001I call the January 22nd, 2026 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Mrs. Danniger? Here. Ms. Tim? Here. Mr. Aitken? Here. Mrs. Warren? Here. Dr. Pinter? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Mr. Goldberg? Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the States of America. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us tonight. As we begin, I want to address the extreme cold forecasted for our area. Safety is always our highest priority and while we strive to keep our schools operating normally, there are circumstances where the temperature or wind chill make it impossible to ensure a safe and successful environment for our students and staff. Much goes into making these decisions. It is a complex process involving weather monitoring, facilities
002checks, and operational logistics. While safety is always at the forefront, we also have to ensure that we can operate the district effectively. I want to specifically express my appreciation for the administration's effort in sharing information related to our closure tomorrow, Friday, January 23, today, rather than Friday morning. We recognize that school closures significantly impact our households and providing this early timeframe gives our families the necessary window to plan and make arrangements. I encourage everyone in our community to take extra care during this extreme weather. Dress warmly, limit outdoors, and please check in on neighbors or family members who may need assistance. Thank you for your continued partnership in keeping our students safe, supported, and well-prepared. I would like to note for the record that I am removing the agenda item, resolution to prohibit sexual harassment
003under discussion with action. This is being done at the request of Dr. Gault to allow for further clarification on the two underlying policies. Specifically, we have identified a need to review the title of policy 2.105 and address the inclusion of non-employee groups with policy 5.20. Following a consultation between Dr. Gault and a member of this board, I am requesting that the specific concerns be referred to the Board of Education Policy Committee for a more detailed review before returning to the full board. Alicia, did you want to speak? Or, oh no, okay, gotcha, next time. We will now recognize our students and staff of the month. Ms. Malik has prepared a short celebration video to share. Mr. Nardiello, please play the video. Good evening, and welcome to the District 95 Board Awards. It is a great
004pleasure this evening to introduce students, staff, and volunteers who truly represent the values and the vision that support the District 95 mission to empower every learner to achieve personal excellence. Tonight, we begin with our student of the month awards. Luke Pyatt, Lake Zurich High School. Luke exemplifies the qualities of a growth-oriented and future-ready learner. His journey shows tremendous perseverance, resilience, and a strong goal-oriented mindset. In his parent-teacher meeting, he communicated his post-high school plans with clarity and maturity, demonstrating the traits of an effective communicator and a young adult who is truly college, career, and life-ready, balancing academics, two-varsity sports, and a full-time job with integrity and a quiet confidence. Luke reflects what it means to be accountable, empathetic, and committed to his own growth. Jack Gehry, Middle School North. Jack is an outstanding student dedicated
005to growth, global citizenship, and advocating for others. In ELA and math classes, he is a model collaborator, thoughtfully questioning assumptions and mediating group discussions to find consensus. He routinely elevates group performance by patiently clarifying complex steps and organizing solution strategies for his team. In science class, Jack often steps in to help without hesitation when others are in need. In social studies, he demonstrates curiosity, seeking out answers on his own, and reporting back to the whole class on what he learned. Althea Keeler, Middle School South. Althea has demonstrated growth in so many ways this year. Her self-advocacy has emerged as she communicates her needs regularly with staff. She is a true leader, naturally rallying for classmates around her and encouraging them to interact with the larger group. Althea is involved in multiple school programs, including the
006Run Club and the Soaring Sips Coffee Cart. In Run Club, she is consistent and determined, engaged with support staff and friends to stay active the whole time. In her role at Soaring Sips, she has taken the lead in notifying office staff about their completed orders and enthusiastically taking payments from customers. Her excitement for school is contagious and her joy brings everyone around her together. Alexandra Galasko, Isaac Fox. Alexandra exemplifies an incredible work ethic and a commitment to being a global citizen, challenging herself and her fellow students. She cares deeply, not only about her personal success, but also the success of her classmates. She is willing to take chances to challenge herself in all facets of her learning. Alexandra's kindheartedness brings happiness, joy and laughter to those around her, building bridges within the walls of the
007classroom, as well as the whole school community. Bryson Salzman, Mae Whitney. Bryson is an excellent student, friend and leader in second grade. He goes out of his way to help others, is constantly looking for ways to improve his work and wants to be challenged to grow his understanding across all subject areas. Bryson naturally takes the lead when working in small groups while simultaneously making sure that all members are heard and valued. He has often been seen going out of his way to include other students and encourages them to do their best. His curiosity and growth mindset will take him far in his learning journey. Isabella Bernardo, Sarah Adams. Isabella significantly contributes to the school community by serving as an anchor for morning announcements and establishing a popular craft club. She is a student who advocates
008for her own needs and the needs of others, ensuring all voices are heard. Isabella consistently seeks out and applies feedback, demonstrating a strong growth mindset in all her studies. Furthermore, she shows outstanding respect and inclusiveness for her peers by actively participating in the school's friendship group. Her remarkable blend of leadership, compassion and commitment to personal growth makes her truly deserving of this honor. Kanika Gupta, Spencer Loomis. Kanika regularly demonstrates the characteristics of the portrait of a graduate. She is an advocate for others in and out of the classroom and is an effective communicator with both students and teachers. She embodies a growth mindset and encourages others to do the same. Kanika is often found helping others unprompted, noticing when her friends are in need and offering her support. Kanika is undoubtedly more than ready for
009anything the future has in store for her. Mary Kopke, Seth Payne. Mary is a wonderful example of a student striving for personal excellence. She supports the school's youngest learners as a daily helper with kindergarten, showing patience and genuine care. Mary consistently works hard on her own assignments and then asks, what can I do next to help my brain grow? A true growth mindset in action. Mary is future ready, demonstrating the skills and curiosity that will help her succeed beyond the classroom. She is kind to others and an excellent collaborator, always willing to listen, share ideas and lift the work of her teammates. Clever and creative, Mary adds her own colorful flair to everything she completes, brightening the school community. Moving on to our adult recognitions, we begin with our volunteer of the month. Rosanne Fela,
010Middle School South volunteer. This fall, as Middle School South prepared their musical, Rosanne Fela volunteered to take headshots for the whole cast and crew, going out of her way to even return and photograph students who were absent. She edited, selected and ordered the photos, then returned to dress rehearsal to take more photos so that cast and crew had keepsakes of their hard work. She did all of this on her own time and her own dime. She even provided staff with pictures in both color and black and white. While photography is a hobby for her, her talent and professionalism shone through in her work. Rosanne's dedication to the musical publicity and in supporting the arts in the school is highly valued by all at Middle School South. Natalie Herrick, Sarah Adams, staff member of the month.
011Natalie pours her heart and soul into supporting the students she serves. She brings a calm, steady and compassionate presence that helps students feel confident, supported and valued. She supports all students in finding their voice to be strong communicators while building skills to self-advocate. Natalie collaborates closely with teachers, administrators, families and support teams to ensure students have the appropriate materials, services and interventions they need to be successful. Her strong problem-solving skills, professionalism and solutions-focused mindset strengthen the school community and social communications program. She creates respectful and inclusive environments through student-focused friendship groups, allowing space and time for students to collaborate and learn from one another. The Sarah Adams staff deeply appreciates her dedication and commitment to our students. Congratulations to all of our district 95 award recipients. Congratulations to all. In a moment, we will conduct
012our presentation of award certificates. I have a few directions to provide for this recognition. When your name is called, please come up to the board members who will be lined up on my right near the table. Once you are presented with your certificate, please stand between the tables at the front of the room so that we can capture some photos. Once we finish all the award announcements, you will be invited to enjoy some cake. At this time, I ask my board colleagues to join me at the awards table and would like to invite Mrs. Malek to introduce and recognize these very special individuals. Okay, good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. As Mrs. Maloney said, I will call up your name if you're a recipient of an award this evening and we
013would ask that you go over to the board members, and then we'll gather here in the middle for pictures. And parents and friends, don't worry, we'll give you time to take pictures too, okay? So let's start with Lake Zurich High School, Luke Pyatt from Middle School North, Jack Gary. Our Middle School South student could not be here this evening. She's under the weather, but let's give a round of applause for Althea Keeler. From Isaac Fox, Alexandra Galasca, May Whitney, Bryson Salzman. All right, come on up, buddy. We have someone accepting on behalf of Bryson. You can go right over there. I'm gonna guess brother. Brother, all right, thank you. That's so nice of you. Thank you for standing in for your brother. He's gonna look back and be proud at that picture sometime. All right,
014from Sarah Adams, Isabella Bernardo. Spencer Loomis, Kanika Gupta. From Seth Payne, Mary Kopke. And our volunteer of the month from Middle School South, Roseanne Fala. And unfortunately, our staff member of the month could not be here either, but I know that she's gonna watch this. So let's give a round of applause for Natalie Herrick from Sarah Adams. Okay, give me one second. We're gonna take our picture for the district and then we'll let you guys come up, okay? Okay, parents and friends, you're welcome to come up and take pictures and we're gonna keep smiling. Any more? All right, I think it's time for cake. Thanks, you guys, great job. Moving on to public comment. Kate, is there anyone signed up for public speaking? No, there is not, thank you. We will move on to consent
015agenda. Dr. Gault. Thank you, Mrs. Maloney. This evening I have for the Board of Education the approval of minutes from the open Board of Education meeting held on January 8th, 2026. The acceptance of the treasurer's report, approval of bills payable list, approval of the personnel report, which includes the request of a job share of certified staff, leave of absence of certified staff, resignation of certified staff, employment of non-certified staff, correction of resignation date for certified staff, stipends for January 22nd, 2026. And I do want to just highlight and thank Michelle Griffith. She is retiring and she has served our district for eight years at Seth Payne as an assistant to the principal. And so just really appreciate her service and want to acknowledge that, thank you. May I have a motion to approve the consent
016agenda as prepared and presented by the administration? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, thank you, Peter. Board colleagues, are there any questions? I do have a quick question. I know I noticed on the personnel report a couple of items administration had recommended that we deny the request. So approving this, is that denying those requests? I just want to make sure we're- Yes, that is true. Okay, thank you. So we're approving what administration has recommended on the personnel report? That's what we would be asking you to do, yes. Kate, can you please call the roll? Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Atian? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report. Dr. Gault? Thank you. This evening, I do have FOIA
017as per the agenda. I know the board had an opportunity to read that. Additionally, we had two very generous donations, I want to point out. So the Pepper Family Foundation donated $5,000 to Lakeserick High School Marching Band. So thank you so much to them. Additionally, we had another donation, Atlas Material Testing Technology, LLC, donated $10,000 to our robotics team. And we just so appreciate such generous donations to our schools. And then communication to the board, you did receive a thank you from Joni's Closet related to your donation for the upcoming dance. And then additionally, you did receive a communication about an Eagle Scout ranking earned by Alexander Voss of Lakeserick. I did want to, oh, OK. I did want to point out on that one that there was a request for you to send in
018a letter. I would say to you, I have done that before. Likely will be again. I have also attended. And it is a really, it's an important day for that student. And they do read every word of the letter that you write. And so even if one individual from the board would be willing to do that, I do think it would be very well received and appreciated. I don't recall, but I can go back and look. I think I would suggest that perhaps we pen a letter on behalf of the entire board. My son is also an Eagle Scout. I know it means a lot. And I would think a recognition on behalf of the entire board in one letter would be totally appropriate. I absolutely agree. So Mrs. Maloney, I would just ask that
019you go ahead and maybe if you either can direct it or you can direct me to direct that to happen. But I don't know who you would want to write that or if that would come from you. So if you could just let me know, that would be awesome. I will do that. Thank you. Thank you. Also wanted to remind the board that there is a save the date for Joni's Closet Valentine's Day dance. So if you would like tickets or people who are listening would like tickets, they go fast. So I would recommend getting it now. Excited to announce the District 95 Annual Art Festival. So please note that that will be held on Thursday, February 12 from 6 to 7 30 PM at the Lake Zurich High School. It is an awesome event
020for those individuals who are able to attend. And then I know we had at least one board member who signed up for the chamber luncheon. And remember that this replaces their evening gala that they typically would host. So instead, it is a luncheon. If you do want to attend, I need for you to let Kate know as soon as possible. And then we do have some important dates. So I did want to thank Eileen and Natasha for attending the Isaac Box Breakfast from the Board. And I'll go ahead and start sending out reminders for the next one soon. We do have a board retreat scheduled pretty much all day on Saturday. So thank you to our board members and to the cabinet leadership team who will be spending the day and learning together. And then
021the Lake Division meeting, I did receive two individuals indicating that they would like to attend this meeting. Again, if you would like to do so, I need for you to let Kate know as soon as possible so that she can get you registered and get you tickets. And that is the report this evening. Thank you, Dr. Gault. Moving on to reports to the board, Mrs. Kaiser and Dr. Romano have shared the cash flow report in the board packet. Are there any questions for Mrs. Kaiser or Dr. Romano? Okay. Our next item is the financial dashboard. Do any board members have questions for Mrs. Kaiser? All right. The last report provided in the board packet is the Student Services Empower 95 Action Plan update. Are there any questions for Dr. McCardell? Or comment? Pardon me? Or
022comment? Oh, sure. Go ahead. I just wanted to say I think this MOSS chapter's awesome. And I really sincerely appreciate that there's student voice because when we think about the types of things that are very, you know, crimes that are, we wanna make sure that we stop or make sure that we're keeping our schools safe. I think a lot of times schools and universities and any kind of educational institution tends to come to people like us, but kids are not telling us what's happening. They're telling their friends. So having a space where kids can share how to keep the schools safest I think is fantastic. So bravo. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Our next items are discussion without action. The first being the outsourced transportation services bidding update. Mrs. Twaddle, please provide the update. Good evening,
023everyone. We met with several companies. We had an initial pre-bid meeting. Then we had questions. We were able to answer all their questions. It's been a process that's been going on since the start of the school year and thought and process and building out a bid package that's really competitive. We met back actually yesterday and had several companies show up, but only four bids were presented. We had two for the van service and two for our big buses. And we're gonna take some time, really go in depth and look at and make sure that, you know, they meet all of our standards, that they followed everything to the tee, that everything in their bid packet shows what we requested of them. And once we have all of that and the numbers all finalized, we'll bring
024it back to you guys for final approval. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or concerns or issues? Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next item without action is the approval of the annual Microsoft services agreement. Dr. Zahr is happy to answer any questions board members may have. All right. We're paying the Microsoft tax, of course, but yeah. All right. Thank you, Dr. Zahr. Now we move on to discussions with action to start us by getting a motion and a second on the table for the safety netting at the LZHS stadium. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. And thank you, Lisa. Are there any questions for Mr. Walsh or in Mr. Erstead's absence? I know we discussed this is primarily for lacrosse. However, I would argue it probably
025is used for football. It's a netting that can be easily put up and down or? Yeah. We would use the netting mostly in the spring to maximize our spaces. We have a hard time. Like you can't have lacrosse and high jump right now because if you've ever been hit with a lacrosse ball, that hurts. And we also can't do track either when they're practicing lacrosse. So those nets will help us optimize our stadium space. And they are pretty, I won't say easy enough. I'm not the one putting them up, but they won't be up all year long. They'll just be up for the spring. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, Dr. Walsh. Kate, please call the roll to authorize the district to accept the proposal from Team Real Inc for the installation of safety
026netting at the stadium in the amount of $110,190 and to authorize the executive director of facilities and grounds to execute a contract for this work. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. All right, and as noted at the opening of the meeting, the next item on the agenda has been pulled. So we will be 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 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,
027or 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 ILCS 122C1 as amended. Also, 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. Student disciplinary cases, 5 ILCS 122C9. May I have this motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Kate, please call the roll. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Excuse me,
028Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Thank you, and we will not be taking action after closed session this evening.