5-28-26 Regular School Board Meeting For C.U.S.D. 95

001I call the May 28th, 2026 regular meeting on the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the Pledge of Allegiance and justice for all. As we gather tonight, I want to take a moment to reflect on the conclusion of another academic and express my sincere gratitude to the community that makes our district thrive. To our teachers and staff, thank you for your tireless dedication and the heart you pour into your classrooms every single day. To our students, congratulations on your hard work and many achievements this year. You are the reason we are all here. I also want to thank our families for your continued partnership and support, which are vital to the

002success of our school system. While the traditional school year has ended, the work of our district continues in earnest. I want to extend a special thank you to the educators and staff members who are working our summer school programs to ensure our students have ongoing support and enrichment they need. Additionally, I want to recognize our administration and the dedicated staff members who will spend their summer months preparing our facilities, refining our curriculum and handling the essential logistics required for a successful start this fall. We appreciate your commitment to ensuring our schools are ready to welcome everyone back in August. With that spirit of gratitude, I believe Mr. Goldberg, you have something to share. I do. There we go. I think many of you know of my fondness for all things that roll, explode and make

003noise. I wanted to make everybody aware that we're going to have our third annual Lake Syrac High School Car Show. There's a wonderful group of students that once again have put this together and being very community minded, they've selected a charity this year, which shout out to Mrs. Warren for helping us hook it all up. So our local food pantry will be the recipient and you can hit the link. You can register your vehicle if you so choose to bring one. You can simply make a donation or simply just come to the show and enjoy the cars. We'll have a food truck or two and I think it's a really great way for the community to get together. It's a wonderful group of students that are putting this on and of course it's a great

004charity so I hope to see you all there. Thank you. We will now move on to the items on our agenda for this evening. We have one person signed up for public comment. That's Jack Byrne. Please note that the board is genuinely interested in receiving comments for the public but will not engage in discussion or answer questions during public participation. Comments will be limited to three minutes per individual and items dealing with personnel, individual student discipline, the purchase of land and legal actions must be addressed in closed session. And if you have a prepared statement and wish to present it to the board, please leave it with Kate and we will get it afterward. Thank you. Good evening board and cabinet members. My name is Jack Byrne. I am here to speak tonight regarding the

005proposed weighted GPA and grading scale changes. I understand the district's goal of fairness and consistency. However, after reviewing this memo carefully, I believe these changes risk creating unintended consequences that could negatively impact many district 95 students. The memo repeatedly states that this proposal improves equity in college admissions and scholarship opportunities. Yet the district provides no actual evidence showing that Lake Zurich students are currently being disadvantaged by our existing GPA system. This proposal also affects a district with an unusually large number of students taking AP, honors and dual credit courses. Lake Zurich actively encourages academic rigor and many students build their schedules around challenging classes specifically because that rigor has been historically reflected in weighted GPA calculations. Under the proposed system, many students will see their weighted GPAs decrease. Not because performance change, but because the

006formula changed after years of students making academic decisions based on the current system. Other districts that modernize GPA systems approach this differently. Hereby, Glenbrook High School District 225 phased in its GPA revisions primarily for future classes, specifically noting that the changes would not affect current students and implementing the new structure would begin mostly with the class of 2029. I'm also concerned that compressing weighted GPAs may reduce meaningful academic differentiation at a time when scholarships and admissions are increasingly competitive. Most importantly, a change with this level of academic impact deserves broader stakeholder involvement before implementation. District 95's own portrait of a graduate emphasizes the importance of students becoming effective communicators. Those values should be reflected in this process and by those making these decisions, by ensuring that student voices are genuinely heard before decisions with long-term

007academic consequences are finalized. In summary, when policies are applied retroactively, when students are judged under standards that did not exist when they made their academic decisions, it creates what is in effect an ex post facto change to the system students relied upon. Whether or not that term applies legally, the principle remains the same. Fairness requires that students not be penalized after the fact for decisions made under a different set of expectations established by the district itself. Thank you for your time, consideration, and most importantly, enjoy your summer. Thank you, Jack. Next on the agenda is the consent agenda. Dr. Galt. Thank you, Mrs. Maloney. This evening I have for the board the approval of minutes from the open and closed session of the Board of Education meeting held on May 14, 2026, the 2026 World

008Language Resource Adoption for grades 6 through 12, education support personnel range and wage adjustments, depositories, investment manager, dealers, and brokers, acceptance of the Treasurer's Report, approval of the Bills Payable List, approval of the District Activity Bills Payable List, and then the approval of the Personnel Report, which includes the resignation of administrative staff, and I do want to point out that is Mr. Matt Aiello. He has served our district for 23 years. We are happy for him, sad for us, but happy for him. He is moving on to be a dean at the school that his own child will be attending. And so congratulations to Mr. Aiello. Reclamation of certified staff, change of certified staff, resignation of certified staff, employment of non-certified staff, change of non-certified staff, resignation of non-certified staff, stipends for May 28, 2026,

009and then there are two other items, change of administrative staff and employment of administrative staff, and at this time I would ask that Dr. Walsh and Mrs. Rothermel to please come forward with their recommendations to the board. And right now they are, I will just remind both of our administrators, they are recommendations to the board. We are at Spencer-Lumis, very excited, pending board approval, to welcome Ashley over down the hall four doors from Middle School North over to Spencer-Lumis. After an interview process that Ashley did go through with our team, she came rising through all of that, answering the questions of flying colors. The team absolutely adored her and her attitude and how she came across in that interview and is very excited to welcome her to the Spencer-Lumis community. Ashley has worked for 14

010years or had worked for 14 years as a middle school teacher, then has been the last two years at Middle School North as their assistant principal, but she is coming back to her roots because she originally, when she started student teaching and did her practicum experience, it was at the elementary level. So we are happy to welcome her back to that level and look forward to her collaboration and her strong leadership and her strong instructional knowledge at Spencer-Lumis. So hopefully welcome Ashley. It is my pleasure to introduce Laura Stanton as recommended for the new Arts and Literacy Division head. She will oversee English, EL, Arts and Design, and performing arts departments. Laura has been with LZHS for the last 15 years and student taught here prior to joining the English department. She has served on

011building and district committees throughout her time here, as well as many different roles within her department. She has served on the PLC plus activator team, the AI task force, the junior and freshman level English curriculum committees, the mobile learning initiative committee, the grading committee, the architect committee for the D wing. Within her department, she also has taught a myriad of classes and has spent time supporting teachers in the building as a literacy coach and instructional coach. And if you have ever used Mastery Manager in the past few years, chances are Laura has helped you with that program as she has met and worked with our Mastery Manager reps to learn everything she can about it. Outside of LZ, she has four daughters and serves as the vice president of a school board. And if you

012have any questions about quails, she can answer them. She has 24 quails at home in her backyard. Welcome, Laura. And those are the items on the consent agenda. Thank you, Dr. Galtz. May I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as prepared by the administration? So moved. So moved. Thank you, Peter. And thank you, Doug. Are there any questions? All right. Kate, can you please call the roll? Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mrs. Tim? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report. Dr. Galtz? Thank you. I have a few items for the Board of Education this evening. I'm going to go ahead and start with communication to the board. While you didn't have specific communication,

013I do want to highlight some communication that was received by the administration to make sure that the board is aware. We received some communication related to finding a way to honor the life of Logan Pfeiffer within our district. I will be working with a team to help figure out what the best avenue forward is in relationship to honoring Logan. And then additionally, communications, as you heard one of our speakers tonight speak about the GPA changes. And then we also did receive some communication related to high school lunch period requirement, which is a part of our policy recommendations. So just wanted to make sure that you knew that both representatives from the high school as well as from district have communicated back with individuals related to these topics. Also field trip approvals, both at the high

014school level. There's been one that was submitted for JV and Varsity Girls Basketball to go to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I did approve that trip as well as the girls wrestling group going to Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. So just wanted to notify you as per board policy. And then we did have a very generous donation of $2,136 from the I believe it's called Teradine in care of Matt DiPlaris. And so thank you from the robotics club as well as from the district for that generous donation. We really appreciate that. And then you do have FOIAs within the board agenda as typical. And then we had our facilities business and operations Board of Education committee meeting this evening. We really had a very small agenda which is typical during the summer at least for

015one of the meetings during the summer. So our van purchases just a quick update on that. We are still continuing with that process. However we were able to secure the 2027 model instead of the 2026 for the same cost. And so we elected to go ahead and purchase or order the newer version. And then we had some other conversations about the internal controls update and we did receive that report. The board will have more opportunities to review that report. But overall it was very positive as it relates to our processes that we have in place within our business office. And again just expect that to come your way. Several celebrations I think Mrs. Maloney started out by thanking our staff across the system and I just want to share with you just a little piece

016of what happened across many of our schools. Well all of our schools I may not have everybody represented here so I apologize if I don't. The first one there were many retirees that were celebrated across the system in very different ways. This happens to be Isaac Fox. They did have t-shirts for their retirees and had them march out with the fifth graders which I thought was awesome. You'll notice that they did partner with the middle school for our fifth graders. And so since they share a site they were able to walk over and kind of walk over that threshold into middle school and be greeted by administration there which was awesome. Additionally you'll notice some other pictures about some of the things that that happened at the end of the year certainly our promotion ceremonies

017at both of our middle schools as well as just some really fun opportunities whether that be Eagle Games whether that be some you'll notice the dunk tank etc. And then going on you'll notice that there's been some other schools that celebrated retirees that were outside doing duty. So there's a picture there because our staff is always involved in conducting duties and making sure that our students are safe. And then you can see the hand clap out at Seth Payne. May Whitney had an awesome presentation and then some fun and field day as well as you'll notice that most of our elementary buildings are signage there to really just give a shout out have an awesome summer. And then finally it would not be right not to recognize our class of 2026. And again thank you

018to board members for participating in graduation. We are really proud of our class of 2026 and I would also state that the that the teacher speaker that that day gave an incredible speech really about the students of this class and how much they taught him throughout his four years in at Lake Zurich High School and I just want to echo that we're very proud of our students and we know that they're going to make us proud as they continue on into the future. And then I also have just some few dates left to make sure that the board is aware if you recall we do have a teaching and learning board committee meeting that was added so make sure that you make note of that. Our retreat is on the 10th of course summer school

019is starting soon and then I did have Mrs. Pavich placed at each one of your seats a letter to our district 95 community as it relates to our active threat exercise that will take place next week. This is the first time that we invited voluntary staff who would like to participate to go ahead and participate. That has not happened in the past so thank you to Dr. McArdle and Danielle Stevens for making that a reality and just note that there will be loud noises etc. in the area and so we wanted to make sure that the community was well aware of that before we participated in that activity. That's all I have for you this evening. Thanks any questions or comments? Thank you. Moving on to reports to the board, Mrs. Kaiser shared the cash

020flow in the board packet. Are there any questions for Mrs. Kaiser? We'll make you walk slowly and then say no questions. All right. Thank you. The next item is the financial dashboard. Detailed information is included in the board packet. Are there any questions for Mrs. Kaiser on the financial dashboard? All right. Is the next one yours as well? Is that the click or is that? Yep, that's still me. Okay. Then the next item is the 2026-2027 collective liability insurance cooperative or CLIC. Any questions regarding that? I was just curious who's traveling overseas this school year? The high school has a group that's going to be traveling again. I can't recall but Dr. Lambert had mentioned that they were anticipating travel. Yeah, I saw that was included this year but I couldn't remember who was going

021where. I don't recall off the top of my head. I can get that though and send it up over to Dr. Gallup for you. Okay and then thank you for all of that, Mrs. Kaiser. Thank you. Yeah, the next one. Our last report to the board is the 2026-2027 weighted GPA and grading scale adjustment for Mrs. Stallion. Do any board members have questions? I do. I do. That's about it. Yeah, I understand and I was in the committee meeting and I understand here we're talking about the grade and it's then going up to the 5.0. What I was a little fuzzy about is the plus and minus and why that went all the way back. The pluses and minuses for A, B, and C. Maybe you could elaborate on that a bit more. Why that

022change? Ms. Dillon, I think that what he's speaking about is the removal of pluses and minuses and why was that decision a part of this overall GPA decision? So part of the reason why the removal of pluses and minuses is a part of this proposal is in looking at the research behind it, particularly by Dr. Guski at the University of Kentucky, the more you disagree with the data or separate students, the less accurate you actually get. So the whole grade is a more accurate reflection in regard to student performance to really be able to see how students are performing and being able to respond to it. So that is why that's part of this change, is it steep in the research? It's conflating the two. Honestly, there is the 5.0 issue, which I understand with

023neighboring districts, colleges, and so on, but are those two separate decisions that you're taking? Just to be clear, I mean, the 5.0, I understand it goes up to, you know, you could have a dual credit that goes up higher than 5.0. I understand that, but I still understand that one was not necessary for the other, right? Is that a fierce statement or not? Not necessarily. The pluses and minuses are twofold. Number one, it is steeped in research, and we did follow Guski's research in pluses and minuses in many, many districts. Public school districts follow that research. It's very robust research. Additionally, we could go, and we had talked about this, to say how would we figure pluses and minuses into a five-point GPA? It would be very tricky to do so. What you basically have

024to do is create a formula where a 5.0 would be a plus in a certain course, but in another course, it would be not a 4.5, but it might be a 4.6. So now you've got kiddos all across the spectrum with a 4.5 GPA for an honors, but if it's a plus honors, it's a 4.5, but it's a minus honors, it's a 4.3, and if it's a 90, you're really creating a lot of variation in your GPAs. Can it be done? It can. Is it typically being done right now? It is not. It is cleaner. It is aligned to research. To do an A is an A. A B is a B. So that is why we are bringing this forward in the way we did, and I do want to say this as well.

025We began studying this back in, I want to say, November. We took a very long time to reach out to local school districts, to neighboring school districts, to universities, to study the colleges and universities our students attend, to reach out to them and talk to them about best practice and how they are calculating our students' GPA. So I just want to say, not only to the Board of Education, but to the community, this was a long process with a lot of study and research, and I give our high school counseling department a lot of credit for that because they gathered a lot of information for us. So I don't know if that gives you the answer that you're looking for, but I just wanted to tell you why we landed where we landed. Right. I'm

026fully, I know this is not a bad decision, just to be clear. This is not a bad decision by our policies. It's the administration and to the extent that it goes to the, but we support the administration. I'm not trying to make a distinction there. I'm just saying that we're not, you know, so when we understand it, it takes me a while to process it. So I appreciate, even when I was in the committee, for some reason I, you know, I start thinking those two distinctly separate decisions and rationale. I wouldn't, you guys are educational expert. I'm not going to argue about your Kentucky University research. I know it's not unusual for pluses and minuses in college or in high schools. There may be other places that it's not done. It's really not unusual. And

027I wouldn't say it's universal in colleges and in high school to eliminate pluses and minuses. So having said that, having said that, I just wanted to put it out there and that, you know, I appreciate the changes in the community. I appreciate that. But they are good. But I do support that good thoughtful decision making that you went through on this. Ideally, I would have preferred a little more gestation time at our level. That would have been appreciated. But I'm not one to quibble with experts on your decision making when particularly it's not the board that has to vote on it. And it's really a jurisdiction to do so. So that's just my comment. Thank you very much. Natasha, do you have anything? I do. I have a technical question first. I know it says

028we are going to keep the pluses and minuses on the report cards from before, but will their weight still be included in their GPA moving forward or will it just be for appearance on the report card? It'll be for appearance on the report card. So moving forward, the whole weighted grade will be applied to it. Okay. So the past pluses and minuses will not be weighted into their future GPA. Correct. Okay. And then my other question and I think maybe just for the ease of the community because I know senior parents understand why this had to happen now and why it had to happen quickly, but maybe not everyone who has a graduating senior who saw the effects that really happened just this year. So I want to make sure that maybe also the community

029understands this was something that was particularly happening this year, why it had to happen so quickly and maybe we can elaborate on that. Of course. We were made aware late this fall that there were some students who were attending certain universities whose GPAs were being recalculated because it fell above that one point higher than the unweighted GPA. So the unweighted GPA universally is a 4.0. The one point over is a weighted GPA of a 5. Because our GPA is higher than that one point at certain universities, the GPAs get recalculated. At some universities, the weighted GPAs aren't even counted. They go to our unweighted GPAs and for those... I think that is a really important point. Can you say that last part again? Yes. So for certain universities, they don't look at the weighted GPA.

030They look at the unweighted GPA. And so all of that piece of moving up to that's not taken into consideration and where it really comes into play is for many of these students, it impacted their financial package for the future. And it was very costly in tens of thousands of dollars. And so when families brought that to our attention, we needed to respond by doing deep learning, by looking at the research and responding appropriately. And then similarly, do you think most districts in this area are going to be moving in a similar fashion if they haven't already done so? I do. Part of our research was we reached out to school districts who are currently in the process of reviewing their GPA because of this change. There's a school district in the suburbs who are

031on the exact same timeline as we are. There is a school district that moved to this two years ago. And there's a school district that will be moving to it within the next two. We also looked at our surrounding school districts for comparable. And then we have a very robust comparable group of schools that we look at for our comparable report. And so we also looked at those school districts to see what they do. And so that was part of our deep dive in our research to see what are the current practices and how do we align because we also want to make sure that our students have an accurate representation of how they compare to their peers. And if we're not aligned, then they're not going to have an accurate representation of how they

032compare to their peers who are going to and applying to these same universities. And the universities that we looked at and we reached out to, they are universities that have high application by our students and also high enrollment by our students. So these were not schools that were on the fringe of where our students were applying or attending. These were in our top seven schools that kids were applying to and attending. And so it matters to these families in regards to their ability and their equitable access to financial assistance. Sure. Yeah, again, sorry again. I kind of went around and did my sampling of a very few in my own household. And I could tell you the, and maybe you could answer that for the community and to other students. And then they say, whoa,

033why would I, if I could get an A for 90, that I should try to get 99 or 100? I mean, that, why would I do that if I could just get a 90 and get an A? And for all my life, I've, I mean, my kids strive a lot. And so how do you, and how do you answer that for students that in terms of differentiation and incentives? Before administrators answer, I am actually gonna ask. Mrs. Daniger made some really profound comments earlier. And I do think if you wouldn't mind sharing something that you shared with your own child. Yes, so I mentioned in the last meeting, my kid is going to be impacted in a negative way as far as general number that he sees on his report card. For what his GPA

034will become. And I'm okay with this because as a senior mom, my other child was impacted because of the way we were calculating our GPA. But to answer your question, my child just finished his finals this week. And he had currently had an A plus in one class. And he got, I believe, an A plus on the final. But when the teacher was calculating his score, she had found a missing summative. And he swore up and down he had done this. And so he emailed the teacher, and she said she was going to look. And she couldn't find it. But he had an A plus in the class, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise his grade would have dropped to an A minus, which I knew at this point doesn't really

035matter, but to him it mattered. And it mattered even though I told him it's probably not going to make that big of a difference. But I also told him that A plus is the reason the teacher gave you the benefit of the doubt. So his character, proving his past work, all of those things do matter. Now, will it matter on the number? No, but it matters to who he is as a child, and it matters to his character. So I do think, I know at the end of the day the kids want that number. He still wants that number. But there is something to those pluses and minuses. And hopefully we can instill those in our kids to that value of doing your best regardless. It's the same thing of doing your best when no

036one is watching, putting in the extra hours of sports practice when your coach isn't there. All of those things are part of the values that parents should be instilling in their kids. And I know the teachers do too. Very well said. Yeah, very well said. And maybe you should tell it to all the other kids because they're a lot. Yeah, and again, I'm supporting it. I'm just making a distinction between the need to get the 5.0 piece, which is a separate decision, and the pluses and minuses. But thank you very much. Appreciate it. Doug? Thank you, Eileen. Aubrey, thank you for coming this evening. I really appreciate the report that you guys put together. Angela, you as well, obviously. Have you guys run any calculations that would show how many students are going to see

037decreases, how many might see increases from this? Have we done that yet? Do we have an idea of what that's going to look like yet? We have not taken that step yet, no. So your intent is to do that before the students come back to school over the summer? The data team has a very heavy lift this summer to recalculate and ensure that our students come back to school with their GPA recalculated. And there's some other steps that we need to take as well to validate that. But there's going to be a lot of behind the scenes work that the data team will do, and we can't do that yet because we don't have all of the grades in. Makes sense. And I think that at a macro level, wanting to align our grades to

038what colleges are looking at, since there's a lot of focus on college ready, then I think that makes sense. There's obviously going to be a disruption in the interim here. I had a question. So you're talking about waiting dual credit and AP classes to be equivalent. Is there data that supports that's the right thing to do? I'm just wondering, what do we base that decision on? Again, that was part of our data study. Most surrounding schools and our comparable schools, and then the research shows that the rigor that is accepted and expected in dual credit classes is the same as that expected in AP classes. And so both of those types of classes, the goal is to earn college credit. And so treating those classes similar. And then it also goes along with the weight

039that the state puts on those classes when we think about the dual credit requirement with the APA. And the emphasis on putting students in the next most rigorous course. Okay. Yeah, I think it's obviously since we're giving them equivalency, it makes sense. So one of the things I'm concerned about is, so you're going to do these calculations and they're going to come out in the fall when the students come back or such. And are you going to provide each student like, here's the formula we use, here's the methodology so you can see exactly how you computed the score? We are, yes. So part of our process is going to be, we're going to have very thorough communication processes, we're going to put out a variety of communication methods, but one of the processes we're going

040to do is we're going to walk through how we recalculated, we're going to give the formulas so that families can look at their old GPA, look at the new GPA, and they themselves can do that calculation. We're also going to provide them a Google form that if they feel that they have found an error in that calculation, that they will be able to report that. That will go directly to myself, and then I'll work with the data team to review those, and then we'll reach back out to those families to let them know our findings. Yeah, I wanted to make sure where there was a process in place. Should there be someone who believes there was an error made, that they'd have a chance to have a dialogue with you about that. Do we think

041that, so we've chosen a methodology here where we're kind of doing this retroactive recalculation. There's also the possibility of doing the grandfathering. And what, in your mind, what are the pros and cons of those two approaches, and why did you select this approach versus others? So the reason that we did what we're doing now is because of the students and families that were impacted in the fall. Universities are changing the way they are awarding their scholarships. And if we grandfather this in, we could have one or two more years of students who have a GPA over a 5.0. And I think it's, I'm going to say it again, because I think Aubrey did such a wonderful job. Some universities don't say, we'll recalculate it for you down to a 5.0. They say, you're over a

0425.0, we're going to look at unweighted, you're going to a four. So that's what's happening. We can't afford to let another group of kids go through and have that happen to them. Can you explain the timeline for that too? Because that has also been a critical piece of all of this, when their notification comes and it's not always before their decision is made. Yeah, they were notified of their award. You mean their, yeah, well, we found out in the fall that students were getting their award money and it was quite lower than what was expected. And they hadn't finished or finalized decision making. And some of them though, some of them had. And it just wasn't equitable and fair to our students. So the reason we decided this can't wait, we can't grandfather another group

043of kids in is because our kiddos are going to start, they're going to come back to school and start requesting their transcripts. And they're going to start early submissions to their universities of choice. And the choice they make could very well be part of it, could be their scholarship money. So if we had waited and if we grandfathered this in, we could have put other families and other students at risk of losing dollars. Yeah, I think that's a great answer because that is obviously directly impactful to financial well-being of some of our families. Thank you. John, one last question. This might be for you. Sorry to put you on the spot about this. Well, Dr. Walsh comes up. Can I just add something to what Ms. Stallion said? We have a couple of families who

044will not find out their final financial impact until they receive that final transcript in June. So we have several families who may still lose further scholarship and funds when that final transcript reaches those universities this summer. So that's again part of the imperative of making this adjustment. Yeah, and I think it's great that we're doing that. First of all, I think it's the right thing to do, I do it. There's going to be a disruption and I appreciate that. I think the community outreach part of this is very important to make people understand the whys and wherefores and the benefits to everybody. Question, I understand that you may have had conversations with some of your staff at high school about this and I'm just curious what the feedback for that was. How do you think

045the staff's going to feel about this? How do they feel about it? There's no consistency ever on any question, right? There's always someone who's on one side and someone who's on the other side. I will say the big thing from the staff is let's be consistent. So if we're going to round, let's make sure everybody's rounding. If we're going to truncate, let's make sure everybody's truncating. So I will say the big piece that I've heard is, yeah, we need to get back to kind of where everybody else is at. We're very overinflated in our GPA. And I would say the other thing they're concerned about is the finals question that was brought up earlier. Like, we're going to have kids who, you know, but I will, as a father of a sophomore who is in

046the midst of her finals as well, it is a conversation we have at the dinner table and we talk about what her options are and what we value as a family, but also time. She works a lot now, so how much is she going to put towards other stuff as well? So I just want to, it's going to be a conversation that families have to have. If you have that 86, 87, what do you value as a family? Are we going to work hard for that A? Are you okay, you know, possibly getting that lower grade? Thank you. And I just want to say again, extend my appreciation to I know a lot of thoughtful work went into this whole process and I really appreciate it. I do think ultimately it's the right thing to

047do. So thank you. Thank you, Eileen. Thank you, Doug. Alicia, do you have any questions? I think it's been well covered. I appreciate the thorough answers and thank you for asking good questions. Thank you. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, I do. I have several questions. So one of them, I was kind of confused. So you said when the students have like a 5.0, the colleges are not giving them scholarships? When they're over a 5.0. So if they're like a 5.1? If they're a 5.0, we went to a 5.6. Our GPA actually went to a 5.6. Some universities will not honor any GPAs over a 5.0. And they will put them down to an unweighted 4.0 immediately. And that's where they'll figure their scholarships. Okay. And then I guess one of my questions is like, who is being

048negatively influenced the most when it comes to, is GPAs when it comes to, is it people with pluses? So if you have a B plus, they're going to be hurt more than someone with a B minus, right? So like the people who worked harder are being hurt more than the people who worked less or did lesser than, am I correct on that? That would be one of the challenges in regards to currently a plus is weighted more heavily than a whole grade or a minus, yes. Okay. But I do want to clarify for a moment. So I don't know that we can equate that to effort. So I do want to say that there are kids who work very, very hard to get that B minus, to get the A minus, sometimes to get the

049C. So I do want to make sure we're not equating, work ethic with that grade. Okay. Okay, I totally agree with that. But also think about it from the student's point of view. So you have a student who got a B plus and somebody who got a B minus. And now all of a sudden that B plus, we're not rewarding it. Like I just want to make sure I'm understanding that. And then like is it also AP students that are most affected by this and dual credit students? Are they the ones whose GPAs will be influenced the most or am I interpreting that incorrectly? So everyone's GPA is going to be impacted by this. Our dual credit students are going to be impacted twice. The first way our dual credit students are going to be

050impacted is their courses are going to be raised up to the equivalent of the AP. So they're going to see a bump in their GPA because of the move from the honors level to the AP level. But then that's going to get leveled out a bit when we then move down to, we move to the 5.0 weighted scale. In regards to all of it, everyone is still on an unweighted of a 4.0. So that is the consistency that we have. That is the consistency that will continue. It's really when we're looking at that weighted piece in regards to bringing the dual credit up to the equivalent of AP, keeping honors at their level and all other classes the other. And it's really taking out the inflation that is currently taking in our GPAs and allowing

051our students to see where they are actually at in comparison to their like peers in the neighboring school districts and those other students who are applying to these same universities. Okay. I think when it comes to the research, 100%, you're correct. I think it totally makes sense within the research. And so what I, I just want to make it clear right now that I agree with this. Like I work at a college, I know what you're talking about that there's no way that there, there's a lot of people in universities and colleges that are not going to be messing with let's figure out what a 5.6 is out of, I totally agree with that. But listening to Jack tonight, he brought up so many points that I was like, oh, that sucks. Like if you're

052a student, the whole, I agree with the ex post facto part. Like I just tried to put myself in the kids shoes for a second. And if you are a student that perhaps you're like maybe valedictorian or salutatorian, I would be curious to see if those two, like those two positions, would they stay even the same? So I mean, that would be devastating. Like if you are at valedictorian and all of a sudden you're not because of this, I know it's a really, you know, two students. Sorry, just clear point. We do not have valedictorian, salutatorian, we don't have those roles at the high school. Well, they are put in, they are ranked, correct? We don't do rankings, no. Not anymore? Okay, sorry, back in the million years ago, 1999 when I went to Victor,

053there was definitely. We've moved away from ranking, yes. Okay, all right. So yes, for the research, yes, I know colleges, this is a problem, but are we, like I just want to make sure I understand that we are not at all considering only applying this to people who now understand what they're getting into. Because I do agree with him that going into these classes, these students are, you know, kind of, it is ex post facto a little bit, he's right. It is ex post facto, but it is in regards to ensuring that when they go to that next step, that post high school step, that we are setting them up for success in that piece and that they have equitable consideration for those financial pieces. Which under our current GPA, there are universities who are

054not doing that for them. For sure, and I think if you were to compare like Illinois to Wisconsin, we might see a difference. So I'm curious if we've looked at like the difference between states, because I would assume that most likely students are going to Illinois, like U of I's and stuff like that, or, but I know like when I worked in Wisconsin, we had the pluses, the minuses, that was very common out there. Out here it's not. So it's probably affecting more students in Lake Zurich in a place like Illinois, but is it, how is that affecting like a Wisconsin? So Dr. Pinner, we didn't look at every university. It would be, our kids go to a lot of universities. Yeah. We probably would have been studying this for a lot longer. We looked

055at the universities that our students, as Ms. Allen said, the most that they apply to and the most that they are accepted to. So we were looking at where do most of our kids apply. Right. And where do most of our kids attend, actually accept and go, and what are they doing, because our kids go all over, you know, you know that, our kids will go all over wherever, some will go to military, some will go all over the place. So we really didn't look at every single university that our students attend. We looked at where the majority of our kiddos go. Okay. And is there any way, this is just, you don't have to answer this, but I'm curious if there's any way that we could do like a dual, like the student could

056choose. Like I want to stay on the old system versus the new system, you know, for these few years of kids. Dr. Pinner, I ask the same exact question because I prefer choice. Yes. But I do want them to explain why that cannot happen. Yeah. So we have to publish a school profile that goes to all of the universities. And so in that school profile, we have to clearly indicate what our grading scale is and what our GPA scale is. Okay. And so if we were to have to, again, to your earlier point, a university is not going to look and go, well, did you choose this GPA or did you choose that GPA? They're going to go, this is too confusing. We're just going to. We are going to put on our transcript, clearly

057messaging that we have moved away from the 5.67 to that 5.0 weighted GPA based off of a 4.0 unweighted GPA. So we are going to also clearly communicate through our school profile and our transcripts the change within our GPA. Is the perception right now of students that are listening to this, they're probably confused. I know I'm sort of confused and I'm learning a lot tonight. But are the dual credit and AP students like why take those classes as much anymore now that they're doing this? Like I know that might not be the case with like how it's affecting their GPA, but are they perceiving it that way? I think they are perceiving it that way. If we look at the scale that is up on the screen, you can see that there's still a clear

058delineation between AP and dual credit and honors. There's a half a point way between those. It's similar to the difference between honors and AP right now. And there's a full one point way difference between other classes in AP and dual credit. And that is honoring the rigor that goes into these different level courses. And to Mrs. Stallion's point earlier, for each student rigor is different, right? And we want to make sure that we honor that for all of our students as well. Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You got more? Do you have more? No? I know Alicia had another question. I'm sorry. I was with this 5.0 for the dual credit courses. When I was in high school, I took a geology class. I got credit at Triton College and I also

059took AP College English. And to me, AP College English was much more rigorous. I'm not saying that they aren't even or equal, and that is up to you. But I'm wondering on the college's viewpoint, when they see that course in that, you know, grade, do they think of the five as the same as they would on a dual credit class as they do for an AP class? Speaking as a former AP teacher, yes, they do. Okay. So in regards to those pieces, they would look at a five on an AP and an A or a B, C in a dual credit as the same. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Alicia. Lisa? Yeah. We talked about this quite extensively, and I was actually surprised that we had grade point averages over five. And

060with the advent of online applications and the common app, colleges are getting more and more applications, and so they want to run it through their rubric as easily as possible. And so when you see a 5.6 GPA, you're like, great inflation, red flag, red flag. I'm not bothering. You get actually the liability of going down to the unweighted, and you get minimal credit. I also, even though GPA may be part of the calculation for some scholarship money, it's also rigor of your classwork, it's your ACT or SAT score. There's so many pieces that go into this. This is only one of the many pieces that go into the college decision. And so it's, and everybody's all worried about this number. The problem is when the number is too high, you actually get discounted totally, which

061is a worse situation to be in, because you get no credit for the rigor of your schedule as far as your GPA is concerned. So I think this is incredibly smart, making it as easy as possible for colleges to process our children's applications, see the quality of schooling that they've had, and the success that they've had, and be rewarded for that with acceptance letters and scholarships. So I actually see minimal downfall. There's, it's hard when you're used to seeing 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and now you're going to see a 4.8, a 4.8, but that's okay, because you're not defined by that number. I mean, it's just to the A plus versus an A minus. Do you try to go for the A, do you not? Those are all character things that, you know, you're not defined

062by perfection. So I actually think this is totally the right thing to do. It's actually going to result probably in more success. I can't imagine how many kids maybe didn't get the acceptance letter, because the GPA was obviously overinflated, and they went down to the unweighted GPA. I would hate to think that that happened, but I wouldn't be surprised. So I love the fact that we're sort of getting into what a college is expecting to see as part of the many different parts they evaluate our children on, and they actually will have a better chance at success, which is really what we're striving for. So thank you. Thank you, Lisa. I just want to say that obviously you put so much work into this. There's so much data that you reviewed. I greatly appreciate that,

063but more so I appreciate how quickly you jumped on a problem and solved it, and that speaks volumes for you guys. So thank you so much for that, and really appreciate all of that work. And I do think it's like ripping off a band-aid. It's going to hurt initially. The kids that see a decrease will be aggravated, and I get that, and I think that's unfortunate. However, it is the best thing for them in the long run, and that's hard to see initially. So there's the pain that we'll have to go through to get to the reward. So thank you so much for jumping on this, for solving this problem. And, you know, setting our kids up for as much success as possible. So thank you very much. All right. Oh, right, an answer to

064Lisa's question before the choir is going to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. All right. Moving on, we are discussion without action, and I believe, yes, Mrs. Kaiser has this one too, the resolutions and treasurers bond documents. Board members, are there any questions for Mrs. Kaiser? Can I just ask, or is the way I read this resolution is whoever is in the role is our treasurer, it's not naming a specific person, just knowing that we're going through a change this year? It does. It will have the name of the new, our new CSBO would be named as the new treasurer for the next year. Okay. So we do have to apply with an individual's name for the surety bond. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else, Alicia? I'm going to start on this side. No. Okay. Then thank

065you, Mrs. Kaiser. Thank you. The next one is instructional empowerment partnership, which Mrs. Stallion shared in the board packet. Are there any questions on that? I had a couple. Go ahead. Oh, sorry. If you want to start, go ahead. Go ahead. Please go ahead. Okay. I had a few questions on this from an educator's perspective. So I noticed that there would be what they called rigor walk calibration rounds within the district. So the first question I had is while admin is doing these walks, how can you ensure that the walk is measuring the instruction without evaluating the teachers? The tool is designed to look at what students are doing in the classroom. They are looking at how students are engaged in their curriculum, how they are working with other students. It's really our instructional model.

066And one of the great things about this tool is before we decided to kind of bring this to you, we said this is our instructional model. This is what we believe is quality instruction. This is kind of what we are reaching for in our classrooms. She took our model and aligned it to this rigor walk. And she said your model is one of the best I've ever seen. And I can show you exactly where everything in your model lives in the rigor walk. So we've already designed quality instruction. This tool allows teachers, and I want to make that clear, this is a tool for teachers to help them grow in their instruction, identify areas where they feel students might need more opportunity in some dynamic classroom settings, define what that is, implement strategies through their

067PLC work, and then use this tool to collect evidence against that instruction. They would then take that data, evaluate that data as a building or a PLC, and determine how they are growing in providing those opportunities for students. This tool is designed for teachers. So at no point will it be used towards evaluating their classroom performance. No. Okay. That's really important because I know it can be really nerve wracking when you have admin coming into your classroom or even just people observing. So will most of the observation be done with like students in mind or instruction? It is all students. And when they are provided the professional learning, and what I want to say about this tool is it's not just here's the tool, start going into teachers' classrooms or teachers go into teachers' classrooms,

068it is first we're going to study. That's why if you looked at the memo, there's that why workshop. Why are we doing this? That is all training on the brain-based research of rigorous instruction in classrooms and what should be happening in our classrooms that allow students to reach the highest level of learning. So before you would even put this into place, you would learn what does it look like? What do we want it to look like? And we're very fortunate in this district that we already have an instructional model. This is going to help us bring that model to life. So our students are going to tell us by observation the rigor of the classroom. And then with that, you'll use it for instructing your professional development. That will be used through the school improvement,

069continuous improvement process for schools to decide what professional learning do we need to improve our practice. There isn't a teacher I know who would not say, I want to improve my practice for kids. We all want to improve our practice. And teachers are always asking, provide us with the learning, help us grow. That is our job at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, I believe. And it's the job of a principal and an assistant principal to say, teachers, what do you need and for us to provide that. This tool helps them identify, we're doing really great here. Our kids have lots of opportunities to engage in discourse. You know what? Metacognition might be an area we can focus on. Let's study that. What does that look like in a classroom? Let's research professional opportunities to

070increase our capacity and then let's measure what students are doing in our classrooms to say, it's transferring. Our kids are doing that in our classrooms. That's, this tool is a celebratory, in my mind, a celebratory tool for teachers to say, I am going to take the wheel and I'm going to improve our practice or we're going to improve our practice in our building, in our grade level, in our department. And so then would, I'm just thinking like, would teachers be given notice or is this like surprise, we're walking through your building today, like just for, I'm sure that every teacher is always super prepared and ready to teach a rigorous core tier one lesson. But is there like some heads up, kind of like when I get evaluated, I know my principal. But that's an

071evaluation, so let's not conflate that with evaluation. In evaluation, we say, teacher A, we're coming in on Tuesday. Let's sit down, let's talk about your lesson. Let's say, what are your objectives? What are you doing? I'll see you Tuesday at 10 o'clock. That's an evaluation. The rigor walk is to capture students learning in the classroom in novel and unique ways. So can I tell you exactly what that will look like next year? Not yet because we haven't had the training. Once we get the training in the Y workshop, once we get the calibration training, which I will tell you that we had almost the entire department of curriculum instruction, including Dr. Fields, who actually went and sat through the Y workshop in another district. We were invited to go there for free so that they

072could see what this looks like. They all attended the Y workshop, went through the calibration. And I can tell you that what I'm hearing from them is that this was not evaluative at all. It was embraced by the teachers that it was used with, but you have to prep that first. So it isn't going to be, here's the rigor walk on August 17th. We're going to start collecting evidence. That's not what this is about. We're going to professionally develop ourselves first. And we're going to identify what we need to grow in. So the question was though, will teachers have an understanding of this is going to happen during the course of the year? Here's approximately how many times there might be somebody wanting that? Probably not to that degree. It should be an organic opportunity

073and it should be decided by the principal and the school improvement team and the teachers in that building. This is a collaborative opportunity for continuous improvement. So can I sit and say from the Department of Curriculum Instruction, you will do 18 observations and they will be during this time. It would be the school improvement team comes together, they learn and grow, they talk about how many data points they're going to collect, and then they go out and collect those data points. I guess I would just say this would be my recommendation would be that our teachers need to know that it's happening. They need to know about rigor walks and about the why. That's the training that's happening next year. So that's what I'm getting at. So I want to make sure our staff understand

074that before any observations are completed. So if you read the memo, the memo specifically states that next year is a year where we have 50 only, 50 teachers are being trained. This is not widespread. This is not happening in every classroom. This is 50 teachers and administrators who are going to be the champions to go through the learning and those classrooms would be most likely the classrooms that would be utilized within that building because they would be the training classrooms. It isn't going to be widely utilized next year because we have to go through the professional learning. Anytime you do something like this to Dr. Galt's point, professional learning is imperative or else it does feel like done to instead of done with. This is done with. That was the answer I was wanting you

075to give. Yeah, and that's huge because developing that trust between admin and the teacher is imperative because, you know, often it can feel like a gotcha and that's the last thing that we would want to promote within the district. So I'm happy to hear that it is a partnership and that it's starting small so that the trust can be built before it expands. I just also want to say our teachers over the past two years, I have to tell you, they are already in each other's classrooms. I have seen more of that in the last two years than I saw when I first came. They are visiting their classrooms. They're doing learning walks. They are going to other classrooms outside of their schools. They're going to middle schools as elementary teachers. We already are developing

076a culture of collective efficacy and trust. That is the reason why I do think it's the right time for this district to start something like this because the trust is being built and we have more of that going on than we've ever had before. There's not a school improvement meeting I've been to this spring where they didn't talk about visiting each other's classrooms on learning walks and then talking about what they see. That's what this is. Thank you, Natasha. Peter, do you have anything? Doug. Thank you, Eileen. First of all, thank you for that lovely explanation because one of my concerns when I read this was making sure the walk-throughs don't become informal teacher evaluations, right, to Natasha's point exactly. Is there a specific instructional problem that you're trying to solve? I mean, is this,

077what can you, what's precipitated this, I guess? That's a really great question. So we've been working for years, as you well know, on the curriculum, on the assessments. And if you look at the stool, which we always call the three-legged stool of curriculum instruction, it's curriculum instruction and assessment. We have spent years working on the curriculum and the assessments. It's time to start looking at instruction. And there are evidence-based instructional practices that yield high results in classrooms. That's what the instructional model is based on. It isn't that we have, we're broken, it's that it's the next iteration of work. We have achieved great results. You have seen proficiency in this district rise 20, 30 percent. In order for us to continue to move the dial, we're going to have to now dig deeper. We're going

078to have to look at special populations of students. We're going to have to look at our instructional practices. And we're going to have to really do what we do naturally on our own, or sometimes in small groups, is get better at the craft of teaching. That's what teachers do every day. They get better at the craft of teaching. What this tool will do is unify that. It will bring everyone together in a collective force to say, here is what we're going to focus on in Building A, because we did the research on our students and our data. And our data and students tell us they need more of this. How do we get there? This tool and the professional development behind it is going to be the next iteration of work for continuous improvement. I

079mean, as I understand it again, and I apologize, I didn't sit in some of the meetings where you probably discussed it, but it's really a framework that collects data and provides feedback on areas you're doing great in, areas that could be improved, right? The tool is. The tool, right. The professional learning behind it is the most important piece. And to that point, so the ask is 100K for this for next year. And it wasn't clear to me reading the document, for $100,000, how many actual training days do we get? So I believe it is in there, and let me pull it up. It wasn't clear to me how many total training days. I tried to figure it out from the memo, but it wasn't, again, maybe it was just me. So we've got, it's one

080full day for the Y workshop. Right. Then you've got a half a day, then another full day, then you've got 15 half days for the leader cohorts. So. And then what you're also getting, it's not just the professional learning and the rigor walk tool, you're getting the tool and the platform that collects the data for the building, and the building will be able to take a look at all of that data. You're also getting a platform that has robust resources in there that will be accessible for all teachers. So the 100K buys us these initial training days plus the use of the tool for next year. The platform that collects the data. And so is there a ongoing cost that's going to be annually we're going to need to spend to keep the tool up

081to date and use it repeatedly? I'm just. So what I expect would happen is that we would go through this year, this iteration of the work, we would constantly be evaluating that. And should we see the benefit, which I believe strongly that they will, then you would engage in year two. Year two would be less because you're going to reduce a lot of this and then you're going to pay for the platform and maybe a couple touch points and you're going to pay for the resources that go along with it so teachers have all of that professional learning resources. And then if you continue, then you would have an annual cost for the platform alone, just as we do other platforms. Do you know what that is, Angela? No, I don't. Not right now. So

082do you think there's a risk of having a long-term dependency on this platform? If we go down this road, and I'm not saying we shouldn't, I'm just wondering, so if we do this and things like working, now that's what we're doing in the future. So, you know, for me, and again, this is me, and I'm not going to be here to tell you where it goes, but anything that you decide to engage with, just like Corwin with PLC Plus, we had a three-year contract. We're ready to fly without Corwin. We have built the ship. There's going to be some fine tuning, but the partnership is no longer required because we have learned what we needed to learn now to make that our own. My hope would be that this partnership would last for a few

083years, that we would build our capacity, we would understand what this looks like, and what you really want to do is you want to work that out of a partnership because now it belongs to D95. It's part of what we do. But we would need to continue to buy the tool. Potentially, or you'd create your own. Again, I'm thinking from a resource perspective and planning for future budgets that if we, assuming this goes well and you're all happy with it, that we're going to need to look at some ongoing expense to keep using the platform and updating it. It's a software license that we're buying annually, effectively, right? So I just want to make sure I understood what, because the ask right now is the 100K for the initial, and again, I have total confidence

084that this is the right thing to do when you're making that decision. I'm trying to understand from a resource provider perspective, you're asking for 100K now and maybe next year it might be half that, something like that. And then it could be an annual subscription of $20,000 for the platform, or it could be that we feel that we have developed ourselves well enough that we can develop our own tools. I can tell you there are districts out there that go through these kinds of learnings and they'll develop their own walkthrough tools, and they'll create the metrics for those tools. We're not ready for that yet. We have a lot, we have learning that we need to do. Sure. Are there metrics that you expect that you can collect that you can report to the board

085on that will show the efficacy of this tool? I think that will come through your school improvement plans. So when we talk about instructional shifts and we talk about the progress monitoring, that's the data you collect to determine that your instructional shifts are happening. That's where this tool will live. So when the reports come back for school improvement, that's where that should come to the Board of Education. Well, it'll, yes, in a much broader overarching way. So you won't get all of those numbers that would not be appropriate. The staff needs those numbers. That will not come to the Board. So what will come to the Board is we've been working on our school improvement plan. We worked on it all year. We made some adjustments because our data told us we needed to. And

086that really is designed for our staff. That is not designed for us. What's designed for us at this level will be looking at the ACT scores, looking at MAP, looking at the IAR scores. Those are the scores that the principals will report back to the Board. So it's unlikely that you would see any of their data unless they come back to you and they say we had to adjust down or significantly up and here's why. And I appreciate that, Kelly, and I understand what you're saying. I think what I'm looking for, though, is they ask us to make this investment and the question is what's the return on investment, right? So are we expect, do you guys expect that this tool is going to allow us to increase the trajectory, the velocity of our improvement?

087Yes. I would expect that we're going to have increased student achievement. Correct. Well, it'd be nice, you know, assuming that we approve this and the Board will decide that as a whole, then it would be nice for you guys to be able to give us some feedback. Hey, we implemented this thing and it's a rock star. We love it or, eh, it wasn't so great. It'd just be nice to know. So I think what you'll see when you think about that kind of data, Mr. Goldberg, is I would want to be collecting some information from our staff to know this is working for us, this isn't working for us, that's the kind of data that would come back. But again, I think it would be highly unlikely that the progress monitoring piece really is kept

088at the school level except for the curriculum and instruction and assessment office. And so Ms. Allen will likely be keeping an eye on the overarching data, but we won't get individual, I think the important piece, and this goes back to Mrs. Danniger's question, we're not going to be looking at any type of individual teacher data through this process. That really is designed to live with the staff. So I love the fact that, you know, we embrace continuous improvement. I think it's really important and I think you guys believe that this tool is going to help us, you know, and it sounds like it's a sound investment. Obviously, we're, you know, we're struggling with closing budget gaps going forward. So, and this is a really important place to make an investment, right, and do this. I

089love it. But I just, it'd be nice for us to get some feedback at some point as to, you know, how well you think this tool is providing the services that you have. I think updates to teaching and learning can happen, like Dr. Gault said, through our talking to our staff, our surveying our staff, our talking to our leaders about the implementation, how it's going, certainly talking to the leaders or the teachers who are going through the training, I think that can absolutely come back through teaching and learning to tell you how this is going. All right. Thank you again. I really appreciate your explanations. Thank you, Doug. Alicia, do you have any questions? I was just thinking when you were talking about, you know, how we look at the test scores and grades and

090how if there is a culture of collaboration happening and a culture of saying I am willing to be vulnerable and let Jenny come into my class and see how I'm doing and maybe she'll pick up something that I didn't, you know, know or whatever, you know, that she liked that I'm doing that she doesn't do, I can see why you would want to build on that collaborative motion. And I think parents, too, are, you know, teaching to the test, right? So this is, to me, it seems like it would create a more holistic approach to learning. So I think that it's a great tool and you have to try tools to see if they work. And I'm glad it's not just about teaching to the test and using test scores as the only assessment tool

091for our kids, right? So thanks. Thank you, Alicia. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, I just have one comment. As a teacher, I just, one of the things that I hate the most is when I have the dean, like, come into my classroom and I'm like, oh my God, this is so stressful for like a week, right? And one of the things one of the schools I was at did was like when you're a new teacher, you go in and watch these experienced teachers and you can learn so many amazing things and then the pressure is not on you but you're learning so much. And so one of the things in here, just like it caught my eye, it says the primary measurement instrument RigorWalk is a research-based classroom walk through metric designed to measure the quality of

092tier one instruction without evaluating individual teachers. So I'm just curious about that part because I feel like we are scrutinized all the time as teachers, like all the time and it's like now there's something else they're going to watch and see what I'm doing wrong but this sounds like it's not like that. Like it sounds more like what I described in the beginning. So can you speak to that for a second for the teachers that might be concerned? Sure. So even on the tool, it would probably most likely be on a tablet. We don't identify the teacher because it doesn't matter. So you identify, I'm going to a fifth grade math classroom and this is what I saw. I'm going to a fourth grade English classroom and this is what I saw. And you collect

093your data. I'm going to the English department today and I'm going to walk through the English department or the math department or the PE or wherever you go, right? And then we're going to take all of that data and we're going to aggregate that data and we're going to take a look across our building to see how many opportunities to learn did students have during our 10 short pop-ins. Okay, we went to fifth grade and fourth grade and third grade and math and ELA and social studies and science. I don't, it doesn't matter what teacher we went to because in this model, we're all in it together. We're all working towards the same shift in instruction and ensuring that our classrooms are dynamic, that our instruction is evidence-based. So that, and for that reason alone,

094even the metrics don't identify. I love that. What class you, what classroom teacher you saw. It's just, we did 35 walk-throughs and in 35 walk-throughs, we went to these many classrooms and here's how many times we saw students engaged in high rigor activities. Here's how many times we saw students engaged in medium rigor. Here's how many times we saw students engaged in low rigor activities. And then the teams of teachers are talking about that data and saying, okay, let's see, where do we want to be? That's fantastic. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Lisa? I think the key to this, it was your first comment about this being the third leg on the stool. We have done so much on curriculum and have seen the gains from that. And we've

095done so much on our resources and we've seen the gains from that. So it's only natural. We're at some very nice levels and people start going, how do you keep getting better? Because it's harder to get better the higher you are. So the natural place to look is maybe it's the way that we instruct. And so is there any improvement there that we can make that would help us to continue to grow? I have to say, my first reaction to reading this was being part of the group that put together our new missions, it's not new, it's almost 10 years old, our mission statement. But it was so purposeful to say learners instead of students because everybody, I'm a learner, I'm learning something every board meeting I attend, every committee meeting I attend. So the

096beauty of this is seeing it's the administration has to go in and learn how to do this. And then the teachers have to come in and learn how to do this. And then we all have to figure out how do we even interpret this data? What is it telling us? What's the next steps we take from it? So the fact that you're engaging everybody and every level at this process is wonderful. And I think it builds that teamwork and that camaraderie that I know is a huge focus. Several years ago of that, you know, administration isn't just this building on a hill that makes mandates coming down, it's really everyone working together. And I think this is an ideal situation of showing that, that that is really where our district is in getting everybody's voice

097and everybody involved and everybody understanding that nobody is the expert on this, we all have to become experts together. So thank you very much, appreciate it. Thank you, Lisa, and thank you, Angela, for all of that work, I appreciate it. Moving on to the next item is the policy first read. Board members, what are the questions for Ms. Bicich? Let's start with Alicia, do you have any questions with respect to policy first read? I do not at this time, thank you. Thank you. Dr. Pinter, do you have any questions with respect to the policy first read? Who am I asking this to, sorry? Oh, be seated, hey, sorry, so yeah, my one question is, this just makes me think about the energy drink question, which is like, that's going to be very interesting to see

098how they respond to that, especially middle school kids. I guess my question is, how do we define energy drinks? Does that mean, like we should define them because if that means monster, like does it mean Mountain Dew, does it mean bubbler, what does that mean? It's a handbook. That's in the handbook memo. Oh, I'm, we're on policy. I missed that, okay, but so can you tell me, do you mind? Should we hold those for the handbook? I'm up next. Oh, yeah, sure, sure, I just want to make sure I'm following the rules because I have a caffeine drinker and also I have one other question about that. I totally agree that energy drinks are bad for kids but sometimes for ADHDers caffeine can calm them and I just thought maybe that's something to consider. I

099will hold my responses until we get to the handbook memo. Okay, all right, thanks. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Lisa? I had all my opinions expressed in this policy and there was some quite hearty discussion on some of these items. So, I'm glad to see that we came to a resolution that everybody can feel comfortable with. Thank you for that work. Natasha, do you have any questions? Peter, do you have any questions? I don't have any at this time but I have some thoughts that maybe I'll share between the meeting before the next one. Thank you. Thank you. Doug, any questions? I didn't know what Lisa said. I thought so. Okay, well, thank you Mrs. Visich for all of your work. You're welcome. Then on to the student handbook. Let's start. Dr. Pinter, do you want

100to start with the student handbook question? Yes. So, what drinks are considered energy drinks? Please define. Sure. So, there are some specific examples that are outlined in the draft handbook and so what we spoke about in the committee which does include nurse representation. So, we looked at it from a health and wellness perspective as well as taking in feedback from our stakeholders which was we had our board representative, so thank you again to Mrs. Warren, building administrators, district administrators, staff. We had a student representative as well and so those conversations were additionally hearty and thorough and so we did talk about that, right? There's all sorts of drinks that contain caffeine, right? Diet Coke contains caffeine and so when we looked to put some parameters around it, we were looking at some of those more

101highly caffeinated drinks, so 200 milligrams and above. For example, and we did name things like Celsius. What was your threshold 200, did you say? That's an example, but there are some examples more specifically listed in the handbook such as Celsius, some of the popular ones that we're seeing younger and younger. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, Alicia, any handbook questions? Lisa, any handbook questions? It was part of the hearty discussion. I am actually very encouraged. We did mention in the discipline policy in the athletic piece how for how many years we did not notice the difference between minor infections and major infections and that has I think been more, it's more equitable, it's definitely fairer. Thank you. Natasha, any handbook questions? Peter, any handbook questions? Same comment, not at this time. Okay, and Doug, any

102handbook questions? A comment first. I do have a question, but a comment and that's that at nearly a hundred pages, it's a legally comprehensive document, but I think difficult to consume for many people and so one thought that occurred to me was maybe it would be a good idea to have like a 10 page summary that people could get to that hits the highlight high points with maybe pointers and things. I just, because you know as a parent who had the handbook every year for many years, it you know you don't typically go to it until there's a problem or you're looking for something. You didn't read it cover to cover, Doug, is that right? I would be lying if I said I did, so I did not, but I would say that if there

103was like I said, some kind of summary document, I'm just making it up, 10 pages, something that was easy to consume, I think you might find more people that might look into it. So something that I was contemplating, there are some pretty different changes in this handbook iteration and so not only kind of an executive summary to your point to push out by way of communication to our families, but also to integrate into the beginning of the year teaching for all students on key pieces of the handbook and changes. How can we highlight, what are those highlights that are critical for families? You know, what are the key attendance pieces in the handbook? What in Chapter 6, which outlines all the student behavior components? What new parent notices have been included in Chapter 12? So

104all of those sorts of things, so in that condensed version as well as here is what is different from 25, 26 to 26, 27. And so that is something looking ahead that we will plan to do. How does this work on a mobile device? If you just bring this up on your phone, because that's what most people use, is there a mobile specific version that people can bring up that makes it easy to navigate through and stuff? It's posted as a PDF and so. That's the problem, right? Yes. There is a mobile friendly version of it. It would read like a PDF on your phone. Yeah, I think that would be something to consider. The other question I had was, do we publish it in other languages than just English? It's translated into our top

105languages as well as we have a disclaimer on our website if any family member requires additional assistance, we provide contact information which is translated on our website. Yeah. The only thing I would say that today, again, it's a very legally comprehensive document, but the only thing I'd say that's sort of missing today would be there's not a lot of discussion about AI, right? And I know that there's some pending legislation we're waiting for to figure out, but I do believe that that's an area that both for policy and for the handbook are going to require some more thoughtful, delicate conversations about. So AI is currently referenced in 7190 as well as in the handbook on the academic side of things in terms of the most recent work for CNI while we're awaiting any pertinent legislative

106or other updates. Right. We expect some legislation this summer. And we did speak with the attorney on that and we asked if we should go ahead and move forward or if we should wait and we were told and directed to wait. We talked about this in policy as well. Correct. I appreciate that, but again, it's a great reference. It just needs to be more easily consumable, I think, by more people. Thank you, though. Yep, you're welcome. Thank you, Doug. The comment I have is that I, the lawyer in me is concerned about an executive summary because what everybody wants is the detail. And the devil is in the detail and that's what, when it's necessary, the details matter. At least it tells you where to look. Well, that's what a table of contents is for.

107But actually, I would argue that Handbook has gotten shorter because we have been utilizing links as much as we can. And I think the beauty of the Handbook is it covers K through 12. So if I have children at different levels, I can go to one place instead of having to go to each school's website, for instance, to see the dismissal time for an early release. It's all right there, how it works. And the full Handbook is what is linked when families sign off acknowledging on registration. It won't be any executive summary. So from that perspective, we will continue to upload the full Handbook for sign off and acknowledgement, which is what we use on the back end when needed, as you've seen. I do think the updates and giving, like, concise discussions of the

108updates is excellent. And I'm glad that's part of your plan. I just think if we do an executive summary, it has to be asterisked to the end of the year, just that it's for instructional purposes only. Please refer to the Handbook. The Handbook is the only thing that matters, and this instructional guideline is noted. Yeah. So, all right, moving on to the final discussion without action. Dr. McCardle also provided information regarding security staffing update. Once again, Alicia, do you have any questions regarding security staffing update? No. Dr. Pinter, do you have any questions on that topic? I just was a little confused. So the current situation that we have, they were not showing up as much as we thought. So that's why we want to move to this. I mean, I just want to make

109sure I understand, like, so what's the? I kind of get the issue, but not totally. It's not that they weren't showing up. The current partner wasn't able to staff according to the contract terms. So we did not have the number of bodies that they had initially said that they would provide. So it was less safe than it could be? We made adjustments internally to meet our needs. Long term, we believe that we'll be able to attract and retain a more consistent staff by bringing them in-house. Thank you. That was a very eloquent answer. Thank you. Lisa. I think this harkens back to our discussions, which are pretty, most of the administrators are on the table when we brought facilities in-house. We used to outsource all of it and found the beauty of it is not

110necessarily numerical, but having ownership of the building, having that consistent presence, that person that really understands the quirks of Sarah Adams. And it's proven to be a huge benefit. And we've seen it every time we discuss bus driving and hiring our own bus drivers and how advantageous this is. So when I read this, I am fully supportive because of those two examples where we've seen so much more success in relationships, service, and effectiveness that that can only carry over in this situation as well. So I'm very glad we're moving this way. I think it'll really help out the high school. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Natasha. As Doug mentioned, we're very cost-conscious at the moment. So just to ensure this is a cost-neutral change, budget-neutral. Yes. Thank you, Natasha. Peter. Let me see if I

111understand. You're hiring the same people that were with the contractor. You're bringing them in-house. Is that what you're doing? No. What we're seeking this evening is to gauge board feedback on comfortability moving to us hiring staff. So we would post for the positions and then follow our hiring processes from there. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Because the way it's read, it is appropriate to transition the four ten months from contract services to in-house district positions. I just read it to mean the same people. But you meant the positions. The 4.0 positions. Not the people. Correct. But it may be the people. So again, we would follow our hiring practices. Anybody would be welcome to apply. But we would be managing it on our side. Okay. Which is good. Because I mean, obviously, contractors have their non-solicitation

112agreement provisions. So you kind of like just take the people. So hopefully, I know- Not violate any previous contract agreements. Yes. Well, thank you very much. And so I take it that since this is all public, I mean, our contractors are very much aware of this decision. And what's their reaction? We're actually seeking board input on comfort level. And then we would move to notify within the requisite timeframe before the end of the contract. In case they're not looking at today's board meeting? I don't think they're tuned in. But I, you know, that would just be my assumption. Okay. Thank you. Doug? I think this is a great idea. I think we, if you look at the longevity of our staff, security staff, that's our employees. You know, they're long serving. And I think there's

113good reason for that. And, you know, assuming that we can keep this to be budget neutral, I'm all for it. I think that's a really good idea. I believe that, you know, the security staff has a great way of forming relationships with our students, too. I've noted that quite a bit over time. And so I think having continuity for that staff is a good thing, getting to know our students and our buildings and our staff, yeah, I'm all for this. Same here. So thank you. So just to summarize, I am hearing that the board is comfortable with us giving notice, even though this will come back on the 11th. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is discussion with action. We move to discuss the motion. I need a motion

114and a second on the table for the approval of the purchase of the, how do I say that word, Ananamage, that word, convertible table with a four-year extended warranty. The, that word, science software with 100-plus experiments and protective hardcover from, that word, Inc., Santa Clara, California, in the amount of $116,005. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Mr. Jackiewicz can answer any questions the board may have. Let me start with Natasha. I was wondering, I know that the foundation has been fundraising quite a bit so that this doesn't become a cost for the board or for our district. So how is that going to work into purchasing this item? So here's what I can say. So, so far the foundation has raised just under $60,000. They are

115continuing to fundraise through August. They have a potential donor that may be willing to provide the other half of the moneys needed. And so right now we're on hold for that. But my recommendation to the Board of Education would be we do want our high school to have this table. And so while the foundation has done a very nice job and they're contributing much to the cost, even if they come up short, my recommendation is that the district go ahead and pay the remaining portion of that table so that our high school staff and students have access to it. So we're paying it up front and then we will get... We do need to do that because we need to put it on order. Yes. All right. It will also allow us to have it

116in place when the D wing is finished where ultimately it will be housed. Love it. Perfect. And I heard you did a lot of measuring to make sure it would fit up there. We measured multiple times and we got guaranteed from the company that it will fit into the elevator in order to get up there. All right. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that. We use the same tape measure. All right. Good. So one I gave you, right? Peter, any questions? No, it's a great tool. She has the same question that I was thinking of and you've already answered it. So if I understand that, we're going to buy it. Whatever money we get from the foundation, we'll offset some of the costs that we've spent, right? Correct. We may get all of it. Thank

117you. Doug? I love this. I think that it's a great tool. My eldest daughter who's a nurse practitioner during her undergrad, this is the tool they used, right? So this is a tool you're going to find in many, you know, claimed nursing programs. So that's fantastic that we can actually get this in to our high school and really, I think, bring that pathway to a new level. So I love it. I'm all for this. This is great. Lisa? It is a unique and innovative opportunity for our students. Yeah, it's fantastic. I think we saw this at the Triple I conference, didn't we? It's pretty neat. I'm very happy the foundation took on the task of trying to raise the full amount, and they made a good effort towards that. So if you can just keep

118us posted if they're able to get that matching grant. But definitely, it sounds like something that's within budget that is definitely needed in some of these classes that you're bringing on, and so it's the right move to make. We did ask Dr. Romano to ensure that we would have the funds to be able to support it, so we will. However, I am still holding out for the foundation to come up with the remaining dollars. Wonderful. I just would say we're very fortunate to have something like this. We're lucky to be in a district like that. But yeah, no questions. Thank you. Yeah, there's only a couple of places around here that have them, one of which is Harper College. Yep. Alicia, any questions? All right. Kate, can you please call the roll? Mrs. Warren? Yes.

119Mr. Aitian? Yes. Mrs. Dannegar? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. I do want to thank McKenna. I know that you approached towards the microphone, but I do want to personally thank you for all of your effort to make sure that we have the best resources for our team at the high school and our students, so thank you. Yes, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. And a great video. Okay, the next item for discussion is the Canvas Learning Management System Platform. Let's get a motion and a second on the approval of the purchase of the Canvas Learning Management System Platform from Instructure Inc. of Salt Lake City, Utah for the third year of a three-year contract term at a cost of $119,727 effective July 1, 2026 through

120June 30th, 2027. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Natasha. And Dr. Czar can answer any questions. I'm just going to throw it out generally. Does anyone have any? Go ahead, Alicia. Given the cybersecurity problem, you know, this is very kind of not great timing on this renewal of this platform, but I don't know if we are just all sitting ducks when it relates to cybersecurity, but is there, are there programs or platforms that are more secure than this one, and how are they proving it to us now, I guess? So a couple of things. So first of all, we're in the, going into the third year of a three-year contract. So pulling out wasn't, like, really an option, because when we saw this all come up, we thought,

121you've got to be kidding me, but no, they, it sounds ridiculous to say they are very secure, but they are as secure as really anybody can get. But having said that, they have shared with us what adjustments that they have made and that they continue to make. Thank you for approving the cybersecurity insurance earlier. That was not an accident that came up either, but I do want to insure the board, and I've spoken with, you know, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and particularly, you know, with Ms. Allen, that we will be reviewing learning management, you know, the learning management systems that are available throughout the next year, as we do going into any contract year when we know we're nearing the end of a contract, though, you know, we will always look out there to

122see what is available. But Canvas does remain among the top. I'm sure this will be a hit for them, but at the time we signed a contract with them, they, you know, were held in good stead, but I know that our data team, led by Ms. Allen, will be very thorough in their review of the system and other systems available for next year, after next year. Okay. Any other questions? Oh, I was just, you know, echoing, sometimes, you know, I mean, it's widespread, and that's a good comment there, but oftentimes, when you get hit, you become the strongest, because then you look through the vulnerabilities, just talk to CrowdStrike, and I think hopefully that is true, too. But also, I think you answered the question, what are we voting for if we have a three-year

123contract that we cannot break anyway, and that we already approved? So, the original board approval was for a three-year contract, so this is just the third-year annual installment of the three-year contract. So, we just voting the expenditures, really? Correct. It's over the threshold, so you have to vote on it each year. Okay. Thank you. I know security was sort of where my mind went, but I also, when you're evaluating other systems, I have to believe it is very popular, not only at the K through 12 level, but also the university level, because of the flexibility, the ease of use, those are all those other factors that you have to take into place, you're not changing just to change. I'm sure the staff would be like, what, what else do I have to learn next summer?

124So, I like the idea that we're worried about the security, and I know you shut everything down and got comfort before we went back onto the platform, but knowing that there's also that whole, you know, this is a tool, and it can be a very effective tool that we need to use. So, thank you. I'll say one thing. Okay. Go ahead. I agree with the cyber security stuff. Oh, my God. I was thinking of them when I was grading for my Harvard stuff, because at the end of the term, it's like, oh, yay, all of my papers are due right in a week, and like, they didn't have any way to grade them, you know. So, please keep an eye out, just to, you know, if this happens again. I could not imagine being a

125teacher if this happened like two or three times at finals. Blackboard's pretty awesome, too. But learning a whole new system sucks, so I totally understand that. I understand that, but I'm curious, like, which one has more cyber security attacks. Anyway, thank you. Thank you. Kate, can you please call the roll? This is Daniker. Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. All right. Moving on, we now have the expenditure of the iPad keyboard cases. Can I get a motion and a second to approve the purchase of the 1350 Logitech Rugged Combo 3 Touch Keyboard and Folio cases with trackpads from CDW of Vernon Hills, Illinois for $113,697. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. I'll second. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Thank you, Alicia.

126Are there any questions for Dr. Zahr? Excellent. Kate, please call the roll. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. The last item for discussion is the sale of used computer equipment. Let's get a motion and a second on the table to award the bid to iBuy Distribution LLC New Jersey for $163,684. May I have that motion? So moved. Thank you, Lisa. Second. And thank you, Doug. Any questions for Dr. Zahr? I just always am amazed that this is the one bid process that has the most respondents every year. All right. Kate, please call the roll. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. All right. We are going

127into closed session for the following reasons. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, educational setting, or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the local government wage increase transparency act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with the Open Meetings Act, 5

128ILCS 122C1. Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. 5 ILCS 122C2. May I have this motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Peter. Kate, please call the roll. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Thank you. We will not be taking action after closed session this evening.