001We're going to get started a few minutes late for the district 208 board of education meeting. Um we did have the uh summer school graduation just prior. So anyone watching, I apologize for the slightly uh different time frame. Uh we did do we have a call to order. Mr. present. Mr. Durkin here. Miss Gasa. Miss Ruska here. Mr. Novak. Mr. Williams here. Miss here. We did complete a pledge of allegiance with the graduation. If so, would leave with the board. I think we can move on to the rest of our business. Yes. Uh, no president's report. I guess I got roll call out of order. I just kind of jumped right in. The graduation threw me off. Uh, Dr. Skinkis, do you want to start with the superintendent's report? Sure. Superintendent's report. Uh, Senate Bill
002SB 637. Uh, the two meetings have occurred since the June board meeting. Uh, Dr. Matana and I met with the zoo leadership team to discuss timelines and logistics. Additionally, a preliminary sitewalk was conducted with representatives from the bounty engineering the zoo uh the school district and n and our construction manager Nicholas and Associates to begin developing a general concept for the project. Um, I've also contacted Elizabeth Hennessy from Raymond James to initiate discussions about the potential use of taxexempt capital improvement bonds to finance additional site improvements that may need to occur for safety and field usage. Um, remember the original $3 million that was bonded out in 2017 um has already been paid off and we've been collecting interest on that money. Um, so if we were to use capital development bonds to do site
003improvements um to complete the project and the transaction with the zoo, the the lease fee um they'll still be at uh a co no cost to the taxpayer. The goal is to still have our step down in place so that the taxpayers are experiencing a tax break um with no added increases to their taxes. And I think we can pull that off from my initial discussions, but I will continue to meet um with Miss Hennessy. Would that be as part of the the safety bond issuance or as that would be separate? Separate. Okay. Safe life safety bond will probably not come till closer to 29. Okay. 29, right? Um assistant, this does what this does though is it does fill that gap, right? Like we were talking about when we built the kitchen of creating
004that large drop off. So now if you drop in these capital development bonds, it creates a more progressive um we had talked about additional projects as well. Correct. So so this is not limited to field improvements. Correct. Okay. I just wanted to be clear that it's it's uh anything capital development. By labeling them capital development, you can't use them for general operating expenses. And that's part of the solar panels too, correct? Solar panels are not. We paid for that out of our fund balance so that we did not mess with any of the government rebates. Oh, that's right. Assistant superintendent report FY25 financials. Uh Dr. Smatana and her baby daughter are doing well. Uh as a reminder to the board, Dr. Smatana presented her summer reports at the June meeting. Therefore, there will be no
005assistant superintendent report tonight. Um, regarding the financial reports for June, due to the timing of the Fourth of July holiday, the district has not yet received the financials for the fiscal year ending June 30th. So, those actuals in the July financial report will be presented at the August board. Uh, remind parent square. I wanted to put this in there. Um, you may see a bill come through in the future. So, we had a contract with Remind. I want to say going back to 2021, right around when CO came out. It's a a lot of schools use it for mass communication via text, email, um, to get information out to students and parents. Uh, well, Remind has been bought by parent square. And so FYI, the board, all the stakeholders, the Remind app, which is the
006high school administration's faculty and parent groups use to send out communications to students and families, has recently been bought out by parent square, the district who will transition the parent square during the first quarter of the school year. Uh Dr. Freighos and his team will send information to families to assist them in this transition. From a board perspective, this is not a new purchase and is already in our annual budget item. So Dr. Matana and I will process the new agreement accordingly. There was one uh question submitted about parent square. Are there any new features that the administration will be using? Yeah. So I mean you know we're you know thank you board of education Dr. Skinkis for bringing this you know cuz I'm really excited for what it can do and how it would
007help consolidate our communication. I mean it can do surveys, translations, e signatures, RSVPs, you could do newsletters, volunteer sign up, right? you know right we have all parent organizations use different applications you know to service their mission so parents where you're able to do I mean all the things that I mentioned you can do attendance reminders to remind students to kind of keep coming and come on time I mean it's a amazing platform that's why it's growing you know and that's why it's buying out you know other applications but we're excited for what it can do and how it would help our communication overall you said it can do translations yeah it can do translations tools they set to automatic translate So you can set it up by your end and receive messages in your
008language as a parent. Yes. So do we know like like Spanish or certain? Yes. I mean it it has the main languages and you could always you know Okay. Is it going through Google Translate or something else or we don't we pay for a different service right now to improve our translations better. Correct. Exactly. Is is there something specific that the parents are going to have to do different in order to get it or will we get them the same the same notices we've been getting? Yeah, I mean we we'll provide a notice and a step-by-step guide on how to, you know, get familiar with and create an account, you know, on parents court. So, we we'll make sure we communicate all the directions to our parents. And I'm not sure I think Patrick was
009asking, Mr. Williams was asking like is if if you're already set up on Remind, is it just auto transition over? Do we have to start from scratch or is it basic? I mean, if it's the same, if they bought it, I'm guessing it's probably something they're just going to piggy back on their own plat the old platform. Mr. Man is coordinating this, right? So, more information will be coming out before the start of school. So, do we think it'll be ready for the start of school or this is more once school starts for school? It will be it will be ready. You know, it will be ready. Again, you know, we are in transition, but our intent is to use it to as max capacity as possible. So, are we notifying parents and students like
010at this week at the like residency type things or? Yeah, we'll be Yeah, we'll be informing you there. Gotcha. So, yeah, we'll definitely be informing our parents of where we're going. Cool. No, I think it's I mean it's it's good. Parent Square seems like a very established organization. I'm looking forward to seeing what the capabilities. I personally use it with my kids, so I'm familiar with it, you know, as a parent. So, you know, I'll be more than an advocate for it and I'm excited to help our parents and students with it. Just make sure communications go out accordingly to families so that they're ahead of the curve. Okay. Yes. Uh maintenance update. We will replace the correct heat exchanger in the HVAC unit for the little theater. It's approximately $42,000. There's about 8 to
01110 week lead time. So, we should be able to conduct this repair in October before we need to turn on the heat. Uh we are still working through a few other maintenance items with our consultants that are not at the board level now, but I will update you accordingly should a significant repair or replacement arise, such as possibly a component for one of our pool units uh just got burnt out um last week. And so we have it running on bypass um while we wait for that part. But that should be about a $13,000 um replacement for that part. So I got updated on that this morning. So is any is this taking place is the pool piece doing um the in-house resources or is this through that? We have a service provider. Service provider.
012Yeah. So they were our in-house resources were able to bypass the component that fried so that it still runs and we could still have people using the pool cuz we have several of our um municipalities that use it for their day camps as well as their swim lessons. Um, and so we we will be up and running. Uh, there should not be a problem. I thought he said he would hopefully have it before the end of July. Is is the heat exchanger in the little theater is it done or is no heat will come from it at this point until then it is replaced. It is done exchanging heat. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. No, no. Uh, there was no heat in the little theater. All right. ready for graduation. There's our graduation. Uh technology
013curriculum, no new updates. Facility advisory council, no new updates. Finance, no new updates. Personnel, no updates. Policy advisory. We did meet uh and we'll discuss um the changes or actually we mostly adopted everything as recommended. Um but it it occurred on June 17th. The policy advisory council will review discuss the recommendations from IASB. Uh this will be presented later in the agenda. And again, you know, just a reminder I for or Mr. Caputo, Mr. Williams, um, but like a lot of the policies were focused on the recent Supreme Court decision. And so we pay for the service from the schoolboard association. So they have attorneys constantly reviewing policies, state, federal, local court cases and anything that needs to be updated in our policies. Yep. So it's a really good service. and then the fact that
014uh once at the federal level they uh went back to the old title 9 ground rules and and frameworks um they updated all of our policies. So that's what a majority of the policy recommendations were and again I'll cover that when we cover um the policy advisory council uh in the new old agenda items. So, you know, just to piggyback on that, we we have hundreds of policies and we would have had to read through or at least know all of them in depth as an attorney. You know, it's my eyeballs bleed reading all those, but the service that we pay for, their attorneys constantly are combing through that and knew exactly what policies needed to be updated with that new ruling. And so, that's a huge service for us that we don't have to
015do. Sounds like something AI should be doing for us. Yes. Yes. You always ask what is IASB doing for us? Is that No, she was saying I was thinking just AI AI could be doing that at this point. Well, I don't know. But then they pointed out and of course we always have the option to say well it doesn't fit or don't but and that's what you know the they reviewed all that. So and correct if I stated it wrong. It's uh federal, state, local. So they this was the federal Supreme Court decision. And that concludes my report for the July board meeting. Thank you, Dr. Skinkis. Um, we don't have a a report from Dr. Smatana as indicated. Dr. Freighas, good evening again, honorable board members of District 20 and Dr. Skinkis. So, right
016now we're in a session two of summer school for academic programming and then we also have a lot of athletic camps that are occurring right now and uh some enrichment camps as well. In August, uh the first institute day is on the 11th. It's a non-attendance day for students. on August 12th, Tuesday will be the first day of school for student. It is a late start. It'll be uh 8:55 a.m. On the school culture, we have residencies. They start tomorrow. Tomorrow is 8 to 2. We always start here in the in the main area. On the 16th, it'll be 11 to 7. On the 23rd, it'll be 11 to 7. And then on July 30th, we're back from 8 to 2. New this year, Board of Education members, is our 10 period bill schedule. So,
017no more letters, our numbers. You know, I know that was sometimes tough with adults, with parents, with students, but it is uh we're gonna we're going to share in the welcome packet with our families in residency. It's on our website, but we're going to new temporary bell schedule. Now, we just focus on the periods and we're no more letters. So, we have taken a step forward when it comes to our scheduling. On August 7th, we have freshman orientation from 10:00 to 11:30 in the main gym. On the 7th as well that evening we have a first parent university family welcome back night from 4 to 6. On the 20th we have our open house from 6:00 to 7:30. As I mentioned earlier we have athletic camps up and running. On August 11th is the first
018day of fall sports and registration is open at Ref Trek. Families can go register their kids right now. And in September we have homecoming game on the 19th from 7 to 9ish. And then on the 20th we have our homecoming dance from 7 to 10. Both events will take place at our Canali Athletic Complex. And board members, that concludes my principal report. Thank you. Dr. Fritz, quick question on parent university. Is that for returning students or for freshmen? That's for all. That's for all. All parents are welcome. And that's when we review our learning management systems. We go over Schooly, you know, um Google Classroom so the parents are familiar with where students, you know, get their assignments, where they turn it in. So parents have knowledge of that they have knowledge of our systems
019and we can support both parents and students. Great. Thank you. Any questions from anyone? Not seeing any. Um Dr. Skinkis, we had a couple of foyer requests I believe. Yeah, several. Um so you had the Elizabeth Bushio. The response was included requesting the activity uh request resource request worksheet. Um Robert Prosp from waste management. Um CT Mills public info access. Uh we usually get this every year, actually probably every quarter, district level administrators and staff members. Owen Wang requesting a list of graduates and Owen Wang from the West Cook News. Um in regards to the school math team. Uh so all those responses have been sent and they're included in the board packet tonight for the board members to review those responses. The Owen Wang West Cook News that goes out to every school district
020in Illinois. So, um, we verified, I want to say last year or our attorney verified last year for all their clients that it was not an AI source. It is a legitimate news source, but you do get um several foyas from West Cook News. They send it to every school in Illinois, not just West Cook. Nope. Well, one big groupy to analy visitor statements. Seeing none, we're going to move on. Consent agenda action items. We do have um approval of minutes from the prior meeting. We're going to Bill, would you lead us off by doing the first consent agenda item read? Yes. Board of Education, Township High School District 208, Cook County, Illinois, takes the following action on the listed consent agenda items, approves minutes from the meetings held on June 10th, 2025 open and
021close sessions as presented in the July 8th, 2025 board agenda packet. Can we have a second, please? Second. Second from Mr. Williams. All in favor? I. No objections. That carries. Under old business, uh we don't have any life safety items, capital improvement, sustainability matters. We do have a press plus policy issue 118. So, as previously stated, we received several comments from Mr. Ruska just asking some of the most and if not all of the changes um that were discussed in this packet 118. As I stated, were related to the federal Supreme Court and um the ruling to go back federal court. federal court, excuse me, I'm sorry, federal court to go back to the um title 9 groundwork uh frameworks that were in place prior to uh some of the changes. So, it just updated
022our policies. We have always had name complaint managers and title 9 coordinators in our uh policies. So, those were there. We added that information. One of the new requirements is that those people's names are actually listed in the policy. We had listed it by titles. So, that was a lot of the changes. Um, we also looked at the new policy 7255 in regards to a cyber security policy. We also pay for additional coverage from our liability insurance to have cyber coverage. Um, policy 6150 homebound. Um, in regards to homebound, we do have a structure in place already that provides homebound tutoring um, by an outside source for any of our students that are hospital hospitalized or dealing with medical or mental health issues. And we also looked at policy 6310 and reviewed our uh, dual
023credit dual enrollment um, policy and reflection on how this year went and how next year went. and the policy advisory council is recommending no changes to that. So a majority if not all the policies are adopted as presented. There was one on AI also, right? Yeah, he did mention that. Yes, that's the cyber security and AI polic but also embedded in that one. I think there was a framework and I think the question was did that go through all our department heads about how to use the AI? Miss Linquist and Mr. Connors already did some training for staff last year on Elbert and some of our other AI models and they're going to be doing continual professional development throughout this year. Okay. So then maybe as the year plays out because you know there's always
024the fear that you don't have to write a paper anymore. AI can write it for you. So maybe they can give us some information how they're handling these tools and yet guiding students into doing their own writing, being able to use the tools wisely. Mhm. So I um I want to say so thank you to Miss Ruskco. She provided comments on the policies and so when when Mr. Williams and I met, we were able to kind of marry up your comments with with the IASB um suggestions and and I would just to to piggyback on what Dr. Skink has said, there were no real new policies here. There were a lot of revisions. So, I think it was it was a larger No, we were you we already had an academic um um oh, what's
025the phrase I'm looking for? We had a policy related to cheating and plagiarism and that kind of thing. So, it it it builds on that. It builds on it. But, I mean, definitely the tool opens up a whole new, you know, opportunity for people to kind of circumvent the difficult art of writing. Sure. and you know it'll be at the end of the year or at the appropriate time when staff present it' be how are you managing that? So in regard to the uh press plus packet I am requesting that the board approved that tonight. Um I think that we've had this now on the agenda for two or three meetings and the advisory council's reviewed it and uh we're ready for adoption if the board can take action tonight. Is there any additional discussion
026or questions from anyone? Anything else to add, Patrick? No. I feel I felt good about it's was pretty thorough. Okay. Um, in that case, could you read the motion? Sure. The Board of Education, Township High School District 208, Cook County, Illinois, approves the press plus policy issue 118 as presented in the July 8, 2025 board agenda packet. Second. Second from Mr. Durkin. That's an all in favor. All in favor? I. Any objections? The press the press plus policy issue 118 passes. I think they issued a new one coming out too. Yes. 119, but that's not adopted till October. Probably conven. Mhm. Sure. Right. I'll give you a little break. That one probably includes the spring legislative changes, right? Correct. So, thank you very much. And then tenative budget FY2026. I don't think we have anything
027to report on this. No updates at this point. Again, the June 30 actuals will be added for August. So, if we see any significant changes, we'll report out on those in at the August board meeting. And there is a link available on the website to access the tenative budget. Um, and I'm sure people have seen the there's some regular news reports about property tax bill payment delays. Uh, the initial indication was 30 days, but they may be going longer than that. Correct. So, it goes back to us having a solid fund balance and some good financial planning. Um, new business payment of bills. Were there any questions on these? There were no questions submitted on the bills. Okay. Any here this evening or can we move ahead to approve? Okay. Do you want me to
028read it? Would you please? Board of Education, Township High School District 208, Cook County, Illinois approves the payment of bills as presented and discussed in the July 8th, 2025 board agenda packet. Second. Moved. And second for Mr. Durkin. Would you need a roll call for financials? Mr. Coopingo? Yes. Mr. Durkin? Yes, Miss Ruska. Yes, Mr. Williams. Yes, Miss Taylor. Yes. Visitor statements. Second opportunity. Seeing none, board of education discussion items. I think Miss Ruska had a quick item to share with the group. Okay. So, we had the planning meeting from the West Cook um I mean from the Illinois Association of um you know, school boards. And this is the planning meeting for the West Cook, the 40 districts that are in our group. So the fall meeting will be September 29th, I believe, and
029it's going to be at the Elmrest. And they did get the teacher of the year, Mr. Gomez, to come and present. So that'll be pretty interesting. Many of the members wanted to hear that. And then they are still the spring meeting will be at Chiller Park. They've had some major renovations and we're going to uh get a tour of their renovations they're hosting. And then they're trying to get the superintendent from uh the Illinois school board from ISBY to come, Tony Evans, I believe. And so that's still they've made contact and so that's still hopefully going to be possible. Okay. So keep us posted on the second date and then the um registration for the fall conference you said is opening up shortly. Yeah, the fall conference is already open. They had early bird registration.
030Mr. Ruska already has been registered. Miss Mullo will send out information to the rest of the board um probably starting at the end of this month and Laura wanted to do a workshop so we hadn't signed her up for that but I will get that in the uh Friday update probably next week. I'm out Thursday and Friday on vacation this week. So um but the for the board members the conference is in November. I will send a date so you could save the date. Um I don't have that in front of me. I've got it for you. It's always the weekend before Thanksgiving. It's uh the 21st, 22nd. Friday, November 21st and 22nd. They are prolific emailers. So, I think we've all probably received emails from them already. Yeah. But it's always that weekend before
031Thanksgiving. It's the weekend they light up the mag mile. And then we there was one other question. The AP test will be reported out. The general AP test scored report will be pro provided when we do the academic report and school benchmark report in the fall. And um there was one general question submitted about uh scholarships and local scholarships. Uh I provided a detailed answer I got from Miss Augustine. She's on vacation, but she did send me that answer. So I provided it and sent that out to the rest of the board uh this afternoon. I think that's all that covers everything. Rest is close session. Any discussion or comments? Any additional looking about the the scholarships? Um I I just honestly just kind of looked at it as a missed opportunity uh and just
032kind of was curious about the connection between our school and the RVF and how we can just make sure the kids know about this stuff. Right. So, RBEF will come to their board in the fall and because they're one of the affiliated organization like music and PTO, I think it's probably a good question to pose to them at that time. You know, what are they doing? Um, they're such a good organization. They do this fundraising. They they used to do the the auction event, right? Tell Yeah, the teleathon. Um, I think there's been some transition in in leadership. I think it's a great question to ask them, you know, how are how would they maybe suggest helping move people into applying, what they can do to apply. Um certainly a lost opportunity, but one thing
033that struck me from the note we got from Dr. Skinus was that local scholarship applications overall are down, which is surprising, right? Right. And we're all sort of looking down the barrel of pain for our kids college. I would think that I looked today on the student services website. All those scholarships are already listed. Correct. That's great. I I I mean I think I I mean I've talked to several people who sit on on different boards that award scholarships and a lot of them are numbers are down. I And I don't understand it. Well, it's a question of it's a honestly it's probably a question of knowledge of it. Everybody's busy. People miss people don't think about it until it's too late to think. But I'm just thinking trying to be proactive as best we
034can as a district. Sure. And you know if the if the money's there and we're leaving it and we collectively as a as a Beth was going to talk area leaving it on the table just seems like a real was also going to talk to Mr. Monty who oversees the RBF just to see if there one of the requirements had in there that a student had already be accepted to a culinary arts institute and some of these kids may not know if they're fully committed to going they might study or take it as a minor or Right. Well, and I So that's really starting to narrow because we have 500 kids that take it, but that doesn't mean they're all going to be chefs, right? Well, the application deadline happens before you necessarily accept your
035school. Well, and it also I did look at the fine print of that one and it said that if no culinary students apply, it's open to all applied arts, right? So, I didn't if you take if you took a culinary class and you are potentially going to study any applied arts in college, you could potentially qualify. That seems like a same thing, but then I read the fine print in the actual application if you click on that and you need to uh talk about your GPA and your fine arts classes. So, I think maybe there needs to be a little clean up. Sure. On on what the requires. Let's make it happen. I mean, I agree. Yeah. Know, I think it's it's it's I'd like to see more applications for all of those. I mean,
036they're competitive. Amen. There used to be a list of all the scholarship already. Yeah. And I I think I mean, I'm definitely looking at all of these for my kid. Um, and I think it's I basically from what I've been gathering just doing our own research for our own child about looking at scholarships, community foundations are like the best place to find it because there's a few, you know, when you're looking at these national and statewide scholarships. There's a lot of applicants, but clearly we're not if I mean money is being left on the table by these community organizations, these are probably the most fertile ground for kids to find money to go to school with. Yeah. So, agreed. You know, I think it's it's a it's a good chance to re-emphasize it. Yeah. Well,
037I think we'll continue our outreach. You know, I know in at the end of August, typically, you know, our student services department, they do a countdown to college. They introduce the scholarships. Then they follow up in February. They go into the English classrooms, you know, followed by that they have their counselor one-on-one meetings and counselors try to pair students with scholarships. So I mean but I mean yeah you know I think I share the same feeling when I see a scholarship doesn't go apply for right you it is a missed opportunity I share that sentiment and and I I was curious too is there any specific assist because a lot of the scholarships I was looking through all have some sort of essay or statement portion. Do we have something within the school that the
038kids know about that would assist them with it? Because I know you know they can ask their teacher. Sure. My daughter has definitely asked several of her teachers to help and I'm you know I was I mean I echo that sentiment. I think our staff are always there with the students. They want them to get you know the money they have a shot for. So I mean students go to the teachers you know they support one another. I mean the counselors are there. We have we're all we're all there for them and helping them. I think what I'm hearing is a little more overt about if you need help writing an essay please. We both have a senior right now. Yeah. And uh so our program here at RBS Camp College Mhm. It's a summer
039camp that they offer. Yeah. And they're writing your college essays. Yeah. Yeah. Application essays. I think that's great. And so I think the numbers of those students taking advantage of that is is not as high and I don't think you know they're thinking about February when they need to be applying for these things. Now we know about this, don't we? So some of us try not to be a nag, but you know, right? She is my kid. So anything else? That concludes all our questions that were submitted. any other discussion items or matters for future meetings. So for future meetings, I just want to put it on the list when it's appropriate when they come to present if uh you know our principles of curriculum and that can report out how they're handling this chat
040GPT. I know how some other schools are doing it. You know, they're asking for essays and then they give a test and ask for the essay again and they compare them. So I'm just curious how we are handling these kind of writing tools whenever it fits into our you know annual calendar. I just want to put that on the list. So back to the the AI discussion you want to understand Linquish touch on that how they how they've been working through that because I know so many people now that are using that for their job and everything else in the fall when the divisionals come to a meeting. That'd be a great topic for our divisionals. I think it might have even been a parent university topic last year where it was covered and if
041it wasn't it may be a good future parent university topic for sure. And just so our board knows you know currently I mean our teachers do use you know online tools to kind of verify. Um but of course nothing's foolproof but we do have we have we have some measures in place every the m dash is the giveaway right? to it because chat GPT uses tons of M dashes. So that's a red flag. Well, we are we are currently checking, you know, for that. You know, we want to make sure that students turn in authentic original works, right? Not okay. I'm sorry to cut. Okay. Matters for close session, appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, student discipline, individual student matters, purchase, sale or lease of real property,
042probable imminent or pending litigation, collective negotiations, school safety, confidentiality of close session minutes, superintendent's yearly goals. Mr. Caputo, could you read our motion to get us to close? The Board of Education, Township High School, District 208, Cook County, Illinois, enters close session for the purpose of considering the close session matters as presented in the July 8, 2025 board agenda packet. Second. Second for Mr. Durkin. And we need a roll call, please. Mr. Williams, yes. Mis, yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Durkin, yes. Me. Yes. Okay, motion carries. We're going to go to close session at 7:38.