001I'm going to call the meeting to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Okie dokie. Julie, can I have attendance, please? Okay. Carl Borchers. Here. Stephanie Peters. Here. Joel Finfer. Here. George Pivot. Here. Michael Engel. Here. Robin Clique. Here. Julie Clifford. Here. Seven present, zero absent. At this time, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Ms. Jennifer Aiken, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance. Good evening. At this time, we would like to formally conduct the Public Truth and Taxation hearing on the 2025 tentative operating levy in the amount of $57,630,000, excluding bond and CEDAW IMRF obligations. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to comment? At this time, we would like to close the tax levy hearing. Thank you. Thank
002you. Moving on to the regular public comment portion, is there anyone present who wishes to make a public comment that is not about the tax levy? Going once, going twice, gone. Okay. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to the recognition committee. Carl or George? Anybody? We do not have any recognition for tonight's session. So you can take it right back. I don't know. Whatever George said, I guess. She gave it to us. I said she can take it right back. Oh, okay. So I won't turn it over. Okay. I do have one recognition, though. I'd like to yield the floor to Dr. Pete Hannigan. Thank you. So we do have one recognition. On behalf of our administrative team, our staff, our students, and the entire Hawthorne community, we want to take a
003moment to publicly thank our Board of Education. Thank you for all you do for your ongoing dedication and service in honor of Illinois School Board Members Day on November 15th. Each of you serve on multiple committees, volunteer countless hours, consistently add value to our organization. You approach every decision with care, always keeping the best interests of our students, families, and staff at heart. Tonight, you'll find a small token of appreciation from all of us at Hawthorne. It's a simple gesture, but one that comes with deep gratitude for everything you do. So thank you for all of your support and all you do for the entire community. Thank you. Thank you. That was very nice. Thank you all. Are there any announcements this evening? Oh, okay. That's kind of cute. It did smooth out some of
004my wrinkles, so thank you. Okay. Are there any announcements this evening? You guys? Hi. Are there any announcements this evening? Okay. Moving on, going through board reports. So as promised, part of the president's report is to discuss the delegate assembly resolutions and constitutional amendments. I think this should be fairly quick, but in the interest of not going through each one, one by one, I'll do what I did last year and just ask if there's anything any board member wants to see pulled out and discussed because you don't want to follow the recommendation of the IASB committee. Okay. No, no concerns. Then we have just a couple little motions that we need to do in order to give George the authority. He's going to represent us at the delegate assembly. And thank you, George, because that
005is not really anybody's idea of fun. But for the constitutional amendments, can I get a motion to delegate George Beavitt the authority to vote at the 2025 IASB delegate assembly solely in accordance with the consensus of the Hawthorne district 73 school board on November, what day is the assembly? The 22nd, November 22nd, 2025 on the proposed IASB constitutional amendments. So moved. Motion by Carl, seconded by Michael. I just need a simple aye or nay. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Any opposed? That's seven ayes. Two meetings. Okay. And then we can either permit George to vote in accordance with his own opinion after hearing any debate that goes on at the delegate assembly or make him vote in accordance just with what we decided tonight. So anybody have any discussion related to whether they would like
006him to just be able to exercise his own judgment? I'd be fine with letting George exercise his own judgment. Yeah. I'm agreed with that. Okay. So then I'm going to ask for a motion that says, I move that delegate George Beavitt be granted the authority to vote at the 2025 IASB delegate assembly with their independent discretion based on the consensus of the Hawthorne 73 school board on November 22nd and any discussions had on the proposed IASB constitutional amendments at the 2025 IASB delegate assembly? Second. Motion by Joel, seconded by Carl. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So that's for that one. And then we have to do the same thing but for the resolutions because the constitutional amendments are treated differently. Okay. Can I get a motion that George Beavitt be appointed the 2025
007IASB delegate to the 2025 IASB delegate assembly on behalf of Hawthorne district 73? Second. Motion by Joel, seconded by Michael. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Oh, aye. Seven ayes, zero nays. And can I get a motion that George Beavitt be granted the authority to vote on the IASB resolution at the 2025 IASB delegate assembly with their independent discretion based on the consensus of the Hawthorne 73 school board on November 22nd and any discussions had on each resolution at the 2025 IASB delegate assembly? Second. Motion by Michael, seconded by Stephanie. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So that's seven ayes, zero nays. Thank you all. That was pretty quick and efficient. Much appreciated. Okay. And thank you again to George for representing us. Okey dokey. My only other thing in the president's report tonight
008is just kind of a quick update that for the first time in a very long time, Pete and I attended, Dr. Panagan and I, sorry, attended a district 128 feeder meeting. We have been doing this with the other high schools we feed into, Stevenson and Mundelein for a while, but there have been quite a hiatus with 128. So we are back to meeting with them and all the other feeders, Rondout 72, Oak Grove 68, Libertyville 70 and us, and 128, we're all present to articulate as to how we can better make for a more even flow from K to 12 and articulate better with the high schools. So I think things are on the right track. I think we're all pretty much aligned with where we want our districts to go and what we want
009kids to know and be ready for by the time they graduate out of our districts. So that is good news. That is it for my president's report. I hope everybody has a happy Thanksgiving, though, for anybody out there. And Mr. Finfer, is there an ad read report? Very quick. The veto session is over. Public education has escaped relatively unscathed and we're safe for a few months until the session we adjourn, I mean, is back. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Engel, is there a CEDAW report? There is. Our last executive board meeting was actually took place this morning. The last governing board meeting was August 6th. Coming back in regards to the CEDAW new tuition model approval that I had mentioned last meeting. Excuse me. The recommendation is that beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, the direct
010and indirect tuition costs of CEDAW programs will be paid by the districts based on actual usage, reflecting the number of students in each program. The administrative costs of the tuition bill will be paid using the following formula. District EAV 25%, district enrollment 25%, and ADE 50%. What was coming from that was some financial stress going back from 2020 to current. There was reduced state funding, evidence-based funding shortfalls, delayed and inconsistent state payments, which caused cash flow problems, rising operating costs and staffing shortages, including minimum wage increases, reliance on contractors, cash reserves used to cover deficits, which wasn't sustainable long term, and member districts historically were paying below the true cost of the programs. The executive board approved the model and is recommending that the governing board approve that new tuition at our December 3rd meeting.
011This works in favor of district 73 due to the low district enrollments in CEDAW programming. So tonight, just in the spirit of transparency and to bring it to the board, I just wanted to get consensus before I go into that meeting in December to vote in favor of that new tuition. I don't think we need a roll call vote, but I just wanted to make sure that we all were okay with that because that's what the recommendation is. I think it makes sense to me. Right. Thank you. Okay, awesome. So next executive board meeting is December 18th. That's when we will be voting on that. The next governing board, I'm sorry. Next executive board meeting is December 18th. Our next governing board meeting when we would be voting on that is December 3rd. Okay, thank
012you so much. You're welcome. Ms. Peters or Mr. Pheavitt, is there a site and facilities report? It's me today. There is a site and facilities report, a hefty one at that. We had site and facilities on November 5th. We had a good amount of discussion about the upcoming summer projects that are taking place in Middle South. We'll hear a little bit more about that later, but really excited for the changes for the front and library. We also reviewed student fees with the business team. Mrs. Aiken is going to share more about that in a little bit, but I think we've got it to a good place where we've streamlined everything. Excited to share that the executive director of technology role has been posted. Dr. Jean-Sophie continues to support us while we look for that best
013fit, but we are excited that it's been posted. In food service updates, new breakfast carts are being used at the middle schools to help bring food to the students and have been successful. USDA also approved a new soy burger that we have started to introduce. The students seem to like it. Mrs. Aiken gave an update on grant funding and there were no additional changes because of the government shutdown. We also got an update on an upcoming piece of information. We'll probably share more on the local retail tax. There was a little bit shared, but there's more coming I think next month. And then lastly in transportation, student behavior continues to be a challenge on our buses and we're working with Lakeside and building staff to help improve that. As a reminder, expectations are laid out
014in the student handbook and behavior on the buses is part of our overall SOAR expectations. That's it. Okay. Thank you so much. Ms. Clifford or Mr. Finfer, is there a wellness committee report? We do not meet again until January 27th. Okay. Ms. Clifford, is there a Key to 73 report? Always. So Key to 73 has been definitely busy with SOAR leading the way for our upcoming coat drive as well as Thanksgiving drive looking for food donations. We are continuing to plan our upcoming golf outing in June. So again, if anybody out there wants to be a sponsor or donate a service or gift cards for our silent auction, that would also be greatly appreciated. So make sure to save that date for June 5th for that golf outing. Okay. Thank you so much. I'm going
015to now turn it over to Dr. Hanigan to present the 2025 State of the District presentation on student achievement. Thank you, Robin. Everything we do across the Hawthorne system is aligned to our mission, vision, collective commitments and goals. Tonight's presentation is a high level overview of our student achievement data. It does not include all of the data highlighted in the board memo found in your board packets. To start, District 73's overall student population continues to decline. The growing proportions of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch and identified as multilingual learners highlight evolving demographic trends that carry implications for instructional supports, staffing and resource allocation across the district. Our analysis of data, including student demographic data, continues to inform the identification of our Board of Education projects each year. Tonight, I'm going to highlight the
016data that aligns to each of our four Board of Education goals. With that, national and state assessments identify proficiency levels that help us determine whether or not students are on track to meet our goals. FastBridge and MAP remain critical in District 73 to help inform instruction, to share academic progress with our parents and our students, to support our school improvement process and inform potential district-wide structural changes. Knowing that student proficiency is critical, we utilize FastBridge and MAP results to monitor student progress. Achieving the 40th percentile on FastBridge and the 41st percentile or higher on MAP is used as a benchmark measure for all students. This slide represents progress towards our first Board of Education goal. 90 percent of pre-K through 8th grade students scoring proficient or better in reading ELA as measured by district, state
017and or national assessments. The yellow bar represents the percentage of students proficient in grades K through 8, meaning all students. And students that reflect Hawthorne instruction for four consecutive years is represented by the blue bar. As you can see, between the 23-24 school year and the 24-25 school year, we saw a 3.2 percent increase in all students meeting proficiency, while our cohort data analysis represents a 3.7 percent improvement. So with respect to the blue bar, so if you were to look at the 21-22 school year, that represents all students kindergarten through 8th grade. And then as you fast forward to the 24-25 school year, that blue bar represents students in 3rd through 8th grade. So we're seeing some nice gains there. This slide represents progress towards our, again, our first Board goal in math. The
018yellow bar represents all students proficient in grades kindergarten through 8th grade. Students that reflect Hawthorne instruction for four consecutive years is represented by the blue bar. As you can see, between the 23-24 school year and the 24-25 school year, we say we saw a 2.1 percent increase in all students meeting proficiency, while our cohort data analysis represents a 1.8 percent increase. It's important to note that the NWA map reading and math national norms were adjusted in 2025 based on updated national performance data reflecting post-pandemic trends. Differences between the distribution of the 2025 and 2020 norms, scores vary by grade level, subject area, and percentile. Some of the recalibrations resulted in slightly higher cut scores for percentile benchmarks, meaning students needed to demonstrate stronger performance to achieve the same percentile raking as in prior years. So,
019for example, if you needed a RIT score of 190 to be at the 40th percentile, now you might need to be at the 196th percentile, or have a RIT score of 196. Despite this adjustment, District 73 students continue to show growth, further highlighting the district's academic momentum. The Illinois Assessment of Readiness is aligned with the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Math so that it may measure students' proficiency in meeting these standards. The IAR is administered in the spring to all 3rd through 8th grade students. The Illinois State Board of Education determines proficiency levels on IAR. Students scoring a 3 or 4 on a 4-point scale have demonstrated that they have a thorough understanding of grade level content. Students earning a 2 are approaching expectations but may need additional assistance and mastering.
020It should be noted that if you are proficient on MAP, you're not necessarily going to be proficient on IAR. They are two completely different tests with different cut scores. In 2025, ISBE also realigned the IAR proficiency cut scores to more closely align with the National College and Career Readiness benchmarks. With this update proficiency threshold, 59.8% of our students met or exceeded expectations on IAR English Language Arts assessment. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, the 2025 IAR data should be considered as a baseline. I kept the data the previous year so we could have some comparison, but they are recommending that we use this year as a baseline year. In math, 52.1% of our students met or exceeded expectations on IAR. The second board goal is District 73 will perform in the top 10%
021of all schools in reading and math for both growth and proficiency as measured by state and local assessments. The state of Illinois released its Illinois School Report Card on October 30, 2025. This report card is aligned with our nation's federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. The Illinois Report Card indicates how public school districts and individual public schools have performed on a wide range of educational goals at the school, district, and state level. Schools are ranked based on their scores across all indicators such as ELA and math growth, ELA and math proficiency, ML progress, absenteeism, and the climate survey. This comparative ranking is then translated into the school's official designation for the Illinois School Report Card. Rankings are from the highest exemplary to the lowest comprehensive support. I'm happy to report that all District
02273 schools were ranked as either exemplary or commendable. I would also like to highlight that town line. Join the group with Elementary North and being recognized as exemplary. That's a huge accomplishment. To be considered exemplary, you must be in the top 10% of the state of Illinois. Congratulations. The Illinois Assessment of Readiness is aligned with the common core standards as I shared in English, language, arts, and math so that it may measure students' proficiency and growth in meeting these standards by examining the percentage of District 73 students demonstrating proficiency in comparison to the percentage of all other public elementary school districts in the state. We can determine our overall state percentile ranking in ELA and math and determine our growth trends. Using this method of data analysis places District 73 at a state ranking of
023the 61st percentile in ELA and the 78th percentile in math. Additionally, District 73 examines the percentage of students demonstrating growth in comparison to the percentage of all other public elementary school districts in the state to determine our overall state percentile ranking for student growth in ELA and math. Using this methodology of data analysis places District 73 at the 33rd percentile in ELA and the 39th percentile in math. District 73 continues to perform above the state average in overall achievement, but recent data indicates slower student growth compared to statewide peers. This pattern suggests that while instructional quality remains strong, continued attention is needed on differentiated instruction, intervention systems, and acceleration strategies to ensure that all students demonstrate year-over-year academic growth. The district's instructional leadership team are actively analyzing subgroup data, identifying key growth barriers, and implementing
024targeted instructional supports to restore growth momentum. With respect to the state report card, student proficiency makes up 15 percent of the overall summative designation and student growth makes up 50 percent. So seven and a half percent for ELA, seven and a half percent for math for the proficiency, and then 25 percent for growth for math, and 25 percent for ELA. The third board goal is District 73 will close the achievement gap for all students in reading and math as measured by the state and local assessments while improving academic performance for all students. In addition to achievement percentiles, District 73 monitors the percentage of students meeting their spring to spring growth target according to the NWA map. The typical percentage of students meeting their projected growth, grade level, building, or district is 50 percent. This slide
025illustrates longitudinal student reading growth percentages in grades 2 through 8 by comparing all students to various subgroups, IEP, economically disadvantaged, and ELL. We also monitor a subgroup of students that are performing below the 40th percentile and above the 80th percentile. With respect to the spring of 2025 growth, 57.4 percent of all of our students met their projected growth targets spring to spring, our IEP students 42.8 percent, our free and reduced lunch 51.2 percent, our ELL students 50.7 percent, our student group above the 80th percentile 77 percent, and below the 40th percentile 32.4 percent. With respect to math spring growth, 59.9 percent of all of our students met their projected growth targets spring to spring, our IEP students 50.3 percent, our free and reduced lunch students 52.8 percent, our ELL population 55.5 percent, our students above
026the 80th percentile 77.4 percent, and our students below the 40th percentile 32.2 percent. Next, we look at Access 2.0 for ELLs, which is an English language proficiency assessment administered to kindergarten through eighth grade students who have been identified as English language learners, our ELLs. An ELL student must meet the EXIT criteria if they receive a composite score of 4.8 out of 6.0 points. Access 2.0 results show progress in closing the achievement gap by means of supporting the English acquisition needs of English language learners. As you can see at the conclusion of the 24-25 school year, we exited 110 students. As I conclude the student achievement portion of tonight's presentation, the data tells a story of strong recovery and growth following the pandemic years, particularly in early learning and math achievement. Continued efforts are needed to
027sustain growth momentum and close achievement gaps, particularly for our students with IEPs and those still developing English proficiency. Next, Hawthorne's focus extends beyond academics to the whole child, ensuring that every student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Goal 4 reflects our commitment to addressing all aspects of student well-being, ensuring that every child can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. The Whole Child Wellness Committee has developed measurement criteria using the ASCD Whole Child Framework to guide our work of measuring progress towards Goal 4 of the Strategic Plan, and continues to meet three times annually to review data, monitor progress, and set goals to ensure continued growth in each of the five tenants. During the 24-25 school year, the district collected the first full year of baseline data using the ASCD Whole Child Framework. The Whole Child
028Wellness Committee adopted this framework to measure progress across five tenants – healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Each tenant includes 10 aligned indicator statements and quantitative measures within the tenant to track growth over time. The healthy tenant focuses on ensuring that each student enters school healthy and learns about the practices and practices of a healthy lifestyle. The Whole Child Wellness Committee determined that all 10 indicator statements were met, highlighting a strong foundation of student wellness and prevention. In terms of standardized measures within healthy, fitness gram results show that 64% of 5th graders and 76% of 7th graders were in the healthy fitness zone, and 82.5% of 8th graders reported not using substances in the past year per the 2024 Illinois Youth Survey. These results highlight the district's continued commitment to physical health, wellness education, and
029informed decision making. The safe tenant emphasizes ensuring that each student learns an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for both students and adults. The Whole Child Wellness Committee determined that 9 of the 10 indicator statements were met. To summarize the standardized metrics within safe, the district achieved a 99.1% rate of students with no exclusionary discipline, reflecting a strong culture of positive behavior and restorative practices. However, the district average chronic absenteeism rate of 15.3% remains an area of continued attention. The district is focused on strengthening engagement and family partnerships to support consistent student attendance. The engaged tenant ensures that each student is actively involved in learning and connected to the school and broader community. The committee determined that all indicators for this tenant were met, demonstrating that students are active participants in the school community,
030over 900 middle school students participated in extracurricular music and sports programs, and the district earned an average of 79% on the PBIS tiered fidelity inventory, underscoring strong systems that promote student connection and belonging. The fourth tenant, support, ensures that each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, caring adults. The Whole Child Wellness Committee determined that all 10 indicator statements were met, signaling that students benefit from caring adults in supportive environments. According to the Five Essentials Student Survey, Halton received a score of 49 in the supportive environment domain, placing the district in the neutral range. In schools with a supportive environment, students feel safe in and around school, view teachers as trustworthy and responsive to their academic needs, value hard work, and are pushed by teachers toward high academic performance. This data
031establishes a meaningful baseline as we continue strengthening relationships, academic supports, and expectations for all students. Last but not least, the challenge tenant focuses on ensuring each student is academically challenged and prepared for success in college, career, and life. Per the committee, 8 of the 10 indicator statements were met, demonstrating that the district is fostering academic rigor while identifying next steps and deepening learning. 28% of students in grades K-8 participated in formal enrichment or advanced coursework. Continuing efforts will focus on expanding enrichment opportunities and ensuring equitable access to advanced learning experiences for all students. The results of Go4 data highlight our collective commitment to nurturing the whole child and provide a clear foundation for continuous improvement. The district remains committed to advancing whole child success through comprehensive approaches and programming that ensures all students are healthy,
032safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Now I'm going to train, and this is not part of our four board goals because I do get questions about this, but I want to share the HumanX Ventures Cultural Staff Survey. So the results of the InsideX Culture Survey, which provides organizational staff and leadership with actionable data and feedback informed by employees and staff perspectives. This information reflects four distinct views, my organization, my building admin, my building slash admin, my team, and my role. This information empowers staff to set priorities and collaboratively brainstorm action items and provide staff and leadership with objective anonymous quantitative data regarding staff engagement. District 73 monitors the percentage of staff highly satisfied and highly engaged. According to HumanX Ventures, the typical industry average related to the percentage of staff highly engaged and highly satisfied or
033the dream box is 60%. Additionally, we monitor the top four quartile. As you can see from this chart, we experienced a slight increase in the percentage of staff being highly engaged and highly satisfied in the top four quartile from the fall of 2024 to the fall of 2025. As I conclude, each school in District 73 continues to use the board goals and assessment measures to guide our efforts to ensure learning for all, every one, every day. The continued alignment of our board goals and board projects enables all District 73 constituent groups to work together for the betterment of our students. We are very proud of the work our staff put in day in and day out to ensure all students experience both academic and whole child success. The hard work of both our staff and
034our students continues to pay off. Thank you for your time this evening. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions the board may have. I have a bunch but I'll let other people go first. Anybody have any questions? Yes, I had a couple Dr. Hannigan. I just want to make sure I understood correctly when it came to the proficiency slides that you showed. Looking at for IAR, I noticed that ELA proficiency was defined as levels four and five, whereas math was defined as levels three and four. Is that just what I could- So the state, they just changed the rating. So last year it was one through five. This year they condensed it one through four. So proficiency is three and four. Okay. The ELA shows that it might just be on the slide
035it says four or five. So they were different. That's why it caught my eye just to see if the scales had to your point. Okay. It's three and four. But the data is accurate. The data is accurate. Okay. Yeah. And then the second question, I'll personally apologize I did not ask this in advance so I don't expect an answer this evening, but I do appreciate that for our engaged tenant. We look at students involved in extracurricular activities and we use band and sports as like a large indicator. I was curious if we have an ability to also look and extend to their other activities and just look at it as a sense of a percentage of total middle school students who are in any extracurricular activity. If that's something to also consider. I'm going to
036turn it over to Ms. Goldman. That's a great question. What we have access to right now in power school was the sports and the music, but we are exploring a different way to get that information to ensure that we can account for every club, every sponsored activity. So we're working on that for sure. That's great. That was definitely something that came up on the committee as well. Oh, great. Yep. Okay. Thank you. That's all for me. Okay. Anybody else have questions? I actually have a follow up to Carl's question. We've got orchestra and symphony. We don't have chorus in here. That's an optional after activity, isn't it? Yes. We will definitely collect more information about extracurriculars. This is what we had access to this year. So I apologize. But what we had access to via
037power school right now, which was rostered. So we are definitely working on rostering everything so that we can have access to what every student is participating in. Okay. Anybody else have questions? Maybe let's have a question, maybe a suggestion for some of the attendance within the, uh, sorry, the whole child section. I'd be curious what chronic absenteeism is defined as, as well as whatever. I mean, it's a delicate subject, but the substance question was an interesting percentage. And I don't know what those substances are. Which one? The Illinois youth survey one? Yeah. The 82% or whatever. Okay. Yeah. I can speak to the first question about chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is defined as the percent of students that miss 10% of a school year with or without a valid excuse. And just kind of looking
038comparatively, the state average is 26.3. And, um, just comparing to a few different school districts, um, the average last year, district 70 was 11%. Um, district 102 was 16.8. Monday line 75 was 19.6. Deerfield 109 was 6.8. So I don't know if that kind of puts it in perspective. Um, and I was really just looking at that from my own research as well, that we were at that 15.3. I just recall during the middle school orientation, they talked about how many hours were missed if you missed days of school. And I was curious what that equated to. So it's like, you're missing 18 days of school if you're chronically absent, approximately. Yeah. And then, yeah, thank you. No, I'm glad somebody asked that because I even had my answer written down. Um, and then I,
039um, your second question, can you refresh my memory? There was the 80 some odd percent of kids who had touched the substance. Okay. So from Illinois youth survey. So yeah, the Illinois youth survey is eighth grade only. And it's taken in the spring of even years. And what's interesting about that is that I only have the data from the last one that was taken because I'm not sure it was done during COVID or like coming out of COVID before that. So I don't have access to those results. And, um, what they consider in that particular question, they talk about, have they tried tobacco, any kind of like vaping, um, device or alcohol? Have they tried it within the past year? Um, and so we will be taking it this year as an even year in
040the spring. So I think it will be good to see some, uh, kind of our first comparison. So I can't really speak to, is that average? I can definitely look into it more and reach out to, um, to the survey and see if there's results from other districts or local things like that. But I could definitely look into it, but I'll be interested to see kind of where we fall this year. It also helps that it's eighth grade only. Cause if that was the entire district, I was. Yeah, it's eighth grade only. And I just did, um, both middle schools and an average. And also, um, students have the option to opt out of that survey as well. It is anonymous and the purpose of the service to really look at trends district wide, um,
041and, and just implement programming based on trends. Does it define what, I mean, on the survey itself, does it tell them like tobacco, alcohol? It does. The question specifically says, have you tried any of these in the past year? People can go look at that survey online. It's actually super interesting. It gets crazy detailed. It is. It has a lot of really interesting data in there. So you actually touched on one of my questions. Okay. I was going to ask, do we have a percentage of how many people opted out of that Illinois survey? I don't have that percentage handy right now. I have the number of students that took it. So what I can do is figure out attendance from that year and then come up with a pretty accurate number. I'm just curious
042on the ballpark. Yeah. Um, and guardians can opt out and students can opt out. Right. Okay. Um, similarly, Dr. Hannigan, what was the response rate on human X? The response rate was 400 and it was 432 staff. So like 87%, 90%, all right. Um, um, one more, what's the response rate on the five essential students survey? Sorry, I should have sent these in ahead of time. If you don't have an answer tonight, that's okay. You can just get back to that one. That's okay. Don't worry about it. Um, right. Our parents as well, our staff, our staff was else. And we just had a call with our crowd. I want to say it was the staff rate for the staff component. I want to say it was like 82%, 83% of our staff. Okay. And
043then the students was, the parents was really low because we didn't get a score. You have to have 20%. Oh boy. The parent rate was very low. Okay. Maybe we need to do a better job educating people on what that survey means to us. Yeah. We're, we have, we had a good call with that crowd on Tuesday, Allison and I, and because that drives what I've learned is like when they do the niche ratings, that drives like the niche ratings, it drives, it's a big part of our school report card right now. And so we're going to do, we have a whole plan with staff, students. Yep. So we're going to be, but the parent part is hard because we have made conscious efforts. Yeah. Like having kia, like if there's a band concert, like
044we have computers out and we put it out for a month in advance, like consistently and putting it out there, it's on social media, like please complete the survey. But it's less than, we didn't get a rating basically from the parents because we didn't have enough participation. Right. Okay. Thank you. And then can I ask one question and follow up? Sorry. Okay. With that, that 20% you said you thought of it, or we don't get it unless we have to get 20%. Yeah. Is that pretty true year over year? Are we in that same or is it? It's well, last, I think last year we had over like 22%. Okay. It's pretty, it's been, it's been in that range. Okay. Yeah. I mean, part of me says maybe it's incorrect that if people were really
045upset, they would take the survey. So, you know, I, part of me says that, but I would just rather have a reliable. Like if you look at, like if you look at the niche, cause I like, I'm obsessed with this stuff. Like if you look at our overall district rating, it says our facilities are like a C minus, like we just redid every building. Our facilities are an A plus. Yeah. Like, so like there's, we need somebody to give some feedback. I've been in a lot of districts. These are nice facilities. Um, okay. And then I had a couple more questions and I'm not sure that you'll have these answers either on the achievement gap slides. Um, actually I don't know that we even need to go back to them necessarily, but how much overlap
046is there in all those subgroups, including the like lower 40% or the ones that are below 40%. There's a lot, a lot. Yeah. Okay. So the kids will like, so if you have an IEP, you could be in the column, you can be in the lunch. You can be in the ML column. You're going to be below the 40th percentile. Wow. Okay. That's almost harder to segregate then. Yeah. Okay. And then, um, what would be an example of something we can do about attendance? Do we have ideas? Besides me going to their house? Um, no, we, so we do like, so we do have a plaque. We do have a formal protocol across the district that we like, as far as monitoring the attendance, when we pull the attendance, we have letters, we, we have
047a whole menu of things to do, like getting kids' clocks, you know, talking with the parents, making sure they're engaged, you know, having trusted, like we do a lot of stuff like with SEL, like making sure they have a trusted adult at school. Um, it is, it is, I'll be honest with you, like, because I get the phone calls when like a principal is having a conversation with the parent and then they're upset. And then they, like, I just had a, I'm not going to get into it, but yeah, they, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a struggle, honestly. Well, like in 18 days is a lot of days when you're only having 174 days. Well, yeah. And then it affects the student outcomes because if you're not in your seat, you're not learning. Yeah.
048Um, so that's why we have, like, if you remember, like Sol Sol. Yeah. So Sol and Casey, they do a lot of work, like doing home visits, bringing parents in. I mean, it's a daily occurrence where Sol and Casey are going out the houses to talk to kids, meet with kids, our social workers. Do you know if it's mostly middle school? Is it mostly kids that are responsible for getting themselves to school? It's younger students. Younger. It's a lot of it's parent driven. Okay. All right. It's across the board. It's not just younger students. Yeah. I'm just, I'm, I'm trying to like rack my brain going, like, we provide transportation. Other people are with it. Okay. Can I ask what does that absenteeism rate look like from last year? Like roughly it's very similar. No,
049it's the same. And we, we implemented the protocol two years ago where we formalized the protocol, cost the system, work with our secretaries. Like when they pull the attendance, we have standardized letters. We standard, like step one, you're at three days absent. You're going to make a phone call and these are the supports we can offer. Okay. Um, do other people have questions? Okay. Thank you so much. Glad there was some good news in there. Um, okay. I'm actually going to send it right back to you to discuss the 2026, 2027 school calendar. Yes. Um, so with respect to the school calendar on October 15th, our calendar committee convened to work to begin working on the 2627 school year calendar. The committee included district administrators, building leaders for both the elementary and middle school levels
050and representation from HEA. The key parameters for the calendar include 174 student attendance days, two parent teacher conference days and four teacher Institute days. Under the proposed calendar staff would return on Monday, August 7th, 17th. Sorry, it's not August 7th, August 17th. That's how rumors start. I was starting to get some glares over there. I saw her there. What? August 17th and students would begin on Thursday, August 20th, 2026. The tentative last day of student attendance will be, would be Friday, May 28th, excluding any emergency days. The emergency days would extend the school year to Tuesday, June 1st or up to June 7th. So nobody should plan vacations until June, after June 7th. Uh, the committee is also recommending that we run an early release schedule for students on parent teacher conference days. Uh, this
051is the first year we're doing that. So a week from Monday will be our first. So the night of the night, we, the day we host parent teacher conferences in the evening, we will dismiss the students early. So staff have an opportunity to prepare or host conferences. Then that will be in addition to the regular Wednesday early releases. Um, at this time schools are not required to close for election day. However, the general assembly may again amend the school code to designate that November 3rd election day as a state holiday. Um, if that occurs, so right now it is not identified on our calendar. If the general assembly does require us to take off election day, we're just going to take Casimir Plasky day and flip it to election day. And if that were to
052happen, we will definitely make sure Samantha communicates it out effectively with our entire community. Um, we also had one additional day. So as the board knows, when you're, when you build out the holidays, it's based off of the 12 month employee calendar. And so this year, uh, we did have one extra day. So, um, the committee is recommending that we take off that day, the Friday before spring break. Um, this would provide families some additional flexibility since spring break tends to be a common time for travel and a lot of kids or staff leave on Friday. Uh, finally we're still, and this is a one year thing because we do have the extra day. Finally, we are still reviewing Lincoln's non-attendance days. As the board is aware, the Lincoln program under its grant requirements must
053provide a minimum of 165 student attendance days. Uh, we are working collaboratively with our partners in Mundelein and Fremont, uh, to finalize that schedule. Once that is complete, uh, the Lincoln calendar will be shared with staff and families, but it should be noted like our Hawthorne staff, their first day is the 17th and the last day would be the 28th of May. So, but we will work out how that 165 days is carved up. So with that, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions the more board may have, and we will bring this back for an action item at the next meeting in December. And we have any questions on the calendar? Okey-doke. Thank you. I'm going to turn it back to Ms. Jennifer Aiken to discuss the 2026 student and summer school
054fees. The business office has two discussion items for board consideration this evening. The first item is student fees for 2026-2027. As you know, Hawthorne utilizes four types of student fees to help streamline costs for families. Those would be registration, optional, meal, and technology fees. These fees help offset program expenses not covered by the general operating budget and support equitable access to a wide range of student experiences. For the 2026-2027 school year, the business office proposes the following adjustments. For registration fees, a $15 yearbook fee will be added for preschool students as each child receives a yearbook. A $15 field trip fee would be added for all students. This change eliminates the need to request funds mid-year and allows permission slips to be managed directly in power school instead of rev track. For middle school students,
055we are recommending or proposing a PE supply fee that would include a new t-shirt, a new lock, and a heart strap each year. PE shorts would no longer be required. For optional fees, we are proposing the course fee increase from $51 to $77. The band fee would increase from $77 to $99. Although band and chorus are part of the curriculum, these optional fees help offset costs for supplies, equipment maintenance, and instructional software that's just for those two programs. For group sports fees, most of them would increase from $77 to $99. Select individual sport fees would increase from $77 to $129. These changes reflect rising transportation and participation costs. The business office partnered with athletic director Jennifer Harris to conduct a cost analysis of athletic and activity programs. The review found that select activities, including musical,
056science olympiad, scholastic bowl, palms, cheer, golf, and bowling, require these adjustments to better reflect current costs. Even with these increases, the district will still continue to fund approximately two-thirds of the program costs. The fees would cover about one-third. The last optional fee is the transportation fee. This will increase by six percent, reflecting the rising operational costs that we incur from Lakeside. For meal fees... Just one thing before you move on. The band fee also includes orchestra, correct? Oh yes, the band fee does include orchestra, sorry. For meal fees, the paid lunch rate would increase from $3.60 to $3.75. This 15-cent adjustment helps keep our meal program in compliance with federal pricing requirements. Although the state's pricing tool will not be available until spring 2026, current rates are below the allowable guideline, requiring this modest increase.
057Lastly, the technology fees. These fees have been part of the registration process for several years, and we are asking board approval to maintain these fees for the 2026-2027 school year. In summary, these proposed adjustments are intended to maintain an equitable, transparent, and sustainable fee structure while ensuring effective management of district resources and continued support for high quality programs and services. Does the board have any questions regarding the proposed fees for 26-27? I do. Would you please refresh my memory on how we manage fees for those parents or students who can't afford them? We waive them. Approximately 33% of the students don't pay fees. Okay, what's the criteria for doing it, for the waiver? If you are free or reduced, you've put it in the application and been approved, you automatically have your fees waived. If
058you don't qualify for either of those programs, you can file a waiver with me. We look at everything and we determine whether or not we waive the fees on our own without them being free or reduced. And just out of curiosity, if I were looking for that in a budget, where would I find that those dollars allocated? Those dollars are found under local resources. Okay, question. Help me understand why, unless I'm not understanding this chart correctly, middle schoolers are going to buy a new t-shirt, lock, and heart strap three years in a row? That's a great question. We have not been replacing the heart straps regularly, and Jennifer Harris had stopped by to mention that, and we need to invest quite a bit this year that we had not budgeted for. And I asked why
059we're not on a regular cycle to replace them. They get lost, they break, and we need to get on a better cycle of maintaining our equipment so we have in good order all the time. The t-shirts are interesting. Every year, we have students that need a new t-shirt. Either it doesn't fit or they lose it. And then we're sending students to, I can't remember the name of the store, but- Sports 11. Yes. So when I brought it to the Sighton facility committee and we talked about it, they said, well, why not just have one fee? Parents could opt out. I could deduct that from the fee before we charge it if they want to. That could be an option. And we just felt like if we just simplified everything, it might be easier for the
060parents. I appreciate the simplicity, but having been somebody who sent three kids through the middle schools and they kind of ran through eight years consecutive, if I owned nine t-shirts by the time I was done with that, I would have been pretty upset. So I'm just kind of- Understood. Okay. We can definitely look at that. Anybody have any other questions based on this? The only thing I'd add, Robin, to that, because we did talk about it at length, and the P.E. fee without the uniform wasn't that much less than this. And as a parent who's already been to Sports 11 three times for one child and now owns three complete Hawthorne uniform sets, the idea that I wouldn't have to do that was attractive to me. So for a simpler structure, I was in support
061of it. Okay. Anybody need a uniform? I've got a couple. I'm lousy with graduation gowns, too, if anybody needs one. Anybody have any other questions about the fees? I just wanted to verify all of the other meal fees other than the paid lunch fee, those are all remaining stagnant and have stayed stagnant since 23, correct? Correct. And I did go to an ISB training recently on nutrition, and we are not under an obligation to raise the other rates. Only the lunch fee. Milk, breakfast, extra lunch entree, that has all stayed the same for the last several years? Correct. Okay, so we are only raising it. And am I recalling correctly that the 15 cents that we are increasing is the minimum amount we had to? The minimum amount is 10 cents. But we're still behind.
062We are still behind. We have a 40 cent gap, and National School Lunch Program recommends a 10 cent delta, and we have a 41 cent delta. One other thing, just since we talked about PE supplies, we are aware that the lock situation at the middle schools is not the same. So yes, the folks at Middle North don't need a PE lock, but this will be their lock, or their locker. So it's still one lock per kid at the middle school level. Just put it where you need to put it. Okay, correct. Sorry, having looked at this already, my last question, I guess, is under technology equipment, under the iPad negligent for the third incident, do we have a dollar amount to list under full cost? Or does it vary? It varies now, because when we
063purchased them in 2024, the cost was different than if we had to replace them right now. And we do have an increase in students breaking the iPads. Yep, that's why we broke it out between negligent and external. Thank you. Anybody have any other questions on the fees? Okay, thank you. Okay, staying with that theme of fees, we would like to talk about summer school fees for 2026. Hawthorne has long offered summer learning programs to support student growth and achievement beyond the regular school year. These programs help prevent learning loss, strengthen academic skills, and provide enrichment opportunities in literacy, math, STEM, and the arts. Programs include Extended School Year, Summer Scholars, Early Start Kindergarten, Hawthorne Enrichment Institute, and Band Camp. Extended School Year and Summer Scholars are invitation only programs designed for students receiving accommodations or
064additional academic support. These programs have no fee and transportation is provided. Early Start Kindergarten helps incoming kindergarten students become comfortable with the school environment before the start of the school year. Hawthorne Enrichment Institute and Band Camp are open to all Hawthorne students interested in continuing learning through elective classes. Over time, the district has continued to refine its summer offerings to meet the diverse needs of students and ensure access to engaging high-quality learning opportunities. The business office and the leaders of the summer program are proposing some changes for 2026. We are proposing to replace two sessions over four weeks with one session over three weeks. Classes will be held Monday through Friday, no session on Friday, June 19th. The participation fee will be a flat $299. All programs will be hosted on the North Campus. A
065full breakfast will be provided daily by Class Food Management. The Early Start Kindergarten program is no longer grant funded and will become a paid program with a participation fee of $199. Does the board have any questions about the proposed 2026 summer school fees? Any questions? Correct. Anybody else have anything? Could you? Well, I think one thing to note about the fees we talked about, the contact days remain. It's fine. Carl was talking. Oh, I'm sorry. Let him finish. The contact days remain the same as the current structure, but we get it all done in one month for a lower cost. Correct. When we had the four weeks, it was 14 days because we had the Fridays off. So now it's three weeks, it's more condensed, but it's still 14 days of instruction. That's what my
066question was. I apologize. It's been a long day. That's on me. We are going from four weeks where we had Fridays off to three weeks where we have no three to straight week. Correct. Okay. Okay. 14 days is just the package into three weeks versus four weeks. Okay. And you went through certain stop times. I'm trying to do the... Did you go over certain stop times out loud? No. Okay. Do we have those? I believe it starts on June 8th. No, the clock. Oh. I don't know the exact start and stop times. All right. That's fine. Okay. Any more questions about this? I think the one thing that helped Carl was just that we learned that July attendance was difficult with student or families who wish to travel. So this frees up July for folks
067to have their summer trips without affecting the program. For the fee-based programs that don't include bus transportation, is there an option to add bus transportation or are they on their own? They are on their own for transportation. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. Dr. Hannigan, is there a superintendent's report? There is no report this evening. I'm going to move on to the consent agenda. Tonight's consent agenda consists of board meeting minutes from October 16th, 2025, an expenditure report from November 13th, 2025, the Amazon expense report from November 13th, 2025, the MasterCard report from September 22nd, 2025, the Treasurer's report from September 2025, and a personnel report consisting of seven new hires, five resignations, seven leaves of absence, one change of status, and one retirement. I'm going to pull out the October 16th minutes because I
068missed that meeting. Does anybody else need anything else taken out? Okay. Then can I get a motion to approve item 7.1 on the consent agenda? Second. Motion by Joel. Second by Michael. Can I get a roll call vote, please? George Vivid. Yes. Aye. Michael Engel. Aye. Stephanie Peters. Aye. Joel Finfer. Aye. Julie Clifford. Aye. Carl Borchers. Aye. Robin Clique. Abstain. Motion passes six ayes, one abstain. Can I get a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda items as presented? So moved. Second. Motion by Joel. Seconded by Carl. Can I get a roll call vote, please? Michael Engel. Aye. Carl Borchers. Aye. Julie Clifford. Aye. George Vivid. Aye. Stephanie Peters. Aye. Joel Finfer. Aye. Robin Clique. Aye. Motion passes seven ayes, zero nays. Moving on to action items. I'm going to turn it back to Ms.
069Jennifer Aiken again to review the action items on tonight's agenda. Thank you. Related to her department. The first item we were going to talk about for action this evening and seek board approval is the 2026 summer projects, the design and development. I have VP and Tom McGrath here to help talk about these. We have some slides to show. As we discussed at the October meeting, the proposed 2026 summer projects will focus on enhancing the middle south front office and library spaces. The business office has allocated a placeholder of $2.5 million in the 2025-2026 budget in anticipation of the work being approved. Thank you. I'm VP Trinh with Archive Associates with the architects of the project. And then Tom is with LAMP. They're the construction manager. So when we talked about a couple like a month
070ago was kind of the renovating the office making more secure and then also updating and renovating the library. So what we are showing here is the office floor plan. You guys mind if I just stand up and kind of point? Does that work? I'll try to project and use my karaoke voice. So this is your sketch, right? Goal is to kind of, and then you get buzzed front entryway kind of one point piece. Three different levels. Here's your, we have our conference. I know that was really nice. That was cool. Now you've got access to really good access. I'll go ahead tonight. Once again, the work period, sorry, you all have. So once again, the renovation, new flooring, new ceiling, new light, paint. Next slide is a quick overview of the library. But then this
071is the main currently have great. Now it's taken for so great. It's been like for the walk. Thank you very well. I second design, very solid nature. So we form that up with the wood paneling kind of. You got a very open town, rather than wood. You have the breakout spaces over here. Back door, make it safe. That's secure. Off the library, then paint off the office for the library. Again, finishes floor, ceiling, lighting. Thanks again for having us as part of the project for lamp incorporated. We'll do our similar tasks as we manage throughout the entire project. We already ran some preliminary cost estimates. Everything seems to be on track at this point. And we'll continue to update everything as the design moves forward. As we get closer to the bid process, quick summary
072timeline. The plan is to go out for bid sometime mid December with bids being due mid January. And then we'll come back to you at the board for approval in February. That gives us plenty of time to get started in June when school gets out. And then wrapping everything up in August before you guys come back to school. So very straightforward project. Nothing too complicated with this one. So shouldn't be any issues. We're finishing before the during the summer months on this one. So the business office is seeking board approval this evening to proceed with the bids in December. Does the board have any questions that we can answer about summer project? Thank you so much. And the second action item the business office is bringing this evening is the levy. During the October board
073meeting, I shared the tentative 2025 levy presentation, which included all fund allocations as well as CEDAW, IMRF, and bond and interest obligations. As a quick reminder, the 2025 levy represents the district's formal request to the county for operating funds. The county issues the 2025 tax extension in March 2026, indicating the final allocation amount. The disbursements are anticipated between May and December 2026. At this time, the business office is seeking board approval for the 2025 estimated operating levy, excluding the bond and interest in CEDAW, IMRF, in the amount of $57,630,000, which represents a 4.55% increase from the 2024 final tax extension. Does the board have any questions about the 2025 levy? Thank you. I'm going to now turn it over to Mr. Adam Palmer to review the last action item on tonight's agenda. Thank you. This
074evening, Mrs. Aiken and I are recommending adjustments to our substitute teacher compensation structure for the board's consideration that would consist of an increase of the daily substitute rate from $120 to $135. Additionally, an increase to the long-term sub-rate from $227.98 to $249.39, which is in alignment with the BA zero step one teacher rate. If approved this evening, both increases would be applied retroactively to the start of the 25-26 school year. Again, we believe that these adjustments will help Hawthorne remain competitive and support a stronger and more stable substitute school. I'd be happy to answer any questions the board may have. Anybody have any questions about the subcompensation? Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Then with that said, can I get a motion to approve the 2026-2027 summer design and development projects? So moved. Motion by George,
075seconded by Joel. Can I get a roll call vote, please? Julie Clifford. Aye. Michael Engel. Aye. Joel Finfer. Aye. George Pheavitt. Aye. Stephanie Borchers. Nope. Or sorry, Stephanie Peters. Aye. Carl Borchers. Aye. Robin Klee. Aye. Motion passes, seven ayes, zero nays. Can I get a motion to approve the 2025 tax levy? So moved. Second. Motion by Michael, seconded by George. Can I get a roll call vote, please? George Pheavitt. Aye. Carl Borchers. Aye. Michael Engel. Aye. Julie Clifford. Aye. Stephanie Peters. Aye. Joel Finfer. Aye. Robin Klee. Robin Klee. Aye. Motion passes, seven ayes, zero nays. Can I get a motion to approve the substitute compensation? So moved. Motion by Carl, seconded by, was that Michael? Yep. Can I have a roll call vote, please? Stephanie Peters. Aye. Julie Clifford. Aye. Carl Borchers. Aye. Joel Finfer.
076Aye. Michael Engel. Aye. George Pheavitt. Aye. Robin Klee. Aye. Motion passes, seven ayes, zero nays. Back to you, Dr. Hannigan. Thank you, Robin. We've received one FOIA request since our last board of education meeting, which has been identified in section 9.2 of the board agenda. Are there any topics for future agendas? Okay, with that, can I get a motion to adjourn? So moved. Motion by Carl, seconded by Joel. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, we are adjourned at 8 12 p.m. Thank you.