001the railing around All right. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all. So every >> All right, we're going to call the >> That's ridiculous. Board of Education regular meeting Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 to order. Roll call, please. >> Uh, Mson >> here. >> Nelson, >> here. Smack >> here. >> Frick >> here. >> Yates >> here. >> All right, we do have a quorum. Uh, public comments. Looks like we only have one. Chris Chy. >> Hi, I'm Chris Chy. Um, I just wanted to approach you today just for one item. Um, I have been in education in one form of another since 1970. Yes, 1970. And I have been in special education since 1988. So I say
002that coming to you for years of experience, maybe more than anybody in the room. I'm not for sure. So as Mike just left me, we looked up on There are 850. It made me sick. 850 special ed openings in the state of Illinois right now. That just made me very, very sick. I understand budgets. I've been on many committees with budgets. I understand why you had to do what you had to do last month. and I'm asking to re-evaluate one position and that is Mallerie Mle. With special ed openings in the state of Illinois, I just feel like we should not be getting rid of one. So, what I'm asking is not necessarily a position for her, saying like you're the second grade special ed position or something like that, but I'm asking that you
003would re-evaluate and look for a job for her. We could have her be the substitute. We have done that before in our school district. It's been a couple of years, but we have she could follow Mrs. Mik around and be the substitute while they have their special ed meetings. We need to this is a topic for another day, but we need to tweak up progress monitoring in this district and she could be a progress monitor or she could just it wouldn't cost that district that much. She could just be the general substitute. I know we have done that in the past. I know district 300, they're bigger than we are, but they have a substitute like in each building. It is a huge success. I also know that there's at least one in the retirement
004stream and one with sickness. So, I just kind of ask that you look at that again and see if there's some way that we can hold on to somebody with this special ed certification. I was with Mallerie a week or so ago and has already been approached by school districts. Um, so I ask that if this is something that could be discussed, talked about in the vacuum of mind, but it needs to be done soon or we are going to lose what I feel is she eventually is going to be an award-winning teacher. And I feel like we're going to lose her unless something is could be done. And I just know that down the road we're either going to lose somebody for retirement or sickness or maternity leave or something. And I really think
005that we need to hold on to that right now. So thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Three board comments. school organization, the junior high. It says junior high, but I'm assuming we got we've got >> we've got we've got some wrestling. >> Let the kids go first. >> So, I'll have uh Mr. Smith come up. Our kind of good news item for the month um coincides with the state wrestling meet. >> We got three guys that prepared speeches all week. Right. >> No, but they were uh pretty good representations of um our school district, our community. Um so I'll let Mr. Smith kind of talk about >> uh so the uh we have Colt Raider, uh Cade Raider, and then Zack Icele. Uh, and with the three of them, uh,
006Colt, uh, was our first back-to-back state champ that we've had, uh, and only second in our history, uh, for Mercer County since, uh, Tristan Finch did it back in 2011. Uh, he also, uh, is only the second, uh, kid that we've ever had that's qualified and placed, um, all four years in junior high. Uh, Cade uh, here was a three-time placer for us. Uh, got sixth place this year. Um, And uh again, not very often that that happens for us as well. So, he's among some of the elite uh kids that have done that in our program. Uh Zach here uh was a firsttime qualifier for us. Um and I think I went back and looked, Zach, I think had won one match his fifth grade year. Uh and this year he won 22 and
007he won a match down at state. So, uh, just again continue to, uh, show the growth and the progress that we've been able to have in our program and we're super excited, uh, for these guys as they continue on in the high school, uh, next year and hopefully they keep growing a little bit. So, you guys got anything to say? >> Demonstration? Yeah. Otherwise, congratulations. Thank you guys. Okay. Well, I want to thank you guys for letting me come talk. Not that you guys really had an option, but um I'm here tonight as I am taking some grad classes and we I had to create presentation on something that's important to myself and I was supposed to do a fake video of it and I said I'm just going to present so I'm going to
008do it going to just do it all the way. So I'm here to talk about how we can help students with disabilities become prepared for life after high school. As some of you guys may know my name is Rhonda Linder and I've been with our district for nine years. I started out in the intermediate as a sixth grade para and then I went to become the intermediate secretary and then on to becoming the junior high secretary and then I went back to school and got my special ed and I've been the sixth grade special ed teacher for a couple years now. I also have my kids have gone to school here. I have two that have graduated from high school and then I have two that are still in high school, a junior and a
009sophomore. I am going to throw some stats at you. So approximately 28.7% of adults in the United States are about one one in four live with some form of disability according to the data from the CDC beyond education employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities for and can't say that word it's okay according to the bureau of layer statistics in 2022 the employment rate for working age individuals with disability was 21.3%. compared to a 65.4% for those without disabilities. Addressing these barriers earlier in the transition process could improve both for educational and career paths. Last year alone, we graduated 20 students with IEPs. That means out of those 20 we graduated, only seven of them could possibly be the ones who had the opportunity to get a job. Where does that leave the rest of our
010students? That is the question we as a district need to be asking ourselves. So knowing what to do with your life after high school scary for everyone. Now imagine if you're a student who has a disability. Let's go one step further and imagine you're a student with a disability who doesn't have somebody at home to help you. What is your next step? What can you do? What should you do? Where do you even start? Once all the structure and routines and students are left alone to figure out to adjust to life after high school. These are questions that go through some of these students head. Have we stopped to think about how we help to prepare them for life after high school? Is it enough? No, it is not enough. I know this personally because
011one of the high school students we graduated last year was my son. He is a high functioning autistic. I know he's also not alone because he has a friend that they both decided they wanted to do the Carpenter Union. They took the test and they bombed it. They got a 35 and a 40%. Luckily, they were able to reach out to their special ed teacher who helped them and they were able to pass. But now these young men are expected to make contact from a list to see if they'll take them on as apprentice. Well, that's pretty easy for some people because they can talk. Well, not for students who just don't know how to do it. Simply be able to walk up and say, "Hi, my name's Rhonda and I'm looking for you to
012take me on." Now my son sits at home in his bed. It doesn't do anything. I do nag him and I try and I try and I just think he needs some more support, some more getting out to do those awkward conversation. He went to McDonald's, had an interview, lasted a minute, probably a minute and a half by the time he walked in and walked out. I know that we have the doors program and him and I met with our doors counselor and he looked at my son and said, "Well, when you get something, I can help you. You have to do this on your own, which that doesn't help me because I'm like, he doesn't know how to do it." So, I've always been told, thanks to Mr. Cian, that if I come with
013a problem that should come with solutions. I reached out to a few people and um one of them was the lady that used to work at our district who did take kids out into the district and work at jobs and her and I came up with a list of some things that we could do. You could start out with a school-based student ran business to build foundational skills just within the district. You can move to eventually a community- based accredited work experience. So either the kids could get paid or she said she even had students that just literally got credit for being there. The goal obviously is to get them a competitive employment. We need to find local businesses willing to take on students and I know there are some out there. We just have
014to tap into it. So some costs I know that's what we talk a lot about is to the district. You know, you might have some startup costs, transportation to and from their jobs, um time built into the schedules or transport those students, check-ins with the job, support staff, job coaching as a student just to give them those skills to be successful in the workforce, tiered um levels for work-based learning, advertising the program, training in the classroom geared towards transition needs, and then an administration who understands the value of transition program. You know, I know I'm up here as a benefit. It doesn't help my kid if we do something now, but I do teach sixth grade ed. And those students, we can make a difference, a benefit to the district. Because I know you're like,
015well, how does this really benefit us? It helps us keep our struggling students in school. It gives them a purpose. A lot of my kids look at me like, Miss Lender, what am I going to use this? Like, you will. I promise. like this will help them. I think this will help better equip them to graduate and just have the confidence to be able to walk up and introduce themselves. So, I'm not going to show this TED talk and I'll share my presentation to you guys later so you can look, but I found some resources on that go through it. So, don't start it. There's also a local one that I found at Unity Point um back in 2023 did start their own program over in Davenport, but there are opportunities out there for our
016students. And then here's a state resource for you. Uh so I'm going to share some resources with you so you can understand more. But here's a quote that I want to give you. Society can come together, work together, fight together for everyone. All of our students deserve the same opportunity. So, I'm asking that as a district, we make some adjustments to ensure our students with disabilities get a fighting chance as they graduate. >> Thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate it. >> So, so do you have a program outline then of what what you're thinking or >> Well, and honestly, it's more just going up. So like she told me that like what she had to do was literally she created a pamphlet and took it to businesses and be like hey this is like what
017we want to do you know they'll be completely supported like you're not going to just be handed a student she'd be like I don't figure them out. >> So I she said um but definitely starting at like that schoolbased level even if we just start something so they can interact with adults more and more and then getting those skills that they need. I don't necessarily have a program that we need. I know she does how she actually left our the schooling to do one, but I think more so it's just getting the kids out to the community more and not just our life skills or anything like just these ones that need that little bit of extra help. >> Yeah. >> Like mock interviews be >> Well, yes, absolutely. But I think it also needs
018not to happen at the school. See, like I know they did a mock interview with my son. It didn't go well, but it was with his teacher and they someone in it, but I think they're so comfortable at our schools that they don't like they're not viewing it. Make them uncomfortable. Take them to that job and be like, sit down, teach them what to say. >> Like I think that's something like But yes, absolutely. >> Feel free to reach out to me on that. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay. Hello everyone. My name is Natalie Nelson. Um I also have a presentation up there too if you want to watch it. Um it's my seventh year at Mercer County. I taught three years sixth grade resource and then I started a life skills program
019in our district. And today I'm going to talk about the continuum of life skills because thanks to you guys, just like two months ago, you approved a um elementary life skills classroom. And so we have a junior high now, we have a high school, and we're going to start an elementary. So I'm going to talk to you today about what that looks like. Um, hopefully a future plan and the benefits of that. Um, so my husband is the Apollo PE teacher and I have three kids in district as well. We moved here for our jobs. Um, and I think here we are in our dream jobs. Um, my youngest is in prek. He wanted to continue to play for some reason, not sit in the meeting. but my others are here and my daughter actually
020presented at a board meeting um earlier this school year herself. So I want to start with showing some pictures of what we currently do in um the junior high life skills classroom and that's what I teach. So right now in my classroom I have um fourth graders, fifth graders, sixth graders and eighth graders. Um my students have intellectual disabilities or autism and um we currently go on community outings bringing guest speakers make recipes. So here in my images you'll see our hands-on math we're doing. We do a lot of small group. You'll see um us making omelets on their stove and then we brought in um a guest speaker. We work on hygiene. We use special curriculum that's focused on essential elements um that align with common core as well. We have a curriculum for
021social skills as well. Here's some more um of us recipes. We go out into the community. We go to other schools. Just today we went to New Boston and that's up there. We went to Happy Joe's on Valentine's Day. Um and so you'll see our staff and our students really interacting in the community as well. Here's our students. We went to a local business that just opened up, Merry Go Round. We bring in a retired teacher, Miss Gray, to teach us social skills. and we do fitness at the Y. Um so the purpose of life skills is that students will engage in learning throughout their school day through academic, social and functional lessons and activities delivered by whole group, small group and individually. Data will be collected on each individual's progress which will be used
022to guide lessons and 90. The classroom activities will be functional and age appropriate. And as you can see um up there like what functional skills are and that's the focus of our whole program is to improve all of those skills. So a little background knowledge on Mercer County life skills. Um like I said four years ago when we decided to turn the intermediate school into a junior high um Mr. Petri gave his office to the life skills program. Thank you Mr. Petri. and we put in a stove and a washer and dryer and a fridge and um we turned it into a high school program and we for the first time I have an eighth grader that started the program with me when she was in fifth grade. So it's our first student that's gone
023um fifth through 8th and she'll be leaving me um next year. So it's extremely bittersweet. But we also um at the high school have a life skills program that um really got taken off like the year after that 2023 and then next year 26 27 we'll have an elementary life skills program because we have not had an elementary life skills program though in the past um my classroom has services grades three all the way to grades eight. And so I'm going to talk about that in a little bit. Um but first let's talk about the good things that we've done as a district. the benefits. We've transitioned three students back to Alto from Bazed. And I don't know if you're familiar with Bazed, um, but we pay tuition, we pay transportation to send students to
024this, uh, day school in Molen. Um, and we've been able to bring three students back because we can house them in their home district, saving our district money, um, and servicing their here close to home. We also collaborate with Apollo to provide students opportunities with their grade level peers. So, you'll see a couple pictures up there. Those are my friends at Apollo PE um with their same age peers because they are only in fourth grade. Um and we also collaborate with local businesses. Um and so we've done a lot with Coffee Junction and I showed you Happy Joe's and Mary Goround and the Yum. That's really important for my kids kind of like Mrs. Linder was saying, transitioning out, right? Getting them familiar with the community, how to function in a setting, how to speak,
025how to act, how to, you know, all those things that may become natural to us that we don't think about, but we have to teach them. how to greet people and all those things. So, I'm not going to read you these sources and I'll also share my site with you, but I found some really great resources at different levels. So, there's an Illinois State resource and I'll share that out um with you after um my presentation. So, I'm going to share with you some three big wise here and after each one is a resource. So by using universal design for learning learning inclusive practices, knowledge of an intellectual disabilities and autism specific curriculum and appropriate supports, students with disabilities can be supported and effectively. And that's what we want to do in our district with
026this continuum from elementary through high school, then transitioning them out into the real world, being productive citizens like Mrs. Linder talked about. also have a really great TED talk, not gonna play it for you, but it is actually a mother who then started a program for a child that had disabilities um to be inclusive and reimagine it. So another why is that the life skills classroom create meaningful and purposeful social, academic and functional practices at students level that they carry with them and grow as individuals in and out of school. So another resource I found was Jennio school district and actually um before I started the program here I went and observed at Jennis Seal and learned a lot from their program. They have a consume of services from elementary to high school. Um, and
027so some things we do every single day is we clean tables. Um, we laminate, we make copies. So they're learning these job skills. And then we also do yoga at school. Plus, we go out into the community, do exercises that they can use their whole life. And otherwise that students gain these skills, these life skills are more empowered and better equipped to live independently, which is our goal. That we want these students to go out and get jobs. We want these students to live on their own or with friends. Um, and the best way to do that is to make this continuum starting at the elementary level through junior high through high school. So then they're prepared to go out into the workforce and into the community in the real world. So I will share
028these this is a national source as well. So, how this issue specifically affects our schools and students is like I said, I've had a lot of great a very large grade span in my classroom. So, right now I'm currently running four different schedules in my day because I have fourth grade students, fifth grade students, sixth grade students, and eighth grade students. Um, I have students traveling twice a day to Apollo. So, I am making this transition for lunch. I'm making the transition for specials. So, my fourth graders can be with their fourth graders. the fifth graders can meet with their fifth grade peers and they can eat lunch there. Um, so we are so grateful to have this um house here and the close relationship we do with Mr. Robertson. Um, but it's not ideal
029and so we're very grateful that we're starting an elementary life skills classroom. Um, our high school life skills, we have a high school life skills there, but has changed almost yearly with staff, the classroom, and the schedule. So, we're looking to find some more consistency there. And prior to recently, we haven't even had an elementary life skills and when the needs have been there. Um, so how does this continuum of life skill services flow between our buildings as a whole district and what do we do moving forward? So like Mrs. Linder said and Mr. CBM has taught us, we need solutions if we're going to come up with problems or ideas, right? So the plan for the future of life skills in our district. We're going to observe other districts that provide a continual life
030skill services in hopes that one day we are that district that other people are coming to that we can show them what we do. So actually next week um another teacher and I will be going to visit United to see their program. Um we've already been to Jennis and we hope to get out to others to learn more from each other. We're going to have team meetings with each life skills teacher at each level. So utilizing our early out days, maybe inservice days so we can get together um and collaborate, collaborate research, professional development to grow our implementation. So be very specific and strategic and what we're seeking out for professional development um a clear and continuum service spectrum. So hopefully next year maybe we can present again and we have a continuum we can
031share how it's working elementary to high school on these services. And then we'd like to implement the same curriculum at different grade level scans. So the unique learning systems curriculum we got is um lined with essential elements and we can use that um from the elementary to the high school. It just grows on each other. The students are familiar with how it works um and it provides pictures as well as text and it varies three different levels for our grade spans. So, some benefits of doing this is that students with intellectual disabilities or autism will benefit their lives long term. There's many ways to implement programs, including students in these classes, supporting their needs and helping them grow academically and socially. Life skills in our district allow students to remain in their home district and
032interact with general education peers where they were not getting that um when they had to go to BAS. We've pushed um another great thing I want to share is I am of the most restrictive environment in our schools. So, in regards to special ed, um they are in the special ed classroom the most of their day. Um and that is the most restrictive our district has. But we have been able in the past to push out a student from the licensed classroom to a resource specialed classroom um to be with different peers because we've been able to meet them where they're at and make academic gains. And next year, I'm actually proposing we try that with another student. So, because we can provide that supports for them, we can also push them um to get
033them to grow and even maybe um experience classes outside of the life skills classroom. You have a handout and um staples on the back of the handout is my resources, but something happened today in class. Um the pink little slip I want you to have is that one of my students um made these for you. We sell a snack cart and we want to invite you to come Friday morning between 8:30 and 9:30 to see my students in action. We'd like you to see the classroom, but more importantly socially interact with them, see what we're working and building on. Um, every Friday we sell snack cart and so my our office here is extremely supportive and so we take our snack cart to our office in the elementary um in the junior high but then
034we've also partnered with Apollo and Mr. Robertson's been so welcoming that we push it around Apollo and the in their office, but it really really provides great skills for my students. All those functional skills we've talked about. So, I want to invite you in this Friday um to come join us. Um and even if you don't want to purchase anything, um just interact with us. We'd love to have you. Thank you so much for your time. Um this is my passion. I appreciate you letting me tonight. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you guys. I It's my favorite part of the meeting. >> Correspondents Dello. Those are the uh we got some thank yous from fourth and fifth graders. They went to the symphony. So, some wrote thank you letters to the symphony
035folks and then some wrote letters to us. So, there's a bunch of them in there. And then there's a uh thank you from the city um for allowing them to use the band room for the LRS uh public forum. So >> yeah, >> item six, the consent agenda. Anyone have anything they'd like pulled out of the consent agenda? If not, I'd entertain a motion to approve. >> I'll move to approve the consent agenda. >> Mudson moves eight seconds. Roll call, please. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> SM, >> yes. >> Frick, >> yes. >> Yates, >> yes. Motion carries. 5 reports. Finance committee report is in your packet. My computer turned off. the what's the update on thing I wanted to touch base on was the update on like or health insurance
036>> we were >> yeah so we're making some approval health insurance >> anything else you want to highlight finance If not 7.2 Building and grounds committee. I don't believe you guys had a quorum. Correct. >> No, building grounds committee did not. >> All right. Uh so 8 point uh eight information discussion items 8.1 foyer requests. We had quite a few. um one from WQA asking about um specifically bills and payments made to attorneys in the legal defense of Mr. Forker and >> yeah that was a QA that requested that information and the district has no cost in the legal defense of Mr. he is funding funding his own attorneys for that case. The district doesn't have any responsibility there. Sometimes sometimes they don't they don't write those stories when they ask for that information. So
037I'm glad we had the opportunity to address that. Um 8.2 revisions to the 2025 2026 calendar. Do you have anything on? >> No, that's just where we make up our snow days. Where did we add that? I was looking. >> I don't see that actual one in the packet. I see the FY27. Yes, those days are are at the end of the school year. Okay, there was the final FY26 calendar. And our last day of student attendance would be March 27th or excuse me, May 27th, and teachers on May 28th. >> Any questions the board on the public school calendar emergency days? >> All right. 8.3 to the public statement. >> Yeah, this was a recommendation from our legal counsel and some things that they asked that we remove because all public speakers have retain
038all their first amendment rights. So even though that we might prefer that they not address specific issues that deal with personnel in front of the board or make derogatory comments, they're entitled to do that. So those are some of the language items that we as to remove from that statement. So the the part I thought you and I had tal that doesn't show up in the red. the length is is not something that can be contained. Uh you can't put a specific limit on it. Although if the number of commenters are excessive or you know you can't you don't have to go through everyone because the board has business to complete. You know, you can't arbitrarily say we're only going to have 30 minutes of public comment, but you can limit shut that off at
039some point because the board has other action that they need to deal with. >> So, you can't an individual could get up and talk for an hour. >> No, you can limit each individual >> because that's not it. >> But you can't put a put a hard limit >> on the on the total amount of time. >> We only take 20 minutes of public comment. Everyone gets their chance, >> right? So is that that's not in this. >> It says the board's name and limit their statement to five minutes. The red is the changes. >> Oh, the red's the change. Oh. Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah, that's longer. I'm not reading that every board meeting. I'll just point to it on the back. >> Yeah. All right. So, that's a discussion item. has any questions
040or um would like to see something change or see the mistake in there. Next month we will adopt it. It'll be an action item next month. So go ahead >> and then just play it. >> That's true. >> That's right. >> All right. 8.4 athletic cost. >> Okay. Had a request to share some details on that with with the board. And in your packet, you've got the complete detailed breakdowns of the budget for the high school and the junior high. and they do a really nice job of breaking that out by sport by all aspects of the program, transportation officials, uh, bench personnel. They also have estimates for for revenue from ticket sales and just a some large broad numbers for you. um the high school athletic program across every one of our activities. We
041spend about $950,000 a year on that and we have over 400 student athletes that participate in that. Now, that's not 400 unique student athletes because many of them are participate in multiple sports, but that's a wide swath of our high school students. At the junior high, we have fewer opportunities in terms of the number of sports. And the junior high athletic budget is is in the area of $150,000 a year. Um, but at the junior high, we also have large participation numbers of over 290 student athletes. And again, those aren't unique because we have a number of those that participate in multiple sports of of that combined junior high and high school budget. Approximately $100,000 of that is transportation costs. And some of that those costs would also be u related to the operation and
042maintenance of our facilities that are included in there, but those aren't specifically broken out. So about 1.1 million >> about 1.1 million >> and that doesn't account for any proceeds that we have any questions about that? I would just say that sports are a critical component of the school system and teach often times near as much as academics >> and I think it's it's not just important for for students but for many of our teachers that love working with, you know, student athletes, you know, outside of the classroom setting because I think that gives them a great teaching opportunity as well. I think our kids sometimes learn as much outside the classroom like when we talked about the the life skills program and being able to get out in the community or a transition program
043that allows those students to do the same kinds of thing. I think we see some real benefits to those additional activities that we make available to students. >> I'll just I guess comment The reason that I had asked Scott about these numbers is just because after the last meeting of course there's been a lot of uh discussion about how and how you know how we spend our money and how much we spend and athletic costs. I've had several people approach me about what athletic costs are and whether or not we should be, you know, looking at athletic expenses as an as an either or compared to the educational expenses. um or we shouldn't be, you know, prioritizing some of the spending in athletics uh for education instead, you know, and making difficult decisions about whether
044we fund all of the spectrum of athletic offerings or not in an effort to kind of counterbalance the loss in education staff. So >> I think it's a fair >> staff by a certain percent I think so long as we have you know staff members who aren't going to be here in a couple of months if nothing changes that it's going to be difficult for us to spend any dollars without enduring a lot of scrutiny and we should I mean we should scrutinize every dollar we spend as much as that's possible because we're the education of students I think is priority number one and there's loads opportunities. My kids and many of my family and friends have kids who are in athletics and it is an excellent opportunity for a lot of kids. It's I
045think for for many kids they show up for school so that so that they can compete for athletics and and PE is not sufficient for that. You know, body conditioning is not sufficient for that. It's the the friendships and the camaraderie they get from from the extracurricular activities. So it's it's difficult choices like that. I don't want to I don't want to leave any stone either with regard to that. I didn't look at any of this and go what we're going to have to cut pick us forward. That's not that's not what I'm about. But I just think we're going to be all accountable and this is one of the places where maybe we can look for an opportunity for savings. >> I do believe and maybe Tim can speak to this. Didn't we make
046some cuts to the athletic budget the last couple years? try to figure out ways to cut cut some funding out of that or some money. I don't know that there was anything in terms of positions because >> no not positions but just like the overall budget if you got a >> across the board in the last year year and a half I think everything was looked at to where each like building individual budget like all the pieces got cut >> a little bit in terms of like equipment and supplies right >> and I think that was gone through like everything >> and also uniform replacement to make sure that we're staying on a rotation That's fair to all of the activities, >> right? Well, like some of the positions, it's more of like the program
047because you get a certain number of kids, right? Usually coaches like to kids. >> Yeah. >> I want everybody I want everybody to know I'm not in favor of cutting programs. That's not what I'm about >> at all. >> I think it's good to have that discussion. >> We have to have we just have to have we at least need to be conscious. Like I I had no concept of what the total athletic budgets were for for the junior high and high school until I asked about that. It was just one of things you see that this is how much we spend on this thing and then you aggregate all that you go oh it's that much money. Um I said I had some members of the public approach pretty upset about about it. So,
048I know the the numbers because the athletic director provided us a number of students in each sport. I was pretty impressed. I mean, there's there's a lot of kids that are taking advantage of of the offerings out there. So, anyone else? All right, moving on to item nine, action items 9.1, FSS security upgrades. >> All right, in your packet, you had an extensive uh study of what FSS did for us in terms of looking at upgrades at the at the high school uh in comparison to our other buildings. The other three schools in Boston, Apollo, and and the junior high all received significant upgrades in the last couple years. Uh the high school has has fallen significantly behind and and in some ways that that deferral was intentional as as the board tries to figure
049out what they're going to do with that facility before investing in a lot of money. Uh but one of the eight priorities that that JJ outlined for us, the first three are are really important to what we need to do at the high school at least in the interim. The first two are related to software upgrades. The system and I I'll use a computer analogy. The system that we run at the high school um would be comparable to Windows XP or maybe even DOS compared to Windows 11 software that we're running in all of our other buildings. Uh you you look at any of those screens, our SRO's at whether they're at Apollo or in Boston or the junior high can look at cameras in any of our buildings. We're monitoring all the doors in
050those other three buildings to find out if they're unlocked or not. Those are all things that are capable on the on the newer system. We can't do any of that at the high school. There's they're locked into their own little building over there. So, our SRO at the high school can't see what might be going on over here. And our SRO at the junior high can't see anything that might be going on over there. And and so that's that's the first piece. And you have an estimate there for that. I believe It's a little over $13,000 for that upgrade. And the second part of that are some of the door controllers at the high school when when we installed all of our um automated door entry systems where we use a key fob. There are
051a number of those at the high school that are becoming obsolete. parts are not available for them and they're not capable of supporting um some higher levels that we have in the other buildings such as the automated monitoring. And so that was the second priority recommendation to make those upgrades to the obsolete door controllers that we have in that building. Unfortunately, those kinds of upgrades at the high school become more expensive because it has more doors than any other building in the district. And to replace the obsolete ones there, we have an estimate just a little over $7,000. So, I'm I'm recommending that we make those first two priority upgrades. U while we continue to to work towards a solution at the high school, the other upgrades that are that are being recommended u tend
052to get much more expensive, but that also really hinges on what the long-term plan for that building is because some of those things if depending on what kind of remodeling, um rebuilding, whatever that direction is, you may want to do until it's finished. >> So, the total amount is 21,125.75 to do those upgrades. Anyone have any questions about that? that prior to >> that would be funded um in a combination of funds toward M or capital projects. Those are not funed out. We talked about this in the finance meeting, but all of these things can move forward regardless of what happens to the building next. They'll still be in use. It's not a waste of money. >> Yeah. to do some of the door monitoring like in in this building, Mr. Cedan can look at
053his screen in the office and it shows him if that door is locked, unlocked or propped and he can do that with any door in the building. But that also requires running another wire to every door in the building to do that. And so that that kind of extensive work is is not a not an urgent priority. The right now because where all that that data comes together at the high school and that that room called the principal's office may or may not be the location for that at a future date. There's not wireless options for that. >> No, not not reliable ones inside the building. I know some you can have routers, you know, and then what they call attach to another router, but it still requires a wire to the >> building and
054they're all what are called um power over Ethernet. You don't need electrical there, but I need the data wire >> to transmit the data. >> Make a motion to approve Motion by Frick. >> I'll second. Roll call, please. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> SM, >> yes. >> Prick, >> yes. >> Yates, >> yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Motion carries. 5 9.2. The 2627 public school calendar. Looks like started August 13th. >> Yeah, you have teacher institutes on on the two days preceding that and first day of student attendance would be the 13th with the last projected day of student attendance being May 19th. Anyone have any questions about that? If not, I entertain a motion to approve the 2627 public school calendar >> Yates move. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Nelson second.
055Voice vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. 5 risk management plan. Okay. I believe you discussed this last month. um table the vote on that and I'm not sure if you could tell me what questions there might have been about that. The risk management plan is is a legal document that we have to have in order to make some of those charges to fund that you mentioned. We currently have one that was updated I believe in 2018 and Mr. had worked with our attorneys to make some additional changes of that so that we could move some of those ED fund expenses into the tort fund where we have a where we have a pretty substantial reserve and it's not that we have >> no we don't have
056to do we don't have to approve it you if we say we're taking 14% of your salary >> if we want we only have Yeah, >> in our in our current plan, um we have coaches included in there um to pay a portion of their coaching stipens out of that because they supervise students um you know in in those kinds of situations. But but we don't do that because those those dollars are relatively small and and it's kind of a payroll issue to make those changes. And so we haven't we haven't done that in the past. This plan um will allow us a few new cases that that we can move over there um in the transition period here. We can move a substantial amount of interim superintendent costs or any any cost with the
057current situation with employees on leave. And going forward beyond that, we look to to save an extra $100,000 a year on the ED fun. FY26 and FY27 would be substantially more unless things change significantly. Is there a second? Roll call, please. >> Smok, >> yes. >> Frick, >> yes. >> Gates, >> yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> Motion carries. 50 9.4 the health or I'm sorry, the hail damage settlement a number of months ago. I think maybe 18 months ago, u the board asked our insurance carrier to to revisit uh some of the damages on our on our school roofs from a large hail storm that came through Alto at that time. You might have got a new roof out of that too, Bill. But um they have they did perform.
058I mean we did have an initial claim um that paid for a lot of the damages that were caused. Um but one of our consultants felt like there was more that could be done in a number of areas. And so they revisited that over the past several months and walked a lot of building roofs. And what you'll see here uh are some estimates for additional work that our insurance carrier would cover. And that's at the Apollo building and at the high school. The largest portion of that is actually for our press box at the high school on damage to the metal, hail damage to the metal, dents on on the roof and sides. And that's virtually a totally total replacement on that because that's of the additional $60,000 that they're committing. About 40 of that
059is is in the press box. on the estimates that they provided. You'll see there's a a deductible payment on there and I I think and you asked about that at our finance meeting. Um the deductible would be waved because we already paid that on the initial claim and so it would actually be a little more than you're seeing on those documents. That was what that third party. >> So we're saying that's not really >> No. And uh because of the way our insurance works, I mean that that agreement with a third party is well has expired and our we're part of a cooperative and the cooperative does not allow you to do that because claims claims in the cooperative affect all members. And so you you can't try to sue your insurance carrier for an
060additional settlement because well that's the same carrier for everybody else or the other 350 school districts that are part of the state cooperative. What's our action would be to to to approve this offer and then we would seek bids to accept this settlement and then to to seek bids for that work. And a big chunk of that alleged damage was the high school gym roof which was already in progress to replace that. We' had that scheduled replacement. So there was no way to for the third party to demonstrate that there was actual damage to that piece. And that that high school gym was a about $565,000 replacement. Does accepting settlement means? >> No. What would happen if we do? >> Yeah. >> So, it looks like the press boxes cosmetic damage, >> right? >> That's
061why I'm asking. >> Yeah, there are some a few of the other issues on and even a couple here on this building where it's some gutters or flashing things like that. This looks like a total of $78,189.98. >> That's Yeah. after you back the deduct. >> Oh, that's okay. So then it' be actually entertain a motion to accept the hail damage settlement. Is there a second? Any additional comments or discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Frank, >> yes. >> Yates. >> Yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> Yes. Carries 5. We're at close session, but we really the only thing we have is hiring an assistant track coach. So, does anyone see a need to go into close session or can we just go on to the personnel report? Entertain a motion to go
062into close session if you think there's any other personnel matters that we need to discuss. All right. Not hearing any. We'll move to the personnel report. Looks like we had a couple of resignations and we still have two positions of freshman volleyball coach, junior high cheer coach, and then the proposed hire of assistant high school track coach Alex. I would entertain a motion to approve the personnel report. Mson 8 seconds. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Nelson. >> Smok. >> Yes. >> Frick. >> Yes. >> Yates. >> Yes. >> All right. Motion carries. 5. We've got a finance meeting scheduled for April 13th at 5:00 at the district office. We need a building and grounds committee meeting. Does that does that work well to try to do that immediately following the finance committee meeting
063then? >> Oh, shoot. Did I skip the Oh, I did. I skipped the admin report. I apologize. spring break. >> Does anybody have anything to add other than >> I'll just update a little bit on our preschool enrollment? Um, we did have a wait list of a couple students, but just due to the fluctuation of movements, we bounce, we now have everybody in place. So, any student that's been screened that preschool, um, they are either being served in an early learning center at the wise. So, that's good news. We don't have a wait list. New Boston. I do want to congratulate Beller and Iris. Peace winners travel around with their Easter hats to the local >> junior high. Um, Mr. Smith just put the idea in my hand. We had two classrooms down. We had
064a little snap. There was a lot of smoke coming out of the heaters. >> Yeah, he was telling us about >> hopefully we don't need heat anymore. >> Already turned the air condition. Mr. Zer, >> just a couple things. Uh, jazz band, high school jazz band and tennis soul is having a concert uh Saturday, this coming Saturday at 7 o'clock there in the high school auditorium. Mr. Rebels, he's part of that tennis soul band. I was learning more about it today as I was talking with him. Um, so that's that's pretty cool. And then the music theory, uh, they set their spring concert for Wednesday, April 22nd at 700 p.m. Um, had several students. It's in the the report, so I don't want to waste you guys time too much. Um, it's in the in
065regards to the Buchanan Town Country art exhibit. And there's another Quad City um, festival going on right now that our students have their artwork in from the high school uh, Key Club. They had that yard sale. They raised over $2,000 um, here. I think they had it here. And then they they're also um having a prom dress giveaway uh April 2nd. So that would be next week with prom being April 25th. And I just sent out a message. Um some of you may have received it in regards to the postprom um waiver and uh t-shirt that we have parents that are putting out might. So that's pretty cool of the support. >> Great. >> Thank you. All right. So building and grounds you said. Could we Could we do the building and grounds at 6
066p.m. then on April 13th? >> I'll remember to send you I forgot to send you the reminder on Monday morning. >> Oh yeah, you got to hear it. You got to hear it. It's in there. It was in there. You got to hear it. My ringers broke my Yeah, I got problems. >> Do we need a transportation or wellness? >> Uh yes. The wellness is is required to update our wellness plan every three years. It needs to be reviewed. Um I don't know that there'll be significant changes. Um but the committee does need to meet in order to do that. Okay. That that was part of our food service review that we just completed with that that should have been reviewed last year. Our last one was in 2022 that that we did and it
067lasts for three years. >> That's uh that has a lot of teachers. >> Yeah, it has it has some other staff members as well. >> Do you need to find out from them when a good time is? >> No. the health department may attend. Um >> our food service coordinator and at least one of our nurses would need to attend that wellness is Jake. >> So what was the date on the building? >> Uh April 13. >> If since Jake and Tab are two of those members, maybe we should wait on that one. I can check with them. >> Yeah. >> Since they're neither one of them. >> You text me that >> Yeah. Because that's we we try to be considerate what our employees >> take on that. And then 11.5 negotiations. >> Yeah.
068>> Well, who's the transportation? >> Oh, we need a transportation. >> Yeah. So, transportation Jason, myself. >> So, when would be a good time to have that? >> I don't know about you. >> I can do four o'clock before the finance meeting. That would be great. Does that work for you, Jason? >> On the 13th. >> 13th of April. >> I would be coming in. >> Half hour. >> Yeah. >> You're a few minutes late. >> I'll just I'll be coming straight from about See, I'm trying to stack them all extra days, extra night. >> Well, we pay for no matter what. >> It's a flat fee out of them as possible. >> Trying to get as long a day out of it as possible. >> Okay. and the negotiations committee. These are the three
069dates that were provided uh by the MCE EA and as potential dates for our first meeting and they expect to have a proposal at that first meeting for us. Negotiations the 16th, the 20th, or the 27th. On the agenda, >> 167. I would prefer not >> No, they didn't. We we've typically we've typically met about 6:30 between 6 and 7. >> Let's do the 16th. >> 16th. You missed those Yes, that's right. >> All right. All right. So, we have finance meeting April 13th at 5:00 p.m. Building and grounds April 13th at 6 p.m. Transportation April 13th at 4 p.m. Wellness to be determined and negotiations April 16th at 6 p.m. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Salute >> brick. Nelson second. >> All those in favor say I. I >> opposed. All right.
070Motion carries 573.