001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Call this meeting to order. Regular board meeting August 18th. Can I get a roll call? Yes, you can. Mr. Sterling here. Mr. Thompson here. Mr. Mcnite present. Mrs. McKini here. Mrs. Carlson here. Mrs. Johnson present. Mrs. Meeks here. Pam Cook recording secretary. Terrell Yarro superintendent. Shelley Wagner human resources. Michelle, curriculum instruction. Jason Blue, communications and community relations. Josh Shar, business and operations. Can you hear everybody stand? I will. 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. [Music] Dr. Just seeing if you guys are paying
002attention, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? Should we move it after motion? Second, Mr. Thompson. Hi, Mr. McKenna. Hi, I mean Mr. Mcnite. I got you. I still Mrs. McKini. I Mrs. Carlson. Mrs. Johnson. Hi, Mrs. Ne. I Mr. Sterling. All right. And with that, all right. Thank you. Uh the mission of the Harlem Salia 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 development of strong character in a safe and respectful learning environment. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve board meeting minutes? Motion. Second. Okay. Mr. Mcnite. I. Mrs. McKenna. I. Mrs. Carlson. Yes. Mrs. Johnson. I. Mrs. Meets. I Mr. Sterling I Mr. Thson. Hi That's
003a nice Well, it is my uh my pleasure this evening to recognize the 2025 US High School Bowling Foundation's national champions. [Applause] It's uh it's not too often that I you know every well I should say every so often we we get to see a familiar face once or twice throughout the year at our board meetings for recognizing. Often times it's for you know students that are maybe multiple sport athletes. Um but it's pretty rare that we get to recognize the same team twice within the same year. Well really twice within a few months. Um this is a familiar group of uh young ladies that were um recently here. when we recognized them, I believe in March. And so now we get the the honor of recognizing them as uh national champions back in June,
004early June, um in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Uh they won the national championship, which is an incredible feat. Um I was telling the coach uh coaches that when I was looking at the the list of all of the uh champions, I think there was two years in the last 10 where Harlem either on the boys or girl side wasn't in the top eight. like which is pretty pretty incredible to have um two programs that are so successful. Um because the boys aren't here, I'll say it. The girls were on that list more frequently. That's uh pretty pretty amazing accomplishments. But um some familiar faces. We're excited too because we got a few that came back that even though they are not with us currently or anymore as recent graduates, they're here to be celebrated as well.
005So I'm going to show the coaches so we can talk. You can set that down if you want. You're good. It's probably lighter than the golden ball, right? So, I'm gonna turn over the coaches and let them say a few words and then we're going to have some introductions by um our our student athletes here. Well, thank you guys for letting us come out again. Um nationals is a little bit different than the state tournament. Uh we start at 8:00 in the morning. We bowl multiple rounds and have multiple cuts out throughout the day. And this team, they don't do standings until you get done with the first round. So, we weren't sure where we were. After the first round, we went back to the hotel and we finally got our standings and we were
006in first place by, I don't know, 110 or 1:30, something like that. And then we came back and cut after cut after cut after cut. These girls never lost the lead the entire day. Wow. And then at midnight, and I'm not exaggerating, we rolled in the championship. Um, The championships consists of the final two teams and they go back to zero. Well, this these girls at midnight took the lead after the first game and never gave it back. And I believe I was telling them in the fifth frame of the third game that they had won the national championship. So, they took care of business. They were tired. They were exhausted. But hats off to them because it's a very long day for that tournament and it's all Baker except for two two traditional games
007at the beginning of the tournament and then the rest of it they all vote one game and that's it's just the way they do the tournament which in my opinion works in our favor. Hence this is our sixth national championship in the last eight years. [Applause] Congrats to them. I'll let them introduce themselves and we can start down there. Ashley, I'm Ashley and I'm a senior. I'm Alexis and I am also a senior. I'm Sarah and I'm a sophomore. I'm Chloe and I'm graduating. I'm Chloe and I also graduated. I'm Kaylee and I'm a junior. I'm Haley and I'm a sophomore. And then Allison Roberts is not here because she had to work and she will also be a senior. So, okay, our starters come back for the most part and we'll see what happens.
008Hopefully, we get a lot of freshmen to take these two spots, but see what happens to our to our graduates. So, what's your next step? Um, I'm going to Quincy University and I actually move in on Wednesday. So, graduation studying what' you say? What are you studying? Early childhood education. I always say HR is right over there. You didn't notice we always know the name. Let us know that you're looking for a job and we'll be happy to She will be happy to That's right. Chloe, the other the other I'm at Rock Valley. Oh, yeah. We're excited for the two of you. obviously as graduates to to see what you accomplish in the coming years. Um to all of you as you had to think about what grade you're actually going into starting tomorrow or
009the next day. Um we're excited to have you back another year. We look forward to seeing you guys kill it this year as well with your bowling season to our coaches. Obviously, as we said in years past, like it's such a testament, like I know the girls have changed over the years and and new kids come and go, but uh to continually have a program that is successful uh like this is is obviously a testament to the program that you all run and you've got this pipeline going and you've established a great thing and and we look forward to seeing that continue. So, um on behalf of the board, our community, um our students, our staff, everybody, congratulations. You guys should be really proud of you. There's very few uh kids in this country that
010get call themselves national champions in a sport and then for some of you to be uh up here so frequently and have won so many times and it's it's pretty special. So congratulations to and I I I didn't mean to cut you off. I love all your teachers. I keep going down the line and going back and I like them really pretty and that you guys are amazing. Absolutely. Absolutely. [Applause] a photo with our board. I don't even really want to. Every year I'm like, "Here's my $1 certificate that so board members if you come up with around they're used to gold." Yeah, we almost have a full like pin set of just trophies. Make sure I see everybody's face. Oh yeah, he back. Yeah, that's all right. Sorry. I'll take one. I'll get away.
011Go. One, two, three. That's awesome. You girls are amazing. Congratulations. [Music] Isn't that weird? They have six out of eight. [Music] Oh my god. We need to work on that. We'll talk to Reed for him. Get him a set. So once they fit all it's almost like Josh was going to talk now. Josh must be ready. Jason, one missed one. All right. All right. Everybody knew Josh was coming up. I did have one more. I totally forgot that one of the is former Rson student. So, of course, of course you got that in there. That's all. That's right. All right. With that, we we have no comments from the committee at the moment. Yeah. I will turn it over to Josh for approval of the bill. All right. Thank you. Thank you for staying. You
012too. They knew you were coming up and they're like, "All right. The total payables this period were 3,829,2759." There were three payrolls this period for a total amount of 10,433,7612 for a total expense of 14,263,688.71. Split out by fund, the education fund paid 11,229,366.34. The operations and maintenance fund paid 651,7442. The transportation fund paid $519,42852. IMRF social security uh spent $370,46963. Capital Projects Fund paid $68,61358 and the Life Safety Fund paid $884,6622. Again, for total expenditures of 14,263,688.71. Are there any unanswered bill questions? Uh one sure um just the the differences from the three different salaries. I mean it's not much. Sure. Um rounding. No, but some of it's summer school, some of it's different payouts, and there's things that come and go. That makes it No, that's summer school. That's what that is. July.
013Oh, that one doesn't have a commas. Yeah, looks like it's so much small. I see a formatting the dollar. So, yeah. No worries. I That was my only. Is there any other questions? No. Does it No other questions? Can I get a motion to approve the bills? Motion. Second. Mrs. McKenna. I. Mrs. Carlson. Yes. Mrs. Johnson. I. Mrs. Meets. I Mr. Sterling. Hi. Mr. Thompson. Hi. Mr. Mcnite. Yes. With that, we'll go into communications and committee reports. Hello everybody. Thanks for staying. That's for you too. Uh well, school starts tomorrow. Long time coming. Good things happen. I'm going to set the get the set the kids and the teachers up for a good year. So, this is going to be good. Um, we do I want to mention that uh Home Depot donated some uh
014uh what were they? Sheds. Mhm. And uh we were able to go get them. So, that was pretty cool. And paint. I think they did paint for the mural as well. Yes, they did. So, I just want to mention that that local business out there, I mean, I think they total it was like $4,000. The sheds are for what the sheds are for. I think athletics are going to use them. There's one I saw yesterday next to the um main entrance to the football stadium. I didn't know that was something the kids were going to build or something. They already put together. They were hard to drive with cuz they kept trying to fly. Oh dear. Oh my god. They were hard to load and unload. Um, with that, uh, we got, uh, another regular
015board meeting September 8th of 2025. Um, I want to give a big shout out to, I mean, obviously you saw our our bowling students, the girls kicking butt. The the boys did well, but the girls national champions six times in you said, eight years. That's what I heard. Wow. like that's I I know there's getting to state is is is accomplishment but national champions that's they're definitely going down in our record books and they'll be on those flags and in our area. So that that's awesome. But what's also awesome is our programs are coming back alive. So, school was going to be going and kids are going to be learning and we're going to be able to bring kids doing academic things to to advance. So, can't wait for that time. And with that, I
016will turn it over to Clare Thompson. Yeah. Hey, thanks. Uh, welcome back everybody. You know, it's a new season. Bonnie Johnson bringing her and sharing her pins as always. And wow, I I was I was like, "All right, what's going on?" taking a list and there is there is a lot that has been going on as we get ready. I'll do a couple of them here. Um a thank you to all the teachers and all the PTOs that are out there um cleaning up all of our schools. They look absolutely amazing. Uh Lo's Park in particular, uh they have the mural. Uh Dustin Ehart, who did the middle school did that looks phenomenal. Uses the uh uh paint from Home Depot. More community support, which is great. Um, we have the Harlem Middle School. Their
017PTO did all new uh basketball hoops. Fantastic. Those look great as well. Um, and just everyone's looking great. Not that you have enough as a as a teacher alone, but making sure your school looks nice on top of all that. And all the classrooms if you're online, you get to see all the hard work that they're doing. Um, let's see here, man. And then we had what, a week ago, we couldn't keep Harlem off the news. So we had uh our middle school girls flag team was at Soldier Field uh performing at halftime. Playing playing. Yes. Sorry. Performing. Yes. That's I do the sports well. Um I know sports. Yes. Uh so that was fantastic. And then the the same day uh we had the Harlem High School choir that won with the community support.
018Not that they need it. They were amazing. Performed at the 4under concert. Um awesome. I don't know there's official videos, but there's a bunch of them floating out online if you weren't there to see it. It is fantastic. Uh maybe we can get them to come in and sing some foreigner. That would be that would be awesome. I like where you're going with that. Uh yeah. Yeah. Uh and I there's so much I'm going to skip through some if I can. Our culinary thousand scholarship for the Joey Fichi Foundation, which was great. Um happened over here during the summer. Um, we've got our buses. Thanks everyone. They helped get those. Our electric buses, that is. We got to check those out. It's going to be a fantastic addition to our uh schools. We've got the
019routes for those, which is great. Uh, we had stuff the bus uh which I'm sure someone's going to mention that was able to help out some of those. Man, there was just a lot of stuff on here. I'm going to say that again. And all our summer projects, did everyone make it, Josh? Did anything miss? We got our roofs, chillers, auditorium is in progress right now. We had a really busy summer back stop is going, but that's not there yet. Roof's like another week. Yeah. Yep. And base the back stops a week, week and a half. So those ones that didn't make it like baseball wasn't kids are still come to school. Nothing nothing breaking them making sure you know the chiller is a big one. Everyone was the cooler got done in time at
020the middle school. the middle school. It was just a busy summer, so just calling out, you know, the hard work to make sure that got done and scheduled so that our kids could have the best possible experience at their nicel looking schools. Um, I'm sure there's a couple other ones I'm not calling out so I don't steal everyone's thunder, but I did steal a lot there. But yeah, uh, looking forward to a great year. We've got a bunch of great stuff coming from here, I think, with the education committee, all the stuff that we have for the the the new course schedules. It's our second year, the sixth graders coming in, so it's going to be the improvements and seeing uh their successes. I'm just excited for the year. Not that anyone else isn't, but
021it's going to be a great year. We're going to be here to to watch it. Uh besides that, of course, we have got our business services committee, which is the committee of the whole. The next one, uh meeting right back here September 3rd. So, come out here, see Josh. It' be great. All right. [Laughter] And that completes my uh report. There you go. Bike. All right. Hello everybody. I want to hit on everything that Kurt and Mike State said. Um it's been really a I think we're going to really have a good year this year as far as you know all our different sports. Um, I did get a chance to go to the Harlem Palooa yesterday, but I was late because I had other things to do, but I did get a chance to
022see the last 15 minutes of it. It was a really good show, but I also got a chance to see the um the different dance teams at the different levels and the cheerleaders. I think we're going to have an awesome cheerleaders this year from the middle school and high school, JV, varsity, and the dance and did I say cheerleaders already? Cheerleaders, dance team. They were really good out there. It was just really nice coming out yesterday just to walk around and look at the grounds and see how smooth and clean it was. Um, just nice. And so I just want to wish everybody in our district a safe school year, a fun school year, making friends, meeting new people, a very very highly education. Um, I think our teachers will make sure that our students
023are getting the education they need and if they need help, they will send them to the proper places that they need to go to get that help. And I just want our students to know that don't be afraid to ask. If you have any questions, ask just, you know, you got to start trying to trust people. And I think Harlem is, we are definitely building up on trust. And that's why I love this district and I love everyone that's in it. And I think we're going to have a wonderful, amazing school year. So, I think that's all I have to report. So, our next equity and social justice meeting will be September 3rd. And once again, good luck everybody. Can't hide that Harlem Husky Pride. All right. So, I don't have much. Um, just just
024so everybody can see, this is Curt's list. I can't read my handwriting. You can't read the handwriting, but there was a lot of thunder there and I appreciate Curt's um attention to detail on that. Um but yes, our our girls bowling team um I I think they're in the process of building a special wing for all their trophies. Um if not, that's going to be uh that's going to be something down the road. Um and you know, I also went to Harlem Palooa and um I was there on time. No, I'm just kidding. Um, it was a great event and um, I will say this, if you weren't able to make it, sorry, if you weren't able to make it, the Harlem Music Boosters are still accepting donations on their website. So, if you weren't
025able to make it, um, one thing that hit me, um, you know, I was talking to Jeremy Toledo, who is one of our music teachers and puts on this Harlem Palooa, and we actually had a former student, her name was Luna Lane. Um this is when I happened to get there. Um she was actually playing guitar and singing and she had beautiful voice and and her dad she introduced her dad and he was playing I don't know what they call it like the beat box or drum box. It's basically the wooden box with the that they play like a drum. I don't know what it's called but um huh a kah. Is that what it's called? Well thank you. Um trivia points. Yes. Yes. Um and so I was talking to Jeremy. I'm like is
026she a former student? And she's and he's like, "Yeah, actually, funny story. She actually took I can't remember if he said as a freshman or a sophomore, she actually took the guitar class and learned how to play the guitar completely through Harlem and sounded absolutely wonderful." He's like, "And those are the success stories that we have at the Music Boosters." So, that's why I kind of want to give them a plug. It was a great event and they are still accepting donations and everything. So, um, to continue to do that and build our music program because it's come in in the, you know, two plus years I've been on the board, the the music program's, you know, grown substantially. Um, also I I I want to um I I first of all, I want to
027wish everybody a a great um school year. I right now I'm really thinking about our elementary teachers with the new curriculum. Um, I just want to say I I want to say hold on, it's going to be great. change is tough. Um and and and your students are resilient and and if there's any mistakes made, they will they will learn just as good. Um this is a curriculum that uh not only that how many people really pulled that curriculum. I mean, how many people like I mean there was a whole team of 50 plus. Yeah. Um, so this is a curriculum. We've looked at many things and this is one of the things that I'm most excited about this school year is to see um see where that takes our our elementary students. And it,
028you know, at the end of the day, we can hope for a good year, but you got to make it a good year. Um, you know, it it's up to you. It's up to all of us. It's the community, it's the staff, it's the the students. Um, you know, we can make it a good year. We're going to make it a good year. And and uh, you know, just hold on. There's so much great things are going to happen in this district this year and I'm excited to see where it ends. With that being said, that is my report. Thank you, sir. Remember, thank you. Welcome to our I guess our last meeting before school starts. Be exciting to see school start. Um it's been fun at home watching our bus drivers practicing their routes
029and checking out the new stops. And you know, now that our seniors are gone and our kindergarters are starting, they're buzzing around trying to figure out where they're going. So, it's kind of fun to watch them. Um, congrats to the girls bowling. I lucky to bowl a hundred in the game. So, it's it's amazing to see them go off to the state and have a have a blast doing that. Congratulations to our two seniors and may they have a fantastic uh future, bowling or not. That' be fantastic. Um, I wanted to say thanks to our teachers who have come in and done some training and gone crazy trying to figure out all of this new curriculum for our young people. So, that's kind of fun to see. Um, and I want to say thank you
030to our administration who sits here for 12 months and does great work working all the time and doesn't get, you know, three months off and gets to take their vacations, but they're always working and doing a great job. And last, but not not last, uh, scholarships. I appreciate all of our our scholarship uh people. We've got tons of them. I know our seniors go through tons, not only for the schools, but for colleges, for all the great things that they they offer for scholarships. And last but not least, the solar field is busy busy really busy up there. It's cool to see. Drive down that way almost every three or four days and it's wow trucks and fences and it's just it's so cool. I want to go in there and go, "Well, what are
031you going to do with all this stuff?" But they're going to make electricity. Well, yeah, they are. But it's of course without the rain, they're probably on a little bit of a lull for a couple days, but other than that, just hey, let's have a great year and and keep moving upward. So, that all yours policy. Oh, I'm sorry. Forget the policy. I'll the biggest part of the whole meeting. Yes. Well, it's a recommendation to approve the first reading of policy updates from August 13, 2025 policy committee. And we also will have a policy meeting. It's all the way at the bottom. There's so many is to be determined. Let's see. And I don't know if it's going to be any there. I'm the only one they're taken out of there for determination, but no,
032that's that's okay. So, it will be September 3rd if it comes around. So, good. Thank you so much. Mhm. Brianna Johnson. Uh, thank you. Well, once again, I'd like to congratulate the girls bowling team also. That's an awesome awesome thing. Actually, one of the coaches lives across the street from me, so that's exciting. But I'm very excited for the girls and 6 out of eight times. Is awesome. Huge. Um, I just like to remind people too that on Thursday, we do have our orange and black night coming up at the high school from 5:30 to 8. It's kind of like a big pep rally in a way. We can see all the teams and all the cheerleaders and the dance squads and things. So, it's going to be a really nice event. So, try to
033attend that. And then our first football game, go Huskies, is Friday night, I understand, against uh Woodstock. At Woodstock, is it? Yeah, at Woodstock. So, that's always a great event. So, be sure to watch that. Um, I did want to mention I went to the Harlemmites breakfast. You know, I'd like to kind of put a plug in for that. Uh, the Harlemmites have a breakfast once a month at the BFW at Windsor and Alpine, uh, at 8:00 in the morning. It's $10 a person, but it's all the Harlemmites. I mean, there's a lot of from older classes, but some younger classes, too. But we had almost 100 people uh in August. So, it's a great event to get together with some of the older alumni and hear their stories and things. But, it's kind of
034neat to see all the Harlem keep it keeping together and interacting with each other. Uh we had National Night Out uh the first Tuesday of August that I attended here at the high school at Harlem High School. Uh it's been a great event the last few years at the high school. mostly appreciate um everyone appreciates having it at the high school. It's a very nice place to have it with the fire departments and police departments and everything. Dog K9 units doing demonstrations and things. So, everyone had a great time there on Tuesday night. And then I was at the stuff the bus event the next day and there was a lot of turnout for that. That was a great event, too. And a lot of um things getting donated from the community there. So, that
035was another great event. So, that's about what I have for right now. So, I just want to remind everybody what we do have coming up and good luck to everyone attending school. I know it's going to be an exciting day for everyone starting back, teachers and staff and students. So, uh like I say, try to get out and enjoy the things we have on Thursday and Friday. Let's back our sports teams, too. Yeah. Thank you so much. Um I just want to say welcome back to all the students and the teachers and the Harlem staff. Um, this is supposed to be a really great time and a really exciting time. It was always my favorite time of the school year to start and get to know everybody. And um, it was exciting, but yet it
036was overwhelming and yet once you got into it, it's like it was fabulous. You're back in after a long summer, even though you did a lot of um, training and a lot of workshops and things like that. But it's always great to walk in that door and see those bright shiny faces looking at you. Um, and you have to start right away and let's let's go. It's really great. Um, I also want to congratulate the Harlem High School choir. Um, Foreigners was my favorite band in my when I was growing up. See them several times in concert. So, I was really excited that the high school choir got to um, appreciate that and perform with them. I also went to National Night Out. That was my first that has been since at Harlem High School.
037I used to go to the village over here and then when it was at Lo's Park. Um, so it was very interesting. U, my husband went with me. We were kind of excited about what was going on. I guess I really hadn't experienced it for such a long time. The dogs are fabulous to see the dogs perform and there's so much for the community. A lot of the kids were so excited about um doing all the activities with the the games and stuff and winning little prizes. So that was kind of cool. Um haven't had a hot dog in a long time. So that was kind of interesting. Um enjoyed that. Um yeah, and then once again, um congratulations to all the new teachers and all the new staff that um anybody has moved positions.
038And I hope you all have a great and wonderful and positive school year. And our next education committee meeting is September 3rd, 2025. Thank you so much. And with that, we're rolling into administr. Thank you. So, speaking of our education committee meeting, um, at the last one, we spent a large amount of our time going over each building's school improvement plan. Everyone except for the middle school in Lo's Park because the board had already approved theirs and we did theirs earlier. Um, so tonight, I'm asking for approval from the board for the school improvement plans that were presented Wednesday night at the education committee meeting. We're all aligned. That we're all aligned. Why did you bring that back? I was going to and I thought no, I'll let it go. But you can bring it
039back. You definitely should reference. I will appreciate that. Put that into my report. Thank you so much. Thank you. We need throwbacks to the meeting. Maybe more people will come and they'll go, "Oh, that's what they're talking about." Yeah. I'm just going to get a shirt that says Josh. All right. Thank you very much. The first item tonight is a recommendation to approve a resolution declaring surplus property uh for the Harlem Administration Center, Parker Center, and Machznney Elementary. Next, I have a recommendation to approve facility request with Harlem High School for the Hokco kickoff party next month. Uh homecoming. Oh, okay. Middle school cheer. uh as choreography in the small gym at the middle school. I did put a newer rental down for Renegades football club. This one one date got declined so it never
040made it through the process. So it popped back up today. So everything we took that date off and we're requesting to bring it tonight. So those are the facility requests that I have this evening. Any questions on those? Okay. Next is a recommendation to adopt a resolution to place a school facility sales tax referendum on the ballot. And I will there's a lot to this, so I'm going to kind of just read some of the notes that I have here and then you guys can have any questions that you want. So this evening, I'm recommending that the board of ed approve the resolution regarding the county school facility sales tax. And I did want to clarify a few points for the record since I did the presentation on Wednesday. that by adopting this resolution, it
041would act as a show of support for RPS's adoption of the resolution since they have more than 50% of the students in the county, which is required to move this to a question on the ballot next March. Also wanted to note that the CFST would not apply to cars, trucks, boats, RVs, mobile homes, unprepared food, and pharmacy drugs, and that the revenue generated from this tax wouldn't be used for operating expenses. So in December of 2024, the board received the facility assessment and tenure life safety survey which reflected project needs of over hund00 million. And over over the 18 years that I have been here, we worked hard to do as many projects as possible and keep the buildings and facilities in the best condition as possible. But the reality is the district doesn't receive
042funds for construction projects specifically. Those are typically funded by bonds which are paid by property taxes. And this funding system struggles to keep up with the needs of the buildings that puts 100% of the burden on our community and taxpayers. This facility sales tax offers the district and Winnebago County a unique opportunity for us to keep our over 1 million square feet of buildings and many other outdoor outdoor areas in good condition and keep our buildings running comfortably and safely. I believe it was Kurt that said said it best at the at Wednesday night when he said the facility sales tax creates a system of halves and have nots county by county. And I couldn't agree with that assessment more. I think that's exactly what is happening. We have three options moving forward in regards
043to our facilities. We can move forward with the plan this plan and have the ability to properly fund building updates and repairs. We can continue to do what we have been doing now in taking out bonds and increasing property taxes. or we can do nothing and let the buildings fall into disrepair. And if we select this option, we will continue to see what happened at the Rston Chiller happen throughout the district. It's critical that we continue to update boilers, chillers, and fire alarms specifically. Those need to be done in the next handful of years. Many of our boilers are at the 30-year old age. And while it's inconvenient for a chiller to go out and not having air conditioning, if a boiler goes out, we will not have the ability to have school in that
044building for most likely a year based on how long those replacement times are currently. I don't say this to try and scare anyone by into approving this. It's just the reality of what our buildings need. It was also mentioned that we have not built a building in 50 years. The buildings are aging and like I said, we've done the best we can trying to keep everything as up to date as we can. some of the questions that the I've had some questions about the district and how a tax abatement would work. Would it really abate taxes and what would happen down the road? So, I wanted to just talk about that for a little bit. If RPS 205 approves this resolution at their board meeting and the question goes to the taxpayers is and is
045approved, we would begin to receive those dollars roughly next October. So, it would start July 1st, dollars in October. Um once we have the funds to abate the debt service portion of the property taxes which is today the 2.7 million or just over 5%. I reached out to PMA and they said that whatever we would have in that account by March is what we could abate which is almost right on for that abatement amount. It would be really close whether we pass this resolution or not. The the district still needs the cost of living within um within the tax levy as we've seen for salaries and health insurance and all of those things. So either way, typically we would ask for the CPI, but in the second scenario, it the debt service amount would be
0462.7 million less than that. And so going forward, that would be the money we use for projects. So abating through the tax levy is a process that's done here at this board table. And so that happens in a public meeting in front of everyone. So if we say we're going to abate those tax dollars, that's what I would do and that's what this board would uphold. I we would abate those tax dollars. So that would happen out in the public. Can you can you rephrase that in very very simple terms? Yeah. Tax ab I know I want everybody I want you to say hey if you pay if this if this passes here property tax will go here. So we levy property taxes and all of our funds. One of them is debt service are
047paying back our bonds. That is the $2.7 million. So, if this passes and we all go out on the record that we're going to use that money to pay down that debt, when when the tax time comes, we would abate or not levy that amount on the property tax. The levy would go down if this passes and we Yes, that's I just want to make sure that that's clear. So, anyway, we go about it, we're paying it. It's where where we're paying. But and so, but to your point, what I'm trying to say, the CPI would still be there. So you may not see a 5%. It's 5% over what it would have been, but there's a couple moving things there. So I just wanted it to be clear. Sure. Yeah. 100%. Thank you. Mhm.
048With that though, if this is the the sticking point as well. If we don't we don'tate that those that that 2.75 we already have to do the these projects. Correct. That's so now these aren't bonus projects. We'll add that 2.75 onto the levy. Correct. We're already paying the bonds. So we won't have to pull 2.75 of bonds because we're not getting that revenue from zero house. Correct. So therefore I'm hitting that in my next summarized. So to to Mike's point, if the facil facility sales tax ends up not moving forward or not being approved by the taxpayers, then in looking at what that boiler, chiller, fire alarm, and I think we need to add the parking lot at the high school because within the next few years, it's looking like it needs to be replaced.
049That's approximately $20 million. And if we only have a way to do that through the tax levy, I had PMA up to date. What would that look like just hypothetically? and they said that that would add $2 million to the property taxes. So you'd have the 2.7 plus the two. So the debt service would then be 4.7 million versus zero and the sales tax. So as been stated, according to the sales tax report that the ROE received, we can move forward with the plan that our taxpayers have the opportunity to have its facilities mainly paid for by consumers of other counties. For example, Boone County is currently doing this or use the bonds and 100% of our taxpayers. So, what I or we are asking is that the board approve the resolution to allow the
050taxpayers to have a say in how their tax dollars are spent. I think one of the things that hope it's okay for me to say this, but as I was playing around with it because I heard the 5% decrease on my taxes, so I'm like my ears perked up to that. you know, as a taxpayer, like for me, let's say it's roughly $300 a year that I'm going to save a 5% decrease in my heart. Like that's the equivalent though of me spending 30,000 in these types of goods that so not groceries, not RVs or, you know, automobiles, those types of things. Like that's a lot. That's just a break even. So if I'm going to reduce by 300, it's $30,000 in me spending in a in the course of a year to offset that.
051And so to me that's a big deal because not to disclose too much personal information but I don't think I'm spending $30,000 on those types of goods throughout the year. Like most of my expenses are groceries and you know some of the other bills and stuff like that. So that to me kind of resonated with just really that offset piece um as I look at my own my own property taxes. It is an important point too because everyone comes into this at a little bit different angle. You could be a renter and you may not see property. you could pay high or low, you know what I mean? And how much people shop. So, everyone's impact will vary a little bit throughout the And and if again, and if you guys vote to put this
052on the ballot, which I want to emphasize, we're just trying to put it in the hands of our taxpayers so that they can make a decision, right? But be between now and then though, we will be having sessions to, you know, talk about some more and and and give all the information that we can get because Josh did a wonderful job of just researching all of this, but also making sure though that moving forward too that we can continue to educate because even between the questions that were asked on the COOTW meeting to now, Josh got a lot of those questions answered. So, we'll continue to do that if again you vote halls or Yeah, definitely some local town halls that Yeah, I've said it before, students are investments, right? So, you got to keep
053them warm, safe, and dry. Mhm. These aren't we're going to do that and we either have the choice of going to our taxpayers like we always do or self included or doing this and at least getting the potential assistance from all the reasons people want to come to Harlem. So if we can do that and we have to pay for these things regardless otherwise our kids suffer our investment suffers we don't see that great turnout I would like to have the dis assistance besides just putting it all on the taxpayers that are just here locally and this is an option to do it also I mean you look at Wnebago County we're part of it we're not the biggest part of it so realistically we're showing our support but it's going to come down to
054to RPS So I can say it it looks promising. You talk to other districts that have done it has really helped them cover this. And again, what are you going to do? This is stuff that needs to be done. 50 year 50 our youngest building is 50 years old. I think the I think the best part of I think the if this were to pass I think the best part of it is we have people from other communities paying for improvements to our schools. Yeah, that's what I was just going to say. You know, um I worked on the three 1% sales tax referendums that we had done. Two for Maches Park, one for Le Park, and at least 50 over 50% of the people that shop the 173 corridor in Riverside Boulevard don't live
055in the Harlem school district. They don't live in Machesnney Park and L Park. They'll be helping us pay for this. And they're not even, you know, they're not even res, you know, not even on with our schools, but they'll be helping pay for it. And uh I think it's great that we're going to put on the ballot and let the people people decide. Yeah. But um it's it's really a great thing because we're very fortunate. Uh I did talk to the village and ask them and year to date the sales tax in Maches Park is up 15% this year year to date and less park is up 10%. The revenue from the sales tax, right? Okay. So they're doing very well. both communities are and if they continue to do that that'll be you know
056the sky's is the limit as to what we can truly get in so yeah but we have to be careful as well just as both have their I mean I don't let my wife I have a business in in in L's park that is not is 173 adjacent and I am part of the 173 tiff district amazingly I don't know how that it came over and just captured little park, right? But I'm So I'm already at 9.75. This puts me at almost 11%. But this is this is just me. Yeah. Many businesses are going to be like me that are going to be going up if this this happens, right? But it will be in Rockford, too. I mean, Rockford has to pass this. So instead of just being Rockford is at 7.25 for most
057of their And they had a road tax too. Yeah. I know, but the for most of their areas and they go up there at 8 eight and a quarter, whatever. That means people coming into Lo's Park that that's that's a difference of 3% just to come into some of our businesses. I hope that doesn't affect people negatively. Yeah, I don't think so. But yeah, I got I got you. So, okay. Thought Rockford was 8.7 8.7 and there's certain areas of Rockford that are tiff that are there like tiff districts like me right especially use per I know this can help understand that this is helpful but I obviously have to be one that that goes the opposite direction because I know for years and years and years and years and years and years ever since
058we moved back to Rockford land it has been well we're going to do this with a percent we're going to do that with a percent we're going to put up the jail and then we're going to put the county building and then we're going to do the the for the roads and then we're going to do the for the stores and then we're going to do and they've done it in Rockton and they've done it in you know I think Rosco is the only one in the local area that has not done the 1%. Now we don't have a lot of businesses but there are plenty of them that it's part of the referendum for so there's that 1% and they've had that as that's what I say and then they've done that up in
059Rockton as well. Well, Rosco, the village of Rosco. Sorry, not the Rock Rosco town. County, but um what's in it? They're going to be part of this as well. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But the the point I have is that I know personally people are just sick and tired of having another percent, another percent, another percent, and it gets to the point where it's a a dime on every dollar. It's just going to be like, oh my gosh, I'm going to start shopping in Bo and spend 5% at the Walmart up there and the Menard's up there and and it's just it's getting tiresome. It's just the way it comes to me is like he's saying 9.75 on every purchase and that's you're okay then with our property tax. I understand. I understand it's going
060to it's going to go back and forth with our property, but it just and call out Josh specifically said where the money has to go. So, just to make sure that's crystal clear, it's not a slush fund where this is going because I'm right there with you. We've all gone through the it's going to be great. Our kids are going to get it and you leave it vague at that, but this is very specific to where those funds go. I understand that. I just know that it's just it's just gotten I think it's great that we let the voters decide. That's at the end of the day, that's all we're on. That's all we're asking for tonight is to get it out there on the ballot and let them decide. It's going to well it's
061going to get out there whether we agreed to it or not. Understand? Um it's it's going to be on the ballot whether we agree ours. It's all up to Rockford. I think that's part of my issue is that we don't need to be we don't need to be following in Rockford's footsteps. Well, no, they have to. Yes. I guess the whole just feel like you're a tail on the either way that I mean it's not an easy choice. I would give that like but you just still like I it comes down to we're not going out so that as much as I'd love to put you know a a bowling alley in a high school right like that'd be cool this isn't anything like this course this is the most boring necessities that we have
062to do that be in that new wing to hold the new wing well and I think it might even be something that we could do that we make a priority list and we can show that we have the binder have you seen the binder that's Right. And so, but I mean we print that to show people exactly when money this is what's going to happen and what's going to happen in so they know where it's online. It's available. I mean during election season it was a big topic of right of like this stuff is coming. What plans do we have to pay for this? Where does things get prioritized? And this is up to the voters but like at least it's an option. There's people that are looking into that. And I don't again one
063way or the other. I don't I think we need to push this and allow the voters affected. Right. Rocker's going to do it one way or the other. That's true. But we can at least give our support, at least let people know where that money would go and how that money is going to be used. And it's not the kids are going to get it. How, right? Like this is a very specific case for that. I just think it's up to the voters at the end of the day. I think it's something we put in front of them and they can educate themselves on it. Just kind of like the mental health or the the 50, you know, the small tax for mental health. Voters were educated about it. They decided that was a good
064idea. I think at the point in time we put this in the voters's hands. Yeah. Y and and let the voters decide and there's going to be groups that are going to be for it and against it and they're both going to speak their sides and at that point in time we get to make a choice. We're not saying, "Hey, this is going through." We're saying, "Hey, you guys make you guys decide. Us we decide." Yeah. As voters. Great information. Yeah. Thank you. Well put together, Josh. Thank you. Thank you. I hate you. Next is a recommendation to approve a one-year agreement with HMH Amira for the purchase of student licenses for grades one and two at a cost of $12,600 paid with title grant funds. I'll just roll that right into the next one
065if you guys have questions. So 11B5 is a recommendation to approve a one-year agreement with HMH Waggle for the purchase of student licenses for grades 3 through 5 at a cost of $21,150 paid with title grant funds. Such fun names. Any questions on those? DJ's getting excited for the mirror. Yeah. All right. All right. Now, I'm going to present the FY26 tenative budget for those. Yeah. Let's see if I can get it to pop up the first time. Of course you can. Look at that technology. See, I think I got the right kind of there. It's movie time. I need a cookie. Popcorn. We got cookies. Yeah. Cookies. All right. Okay. So, the agenda for this presentation is I'll go through the budget timeline, talk a little bit about where FY25 ended up, hit some
066highlights in ED O andM transportation, and then just show healthcare cost, bond payment schedule, and then FY26 projected fund balances. And then I'll go through that spreadsheet, kind of get the highlights, take any questions you may ask any questions at any point. Um, so tonight I'm asking the board to adopt the FY26 budget. It'll go on display tomorrow and stay on display through September 22nd of which at that time we will have a public hearing at 5:40 as long as the board approves that. Um, just going over the changes from the tenative to the final budget. And at that meeting, regular board meeting that evening, I would ask the board to adopt the FY26 budget. So, where did we end up? These aren't audited, but most of the entries are done. The ED fund did
067end up at a deficit of 4.4 million, which is quite a bit more, and we were trending most the way. Um, that is a and I'll go through more in detail, but in general, there were some revenues that came in under, salaries came in a little bit over, and health insurance came in quite a bit over. makes up a good majority of that. Um, education and transportation were the only two funds that came in essentially worse than budget and transportation almost all of that was the ISV funding that we had talked about. And so that will that will fix itself for this current year. So torque came in a little bit better, and M came a little bit better, but that was because the vehicle timing they were in, but we didn't get them in
068time. So um, IMRF was better. Everything else was okay from that standpoint. So this is just a property tax summary of of what we levy, what CPI is, what the tax rate is. So you notice in 2019 and 2020, in 19 it goes down 3.7 million. That was property tax relief grant. The next year, um, we brought the bonds from like 6 million down to 2 million. So in two years in a row, we tried to cut that the best we could. In 23, we did. 23 and this year we're abating the property tax relief grant money again in there. So doing what we can to try and save taxpayer dollars whenever we can. You notice the rate went from 81 to 5.65. So CPPRT, we've talked a lot about that in the last year
069and a half or two years. And so that came in at 3.7 million, which is a decrease of 1,968,000 or 34% this year. I mentioned last meeting we had some positive news. CPPRT is projected to go up 2.4% or 89,000. Now, I took the Department of Labor's estimate and I put that in the budget. Some districts cut another 10% off, but I feel like just putting in what they have at least we're backed by an actual projection on that, but it could be more, it could be less. Like you literally see that all the time. CVPRT is part of our evidence-based funding calculation. So when they look at our percentage funded, they look at property taxes and CPPRT. So when that goes down, that lowers our funded percentage, which helps us uh and this is
070the understatement of the night. CPPRT is not a consistent revenue kept it obvious over there as exampled by this. So even in 2017, it went up a million and then back down 900,000. And so this has been a tricky one to um project out in any kind of future years. Although I think it is a positive note because originally I had a $300 or $400,000 decrease this year that they're showing maybe this is the bottom where it does go up a couple percent a year after that hopefully. But they don't really give good reasoning why it does what it does. So this is evidence-based funding. So, if you look here, this is a little bit of part of our revenue struggle, too. Um, it does note that in 21 and 25, you can't really see
07121 went up because of property tax relief grant, and that's what that 25 bump is. So, if you look at 22 to 23, it goes up $200,000, which is not a lot out of 32 million bucks. The next year, it goes up to about $400,000. So, you know, we're talking about a $92 million budget. We're getting two, three, 400,000. Um that's not a very good main source of bump keeping up with I mean in those years you're looking at inflation of what was it 13 and a half to 13 and a half% those couple of years. So this year we got 645,000 more which was I only had 600 in there. So that is 45,000 more than we had but still not a ton. This is our revenue breakdown. This is now that the esser
072funds are gone. And that's one thing too to kind of note that last year was the first year that we didn't get any funds. So when that happened, I think the Esser was was hiding a little bit of how that inflation was real. And we talked about inflation, but some of those things like those softwares we tal about when all that was gone, it stood out a little bit more to me. Um, so federal funds right about 10%. That's historically where we are unless there's some kind of big stimulus dollars coming in. And then ED fund expenditures. So 86. Can you go back? Yeah, sure. Just want to show that 41% from the state is at the behest of our governor's uh budget. Is that what that's at that's what we get from the when
073the governor does his budget and he says education is now going to get 465 million. You guys split it up in in your pies. Yep. Just letting everybody know that's where that 41% comes from. So when that went from here down to here and now you guys got to figure it out. That's where a lot of this funding problem comes to be. 41% of it from the state. So from a salaries and benefits standpoint, 86.6% of our ad fund budget is salaries and benefits. The rest is building department and grant budgets in there. And we do have outplace tuition which is over $3.3 million too as an other. That's that three and a half%. So 21 through 24 we had more revenues than expenditures. So unfortunately that flipped in 25. Um you know some years
074when I look at 24 I had budgeted originally a $500,000 access. It came in at 3 million. The year before we were right on. This year it felt like everything that made a difference went to the negative for some reason. And it's just it's unfortunate that that was what happened this year. But everything kind of hit that way. So we went from a negative million dollar fund balance many years before up to the 23 and we're projected to be at about 15.7 at the end of this year. Operations and maintenance is pretty much all local funds. That 8.7 is a transfer to just cover the remaining projects that we just talked about that we're finishing up for this year. And then this is a breakdown. Obviously, sale earning benefits are a big one there, but
075they also have the gas, electric, water. They have a lot of those utilities in here, too. And they've kind of been bouncing a little bit, excess deficit kind of thing, but their fund balance in general has stayed pretty steady. Um, this one is because those vehicles didn't come in like they were in but they couldn't get them to us in time. So, that looped into the next year. We've also been using that group from I think they're from Belvadier to help fill the positions. We're we're starting to fill those custodial positions, but we also um through that last bargaining had to bump that to get people. So, um that will level out a little bit more next year. excuse me, transportation. Uh, so the local is the property taxes, the state is that state reimbursement.
076Um, and as you notice, Don has a big slice of sale of equipment. He got $810,000 in bus sales this year, which is like a half million more than he's ever gotten before. But no good deed goes unpunished because the state will take 70% of that back calculation. But 800,000 in bus sales is a positive. Um, and so this is their revenues or their expenditure breakdown. And the 29.3% is buses. That looks like a really big chunk because I had to show the cost of the electric buses and the revenue. Even though it nets out to pretty much zero, I still had to reflect that in each side of it. Um, and so kind of the same thing as on and this one will look even more up and down. So this was that drop
077in. So we had more buses and the drop in revenue that bounces back this year. So in this number is less vehicles, more reimbursement, higher state uh reimbursement on that. I anticipate once we get to next year that that will smooth itself out and hopefully be balancer have slight access excess in there. But they're looking at a fund balance of 3.7 million which is almost half of their expenses. So that fund bounces okay for them. So this is the projection. So right now the ad fund is projected at 2.9 which is about a million and a half better than where we ended last year. Uh TOR at 24,000. TOR will I think balance itself within the next year is my guess. Uh and M will be closer to zero next year. Debt service is kind
078of floating along. The interest right now is really giving that fund. Otherwise, typically it's a zero or 10,000, but the strong interest is is helping that service. So, transportation, and I'll talk about this. I have a $350,000 proposed transfer to the ad fund one time for this year to help cover the um the work the additional workbook cost. So, if transportation has it and it can help offset that one time, I thought that that would be good for that fund. uh IMRF social security that is a plan spend down because over the three years before that it had like a $900,000 excess because and this is good IMRF keeps lowering the rate that happens mid year. So this deficit has been we've been talking about this for a few years and this is the year
079it finally kicked in there because they have enough fund balance for a while to kind of roll it above that range. Uh capital projects is just paying down the projects that we have. That's fine. this 52,000 I should have budgeted that as the next flooring portion. So in the final budget I'll just take that 52 and call that the first half of flooring if we want to keep doing that. Um working cash we don't really have any transfer out and then life safety um that is projected to finish the roofs the dust collection system and then I have 75,000 as other as we start to pull in what those next projects will be for life safety. So, healthcare trends aren't going to look that high here. I mean, not in this year, but I'll explain
080why that is. But really focus on 21. If you look through 16 through 21, it stays in a fairly reasonable range here, right? And then it goes up almost 3 million and then another 1.6. And so 24 looked like a lesser expense because of all the stop-loss money we get. And I think at about every Treasury report, I kept saying it looks good, but it's it's lying to you. And it sure was. So what happened here is there was less stop-loss and then I'll hand out the last three months summary of health insurance but July was really high and then August was the highest we've ever seen. So that's what and so this is a cash basis of like June through July but we report things on an acrruel basis. So the July and August
081ended up coming back and still impact and the one thing that's unusual like in the August bill let's say it's a million and a half there's normally two or three 400,000 that relates to June. This time it was 1.3 million of August's bill that related to June expenses. So I had to take all of July and the 1.3 million in August to send it back to June. So that's really what kind of got us there right at the end because it was trending okay for a good portion of that year. What' I do? I clicked something. Okay. So you know every year I kind of talk about uncertainties and the trend in CPPRT funding going forward. Hopefully that's level and not on this list. But obviously health care, what happens with inflation? At some point
082interest rates are going to go down. I have it about a 20% 18 to 20% drop this year and then just rough project another 20% next year. We talked about Medicaid and the federal cuts that will trickle to the state and eventually to us. I don't know how much that is, but I didn't cut Medicaid this year, but I have I'm projecting some for next year to go down. So, I'm going to go through the nitty-gritty of the spreadsheet, too. But any questions right off the top before I do that. Incredibly helpful to put things into at least read as easy as this is to digest to digest. Hopefully, I can keep giving you more information here. How much Josh are we getting from the solar field for income? You know, that's a great question.
083So, we got the upfront 50,000 chance to take the GR conference. I have 35,000 in the budget. Make sure you get a great reach out what that will be. So, I don't think it's more than 35, but don't The other thing about the solar field is we'll get the 10% off once that electricity starts rolling in, too. So, I have to figure out exactly, but the amount in there should be pretty close. Property taxes all get assessed. Everybody got another assessment so that they've all jumped up. Does that make it major? So the percentage of So this is you mind if I answer this question? Go ahead. So when the value of your property taxes go up, what that does is lower the rate. It's an inverse relationship. So if your property like they've been
084going up 10%. That doesn't mean your property taxes go up 10%. That means your rate goes down 10%. Really what it should be is the cost of living that we levy. that what's give or take I mean everyone's valuation is a little bit different but in general that's how it should have an inverse re relation so hope that that helped make sense so if you guys open up this attachment what's the name of that one tentative budget right yes would you mind picking the right one so I'm passing out the summary of the last three months for the health insurance just so you guys kind of see how much more it was. So, I'll hit some of the highlights between last year and this year. Um, we already talked about CBPRT. So, I'm on the
085ED fund local revenues. You guys there? Ed fund local sources. All right. Golden Mobile Homes. So, on that line 1230 CPRT, that's where you can see what we budgeted there. Um, a handful of rows down is the interest or the 18% decrease there. If you look to the second to the bottom, the miscellaneous at 636, that has some of that U of I coal workers revenue as a miscellaneous local revenue that we were doing um with Nick Sty's program. So, if you flip to the next page of state sources, that top one, the evidence-based funding, that is where the 644,000 extra comes in. The line down from there, the private facility tuition, that went from 970 down to 8.25. So that we had that roughly at 1.1 million because we're paying more tuition and it
086dropped. So I dropped it again this year because the state so that one was almost 300,000 off on the revenue projection there. That was one of the bigger offages. So um really than that the bottom teacher vacancy grant we just didn't spend all of that. So that lowered the revenue and the expenses. So that's fine. Just kind of highlighting that. If you flip to the next page on federal sources and you take a look at 4620 idea part B flowth through you'll notice that came in quite a bit over budget on the revenue. So sometimes midyear there's a rollover amount either a carryover or additional funds. So so if that happens after the budget that'll be more revenue but it'll also be more expenses. So, when we look at some of the expenses, you'll see
087those came in over budget and some of that is the the additional grant funds that came in. We ended up last year at 62,000 over the Medicaid budget, which is great because we were a little nervous there for a minute and we ended up coming in. So, I pretty much just kept it level with where we were last year. So, about 62,000 down. Hopefully, we can hit that again. The next section down the transfers, that is the 350,000. That is the money coming from transportation to help offset the workbook large purchase for this year. So revenue-wise, the revenues up for about $1.8 million. So if you flip to the next one, it begins the salaries and benefits. So on the one 120, the temp salaries, I had indicated midway through the year that, you know,
088you can see in the budget, I had projected that to come down a little bit and it didn't come down at all. So, we got rid of half of the long-term subs and it didn't bring that cost down. Now, the regular salaries came in about 200,000 higher, which is about 38%. So, that combined made the salaries about 480,000 more. So, right now I have the salaries projected about a $100,000 increase, 64,000. And that is due to the all the positions that we did not fill. So, because of when we settled the contract, we don't have all of our salary spreadsheets up to date like we would at this point since we've since we finished that three days before we posted the budget. So, based on the info we have of the positions we didn't fill,
089this is my best estimate right now. We'll get those spreadsheets done and I'll make any tweaks at the final one because there were a lot of positions and and there are a lot of people that worked really hard to try and not fill those positions the best we could, including Shel's office and principles and Dr. Y bro. Um just kind of the first step in the process of you know this deficit. So under the benefits section you'll notice the 222 medical insurance went from 133 to 16.4. It's 3.1 million more on the health insurance there. So if you look at this year's projection, it shows just about $500,000 more. And what I did is I took last year's expense, I added 7%. And then I started backing off things like uh the changes that we
090bargained, the additional premiums, our stop-loss costs went down 200. So I upped it 7% and then brought back the other things we know of. Now the caveat being if the bills are anywhere near 2.5 million a month, then this isn't going to be correct. But hopefully this is hopefully we see this level off in September. So, does this have anything to do with the clinic costs or is this just a insurance? So, the clinic cost is in here. Um, and so there is some zero car and zero car. Yes, there is some net cost to that. We we paid for seven months of the clinic last year. So, we have to pay for five more before it's in a full cycle. So, I did add I added 7% added that and then I backed off
091all the negatives to still come up with this number. So, it is in there. So that's kind of the highlight on the salaries and benefits. So for the purchase services that came in a decent amount over we had approved that interventionist. I don't know if you guys remember that in September. I did not get that one in there. That was a one time. So that's gone for this year. Um there were some sixth grade projects and then there was the idea rollover funds too which was the additional grant. This is where it come out on the expense side. So, uh, if you flip to the next page under supplies for this year, you'll see the textbooks, workbooks at 610,000. That is the 350 in print offset with that transfer in there. And then after that,
092I think it's 122. So, it's a much more reasonable number after this year. We get that initial and that was our shipping cost, the teacher cost, and the first year student cost on that. So, if you go down to other expenditures, uh, under tuition, that one came in 222,000 over budget. Those are outplace kids in the tuition that we pay for that. So, that's always just something we kind of keep an eye on, too. Um, if you flip to the next page and look at the transfers. So, last year's transfer was 2.25 million. Uh, some of that was CTE, other projects. It went down to 850,025 down to 565 the current year and I currently have that as a projection of zero transfer next year. So that will also help the ad fund next year
093too. So that is the summary of the ad fund and all the revenues and expenses. All right, let's go to tort now. The other ones will be quicker but that one had quite a bit. you guys is are we getting a little more serious at all about overtime salaries or we just kind of going hey you have to leave you have to get out of here and then just you know with people like emergency things. Yeah sure. So we've put in place pretty tight like approval process for overtime. So there are times of the year for example getting all the salaries entered so we can pay people and so we try and keep that down as much as possible. Sometimes there's overtime for parents helping kids. So yeah, I mean there's there's not a free-for-all
094on overtime. Um, and sometimes overtime is hard because it could be like temporary salaries or there could be a training and there could be a lot of things that go into that. Like solid voluntary overtime is really it's really just in those highlight times where someone really has a giant report due. Is that fair? Do you guys you guys see that too? Roll over time with Skyward when everybody has to be out and you have to do it on different hours. HR entering contracts with negotiations stuff like that. This but last year we didn't really have any. So in a collective bargaining year though when it comes down to an August date don't know what it will be. So in order to get people paid on time, my folks got to work 60 hours to
095get it done. I was thinking mostly like the hourly employees, you know, your contracted employees, but I know your hourly, you know, you gota you got to stay after to get the tables cleaned or something and it's like no no no that and and so we will see like if a kid is brought back to a school, you might have a half an hour of a secretary staying with the kid or you know little things like that. But in general and that process has been updated to be online so the workflow goes through front line that way. So it's nice it just hits instead of paper and and things being scanned over. So kind of sorry, similar to that with the with the subs, right? We targeted having x amount of permanent subs. We tried
096cutting back and then just you still need subs, right? So then we just hired as many subs as we could get. Yeah. We're looking better this year of like getting the per because permanent subs if you can budget them properly are always going to be better than a one-off sub because there's a relationship that's there with the school. Sure. Maybe that has been set and targeted to where we can have maximize our permanent subs knowing kind of where we are for the need for the one-off subs. Most all of our buildings just have one permanent sub. Um, but we have we have a really big increase in the pool for our regular district substitutes. We had a big increase in them last year and they're doing a great job. The thing about those folks is
097we encourage the ones that come a lot to take longer term jobs. Um and it's a cost savings to us to have just just district substitutes are kind of all a cart. Sure. Rather than hiring permanent building subs financial benefit like I'm looking at kind of the the benefit to the school but there's a financial benefit generally doing kind of the oneoff or limited time subs compared to a little bit because we have been increasing those rates. enough of those they equal one of these is how my brain process because we spent so many years where we didn't have any we've had to keep up with everyone else and keep those rates. So it's kind of a double-edged sword. Yeah. And I would say about half of them take benefits as benefits permits. And Kurt,
098I don't know if this is the question you were asking, but if they're not needed in a building, they are shared among other buildings. Oh, I get that completely. My my thought is is if you see yourself spending x million on oneoff subs and for that same cost I can get a permanent sub to this to the building to the district whatever sure there's intrinsic value of of them being in the district and being used to it and being daytoday versus finding some I know there's a cost to that but making sure that that calculation is factored in that's the exact thing though when when I looked at that it looked like a couple hundred,000 drop but it didn't reflect through that way that's why I budgeted did a lower amount cuz I'm like we
099just reduced 13 positions. Yeah. and they are more expensive than a one-off sub, but it didn't it stayed flat for whatever reason more days or you know there's all kinds of things we can dig into that but about halfway through the year I went oh yeah no it's not it's not coming down but we are keeping our eyes on situations just scenar so there's no chance that kind of like our music teachers that are elementaryaries could have one sub for two buildings or you know float around between buildings and, you know, have maybe six subs per district instead of 11 subs. You know, if that's something that could be cut in half or we really need them so badly that we need one per building. I think we really need them so badly. I mean,
100think about it. How many teachers are in average building? Yeah. You know, the odds of a sickness to your point of teach is what I thought was going to happen and it didn't have any dollar impact. So, it's just a balancing act. Like I said, like if you're using enough the single ones, it's a finite thing. Get more that can travel around that knower district. And if you're not, then take the cost savings. And it is something like like Terrell said, we should keep an eye on and we'll keep looking at. But all right, to Erin's favorite tort. Oh, I was thinking we were going to skip right over to Oh, yeah. Well, the tort revenues are pretty just property tax driven. And like I said, this this is just funding our workers comp, our
101property casualty building insurance, and all of that. So, uh, we are rolling on next year a better workers comp year than rolling off. So, I anticipate it will hopefully level out. But insurance is a racket. Uh, so we're in a co-op with 165 other districts. So, um, eventually when they close years, if there's any excess, we will see funds back. Um, and they do use that 165 district as a pooling power to give us really good insurance limits and try and reduce the cost of of what it cost us because if we went out to the market, it'd be uninsurable or double this rate. I guess it would be really high. Like I said, I anticipate that this fund will be near or balanced next year. You go to operations and maintenance. All right. So,
102um I do have the interest going down the 20% there. And then to Rebecca's question on the solar field lease revenue, we got the 50,000. They issued it July 1st, but it had to be booked back to last year. So, we talked about projects we were going to do and there aren't a lot of like new projects in this budget. The one that Dr. Arab and I talked about is um updating the LED sign at the high school for about half of what that check was. Um, so because we've been slowly doing things to update that sign's 20 plus 25 years old. It's really old. She's a sweet one. And if we did that, then half of that check would go to that. The other half would just roll into the operations budget. I think
103the um if you look, we had some so the $50,000 state grant is property tax relief grant last year and then we had some federal grants where we did the alarm system or vape detectors. Those grants are pretty much all gone. So, no state or federal this year. You do see the 565,000 transferring in from the ad fund to finish covering those projects. The salaries portion does go up 340,000 here and that's for a couple reasons. I'm estimating that we will fill a couple of those positions that we were outsourcing. So I did lower the outsource cost and with the base increase to the custoio group um it was a fairly big increase uh to the salary line this year. So in the purchase services we do see that go going down a few hundred,000.
104Um any other So to kind of hit that the on&m projects that I have in here is middle school painting another hallway. We have two hallways left and that's done. Uh the LED sign which is offset by the checked. Uh we did not put any student desk or chairs in here. Last year we just started to two years ago we bought three or 400 for the middle school. Last year we bought 40,000 to begin replacing the high school's portion and I kind of just I would love to keep doing that but I did not put any in here with in light of where everything's at. Uh, so for capital projects, um, doing more flooring at the high school because that's going to be I think we got to get the carpet out. It did look
105nice. I did see some of them on, uh, it's like a hard wood. Yeah, it looks nice. I had someone say there was a mark on it. I got to do some research to I think I did notice that, too. It's the hallway as soon as you come in the the main entrance, the hallway to the left. There definitely is a scab on there. That stuff's supposed to be really durable. So, the next few months we'll know if we should just go back to the regular tile. Who did that? Hagy recommended that as as flooring. We normally put the 12 x 12 tile in. Yeah, correct. That looks like a hard wood like laminate. Yeah. Yeah. But we got the most durable one. It should be okay, but we'll know here. I think it's an
106installer error. We should get that number. I think somebody dropped something on it. Well, what the room that I saw, we had like the felt feet on the chairs but not the tables and the table was leaving a mark. So, I asked Chandler to go over see if that'll clean up. Get something tennis balls on everything. Well, it's kind of where we're It looks great, but I want to make sure it holds up a long time because that doesn't really do us any good if it's not durable. So, we'll know in the next couple months how that's trending. One of my daughter's classes and then I'm looked at the floor like, "How do they look?" Yeah. Oh, trust me. I was combing them in there. The only other project that I'm recommending is to redo
107the concrete in front of the high school. It is a trip hazard and broken there. I That's roughly 25,000. Uh they're in those square panels, but they're chipping away and that some are uneven. Um so I think that's just a safety issue. Next time you're there, take a look at it. It's We're talking all the sidewalk in the front door. So there's like a half round circle that's there just taking the and they have like a concrete barrier. We put new ones of those in and then after that maybe in the future that asphalt that's there that everyone walks in front of right in front of the high school is starting to give out there too. So but the concrete like we've seen multiple people have a fall there. We need to update that. So
108that's really it for new projects. Um, so I'll just run through the rest of these quick. The debt service fund, like we talked about, is 53,000 to the good. Has an ending fund balance of 49,000. Am I good? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, what what he's handing out is just those last three months compared to last year's three months and that we spent the extra 1.7 million over those three months alone. So, so for transportation, like I mentioned, their whole difference in their budget was just the less state funds in the local sources under line 1990. I have the 350,000 for the KMED electric bus funds. They gave us an extra 50,000 more than we had thought we would get. Um, for the state sources, we have 4 million. Uh, the claim shows 4.4 million, but
109I don't trust that. We took 10% off of that. I had Don reach out to the state director on trying to gauge and we got no reply back. They're not they're not commenting on that at all. Definitely going to be short. Yeah. Well, right. But is 10% and they wouldn't. So 10% might not be it might not be. Um so if you flip to the next page under federal sources, we have the 400,000 for the EPA. Oh, that 7,400. I have to take off the 400 because that went for the charters. That's not a big deal. And then the IRS is approximately 30,000 since we have 750,000 now covered between KMED and the EPA. We've begun the IRS process. That is a process though and so it's in the works. So if you look at
110sale of equipment, you'll see since 2023 till today, Don's added $700,000 of which we lose 70% of it. of which we lose 70%. Yes, that's just insane. But you know, as part of what you know, Kurt and I talk so much about that cycle and this was higher than we had projected. So that is positive news even though we lose a portion of that. That's just straight money. That's not talking about all, you know, looking at overtime or less work for mechanics that have to work on aging equipment. And we do have two mechanics now instead of three. So there's a direct savings there, too. Um, so for transfers for other funds, I know we we had talked about transferring in to help offset that those buses and there is no transfer in this year
111because I think I said that last time that we were phasing that out to transportation. Um, so really the other main parts are that under the the capital outlay, which is a few pages down, it shows 2.25 million because the electric buses are in there, but we also see the revenue side of it. Um, so even with the $350,000 transfer out, the approximate gain in that fund is $626,000 this year, but that will level out more next year. So, um, IMRF, I've already hit the high point on this on the next page. The 125,000 is scheduled spend down a little bit because we have 2.35 million in there on a budget of 3.2 2 million. So we have almost 70% in there. So that goes back to the ED fund. It helps that way. Um
112capital projects fund budget-wise was was really close this year. Um if you flip to the second page for expenses, we had budgeted 6,39,000. It came in at 6,31,000. So we were eight grand off there. Um, so that that was positive because there was a lot as you know there was 10 projects coming and going so we're trying to keep it all straight and so that came out well working cash really no nothing going out there life safety so the interest is going to be up higher because we still have some of that bond funds at once the roofs are done so I am anticipating a little bit more uh interest there plus we're getting 160,000 from the property taxes So, um, like I said, middle school roof, H9 roof, dust collector, 75,000, weather safety projects
113are what that expense is. That is my quickish run through 45 minutes later. I'm sorry if that was too much or you guys more great detail. We haven't bid it yet, but 5 535 is the current estimate. A lot. expenses. I'm currently waiting for ISB to approve that on the life safety side. Right. So, but where do you think we're going to go for life safety? No. We went through all this going through the different you know some deficits, some some pluses. So, at the end of the day, pluses versus minuses equals. So, a couple things about that. Like the life the capital project wants to spend down to zero. So, and the life safety is its own bond bonding source. So, obviously the ED fund at 2.9 million makes that a pretty sizable uh
114deficit there. So, but outside of the ED fund, that transportation amount eats up all the rest of the deficit. So, 26 total outside of life safety and capital projects. There's our goal. Yes. And we're looking at what what this the future salaries, benefits, what revenues are going down, trying to take everything into into account and keep working towards the goal of zero or having efficiencies of our buildings. We're looking at everything. Thank you. Thank you. So if there's nothing else, that is my report. All right. Let me go means. Thank you, Mr. Sterling. This evening I have the recommendation uh to approve the personnel agenda and addendum. And you should have found that addendum. Uh tonight we have 38 employments. Woohoo. 45 transfers. That's quite a lot. Um 21 resignations and two requests for leave
115of absence. That's it for me this morning. Thank you so much, Dr. Troyer. All right. Thank you. I have no foyer requests for this one. and I will have one for the next one which is which is good but I think we are in alignment with wanting this which started I know Miss Krypner is excited about five different times though but no just seriously um wanted to wish everyone a a great start to the school year staff students administrators um a lot of hard work has been put into getting everything ready and I'm excited for for students to get there so thank Thank you, sir. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the personal agenda with the motion? I second. Mrs. Carlson, yes. Mrs. Johnson, I. Mrs. Smeeks, I Mr. Sturley. Hi, Mr.
116Thompson. Hi, Mr. Mcnite. Absolutely. Mrs. McKenna. Hi. All right. I don't know if they could always put on there as default, but I don't believe there was any student. Yeah, correct. I go back through that. Look at that one. We're good. Okay. A motion to approve the facility request. Motion. Second. Mrs. Johnson. I. Mrs. Meeks. I. Mr. Sterling. I. Mr. Thompson. I. Mr. Mcnite. Yes. Mrs. McKini. I. Mrs. Carlton. Yes. I get a motion to approve the first reading of policy updates from August 13th, 2025 policy committee. Motion. Second. Mrs. Meets. I. Mr. Sterling. I. Mr. Thompson. Hi. Mr. Mcnite. Yes. Mrs. McKenna. I. Mrs. Carlson. Yes. Mrs. Johnson. Hi. Can I get a motion to approve resolution declaring surplus property? Motion. Second. Mr. Early. I. Mr. Thompson. I. Mr. Mcnite. I. Mrs. McKenna. I.
117Mrs. Carlson. Yes. Mrs. Johnson. I. Mrs. Meeks. I. Okay. We got a motion to approve school improvement plans for Parker Center, Machznney Elementary, Maple Elementary, Marquette Elementary, Olsson Park Elementary, Rosson Elementary, Rockut Elementary, Windsor Elementary, and Harlem High School. Motion second. Mr. Thompson, yes. Mr. Mcnite, agreed. Mrs. McKenna, hi. Mrs. Carlson, yes. Mrs. Johnson, hi. Mrs. Meeks, I Mr. Sterling, I can. Can I get a motion to approve FY26 tenative budget resolution and set public hearing for September 22nd, 2025 at 5:40 p.m.? Motion. Second. Mr. Mcnite. Affirmative. Mrs. McKini. I. Mrs. Carlson. Yes. Mrs. Johnson. I. Mrs. M. Yes. I. Mrs. Sterling. We know. Mr. Thompson. I. Did you say yes? You say no. You said yes. I said I. Can I get a motion to approve a one-year agreement with HM HM Amira for
118purchase of student licenses for grades 1 through two for a cost of 12,600 paid with title grant funds? Motion second. Mrs. McKiny, I. Mrs. Carlson, yes. Mrs. Johnson, hi. Mrs. Me, I Mr. Sterling, hi. Mr. Thompson, yes. Mr. Mcnite, yes. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve a one-year agreement with HMH Waggle for the purchase of student licenses for grades 3 through 5 for a cost of $21,150 paid with title grant funds? Motion second. Mrs. Carlson, yes. Mrs. Johnson, hi. Mrs. Meeks, I Mr. Sterling. Hi, Mr. Thompson. I, Mr. Mcnite, I Mrs. McKenna, I. Can I get a motion to approve to adopt resolution to place school facility sales tax re referendum on the ballot? Motion. Second. Mrs. Johnson. I. Mrs. Meets. I Mr. Sterling. I. Mr. Thompson. I. Mr. Mcnite. Let the
119people decide. So I Mrs. McKenna. I. Mrs. Carlson. No. Any announcements and discussion? Just real quick, I forgot to mention to TH Foods. Uh Jason and I did a tour there. If you've never been in a place that's really hot, go there. Um but thank you to TH Foods for um donating I think it was approximately 50 backpacks filled with supplies. I saw I forgot to say that. So that was nice. Yeah. So those good. So what was They had you all in in coverups and everybody else wasn't. They they gave So afterwards they gave us a tour. So we took the picture with the backpacks, but then Jason and I had the pleasure of getting the tour of the facility. They just wanted us to sweat. We did. So the rest of the people
120that were in the picture didn't go on the tour. It was just it hasn't been announced yet. They are working on potentially uh like a two pallet donation to supply all of our teacher lounges with singles crackers been announced. Okay, I'm sure no one knows it's right there. We need to do like hot bags like Mrs. Fishers and stuff cuz I would go there and buy some hot bags and some crackers or we also get Mrs. Fishers in this like salt salty. Can I get a motion to go into executive session to discuss employment of personnel 5 ILCS 120-2 C1 second? Mrs. Meets. I Mrs. Sterling. Hi. Mr. Thompson. Hi. Mr. Mcnite. Hi. Mrs. McKini. Hi. Mrs. Carlson. Yes. Mrs. Johnson. I want to go. [Music]