one? I did want to make a note on there. Thank you. That uh on the bond payment, it lists the bond payments and then it totals it misses uh one on the million just because it loss it off. So the full amount was
061the 2.4 million, but there is a one missing on that. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Michelle. Thank you. Oh, yes. Throwing me off. Okay. Motion to approve the bills. Motion. Second. Thank you. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meeks. I. President Sterling. Hi. Vice President Thompson. Hi. Board member Mcnite. I Dr. Thank you. I have four overnight travels. Uh, one of them is at your seat because it was just recently uploaded because we had a middle school cheer who qualified for a competition and in case you didn't get to see it as part of um board books, I wanted it at your seat. Uh the first overnight t uh travel is for the boys basketball team to the state farm tournament which is December 26 through the 30th
062in Normal, Illinois. Uh they've gone for the past few years. Uh the second one is the middle school cheer um that I just shared. They qualify for the ICA competition in Springfield. They will be leaving on January 10th and returning on the 11th. Uh the third was also something that our students qualify for that is the ILMEA all state. Uh that is Imporia. The students will leave on January 28th and return on the 31st. And the final one is baseball. It is play the turf in um South Jacksonville. The team will leave on uh March 27th and return on the 28th. That ends my report. Thank you. Jacksonville. Josh Rand. Thank you. My first item this approve resolution declaring surplus property at Harlem Middle School and Parker Center for 10B2 uh is a recommendation to
063accept the FY25 audit by Sikitch. And just to highlight that Lindsay Fish from Sikitch came to our committee the whole last Wednesday and presented hit the highlights uh of that audit. The audit and the financial report are attached to this meeting and upon acceptance we will upload them to the website tomorrow. Um so I'd like to thank Sigage for all their work on this audit. Are there any remaining questions on that? Okay. If at any time anyone has questions obviously please feel free just to to reach out. Um all my next item is a recommendation to accept the October treasures report. Uh, and just like the audit, we reviewed um the highlights of that treasures report at committee of the whole last Wednesday. Are there any open questions on the treasures report? No. Okay. 10B4
064is a recommendation to approve a report on cash balance in relation to average expenditures. This is the first time that this is a new requirement um in the code and so this is the first time that we've done that. Uh and this this report compares cash balance to make sure it's not two and a half times what the annual expenditures are. Uh ours is not above the two and a half times expenditures. So there's no further action we have to take, but the board uh does need to approve that report this evening. There any questions on that report? Okay. Next is a recommendation to approve an agreement with Lighthouse Speech Therapy to provide speech and language services at a cost of $115 per hour at 37 12 hours per week not to exceed 13 weeks
065for a total cost of 56,62.50 paid with ID IDA flow through part B funds and there is a memo from uh director of students board services Heidi Lang attached uh with reasoning for that recommendation. Are there any questions on the lighthouse agreement? Okay. Next is 10B6, which is a recommendation to approve an agreement with PD Monster to provide professional development on January 5th, 2026 for school improvement day and February 13, 2026 for teacher institute day at a cost of $6,300 paid with idea flow through part B funds. There's also another uh memo from director Lang regarding that PD. Any questions on that? Okay. And my final item 10B7 is a recommendation to approve an agreement with the regional office of education or the ROE for professional development workshops for teachers and administrators on teacher institute
066day February 13, 2026 at a cost of $12,300 paid with title 2 funds. There any questions on that? That is my report this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Dr. Shelley Wagner. President Serly, this evening I have the recommendation to approve the personnel agenda. There is no addendum. We have five employments this evening. I'd like you to note that the full-time substitute employment is a terminal position. It will end at the end of the school year. It's not a continual position. We have six transfers and six resignations. It's a short one. And that ends my report. Thank you so much. Dr. Troy Yra. All right. Thank you. Um, President Sterling, um, I have three, um, Freedom of Information Acts here to read. Um, the first one was dated November 19th of 2025 and was submitted
067by Olivia Karsten's requesting all the documents pertaining to all the scenarios considered as well as the proposed scenario 7 for the elementary reconciliation plan. The district responded to the requesttor on November 25th of 2025. The next um Freedom of Information Act was dated November 28th of 2025 and was also submitted by Olivia Karstens requesting overviews of scenarios three, four, and five comparable to the overviews for scenarios 1, 2,6, and 7 published at ww.harle122.org. And the district denied the request on December 5th, 2025. And then the last um foyer request was um requested on December 11th of 2025 and was submitted by O'Shea Smith from Sunlike Records requesting an electronic summary of purchase orders from July 1st, 2025 through November 30th of 2025. And the district responded to the requester on December 11th, 2025 with the
068exclusive um documents. Thank you. Anything else? No. Okay. Thank you. All right, moving on to the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the personal agenda with no addendum? Second. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meeks. I. President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Can I get a motion to approve student travel requests? Motion. Second. Board member Johnson. I, Secretary Meeks. I, President Sterling, Mike. I, Vice President Thompson. I, Board Member Mcnite. I, Board Member McKenna. I, Board Member Carlson, yes. Can I get a motion to approve resolution declaring surplus property? Motion. Second. Secretary Meeks. I President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. Yes. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Can I get
069a motion to approve the acceptance of the FY25 audit? Motion. Second. President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meeks. I can I get a motion to accept October treasures report? Motion. Second. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meets. I. President Sterling. Hi. Can I get a motion to approve the report on cash balance in relation to average expenditures? Motion. Second. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meeks. I. President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. Can I get a motion to approve agreement with Lighthouse Speech Therapy to provide speech and language services at
070a cost of $115 per hour at 37.5 hours per week not to exceed 13 weeks for a total cost of $56,62.50 paid with idea flow through part B. Motion second. Board member McKenna I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson I. Secretary Meeks I. President Sterling. Hi. Vice President Thompson. Hi. Board member Mcnite. I can I get a motion to approve an agreement with PD Monster to provide professional development on January 5th, 2026 for school improvement day and February 13, 2026 for teacher institute day for a cost of $6,300 with paid with the idea flow through part B. Motion second. Board member Mc Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. Hi. Secretary Meeks. I. President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Can I get a motion to approve an
071agreement with the regional office of education for professional development workshops for teachers and administrators on teacher institute day, February 13, 2026 at a cost of $12,300 paid with title two funds? Motion second. President Sterling. I. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meeks. I. At this time, do you guys have any more announcements and discussion? Can I get a motion to go into executive session to discuss negotiations 5 ILCS 120-2C2? Motion. Second. Vice President Thompson. I. Board member Mcnite. I. Board member McKenna. I. Board member Carlson. Yes. Board member Johnson. I. Secretary Meets. I. President Sterling. I. Five minutes. Yeah. Sure. All right. Please clear the room. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat.
072Heat. [music] Wow. [music]