001Please come to order. I call the November 6th, 2025 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Mr. Etienne? Here. Ms. Tim? Here. Mrs. Danniger? Mr. Goldberg? Here. Mrs. Warren? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Dr. Pinter? Here. And Ms. Danniger is not well tonight, so she will not be joining us. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, under God. Good evening and welcome. I wanna congratulate our LZHS cross-country and football athletes in their exceptional performance last weekend. We are so proud and excited to cheer them on as they continue to compete this weekend. Best of luck to both our student athletes and coaches. We will start this evening's board meeting highlighting the challenge coins that were
002presented recently. Mrs. Warren, can you please share your challenge recognitions? So I was able to present two challenge coins over the past week or so. The first was to Mrs. Syke, Ms. Colleen Syke. I did acknowledge her at our last board meeting for her participation with Navigate being part of the planning committee. And as I thought of it more, I realized Ms. Syke is new to the district. So July 1st, she found out, guess what? You're on the planning committee for a Lake County wide event with, we just learned 47 schools, 125 companies participating. I know you have no idea what that is, but go have it under that other duties as a sign that we love seeing in contracts. So I wanted to thank her for her effort of stepping up and really taking
003the lead on this new adventure. And then I also realized after I was sat in on the facilities committee and we had started talking about the negotiation process for transportation next year, that we actually met with special meetings in July and August when we found out that our special education transportation company was having some financial issues and wasn't comfortable utilizing them. I know it was a huge team effort to call all of our resources and figure it out, but it was Ms. Twill that got to manage five new vendors to figure out who's picking up who, where are they going, what are they supposed to do, as well as continuing to manage our own staff of bus drivers and all of that. So I felt she deserved a challenge coin for stepping up. And of
004course, in her own way, she's of course saying, I don't deserve this, I just wanna take care of the kids. And I'm like, no, this is above and beyond. This is not something we like to ask you to do every year, which hopefully we'll not be doing next year. So of course I get to do this on Halloween when she was dressed up as a pinata. Yes, I guessed car wash. I think I was in transportation mode. So it was very fun to see her. And of course, several of the bus drivers had dressed up and I had just seen, I think it was fun, May Whitney ended up using transportation to have parents and grandparents park offsite and be bused for the Halloween parade, which I actually saw some of them getting off the
005bus, which I'm sure was pretty fun for some of those grandparents. Last time they were on a school bus is probably too long to remember. So they just continue to do exceptional work. I love, I'm sure somebody said, hey, can we have three buses to go back and forth from May Whitney to the library like twice? And she's like, of course, when do you need them? So I thought she deserved a challenge coin as well. So thank you. Thank you for those recognitions, Lisa. And Doug, you have a shout out? Yes, a community member and friend of mine approached me a couple of weeks ago asking if there was something he could do to help recognize athletics at the high school. And so I was able to interface him with Mr. Doney and he agreed
006to work with him and they designed a, if you've seen the NFL football games, they wear these sleeve warmers in their arms. So they designed a Lake Zurich emblem sleeve warmer and he purchased enough quantity for both the men's and ladies football teams to be equipped with these. And I think you'll see if you attend the game on Saturday, you'll see our football team wearing those. I wanna thank Mr. Asak for approaching, Carl Asak is his name, for approaching me and wanting to do something nice. And it was out of the kindness of his heart. Thank you, Doug. Thank you for that recognition. Kate, is there anyone signed up for public speaking? No, there is not. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is a consent agenda. Dr. Gault. Thank you, Mrs. Maloney. This
007evening, I have the approval of minutes from the open and closed session for the Board of Education meeting held on October 23rd, 2025. The approval of payrolls, the approval of the personnel report, which includes employment of non-certified staff, resignation of non-certified staff, and extracurricular and co-curricular stipend assignments for 2025-26 school year. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as prepared and presented by the administration? So moved. Are there any questions? Can you please call the roll? Mrs. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. The next item on the agenda is a superintendent's report. Dr. Gault? Thank you. This evening, I will be sharing some of my time with a couple of colleagues around the table from the Teaching and Learning Committee, but
008I'll start with the FOIA is included, just as typical. Additionally, the board did receive a question from a community member as to which board members attended the IASB Lake Division Legislative Dinner, and so that information was provided, and the only two individuals who were not present would be Ms. Staniger and myself, and so I had other commitments and was unable to attend that event. I would typically, though, attend. And then I'm gonna turn it over to, first, Ms. Stallion, and then to Dr. McArdle, related to our Teaching and Learning Committee meeting. However, I would say, really, I think Mrs. Warren did a phenomenal job at the last board meeting highlighting Navigate, so I did not include that information, but just know that that was one of the topics that we covered this evening. Thank you,
009Ms. Stallion. Thank you. So we had a few topics. We talked about our most recent BPAC. That's our Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee. As you may have known in the past, we've had a really good turnout, upwards of 150 to 160 families. This year, we were down. We had about 43 parents and guardians show up in person. We also offered Zoom, and we had six families attend by Zoom. We do want to just thank all of our staff and all of our students who came out to support our families that night, helped with childcare, helped us with our families, and we did have some presenters of information from the Business Department, as well as the Department of CNI, who gave some information to our families. So less attended than typical, but we're hopeful that as the
010years go on, we will get right back up to those numbers, and we'll keep offering those opportunities for our families. We did talk a little bit about our enrollment and our English language learners, and I just do want to say that sometimes we use multilingual students, and then we use EL. Multilingual students are any student who speaks a second language. EL students are students who are identified as English language learners. So it is really, there is a difference. You can have multilingual learners who are not identified as EL. So when you see EL, that means the state designation for students who are actually qualifying for EL services. We have many multilingual students within our schools, but you can see there that our numbers were going up quite dramatically over the years, and this year we
011did take a dip. I do want to say that we did release about 150 students from EL services, and I hope that we continue to release students from EL services because every time we do that, they get that time back within their school day, and that means we've done our job well. Now we are looking at enrollments, and that is decreasing as well. So the number of students that are coming to us that we are assessing is dropping a little bit as well. We'll know more this coming year when we look at the next year's enrollments, but you can see there that we are going down a little bit in our EL numbers, more to come on that as we gear up for next year's registration. We talked about PLC Plus. As many of you
012know, this is our third year on this journey of improving our professional learning communities, and I think it's important to note that professional learning communities are a critical part of school improvement. All of the things that we do are part of the process of improving teaching, learning, growth, and achievement of students, and PLCs are a critical part. That's the time that teachers come together to study problems of practice and how we're solving issues related to student achievement and student growth. So we're really excited about this year, specifically this year. That's just the process, so we can go forward on that one. We can go forward on that one. We were so fortunate to have Nancy Frye, and for anyone who doesn't know Nancy Frye, she is an acclaimed educator, nationally acclaimed. And there isn't a
013teacher or an administrator across this nation who doesn't know Nancy Frye and hasn't read her work. And when our teachers walked in that day and saw Nancy Frye as one of our facilitators and presenters, I can tell you I got texts from people going, I can't believe we have Nancy Frye at Lake Zurich. So that's a big deal. That's a really big deal. So I think, quite frankly, she came to us because they really like us, for one, but we have invested three years in a partnership with Corwin on this work, and we have demonstrated to them our commitment and value to the work that they do and for them to help support us in our journey to continuously improve. And then we had Tony Faddis as well. So we had a wonderful day where
014we trained teachers to train teachers. So we will have embedded staff who now have credentials to train incoming teachers on the expectations at Lake Zurich on how we run professional learning communities. And that's the last piece of this three-year journey is to train teachers who are here with us to train the next generation that comes in so we don't lose this learning. This continues to grow, and it's embedded as part of our culture. So wonderful, wonderful opportunities for our teachers. You can move past the data. I would just add about the data. I think, Dr. Pinter, you would really appreciate this because we spend time looking at quantitative data but also qualitative. And so our staff are receiving training on just how to make that happen as well. So very, very impressive. And I just,
015again, I wanna commend our teaching and learning department for the work that they've done and the people they've brought to our district to help us grow and get better. And this is an evidence-based tool for student growth and achievement. Okay, so we'll go on. We did a lot with activators, and they did come back to our schools as well. Yana, who is one of our facilitators who's been here now with us for three years, and that was a specific match after we met with her. They said we have the right person for Lake Zurich, and boy, did they nail it. Everyone loves her. She's helped our teams, and we'll continue to have her back in the spring. So we're continuing to train activators. And then I'm gonna turn it over to Dr. Mercado because we
016did spend some time with a, really, I would say balcony view of our school day work, much more to come. All right, so in our teaching and learning committee, we discussed all of the work covered to date. We've had five full committee meetings at this point. There has been an extensive stakeholder data collection process as well. So we have concluded running focus groups, staff drop-in sessions across middle school and high school, again, parents or family members, students and staff members. We've conducted two survey administrations at this point. The first survey administration was very close to our launch back in August, and then as we got further along in the work and started to refine some ideas based on our committee member feedback, we did a second survey administration not too long ago. And so at
017this point, we again have kind of concluded that stakeholder collection phase. The committees had the opportunity to dig through that data, to analyze alongside our outcomes and our working options that we're moving forward that meet those objectives at this time. As far as communication, we did wanna highlight that the communication for this iteration of schoolwork has looked a little bit different compared to our last time several years ago, which was running parallel to a contract negotiation process. We're in a different space, and so our staff and stakeholders at large have received a higher level of communication along the way around committee progress and work. So for example, following each committee meeting, our middle school and high school principals send a communication to all staff about the goings on from the committee and what's coming up
018ahead. And so that has been a part of the process this time that is different than last time. And we've also been doing teaching and learning and board updates along the way. You wanna go to the next slide? In terms of where we're at at this point, following our first five committee work sessions, we are in a space where each level, middle school and high school, which is where the bulk of those outcomes were identified, have identified two schedule options that meet those objectives. We have a very, very detailed memo in the works that summarizes all of the key committee discussion points, all of that stakeholder data. There'll be an intersection analysis where board and community can see where there's alignment among stakeholders and where there's differing viewpoints. We're going to be bringing a lot
019of data around what could this potential impact look like? And so Mrs. Warren, during our initial launch, had asked for data around what do our student enrollments look like at present? How many students take? Nine classes, eight classes, seven, fewer than seven. And so that will be part of that comprehensive presentation that the board will be able to take in. We have our final committee meeting planned for November 19th, at which point the team members will have the opportunity to look at a draft presentation slide deck and provide input as well as provide final input to things to highlight and underscore within that presentation. And we're anticipating bringing that and in the December iteration of meetings here for board member informational purposes. So I'll turn it back to Dr. Gault. Thank you. We do have
020some celebrations that I do want to highlight for the board. First, our student athletic celebrations. I know I sent you some messages, but just wanted to give a shout out to our cross-country team. Both boys and girls did outstanding at sectionals, could not be prouder of their efforts and just the overall hard work they put into training. So we received first place at sectionals and then third for boys first place and then for girls third place. And then our football team also had a great game and they are moving forward in the playoffs after beating Grant High School last weekend. I believe they play Antioch this weekend. And so excitement in the air for sure and have nothing but just great wishes for our teams as they continue to move forward and certainly our coaches
021as well. And then also I wanted to highlight, we did have a student that attended a portion of a conference with me. So I was invited to bring a student from the high school, Soria. That student was selected actually by the high school and so really appreciate Jonathan Clark for coming up with a name. He serves, Jonathan's a part of our AI team. And so this conference really revolved around AI and so they wanted students who had some sort of background or understanding and could at least speak to the complexities of AI. I listed a few of the questions that were asked of the students. There were several students in attendance. You can see Soria on the circular picture on the right. He was amazing. And I'm just gonna say he made Lake Zurich just
022really stand out and specifically our high school and our high school staff. Answered every question beautifully. He had individuals from the audience laughing. There was one point where a question was asked and most of the students said, there's no cheating going on. We don't cheat using AI. And his comment back to the audience, he was last to speak was, well, I would just clarify that just a little bit. 90 to 95% of the time we don't cheat. And so just really honest and human in his responses but so professional as you can see in the picture. And then the last question that I really do wanna highlight is, he said, they asked the kids, are you ahead of, are you equal to, are you behind your teachers? And so they got to say ahead, equal
023to or behind. And his answer was here. And when asked why does he believe he's at the same level as the teachers that he's working with? His answer was because they're learning alongside of us. They take risks in the classroom. We see that and they pointed out to us. What an awesome answer. I could not be prouder of his involvement in that presentation. So, and just grateful to Lake County and to Dr. Karner for allowing us that opportunity to participate and certainly superintendents making the recommendation that we have a high school student present. And then I know the board has been anxiously awaiting for a very long time, the arrival of some new buses. So we have nine in total that we're supposed to receive. Two enhanced, I'll call them enhanced buses. And so they
024have, as you can see, Mrs. Twedell, modeling for you. They have some under cargo areas so that we don't have to necessarily rent very expensive buses. And so these will take the place of some of those rental costs that we would typically incur. So we're really excited about that. A huge thank you to Dr. Romano and to Mrs. Twedell for their work and their effort and ensuring that we're able to continue to add to our fleet in a really great way. And then I have the next breakfast from the board listed. We did select our board retreat date. Thank you for completing that survey. It looked like January 24th was the best date or at least one of two. And so we selected the 24th as our date. Please note that we are planning for
025that to be all day. Mrs. Maloney and I will work on, certainly the morning is gonna be very focused on the finances as well as recommendations from our cabinet members moving forward as it relates to budgets. And then if there is remaining time, I'll work with Mrs. Maloney to also get board input, which was a recommendation that came from the Board of Education members as to if there's an opportunity for additional learning, what that might look like. As you recall, the board did request some additional learning during the course of the school year. We've planned for you quarterly learning opportunities specific to finance, but this could go above and beyond that. So we'll have continued conversations about that. Additionally, I'll draw your attention to an envelope that you received. It is, I know it's lengthy,
026but it is really important that you read through the material that you were provided. Additionally, your badge is included within that envelope. And so if you could do so, that would be great. Additionally, there is an app that you can download onto your phone that will be very, very helpful during the weekend of learning. There's a lot, a lot of different learning opportunities that are provided. And then a special thank you to any board member who was able to sign up for pre-learning. I think most of you were, and that's gonna be, I think of huge benefit to you. Here you go. Sorry, did everyone sign up for the Friday learning? Is that what you're saying? Excellent, thank you. All right, thank you, Dr. Gault. Moving on to the reports to the board. Ms. Allen,
027please share your presentation on the school report card. The 2025 summative designations presentation provides an overview of the Illinois school report card outcomes, summative designation criteria, and school year 2025 summative designations. This is the first of three major reporting components. The first aligns with the release of the 2024 to 2025 Illinois school report card. The second will include both the kindergarten through 12th grade student achievement report and the school improvement plans. The third and final component, the student achievement comparable report, will be presented on December 4th. Together, these reports provide a comprehensive overview of student outcomes, school improvement initiatives, and district-wide performance data. This presentation will include an overview of the Illinois school report card, a review of the summative designation criteria and calculation process, a summary of designation group outcomes, an update on the
028equity journey continuum, and a section highlighting key items to note followed by time for questions. The Illinois school report card serves as the state's public accountability tool, reporting each school's performance and growth across multiple indicators. For the 2025 reporting year, the data reflects the 2024 to 2025 school year and includes both academic outcomes and school quality measures. Together, these indicators determine each school's summative designation, offering a snapshot of student achievement and progress over time. You can view District 95's report card at www.illinoisreportcard.com. The Illinois accountability system uses a weighted index to combine academic achievement, growth, and school quality indicators. For elementary and middle schools, student growth and proficiency remain the key components of each school's designation. At these levels, English language arts and math growth each make up 25% of the overall designation. ELA and
029math proficiency contribute 7.5% each. Science proficiency adds 5%. English learner progress accounts for another 5%. Chronic absenteeism makes up 20%. And the climate survey represents the final 5%. For high schools, the focus shifts. Graduation outcomes and college and career readiness take center stage. The graduation rate carries the greatest weight, 50% in total, broken down as 30% for the four-year rate, 15% for the five-year, and 5% for the six-year rate. ELA and math proficiency each count for 7.5%. Science proficiency adds 5%. English learner progress contributes 5%. Chronic absenteeism accounts for 10%. The climate survey for 6.67%. And ninth grade on track makes up 8.33%. Together, these measures ensure a balanced and equitable system, one that values both academic performance and student growth across every grade level. Each school receives an overall index score calculated from the
030weighted indicators. The score is used to determine the school's summative designation category, ranging from exemplary to targeted or comprehensive support. These designations reflect state-defined performance thresholds comparing student achievement and growth across all public schools in Illinois. For the 2025 reporting cycle, the following District 95 schools received exemplary designations. Lake Zurich High School, Middle School South, Isaac Fox, May Whitney, and Seth Payne. The commendable designation was awarded to Middle School North, Sarah Adams, and Spencer Loomis. These results reflect sustained academic performance and continued commitment to equitable student outcomes across all schools. The Illinois State Board of Education's Equity Journey Continuum was updated with 2024 data. District 95 data remained consistent between the 2022 and 2023 reporting cycles, with the Learning Conditions component improving from moderate gaps to small gaps. The Equity Journey Continuum provides a system-level
031reflection on equity practices, guiding future improvement in instructional and organizational decision-making. Several important updates are included in the 2025 Illinois School Report Card. Adjusted proficiency performance levels have been implemented statewide. Trend data have been removed due to these adjustments. New visuals for growth and proficiency have been introduced to enhance clarity and accessibility. Additionally, the Illinois State Board of Education plans to sunset the current report card format. A new reporting format and data system will launch for the 2025 to 2026 school year, designed to provide clearer insight into student performance and growth measures. I am happy to answer any questions at this time. Thank you, Ms. Allen. Do any board members have questions? I think I'm gonna go around the table. Peter, do you have any questions? I understand in December you'll have much more comprehensive
032reports on all of the details, so I have a lot of questions, and I've been spending some time on the data, and as I was commenting a little bit earlier today, you have to kind of play with it a little while, because sometimes it kind of chokes or crashes, but there is a lot of data in there, and so thanks for all of the work that you do on that, and I know it's gonna take a lot of work to prepare for the board comprehensive meeting, so I will withhold my questions until then. Thank you. Mr. Atian, I would just request that if you have some questions now, it may be helpful for us to at least see those questions if you wouldn't mind sharing them, only because then Ms. Allen can ensure that, as
033possible, some of them could be addressed in her upcoming report. Sure. That would be awesome. Since you say that. So if you could, no, you don't need to share them now, but if you could send them to us, that would be so helpful. Well, I have some general question, not too many specific, but for example, how is the, maybe that's a generalized knowledge question, how is the community college remediation number measured? That's one of the data points on the report. Maybe you could just explain that to me. Yeah, that would be one that I would have to look into a little bit further, but if Dr. Gault would like, I can get that information to her. Yes, and then I also think that this will just help us to make sure that our report is
034as comprehensive as it needs to be, so there might be some things we can answer ahead of time, and then other things we will include in the report, but thank you, so helpful. Yeah, I'll just leave all my other questions until then. Thank you, Dr. Gault. Thank you, Peter. Doug? Thank you, Eileen. Aubrey, thank you for coming this evening. Thank you for putting together such a wonderful report. Actually, I'm a little bit surprised the state is restructuring the report cards. It's actually great. When I look at other states, I think, wow, we have good visibility into our data. A couple of things set out to me when I read through it, studied it a bit, and I just wanted to confirm the way I felt with you, since obviously you're the expert in the field,
035but first of all, as we compare ourselves to the state, we're doing great, right, and there's no question we knock it out of the park. I did a little bit of looking, and we're gonna talk about this at a later meeting of comparables, and so I'll defer my questions on that, but so we made some great progress across both ELA and math in most of our cases. It looks like, you know, the data would suggest that if any of our grade levels is kind of lagging in progress, it's probably the high school that's not making the rate of progress. Do you agree with that statement? I would agree with that statement in some of the pieces that we're seeing. Something that we haven't had before is growth for the high school, and so that'll be
036a new piece for our report this year, is looking at growth at the high school, and I think that's probably one of the points of which you're talking about. Yes, yeah, okay, yeah, I'd like to hear, obviously, you know, what your thoughts are, and obviously Dr. Walsh's thoughts are, and you know, how we're gonna address that. We'd obviously like to make sure all of our good lives are performing well. The other question is, even though we've made improvements with, you know, our low income and minority students, we're still not great. Do you have any thoughts on what, maybe we can tell what your plans are to improve the outcomes for those groups of students? I think that'll be a part of some future pieces as we think about the achievement report that's coming up the
037next board meeting, and then the comparable report that'll be coming in the December meeting. Additionally, Mr. Goldberg, you will have an opportunity to hear directly from our building principals as it relates to school improvement, and so I will make sure that Mrs. Stallion shares that specific question with our leaders, because that is a question that they should be able to address. Okay, the other thing, one of the other things that stood out to me when I looked at it was, it looks like the chronic absenteeism is particularly strong at the upper grade levels, nine through 12. It looks like it hasn't really gotten a lot, and we talked about this in previous years, and I don't want to put you on the spot tonight, but it's something I'd love to hear you talk more about
038later is what we can do to address, that's clearly something I think we'd all agree we can make an improvement in. That seems to be an outage. Mr. Goldberg, I agree that we can always make improvements. I do think Ms. Allen will be able to showcase some definite gains over time. Dr. Walsh and his staff have put a lot of effort into actually chronic absenteeism, and I know he'd be able to speak about that as well when it comes time to school improvement, but you may not have seen a huge shift from last year to this year, if that's what you're looking at, but there's been significant improvement actually in that area. I'll let them speak to some of the things that they're doing when they're here for school improvement. Correct, and you'll be able
039to see where we compare for our chronic absenteeism rate to our comparable unit districts and our regionals in the comparable report, yes. Okay, well, and Kelly, I'll make sure to send all the other questions I have in writing so you can see them, but I just wanted to make sure the things that I walked away with when I looked through that data, you agreed with. Yes, thank you. Thank you, thank you, Eileen. Thank you, Doug. Lisa? I guess I'm slightly confused by your slide on the equity journey continuum. Can you just expand a little bit on what you're trying to tell us? I know these are other items the state is tracking that's not necessarily included in our ranking, but it's items they're tracking. Can you just talk to, and how we're moving on that?
040Yeah, of course. So the equity journey continuum looks at a variety of our data points that are across our report cards. So while we have very specific components that are part of our summative designation, the school report card is very comprehensive in regards to all of the components that make up our school district and our schools. And so the equity journey continuum looks at some of those specific components in those three larger categories to see where we're at in regards to closing the gaps for all of our students. And so as we're looking at it in two of the components, we've stayed fairly steady in regards to where we're at with small gaps, minimal gaps, et cetera. But in the learning piece, we did move from moderate gaps to small gaps. So that was just
041a note. On the front page, it's very overall, like top view, but when on our backend, we're able to see a little bit more into the details that make that up to see where we've got those opportunities to increase just like we were talking about before. So when you said the data remains consistent between school years 22 and 23, it just means that we stayed in that minimal gap area and where we might've had larger gaps were making the right progress and moving towards that minimal or small gap. Correct, yes. So we've seen that steady piece for the last three data points, which is 22, 23, and 24, and then just that small change in regards to the learning. And that's for the equity journey. I think that the board will also have an opportunity
042to hear Mrs. Allen speak to some of our special population groups and where we have opportunities remaining in our future reports, correct? That's correct. Both in the achievement and the comparable. Thank you. Wonderful, wonderful. Yeah, I know this is sort of that top broad view. I just wasn't clear what you were telling us. So thank you very much. Absolutely. Thanks. Thank you, Lisa. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, mine are mostly comments, like just, I guess I have a few questions, but one of the main things that I noticed about this that has significantly changed since I first got on the board a couple of years ago, I remember one of the things that I was really concerned about two years ago, I don't even know, three years ago, I don't know how long I've been on the
043board, I forgot. Something like that. But I remember looking at the climate surveys and being really concerned back then, because there were lots of reds. And I am so impressed with just looking at the climate surveys and seeing that everything is either at the lowest neutral, but schools that were almost like all red are now almost all green. So I think that's fantastic that something's happening when it comes to increasing how happy people are at their jobs. And I think that that is so important too, because we can talk about ELA and we can talk about math all day long, but when we have people that aren't happy at their jobs, and then the students are also affected by that. So I think this is important. And I guess one of my questions, and I
044have a lot, but one of them is, what do you think has increased these climate survey scores so significantly in such a short amount of time? So we can give you some answers, but I actually think that is a phenomenal question for our building principals, because they have direct interaction and partnership with their staff. And I would actually really love if they had the opportunity to brag a little bit about the work that they're doing with their staff. So when it comes time for school improvement, I am gonna ask you to ask that exact question of them. It's a great question. Thank you, yeah, I will. And then, let's see, oh, just a comment. I notice that we don't really have, it doesn't look like any connections to the gifted and the organization in Illinois
045that does gifted and talented. I don't remember what it's called, but I did notice there was a zero, or I forget what it's called. IGAC, I don't know. I'd have to look into that. If you provided that information to Dr. Gault, we can research it further. Okay, that's something that I think would be awesome. And then, the scores are fantastic. Overall, being in the 70th, 80th percentile is something to be proud of. Again, though, I am concerned about the low-income and minority students that some of my colleagues have mentioned as well. I do think that chronic absenteeism is, might be, just something to think about, but related, possibly, to, this is a concern, big concern. My biggest concern was our student demographics. We have about one in four students of color in this district, 23%,
046mostly Asian and Hispanic, about 75% white students. But if you look at the data when it comes to the teachers, we have schools that have 98% white teachers. Seth Payne is our most diverse school at 91%. I just want this board and everybody in this room and anybody listening to just think about and put ourselves in the shoes of a child who doesn't look like us and imagine that you never see anybody who looks like you in the classroom, maybe ever. And I think that, given the times that we're in right now, that's very significant. When it comes to absenteeism rates, when it comes to how successful a child is in school, I guess I would ask, and you don't have to answer this, but at some point, how are we gonna change those numbers
047is one of my questions. And then I would say, just even tonight, I think we're doing fantastic things. I think this is a great district. We're doing great things when it comes to the teachers, the facilitators too, but something that sometimes we don't maybe realize, and I know I'm guilty of this as well, but it's just when our facilitators are always people that look like us. Again, it's just, we all can learn so much from people that are different than us, and then that comes out into our classrooms for our students, right? So, and I'm gonna challenge the board on this, my colleagues, we're sitting here and we're talking about how we need all these specific learning opportunities for finances, finance, finance, finance, finance, finance, finance, you know? I understand that that's important, but what
048about equity, equity, equity, equity? We don't have any specific trainings on equity. And we need that because we, right, are a part of these numbers as leaders, right? So that's all I have to say, but fantastic job. Our district is doing a good job, but let's look outside of our lived experiences to the experiences of that 25% of the children in this district that are different than a lot of us in this room. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Ms. Tim, Alicia? Thanks for doing such a wonderful job. It's so much information to absorb and look at. I was very overwhelmed. I have looked at the school report card before, but wow, it's a lot. And I don't have the framework of data experts or, you know, masters in teaching experiential, you know, degrees. So
049my, I wanna talk about what Dr. Pinter said too with just the, I had read the statistic when I was running for office about how many white teachers we have and how many kids of color we have. And it's really way out of whack, of course. So like the state average now is like 44% of students in public schools in Illinois are students that are white, and 79% of the teachers are white. So I wanna remind everybody that in 2021, the Illinois State Board of Education adopted the Culturally Responsive Learning and Teaching Standards. And I see that as a step, stair step to, if we can't find the demographics we're looking for to represent the students, it is an effort to have the people that we do have because we're in a serious teacher shortage.
050We have the opportunity to have the teachers that we do have learn about how to be more sensitive, include families, speak to kids on their level and where they're coming from with cultural sensitivity. So I think that is a step. And I'm really glad that they're made that part of the teacher educator programs. And I would say, Ms. Tim, I will ask Dr. McArdle to bring forward a report just to remind the board and to maybe explain to the board some of the work that's been done in that specific area. So thank you for bringing that forward. I appreciate that because I think sometimes we do work and then we don't remember to tell all of the work that's being done. And so to both of your points, highlighting and showcasing that is important. And
051so I would ask Dr. McArdle to bring forward some of the work that's been done. We have an outstanding committee that has been charged with that very work. So I will leave that in good hands to Dr. McArdle to bring to one of our upcoming board meetings. So thank you for highlighting that, both of you. Sure, thank you. It's always about the story we tell and not necessarily what people hear. I mean, we have to tell the story. Otherwise, we are doing so much work, not everybody knows, and I don't think there are many people tuned into this meeting right now. So yes, it is important. My other question is a very high-level question because I am, for myself too, extremely concerned about our screen usage and I'm wondering what impact that is having on
052educating our kids as we are considering increased constructional time, office hours, resources, the study from Loyola, all the things we're doing to try to increase our math scores, ELA scores, make sure these kids are ready for the world. So I was just wondering, since we did introduce the iPads in 2013 to our district, I'm like, is there a possibility of not a 14-hour deep dive, but some sort of overarching way to assess how these kids are learning now because I don't know how you do math on a iPad screen and I know there are some teachers that do pencil and paper math and I think it's so complicated and I think it's also a great tool and the teachers really enjoy it for presenting and for collecting the information, grades and everything and reporting, but
053I'm wondering, are you doing the work on the iPad? Are you doing the work on paper pencil? This is really irking me a lot. So if there's any way to look at this arc of information with the school report card, our tests change every few years. The standards, it's like, so how would you ever be able to take this position that the kids were in in 2013 and compare it to now because of just the whole culture too has totally changed. So I'd love that you asked that question, truly because you may get the 14-hour version. Dr. Zahr is facilitating and leading a team. It is time for us to refresh and take a look at our programming as it relates specific to technology and devices. I'll let her give you maybe a 30-second, 60-second
054overview of what's to come. So if you could foreshadow that, that would be awesome. Sure, so we are in our MLI, Mobile Learning Initiative, one-to-one device review ongoing this year and looking at screen time and doing the research behind it is just one of the areas that we'll touch on. I also spoke with Mrs. Warren and also with Dr. McArdle and are going to pair up and work with the wellness committee to integrate our research on the screen time for kids. So that definitely will be part of what we bring out forward. Yeah, and, oh, Ms. Maloney. I just want to add that I appreciate my other colleagues raising the equity issue for obvious reasons. I've been raising it for years. So it's really great that some of my other colleagues are continuing with passing
055on the baton to continue to raise it as an issue in the district and on the board. Then the second point I really wanted to add, I'm sorry, but that is as you prepare, maybe you could see the proficiency numbers looking good and the growth numbers looking less so. So maybe when you present, explain to laypeople what those numbers mean because it takes some doing to really understand what the growth numbers mean. And obviously for math, in the math areas, we are looking at the growth areas too and what we're doing tremendous work on that. Kudos to the staff and everybody else that are working great on that. But somehow some of our growth numbers aren't showing as well. So when you get a chance to report next time, maybe tease into some of the
056whys and also just the definition of what those things are and the steps we've taken, the step we plan to take for the future. Are you gonna say something? That is part of the achievement report. So because growth is new at the high school and it's becoming more and more highlighted, we will spend time in the achievement report on growth, how it's calculated, what it means, what our growth means and then what kinds of things we need to start paying attention to and looking at because it is something different than achievement. So we are gonna spend some time, you're gonna hear some new information in both the achievement and the comparable report. Thank you, Peter. Aubrey, thank you very much for the reports. Obviously, it's our initial report and we know that there's so much
057more to come and it's so comprehensive already. So obviously, very excited to see what's to come and appreciate all the hard work. And we've had so many good questions that I will stand pat. So thank you. Thank you. Oh, the next item is yours as well, the math for your plan. So back to you. The 2025 to 2029 Math Enhancement Plan outlines a four-year roadmap to strengthen mathematics, teaching and learning across District 95. This plan establishes clear priorities for curriculum alignment, assessment redesign, professional learning and student engagement. It serves as a comprehensive guide for achieving consistent high quality math instruction in every classroom. The District 95 goal is to ensure all students experience high quality, equitable and consistent mathematics instruction from kindergarten through 12th grade. The District 95 math vision focuses on building math confidence
058and a positive mathematical identity for every learner. Teaching practices, assessments and professional learning will be aligned district-wide, grounded in the portrait of a graduate and essential 21st century skills. In 2024 to 2025, District 95 partnered with Loyola University Chicago Center for Science and Math Education to conduct a comprehensive district-wide mathematics needs assessment. The analysis produced seven key recommendations addressing standards revision, mathematical practices, equitable pathways, professional learning structures and assessment alignment. These evidence-based recommendations form the foundation of this four-year enhancement plan, ensuring rigorous and responsive mathematics instruction. From summer through fall 2025, the Department of Curriculum and Instruction analyzed Loyola's data and gathered extensive stakeholder feedback to inform this plan. Feedback was collected from the teacher leadership team, district advisory group, student focus groups, building administrators and community members. Key themes included the need for clarity
059and accessibility, equitable access, sustainable professional learning, stronger family voice and clear accountability measures. The enhancement plan follows a four-year implementation timeline from 2025 through 2029 with annual progress reviews and adjustments based on data and stakeholder input. The structure includes a community-facing plan to promote transparency and engagement and an internal roadmap to guide implementation and monitoring. Focus areas include one, curriculum and assessment, alignment of standards, assessments and resources, two, professional learning, sustained teacher development and leadership capacity, third, student experience, building mathematical identity and confidence, four, family engagement, transparent communication and meaningful community partnerships. The first year establishes the foundation for improvement. District 95 will complete a comprehensive review and alignment of K to 12 priority standards and proficiency scales to ensure vertical coherence. Common assessments will be redesigned to better measure student understanding and inform instruction.
060Partnership with Loyola University will support the opportunities to learn professional development series focused on effective instructional practices. Accelerated programming for grades three to eight will be updated to ensure equitable access and appropriate challenge for all learners. The second year focuses on the continued refinement of common assessments, along with developing aligned scoring guides that clearly communicate expectations to students and families. All eight standards for mathematical practice will be embedded within curriculum units to strengthen reasoning and problem solving skills. A K to 12 instructional resource adoption cycle will begin emphasizing equity, rigor and engagement. District 95 will also implement a student math experience survey and create accessible multilingual family math resources. Year three centers on implementation and deepening of practice. New instructional resources will be rolled out with comprehensive training and continuous support. Instructional rounds will focus
061on mathematical discourse, helping educators strengthen classroom conversations and student reasoning. The opportunities to learn series will continue, emphasizing evidence-based, language-rich, multi-step problem solving. Assessments will continue to be a focus, and the summer mathematics programs will be refined to support targeted intervention and acceleration. The fourth year emphasizes sustainability, evaluation and preparation for the next improvement cycle. A longitudinal study will analyze student achievement trends, growth patterns and equity indicators across multiple years. Teacher collaboration and instructional rounds will expand to build lasting capacity for continuous improvement. Stakeholder feedback through surveys and focus groups will inform an impact assessment of the plan. A detailed outcomes report will be shared with the Board of Education and the community, celebrating successes and identifying next steps. District 95 will maintain transparent communication throughout the four-year cycle, providing annual progress reports to the
062Board of Education, staff, families and community. The plan will remain responsive and data-driven, with ongoing adjustments based on student achievement results, stakeholder feedback and emerging research in mathematics education. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction is committed to ensuring that every student becomes a confident, capable mathematical problem solver prepared for success in college, career and life. We are happy to answer questions at this time. Thank you. Peter, can I start with you again? Sure. Thank you again for doing this. This is one of the most important things that we're doing, I think. It's no secret that I talk about it all the time. And I could tell that this trick is listening. It's listening to the Board, it's listening to our stakeholders, to our parents, to community members, and all the work that you have done.
063I mean, at the end of the day, you know, Loyola's effort, the four-year plan, getting, you know, I'm glad we're gonna have annual report on progress, and the levers we are pulling, as Ms. Stallion talks about it, even looking at the school day, all of this is intended to head towards better outcomes, better results for our students and our parents in the math area. But I do have a thought and a question. I mean, all of us are doing this, and at the end of the day, four years is a very long time. And I'm glad for all of the people that are working on this that, in part, it will be part of their legacy, Ms. Stallion, Dr. Goll, and others. But four years is a really long time. And, you know, the way
064the plan is set out, it's almost like you wouldn't know how great you're doing until four years down the road. And for somebody who has a kid in school right now, is, or a parent, how do you explain that to them? I mean, I know it's like moving an aircraft carrier, you know, but really, at the end of the day, again, I'm thinking about my own self, and I was a teacher, but a long time ago, I was thinking about my own self in the, you know, in the business area. You, if you have a CEO, and you tell them to turn the business around, you don't have four years. I'm not saying that this is the same thing at all, but I'm just wondering, how do you explain that to a parent who have
065a kid in school, maybe as a junior in high school? So before Mr. Jackowitz takes this, I do want to just provide a gentle reminder to the board that Loyola University, when they came in, their recommendation was a five-year plan. So I think it's really important for the board to understand that that plan was reduced to four years at my request. But I'll let Mr. Jackowitz speak most especially to indicators of success over time, because that is a very good question that you ask, and one that we need to be able to answer. So I appreciate you asking that question. We never, in anything that we do in this district, we do not wait, even annually, for our test results from the state to understand how we're performing over the course of the year. Our
066teachers are very deliberate and strategic alongside their building leaders to ensure that there are progress monitoring opportunities throughout the year to help us to know when we need to adjust. And so I would have no doubt that this is similar, but that's a good example of how we respond to data throughout an entire school year in order to ensure that we are getting the results we want. And I think the board has seen that over time as it relates to certainly our achievement. So sorry, Mr. Jackowitz, if I stole your thunder. No worries. I was also gonna say that it was originally a five-year recommendation by Loyola, and Dr. Gault is pushing us for four. I will also say that the lion's share of the work is actually being done, like the curriculum, the assessments,
067the instructional strategies, all of those things which are impacting the classroom level are really being done in years one and two. In year two, we're also going through a curriculum review, so you'll see things about implementation of a new curriculum or resource, but the vast majority of those things are actually being done in years one and two. And we are being very specific about building assessments along the way in order to monitor students' progress, so we will be able to see and monitor how students are doing in regards to those changes in terms of the curriculum alignment that we've been doing with Achieve the Core and the Common Core and the instructional strategy changes with the standard mathematical practices and opportunities to learn, which I'm sure we'll talk more about. But do know, it is
068a four-year plan, but it is heavily designed towards years one and two as far as those impacts in the classroom. And I would also say that part of the reason why we kept it at the high level that we did is that it leaves us the flexibility to adjust and respond to the data that we get into these changes that we're making in our initial year. So that's part of the reason why we'll be doing those updates to the board along the way is because we do wanna be able to adjust and pivot in response to the data that's coming in over the next couple years. And I would just like to remind the curriculum and instruction department so when you bring back those reports, I think it'll be really important for the board to
069understand what data did we collect, what were some changes we may have made along the way to address any concerns or gaps in learning that we noted or that our teachers shared with us and any additional needs that either our teachers or administrators have found along the way based on the data that we're collecting. So, thank you. Yeah, it's a good plan. It's very well laid out. If somebody were to ask you again, and it's a great answer you gave. I just am not clear that if a parent out there as a high school student in the junior year of high school, whether the answer was clear enough for them in that way. That's one question. I have a second question, too, and that is it's completely separate. I didn't see a lot of the
070resource needs. There was some, but not a lot of resource needs and other resources that would help execute the plan even better or even more rapidly. So, you could address the first one and then the second one as well. So, with the first one, I can tell you we're already doing a lot of this work. So, I would say to any parent who might say, are we dragging our feet for the students that are sitting in our classrooms right now? What are they gonna get? Continuous improvement. They're gonna get the same things we've done for the last five years. We aren't stopping. So, this year, we're making changes. Next year, we're making changes. One of the largest pieces that you can affect that makes student achievement and growth move forward is instruction. Instruction is teachers.
071It's not the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. I would love to think I'm that important, but I'm not. It's the teachers, and it takes time to work with teachers and to ask teachers, what do you need to get them to work together collaboratively and build collective efficacy around teaching practices, and then for us to communicate and partner with them and say, what do you need to move forward? How can we help you shift instruction in our classrooms so that we are reaching more students? If it was easy to just flip a switch and move all of education forward, we probably would have done that. But what I would say to any parent is, we have made changes, large changes. We've seen the results of those changes. We're gonna continue to make those changes. I would
072also offer, in that first question as well, that if you look at our data, most especially for students between grades three and eight, you see a very nice upward trajectory. And so, those students are now starting to enter our high school. And all of that, it takes time. I think Mrs. Warren has had this conversation at the table multiple times during committee. But it takes time. I expect to see greater gains at our high school each and every year now. We've done the work for building the base for mathematics and for mathematical thinking, and they've done an exceptional job. So, I would expect that the high school will continue to do that on a regular basis. We're gonna start to see that shift there as well. But I can't imagine doing a five-year plan in
073less than four years. But I do agree with Mr. Jackowitz. The bulk of that work is happening right now. We're not waiting to create those assessments, to validate those assessments through our teachers, and for our teachers to tell us what's working, what's not working, so that the department can address some of those concerns. And I expect that we'll continue to bring some of that information. When Dr. Walsh comes with his school improvement plan, I'm sure he would be more than happy to share just some of the strategies that they're utilizing in mathematics to continue to see gains and to help our students continue to grow. And then I believe you asked about resources. So, I think sometimes we think about resources and we think about stuff. So, we think about a math book or a
074workbook. I think of people. And I was just gonna say, it's not just people and things, it's time. It's time to study. And we talked a little bit about this in TNL. It's about an inquiry-based approach where we study a problem of practice as educators and as practitioners. We study the problem of practice. We come together collectively to build our capacity to improve our service to students. We train ourselves. We go out and solicit resources, and those resources are time. They could be people from outside coming in. That's the people piece, I think. Plus, we look at the current resources that we put in the hands of our students and the hands of our teachers. And we say, is this resource, this, what some people call curriculum, I call it a resource, is this resource
075aligned? Is it rigorous? Is it easy for our students to understand and for our teachers to teach from? Can our parents use this at home to support their student? So resources are cyclical, and we're constantly looking at those. The people who tell us the resources in partnership with the Department of Curriculum and Instruction are our teachers. I just can't say that enough. We stand up here and we give you these plans and we tell you this work. We can't do any of it without the voice of the boots on the ground teachers who are in those classrooms working alongside our students and our families every single day. They're critical to this process. We can't do it without them. And that takes time as well because they're busy doing their job. And so I have to
076figure out when I can get to you to give you the other things you need to help you move forward. Thank you very much. Great work, great focus on it. And I'll be looking forward every few months for the progress reports. Thank you so much. I'm excited about it. And I know I think it's for the Loyola process. It's money well spent. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Doug? Thank you, Eileen. Angela, Todd, Aubrey, thank you for coming this evening. Thank you for taking the time to put together this report. I think, and Kelly, you obviously listened to the board. You and your team listened to the board. You spent a tremendous amount of calories on this. I think it was awesome that we're able to bring Loyola in as a resource, have a third party
077come in and take a look at our programming and obviously there were some uncomfortable things in that report and that's fine. You need to hear those things, right? I think when we talk about math, you guys know I'm a total math geek, right? And I think if I look around the developed countries of the world and I look at the scores of those countries versus the United States of America, we stink. And so we have a responsibility obviously to get better. And I think you guys have a wonderful plan here and I think four years is actually short to, as Peter said, turn the aircraft carrier, which they actually turned pretty quick by the way. But I do think a couple things occurred to me. One is, I've spoken to a couple of the math
078teachers at high school I'm friendly with personally. They love that we're doing this. They love that we're taking and putting a microscope on this and helping them understand how to get, everybody wants to get, everybody wants better outcomes, right? Mission statement that we have. I think that we are, I believe, on the cusp of making some dramatic abilities to increase the effectiveness of educating kids of math. And I think AI is gonna be a big part of that. I've seen some incredible demonstrations. You can go on the Khan Academy website and see some of this where it's a student doing a calculus problem and he's got an AI tutor with him and he's working on his assignment and the tutor's actually watching and giving real-time feedback. So I see that as like a force multiplier
079for teachers. You've got one teacher and 25 students or whatever. You can have a whole lot more virtual teachers in the classroom because the thing about math is, once you, in my opinion, once you really grasp the fundamental principles, applying those in individual cases becomes easy. It's really getting to those fundamentals, right? And so, one of my three kids really struggled with calculus. Now, she was fortunate enough to have two engineers in the household. My wife and I are both engineers, they could help her, but she was fortunate. Not everybody has that, right? And so, being able to provide the students with that extra help, and I believe it's gonna come from a virtual resource. I really, truly believe this is coming, very quickly. So I love what you guys are doing and I know
080that the feedback loop is really important to making sure that we make adjustments in real time and improvements. And I have 100% confidence that you guys are gonna do this because I've seen your work over the years repeatedly in this area. And when you guys are focused on something like you are in this, I know the outcomes will be wonderful. But I really think the big step function in the progress in this area is gonna be utilizing technological resources that are gonna help to be force multipliers for our teachers. At the end of the day, and I think you just said it, Angela, right? It's the people in the classroom that make a difference. They are the pointy end of the spear. And if you can increase their capacity by giving them virtual resources, you
081will increase their efficiency delivering this material. So, and again, for those, and by the way, that information can be delivered in any language, which is a nice part as well. So we kind of get over that problem and the students can have access to it outside of the classroom at any time, right? Given the right technological resources. I actually firmly believe we are on the cusp of a major step function in this area. And it's gonna be in all the sciences, I think, as well. I also think that I'm super proud that District 95, again, is leading the way in a lot of these areas. The fact that you guys are doing this work is fantastic. The fact that we're embracing AI engines and using this in the classroom. I love what you said earlier,
082Kelly, about the student that spoke about it. We're all learning this together, right? But I really, truly believe that in the next couple years, we're actually gonna really understand how this is gonna help us. And again, this is a great area because, again, my humble opinion, math is such a fundamental skill for almost any, for your understanding of the physical universe, math is such a fundamental skill there. I've said before in board meetings, when the bell went off in my head and when I figured out that I could describe almost anything in the physical universe with a differential equation, I went, oh, this math stuff's pretty cool. So, you know, I'm super proud and excited for the work that you guys are doing. I'm really looking forward to the next steps. Thank you. Thank you.
083Thank you, Doug. Lisa? So I actually would respond to the parent question that Peter answered differently than you guys did. I would argue, even before I came on the board, community was complaining about math. And nobody really figured out how to address it. And I would argue six years ago, it's easily been six years ago, when we started looking at the math curriculum and you had to take bite-sized chunks and you started with elementary and you looked at all the elementary and then you looked at the middle school and then the high school took a couple years because you have algebra and you have geometry and then you have calculus and you have college stuff. So six years ago, we started this work and we were seeing improvements over the course of the six years.
084But I have to say kudos, I mean, Aubrey's passion project was that's not good enough. That's not good enough, which I heard today in the Teaching and Learning Committee as well. And so you brought Loyola out to say, we tried on our own. We've gone through this. We went through this for many, many years, but it doesn't seem to be quite exactly right. We think there's room for improvement. We can't figure it out. Let's bring some experts in to look at it. So in my mind, the Loyola study was a refinement of what has been done. This is not a plan of how to improve math. This is a plan of how to refine what has been done over the last six years to improve math, to make it even better. And actually, when I
085look at this plan and I see in one year, you say you're going to evaluate the resources of every math program from K through 12, I go, really? Because it took you like four years to do it the first time. So that's a huge lift. I mean, just frankly, that's huge. And hopefully we made such great decisions that it's not gonna be a transition resulting from that review. But in my mind, that's what I would tell the parents. You've been complaining for a while. Six years ago, you really saw the concerted effort and plan of how to fix math, for lack of better words. And we did, and we saw the numbers improve, but it wasn't enough. It's not where we thought our kids should be. And so in my mind, this four-year plan is
086refining the work that's been done. It's not, oh, we need to fix math. Let's get Loyola in here to tell us how to do it. So that's what I would tell parents. And I think they're seeing it. They're seeing it in the way the kids are performing, and they're seeing that there's the supports and the resources there. Our data shows it. Yeah. We know we're making a difference. And each and every year that our students get to be in our care and accessing our curriculum, we see them growing each and every year. I could not be prouder, but I will say and remind everyone, Mrs. Stallion's point is so well taken. So we are different than a business, than a company, because our staff work every day with our kids. And that's their number one
087job. And yes, we need to continue to grow and get better, but we do have limited time on how we can make that happen. Where a company, it's completely different. They're not doing a full-time job all day, and then having to conduct learning and professional learning outside of that typically. So I also wanna continue to remind everyone that our staff, they're working with our kids each and every day. We need them in front of our students. So every time we pull them away from our kids, yes, it must be worth that time. We make it worth that time, but unfortunately we can't pull them away each and every day. We need them with our kids. So that's the tricky part. I was one of the elementary parents that complained when I had the teacher that
088was on the three different committees and missed a whole day of instruction. My kids lost a day. When you're in middle school and you lose a period, or when you're in high school and lose a period, it's very different. But at elementary, we have fabulous substitutes, but it's very hard to come in and do the same level of learning that you can do when you're there all the time and you're the regular teacher. So I guess that would be my answer to parents asking what we're doing. You've seen the improvement. And also I would argue not every student is gonna take AP bio. Not every student is gonna take AP English and be a fabulous writer. Not every student is taking Calculus BC. It's not necessary. I have two successful children who have not taken,
089they've taken pre-calculus basically. They took pre-calculus up through high school. They took it in college. They are very successful. They do not need Calculus BC in what they're doing. But you can still, so math is not the be all end all either. I think there is a beauty to the fact that kids are doing well in ELA. They're well-spoken. They can write well. They can understand what they're reading. They can interpret what they're reading. They can make decisions based on that. Those are all those skills. That's why we have so many skills under portrait of a graduate. So we emphasize math, but there's so many other skills that children are learning in the high school. I also wanna temper this of we are improving and we're doing what we need to be doing. But this
090isn't the be all end all of a student's career here at Lake Zurich. I just wanna say I was an English teacher. I'm an English major. So I taught English in middle school. So I'm not like, I'm not an engineer nor a math nerd, but I do know. But not everybody can be a math nerd. Yeah, I do know the value of math. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Dr. Pinter. Oh, I wanted to say I really like the Loyola University Chicago study. I think it's fantastic. Great job with that. And then I also noticed that you said there's multilingual math resources, which is also really great. So this whole conversation makes me think about when my daughter was three. This is a very quick story. But she was three. And I'm very aware
091of the fact that the way girls are treated when it comes to math and science is subpar, like in our country. And I remember just always trying to instill in her that girls are good at math. Girls are good at science. Like from a very young age. And one day she said, I'm a girl. And I was like, how do you know you're a girl? And she's like, because I'm good at math and science. But fast forward to now, she's 15. She's at Lake Zerg High School. And I asked her about her classes. And she still believes she's good at math and science. And she is good at math and science. But she is surrounded by boys. Which is not a bad thing. But it is concerning when she says, Mom, I'm the only girl
092in this class. I'm the only girl in this whole class. And I'm like, how do you feel about that? She's like, well, I'm good at math and science. So I'll teach them. And I love that. But I think it's hard to be the only girl in the class. And so I guess it reminds me of this. There was a study in sociology that talked about when it came to those types of classes. Like math classes and science classes and the robotics classes, those kinds of classes. The girls who stay are so good at what they're doing because they have to have that confidence. Because they feel like outsiders within those classes. And the research on the boys in those classes is that a lot of times they're not scoring as high as those girls. But
093their confidence is super high. Because they've been taught their whole lives that they're good at it. Even when they're not as good at it as the girls. And so I guess what my question is, this is cultural, by the way. It's cultural, not an innate thing. And you know that. But my question is, when it comes to helping students build confidence. Because I saw that in this report. Is there anything that we're doing for people who, especially girls, right? Who might be underperforming because of the subtle microaggressions that they're taught their whole lives. What are we doing to build the confidence for math with those populations? Yeah, that's a great question. We actually had a meeting with Loyola today with our coaches and our TOSAs, our teachers on special assignment. And this is actually something
094we were talking about today. So a very timely, I mentioned to them that we might talk about that tonight. And so part of it is what Loyola talked about in their spring report. And is really kind of guiding our work, this idea of opportunities to learn. And it's this idea that the circle is small, right? For that math identity and who is in the circle. And to your point, a lot of times it is those students who are male. And so our big focus is how do we increase that circle for our students through these opportunities to learn these high leverage, evidence-based strategies that are accessible for all students? Thinking about ability to talk math, discourse, reasoning, high-rich tasks, low-floor high-ceiling activities where there's an entry point for all students so that we're increasing this
095circle. And so they do, they feel that they have this confidence in math, that they can achieve in math. One of the things that Loyola highlighted about our district was the percentage of our students who have this high-growth mindset that they feel like with hard work, they can be good at math. And so we have some leverage points that we can use that if we can continue to put these instructional practices into our classroom and increase the circle by increasing opportunities to learn. We're gonna do exactly what you just said, build that confidence and have our students all think that they can be good at math and they can be mathematicians. Whether it is engineering or I can use data in combination with my reading piece to be able to understand my mortgage or my
096car loan or whatever it is in life that they need to be successful. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Pinter. Alicia? I don't have a lot to say. I just wanna say that it depends on the kid and if they're taking advantage of the office hours. I have a freshman and a senior and these kids have various levels of motivation and I have various levels of desire to push and pull. So I see the resources there, I see the improvements, I see the opportunities, I see the teachers emailing, giving opportunities, giving opportunities, you know? And the retakes and the test corrections, everything, I guess this is how we're doing things now. I would like to be like, you gotta do it right the first time and you know, cause I'm, I don't know,
097old school, I guess? But I'm sure if that's helpful to get them to learn the material, that's an important step. We need them to learn the material. We need them to be successful. We need them to try to look at it again. So that's it, basically. We have some really good tools. There's always room for improvement. That's what we're all doing here and let's just keep going, thanks. Thank you, Alicia. My comments are pretty much just, thank you so much for doing this. It's brave of you to do it. Obviously we're kind of past the bravery and into the digging deep and thank you and all good things. So appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. There are no items for discussion without action so we move to our next agenda item, discussion with action. Our
098first item for discussion with action is the approval of resolution to set a public hearing on inter-fund transfer. Dr. Romano has provided information in his report. We need to put a motion on the table. May I get a motion to approve the resolution to set a public hearing on inter-fund transfer to be held on November 19th, 2025 as presented? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Lisa. Are there any questions? Kate, please call the roll for approval of a resolution to set public hearing on inter-fund transfer to be held on November 19th, 2025 as presented. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Thank you. The next item for discussion with action is the review of financial projection assumptions. Information was previously shared by
099Mr. Romano. So, is it Dr. Romano? So I may have a motion and a second to approve the financial projection assumptions prepared by the administration and reviewed by the Board of Education for the development of the preliminary budget and multi-year projections as presented. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Lisa. Are there any questions for Dr. Romano? Thank you. Kate, please call the role for the approval of the financial projection assumptions prepared by the administration and reviewed by the Board of Education for the development of the preliminary budget and multi-year projections as presented. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Thank you. Next for discussion with action is the approval of school maintenance project grant. Ms. Kaiser has
100provided details on this in the board packet. We need to put a motion on the table. May I get a motion for approval of school maintenance project grant as presented? May I have the motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Lisa. And thank you, Doug. Are there any questions from Ms. Kaiser? All right, Kate, please call the role for approval of the school maintenance project grant as presented. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Thank you. Our next item for discussion with action is to approve the 2025 estimated levy, set a hearing date for December 4th, 2025, and publish notice of the hearing in advance of the adoption of the levy as presented. Let's get a motion on the table. May I have a motion
101to approve the 2025 estimated levy, set a hearing date for December 4th, 2025, and publish notice of the hearing in advance of the adoption of the levy as presented. May I have the motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Lisa. And thank you, Alicia. Are there any questions for Dr. Romano? Thank you, Kate. Please call the role for the approval of the 2025 estimated levy, set a hearing date for December 4th, 2025, and publish notice of the hearing in advance of the adoption of the levy as presented. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Thank you. The next item for discussion with action is the consideration and approval of option agreement for purchase of real property located at 425 Enterprise Parkway. First, to get a
102motion on the table, may I get a motion to approve the option agreement for the purchase of real property located at 425 Enterprise Parkway as presented, subject to review and revision by council. May I have the motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Alicia. And thank you, Lisa. Kate, please call the role to approve the option agreement for the purchase of real property located at 425 Enterprise Parkway as presented, subject to review and revision by council. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Thank you. And the final item for discussion with action is the nomination of the Illinois Association School Board Delegate 2025. May I get a motion to approve a board member nominee to be decided as District 95's Board Delegate for the 2025
103Delegate Assembly of the IASB? May I have the motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Peter. And thank you, Doug. Now let's discuss the board member appointment to be District 95's Board Delegate. I'd like to nominate Eileen Maloney for that role. Second. Anyone else wanna be nominated? Okay. Accept. The motion is to be amended by, oh wait, nevermind, sorry. Since we now have named a board member, we will be amending the motion. I move to amend the motion to insert Eileen Maloney, named to be the District 95's Board Delegate for the 2025 Delegate Assembly of IASB as discussed. Can I get a motion and a second to amend the previous motion to include Eileen Maloney? So moved. Second. Thank you, Peter. And thank you, Doug. The motion is to be amended by adding in Eileen Maloney.
104If the motion is to approve Eileen Maloney as District 95's Board Delegate for the 2025 Delegate Assembly and to vote in a manner consistent with the resolutions presented and discussed. Kate, please call the roll. Ms. Maloney, do we have to vote on the amendment or not? So we have that motion. Oh, Kate, thank you. Kate, please call the roll. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. All right. Now that I have been selected, board members, please let me know how the collective board would like me to vote. And we have, if you had the opportunity, I don't know if you've had the opportunity to look at your Delegate Assembly. They are pretty, there's not really anything horribly controversial. It's pretty short this year. Yeah.
105And all of the recommendations are to adopt. Does anyone have any that they wanna discuss? I just saw a comment. Again, you mentioned that most of them are pretty non-controversial compared to past years. So this is, and then they only have one, so it's pretty easy, you know, so it would be consistent with the recommendation to adopt for all of them. That's my only comment to that. Okay. And also we have the constitutional amendments to adopt as well, which once again, they're not terribly controversial. I have no issue with any of those. Okay, so then can I just make a comment? It was interesting in the, it's the school bus safety, the recommendation is to lobby the state for funding to assist that. And I'm wondering, is this new? Because I think it's probably a
106practice we should be engaging in potentially of any mandate that's unfunded, that there should be a resolution following asking for funding. I think in the past there have been that yes, they're usually a do adapt when they fund them, but I don't think that they're heard. I mean, it's just essentially we, the ISP, We and organization is writing this recommendation to the legislature. Right, we're gonna ask for money and they're gonna tell us no. But you do, I think to Mrs. Warren's point and one of the learnings that we've gone to over the past couple of years was specific to advocacy. And so if this is an area that the board would like to participate in greater advocacy opportunities, those exist. And you do have an opportunity to advocate for additional funds. And so what
107I can do to support that as, because I typically do see those opportunities come across my desk. So I can make sure that the board is aware when there is an opportunity to advocate specific to this one and then give you some other opportunities. Sometimes I'll send you information about particular pieces of legislation that come and then ask if you so choose, you can go ahead and contact your legislator. So I can make sure that I highlight those specific to this particular item related to bus safety funding. But I also will make it a point that you understand when you have those opportunities to advocate. That is part of your role as a board member. Well, and I would argue that was part of our latest like division training was the fact that there's a
108lot of legislators that don't understand mandated categoricals and what's happening to it. They just hear about the EBF and that's funded and don't understand there's also other pieces of funding. So that would be helpful because I think there's that education. I guess what we do hear a lot when we do go to those meetings and have legislators present is they're not, there are some that are teachers, but many of them are not and don't understand necessarily how education works. So putting this maybe higher on their awareness radar, they're aware of property taxes because they all pay property taxes. They're aware of prescription medicine costs because they have to encounter those as well. So it would be helpful in letting us know how we can do that. I will make sure that you have that information
109and specific to this as well as there are other opportunities. For example, I know that there was an opportunity and I know several members of the board have shared frustration with how many mandates that are there that are unfunded and whether or not when we continue to add mandates are we going back and reviewing and removing things that maybe are no longer necessary. And so they have created, based on a lot of board advocacy across our state, they have created a committee that is looking at those specific mandates and trying to make some determination as to whether some of those may be redundant, some of those may no longer be necessary. And so your voice does matter and as individuals, you certainly have your own opinions and this certainly would give you that opportunity. So
110I will work with Mrs. Maloney closely and ensure that you're getting that information. So that's a great question. Thank you. A point of fact about that, this has always really wound me up is we have twice as many laws in the books as the most popular state, which is California. And for a similar size state like Ohio, we have 10 times as many laws in our books. I think we need a law that says if we pass a new law, we have to get rid of two old ones. Right, that's what I'd advocate for. Because I know I asked. But like Dr. Galt said, there is, Mary Beth, there's a senator spearheading that effort of reducing duplicate, but a lot of it is making sure everyone understands and maybe supporting her efforts in doing that.
111It makes a big difference. Another avenue is it is a major function of the Lakes Division board member where I was just appointed director at large. And so I will have line of sight to resolutions committees. And yeah. Yeah, and we really are thankful to have a master board member in Ms. Maloney here on our board who is so familiar with the IASB's procedures, who have attended all those meetings and all those legislative meetings. And we, I mean, all jokes aside, we're very fortunate to have such an experience representative for the district. I mean, there are a couple of things in the conversation. Perhaps I met a gentleman at the lake meeting who was very active. I think Dr. Pinter introduced me to him. He's very active in meeting with the legislators and developing a
112very close relationship with them. So there are some opportunities there that we could even build upon. And then the second one, even looking at the material, for those of you who had time to read all the material in the IASB stuff, there are mechanisms on the which we could come up with our own resolution, get this whole board. But as they say, the board as a whole has to agree. And then we could have one of ours posted there. I have many doubts about the track record of those resolutions there, actually making it into the law. So that would be something I'd be interested in finding out because I've seen them every year I've been on this board. I've never, I don't know how many of them actually did anything. So it would be something
113to learn, but there are mechanisms that way. And I think there are opportunities for all of us as board members to get more engaged. Thank you. And thank you for your kind words. All right, we are going into closed session for the following reasons. It's not so bad. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational 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
114in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to local government wage increased 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 ILCS, 122C1. The purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired, five ILCS, 122C5. Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employee or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees, five ILCS, 122C2. May I have this motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Alicia. Kate, please call the roll. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Ms. Timm? Yes. Mr.
115Goldberg? Yes. We will not be taking any action after closed session this evening.