001Good. He wants a education. She said she said to my right Am I talking your confidence? She really is really and I have to go to St. >> Okay. really >> I always laugh. My first time here. Oh, sure. developed significant All right, we'll stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, it is 6:30, so we'll call the special uh budget hearing uh to order. So, roll call. >> Nelson here. >> Lower >> here. >> Mson >> here. >> Smok >> here. >> Frick >> here. >> Yates >> here. >> And Bulmer. >> All right. So this is the budget hearing and what we do. The budget's
002displayed up here. Um it is uh this is just public comment. So if anybody has a comment about the budget from the public, this is your time to make a a public comment to the board. I have to make a public comment. So there will we'll adjourn this meeting and go into the regularly scheduled board meeting. So there'll be another opportunity public comments at that. So these comments should be centered around. >> So Valer Valerie Tal did you have to budget or Okay, sounds good. >> All right, seeing how there are no public comments, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. >> Public hearing. >> All right. Second. Eight seconds. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. >> All right. Motion carries. >> All right. Now we will call the regularly scheduled
003board meeting for Wednesday, September 24th to order. Roll call, please. >> Balmer, >> here. >> Lower >> here. >> Mson, >> here. >> Nelson, >> here. Smok >> here. >> Rick >> here. >> Yates >> here. >> All right. So, for public comments, uh we usually give you five minutes for public comments. Um I'll read on the back of the agenda is the uh rules for public comment. Board of Education welcomes public comment. During the public comment portion of the agenda, those who wish to address the board should state their name and limit their statement to five minutes. Comments are not restricted to items on the agenda. However, comments regarding specific student discipline cases are not allowed during open session. Generally, these type of comments should reach the board only after they've been referred to
004the teacher, principal, or administrator who is closest to the situation. If all other avenues for resolving these items have been exhausted and the issue has not been resolved, you may request to address the board usually during close session. In addition, please refrain from using derogatory comments about staff members or students at this time. So, Valerie, you can go up like I'll start a timer. >> All right, go ahead. >> Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Valerie and I come before you as a concerned parent who cares deeply about the education and wellbeing of our youngest learners. I want to pose several questions for you to consider as deliberate proposals to move and split the preschool program. My goal is not only to provide perspective
005but also to ensure that every decision made in the best interest of his children. First to those board members who voted against the move in April. What were your reasons for voting no at that time and do you believe those concerns have now been fully addressed? To all board members, have you visited the preschool during school hours to observe what takes place on the day? the care structure and learning environment these children depend on. Have you looked at the Mercer County Early Learning Center's Facebook page and seen the smiles on these children's faces as they learn and grow in a space designed specifically for them? Have you compared the classroom dimensions of the current facility with those at Apollo to fully understand what this transition would mean for classroom space and safety? Are you aware
006that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least three hours of gross motor play for children aed 3 to 5? Can you guarantee this standard will be met if the What plans do you have to ensure the safety of preschool children on playgrounds not designed for their age group? Will there be dedicated spaces for them at Apollo that meet their age appropriate safety standards? Why keep the current facility open for sport events but not for the preschool program itself? Have you personally asked the ELC teachers, the ones who work with the children every day, what they believe is best for the students? And perhaps most importantly, if this were your child, could you put a price on her safety, their early education, and the impact this decision could have on the rest of their academic
007journey? I spent a great deal of time thinking about these questions. And here's what I know. Splitting the preschool would reduce class sizes from 15 students to about 12. While that might not seem significant, it would ultimately mean many children could be turned away from preschool entirely. Those children would then enter kindergarten without the foundational knowledge and social skills preschool provides. This would place a heavier burden on teachers and could impact students across all grade levels for years to come. There is a 300 square foot deficit between some of the classroom currently in use and the ones being proposed at Apollo, raising concerns about adequate space for learning and play. The so-called open rooms at Apollo are in fact currently being used for special education students, further complicating the issue. So, I leave you with
008one final question, one that I hope resonates above all else. What if this were your child? At the heart of this discussion, this discussion are not buildings, budgets, or logistics. the children. Every choice you make will shape the earliest memory of school, their safety, and their readiness for the future. So, I ask you before you cast your vote to picture your own child at 3 to four years old, would you settle for less than what is best for them? Because our children deserve nothing less. Thank you for your time, your attention, and for considering the voices of parents who care about the future of our children. >> Thank you. >> No more public comments. Is there any board We did not have any correspondence. Item five, approval of consent agenda. Anyone have anything in the
009consent agenda that they would like pulled out for consideration? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve. >> Yates moves. Frick seconds. Roll call, please. >> Balmer, >> yes. >> Lower, >> yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> Smok, >> yes. >> Frick, >> yes. Yates. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 70. Item six, committee reports, finance committee. Um, Jason, you were at the finance committee. We uh, is there anything else you wanted to touch on that was not listed on the board agenda? Is there anything you took from it that you'd like to know? >> One thing is that the transit All right. And that is in our action items. So we'll discuss that later as well. Um and we're going to be approving the FY26 budget. So that was discussed
010at length. And then guidance on the building projects as well. Building and grounds. Was there anything Um you guys discuss the healthy safety at the high school. Um you got cost update on the on the previously approved design. What >> we want to we looked at classroom analysis and we know we have to get an updated cost on the building design that we had previously approved. >> Yep. >> And we also wanted to utilize that classroom analysis to see what a small footprint would look like costwise. So based on that classroom analysis go one way or the other but you're getting one as well as >> awesome and it looks like we'll touch on that too and discuss a little bit more um so did say so we have not obtained the updated cost yet
011that's just looking perfect >> okay great and then uh 6.3 three transportation committee we met um we discussed routes um looking at better ways to become more efficient um and then also looked at our fleet management and how we want to that's one of the transit band is one of those items that we came up and then took to the finance committee um so we went through those items as well to discuss those um I Okay, that was pretty much it for the transportation committee tab. You didn't have anything else, did you? >> No. >> Perfect. All right. Item number seven, FOYA request. There were none. That's good. Academic improvement planning. Share this. [Music] Apologize. All right. So Mr. Smith is gonna help talk through. We're looking at the the math curriculum and so I'm
012gonna have come in discuss a little bit. This is the team that's a part of that. >> Uh yeah. So at the beginning of the year, uh Mr. forgot uh I think there's six of us from the elementaryaries, the junior high staff and then some of the high school staff together uh to review and look at the current math curriculum that we have across all the different uh buildings. Uh so we've been meeting every Wednesday essentially from the beginning of the school year. Um we first started to look at uh what we all currently have uh and then starting to then analyze different potential curriculums that we could then uh start to pilot uh hopefully coming up here pretty soon. Uh so we used Ed reports. Ed reports is a nonprofit that uses uh thousands
013of different teachers to go through and review under uh strict standards. Um and so uh we use that kind of as a benchmark look that they give score reports on different categories. Uh so uh once the uh for us and the the meeting we we suggested different curriculum and then we kind of used the ed reports to kind of narrow that down uh looking at the ones that were all pretty much hundreds across the board. Um so this kind of displays some of that stuff. Uh and Um so then once we were there we the team then uh voted on which ones we wanted to then continue to look at and uh discuss further. Uh so we've kind of narrowed it down to where each kind of uh grade being of K five 68 and
014then the high school each has um some different ones that we voted on uh with the goal that Mr. for was reaching out to these different places to get materials sent in to us so that we could then look it over and then determine as a group and as a team of which ones we actually wanted to pilot uh to then be able to hopefully pilot some of that stuff here in the next couple months. Uh with then the hope in mind that either if we find something that is uh that we feel is amazing and great then we would then come to the board and recommend that. Um or if uh we have the potential that we feel like we find anything amazing and great that we may continue with what we are doing
015as well. It just kind of depending on how it went. Uh but we I think I think the goal of mine is to continue to try to look to see how we can improve and get better. Uh but also know what we're doing is working as well. So just um trying to get the math groups together and talk and have conversations amongst especially I think at the elementary level but the distance to get them together to talk and uh try to have some um discussions across the board about that. I don't know. So some of them are just like like I read is just K through eight. So then we'd have to get something else for the high school >> potentially but uh so some of the the things that we have found and looked
016at whenever we look like some curriculum hasn't been reviewed by ED reports before. So like um or some have have a high school curriculum but that part hasn't been reviewed and so you can send in the request for ed reports to go through and do that review. Um, and so we kind of went under the assumption like there are some of them that do have a high school curriculum and if they're kind of hundreds across the board K8 that we assume that that would probably be the general case for the high school as well, but not always. Um, we also discussed that some curriculums that we know they may cater to the elementary, but then they tack on junior high because they can make more money off of it. So, we are trying to look
017at a lot of different avenues How do we do two different ones? >> We've talked about either doing it as in a K12, a K8, and then high school or in the buckets of elementary, junior high, and high school, which is kind of where we're at right now. But there's a lot of different things at the elementary. So, I think that's the big old narrow it down to maybe just one. So, I like the current junior high one, I know, hasn't been reviewed by court. like that one they said couldn't have. But >> uh yeah, I think the next time we're supposed to meet is October 8th. Hopefully we get the materials in and we're supposed to kind of discuss and figure out who's going to pilot what and then hopefully during November, December, we
018can pilot as much as we can. I do know that some members of the group have discussed concern of the how quick the piling is of when we did the review I think it was four or five years ago we reviewed for almost an entire year uh and not with the current uh dates it's 32 days school days so there are some of us that are a little worried about that aspect of doing it too quickly and just trying to hurry up and pick something that may not be what's best for us long term So that has also been discussed in our meetings as well. >> Thank you so much. Members have any questions for Mr. Smith. Moving on to the high school renovation plan. Um this is what Jake was talking about. touched on
019uh projected classroom analysis. Looks like that's what you were doing here, right? That's the >> Yep. The only thing that we really that I didn't mention before was the classroom analysis just came up with us maybe having an opportunity for four less classrooms and scheduling to accommodate that and see what that would do to the overall cost of the project. >> And the health life safety, where do we stand with that? Is that is the architect still coming to review? >> Yeah. And then that'll kind of flow with the project as well. >> Perfect. >> All right. Any questions about the high school renovation plan? >> All right. 7.4 four dedicated SRO, junior high, Apollo. Um I know that uh we're still investigating. Um we have active agreements with City of Alto, City of Boston
020and the M Sheriff's Department. We have active CRO at the New Boston Elementary and then we have an Alo SRO that kind of bounces. Um so the uh Mercer County Sheriff's Department is continuing to work to try to us find an SRO uh placement would either be junior high high school or junior high Apollo or the high school and then uh cost would be approximately $7,000. Does anybody have any questions about the dedicated SRO? We're still in uh discussions with first county sheriff's department. >> So does that mean officer would stay at one location? Yeah, you'd have one one for it. >> All right. >> You do? >> All right. On to item number eight. Action items. FY26 budget. So um that was in everyone's uh packet. It's also been posted on the website. It
021shows um the uh ED fund revenue expenses, building building fund revenue and expenses all of them there. Anybody have any questions about the FY26 budget? Is there anything in particular at the finance meeting that came out of it? >> Just the just the deficit I mean there's an overall deficit majority of it. >> Yeah, it looks like it's a three million 3.4 million deficit total. >> And these budgets are living documents. They get adjusted throughout the year as things come in. But uh revenue from a from our property tax standpoint is pretty well set. We know what that is. The state revenue fluctuate. >> I would entertain a motion to approve the FY26 budget as presented. Approve that budget. Moves. Yates. Second. Roll call, please. Lower. >> Yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >>
022yes. >> Smack, >> yes. >> Frick, >> yes. >> Gates, >> yes. >> B, >> yes. >> Motion carries 8.2 action on FY27 Creek area. I'm sorry. school year FY27 preK placement. So the recommendation is that we move them back to the elementary schools. Entertain a motion to move them back to the elementary seconds. Any discussion? >> Is that building done by that time? >> We voted a year ago for that to be moved in. >> Roll call, please. >> What is the motion? >> To move the ele the precase back to the elementary school. Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> no. >> Smok, >> yes. >> Brick, >> yes. >> Yates, >> yes. >> Balmer, >> yes. >> Lower, >> yes. >> All right. Motion carry 61. Action on tenative 20 25 school tax
023levy. So, um, based on a of 9.32% um looking at a tax levy of 13 million $337,079. Um these are all projections. What we end up asking the uh county for are those total extension dollars. We actually ask them for a dollar amount. So if the levy goes up or down that affects the rate of what rate that we get but we can't get more than that in the fun 7 million 453,000 we can't get more than that because that's what we're asking for. If the u the levy is or I'm sorry if the EAV is lower than the 9.32% we would get less than 7.4 million. So, um, anyone have any questions? Any of the board members have any questions on the FY25 school tax levy? >> So, as my understand >> that is
024correct. So, we'll have a truth. Is that right? >> In Rock Island County, it's very for the two properties that we have there. % >> they they seem to have they do it differently than we do here. >> So I would entertain a motion to approve the tenative 2025 tax levy. moves. Is there a second? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> Smok, >> yes. >> Frick, >> yes. >> Yates, >> Balmer, >> yes. >> Lower, >> yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> All right. approve 8.4 for transit purchase. Um, so we qualify for a clean air rebate if we get the purchase done by September 30th. Um, so it looks like it's a 20 is it the 2023? >> Yes. >> 38,000. A brand new or sorry, a used 2020. Same
025similar model was uh was 43,990. So, we're getting this uh brand new zero miles transit van for $38,500 after the rebate. Does anybody have any questions about the purchase of this? I would say the driver activity buses. I really like these style. >> I would entertain a motion to approve the purchase of the board transit. Second, roll call, please. Smok, >> yes. >> Frick, >> yes. >> Yates, >> yes. >> Balmer, >> yes. >> Lower, >> yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> Carry 70. Administrative reports. All right. Apollo, you have anything to add? >> Um, just that I'd like to do the district and community stuff down there and then make sure you take a look at the pictures. Um, our kindness club met for the first time again this this
026year on September 15th. We continue to get a ton of community support for that and so it's been great to spread kindness through all the schools in the district. So I know we've got some good projects that I think we had between 70 and 80 kids stay after school the other day for that kind of so that's a great thing for our building. Uh we were thankful we got awarded the MCE grant for $5,000. So, in those in this word packet, you can see those pictures. We're able to upgrade our patio area, which since I got here, we really haven't been able to utilize very much, but now we got classrooms, eat lunch out there, class out there, especially now since the weather's been so nice. We have shared tables and everything. So, that has
027been great. Um, we did at the beginning of the year received a ton of school supplies, book bags, crayons, markers, that kind of stuff for kids, kids in need from Walmart and other So, we appreciate that stuff as well, too. Get get donations. >> There's the There's the pictures. Was it quick getting them up? That looks really nice. That space is awesome. And then you'd mentioned something about some landscaping. Was that in there, too? >> Where I had to in order for the tables to Yes. I had to trim some trees. >> It was getting a little overgrown. And then the $500, was that from the BFW? >> Yes. >> Had a didn't say who, but >> I know Boston had it in there. So, that's that's nice. >> That's for Milton. >> Community support.
028>> Thank you. And then ELC is there. >> Yeah. Something I didn't put on here, I have a picture, but we have um some new technology in our classroom. It's an imagination station. The ROE got a grant. So, we're just kind of having each class use it for about a month and then moving it to the next classroom. But, it's a really neat sand table and you can also project it as virtual reality and the kids absolutely love it. So, that's something new um we have in our classrooms. And then our preschool PD day was really amazing at the ROE. Um there were speakers that talked about um it well the title of the PD was building calm classrooms from um the ground up and the presenters really gave our staff some good ideas on
029teaching kids um self-regulation skills and they came away with some free resources and things to implement in their classroom. So it was a really good day. >> Is that the imagination station? >> Yes, it is. There's little fish that are floating around in there. They're trying to scoop up. >> It's great. All right, then the high school. >> Yep, that's me. >> Oh, there you are. >> Um, so been a busy month. Uh we are the I don't know if you guys saw on Facebook and or other media outlets when it comes to uh drivers in they had the uh sprayer come and uh kind of work with the driver's ed students in regards to what it's like to drive drive one of those. Had a simulator there. Had many many uh compliments uh community
030members anytime they saw that and they they said that was a great idea. So that was nice of Mr. Robinson and Mrs. Swanson to put that on. Um, good good news. Also, Key Club was able to get uh 20 homecoming dresses for uh students to wear for homecoming. Um, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Hayes, sorry, and Maker are working on interviews in regards to seniors and juniors. Um, to kind of plan out their futures. Um, most of you probably know there's an awesome event this last weekend, the art gala, Miss G and her people, say the art collective put on uh there at the uh at the opera house and also the walk I heard was great too. Um, and so that's something that I'm definitely looking forward to next year. Um the staff staffing wise we're
031trying to implement use the star um assessment uh tool in re R renaissance to um change where students are at benchmark wise uh homecoming. If you haven't heard homecomings this week uh big game on Friday uh today was meme day and so we had it's amazing to see all the people's interpretation on and for the most part I don't know if there's teachers in here but um It was most part appropriate and not mostly funny and so that was good to see. Um in in that in that regards uh it's one of those one of those for us it's not usual for us to have to tell a guy hey you need to lower your source down a little bit because his output was a little little we brief and it was uh that was
032taken care of. Um, so then we have the dance over there at the fairgrounds on on Saturday 8 to 11. You guys are welcome to stop by if you want to. Um, should be a a good time. Mr. Roles says has that awesome organizational ability and with the student council and getting that a lot of hard work has been put in for that. Um, great great maners is doing their 5K hopefully in the spring sometime um instead of what it was previously posted for October. So that's that's hopefully being postponed and we'll be doing that in the spring. Um hopefully more people and that allows I said coach Mel at least myself more training in regards to getting ready for that 5K. Um we we are working with the junior high and scheduling the um
033titles tower on October 23rd um with the amount of slots that we have amount of students we're going to take. Uh we're seeing that as a reward type of a selection uh who's get who gets to go from the high school point of view. And then we're also trying to uh plan a veterans day celebration that we would like to invite the community to on that Monday, November 10th because the 11th apparently the veterans are are busy with a parade here in Alto at 11 and then the new Boston celebration too like at 2:00 in the afternoon I believe. And so that's why we push it to the 10th um there at the high school gym. Um for the most part that's that's all we have. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Mr. CDM.
034Junior High. >> Yeah. Um, I just want to kind of give a shout out to some of my staff kind of just going above and beyond and creating opportunities for students. Um, we have always had students senate. Few years ago, we added hope squad and that's been a huge culture builder for our building. What they've been able to do. Uh, last year, a couple years ago, we added like a chess club after school that involves a ton of kids. I had another teacher approach this year about creating So, it's just opportunities for kids to get in our building and work together and do some fun stuff. Not just Ming. So, uh you don't see that a lot of junior high. So, shout out to my staff doing a great job. Thank you. Well, I'm going
035to share a couple pictures that she had. They uh they had a dedication or a little opening for the playground. So, all got a little streamers on here. The adults picked it up. So, we clean up for them. So, kids really loved it. They enjoyed it. And I think the the overall playground is supposed to be completed. They still had some like astro turf to lay down and it's supposed to be done by the end of October, right? I think that's I saw that somewhere. It's probably in her in her notes here. So, all right. Well, if there's nothing else, then I would entertain a motion to go into close session. Yates, is there a second? Palmer second. Roll call, please. >> Rick, >> yes. >> Yates, >> yes. >> Balmer, >> yes. >> Lower,
036>> yes. >> Mson, >> yes. >> Nelson, >> yes. >> Smok, >> yes. All right, we will come out of close session or we will go into close session at 7:15. So, be back at 7:15. Oh yeah. >> Got one in my car. I just forgot to grab it. Uh, this is probably a no, but I got to ask. Did Mr. Forker discuss with you at all the the groups that were that we were trying to get scheduled for the tunnels towers exhibit in October? >> An idea of the number of groups that are coming. >> Yeah, they had a meeting last night. Simpson. She's just her comment was that she hadn't