001I call the April 9th, 2026 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Mr. Aitken? Here. Ms. Warren? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Mr. Goldberg? Here. Dr. Pinter? Here. Mrs. Danniger? Here. Ms. Timm? Thank you, Ms. Timm will not be joining us tonight for personal reasons. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll start the evening with some president's comments. Good evening, everyone. Before we begin tonight's formal agenda, I want to take a moment on behalf of the Board of Education to recognize a few groups of individuals critical to the success of our district. April is a particularly special month for
002us, as it allows us to pause and celebrate several groups of professionals who ensure our schools run smoothly, safely, and successfully. This month, we are honored to recognize Paraprofessional Appreciation Day on April 1st, National School Library Day on April 4th, and National Assistant Principals Week during the first full week of the month, and Administrative Professionals Day on April 22nd. To our paraprofessionals, thank you for your tireless support and for being the bridge that helps every student reach their potential. To our school librarians, we thank you for fostering a love of literacy and guiding our students through an increasingly complex world of information. To our assistant principals, we are grateful for your leadership, mentorship, and the countless hours you spend behind the scenes keeping our buildings thriving. And to our administrative professionals, you are the foundation
003upon which school's daily successes are built. Your organization, care, and passion ensure our students' needs are best met. To each of you, your work matters. It matters to the students who look up to you. It matters to the families who trust you. It matters to the entire community. While thank you may feel small compared to the magnitude of the effort you put in every day, please know that your service does not go unnoticed. You are critical to helping our district fulfill its mission to empower every learner to achieve personal excellence. And we are so grateful for your continued dedication. You are appreciated, you are valued, and you are vital to our mission. And I have the list in front of me, so I know that we have someone signed up for public speaking. Please know
004the board is genuinely interested in receiving comments from the public, but will not engage in discussion or answer questions during public participation. Comments will be limited to three minutes per individual and no more than 30 minutes of total time, which isn't relevant tonight. Items dealing with personnel, individual student discipline, the purchase of land, and legal actions must be addressed in closed session. If you have a prepared statement and wish it to be presented to the board, please leave it with the superintendent's assistant, Kate. We have Jessica and Alex Lilzen. Did I say that right? How do I say it correctly? Thank you so much. First, my husband and I would like to thank you. We know how hard many of you work and that most of that work goes unseen. As parents in this community,
005we'd like to comment on the recent AI incident at the high school, understanding that because of the nature of these investigations, not all information is available to us or even to the school at this time. The creation and distribution of deep fake, non-consensual pornography of, as of yesterday, 33 underage girls was a violation of several of the stated values of this school and community. And it was a deep violation of the girls' personhood and agency over their own bodies. The incident is one in a long line of men or boys using the bodies of girls for their own enjoyment without permission. I encourage you to go to www.undressme.ai if you would like to start to understand what these boys allegedly did. And when you do, keep in mind that we do not yet know the
006extent to which these images were shared, but we do know they were shared online. It is entirely feasible that the images of these girls will forever be out there. Because the offenders are young and because it was AI, it might be appealing to diminish their actions, to feel that it is somehow less offensive or less harmful. That tendency is understandable, but it is wrong. The data of harm exists. The effects seen in more classic, non-consensual pornography cases are often present in digital deep fake pornography victims as well. The school district has an opportunity to send a strong signal and set an example with harsh consequences, not because we are focused on punishing the boys. We are focused on preventing this from happening again and most importantly, we are focused on making sure the girls know
007that they are supported by the systems around them. Allowing the boys to remain in the school building and in school sports while they are being investigated for sexual crime sends the wrong signal to the girls, to any other would-be perpetrators, to the rest of the student body, and to the community. It also puts the burden on the girls to bear the weight in class, in the halls, and in social circles. We ask that the boy or boys being investigated for the creation of these images be removed from the school building during the criminal investigation and continue school at the regional office of education or elsewhere. No amount of manipulation of schedules will be able to keep the alleged offenders from coming into contact with the girls and it is the girls' comfort, safety, and education
008that is the priority here. Technology moves quickly, much more quickly than legislative and organizational policies. We don't expect you to always have the answers in place, but the administration and school board do have the power right now to impose consequences that resonate and hopefully prevent this from happening again. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Dr. Goltz. Thank you. This evening I have for the board the resolution for non-renewal reduction dismissal of probationary teachers not in the last year of probationary period. Easter seal contract for the 2026-27 school year, approval of the open and closed sessions of the board meeting held on March 19th, 2026. The food service renewal, the last day of school has been shared for the 2025-26 school year as well as the
009approval of payrolls, the personnel report, including the resignation of certified staff, change of certified staff, employment of non-certified staff, termination of non-certified staff and stipends for April 9th, 2026. May I have a motion and second to approve the consent agenda as prepared and presented by the administration? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Are there any questions? Kate, please call the roll. Mr. Goldberg. Yes. Mrs. Danniger. Yes. Dr. Pinter. Yes. Mr. Aitken. Yes. Ms. Maloney. Yes. Mrs. Warren. Yes. Reports to the board is our next item. The cashflow report was provided in the board packet. Are there questions for Ms. Kaiser? Do you wanna do the superintendent's report? We did. No, I did it. I did that. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report. Dr. Gold. My apologies. Thank
010you. No, that's okay. I have a few items for the board this evening. And so as is typical, I do cover the communication to the board, and the board did receive some related communication to the student discipline and AI situation at the high school. Please note, while the board received a very small number, myself, Dr. McArdle, Dr. Walsh, we did receive more than what the board received. And so as you know, we're continuing to work through those phone calls and connections with our families. Additionally, you have the FOIAs. They're included in the board agenda, as is typical. So please make sure that you note those. And then we did have a teaching and learning board committee meeting prior to this meeting. And so you have two individuals who serve on the committee. That would be
011Mr. Etienne and Mrs. Warren. And then Mrs. Daniger joined us as well. We had two main topics that we focused on for this meeting. So we talked about our BPAC group. That is our group of bilingual parents and guardians that come together as a group in our district. And so we had some really awesome conversations about how our numbers of participation has really grown over the years, most especially since the pandemic. We are required to meet at least four times per year. We do have a leadership team. They are called our steering committee, and they meet twice a year to help support the planning of the topics for these four meetings. I think that's really important to note. That is something that has really kind of transformed, I think, what happens during our meetings over
012the last several years. And so really appreciate their commitment. These individuals also typically attend a conference. They get information during that time. And then they're able to decide what kinds of information they would like to share with our families. Other than, we were reminded that the first meeting, we do have some expectations from the state that we must cover during that first meeting that we come together. Additionally, we just talked about some of the meetings that have already took place. We've shared these updates along the way with the board, so I'm not gonna go into the information that has been discussed in that regard. However, did want to share on March 18th, we did have our online registration. We typically provide that to our parents on a yearly basis. However, this year they added another
013component to this meeting. And so they brought in, meaning the curriculum and instruction department alongside our BPAC leaders, brought in 35 community partner vendors to share specific information with our families so that our families could access different resources in all of the areas that are listed on the slide. We had 300 plus attendees. That is a new record for us. And so really excited about that. Additionally, we had 175 students register for the upcoming school year, which again is a very large number of students and families who were served during this event. Really just want to give a quick shout out and thank you to Mrs. Warren who also attended and so definitely appreciate that our board is always looking for ways to participate and attend these events. So thank you very much. I understand
014that, but you're always there. And then we did have a conversation about the individuals who really made this event a huge success and want to just shout out the groups that were there. We had members of the data team, the CNI team, our building multilingual staff, student services and LZHS. And so appreciate everybody who was there that evening to make this a huge success for families. Additionally, we had an opportunity to walk through some of the work that's taking place with our world language committee. As you know, we did conduct an audit and since that audit in this area, we've also walked through some additional opportunities to provide research and certainly there's new research that comes out all the time. And so we kind of walked through what is that process for curriculum development. It
015is a typical process that we've been following in our district for quite some time now and huge kudos to the amount of time and effort that these individuals are spending on this process. We talked about the committee work that took place during the year 2024-25 and so looked at other districts and what they're doing and is anything that's going on around us, is that something that we can certainly continue to provide opportunities for improvement within our district and really then spent some real time identifying priority standards across the board ensuring that our curriculum is aligned as we look at our system when we start offering world language opportunities through our middle school years and into our high school years. They also spoke a bit about looking at summative assessments, what that process looks like, what
016it looks like to select a resource. The board can expect more information in a formal capacity coming in May. So I'm excited to see what they bring to us. Additionally, we spent a little bit of time understanding a little bit more about our Seal of Biliteracy testing expansion and what we've done in this area which is really, really exciting. So the next slide shows over the last three years some of the work that has been done as well as some of the achievements of our students due to the work of our staff and our administration. And so what I really wanna point out is that our students have had a lot of opportunities to go ahead and earn that Seal of Biliteracy within other languages other than the three that we offer within our school
017district. And so really proud of the efforts here, excited to find out what it looks like at the conclusion of this school year and what our students end up graduating with. So more to come in that area. And then finally, just some next steps and where we plan to be. And like I said, you'll be getting more information in May so please expect another presentation more formally at that time. Some recognition celebrations and other notes. MSN, congratulations to their boys basketball team. They win conference, we are super proud of you and excited for more to come there. Additionally, we did have the opportunity, there were a few of us in District 95 who had the opportunity to attend a women's history panel that was hosted at Harbor College. You'll notice Dr. Pinter centered right in
018the middle because she helped facilitate this event and really just wanna thank her for taking the time to invite us to participate, so thank you. And it was well done. So we really appreciated that opportunity. And then just something really kind of awesome. Congratulations to Dr. Conway. She had her baby and so Big Brother Rowan is super excited to be able to hold his baby sister Sloan. So we're very happy for Dr. Conway and she did give me permission to share that picture this evening. And just her family is a part of our learning community too. So very excited for her and her family. And then again, just wanna go over some important dates for the board. Remember, many of you signed up for the Lake Division meeting. Please note that that's coming up. It's
019on April 15th. I will be attending alongside you. Additionally, the board self-evaluation workshop is scheduled for Saturday, April 25th. Please make sure that if that becomes an issue for you that you reach out to both Mrs. Maloney and myself. LZHS pitch night is coming. We have our awards night coming. If you do want to attend the Lake County awards night, you do need to let Kate know because we need to get you a ticket. So please make sure that you give her that information as soon as possible. And then additionally, we typically have some representatives from our board of education to attend our middle school promotions. And usually if you recall, what happens is some board members come to the first one, some board members come to the second one. And sometimes we have board
020members who stay for both. If you could please let Kate know who's going to be in attendance, we would like to recognize you at this event. And we're getting really excited. It's coming soon. And I don't have the dates on here. So we'll send that to you again. It was on the last one, but I'll get those to you. But please make sure it's one date. It's one singular date. Please make sure that you just work with Kate. And then again, for our LZHS senior graduation, typically all board members are able to attend that event. I would ask that you again, let Kate know who should we expect so that we have a seat for you on the stage. And then our retreat has been rescheduled. The date is July 18th. It's from 8.15 a.m.
021It probably will not go to three. It's probably gonna end at two, I mean at noon. So just so you know. We will double check. Oh, Friday afternoon? Okay. I'm looking at my assistant. She'll look it up and tell us very quickly. Dr. Gotham Middle School's May 20th. May 20th. Yes. Great. If you already know that you're gonna attend something, if you wouldn't mind letting Kate know by the end of today, this evening, that would be awesome. And then that way we can plan for you. Sorry about that. We are done. Thank you, Dr. Galtz. Now we're going to move to the board for our next item. The cash flow report was provided in the board packet. Are there any questions for Ms. Kaiser? Can I just make a comment? Thank you. I know I
022had extended discussions with Dr. Romano as well as Ms. Kaiser on this. And I do appreciate the changes that you made. I love the column that shows the differences between the latest month, actual and budget. And then just hitting the high points on those differences was greatly appreciated. I think this is a much more usable report. So thank you. Thank you for that suggestion, Lisa. Anything else? Next, we have the financial dashboard. What questions do the board members have for Ms. Kaiser? Anything? Excellent job reporting. Thank you. Ms. Biesich shared the 26-27 enrollment and staffing updates in the board packet. Are there any questions related to the report from Ms. Biesich? I have a comment and question. Go for it. Thank you, Eileen. As usual, Julie, I really appreciate the thoroughness of your work and
023it's really good to have the actuals in there from previous years. And one of the things I guess I'd like to know since we're moving to staffing that's now called leaner, if you will, in some areas, particularly at the high school, and maybe this is for you as well, Dr. Call, I'm curious as to what metrics the board should be looking at going forward just to ensure that we're delivering the kind of services that we want to and expect to deliver to all of our students. So what I would say to you is that we're continuing to provide the same level of service that we had previous. I would say the only difference is we're looking very closely at the numbers of students who sign up for courses. And so if we don't reach a
024certain threshold, which is typically about 15 students, depending on the course, we typically wouldn't necessarily offer it unless there are extenuating circumstances that would cause us to make a different decision. We work closely with the high school to ensure that we have those opportunities for our students, but ultimately, we also need to make sure that when our students are signing up for courses, they're telling us what their preference is. Additionally, I think that as we continue to move through this process, just like in the summer where students have opportunities to partake in some online opportunities, we of course want our students to continue to have those opportunities potentially throughout the school year. So we'll be studying that and looking at that as we enter into the next couple of school years. You know, and I
025appreciate the amount of thoughtful work that went into putting this together. Kelly, you know, there's a lot of energy was here, so thank you for that. And you know, we're certainly looking forward to make sure that we continue to maintain the level of operational success that we have had in the past and expect to see going forward, so thank you. I appreciate that. One thing that I would just point out to the board is that the high school reductions are reductions that kind of ebb and flow each year based on enrollment numbers. We did, as I put in my report, we did make some different decisions as it relates to coaching and teachers on special assignment. I would say that the board can expect some further conversations as it relates to that, to your point
026about services, to ensure that our staff and our students are having their needs met through those decisions. But more to come. Thank you. Thank you. Lisa. I have just a quick question. So I would argue the biggest unknown, first of all, the report is great. I always love this. It answers all the questions before we have to ask them. But the biggest unknown is always kindergarten. Because you just have no idea. I mean, we have a demographer who told us how many they think we're gonna have five-year-olds come into school this year, but you just never know who's coming and who's not. So I think you mentioned it was similar to next year. Can you speak a little bit? Because I know you guys do a fabulous job communicating. I would argue when my oldest
027was going to kindergarten, I did not expect to have to register him in February. I think your thought mindset is very preschool-oriented, which is much later down the road, or they should just know I'm coming, or how does this really work? I don't even know where I'm going, kind of thing. So can you speak to? Sure. So I would say that over the last couple of years, our kindergarten enrollment numbers have actually come in better earlier. And I believe much of that is to the credit of our technology department, which allows now our families to actually register online, whereas just a few years ago, they were actually filling out paper packets. So that really has helped. Our buildings do an amazing job with kindergarten registration night, and getting families in, getting the message out, getting
028them registered, not only that night, but subsequently pretty quickly afterwards. And I will say our building assistants are pretty vigilant in following up with pretty much every family that they thought they've ever spoken to that might have a kindergartner to get them to register, because they know how important it is for us to have these numbers early. So these numbers have come in pretty well the last couple of years. Obviously, they'll shift, but they're pretty good right now. If you look to where they are compared to last year, they're a pretty good average. And we expect, obviously, some sections are close. So as they typically are every year, we'll continue to watch those. But I feel like we're in a pretty good spot right now with our enrollment numbers. So when you're giving us a
029range of POPs that may happen, a lot of that is based on the numbers you already have and just a matter of kids moving in and out. In and out. That it might have been close, let's say, in third grade. It's still close in fourth grade, but there may be a shift that causes that. Yes, and the buildings, again, continue to do a great job with families coming in and those families notifying us that they might be leaving, which is really important on both ends for us to know in a timely manner. So from this point forward, we will be checking enrollment numbers minimally once a month and then making adjustments as we get those numbers. We're also working, maybe you can speak to the process, that we're working through the process of trying to
030go through all of our requests for families for potential of a different school as well. And we've not walked through that completely. So that information could also adjust some of the enrollment. Correct, yes. And those decisions, one of the factors is whether it would put a classroom to need another section. Yes, that is true. Yes, there's no guarantee from year to year that we would be able to continue to say yes. It may be that one year we said no and now we can say yes, so it can go both ways. So just as a point of clarification, because I have been asked this, I actually, a mother came up to me and said we're thinking about asking for our second child to be with our first child, because it's easier to have the kids
031at the same school. And I was like, well, you do understand, if you do that, then you're responsible for transportation to and from the school every single day, which she was not aware of, and that is a huge factor in making that decision. So a lot of these I think are because that is actually easier for them because of a work schedule or something, that driving them to and from school. So if you're at a different school than what you're assigned to, the parents are taking on the transportation. If it is through the regular attendance exception process, then that is part of the form they fill out that disclaimer's on there. It's also on there when Kate handles those, when she responds to them, families are aware. I think it was just knowing that was
032an option, but not really necessarily understanding. It's a big commitment to driving and picking up every day, so yeah. And even when we have those follow-up conversations and if we are able to approve, we make sure that the families again are reminded that they would be responsible for transportation. Thank you. I have a question. It's kind of a, just maybe a demographic question, but from what I was seeing it looked like kindergarten, like first grade, the younger kids looked like their numbers were lower than in the past, and then third and fourth, higher, and then the rest were stayed about the same. Is it like a, is it a demographic thing in society? Or is it, I'm just curious if it's a big zerk thing or? Well, I can't speak to society in general, but
033I would say it's not out of the ordinary. We typically have what I would call bubble years where some grades just happen to be higher and then they kind of bubble out throughout the years and then some grades come in lower and then we might hit another bubble. Our demographers do that study when they look at birth rates and our zip codes and all of that. And it just, I guess we could probably look back to see what was happening in certain years to see where those. Yeah, like COVID. Correct, yeah, so that's just. I mean, it sounds like a weird question, but the reason I ask that is because if it's societal, that's one thing, but I always wonder, like are young families wanting to move to this community? But I think it's a
034COVID thing probably, but I'm just wondering. In some of those years, probably, yes. Okay, cool, thank you. All right, our final report to the board is the board learning. Mr. Dr. Romano has prepared the presentation on budget development and overview. Mr. Nardiello, please play the presentation. Good evening, board members, staff, and community members. Welcome to tonight's presentation on our budget development process and overview. As part of our LZ95 financial educational series, we're excited to walk you through how Lake Zurich CUSD95 builds a responsible, transparent budget that supports our students while protecting taxpayer dollars. Tonight, we'll cover the purpose of the budget, our multi-phase development cycle, key financial assumptions, and the statutory requirements we follow. Now, please grab that favorite caffeinated beverage and let's dive in. The adopted budget is far more than just numbers on
035a page. It is a legal document that captures our district's priorities and vision for the coming year. It serves two critical roles. First, as a powerful planning and management tool that guides our daily operations. And second, as a window of transparency for our community, allowing everyone to see exactly how public funds are being spent to support our students. Throughout this entire process, the Board of Education is actively engaged at every step, ensuring fiscal responsibility and alignment with our educational goals. At Lake Zurich CUSD95, we follow a structured, transparent, multi-phase budget development cycle designed with strong board oversight from start to finish. Beyond the core phases, we also conduct an annual fund balance analysis shared openly during budget and levy hearings and complete our levy preparation and approval each year before the end of December. This
036comprehensive approach ensures we stay proactive, accountable, and focused on long-term financial health. Every year before winter break, the Board of Education reviews and approves our core financial assumptions. These are deliberately conservative and realistic projections that serve as the solid foundation for every stage of our budget, from the preliminary budget all the way through to the final budget. We continue to update these assumptions throughout the process as new information becomes available. Our guiding goal is always to maintain strong fiscal responsibility, full transparency, and long-term sustainability while ensuring we can deliver excellent programs and well-maintained facilities for our students. Our major assumptions focus on the two areas that drive most of our district's revenue and its costs. First, the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, which helps us project inflation on goods and services and, more importantly, has
037the greatest impact on the district's available resources each year. And second, projected increases in salaries and benefits, which represent the single largest and most important aspect of the annual budget. These assumptions are reviewed carefully each year to strike the right balance between remaining high-performing in all areas and maintaining affordability. To promote early transparency and strong board engagement, we begin with two administration-driven phases that go beyond what state law requires. In January, we present the Preliminary Budget, built from the previous year using the board-approved assumptions. This is shared at our annual financial workshop to spark important discussions. Then, in March or April, we deliver the Draft Budget. This version incorporates the latest known data, such as estimated staffing levels and refined projections, giving the board a clear, evolving view of our finances well before any statutory
038deadlines. These early steps demonstrate our strong commitments to involving the board and keeping the community informed from the very beginning. The final two phases of our process are required by Illinois statute to ensure full public access and participation. In June, we present the Tentative Budget, which now includes every known and projected factor, such as our long-range facilities plan and capital project allocations. This version is made available for public review. Then, in September, we bring forward the final budget. Approval includes a formal public hearing, a detailed review of fund balances, and a clear explanation of any changes made since the Tentative Budget. This statutory process guarantees transparency and gives every community member a voice in how we manage public resources. That concludes our overview of the district's budget development process and key financial planning highlights. We
039sincerely thank the board for your thoughtful engagement and ongoing stewardship of our district's resources. Madam President, I now return the meeting to you. Thank you, Dr. Romano. Are there any questions from the board? All right. We next move to... Can I just make a comment really quick? Sure. Dr. Romano, I just wanted to say I appreciate that you always use a woman's voice in there, and I think that's really beautiful, and I love that you do that, and also it makes me think of... There's a study in sociology that says that a lot of times people will play video game characters like opposite sex of who they are, and I just totally see you playing Lara Croft. Anyway, just wanted to say thank you for that. Thank you for your comments, Dr. Pintas. Can I
040ask a question? So not this past November, but the November before at our triple I meeting, you did a presentation on our budgeting approach, which as you commented on is much more extensive. The board's involved a lot more. You add extra steps. What kind of feedback? I know people were interested in what you were doing. What kind of feedback have you received? Are other districts looking to sort of imitate this procedure the way we're doing it? Dr. Balthe? I was just gonna say that we've also presented this information at the national level, and so as a part of that process, Dr. Romano has received several inquiries following that presentation. So whether or not a district decides to embark on the process that we're following or the exact process, I don't know that I'm aware of
041that, but I do know that both Dr. Romano and myself have received inquiries as it relates to the process that's followed in this district. I think probably one of the most unique pieces is the financial workshop where we spend an extensive amount of time together planning and that you plan also alongside the entire cabinet team, which I have not seen in other districts. So I do think that that is a unique piece, and certainly between Dr. Romano and I do want to give credit to Mr. Goldberg because he is the individual who asked if there was more we could do to continue to work alongside the board. So I think that was born out of some comments from Mr. Goldberg and some great thought and effort from Dr. Romano. Thank you. Just to add to
042that, yes, we have gotten some inquiries. More casual, like how do you guys do that? I heard you do something different. And then we talk about it. There's been some interest that I've shared with our financial workshop information more specifically, more than anything else. And as a result of that, I think that there's a lot of districts that are trying to get ahead of some of the statutory timelines so you can have deeper conversations if needed. I can tell you that one of the things that's nice from a budget development process internally, just for us, is that we start so much earlier. By the time we get to the final budget, there aren't major surprises. There's things that we say, well, we know we're gonna have to take a look at this, and we'll look
043at this. And so each version gets more refined and allows us to dig deeper, especially if we're seeing any red. We know that we can't have red in the budget. And what are we going to do? What are the things that we can take steps so that we're not reacting, we're actually planning? And so we have had those conversations. I have also heard, well, that's a lot more work. And so some folks just note that it's more work, and I don't know what they do with it after that. Thank you, Dr. Romano. We have discussion items without action. The first agenda item is the Edipoint Synergy Annual Expenditure. What questions do the board member have for Dr. Zahr? Hi. Thank you for putting this together. I really appreciate it. Question I have is, we had
044sort of a rough launch with Synergy, right? It wasn't exactly a smooth rollout. And I'm curious as at this point in time, if you could tell the board, do you believe it's stable and we've achieved the levels of performance we expect out of the tool? Are we still working with them to put additional features into personalized and tailored for our application or kind of where are we at with this? Mary. So I would say after the, maybe for the very beginning of the implementation, after there was a rather pointed meeting with senior leadership from both Synergy and from the district level, there was an immediate turnaround in the attention that was going to be given to Lake Zurich and entered into an implementation with them that included multiple weekly meetings or multiple meetings within the
045week to start with taking us through the first three years with even last year being still a weekly meeting with them. I will say that beginning, from the beginning of last year through the period right now, we probably get less than five tickets in our ticket system having to do with Synergy. The, I would say the improvements that they continued to work on and added for this upcoming or for last year's upcoming registration was they fixed the glitch with the upload of physical documents that was brought to our attention. And so we just really haven't heard anything different. Dr. McArdle's department added another piece to the platform this year that seems to be working seamlessly right now. Our athletic subscription that is an add-on to our Synergy system seems to be working well as well.
046So, so far we're very, we've been very pleased the last three years with their response to thing, very rapid response. I will share with you that at the, at the big COSIN convention in Chicago next week, Arby Allen from the curriculum instruction department and Leslie from the data team and Melissa from the technology department is going to be presenting and the subject of their presentation is how can you turn around an implementation and meet success? And we, when they came to me and pitched the idea almost a year ago, I said, well, the first thing we're going to do is talk to Synergy and tell them that, we're thinking of submitting this proposal. And so they said they didn't, at that time they didn't want to be a partner and do the proposal with us,
047but they were very interested in attending and supporting. And last week they shared the final presentation with them and Synergy was very pleased and even asked if we could be sure to mention our meeting with senior leadership on both sides of them because they felt that they felt also that that was a critical piece in the turnaround. So thank you, Mary. Would you say that they've moved from the point of squashing bugs to just implementing new features? Is that where you're at today? Are they still fixing? Okay. I would say that exactly where we're at today is that we're in the stage with them where if we offer a suggestion, like we're not saying this piece isn't working, but boy, we would really like it to do this. They'll have their engineers work on it.
048And I feel we're good partners with them. We've helped them to do things that have pleased us in other districts. And they've been responsive to us as well. Thank you. I would like to add as a parent's perspective because when it first rolled out, I know I actually spoke with you, Mary, because I was very frustrated with the platform and I was hearing from a lot of parents the uploads, all of that was very difficult. I think it has grown tremendously and it works so well and I have it on my phone and I register my boys for pretty much every season of sports and I have to upload all of their physicals and it's been really, really easy to manage. I love that I can go to the documents page and see all of
049their old NWEA scores, all of their report cards. And I can do that on my phone, which before the app was kind of also all over the place. So I can attest from a parent's perspective that it is totally different than when it first launched. And I really give the district a ton of credit for listening to probably plenty of frustration from the parent's side and fixing it instead of dismissing it, so thank you. Thank you for those comments. Dr. Zahr also shared the Isaac Fox Elementary School cafeteria slash gym AV replacement information as an agenda item in the board packet. Please feel free to share any questions that you may have. All right, thank you, Dr. Zahr. And Ms. Maloney, may we have the board's permission to put both of these onto the consent
050agenda for the next meeting? Yes, you may. And our last item is the NWEA growth and fluency assessments two-year expenditure. Ms. Allen is here to answer questions related to the report. Please feel free to ask. Oh, it's going to be Ms. Stallion. Anybody have any questions? This is what is commonly known as map testing, correct? Thank you. I have a quick question. I know our district adopted using maps or NWEA for kindergarten and we use it in a different way. How has that rollout gone in general? We're continuing the contract, so I'm assuming that it's been successful? So we started implementing NWEA map at kindergarten and first grade. I believe it was the second year I was here, so we've actually been implementing it for about four years now because we had a benchmarking system
051at kindergarten and first grade, which is a requirement of early screening and of the MTSS process. It's been going well. We've got a lot of good information from that. As you can see in the memo, there is now a fluency assessment that's NWEA. So the fluency assessment is actually a new mandate by the state that we must screen all of those students using a tool, a fluency tool. The fluency assessment that is part of the NWEA suite is an approved screening tool that will satisfy that state mandate for screening. We have not done that. That starts next year. We do have it for use and teachers have access to use it if they needed to gain additional information. We trained kindergarten mostly in first grade, but with the state mandate, now we have to broaden
052that and it is no longer optional. We must screen every student. And if we could put that in consent, we would appreciate that as well. Yes, you may. The first item for discussion with action is transportation services van purchase. Let's start by getting a motion and a second on the table for the van purchase. May I have that motion? So moved. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Thank you, Doug. I know we have already discussed the purchase at a previous board meeting, but I want to give the board another opportunity to ask questions prior to calling the vote. I just want to say, you know, we've discussed this extensively in business and operations meetings and I think it's a great idea. I think, you know, there's a definite efficiency improvement we can get here driving the smaller
053vehicles that are more fuel efficient, the more flexible in terms of how we can use them. We can attract a different set of drivers. It doesn't require CDL, for example. So I think this is brilliant. I love it. Anybody else? All right. Kate, please call the roll to approve the purchase of six Ford Transit vans at a per unit cost of $67,559 from Landmark Ford under the state bid as presented. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Thank you. Next, we have the approval of the resolution to place the question about imposing the county school facility sales tax, CSFT, on the November 3rd, 2026 ballot. May I have a motion and a second, please? So moved. Second. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you, Lisa. Please
054recall that we discussed this agenda item at our financial workshop as well as during the February 19th board meeting. Dr. Gault has provided the answers to our previous questions as part of this evening's report. Board colleagues, do you have any further questions for Dr. Gault or comments you would like to make related to this agenda item? I do. You know, this is, assuming this passed, let's say it passed for a second, Dean, you had told us previously that this could generate five to seven million dollars of revenue for us annually. Is that a true statement? Five to six. Five to six million, thank you. And since we are running a balanced budget, that would be income over and above our current budget, and we'd get this potentially next fiscal year, right? It's a two-year roll.
055It'll take two years. Yeah, okay. Given that, do you have any thoughts or ideas on how the district would offset that for our taxpayers? For example, would this allow us to not have to issue DSEB bonds if we got this? We can walk away from the DSEB bonds, and it would still allow us to maintain our long-range facilities plan as projected, but we also would have the opportunity to consider abating that existing for the remaining years that are on that DSEB if the funds were to come in at the same time. Thank you, yeah, you know, my previous comments were, I'm not a fan of this, number one. Number two, this is a regressive tax, right? It puts a burden, more burden on people that can least afford it. Studies indicate that the poorest 20%
056of households spend 7% of their income in sales tax compared to less than 1% for the wealthiest 1%. It's a regressive tax. So I think that obviously this is gonna be a motion to put it in the ballot and the people can decide. I also, you know, kind of object to the fact that we're going for the full 1% really without understanding what the needs of everybody are. It just seems like let's go for the most, get it all we can from the taxpayers. So I, yeah, I have a problem with this, honestly, but thank you for, I know the work you put in here, Dena, and I appreciate it, thank you. I don't think it's us trying to get all we can from taxpayers. I think it's giving taxpayers the ability to determine what
057they feel, like if they want to vote for it or not. So I think it's important that the community understands that we're not making that choice for them or allowing them to make that choice for themselves. You agree it's a regressive tax? I just think that the way that you just worded that was inaccurate, that's all I wanted to say. That's the data that supports it though, Kelly. What's the data that supports it, what are you talking about? There are studies about how different income, pardon me. Which studies are you referring to? I could send you the links if you'd like. I was just wondering, because probably the community would want to hear too, like which studies you're talking about. I just think it's important that we do not represent it in a way that
058it's not, which is not accurate. We are not saying that people should vote for this or not vote for it. We're saying that they can determine if they want to vote for it or not. We're just giving them that. I actually am going to step in just for a moment only because I want to make sure that we all understand the rules and the expectations that are associated with talking about whether or not the actual tax would be supported. The question for this evening is specific to whether or not the board would approve the resolution to allow our taxpayers to have the opportunity to vote either in favor or not in favor of this particular tax. I think that that's the most important thing to remember this evening. And then should the board decide that
059remember, we have to wait to see what the entire county says as it represents, this is to represent students across the entire county. And then once that decision is made, then the board will be able to have conversations about what are the expectations that we're required to follow as we share with our community ways in which we may decide that we would use those funds should the taxpayers decide that it is something that they would like to see the county do. So I think we're getting a little bit of ahead of ourselves. I would rather take a step back and really just look at the resolution and the board to make a decision as to whether or not you want to turn this over to the taxpayers or if you want to make the decision
060to say no this evening. And one more comment that I want to make is that this is a county wide proposal. And if we should decide as a board that we don't want it on the ballot, but it passes for the rest of the county, what we've essentially done is take away the voice of our district. So getting it on the ballot is simply that. It's on the ballot. So our district has a voice in the decision on whether it moves forward. And so that's what we're voting on tonight. Great. I think that's super easy. That is correct. It's a county wide decision and there are many school districts in Lake County that are not in the same financial situation that we are. And so some of this is what is for the greater good
061of the entire county. That's sort of where I look at it, which I think we have to look at when we make decisions within the school district. It may not be best for one school, but it's best for the district as a whole. We have to look at all of the Lake County school districts and they're not all in the same financial position that we are in. Yeah, very well said. And I'm just reiterating what Dr. Galt said. Tonight, what we're voting on is whether we put it on the ballot and give people a choice to make a decision on it. So, and I think it's important as well that certainly, number one, the whole county is gonna vote for it and then perhaps if they get enough districts to put it on the ballot,
062secondly, if it passes, then the district could also make some decision regarding the funds. So we certainly don't want to tie our hands as to if it does pass, where we could utilize those funds. So with that said, I really, I mean, again, just the vote tonight is not, it's just deciding whether our people in Lake Zurich or residents in Lake Zurich who could vote could decide along with the county on whether they want this to go forward or not. And that's it. And I do want to just add one more statement that each school district and each board has an opportunity to review this and determine whether or not they're going to take the vote. So there may be other districts that are in different situations. So I also don't want to set the
063expectation that every district is going to have this conversation. I felt it was important to bring it to our board and I felt it was important that you make the call as to what you would like us to do and how you want me to represent us as a part of the Lake County group. Yep, and I'll add again, regardless of what each of our personal opinions are on the tax itself, anytime we can give more voice to the people, it's always a good thing. And this is exactly what it does. Thank you. Thank you for the comments. Kate, please call the roll to approve the resolution to place the question of imposing a county school facilities tax on the November 3rd, 2026 ballot. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? No. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Atian?
064Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. All right. We are going into closed session for the following reasons. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors, specific volunteers, or legal counsel for the district, five ILCS 122C1. Student disciplinary cases, five ILCS 122C9. May I have this motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Kate, please call the roll. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Atian? Yes. We will not be taking any action after closed session this evening.