001I call the December 18th, 2025 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Mr. Goldberg? Here. Dr. Pinter? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Mr. Aitken? Here. Ms. Timm? Here. Mrs. Danniger? Here. Mrs. Warren? Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good evening, everyone. As we gather for our final meeting before winter break, I want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our staff. Your dedication, hard work, and commitment to our students have been extraordinary this year. You truly deserve this upcoming time to rest, recharge, and enjoy the season with family and friends. On behalf of the Board, we wish our entire learning community a joyful holiday filled with peace and happiness. Please take care of yourselves and stay safe. We look forward
002to starting the new year together, refreshed, and ready for continued success. We will begin with the consent agenda. Dr. Gault? Thank you, Mrs. Maloney. This evening I have for the Board the approval of the minutes from the open Board of Education meeting held on December 4th, 2025, acceptance of the Treasurer's Report, approval of the bills payable list, approval of the district activity bills payable list, concussion oversight team, approval of the personnel report, which includes the resignation of administrative staff. I just want to personally thank Ms. Ali Finn for her dedication and service to our district over the last few years. We appreciate all that she's done and wish her great success in her new role. Employment of non-certified staff, termination of non-certified staff, and finally employment of administrative staff. Just want to give the Board
003a little bit of information on our recommendation for the Director, Executive Director of Facilities and Grounds position. We went through a very rigorous process where many different stakeholders were represented as we walked through that interview. There were several different interview meetings and the last one concluded with four different committees that each individual walked through. We ended up selecting, in my mind, just an outstanding candidate and I'm excited to just share a little bit about Porfirio Fernandez. He comes from Palatine District 15 where he serves currently as their Assistant Director. He has been there for many years, has wonderful experience handling all things facilities and maintenance across those schools, including new construction, including regular maintenance, custodial, etc. I believe that he's going to add greatly to our learning community. As you know, he has very big
004shoes to fill as Mr. Erstead seeks to retire at the end of August and so we certainly appreciate his service and we look forward to Diaz coming on board and that's what he likes to go as, just so the board knows, he likes to be referred to as Diaz. So it is my greatest hope that you would approve his employment with us and that's all I have for you. Thank you. May I have a motion 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. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Thank you. A special welcome to Porfio Diaz. We
005are excited to have you join our team. Ms. Malek has a special gift for you this evening and I understand that your family is here and we'd like to welcome them to the District 95 family as well. Hello. I just want to say thank you for the opportunity. I'm very excited and look forward to working with all of you to support the district goals and the facilities making a positive impact on all the students. So thank you very much. Thank you. I'll have what she's having. We will now recognize our students and staff of the month. Ms. Malek has prepared a short celebration video to share. Mr. Cardalla, please play the video. Good evening and welcome to the District 95 board awards. It is a great pleasure this evening to introduce students, staff, and volunteers
006who 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. Nina Grafrath, Lake Surrogate High School. Nina Grafrath exemplifies our district values of equity, accountability, and respect. Over the past two years, Nina has been a leader in integrated physical education, fostering an inclusive environment where every student feels valued. Her proactive support for classmates and teachers showcases her accountability and commitment to maintaining a positive classroom atmosphere. Beyond her in-class contributions, Nina's innovative use of social media to promote school events has significantly enhanced student engagement and fostered a strong sense of community and school spirit. Elise Boznos, Middle School North. Elise Boznos is an outstanding example of the values we hold in District 95. She is
007kind, hardworking, respectful, motivated, and always willing to help others. Her positive attitude and dedication enrich both the classroom environment and the school community as a whole. A talented artist, Elise has made a lasting impact through her leadership in the art club where she has helped design and create beautiful murals that have brightened the halls of Middle School North. Dylan Chiani, Middle School South. Dylan Chiani is a natural leader who consistently sets a positive example through his strong work ethic and responsible approach to his schoolwork. He communicates clearly and respectfully, often asking thoughtful questions that elevate class discussions and help his peers better understand the material. Dylan's positive attitude and genuine care for and support of his classmates helps create an inclusive, welcoming environment. He demonstrates reliability in all areas of his academics and shows that
008he truly cares about being a successful learner. Outside the classroom, Dylan participates in football, baseball, and the school basketball team where he continues to show strong teamwork and sportsmanship. Maitrey Javadi, Isaac Fox. Maitrey is a global citizen, consistently creating an inclusive environment where every classmate feels welcomed and supported. As an advocate for herself and to others, she regularly offers help to peers and contributes positively to group work by listening, encouraging others, and ensuring that everyone is included. She approaches challenges with a growth-oriented mindset, eagerly applying new learning and integrating feedback to improve her work. Through her words and actions, Maitrey is an effective communicator who models respect, kindness, and clarity in her interactions. Charlie Floyd, Mae Whitney. Charlie comes to school each day ready to learn and give his very best. He approaches every task
009with patience and determination, showing a strong work ethic in everything he does. In partner work, group activities, and independent challenges, Charlie is consistently kind and supportive, offering a calm, positive presence while demonstrating responsibility and a genuine desire to grow. He enjoys participating in the classroom newsletter, discovering new books, and taking leadership roles during science experiments. His thoughtful interactions make him a wonderful role model for his peers. Jelani Martinez, Sarah Adams. This year, Jelani faced the challenge of starting at a new school and has shown remarkable perseverance by quickly adjusting and thriving in her new environment. One of the many ways Jelani shines is in advocating for herself and others. She always makes sure to include others, both inside and outside the classroom environment. Jelani's helpful nature impacts the whole class, actively contributing to a positive
010and cooperative learning environment. Jelani, way to always bring your Bulldog best. We are proud of you. Madison Roeder, Spencer Loomis. Maddie consistently demonstrates kindness, initiative, and a genuine desire to support those around her. As the class kindness ambassador, she actively looks out for her peers and works to make sure everyone feels included and valued. She recently organized a class activity in which students created origami hearts and wrote uplifting notes to one another, fostering a strong sense of community. Maddie is an effective communicator who listens attentively during discussions and remains fully engaged in learning. She is collaborative and finds common ground with her peers in thoughtful, respectful ways. Teagan Mazur, Seth Payne. Teagan is a thoughtful and independent learner who approaches each day with curiosity and a strong desire to grow. She demonstrates excellent communication skills,
011listening respectfully, sharing ideas clearly, and collaborating with classmates in a way that lifts the entire classroom community. Teagan is also a resilient problem solver. When challenges arise, she stays focused, asks meaningful questions, and works hard to find solutions. More importantly, she leads with kindness and integrity. Teagan treats others with empathy, taking responsibility for her actions, and contributes positively to the school environment. Moving on to our adult recognitions, we begin with our Volunteer of the Month. Carrie Fallon, Spencer Loomis. Spencer Loomis is proud to recognize Carrie Fallon as Parent Volunteer of the Month for her outstanding dedication, leadership, and generosity in supporting the school community. Carrie goes above and beyond in all that she does. She has played key roles in organizing the Spencer Loomis Back to School event, in planning and carrying out the fifth
012grade end of year celebration, and serving as a chaperone for multiple school events. Additionally, Carrie organized the Minds of All Kinds Educational Spirit Week, which taught students about neurodivergence and to envision a world where neuroinclusion is the norm everywhere. Carrie also coordinated our Brain Break Assembly, encouraging staff and students to focus, relax, energize, and feel inspired. Thank you Carrie for your service, kindness, and positive impact on our school community. We are incredibly grateful. Tonight we are recognizing two staff members of the month. Aracely Zantano, Young Adult Center. Aracely Zantano is the face of the Young Adult Center, greeting everyone with respect and a warm smile as she welcomes them into the building. A problem solver through and through, Aracely will always find a solution or point you in the right direction with kindness and patience.
013Her integrity and helpful attitude are on full display in every interaction, from staff, students, or community members who have lost their way. Additionally, she takes deliberate time out of her day to foster connection and conversation with the students in the building. Thank you for setting a tone of kindness at the Young Adult Center, Aracely. Your impact is greater than you know. Megan Pozar, Lake Zurich High School. As a member of the High School Counseling Department, Megan Pozar consistently demonstrates exceptional leadership, collaboration, and dedication to both staff and students. She is an outstanding mentor to new teachers, offering steady guidance that helps them feel confident, supported, and valued from day one. As a leader of the counseling team, Megan has shown remarkable vision, especially during this year's complex course registration cycle. Megan also collaborates closely with
014teachers, administrators, and district teams to align course offerings with academic goals and provide students with accurate, personalized guidance. Her work empowers students to reflect on their interests, set meaningful goals, and make informed decisions. She ensures registration is more than a task. It is a student-centered experience grounded in self-reflection and ownership. Congratulations to all of our District 95 award recipients. In a moment, we will conduct our 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 to my right near the table. Once you're presented with your certificate, please stand between the tables in the front of the room so that we can capture some photos. Once we are finished with all the award announcements, you
015will be invited to enjoy some cake. At this time, will my board colleagues join me? Okay. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. We're thrilled to be able to recognize our award winners this evening. So our first recipient is actually not able to attend tonight, but let's give a round of applause for Nina Gryfrath from Lake Zurich High School. Next we'd like to ask from Middle School North, Elise Bosnos. Please come on up. From Middle School South, Dylan Chiani. From Isaac Fox, Maitrey Javadi. From Mae Whitney, Charlie Floyd. From Sarah Adams, Jelani Martinez. From Seth Payne, Tegan Mazer. From Spencer Loomis, Madison Roeder. And now our volunteer of the month from Spencer Loomis, Carrie Fallon. Our first staff member of the month is not able to be here this evening, but let's
016give a round of applause for Araceli Zantano. And last but not least, from Lake Zurich High School, Megan Pozar. Okay, so I'm going to organize these guys, and Mrs. Newby is going to come over and take some pictures. Then we will give you a chance to come up and take pictures as well. So give us one second. All right, parents, feel free. You can come up and take pictures. Keep smiling. All right. Anybody else? All right. Great job. Let's go have some cake. Okay. You are very welcome to stay, but you also please feel free to leave if you'd like. We now have discussion without action items. First is our 2026-2027 school calendar. Would the calendar committee please share? Oh, thanks, Jack. Hi, we're on behalf of the 2020 calendar committee. I'm Megan Carroll. I
017teach fourth grade at Seth Payne. I'm Jack Byrne. I'm a junior at Lake Zurich High School. Hi, good evening. I'm Teresa LaPerry. I'm the parent of a junior at the high school as well as an eighth grader at Middle School North. Anthony Dangler, Middle School South Principal. John Walsh, Lake Zurich High School Principal. In front of you, you'll see the agenda of all the different items that we did at the committee that will be addressed here tonight for all of you. All right. Just briefly, just to let you know, the calendar committee, we did have a total of five meetings. Three of them were with a full committee. Two of them were two smaller subcommittees made up of up to about 40 people. There were a lot of stakeholders involved, including students, teachers, parents, guardians,
018administrators, and the Lake Zurich Educators Association President. We really wanted to make sure that we were prioritizing our learners' engagement as well as instructional time, obviously, to make our calendar as best as it can be moving forward. We worked really hard to come up with a great option. In the three meetings that we all met together here in October, two meetings as well as one in November, we began with five option calendars. We had five to begin with. The first meeting, we were given a big background of previous years, recommendations, things that worked, things that didn't, had a lot of good discussion as a group, and collaboratively, we were able to eliminate one of those calendars at that point. Then we met again to kind of discuss and see where we needed to go. After
019that second meeting, we did decide that there needed to be a survey that went out. As we discussed the start date of the school year, as it was for staff as well as students and as well as conferences, we wanted to get some feedback from the staff. There was a survey that went out at that point prior to our final meeting in November as a final group. After we were able to review all of that information that came through the survey, we were all able to agree on one calendar. This just briefly tells you what happened at the two smaller subcommittee meetings. The first one was to put together the survey that went out to the staff members. The second was just the few of us who are here tonight. Our key recommendations to the
020board for the calendar for 2026-2027 school year is first and foremost to continue two full instructional days before Thanksgiving as it supports greater attendance and it honors the daily instruction for all classes at all the different levels throughout the district. Second, we wanted to achieve a greater balance between quarters and semesters at the different levels and it provided for the closest number of days between academic periods for instruction and grading. Third, we wanted to end first semester before winter break as it allows students to complete exams prior to winter break to support a true academic break for students. And fourth, as many Thursdays as possible in November are reserved for middle school and high school student performances as this supports preparation for events and also respects staff slash student needs. So to further support staff,
021students, and family needs, our key points were having an October Institute Day which aligns with school improvement efforts and district timelines for those monitored improvements. Parent-teacher conferences would be earlier in November for high school students which would provide more timely feedback for middle and high school students to support timely interventions if needed. Flexibility for staff who are both teachers in district 95 and parents of district 95 students. To achieve this, we would have staggered conference dates to help staff balance their work and personal schedules including staff serving within the district who are also parents of students currently attending other district schools. Students involvement in planning such as student committee members contributed valuable perspectives on calendar priorities and engagements and bundled Institute Days and Holidays creates longer weekends to support family and staff well-being. So there
022were a couple of things we had to look at in terms of addressing some of our operational needs. One was our alignment with the Lake County Tech Campus and the Regional Office of Education calendars. The reason we wanted to be in alignment with these is it ensures consistency for students attending programs outside of our district as well as it supports our staff who live in nearby communities who may be following similar calendars to what we have. We also looked at some observance of religious holidays. So last school year, this previous school year, we had an Institute Day on Good Friday. On that day, over 400 staff members requested an absence because they are permitted to take religious holidays. That would create some operational challenges if we were to run school and have a significant number
023of staff members take that time. As well as Easter Monday, we also saw a large number of staff looking to take that day off for a religious holiday as well. We adjusted the calendar to reflect the need and the fact that we would not be able to be operational with that number of staff out. Stakeholder feedback. We surveyed our staff and wanted to incorporate some of their feedback. Some of the staff survey feedback came back as preferring that conference dates stay kind of similar to where they were, consistency, or more flexibility for our staff members who are parents in the district. So in the timing of those conferences, we looked at the relevancy of when that time was. So really got their feedback on when those conference dates were, when it aligned to certain programs.
024So we made some adjustments based on that feedback. So at the elementary level, we added the elementary level to their early release virtual conferences to accommodate programs like math replacement since that program often has a high number of conferences requested. It also provided other options for parents. And the earlier conference time for high school was another adjustment as that is an ability for the high school to better communicate with families on any needs or areas of improvement that may be for their students. So our final recommendation is instructionally sound. It is responsive to stakeholder feedback, and it is more balanced and consistent. So our current, as of December 16th, the staff was informed of the recommended calendar, and the Board of Education meeting agenda was posted. Today we are presenting to the Board of Education.
025On January 8th, the board will consider the dates for approval, and on January 9th, we will notify the public of the final calendar following your approval. What we have up here is our proposed calendar snapshot. So this snapshot, you'll see several key dates as well as a breakdown by month of the number of student attendance days per month. I'd like to give a thank you to all our committee members. We had a lot of people joining us to help us make this decision. And thank you to everyone. This reflects a shared commitment to our students' success, staff well-being, and family needs. Do you have any questions? Thank you all. I'll start with Natasha, do you have any questions? No. Thank you. Peter? Thank you. Doug? Very much, very much. Really, I know this is difficult
026work. I know you have to balance all different stakeholders, some stakeholders that had concerns about religious holidays. And I know some stakeholders, included in my household, are very, very thankful that you have the exams towards the end of the year instead of next semester. So I really appreciate your ability to consider all the stakeholders and do a really great balancing act to come out with a product that you ultimately came up with. Thank you very much. Thank you. Doug? Thank you, Eileen. Again, a big thank you to the entire committee, the folks that aren't here tonight as well. I've watched this evolve over the last number of years, and it's great to see we're kind of tuning the process, right? The iterative process, we're making it better and better, listening to all the stakeholders involved
027is so huge. I love the fact that we have student representation on the committee, that's super important. And I think you guys are sort of arriving at a place where hopefully you're not going to make everybody happy. It doesn't work. Well, life doesn't work that way, but I think you're finding good compromises that are best for community. Also, I think just as importantly, getting this done now and getting the information out to our families and our staff as early as possible so they can plan for next year is super important. So I really appreciate the fact that by early next year, the information will be out there, it'll be published, and folks have a chance to hopefully make their schedule correspond as well. So thank you very much. Thank you, Doug. Lisa? So I'm confused.
028You made the comment that you were trying to keep Thursdays free in November for performances, yet one Thursday in November is Thanksgiving, so you won't have any performances. Two Thursdays in November, you have conferences until 7 p.m., and I would argue most performances are starting by 7 p.m., if not earlier. So I guess I don't understand that comment. I'd have to look exactly. I don't think it's K-12 on both those Thursdays. I think one of the Thursdays is, is it K-5? Is that correct? It's K-12 on the 12th. Just on one, right? Right. So I guess the reason that that came up is originally we were looking at the potential of doing all of the conferences on Thursday, because if you think about it from a staff perspective, staying late on a Thursday and then
029having just one day left for the week to teach would probably feel more beneficial to a staff member. However, we also recognize that we have board meetings, et cetera, and so we tried really hard to limit that, but also give one back to the staff. So that was the purpose behind it. That's been a conflict for many board members that we have to make sure we schedule our conferences that it doesn't conflict with a board meeting when you're doing recognitions. I would argue there's people that can't come if you're doing this. So I guess I just... There's two other... It was interesting that that was seen as a really important point, but then I felt like it wasn't followed through. I believe that the team did the best job they could in that we only
030picked one. There's a high school or a secondary, I believe, secondary only date, and then there's an elementary only date that are off of that Thursday, because we do know we have board members who have students in the district. Additionally, there is another early release date that offers other conference times. And so we did make sure that those were offered, and really trying to make sure we balance everything so that we gave families the opportunity to have one full day where they don't have to only take off one day of work, but then making sure that for our staff that they had an opportunity to go to their conference potentially at a different level at a different time. So there were a lot of nuanced pieces to conferences, and believe it or not, we had
031a lot of conversation about this piece in particular. I do think they did the best they could, and we worked really hard to make sure that we did not take all of the conference dates and put them on a Thursday, which probably benefited our staff if we would have done that. And then my second question is, is there any discussion, is now the overwhelming preference to have our winter break be two full Monday through Friday weeks? I ask this because we constantly struggle with getting equity between semester one and semester two. I understand we want to do finals before the winter break, but sometimes it would be okay if winter break started on a Wednesday. I know we used to do that. It would go a Wednesday to a Tuesday. So is there an overriding
032preference that it's the full two weeks, so I get the three full weekends, and I don't have to – because I heard you saying you're not doing that for Thanksgiving, so I'm just sort of curious, was there any discussion about winter break not being a Wednesday to a Tuesday or Tuesday to a Tuesday or varying from those full two weeks? And I can help answer that too. We looked at some of our historical data as well. You're right. I remember I've been here for many years that we used to have winter break, and from our staff's perspective, those were days that typically we had really poor student attendance if we started winter break on a Wednesday, so many families would take the opportunities to take off the weekend, and so our staff struggled with instruction
033those two days because it's hard when half your class or more is gone. So the preference of the team was to just have the full week, and that is typically more aligned with the ROE calendar and Tech Campus and what they're doing as well. So that was why. Are we seeing that happening on Thanksgiving week? We were seeing that particularly when we were having the shorter days, which is why in this calendar we went back to having full instructional days. We recognize that there will be families that take the opportunity to take the entire week off, and that was an option. We did talk about having the entire week of Thanksgiving off as well, but it's a give and take throughout the calendar everywhere. That would be one of the differences between our calendar and
034some of the others that we looked at is that we're not taking that time off. So there are some differences between the calendars as we look at the ROE and Tech Campus, but this we feel worked for our district, so it was one of the things we held on to. Well, it would only make it harder to have equity between semester one and semester two if you take three entire weeks off. Okay, thank you. I know this is a lot of work. There's a lot of competing interests here, but thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, great work. I think every institution is different, and so you all are the experts. You're the ones in the rooms every day and seeing what students feel like and how teachers are reacting to everything, so I
035appreciate that you got all of those voices. One of the questions that I had, so for end of the semester, you want to end the semester by winter break, which sounds ideal. My question is, if you end the semester by winter break, do teachers have to grade over winter break? I'm just curious. Do they actually get a break? Our schedules are shortened on finals, so if your kid is at the high school right now, their school day ends at 1.15, so that does give teachers two and a half hours to grade, but they also got to include a lunch in there, so they do have more time during the three days during finals, but grades are not due until the Wednesday we come back from break, so they do have some more time after break
036as well. Okay, so that gives them, they can actually enjoy their break. That's good. And then the October Institute Day, I'm very excited about because it seems like then the kids would have off, so you could do a fall break day if you have kids in college. I love that. And then also the work-life balance is essential for happy teachers and staff, and so I appreciate that you're looking at all of that, so great job. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Alicia? Thanks for everything and the good communication and getting everyone's opinions. I'm all very excited as a parent of high schoolers that you kept the conferences in November early so we can catch the wayward children, so thank you for that. Thank you, Alicia, and my comments are what they said, so thank you
037so much. I truly appreciate all the work because this is a hard committee to manage because there's so many competing priorities and so many right answers, and so it's just, it's tough. So thank you so much and thank you for the wide swath of stakeholders that we routinely look to to give feedback, and this was no exception. So thank you for all of your involvement and thank you for the work, so appreciate it. All right, next we have our school day committee summary and recommendations. Good evening. Thank you for having us here. We are excited to present to the community and the Board of Education the results of what was a very in-depth look at school day in an effort to meet some of the objectives that the committee was given. So we'll start with
038that. At middle school, one of the things that we were asked to do was try to find opportunities and identify times where students could access intervention in a way that limited their need to miss other opportunities. At the high school, we were asked to take a look at the schedule and try to find 47 minutes for each period within the day. If you remember, we brought some information to the board where our high school was in comparison to other schools around us, and we landed on a 47-minute period that we would attempt to find during this work, and we also were asked to take a look at office hours, the structure of office hours, and see if we could identify a more effective means for intervention delivery as we discussed that some students did not
039have access or could not access during that time, and what might we be able to do to find intervention time for all students throughout the day? For community reference, we have been doing this work since August of this school year, and so the next two slides detail all of the communication and engagement opportunities which are also outlined in the memo. So again, starting in August with a launch communication to all key stakeholders, you'll see opportunities for surveys, focus groups, teaching and learning updates, full board committee updates, and so just for, again, community reference, this is what our communication and overall engagement looked like throughout the process. By way of brief overview for the stakeholder data, I referenced that there was a lot of rich data collection across a wide range of stakeholder groups, so we
040conducted focus groups with students, staff, we did family focus groups, we had two different survey administrations, so again, lots of stakeholder input that informed this process. Of note, a key concern across middle school and high school was that maximizing student choice was something that came across really loudly from all of our stakeholder groups, and so when we think about the committee outcomes or work products that will be summarized tonight, all of those options do underscore that student choice as being critical. And so we'll shift to a summary of middle school first. So our first schedule option developed at the middle school level is a refined structure or process for delivering MTSS interventions overall, in particular for students who are also enrolled in band orchestra choir who may be identified in any area for intervention. This
041schedule option additionally utilizes this window of time, gives an additional window of time at the end of the day before staff dismissal for additional student support. Our second schedule option for middle school was developed, reduces each of our, all of our periods by several minutes, so for core and encore you'll see they're reduced by two minutes each. This is allowing us to create a when time or what I need block of time in the day for all students. So where students could receive intervention, reinforcement, or enrichment support during this time, this would additionally identifies time that at the, excuse me, which is great for our BOC kids because they have that opportunity to get that time as well. There's also that time at the end of the day as an official, a potential option for
042students to receive additional support once the school day ends. At the high school, our first option included an eight period day that was 47 minutes long. We also had a zero period for students in order to maximize the graded courses that they could take. It also helps to accommodate students with unique scheduling needs who do not want to lose elective options. This schedule also included a split study hall lunch where students who may want to have a study hall but not lose an elective, they would split their lunch in study hall. Splitting lunch in study hall is also going to be looked at as a structure for delivery of MTSS interventions for students that have been identified. The second schedule option for high school is similar to option one, but it does not have that
043split lunch periods throughout the day except for students who need intervention. There were two options for meeting the PLC minutes at the high school level that were developed with negligible differences between the total minutes gained across the school year. Of note, an alternate plan for PLC was required as the office hour timeframe was reduced in order to seek increased instructional minutes. Several areas of impact were assessed as part of the process, including those listed here, and the memo goes much more in depth regarding an overview of impacted areas. So with respect to some final thoughts, again, we referenced the comprehensive memo. There's much more detail with respect to the stakeholder feedback, schedule options, all of the components discussed throughout this process. This work was critical for the committee and the district at large to understand
044what were our options for meeting those objectives set forth, considering financial and transportation parameters, of course. So without the work of the committee, we would not have come to any of the outcomes that were outlined here this evening. Something very important to underscore, we've referenced stakeholder feedback throughout. Due to a lack of consensus from the stakeholders that we heard from throughout the process, at this point, we are not recommending an eight-period schedule at the high school level. So while we summarize the work and the options that the committee came to in the memo, for clarity's sake, it is important to note that we are not recommending moving forward with that option at this time. Moving forward, the focus will really highlight at the middle school and the high school level those MTSS components that we
045referenced in the memo in our presentation this evening, which will require some further collaboration with our teachers and district administration as we continue along in that negotiations process. And we would certainly be remiss if we did not acknowledge all of the team members who contributed to this work. It was very intensive. We heard about competing interests in the calendar presentation. Lots of layered and complex considerations that happened at this level as well. We could not have been more proud of the respectful collaboration that occurred throughout. Back to you, Mrs. Maloney. Thank you so much. All right. Let's jump to Alicia. Do you want to start? I think you did a great job. Thank you for including everyone's voices. These are sensitive things to discuss, so it's important everyone feels like their needs are being heard,
046and I think that everyone did a great job with that. I know that we will be continuing to see the whole students as important going forward when we look at different courses and timing. So thanks. This reminds me of back in grad school when I had a little baby, and I would write a chapter, and I was like, I finally got it done, and I would turn it into the person who said to do it a certain way, and then she's like, this isn't right. Do it again. And that's probably how you all feel, where you're like, oh, my God, I put in so much work on this. And then sometimes it's just hard to do all that work, right, and then have the people in the community, I mean, this is just one of
047those things where I think you just can't win. There's always going to be people that are for it or against it, but thank you so much for doing all of this work, and I think that I appreciate that we're a district that listens to people and listens to student voice, listens to teacher voice, and listens to the community, and I think we're making the right decision with what you all are deciding, but just know that the work that you did is not going unnoticed because I'm sure it was a ton of work, and we all thank you for that. So bravo. Lisa, I echo thank you. This was a lot of work. I think what came out of this is baseline data. We didn't have any of this when we went into this project. I
048know I had several questions that I asked and were answered by some of the data, and it was nice to see things that you think are happening or really what was going on, and I also respect, I think if anybody ever questions whether this district listens to student voice, parent voice, and staff voice, this process definitely reaffirmed that all voices are heard and respected and part of the decision-making process. This is not a one-person decision-making district at all. So thank you very much for all the effort. Appreciate it. Thank you, Lisa. Doug? Thank you, Eilina. This is a complex issue, and I certainly want to thank all of you for your work. I actually sat down last night after thinking this through and listening to all the voices, and I wrote some words down because
049it's easier for me to get it out when I can actually sit down and put pen to paper. I want to start by thanking the school day work committee and our staff for the amount of time, thought, and care that went into this work. This was a serious multi-month effort that stayed grounded in real constraints, transportation, budget, staffing, and contracts. All that stuff matters. You know, the middle school level, I think the committees identified a thoughtful path forward, and I appreciate it. The high school discussion is more complex. The report acknowledges that current structures, particularly office hours, are not consistently effective for intervention. At the same time, stakeholder feedback reflects real concerns about electives, schedule compression, and late dismissal. These voices matter, and I take them seriously. Our challenge as a board is to balance
050those concerns with a responsibility to improve student outcomes. This is not a conversation about adding minutes for the sake of adding minutes. It's about how instructional time is used, especially in high-impact courses, and whether students who need support are receiving it when it can make the greatest difference. For that reason, while I'm supportive of moving forward where there is clear alignment and benefit, I also believe the high school warrants a more targeted approach, one that allows us to pilot, measure, and learn, rather than make sweeping structural changes without clear evidence. As we move ahead, it's essential that we define success clearly. This work represents an important step. Our responsibility as a board is to ensure that any change to the school days are purposeful, equitable, and directly connected to improve outcomes for the students. Once
051again, thank you to everybody involved for the incredible amount of work you guys did. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Doug. Peter? Thanks again. You feel battle-scarred. You certainly did a lot of work. We really appreciate the work that you did. Obviously, the original aim and the intent and the purpose of what the committee had on the charter were all with really good intent. That intent is not unnoticed. We appreciate, as the point said, that at this time we're pausing certain conversations, but there will be some additional conversations in the future. Thanks a lot for your work. Thanks again for listening to the output of all stakeholders. We really do appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Peter. Natasha? I'd also like to express my gratitude once again. I can't help but to
052reflect on that we had the portrait of a graduate reflected in a lot of voices that spoke up for advocacy in their beliefs, whether it was among students or neighbors. I really appreciate that because it is something we are trying to encourage in our community and especially in our students. When it was heard and we're listening, we're set with a near impossible task, which every teacher understands. We want our kids to have maximum minutes in every subject, and we want the best teachers, and we want the most well-rounded students, and we want equity for intervention for our students that don't get that outside of school. All of that is constrained in this tiny little window with a million different factors. There's never going to be a perfect answer, but I'm really in strong belief that
053everyone at this table and all of the people in your committee really looked at the whole child, and that was maybe reflected a little bit in this decision, but for the moment in recognizing that this is just a much, much bigger lift and a bigger, I don't want to say problem, but I think we really, like Doug said, have to be really targeted in any choices we make moving forward because art and music are just as important as math minutes, and they probably want those extra seven minutes too, I'm guessing, because it probably would help their class too, and they want to be able to give our kids choices. So I guess what I want the community to hear is that we hear you, we understand, and we've been talking about this for a really
054long time at this table, and we've also been putting in newsletters, and I encourage advocacy, so if it is something out there that you're listening to, because I think we'll maybe have some more few listeners tonight, read everything. Write us emails. We appreciate that communication. Everyone at this table appreciates that communication. If it's something you're passionate about, come and speak at the board meeting. We want to hear everyone's voice. Thank you, Natasha. My comments are very similar. Just thank you to all of our stakeholders that commented and gave us feedback. It matters. We want that. We want to hear your voices. The surveys, multiple surveys went out. I just want to reiterate that the surveys are very intentional, and we are seeking feedback, so when you get a survey, and I'm speaking to our vast
055viewing audience, please take it. We really want that feedback. And we do get the feedback and then look at all the different segments of our stakeholders to see whether or not there's patterns. And if we see all the students want one thing, that's very impactful. It's not just what you're saying. It's who's saying it. So things like that aren't necessarily captured in the petitions, but they are captured in the surveys. So please answer surveys. We do. It's very intentional. I appreciate the petitions, too. The advocacy is great. They get still feedback. We still want to hear it. It's just we are very intentional with the surveys that are sent out, and we are looking for feedback from all segments of our stakeholders. I would be remiss without thanking you all for the extraordinary effort, and
056I'm going to say the tall ask of the committee. And it is really difficult to come up with a recommendation that satisfies all of what we want to accomplish and then satisfies all the stakeholders as well. And the competing interests all matter. And so it is a very tough, tough nut to crack. So thank you all. More to come. And there's still levers to pull, so we will continue and we will move forward. So thank you. Eileen, can I make one more comment? Sure. I just want to say thank you to all of you, but thank you to all the folks in the community that reached out to us. And I just want to say that I'm so excited about how many people in this community care about the arts. You know, I feel like
057it's just really the arts, we talk about them as though they're like an elective or it's like a, you know, I don't know. And I think that this district really showed that. People came out. Like the arts save lives. I really truly believe that. I think sometimes you get the students that aren't always, and I'm not going to stereotype here, but there are students that don't totally fit into other areas of the school. And the arts are a place where they thrive, they survive, they find their community. And I think it is so important that we keep those types of classes for those students because I think it's where they find their folks and where they find community. So I just wanted to say again, like thank you to the people who reached out and
058really showed how important the arts are to Lake Zerk. Thank you. And we are moving on to public comment. And we took that a little out of turn tonight because the subject matter is about the school day and we wanted the presentation to be heard before public comment. We do have one person, Jack Byrne, signed up for public comment. Jack, please know that the board is genuinely interested in receiving comments from the public, but we do 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, which won't be applicable. 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 it to
059be presented to the board, please leave it with Kate. So thank you. Good evening. I'm not only making the time talk to me about any concerns that I have, but be 100% transparent when doing so. I think we all realize that moving forward with this, it's clear that keeping the stakeholder voices at the center of these discussions leads to better outcomes for students and staff members. I'm grateful for your thoughtful approach and encourage you to continue involving families, students, and staff as future decisions are made. Thank you for your time and commitment to our students and our community. I wish you all a happy holiday. Thank you, Jack. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report. Dr. Elp? Okay. Thank you. We have a few items for you. We did include the FOIA
060as we typically do within the report. And then as the board is well aware, because I know you are highly engaged in your email communication, you did receive concerns raised related to the school day work specific to the high school schedule. And then also concerns related to a student matter in which you have been copied on. And so I wanted to make sure I brought that to your attention. And then as you heard, I think Jack spoke very eloquently. And I greatly appreciate all of the work of the committee as well as the commitment to respond back to families. And so I personally want to thank Dr. McArdle because I know that she even reached out right before the meeting to make sure that family concerns were addressed again. So thank you, thank you. I
061appreciate that. We did have our facilities meeting this evening. We had some discussion just kind of reviewing some of the winter break work that will take place. We talked about painting here at the administration center, maintenance and basic repairs that need to be conducted across the system. And then building numbering as well. We then talked about some power distribution specific to LZHS, MSN, and Spencer Loomis using PowerLink as well as lighting enhancements at Isaac Fox and Middle School South. We spent the bulk of our time together really talking with the PTMA financial solutions group. And they previewed tonight's presentation with our committee. It did give our committee an opportunity to ask a lot of questions and then for them to streamline their presentation to the board this evening. And so one, I greatly appreciate the
062fact that they're going to do that live and not with a lot of time provided to them. But I'm not going to speak to what we discussed because you're going to have an opportunity to listen to the presentation this evening. And then we spent some time talking about van specifications. We are looking to purchase additional vans, as you know. We had some conversation and just really grateful to Kelly Twedell. She was able to do some background work and find out that there are some new vehicles that now are becoming ready and available within a two to four week turnaround time, which was our previous concern and why we were looking at the potential of used vehicles. And so just wanted to let you know that we're going to most likely be moving towards new vehicles.
063There's not a lot of cost differential. It was really the timing of how quickly we could get access to those vehicles. And so just wanted to let you know Dr. Romano spoke specifically with the committee about utilizing the advance pay up to $80,000 and the committee definitely seemed in agreement on that. And then Ms. Twedell also spoke to a need for a GPS system update, essentially an upgrade. And so I think our families are going to be most excited about this piece because not only is it going to allow us electronic notification regarding our vehicles, including those related to issues with the vehicle itself, as well as reminders of some maintenance pieces, but also specifics to our driving, et cetera. But the best part was in my mind, and as somebody who puts a child
064on a bus, is the parent location notification. And so while we don't give out the actual route to families and the public, what it will do is it will notify parents as to when the bus is approaching a specific neighborhood or an area, a pickup location. And so very excited about that. I know our families have been asking for that for a while now, and so we're going to be able to gift that to them. This new system is about $36,000 for initial fees and then an annual fee of about $17,000. And then we briefly talked about new netting needs on our football stadium, and so excited to be able to move forward and use grant funds to also share in the cost of that need. And then I will turn it over to either
065or both, Ms. Dannegar and Mr. Goldberg, if you have anything you would like to add to the information about our committee meeting. I think you covered it, Kelly, but just once again thank you to our investment partners at BTMA for coming out this evening and spending some time with us. I think you guys did a great job, you know, walking through and answering all the questions that we had. We really appreciate again your time tonight. I think, you know, certainly hit the highlight, and that is the fact that, well, two things. One is we've got Dean away from buying used buses to buying new ones finally. And secondly, you know, the GPS upgrades on our buses I think will be a wonderful upgrade for our parents to allow them to get some notifications as to
066where the bus is. And also allows our transportation team to get a higher resolution look at, you know, where they are, reports the position information much more rapidly, and provides the service information. So it was a very good meeting. Thank you. Yeah. As a mom at that meeting, not a board member, I was very excited because I've had to wait out in the cold and rain several times for my kid on the bus. So I'm really looking forward to that. And I think safety wise, it's a huge, huge upgrade for our transportation. So I'm really excited. Thank you both. Moving on, we did have some substantial donations I'd like to thank individuals for. So we had more orthodontics who donated $500 to our robotics program and greatly appreciate them doing that so that we can
067complete the build of the robotic arm for our first upcoming competition. And then the Essary family donated $2,000 for digital displays for student recognition as well as marketing school events. And so that will be at MSN. And so excited for that donation as well. And really want to thank our technology department for participating in that process to make sure that this was the right way to go ahead and take in those funds. I'm excited about how that's going to look. I also wanted to share with the board, I think this has become an annual event for me. And so having and being able to attend the Phillies hockey event, it's an educator appreciation night. And so a lot of fun. They have a Santa there. They have snacks and food. They celebrate the girls who
068are playing hockey. And I would say that our number of players are growing. And so our families were really excited to see some District 95 representation there. And I was joined by Kevin Condon who was also invited. And I just want to say, you know, it's an honor to be invited. The students get to decide who they want to invite to this event. They can't invite everyone. And so just it's a privilege to be able to get to go and talk with the student athletes and watch them in action. And they are awesome. Just saying. And then also want to take this opportunity to, again, thank our foundation for our winter food care packages and their support as well as our community. We had many people involved to make this happen. And most especially Mrs.
069Malik and her department. And then I would be remiss if I also did not thank, and she does not know I'm going to thank her, but Mrs. Warren pulled out at the last minute some, she's, she's been there and she was able to find a donation from them for hams for every single one of our families in need. And so greatly appreciate the last minute organization between Mrs. Malik and Mrs. Warren and the grocery store. So a huge thank you. We're going to be able to support 102 families over winter break. We do realize that we are unable to support all families in need. There are far more than 102 families or 103, whatever that final number was, 102. And so I do want to say that, you know, we continue to try to do
070everything we can to support families in need across our system. And the one other group that I should probably also add in is our LZEA also took a leadership role in sending out a communication. And I'm going to let Mrs. Malik add to my thank you. There are a lot of thank yous for this. This was really very much a community collaboration. There were many, many donations made. We had a community member, a former district parent who on her own organized with some friends the creation of some meal kits with the recipe and all the ingredients for that for 72, 72 of those she delivered. But also and then donations from the educational foundation as a whole, but also individual members like the Cassidy family made significant contributions. And then I really want to thank
071our facilities department because Lyle is going to be picking up some hams tomorrow morning so we can deliver those. And he picked up all those meal kits. So we really couldn't do it without the facilities department too. It was literally all hands on deck. And my assistant Rachel Newby, the communications coordinator who is a rock star and who has really helped tremendously with this. And last of other people, like everybody around the table really pretty much participated in one way or another. Many, many people from the district leadership team brought food or gave cash donations. So it really, this really was very much a community project. So thank you. And thank you again, Mrs. Malik. And then wanted to take just a moment to congratulate Miss Kaiser. She completed her CSBO program from Northern Illinois
072University. And we are very proud of her. So I want to celebrate her. And then we do have breakfast from the board coming up at Isaac Fox in January. Mrs. Maloney, you are definitely signed up. Mrs. Danniger is a maybe. So we'll see if we can make that work. I know it's a hard work schedule because she teaches every day all day. So we'll see. And then breakfast sounds better. Pardon? Breakfast sounds better. So and then remember that we have our board retreat coming up. So I wanted to remind you of that. And that is my report this evening. Which date? 2 January 24. Oh, that is probably the wrong date. I will make sure we correct that. Thank you. Yes. Oh, and the wrong year. We'll fix it. Thank you so much for noticing.
073Okay. That's all I have for you this evening. Thank you. Dr. Goh, moving on to reports to the board. Dr. Romano and members of the PTMA team, please share the overview. All right. As they're setting up, I wanted to also reiterate our thanks for you coming out this evening. And I know you had a lot of patience as we were doing some really important work and celebrating a whole lot of other things this evening. So thank you for that. I'm going to hand off to you gentlemen so that you can introduce yourselves more appropriately and go from there. Perfect. Thank you, Dr. Romano. My name is Tim Flaherty. I am obviously with PTMA Financial Solutions, previously PMA Financial, if that's a name that's more familiar. And with me is Charlie Zacher. And Charlie's been at
074PTMA for 25 years. I've been for 12 years. And we've been working with the district for my entire career and just as long for Charlie. So a little bit, we'll do a brief explanation of who we are and then kind of how we've partnered with the district for over a couple of decades now. So PTMA, we are a financial services company based out of Naperville. And we started in 1984 serving public schools in Illinois. And since that time, we still focus on the public sector. So we work with municipalities such as villages, cities, and then obviously school districts. And that's both Charlie and I's focus. So we work with school districts throughout the state. So currently we work with over 500 school districts, community colleges, and cooperatives like special ed cooperatives or insurance cooperatives. We
075have in our office 170 employees to help that whole company. But we have a staff of investment service providers that specifically work with Illinois schools. And there's 13 of us as well. So more specific to how we work with Lake Zurich would be on the next slide looking at the services. So what we're doing when we work with school districts, we always have a two-person team. So in this case, you guys are stuck with Charlie and I. And when we work with a school district, the reason we have that is so you always have somebody to reach out to. So I'm more of the day-to-day contact who would work with Dr. Romano or CSPL Katie in the back. And what we do is we offer quite a few different services to make sure that the
076district is properly invested at all times. And that all starts with our cash flow, which I'll go over briefly in a few slides. But then the main service we're offering is through investments, right? The district is allowed to invest in certain types of investments based off Illinois state statute and your own investment policy. So we make sure we try to get the district invested to earn the highest yield. While still maintaining those parameters and keeping the district's public funds secure. And then we also manage bond proceeds, which the board's very familiar with. Over the last five to seven years, you've issued different bond proceeds to make improvements to the district. And then I'm going to pass it over to Charlie just to briefly go over what ISLAPP is and our relationship. So I think it's
077been common to confuse PMA and ISLAPP over the few years. And kind of separating the two is what it is. So ISLAPP is the Illinois School District Liquid Asset Fund. And it's its own entity. And PMA, now PTMA, is a firm that's been hired to run that fund. To do the administration, the marketing, the distribution, really all the essential services that go along with that fund. So just for your peace of mind, what is ISLAPP? So ISLAPP was formed back in the early 1980s as a group of school districts got together to create economies of scale. So that they could obtain institutional pricing on their investments. And better protect and safeguard their investments in a common pool. That pool is run by a board of directors. Which is included of the three primary associations that
078you're probably familiar with. Which would be the Superintendent's Association, the School Boards Association, and also the school business officials. And the executive directors of each of those organizations appoints three different of their constituents onto that board. So we report to the ISLAPP board, which is comprised of those three executive directors. Three superintendents, three business officials, and three school member members. And those officers come from all different parts of the state. So we have quarterly meetings very similar to this. We present to board meetings financials and all the things that you might see in a school board to that group of officers for ISLAPP. So just as kind of a common ground of how PMA intersects with ISLAPP. The next slide is just kind of a brief presentation. Well, what does that mean? What is the
079cost to that? Well, what's nice is the fees are outlined by that board of directors. And then we go back to the school districts. We are presented to the school districts a net rate. And that net rate includes a markup or our fee of this. Which, you know, if you look at this, those are fractions of a percent. When you see that, it's 0.15%. That would be 15 basis points. If I say 100 basis points, 100 basis points would be 1%. So we do make our fees on the margins. And again, that is set by that ISLAPP board of directors. So again, just a little bit of background on ISLAPP. But I want to shift it back here to Tim to kind of talk about the school districts, specifically about your investments and your cash
080flow, that signature process that Tim had mentioned earlier. Yeah, perfect. So what we're seeing on the screen right now is Lake Zurich's cash flow. So what we're looking at when we go through the cash flow analysis is it's a product we put together each year in conjunction with the business office to make sure we're using all the correct data and correct projections going forward. So this sheet right now is showing your fund balance throughout the year. So it's showing for FY25, 26, and 27. And what this does is it shows all of your revenues when they come in and when your expenditures are going out. And this gives us a model to then better invest for the school district. So you can see that dark blue shaded area on the bottom, that would be long-term
081investments. So by identifying the district's financial cycle throughout the year, we can then place long-term investments in conjunction with that. So if we see you get down to X amount before you start getting taxes in June, we can better recommend how you can invest your long-term potential. Then beyond that, in the blue shaded area, when we look at FY26, that's where we would be investing the district's operating dollars. So any investments that would be less than one year. And what that does is when you get taxes in June, this allows us to then go take those property taxes and invest them out to May, April, March to help fund just-in-time fund and expense, whether that's payroll, AP, debt service payments. So the district's able to be more strategic and intentional with the investments they're placing,
082as opposed to just picking three-month, six-month, nine-month terms. We're making it so we're funding the exact projected expense. And then after this, once we have this plan in place, this is something we update annually and adjust as needed as we go. But once we have this plan in place, we can have a conservative investment plan that we then, as funds come in, we can then go through and say, we need to fund all of these dates. And Charlie's going to talk about what that process looks like as well. So having that plan in place is key to what we call extending duration. So once we have that picture in place that Tim had mentioned, we can identify that high point and that low point and then structure the investment portfolio to best take advantage of
083duration. And what this chart here is showing you simply is that over the last 20 years, duration or longer-term investments outperform shorter-term durations. So it's always better to be invested, at least historically, in six-month CDs and nine-month CDs and 12-month and longer-term as opposed to sitting it all on your money liquid. So that results in better returns historically for the district. So really the whole point of putting that plan in place is to optimize the amount of duration that is available to the school district so that we're maximizing interest earnings as much as humanly possible. Let me go to that next process. So how do we go about doing that? So rather than saving Dean and Katie some time in their business office, rather than having them be on the phone for several hours a
084day trying to solicit 25 different banks and institutions or whatnot, we use our economies of scale that are attained through ISLAP by working with, you know, I think at this point through Illinois over 40 billion in assets across our entire organization. So we attain those economies of scale. We have a network of a team in place that we can solicit a wide network of not only government agency and security products from broker-dealers that all the big firms that you might hear of in Wall Street, but also all the regional players on CD market, which would be even local banks and national banks and money center banks and even the mom and pop banks. We cover that whole dynamic. We come back with the best net rates. We present that to Dean and to Katie, and
085then they take our recommendation, or they don't. They have the option of saying, yep, let's go ahead and do this. That makes sense. No, let's go ahead. I think we were talking as a board. We might have some capital projects that are coming up. We should scale back on that. So that conversation is happening frequently. And then Tim and Katie will have in that conversation probably several times a month. The last thing I would just kind of like to point on this slide and the next as you scroll forward is that, again, all those investments are controlled by the district. There is no discretion taking place. So that is the plan is approved by Dean and by Katie. We follow the plan and we make adjustments to the plan as needed. And then as I
086mentioned, kind of getting this one source thing is all those investments, you're getting broad diversification across the markets and then the benefits of it all hitting one consolidated statement. So that makes the reconciliation process and reporting to the board much more economical and much easier. Perfect. And now what we're looking at, this is a snapshot of the district's portfolio as of November 30th. And here you can see on the left-hand side where the different investments were placed and what type of vehicles. And then on the right-hand side, the duration of those investments. So at this point in the year, most of the district's investments are going to be six months or under because you've received all of your property taxes for the year. And at this point, we're just funding expenses until you get to
087your low point in end of May into June when you have those larger expenses. On the left-hand side, what I want to point out is part of the investments that districts are allowed to invest in. Again, it's based off of state statute, the district investment policy. A lot of the highest rates right now are coming from bank products. So that's what you're going to see in CDARS, which is backed by FDIC insurance, as well as certificates of deposits and DTC CDs as well. So right now, banks are more in the market than they were three years ago when we were coming out of the COVID times. Rates were at zero. Once rates shot up, treasuries were the best rate in town. So the district held a lot more securities during that time. Banks are usually
088slower to catch up when rates increase, and they're quick to go down when rates decrease as well. So they can act quicker in both of those. But right now, the district's portfolio is at 3.97%. So that's weighted based off of the duration of your portfolio and for 120 days, which again lines up with kind of where your low point is throughout the year each year. The next slide is, I guess, kind of a good news, bad news situation here. So this is a yield curve. So this is showing treasury rates on the left-hand side. You can see what the rate was, and you can see the duration of those treasuries on the bottom. So it goes from one month to 10. And for school districts in Illinois, who actually, compared to other states, might have
089better fund balances because you have property taxes as opposed to being strictly on state funding. But most school districts, their long-term portfolio would be one to three years max, right? You don't have the ability to go out 10 years because so much can change with your funding. We're already seeing that with categorical funding going down, with ESSER funding going down, CPPRT, all of those things that can change. You don't want to lock in something 10 years when your financial situation can change drastically. All that being said, where we're at today is that bottom green line. So you can see we've moved down pretty substantially from where we were last year. So that's that top dash line is where treasury rates were at. The reason we've moved down is because the Federal Reserve has cut the
090Fed funds rate pretty significantly since last year. So the reason I say there's good news here as well is we're still sitting, the current money market rates are at 3.7 percent. Over the next year, we expect those to continue to move down to hopefully bottom out at around 3 percent. And still, historically, over the last 15 years, that's a pretty good rate. Over the last 15 years, where the money market rate has been when I started 12 years ago, it was at 0.1 percent. And it did get up to 2 percent before COVID, and then it went back down to zero. So if we end up in an environment where the district can be earning at least a 3 percent for the foreseeable future, that ends up being real returns. All right. That's a real
091dollar amount compared to where we were in, say, 2021, when a two-year treasury was at 0.2 percent. Right. So that's the positive outlook in that. What we do expect is in the short term, rates will move down, which is why with the cash flow, whenever we can lock something up, we prefer to do that. And that is a much shorter version than earlier. Does anybody have any questions for us? Doug, do you want to start? Sure. First of all, Tim, Charlie, thank you again for coming out. You drove all the way out tonight to see us. We really appreciate the time you spent with the committee. Very valuable. You know, clearly you guys have been great stewards of the district resources. We really appreciate the work you've done, the close working relationship we have with
092Dean and Katie and the whole team. That's fantastic. You know, I think, and as I mentioned in the meeting earlier, and I think it's important for the whole board to hear, you know, we have been depending greatly to make our budget work on getting rates of return that have been historically quite high. Right. So we've been living off that. And as we talk about the potential of using fund balance for various things, obviously that decreases the amount of investment income that we receive is doing that. So it's kind of a two-edged sword. I do believe you guys are 100% correct. You know, this crazy inverted yield curve is, you know, danger Will Robinson, danger Will Robinson. So I think that, you know, it's very likely that interest rates are going to drop. We talked about
093it in the meeting, you know, probably be two cuts that happen in the near term. So, you know, I know Dean has been looking at in terms of the financial modeling, what the impacts are going to be to us. But they're, you know, it's not a pretty picture. But I do think that, you know, as we as we move forward in time, you know, if you folks have insights that you've gathered from talking to the financial institutions and other folks about forecasting, because that's so important to us is looking in the future and making informed decisions now about what we expect to see in terms of market price. Six months a year, two years, it's really important for us because we have to make informed decisions about how we, you know, use the taxpayers resource.
094And I think you said something that I think really resonated with me a minute ago, and that is bless you. That is that many school districts around the country don't have the ability to don't have an investment income. They are funded directly by the state, for example, one to one. And many cases, you know, unfortunately, inadequately, we are incredibly lucky to have the use of our taxpayers resources like this. And again, it's been used for us to help fund our ongoing expenses. So I am in great appreciation of the work that you guys do. But anything you can do in terms of forecasting that will help us make better informed decisions, we greatly appreciate it. And once again, thank you for coming out this evening. You're welcome. Thank you, Doug. Peter? Thanks again. 3.9%. That
095sounds pretty good. I do have some, just maybe some general question that you might have. You know, and I'm most familiar. I spent a lot of time before university, and then they had more or less a committee that kind of dealt with endowment. Here, you talk with Dean and Katie occasionally, and then you get a response. And I'm sure there is a policy and forgive my ignorance on that. So I'm sure there is a lot. You know, I just don't know. But what informs your decision when you try? What context do you look at, Dean, when you try to look at how you respond to the recommendation? Sure. Ideally, what we do is we take a look at the rates that have been presented. We, on occasion, will push back on Tim and say, explain
096this. Why is it that this is where the rates are? And we'll have a conversation around those. And then what we'll do is we'll make a decision on whether or not we feel that, especially with the years in the past, should we remain liquid, do we think it's going to improve if we were to put it into the future? That's where that debate is, because when short-term money and where it stays liquid is outpacing long-term investment, like we said, we don't have that crystal ball to make a determination of how much it's going to go. Is it just using the data that we have available based on a myriad of different things, political movement, et cetera, for us to be able to determine if we think it's really going to go, are we still going
097to have just two movements down? Or is there going to be a new Fed chair that's going to be more aggressive with reducing that? And so having those conversations put together is how we make those decisions, if that helps. Yeah. And is it like you've worked in other districts and so on, is the structure normally that way? Or do you set some guidance in the beginning of the year that you work with? Because from time to time, you have come with some thoughts and suggestions to the board. And again, a lot more of my experience is in the endowment side at the college level. By that time, there is already a committee that has already looked at some of the choices and would come with a clear recommendation. So I'm just wondering, is our structure
098typical from your experience or do you have some other districts? Is it more formalized? It's actually very similar from 20 years ago when I started. As a matter of fact, I was working with Charlie at that time and we would have conversations very similar. I would tell you that the tools have improved greatly. As Forecast 5 came on board, which was actually born from the PMA company and broke off into its own organization, we have more detail where we can drill down. The other thing that we've done that's a little bit different with regards to investments is that, as Mr. Goldberg had indicated, we do operate utilizing our interest earnings as part of our operational resources. And one of the things that we have done, and Tim has been the receiving end of a lot
099of pushback, like is this safe, are you sure that this is the most conservative effort when it comes to budgeting? But it's the reverse when we're trying to get our earnings. That's when we're having those conversations of, should we take a look and keep more funds liquid for the potential that Cook County is not going to make their payments for the taxes to school districts in Cook County? And would a T.A.W. be to our benefit? And we analyze those opportunities as they come. We also have the flexibility to take a look at individual banks where we can take a look. Don't do that very often, mainly because of what was described, that economy of scale. They have access to a full list where they can get bids on what rates are going to be offered
100up for the timeline of when it's going to become available for us. So it's just really the tool set that's changed over the time, mostly from my perspective, as far as how we've made decisions on whether we execute on what's presented or not. And I will tell you that we don't always execute on the recommendation. And that could be based off of numerous different situations that we have where we want to be a little bit more conservative, we want to remain a little bit more liquid, because maybe there's something that we're not sure is going to move forward, become available, or if it really makes sense to do it at this time. So does that provide a little background? Yeah, I wouldn't belabor the point too much. I just wondered what informs you when you
101make that decision. Do you just make it yourself? I do. Or do you have more specific audiences and say, well, these are the borders within which, you know, as the head finance person, you and Kate, these are the borders and the boundaries that I have for District 95, and that's what I'm going to do it within those guardrails for District 95. I know there's a lot of policy, but it doesn't get that specific. Correct. I make that decision. It comes from recommendations that were brought, the things I just talked about, and it's been my final decision. Katie brings in some discussion as well in that process and brings her recommendation, but at the end, before we execute, I authorize. So far, you're doing pretty well. You know, thank you so very much. Thank you, Peter.
102Natasha? No questions. You answered most of them in our earlier meeting, so thank you. I know it's a long night, and presenting twice is a big lift, so thanks for being here tonight. Thank you, Natasha. Lisa? So thank you in coming for and explaining how school, public school, investing is very different than the investing we're familiar with, which is our personal investing. When I invest, I'm investing to potentially buy a house. I'm investing so I can send my kids to college. I'm investing so I can retire. They're all long-term, and I can invest in anything I want. And I know you made the comment when you're investing public funds, we are very restricted by the state of what we're allowed to invest in. So first off, the portfolio of what you can even look at
103is probably this little compared to if I'm going to retirement investment. I've got a plethora of things that I can look at. And also, really, the chart shows the money that comes in has to pretty much all go out in that year. So you're looking, I noticed half of the investments are zero to 90 days. That's a lot of churn, which makes me even value your services even more, because I can't imagine, I know we're always hearing, let me see if now PTMA can run that model for us when we ask questions about cash flow and ask questions about, well, if we assume this, how does it shift? And if we spend down, how does it shift this? So the tools you offer us are invaluable in us making decisions, but also you taking on
104this task, I can't even imagine asking any of our staff to figure out, okay, now you need to go find 14 different zero to 90 investments, and some of these have to be 30 days, and 60 days, and 90 days, and then a couple that are 120, and then maybe a 180 out there, and maybe we'll go for the gold and go for two years. It's just crazy. I can't even imagine the volume that you guys are dealing with. So it makes me appreciate much more. You're working in very small parameters of what you're allowed to do, but the benefit is just immense. It really is. I can't imagine you trying to manage that day to day. It'd be crazy. We appreciate the team very, very much. And I would argue endowments at the university
105level are the same as investing for retirement, even more, because they're asked to, but they're asked to invest so that you can spin off the scholarship, or the chair seat, or the salary, or whatever you're supposed to fund, and you aren't as restricted in what you can invest in. So it's hugely different when you're dealing with public funds. It's different in the states, but it's not the same as the staff. There are boundaries in terms of the risk. The risk tolerance is a little different. Yeah. You know, it's not the same. Yep. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, I guess I just want to make sure I understand. So you all have a very deep background in Illinois schools in particular, and all the funding things
106that are happening in Illinois. So that would be a huge advantage with us to be working with you. Am I correct on that? Yes. So we actually, not to get too deep into it, but PMA started as a credit risk company. Our first product was putting credit reports together for our founders. He was a community college CFO for his partnering districts because there were banks failing left and right. So it started for credit risk, and since then we've been mostly focused on Illinois, and for better or for worse, all that entails. All right. And then there was quickly something up there with like a .15. What is our percentage that we pay you all? So on average, all the investments come out to that you pay about 20 basis points on average for us to
107run your portfolio. So the professional managed portfolio comes for about .20%. So there's not an invoice issued to the board. It comes off. There's a gross and net rate. So let's say the gross rate's 520. Your net rate is 5%. You earn 5% on your dollars. That includes all of the costs that go along with it, including the wire transfer, safekeeping, consolidated statements, access to Tim and myself, probably more valuable Tim than me, but yes. Okay. Thank you. That's all I had. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Alicia? Thank you. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your time this evening. I know, as Natasha said, that the dual presentation, whereas it's helpful to us, I'm sure that's hard on you guys. So thank you very much for the time that you've been here with us this
108evening and all of the work that you've done to put the report together. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. Safe travels home. Thank you. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you. You too. All right. Our next item is the financial education series on the long-range facilities plan by Dr. Romano. Mr. Cardella, the presentation, please. Thank you for participating in this second installment in the Board of Education's financial educational series. I am Dr. Romano's digital assistant, and tonight I'm pleased to present the next installment in the district's financial awareness series, the long-range facilities plan 101 learning, an accessible overview of our district's thoughtful, forward-looking strategy for maintaining safe, welcoming, and effective learning environments for LZ 95 students. We'll cover the essentials in just under 10 minutes, so please feel free to settle in
109with your preferred caffeine source and let's jump in. The long-range facilities plan, or LRFP, is our comprehensive multi-year roadmap for keeping district facilities in top shape, maintaining, improving, and sustaining them for the long haul. It identifies capital projects based on real assessments, current building conditions, asset life cycles, like when roofs, HVAC systems, or flooring reach the end of their useful life, and broader needs from safety and security upgrades to enhancements that support high-quality educational experiences. This is a living document, regularly reviewed and updated to incorporate new data, shifting priorities, and fresh insights. The ultimate goal? Safe, functional, efficient, and exceptionally effective learning spaces and buildings that foster student success, all while remaining financially sustainable. At a basic level, it's like a home maintenance plan on a grand scale, addressing small issues proactively to avoid costly
110emergencies down the road. Our long-range facilities plan journey began in 2021 when we partnered with DLA architects, experts in school facility planning, for the initial comprehensive assessment, including life safety needs and alignment with educational goals. The first master document was completed in 2022, projecting projects out to 2045 with detailed focus on the next five to ten years. We've refined it annually ever since. In 2023, we added priority categories and funding integration. 2024 brought further refinements and exploration of creative funding sources. And this year, 2025, we eliminated the low priority category, making all core projects high priority with specific timelines, while introducing a future projects category for aspirational ideas if additional funds become available. Our partners include the administration, the district's construction partners, and our dedicated facilities team. Confidence is strong at about 85% for near-term
111projects like 2026 to 2027, with natural adjustments further out due to variables like inflation. Projects don't appear out of thin air. We conduct in-depth assessments of every district-owned building, from Lake Zurich High School to our middle and elementary schools. Categories cover roofing, flooring, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, security, athletics, and life safety items like fire alarms and accessibility. Data draws from historical records, ongoing inspections, and our 10-year life safety plans. Real examples include upgrading to energy-efficient LED stage lighting at Middle School North, enhancing playground fencing for safety, or renovating locker rooms. This year's emphasis, total cost of ownership, extending some timelines to prevent premature replacements or excessive repairs. We track everything in detailed Excel databases, work items, budgets by year and location. Regular reviews keep us focused on genuine needs. Smart prioritization ensures we tackle the most
112critical items first. Before 2025, we had high and low priority tiers. Now, everything core is high priority with clear completion years, and potential enhancements live in that new future projects category. We group projects strategically, bundling similar work, like roofing across multiple buildings, for economies of scale, better bidding, and real-cost savings. Life safety projects identified within the newest life safety audit, such as updated fire systems and secure entrances, will fully integrate into the timeline early in 2026. The result? Less waste, lower costs, and steady progress, like getting bulk discounts on school-sized repairs. How do we fund this? Primarily through a $3 million transfer from the annual operating funds to the capital projects fund, plus debt service extension-based bonds, for example, $6.5 million anticipated for 2029. We layer in additional sources, recapture levies, and even savings from
113competitive bids or surpluses. All debt service extension-based funds are now tracked transparently in the long-range facilities plan. This multi-source approach spreads costs thoughtfully, aligning with our fund balance policy and minimizing taxpayer impact. The plan provides detailed timelines for the next 5 to 10 years, with visibility extending to 2040 and beyond. Higher investment years include 2029, 2034, and 2039. Budgets break down by location, with Lake Zurich High School seeing the largest share due to its size, and are monitored annually via the long-range facilities plan review. Projections account for inflation, fees, and contingencies. This long-view planning helps us forecast, adjust, and avoid surprises. Annual updates allow us to adapt to aging facilities, evolving needs, new standards, or enrollment changes. It promotes financial sustainability, prevents emergencies, and ensures transparency. Like an annual checkup, it catches issues early and
114refines our path forward. The long-range facilities plan brings benefits to all stakeholders. For students and staff, safer, more modern spaces that enhance learning. For taxpayers, efficient, accountable use of funds. For the board, data-driven decisions aligned with district goals. Ultimately, a strong long-range facilities plan invests in our community's future, one well-maintained building at a time. We sincerely thank the board and all stakeholders for your thoughtful attention to this significant learning on the long-range facilities plan. Madam President, I return the meeting to you. Thank you, Dean and your assistant. And I have to say, and I know, I hope people share my opinion, but I am grateful for the learning tidbits that you give us. I think that's very helpful for the board. And it provides excellent training materials for when new board members join. And just
115this topic is near and dear to my heart. And so thank you so much for your entire team that has put together the long-range facilities. Anyone else have any comments? Thank you. Thank you. And if you don't like the little learning, you can tell me later. But you're going to break my heart if you do. I'm just saying. All right. Discussion without action. We do have two more items for discussion without action. The first being the LZHS International Choir Trip. The details were shared in the board packet. So do any board members have any questions on this item? For Mr. Grimm. Kim. I feel like we always raise our hand to be a chaperone. Indeed. But we don't get calls. So just. I have a question. Sure. Go ahead. I'm just curious. How does, how
116does, so it's $4,365 a person. And you have, it looks like 100 participants, 90 students, 10 chaperones. Are the chaperones paid for by the students? I just know that's what colleges do. I'm just curious. No? And you guys aren't going to the Anne Frank House? Just saying. What did he say? Could you, Mr. Uconnells, could you please head to the microphone just because we want to make sure everybody can hear your answer. Thank you. But we're appreciative that you are. Thank you. Okay. Yes. I was not here tonight for this. The itinerary is very preliminary. And our travel partner is really good about being responsive to our requests. So if we said, could we go to Anne Frank's house? They would add it in. Awesome. Right now I happen to notice that we view the
117Eiffel Tower, but we don't go up the Eiffel Tower. So I would ask if they would add that in for us as well. Yeah. Can I ask? Can you remind me how long is this trip? We would leave on Thursday evening, and we would come back the following Saturday morning. So we would arrive home Saturday afternoon. Oh, at 10 days? Yeah. At first I'm like, oh my god, $4,300 for three days? No, no, no. Okay. Got it. Plus a week. Plus a week. Okay. Got it. Okay. No, that's awesome. I just hope you consider the Anne Frank House. And remind them that coffee shops are not coffee shops. You know what I mean? Got you. Got you. Got you. Okay. I'm thinking France. You're thinking Amsterdam. I thought you were going to like France. And
118did I see somewhere about the Netherlands or something? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's all I had to say. Thank you. Thanks for bringing them. That's awesome. I've done those types of trips before, and it's always exciting. You never know what's going to happen. Good luck. Thank you. The next item without action is policy first read. Ms. Visicich, happy to answer any questions? All right. Thank you. Now we are discussion with action. The approval of the service agreement for Summer 2026 project work. Let's get a motion and a second on the table, please. So moved. Second. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Natasha. Are there any questions for Mr. Erstad? Okay. So we're not coating this asphalt. It's brand new, so we don't need to coat it for another year. Like the seal coat material? No.
119Okay. It is... Is it like the next year? Pardon? Do we do that the next year? We will do some maintenance with crack filling, et cetera, the following summer. Okay. You know, this is brand new construction. Do we use the low... Is it low coal ash sealant? No, we do not. Is that because of durability? We as a district have chosen not to do that, go that route, nor does K-Walt Hamilton even encourage us to consider using that type of a sealant. I know Parisi uses it, and it does not stink so horribly, and I thought that might be something we could look into, if it's as durable of a sealant for our asphalt, you know. I know K-Walt Hamilton had very specific reasons for not. I don't recall. Do you recall what the reasons
120for using the product? Mainly because of the fact that it's bad for your health. Okay, that's what I thought. The stuff that doesn't smell, is it bad for your health? I'll have to ask that question of K-Walt Hamilton. The product we do use is a better, healthier product. I don't know about anything to do with smells. Yeah. Okay. I'll ask again. Thanks. Can you speak a little bit to the fact that we're removing a retaining wall? I have to say, when I read that, I get worried. The retaining wall, which is on the backside of the high school, is supporting the bump out for truck turnaround. And a few years ago, probably five years ago, I noticed that the curb was starting to pull away, which is basically the fact that the retaining wall is
121failing. It was designed originally to hold that in place. And in talking with K-Walt Hamilton, Leo Moran, our civil engineer, the thought was, let's eliminate it if it's not necessary. So it'll save us some money, too. I saw it referred to a turnaround, and I'm like, okay, if it's still safe, without the retaining wall, which it sounds like it is, it may even be safer. It's still safe, but it'll be more safe. It'll be more safe without the retaining wall. Okay. That's just what I wanted to hear. Thank you. I guess I'm just curious now, how is it more safe without the wall? Is it just going to be built up by soil? It'll be built up by soil, but again, the current retaining wall is failing. Yes, but then what it was retaining, if
122you take the wall away, what happens to what it was retaining? One, the bump out is shortened. And then, again, just as you just said, Mrs. Doniger, is the fact that then we would build up soil around it. Okay. Okay. I've gone down that hill a few times. I'm excited to see what it looks like. Thank you. Kate, can you please call the roll? Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Doniger? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Thank you. I was supposed to read more, but okay. We are going into closed session for the following reasons. Is there one more thing? Did I skip something? I don't think so. You didn't read it. It's fine. We're good. Okay. We are going into closed session for the following reasons.
123The 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 for legal counsel or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint launched against an employee, specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or 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. Five ILCS128.2c1. Collective negotiating
124matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives and or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. Five ILCS128.2c2. May I have this motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Kate, please call the roll. Ms. Tim? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Ms. Anniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. And we will be taking action after closed session this evening. Back in open session and have one item for action. We need a motion and a second to approve the resolution authorizing the notice to remedy to a tenured teacher. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Alicia. Please call the roll to approve resolution authorizing notice to remedy to Michael Sutton as presented in
125closed session. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. I may have a motion and a second to adjourn open session. So moved. Second. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Alicia. Those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? Meeting is adjourned at 9, 11.