12-4-25 Regular School Board Meeting For C.U.S.D. 95

001I call the December 4th 2025 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate will you please call the roll. Ms. Tim? Here. Mrs. Warren? Here. Mrs. Daniker? Here. Mr. Goldberg? Dr. Pinter? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Mr. Aitian? Here. Mr. Goldberg will not be joining us this evening for personal reasons. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us. I'd like to begin by recognizing that Tuesday was Giving Day, a moment that serves as a reminder of the generosity and commitment within our learning community. Our staff, educators, support staff, drivers, custodial, administrators, and everyone who contributes to the student experience consistently demonstrate selflessness and a willingness to give of themselves each and every day. On behalf of the Board of Education I want to extend a heartfelt

002thank you. We are deeply grateful for all that you do for our students and families. Additionally before we proceed I would like to extend a huge shout out to our facilities team. They spent the weekend and continued into the week clearing snow to ensure that our buildings and grounds were accessible so that students could continue learning without interruption. We are incredibly thankful for their hard work and dedication. Also our appreciation goes out to our transportation team as well. Our drivers were on the roads during the snowy and challenging conditions over the weekend and throughout the week. Thank you for ensuring our students arrived safely. It does not go unnoticed. I also want to share that Dr. Romano was unable to be with us this evening due to a death in his family. Our thoughts and

003prayers are with him and his loved ones during this very difficult time. In his absence we will need to pull the board learning item on long-range facilities planning from tonight's agenda. This item will be moved to our December 18th meeting. With that we'll move forward with tonight's agenda. Thank you again for being here and your continued partnership in supporting our schools. Kate is there anyone signed up for public speaking? No there is not. Right the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Dr. Gault. Thank you. This evening I have for the board approval of open and closed Board of Education meeting minutes from November 19th 2025, the approval of payrolls, the approval of the personnel report and stipends for December 4th 2025, and the amendment to the superintendent contract for 2025-26. Thank you.

004May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as prepared and presented by the administration? So moved. Second. Thank you Alisha and thank you Dr. Pinter. Are there any questions? Kate please call the roll. Mr. Aitian? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. Right the next item on the agenda is a superintendent's report. Dr. Gault. Thank you again. This evening I have several items for the board. Just note that the FOIA is included within the board agenda as always. No specific communication to note today. Additionally we have field trips. There are two field trips that I have approved and wanted to make sure that the board was aware that they have been approved. One for the varsity softball team who's headed to Murfreesboro, Tennessee and

005one for the Lake Zurich High School varsity baseball team as well and they're headed to Nashville, Tennessee. So excited for those athletes to be able to participate in those activities. And then we do have some donations that I wanted to point out to the Board of Education. We have one from Scott and Ann Pepper for the high school marching band. Those funds of $5,000 are to be used for updating band snare stands and carriers and we are super grateful to them for that donation. Very, very generous. And then we have an anonymous donation which is also very generous of $2,000 to support in paying the unpaid balances of school lunches for K-8 and high school students who are on a reduced cost meal plan and so grateful to either that individual or individuals who made

006that donation. We had an opportunity to meet as a teaching and learning committee this evening and so gonna just quickly walk through. We did spend an hour, a little over an hour having conversation about several items and so I'll just walk through very quickly. The first one we talked about was the Accelerated Placement Act and as the board knows we've adjusted our criteria based on new guidance from the state and so we are allowed to go ahead and make some changes to how we approach it. So rather than, as the board would recall, only allow our exceed students to be able to participate in the next advanced coursework, we have done an analysis of students who are successful in moving forward with that next most difficult course and so I so appreciate all of the

007work of Mrs. Stallion's department in helping and supporting our high school and taking a look at all of those students but beyond that I did want to share with the Board of Education that in partnership Dr. McArdle's office is working alongside Mrs. Stallion's department and we are making personal contact with several families of students who are in that next half of the proficient group because we do have some data that indicates that those students also would be successful in the next highest course and so appreciate the efforts to ensure that our families are aware that they too have an opportunity to go ahead and go into that next highest level course. Additionally just as a reminder all of our families and students have opportunities to take that next level course should they request it and

008so there's lots of opportunities in district 95 for our students to be challenged with rigorous coursework specifically at the high school level so again really appreciate all of the work and I know our counselors at the high school are working hard right now to make sure that our families have the information they need to best support students moving forward with their schedules planning and so we we went through and talked a lot about the things that we needed to do in order to make this a reality for our students and so they've updated the infrastructure for success those who serve on the policy committee will recall that we started with policy and have made some changes to that and then additionally our procedures are being changed to honor the policy the board policy family communication

009is key and so again really appreciate that work and and so just so you're aware there is a very pretty awesome plan in place by the curriculum and instruction department additionally as you want to take a look at the data I know the board is highly interested in data as we take a look at where our students are falling this gives you a really nice idea of the work that's being done and so you can see that about 45% of students are participating in math based on an auto placement opportunity and so that kind of gives you more information about that as well as 54% of students in ELA and social studies which really does get us to about 61% of students because not all students are in both math and ELA or social studies

010this also speaks to our opt-in students about 25% right now and I would say these numbers are as of most recent they could change and shift as we contact more parents so really great participation levels we also then spoke about our ELA resources at both elementary and middle school and so I'm very gonna very quickly go through this it really the slides and the conversation today were around the training efforts of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and what has been done to prepare our teachers for using a new resource I do want to also say to the Board of Education no matter the level of training that's provided specifically in ELA and especially at the elementary level this is a bulk of the instruction that occurs during the day especially at elementary and so

011teachers walking through a new resource and working through that over a course of a year can be pretty stressful and time-consuming and so I really appreciate the efforts of our staff as they're working through that and learning as they go we do have a train the trainer model and that has been very effective for us it's important that we have trainers within our own system as we take in new teachers each and every year we want to make sure that they are provided excellent opportunities for training and mentorship and so this just gives you an outline of what's been occurring you'll notice on the top line on this slide in particular if you could go back please you'll see that the and back one more the training for our trainers is on the top line

012and then you can see what teachers in general are going through on the bottom line and so it's just it's an outline to help us understand what that timeline looks like over the course of a year so as you can see our teachers are not only implementing but receiving regular training opportunities as they walk through that process and then what I really appreciate is that I do know Mrs. Stallion and team they are going out in the near future to collect additional information about what's going well what's not going well and how we can provide more opportunities for our staff to really understand our new resource and so appreciate everybody's efforts in that and then you'll note that we also have some opportunities at middle school at both middle schools and probably the thing that

013I want to point out this piece versus the last piece is that we did a train the trainer model we have fewer number of teachers that are participating in this based on the content area that they teach and so we are utilizing our vendor to the greatest extent possible our vendor has also been just incredibly flexible and so for example middle school north was able to select some additional training through virtual opportunities while middle school South selected at least one of those training opportunities to be in person rather than virtual and so again really appreciate the flexibility in the design of that those training opportunities for staff then we had another opportunity to talk about early literacy this is specific to early our early literacy screener and some of the changes that have been made

014at the state level and so we were provided some information about some new law requirements and so this kind of walks through and speaks to the universal screening the minimum frequency that we need to conduct those assessments which is twice annually and then there's some required reporting and an MTSS integration piece to ensure that our students when they are screened and they come up at risk that we are responsible to provide opportunities to support students and get them where we would like them to be we talked specifically about assessment types and had some explanations for them so we looked at foundational skills which you'll notice more of the kindergarten through first grade we talked about oral reading and students once they once they go through the foundational skills and then they go into oral reading

015it looks a little bit different as it relates to that screener and then as you go through you'll notice in kindergarten first grade second grade and third grade which is new so this is a new expectation just what this looks like in our district we walk through it three times a year rather than twice and so that does give us an opportunity and our staff an opportunity to really understand where our students are and what we need to do to best support them and then talked about just how that data would be integrated into our MTSS process and while we we talked a lot about the screener that we're using we also concluded by having a little bit of conversation about how important our teachers are who are one collecting the information looking at the

016information but then oftentimes sitting side by side our students they know our students best and so together that creates a really good opportunity for us to understand our student needs and then spoke briefly about the implementation timeline and what to expect as we continue to move through this process lastly next steps and so really that expansion to third grade is important we do have to formalize more do more formal documentation as it relates to this because it is a legal requirement just so the board knows we've had a lot of this in place previous and so we're really just tweaking and adjusting and then adding third grade but additionally ensuring that we have the EL protocols in place and that we're considering our second language or learners and then the parent communication piece is another

017piece that is an expectation related to the implementation of early literacy assessments and by the state and then I really want to do a little bit of celebrating middle school South sent some information in about their sixth grade food and hygiene drive and I know we shared at the last meeting a lot of work that our buildings are doing in relationship to collecting donations and so really want to shout out that team and appreciate mr. Dangler sending this information and connecting it to our portrait of a graduate and speaking specifically to the opportunity for students to be global citizens for them to demonstrate empathy and for them to really understand what it means to be a true advocate for self and others and super proud of our group and so and that they made a

018meaningful impact to our entire community next Joni's closet just wanted to remind the board and anybody listening that we've extended our snow pants and snow poop collection so if anybody wants to give those dates have been extended to December 19th and then additionally wanted to just share with the board one other area that we're going to be supporting families in need across our learning community our district 95 education foundation is partnering along with an unnamed donor and the district to provide care packages and food for those members over our break and so oftentimes over the break the food pantries are not open and so they don't have access necessarily to that opportunity but additionally our district for our students who qualify for free and reduced lunch programming they won't receive that during the break and

019so that's breakfast lunch and snacks that they may not be receiving during that time and so we want to ensure our families have a really nice break and have an opportunity to access what they need so mrs. Malik I so appreciate she's always stepping up to help us in this area but she really is planning for a drive-through event on Friday December 19th for us to be able to hand out these care packages and so just grateful again for her service to our district and couldn't be really couldn't be prouder of the work that's being done to support families and then lastly some important dates reminder of breakfast from the board December 16th and so we have a couple of board members who will be there you were invited to the policy audit for as

020an individual board member with dr. Ayala and then we have a board retreat scheduled for January 24th so please don't forget those dates and that concludes my report thank you thank you Dr. Gault with respect to reports to the board dr. Romano had provided the fiscal year 2025 audit presentation in the board package mr. Nick Cavalieri did I say your name right okay principal from our audit firm Baker Tilly will provide a quick summary of the findings and answer any questions please go ahead thank you thank you thank you for having me here this evening my name is Nick Cavalieri I'm here to talk a little bit about the district's audit process for fiscal year 2025 the board should have two booklets at your at your desk all of this information has been provided to

021you electronically within your packet as well but I'm just going to provide a very high level overview of the audits focus some of the financial results and then open the floor to any questions that you may have so we were engaged by the board to audit the district's financial statements and our audit scope is fairly robust we render assurances on your annual comprehensive financial report this is a new format that the district administration wanted to present it's a little bit more robust than what you had previously prepared it's going to be submitted to the Association of Business Officials for an award at some point in the near future so a lot of additional information in this document that wasn't previously presented the district is required to have an annual financial report form audited it's a

022requirement by the Illinois State Board of Education you're required to have a single audit performed because the district expends over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars of federal awards we conducted that single audit there's some information I'll share with you regarding the status of that due to some delays by the federal government we also render assurances on a document called the consolidated year-end financial report it's required to be submitted to the grant accountability and transparency unit so many different reports that the external auditor renders assurances over we plan our audit we come out we perform interim procedures which is heavy on planning gaining an understanding of the internal control structure over the presentation of the financial statements we then come back for final field work once the as the year is closed essentially and then

023we really kind of do a lot of our nuts and bolts auditing procedures samplings and things of that nature at the end of the audit our responsibility is to render an opinion on these financial statements the type of opinion that was rendered is an unmodified audit opinion an unmodified audit opinion is the highest level of assurance that you can receive from the external auditor that your financial statements are presented in accordance with regulatory standards generally accepted accounting principles that's really what you want to hear when the auditor comes to talk about the type of opinion there wasn't a qualification a disclaimer we had full access to all of our audit procedures you know the administration provided everything that we needed there were no disagreements as to application of accounting standards or the amounts that were

024represented in the financial statements so essentially a clean audit as it relates to that what I want to show you is just two pages in this annual comprehensive financial report this is a thick document this can be a little bit overwhelming there's a lot of information in here what I always want to do when I come to talk about the audit results is do two things let you know the type of opinion that we rendered but then also really give you a snapshot of where the district landed financially so there's two pages in here that I always want to point out to boards and that's going to be on page 16 and page 17 now there's a lot of information in here and please don't think that I'm only pointing out these two because this

025is of the most importance necessarily there's a lot that's required to be in here but this really gives you a nice snapshot of how the district landed financially on page 16 you'll see that there's four funds that are presented the general fund operations and maintenance transportation municipal retirement fund I like to think of those funds off to the left is really your day-to-day operational funds would really runs the school district on a day-to-day basis teaching students maintaining your buildings transporting kids municipal retirement funds really kind of is in existence for paying pension costs and Social Security and FICA and things like that okay and then on page 17 you have a debt service fund whose sole purpose is to fund the repayment of long-term debt obligations which are generally bonds or leases and things of

026that nature and then the capital projects fund is a fund that really is focused on facility improvements large capital outweigh that have designated funding sources can be funded through the issuance of bonds or transfers from other funds okay you have your revenues at your at the top you have the expenditures in the middle and then there's a category about three-quarters of the way down called other financing sources and uses that category is really used for transfers between funds and then for the proceeds of long-term debt issuances and things of that nature what I always want to draw to your attention is the category that is right above other financing sources and uses and it says excess parentheses deficiency of revenues over expenditures and what you can see on page 16 is that all of your

027funds that are really kind of the day-to-day operational funds were well within their means of the expenditures for the year so direct operational revenues compared to direct operational expenditures before transfers all of those funds operated within reason okay the debt service fund basically is really not too exciting it just kind of turns on itself for the repayment of outstanding bonds and then the capital projects fund of course you see a deficit there that should not be concerning to you because the funding for that fund can happen in a prior fiscal year and then it's drawn down over a period of time and that's all part of your long-term facility plan so looking at your financial results there was really nothing of concern here you had a very healthy set of financial statements on one of

028the metrics that on the annual financial report form from the State Board of Education they have something called a financial profile score and that document calculates a preliminary rank there's there's many different ranks there's like four different categories recognition is the highest it's a four out of a 4.0 scale that was determined on your on your annual financial report that's still going to be certified by the State Board but again you know all indicators are very healthy for your school districts financial results okay part of the audit when you're conducting an audit in accordance with governmental auditing standards as the external auditor we're required to come in and do a risk assessment for the purposes of designing our audit procedures so we gain an understanding of a lot of the day-to-day activities how counts payables

029process payroll the financial close the bank reconciliation process to name just a few during that we'll walk through and look at the internal control structure gain an understanding of that for the sole purposes of planning and conducting our audit during the course of all that being done if there's a risk that's identified say there's a transaction that we identified a correction or if we believe that the design of that control structure could have some opportunity for improvement we would report those to the governing body and to management for further consideration I'm pleased to let the board know that there was not any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified during the course of our audit so so that was clean as well and then lastly I'll conclude just on the status of the single audit so

030the major program that we were auditing for the district's fiscal year 25 audit is called the idea cluster it's the special education award IDEA flow through is the primary award and based on all of the preliminary testing that we've done we don't anticipate having any reportable matters but the compliance supplement that is issued by the federal government was delayed significantly a draft was issued and that draft was just finalized right after Thanksgiving that document needs to be digested by us and then we need to incorporate some additional things into our testing procedures and our documentation to ensure that we've complied with performing that quality of audit this is a nationwide issue says nothing to do with your school district we will be working through those in the next several months we'll have a massive backlog

031as a result of that delay it's not due until March 31st of 2026 we don't anticipate it going that far but just please understand that that piece has not been finalized but based on all the work that we've done we don't anticipate anything to change that really concludes my audit presentation and I would be more than happy to take any questions at this time thank you Nick does anybody have any questions go ahead I have two questions the first is I know everything that we see every month when we get reporting is cash flow based and then it was interesting because you spoke to converting to accrual based but you said you were partially accrual on funds and but on the government audit the whole audit you were accrual so can you just talk through

032that please that's a great so governmental reporting standards have really for all intents and purposes two bases of measurement your fund financial statements are focused on near-term financial resources and outlays so there's a lot of different criteria that's assessed on the fund level financial statements and then they have a second set of financial statements that are focused on the full accrual namely the statement of net position and the statement of activities key differences between those two sets of financial statements that are in this document is that things like capital assets so all of the significant things that you purchase and capitalize and depreciate over time your long-term liabilities the full value of outstanding debt and then things associated with pension liabilities and other post-employment benefit liabilities are recorded and measured in the full accrual financial

033statements but because those are long-term they're not recognized in your fund financial statements so your fund financial statements really are more important on the day-to-day operations of you know the measurement of the district's health in a sense near term right the full accrual financial statements were really intended to present governments in light of how businesses operate they're required schedules but they don't typically drive a lot of your day-to-day decision-making through the results of things that have happened in some instances that are even outside of your control you know the funded pension liabilities and things like that associated with the teachers retirement system completely outside of local control in a sense so are you accruing like June expenses it does it go to that level or is this accrual that you're referring to really just dealing

034with these I know you take the long-term debt and even if we had receivables it would come to present value that kind of thing but is it the day-to-day that you're also occurring we're truly recognizing what has happened between July 1 and June 30th these are great questions I love them so think of it like this the district operates for the most part on a cash basis right on a day-to-day basis there are certain things that are accrued in your cash basis records associate with payroll liabilities and self-insurance and things like that so we start with that trial balance and then we adjust for the fund level accruals which is kind of the near-term focus and then from there you then put on the long-term focus so it's different stages cash basis gets converted to

035modified accrual most of the things that are in the modified accrual are in the basis for the full accrual statements but then there's other things that are added even at it so you are capturing all of the accounts payable on the fund level is accounts payable on the government-wide okay okay and then my second question was and you referred to it that we're going to be submitting these for an award and I know Dean gets super excited when he talks about this but can you really speak to what what does this mean like why are we going through this additional effort sure and and what does it really do yeah I would say that that a lot of school districts will submit an annual comprehensive financial report to show the highest level of quality of

036financial reporting that can be done so once this document is submitted it goes to this this third party and then they review it against the checklist and it's like 50 pages long looking and scrutinizing to make sure that everything that's supposed to be discloses and there's comments I mean we issue a lot of annual comprehensive financial reports out of our office and every year there's comments there's new standards something that you can consider to be improved or to some extent even maybe a misunderstanding by the reviewer but what this document does is it shows to another third party that you have complied with presenting in this format it also does add a lot of other information in the statistical section so if you look at this document there's a tab and it'll say statistical section

037and that'll show ten years of history financial related data it'll show information on the community who your top ten taxpayers are principal employers so it does really show a good holistic presentation of your of your area it has a lot of extra information it's it's fun facts I think to some extent it doesn't really always necessarily drive your future decision-making but it is nice to take a look back and see where you've been at the same time and that's all right within one document you can always find it you know you could take time to put this together but it is all in one place now okay because I know we've been very proud of what we have on our website with transparency with financial information so this actually as you describe it I'm understanding

038it to be even beyond what we've been doing what we've been doing is more probably self-focused of you know we hit we did a referendum what did we complete with referendum how much did we think things would cost how much did they cost and this looks like a broader I mean we keep talking the people that have been on the board for a long time the financial situation we were in when we came in on the board and how it has improved so drastically I would guess this is gonna reinforce that story that we've been talking about yeah absolutely I think the amount of information that you guys have your website is fantastic I mean there's just a tremendous amount of data this is a an externally audited set of financial statements every there's a

039lot of things in here that are completely like different than what's on your website this is a document that would be used you know when you have a ratings call or if you're going to have somebody who wants to buy your bonds they can look at this document it's it's on a different level of reporting that's governed under a different set of standards than the things that you focus on on a daily basis a lot of things are similar but then some things are significantly different as well okay wonderful well thank you I appreciate all you've done I have to say trying to look at this online at least for me personally was super hard so I'm really glad that I can really sit down with the paper and truly appreciate all the information that

040you put together because I'm first of all the fact that there were five attachments but like whoa this is a whole lot more than what we traditionally have gotten so this is really great thank you and because of your questions about the differences in the fund level accounting versus the government-wide I would just draw your attention to the reconciliation schedules they will will say here is the fund level ending fund balance and then here are all the differences that gets you back to the full accrual basis so that's all itemized so you can see what are the differences between the two bases and that's a required schedule and that's on page 15 and page 18 I was trying to find stuff I was it's almost too much which I'm not gonna say it's too much

041because I will go through it but no I appreciate that absolutely thank you thank you thank you Lisa for sharing your expertise anyone else all right oh I would just add I mean if I were somebody watching you know on which nobody watches this stuff really but like if somebody actually was this was just tons of information but I felt like the few sentences that were really important if you're listening people in the district one there so first of all we're in a good financial position right but there have been no significant transactions that are outside of the normal course of business for the district or otherwise appear to be unusual so that's great news no significant difficulties in dealing with management and completing the audits no but when it comes to management we are

042pleased to report that no such disagreements arose in the course of the audit and then we did not identify any non-compliance and so when I hear those types of things that makes me really happy because I'm always thinking about teacher jobs because we know that the teachers are what is most important for students to be successful and so to me as a teacher like I just hear that this is a district that is safer for students than some neighboring districts that aren't do doing so well when it comes to finances so I'm really pleased with that because it's protecting our teachers which are a great asset thank you thank you thank you thank you mr. Cavalieri we appreciate your time and I'll leave the effort into the reports thank you have a great evening everyone

043you too all right our next report to the board is the 2024 2025 student achievement comparable report miss Allen has prepared a presentation mr. Nardiello please go ahead the 2024 to 2025 student achievement comparable report provides the third and final component of this year's comprehensive K to 12 student achievement report series this presentation summarizes district 95's performance on key indicators of academic achievement growth readiness and engagement and situates these outcomes within both comparable unit and regional district benchmarks the results reflect a system focused on high quality instruction equitable access and continuous improvement this comparable report follows the Illinois report card presentation on November 6th and the K to 12 achievement and school improvement plans presented on November 19th together the three components form a full picture of district performance including state reported indicators local assessment

044information and improvement priorities the comparable report includes student performance across 5k to 12 indicators graduation rate chronic absenteeism freshmen on track IAR proficiency and growth and ACT proficiency and growth at the high school level the report also includes participation and performance in advanced placement and dual credit these metrics collectively reflect readiness for post-secondary success and the effectiveness of instructional and support systems comparable unit districts and regional districts are used to contextualize performance comparison groups include districts similar in size demographic composition or grade span alignment these benchmarks support meaningful interpretation of achievement and growth trends district 95 demonstrates consistently high performance across all graduation rate measures four-year graduation rate 96% tied for first among comparable unit districts and second among regional high schools five-year graduation rate 97% tied for first among comparable unit districts and second

045among regional high schools six-year graduation rate 96% tied for sixth among comparable unit districts and third among regional high schools these results reflect strong engagement effective instructional systems and robust academic supports. District 95's 12% chronic absenteeism rate ranks third among comparable unit districts and second among regional elementary districts. Despite a slight increase from the previous year, the rate remains below statewide patterns supported by targeted family engagement and attendance monitoring. District 95's 97% freshmen on track rate ranks fourth among comparable unit districts and fourth among regional high schools. This measure strongly correlates with on-time graduation and reflects effective early high school supports. District IAR performance remains high. ELA proficiency, 82%, is tied for first among comparable unit districts and first among regional elementary districts. Math proficiency, 71%, is also tied for first among comparable unit districts

046and second among regional elementary districts. Across grades three to eight, District 95 ranks first or second among both comparable unit and regional districts in nearly every grade. Grades four, six, and seven consistently rank first in both comparison groups. Math proficiency ranks within the top three across both comparison groups. Grades seven and eight demonstrate especially strong performance, ranking first among comparable unit districts and within the top positions regionally. Student group performance is strong across both comparison groups. English learners, ELA ranks first among comparable unit and regional districts. Math ranks second in both groups. Low income, ELA ranks second among comparable units and first regionally. Math ranks first in both groups. Students with disabilities, ELA, and math both rank first among comparable units and regionally. Students with IEPs, ELA ranks third among comparable units and first regionally.

047Math ranks first among comparable units and second regionally. District-wide growth reflects strong performance. ELA growth, 56, is second among comparable units and first among regional districts. Math growth, 58, is also second among comparable units and first among regional districts. Grades four, six, and seven show especially strong growth for both ELA and math, with growth in the above average to excellent range. Growth among student groups is particularly strong in mathematics. English learners ELA and math growth rank within the top tier in both comparison groups. While for low income students, math ranks first among comparable units and first regionally with ELA ranking third. For students with disabilities, math ranks first in both comparisons, with ELA ranking second for comparables. For students with IEPs, math ranks first in both comparisons, while ELA ranked sixth in the comparable group.

048The 2024 to 2025 school year marks Illinois's transition from the SAT to the ACT for accountability. This year establishes a new baseline for proficiency and growth in grades nine to 11. ACT contributes 15% to the high school summative designation, while growth is reported, but not yet factored into accountability. Baseline ACT results highlight ELA proficiency, 75%, is sixth among comparable unit districts and fifth among regional high schools. Math proficiency, 74%, is first among comparable unit districts and third among regional high schools. Math emerges as a strong district-wide strength. Grade level ACT results show ELA. Grade nine ranks second among comparable units and fourth regionally. Grade 10 ranks first among comparable units and third regionally. Grade 11 remains competitive. Math, grades nine and 11 rank first among comparable units and high regionally. Grade 10 ranks second among

049comparable units and mid-range regionally. Student group performance reflects low income, ELA ranks second among comparable units and second regionally. Math ranks second in both groups. Students with IEPs, math ranks first among comparable units and tied for first regionally. For English learners and students with disabilities, performance falls mid to lower range regionally and among comparable units. Baseline ACT growth patterns includes ELA growth, 50, which is lowest among comparable unit districts and lowest regionally. In addition, math growth 54 is eighth among comparable units and sixth regionally. ACT growth strengths include ninth grade math growth and strong growth for English learners. Focus area are ELA growth and students from low income households. AP participation and outcomes are strong with AP exam participation at 98%, second among comparable units and second regionally, along with the AP pass rate at

05088%, first among comparable units and third regionally. Dual credit enrollment includes 513 students, 29%, ranking fifth among comparable units and third among regional high schools. The program provides broad access to early college coursework. District-wide strengths include high graduation rates, low chronic absenteeism, first place IAR proficiency across subjects, strong IAR growth in grades four, six and seven, strong ACT mathematics proficiency and high AP participation and passing rates. Key opportunities include strengthening grade eight ELA growth, improving ACT ELA growth across grades nine to 11, supporting English learners and students with disabilities on the ACT, along with further reduction of chronic absenteeism. Instructional initiatives include new ELA resources for 2025 to 2026, strengthening math curriculum alignment, continued collaboration with Loyola CSME and ongoing professional development aligned to the instructional model. District 95 demonstrates a strong academic profile across

051achievement, growth, readiness and engagement indicators. Continued alignment to standards, targeted supports for student groups and instructional refinement position the district for ongoing success. I am happy to answer any questions the board may have. Thank you. Natasha, do you wanna start us? Sure, there's not much to say other than this is great report to watch. It was amazing how many firsts and seconds we had along many of the groups. I also like that you don't sugarcoat some of the areas and recognize that there's certain spots we could grow a bit. But the reality is we've really, really come a long way from where we were a while ago. And I would be remiss not to say that I think our teachers are just doing an excellent job and we deserve to give them so much credit

052along with some new rigorous curriculum and resources that are being put in place from our administrators. So I don't have any questions. Thank you, as always, an excellent while laid out report. Peter? Well, thank you too. You did an amazing job on the last report that we saw. I think, if I remember right, it was like 52 pages, this one. 84. Yeah, the last one. 52. 52. And then this one was 84. So you all did yourself. It was very comprehensive. I really appreciate the data. And as Ms. Donega pointed out, some of the information you did show where we did not rank as well. And particularly of important, and you stressed that too, chronic absenteeism numbers continue to show very, very well and that's important. We focused on that area as a district. It's

053very important that we're seeing some good movement there. We're seeing some good data in the graduation area, as you pointed out. And I mean, it was kind of interesting that the math numbers look so positively better. So that's great. That's always something that I'm excited to see. And hopefully, we continue to see both ELA and math continue to grow in an upward trend. And you were wondering if I had a question, weren't you? Well, I do. In your tremendous amount of work that you did, and I'm not saying that you should have put it there because then we would have had a 150 page report. One thing that was a little bit unclear to me, maybe I just missed it, that was buried in the data, how all comparisons look this year compared to last

054year as a general trend and thing. Are we, I know we're, I mean, I know this is a public thing and it's being tipped, and I know we're beating Barrington on so many levels, and we will continue to do so, so, which is great, you know, I'm sorry. It's, it's, it's, then I go. You know, it's a great school district. We really respect them a lot, but it's good to see. I'm just wondering how you see some, any comparisons compared to your amazing work last year. Yeah, so this report was a little bit more comprehensive than last year, particularly with the addition of the ACT versus the SAT, and then we dug a little bit further into the growth piece. But when we look at those pieces that we looked at last year and we

055looked at this year, overall our ranking remained very high, where we stayed in the top one, two, and three of those components, and something that, you know, was highlighted in there, but maybe not as well as, when we look at our freshman on track piece, we increased that by 2%, which kept us up in that top tier. So we remain right there in the top of both the comparable and the regionals, both for the high schools and for the elementary schools and the comparable. And even for some of our groups, we saw some shifts in regards to maybe we are mid-tier to moving to, you know, bottom of upper tier, and so we did see some shifts in those pieces. So overall, we remained in the top one, two, and three across those three groups

056that we compare ourselves. Fantastic, and as Ms. Senaga said, kudos to our teachers, they're doing a fantastic job. Kudos to our superintendent and our district, just doing a fantastic job. And maybe that's, my second question is perhaps one for the superintendent as much as you are. I'm not afraid of saying who we want a bit. We do that in football all the time. We might as well do it across the board in academics. But I guess to you, Dr. Gold, we're, and it's not just beating, because it's real kids we're dealing with. Where do you ultimately would like us to be? Do you want us to be like the number one across the board ahead of Stevenson and everybody else? I just want your thoughts on that. So I think I'm probably gonna answer this

057in a way that you may not like, but actually for me, what I would like to see is for us to look inward and capture all kids. And so I want all students to be able to leave us at a level of proficiency that they're continuing to grow at an appropriate rate, because that is what's gonna give them the most opportunity when they leave. I want them to be able to exhibit our portrait of a graduate, all of the characteristics that are found within that document. And so I think when we have all students meeting or exceeding standards, we've made it. Well, thank you. That was very politically well said. I really appreciate it. Thank you so very much, Dr. Gold. Thank you, Peter. Alicia? This is such a great report. Thank you so much.

058That's really like, I don't know. It's like exciting because it's competitive in a different way. People get excited about these things. So thank you for the wonderful report. Thank you for making it so clear and concise and summarizing it down, down, down for us and make it easy for us to understand that results are very exciting. And I know that our new ELA curriculum is on board to work on some of those weaknesses. We're well aware of where our priorities lie. Thank you to the teachers and Dr. Galton, administrators, staff, building leadership. Awesome. Thank you. I mean, it's just like an endless effort. Thank you for showing up every day to work and putting kids first and everything. Just one thing I was looking at, I did a little deep dive on the Illinois school

059report card because I thought, well, how much is this costing us compared to other districts? And so I looked up the districts I could find that are unit districts that you used. So I'm just gonna name them again so people know who we're dealing with. So Wakanda 118 is a community unit school district. St. Charles 303, Naperville 203, Indian Prairie 204, Geneva 304, Elmhurst 205. I was a product of some of those years in Elmhurst, Batavia 101, Barrington 220. And I'm happy to report that we had the lowest operating expenditures per student of those nine school districts and the third lowest instruction expenditures per student. And some might say, well, why aren't we putting more money in? Well, the results are here and we're doing it in a very economically efficient way. So when people

060see their tax bills and they see the big chunk for the school districts, we are building a future. We are creating a good community to live in. We are keeping housing values high. We are making this area a desirable place to live and you're getting your money. You're getting your money's worth. And so thank you for just continuing to try to excel. It's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Alicia. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, you basically wrote a dissertation here, a hundred and whatever pages. That's pretty awesome. I think I missed what you were saying. I actually was, I think what I was gonna say was sort of related to this. Were you, well, were you saying that each like student dollars spent? Oh, okay. Cause that's what's kind of what I was gonna ask. Yeah. So I

061was gonna ask, I remember the comparable districts a couple of years ago didn't really make a lot of sense to me because they seem so financially different. Were these chosen? Like if the public were listening, why were these the schools that were chosen above other schools? That's one of my questions and I have a follow up to that. So the comparable list is something that we use for multiple things. So that list is pretty standard. A few years ago, and I don't recall what year it was, but we had some pretty lengthy conversations with the board about selecting regional schools that may make sense for us to also look at. So that was a board discussion that we had as a group to identify which of those schools made sense. And so certainly if board

062members have additional suggestions or want to have that conversation again, we could open it up. I think these are way better than the ones we used to have. I guess my question, as a sociologist, I'm always thinking about equity and inequality and inequality, all that. And we all know that the richer school districts, I mean obviously teachers matter and the facilities matter, but it's money ultimately. And so when I look at these school districts, some of them I'm like, we definitely are putting more money into our students than some of the other ones, but some of these school districts are putting far more dollars in than we are. And so I was just curious, is there any sort of analysis of how much we spend per students, which she's talking about, and the rankings? Basically,

063are we beating some of those higher number districts? It looked like we were, from what I was seeing. So they're putting more in, but we are scoring higher, right? Yeah, that's what I thought she was saying, but is there a graph or anything that you all looked at with it? No, we don't look at the per student cost. Our job at Curriculum and Instruction is to ensure every student has what they need to achieve, and we do it with the resources that we have at our disposal. There are times for sure that we look at that and we think, oh wow, you know, we don't spend as much per student as another district. And I think it's a testament to the fact that we have skilled teachers and excellence happening every single day in our

064classrooms. I really am a firm believer that teachers can do a lot. Can't do everything without money, but we can do a lot. And I think these teachers get every single minute of their day out of these kids and out of themselves. So when we do these kinds of reports, I'll be very honest with you, we never talk about how much money another district spends. We talk about what do students do here, and if we are seeing areas of improvement and someone else is achieving, what might they be doing differently that we wanna capture? So that's how we address student growth and performance in the district, because I think we've said this a lot, you can always spend every dollar once, and we're going to make sure that we do what's right for kids, and

065we have just the most phenomenally skilled teachers. Well, I agree with that, but I think if you have teachers that are, we're putting $15,000, I don't remember exactly, I'm just making a number up, right? How much? $16,000 per student and another district that is putting in 20,000 or 18,000, and these teachers are beating other districts? We should be talking about that, because that's fantastic. They're going above and beyond, like, show me that. I would guess that that might be a focus of a school board, or it might be a focus, it's not the focus of curriculum and instruction. And also, I would caution you, what we include in our expenses are different. We buy buses, we hire our bus drivers, other people have to, exactly, transportation goes into dollars per student. Maintenance goes into dollars

066per student. A lot of things beyond educate, I mean, you saw that, more funds go into the education of a student, so there's a lot of things that are not in the classroom related that are included in that number. And some of that's, we do it more efficiently than other districts do. Yeah, and in addition, Dr. Pinto, that's a good question, because people do ask that when we walk in the community and talk about the property taxes and where does it go, and to the point that Ms. Tim made, I mean, that's the answer that I personally gave, and there was an old pass, but I mean, Scott McConnell always used to talk about that, too, that when you compare the tax rate, where we fall in our area, and the results that we're getting,

067Lake Zurich taxpayers are getting a very good bang for their buck. So we should be talking about that, because I mean, if I'm a new family trying to figure out which school district I'm gonna go to, and I hear that this school district is doing that, I would move here over over there. Right, we should be talking about it. That shouldn't be a focus of curriculum. But what I do want to point out that Mrs. Stallion said that I think is really important is that when we do have areas that we want to grow in, and we notice that through our data, what I appreciate right now is that we're reaching out to some of the other districts to find out what are the resources and tools that they're using that might help us to

068be able to, again, capture more students, and so I greatly appreciate that's how they're targeting it, and so they may come back to us and say there's some other things that we need to put in place, and we need to budget for in order for us to continue to grow our students, and so we're gonna need, I'm just, as Peter says, throwing some loaves of bread out so that the board understands that there may be some things that we come back and we ask for based on the information that we collect from those visits and those conversations. And also, I'm not as politically sensitive as our superintendent, but in saying that really where we want to be is for all of our students to be proficient. There is a reason why we have this report

069and compare ourselves to peer schools and our achieving school. There is a reason. We want to compare to see where we stand and what we should aspire to. So, I mean, talking for myself, I'm not talking for the board as a whole. I mean, maybe we should have some discussions at some point that we always want to be number one, two, or three for every single category. I think, honestly, I think that's a modest goal. Thank you. I'm not done yet either, sorry. So also I wanted to ask, so when I was looking through, they were going through different grades and stuff, and I noticed, and I forget which, I think it was junior high, maybe. Oh, my bad. The low-income students with disabilities and English language learners were number one in one of those

070grades. I can't remember which grade it was or which area, but could we, this is, I guess, for the whole table, we should be figuring out how they're doing that because that's awesome. And I know not all of the grades are at that spot right now, but I just wonder what the magic is. They're doing something that's pretty fantastic that maybe we could replicate. So at this level, we're looking at bands. So if we're talking about the IR, we're talking about students between third grade and eighth grade. If we're looking at the ACT, then we're looking at our students at the high school. For our student groups, we look across the bands because as we talked about at the achievement, if we look at the grade level, we may not have enough students to be

071able to have enough data to make that interpretation. And so being able to look at some of these larger bands, we're then able to, to your point, see who those students are, look for some patterns, and be able to dive in through curiosity. I think if it's junior high, maybe, I don't know. You probably remember. And then last but not least, I just have a question. I'm confused about the ACT percentiles. If you have like a percentile for a grade level, is that comparable? So like sophomores, for example, when they get a percentile, is that all the students that take the ACT or is it only sophomores? So when we're looking at, say, 10th grade, we would be looking at our, when we look at it at a district level or a building level, we're

072looking at the average of all of our 10th graders, but then our 10th graders get their score based off of looking at other 10th graders who were in the same band as them based off of their 9th grade and where they landed as 10th graders. So it's not all of them. So it would, it's all but not based off of the level of what you're looking at. So in this report, when we're looking at it, we're looking at the all for that average of growth. Okay, thank you so much. Good job. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Lisa? I think I share my board members' reactions as I was reading this. I was pretty much smiling the whole time and to give a little clarity to the question you were asking, Kelly, we've always looked at comparable

073schools since probably the dawn of time because we've had to look at community unit districts that go K through 12 to truly see a comparable, for example, when we're looking at salary levels or we're looking at achievement. And so I remember, and it was quite a while ago, that that's why this report is much longer, was we were looking at our comparables going, that's great, but nobody's, there's very few people that are sitting there going, should I live in Naperville or should I live in Lake Zurich? It's really, if you're going to the western suburbs, you're trying to figure out where you're gonna live there. If you're going to the northwest suburbs, you're trying to figure out where you're gonna go there. That makes sense for a lot of the other things we were looking

074at, plus Naperville is, I don't know how many times bigger than us. So that, we started sort of saying, this is hard, this isn't really comparable, except that we're some of the rarities of being unit school districts in the state of Illinois because there's not that many. So that's when the discussion started and it was quite heated of who would be, and we changed it from aspirational, if you remember, to area going, you have to think like a real estate agent. If you're coming and saying, I wanna live in the northwest suburbs, you're sitting there going, what does Barrington look like compared to Lake Zurich, compared to Buffalo Grove, compared to Libertyville, you're gonna look at accessibility to how long it takes to drive to work, but you've sort of decided this is the area

075that you wanna live in, and I have to say, I remember the first time we looked at it, we were not this high when we were looking, so that was actually what I got very excited about, looking at how well we were doing, also compared to our area districts, that we're up there, we're competitive here, and you hear it anecdotally when you hear people saying they're getting letters in their mailbox going, are you selling your house, because I really wanna move here, so I mean, we're doing the right thing, the special sauce is here in Lake Zurich, definitely, so I was thrilled to see this, I was super thrilled to see how well we were ranking among our area districts, and everybody sort of talks, we tended to focus on Barrington, because they were a

076community district, and that was really what we were looking at, and so we were always neck and neck, and who knows who's doing, but everybody's like, Stevenson, when I'm looking at what we're doing compared to Stevenson, I'm actually very pleased with those numbers, so I think this is a huge win, and a huge kudos to everybody involved, I mean, anybody that reads this should be smiling the whole time, this is great news all around, and granted, there's areas you have to work on, but as you always say, you're never gonna be perfect, there's always gonna be something more to do, which I have learned from Dr. Galt, there's always something more to do, so you saw that, but overall, this was an incredibly positive report, so thank you for taking the time, I know we

077added to your duties by including this area, but I think it really is telling, and I think that's really how our community is looking at our district, of where am I gonna live, where am I getting the most bang for my property tax book, and so it's wonderful news, so thank you. Absolutely, and I think to the points, because we have the same, we can look for patterns within a year, and then across years, as we are able to do for this year to last year. Thank you, Lisa. I too remember when we added our comparables beyond just the unit districts, and really did it more, I'm gonna say, local or regional kind of purview, and I also remember like, oh wow, okay, we have room to improve, and we are now really, really, we're

078up there, and that's awesome, that's like, you know, I was gonna start out by saying that we just kind of killed your busy season, because all of the work and all of the reports that you brought, as always, were phenomenal, so thank you for all of that work, and I know that that's you predominantly, but that's also curriculum instruction, our teachers, our building administration, it's a huge team, and thank you all, because what you presented to us is amazing, and not just amazing, but really good results, and amazing reports, and so thank you, thank you for all of that, and I too am just tickled that this is, like it's working, we're not done, because we do wanna be there, and it's not, we're doing great, we're doing great, but keep pushing, thank you, thank

079you so much. It's my pleasure to represent our staff and our buildings. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Kaiser is here to answer questions related to the October cash flow report, do any board members have any questions for Ms. Kaiser on cash flow? No, okay. Can I just say thank you for the extra column? I noticed it, and it's appreciated, thank you. The column in the spreadsheet that talks about the current month, I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, the next item is the financial dashboard, are there any questions for Ms. Kaiser? Okay then, thank you, that was a tough evening, appreciate all your work, and thank you for stepping in. All right, oh, and I have requested to move the long-range facilities planning agenda to our next meeting due to Dr. Romano's absence, and there's

080no items for discussion without action, so we're gonna move to, what do I have to gavel this? For item eight on the board agenda, and as required by statute, I hereby call the order, the public hearing to discuss the proposed 2025 levy for Lake Zura Community Unit School District 95, we will first have comments from administration if there's anyone from the public who wishes to comment on the proposed inter-fund transfer, please sign in with Ms. Povich, public comment will follow administration comments, next will be board member comments, and then we will close the hearing. Are there any administrator comments? Mr. Nardiello, please play the presentation. Good evening, and welcome to today's hearing on the district's levy proposal. This hearing provides an opportunity to review the details of the levy, driving factors in the calculation of

081the rate, the projected year over year increase, and total dollars to be extended. Thank you for your attention and participation as we proceed with today's agenda. The district's tax levy, budget, and cashflow are closely interconnected, and play a critical role in financial planning. The tax levy serves as the primary source of revenue for the district each year, providing the foundation for funding essential operations. The budget is developed based on revenue estimates from the levy, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to meet the district's needs. Cashflow planning further ensures financial stability by considering the timing of revenues and expenditures, while strategically managing district reserves to address future requirements. Local property taxes are the backbone of school district funding, contributing approximately 85% of the district's total revenue. These taxes are essential for maintaining and enhancing the high

082quality educational programs that benefit all students in Lake Zurich District 95. The purpose of the tax levy is straightforward, to ensure that our schools have the resources necessary to provide a superior educational experience. This includes funding for staffing, programs, and facilities. Understanding some key terms can help clarify how this process works, like the aggregate levy, debt service levies, and the role of tax caps under PTEL, which limit how much property taxes can increase annually. Combined with the consumer price index, these mechanisms ensure a balance between securing funds for schools and respecting taxpayers. The bottom line is this, the tax levy is vital to sustaining excellence in education for our community's students. Local property taxes are calculated using three key factors, EAV, rate, and formula. First, the equalized assessed evaluation, or EAV, represents 33% of a

083property's fair cash value, as determined by the township assessor, adjusted by the county's equalization factor. This value ensures consistency across properties. Second, the tax rate is determined by the total amount of taxes levied by the Board of Education. This ensures the district collects the revenue necessary to support its operations. Finally, the formula for calculating the tax rate is straightforward. The total dollars levied divided by the total assessed property value. This creates the rate applied to determine each property owner's share of the tax burden. Together, these factors ensure the district has the resources it needs to fund all district programming each year. The total annual levy is governed by the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or PTEL, which is commonly referred to as the tax cap. Under this law, increases to the tax levy are restricted

084to either the Consumer Price Index, CPI, or 5%, whichever is lower. For the 2025 levy, this limit is set at 2.9%, based on the CPI, ensuring the district remains compliant with state regulations while providing for district programming. Let's explore the inverse relationship between property values and the tax rate. As shown here, when property values increase, the tax rate decreases to generate the same total revenue for the district. Conversely, when property values decrease, the tax rate increases to ensure the required revenue is still collected. This balancing act ensures stability in funding for essential services, even as property values fluctuate. It's an important mechanism that aligns the district's financial planning with changes in the local property market. This overview highlights the 2025 tax levy calculation, ensuring alignment between district funding needs and state mandated limits. The limiting

085rate for 2025, established under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law is set at 4.5402%, capping the estimated extension at $100,089,486.03. This represents the maximum allowable revenue under the tax cap based on existing property values. New construction is taxed at the same rate, but generates additional revenue outside of the tax cap calculations. Key assumptions include CPI is calculated at 2.9%, restricting increases for existing properties. EAV is projected to exceed $2 billion, which is an 8.21% increase due to new property and adjustments. New property growth is contributing $18,337,834 to the EAV. The anticipated extension across all funds is $107,353,700.80, with a proposed levy of $108,491,811.75. A 4.56% increase from last year. Strategic safeguards in key funds ensure the district can maximize its allowable extension while adhering to state laws. Additionally, the bond and interest levy is estimated

086at $7,264,214, supporting debt repayment and financial stability. Overall, the 2025 levy represents a balanced approach to securing essential resources for the district, ensuring compliance with regulations while maintaining high quality education and services for the community. Let's review the district's tax levy process for the upcoming fiscal year. New revenue. The district anticipates a 3.76% increase in new revenue for general operating funds, adding approximately $3.6 million under the capped extension. Total taxes. Proposed total taxes, $108,491,811, which is a 4.56% increase. Anticipated total receipts in the amount of $107,353,702, which is a 3.46% increase. The process timeline includes, in October, the levy recommendation, November, estimated levy approval, December, final levy approval and submission, March and April, final allocation once calculated by the county clerk. This structured process ensures compliance while securing resources to the district. The process ensures

087compliance while securing resources to support district operations. Each year, our administration collects and analyzes data from surrounding school districts to assess how our district's overall tax rate compares within the region. The results consistently show that Lake Surrogate District 95 maintains a competitive tax rate. This reflects a thoughtful balance between a fair tax burden and the exceptional value we provide to our students. This analysis highlights our ongoing commitment to delivering high quality education while maximizing the efficiency and impact of our resources, all with a focus on fiscal responsibility. The district collaborates with other taxing districts within its boundaries through an intergovernmental agreement to address significant tax objections. These objections, often involving commercial properties, can shift the tax burden to other property owners, impacting how property taxes are distributed to individual properties. Each year, as part of

088the public hearing process for the district budget and levy, a review of fund balances is conducted to ensure compliance and transparency. The administration has developed a comprehensive fund balance analysis aligned with board policy, which requires maintaining reserves between 50% and 75% of the operating funds. In addition, the analysis includes a detailed review of fund balances for capital project funds categorized by funding sources to support the district's long-range facilities plan. Currently, the district holds healthy fund balances and is projected to remain within the board policy reserve targets with the adoption of this year's budget to ensure the highest level of transparency, financial preparation, and data-driven decision-making. The administration has also developed a multi-year projection for fund balance, taking into account all major capital investments under consideration. As seen here, should the Board of Education choose to

089proceed with all items under consideration, the district will continue to remain in full compliance with the fund balance policy established to maintain not less than a 50% level. Thank you all for participating in today's hearing and for your time and attention given to the information shared regarding the 2025 tax levy. Thank you. Are there any administrator comment? Oh wait, nevermind, sorry. Are there any members of the community that would like to address the board regarding the proposed levy? Okay, board members, any comments? All right, having heard all administration, public, and board member comments, I hereby close the public hearing to discuss proposed 25-year levy for Lake Zurich Community Unit High School District 95. All right, per item nine on the board agenda, and as required by statute, I hereby call to order the public hearing

090to discuss an inter-fund transfer for Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95. We will first have comments from the administration. If there is anyone from the public who wishes to comment on the proposed inter-fund transfer, please sign in with Mrs. Povich. Public comment will follow administration comments. Next will be board member comments, and then we will close the hearing. Are there any administrator comments? Just, it's in the report, so we're ready for questions. All right, are there any members of the community that would like to address the board regarding the proposed inter-fund transfer? Hearing none, board members, do you have any comments? All right, having heard all the administration, public, and board member comments, I hereby call to close the public hearing to discuss an inter-fund transfer for Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95.

091Our first discussion with action is the adoption of the resolution authorizing final aggregate tax levy for tax year 2025 for the hearing. May I get a motion and a second? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha, and thank you, Dr. Pinter. Kate, please call the roll for the adoption of the resolution authorizing final aggregate tax levy for the tax year 2025 as presented. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. All right. Our next item for discussion with action is to approve the resolution authorizing a supplemental tax levy to pay the principal of an interest on outstanding limited bonds of the district. May I get a motion and second to approve the resolution on supplemental tax levy? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha, and thank you,

092Alicia. Are there any questions for Dr. Gault or Ms. Kaiser in Dr. Romano's absence? Kate, please call the roll to approve the resolution authorizing a supplemental tax levy to pay the principal of an interest on outstanding limited bonds of the district. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Next, for discussion with action is the approval of the resolution authorizing an inter-fund transfer as previously discussed during the earlier hearing. May I get a motion to approve the above-mentioned resolution? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha, and thank you, Lisa. We did have an opportunity to ask questions during the hearing, but did any board members have anything further? Thank you, Kate. Please call the roll to adopt the resolution authorizing an inter-fund transfer of $5,200,000 from

093the Education Fund to the Operations and Maintenance Fund as presented. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. All right, the next item is the approval of resolution appropriating monies from the Education Fund to the Working Cash Fund. May I get a motion and a second to approve this resolution? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha, thank you, Alicia. Are there any questions for Dr. Gault or Ms. Kaiser? Thank you, Kate. Please call the roll to adopt the resolution appropriating monies from the Educational Fund to the Working Cash Fund in the amount of $66,800 from the Education Fund to the Working Cash Fund as presented. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Next for discussion

094with action is the approval of the 2026-2027 fees. May I get a motion and a second on this? So move. Second. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Thank you, Natasha. Are there any questions for Dr. Gault or Ms. Kaiser? Kate, please call the roll to approve the 2026-2027 fees as presented. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Thank you. The next item is the approval of advanced pay on solar. May I get a motion and a second to approve? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you, Peter. Are there any questions for Dr. Gault on this item before we call the roll? I do have a question. There was a note about on it that said the updated to remove retainer. Can you elaborate on that

095a little bit, Dr. Gault? I can. So I'll go first and you can add if you would like to, Ms. Kaiser. Essentially, we had included originally the retainer fee as a part of that 5% that is not allowable. And so we needed to make sure that we reached that 5% safe harbor threshold. And in order to do that, once you remove that, you have to add those funds back in and then we pay the retainer on top of those fees. So the amount that we're voting for here, is it just a 5% not the retainer? Correct. Okay, thank you. I have a question. So I understand that Baker-Tilley told you to do this, I guess, knowing that the threshold is 5% and the number that you're recommending is exactly 5%, with no room for error,

096did Baker-Tilley confirm that this is a number they can feel comfortable with moving forward? Yes, we were in council with them to make sure that the numbers met. So that's the 5%, 5% and the 7% was the thing. So they're comfortable with these numbers as well. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Kate, please call the roll to approve payment to Performance Services, Inc. in the total amount of $648,754.65 with payments to be processed through the advance pay process. Dr. Pinter? Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Thank you. Next for discussion with action is the approval of new course level and name changes for the 2025-2026. May I get a motion to approve? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you, Lisa. Do any board members have questions for

097Ms. Stallion? I just wanna ask again. So criminal justice is what you're landing on, not criminology, right? Correct. We take the recommendations that the high school provides us. Criminology is held in higher esteem, I'm just gonna say. Yeah, we're certainly willing to go back and have additional conversations about the courses and the offerings that the students have. But when our high school teachers recommend courses, they do that with consult with other teachers and certainly students as well. So there are courses we provide and say these are some courses we need to add, they are part of our pathways, they're part of what we're moving forward for college and career, and then we always give our teachers an opportunity to put forward additional courses. But if you feel like that's something we need to kind of

098dig into, we're happy to have those conversations. Additionally, some courses are tech campus as well and so they also provide that same level of recommendation and so the same thing would follow. Correct. Okay. But if you have questions that you're curious about, we're happy to get answers. So maybe you could ask some questions to Dr. Gault and maybe we could get you some additional answers as to why that course was brought forward. Yeah. Yeah, I would because the top ranked, most of the top ranked schools for criminology, they're looking more, like if you're looking at like research one institutions, they're looking more at criminology. Criminal justice is usually lower ranked schools. So yeah, I do think it would be great to look into that. Thank you. Kate, please call the roll to approve the new

099course levels and new course changes as prepared and presented by the administration. Mr. Etienne. Yes. Mrs. Warren. Yes. Ms. Tim. Yes. Mrs. Danniger. Yes. Dr. Pinter. Yes. Ms. Maloney. Yes. Our final item for discussion with action is the approval of bids for the D-Wing renovation project. Let's start by getting the motion and the second. So moved. Second. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you, Alicia. Are there any questions for Mr. Erstad or Dr. Gault? Hearing none. Can I just say congratulations? You brought this in on a budget, which I know was a little concerning for a while. And I'm actually very pleased to see how many of these alternates you were able to add on, which I know will just are more benefit to the students and the teachers in the building. So thank you. Thank you.

100Thank you. Kate, please call the roll to approve the renovation of the D-Wing at Lake Zurich High School, including acceptance of alternates one, two, four, five, six, and eight, and rejection of alternates three and seven with a total budget of $6,582,522 additionally to authorize the executive director of facilities and grounds to sign contracts on behalf of the district with each vendor for specified work. Mrs. Danniger. Yes. Ms. Maloney. Yes. Mr. Aitken. Yes. Mrs. Warren. Yes. Dr. Pinter. Yes. Ms. Tim. Yes. Thank you. And the best news, we will not be going into closed session this evening. So may I have a motion and a second to adjourn open session? So move. Second. Thank you, Natasha. And thank you, Dr. Pinter. Those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? The meeting is adjourned at 749.