001I call the October 23rd 2025 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Mr. Goldberg? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Mr. Aitken? Here. Mrs. Warren? Here. Dr. Pinter? Here. Ms. Timm? Here. Mrs. Danniger? Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. Good evening and welcome. Before we begin with our formal recognitions, I want to ask if any board members have any shout outs they'd like to share. Go ahead, Lisa. Thank you. So last year, the Lake County Regional Office of Education and a committee of administrators from Lake County districts created the Navigate event for all Lake County 8th graders and some 9th graders. The purpose of this event is to facilitate career exploration with hands-on experiences available with all of the presenters
002there. I was able to join Dr. Gault and visit the event last year and again yesterday. The Lake County Fairgrounds main building was full of activity and the increase in presenters and participants was great to see. Thank you to our staff that participated in this year's event. A shout out to Colleen Syke who served as part of the planning committee for this event. Thank you also to Anita Jamnick, Sharon Eichelberg, Nikki Jensen, Michael Leahy, and Stephanie Zaranana who helped at the event. And I would also like to thank the teachers, the administrators, and the bus drivers who facilitated taking our students up to the Lake County Fairgrounds and completing the great career exploration workbook that's provided to all attendees. I hope our students enjoyed the experience as much as I did and I'm sure they
003will benefit from this incredible opportunity. Thank you, Lisa. Does anyone else have a shout out that they would like? All right. Thank you. I'm going to do the rest of my president's comments up at that mic. Is this on? Yes. All right. It is my honor to share a special message from the governor of Illinois, recognizing the outstanding leadership and dedication of school principals across our state. In celebration of their tireless commitment to education and student success, the governor has officially proclaimed the week of October 19th through 25th as Principals Week in Illinois. This proclamation serves as a heartfelt acknowledgement of the vital role principals play in shaping the future of our schools, supporting our teachers and staff, and inspiring our students. Whereas school principals play an integral role in nurturing a positive student-centered culture
004in elementary, middle, and high schools across the state, and whereas school principals are responsible for attracting and retaining the best teachers and support staff to ensure that each child receives equitable educational opportunities and services to reach their potential, and whereas it is the primary responsibility of the state of Illinois to provide adequate and equitable resources for schools so that all students have access to a quality education and foundation for a successful future, and whereas the Illinois Principals Association, which represents over 6,900 educational leaders statewide, believes that educators' experiences and voices are essential to crafting effective education policy, whereas the Illinois Principals Association is committed to developing, supporting, and advocating for innovative educational leaders through high-quality professional development, networking opportunities, and legislative advocacy, and whereas school leaders face many obstacles in supporting and educating our young
005people, it is through their perseverance, passion, and hope-filled leadership that Illinois continues to produce quality, career-ready students, and whereas we must continue to encourage, support, and recognize our school principals who have a positive impact on Illinois students and the educational system in the land of Lincoln. Therefore, J.B. Pritzker, Governor of the State of Illinois, hereby proclaim October 19-25 as Principals Week and October 24, 2025 as Principals Day in Illinois to recognize Principals and Illinois Principals Association for all that they do to help our children learn and succeed. Let us take this opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation to each of our principals for their unwavering service. Principals, please come up as I call your name to accept the same token of appreciation. And please, I know there will be much applause, but please wait
006till the end. Dr. John Walsh, Lake Zurich High School. Ms. Brooke Crowley, Middle School North. Mr. Anthony Dangler, Middle School South. Ms. Kelly Oliveiro, Isaac Fox. Ms. Maria Moriano, May Whitney. Dr. Colleen Conway, Sarah Adams. Ms. Marie Rothermel, Spencer Loomis. Mr. Kevin Olson, Seth Payne. And Dr. Tanya Guild from the Young Adult Center. Now you may applaud. We now will be celebrating more great District 95 students and staff. Ms. Malek has prepared a short celebration video to share. Mr. Nardiello, please play the video. Good evening, and welcome to the District 95 Board Awards. It is a great pleasure this evening to introduce students, staff, and volunteers who truly represent the values and the vision that support the District 95 mission to empower every learner to achieve personal excellence. Tonight we begin with our Student of
007the Month Awards. Olivia Puthicero, 9th Grade. Lake Zurich High School is thrilled to recognize Olivia because she exemplifies what it means to be a dedicated and thoughtful learner who demonstrates many traits from the portrait of a graduate. Olivia shows perseverance when facing challenges and supports her peers by collaborating and sharing ideas. She communicates with clarity and listens with empathy, creating a respectful and positive classroom environment. Olivia's habits and mindset reflect the skills that help her thrive both in school and in the future. Aubrey Soka, 7th Grade. Middle School North's 7th Grade team is pleased to recognize Aubrey, a new student to MSN who has jumped in with gusto. She works well with others and makes meaningful contributions to small group and class discussions. She is open to and seeks feedback to help her make corrections
008and connections to her learning. Aubrey has impressive organizational skills which will serve her well in life and in school. It is a pleasure to recognize Aubrey tonight as a kind and compassionate addition to the MSN learning community. Justin Pacchini, 8th Grade. The 8th Grade team is proud to recognize Justin, a kind and thoughtful student who consistently includes others and makes them feel valued. He demonstrates leadership through his quiet confidence. Passionate about theater, he brings creativity and dedication that inspire those around him. He enters the classroom each day with enthusiasm and a readiness to learn, modeling a growth-oriented mindset. Justin regularly participates in class and shares his writing, demonstrating positive risk-taking and encouraging his peers to do the same. He truly embodies the spirit of our portrait of a graduate. Evelyn, 5th Grade. Evelyn consistently demonstrates
009a remarkable work ethic, always completing assignments thoughtfully and carefully. She is reflective and creative, bringing fresh ideas to class discussions. Evelyn stands out for her kindness, creativity, and making the classroom a welcoming place for everyone. Evelyn advocates for herself and others by asking questions when she needs clarification and offering unprompted help to classmates who are struggling. She perseveres when faced with challenges. Evelyn also demonstrates effective communication by participating, respecting others' opinions and considering different perspectives during discussions. Nola is recognized for her exceptional effort and enthusiasm when embracing new challenges and leadership opportunities. Her inclusive spirit shines as she ensures everyone feels welcomed and valued, always looking out for others who might need a friend. Nola has a special gift for making everyone feel heard and appreciated, taking time to truly listen and respond thoughtfully. Her
010ability to connect authentically with others demonstrates genuine kindness and remarkable empathy. She consistently helps others and contributes to the school community without seeking praise or attention, simply because she genuinely cares. Nola continuously strives to create an environment where everyone feels included and supported, and her positive influence inspires those around her. Kovita is a goal-oriented student who consistently demonstrates a growth mindset in class. She continually shows empathy and kindness, demonstrating active listening and respect toward others. Kovita strives for excellence in the classroom while showing resilience and perseverance in her daily activities. She is always prepared for class and demonstrates problem-solving skills when collaborating with others. Kovita truly models many characteristics of the portrait of a graduate. Hannah is a shining example of kindness in the classroom. Every day she treats her classmates and teachers with respect
011and is always ready to lend a helping hand. Hannah comes to school with a big smile and an eagerness to learn. Her excitement for learning is contagious and inspires her classmates to stay curious and engaged. Hannah also goes above and beyond to support her peers, whether by offering encouragement, explaining directions, or celebrating their successes. She truly embodies the portrait of a graduate by being an effective communicator, a caring advocate for herself and others, and a growth-oriented learner. Luke is a kind, respectful, and hardworking student who leads by example. He treats others with kindness, works well with everyone, and shows so much care in everything he does. Whether it's a class project or helping a friend, Luke always gives his best effort and makes those around him feel valued. Luke really shines as an effective communicator.
012He's thoughtful when he shares ideas, listens to others, and knows how to express himself clearly, whether he's talking with classmates or having a conversation with teachers and staff. Academically, Luke is always engaged, asking questions, and pushing himself to grow. Moving on to our adult recognitions, we begin with our Volunteer of the Month, Leah Cahoon, Isaac Fox. Over the years, Leah Cahoon has been an exceptional volunteer with the Isaac Fox PTO, consistently fostering collaboration by bringing people together around a shared vision. For example, Leah has led the Kindergarten Playdate for several years, welcoming new families by making connections and building friendships with equity and inclusivity in mind. Always looking for new ways to push the PTO's contributions forward, Leah models what it means to lead with purpose while uplifting others. Under Leah's leadership, the PTO has
013expanded committees to also include a New Family Committee, which further accentuates advocacy and equity of all stakeholders at Isaac Fox. Leah's legacy is one of kindness, equity, and certainly has a lasting impact on the students, staff, and families of Isaac Fox. Next, we recognize our Staff Member of the Month, Suzanne Weider, Seth Payne. As the Seth Payne Learning Support Coach, Suzanne embodies energy, positivity, and dedication, always showing up for teachers and students with an I Can attitude. She is constantly learning, from exploring new curriculum and technology to mastering AI tools, and she shares her expertise generously to empower staff and elevate instruction. Suzanne leads PLC Plus meetings with clarity and creativity, helps craft school improvement goals, and finds resources to strengthen student learning. She is a trusted partner, a problem solver, and a source of
014encouragement for everyone in the building. Each day, she models collaboration, integrity, and growth, making colleagues feel supported and capable of achieving anything. Suzanne doesn't just support teachers, she inspires and empowers them. We are so grateful for her impact and proud to celebrate her this evening. Congratulations to all of our District 95 award recipients. In a moment, we will conduct our presentation of award certificates. I have a few directions to provide for this recognition. When your name is called, please come up to the board members who will be lined up on my right near the table. Once you are presented with your certificate, please stand between the tables at the front of the room so that we can capture some photos. Once we finish all the award announcements, you will be invited to enjoy some cake.
015Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. As Mrs. Maloney said, I'm going to call your names. When you come up, just go right over to the board members, and then you'll come here in the middle. Parents, we will take one photo for the district, and then we'll give you an opportunity to come up and take pictures as well. We'll begin with our student of the month from the high school, Olivia Puthisarul. From Middle School North, Aubrey Soka. From Middle School South, Justin Piccini. From Isaac Fox, Evelyn Malin. From May Whitney, Nola Bergfalk. From Sarah Adams, Kovita Nalamili. From Seth Payne, Luke Ferguson. From Spencer Loomis, Hannah Sirnevik. Our volunteer of the month, from Isaac Fox, Leah Cahoon. And last but not least, our staff member of the month from Seth
016Payne, Suzanne Weider. Okay, parents, feel free to come up. You can come up and take pictures. We're going to keep smiling, right, guys? This is what it feels like to be famous. Alright, I think everybody's done. Congratulations. Feel free to have some cake. Back to the table. Everyone is more than welcome to stay if you would like, but please don't feel obligated. Kate, is there anyone signed up for public comment? No, there is not. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the Consent Agenda. Dr. Galt. Thank you, Mrs. Maloney. This evening I have for the board the approval of minutes for the Open and Closed Board of Education meeting held on October 9, 2025. Acceptance of the Treasurer's Report, approval of the Bill's Payable List, approval of the Personnel Report, including, and you
017might have noticed this, retirement of administrative staff. Mr. Lyle Erstad is listed in our board docs, and I just, he asked me not to do this, but I don't listen well, so, you know, Lyle is amazing. He's done incredible work, and throughout our referendum and all of the building, the construction, and just the commitment to excellence as it relates to our facilities, I could not be more pleased and more proud to get to serve alongside Lyle. And his, you know, his ability to continue to serve and give back to the district was noted even within his retirement letter. You might note that he could retire at the end of June, but he is going to continue into August so that he can ensure that the projects that we start are completed well, and that he
018is able to transition his replacement. So really, thank you so much to Lyle. Additionally, in that report includes the change of non-certified staff, employment of non-certified staff, resignation of non-certified staff, and stipends for October 23rd, 2025. May I have a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as prepared and presented by the administration? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Are there any questions? Kate, please call the roll. Dr. Pinter? Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. The next item on the agenda is the Superintendent's Report. Dr. Goltz? Thank you, Mrs. Maloney. I have several items for the board this evening. The FOIA report is always included in the agenda, just a reminder to the board. As far as
019board communications, you did receive a communication from the regional superintendent, Dr. Michael Karner, who sent a communication thanking District 95 for their support of the Lake County Navigate 8 event, which Mrs. Warren alluded to earlier, and then I do have some pictures to share with you momentarily. We met as a Board of Education Facilities and Business Service Committee this evening, and actually we had great conversation, but it was a shorter meeting than typical. We first started with facilities, so the board is aware that D-Wing goes to bid on Monday, October 27th. Please note that for the next facilities meeting next month, we will be bringing some drawings, et cetera, for the board to take a look at during that meeting, but then we'll also be sharing that with the full board as well later on
020in that meeting, so you can expect to see just a couple of pictures related to that project, and learn a little bit more about it. Additionally, in the area of business, we talked about our investment update was provided by Ms. Kaiser, so thank you to her for providing such incredible information. We were very pleased to learn that we have already received $114,000 earned through one of our investments, and another is set to come back around February, which is going to, with both, total almost $350,000, so that is very exciting. We're looking at another opportunity which actually will follow more of a bid process, and that would go from November through February, up to around $14 million, and so there'll be a nice amount of money that could potentially come back to the district, but Dr.
021Romano and Ms. Kaiser certainly appreciate your willingness to always be looking for other revenue sources for our school district, which end up benefiting our students, so thank you so much. And then PTMA will be invited to provide greater detail related to the amount that we identify specifically for these kinds of investments and other investments, and so that was a request made this evening during that meeting, so you can expect that to be happening as well, and Dr. Romano will communicate when that will take place. Our school maintenance grant, if the board recalls, that is a $50,000 grant, it's a matching grant, so we spend $50,000 on a particular project, and then we receive $50,000. They have, the business office has identified the safety netting located at the end zones of the Lake Zurich High School
022Stadium field, and so we're excited to be able to utilize those funds to replace that netting. And then we had a really good conversation about transportation. We are getting ready to go through our bid process for special education transportation services as well as potential buses. And so currently right now, just so the board is reminded, we do support in-house a number of special education students, but it's a small number, and then our outsourced transportation services covers a larger number of special education students, and so that's typically who would be covered as it relates to this particular bid process. Ms. Twedell happened to be there this evening. She's our director of transportation, and she was able to share just some learning experiences that she's had. As the board is aware, you voted for us to be
023able to work with four different vendors over the course of this school year, which is different than in the past. And I do want to give a big shout out to Ms. Twedell because I know working with four different vendors in a week's notice was quite the endeavor, and she took on that challenge and did a phenomenal job, so really appreciate those efforts. But also just wanted you to know that she spoke to several items. I think one of those is that in the past we've only partnered with one company, and so we may look to do something a little different as we move into the upcoming school year and as we walk through that bid process. So I'm excited to have that opportunity. And then right now I'll turn it over to either one
024of our board members who serve on that committee if they have anything to add. Thank you, Kelly. So Dean, I want to thank you and your team again for first of all having a good discussion kind of about where we want to be from a liquidity standpoint, but more importantly, our ability to step in, get a good return on investment for our dollars and help other districts that are in need. So just to add a little bit more detail to the conversation, we're loaning money out to other districts short term at around five percent. So our rate of return is five percent. These districts who may not have a favorable credit rating like we do would have to borrow money maybe at five and a half percent numbers like that. So we're able to get
025a good return on our investment, help these districts out, save them and their taxpayers some money at the same time. So the real conversation was about how much money do we want to put in the pool that allows us to loan this money out short term. And Dean and his team have said, Colleen, that, you know, ten-ish million dollars looks about the right money to put into that pool. We had some conversation about, you know, how does that factor into our cash flow. We're going to look more at our cash flow in the future in terms of what that means to us. But I'm super thankful that we can have that conversation and we're able to do this. And that gets back to, again, making sure that we are in a position where we have
026the financial flexibility to do things like that and still maintain a healthy fund balance. So thank you, Dean. I just want to point out during the meeting, Ms. Tordal and Dean, both of you, I'm really grateful when considering our transportation needs that you are meticulously looking specifically at the student needs in our district, especially the students who receive a special education and that they might have unique needs when it comes to transportation. So I think it's just important to note that at all levels within the district we are thinking about every child. Thank you. Thank you for that as well. Thank you. So we'll move on. Currently right now, as the district, as our board knows, the district is on an annual basis creating a calendar, a school calendar. And so our committee has started
027meeting. We've had two meetings to date. We do have a diverse group of stakeholders who come together to make a recommendation as it relates to a school calendar. Right now, the work that we've completed, we started with five different versions of a calendar for next school year. And we've narrowed that down to looking really at a couple. And then the team really does take a lot of time and effort to take those couple of different options and what they like from each one and make it a calendar that's good for everyone. And we really do come at it from a student lens. And so I greatly appreciate the work of that committee as it relates to this. A couple of different items that we've talked about that I think is important for the board to
028know is that I have had a conversation with Dr. Karner's office. He has indicated that there is a potential that election day may be for the coming year, a day that we are not allowed to have students present because we may be a polling site. And so it is unlikely that that decision is going to be made until spring. That's well passed when we need to put out a calendar. And so the committee is taking that under advisement. And that may be a day that we just go ahead and decide as a district that we're going to take off. We have, as a superintendent group across Lake County, we've had conversations. And I would say it's about 50-50 right now based on those individual superintendents who've responded as to whether or not they're going to
029go ahead and automatically take that day off or if they're going to get it out and see what happens. And so one of our goals is to try our best to deliver a calendar that our families can rely on. And so please note that reliability is important to us as we're designing a calendar. So that probably gives you a hint as to the direction we're leaning right now as a committee, or at least what I believe they're leaning towards. We've also had conversation about the potential of returning to a couple of more early release dates. Since the pandemic, we really have not put those back in place. But because of the really awesome work that our staff are doing as it relates to school improvement, we may need to go ahead and put in a
030couple more dates. And so just note that there'll be probably some nuanced differences to this calendar that's brought to you. But really excited about this work. And we plan to, again, present that calendar to you probably in January at this point. We are also going to send a survey out to our staff. There's a couple of questions that we have that we don't want to assume what their answer would be. We'd rather get the answer from our staff as a collective group. So that's also forthcoming. And then I've also, if you recall, the board recalls last year we had a conversation about capacity and the usage of our buildings. And then following that conversation, Dr. Romano worked with a demographer. And we had the demographer come in and give us projections as well. Mrs. Besich
031also spends a great deal of time providing our enrollment numbers to the Board of Education and give some regular updates until we get to that six-day enrollment number. And so I have gone ahead and updated our school capacity and usage document. I did want to let you know that I did send this to the Village of Lake Zurich. I had some conversations with the village manager and so this document was sent over to them. And since I sent that to them, literally it was sent today. I wanted to make sure that our board also had an opportunity to at least see what was sent. This document is hard to look at and understand without some context. And so I want to be able to provide a little bit of context to help us. And so
032the building principals did a nice job of making sure that we understand how many spaces there are in each building, the typical classrooms that we would find in each of those schools, and then the number of open classrooms that exist currently. What I want you to know is that doesn't necessarily mean that all of those classrooms are filled to the exact number that's our cap that we typically operate by. So there are classrooms that are much lower. There are classrooms that are at that cap, certainly. And so that's where Mrs. Besich's numbers about student enrollment become very important to this entire process. And then as we start projecting out, you'll notice that there are a few differences between this year and last year. Our demographer gives us information that helps us to project what might
033these numbers look like into the future. But please understand that is a projection. We don't have a crystal ball so we can't say that it's exactly precise. But I wanted to make sure that you had some understanding. And so currently, right now, you'll notice as you look at this, certainly the elementary schools on this slide, that we utilize our space. Our principals do a great job of utilizing space as a matter of fact at Sarah Adams. Dr. Conway worked very closely with Mr. Erstad and last year created additional spaces to ensure that we could go ahead and increase our number of classrooms when it was needed last school year. So, again, lots of nuanced differences as it relates to this document. Then when you go to the next slide, you'll see that we have the
034two middle schools as well as LZHS. Also, it's important to note that our elementary schools that are attached to our two middle schools do a really nice job of sharing space sometimes when it's needed. And so if elementary, for example, at Spencer-Lumis is in need of some spaces, oftentimes we can arrange that through north and so we're able to cover that. Same with Isaac Fox and Middle School South. Again, our buildings are being utilized to the greatest extent possible and that's what this document demonstrates. High school is a little bit different and so as you look at it, there's a lot of detailed document that would go behind here to get to this point because there's a lot more classrooms that are high school, a lot more spaces in general. And so in our periods
035and our students that are walking through those periods, it shifts and changes with every single period. We have some students that are older students who are able to leave for certain periods. We have study halls, some students access them, some students do not. Additionally, during lunch, we have some that can go ahead and leave again. And so you'll notice that during the noon hour, during the lunch periods, our capacity goes down greatly because we have a lot of students that are eating at that time, which is to be expected. And so that number fluctuates based on the time of day, which is also understandable. I do want to point out that should the Board of Education approve the D-Wing project that is up and coming, we would plan to start construction on that project at
036the end of March. And so in doing so, our high school has already utilized every single space possible on the first floor to allow us to start that process in March rather than waiting until the summer. And so that also affords us the potential at a better bid because we're giving work during the school year, not just during the summer. But I do want you to know that these numbers would look very different during a construction period. We would be at 100% capacity on the first floor of the high school and the second floor in that particular area would not be usable at that time. And so just wanted to make sure that you had this information. I think it is important as I understand to our community at this point and wanted to make
037sure that we were very clear and transparent with our capacity and usage. I think maybe it's good for me to stop right now and make sure if there's any questions, I would certainly entertain those and Dr. Romano and Mrs. Besich are also here to support that process. We're good? Great. I'll keep moving. I have lots of celebrations. I again could not be prouder of our students and our coaches. We certainly have a lot to be excited about. Our boys soccer team at MSS were conference champions. At LZHS the girls cross country varsity and JV team third straight NSC title. That's remarkable. And then congratulations to senior Maddie Good. She received the NSC sportsmanship award. So a couple of awesome pictures to share of our students and our coaches. Additionally, I already shared about Navigate 8
038as did Mrs. Warren. But just wanted you to see a few of those pictures. Acknowledge Dr. Karner's email to the Board of Education if you didn't have an opportunity to read that. But he does highlight Miss Syke and her leadership and so really appreciate her efforts to plan that out. But as you can see, even Mrs. Warren was able to join a printing company and practice. It was pretty awesome. So we had a really good time walking and watching the kids get really, really excited. They even had the fire truck and the fireman there. They had a pole for students to try to slide down. It was awesome. So the staff was kidding that Dr. Gault was looking for her post retirement career. That is true. They were. So that's not for a little bit
039though. So I also want to give a shout out to actually all of our elementary schools. They always host through the support of their PTOs. Incredible fall celebrations. I could not attend Isaac Fox, which is where Baylor attends, but was able to pop into May Whitney's event and that's where he actually went for our pre-K program. So he knew several students and several staff members there. We had such a great time. What a wonderful opportunity for our families to be able to celebrate and have a safe environment to have fun and dress up. So kudos to all of our elementary schools for hosting those kinds of events for our families. And then we have several presenters for conferences. So the Illinois Principal Association had their big conference and so you'll note that Todd Jackowitz, Maria
040Moriano, and Aubrey Allen were able to present on school improvement. Just so the board knows, I actually received an email communication from a principal from another district who attended and was so impressed and asked if it would be okay if she brought a few administrators to come up and have further conversation with those individuals who presented to better understand our process because she looked at her data and noticed that our students are continuing to grow at incredible rates and really wants to see the same type of thing in her district. And so just great job to them and their presentation. And then AI, again, I'm going to continue to remind the board that I do believe that our staff and our administrators really are at the forefront of work in this area. And so a
041huge thank you to Matt Marston and Anthony Dangler for their presentation and allowing individuals to learn from them. And then Dr. Romano presented at ASVO International Conference and really his was about transparency and data analytics and if the board recalls in Forward 95, one of the expectations was that we develop a dashboard that transparently displays our finances to our community. And so he was able to share that information and again received a lot of just accolades for that work and interest in that work. And then Red Ribbon Week, really proud of the work that's gone on. It's been exciting this week for our students to be able to dress up and have different days to celebrate really the meaning of this week which is all about solving problems and really being a drug free environment.
042And so congratulations to our MSN Red Ribbon Poster winners. Bandarama was this week, I was not able to attend this event but I was provided some pictures from the high school and my understanding it was outstanding as always. And so a huge thank you and congratulations to our student musicians as well as their music educators. I was able to attend however the District 95 Choral Festival that is an opportunity where all of our chorus groups get to come together as one district. It is unbelievable. And so they did a remarkable job and really celebrated cultures across our district. The students performed and sang in multiple languages. They talked about friendship in multiple languages and it was an amazing event. Our educators went above and beyond that evening and so a huge thank you to them.
043And then I wanted to remind the board as per board policy we had this conversation during our last policy meeting. I have or actually Kate has placed at each one of your seats our code of conduct for board members. Just note that we have posters that are being made. We must have a poster displayed in this building and this room and so thank you to Mrs. Malik and her team. They have taken care of that for us and you'll notice that they really did help to make this document eye pleasing and it has our district logo on it. So thank you. And then lastly some important dates. Breakfast from the board tomorrow morning at Seth Payne. Alicia and Kelly will be joining us so very excited about that. The joint annual conference again another reminder
044and then also we're getting ready for the financial retreat in January, February. I'll be working with Mrs. Maloney and Dr. Romano but Kate will be sending out a doodle so that we can help ensure that we get the most board members engaged in that process. And that's all I have for you this evening. Thank you Dr. Galt. Moving on to the reports to the board we have 2025 summer semester update. Mr. Nardiello please play the video that Ms. Allen prepared for us. Good evening. I'm pleased to present an overview of our 2025 summer semester which served over 1,000 students across K-12. Tonight I'll highlight participation trends, student outcomes, financial performance and the recommendations guiding our summer 2026 planning. This presentation reflects our continued commitment to providing opportunities for all students. The purpose of this report
045is to share comprehensive results from our summer programs. We'll review enrollment patterns, academic performance, stakeholder feedback and financial outcomes ending with actionable next steps. Our focus this year was on balancing recovery, enrichment and advancement ensuring access while evaluating program impact and efficiency. At Lake Zurich High School our summer program operated from June 9 through July 24 across two sessions. We served 380 students completing 465 course enrollments across advancement, preparatory and credit recovery tracks. 99% of advancement students earned credit and 91% of those in credit recovery successfully completed their coursework. These outcomes demonstrate not only the effectiveness of our high school programming but also strong student commitment during the summer months. The K-8 summer semester also ran from June 9 through July 24 enrolling 612 students in 18 courses. Programs included bilingual, summer success, summer bridges,
046enrichment and kindergarten kickoff. Enrollment patterns showed a continued shift away from bridges and success and toward enrichment classes. Enrichment participation increased by 115 students over last year while success and bridges enrollment declined slightly. This trend suggests families are more interested in extending learning rather than solely maintaining skills. Student outcomes were measured using spring and fall assessments through NWEA map. In reading five grade levels showed reduced summer learning loss for the bridges program while success saw four grade levels with reduced summer learning loss in comparison to their like peers who were invited but did not attend. In mathematics results were more varied. Two success and three bridges grade levels improved but consistency across cohorts remains an area for review. As we plan for next summer we'll continue refining instructional design in math to strengthen outcomes district
047wide. The extended school year ESY program is a critical component of summer learning serving 93 of 131 qualified students from pre-K through age 22. Students receive daily individualized instruction aligned with their IEPs at Isaac Fox, Middle School South, Lake Zurich High School and the Young Adult Center. ESY remains essential under IDEA requirements ensuring students with disabilities maintain progress and equitable access to services. We surveyed students, families and staff using Qualtrics in multiple languages to ensure accessibility. Across all groups feedback was highly positive. Over 70% of families said their experience was strongly positive and 73% would re-enroll their child. Over 90% of staff rated their experience positively and expressed interest in returning. And among students more than 80% found the program engaging and interesting. These results affirm that our summer programs are meeting community needs while
048maintaining high engagement and satisfaction. Financially the 2025 summer semester was supported by tuition, grants and federal funds. However total expenditures exceeded revenue resulting in a net cost of $455,484 zero cents to the district. The primary cost drivers were tuition free programs and transportation services especially within ESY which exceeded projections by about $101,000 zero cents. For 2026 we anticipate a similar net expense of roughly $478,000 zero cents emphasizing the need for continued fiscal efficiency while preserving program quality. Looking ahead we're recommending several operational and instructional adjustments. Operationally we'll implement earlier three phase registration to improve forecasting and scheduling and limit bus routes to 30 minutes to manage costs and improve student experience. Programmatically we recommend phasing out summer bridges due to declining enrollment and expanding summer success to include students up to the 35th percentile. We'll
049also introduce an advanced math bridge program for identified students. In summary the summer programs continue to deliver meaningful academic impact while providing access for all learners. Moving forward we'll streamline programs for efficiency, strengthen targeted interventions and expand acceleration opportunities. We'll work collaboratively with student services and align our 2026 plan with both the district strategic plan and the four year math enhancement plan. These efforts ensure we remain focused on continuous improvement, data driven decision making and responsible resource stewardship. Thank you for your continued support for the summer semester program. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Does any board member have any questions? Alicia, please start. Thank you for the report. I was wondering about the shift down of participation in the bilingual success program. I was like 126 to 115 students and I just
050wondered what you thought about that. Sorry about that. Over the last two years we've seen a decline in that program. We do do continuous outreach to those families letting them know multiple times that they've been invited. But as we said in the report it does look like we do have a shift more towards our enrichment programs where there's some wider range. Okay. And then I was also wondering about do we track open rates for emails, things like that? We do, yeah. We can check into that in both systems that we use. Thanks. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, I just have one question kind of related to what Alicia just asked. But the summer success in the bridges and enrichment, I'm just curious if because you said summer success in bridges is down but enrichment is up. I'm
051curious if there is data, demographic data collected on those different groups of kids. Because I wonder if there's some sort of like sociological reason, like systemic reason why the numbers might decrease if they're demographically different. We don't collect that data. No? No. Do you think we ever would? I would talk to Dr. Galt and see what Dr. Galt wanted us to go in that area. Lisa, can I add on to that? Didn't this year Joni's Clause have provided a pretty substantial grant? They did. We've actually, yeah. To resource children to be able to do enrichment classes? Correct, yes. We've actually had grants the last two years. This past year we got it from Joni's Closet and that was we were able to provide funding for families both at the high school level and at the
052K-8 level as well for students who qualify for free enrichment. It could be aside from money. Exactly, exactly. I know several years ago it's been quite a while, probably five, six years ago, a big stumbling block for some of these programs was being a half a day and not having access to child care for the other half a day, which a lot of parents aren't available to be home midday to sort of create that switch. Is that anything that's being discussed? We're not discussing that. We do ask our families about the time a day and the length of the program for their feedback in that Qualtrics survey and the feedback on those pieces is that the time is right and it's meeting the family's needs. Yeah, and it's the length that they're wondering it sounded
053like. I'm just curious, I know we have an incredibly robust product now to help kids getting ready for standardized testing and for the ACT and they get a lot of resources online now through the vehicles that we're using. Is that why I guess I'm surprised to see the ACT prep numbers so small? Is that why or is this just meeting the needs of those kids that need it in person versus on a computer? I'm just curious why you keep... It could be. We would have to do deeper dive into that information. I will say prior to this summer we had run ACT prep and we offered it. We never ran it because we didn't have any students interested in it because we were taking the SAT. When we look at our SAT numbers versus our
054ACT numbers, our numbers for ACT were actually up over when we offered it for SAT the prior two summers. Okay, that's great. And then we used to offer also, it was a shorter class I believe, in helping students start to, well seniors, to start thinking about the common app essays. A lot of times summer is the easier time to start thinking about that and drafting that. Is that something that was offered and just didn't run or is that not something we're offering anymore? We didn't offer it that summer due to the opportunities and efforts of our career and counselor over at the high school and some of the offerings that she was offering. Okay, so it's just offered in a different way. Moved into the school year. Wonderful. I'll add because I have a senior,
055the comp class that most seniors take, they're comp one class, they write that essay in the class the first couple weeks of school, which most of them know that. And I will say in regards to that class we had very low numbers who enrolled in it. Thank you. Overall a nice success. Thank you. Thank you Eileen. Aubrey, first of all thank you for coming this evening. Thank you for the wonderful work you and the whole team have done pulling this program together. We've certainly come a long way in the last five years. I mean our attendance if you plow it over the last five years is incredible, the slope of that curve. So that goes to the fact that obviously the students and the families are interested in this programming and I sincerely appreciate it.
056So when I look at the data on you've been trying to measure success and I'm struggling with what that success measurement is. If I look at the data presented it's hard to say there was a tremendous amount of benefit from this. I know one of our goals was prevent the summer slide but also show progress. So can you give us some more color around are there going to be other better metrics to use to achieve or for us to measure success or lack of success when doing these programs? I'm going to take that one. So we have we're in the process of creating common assessments aligned to curriculum. What we're using right now is our NWA map which is a standardized assessment but it isn't aligned to our curriculum and what we teach and what
057our kids are expected to know in our curriculum the next year. It is a good measure of success and it is normed and many, many districts use it. What we're finding is another layer of assessment data or feedback is going to give us a better picture of how our students are achieving. NWA map is one measure. That measure is not capturing in our opinion all our kids know and are capable of doing. As we get these common assessments built we will be able to utilize those not just within our typical year of instruction but we'll also be able to use those over the summer to determine that students are demonstrating proficiency in the priority and the supporting standards that are part of our curriculum and what our teachers are teaching in their classrooms. So yes,
058we do need more robust data collection. I don't want to say our kids are not benefiting. I'm just going to say it's hard to tell with the assessment that we're using. We've often said for kids in the summer slide you may not see a huge increase but we don't know what they would have done if they didn't go. And so it's really hard. We believe in our summer programs. I love the fact that we changed it from summer school to summer semester. It's a continuation of learning for many students and an opportunity for them to enrich, to support, and to reinforce. But we do need more metrics and we do need more data and those are some of the things that we want to do now in the making. Thank you, Angela. And I'll say
059the board made a conscious decision obviously to start investing substantially in this, right? There wasn't just a couple years ago we were basically at the break even point. Now we've got roughly half a million dollars invested and we all want to make an investment that makes sense. Obviously there's a high demand signal which is awesome but I think we want to make sure how do we optimize that investment that we're seeing. And I realize that it's going to take some time and there will be some course adjustments along the way as we do this. But I do think we need, because it looks like the cost of this is probably going to continue to go up, it's not going to go down likely. So if we continue to invest in this, which I think we
060should, then I think we want to make sure that we're getting good value for the investment that we're making. I did want to ask a question about summer success versus bridges. One's three and one's five weeks and we want to kind of mash those together now. Is there any data that supports whether or not the three to five weeks has made any difference? Are we getting about the same results from those two time periods? We're getting the same results. So if you look at the data that is provided when you look at it, they're pretty comparable in regards to the classes. That's what I was thinking as well. So it just seems like yeah, I mean I think you're making the right decision to try to compress those programs given the fact that they are
061showing about the same result. And then one thing I wanted to ask as well, and this is probably a question for you Dean, is so we're projecting next year about 480K deficit for this program. Is that what's in our current budget for next year? At this point we have some minor increase, but it was not developed specific to the design that we have here right now. So I'm not sure what you just told me. Is that 480K accounted for in our budget as a cost next year? Okay. And the second question, I'm not sure who should take this, is we saw the transportation cost last year up by about 100K over projection. Can you say what drove that? I'm just curious about that. On that one I would have to go back and do some
062more research as to the reasonings for that. Or Miss Katie, do you have? Okay, thank you. I appreciate you getting back to me. Obviously that was a pretty large delta from what our expectations were in transportation for summer. Just wondering what specifically drove that large increase. Thank you. Thank you, Doug. Peter? First of all, amazing job. I mean it's an amazing report. Obviously you gave all the numbers, you gave the charts, then you did the surveys, and tried to give us a sense of whether it's successful or not. Intuitively you kind of feel that if a student would attend summer semester, it's better for them. You just intuitively think so. But I do appreciate the numbers that you gave. It occurred to me during the numbers, do you think that those that did not, because
063you compared it to those, for example the Success and Bridges, those that were invited and those that didn't come, and how did they perform? Did I read that right? Correct, yes. So then, is it possible that those that didn't show up self-selected out, and then they were a little bit more capable? I couldn't that is, we wouldn't know. There could be many things that could happen. You could be a family that says, I'm going to provide my child many opportunities over the summer, and I'm going to take them to museums, and we're going to read books, and we're going to go into library programs, and we're going to travel. It would be very hard for us to say for those families that choose not to take part in that program, what kinds of activities they
064might engage in over the summer. Additionally, the data is the data. Sometimes the data might not indicate that a child, it indicates a child might benefit, but in reality that child's parents feel that they're just fine. So there are so many indicators of those families that choose not to come that it would be almost impossible for us to understand if we're getting that right population, and then what is making that difference between those that came and those that didn't come. It's not a controlled group, so it's hard to tell. I think you did make a good point earlier. We, you know, intuitively as well, you kind of don't know, for those that did come, you don't know how they would have been if they did not come. So I think, you know, something tells me
065that the program is a good one and it's showing benefit. I do want to comment a little bit on what Dr. Pinter mentioned about because summer success and summer bridges, you kind of, it's almost like this is the need part of the summer semester, and enrichment is the want part. You know, I want to go, but really the other people that I invited, they really should go. And the enrichment one, you know, it's people optional, right? Am I reading this right? So then, you know, so it's really disturbing that the numbers on those that need to go are going down and those that want to go are going up, and so I, I mean, as Mr. Goldberg said, we're investing a lot into this, and so I hope that we think a lot about getting
066more of those that need to go to really show up. We tried a lot more this time, communicating even more, but it does disturb me a little bit. I think that the communication plan that you follow, it would just be good if you could remind the board what that looks like, because I do think it's pretty comprehensive. So if you could just take a moment to remind the board what we do to communicate with families to help them make decisions. Yes, of course. So the first step that we do is we do let the teachers know they're part of our process for the recommendation. We then send the letters out to the families in multiple languages at the very beginning of March that gives them a detailed information about the program, what the program will
067do. We then follow up with those families if they're not responding, whether their student will attend or won't attend, we follow up with those families multiple times. We also work with our family liaison to reach out to some of our families as well. And then our staff looks at the list of who's responded and who hasn't responded, and they do some reach out as well to those families that haven't responded that they particularly feel really need to attend our program. So there's multiple steps of reaching out to those families to invite them and make sure that they are aware that they have that invitation to the program. I appreciate that. You know, you can't go, it's summer, right? You can't, there is not a legal obligation for you to go grab them in their homes
068and force them to show up. So you have to do everything that you can do. But I'll ask one, I'll turn the question another way. What's your, you could answer, you could answer, what's your intuition as to why Bridges and Success seems to be going down and enrichment is going up? Why do you think? Just, you know, I mean, you're an instructor, you're an educational professional. What do you think? Well, I think there's lots of reasons. I think when we started to develop, certainly we've had summer success for a long time, Bridges came post-COVID. And Bridges is not, Bridges is selecting a group of students who are not considered to be intervention students. I think that's important. According to this assessment that we use, those students that are scoring between the 35th and the 50th
069percentile are not considered, according to NWA MAP, to be intervention students. They are students that you want to ensure you are giving a quality educational experience to and you are continuing to move them along. But they're not considered intervention kids. We did that program post-COVID because we knew that we would have a group of students that needed an extra boost. And I think that's part, part, not all, but part of our success of recouping all of that learning loss that happened. When we look at summer success, those students are students that we would look at throughout the year to say, we are going to provide you additional instruction above and beyond what you get on a day-to-day basis. Your scores indicate that you will benefit from that. Those students that are in Bridges wouldn't necessarily
070get that during a typical year. I believe, could be wrong, you're asking me to, make an assumption here, that our students have increased in their skills and abilities over the years. Our scores are showing that. Our students are gaining more proficiency. They feel more comfortable, competent in their education. And I think that we are reducing those numbers and I think it's a good thing. Now we're going to continue to invite, but I want to draw you back to, are we using the right metric? We're going to add more data to determine that we're getting those right numbers of students. I just don't want us to think that because we don't have a large number of students who require or are being invited to or recommended, that that's necessarily something that we should be concerned about.
071Quite the opposite. I want those numbers to go down. I want less students to be invited to summer success. And I want less students to be, potentially, next year we will only have summer success, but I want that number of students to go down. Ms. Allen and Mrs. Stallion, if you can recall and if you can't, that's fine. I'm kind of putting you on the spot, so I will apologize before I say this. We had a great number of students who exited our EL bilingual last school year. I'm not sure if you recall what that number was, but I do think that's relevant to this conversation as well. I do. It's 152. Which is, percentage wise, it was a very large percent and it was the largest we've had ever, at least since I've been
072here. And so I do think that's also an important aspect of this conversation where students don't necessarily still require those same types of programs. I think that there are, to Dr. Pinter's point, I think there are probably multiple reasons why students aren't coming during the summer, but I think we also need to continue to take a look at our data. I 100% agree with Mr. Goldberg and I really appreciate Mrs. Stallion and Mrs. Allen for this because I know you are looking to figure out a different way for us to capture the learning. I think our staff who work so hard over the summer to support students, they deserve a different tool so that they can showcase really and truly the growth of our students during that time frame. Because I believe in our educators
073and I know our kids are getting something important and valuable from the time that they spend in our schools. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Natasha? I would agree. I think that what you just said, Dr. Gault, regardless of whatever the metric we use, kids going to schools during the summer, especially kids at the summer success level, there's so many other factors, structure to the day, snack time, maybe a meal, just a check-in with another adult in their life. So I think there's a gazillion metrics that aren't measured at all that are really important to that population of students. And I was the one who asked the question about Tier 2, Tier 3 kids. I bet you weren't shocked by that. My question is by combining these two groups together, there's a really vast difference between
074teaching a Tier 3 student that probably should be getting intervention resources and then a student like you said that's on the cusp of really only just needing really good Tier 1 instruction. And I know our teachers in this district are magnificent and can differentiate with the best of them. But if we want this summer program to really target those students, is there any concern by mixing these two groups? So I'm going to take that one. So when we say we're going to broaden that band and we say we're going to go to the 35th percentile, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to create classes that are heterogeneously created. We will be looking at where students are and we'll be creating classes based upon their needs. So if I'm a student who's in the 10th
075percentile from the 0 to 10th or the 1st to the 10th, I'm going to be clustered with students who have similar needs. Those are intensive. If I'm a student who's in the 10th to the 25th, we're going to be clustered. If I'm a student from the 25th to the 35th, we're going to be clustered. Now depending upon class size and how those go, you may have some students who we would say, I believe that student could come into this class with this curriculum and this support and do very, very well. But that's a decision we can't make until we know who's coming. So we would look across the students that are invited and the students who intend to come and we would do exactly what we do during a regular school year. We would say,
076how do we build these classes so that kids get what they need? And that's awesome. Thank you. That was exactly what I was hoping to hear. I think that's probably what's best practice for our students. And as someone who uses MAPS data, I would agree that I think it's great that you guys are looking for other options to maybe monitor our students' progress. And to build off of Mrs. Stallion's answer, that's one of the reasons why we're making logistical changes in regards to our registration process is to make sure that we have that time built in to validate the data and make sure that we're setting our students up for success. Thank you, Natasha. And I don't need to belabor any points, but I just want to say a common amplify what Doug had said
077is that, yes, there was a time that we were very interested in breaking even and that was kind of the point of our summer program. And now, no, we're fully not fully, but we're happy to fund it to the level that we are, which is nearly half a million dollars. And I think it's money well spent. And it's money spent where it should be spent and addressing a need. So I know I speak for myself that I'm very supportive of the program and kudos to both of you women who have done an amazing job with the program. And, you know, we are very lucky to have such a remarkable summer program. So thank you very much. Thank you. The next item on the agenda items on the agenda are the cash flow and financial dashboard.
078Do any board members have questions for Dr. Romano on these reports? Okay. The last report is our first financial education series, Bonding 101, presented by Dr. Romano. Mr. Nardiello, please play the video presentation. Hello and welcome to the LZ 95 financial educational series focusing on bonding 101. As Dr. Dean Romano's digital assistant, I have the pleasure to join you in this learning opportunity. This presentation is designed to help Illinois school district leaders and community stakeholders navigate the world of municipal bonds to fund essential educational infrastructure. Let's explore how school districts can leverage bonds to build a stronger future for their communities. Imagine a school district needing to build a new facility or upgrade aging infrastructure. Municipal bonds make this possible by allowing districts to borrow funds for major projects like constructing schools or purchasing critical
079equipment. These bonds, overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission, act like a loan where districts use future property tax revenues to access funds now. The borrowed amount is repaid over time with interest, but these funds can't be used for everyday expenses like teacher salaries. Many of these bonds are tax exempt, which makes them appealing to investors and helps districts save on borrowing costs. Bonds are a powerful tool for school districts, funding up to 80% of capital projects across the country. They allow districts to spread repayment over as long as 30 years, so future generations who benefit from improved schools help share the cost. Financially, bonds with tax-exempt status or high credit ratings reduce interest expenses. For communities, better schools attract families and businesses, boost local economies, and enhance safety through specialized health life safety bonds.
080Plus, bonds show a district's commitment to managing debt responsibly within Illinois' legal limits. Illinois offers several bond types tailored to different needs. General obligation unlimited tax bonds are the most reliable, backed by property taxes and requiring voter approval. Think of them as the top tier choice for major projects. Non-general obligation limited tax bonds draw from general revenues, or capped property taxes, and include options like working cash bonds that don't need voter approval, though they're limited by regulations like the property tax extension limitation law. Alternate revenue source bonds use specific income streams like the corporate personal property replacement tax and offer flexibility without voter approval. For short-term cash flow needs, tax anticipation warrants provide quick funds to keep operations running smoothly. A credit rating reflects a district's financial health and ability to repay its debts. It's
081like a report card for fiscal responsibility, assessing both the district overall and specific bond issues. A top rating, like AAA, signals low risk to investors, which translates to lower interest rates for the district. Strong financial planning and transparency are key to securing a favorable rating, ultimately saving money on borrowing. Developing a bond proposal starts with a clear plan. Districts need to outline the project, whether it's a new building or safety upgrades, complete with timelines and detailed budgets that include backup plans for unexpected costs. Compliance with state laws like debt limits or voter approval requirements is non-negotiable. In counties under the property tax extension limitation law, districts must navigate debt service extension-based restrictions. Most importantly, districts must be upfront about the tax impact, ensuring taxpayers and school board members understand the plan and its benefits. Issuing
082bonds requires a skilled team. A municipal advisor offers expert guidance on bond structure, while bond counsel ensures all legal requirements are met, from drafting documents to ballot language. The underwriter or placement agent markets the bonds to investors, aiming for the best terms. A paying agent handles payments to bondholders, and a rating agency evaluates the bond's credit quality. The process kicks off with a resolution of intent, followed by a public hearing, if needed, rate locking, and finalizing the sale, all typically within three months. Once funds are received, construction begins with careful oversight, and districts must provide annual disclosure updates. For districts in property tax extension limitation law, or PTEL counties, the debt service extension base, or DSEB, sets a cap on non-voted bond repayments based on pre-PTEL debt levels. A district's DSEB depends on its debt
083history, not its size or property values. Since 2009, the DSEB can grow by up to 5% or the consumer price index annually, unless voters approve more. And excitingly, 2024 legislation has freed health life safety bonds from DSEB limits, giving districts more flexibility to address urgent safety needs. Thank you for joining us for Bonding 101. To learn more about how Lake Zurich CUSD 95 is using bonds to shape a brighter future, reach out to Dr. Dean Romano, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, at dean.romano at LZ95.org. We hope this learning opportunity provides new understanding of this key financial aspect of the district. Thank you, Dean. I am very grateful that you have begun this series. Does anyone have any questions? You want to thank his AI too for that? Stop it. I have one request in
084the future. Can you put famous people's voices and we get to figure out who it is? I will take that under... If I go to jail for that. Alright, I just want the board to know that I requested that Dean put together some educational material and I'm hoping that we corral it and it could be like the second level of onboarding to new board members because I have to say, and I've said this before, that when I started, everybody but me, practically, had an MBA and it was all like ten levels above me and I struggled, struggled, struggled, struggled to keep up, but I also figured, well, they all know what they're doing. And so, but over the years, I did learn a lot, but I actually would have loved this when I started out.
085And Dean, I wanted to say a couple things about bonds. It's a great series and thank you for asking for it. I think it's wonderful. You know, people don't realize, we actually, District 95 has the third or fourth highest debt of any school in Lake County, believe it or not. We have about $65 million of debt we have to repay at this point. However, that debt was issued at historically low rates, right? So 2.5% is the number we put out most of that debt at $77 million of debt. So we had issued 20 year bonds, $77 million paid off over 20 years is about $110 million of total cost, right? If we had issued that debt today at 5%, it's $147 million. So just, you know, we can't hit it at historically low rates, but
086I'm really proud of, you know, and that was just pure happenstance. We happened to hit it at the right time. But I do think it's worth keeping in mind that we do have the fourth highest amount of debt of any school district in Lake County. So I'm, you know, I know we're doing a great job servicing our debt. I still think looking for opportunities to pay that debt down to keep that debt service cost as low as possible, something we should do, because if we were to have to issue bonds again today at 5 plus percent, it's a whole lot more costly for us in the long term. So thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Did I ask that already? All right. Moving on to discussion without action. I have a question
087for Doug. We're the fourth highest out of how many? All the school districts in Lake County. I don't remember how that is. 60, 70, whatever. It's somewhere, it's in the 50s. No, all school districts, period. Well, it's all school districts, but if you're talking about unit districts, there's not as many unit districts. I would say I know there's North Chicago, Round Lake, us, Wakanda, Barrington. I'm not sure there's anybody else in Lake County. I think those would be all of the unit districts, correct? Wouldn't unit districts be higher because we have more schools? I mean, so that's a great question, Kelly, but let's use an example of Stevenson, right? Stevenson's budget just for the high school exceeds our budget. So it's one of those, it kind of depends things, but certainly, and as a general
088rule, unit districts are larger, they have larger budgets, but again, that was a number for all districts, including unit districts in Lake County. We still have the fourth highest debt, outstanding debt, of any school district. Again, I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing. I'm simply saying that it's worth noting that we're fortunate because although we do have quite a bit of debt, it was issued at such low rates that the total cost of paying that debt down is incredibly low. So I mean, that and again, that was just a blessing that happened to us because of the timing, but I do think it's worth keeping in mind that we are carrying a substantial amount of debt. But our ratings, Dean, maybe you could comment on that, our bond ratings is actually quite strong, right?
089Yeah, it's very strong. So we suggest that that's the comparison, maybe at some point you could perhaps make a comparison across the county because, you know, we want to put the numbers in context that even if some number of debt might be higher, but our financial strength compared to other schools in Lake County are probably extraordinarily strong. We are very strong especially because of the fund balance the district has as a result of the fund balance policy. The other thing that's of value in this conversation is the fact that the way that you as a board had made decisions on how to structure the payments of that debt, that it's well maintained. For example, in the future line item here with regards to the levy, you know, the fact that that is established at almost
090a flat rate, it actually pulls the overall rate for our district's levy down a little bit because that portion is not growing. And so the capped rate is actually then, it's lowered for the whole. So there's a really good structure that's in place, and yes, you could not as an entity have timed it better in so many ways for what you were able to provide to the community in that moment. I just had one thought too, is that we're kind of in this precarious time of potentially losing three million dollars in federal funding, so it's I don't know, it seems like as long as we're managing things well and have a good bond rating and we're making like judicious decisions about our finances that we wouldn't want to not take the opportunity to have these
091finances when we are looking at shortfalls due to federal funding loss. That's just a thought I had. Thank you. Moving on to discussion without action, the first item for discussion without action is the review of the financial projection assumptions. Dr. Romano provided the board with a comprehensive report. Are there any questions for Dr. Romano? I had a couple, a quick one, Dean. By the way, thank you. You do such a great job with that. Really, it's fantastic. You know, there's obviously a couple of items that we have a high sensitivity to on one of them being EAV, and EAV projection says that we're predicting EAV to rise by 8.2% next year, which is a huge increase, obviously well above inflation. And so property values in Lake County are at a 25 year high, right? They're
092all time highs and there's a lot of people who might say that at some point the bubble's going to burst and I don't know if that's true or not. But what I'm wondering is, do you think that that kind of EAV growth is likely to continue or is that a moment in time where the EAV has popped up like that? Because it's a big spike. What's your take on that? Well, when we did the calculations to come up with that number for this coming year, that's based off of the data that we've received from the county already. So those are their projections. As you can see in the other document, I know it's turned sideways because I wanted to make it larger and more easy to read, that we are anticipating that those EAV increases
093to be notably less over time. And we've got some really conservative new construction values in there. I think we've only managed one year above 10 million and this last year came in right around that 18 million. 18.3 million. Yeah, so that's where I believe that we are going to see that. And it really is difficult to project out into the future years. That's why we do this process on an annual basis with the assumptions and they are conservative. The key here is that even if EAV is significantly increasing, that doesn't drive the actual tax bill as much as the number of properties and the value of all of the properties. Because the way that it works, just as a reminder, is that whatever we ask for, let's say it's $100 million for the use of
094that component, and that's what we receive this year. Next year we're going to be able to get that 100 million plus CPI or 5%, whichever is less. And so what will happen is that, let's say it was at that 5%, highly unlikely, but let's say it is, then that new $5 million that we would be accessing as part of the levy would be distributed across all of the value of the houses. Sure, yeah. So the EAV isn't really the driver, but CPI and new property, those do have a greater impact on the collection because what will end up happening is that in the packet you saw that little teeter totter, the inverse relationship. So if for some reason we have EAV collectively, and that's really important that it's all collectively when we're talking about this,
095if all of the property in the district were to drop 10% in value, taxes are likely, and ideally they will, still continue to go up. Because what's going to happen is that everybody's tax or their EAV is going to drop the same, but we're still going to access that additional funding. So I don't know if that provides a little extra context. And I think a point worth making, I just pulled this together the other day, this is a look at tax rates across many of our comparable districts. And yeah, the good news is we're down at the last third of that, which is fantastic. I love the fact that we continue to provide a good value and your projection of the tax rate decreasing even better, that's fantastic. So I'm proud of the fact that
096I think we're efficient users of the taxpayers' resources, I love that. And I love to have this information because it really is important to be able to explain to people that, yes property taxes are expensive, but on a relative comparable basis I think we do a good job using the money wisely, and our tax rate comparatively I think shows that. So I'm a really big fan of having this information handy. And thank you, Dean. Thank you, Doug. Does anyone else, Lisa? So the same chart for the state funding, you have the evidence based, which remaining flat I think is what we've been seeing historically, so it totally makes sense. As we learned at our latest division board meeting, MCATs, mandatory category goals, the percentages keep coming down. So what were the assumptions you made? Because
097I know that's still a significant chunk of state funding too that we received. Sure, we essentially took whatever was identified and shared with us with all of our grants and those components. The one area where we did do some additional adjustments was for the transportation claim. We had been at a Luda conference and there had been some deep conversation about how don't bet on that. And so for us, we did lower that. We went as a conservative as we could. I'm overly conservative, so I try and... So did you go conservative with the percentage of the actually anticipated expenses, or did you just stay conservative with if we got $25,000 we said we were going to get 20, because the costs are going to go up and the percentage is going to go down. Sure,
098and so the way the transportation claim works is that we put in all of our data and then it calculates and then you put in your percentage of what the state was actually going to fund of that, the proration value. And so that percentage was lowered based on the data that I had available from some of this conversation. And so that's where that came in. Now one of the things you'll note is that if you were to take a look at where we were last year from what we actually received versus what we're at here, because our expenses have gone up in transportation, that does have a year later impact. So we went into it. There's not a real easy answer to that because we spent a lot of time digging into the weeds to
099make sure that we could tighten that up as best we could. But that is the one area on MCATS that, yeah, I believe that we've made the adjustments that seemed like they were going to be logical. I'm hoping that we were just a little conservatively low on our revenue estimates. That'll come in a little bit better than that, that's my hope, but I don't believe that we were overly conservative so that it would have really adjusted the budget where we would have made cuts as a result of it that didn't need to be made. Perfect. And then for federal, did you just assume flat funding there, too? Well, for that area, obviously IDEA grant is our largest federal funding component. And we actually have worked with the data that was made available to us. I
100mean, we've already submitted, or Dr. McArdle's worked really hard to pull that together and put that in. And we already know what that value is as far as our allotment. However, there's another stage in the year where we do get some supplemental funds, some carryover funds specifically, that will be taken into account later. And that's where when that new revenue comes in, then we can tie that back to offset some other expenses. So that data is there. And we did not put in much on the way of carryover because we've spent a lot down because we were concerned that if we had a large carryover that we'd be in a situation where it would just evaporate and we didn't want to lose those. So we have spent down quite a bit under Dr. McArdle's leadership
101with regards to the IDEA grant last year. So that rollover is not there. So that was intentional. Wonderful. You've actually done a lot more work than I was guessing. I was guessing you'd be like flat numbers. In those two areas, we've spent a lot of time. That's great. And then I just had one question on expenses. So you've shared with us how electricity is going up. We're seeing how just expenses overall are going up. And I guess I get concerned when I see you're projecting the increases to be at the CPI level, which I know in theory should work. But it just seems in reality, prices are increasing more than CPI. So I just wanted to like how do you, I know you're conservative. So how do you get comfortable with that? I mean, I
102don't know that we have a better number to use. I guess it might be. Sure. Well, CPI is probably our most realistic data point for us to be able to take a look at unless we were going to go down into the deep dive into all of the areas. Which we can. What I've typically done with regards to budget development is that we'll take an area where we think something's going to be outside the norm and we'll dig into that. We did a little bit of that with regards to electricity and utility costs. And in particular with the offset that we see in the future based on the projects that we've talked about and moved forward with to some extent. And so that's where we've done that. You asked about my comfortability. The biggest component
103that I think drives my level of comfort is that the largest single expense is salary and benefits by a notable margin. We're a people business. I feel very confident that we are very tight. Miss Julia and I have spent a massive amount of time going down to the employee level to get as much information in there and then taking into account in the overtime and all these other components. We do have some positions that are always yet to be filled. So we have those budgeted. So there's some level of conservativism in that area. And so if we're off, let's say instead of two and a half percent, it's five percent. Well, that's five percent of a twenty percent. And that's even smaller after we break it really down into where there might be variance. I
104don't believe that we're going to be in a situation where it's going to be too far off. And then the last component of why I'm comfortable with using that number is that our administrators are very conservative. I'll use Mr. Erstead's experience. At the end of the year, there's money left that we then move into capital projects in that mechanism. And as a result of he and all of the other administrators that are managing typically come in under budget. Some come in right at budget. And that's completely OK. But there is a lot of dollars that at the end of the year haven't been spent. As you guys have probably noticed, the business office has a very large budget, yet we don't spend it because if somebody else needs it, that's where we won't spend it
105to have the offset for things that were unforeseen. Dr. Galt may have some ideas that may come up in the course of the year that we need to take care of. And so I feel very comfortable with where we are and especially now that we have a really strong cash flow. If we're getting concerned, then we start having conversations about let's pull back towards the end of the year so that we can take a look at it. But whether it's luck or good planning or all of those things combined, we haven't had a need to pull back on individual line item budgets much in the time that I've been here because of a budgeting variant. I would argue it's good planning. And we have the history. I guess I get I probably looked at this
106closer just with I feel like we have so many of the unknowns floating out there that a lot of those unknowns seem to be further out and a lot of these are more immediate that we're experiencing right now. And I'll share one caveat of my early career is that I was overly conservative to the point where there was a risk for pension cost shift 15 years ago. You were accounting for it. And I budgeted for that. Or that we were only going to get three MCAT payments instead of four within the course of a calendar year. And I budgeted for that. And it didn't happen. And we were so far off on our anticipations that it wasn't realistic. And so because of the good work of the board, having the fund balance policy that you
107have and maintaining that level of funding, if we get in a situation where one of these large unknown threats becomes real we are not going to be in a situation where we have to turn off the lights because we can't afford to cancel this or stop that. We will continue to move forward. Then we will strategically address the shortfall so that we are not having a reactionary scenario that would ever get to the point where student's experience is going to be changed. That's why I can sleep at night with regards to the budget. In my mind I think that was evidenced by COVID. That's exactly how the administration reacted was, you know, we're going to be thoughtful and we're going to be methodical about how we react to this as opposed to doing knee jerk
108reactions that can affect way too many people. So thank you. Thanks, Dean. This is great work. I appreciate this. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Anyone else have comments? All right. Moving on. Now we have the aggregate levy for year 2025 recommendation as provided by Dr. Romano. Do the board members have any comments or questions? All right. Lastly, Dr. Romano also provided a comprehensive report related to the supplemental debt service tax levy for limited bonds. Do any board members have questions? All right. Excellent work, Dr. Romano. Last item under discussion without action is the Illinois Association of School Boards delegate for 2025. This is an annual opportunity provided by the Illinois Association of School Boards to consider various areas of advocacy through potential votes to adopt identified resolutions as outlined within the document provided to you
109this evening. I ask that you read this information and come prepared to discuss your opinion at the next board meeting so that we may formally provide direction to the board approved board member delegate to cast our vote at the delegate assembly, which meets on November 22nd, 2025. Additionally, in the past, I have served as the board delegate and would very much like to continue in this role, but want the board to be prepared to nominate a board delegate at the next board meeting as well. And I just want to say based on our preview of the delegate information at our the Lakes Division meeting, there's only one resolution that's going to be provoked. And bylaw changes. And so it's light reading this year, and I don't think that there's going to be any picketing. So
110like there has been in the past. But I know there are other board members that have expressed interest in being the delegate as well. And so I fully respect that, and you may absolutely choose the delegate of your wish. Any questions on that? All right. We are going into closed session for the following reasons, and it is a treatise. So I will read it all. 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 contract in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of the public body against
111legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the Local Government Wage Increase Transparency Act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with the Open Meetings Act 5 ILCS 122C1. Litigation when an action affecting on or behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting, 5 ILCS 122C11. Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning
112salary schedules for one or more classes of employees, 5 ILCS 122C2. 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, 5 ILCS 122C5. Security procedures, school building safety and security, and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual threatened or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees, students, staff, the public or public property, 5 ILCS 122C8. May I have that motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Natasha. Kate, please call the roll. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Mrs. Daniger? Yes. Mrs. Tim? Yes. Mrs. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Etienne? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. We will not be taking any action after closed session this evening.