001All right we're gonna get started. I'd like to welcome everybody to the Orland School District 135 Board of Education regular meeting. Today is Monday April 13th at 6 p.m. Jill could we have a roll call please? Miss Browner? Here. Mr. Mielewski? Dr. Castingrad? Here. Mr. Morandi? Here. Ms. Peckham-Dodge? Here. Ms. Thanos? Here. Ms. Sayed? Here. Thank you. If we could all rise and say the pledge. Okay we're gonna get started with a school performance tonight. I'm going to have Dr. Nyokas and Mr. Harris introduce. Hi welcome to Suntree Junior High. Gina Nyokas, the principal here at Suntree. Tremay Harris, assistant principal. And we have the pleasure you've already heard some of our wonderful students play but I'm going to turn it over to our orchestra director Ms. Sarah Johnson-Denitz who will introduce our students. Hi
002good evening. So our quartet that we have here is called the Happy Days Quartet. They formed last year as a need for the NJHS induction in just music beforehand and I've been able to keep them going this current school year. They are going to play a tune by themselves and then I'm going to jump in kind of give you a little preview of our concert. The tune that they're going to play by themselves is Intermezzo which was their ensemble that they played its ensemble contest and received a perfect score. And then the second tune that I'm going to jump in is a sneak peek of our concert. We're going to play selections from Hamilton which will feature My Shot, Who Lives Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story and You'll Be Back. I guess I could
003do that now too. So we have Danielle, Riley, Abigail and Sarah that are performing for you today. We're going to move on now to recognition. The following junior high students who achieve perfect scores at the IGSMA solo ensemble. Annabelle DeLoya from Tree Junior High. We have Allison Dirth solo. Our next honorees are congratulations to the following students who are finalists for the for the Orland Park in Dramatic Interpretation. The ABC for encouraging my child to showcase their artistic talent. Thank you Ms. Zintak for motivating them to participate in activities. Thank you for being such a wonderful teacher to all your students and thank you for supporting them and having patience with them. The next honoree is Sharon Grassman, art teacher at High Point School, nominated for the value of inspiration by Elia Arambula. The details
004are thank you for valuing and encouraging the students' art. Thank you for continuing to create such important spaces for students to showcase their work. Thank you so much for supporting my child and thank you for all the techniques learned in class. The next honoree is Steph Kobielko, EL teacher at Park School, nominated for the value of inspiration by Elia Arambula. I would like to thank Ms. Koby for inspiring her students to achieve success and also for the excellent work she does as a teacher. My child has made great progress in reading. It brings me joy to see that my child is already starting to read. Thank you so much for your support and patience. The next honoree goes to Nancy Hauser, Park School art teacher for the value for the value of outstanding achievement nominated
005by Elia Arambula. Thank you Ms. Hauser for the wonderful work you do at Park School. Thank you for organizing more activities for the students and thank you for opening doors to allow them to showcase their art. I see how involved you are in both the school and the library. Thank you for all your hard work. The next honoree goes to Haley Sporakis, Park School first grade teacher. Haley is nominated for the value of inspiration nominated by Elia Arambula. I would like to thank Ms. Haley Sporakis for motivating and supporting my child in class. Thank you so much for helping them and all the children. I have seen a great deal of progress in my child. Thank you very much for your patience and your hard work. The next honoree goes to Tina Brown, Prairie School
006second grade teacher for the value of compassion nominated by Melissa Burabash. Ms. Brown embodies what a compassionate, kind, caring teacher is. She genuinely cares about her students, their progress and success and helping them to overcome any obstacles or fears they may have. Her classroom is warm and inviting. She keeps everyone well informed and she includes everyone. The positive impact she has on her students will last a lifetime. The next honoree goes to Kayla Fitzsimmons at Park School for the value of compassion nominated by Jim Blaishek. Our child was very anxious and nervous when starting to wear their mouth expander to school as their speech and smile would be impacted. As a result, my child didn't talk too much during the first two weeks and wore it at school. Ms. Fitzsimmons went out of her way
007to talk with my child a few times before they headed into lunch and played a few extra games with them which required them to talk and in doing so helped my child regain their confidence. We could not have asked for more. My child has developed a fantastic rapport with Ms. Fitzsimmons over the years and has looked forward to every Thursday appointment they have with her. Our next nominee is Courtney Cutt from Park School nominated by Jim Blaishek for the value of compassion. Our child was very nervous and apprehensive about wearing their oral expander to school. Ms. Cutt reassured them that they were all right and either she nor their Park friends could tell. She extended grace by allowing them to respond once they felt comfortable. She informed the Park resource team of their temporary lower
008self-esteem to help them adjust. With the help of Ms. Cutt, by the end of my child's second week wearing the expander to school, their confidence was back to their usual level. Ms. Cutt is a tremendous asset to the Park School faculty and we were very appreciative of her compassion and dedication to her Panthers. Our next honoree is Debbie Spireson from Orland Junior High. She's the secretary there. She was nominated by Salima Ellis for the value of compassion. It definitely takes a village to raise a child. As we were going through a difficult chapter with my child, Ms. Spireson ended up seeing us quite a bit. There wasn't an inkling of judgment as navigating through all of it was so emotional. Just having someone with neutral yet supportive care made all the difference. When asked who
009in the school my child feels most comfortable, they said Ms. Spireson. This is the impact that was made on my shy and reserved and anxious child who does not trust many people. It is a blessing to have an angel take a minute to be accepting and encouraging and be responsive when I cannot be there. It is so meaningful. Our next honoree is Jill Decker-Dorn from Liberty School. She's a fourth grade teacher nominated by Karina Rigg for the value of inspiration. Mrs. Dorn has been such a positive force in my child's passion for singing. She has supported and cheered them on every step of the way, always believing in them and encouraging them to keep pushing towards their dreams. It means so much to have a teacher who celebrates her students' passions beyond school. What makes
010Mrs. Dorn even more special is how she shares my child's achievements with the entire fourth grade class, creating a classroom environment full of encouragement, pride, and inspiration. We are so grateful for teachers like Mrs. Dorn who makes such a lasting difference. The next honoree is Jill Decker-Dorn. Jill's a fourth grade teacher at Liberty School, nominated for the value of inspiration, and nominated by Denise Garden. Mrs. Dorn taught fourth grade to two of our children the last few years. She is an excellent teacher and they both thrived in her class, both academically and otherwise. They both responded well to her teaching style and truly loved being in her class. Since then, she has always gone out of her way to keep in touch with them, support them, and make them laugh. We feel very blessed to
011have her in our children's lives. Next honoree is Emma Jordan. Emma is a first grade teacher at Prairie School, nominated for the value of inspiration, and nominated by Madeline Todd-Rose. Ms. Jordan sees the worth in every child, even when they struggle to see it in themselves, and she meets them with patience, understanding, and unwavering belief. Her classroom is more than a place to learn. It's a place where students feel safe, accepted, and generally cared for. She lifts her students up with words that heal, guidance that empowers, and a presence that reassures that they are never alone. Her connection with families is just as meaningful, built on trust, empathy, and sincere care that goes far beyond expectations. The impact she leaves is lasting. She shapes confidence, inspires hope, and reminds everyone she touches that they matter.
012Next honoree is Bridget Duckhorn. Bridget is a third grade teacher at Liberty School, nominated for the value of outstanding achievement, nominated by Xavier Kinyu Chambers-McLloyd. Ms. Duckhorn has shown genuine care and compassion towards our child in ways that go far beyond academics. She creates a safe, nurturing environment where a child feels seen, heard, and valued. In moments when extra patience was needed, she responded with understanding. When encouragement was required, she gave it freely. Because of her, our child feels confident, supported, and excited to learn. Your cheeks hurt after smiling for that long. Congratulations to everybody for their recognitions and awards tonight. We're going to move on to board member comments. Does anyone have anything they'd like to talk about at this part of the meeting? Go ahead. I have two quick things. One is, April
013is Arab American Heritage Month, and April 19th through the 25th is library week. Okay, so our library, the Orland Park Library has, if you come in and you share something about the library that brings you joy, you can be entered to win gift baskets. Aisha, what was the first thing that you had said? Arab American Heritage Month, April. Thank you. Thank you for the feedback because I know that you're one of our liaisons for the library, so that's fun. I'll have to go see if I can win a basket. All right, nobody else tonight? No? All right, we're gonna, we do not have anybody signed up for public comments, so we're going to keep it moving to the superintendent's report. All right, we, the district has a proclamation for Teacher Appreciation Week, which is May
0144th through the 8th and a few weeks down the road, so our board or vice president, Dr. Kaspergen, will share something, but before he does, I just want to thank all our teachers as well as our entire staff for making this a very successful year. I, not to slight any teacher with a license, but I believe every adult in a building is a teacher because they're teaching students something good or maybe something they need to work on, but definitely our teachers who really make our students the best they can be, not just academically but as people, so I'll turn it over to Dr. Kaspergen from here. So the proclamation reads, whereas Orland School District 135 duly recognizes and supports each of its nearly 475 teachers responsible for shaping the minds of over 5,000 students, ensuring
015every child's equal opportunity for success through education, and whereas District 135 teachers spend countless hours preparing lessons, creating safe and welcoming classroom environments, building partnerships with families and communities, and collaborating with colleagues to continuously hone and refine their craft, and whereas District 135 teachers go above and beyond the call of duty to fill many roles, including mentor, role model, coach, and motivator, and whereas District 135 teachers foster a positive environment that empowers students to be prepared for success beyond the classroom, and whereas District 135 teachers engage students in rigorous and impactful teaching and learning, demonstrating an eagerness to see each student thrive, and whereas District 135 teachers encourage, inspire, and foster happiness with our students with remarkable devotion that embodies the very best of the school district. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Board
016of Education of Orland School District 135 proclaims May 4th through 8th, 2026 to be Teacher Appreciation Week, and be it further resolved that this Board of Education encourages all members of our community to recognize and express appreciation to our teachers for their heartfelt diligence and dedication to the children of Orland School District 135. Okay, as a reminder, our summer camp registrations will begin roughly in a couple weeks, but an email will be going out to all our families about that, but just a heads up that in a couple weeks it should, that process should be available to all our families. And as a reminder, June 1st, Monday, June 1st, I believe is the last day of school, and it is a PL day, Professional Learning Day, so students will be getting out early on that
017day. Our graduation dates, and I know these have been out for quite a while, Saturday, May 30th will be at the Sandburg High School football field with Century leading off at 10 a.m. followed by Orland Junior High at 1 p.m. and Jerling at 4 p.m. Just as a reminder of what a rain date is, so if it rains on Saturday, May 30th, we do not go indoors. The graduation gets postponed until Sunday. If by chance it rains again on Sunday, then there will be most likely the possibility of hopefully not postponing again, but moving indoor on Sunday, but there has been some confusion in the past. I think we had one rain date a couple years ago. If it rains on Saturday, it gets moved to Sunday. We do not go indoor on Saturday. The
018reason we do that is we try to have as many family members that want to attend, that can attend, do attend, even though we also do live stream it. We have not had a situation where we had to go indoor, which will be very challenging for our building grounds department and everybody associated with that, so let's just hope it rains one day, it won't rain the next day, but that is the process for graduation. Next to our favorite thing to do here is our school updates. Centennial had their second grade variety show, which they have done this for multiple years. As you can see, their theme was back to the 80s, and they performed a lot of different things for students and staff during their variety show. I think that person in the middle there
019is from a very old movie called Say Anything, and if you haven't seen it, it is worth seeing. Center had some good recess behavior awards. They had a minute to win it challenge with staff, and let's just see if we can get a little glimpse of this. There was some excitement. There was definitely some excitement on that video, and also thanks to the PFE for sponsoring the boys dance with their moms. As you can see, there was quite a few there. Park had their buddy bingo, and they had quite a few prizes from what I understand, and the kindergarten spring musical is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I believe that was a past picture just to give you a preview on what that looks like. Prairie had healing heart therapy dogs. They
020had a readathon, so this was a incentive for those that met certain goals. As you can see down below, the therapy dog was pretty busy there at the bottom three pictures, and they had principles for the day at those top two pictures, so we did explain to them the importance of IAR, and if they don't meet certain categories, they were going to get fired, but they won't know that until next, until October, so, but they understood their responsibility. High point highlights, they had a night of the arts recognition, and had some fun doing that, and they had a McTeacher's night as well as a fundraiser where staff manned a local McDonald's. As you can see on the top right hand corner there, there's some enthusiasm there for a McTeacher's night, and they also picked their
021student yearbook cover, as you can see on the bottom left hand corner. Liberty students dove into research on endangered animals, and that was for students and for families to participate in that presentation, and the Patriot cheer team performed Shake It Off to kind of knock those jitters out for IAR, and I think we have a few seconds of that as well. All right, great job by the cheer team. Meadow Ridge hosted a successful family fun night, they had trivia, they had a magic show, and they had a kickoff assembly video for their students that was done by staff and family members, so this is, I'm not going to show this entire video, it's pretty lengthy, so I'll give you a few seconds of what this video looked like. Hello, My Own Lines, I'm so excited
022about our upcoming IAR testing. You all worked incredibly hard, and now it's your time to shine. I thought I'd reach out to some friends and wish you the best of luck. Man, you guys are some smart cookies. Good luck Meadow Ridgers. Keep going, inspired by Edgar Guest. When the questions seem all uphill, and you want to sigh, just use your skill. Rest if you must, but don't you quit. You are worthy of winning every bit. The goal is nearer than it seems. Keep moving toward your highest dreams. Good luck Meadow Ridge, you've got this. Hi Mountain Lines. Good luck on your IAR testing. We're so proud of you. You got this. Give me an I. I. A. A. Good luck on your testing Meadow Ridge, you're going to do great. Good luck with IAR Meadow
023Ridge. From DZ. Good luck Meadow Ridge, you got this. So really, I want to end it on the dog because you really couldn't beat that, so I'm safe to say this is probably available on the Meadow Ridge webpage or on their Instagram, so if you want to watch the whole three plus minute one, that's definitely available, and Century had their Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical, and they also raised over $10,000 for Hoops for Hearts for American Heart Association, which they were told was tops in the region, so congratulations to Century for raising over $10,000. And not to be outdone, Jerling also raised over $10,000 on their St. Bolivar's Day to help fight to conquer childhood cancer, and you can see on the bottom left-hand corner, a large group of people participated in getting their
024head shaved, and I believe Dr. Snyder participated as well. And then they had their performance of Shrek, as you can see on the bottom right, and Orland Jr. Hyde inducted 47 new NJHS members, and they also recognized some students as EL Ambassadors for supporting the district's newcomers, and there was a party for the band, orchestra, and choir students as well, so that's just some of the things that are going on in our district, and thanks to all our administration students and staff for creating a lot of fun in our buildings. And that, let's see what else I have, and we had seven FOIA requests, and four have been completed, but we had FOIAs on salary reports, the high point landscaping bid, professional learning development contracts, district leadership contacts, purchase data, account reference lists, and email
025records, so probably five out of seven of these were commercial requests, and that's all I have. Well, thank you, John. We're going to move on to finance and operations with our committee administrative reports. Is that you, Mr. Brannick? Are you starting that up? Oh, let me get to that one here. All right, so over the past several years, and our long-term plan is to gradually replace all of our analog, isolated systems. Two years ago, we did our door access swipes and our security cameras. The next that was up on the agenda was our clocks and intercoms, and then also our lock down notification, lock down buttons. And then down the road, we're also looking at potentially replacing physical keys for interior door access. We've got the exteriors, and down the road, we'd like to hit
026the interior doors as well. Why we're talking about this now is, if you go to the next slide, our intercom system and our wave system both have had reliability issues. We were notified in November that our intercom systems that are in all of our 10 buildings are end of life, and they're actually stopping making parts this next January. And so at that point, they become hard to maintain, and we even have trouble finding vendors. And then obviously with our emergency alert buttons, we've experienced some issues with those, and we wanted to make that a priority to get those updated as well. So what this upgrade will do, we'll replace the clocks and the audio intercom system in all of our classrooms, in all of our buildings. And one of the things that this wall to
027do is integrate with the rest of our systems. So right now, every intercom is isolated in its building, and we've tried to integrate it with different platforms, but it's a 25-year-old system. So with the system, the single-wire Informacast software solution, it's really a software solution which we can integrate with just about anything else. And so in the event of a lockdown, all of our clocks would display lockdowns. There's visual alerts as well. So whether it's an orchestra room during the day that, you know, when announcements goes, the instruments are kind of playing over the announcements, it'll give, it has that strobe on it which will alert the class that there is an announcement. Or in the event of a lockdown, all of the clocks will act as strobe lights as well. The other thing it
028allows us to do is to have district-wide paging. So for example, if it's after school, 4 o'clock, 4.30, and our buildings are full of people but our offices aren't, and say there's a tornado warning or watch, we can, from district office or certain administrators, we'll be able to just set out that announcement district-wide to all of our buildings when there isn't somebody in the office to forward that message on. All right. And so our project phases on this would be two phases. First, we'd integrate the software solution. So that would help us tie in all of our systems together. And then over the course of the next year, starting this summer, but then over the course of the next year, get into all of our buildings, actually switch out the clocks and the endpoint hardware.
029One of the things in working with B&G on this is we tried to minimize the cost of this. The biggest expense when you're replacing network-based equipment versus just speakers is running network wiring. And working with our vendors, we've identified that we have a lot of network wiring in our classrooms that we're no longer using because we don't have computers sitting in our classrooms. And so we are going to repurpose that wiring, which is going to significantly bring down the cost of this project. Walked through the district the other day and just about every classroom has wiring that we could use. So again, try to minimize the cost of this. Working with B&G and some preliminary estimates, we believe this is probably going to cost about 1.5 million district-wide for the whole project. Are there any
030questions? So I have a couple actually. So I guess one question, when you're doing this, you're going to be doing kind of a rolling installation of this through the school year. Is it going to be an issue if you have a building that half the rooms have the new intercoms and half of them don't? No. And so with the software, we've worked with one of our vendors and it's actually a company that we work with now. And we actually use Informacast in other areas of the district now. So when we convert all the software over, we will be able to pump that audio through the current intercom systems. So in the classrooms, if it takes two weeks second shift to work through the switch out at that building, you will have some classrooms with the
031old intercom speakers and some with the new. The principal, whoever is making the announcement will be able to make the announcement on the new software and it'll go through the old hardware. So the other question I have is, and you know, I'm glad you're bringing this to our attention. It looks like you've done your due diligence on this, tried to reduce the costs. The concern I have is just, you know, this obviously needs to get done. I know Mr. Brannick presented the financial projections a few months ago and it looked like in the out years, you know, the fund balance numbers were getting pretty low. And like this was a one and a half million dollars expense we weren't really planning on, but we've got to do it. I mean, I think as a board,
032we need to start doing some planning on how much money are we going to have for capital improvements next year and start planning that. Cause I mean that we've got to start that discussion fairly early, you know, to give buildings and grounds enough time to talk to the architect and just to make a plan. I guess my question would be when should we start having those discussions? We always have a draft or preliminary document to look to have these things outlined year after year. And we can share that possibly. We can do that probably as soon as June and start laying that out. Hopefully in May we're going to provide a strategic plan yearly annual update. So we'll focus on that and then we can definitely share where we're at as far as our long-term
033plan is for our capital projects as well. But it is constantly a working document that is continually updated. I know Ted's involved in it, Scott's involved in it, really all the primary directors and Dave and everyone else is always involved in kind of what we're at. Cause nothing is, I would say set in stone cause we do, we will make adjustments. This project may cause it is a project that is necessary. It may push something else down the road that not saying it's less important, it's just not, it's just more critical to make sure that we have our communications within our buildings ready to go and operating at the best of its capabilities. So we can definitely share something in June on where we're at with that. Yeah. And I would agree. This has to
034take priority. It's just, I can see we may need to make a value judgment here of, you know, what's our comfort level on fund balance versus getting these projects done and we're going to have to make a decision. We have the 143rd street project and we'll have more information. We're going to be fairly confident in providing information at the main meeting on where we're at because that is also a unplanned expense that we're going to have to navigate. But hopefully in the long run it's, it'll be best for not the community as well as our park school. So we'll have a lot more information on that. We've had some discussions with Brian Fogarty and I know he's had discussions with his staff. So we feel like in May we'll have some information to present to
035the board and kind of which direction we'll go. I have a question or a suggestion in the research that we're doing for, you know, all of the strategic planning capital projects and all of that. Are we using AI or looking at the capabilities of cost savings through AI? Do we have that capability here in this district? I'm just asking because in the operations in where I work it's, there's the cost savings is astronomical of using that. So I'm just wondering if you're still... As reliable AI products come on the market we want to position ourselves to be ready for those. And so taking these analog systems, for example, with our exterior door access and security cameras two years ago, that system that ran the door swipes was based off of one computer and the application
036itself was probably about 15 to 20 years old. So if somebody, if HR inactivated somebody there still had to be somebody to go to that computer in B and G and then manually deactivate it. By having all of these systems kind of integrate and talk to each other, right now as it is, if HR deactivates somebody in our software, right now it's Skyward, that will automatically trigger their swipe not to work. It will also automatically trigger, you know, when it's a process that goes off twice a day it'll automatically disable their Google and district accounts, right? So we are looking into what AI can do for us and we do have AI platforms already and some of our security enhancements that we have, the layers of security, we do have AI identifying certain things and
037notifying us of that. And with those, that system also ties in to the Informacast. So previously if we had gotten an alert about something that was concerning to us, it had to go to a person and then a person would have to go and activate a lockdown. With the new Intercom system, that Informacast speaks directly with that other software program that uses AI to identify certain things and then would send the buildings directly into lockdown without any individual having to press or read a text or so forth. So, all right. Good evening board. Our annual renewal for stop loss, that is our catastrophic insurance coverage that we have. Being self-funded, you pick a specific dollar amount to ensure that the district isn't at risk of a catastrophic event of having many, many employees or claimants
038go through that threshold without some sort of security on it. We did look at the 160, 170, and 180,000 as far as that set limit. At the 170 and 180, if you went up to that, our claims would still eat into the cost savings of those particular policies at 170 and 180. 160 is the best price point and the best threshold for the district based upon our current claimants who are hitting those levels. Last year we had four claimants that went through 160, 170, and 180. They're still on our insurance. They're going to go through next year. Those set dollar amounts on it. So, at the 160 threshold we did go out and seek five different vendors to see what their pricing was. At the renewals ranged from 3.6 all the way up to 19.9
039percent. Our current provider who is Berkeley Stealth came in at 3.6 percent increase over expiring premium, roughly $47,000 more than the previous year. The recommendation is to renew with Berkeley Stealth for the upcoming school year on it. It is on the agenda for approval later tonight on it. A 3.6 percent increase on it I think is pretty favorable when it comes to stop loss, especially with having some pretty severe claimants racking up some pretty high claims. Really Scott, we're getting insurance to protect ourselves from catastrophic claims. Correct. If you didn't have it, everybody that's on the insurance, no one would insure us on that. So, this puts a set limit where we know that even if we had a horrible, horrible year of our employees using the insurance and having very high claims, we know
040what that dollar amount is. We're protected. If you didn't have a stop loss, we wouldn't get insurance on it, but then we would not know what that level would be potentially. It could be detrimental to the district that you wouldn't have any protection. So, you layer it in just so that you have that assurance that you can only hit a certain max. It's to protect the district. It's also required, right? It's required by people across the, yeah, okay. Correct. Did anyone have any questions? No. Scott, was that all from the finance tonight? Was that it? That is it. Thank you. All right, we're going to keep moving. Teaching and Learning and Technology. Good evening. I'm going to just share a little information about the Consolidated District Plan. The Consolidated District Plan is part of our
041requirements for our application for all of our federal grants. We have several title grants. We have Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV. All of those grants fall under the Consolidated Plan that we complete for our funding. Title I focuses on our students who are at risk. We receive funding in Title I based on our low income percent at each school, and then that money is directly allocated towards supporting students and staff that fall within the at-risk category, so staff that work with students who are at risk, resources and materials for students who are at risk. To be considered at risk, there's various things, students who are to fall under free and reduced lunch, students who are in any type of intervention, receiving math intervention, reading intervention, social-emotional support, students who are maybe
042struggling with attendance. They would, they can receive interventions, and all of that can come from our Title I funding. Title II really focuses on professional development for our teachers. Title III is our grant that is used to support our English language learners and their English acquisition. Title IV is kind of our, I like to call it our fund grant because it's for our well-rounded education, so we use that for PBIS. We use that to support enrichment, field trips, STEM, and makerspace things within our schools. This year, one of the past couple years, we've used Title IV for enrichment students in fifth grade to go to the Challenger exhibit or the Challenger field trip, so we get to do a lot of things with Title IV. Then also under federal grants are the special education grants,
043so there are three areas for special education grants. The IDEA flow through, coordinated early intervention services, and the IDEA preschool grant. So what we need to do, the Department of Teaching and Learning, we collaborate together and have to write the consolidated district plan, which is basically our application before we're able to write our budgets for all of these grants. So we work to get feedback and ideas from different members of our community. Last week at our teaching and learning board advisory committee, we got feedback from members of that committee on areas that they would like to see some of the funding for any of these grants have a focus. We are, we work with our bilingual parent advisory committee, the BPAC, also the special education advisory committee, the CPAC, to get feedback and ideas from
044the community for these grants. We also attend parent meetings, so throughout the next two months, I'll be going to some of our PFE meetings to just talk about what the title funding is and get some ideas, and I'll continue that into next year. So we get all of this feedback together and we write the consolidated plan, which once that is ready, it'll come to you as a board and to be voted on in May. And then after it's approved by you, then we submit it to the Illinois State Board of Education, and from there we are able to start writing our grants for the next school year, for the fiscal year 27. So it's a lot of, it's a long process, but it's really, the big piece of it is making sure that we're getting
045community, staff, parent feedback on areas that we can use the federal funding for, and then we write that into the grant to be part of our budget with those grants. Do you have any questions? Just out of curiosity, are we going to talk about the Innovator Expo at all? Are we going to talk about the Innovator Expo at all? Sure. I know it was shared at all of the committee meetings over the past two weeks, but the Innovator Expo is tomorrow here at Century. Starting at six o'clock, you have t-shirts. Those, that t-shirt was designed by a student in the district. It's a really exciting event. It's all centered around students who are, you know, sharing the innovative things that they're doing in their classroom. Most, a lot of it involves various types of technology
046that the students are using in innovative ways, but it's not all technology-based. We have, it's a district-wide, so we have students from kindergarten all the way through eighth grade. We have students who are in our EL program, our self-contained special education program across the whole district, so it's really a very fun, exciting event, so we welcome everybody to come. Feel free to wear your t-shirts and walk around. It's very much like a gallery, so gallery walk across the building, so you just kind of go, the students are there to share and talk about what they're doing. We moved it here for this year. Last year it was at High Point, and we just needed more space because it was so well attended last year. Yeah, I remember how you guys said you may reconfigure the
047layout because I know you used the two gym spaces at High Point, but then thought you might, did you, are you guys just using the gym spaces here? Did you overflow into the hallway? We did, yeah, we did an overflow just because we had close to a thousand people come through last year. Yeah, it was very loud. We have 35 different booths, but with each booth is three to six students plus the teachers, so we'll use this gym. We're using the commons, the foyer, and the media center so that it's a little bit more spaced out. That was one of the things we heard last year was that it was just really, really crowded and sometimes hard to hear, but we weren't expecting that many people. I heard that guests this year get to play
048bingo again, but there's not just stem prizes for the kids, that there were maybe gift cards for the adults, because I'll have you know I did get bingo last year. But no, I'm excited, so that's fun. Yeah, we have prizes with bingo sheets to encourage everybody to walk around and check out everything, and it's a really fun, exciting evening for our community. Thank you, thank you for bringing that up. Did anyone have any questions about the consolidated plan though before we move on? All right, was there anything else to report from, are we good to keep going? All right, so next we have the school community and policy committee update. Who's that? Okay, all right. Are you guys sending signals? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll go ahead. Did you want to start or did you want
049to? There is not a slide for this, we were just going to provide an update for everybody tonight. Mrs. Stainos, would you like to go ahead or I can give a quick rundown of what we talked about? Well sure, I did want to share with the board. We had a very, great, a great conversation in the committee. So the one thing that we did talk extensively about is celebrating holidays, different holidays in the district. And as it's a sensitive topic, I was really, really proud of the conversation that we had. It was very open, everybody contributed, we had two parents, speakers who respectfully broke the ice and came in. And basically, you know, everybody was basically on the same page. There were no disagreements on our committee and with the parents and everybody. We talked
050about, you know, different holidays and the student base and just how, you know, the district's challenges that we as a district can't promote holiday religious celebrations and we can't suppress them either. And we talked about some, you know, updated laws that came through that haven't really been looked at, so we didn't really talk extensively about that. But just to kind of sum all of that up, the consensus of the committee was they want our help. They want our help as a board to create a policy to allow for clear guidance of rules that is consistent across all 10 schools. They thought that would really help to be consistent and clarify the do's and the don'ts. So I just would like to kind of run this by everybody here on the board to see if we
051could propose, or I would like to propose a future agenda item for us to move forward and just create and improve the policies that we already have relating to this topic. So what, any ideas how we can do something like that? Or do you agree we can improve our policy on these topics in any way? Oh, go ahead, Alan. So, I mean, I think it's something we'd have to tread very carefully on just because it's tricky ground, you know, just legally. And I think the other thing that we need to keep in mind is, you know, there's an aspect of, you know, celebrating holidays, and there's an aspect of being cognizant of what's going on in our students' lives that may impact, you know, their day at school. I mean, the thing that comes to
052mind in particular is during Ramadan, we have kids who are fasting, and, you know, that has an impact on them in the day. And, you know, they're practicing their religion, they're going to be fasting. And, you know, it's one of the things we need to do is be cognizant of that. I mean, it's not so much celebrating a holiday as just keeping in mind that we have to meet the students where they are and make sure we meet their needs. Like, you probably don't want to have a bunch of kids who are fasting that have to be in the lunchroom with everybody eating. That'd be really unpleasant for them. You know, it's that kind of thing. So I think it's just keeping in mind there are two aspects of this. There's the holiday, and then
053there's the making sure we're caring for the kids, you know, based on what else is going on in their lives. Yeah, and that's a really good point, because that's kind of what we talked about is how we can be more accommodating, because we talked about there are schools who do different things that accommodate, and then the other schools, it's kind of like, there may be differences, and can we put something in writing that we can do the same thing across all 10 schools, in terms of even the fasting, and there's, you know, the, I know it's a sensitive topic, but there's prayer in school, and there were, there was some guidance on this policy that was just passed through. So, you know, I think one of the things that maybe we have an opportunity is
054maybe to ask legal guidance, to look at the new guidance, and kind of put, look at our policies that we already have, and maybe put something in writing. I mean, we even had a principal in our committee, and I, and he said that would be helpful just to have something in writing as well, because, you know, we don't want anybody guessing, and we want all the students to be treated the same, and we want to celebrate all the students, but in a way that we're allowed to, like what's allowed, what's not allowed, we want to celebrate everybody kind of thing that's, you know. I think guidelines would be good, because I think the issue always comes in, you know, when people feel left out, or there's one holiday that's talked about, and other holidays that
055aren't talked about, then obviously, if you feel like, and you're a child in the school, that your holiday isn't spoken about, and that's left out of it, that's when I feel like people, you know, the complaints come out, and people, their feelings are hurt, basically, you know. So, if there is, if there's some kind of guidelines that would say that, hey, this is how we're going to handle these holidays, and this is maybe if, how we're going to talk about them, or those kind of things, I think then it's straight across the board, instead of it being left in the air, or some people feel like ones are being talked about more than the other ones, if that makes sense. That's kind of how I feel about it. I think we need to be careful,
056because we can't prescribe what kids do for the holiday. A lot of it gets brought to us from kids, it's student-led activities. So, I also think we need to find out what is happening at all the schools. Before we start prescribing, this is what we want schools to do. I don't know what's going on at the 10 schools, what's different between them. So, until I have an understanding of what's going on at Park versus Center versus Liberty versus Century, you know, look at the three junior highs, look at the K-2 buildings, I can't make any kind of recommendations. So, I think we need to gather that information first. That would be my thought, because I know Mr. Prorak was in your, I watched your committee meeting, and he, you know, I think the one telling
057thing that he said, and this may not go off well, is that at one point, I don't know whether it was last year or the year, it felt like a competition, and we don't want that. So, you know, and he made some changes. So, I'm not sure what he did and what they're doing here. So, I just think we need that information, in my opinion. To Mr. Morandi's point, I don't know, when I first got on the board, some past board members and I were really wanting to have more uniformity throughout the schools, because it sounds great, right? This school should be doing this, and this school should be doing that. Then, as I was a board member and adventuring out to these different schools, I saw how each school was so different based on
058the people that made up that school. Each school comes alive with their own culture, and we could never expect that across the board, because then they would lose their individuality. So, while I do think that some guidelines or some guidance, especially if we had staff that were asking, but I know that those things are always explored, and I don't know that a board would be the people who would be making the proposal. We had this discussion. Now, admin maybe can do some research on what we have and have their conversations with their building administrative teams and maybe come back when they revisit the parent handbook, and I know that they review that in late spring and see what's going on there to get a report to see how we could, and I don't know, because
059I don't want to say how we can improve, because I don't see anything wrong with our policies, but if we need to talk about it, I think that's great. But then the other point is the district isn't making these events happen, so just in case anybody didn't realize that, the district isn't planning these events, but they support student events. So, if we have students that are interested in this, that, and the third, that's not going to be that these kids in journaling have the same interests as these kids at Century, and the junior high kids are definitely not going to have the same interests as the K-5 buildings. So, there's not going to be a general uniformity. It's just the fact of, hey, we're going to offer clubs. Everybody gets a club. Those clubs are
060going to look different based on what people want. If I've seen kids, since we're talking about religious holidays, which is what I'm guessing the white elephant in the room is, I've seen kids have an Easter egg day. I've seen kids have a Lego day. I've seen kids have the fish fry, have the Ramadan iftar, excuse me. So, it is there. It may not be there every year, but it does happen, and it's with rollover. It's with, hey, we're not busy this month, and you've got kids that throw something. So, I think when parents see that it's not there, I don't know that I would jump to having anybody's feelings hurt. I'd hate to hear that people's feelings are hurt, because it's not about hurting feelings. It just might not have been the best time that
061year for the students to put that together. This is always supported. Anything is always supported from us as a board and the administration for the district. So, there might be some confusion there. If I can suggest, coming back to Mrs. Speckham Dodge's point, perhaps what would make sense would be for Dr. Brick or Dr. Snyder to collect some feedback from the schools on what they do around this issue, what works or what has worked for them, what hasn't worked for them for the different schools, and maybe send it to us as board members, and then we can start thinking about, okay, are there certain aspects of this that tend to work better? And that's some guidance that we could give more broadly. And I do think, just to reiterate, I think we have to kind
062of keep a separation between being cognizant of what's happening in our students' lives and meeting them where they are on that, versus getting involved in promoting holidays, where it becomes a zero-sum game. It ends up becoming messy. And the board's had discussions like this many times over the years. They become very circular, so I think we need to have a light touch there. But I think, absolutely, we want to make sure we're caring for the students. That really is our business as a district. But then, when it comes to holidays, we have to tread lightly. And yeah, there's a difference between religion and culture, right? Like, know who's in your neighborhood. Get to know each other. Find your... My thing with guidelines is, like Miss Buckham Dodge said, when it turns into more of a
063competition, like, they did this, we have to do that. And maybe we have to do something on top of it. That's where I think guidelines is needed, right? Because if... Oh, I thought people's feelings were hurt. I didn't know that there were... Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So if people feel like they're left out and it's overdone on one and not on the other, then I think that's where I was getting at with feelings hurt. But I think guidelines kind of control it a little bit on where it goes. Yeah, but I still don't know that if we had guidelines, it's going to make people do the grunt work to host that event. Because it takes a lot. Like, because I've been on the PFE, it takes a lot to host events. So I just
064want people to know that they can host events. Yeah. I think the point was, too, was it was maybe being overdone because of it. So I guess that's where the guidelines come in, in my point of view. I want to point out that I do really like Dr. Kastron's idea to have follow-up from Admin. But I also want to comment on what you said, Miss Browner, in regards to there's a difference between religion and culture, because that was discussed in our committee. And we talked about some of the new guidance and some of the research that I did before. It was yes, that is true, there's a difference. But there's also all of it could fall under the topic of non-curricular student expression, because we allow students to express, you know, they have freedom of
065speech, you know, they have those. So basically, taking all the confusion away, is it religion, is it culture, sensitive topics, it all falls under the same umbrella of its non-curricular student expression. And I thought that would be a very good, that would be a good improvement in our policy, to just, even if it's one word, because a lot of that falls under that, and it's non-controversial. So just an idea, maybe, I don't know, because I- Is that for during the school day or after our events, that policy that you're referring to right now? Well, I mean, ultimately, this gets close to, you know, the legal guidance that we've gotten, is that, you know, religious expression, we can't encourage it, but we can't discourage it, just like is with any other topic. And what you're saying
066is actually getting very close to the heart of that matter. Yeah, I agree. Well, we can, we can start with getting feedback from the buildings. We'll put some stuff together and hope, and we can come up with, hopefully, a draft of some ideas, you know, at our, maybe, June, July meeting, and have something that we can share with the board, if that sounds good. If needed, that'd be great. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I also don't want to take away from the recognition program. We're going to be kicking that off. Ms. Coletta did a great job in the committee, and I think we're kicking that off next month. Yes, if I may, we'll be looking at nominees and going through rubrics to start to select those who will emerge as the first, the first, I guess,
067winners of the award. You are nominated. I'm sorry? What happens if you are nominated? That would be great. That's, that'd be a conflict of interest. So we're, we are excited about that. And then, lastly, we went through our upcoming dates, which we've already discussed tonight. So. Did you have anything else you'd like to, any questions for policy or Dave or Patty? I would just add real quickly, I think the overall conversation was very encouraging and very affirming of what our schools are already doing. Right. And anything that we add as far as guidelines is, there was definitely a consensus among the committee that it's not meant to be prohibitive, but certainly provide a backdrop for what we can do. Yeah. So everything was positively phrased and very forward looking. That's good to hear. I agree.
068All right. Well, we're going to move on to policy first reading and thank you Ms. Diane for that reminder. We will not be voting on these tonight, but there were some little things to look through just so that everybody felt comfortable next month when they're up for their second read and vote. Did anybody have anything that stood out right now they'd like to ask? Well, should we just go through the questions and you know. No, we can do this independent reading at home, but be prepared with our questions for the second read, right? No, no, no. I mean, I already read through them. I mean, to Mrs. Zayed's point, you know, there were some questions that the board needs to answer. Right. And should we. Get some highlights on what the, in the past, Aisha.
069So when there would be like these different suggestions, we would be presented with those suggestions. They would be highlighted. So that may be taking place at a future time at the policy committee or maybe through an email or however we're going to get that information so that we can decide what direction or understand why that direction is being proposed for us to vote on. So we will, that information is coming. I just made the recommendation because we're usually trying to answer these questions and vote on the policy and then we're not sure what we're voting on. I agree. So it just makes things confusing. We only really had two questions. The third one doesn't pertain to us because we have more than 50 employees. So I figured we can answer those two. They have their
070very simple questions so that we're ready. Did you want to read the first two here now? I don't have them written down verbatim, but the first one was about whether or not, the first one was on policy 2-200. It was about posting the agenda, the location of the meeting, whether or not we wanted to do that. Like a printed copy. Policy number, I'm having a difficulty hearing you. 2-200. Do we post the agendas at the buildings we're holding the meetings in? Yes. Then we're done. Yeah. We have the answer to that. I was going to say, I think that. Yeah, so then okay, we're just going to keep it to you. One of them had to do with the number of students or in our district. So that was an easy one for students or
071staff. There was one about whether we do roll call or all in favor and I think. Right. I actually brought that information back. I brought that information back to Jill from the conference when I was in the board president one that was handed down from one of the attorney companies that we work with. So yeah, we will be doing roll calls. Yeah, we're going to do roll calls now for everything. Well, that's what we should be. We only do all in favors for adjourning. And it's at night and we're all standing here and you can see that we're all saying it, but just to be more. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Was there any other questions that you had? I didn't have any questions. I actually had one on policy to 250. It looked like is
072Mr. Brannock going to be the FOIA officer now? He currently is. Yes. Okay. So, okay, that's not changed. Whether you knew it or not. All right. Oh, good. Let me just get all this now because this is where it's a mouthful. All right. If there's nothing else, I'm going to move on with the consent agenda. I move the board of education approved the following consent agenda items. Minutes, March 9th, 2026, regular board of education meeting. Minutes, March 9th, 2026, executive session. Accounts payable, March 31st, 2026, $2,767,662.72. Impress fund purchase card, March 31st, 2026, $21,534.28. Payroll summary, March 31st, 2026, $4,517,089.62. And the 2025-26 calendar revisions. Is there anything else? Let me see. Any more letters? All right. Second. Any discussion? Jill, could you call the roll, please? Dr. Castingham? Aye. Mr. Morandi? Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge?
073Aye. Ms. Thanos? Aye. Ms. Zahid? Aye. Ms. Browner? Aye. Thank you. All right. All right. Look for a motion for the approval of the personnel report. I move that the board of education approve the personnel report as presented. Second. Any discussion? Jill, could you call the roll, please? Dr. Castingham? Aye. Mr. Morandi? Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge? Abstain. Ms. Thanos? Aye. Ms. Zahid? Aye. Ms. Browner? Aye. Thank you. 2026-27 stop loss insurance renewal. I move that the board of education accept the proposal submitted by Brown and Brown for the stop loss insurance through Berkeley at an amount not to exceed $1,378,512 for the 2026-27 fiscal year. Second. Any discussion? Jill, could you call the roll, please? Mr. Morandi? Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge? Aye. Ms. Thanos? Aye. Ms. Zahid? Aye. Ms. Browner? Aye. Dr. Castingham? Aye. Thank you. Motion
074passed 6-0. Administrative appointment director of EL services. I move that the board of education appoint Ronia Hassan as director of English language services an annual salary of $110,000 effective July 1, 2026. Second. Any discussion? Jill, could you call the roll, please? Ms. Peckham-Dodge? Aye. Ms. Thanos? Aye. Ms. Zahid? Aye. Ms. Browner? Aye. Dr. Castingham? Aye. Mr. Morandi? Aye. Thank you. Okay, motion passed 6-0. Approval of administrative and at-will salaries. I move that the board of education approve the administrative and at-will salaries for fiscal year 2027 as discussed in executive session as presented. Second. Any discussion? Jill, could you call the roll, please? Ms. Thanos? Aye. Ms. Zahid? Aye. Ms. Browner? Aye. Dr. Castingham? Aye. Mr. Morandi? Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge? Aye. Thank you. Motion passed 6-0. All right, we're going to move on to board member
075comments, reports, and requests, but before we get into the book study, I know that Dr. Castingham had something he wanted to mention, and then if anybody else wanted to speak, then just go after him. So what I wanted to bring up to the board, and this comes from discussions that we've had at the teaching and learning committee meeting, is that, you know, part of our job is to monitor progress in the district, and for language arts and for math, we have lots of test data we can look at. We can look at IAR, we can look at map data. For science, we have the Illinois Science Assessment. We really have nothing really to benchmark social studies, and I've talked to Dr. Nichols about this, and we really don't have a good option for it even,
076which I think is a real problem. We have a hard time of knowing how our kids are doing in social studies, I mean, compared to the rest of the country, and, you know, the kids, for example, on the honors track who go to Sandburg, they're going to be taking AP World History as freshmen from the job. They're going to be doing college level work, so I think it's something we need some better tools to understand, and I think it's a problem that goes well beyond just our district. So one of the things I've been thinking about is actually doing a resolution for the upcoming IASB conference to request that ISB give some kind of an assessment that we could have available to use so that we could judge how are we doing in terms of
077social studies, and I wanted to see if there are major objections from the board, if there aren't. I might like to bring this to the teaching and learning committee to kind of kick the idea around and see if it makes sense and potentially bring something to a future board meeting. I'm not against you guys talking about it, but just right off the top of my head, I want to know how kids are doing when they go into district 230. Both my kids went into AP, so they were fine, so I just want to know, because you had said the word problem, so I wonder if we are having success or if that's not the problem. The problem is that you want to see the data. I think as board members, we, part of our jobs,
078to monitor progress. We need the data. I don't disagree with that. I do believe that board members should look at data. I'm asking you to just clarify what it is you're asking for. What I'm asking for, and this is something that we can't really do locally, is to have a tool to be able to judge how are our students doing in social studies based on some kind of problem. You do remember them coming up and telling us that we test too much, right? Well, and they wanted us to cancel one of the tests. Well, and I understand their sensitivity on that, but I think it's something, at least having an option of something we could do, because right now, our toolbox is empty. I'm not against it, but are you asking to continue your conversation
079right now? Right. I think it's something that we as a board would have to be on board with before it could go any further, and it's more if there were major objections from the board members, I'd just drop it, but if there aren't, I'd like to take this discussion to teaching and learning and see how that conversation develops. I'd be interested. Do you guys have anybody from social? I'm sorry, Linda, do you have anybody? Are you thinking something similar to what we do for science, what they do for science, like fifth and eighth grade or fourth and seventh grade? I mean, something like that. I could see that as potentially being useful, potentially being very useful for us just to have a benchmark, but again, that's a detail probably beyond. And then to figure out.
080Right. That's a detail for somebody else to figure out, but I think just having something that we could use. I don't have an issue doing a resolution. Oh, I don't know. If you're asking me about a resolution, I don't know. But as far as continuing the conversation at the TNL level, that's fine. But then I'm starting to hear in my head, Ms. Nichols say in the past that testing is just one piece of data that is used to market child's. So I'm assuming that you guys are tracking the students social studies growth and that those are conversations that you're had and that that's how recommendations are made for placement at District 230. Or are we not able to actually track as closely as Ms. Dr. Kastengren was hoping? For like our honors at the junior
081high, our honor social studies, it is based a lot on students' map scores on their language art scores because so much of social studies is reading and writing. And so a lot of most of that decision of students who would qualify for honors at our program at our level is really based on their language arts map scores. And then at the high school, it's based on a lot of the high school placement is now also based on our map scores and on our IAR. We do use IAR. We are able to get information as far as a breakdown on the types of questions. So there are historical and scientific nonfiction passages that the students read and have questions on. We're able to get that data and see how our students do on the fiction versus
082the historical versus the scientific. But it's not a lot. Like there's only so many questions within those areas. That's kind of the only standardized that we have. The rest of the assessments that our junior high teachers have been working on writing through the PLC process has been, it's not just what facts can you memorize. It is very much based on the units that they're doing. It's not like in high school where there's like a final exam and how much have you remembered from the whole year or whole semester. It's based on the unit that they've done. It's a lot of writing. It's a lot of comparing texts that the students are asked to do. But that's still, you know, within the development process with our social studies teachers. It'd be interesting to see what transpires
083from your conversation. Did you have anything else for, because I was going to pass and see if anyone else had anything to say? Yeah, I mean a little bit about what we do for the book later. Yeah. Patty, did you have anything? No? Linda? Aisha? I just had one question. The IUP manager position, which Special Ed presented on last month, that was supposed to be kicked to one of the committees. They did present, you know, teaching and learning the month before. So I believe it was supposed to go to finance. I'm not sure. But it didn't end up on the agenda. And I know there's a lot going on this time of year, but, you know, so that we don't miss the hiring window if we could make sure that that makes it onto one
084of the agendas this month so we can discuss it next month or approve it next month. Yeah, we'll hear more from that, I'm sure. No, but good catch. Ray? Anything? No? I've seen you at, Ray, was that one of the events at Matta Ridge? Yeah. And he bought a raffle ticket? Did I win? You did not. I know, we got called. Okay, and then we're going to move on to the book study. Forgive me, I did not read the last three chapters. I'm going to be honest, I could've read them live, right? But I did read them two years ago. We're having issues at my house with the roof. So I'm going to give it tag another board member if they'd like to sum up those last three chapters for the board on my behalf.
085That'd be wonderful. You know, I will go ahead. There you go. Let's see, one chapter was just general advice. I think the one point I liked in it was just discussing that, you know, you will have times as a board member that you have to do what's right, even when it's painful, it's unpopular. And I think all of us as board members have felt that and been there and it stinks. But I think you should say that one more time for those in the back. But it's also if you're not willing to make the right call when it's painful, you shouldn't be on the board, frankly. Let's see, the 14th chapter was diet and exercise advice. I could really have done with less of that. You're not going to get us. I don't run. So
086the last chapter was a page. So I think that was those were my thoughts. It was an excellent read, though. I know that it's whatever, but we got that book. That was one of the first books you gave the board when I first got on to the board. And it was a good read. Yeah, I think the best chapter was 13, the expert advice, because it was basically talking about how we serve everyone and everything that we do. Always ask, how does it affect students? Never get away from that. Come to the meeting happy and professional and do not micromanage. And so I thought that was the the best chapter. And yeah, chapter 14 was more of how to take care of ourselves and diet and exercise. And then chapter 15, the one page is
087this is a journey from the heart. And that's can't be farther from the truth. So we do need to think about what we could do because I've never I mean, the last four years, I have five years I've sprouted so much gray hair. And I think it's because of the stress of being a board member. So do we get any retribution for that? Like, do I get a free hair dye box on board member day? We'll have the art department work on that for me. There is the pop up art show that's coming up at April 22. That's a shave at the same boulders. We'll figure it out. No, but Dr. Kastner and I had a conversation last night and he had a good something he wanted to propose tonight. And I let him take
088the mic. So in terms of the book study, you know, I realized this is probably boring for those in the audience to listen to. What I was thinking for our next book would be we've been having a lot of discussion about the professional learning communities. And that what might make more sense is if Dr. Nichols could come up with a book here that would be at a suitable level for us, and potentially rather than us just talking, which people hear us talking enough. If Dr. Nichols could present a slide or two on each chapter as we go through discussing, okay, what was in this, but also how is it being applied here at 135? And how does that have an impact on what we do? And I think that might be good for us to
089educate ourselves as board members, it'd be good for educating the wider community as well. Well, let me jump in here. We do have someone, I was going to share this with the board at my next week's update, but we have someone that is our point of contact for PLCs is going to be here. We have them scheduled for the May board meeting to provide a 10 minute presentation on what PLCs are and what impact it has on our staff and students and leaving some time for questions as well. So we do have that scheduled for the May board meeting. That's great. And if Jen wants to follow up with some other, you know, maybe a suggestion on a one page book on PLCs. I think that's good enough. He's going to put you to that,
090you'd better ask her a stipend. But no, that's funny. I think the one presentation, it would be good enough. That's my two cents. I don't think that's a lot. I, I support Alan as far as if we are going to read a book, it may be beneficial for us to get that recommendation from one of the administrators here on where it is something that we can read up on and learn a little bit about, but also through our discussions that helps educate the community, which is really the ultimate goal is for them to kind of understand why we do make some of the decisions we make. Alan, everybody did say they wanted to take a break or two and we're going to just have graduation and stuff like that. Do you think maybe we could
091have revisit the book study in June and then make, no, you don't want to take a month off? Summer, maybe summer. Oh, you want that? Well, that's what I'm saying, isn't it? Like, uh, well, listen, guys, I'm trying to do both sides because I'm a bookworm. I'll read any book that you put in front of me, but I understand everybody's going to be doing summer and that. Can I recommend like maybe a shorter alternative compromise? Maybe like academic, like an academic level article each month recommended by a different staff member, you know, something that they would like board members to know more about about their job and what they do for the district. Yeah. I really like that idea. I do. Same. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Well, I should say add for the win.
092Yeah. All right. Oh, anything else guys? I'm so sorry that I didn't make it to journaling. I heard you guys were great. Did I miss OJ too? No, that's coming up. Okay. I got time for that then. Um, all right. I'll look for a motion to go into closed. I move that the board of education adjourn to executive session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of a specific employee, a specific independent contractor, specific volunteer or legal counsel and review of executive session minutes. Second. Uh, Joe, can we have a roll call please? Ms. Sayed. Aye. Ms. Browner. Aye. Dr. Castinger. Aye. Mr. Morandi. Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge. Aye. Ms. Thanos. Aye. Thank you. Uh, and then there's a possible action coming out of closed. Going to be in the media center. This
093is a request for a two-year unpaid leave of absence for 2026-27 and 2027-28 school year. Pursuant to the terms set forth in the applicable collective bargaining agreement and on the basis that the reason for the leave is reasonable and in the best interest of the institution. Second. Any discussion? Joe, can you call the roll please? Dr. Castinger. No. Mr. Morandi. No. Ms. Peckham-Dodge. No. Mr. Thanos. No. Ms. Sayed. No. Ms. Browner. No. Motion fails. Declaration of executive session minutes. I move that the Board of Education have completed an extended semi-annual review of closed minutes and determine all reviewed closed minutes are to remain confidential. Second. Any discussion? Joe, could you call the roll please? Dr. Castinger. Aye. Mr. Morandi. Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge. Aye. Ms. Thanos. Aye. Ms. Sayed. Aye. Ms. Browner. Aye. Motion 7-0 passes.
094Um, all right, I'm going to move the Board of Education adjourn the April 13th, 2026 regular meeting. Second. Um, Joe, could you call the roll please? Mr. Morandi. Aye. Ms. Peckham-Dodge. Aye. Ms. Thanos. Aye. Ms. Sayed. Aye. Ms. Browner. Aye. Dr. Castinger. Aye. Thank you.