001I'm calling I'm going to call the meeting to order. It is now 6 pm and this is a regular meeting of the Cland Board of Education. We would like to inform all board meeting attendees that this meeting is being livereamed and a archived for access at any time by our community members on the internet within 24 to 48 hours of the meeting's conclusion. Mr. McCauley, if you would lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance 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. End roll call, please. Mr. Manipsky here. Mr. Klesner here. Mr. Cook here. Mr. McCauley here. Mrs. Simmons here. Mr. Stalcup here. Dr. Mr. Lawler is answering tonight with six
002members present. We have a quorum. Uh is there anything the that the board would like to move from consent to new business? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Motion and the roll call, please. Mr. Klesner. I. Mrs. Simmons. Hi. Mr. Cook. Hi. Mr. McCauley. Hi. Mr. Stalcup. Hi. Mr. Dr. Maninsky. I motion car. We'll turn it over to Dr. Rowing. All right. Great. So, first, uh, we have a presentation from our Kalin High School Key Club and the sponsor, Miss Couns. Hello. I'm Mrs. Coun. I'm the sponsor. All I'll be doing is clicking on the slide. Excellent. Um, hi, I'm Sophia Stroll. I'm our co-ocial media specialist along with Anna Gats. Um just a few numbers from last year to this year. Um we had
00361 key clubbers um attend one meeting last year and then we had 81 key clubers attend one meeting this year. Um and then we had five fundraisers last year that we held and then we had seven fundraisers this year and then 11 community projects and then 26 community projects this year. So as we just continue to grow each and every year. Hi, I'm Brooklyn Brown. I was the president this past year and I'll also be the president of Key Club this upcoming year. I'm just going to discuss some of the events that we had. We did the Elurn Days fundraiser, the Cow's Angel shirt selling, the homecoming parade, military appreciation, no tricks, just treats, the cross country event, um the village of Montgomery annual fest, the fall leadership rally, rock painting, card making for green
004fields, which were Halloween cards, cards for first responders, feed my starving children, the winter item drive, holiday in the grove, um conference volunteers were put out, Simple Destiny Thanksgiving dinner, winter fest booth, and candy bags were made for the Winterfest here, the eighth grade activity fair, LA fire cards and a box donation, Delnor cancer patient cards, Valentine's Day cards from Mark Lun, cards for the Sugar Grove Easter egg hunt, and the Sugar Grove Easter egg hunt was run by us. And then we did um an Elbert food pantry donation drive, and we had four fundraisers this past year. Hi everyone, my name is Alina Ari. Join us at the podium. I'd like to introduce her. Um She doesn't have please. We'd love to hear it though. Uh I do want to congratulate Miss Stark for
005being named as the elementary teacher of the year for the Illinois Association of Health PE recreation and dance which is a hard word to say by the way. It is. Um I will tell you I've been in Miss Stark's gym's gym a number of times and I can share that it is a room filled with energy and learning. Uh she does roller skating, golfing, bike riding, uh dozens of other like unique and uh crazy games, uh and engaging activities for our students. Um she also leads her students in learning about the importance of giving back to their community uh through some some activities she does at McDole. So she will be honored at the state convention in December and we want to recognize her as uh one of our knights that is excelling. So congratulations
006[Applause] Um, I'd also like to salute uh she's not here um because we found out a little bit later, but I'd like to salute uh Miss Susan Posian, nurse at KBK. She was nominated for an ESP star award through the Illinois Education Association for her dedication to the students of Cainland and we're proud to have her as one of our own. Um, I want to give a shout out to our boys track team that added a first to our long history of track and field success by winning their first ever 3A sectional title by 42 points against a field that included some much bigger schools. And I will tell you, um, I I was able to be at most of the event. Those sectionals run a little bit long, especially for my six-year-old who I
007got to send off to school nice and tired the next day. Uh but it was a lot of fun and and the the best part was not I mean obviously beating other schools was great uh but the best part was watching every time one of our kids uh qualified for state you would see a a sea of white and black run over to the finish line and celebrate with them. So uh some great things going on there. Another shout out to our girls soccer team that defeated Woodstock High School 6 nothing to win the regional title. Um a lot of uh lot of energy. That was a fun game to watch. Uh they play they're playing Rockford Bowling in the sectional tonight at 7. So good luck to them. And then finally, I want to
008salute uh Sarah Slatterie, some of our marathon meetings. I know we had some tough ones this year. Uh but she's been a really positive uh part of our team. Not only is Sarah the student board members, she is actively involved in track, the crier, national honors society. Uh beyond that, she is a part cop positive part of the community that is present at so many events. I don't even know where she finds the time. Every event I went to this year, Sarah was there. Um, so I can only imagine how many she she was at. Um, taking pictures generally. Um, but but uh definitely supporting the community and uh we are going to miss her and she will be attending U of I in the fall. So um look forward to seeing great things and
009remind me what you're you're majoring in because it's journalist. Okay, that has changed a few times throughout the year, but uh so she'll be majoring in journalism, so uh we're looking forward to that. So, and then we will be introducing our new student board member at the end of tonight's meeting. And that's all I have for this even come back and be a board member. All right, Dr. Boen. Okay. Uh, I just have one tonight. I wanted to say thank you um to Kanel uh boys baseball. I recently had the opportunity to attend their senior celebration at King County um Cougar Stadium this past Friday night and it it was just a really great event that was very well attended by um parents, community, friends, other teams. Uh my two children really enjoyed the evening.
010It it was wonderful. Um, but just all all of the spirit and and all of the cheering that went on for those teams. Keland uh travel baseball was there, the youth youth baseball. And so it's just always nice to see such a wide variety of community support for our kids participating in things. Any board members? All right. The board appreciates everyone in attendance this evening and invite you to stay as we move into the new business part of the meeting. We understand that not everyone is able to stay for the entire meeting and we wanted to make sure you know this is an open meeting so you are able to come and go as you need and we look forward to seeing you at future meetings. Tonight's consent agenda that contains the following information. Number
011one, approval of accounts payable and payroll for May 2025. Number two, approval of minutes of the May 12th, 2025 regular meeting. Number three, approval of personnel. Number four, approval of the Illinois Association of School Board's annual dues. Number five, approval of policies from press issue 118. Second reading, approval of participation in the regional office of education safe schools. Number seven, approval of rental rates for school facilities. Number eight, approval of the handbooks for support staff on second reading. Number nine, approval of the 202526 administrative salaries. and the followingformational items. Student suspension data report, Freedom of Information Act report, and field number 12, field trip notification. I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent items listed. So moved. Second and the roll call, please. Mrs. Simmons, I. Mr. Cook, I Mr. McCauley. Hi. Mr.
012Stalcup. Hi. Mr. Manky. Hi. Mr. Mr. Klesner. Hi. Motion carries 6. The consent agenda is approved. Public comment. None. All right. See no one signed up. First item of new business on is the report on capital improvement plan for 2025 2026 update. Dr. Bogen, could you please share more information, please? Um yes. Tonight we'll be providing um just a capital planning update that outlines not only the structure, timing, and current status of long range facility planning here in Keeland. Um but also the report highlights our approach to maintaining uh over 1 million square feet of building space and more than 300 acres of grounds. Um we are working to align our capital um investments with district goals as well as financial realities. And so at this time I'm actually going to turn it over to
013Mr. Mark Payton, our director of buildings and grounds who's going to walk us through the report um provided and then also just give more detail. Mr. Payton. Okay. Um thank you for having me tonight. Um as Dr. Bogan mentioned uh we have seven school buildings with a combined uh footprint exceeding a million square feet. Um they range in age from 16 to 67 years old. Um, let's see. Uh, we have uh 300 acres of property which include over a dozen athletic fields that support year-round physical education programming and athletics. Additionally, the district is responsible for maintaining um more than 500,000 square feet of roofing systems and approximately 1.5 million square feet of paved surfaces including parking lots, driveways, and walkways. Obviously the uh the complexity of our assets require um forethought in terms of replacement
014and regeneration of uh what we have. Um to do that we've broken the systems down into four major categories. We've got site work, which includes your athletic fields, playgrounds, paving. Uh building envelope, which is your roofing, doors and windows, uh masonry. Building interiors are going to be your flooring materials, your walls, your ceilings, and furnishings. And then building systems are going to be your HVAC, uh lighting systems, um communication systems, fire alarm systems, things like that. So the process uh that we're going to use uh for fiscal year 2627 is uh we're going to perform this process in 2526 for the fiscal year 2627. Um, first, uh, it starts off with a building asset inventory, which is, uh, me and my staff, uh, look at our asset inventory, make sure it's up to date, and
015that's kind of a continuous and ongoing thing, but we'll, uh, we'll polish it up, um, and get it ready for district admin review. Um, then at that point in August of 25, uh, I will review that with Dr. Bogan and we'll begin scheduling meetings with the building administrators, your principles and assistant principles. Um uh then in September and October of 25 uh we'll do that building admin review of the capital asset list and uh following that in late October 25 uh Dr. Bogen and I will uh begin the process of prioritizing projects. Um the first board meeting in November, we're targeting for our initial board presentation where we'll uh solicit feedback from the board and um get comments and and things things that uh that we need to maybe go look at or answer questions
016or or things like that. And then if all goes well, uh the second board meeting in November, we'll seek board approval for the work for fiscal year 2627 and give you a a a view of what the next several years will look like beyond that. Um I think Dr. Boen mentioned that we're going to work on aligning our capital requests with um some district critical district goals. um so that it makes sense, you know, okay, we need new air conditioning here and here's why. Here's what that supports in these district goals. Um and at this time, I've got uh four criteria for those district goals. Student and staff, student and staff safety and security. So, those are those things that are critical to make sure our our staff and students are safe. And um that
017would be doors and hardware, fire alarm systems, things like that. Uh the second uh criteria we'll look at is student performance. There's a lot of uh data on how thermal comfort, how fresh air, how lighting, noise uh impacts student learning and staff efficacy. Um so we'll prioritize those things right under uh safety and security. Then student and staff uh experience. So, you're looking at your bathrooms, your uh dining facilities, furnishings, things like that. And then finally, community experience. Uh it's going to be like your playgrounds, your parking lots, your landscaping, things like that. Um this is a kind of a a living concept. So, um if anybody has any opinions on what might be added to that, I'm happy to hear it. Just a quick question on the fire alarms. And on the emergency alarms,
018are we coordinating with the fire protection districts and with sheriff's office, Elurn Police, you know, whatever is close. In other words, to make sure that our systems are coordinated with them for the maximum or actually minimum response time. um or can we engage in that discussion? Yeah, I mean that conversation with them. We have uh an annual conversation in August with our first responders. Okay. Um to get feedback from them on on things like that. Uh we do an annual ROE inspection where they're looking for things like that. Um and uh we do of course 10-year life safety surveys uh where our architect and engineering firm is also looking at those things. Um I don't know specifically response time I think would be addressed at the August meeting. Um but but yeah, we we're coordinating
019multiple times and then we have all our drills. So, our uh our fire um fire departments and uh uh police departments are uh looking at those things during the drills as well. So, sure, just to try and minimize response. Yep. And this year, this past year, we did have several other opportunities for first responders um that included not only Kingcom and Tricom, um our fire departments, King County Sheriff's Department, there there was some um coordinated training that happened and we would like to increase those opportunities to get our first responders into our buildings more. That's going to be one of the primary topics at our August meeting, which actually this year is at the very end of July. it's going to um during that meeting to make sure that we can get those set up
020so there's more coordinated efforts. Sure, sounds good. These these don't include the referendum items, right? Not yet. Uh correct. So, uh the referendum is separate from this capital planning. Even though the referendum is going to take care of a lot of the needs that we've had identified previously, um we're still going to have ongoing uh capital needs. And so this process will um take a look at those things with that. Yeah. Yeah. That are outside the referendum needs. Any other thoughts on that before I move on? Okay. Then I just uh wanted to review quickly um what was uh expended in fiscal year 2425. Um primarily it was uh life safety work um electrical in nature for the most part. Um and we did up update some uh fire alarm systems and uh this is
021all work to support uh the 10-year life safety survey that gets performed and uh there were a couple of door replacements at um Blackberry and uh John Shields Elementary. The total for that work was $913,534. And then the second big item uh for capital spending this fiscal year was the track replacement in included a complete removal of the track surface pavement and some of the base stone. Moving the long jump and pole vault areas outside of the stadium and putting back new pavement, new track surface track markings uh including the change orders. It came in at uh $1.3 million. In addition to the above projects, there was approved for a a new driver's ed vehicle. Um we uh the board approved $40,000. Um it looks like it's going to come in quite a bit less
022than that, but I'm still working with the uh the vendor to get that finalized. Um for the fiscal year 2526, we took a strategic look at reducing the amount we've been spending the last few years um to help support uh the financial stability of the district and uh additionally I think um uh for the referendum trying to see where all that landed and things like that. So, um we have a a chart here of uh the asks and approved projects including some elevator controls, a little bit of sidewalk work, uh walk-in cooler, refrigeration system, uh server room AC unit, a little bit of minor life safety work, and another driver's ed car. Uh big project we have is replacing the radio system with a digital system to help improve communications throughout the district and uh
023and hopefully put us on a 21st century path in that. um replacing some of the business office desks, additional uh classroom seating for Harter Middle School, replacing some um cooking implements in the kitchen, and some clock systems at Blackberry McDall, and some minor masonary repairs at Stewart. We also had asked for um some furnishings for social studies and English classrooms. We're going to be uh removing that from the ask because we want to make sure now that the referendum has passed that we're aligning those furniture purchases with the referendum work and it was already kind of figured into the referendum uh request anyway. Um so we thought it's best to put that on hold until uh we get through the planning and um make sure we're buying what the spaces need. So, initially we had
024asked for uh $498,000 and with the removal of the uh high school furnishings that brought down to 393,000. Any questions? Yes. Kha KS KHS life safety for 19 and the radio for 100 and the business office desk. None of those overlap with the referendum. Correct. Okay. I want to ask this question every year because I'm pretty sure every year on the board this happens. What how many driver's ed cars do we have and why do we buy one every year? It seeming is that just the three years that we haven't bought one since 2017, I think. Um there's one last year and there's one this year. Yeah, we have one last year. Um so there's three I'm sorry, step back. There's three vehicles. Okay. Two of them are 2014 and one is a 2017. Um,
025which we probably purchased a 2017 in 2018 because we buy used vehicles typically. So, um, that would probably been the last time we bought one. So, last year we asked for one to replace one of the 2014s. This year we've asked to replace one of the 2014s. Okay. And we'll probably wait a year or two then before we asked to replace the 2017. Okay. And then I think it's important to note they get a lot of miles, do they? Okay. Oh, they are driving all day every day. Even in the summertime, they're out driving. They're out driving to get all the students through the driver's ed program. Sounds good. I didn't know there were only three. I figured there. No, there's just there's just three. I always want to ask about it. And then 40,000.
026I was looking at car prices today. 40,000's a lot for a car. And you said it was coming in at a lot less, which is good. Yeah, typically we we have a good partner and uh vendor that uh looks out for good used quality used vehicles. Okay. So, perfect. All right. There is no action necessary tonight for the capital improvement plan for the 2025 and 2026. The second item of new business is the 20242025 budget amendment update. Dr. Boen, if you could please provide some more information. Yeah, so as part of our ongoing review of district finances, we are going to be bringing forward a proposed amendment um to the current operations and maintenance fund budget specifically. Uh this amendment includes an increase uh in expenditures totaling $596,000. Um the primary driver of this ask
027is $350,000 in anticipated overage in electric costs across um multiple buildings. This is primarily and largely due to um a billing system change on comm's end. Um last year because the change took place, we actually were not build for services for quite a few months. Um almost I believe just over eight months. And so those bills have come in this year. So we're paying for last year's services out of this year's um budget. We also did have um some additional expenditures for site improvements largely related to the track. Um and then also um some additional equipment purchases that were mostly due some some um site cameras that we had not anticipated. And so I do anticipate that the spending will be about um realistically probably closer to $314,000, but the budget amendment captures everything all
028possible because we can't exceed what is approved. Um and so that's why there's such a large ask. It's giving us that buffer um just in case anything would come back up from KMED. And so there is a timeline for all of this. Uh we will have a a budget hearing at on the June 23rd meeting. We'll also be asking the board to approve the budget amendment on that day and then it needs to be filed uh with the state of Illinois no later than June 30th. So to meet all of those timelines, um the budget uh the amended budget has been made publicly available on our website. So, if people wanted to review that, it was also posted in the newspaper um on May 22nd, so that we had at least 30 days um of
029public notice on that. But overall, I do anticipate that our actual expenditures will be less than the 596, but again, just very conservatively and anything in there. Uh the good news is um KMED has rectified their their system and they're much more on top of it. So, we don't believe that this issue will carry over into the next fiscal year. It should all be wrapped up um now in this year. Was it was this a usage billing issue or was it a delivery billing issue? It was both. So, part of the problem was is their new system didn't really talk with Mid-Americ and all of that. And so, um they were definitely behind and it affected many of the KMED customers, not just us. So, um, and so we're increasing our electric budget by $596,000.
030No, by $350,000. Okay. For this year, and that's to account for services um that we're paying for in this year, but we're actually for last year that we received last year. Um, but the billing was late. I'm sorry. What's our total budget for electric? I would have to get that. I can get that to you. Okay. the $200,000 in site improvements. You mentioned that it had to do with the track. Is I'm assuming it's not in the 1.3 million. It is. Okay. Y that's what I was wondering because it's on and M versus capital. Correct. Sounds good. Then when's our new electrical um provider contract take effect? July 1st. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I didn't know if there were any other questions I can answer. What about na off sub off topic slightly, but natural
031gas? I know we that's all budgeted. Yep. Do you expect any kind of wild increases because when I was looking at it potential 32% increase uh for NAX? Did you account for that all of that already? We have. So, I'm working on tenative budget right now and working very closely with Mr. Payton and then also our third party vendor with Nia with uh Becky Thompson and she's really given us some solid numbers um that we can budget for. because I want to be prepared because it is going to be kind of sticker shock I know for for correct and that's even I mean we're seeing that you know in electric as well but I know more so on the delivery side but obviously you know so how much savings did we have on electric from
032last year then if if there was a billing issue were we were we favorable to our original budget we were not favorable I mean we saw increases of over over 20% um from the prior year So it really when you look at like okay if we had a million dollars we spent pretty close to that just because the cost of electric has increased so greatly. So this year's number you will see it's going to be very conservative that will be a significant increase from even this year's budget. I guess my thought was if they underbuild us for last year we should have saw favorability to our original budget unless we underbudgeted significantly. We underbudgeted for that last year. Okay. Okay. All right. There is no action necessary tonight for the 2024 2025 budget amendment update.
033The third item of new business is the resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed 38 million general obligation school bonds. Dr. Boen, if you could please provide some more information. Uh, yes. So tonight we have Bob Lewis from PMA here. Um he's going to just be discussing um some of the next steps to our successful passage of our April 1st referendum. Um and also just providing some important context uh because we are asking the the board to take um action on tonight's resolution. The full resolution is in uh the the packet for consideration. Um but it really represents what are the next crucial steps that we have in advancing you know this voter approved capital improvement plan. Um specifically we are looking for the board to approve the issuance of up to $38
034million in general obligation school bonds. Um this is going to be used um to really start the work on those priority projects. And then also as part of this um for funding just not only funding up upcoming construction and improvement projects but a portion of the BR bond proceeds will be used um to refund some of the outstanding obligations that we have so we can optimize the district's overall um debt structure. Um this resolution would also authorize several key components including the execution of an escrow agreement. um also the direct annual tax to repay the bonds through our levy and then also the proposed sale of bonds to the purchaser. So with that I will turn it over uh to Bob Lewis. Well, thank you for having me here tonight and congratulations on your successful
035referendum. I haven't been here since then. So starting off here on slide three, what some of the steps were just covered in the intro in the in the introductory comments, but what happened and some of this has already happened. So the counties have up to 21 days after the referendum to certify the results. That's already occurred. So the results are considered final. And then the law allows for up to a 30-day petition period if somebody wanted to challenge the results. uh that's typically only uh something that comes into play with a very close outcome whether it's a referendum or a candidate that has a contested outcome. So the petition period has also completed and so the next step is what you have for consideration tonight which is to approve a parameters resolution. So that resolution
036sets forth certain parameters that have to be met in order for the bonds to be sold and approved by the delegates of the board. Those appro those parameters include such things as the maximum term, the maximum amount to be borrowed and the delegates that are named to approve the sale are the assistant superintendent for business and the superintendent is the two administrative officials and then two elected officials which include the board president and the vice president. Then one of each of those categories would approve the outcome in the notification of the sale. So the the delegation isn't to a third firm party firm like myself. It is to other members of your district to sign off. The authorization that is approved lasts for six months. Although it's it's contemplated that you will sell the bonds
037well before that six months is lapsed. Okay. So, some uh considerations that come into play whenever we're doing a bond issue that we always want to review with the board administration relates to the tax exempt status of the bonds. And what did that mean when I said the tax exempt status? As a reminder, when you sell your bonds, the interest you pay to your investors, they don't have to pay taxes on that. Since they get that benefit, you get an implicit subsidy from the federal government because you get to borrow at a rate below the taxable equivalent market which saves you somewhere between one and a quarter to one and a half percent having that ability to sell on a tax exempt basis. But in order to sell them and designate the bonds as tax
038exempt, the tax code requires you to meet certain uh provisions of the code which I've set for some of them on this slide. And it relates to the timing of the expenditure of the bond proceeds and the one I've highlighted in blue is the one that is often most that we have to focus on. Usually if you can meet that first test, the other two tests are not an issue. But I'll review all three anyhow. So the first test is the expenditure test. You have to have a reasonable expectation spend 85% within 3 years. And a couple slides here, we have the draw schedules to show you that you have no problem meeting that expectation. The next is the time test that you have to enter into a binding contract for at least 5% of
039the proceeds of the bonds within six months. You typically the architectural and other related contracts uh will meet that 5% threshold. And lastly, you have to meet the due diligence test. So, uh, using this extreme example, somebody borrows money, they don't use any of it for the first two years, and then they spend it very quickly in the final third year. So, they would meet the reasonable expectation the first test, but they didn't do anything with it the first two years. So, if the IRS were ever audit that bond issue, the IRS may question, why did you borrow the money so soon when you just sat on it for two years? because the IRS ultimately has the objective to keep the use of taxexempt bonds to a minimum because the more taxexempt bonds that are
040issued, the less revenue the federal government loses. What recourse would the IRS have in that situation? So, the recourse they would have if they were to, and they do do random audits just like they do for individuals of municipal bonds. If they were to come in and find that one of the covenants was missed, then they could uh declare it your bonds were taxable and therefore your investors would now have to pay taxes retroactively. And most often times what happens though, the IRS just demands you to pay them some money and then they will leave them as tax exempt. Now, that first test, let's say something happens where a school district gets into a situation where the construction really slows down. You run into some environmental issues, a COVID during the period of COVID when
041you couldn't get equipment in and things like that, you had the projects really slow down. If you got to the third anniversary and you've only spent 70%, you're not automatically in violation because you go back to this test, it says a reasonable expectation. It's not hard and fast test to meet the 85%. And then even if even if you were at then that using my example again of 70% as long as you documented in your file very well what you have um uh what was the reason for the slowdowns you should be fine in any audit. Uh your district has a process and the IRS would love all districts to have this process in fact not just districts all units of government issue tax exempt bonds annually. Dr. Boen and she's continuing the the practice
042of Dr. Fuks is to give you a report. You may wouldn't you do that with the audit or Yeah. When the audit is presented, she gives you a report on your compliance with your tax exempt obligations. That report's been rather routine and mundane the last few years because you've already spent all your money. And now those reports will have more meaning when she does them. She'll give you a report on what's been spent, how you're looking relative to something called arbitrage. So, um, you will should expect to get more information when she does those reports annually, which is a good process your district's already been doing. And that's also something that you check the box on if the IRS were to ever audit you. Okay, next slide. Uh, good segue into arbitrage. So, the concept
043of arbitrage is one that comes about because the bonds are tax exempt. So in certain market environments, you would be able to borrow at a rate below the rate you invest at. That only happens when short-term investment rates are higher, which is at a condition we're at right now, right? Because the federal funds rate is at a higher level than it has been for several years. As a result, we expect that your arbitrage yield, your your borrowing rate will be likely below your investment rate. You can't say that for certain because when your bonds are sold, you lock in the rate on your bonds at the at the return on your investments is going to not be known until you've spent all the money because while you sell the bonds and invest the proceeds and
044likely buy uh some fixed rate securities, CDs and stuff lock in the rate, you're going have to leave some of that liquid for unknowns. Well, the liquid rate is going to fluctuate just like it does for us in our own money market funds. So, it's likely that you will be in a situation where you'll have a return higher than the rate you borrow at, but you won't know until you're all done. Well, generally speaking, the IRS says if you earn what's called positive arbitrage, you can't keep it. You have to pay it back to the IRS unless you meet an exception. And there are a handful of exceptions. I put two up here uh that come into play most often. The first one is the small issuer exception. And that's for any school districts or
045colleges that sell $15 million or less in a single calendar year of all. So it would take your leases, your bonds, anything you sell that would be designated tax exempt and says if it's less than $15 million and you can keep all your positive arbitrage no matter how no matter what the pace is you're spending it. Uh that will not be one that you can meet because you have too many bonds to sell and too quick of a construction timeline. The next one is the construction spendown exception and that says if you meet all four of these milestones, you have to meet all four of them. You can't miss one and then catch up. For example, if you have 10% of the proceeds spent within six months, 45, 75, and 100, any positive arbitrage you
046might earn, you'd be able to keep that as well. You wouldn't have to rebate it to the the IRS. So, what does your draw down schedule look like? Lot of numbers here. I can just summarize it for you though and what this schedule I know the board you you've had this presentation ahead of time. The colorcoded column at the left is the aggregate of all of your expected construction expenditures as they are estimated. Now the only thing we know for certain is it will change because you're going to have slowdowns or things speed up but you know we have to have somewhere to start. So the blue color is what we would expect you'd spend from the first series of bonds, the green from the second series, and the yellow from the third series of
047bonds. And so if you look at your the first set of boxes, the six month 10, you would meet the 10% and then you would meet the 45% the 12 month. In fact, you'd have almost all the money gone by the 13th month. So you more than easily meet the spin downs. And the same thing on the second series uh in 13 months we anticipate you'd have that sold and then the final series you'd sell that you spent you'd have all those spent within six months. One thing I forgot to mention on one of the prior slides is you know we are phasing in the bonds. The reason the primary reason for there's two reasons why we might phase in bonds. One of them is so you can try to meet the spin downs where
048you're more than easily meeting the spin down. So uh in a vacuum you may say well why don't we sell more in the first series of bonds then so you can earn more investment income on those. Well the more bonds we sell um the the more interest you will have on those bonds. And if you remember from the plan of finance it was communicated to the public you're you're doing this referendum plan three years before your final bonds are gone. So we have to restructure a bit of those bonds. So the more bonds we sell, the more of those bonds we have to restructure. So we're trying to balance out minimizing the amount of restructuring to making sure you get your funding in time for your projects. So uh and I'll go into that a
049little bit more detail here in a couple slides. One concept we need to uh cover and I think I covered this in my original presentation is school districts have a statutory debt limit which is a formula that's based off the equalized assessed value of your district as a unit district. We multiply that by 13.8%. Then we subtract the amount of principal you currently have outstanding and that gets us to your net borrowings. Sort of like our credit card limit. You might have a $10,000 limit. If you have $2,000 in your credit card, your net borrowing limit is $8,000. Same concept applies here. When we do your calculation today, it's right around 135 million. Your your voters approved 142 million, but the thing is you're not selling all your bonds at one time. So, we can
050manage around that debt limit. One year later, because we anticipate your EAV will be higher next year and you'll have retired more bonds, we estimate that amount will be $145 million. So there is an exception that was created in the school code last year that says if the voters approve a bond referendum. If a school district conducts a hearing and and meets certain publication requirements, then the entire referendum bond can be excluded from your legal debt limit and none of it would count. You'd still be sitting at 135 million. Uh we don't see the reason why you need to utilize that exception because you have enough room within your limit. It's not like you can go out and sell a ton of bonds um beyond the referendum authority anyhow. And and if that's something you
051can decide later on too, like we definitely don't need to do it for this financing. We're only going to have approximately 25 to $30 million in new money. So you're well below what you need to do. If the administration and PMA and the board changes your mind for the second financing, you can do the proceedings then to exempt the second financing, the third financing from the limit. But we don't definitely don't need to do it at this time. Okay. So what are the phases then? This came from that spreadsheet that we had in the last section and that is to sell uh roughly 25 million in the first phase, 87 million in the second and then the remaining amount of 28.5 million in the third trunch. And again the reason for the phasing is to
052minimize the the amount of restructuring you need to do. And uh that resolution that you have before you tonight would authorize that first 25 million of of new money for uh project construction and then the restructuring. Now the the amount in the resolution is $ 38 million. We don't anticipate you would need that much. The restructuring that we need to do is roughly um $8 million. So at 25 and 8 you get to 33. What's that extra 5 million for? One. We always like to have a little buffer. Anyhow, just in case. But you after the restructuring, the two bond series that were restructuring are the 15A and the 15B. There is some principle remaining and the interest rate on those is um I believe on some of the maturities around 4%. So if rates
053were to be lower, you might want to refinance those to a lower interest rate. In the current market, we don't anticipate you be able to refinance those to a lower interest rate, but things could change very quickly. Uh so it could be a couple weeks from now that you could refinance the remainder of that 5 million, put it right back in the current years that that's set to mature, but do it at a lower interest rate and save some money on that. I'm not anticipating at this time, but we want to have the flexibility and the resolution to do that. So this uh graph should look familiar. the gray or excuse me, the blue bars represent your current uh bond payments and levy year 20 I'm sorry tax payment year 25 is that first line
054nothing's changing there we're past the deadline you could have changed that and then you had three years remaining 26 27 28 those are the three years that we have to uh work around to keep the the overall levy from going up so you see in that first year in 26 we're taking off just a little bit at the top to make room for the interest payment on this first series of bonds. So, that little bit that gets moved out here. Um, but we're also taking some out of these years, anticipating the next financing to move that out there uh and and to make room for uh the next series of bonds. Um, so here again graphically you can see the pledge to the taxpayers was to keep the bond levy the same throughout the remaining
055life of the bonds. And the good news is because we're keeping this amount the same as new property comes into the district, which inevitably you will. I know that there's development taking place right now, that new property comes in and it takes on its share of the bonds. So all the existing taxpayers, their share of the bonds should go down over time. Um, and then indeed you can uh what you'd expect then is the bond tax rate would go down as the payment stays the same as that new propertyy's coming in. So the next steps then are summarized on this slide. Uh the board has before it tonight the resolution to consider. Uh the board approves a resolution. We anticipate the bonds would be sold on June 16th. At least that's the earliest we can
056sell it. Now if market conditions are not conducive at that time things are very volatile. We'd recommend delaying the sale to the delegates uh and and then reschedule for a different date. And what what by the way, what is a sale? What is happening with the sale? I've used that term a couple times. You know, PMA is your municipal advisor. We advise you on the structure, uh the rating strategy, and the method of sale. The method of sale is a competitive sale where we put the bonds out to bid for multiple underwriters to submit bids to buy your bonds. And whoever has the lowest true interest cost, which is a composite of their interest rate and their fee as the underwriter, they win the bid. So, um, most recently, I had like a Lincoln Way
057210 sale just a couple weeks ago, and on that bond sale, I think we got somewhere around eight or nine bids. And so, I anticipate their bond sale is around 30 million. So, yours is about the same size. I anticipate you'll get a similar number of bids at least five somewhere between 5 to 10 uh depending on market conditions and and uh other factors that may be happening in the market. And then the bonds would close on July 8th. That's when you would have the proceeds in the bank so those proceeds could be invested and then you would also have them available to start paying some of your referendum related expenditures. The last side I think it's the last site. Yeah, the last side I want to touch on and this one represents two different
058data sets. The gray area represents the federal funds rate and the purpose of that is to give you the context for federal reserve policy at different times. So you can see how they are raising rates to fight inflation. We stayed relatively flat. Then we started to lower rates at the end of last year and then they stayed flat again with a lot of the uncertainty that's come into play with tariffs and other things. The Federal Reserve has slow down the pace of doing their Fed cuts and I wanted to point out the the other data sets are an index of municipal bonds. So if you the equity markets look at the standard imports 500 Dow Jones Industrials to see what the trends are taking place in the equity market and we use this index to
059monitor trends taking place in the MUN bond market and what we've graphed here is the one-year rate the five the 10 the 20 most oftentimes we just want to focus on one we focus on the 10-year rate so the things had improved rather well coming out of uh the presidential election and then as the news about the tariffs started to come out, some of the other things that were concerning to the markets, you started to see things creep up. Then they came back down and then they shot way up. What happened here? Well, that date was April 2nd. That was the date uh uh that President Trump called liberation day. And initially when the announcement was made on Wednesday, bond markets reacted positively to it. Interest rates went down for a couple days, went down
060about a quarter of percent. And then the weekend happened and I think everybody had a chance to rethink things and the following three days interest rates went up over 90 basis points.9% in three days and that was fairly unprecedented. Uh we didn't have anything like that during the COVID period of time and it just created a lot of volatility in all markets. I think we all remember what happened in the Dow during that time, right? and uh stability returned fairly quickly. liquidity had come back into the market and since that time rates have been trending downward um the last couple days I haven't I don't think I picked up the yeah I haven't picked up the last week last week they've started to come back down a little bit more and going into June June
061historically has been a good month to sell municipal bonds all the things being equal things can always pop up that surprise us but one of the reasons we targeted June is just from the historical perspective it's been a good month to sell So, what might cause us then to potentially recommend delay is if we entered into a period like this again. You never want to sell bonds when the market's that volatile. We're not anticipating that level of volatility. Um, but it, you know, things can always surprise the market. If it did, we would delay the sale. You're not in a position where you absolutely have to have that money on July 8th. So, we can have a little bit of flexibility on when that would occur. Questions? In the resolution, is there a cap on
062the interest rate on the bonds? Yeah, there's a maximum coupon rate of 5 and a half%. And that I'm is I'm looking for the page number right now. I will not anticipate we're going to be anywhere near 5 and a half%. But we always want to put in a a rate that makes sure we're not in a situation where we just miss it. Um, that would be on page second. I'm going to search for it. That's on page five. Says uh it's the paragraph that defines this bond shall shall become due on February 1st of each year. That's when you traditionally pay your princess principal. Um no later in 2045 and in the amounts not exceeding $5.4 million per year of principal and a rate not exceeding 5 a.5%. Any other questions? What scope of
063the referendum are we anticipating as part of this first bond sale? So I think the first part we're still working with the architect on sort of this is what the but I think most of that will be contracting with CM contracting with architect um possibly pre-ordering any equipment or materials that we need to in advance. Um but really just getting those projects going. It's more startup cost than anything. Right. Is it uh is it a single bond sale or is it multiple bonds that are being sold? In this first series, it's one bond sale that will cover both the new money and the refunding sold in one series of bonds. And there'll be principal payments in several different years. And then so the next series of bonds will be it's anticipated to be sold about
064this time next year. So be coming back to you again with another resolution. But usually between tanches you try to absorb new information. You know where's the where the projects have? Have they sped up slowed down? What are market conditions? And then so there could be tweaks to the plan between now and when the second TR should be sold. Okay. I will now entertain a motion that the board of education approves the resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed 38 million general obligation school bonds series 2025 for the purposes of paying certain costs of the capital projects approved by referendum at the April 1st, 2025 consolidate election and refunding certain outstanding obligations. of the district. Authorizing and directing the execution of an escrow agreement, providing for the levy of a direct annual tax
065sufficient to pay the principle and interest on said bonds, and authorizing the proposed sale of said bonds to the purchase purchaser thereof. So moved. Second. And a roll call, please. Mr. Mr. Cook I Mr. McCauley I Mr. Stalup I Mr. Mansky I Mr. Klesner I Mrs. Simmons I motion carries 6. The resolution is approved. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. The fourth item of new business is the approval of 1.0 zero full-time equivalent special education teacher at Keaneland Harter Middle School and the reallocation of 1.0 full-time equivalent from Keanel John Stewart Elementary School to Kan McDall Elementary School. Dr. Rowing, if you could provide more information. I'm going to pitch this one to Dr. Atkins. Thank you. So, good evening everyone. Um, just a quick reminder at the minimum staffing plan in March, we
066take a snapshot in time of the state of the district at the end of February, we use that snapshot to make predictions and estimates for what we will need um, in terms of staffing in the coming years. Knowing that, um, we have a handful of significant events that we monitor throughout the spring. kindergarten registration being one of them. Um moveins and move outs being another one of them. High school registration being one of them. And then finally, um the special education IEP process. For those of you that may not be familiar, um students with IEPs typically have an anniversary date in late spring for an annual review or a three-year reevaluation. And at those meetings, determinations are made for what their needs might be in the coming year and a plan is developed which becomes
067their IEP which becomes a mustprovide for the district. And so the board will often ask when we talk about staffing, is this an optional thing? Are we choosing to do this? Is this programmatic in nature or do we have to do it? Tonight's um presentation is about a have to um this is about IEP compliance. So um since the minimum staffing plan, we've had a couple of changes to our IEPs. um and RAP loads at two of our sites, one of which is the middle school here, the other one is at McDole. We've had an increase of students needing services there. And we've also had a decrease of the s service needs at Steuart. And so what we're asking for today is the approval of $60,000 of an expense um for the FTE at the
068middle school and then basically an exchange of the FTE from Stuart to McDole to cover the needs there. So, um, I wanted to thank Fran and, uh, the special education teams at Harter, at McDole, and at Stuart for all of their work, um, this past year with our students and at all of our sites. Um, but for those three schools and specifically that had the changes to our IEP needs. That was a lot. So, any questions? All right. Thank you. questions. All right. I will now entertain a motion that the board of education approve an additional 1.0 full-time equivalent special education teacher at Kanelan Harter Middle School and the reallocation of 1.0 full-time equivalent from Keanel John Stewart Elementary School to Kaneland McDall Elementary School. So move second. And roll call, please. Mr. McCauley. Hi,
069Mr. Stalup. Hi, Mr. Manivsky. Hi, Mr. Klesner. Hi, Mrs. Simmons. Hi, Mr. Cook. Hi. Thank you. Motion carries. 6. The resolution is approved. The fifth item of new business is a postreerendum communications plan. Dr. Rowing, if you could provide more information. Yes. I'm going to hand this off to Mr. Chavez. All right. Good evening, board members. I do want to start off with a couple of stories to share. We're going to talk about past triumph and future partnership. They say that communication is key. It's how we build trust, how we make sure that our community feels that they are part of the journey uh when it comes to our shared mission and vision. First, I want to talk about the pre-referendum communications plan. And uh that was a great success in collaboration with our board,
070our staff, and our community. So, it was great to see everybody get out there and come together for this shared vision. Uh, our strategy was simple yet powerful. Uh, it included really just focusing on transparency, clarity, and also just showing the why. We didn't we didn't just go out there and tell people what we needed. We showed them the reasons why we needed this for the future of our students and to move this district forward. Uh, our website became a hub of information. our social media buzzed with a ton of social media posts to really get the information out there. Uh we held countless community forums. We wanted to make sure that we answered every question, no matter how big or how or how small. Uh let's take a look at the overview of some
071of the actions that were taken for the pre-referendum communications plan. Uh there were over 115 social media posts. We reached over 43,000 users. We had over 8,000 interactions. I produced over 14 videos that garnered 2,750 views. Uh we did five press releases that resulted in over 10 news stories. I launched a social media advertising campaign which had over 54,000 views. We uh included advertisements in local publications such as the uh Cane County Orange Peel Gazette. And we also distributed mailers which reached over nine 9,000 businesses and homes and much more. Uh we already talked about some of the uh committees and some of the forums that we held. Uh the result the referendum passed. So very proud of that. That wasn't just a win for the district. I think that was a resounding vote of
072confidence from our community. and uh it proved that when we communicate effectively, when we come together, when we listen, and we can always accomplish great things together. So, next I'm going to start talking about what we're going to be doing post referendum communications here. Um passing the referendum was a very significant achievement. Uh really though, that was just the opening act. The really important part is implementing these facility improvements. And with that being said, we have some very significant projects as were just discussed. That's some large amounts of money. So it's very important now to have very robust communications plan as we move forward so we can continue to engage our community. We want to make sure that we have a roadmap, a clear road map that we get to our end goal efficiently. Uh
073also want to make sure that we get there safely and that we bring everybody along with us and everybody knows where we're headed. Our overarching objective for the post-referendum period is clear. It's to effectively communicate with the Kanan community. Uh we will continue to ensure there's transparency, there's engagement and a partnership that really values community input and we want to make sure that we continue that. We're excited about the future of our schools and we want to make sure the community is excited about that as well. So, let's jump into some of the key components here of the post-referendum communications plan. So, one thing I want to start with is just a high overview of everything. We're going to continue there to provide regular updates across our various channels. Uh mainly our website, social media,
074and newsletter. Uh we're going to continue to push out that information, but we want to make sure that information is tailored. Uh, let's face it, your Kalin High School student probably isn't reading that district newsletter and your grandma's probably not, you know, checking out X. So, we want to make sure that those messages are very tailored. We want to make sure that we inform our community about those project milestones. Uh, we also want to make sure that they're aware of of timelines and also opportunities for them to get involved as well. And again, the way to do that is to make those messages accessible, clear, and in different formats to make sure we engage various segments of our community. We'll also have a dedicated project website. Uh this is meant to be the hub of
075information. This is going to be the place to go for really your ultimate source for all things referendum. Uh this is going to have your detailed project information, transparent financial information, architectural designs, construction plans, and just those progress updates. Uh our goal here is to serve as that primary resource for up-to-date project information, and that's really going to hope to enhance the trust and transparency with the community through that sustained transparency on the website of all that information. uh feedback mechanisms. Uh we believe that you know two-way or communication is a two-way street. Uh super important to have these feedback mechanisms and that way we can have our community we can basically solicit our community through feedback forms through surveys and gather their feedback. Uh the goal here is to really ensure that they are
076aware of our communication strategies. But when we gather that feedback, one of the things that I always say, the most important part of that feedback is to actually implement it. So we want to make sure that we review our communication strategies as we go through this process. Uh I want to make sure that we address our community's needs as well. And what we can do there is just take that community's pulse and make sure that our communication is always on beat. Next will be visual progress updates. Sometimes seeing is truly believing. So we will certainly provide visual progress updates of these projects. Uh we'll be sharing monthly and photo video updates on our website, social media and newsletters. Uh we really want to showcase the tangible progress being made on our facilities. Uh we want
077to just make sure that we engage in our excite our community by showing them that visual progress. Uh they'll be able to see their tax dollars at work and seeing the schools improve right before their eyes with these visual progress updates. Press releases. Uh over the last couple years I have established a relationship with various news outlets in the area. So another thing that we want to do is continue to leverage press releases and target the local media. Um these are going to be issued during significant milestones or whenever new be uh new information becomes available. Uh our goal here is to gener is to generate information that will engage the broader community and also uh we also want to make sure that we highlight those key achievements and also highlight when the community is
078becoming involved. Uh basically we want the whole community to be a part of this exciting journey and not just feel like they're bystanders on the sidelines. Community engagement events. We believe that a huge impact on the last goound was having those direct conversations with our community members at these community engagement events. That's why we're going to host community engagement events this time around as well. Those will include tours of the facilities. Those will also include the community forums and also uh the committees which I believe we're going to be getting to in the next presentation. So more on that. Uh these events are designed to encourage open discussion about the projects. This will be an opportunity for the community to ask questions to offer suggestions and give that feedback. Uh this is basically our open
079door policy for the community. Social media engagement uh I think was a very powerful tool that we used uh in our toolbox the last time around. So we will continue to use that as well. Facebook, Instagram, and X are our three main platforms that we'll continue to uh push information out on. And again, we'll be using that targeted messaging to reach specific demographics within our community. So whether you're scrolling through your Facebook while drinking your coffee in the morning or checking out news before you go to bed, we want to meet people where they're at. So again, those uh will aim to resonate with every aspect of our community as we do have a very diverse community. All right. And finally, we recognize the importance of trusted voices. Uh one of the things that I
080do is attend our uh local chamber of commerce meetings. So I basically visit each month to connect with local leaders uh share things that we're working on. They share things that they're working on and we see how we can come together to influence the community. So uh we will still continue to collaborate with local leaders, local chambers of commerce and other key stakeholders in the area. Uh we want to make sure that these folks can help us spread those key messages and also help with community engagement as well. Uh we believe that doing this they'll be able to help us foster that broader community engagement that we're looking for this time around as well. All right. So we are building trust together I believe with our community leaders as well as the school district. Uh
081we're going to go ahead and continue with this postreferendum communications plan. But it's not just a detailed strategy. It's a commitment to the Keaneland community that we want to continue to be transparent. We want to make sure that Keaneland remains a transparent and also um a engaging entity as we proceed with the projects with our community. Um we want to prioritize interaction, transparency, and regular updates. We hope to foster a deep trust with our community by engaging in this communications plan. And we want to, you know, we're not just building buildings here. We're building a stronger, more connected Keeland with completing this referendum. Thank you. Any questions? What's your timing on issuing the schedule for the town halls or some of that? How far out in advance are you looking to schedule these? Sure. We
082don't have a schedule quite yet. The first step is going to be to present those those committees tonight. The structure for everything. Once we have that structure set and it's all agreed upon, then right from there, we can start scheduling those tours depending on when the projects get along. also identify if there's maybe an opportunity for tours to see what's what the conditions look like prior as well and then also start scheduling some of those uh community town halls as well that we want to engage with and everything else but coming soon no schedule at the moment kind of taking it in those steps there of establishing those committees first. Yeah, I think the financial transparency is going to be be the biggest one, right? We pass the and that's we all heard that feedback.
083It's like, all right, well, if if you guys get this money, what are you going to actually do with it? As if we can kind of hide it somewhere, put it in a hole, and then use it for our retirement. Um, so I think that's going to be the biggest thing is communicating when we're spending this money. So, even to the point of communicating, hey, uh, we issued bonds for $35 million. This cash is now in hand on this date. Here's what we're going to do and how it's going to work itself out up front. $35 million is going to go into architecture and building plans and ordering pre-ordering materials just so these folks know uh and we know of course um where these dollars are being spent. I mean not down to the the
084penny of like this we bought these screws but I think generally speaking every time we hit and spend cut a check for something I think that should be posted somewhere. Um, if we are going to do, you know, kind of the visual like updates and stuff as ground breaks and as things get added on, we could probably do, you know, that picture, video, time lapse, something like that. But also put kind of what what the price tag of that specific thing is on. Yeah. Because that's going to be the big thing. It's like they want to see that from start to finish. We started with $141 million. This is how it's been used and in each step of the way for each individual project. I think that's going to be the the most transparent thing
085that we're going to be able to do with this community. Yeah, it's a great point, great feedback. Things are already rolling, so it's good to start putting that information out there. I think that's a great idea whenever you're showing that visual progress to then put that price tag on it so you can correlate that information. Yeah, I think you're already on that. I think that's where you're going with how all of it anyway. I just wanted Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, good feedback. I like that. And and maybe there's a way at the a financial page as part of this that you could say put some real big buckets planning, pre-ordering, uh Steuart, uh the high school list the schools and say, you know, drop in some round figures that are going to ultimately
086get to a total of the 140 million, etc., you know, so that they can see big picture, right? They're not going to know that it's so many dollars and cents in each one, but generally big picture that there was planning that cost $12 million or $5 million or whatever those numbers turn into, you know, and divide that and drop in some big picture because I think, you know, a parent at Shields is going to care more about Shields than they are about the high school right today. you know, in a year or five years, they're probably going to look back or think back and say, you know, I'm glad we did spend that money. So, I think as part of the transparency, I think that'll give them a visual that big picture, they'll know that
087where where the money ultimately went and what it was for. It's a great idea. I think as we build out this website and show that financial transparency, we can look for opportunities of how that looks visually pleasing to everybody out there and show that big picture along with the steps along the way as you mentioned would be a great idea as well and how we build out that web page. So, good feedback there. Yeah, I think as that those pictures become clearer too, you know, right now we're still it's still very conceptual as those financial and construction pictures become clearer, we'll be providing milestone updates on on all those things. I've also asked uh Mr. Chavez to uh this summer take a lot of before pictures. As a guy that's remodeled the house, I'm bad
088at taking before pictures so the after pictures aren't nearly as uh impressive. Uh so uh we I've asked him to really get out there and take a lot of before pictures so we can demonstrate the transformation to the community. And I really like the idea of the local media too getting it out a little bit further than just you know the folks in the Kingland district. It is kind of nice to know that hey you know we are up and coming as far as remodels um you know with having computer science building out some of our business classrooms upgrading some stuff fieldhouse all these different things because I ultimately right if we're building new developments we want to draw you know more folks to this place we're working on curriculum we're working on you know
089that that excellence you know so we want to we want to draw of folks who want to be in our area and add to the to to our our a diverse community. So, I like that idea. Absolutely. Yeah. Last time around, we had some new stories make it all the way into newspapers in Chicago. So, that'll be the goal this time around. I think you make a great point there. One of the points of the referendum is to uh bring new members to the community and help with growth. So, that'll do it. It sounds like you got a good plan here. All right. Appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chavez. There's no action necessary tonight for the post-referendum communications plan. The sixth item of new business is the Keaneland Construction Committees and
090Community Input Update. Dr. Rowan, if you can provide more information, grabbing my clicker. Got the clicker. All right. Um presentation mode. So, um, as we identified, uh, we are going to have, uh, community opportunities to be involved in the planning. Um, and so I want to go through, uh, what that's going to look like here. And so, uh, starting off with the committee structure. There we go. That's that'll be all right. I think it's kind of small. Um but essentially uh working with at at the high school um which is obviously the biggest project working with two working teams and those uh those advisory uh teams being the academic core areas and the uh physical education and athletic areas. Those are kind of two different groups coming together. Uh we do have some of the
091uh specific areas uh where maybe there's less of uh Thank you. Smaller than I expected, less of a um a uh community increase or input. You know, when we talk about HVAC, I don't think anyone gets really excited about Hback, but maybe they do. Jackie does. But um opportunities, uh transportation, maintenance. Obviously, we'll be involving stakeholders there. may not be as as wide of a community draw. Um, but all of those groups uh coming into a steering committee largely made up of of administration and um construction management and the um the architects and we can discuss if the board would like a representative on that um as we work through this. Um and then obviously coming back to school board, our um our uh commitment is to have a referendum construction update monthly. And then
092as we move into the committee structure for next year, the facility and finance committee would obviously get a little more uh detailed on some of those things. Um as we look at um the elementary schools, obviously a a slightly smaller uh set of projects there. again uh HVAC and roof uh carpet flooring um we do need to involve some stakeholders maybe not again at the same level um but as we work into playgrounds I think that's an area where community reaching out to the students parents all those people to uh to become a working team there to provide feedback on that go back I like your charts the one question I have is what is the steering committee school board relationship ship on the So that that is us. That is essentially again administration uh
093architect. Yes. And uh and construction manager. If the if the school board would like a representative on the steering committee, we can discuss that. Uh we will be providing updates. I provide updates to you guys weekly through the our weekly update structure and then providing a public board uh update um on a on a monthly basis. And what what uh input or say does the school board have any say? Yeah. So, I think there's there's a couple of options. Schoolboard members could we could uh sit no more than two school board members on each one of those advisory input teams. Um or as I said, if they want to have a member or two on the steering committee, the steering committee is more of a detail level. Okay. Uh this is more of the I'm
094pointing here like all sorry. uh uh the user advisory user groups are more of a concept tell us what you want right tell us tell us what you'd like to see in a fieldhouse and then go back you know have the architect and the CMS go back work with us and really kind of put together like what it looks like right y um kind of like the um the HGTV and then what does it how does it really manifest um and throughout that process you know um again continually bringing information back to the school board through the normal channels that we communicate. Okay. So, not that I want to be a micromanager or not that anything's going to happen, but if something comes to the steering committee and then presented to the school board and
095we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is not what we thought is going to happen. What can the school board do? Well, that would be you directing me to change plan. Oh, I I will continue to work for you throughout this entire project. So, uh, if there are areas where and that's where that that normal update and here's where we're going and if there are junctions that don't fit like, you know, if we if we plan our um our board update on the construction for the second meeting of the month, but there's an important junction, I'm not going to wait. I'm going to bring that to the first meeting and say, provide me your input. If there's a point at which we need a decision made, we'll we'll bring that here. Okay. All right. So
096on any one of those you know items like science or locker rooms or any one of the circles what makes up one of those circles what's the composition of those? Yeah. So those are opportunities where we may um we you know we'll have a a core group of people you know representing community board um you know uh students variety of people in there. There may be situations in which we need to pull in teachers for a very specific more more teachers for a very specific uh reason based on their content knowledge. Right? So as we plan let's say you know we're converting the west gym into the CTE spaces as we plan that as an addition to that core planning group we will be engaging with this construction manager with the architect those those CTE
097voices there may be um business partners you know and and as we work with science labs we may bring in experts in science equipment alongside of our teachers alongside of those architects to have those conversations. So is the academic core planning the committee and these are the individuals making up the committee is that no the committee would be made up of a standing group of five seven or something somewhere along those lines. Those groups would be providing input on specific topics that require kind of a specific gotcha set of of of skills or knowledge. So when they have an issue on science, they're going to reach out to those specific science people, experts to say, "Okay, this is what we're looking at. We need some feedback." Yep. So what we would do is we'd reach
098out to say our science teachers in that case, right? Myself, Dr. Horn or architect may meet with them, may meet with, you know, a science um uh equipment company or two. Then we would bring that feedback back to the core group and say okay here's what the science teachers are saying right so that's that's meant as additional feedback for those again as and if you look at the the other side g opportunity for coaches PE teachers you know um even youth sport groups in in the community to be providing specific feedback as we go through that process and those would be more ad hoc groups than than standing teams. All [Music] right. Okay. Um, so building the working teams, we we do want a variety of stakeholders in there. Again, uh, we we'd invite one
099or two board members for each team. Um, opportunity to join the core planning group or advisory import groups. Um, especially if there's a specific sense of of knowledge within there. Um, we are going to be engaging staff and students through additional meetings. um that we'll be bringing that information back from the steering committee. Then back to that those um those user input groups. Um we will likely be doing some site visits with some of our teams to see more modern science, more modern CTE. Let's go see some field houses. Um and then engage with those those schools say what works, what doesn't, what do you wish you did different? I actually had a conversation up at the track sectional with the AD at Huntley and she's like, I'd love to tell you where we're going
100around. So, um, love to hear it. So, those those are the opportunities that we're going to have. Um, and then, uh, regularly scheduled meetings during the planning phase. So, being on part of these teams will be a commitment. Um, and we will have regularly scheduled meetings. After that initial planning phase, it will slow down, right? The planning phase is going to be fairly intense for probably 6 to 8 months and then it will slow down as we are working then through the the the pro uh the construction of the projects on an as needed basis. We may need to reconvene the team if there's a something's no longer available. We need to have some additional input on what what have you. Then we would reconvene those teams. And so um uh so um maybe it's
101not on there. I meant to put it on there. Uh so what we will be doing, oh it's a Google form. So we will be providing an opportunity to get involved through a community Google form we'll send out in June uh asking people with their interest in joining uh one of those teams. My guess is we're going to have more people than we can actually bring on. Um a committee of 20 is not a committee. It's it's a pizza party. All right. So, uh, we we do need to to pair that down to make it a really a working group. But those people who are not chosen for one of those, you know, more more core groups, we will say if you're interested in being involved in some ad hoc groups, we can we can
102reach out to you in those capacities, too. Um, so then community feedback opportunities. I know Mr. Chavez alluded to this. We will be having town hall meetings during the planning phase and then throughout. Um, probably not at the pace I did this year. Um, okay, that's fine. Or if so, I'll just have to have a talk with my wife about it. Um, but we'll also be using community uh feedback surveys. Um, what would you like to see? What are the good things you like to see uh communicated? We do um I like my surveys, so um expect some of those. And then we do expect to have some update town halls throughout the construction phase. here's where we are possibly as things open up bringing people into the the new facilities and um I do
103want to celebrate a variety of things. So as we do this uh we will have a variety of celebration activities for uh the beginning of a project, the the ending of a project, the you know the last truck to roll out, taking Mount Kaneland off the property, those types of things. Um, so I do I do plan uh to to try to engage the community through some fun activities too as we go through this big scissors. That's right. Giant scissors, golden shovels or whatever. Yep. That that's just me painting the shovel gold for you, but yeah, that's not in the golden shovels are not in the budget. Not in the budget. Steel and some Rustoleum paint and we'll be good. Um, all right. So, any questions? I know we handled some of them already, but
104any questions? All right. Fantastic. Thank you. All right. There is no action necessary tonight for the Keanland construction committees and community input. It is now time for the superintendent and board report. Dr. Rowing, do you have anything to share? I do. Uh so we will be having a special board meeting June 23rd uh at 6 pm to allow us to approve some hiring that we are currently in the process mostly administrative and to conduct some business necessary for our budget as we identified earlier today. So we want to make that uh clear. Good luck to our baseball team as they begin state regionals tomorrow playing Wheaten Academy at home at 4:30. Uh, I was going to say good luck to our softball team. Uh, they were playing this afternoon. Uh, but they won three-0. Sweet.
105Over Woodstock North. So, it's been a good year for us against Woodstock in a variety of sports. So, um, uh, so they won three-0 this evening. They will be playing, I believe, uh, Friday afternoon. I'm not sure who the their opponent are is. Um, and then finally, I do want to introduce uh Sophia Stroll as the student board member for the 25 26 school year. Sophia is a member of the Crier, the Key Club student council uh and has covered um a variety of board meetings this year. So, she's not a new face to the boardroom. She's going to get a new seat. Um, welcome. She is also a youth coach with the Sugar Grove Park District. um throughout when we interviewed her, she demonstrated an interest in understanding how school boards and uh local
106governments work, which I thought was fascinating for a high school uh student. Um looking forward to that. Uh I really look forward to working with her over the next year and her continuing the tradition of great student board members. She's got big shoes to fill, but I think she's had a little mentoring in that. So, uh that that is all I have for today. All right. Welcome. She make her go to the podium and say something. I promise her she wouldn't have to. Otherwise, she would have prepared something. I'm sure. Dr. Morgan. Speak. Yeah. I just have one item. Uh tonight, tonight on as part of the consent agenda, the board approved the updated rental fee agreement. And one, I wanted to thank the board for approving that um and for all the work that's
107happened both last year and this year on that agreement. I also wanted to thank the rental uh committee that we have which is made up of myself, Mr. Mark Payeyton, and our director of buildings and grounds, Mr. David Rolman, uh M Chris Weiss, um and then also Claire Langford and Keith Tankersley. Last year, um as you all may remember, we increased our fees. um they had not been increased in quite some time and so um we did increase our our fees to align with you know district costs. Um and one of the things that included in that was uh revising the outdoor space rental structure. We had updated it and went from a flat fee um and and implemented a new model that was a teambased structure and it ranged from $800 to $3,500. um
108in that new fee. And so as part of the change this year, uh we did simplify that. We went back to a flat fee of $1,000. We we got rid of the the team structure. We also clarified expectations for user responsibility, including language that allows for the district to bar charge back any costs for field damage on those outdoor spaces, but then also more importantly maintain flexibility for long-term rentals um and to be able to work uh individually with organiz organizations on those extended agreements. And um this was really important, I think, the opportunity to revisit this. we changed something last year and what we realized is that we overshot. Um we heard a lot of feedback from our community partners on those outdoor spaces um and the work that they do to support not
109only our kids but also those spaces um you know whether it's baseball fields or soccer fields or football fields and we really looked at our district costs on those spaces this year and that confirmed you know that the charge that we implemented last year for for this year um didn't align with our costs. And so that was really the main reason for going back to that thousand flat fee. So I just want to thank everyone um for their continued commitment to reviewing that and allowing us to make that change because it it benefits the district and it it benefits our community partners. Thank you all. Thank you Dr. Boen. For one last time, our student representative Sarah Slatterie on your final night. I just realized that um for three years in a row, the representative
110has been a choir member. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. Um good evening. Uh the school year has now come to an end. Last week, after long studying hours and hard work, high school students finished their finals on a high note. With summer right around the corner, seniors spent their last week filled with fun, memorable, and lavish activities, including senior sunset on Peterson Field, athletic and academic awards ceremonies, a senior cruise at Navy Pier in Chicago, and the graduation ceremony itself at NIU. I participated and attended each of these events, and I can personally say they all made my last week extremely memorable. Getting this opportunity to be student representative this year taught me so much more than I thought it would. Not only did it teach me about the insights of the Kingley community and its
111values, the literal logistics and financial aspects that are taken into consideration, but I also learned what it means to be a respected leader and voice for those around me that may not have the confidence to come up here and speak. Holding a respected position like this comes with a lot of opportunities and responsibilities. It also comes with necessary commitment that could be challenging at times. However, this role taught me how to uh hold myself publicly and speak to others better, to which I will always appreciate. Next year, I hope you can give the next student representative the same insights I saw and learned while I held this position. Sophia Schro and I met last year through the crier, and we've been close ever since. She's one of the most intelligent, grounded, sincere, and motivated students
112I know. Her passion for everything she does prove to me proves to me just how well she'll handle this role. Because of this, I implore you all to talk with her, learn more about her as a person, and use her well-rounded insight to help you get a better understanding of the student body as a whole. With all this being said, this position helped me greatly when it came to learning more and becoming more educated in areas that I was more ignorant of initially, and I can't thank you all enough for it. I hope the next year um will provide a wonderful learning opportunity for Soph Sophia, as it did for me. I already know she'll tell me all about it because we talk every day. So, thank you. And I have Thank you. So, Sarah,
113I speak on behalf of the board. We want to thank you for your input, your participation in the past year. We enjoyed having you as our student representative. We wish you all the best. Yes. In the future, next year. Absolutely. Next school. Thank you. I did have an omission too. I'm sorry. Um, while I recognize the track uh success last week, I forgot to mention that we have a bunch of boys competing this weekend down at uh Charleston at the state meet. So, good luck to them, too. We had to take the big bus. All right. Any board members? All right. Uh, topics for future agendas. See? None. Do we need to put the retreat on for June? Um, I sent out a survey on that to schedule it. So, I'm waiting for a few
114more people to Okay. get their information in and then we'll get that schedule that That's right. Uh, close session. The board of education is scheduled for close session to discuss the open meetings act section two sub C sub9 and two subc sub one or we anticipate action be taken following the closed session. Once the closed session has concluded, the recording will include the action taken by the board of education. No, it won't. No, we we're going to we the recording will cease with the mo the move into close session. Yeah, it's not a matter of public concern. All right. And I will entertain a motion to go into close session to discuss Illinois Open Meetings Act 2 subc sub 1 and 2 subc sub 111 at 7:39 p.m. Are the numbers off? Sorry, the numbers
115are off. It says 2C9 up here, 2C1 here, but then 2C1 2C11. It's 26 N and two 2C1. Nine and one. Nine and one. Yep. So, Open Meetings Act 2 subC sub one and two sub N. Sub N sub C sub9 N. So move second. And a roll call. Mr. Klesner. Hi. Mrs. Simmons. Hi. Mr. Cook. Hi. Mr. McCauley. Hi. Mr. Stalup. Hi Mr. Manipsky. Hi. [Music] And so we will move we are we will then go to close session.