001Shut up. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] I'd like to call this meeting to order. Regular board meeting, November 17th. Can I get a roll call? here. Superintendent [music] All right, it is my pleasure and sorry for the feedback this evening. We have some of our youngest friends with us to lead us on the pledge of allegiance. Now they're hiding from me. Well, it is my pleasure this evening to introduce students from Parker Center who will be here to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. We're hoping that we make it up on stage. Okay. We're going to make two way. Follow Good evening. We are excited to welcome some of our kindergarten Parker pups to the pledge tonight. These students were nominated by their teachers for being
002respectful, safe, and ready to learn. So, they're going to introduce themselves real quick, and then we will do the pledge of allegiance and our Parker Center promise. So, we have Vincent. Can you wave? Willow. Harrison. Joshua, Avery, Andrew, Nova, Maddock, Kellen, Talon, Avery, Asher, Warden, Owen, Arie, Sebastian, Asha, Milani, Kase, Kaye, Garnet, Millie, Elliot, Ember Aaliyah justice. All right, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. All right, friends. The flag is this way. Flag is behind us. Ready? Ice to the flag of the United States of America [crying] and to theublic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Turn around. And now for our Parker Center promise. I promise to make Parker Center a better place. I am respectful. I am safe. I am ready to learn.
003Great job. And thank you all for showing such good behavior. Parents, we are going to take them back to the hallway once we get everybody out. If you want to come get your student, you can grab them and come back in if you want to stay or you can take them with you. Thank you. Take a picture first. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? Second. Hi. [clears throat] All right. Thank you. I always say it's hard to follow our kids and today was no exception. So the mission of the Harlem Consolidated School District as a vital part of the community is to help diverse learners realize their unlimited potential by providing an educational program dedicated to academic excellence and a development of strong character in a safe and respectful learning environment. Thank
004you, sir. Can I get a motion to approve board meeting minutes October 27th, 2025? I Jason Bloom. I appreciate everybody's patience with the mics. Well, this evening is my Pleasure to recognize some of our student athletes for their first. So, we're gonna face this way. So, we need to recognize two of our student athletes from cross country who qualified for the um IESA state cross country meet. We're super excited to have you here. That's a big big accomplishment. I'm going to turn it over to coach um Tracy to talk about uh the season a little bit. We're not going to talk about our injury. We're just going to focus on you guys and your season and all the accomplishments that you had. Um, and then we're gonna get to hear your names in a second,
005too. And you guys can actually face this way. Nope. [laughter] That way. So, all right. So, my name is Tracy Bradford. I am the middle school cross country coach and this is my assistant coach, Caitlyn Adams. We have Gavin Sterling and Scarlett Picoitz here. Uh we had a another year with a large team of 29 runners. Um we had a varying abilities this year. We had 11 returning athletes and of all of our runners we had eight summer runners. Um so they came to cross country camp this summer. Uh Gar Garlet, [laughter] Gavin and Scarlet were both summer runners. Um we had a really successful season this year um in the Rock River Athletic Conference races which were all held at Marshall Middle School. The girls were consistently uh in first place or second place
006and the boys were also uh also did very well uh taking second place and third place many of during many of our races. Uh at the all city meet uh both of our teams took second place for the second year in a row. So that was really really awesome for us. Um, I'm going to talk a little bit about Gavin first. So, Gavin is an eighth grader and he is a returning athlete for us. He ran track for us last spring and he did again the summer running. He was consistently our top male runner this year. He is a hard worker. Uh, he earned his PR at sectionals this year and he is very much somebody that all of the boys looked up to this year. So, congratulations to Gavin. [applause] And then we have
007Scarlet. Scarlet was a new runner for us this year. She's a sixth grade student. Uh she also did summer running, so she came in early um and did running with us this summer. Um throughout the course of our season, she was not one of our top runners, but she worked very hard this season and slowly each race grew higher and higher. And um at the end of the season at the all city meet, she was our third place runner behind two eighth graders. Um and at our sectional race is where she made her big move. She had a super strong race. um she looked so strong and she got her PR at sectionals and she was also one of our top 10 finishers out of the whole sectional. So congratulations also to Scarlet. [applause] Well,
008on behalf of the Harlem School Board, the Harlem School District, congratulations. Job well done. I know that there's a lot of training involved to be successful across country and so I know that you've been working hard and we look forward to seeing what comes in the future years. We also want to thank our coaches because uh those types of numbers for our programs um are largely due to our coaching staff and and the support that they provide, the coaching they provide, the relationships they build. And so thank you to you two uh for establishing a strong program. Um we're proud of all of you. So on behalf of all of us sitting here, um all of those people online, congratulations. Job well done. [applause] the same theme. I'm going to invite our high school cross
009country athletes up tonight. We get to celebrate um three of our sectional qualifiers. Um we had two male cross country sectional qualifiers and one female. We're excited tonight to recognize and introduce them and their coaches. So, we have Coach Martin and Coach Stephanie here representing the program and um they're going to talk a little bit about the success and their seasons. Again, we had um these three athletes qualify for sectionals um and they had a a great season. I know our boys had PRs um at I believe the sectional meet, right? And so, pretty successful seasons. I'm going to turn over to coach Stephanie and talk a little about Maya first. Yep. Maya is one of our most dedicated and hardworking athletes on our team. She is always pushing herself to run faster and run
010farther than she did the day before. Uh this is her third year and we are excited that we'll show that she will be back again next year to run even faster. She ran a PR of 1907 this year at Peoria Notre Dame which is the state course. Um so she has a lot of talent and we're really excited to have her back next year. She was in the mix next year. Well, we look forward to having you back next year. Congratulations. [applause] Now I'm turn over to Coach Martin to talk a little about the season. Hello everyone. Uh, welcome. Uh, I am coach Marty Contraras. I'm in my first year at at Harlem as a cross country coach and uh this is Holly Tank my assistant. Um what makes this team and these boys unique
011is Holly and I didn't get aboard until late July, early August. So um for most programs, it takes having kids that are really dedicated to the sport um to make them run. And everyone knows the first half of the cross country season is the summer. Well, these boys right here along with their teammates put in the work all summer before we got there. So, when me and Holly came aboard, um it was a little easier because they were already dedicated and committed. Uh our season started off at Jefferson. Um we got second as a team at Jefferson and James uh won at Jefferson. Um from there, we just kept getting better and better uh throughout the season and mind you, we only had a couple seniors on the team. Um, so, uh, we relied on
012these guys a lot this season. Um, they're the best of friends. Uh, so they pushed each other. Um, so one week one with PR, then the next week another with PR and then they keep getting better and better every week. Um, we got to conference and, uh, unfortunately James uh, cramped up at conference. Um, but Tyler led the way um, and he, uh, finished 12th and got uh, all conference honorable mention. Well, James, as determined as he is, didn't let that deteriorate him. And the following week at regionals, he came back uh really strong with Tyler. And not only did these two qualify for sectionals, but they also pulled every one of their young teammates because we only had one senior in the lineup at regionals to PRs for the season. Um so when we
013look at next season, we're excited because um we only lose one or two seniors, but we return everybody. And a lot of it is because of the building blocks uh with these guys. Um so we're pretty excited about the work they put in and uh we look forward to the future. Well, and coaches obviously give yourselves credit because you have a lot to do with that. But uh kudos to you as well uh gentlemen for the hard work that you put in. I know you put in a lot of hard work in as well. And so on behalf of the board, our community, our staff, our families, congratulations. Job well done. Thank you for representing us so well and for your hard work. We look forward to maybe seeing you back here next year to
014honor you again with the same success or more. So, congratulations to all of you. more um recognitions this evening um on behalf of our board and Mr. Thompson. Um, I just want to give a a shout out because as we know like and if you follow us on our socials um or or read our newsletter, there are so many different things that we get to celebrate and so many things that our students and staff are doing on a regular basis and we can't obviously always bring them here um to celebrate all of them. But I do want to give a few shout outs on behalf of uh Mr. Thompson. Um a big thank you and congratulations to our students that um participated in the ILMA performance this past weekend. Um, we also had our plays.
015Um, and so we had some great performances um, from our students at Harlem High School. Um, we want to give a big thanks to Baker Street Burgers as well for their continued support. Um, they have been supporting our culinary students for uh, the past few years and they're they're a great uh, support of that program and offering their expertise. Um and then also lastly a shout out um if you saw on social media that our boys bowling team um placed first in the most recent tournament out of 40 teams which is pretty awesome accomplishment. And so again uh on behalf of the board, congratulations to those individuals and teams and coaches um but also to um all of the other recognitions that uh uh deserve credit over these past few weeks because we've had a
016lot of them. So congratulations to all of them. Um and then lastly, um November 15th was school board member day. And so each year on November 15th, um we join the IASB, the Illinois Association of School Boards to recognize our school board members, uh for their commitment, their dedication, um and time that they spend, uh serving in this voluntary role. Um as you're aware, there's a lot of time that goes into um functioning or serving as a board member. These individuals serve primarily four-year terms and um there's a lot that we throw at them from finances to policies to um overall governance and such. And so we have just a really really short brief uh video with a few uh friends of ours saying thank you for the things that our school board members are
017responsible for. [music] Thank you for empowering me to use my voice. Thank you school board members. Thank you for the manufacturing lab. Thank you equipment. Thank you board for providing our students with the best technology. Thank you school board members. So obviously that's just a small few thank yous and and we have a lot of staff and students and community members that thank you all for your service and your time and effort and commitment. And so on behalf of all of us that are here, our administrative team, our staff, our families, thank you for for your service to Har School District. We greatly appreciate it. [applause] And we have as a token of our appreciation um uh a gift which I think you've already received. Um we have a winter hat in there as we
018uh live in the Midwest. I think that would be uh something that's definitely helpful especially for people like us with no hair. Um and then uh we have another little shirt in there. It's just a small token of appreciation. Um I know it doesn't uh pay its dividends for all the work that you do, but thank you again for uh for your support and commitment to our community. At this time, we have no comments from the community. Okay. Move it over to approval of the bills. All right. Thank you. The total payables for this period were 1,887,34252. There were two payrolls this period in the amount of 6,629,151.37 for total expenditures of 8,516,49389. Split out by fund, the education fund paid 6,981,963.50. The operations and maintenance fund paid $389,61423. The transportation fund paid $363,24311. The
019IMRF social security fund paid $255,87.38 and the capital project fund paid $177,7525. [clears throat] The life safety fund paid $348,11342 again for total expenditures of 8,516,49389. There any unanswered bill questions. That is it for the bills. Motion to approve the bills. turn over to Dr. That goes back to Trust Rand. All right. Thank you. Uh my first item this evening is a recommendation to approve a resolution declaring surplus property at the administration center H9 Harlem High School and Parker Center. Any questions of them? Next is a recommendation to accept the September 2025 treasures report. Are there any follow-up questions after we reviewed it at committee? The next item is a recommendation to approve the 2025 tax levy and we reviewed that last month at committee of the whole. Are there any final questions on the
020tax levy? 10B4 is a recommendation to approve the 2026 school maintenance project grant and that it would be for new lighting in the stadium outside here. Any questions on that? Okay. Next is a recommendation to approve a resolution authorizing remaining bond proceeds to be used for other fire prevention, safety, energy conservation, and school security purposes. So, this is the remaining life safety funds after we did the H9 and middle school roof last year in the amount of $3.2 $2 million that is incorporating this building Harlem High School as we look at um what a boiler and potentially fire alarm would look a new boiler and fire alarm would look like for this building. Is there any questions on that resolution? Okay. Next is a recommendation to approve an independent contractor agreement with Janice Bubnik to
021provide tutoring services for students who attend Concordial Lutheran School for the FY26 school year for a total amount of $8,100 paid with ESA Title One funds. Questions on? Okay. 10B7 is a recommendation to approve an agreement with the Energy Solutions to update lighting in the gym, Fieldhouse, Gy Mezzanine, wrestling, and weight room. I don't think weight rooms on there, just the wrestling room uh at Harlem High School. That is a cost of $18,63459. I do want to note though that the annual savings is $15,219. So, it's a net 3,400 the first year and then we will save 15,000 in addition to updating lighting for about 61,000 square feet of the building here. So, it it'll look great. And this is an area that we've done lighting here also. So, there any questions on that? Okay,
022good. Okay. Next is a recommendation to approve an agreement with formative for professional development for the middle school and high school Janu on January 5th, 2026 at a cost of $4,200 that is paid with title two funds. Questions on next 10 B9 is a recommendation to approve the purchase of open sed ECA science kits for the middle school and high school science departments at a cost of $14,481.60. 60 cents paid with title four funds. Any questions? Okay. And my last item is a recommendation to approve electricity provider services bid and approval for the assistant superintendent for business and operations to lock electricity rates. That is myself. So that allows me to go out to bid and lock them when the bid um are open if it makes sense and is best for the district. And
023then I would bring that to the next board meeting. Any questions? Does that have anything to do with the solar panels that are out in the field up there? So it doesn't directly. This is where we're getting. So we are going to get X number of kilowatts for that. And so when I talked to the consultant, he said that that is just a bill credit. And so that the solar on behind meter is more important to that calculation than the the community solar. But it is all factored in. So a matter of direct energy and saying 9 cents 7 cents a kilowatt. Yep. Currently our kad that our power that kmed delivers come through comes through constellation right now. So yes it would be that. Yes. Yep. I 100% agree. Any other questions of it?
024That is my report this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Shelley Wagner. Good evening. Um I have the recommendation to approve the personnel agenda and addendum. We have 12 resignations, three transfers, one leave of absence request, nine employments, one federation bank requests, and one new position at Parker Center um requesting one level B pair professional at the pup lab. Um, and this is a result of new students coming to the pup lab program needing this assistance per their IEP. That's it for me. Thank you, Troy Yarum. All right. Thank you, Board President Sterling. Um, good evening everyone. Um the first item here is a recommendation to approve first reading of policy updates from November 12th, 2025 policy committee. It's attached. Um is there any questions? Okay. Um the next two are Freedom of Information Act.
025The first one request dated October 16, 2025 was submitted by Sherry Reed of Smart Cure requesting all purchasing records from 77205 to current. And the district responded to the requesttor on October 30th, 2025 with the inclusive documents. [snorts] And then the second Freedom of Information Act request dated October 16th of 2025 was submitted by Justin Winnick requesting all purchasing records from 71 2022 to current and then the district responded to the requester on November 7, 2025 with the inclusive documents. Any questions on the foyer request? Okay. So, [clears throat] our next item um leads us into our district utilization proposal. Um as you know, the board um tasked us with, you know, a couple months ago to come up with a proposal um that we felt um you know, could positively impact our Harlem community.
026And so, we're going to do that proposal right now for you all. All right. So, Harlem board members and our community stakeholders, here's our elementary building consolidated proposal um dated November 17th of this year. The rationale um for the change is declining enrollment. um several buildings at or below roughly 60% utilization and then having a financial deficit of 3.1 million. Here's our birth rate trends from Winnebago County um from 1990 into 2022 when we can capture it. As you can see, way up at top in 1990 at our highest, we were about 4,156. And then we kind of go up and down from there, concluding with what we can gather from 2020, which obviously was COVID um where we had 3,289 um students. The next is our enrollment trends from K5 um to 2009 to
0272026 school years. Now, uh, a couple of years within here, um, our it was K6 enrollment and not just K5. So, as you can see, at our highest, we were 3,192 students and it kind of goes down and then goes from there ending with uh 2,661 students. So for a comparative enrollment, Lo's Park 73.5% um compared enrollment, Machznney 75.6%, Maple 54.1%, Marquette 50.6%, Olsen Park 68.7%, Parker Center 61.8%. Rston is at 45%. Rock cut 54.9% and then Windsor at 81.1%. So the impact of underutilization you have excess space increases per pupil cost right sizing lets us reinvest savings into our classrooms and then stability reduces repeated boundary changes. All right, financial trends. Mr. Iran. Thank you. So what this slide shows is the last four years of actual results from 22 to 24 and last
028year's actual FY25. So FY26 is our current budgeted year and then there's two years of projections if we don't do anything in here. And so what you see here is there's a source of revenue that we get from corporate uh profits and that has been dropping quite a bit. So you combine that with uh EBF from the state. the state funding starting to level off. Um and this is what this projection looks like in addition to salaries and benefits and insurance has been a big driver for us. So looking forward um we look we're looking at decreasing interest rates, additional decreasing corporate personal property replacement tax, Medicaid reduction and the state is 2.2 billion in the whole. So we are looking at potentially additional state funding cuts there um in addition to rising health insurance
029costs. So these two charts at the bottom, the one on the left is if we don't do this recommendation, uh those are what the fund balance would be over the next couple years and then the one on the right is with the accepting the recommendation. All right. Thank you, Mr. Iran. Our goal objectives um for this proposal, put students first and ensure equitable access to core and specialized programs. Better align our enrollment capacity and program access across schools. Reduce operating costs. Prioritize facility condition, safety, and adaptable learning spaces. Optimize our transportation with two elementary tiers. Um as you know, we have currently have two of our elementary schools that are on the third tier. and then ensure long-term flexibility to respond to enrollment fluctuations. The criteria that we use to make this decision maintain coherent
030boundaries and logical school locations, balance special education placements and ensure equitable multilingual services. Strategically placed programs EC, STP, learning lab, OLA, ALP and then fine arts. and then target utilization of 300 plus students per school where feasible and finally to prioritize facility condition and operating costs. Now the process, okay, how we got here, we reviewed seven different facility scenarios to align enrollment, instruction, and building capacity. We narrowed it down to four scenarios for deeper study using consistent criteria such as capacity, program placement and flexibility, operations, and then transportation. We found that in every scenario, buildings became fuller and shared spaces are used differently while maintaining class size and protecting specialized services. So the summary of the scenarios that we reviewed, the first scenario was familiar. It was one through five structure that eases pressure on
031specialized programs at Machznney by relocating the learning lab but provides limited fiscal relief and little room for program growth. In this scenario, the reduction was two buildings. In scenario two, it was a neighborhood K through five schools that reduced transitions and strengthened community ties but tightened space in several buildings and limited or limit early childhood capacity. This was also a reduction of two buildings. Scenario six was a two-year grade band model that concentrates teacher expertise and supports strong curriculum alignment but adds more complex multi-sight logistics and offers limited flexibility to expand specialized programs like early childhood and OLA. If we would have went with this scenario, it would have been a reduction of three buildings. [snorts] So finally, scenario seven, two-year grade bands with a magnet school for early childhood prevention initiative, fine arts, and
032OLA, reducing program fragmentation, creating room to grow specialized programs, and offering the most balance and sustainable structure. This was a reduction of two buildings. So scenario seven is the one that we're imposing to you all today. So here's a summary of the change. Um the west band would be Parker Center K1 life skills STP Lo's Park will be second and third learning lab. Rostston will be four to five learning lab east will be Windsor K1 learning lab. Rakut will be second and third life skills STP and then Machznney will be four five life skills STP. Marquette will be a magnet program where we where we house our magnet programs PI EC Ola fine arts and then AOP until phased out. All right Dr. Bloom with the um enrollment boundaries. So obviously with scenario 7, this
033looks very different than what we're currently experiencing um with our structure that we have now as a district. Um with this you can see that we're proposing an east and west band or school boundary system. So you're going to have essentially two school boundaries um in this recommendation. On the west obviously to the left of the screen is your purple boundary. Um that would be uh your west schools as uh Dr. was just previously mentioned. And then to the right side or east side would be your um eastband schools. Um obviously this is a map that um you know you're trying to kind of zero in on on some of the boundary stuff. Um we do have this we will have a website that I'll be sharing about uh a little bit later. Um but
034this will have um a zoomable map that will allow you to zoom down into the street level to look at that line that breaks in the middle. Obviously, our boundaries as a district do not change in this. And so, your external boundaries on the west and the east um are going to remain the same. Um that does not change boundaries in our our neighboring school districts. It's really that middle line that you're going to be looking at most closely when you look at east and west boundaries. Um but I'll share more about that uh shortly. One of the other things that I was involved in in this process is really looking at site capacity. Um and so when we look at capacity, um you're going to see a few columns. We're looking at current student
035enrollment, our proposed student enrollment under scenario 7 along with potential classroom spaces. And so there's a little caveat to the um the far right column um especially for my principal friends that are sitting here um that you know we're looking at overall spaces. And so we recognize that when we look at the potential classroom spaces, some of those spaces, for example, at Parker Center um are smaller spaces that may house like a specialized program. Um but we were looking at the total number of spaces that are available for use um in in our schools. And so when you look at our current enrollment and then you compare that to what the proposed enrollment would be for scenario 7 um you can see those increases. Again our goal is to target kind of that 350 range.
036We really want to look at our enrollment um and our capacities north of 75%. Um and so when we look at the studies that we've done in the past, you know, really at the elementary level, um you don't really want to go more than 85% um utilization in your total uh facility space. You can go a little bit higher in the elementary, but that creates really difficult scheduling uh for us. And so we really tried to kind of get ourselves down into uh close to that 75% range. Um that allows capacity and space uh for us to to function to have additional spaces as necessary for programs um but also allows some flexibility as we move forward so that we can ensure that as enrollment if it starts to rebound up or we have you
037know a higher cohort of kindergarteners that come in whatever it may be um that we we have the ability to adapt with that. So here you can see that comparison um between current enrollment and the proposed enrollment uh with scenario seven changes. I'm going to pass. Yep. Oh, you got a mic. Is this Thank you. So talking about some of the educational impact with this particular model. Uh first of all uh right now our early learning center is K only. Um by having an I feel like I'm echoing. Sorry. Having in a two-year band uh allows found foundational skills um to be supported and you know developmentally appropriate practices for two years rather than the one that we are currently looking at. Uh by having more teachers in the same area teaching the same thing,
038it allows uh easier collaboration and supporting um grade level specialists. Uh right now if you are a special education teacher in one of our elementary buildings, you might have a first grade class and a fifth grade class you might be working with. This allows you to really specialize within bands. Uh same thing with interventionists. Uh we are looking at having two interventionists in each of our east west buildings. Um actually going up in the number of interventionists compared to what we currently have. um also having to uh social workers in each of the east west buildings. Uh by having a larger number of students, it allows an opportunity for departmentalizing at the upper grades. Uh because departmentalizing is an option we see um being able to provide additional supports for our kids who are currently
039in the ALP program. Right now, if you're in the ALP program, you are high in both reading and math. However, we have a bunch of kiddos that are strong in one or the other who don't receive those extra opportunities by having um departmentalization at the fifth grade level. we would have the opportunity to have an honors at both the east and the west side allowing greater opportunities and a student could um be in an honors math and maybe a regular reading or vice versa. So, uh because we we feel like we'd be able to support the students that way. is the reason why we are um discussing the or believe in the phasing out of the ALP program. The magnet school um allows an opportunity for um each of those programs to have a focus.
040Um it also allows the PI to early childhood collaboration um as well as OLA and fine arts collaborating. there are some things that they have in common that would be able to um use that space collaboratively. One of the things about having the magnet school is that Ola often teeters between one and two sections needed and all of the other models that we looked at. We would not be able to go beyond what we currently have and have one at each grade level. Also, this model allows the expansion of um EC. All of the other models only allow two classrooms of early childhood where this allows some space for that to occur. Uh, as far as balanced classes, right now we have buildings and um that have specialized programs that have over 30% of students
041with IEPs in the building, which means that you can never get classes under 30%. By having a greater number of students, you are able to balance classes under 30%. Uh it also allows an opportunity when you have so many classes that if you have personalities that don't necessarily work with one another, you're able to spread them out a little bit more. Uh in our current model, um ESL services are in three buildings and families have to choose whether or not to take on um to go to and be part of uh ESL services or to stay in their neighborhood uh schools. This would allow us to have ESL services in all each of our uh seven buildings. So no student has to choose um to leave their friends in order to receive the services. And
042then uh lastly here a more balanced SCES. Right now our uh SCES across the district ranges from 40 to uh in the 70s. And um by splitting east and west it will balance the two. It will not be equal but it would be a lot closer than what our schools currently are at. Yes. So, um we have 40% of our students receive free and reduced lunch like at um at uh Rston and we're right around 50 at uh Olsson Park, but we have other buildings being um Lo's Park and Maple and Windsor that are in the 70s. And so by splitting it, those percentages get split. Kind of like when you look at Parker Center because you have all of the kindergarteners at Parker Center. They're in the 60%. I don't know who has the
043remote. Oh, I guess they brought it over to me. He snuck it over and I didn't know. I I'm sorry everyone. Um but there are is some drawbacks. Um, first of all, like I said, in each of the scenarios, it was moving early childhood from uh 360 to 80 seats. We we know that early childhood has one of the greatest impacts on students, especially our atrisisk students. Early childhood helps um lessen the opportunity gaps that are out there. It increases graduation rate. it um has one of the biggest bangs for their bucks out there. So, the decision is nothing to do with our educational philosophies in regards to early childhood. We value our early childhood educators and their services. This strictly comes down to our financial realities right now. And um with our realities, we
044can't continue with what we are currently doing. Consequently, what the plan is is the district has agreed to go with 80 seats. But as soon as Illinois.gov takes over the grant, I plan on reaching out to find out whether or not we could lessen the number of students that are currently being serviced and see if we can get to a number in which we could add additional classrooms instead of just the two and stay living within our means. um we we value early childhood. We we would love to have more of it, but unfortunately it's just the situation we're in, but it is an impact going from 360 to 80 seats. Um the other thing is the multiple transitions right now. For some of our families, they um have kids that go from kindergarten, they
045go to their building, their first through fifth, and then middle school. Um that's not true for our families who are in the Machznney and Marquette. They go from Parker Center to Machznney, sorry, Parker Chzn, Parker Center to Marquette to Machznney. So it would be the same number of transitions as what we currently do with um the students in those two buildings, but it would be the it would be three transitions for our whole district. All right, Dr. Herb just talked um about the balance in the east west scenario and the east west configuration will also allow for parody in staffing as well. Um, I wanted to bring that to your attention. Um, and also just to re-emphasize that each East West building will be staffed with two social workers and interventionists. We currently have three
046vacant certified positions that are unfilled. We will pause those at this time. As far as reductions go, this plan does result in some significant reductions in force. And so I'll go over them with you right now. These are projections at this time. Um, we would see a decrease of 33.5 certified positions with an additional five teacher reductions as ALP phases out. It would result in a decrease of 38.1 support staff positions and a decrease of three full-time substitute positions. Okay. So this is slide is for the financial impact of this proposal. I do want to note that the ED fund FY27 that is a net number after we reduce the grant funds from the state. Um so that is from mainly salailor and benefits for those three years operations and maintenance is a reduction of
047custodians and reducing the gas and electric at the buildings and the transportation fund in FY27 really both years is from a reduction of the EC midday routes on that. So the total savings over the three years in this proposal is $4.1 million. That's it for the slide. Any questions? So if something were like this were to not end up going through that another option would be possibly a referendum which we it'd be in the 9% range about $5 million. Um before I share the next steps obviously sorry obviously we know that you know this is incredibly difficult. um to make these types of decisions and really to re-evaluate how we do things and to address a deficit like we're looking at. Um you know, our focus, as was mentioned, is to really ensure that we
048increase utilization um in order to make sure that our buildings are uh running efficiently, but also obviously tackle the deficit that uh that Josh has been talking about. And so, um, because of this and obviously there's going to be tons of questions and, um, we have a lot of processing to do, um, both as staff, as families, as a community. Um, just want to kind of give an overview of what's going to happen next. Um, and so, um, immediately following this meeting, I will be sending out communication to our staff um that will give a little more detail to an email that they received uh, earlier today uh, that will have kind of a breakdown of what the recommendation is. Um, along with some links. Um we will be activating um some web pages on
049our website uh along with a community impact um or community input form, excuse me. Um where uh our staff, families, and community will be able to uh submit questions um provide some feedback on the recommendation. Um in that website, we will also have the actual proposal uh that will lay things out. Um there's a document that the board received this evening and that we will now be sharing with you as well. Um that gives you the breakdown of kind of all the things that were explored. Obviously what you saw today was just a quick highlight of some of the things that were part of the research and how we got to recommendation number seven. Um you'll get a little bit of information about what the other scenarios were. Um and uh get a lot more
050detail to the stuff that was covered today. And so um I will also be sending a message to all of our families um this evening as well. um somewhat similar to our staff but obviously tailored to our families. Um this will also again give them direction to our website uh for information where they can read the proposal, provide input um on our website. We'll also include the school boundary map as I mentioned that's integrated within Google so people can zoom in um to see where they fall in the east and west uh school bands. Um they'll have the opportunity to provide that input um in there as well. Uh we will be working with our local media as well to share this information. Um but then over the coming weeks um we will have some
051opportunities obviously as a board as an administrative team to uh review the feedback that's we receive um we will update our website and our FAQs based on some of the conversation or comments that come through our input form um so that we can ensure that we're highlighting and hitting the things that people may have questions about. Um but um through that we will also have um three public hearings uh location to be determined um just based on facility uh availability. Uh but we will have public hearings on December 1st, second and third. And this will be an opportunity for uh people to come in to make comment um for us to talk through things with the board if necessary. Again, we'll be looking at that input from our feedback surveys as well as that input.
052Um, and then that will give our board um some guidance as they navigate the decision-m process which will occur on uh December 15th. [clears throat] All right. Um, board president Sterling, that ends um my report for tonight. And then I want to off al also add on to what Dr. Bloom said. This is a very difficult um decision um that we made, very difficult proposal um that obviously affects our entire community. And so please um be sure to give us feedback um when Dr. Bloom sends that information out so that we can look at it and then our board um can make an informed decision. So thank you. Any questions from the board? Okay. I'm just interested that we had uh I believe it was let me look at the pages. Page 14 shows uh
053Marquette having uh the the magnet programs and Machznney having fourth and fifth life skills and STP. And I'm curious being that Machznney has larger classrooms why we are not leaving the fine arts program over there also because they have the stage and the auditorium and just switching those two buildings. So it's just a curiosity. It was twofold. One to um help ease especially with this current fifth grade class. This approximately 100 students more than the uh kindergarten class. And so it number one it helps ease uh space. Number two, we do feel like there's a lot of great collaboration collaborative activities between fine arts and Ola and felt that that would be a benefit for both programs. Thank you. Okay, we're moving on to the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the
054personal agenda and addendum? Carlson. Hi. We don't have any student travel requests. Can I get a motion to approve resolution declaring surplus property? Second. Johnson. I secretary. President. I can I get a motion to accept the September 20 2025 treasures report motion I thank A motion to approve the 2025 certifi certificate of tax levy. Motion. Second. President. I vice president. I secretary. Okay. I had a motion to approve the 2025 tax levy resolution. Second. Vice President Johnson. Hi Johnson. All right. Can I get a motion to approve the 2026 school maintenance project grant opportunity? Motion. Second. Johnson. Hi. I Can I get a motion to approve the resolution authorizing remaining bond proceeds to be used for other prevention, fire prevention, safety, energy, conservation, and school security purposes? Motion. Second. I can I get a motion
055to approve the independent contractor agreement with Janice Beck to provide tutoring services for students who attend Concordia Lutheran School for the FY26 school year for a total cost of $8,100 paid with ESA Title One funds. Second I can get a motion to approve agreement with the energy solutions to update lighting in gym fieldhouse gym mezzanine wrestling and weight rooms at Harlem High School for a cost of $18,63459. Motion second. I can I get a motion to approve agreement with formative for professional development for the middle school and high school on January 5th, 2026 at a cost of $4,200 paid with title two funds. Motion second. Vice President I. Can I get a motion to approve the purchase of open sed ECA science kids for the middle school and high school science department at a cost
056of 14,48160 paid with title four funds. Second. Hi. I can I get a motion to approve electricity provider services bid and approval for the assistant superintendent for business and operations to lock electricity rates. Hi. Can I approve? Can I get a motion to approve first reading of policy 8.20 AP for the November 12th, 2025 committee of the whole board member Carlson. Hi Hi. Uh for announcements and discussion, uh obviously we're going to add the December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for the community to have meetings with us. Uh you said place to be determined. Okay. Um I guess time will be determined once we find the place that we're going to be. Cool. Uh at this time I'm going to talk to the board just to saying uh this is your time to hear from the
057community, hear from the people that are out there that you can lean on to get the best and best knowledge you can. Also ask the questions as many questions like you asked Rebecca uh just a minute ago. Um please be firing them off to Dr. Yar bro so he can direct them to the the proper places so that you guys can come uh informed and ready to hear from obviously the community but also have the knowledge to know what you want to do. Will we have access to if the community contacts whatever this form is? Can we have that disseminated to the board just so that way you know otherwise they come directly to us the whole board may not get that information. Yeah, you'll have access to the answers and all that type of
058stuff and then we will also provide summaries of that as well. But we'll give you full access. You can read all of that verbatim and the responses that provided. Perfect. I mean, the community feedback is going to be key and critical. They're going to see stuff that we're not going to see and there's no reason we're one board uh to make sure we get that information. Anybody else? Okay, next committee of the whole meeting will be December 10th, 2025. Our next regular board meeting will be December 15, 2025. If there's no comments, questions, concerns, can I get a motion to adjurnn? All those in favor? Eyes have it. Thank you, guys.