D64 BOE Meeting 12.18

001Um, but then I also want to comment on how that work can be hamstrung by the failure of leadership at the Cook County Treasurer's Office. Um, their inability to get tax bills out on time or fund those taxes back to the districts, 144 districts in this county, our county on that money. That cost our district over a million dollars so far. So far. And we're one of 144 districts in this county looking for that money. Um, I don't expect anybody from the Cook County Treasury to respond. Um, but I do want to again give everybody the opportunity to thank everybody in this administration, the teachers for doing amazing work. And if you know anybody at the treasur's office, yell at them, please. Um, Dr. Collins and uh, the administrative team are far more professional than

002I've been in this and I will continue to be unprofessional about it. Um, but thank you for your work, guys, and you keep it up. Um, all right. Spotlight on Jefferson. >> All right. Like to invite up Principal Barkley. Yeah. Come on up. Is it on now? Oh, there we go. Um, so this is Mrs. RmIrez and she is a speech and language pathologist at Jefferson and I just have a few words for her. Um, I elected uh Mrs. RmIrez as our star staff member this month. Um, so thank you for your incredible support and dedication and compassion in serving the students at Jefferson. Your work with our three, four, and five year olds has made meaningful and lasting impact on their communication skills, their confidence, and overall success in the classroom. In addition to

003your expertise as a speech and language pathologist, you are truly a team member, and a thoughtful problem solver. I greatly appreciate your willingness to try new things, explore innovative strategies, and adapt your approach to meet the diverse needs of our students. You consistently provide your team with practical strategies, guidance, and supports that strengthen instruction and help ensure success and services across settings. Your patience, creativity, and collaborative spirit help our youngest learners find their voices while also empowering the adults who support them each day. I'm grateful for your professionalism, your flexibility, and positive attitude you bring every day, and for the leadership you show through your actions. Thank you for all you do to support the students at Jefferson, and for your meaningful difference in the lives that you make in the students, families, and our

004staff. Um, one last thing I did ask um the students at Jefferson what they love about Mrs. Ramirez. And here are some things that they said. I like her because I like to play with her. She uh does groups with us. She teaches us new things. She plays games with us for speech because she's always does nice things and helps people feel better. She teaches us how to be friends. And personally, my favorite, I don't know, I just love her. And then I'd like to welcome Jr. This is Jr. So Jr. We are here today to celebrate you. You are a star student because you are kind, you're caring, and you are a wonderful friend. You help others, you include your friends, and you show leadership by setting a great example in your classroom. You

005make sure no one feels left out, and that's something very, very special. You are also an amazing storyteller and communicator. You love to share your ideas. You ask great questions and you have thoughtful conversations. Your curiosity helps you learn new things and engages your friends to learn, too. We love when you pretend to be the teacher in the room. And I can't help but to stop everything I'm doing when you ask me to play with you or when you want to share a story with me. Jr., you bring so much joy to your classroom with your words, your imagination, and your big heart. Your You're brave, you're confident, and we're so proud of the way you learn, and the way that you care for others. >> We'll do Thank you. We'll do pictures afterwards with

006everybody. And now we'd like to hear from Dr. Williams and Franklin. Good evening everyone. Um I would like to start with our shining star staff member um Mr. John Branch if you would like to join me. So John Branch has been serving the Franklin community as our head custodian for many years. Um, and it's always a challenging task when we're asked to choose our shining star for Franklin as we have many, many shining stars in our staff and many shining stars in our students. But, uh, this particular year, um, as we were nearing our time to decide for Franklin for this year, it was pretty evident that John was going to be our selection for many reasons. Um, it's always amazing to me when other adults come to the leader in the building and have

007something kind and extraordinary to say, not knowing that is ever going to get back to their colleague. So over the course of all my time in Franklin, but definitely recently, there have been many people who have come to me and said, "I just want you to know that John did this and it was over and above expectations. John made sure I got out to my car safely. John made sure that my room was prepared. John helped me immediately over the weekend." And I think that that's one thing that is special about John Branch is he knows what it takes to do his job. But I have never ever known someone who goes above and beyond more than him in a quiet, selfless manner. He makes sure our building is ready daily for our students and

008our staff. He makes sure that our community feels seen and heard and they're valued. And I think that that goes um so deeply that people are recognizing that both in our community, our parent community, our students love Mr. Branch and our staff. Um I think two things that I think you know were really evident recently is that we had a particular the storm right after we came back from Thanksgiving and um just to show his level of dedication to our school, he had a planned day that he wasn't going to be at Franklin and um everyone in the building knew that John wasn't there because the level of how our uh sidewalks were shoveled was not up to John Branch standards. And people were saying that in the hall, John must be out today because

009did you see the sidewalks? Um so I think that just you know his His dedication is clear and evident. And then the other part too that I think is really special about John is that he puts himself in position to help and support our students. That really just shows how dedicated he is to our whole community. We have students at Franklin who have requested to to work with John as part of their reward system. So they've earned that and then they get to help Mr. Branch for the day or help Mr. Branch for the week. And so I think that he has demonstrated just a strong dedication to everything that is wonderful about a school system, everything that is wonderful about our community, and I'm so grateful I've had the last six years to work

010with him, and I know he's continue to serve our community in a wonderful way. So, all right. And our our student shining star, if I could have Miss Dina Cavllo join me up here. So, Diana is a fifth grader at Franklin, and I surveyed many staff members um asking who they thought would be an exemplary student um that we would want to honor as our student for this this entire school year. And the name that came up across many different grades and many different teachers was Miss Dina. And one of the things that I think is the most special about Dina is that Dina has the ability to connect with other students that make them feel very special. Some of the examples that our staff gave this year is that we've had students join us

011in fifth grade for the very first time new to our school. And she has made it a quiet point to connect with them, make them feel part of the Franklin community, make them feel included, make them feel like they have friends. And that is such a special trait to have as a young student growing up that she sees others that need that friend, need that kindness, and need that connection. And she goes out of her way to do that. She is a wonderful student. She is dedicated to all things Franklin. Um when I had staff, um you know, I asked who models our our Franklin motto of being respectful, responsible, and safe. Um there were so many wonderful stories of how Dina has stepped up to the plate quietly um and just done what's right

012always. And so I think as I think about fifth grade too and as we go on to middle school, that's one of the things that I hope Dina always stays true to herself as she goes on to explor Emerson and beyond is that she has the kindest heart and she is always a available to help others and she should feel so proud of all that she's done at Franklin and I can't wait to hear about all that she accomplishes as she continues on in her academic career. So with that, I just want to thank Dina for all that she's done at Franklin and I'm so very proud of her and I know that she's going to continue to do wonderful things. and uh Dr. Williams. Dr. Could you just take a seat real quick? Um

013we are going to take a a picture with everybody just in a moment, but we also have another shining star here today and that's Dr. Williams. Um we heard some bittersweet news this week that she will be promoted to assistant superintendent for teaching and learning and accountability in district 41, Glenn Allen. Um which is so exciting for her and her family and all the great things that she's going to do in 41. And we are so grateful for the six years that she has spent at Franklin making that school the best it could possibly be. And um one of the things that I know Dr. Williams does a great job with is always deflecting praise and putting it right onto her staff and her students. And this is one of those moments where you're not

014allowed to do that because you're a great principal and you're a great leader. And everything that you have done with all of our communities, not only Franklin, but just making all of our conversations better amongst all of our buildings is going to benefit all of our kids for years to come. And you should feel very proud for the work that you have done and the relationships that you have forged here. We're still going to call you next year once in a while. we're still going to ask how things are going and we'll see you at conferences and you know have conversations and discussions and learn from you um and hopefully have a really reciprocal relationship so you can take the great things here into 41 and you know both districts can be wonderful but um

015you've spent a lot of time in that building a lot of time on the phone with people a lot of time answering emails Sundays Saturdays 2 am you know midnight trying to figure out why something's going ary in the building um and every single one of those moment is generally never seen by anybody. But we know the life of a principal is trying to take all the good things and raise everybody up with them and trying to take all the bad and hide them away so that nobody else has to handle that except for you and you've done exceptional at that. Um I know some of the board members want to say some words too. And so we still have half a year together so this is not goodbye. Um, and we know this has

016been a um just it's a hard it's a hard week when you have to look at something that you spent so much time in and just poured your heart into um and just say that you know you um you're happy with the work that you've done and the work that you're going to do is also going to make you happy too. We're we're really thrilled for you and your family and we just want to say thank you for everything that you've done for us. So congratulations and I definitely want to hear from I know a few board members wanted to say some words as well. We're just going to miss you so much. We were so excited when we heard the news, but a little sad, too. Um because we're happy for you, but a

017little sad for us. Um because you've done such a wonderful job at Franklin and for the district. And I so appreciate through the referendum process um your advocacy to make sure that Franklin students um who haven't always had what they needed um especially some of our multilingual students and students with special needs that their needs would be met. Um and because of you like when that construction happens this summer that is going to live on in our district thanks to you. So I really appreciate you and thank you for that. And I'll just note um I think you brought a lot of different values and um different skill sets and strengths to the community. Um and for that incredibly grateful and incredibly excited for what you're going to do in your next role. Um three

018that I just wanted to highlight um that I think we've had opportunities to see. Um, one I think is just your ability to think both kind of at the strategic level, but then also to be able to go all the way down to the very detailed level and to do that really fluently um, and seamlessly. I think that's a pretty rare gift to kind of be at the balcony and at the dance floor level and be able to switch um, on a dime. And I think you showcase the ability to do that whether you're answering random questions that they have of you um during different presentations or doing that in front of um your community at your school. Um so that's one. I think two is just incredible depth of expertise and experience um and

019continuous learning that you brought to um instruction and academics not only in your school but across the entire um school district. It's been um a real pleasure to learn about both directly from you but also through Ben, Samantha and others just kind of what you have been thinking, what you have been trying and what you have been pushing the district to do on behalf of all students. Um and I think we are really better off um because you have been um pushing our thinking and pushing our work as one of our strong leaders across the organization. Um and then lastly, I think you know, similar to what Rachel said, um I think you have really taken it true to heart that you are, you know, the the voice, the mouthpiece, the advocate for the entire

020community that you serve. And you serve a very diverse community on all fronts. probably one of the most diverse communities that we have. And um your ability to represent um every voice, right, every segment of that diverse community um so thoughtfully in different conversations and make sure that when you are at the table, they are all at the table. Um I think takes a lot of thoughtfulness and care and passion. Um that is just a rare gift that I don't I think when somebody does it well um people don't recognize how rare it is. So just want to say thank you on behalf of that amazing gift um I've known you as a uh from the board perspective for less than a year. So I've seen the data that the board has seen on Franklin.

021I've seen our exemplary uh not you know notification. I've seen our improvements in various areas and that makes me you know very proud. I've also known you as a parent of a Franklin student for five years and that has been um just a tremendous gift to have a stability and be just a phenomenal leader at the head of the school that my children attend. It's um there are three on this board, but they've had different experiences at that school. They weren't all there at the same time. They didn't all have Dr. Williams, and it's a shame that we can't replicate you and have Dr. Williams all over this all over this district, all over the place. Um, I you know every child's name. I thought that it was just my children. Um, you know them

022all and you uh you're warm and welcoming to them. I think that if we have future educators and principles coming out of Franklin, it's going to be because they saw it themselves recognized in you. Um, and they saw that you cared and you brought your full self to school. Um, and I think that my children, you know, my my oldest will not know a Franklin without you. My my other will know uh the shoes that are going to be filled in the future and will hold that principle accountable uh to meet the standard that has been set. So, um, I'm I'm 8020 sad, happy. Um, uh, I'll I'll get I'll get over it. I'll, you know, I'll get there. But in the meantime, congratulations, and we will miss you sincerely. >> All right. Well, let's

023take a picture. Congratulations, Dr. Williams, and everybody else will meet you in the back. All right, >> moving on. >> Um, this is the point of the meeting where we welcome public comments. Each speaker is given three minutes to address the board. Comments may be made on almost any matter related to the operation of the schools, but we ask that you refrain from making comments concerning individual students or staff members. Board uses this time to listening community questions and concerns, but will not respond immediately to request for information. Additionally, the board cannot take formal action on non-aggenda items. 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 would um on the wants to start us

024off. >> Good evening. My name is Michael Hendris. Hen DKS. My address is 505 Parkwood and Park Ridge. I have a very long perspective on District 64. I attended district 64 schools from 1958 to 1967. Like to make a few comments. Primarily the reason I'm standing here and I'm watching the clock is that I'm opposed to the proposed tax levy. The my particular taxes went up 12.16 yearoveryear 12.16%. 530. The average in the district was 11.33, double digits. Now, I realize a lot of that is from the referendum, but anyway, with an 11.33% increase, uh I think that the tax levy should be maximum 2% for the next few years. So, I attended Lincoln Middle School from 1965 to 67. The summer before the uh referendum in 24, I took the tour put on by

025the staff. It was very well done and it was worse than I expected at Lincoln. I hadn't been in some of those rooms since 1967. And in my opinion, particularly the issues on with water, anytime you have water leaking in a facility, it needs to be fixed should have been done long before tens of billions of dollars were spent on uh all day kindergarten. So I would encourage the board to watch your priorities closer. I'd like to call to your attention Kiplinger Personal Finance ranks Illinois as one of the most tax unfriendly states in the nation for the middle class based on property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes. Finally, you know, my generation, I'm a baby boomer born in 1953. So, I kept in touch with four of my classmates from district 64, male

026Two of them are already dead. And two of them, one of them, I'm sorry, moved to a different state. One is still here. Uh my sister attended 64 from 1956 to 65. And she took her assets with her husband and moved to North Carolina. So my generation is dying. My generation is uh moving out of state. And you must grasp that the federal government does not allow the any state after the great depression. No states can file for bankruptcy reorganization. So the you know I feel bad because so much debt is being dumped on younger generations. U but there's not much I can do about it. >> So real quickly I'll just say one last comment. I'll step aside. I encourage you to vote no on the proposed tax levy and it should be no

027more than 2%. Thank you. >> Any other public comments? Please come up and state your name. We don't have to follow. >> Hi, thank you. My name is Alberto Deico. I live at 1601 Hton in Parkidge. Two kids at Franklin one at Emerson and I'm here because I'm concerned and surprised that kids can create a shared document on their Chromebook and share it with any kid in the district regardless of school or grade. I'm surprised the sharing capability is allowed first of all and second that it is allowed with what appears to be very little limitation and without teacher permission or supervision. If they want a student can create a document and share it with a hundred kids across the district, any grade, any school. They can add content like pictures, memes, colors, text, comments

028for all to see. They can even add pictures that they take from their Chromebook camera, which can seemingly be of anything they choose. They can also invite and kick people from the shared document as they please. And all students have an account, too, so an eighth grader could share content with a third grader or even younger. This is essentially a makeshift and unsupervised social media platform on all the kids devices where they can post pictures and comment unregulated at all hours of the day and which can be access access and shared with any kid in the district age 6 to 14. Obviously, this situation is very susceptible to inappropriate behavior and cyber bullying which exactly which is exactly what some kids have already used it for. I personally was not aware of this sharing capability

029until about a month ago after a very hurtful and troubling cyber bullying situation. Administrators were made aware and disciplinary actions were taken, but a kid was still cyberbullied on district 64 device in a document shared with nearly 150 kids across different schools and different grades. And then as of last night, that sharing capability is still available. Apparently, after discussing this with my kids, the unregulated sharing capability is well known and widespread among students. It has been like this for years with several examples of kids using it inappropriately and then no meaningful action has occurred to stop it. Only punishment for those who get caught, which is only after the kids are bullied, hurt, or exposed to something inappropriate. I'm aware some students may be instructed not to use shared documents, but this clearly does not

030prevent it from happening and is not enough to protect against the serious consequences of cyber bullying and inappropriate behavior. The sharing functionality needs to be turned off immediately, and I'm disappointed it hasn't already. At the very least, it needs to be significantly reduced and highly safeguarded. It is an unnecessary feature for kids, and the few perks could impossibly outweigh the consequences. Instead of simply hoping something bad doesn't happen again, I strongly request the board to take immediate action to limit or turn off document sharing capabilities to prevent future misuse in cyber bullying. Thank you for your attention in this matter and I look forward to an update. And I have 10 seconds. So I would like to echo what was said about Dr. Williams and then Mr. Branch. My family and my kids definitely appreciate

031uh both of you. Thanks. Any other public comments? Okay, moving on to Gardens update. >> Yeah, VK Gardens. So, we'll go ahead and get the slide deck fired up. Um, Mr. Harlland's going to introduce our speaker. >> Yeah, really quickly, I just like to take a moment. If you've been um walking outside in the nicer weather, of course, um over the last year or so, you've probably run into our next speaker. Um, I'm pleased to introduce um Katie Shamus from BK Gardens who has been working on the garden installations outside of our schools um and working on um a plan to maintain those and and bring those along for our district. So, I'm pleased to announce her she can um give us an update on how it's been going. Thank you. >> Hi everyone, my

032name is Katie Shamus. I know some of you I don't know all of you. I have grown something green since the moment I could stand up and I've grown something in between brick walls and gardens and now at our schools and I look forward to expanding that for us all. So a wonderful representation from go green parkridge with us here today and this is not a foreign slide to them and I think this is critical to our students. Benjamin Franklin top of the Franklin. Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll learn. And that has been at the core of these school gardens and why they matter to our population. You can make a list. I can compile a list for you of dozens and dozens of reasons, studies,

033scientific papers of the impact of being outside on young minds, middle-aged minds, and geriatric minds were made of We should be outside. What we teach these kids starts outside. Our foundation began at Roosevelt and you can see up here at 2023, we had a collection of five beds that because of co had been somewhat adopted but mostly derelict. My husband and I asked Dr. Dwire, hey, can we just volunteer our time and please put them in a straight line? We don't care. We just need them together. We were given full reign. We executed this vision and in 2025 everything came together. The community asked for more. We had other schools asking for this as well. VK Gardens was born. And after teaching easily over 50 classes between Roosevelt and the other four district elementary schools,

034the impact has been felt. This year alone, we have grown over 786 pounds of organic produce that have every single has been donated to the main township food pantry. We are their only organic supplier for the record and we came at a time that was critical for them. We have seen massive change at each of these campuses including students, staff and the community changing their walking paths to walk through the gardens. The intent of their construction cannot be underscored enough. We made four different doorways for people to walk through and experience and be underneath vines and growing plants. I have kids that won't eat vegetables at home, begging to take them home asking for seeds. How do I grow this? What do we do? How do I cook it? Can I eat it now? Which

035is always no because I don't have parental permission here. And we've seen double digit spikes in the go green clubs. went up from nearly singledigit enrollment to our first session in the garden was 42 students. The want is there. These are just some images. We have countless from students planting garlic which we have over 500 heads of garlic growing in our beds right now for July harvest to building the beds at Roosevelt. These children wanted to be in it from the start. basic skills like, "Hey, do you know what finger tight means? Come on over. Let's show you. Hey, how do you think this pattern should go to assemble this bat? Why should it be here? How do we put it together? Let's talk about teamwork. Let's get kindergarteners out and talk about trades craft.

036You just learned about blacksmiths. Where do you see the relevance? Where do you see it out here in the garden?" And then we have harvesting, which has always been the most fun. Would you mind flicking on the center? This will might be loud. There is great. No sound. How you like me now? How you like me now? This video was a quick way to tie together our partners who have helped this space come together and to show the impact on our community. Thank you. 786 plus in counting pounds of organic produce grown. 20 tons of organic custom compost. What do I mean by that? That is not compost that we are pulling from the school lunchrooms. That is a hope for the future that we can repurpose that and get that back in to our

037garden beds and that is the intent. We partnered with Lurvy. We came up with our own blend. They listened and they want to help going forward. These are zerocost spaces going forward. Resources, seeds, plants. I have a number of new partners, corporate partners who have asked to stay involved as we expand these gardens as we refine the landscaping. Ideally creating a lot of native pollinator spaces around them and removal of invasives so that we can have a beautiful landmark school district that others look to to build upon and to refine their curriculum as well. We have had love notes and thank yous left in the garden. People have come and woven them into the vines. Hunt like put them in between tomatoes just to say thank you for creating these spaces. We appreciate that you

038took the time. I was so sick of looking at that lawn. That tree was dying. Thank you for taking care of it. And I've had four grandmothers nana coming to ask to teach cooking classes. Can I show them how to string the peppers so that we can save? trying to pass on generational knowledge. So, this has impacted more than just the students. I have 96 year old women calling me at 6 a.m. to come and meet them to pick squash blossoms if we have no use for them. This is only phase one of our sustainability and greens engagement raised bed garden at every single one of the schools. Starting with April 1st, we will hit Emerson and Lincoln and do a refresh on Jefferson's existing bed. Phase two, along with grant work, we have outdoor

039classroom spaces where teachers then can utilize these spaces. They know how to introduce them to their classrooms, how to make them relevant to their curriculum, and feel comfortable walking out and using these spaces just as any other resource where they can reserve. Phase three is a D64 ecosystem where we have even now preK through 8, 8th grade that we can have these children from seed to spoon understand where their food comes from, ecosystems, and even getting back to social emotional education. We can have eighth graders coming and teaching fifth graders about the transition between elementary to middle school, what to expect, have some peer-to-peer communication, fifth graders going to kindergarteners and doing the same. Ideally, this extends into 207 where we then have it from prek all the way through until their senior year. As

040we just discussed, April 1st begins the installation of the Lincoln and Emerson beds. We're going to launch a training for the teachers so that they understand what to do, can plan for their fall curriculum as well. Get input from this spring to see how they would most like to leverage it and how we can support them. My main baseline, my background is in private wealth management. So I am all about metrics. I want to see the value add and the return here. What's the intrinsic value of this? I'd like to establish a dashboard that can be brought to you all in each of your meetings and then also completely transparent to the community so they understand the impact and it's not just from word of mouth or literal grassroots conversations that they know the value.

041that this has had on their children's education and the community overall. I'm more than happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding the gardens or the sustainability plans going forward. And I just also want to say that John Branch and Dr. Williams are incredible. He left, but he was in the garden every day. He's planting garlic at home. He had sweet potatoes and was out there harvesting with us. So, it's from maintenance all the way through. I have one question about staff involvement. Um, can you describe how the teacher training is going to be? Uh, are the teachers going to volunteer their interest or is it going to be available to every teacher at all grade levels? Is it going to be content based? Can you talk about how the staff is going

042to be involved? >> Absolutely. This will be a resource just like any of the students can check it or check out of the library. So it is a space a conference room will treat it as such depending on what their curriculum is. I am here to either collaborate with them and show them the relevance or they can come up with it at their leisure. There are few physical tools that they will need when coming out into the space and if anything is required it is very easy and I have multiple triels and spades and everything that they would need. And then from an educational standpoint, depending on what the curriculum is, there are federal and state resources available for K through 12. So it does come back to syncing up where we are in the

043lesson plan, having supplemental education from these which will be reviewed before they go and green light. Hey, let's use this in the space. >> And then so far, have staff had responsibility for the garden or Is that on volunteers, parents, groups? >> That is a fantastic question. There is no responsibility from the staff nor from the maintenance staff. This is a parentun and sustained. It is a self-sustaining organization. It is a training the trainer. So after a year and a half of overseeing a space, you are then for the back half of that that year and a half training the incoming person that is presiding over the space. Most of these will be in tandem. It is a lot. person to take on especially when you have children fifth grade or younger. I can only

044imagine when my children come into eighth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade working in tandem having the community the other part of who takes care of this space in the off months is really important. Master gardeners, naturalists and horiculturalists from University of Illinois will be coming. We're getting our garden certified to be a part of their continuing education. So then they come and are able to educate at their leisure. You will make a schedule. I will be there at least twice a month at each school teaching. I will be at each site twice a week to make sure that they are up to snuff and being maintained. So if someone goes on vacation, it's not forgotten. You're very welcome. Thank you for having me. Brian up here. >> All right. Thank you. Um we are now going

045to um go ahead and uh convene a public hearing. So just as a reminder, this is not something that we are required to do, but something that we're doing for transparency purposes. >> Hang on one second, Brian. >> I move from the regular meeting and convene the public hearing on the 2025 tax levy. >> Second. >> Andrew motion. Vicki had the second. All in favor? >> I >> All right. So, we've already had the motion to convene the the hearing on the 2025 tax levy. Let the record reflect that this is the 2025 tax levy hearing conducted by the board of education of community consolidated district number 64, Cook County, Illinois, pursuant to section 23 colon 140 of the school code. For the record, the board approved the tenative 2025 levy on November 13, 2025.

046And on December 4th, 2025, notice of tonight's public hearing was published in the Park Ridge Herald Advocate. Notice this hearing was also posted on the district's website. Pursuant to public act 102-895, I'll now read the fund balances by fund as of June 30th. Educational fund 25,449,863. Operations and maintenance 6,573,358. Debt service 1,999,556. Transportation 3,960,23 Municipal Retirements Social Security 974,313 Capital Projects 56,885,78 working cash 2,92,498 and TOR was 36,816. As a reminder, um, last board meeting, we also took some time to review a three-year look back of fund balances at our previous board meeting of our operating funds. You will recognize this slide from that meeting November 13th, 2025. The percentage of fund balanced average expense is listed at 42.69 or 4269. If this was greater than 250% or 2.5, we would have to disclo an

047disclose an operational funds reduction plan and submit that plan to the state. and I'll be disclosing that to you this evening. But we are well under that threshold. So therefore f no further action is needed at this time. Does the administration have any comments at this time? Do any members of the board have any comments? And are there any comments from the public? See none. Are there any more comments or clarification from the administration or board? May have a motion to adjourn the public hearing on the 2025 tax levy and return to open session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Oh, second. Sorry. >> All those in favor? >> I >> All right. Opposed. All right. Thank you very much. That concludes the public hearing. >> Thanks. >> All right. So, we're on to A3,

048adoption of the final 2025 tech. We're resuming the regular meeting in case anybody. All right. All right. A3, adoption of the final 2025 tax levy. >> I move that the board adopt the attached resolution number 1376 providing for the levy of for the year 2025. Resolution number 1377 to instruct the county clerk how to aortion 2025 tax levy extension reductions resolution number 1378 authorizing tax for Illinois municipal retirement purposes. These resolutions and supporting documentation will be filed with the Cook County Clerk's Office. The motion had the second. Any discussion, questions? >> Yes. >> Um A4 bond issuance. Yeah, this is the bond issuance was presented last board meeting um by Elizabeth Hennessy and Tammy uh Tammy Shelma. Um just about the uh next issuance of our referendum bonds. This is the final issuance of those

049referendum bonds and we'll be looking to issue them in early January. I move that the board approve resolution number 1379 declaring the intention to sell not to exceed 24,500,000 building bonds for the purpose of funding projects approved by referendum at the November 5th, 2024 general election. >> Second motion Rachel the second. Any questions or discussion? Yes. Ranken. Yes. Kemple. >> Yes. >> Double Day. >> Yes. >> All right. One more for you, Brian. Uh, supplemental tax levy. >> Yeah. So, the next one is a supplemental tax levy. So, this actually goes back to bonds that were issued in uh 2024. There is a supplement that we just got late today. Um, you know, from Elizabeth Hennessy. Um but these bonds were issued and these are different than the referendum bonds and these are um non-referendum

050working cash fund bonds. So when they are issued uh they have to estimate CPI and when they did that they did a modest estimate of 1.5%. So essentially if you look at that document uh column A that is the debt service on the bond the taxes that were on file we don't really know what CPI is obviously into the future we don't actually know it till a year later. So there's a process of passing a supplemental tax levy just to make sure that um we can capture what we need in order to pay our debt service payments on those bonds. So this is something that will be um a regular occurrence for these bonds as we will need to make sure that we can accommodate for those payments forward. >> Any questions for Brian? So

051I have a question. >> The amount that we're approving is in column C. >> Yes, that's the supplemental tax levy that we need to make up so that we can make that debt service payment because the >> So are we in year 2025? >> Yes, that is what we are passing right. >> Got it. I move that the board adopt the attached resolution number 1380 authorizing a supplemental tax levy to pay the principle of an interest on outstanding limited bonds of the district. This resolution in supporting documentation will be filed with the Cook County Clerk's Office. >> Second. >> Thank you Andrew. Motion Rachel second. Any questions or discussion? >> Milligan. >> Yes. Yes. Klein, yes. Franken, yes. Luisi, >> yes. Double. >> Yes. >> All right. Um, facilities committee update. >> Uh, we had

052we had a great meeting. Uh the notes obviously are attached. Um I'll skip through just a couple highlights. Uh we talked about the tuition and fees discussion. Uh Brian Harland put together a great memo for you on kind of where we're at and what we're recommending going forward. Um, we talked about maybe looking at in the future maybe CPI increases that could be a little bit more transparent. Important to remember that these fees account for less than half%. Um, we discussed briefly uh contracts over 12,000 or $25,000 changes with the vendors that are on there. Uh, the construction update uh I guess the simple message is things are going really well. a couple projects uh that were scheduled for Thanksgiving to winter break, but overall everything is on track. Um future projects a little bit.

053One thing is everybody loves our playgrounds. That was one of the big takeaways. So we might win some awards and do some other cool things. But uh we definitely got the playgrounds right and that's going right into the building. So things are good. Uh with regards to the transportation, we're going to be moving forward as we discussed with a transportation uh you know bid. It was recommended that we go out early. >> It's out we go. Uh quick discussion over the food services RFP and you know other other services that fall into an RFP opposed to a bid. Um you know they're not required to go out for additional information but we did talk about uh It's healthy to go through a process. It doesn't mean we don't like that we have. Um, one of

054the things that I think we took away for the policy committee is it would be really nice if we as a board kind of set up a policy around every five years or every seven years. No matter who our partner is, our vendor is that we go through a process and you know again we continue to keep the same partner that we have. We should go through process for all. So take that um You know, I think uh the biggest thing to highlight the new businesses, one of the things we were talking about a little bit was staffing plans getting nailed down. Special education population is growing. It's happening everywhere. Uh you know, that's something obviously we're working towards understanding a little bit more as we update. >> I am up. Um while we get

055my slide deck up and my can join me at the table. Um, I'll take that. Yep. But we did get our bond rating this morning from Moody's, which was double A1, which is good. That's exactly what our rating is now, which is um just below AAA. So, we're very happy about that. Um, and then that there was a press release that I know many people on the internet are reading currently. I'm sure it's on the front page of the New York Times. So, we're excited uh to let the whole world know what our credit rating is, which is higher than what Cook County counties is, which means we weren't eligible for the bridge loan. Which leads me to my first point, which is this whole tax anticipation warrant issue right now that I think goes

056to your comments. So, I spoke the last two days virtually at the Cook County Commissioners meeting, both the technology and innovation committee, and then today the actual big kahuna um their regular meeting and just um emphasized our frustration uh the loss of revenue that our district has had and then the other districts have been meeting probably about every three days um with a group of superintendent and some of our financial representatives and some legal counsel too, just trying to explore um what the problems are. This is also the second issue that we've been kind of at odds with with the county. Last year was the pay lead leave ordinance. Clearly just something needs to happen in terms of a communication strategy. So, um, with my counterparts, I know Brian with his counterparts, there's a lot

057of exploration with what we need to do moving forward with all of that. Um, so I'm trying to do everything I possibly can to make this a big issue. Uh, I still feel like it's under reportported and un under under known. Um, and there's a lot of non-answers. And so, just to clear the the air, we have received zero official communication from any body about this. And so, um, when you're talking about a loss of a million dollars, that's really unacceptable. And so, we're going to have to figure that out, uh, in the future and just in terms of in terms of what we're doing. and so on. Um, just want to commend all of my counterparts and other school districts. I know Bryants spend a lot of time on this, too. Um, and so,

058uh, we we'll continue to, you know, advocate for our taxpayers because every dollar that they earn and they put towards our schools, they work very hard for that and, uh, they they they expect a really great return and we want to we want to make sure that we're doing right by them. So, we did um issue tax anticipation warrants. Uh we can essentially if any money hits our coffers up until the time that we click go on the sale, we can decide to not go through with it. So, our estimated uh interest payment would be about $100,000. It is callable. So, um you'd be if we got the money in our coffers the day after, we could pay it back instantly. So obviously the interest payment would be significantly lower. Um so we'll we'll we'll

059we'll let everybody know exactly where things stand, you know, every day. I know Brian is checking um literally every hour I I would say at this point. Brian and Phoebe. Yeah. So just trying to see if we have money in the bank account and and we're not alone in that. Every school district is. My guess is if if any district gets a gets any dollar, everyone's going to hear about it within about 10 minutes. So, um, so that's what's going on with that. Um, so this is the this is the point of the year where I just kind of take a pause and talk about the goals that I'm working on and the goals that I'm supporting. And just a good reminder that a lot of the goals that I'm working on are supported and

060carried out by our wonderful cabinet team. Um, and we're going to just give a brief example as to some of our new work. And Rachel, actually you attended the cycle of inquiry training, so you you'll have a little bit um a good good understanding of I think some of the things that we're talking about um in in this too. So I want to welcome um Allison and Samantha up and in just a moment here they'll be talking about how this work is actually living in the schools um all the way down to the teacher level. So the first goal for me was just obviously improving all of our academic achievement. It's always going to be my first priority. We are working towards that 60% of our students meeting their MAP growth targets. Um you're going

061to hear from the behavioral side how we're trying to improve things and Alison will just briefly kind of you know mirror that towards the academics. Um in terms of the cycle of inquiry that is an improvement process. It's a four-step improvement process with a fifth step that kind of introduces your work when you're trying to establish some type of goal. So we've done a lot of training in that recently. We still have a long way to go in getting good at that. the middle school instructional model. Samantha's been working tirelessly on that. I would say every Tuesday and Thursday, she's spending nearly the entire day talking to middle school teachers, working with teams. Matt's done a lot of work with that, too. So, I want to commend him on that. Alicia spent a lot of

062time on that with special ed and what some of those changes are going to be. I want to commend her for her work in that, too. But we're trying to ensure that all of the changes we have for the middle school process, we don't want to just redo the kitchen and have all the same recipes for the kids. Does that make sense? I mean, and I think a lot of schedule changes and other changes in schools kind of turn into that. So, the teachers I know are having really good conversations about instruction. This is allowing us to go deep in some places that we haven't gone yet, which is going to take some time to kind of isolate what that actually means for practice. Samantha's found a really good partner with the We'll talk about

063that. Excuse me. North Cook talk about in a second. Nothing about the county is right now. Um, so the the and just a friendly reminder about where this work would situate itself. So all of these squiggly lines where everything kind of goes arai generally happens because you don't have a process for how you're trying to improve, right? And what we're trying to equate all of our work towards is that big purple box. And that's the work that Allison and Samantha are leading um both in academics and in behavior. So, um, this is the cycle of inquiry. It's on an infinity loop because you're really always moving through one of these aspects. And Rachel, if there's something that you wanted to remark about, like an aha or something from the um the session you went to,

064a triple I you certainly could, but I think the reason that we wanted to adopt it was because it's the state it's the state model from the Illinois Principal Assoc Association that is offering trading everywhere. It fits in with our leadership model too, which is nice. So that it's not something else that we have to kind of figure out what the cohesiveness is going to be. And now the superintendent association is starting to do training on this as well. So um we're one of the few districts that are using it also at the cabinet level. We have a lot of work to to do on that, myself included, in terms of how it works because really it's it's designed more for principal building work, teacher work, teacher teams, and those types of aspects. Is there

065anything else you wanted to comment on? No, it was just um I do think it was really the way they talked about it was like really scalable in terms of different people in the district being able to use it. When I was thinking about it from like the educator hat in the room, I was like, "Oh, this is how I could use this for the work that I do and this is how you could use it in terms of even our own board processes or things like that just at different levels." Um so it was a really just good framework um and a really good focus I think This is something we talk about about like prioritizing what our most important things are. Um because in education it's a common problem for programs to come

066and go to do too much too fast and then not to do it well as your chart showed. And so I think um that just really struck a chord in terms of how they talked about that in terms of how we are now approaching strategic planning differently align. Great. Um, so in the teams in the schools on the behavior side and I'll turn it over to Allison and she can kind of walk you through how it's working on these next couple of slides. >> Sure. Yeah. So I'm going to share with you um the work that we've been doing to work to embed the cycle of inquiry within our tier one behavior teams. Um so all of our buildings have a tier one behavior team which is essentially a school improvement team um focused around

067behavior. Um it's composed of representative staff across each building. Um really meeting for the purpose of looking at behavior data um buildingwide behavior data determining an area that they need to focus on as a building. Um setting a goal, putting a plan in place to achieve the goal and then um monitoring progress of the goal. And so we're really working hard this year to make this a living breathing process. So as opposed to, you know, setting a goal and then writing a plan down on a piece of paper than really doing very little different across the course of the year and then coming to the table at the end of the year and like just hoping that we meet the goal, um we're trying to actually be much more intentional about um how we're setting

068a a a goal and putting a plan in place that's very targeted towards the goal that we're trying to achieve. So um all of our buildings have been doing an an amazing job in kind of getting their with this process this year. Um I did want to share just a highlight from field on the next slide um as an example of of a building who's been doing a great job of really making this process come to life. Um so you can see um the teams meet for three half days across the course of the year and then four additional kind of shorter check-ins. Um and so field we had our first kind of kickoff half day this past spring. Um so the field tier one behavior team came together. They dug into a whole year's

069worth of behavior data and they identified that they needed to work on um reducing behaviors in the area of disruption and non-compliance. And so um after that half day, they came back together then at the beginning of this year and um kind of talked about how they could what strategies they needed to put in place in order to to make that happen. And so a lot of it had to do with staff professional learning. um around just making sure that there was consistency in how they're how staff are logging behaviors just so that when they look at the data they know that it's good data that actually is reflective of what's actually happening. Um they wanted to make sure that staff are on the same page with how they're defining disruption and non-compliance to make

070sure everyone kind of when they're logging it they're all logging the same thing and then looking at professional learning for staff around how they're responding when students do engage in these behaviors. So a lot of their like I said was about PD for staff. Um so they started to kind of get the wheels in motion with that. They came back together in October um for a half day and this is where they were able to look at their data and and get some really good baseline data. So um they looked to see that 47% of their behavior logs were for that category that they're looking to kind of reduce which is disruption and non-compliance. Um, and that's really good to to note that because then when they come back for their next half day in

071February, they will be able to um be in that kind of assess and reflect portion of the the cycle of inquiry. Um, that, you know, lets them know if what they're doing is actually working and then they can kind of, you know, we're trying to make it so we're not at the end of the year and we're like, oh, we didn't meet the goal, but more, you know, mid year being able to then course correct if they kind of see that that they're not on track to meet the goal. So, um, really great work happening. We're really excited to continue this work, um, with our teams and, um, like Ben said, we are also, um, developing this exact same process on the academic side. And so, we're going to have tier one academic teams that

072are, um, meeting for the first time this spring to basically go through the exact same process, but really looking at academic data, setting academic goals. And so, each building then starting next year will have two goals, two kind of cycles of inquiry. that's happening around academics and behavior. Um, and then I also wanted to add we're looking at um the same type of continuous improvement mindset with our interventions as well. So, academic and behavior interventions. Um, we know that we're very lucky in our district uh to have a lot of interventionists and so we're really doing a lot of work around making sure that we have an effective intervention program. um which includes you know really taking a look at what are our entry criteria, our exit criteria for interventions and having kind of more

073of a team approach um with administrator, psychologists and interventionists. Um after kids are identified for needing an intervention. Every eight weeks we're kind of developing this um eightweek progress checks so that we're looking at each student to see which students are making progress, which are not making the progress that we would expect and then what are our next steps. So really trying to kind of embed this whole kind of mindset within all of our all the tiers of support. >> Alison, what like data management tools are we using as a district to to track this especially with the intersection of the academic and behaviors of identifying students from MTSS services. The primary um system that we're using right now is analytics and insights um which is um you know I think this is our second

074year of kind of rolling it out and we're really working hard to customize the the system to really fit the systems that we're putting in place. And so um we're it's helping us kind of really visualize the data. So it's it's really been great with the tier one behavior teams because that's that whole focus section of the cycle of inquiry. They're able to just have data visualizations at their fingertips. They don't have to work like put things in spreadsheets and graph it. They can just kind of pull it up and and they see the graphs and can really get down to the business of making decisions. Does it t your kids like automatically for you based on your criteria? >> Yep. And we have different dashboards and and like I said, we're able to customize

075things. So, as we're going through this process, we're kind of seeing, oh, it would be great if we had a graph for this or we could be great if we kind of tweaked that. And so, we're we're customizing it along the way to have exactly what we need. Um, so it makes it just easier for people to engage in this process. I have a question about the interventionists. Um, you're describing having entry and exit criteria for those students. Are is that not in place right now or is it just not standard across the district? The second so definitely um each building has a process that they have been using to determine students who um qualify for interventions. We're just trying to kind of get more consistency across the district and what that looks like. Um,

076really the name of the game is like no matter what school a student goes to in our district, we really want them to have kind of the same experience and be, you know, if you're eligible at Franklin, you should also be eligible at Roosevelt. And um, so really looking at just having more consistent criteria. Okay, thank you. I think the process that Alison's naming to in the intervention piece is also bringing up a lot of questions that we're going to need to explore in the next couple of years for sure. So, we'll have more to talk about with that. Um, and then I'll give Samantha a moment here to talk about the great work she's doing as we approach next year's um middle school middle school work. >> Um, we we are thankful for our

077staff. I am also greatly thankful for Allison uh for all of her work in all of this. There is no way that we would have been able to lay this framework without her. So, thank you to you all for allowing us to hire her, but also just her her dedication. It's also her birthday today. So, thank you for coming to the board meeting on your birthday. >> Um so, just to continue that, another piece that we're looking at through that cycle of inquiry is the middle school professional development. Um, as Ben stated, we are literally living and breathing middle school improvement every single day through some type of committee or professional development. So, these 10 items up here are really a good summary of all the work we're doing. The largest piece is really that

078uh professional development for our core teachers. So, our math, ELA, social studies, and science, and then any special education teachers that support that work. So, three times this year for a full day and we're working with those teachers and the North Cook Intermediate Service Center to talk about how to structure an 80 minute block for ELA and math because that is very different than a 40 or 50 minute block. Right? Middle school students need engagement and different types of strategies for that. And then accompanying that PD is also what are best instructional strategies and how do we strengthen those in our middle school. And then finally, we're also talking about some of our populations that have diverse learning styles like multilingual learners, um, students with disabilities, and then any other populations that might be under

079representative and really diving into how they learn best. So, that's been really amazing work. The teachers have been diving into that and doing a wonderful job of brainstorming how to um, strengthen but also structure those classes for next year. So, thanks to them. Um, a lot of this other work that you see up here also revolves around the elective world. So, we have a family and consumer science curriculum review going on. Not only are we revising some of our current pacing guides for that uh fax department, but we're also creating a new pathway for electives, a financial literacy class called money matters. Um, we spent some time at Maine South looking at their financial literacy class and how we can create a segue into the district 207 high school experience. So, we are very excited

080to roll that out. Um, we currently do have a class called Show Me the Money. So, there's a little bit of rebranding, but then some new ideas that are going into that. So, big thanks to all of those teachers, current, which will be our social studies teachers and our fax department for really thinking about that and making that a reality. We also have an industrial technology curriculum review going on. And both of these programs are ones that have existed for 30 plus years, but have never had a curriculum review. So, we're doing a lot of powerful work right now. Matt and I are working with the industrial tech department. Um, thinking about and looking at the engineering design process and how we can bring that into Emerson and Lincoln. So, really difficult work for all

081of us, but rewarding. And just a huge shout out to those teachers for engaging in it through this process. world language, technology, and health and physical education are also thinking about pacing in their scope and sequence for next year for the new middle school schedule. Like Ben said, we can bring in a new schedule, but it's really how we prepare for it and and what we do with students, right? So, health will be a quarter and PE has one less quarter. So we had to think about how will we create an opportunity every single class period or quarter that is the same experience across town but then even across those those periods of one through 10. So a lot of good work coming out of all of those elective teachers. Super grateful to run those

082committees with them. Um and then finally um other training and support that we have uh kind of coming soon for curriculum and programming would be for our special education teachers and some other elective teachers. So Alicia and I have been working a lot with the sped team um including the sped coordinators, the principles and the teachers about what would programming look like with an 80inut block for ELA and math especially for our co-taught classes or students who are in replacement and then what add training to those fed teachers need in order to prepare for for those blocks of time with students. So, a lot of fun, rewarding work definitely needed um and going to help us really prepare for next year. >> Thank you. And then on this slide, >> just to recap, um really

083the three big things, what does 80 minutes mean? We've never had that before in a middle school in in 30 plus years. What best instructional practices do we put in that? And then the premise of every PD or committee that we have is how can we incorporate collaboration, communication, and engagement, things that we know are really important between the ages of 11 and 14. >> Um, I think it was just important to put these two things in front of all of you. I mean, a lot of the times a lot of your communication for me is on things like, do we have money in the bank right now? But at the end of the day, this is our work. This is this is why we're a school district because this is school and um the

084work that the cabinet team does is just been really great with all of that. So, um more to come. We'll have more to talk about with these two things as we kind of round uh into next year. So, want to thank Samantha Allison, the rest of the cabinet team for all their work on on those aspects. And then um looking at uh my second goal, which is this is going to kind of be a twofer for the where we're at with the strategic plan. So we've done some rounding conversations. We've sat down and talked to two staffs or just at least provided the opportunity at Roosevelt and at Washington. And then we also had a really great time two weeks ago at Maine South and Maine East talking to 40 of our graduates about their

085experience at high school. It was fascinating. Um, we'll have a a more in-depth presentation probably in January, February. I think the big takeaways are there are some things that we are doing really well that they to many of our students were like, "Yeah, but by the time like junior year hit, it kind of felt as hard as middle school was." So, we had some comments about that which was great on the academic side. And then when you flip it to behavior and social aspects almost to a te most of our students said middle school is way harder than high school. And there was a lot of things that they pointed to okay what would you change and they gave us some really great suggestions. Um some things honestly that you know would be impossible to

086incorporate like field trips every day or free Bosco sticks. But um there were also some things they said that made a lot of sense and I think it's going to maybe provide some good space for us to as we get into the strategic plan and thinking about like what does their day look like after school and before school because that's one of the biggest differences and how can they find their people. They've had a lot of conversations about that and so like the middle school model is predicated on teaming and some of the interesting comments were you only actually get to know that group of kids and if things don't go well eventually they won't go well it it's really hard to socially break out like they a lot of the students were saying all

087the things that scared me about high school are actually things that make high school great so it's also going to cause some things I think conversationally that we can do with with 207 and then Samantha and and Allison and I are going over uh the first week of break to sit with the high school and take a look at like our behavior data uh potentially and start in academic data and say all right for a student who is um I'm going to make this up but for a student who has been suspended let's say more than three times in high school give us some examples let us look at their what's let's let's look at what happened to them in middle school and can we start to make some inferences about like what their trajectory

088was um for a student who was failing all their courses freshman year or getting straight A's freshman year what did their profile look like when they were in sixth grade and said, "Can we build some maybe models that we can start to look at and notice some things that I know some other districts have done some really great work on?" Um, the the high school students also said the block schedule, they like they were very positive about the block schedule and they all it was kind of funny. A couple of comments were like, "It'd be really great if you had something like longer classes so we could kind of know exactly how to get used to like using that time differently because in middle school it's boom boom boom boom boom." So Harry and Samantha

089say that we just like the whole design of time. Um it sounds so easy, but it's it's much more challenging. Um I think from an instructional standpoint and just a learning standpoint. Um so if we can maximize that and really capitalize that, there might be some good things that we can do so when they're walking in freshman year, they're even more prepared. So way more to come on that. I'm really excited about some of those conversations. Um, as we move on that, we've got some draft mission, vision, values work that we're just kind of the next couple of months going to go through a ton of revisions. I would say, especially on the visioning piece. We're probably the farthest away. We've got uh we're on the 10th iteration. We'll probably have 20 or 30. It's

090just been really interesting hearing the staff talk about what they see as the vision for the school district and like what it means to them, what they want to see in it, what they don't want to see in it. We had some really interesting conversations in our steering committee. Um, I would say the values that we put out, uh, especially because they're going to be more for staff, they've been resonated very well. Um, mission is definitely something that's pretty much right to the point. And I think one of the big questions we have is like how can we make this more lived and so that you actually know it and it's it's front of mind in your working memory at all times. So lot lot to happen in that. I I would I would guess

091January is probably going to be tough because we come back from break and it's right away. Probably February we'll start to have like major more major reports out on all this work. So excited for that. But I think it's headed in a good direction. Um so that that's great. And then uh the cycle of inquiry that Alison was about we're trying to do that at the cabinet level. And so I'm using it I'm using like kind of the strategic plan process as the way that I'm working through all four of those aspects of the cycle of inquiry. And these are just looking at the cabinet members some of the things that they've chosen for their goals. Um it's going to take us a couple of years to I think get into the situation that we

092really feel comfortable with this. Even the way the even the way the um documents are designed are really building. So, there's some things that we're going to have to change and manipulate so our next iteration next year um is more effective and helpful for our cabinet members, but we'll get there. Um we were asked to uh we were asked by IASA, you know, potentially if we would be willing to like talk about our work in some larger capacity, which is great. So, we can celebrate our district and put us out there, which always helpful when we're trying to recruit people for leadership positions. So, um but you know, anytime you're trying to do a process like a lot of these things as you're looking looking at them. I'm even thinking like the things that Mike

093does um with construction, he's he's constantly going through all four phases, probably multiple times within a meeting, right? Um sometimes he's telling the the construction manager which phase he wants them to be in as as he's going about that work. So, um so we'll get better at that and we'll talk more about that at the board level so you can kind of understand like how we're improving all the processes in the district. And then finally, just with everything that we've got going on financial, I think in the next couple of months in particular, um it's great. We did pass a balanced budget. Obviously, we have to go back and look at that now with what's going on with the the taxes. Um at some point in the spring, Mike, Brian, and I uh and probably

094Phoebe will sit down and really take a deeper dive back at the 30-year capital maintenance plan. Um now that we know more, we can kind of kind of come up with a cycle of when in the year would the update to that really make sense. Um based where we're at with construction. Uh we'll still be talking about increasing our fund balance because obviously we're going to need to do that in the long run. The situation that we're in right now is just more dire from that. Working hard on working with our friends in the Pa that's going well. And then we are eliminating the full day kindergarten tuition. You're going to hear more about that plan in January. So, but we're in good shape with that. And I know that's going to make families very

095healthy because that is dollars back into their accounts. So, um everything's going great. Um, and I just want to commend all the people that I get to support and serve with. They're doing a great job. Uh, again, just like I was talking about Dr. Williams. A lot of their work is behind the scenes at night, on the weekends, uh, early morning. I bet you Joel has never had a ride into work with midway. He's not on the phone with the principal trying to solve maybe a staff issue or just something that that's happening. Um, and I know um, especially our new members who've joined our team have just been done a great job and we're really thankful for their work. You're going to hear more from Alicia coming up too about the student services action

096plan as we get into um, the winter and all the great things that she's doing. So, I'm excited to share that with you. So, that kind of doubles as my strategic plan update as well. Um, also just with every everybody joining us at the joint conference the last few years, we've just allowed for anybody to talk about like their experiences, things they've learned, um, and things that they saw. So open it up to any of that. >> Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else want to share? I have to say I'm still thrilled that we had the entire board go. So this is the first time maybe >> I'll just say that it was a great experience and I'm glad we all learned we all learn things and I look forward to doing it again next year.

097>> I would say that one of my takeaways, you know, as a new board member, I'm trying to learn a lot obviously and be quiet and listen and absorb and that was kind of my approach at the conference as well and hearing from people from around the state. We have vastly different situations across the state, across the county, even suburb to suburb. And I felt a lot of gratitude for where we are in D64 right now with our soup. Our leadership, our schools are strong. No one loves the county right now. And you know, the financial education that we got was was good, but again, it's very different depending on where you are in the state. Um, it was it was really um it was good to get more perspective on where we are. I

098think the more the more time we spend here in our home, you know, it's easy to forget and it's valuable to have some more comparison, some more information. Um I went to a a session on superintendence and as we know in recent history we've gone through you know more than than we would like and we landed in a place where we are you know we are in great shape and so I didn't have a lot to add to those sessions because I didn't want to make anyone jealous. Um but I just felt a lot of pride for where we are and and glad to be a part of the trajectory that we're on right now. I think the only other thing I would add is um I found that the delegate assembly was really really

099fun. Um probably the most exciting part of the entire conference and so um anybody really in for the fun very happy to talk about it for next year. >> I want to echo a little what um you know just you know, so many um I'm grateful for how well we work together as a board. Um you know, I went to a session for board presidents and there was a whole lot of what do I deal with me who does this? How about me who never comes or member who you know is anti everything all the time board member who wants to go talk to the local newspaper after just countless string of toxic behavior that some board members can do and I appreciate how well I was going to say on the other side as

100a board member was different. But what I found most valuable is how we came together and get to know each other a little bit better. There will be times that we have issues that we have to be able to work through as a team and knowing each other better and respect each other and you know I think was the best part about it for us. >> Um what became so apparent to me differ. I was I was blown away by some of situations that other districts were having session. All right. Um, just wanted to say that we had a great parent you uh, which was a new session that we just recently ran. Uh, Alicia and her team, I know Samantha worked on that as well and with with help from Michelle and some of

101principles about um the introduction to kindergarten is the best attended parent university I think we've had for a while probably 30 30 parents. So our kindergarters next year are just going to kill it. We we just know they're going to be great. Um but obviously as a as a parent of a kindergartener um especially somebody who maybe wouldn't be in education I can imagine that that leap is maybe the most significant transition of their entire life. So, I used to say this all the time to incoming freshman parents. You have to transition the parents more than the kids. And I think that's probably true for kindergarten parents. It's always great that we filled obviously a need. Uh so the team did a great job with putting that together. Got a lot of good feedback from

102that. Uh there are two events just for all of you to put in your calendars. Um one of them is the Ed Red Legislative Dinner on January 26th is at Stephvenson High School. So if you'd like to attend that, please let me know. They to try to get as many legislators there as possible. Um, you can imagine what the topics are going to revolve around at this point. Uh, we should have a better idea every month about what's going on federally um with the uh the funding and then also for us more importantly what's going on at the state level for funding next year um with things like EVF and mic mandatory categorical goals. So, I'll be going to that. So, let me know soon. That usually sells out so we can so we can

103register. You can It's at six or seven six o'clock. >> I went last year was it was really good. Um speaker was great. It was good connecting also with some other area board members. So, 207 has some of their district admin board members there as well. And then there's usually like one legislature at each um and they mix people up a little bit um where you were with your district counterparts but then possibly with other districts too. So it was a valuable event >> and the presenter was the national superintendent associate. So my yeah it's like their main lobbyist who's like in Washington she lives breathes everything federal she knew everything. Is this something typically the whole board? >> No, you you could. Um I don't think we've ever had the whole board go, but

104it's it's usually something that some board some some school districts do have their almost their whole board. So, um but Ed Red does, you know, that's our lobbying group. So, they this is one of their big events. There's like three huge ones. Um, and then also we will be hosting the Illinois Association for School Boards North Cook meeting which Matt is now a board member of. Uh, that'll be here on Tuesday, March 3. So, actually probably in this room. So, um, and that is a wellattended event. There will be probably, what did they tell us, Chris? 150 people we need to prepare for. Yeah. So, this Uh that is I believe at six o'clock I believe. They're all about the same time and um the speaker for that is going to be Chris Man who

105is the executive director of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials group. So obviously you can see the theme this year is finance. So he'll be talking a lot about that. Um I actually had the chance I actually worked with Chris M when I was in Batavia. He was the assistant superintendent for finance when I was teaching. He's a former music teacher too. So, um just a wonderful person, knows everything about everything in that world. We'll have a really interesting conversation that night as well. Um the next board meeting is not at field. Sorry about that. It's it's February. Um and then all of our foyer requests have been fulfilled. So, that is my report. >> All right. Thank you, Joel. We've got a disciplinary thing we've got. Let's go. >> I move that the

106board approve resolution number 1375 authorizing disciplinary action of student 2025-03. Second >> Andrew has a motion. Vicky with a second. Any questions or discussion? >> Jacus. >> Yes. Lui. >> Yes. Franken. Yes. Kemple. >> Yes. >> Klein. Double Day. >> Yes. again. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, student fees. >> Come back up. This will be shorter. I know last year, um, there was kind of an extensive presentation on student fees. For those of you that were here, um, it was a year in which there were many changes to student fees. I did provide you kind of last minute. There was a a look back that, um, PB had done for all the way back, I think it was 2013 on that document. Um, put it together flawlessly until I add the last column and

107then I made a mistake. So on that you'll see that I forgot to zero out the kindergarten tuition on that. But I have fixed it and updated for our records. So I wanted you to be aware. But the uh the actual supplementary doctor uh document with the fees for next year in the timelines is the one with the blue that was included in the board packet last week. So that is accurate and up to date um because I didn't touch that one if PB did it herself. Um so um our recommendation for fees next year though is to hold them um steady and keep them the same. We know that there was um a big analysis and a fee increase kind of in many different categories last year. So that was kind of the reasoning

108behind it. Um and you know obviously the one thing the only change really that we are accounting for on here is zeroing out the full day kindergarten tuition which we're excited about. Um it's going to offer great opportunities for students and eliminate a barrier for students to full day kindergarten. So, the recommendation is to hold them um steady and we are still going to maintain that early bird registration fee um discount. So, that will be a $50 discount if registered by 3:15 March 15th. Any questions? >> I move that the board approve the 2026 2027 student fees in kindergarten tuition as presented. The motion with a second question. >> All right, >> Louis. Yes. Klein, >> yes. Kemple, >> yes. >> Jacus, yes. Milligan, >> yes. Day, >> yes. >> Ranken, yes. >> All right.

109Uh, consent agenda. Does anybody need anything pulled out of the consent agenda? Can we ask questions about items on the consent agenda without pulling them off? >> Yes. >> Do we do that after motion? >> Technically, probably. I guess >> if you want to make a motion discuss >> I move that the board approve the consent agenda for December 18th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> Motion. Rachel the second. um questions or discussion about any of that. >> I just was interested in the power school one the enrollment I think was for two years whereas the maintenance and support was for one year and I just wondered if that was typical and why they're not both for two years. >> Yeah. So we um we renew the CIS maintenance and support the one year every

110year. It's just what we've always done. Um it provides us opportunities to get on our power school student information system when we need it. Um that's what they offered to us. They didn't offer us a multi-year support. Enrollment Express was up and so they offered us a two-year to lock in that price. And those are the forms for enrollment. So if you've done registration in the district, it's all the forms that you would fill out online. >> Rankin, yes. Jacus, >> yes. Lisi, >> yes. >> Temple, >> yes. >> Klein, yes. Milligan, >> yes. Double, >> yes. >> All right. Any new business? >> We're not going to adjourn because we're going back into a motion to go back. >> I move that we go to adjourn to close session. >> All in favor? Hi.

111>> Thank you everyone.