001Um, I actually don't have any opening remarks. Um, so we'll jump right into recognition. All right, we've got a lot of recognition tonight. Uh, we'll start with Young Authors and Megan Kiefer. Hi, Megan. Come on up. Excited to hear about all these awesome stories that our students are writing. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you so much for having me today and more importantly for having the people here um, in our audience to be recognized. Um, each year the students in grades K through 8 are invited to write a story and submit it at their building level as part of our Young Authors competition or contest. This year we were thrilled. We had over 200 writers submit stories. And whether they collaborated with a friend or wrote on their own, they truly were really dedicated authors that
002submitted these stories and um, shared their craft with their Young Author um, coordinators at their buildings. Now, that's all to say the journey is not easy to be sitting in this room here today. It's pretty rigorous. From all of those 200 authors, just one from each grade level at each building is sent on to the district to be read. Um, from that elite group, then just one author per grade level is selected. So, that's who we are going to honor today with the Young Author Award. Um, and I know I say this every year, but I can't rewrite it any better, but I know we have future published authors in this audience and I can say that some of them are repeat names. So, if you've been on the board or you've been watching board
003meetings, you're going to recognize a couple of their names. So, but they all have a lot to be proud of. Um, each of them really has a talent for storytelling. This year's submissions were um, particularly striking in their scope and imagination. Some took place right here in Park Ridge, while others were time traveling or going to alternate universes. Um, there was a Candyland setting. So, lots of different settings to make their stories come alive. Um, beware if you're in Park Ridge, it was not a very happy ending. Um, so Uh, this year also, I'm very excited I was able to invite these writers to go attend the statewide Young Authors Conference, which has sort of been on hiatus since COVID. So, this is the first year they're sort of reinvigorating, um, the conference for writers
004in Illinois. So, I'm very excited that seven of the 11 of them are attending and that is happening next Saturday the 25th in Tinley Park. So, I'm they'll get to bring their manuscripts, which I will return today, um, and share their writing with a a greater writing community, with other young authors, and then published authors will be in attendance at all as well. They'll be eating lunch with authors. So, if they are so inspired, they will get some insights and tips from those, um, published authors. Um, so hopefully today is just the spark for many of them in their journey as writers. I think everyone is here, but as I call your name Um, where's Mr. Lily? Where do you want them to go or Okay. So Perfect. Okay, so I'll call your name and
005I and, um, what you wrote. Name your your manuscript and I have a certificate and your, um, manuscript to return. So, you can come right up to this podium and then we'll have a little holding pa- pen over here and then we get a nice picture at the end. Okay. So, here we go from kindergarten at Carpenter. We have Aziza Swank for her story Everyone Can Play. All right, in first grade we have Lyndon Zufall from Washington School for Hunting for Berries. All right, in second grade we have Claire Applenalp from Roosevelt for her story Sweet 16. All right, in third grade we have Cora Young, our young author from Franklin, for her story Ruby's Magnificent Magical Morning. In fourth grade we had a co-author partnership. Here we have Eliza Renz and Katerina Kumeralt from
006Washington School who wrote Camp Crazy. Um in fifth grade we have Mallory Becker from Field School who wrote A Mystery in a Small Town Stable. All right, sixth grade from middle school, um Lincoln Middle School, we have Arya Mehta for Drowning and Despair. Um and then we had another co-authorship here, Emma Chrisman and Eleanor Hughes for 2:45 a.m. Raven's Call. You know what? I'm missing one of yours. Which one's Ally? All right, you're Ally. You know, I'm uh so um I'm going to have to reprint yours or it's in my bag. I will go double-check. But you can wait over there for now. Sorry about that. Check inside, just make sure I didn't miss it. Um and then last but not least, we have Madeline Van Cannon from Emerson who wrote Phantom Threads. Thank you
007for sharing your stories with us and with the District 64 community. I'm very excited to see um how you experience next week with the Illinois writing community and congratulations to all of you again. All right, everyone this way. We're going to do two different lines, so come right here this way and stand right here. You can start going back there. You're going to fill it out. I'm going to check my bag, too. Yeah, you guys can Good job. Yep. Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Perfect. Yep. I think one of them is back there. >> All right, and we also have um another uh recognition that we want to do tonight. Uh Ellie Hughes, who is at Lincoln Middle School, is our district's first-ever All-State musician. So, she was back here in November for the district
008um recognition um at the LMEA um level, and we're we're really happy and excited that our students got an opportunity to do that. And then, they take the best auditioners from that, and they get to perform at the All-State conference um with the best uh singers around the state. And this is the first time we've ever had that in our district, so I just want to say congratulations to Ellie. Thanks, Ellie. Sorry for making you stand up there, but thank you. And congratulations to all of our young authors. Um On May 4th, so in between this board meeting and the next board meeting, is Educator Appreciation Week. It's nationally Teacher Appreciation week, but we take all of our educators and put them in together. Uh we have three special educators this year who will be
009recognized this weekend down in Bloomington at the Those Who Excel um Awards Banquet. Um so we want to recognize them. We've We've done a lot of showcasing of their work already, but especially um considering this aligns to educator appreciation week, this makes the most sense. So Quinn uh Galindo from Field, she is our psychologist there. She does a great job. She's of the Award of Special Recognition. Jenny Kapushka um an an Lind I grad. Uh she's a music teacher at Field. Uh she's in the Award of Excellence. So we're excited about that. And then Angela Pontikes, she's the SLC teacher at Washington. So Award of Meritorious Service. So all three of those educators um are being recognized at the state level. We're um really happy that uh they they won those awards and the showcase
010all the work that they do. And then we do have opportunities all through the week of May 4th for people to recognize all of the great educators in our schools. So we'll have things happening in each of the buildings and I know we'll have opportunities um to to send things out and to make sure that parents who are seeing like those changes in those kids when they come home and they're saying, "I'm so excited. The best day at school." And they're they're they're saying all these wonderful things about all the all the people that they interact with from the bus drivers, um I read a really nice note about a bus driver that uh I think at Roosevelt a couple of weeks ago or a week ago where um somebody was saying just how much
011their student loves their bus driver. So that was great to read. Um to the people who help out in the lunch rooms, to the teachers, to the ESPs, to the school librarians, the school social workers, the school psychologists, the school nurses, um all of our administrative assistants at all of the buildings, our custodians, it takes everybody to get the kids through their day. And so, we're just very, very, very proud of the work that our staff do every day. Um they work tirelessly to make sure the kids have what they need. I just want to say thank you for all the work that they do. So, all right. And that is um that's the stuff with educator appreciation week. I'll have some more stuff in the superintendent's report. All right, thank you. All right, um
012this is the point of the meeting where we welcome public comments. Each speaker is given 3 minutes to address the board. Comments may be made on almost any matter related to the operation of schools, but we ask that you refrain from making comments concerning individual students or staff members. The board uses this time to listen to community questions and concerns, but will not respond immediately to requests for information. Additionally, the board cannot take formal action on non-agenda items. Please contact the board president by email if you wish to discuss your topic further. Please come forward to the microphone and state your name and, if comfortable, your address for the minute. Anyone for public comments? All right. No public comments. Uh board committee reports. Um we'll start with policy just cuz, you know, Rachel's sitting right
013there. All right, sure. Um so, the policy committee met on April 2nd and was very small um changes. One was we did review press issue 121. Most of the changes were legal updates or like small wording changes. Um there's two questions we had to decide on. One did not apply to us because we have more than 50 employees, but we just had to say no, does not apply. And the other um was whether we wanted to change how we um had a request during public comment where people could ask to add things to the agenda. Um and we decided we thought it would be best to keep our current practice where if a community member wants to add something to agenda, what is currently in board policies they would contact the board president for that
014to be the board president's like under their consideration. Um and that way that just gives everyone more time to plan and prepare so we could judiciously like think about something versus being kind of ad hoc about how we run our meetings. Um, we also got an update from Ben about um the policy on contracts that are not going out to bid before we discussed about like having a cycle um, and just about like waiting on this and thinking about something in the fall. I think especially with looking at the longer term facilities plan and some current contracts that we're looking at as a district right now. Um, and the majority of the meeting was spent on the student handbook revisions which we are voting on tonight. Um, one was an employee code of conduct was
015added. Um another was just really being clear that students cannot participate in extracurricular activities if they are ho- if they go home sick for the day. Um, so if you're absent from school you cannot participate in an extracurricular the day that you are absent even if you were there for you you left and went sick home sick. Um, there was information added about Parent Square. Um, just changed language to update best practice to change from English learner to multilingual program and updated that description. Um, and then added a paragraph to explain what the behavior levels were. We did suggest that like some examples might be really helpful for parents um, to know like what a level one, level two, level three, not that it would be exhaustive by any means. Um, and then just added
016on page 57 um, an eavesdropping legal reference um, so that it would be in the handbook as well and just a big thank you to Allison who led that um, in front of the board and also parents and community members and um, led all of the information shared with us on discipline data which really looked great. Um, things are definitely moving in the right direction. There was a huge decrease in suspensions and I think that's due to all the work Allison is doing um, and her team and teachers and everyone together. So, um, wanted to give her a shout-out for that. Um, and that is about it. Anything else that I missed, do you guys think? Okay. Well, thanks. Thank you. Um, our finance committee chair is not here, but much of what we covered
017in the finance committee we covered in the last meeting, and we'll cover some today, but um, Vicky here, Andrew, do you have any highlights that you think need to be called out, or I think we're good. All right. All right, excellent. All right. all on the report for anyone to read if they'd like. Um, superintendent update. Okay. Uh, speaking of excellent staff members, um, we have the Illinois Council for Exceptional Children uh, put out a student award every year called the Student Star Award, and uh, Lee Dynas and Mary Chapman from Lincoln, um, actually put one of our students up for that, Mahad Rafi at Lincoln. And so, we're just excited about that. I just it speaks to how awesome our staff is at elevating our great kids. Um, and then Matt, uh, Mr. Tomes,
018just served at at the EdTech Digest, let me see if I get this right, Matt, the Future Focus Forum at the CoSN conference, um, where Matt was a a featured speaker that basically helps the EdTech industry improve and get better and giving them feedback. And so, um, it's great that we've got administrators that are using their time to give back to the whole profession in a way, and I know Matt does a great job with that, and makes us look good out out there in the in that world. So, thank you for doing that, Matt. Um, I also want to commend Alicia and her team. I had the opportunity on Wednesday, uh, when I was over at Carpenter, to see their new coffee chats in action. Um, and that's something that is new that they're
019doing, trying to give opportunities for parents that have students with, um, IEPs, uh, an opportunity just to have a some time, um, usually about an hour, hour and a half, to ask any question that they would want to talk about. Absent, you know, the more formalized processes that people have, I think the days can be very rushed and everything's very quick-paced, and so it's nice just to sit down, have some coffee, potentially donuts, and walk through things that are happening at the school or maybe coming down the pipe or things that you're maybe wondering about with opportunities in the future. So, it's nice to to see that, and I know that we've had some that are scheduled, some are still coming forward, but I think that was a nice addition. So, I don't want to
020say thank you to Alicia and all of her crew cuz they're doing a great job. You know, just providing more and more space for for our families for that. In your consent agenda, you'll see the draft for next year's board dates. I just want to say two things. Number one, one of the things that I think we can talk about maybe May-June is potential for adding a date for the board of a workshop. So, we do have a free workshop because we host it here. And so, we can decide maybe after we get the strategic plan in a spot of like what would make the most sense. And then, I do I do think even though we have um even though we have the dates mapped out, the whole concept that we're doing right now
021of having some time broken apart from like the regular order meeting and then more of the deeper conversation, committee of the whole, would be interesting to kind of figure out maybe how a cycle of that could look next year. I think that would be cool. Um especially as we have elements of the plan that are like coming due for monitoring. So, I'm even thinking about like how we do that all differently next year. And I think once we get through May and June and August, I'll have a better idea of what it could look like. And as opposed to like one massive update, it's more of those like more formative checks for you to kind of know what's going on and for our team to like present their information in a format that is honestly
022just more more life-giving and then and just a lot more easy for us to have a a conversation. Um and maybe undergo some of the formalities that don't always I think get to like the heart of what people are doing sometimes. So, just to keep in mind, I don't know exactly what the cadence of that would look like, but it's something that I'd like to present for your um your consideration. Do we need to add or would we just have it be um on this calendar? Do you want to add it later for like the swearing in of new board members next April? Or of board members. >> I think because that's a special meeting, we could just do that later. >> add it. Yeah, I need to look at the dates and kind of
023figure that out. >> that it needs to be done. That would just be the only thing that I feel like cuz it's a not an every year thing that >> Yes, no, I'm I'm glad you said that though cuz I did not I wasn't thinking about that. So, thank you. I think related to that, um given that there may be board turnover, I would move the superintendent evaluation from the May to the April um board meeting just so that you're getting the evaluation from the the current um team. Okay, that's a good comment, too. I'll I'll put both those on there. But I could I could at least put the date in right now. Okay. temporary like April TBD, you know. Everything else is going well. That's my report. Excellent. All right, we've got a
024couple uh contracts we need to talk about, Brian. Yeah, so we are if you recall last August, we brought forward um a bid for a one-year um, natural gas contract. Um, and the way that works is it goes out to bid through Tradition Energy, who is our broker through uh, the co-op that we're a part of to go solicit bids for energy. So, the commodity is an ever-changing process and it changes until the day you sign. Um, which we are looking to finalize that tomorrow. The rec- the current recommendation for natural gas is to go two years. Um, there's some volatility and things like that in the market right now. Um, so, uh, that's the current recommendation just to kind of safeguard us in case costs go up. So, um, that's what we're bringing forward
025and as of uh, just a few hours ago, they had preliminary bids today. We had three uh, bidders for that today. You got a motion on the natural gas contract? I move that the board approve the contract with the lowest responsible vendor on Friday morning for natural gas service at all district buildings for the period of September 1st, 2026 to August 31st, 2028. Second. Andrew the motion, Rachel the second. Uh, any questions or discussion? All right. Let's vote. Louise C. Yes. Milligan. Yes. Rankin. Yes. George Akers. Yes. Klein. Yes. Doubleday. Yes. All right. Next is our electricity contract. So, this one's actually not up until December, but the recommendation was to move forward um, and the recommendation currently from the broker is to lock in rates for four years currently. Um, last time we did
026a five-year just for for kind of comparison, but the recommendation is to go now because there has been increased energy demand, especially with data centers and things like that driving up costs. Um, so they felt like this was the time to move forward. So, we're recommending that to also get locked in tomorrow morning. Okay. I move that the Board of Education of Community Consolidated School District 64, Park Ridge Niles, Illinois, approve the contract with the lowest responsible vendor on Friday morning on April 17th, 2026 for electrical service at all district buildings for the period of December 2026 through November 2030. Second. Andrew for the motion, Monica with the second. Any questions, discussion, or No. All right. Let's vote, please. Klein. Yes. Milligan. Yes. Doubleday. Yes. Georgeakis. >> Yes. Louise. Yes. Rankin. >> Yes. All right.
027Um we have a lengthy consent agenda. Does anybody need anything pulled out of the consent agenda? Actually, Matt, before we go on, for the previous one, for A4, it doesn't have a date on which Friday morning. Do we need to do something about that, or is that understood? It does. The previous motion. >> gas one? Yeah. She Yeah, she said April 17th, but it said Friday twice, which is why I stuttered. Yeah. No, not for A5, that not for the electrical supply one that we just um said, but the one previous, A4, the natural gas one. I just noticed the difference as >> Yes, it says Friday morning. Right, but it doesn't say which Friday morning. >> Right. That's Yes. Yes. That is what it had said last year, too, and I caught it on
028the second one when I updated it, and I must forgot to go back, but >> two Fridays. Yes, apologize for that. That was my fault. So, can we So, what are you You're asking us to Do you want to do a friendly emotion friendly motion to >> to amend the I propose a friendly amendment to a um amend action item 26-04-01 for the approval of the national gas contract so that we add in after Friday morning that it is April 17th, 2026. Second. Monica with the friendly motion, Vicky with the second. Uh let's vote on that amendment. Milligan. Yes. Luisy. Yes. Doubleday. Yes. Georgeacus. Yes. Rankin. Yes. Klein. Yes. Thank you. Sorry about that. Right. Good. I appreciate the attention to detail. All right. So, consent agenda. Uh anybody need anything pulled out? All right.
029Let's get that done, too. I move that the board approve the consent agenda for April 16th, 2026 as presented. Second. Andrew with the motion, Vicky with the second. Any questions or discussion? All right. Let's vote on item two, please. >> Luisy. Yes. Rankin. Yes. Doubleday. Yes. Georgeacus. Yes. Milligan. Yes. Klein. Yes. All right. Uh one more issue, uh Joel. Right. Oh, we're going to just do it? Okay. So, never mind. I move that the board uphold the school administration's disciplinary action of student 2026-01. Second. Andrew with the motion, Vicky with the second. Any questions or discussion? All right. Vote, please. Rankin. Yes. Milligan. Yes. Georgeacus. Yes. Luisy. Yes. Klein. Yes. Doubleday. Yep. All right. Any new business? No. All right. Uh get a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Andrew with the motion, Rachel with
030the second. Uh do we do roll vote or do we do voice vote when we Whatever. Let's vote on vote or do we do Whatever. Let's hold on. Ending. George Akers. Yes. Klein. Yes. Uh Doubleday. Yes. Louise C. Yes. Rankin. Yes. Milligan. Yes. Sure? You can hang out if you want. All right, with that we are adjourned. Um thank you