001the May 27th meeting of the Riverside Brookfield Board of Education. We stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Mo, we have a roll call, please. Sure. Mr. Present. Mr. Der, here. Mask here. Muska, Mr. Novak here, Mr. Williams here, Miss here. I apologize. Recognitions this evening, Dr. Fes. Greetings, honorable both members of district 208 and Dr. and Dr. Skink, superintendent. Congratulations to the seven RB students who completed the YC2 program. YC2 is a youth philanthropy program offered to juniors and seniors across four high school that fosters students exploration of the local communities and the social issues within them, educate them on philanthropic theory and involves them in assessing organization and distribution of
002grants. When you hear your name, please come on up. Tommy Bton, [applause] Arian Hernandez, [applause] Mirabel Lrei, [applause] congratulations. Valyriia Martinez, [applause] Micah Mini, [applause] Sophia Sanchez, [applause] and last but not least, Margo Supra. [applause] Congratulations all of you. It's a great program. I'll say [clears throat] selfishly, my son did it a couple years ago and he had a wonderful time. So, congrats. 10 RB students have passed the Adobe certified professional exam in Photoshop. This is a huge achievement as having Adobe Photoshop certification is an industry recognized credential and validates advanced skills in digital design and image editing. It's more than a test. It's a demonstration of professional level proficiency in a tool that's essential to countless and creative technical careers. It is also worth noting that Sebastian Giblin received his Adobe certified professional certificate
003in visual design in addition to his Photoshop certification. Congratulations to the following students. Alfredo Herrera, [applause] Gabrielle Derlet, [applause] John Duffy, [applause] Sophie Finger, [applause] Sebastian Giblin, [applause] Michaela Hog, [applause] Jaden Gemma, [applause] Bennett Conan, [applause] Julian Soliss, [applause] Lucas Strepicus, [applause] and of course, here's a face that I recognize again. Let's give it up for Micah Mati. [applause] Congratulations, M. And now we have a guest of honor. I would like to invite third teacher. This was accomplished, Miss Patty Arcadia. Come on over. [applause] Hi. Um, I am Patty Sarcati. I teach the business and technology classes here at Riverside Brookfield High School. Um, and it's with great pride and excitement that I stand before you today to recognize an outstanding achievement by a group of students on the successful completion of the Adobe uh,
004certification exam in Photoshop. And as Dr. Freightes had said, um, Sebie had also received his Adobe V professional in visual design as well. Um, this is not just a tool. Well, Adobe Photoshop just isn't a tool. It's an actual global standard in digital um editing and digital imaging. Um it provides students um to demonstrate more than just the technical skill. It actually reflects their dedication, creativity um and problem solving. Uh they have these students have proven that they can navigate industry standard software um with confidence and creativity. a skill set that opens doors in fields such as graphic design, social media, photography, um, and marketing and so much more. So, um, if we all again, if we could please congratulate them on their amazing achievement. [applause] [clears throat] And last but not least, congratulations to
005the math team on qualifying for the ICTM state competition at Illinois State University. The RB math team had an overall score of 135 and placed 32nd out of 58 teams in the division 3A of the math contest. When you hear your name, come on up. for geometry. Joe Duffy. [applause] For algebra 2, we have Sophie May, [applause] Ronin Pacimo, [applause] Mitch Shoreman, [applause] Chloe Stzzac, [applause] Wyatt Hoffman, [applause] and Isaac Lee. [applause] Just a little more. For the freshman, sophomore, eight person team, we have calculus. Did you skip pre-calculus? I'm sorry. For pre-calculus, excuse me, we have Zack Rosenfeld. Zack. [applause] Next up, the freshman sophomore eight person team. We have Ellie Dickerson. [applause] We have Wally Adenhoff, [applause] Kylie Risen, [applause] David Santini, [applause] Alex Sher, [applause] Joe Duffy, [applause] Addie Risha, [applause] Chloe
006Stza. [applause] And last but not least, Sophie Dickerson. [applause] Honorable board members and Dr. Skinkis. That concludes our recognition. All the families and Bulldogs today, can we please step outside and take some picture? We want to document. Dr. Yes. Before we we we dismiss, can we do the student board members, too, so that this way if those parents are here, we could take do recognition to them as well. Correct. And uh we do have one of our upcoming student advisers to the board of education. We'd like to recognize Hannah Buganas. Hannah, [applause] [applause] so with leave from the board, let's take that out of order. I think we do a voice vote appointment of the of the new student board members. Miss Gaska, the board of education, Township High School District 208, Cook County, Illinois,
007approves the appointment of Hannah Bukhanunos and Arian Hernandez to serve as the student adviserss to the board of education for the 2025 2026 school year as presented in the May 27, 2025 board agenda packet. Do you have a second? Second. Who was who was our second person who did the interview? Was that Mr. Novac? Yes. No. No offense, Mr. Durk. I'll second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Congratulations to you. We look forward to working with you in the fall. We'll be reaching out towards the end of the summer. And uh thank you for once again for those who interviewed and congratulations to everyone who um had an award this evening. Good job. [applause] [applause] So know a board of education member Arian our other student he did email Dr. Skinkis and I he had
008a family emergency. Okay thank so hold on we step outside. Let's give them a second. I feel comfortable. [clears throat] [snorts] Not sure if she was. Okay. Thank you everyone for supporting your students tonight. We appreciate that. Going to move on. Uh there's no president [clears throat] report. We can Dr. Skinkis once the room is clear. Superintendent report please. Yes. Let me get to reports. And Miss Malo, you see that um Miss Ruska has joined us for the evening. Okay. So, wrapping up the FY25. Congratulations to the administration, faculty, and staff on another great school year filled with outstanding memories and accomplishments. Uh the high school now shifts into summer school and summer camp mode. Aramark will begin summer projects, deep cleaning hallways, and classrooms. The district administration will continue with the budget development cycle.
009Uh the board will receive a first read of the tenative budget for fiscal year 26 in the meeting packet tonight. [snorts] Uh the board will need to approve the tenative budget in June. The final budget will be presented for final approval in September. But the tenative budget being approved in June allows the administration to um purchase supplies, uh do payroll, all those things uh as we get ready for the upcoming school year. The staffing vacancies for next year are mostly filled and most remaining openings are stipen related. So should we should be in an overall good place from an HR perspective. Uh there were a couple advisory council meetings that occurred uh since the board last had a superintendence report uh technology and curriculum which is Lorena Gasa and Laura Horusa. A meeting occurred on
010Wednesday May 21st. The agenda included a summary of the curriculum guide review and the recommended changes to be brought to the board in probably August um once those changes are finalized for a read from the board. We also discuss the progress monitoring data for this school year. Uh this data helps the building administration identify what students interventions are needed for the upcoming school year and what curricular work may need to occur over the summer. The board will receive a more comprehensive report of the student data and interventions as they always do in the fall around October. At this time at Laur Lena or Laura, do you have any additional information you'd like to add? Um, it was a very informative meeting. I can report that there's a lot of work going into the review of
011the curriculum guide. Um, it it's it's very detail oriented. It's been very comprehensive and I'm looking forward to being able to share um out with everyone um in the fall. It's a lot of good work is happening. I'm super excited about the uh the breakouts that Kylie did on the dual enrollment and the explanations and she did the dual credit, the dual enrollment, the dual um tracks, all of the different ways that we have the ability to earn extra credit while we're at RB. Super excited about the three new classes that are coming. one that I told her that it's in the curriculum guide probably won't happen this year but it's coming next year about this uh survey of careers for students to take and you know the capstone project is you it you know
012you look for a career that you like I'm hoping it rolls out soon enough for my grandson to take it um again super excited about the tracks you know the career tracks several years ago maybe four or five years ago Kylie was talking about internships and we were kind of trying to get into that way earning extra credit as an do you remember that Dr. skinkus with the internships. And so now with what the state is asking us to do with these uh career tracks and we can now bring back the that whole idea of doing the inner um you know internships while maybe it's in culinary or might be in business or might pre-law or something and incorporating that as part credit and getting real world experience. So, like Lorena said, lot of work
013went into, you know, going through that curriculum guide, pulling out things, um, making sure the language matches with colleges. Some real nice new offerings, um, that are in there. So, yeah, they had nice conversation with Kylie to go through all that. Yeah, pretty excited about that. So, that's in August. That's which fall meeting. The August meeting. August meeting. I think that that's the goal. I think there was a question mark. I was Yeah, we're going to shoot for August. the board will that the curriculum plan goes live usually October 1st or the second week of October and then the students pick classes [snorts] the second week of November. So um we usually try to get that to the board by August or there's only one meeting in August so definitely by September. Okay. Uh the
014facilities advisory council uh Bill Durkin and Nick Novak, they're scheduled to meet later this week to discuss the facility rental agreement. Uh receive a status update on the solar panel project and also um during Dr. Smatana's leave, Tony Rossi, the board may be familiar with that name. Uh some of the existing board members uh not the new board members. Tony uh serves as our client advocate from Nicholas and Associates, our construction manager. Uh so he's going to um touch base with me once a week just to kind of give me an update on solar and assist Burm in any uh summer projects that need to be addressed or um additional assistance while Kristen's on parental leave. Uh finance advisory council um Deanna Zalis and Nick Caputo. A meeting occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The agenda
015focused on the tenative budget being presented to the board tonight. So you'll get a very similar presentation uh that they received at the finance advisory council later tonight from Dr. Smatana policy advisory council. Again, we'll we'll try to get something scheduled here for June or July. Um I am scheduled to do some traveling in June. So it may be more towards July. That packet needs to be approved uh in August. So we have plenty of time and uh no updates on purchase sale or lease of land. We did not meet from Bill Durkin or Deanna Zalis. That concludes the superintendent report. Any additional questions or comments there? Okay. Dr. Smatana. Good evening. Tonight, I'll provide the board with financial information through the month of April, which represents 83% of our fiscal year. Um, beginning with
016the monthly summary report, you'll see the total operating revenue for the month was 1,690,974 with 31% from interest on investment, 23% from evidence-based funding, which is our state funding, and 21% from federal and state grant reimbursements. The total operating expenditures for the month were $2,222,717 with 84% towards salary and benefits, 5% on transportation, and 3% each on special education tuition and operation and maintenance costs. Moving on to the monthly financial statements, you'll see that the summary of revenues shows that the district has received 95.75% of our budgeted revenue for the year. This percent is similar to this time uh last year. The summary of expenditures shows that the district has spent uh 79.89% of the budgeted expenditures for the year and it should read that this amount is slightly lower uh to this time last
017fiscal year 82.6%. Um as always I included the statement of revenues and expenditures both on the board side and as well as the activity accounts for the month of April. Um, I have a few other additionalformational [clears throat] items for the board tonight. The first is the paid facility rental third quarter report. Um, this report includes any paid rentals during January 1 through March 31st, 2025. This quarter, the district collected $21,964.75 in revenue and expended um almost $7,000. of the revenue from the quarter, 43% of it came from facility space charges with the majority of rentals from uh the stadium and auditorium. A year to date, the district has collected 55,242.50 and has expended uh $16,352.75. The surplus from rentals is used to offset the cost related to the upkeep of facilities. Keep in mind
018when you look at the line item in the budget, the amount will actually be a little higher because we had some paid rentals from last year that um hit this fiscal year. Um facility projects, I wanted to update the board um on two projects. [clears throat] The solar update will come later um in the agenda. So uh we are currently finishing up the wait room floor. Uh we replaced the floor and we repainted all the walls and fixed all of the uh grates. Um and the equipment is in the process of being moved back into the space tomorrow. Um last year the RV sports boosters gener generously provided almost $25,000 for new equipment in the space and so uh this year uh the board had decided to go ahead and replace um the floor. So,
019at the next meeting, the board will approve uh the bill for uh this project, but we provided some preliminary u pictures um so that you could see uh the progress on that. We haven't replaced, like I said, we hadn't moved in all of the uh equipment yet. Um and then also the diving board and stand were replaced in the pool. Um not as exciting to look at. Um but you notice that there's no rust. Uh this was original from the uh renovation back in 2009 and so it had definitely reached its uh lifespan and needed to be replaced. Um at the next meeting the board will also see the bill for this project as well. Um and that concludes my report for this evening. Thank you. Tammy, can you please scroll down to the before
020and after pictures for the wait room, please? Looks great. I think it's a little further down. you scroll up a little bit. Okay, [snorts] so remember when we we were putting in the new equipment, we identified that we had unlevel floor. We had some flooding in there previously, so there was some rust and things from the equipment. So had some unsafe surfaces. We also had large platforms that were causing some tripping hazards off the rack. So what you see that turf going down the middle is is just that it's like square pieces of turf that fit in like the rubber tiles. um they have a rubber bottom to them, but so that athletes can in PE classes can train down the middle of that turf while the other athletes are working out on the racks.
021Um so, Miss Fletcher is planning on doing uh some B before and after pictures more on social media once the project is completely finished. Um and the diving board, as Dr. Smatana said, she showed you the new diving board. What the board needs to remember now is it's 2025. a lot of renovation work was completed in 2009 2010. So, you're getting to like that 15-year threshold where like things are starting to be replaced. Um whether it's we know we got some time on the roofs, but like the diving boards, the starting blocks, um HVAC units. Um so, we did the blocks last year, right? The blocks have been done this year. Okay. this year earlier this in the Was that in the end of last summer? Oh, no. It was earlier this year. Um and
022um I believe they were installed in late January, early February. And we need to [clears throat] a maintenance grant for the diving board, the starting blocks as well as the lake room. We're also going to have to within the next year or two re uh coat the pool. So we we drain the pool like every year and we'll do that. We do that annually, but we're getting to a point where we're going to have to recote the plaster. 16 years. Some of the plaster and some of that needs to be addressed. So, this just some ideas of some large capital projects that will need to occur over the um probably the next two to three years. Any questions or comments from anyone on that? No. Okay, we can move on. Dr. Freest. Greetings again honorable
023board members. So starting off with teaching and learning, we have summer school coming up starting next week. That's part of a summer school curriculum. We have credit recovery courses for advancement such as health and US uh government. We have enrichment courses, band, bridge tour, camp college. Pretty much every program month, Monday to Thursday, 8 to 12 or 12 to 4 depending on specific program. But we do ask that everyone sign up by May 30th. That is the deadline. But of course, you know, if parents need a day or come Monday, you know, we will support that as well. Um July 8th, as we've done in previous years, we'll be hosting our summer graduation before the board of education meeting. We usually have about a handful of students that do credit recovery in June and graduate.
024And that counts for our graduation rate for this previous year. The first day of school, can't believe I'm talking about, will be on August 12th on Tuesday. And uh guys, it'll come faster than not. It'll come in a in a few weeks. And our first board meeting is in August as well. I think it's August 12th. It is a Tuesday. It is. I think I think it's the Yeah, the 11th is the institute, right? Dr. Correct. You are correct. Okay. [snorts] Uh under school culture and operation for the month of July, every Wednesday in July, you guys know it's residency. Uh parents must complete the inperson, right? Kind of submit their bills, identification, all that stuff before they can receive an inerson date. So on the 9th um it'll be 8 to2 starting in the
025cafeteria. On the 16th it'll run from 11 to 7:00 in the calf. On the 23rd 11 to 7:00 in the cafeteria and on the 30th 8 to2 in the calf as well. Those are our in-person residency days. August 7th will be our freshman orientation 10 to 11:30 in the main gym. And then August 20th is open house 2025 26 from 6:00 to 7:30. And that'll happen throughout the building. For activities and athletics, summer camp's right around the corner. I want to say next week we started with badminton and baseball. And of course, almost every sport is covered. The [clears throat] the first day of fall sports will be Monday, August 11th. And then here we go. September, the big homecoming. On the 19th, we have our homecoming game from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the
026Cana Threat Complex. And following the game, the next day on the 20th, we will have a homecoming dance 7 to 10 pm. Same at the stadium. And that concludes my principal's report. Thank you. I hope you and everyone else are taking some welldeserved rest of the summer. You really ruined the mood tonight. Right. [laughter] I haven't figured out we're wrapping up this year, right? Talking about just kidding. Thank you, Dr. Frea. [snorts] We do not have any information items this evening unless someone would like to add something for discussion later. Not seeing any visitor statements. Miss White. All right. So, I'm back. [laughter] [snorts] All right. Sorry. I'm going to read this to um just to get all my points in. Um, so Maggie White from Riverside, I'm here to provide some observation as the
027former board secretary of RBHS music and theater sponsors. First off, I'd like to thank our music teachers and theater directors for their long and tireless hours. I would also like to thank Dr. Freightos for his enthusiastic support and gratitude to Mr. Man and Miss Fletcher and building security. Um, I sat here two years ago with 50 students and parents to provide public testimony over the drastic reduction in music teacher hours. Later that summer, FTE hours were restored and Dr. Skinkis invited us to a sitdown and walked us through the calendar of staffing decisions. He also graciously offered his support of any facilities requests and has been true to his word. All requests and questions were promptly responded to. So, thank you, Dr. skinkus. Um, so that was our only sitdown and the agenda was set
028by the superintendent. Um, but since we had only proven that we could get large populations to the board meetings, I knew we needed to create a history of positive results to be taken more seriously. Two years later, we have awarded $18,000 in summer study grants to students, and we've just approved up to $5,000 in live streaming equipment for the auditorium. I had no doubt that we would achieve this. But that said, we spent a large chunk of time gathering and presenting data from experts and local schools on music staffing and what good could look like here. Knowing that a district goal was to increase two-way communication, we believed that our request for a two-way conversation was reasonable. This request was never granted and we burned a lot of cycles. So, let's talk about lost opportunity
029costs for a minute. um in capital equipment. We would have loved more bandwidth to pursue unidentified 34 potential grant providers to contribute matching funds for the piano. Um I'm I'm thrilled that we approved the $5,000, but it's regrettable to think that we could have done much more sooner. Advocacy. Instead of spending countless cycles appealing to the district, we could have been working together to help out in Springfield. um namely the foreign language requirement that's going to affect students in a few years and we've already had some success in Springfield on another matter. Um I hope this board will hold the school accountable to prepare students for the career world of the near future which will bring about rampant adoption of AI and automation. Bringing back the fine arts survey would be helpful um as arts
030and humanities will be essential skills going forward. As we face uncertainty, the district is going to need to engage and embrace parent organizations to face whatever challenges come our way. So, [clears throat] that concludes my remarks and I don't have a pen, otherwise I would. Thank you. Thank you. And forgive me. I I did forget to read the uh welcome statement, but you're a you're an old hand. I follow the rules, right? 26 seconds to spare. Okay. [laughter] It is embedded in [snorts] our agenda for the record. So I apologize for that. Thank you. Thank you. Um under old business, we do have uh an update life safety items, capital improvement, sustainability. Uh yes, I provided the uh board with the solar panel kickoff meeting which is held on May 12th. Um as well as
031the tenative timeline for the project. Um there's really not a whole lot of new information in either of those reports, but I wanted to pass them along to the board. Additionally, last week um we had both an engineering site visit and a structural site visit and this information will uh guide her solutions to begin to [clears throat] finalize the design of the solar panels. The goal is to have uh their design finalized in a rough draft before the end of June so that I can pass it along to uh the district's engineer to have them review it as well. So, thanks for sharing that. Was there were there any questions from anyone? There were none submitted on this solar project. Okay. Glad to see it's moving forward. Thank you. On the uh I think Dr.
032Skink has addressed the policy issue 118. That's more of an August board member board meeting. Correct. And we need to have an advisory meeting beforehand. So that's I will have uh Miss Molo send a doodle to you and Mr. Williams. Okay. To get some dates. Yeah. Summer is hard. I'll speak for myself. It's hard to schedule. So if we could get that that sooner than later. We'll do it via Zoom most likely. So that's fine. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, comfort facility dog. I think we're going to need a second read on this. A third read. This is a second read. Where's No, we're not ready to bring it tonight. Dr. Smatana was still finalizing some things with the contract and insurance. All moving in a positive direction though. Correct. Correct. I I do have
033the the note that I typed is a little dated. I have some more information from today. Um, so the district's liability insurance has confirmed that the comfort dog is covered under the district's current uh coverage. Uh, they strongly suggest having each family sign a waiver. So, we're in the process of receiving that uh language from them so we can include it. Um, I would imagine in the residency event and then we did hear back from K9's for comfort in regards to uh their contract. Uh, they are not able to comply with the insurance requirements or the liability uh requirements. Um, and so this means in the event something happens, the liability would fall to our insurance. Um, and I've verified again that we would be covered. Uh, this is what we anticipated. Um, so the
034next step would be to uh set up a meeting with Kines's for comfort, which I'm in the process of doing to finalize the contract language and then bring forth for approval on June 10th. We met this morning with uh you know, Tuesdays is when I do a lot of my every Tuesday is when I do my building meetings with my different teams and um department heads. And uh we did verify this morning Mr. Bannon is still him and his family are still agreeable to be the primary care taker for uh the dog. Um and we confirmed that the two backups are are still on board. So everything seems to be moving in the right direction. We anticipated that, you know, we know our attorney is going to he is pretty consistent with the indemnification insurance
035language and things in a lot of these contracts and so we anticipated that being a nonforprofit there would be probably not be able to do some of the things we requested. But um having Kristen confirm with insurance is key and so uh we're hopeful to bring this in July. Was the were the language edits done by our lawyer, by the insurance company that uh both looked at it. Okay. Just one. Okay. Logistically, how do you get all the students to do a waiver? We're talking about every student in the school. Yes. Each family would do it. Um I assume that it would go through the residency event. That's typically when we need something signed. I see. Um systematically how we do it. I'd say it's no different than every family signing the for the student
036handbook. you know we can make the station the waiver they are signed we do I think there's a photography waiver isn't that yeah the photography waiver handbook waiver should be a smooth process if approved and as you see kind of uh the picture that uh Miss Mullo's presenting uh we think I'm saying we think we're not 100% sure but we think there's a good chance we could get Harley but it's not guaranteed so I don't want to overpromise that's Harley in the top right corner And then uh as you see that's the three uh K9 dogs um just this past week for finals and we just have handlers out there with them in the atrium and kids come up and sit down and pet them and just kind of chill a little bit and just
037take a you know it just seems to have a positive impact on them. And Dr. Fredas anything else you want to add? No I mean I completely support you know uh comfort you know the dogs. I mean, of course, ultimately the borders, but I think it'll be a benefit and it'll add an extra layer of service here. I think it'll complement really what our student services department does in making sure all of our students are emotionally stable and supported. This will add an extra level of comfort and support. So, we're thinking July board is the most likely scenario for that. So, hi. For school in the fall. Okay. So everyone if you have questions this is your last chance last last window to ask any questions because she pushed it to June after June. No
038I didn't I did not push [laughter] it. No thank you Dr. Swintana. We we'll bring it home. Um okay new the new student board members is next. We are we already approved the student adviserss and then we have this is a Dr. Smatana item I believe the transfer of interest. And there was one question, Dr. Smatino, you will address that, correct? Uh, I believe so. If not, um, I'm happy to answer additional questions. So, uh, annually the district transfers interest earned in the debt service fund to the educational fund. We do this, um, every year at this time of year. The ED fund is the fund that's in most need of additional resources. That's where, um, most of our expenditures come out of. Uh the amount of interest earned this fiscal year to date on
039interest in investments in just debt services was [snorts] $171,792. So I'm recommending that the board approves the transfer tonight plus any additional interest earned in this account between now and June 30th. I don't anticipate any. Um it's just uh helpful to have as [clears throat] a placeholder in case something should arise. Um, so as some additional background, we earn interest on all of the fund balances for the district put together and then it's distributed to the individual funds based off of the percentage basis of what that fund represents for the whole for the district. So in total, the district earned $1.2 million this year on interest on investment. This is just the amount sitting in debt service and it's the only amount that we transfer each year to a different fund. No. Yeah. Thank you
040for the clarification. I appreciate it. Any other questions or comments? You want to do a first read on this or can we move forward? We should move forward to get it done at the end of the fiscal year. I would suggest the board's comfortable be good to approve tonight. Any objections? No. Good. The board of education, Township High School District 208, Cook County, Illinois approves the transfer of interest earnings in the debt service fund to the education fund as presented in the May 27, 2025 board agenda packet. Second. Second from Mr. Durkin. And we do need a roll call. Misska, yes. Mr. Novak, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Miss Salis, yes. Mr. Caputo, yes. Mr. Derk, yes. The next item is Miss Gasp. Yes. Oh, sorry. No, I apologize. Miss [laughter] G. Motion [clears throat] carries.
041Just feel like I'm I'm on my summer already. Clearly, uh, tenative budget for 26. Dr. Matana is going to give walk you through a few items tonight. Um I would encourage the board tonight will be the first time some of you are seeing this uh especially for the new board members. Uh Mr. Caputo you're on the finance council so you've seen this once but I would take the next two weeks or so to go through uh especially the um assumptions. Dr. Miss Matana will cover these tonight. But again, we approve a tenative budget [clears throat] in June just so that it's a weird cycle, I know, right? Like our fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30th, but the state requirement has you file your final budget by September 30th. So it it there's some
042definite overlap, but we need to approve a tenative budget and we post it publicly and we update any changes publicly online. So, that's up there all summer so that we can continue to operate the school, get ready for the next school year, um, and making purchases, charging it to the next fiscal year budget. Um, the real work on this budget, [clears throat] not real work, I shouldn't say that because a lot of work has gone into this. A lot of the, uh, the changes from what you're seeing now and what you'll see in June will really occur more in August when Dr. Matana has time to get the June 30th actuals from the township treasurer office. We'll never receive those because um the way the fiscal year ends on June 30th and then with the
043July 4th holiday, the township treasurer and people's vacations doesn't usually get us the June 30th actuals of how we wrapped up every account in for the fiscal year till like mid July. So you and in August you'll get like two financial reports. You'll get one for uh July and you'll also get the June one from the township treasurer. Okay. Then we'll make adjustments to the budget in August. That will sit out there publicly again till September and we won't approve it. We'll do a budget hearing in September. So there's plenty of opportunities for the board to see this May once in May, once in June, once in July, once in August and approve it. Hopefully finally approve it in September. And at all that time those there is a copy of this available online on
044our website as well. Dr. Tana, I'll turn the mic over to you. Uh thank you. Um as Dr. Skink has said, the actuals for revenue and expenditure are are as reported as April 30th and since there still two months remaining in the current fiscal year, many items are not finalized. So some we can predict and some we can't at this point. Um, so when looking over the tenative budget for the first time, the best place to start is by looking at the revenue and expenditure assumptions as those are the bigger items that impact the budget. So I'd like to [clears throat] take a minute to highlight some of those. So Miss Mo, if you could go to page 173 in board book. Um, you'll see on the revenue side, um, the biggest item, our biggest
045revenue is real estate taxes. Um, right now I have them budgeted at 97% collection rate for the levied amount. Um, and then, uh, the levy amount is what, you know, we ask for, it's not necessarily the amount that we receive. So, I'm anticipating a 97% collection rate. Um, it doesn't mean we don't ever get that other 3%. Um, but in looking at the last two years, we budgeted 99% and we didn't hit that target. Um, and so, um, I'd like to try to bump this up to 98%, but I want to see where we finish this fiscal year first before, um, we make a decision. every 1% is about 260,000 in operating funds. That doesn't include our debt service uh levy. Title grants um are federal money. Uh this is cost neutral to the district
046even though it won't look like it in the budget. And the tricky part is because they span two fiscal years. So we typically will get reimbured for our expenditures in April uh through June and the next fiscal year in July. And so that's what um causes them to not necessarily match exactly in the budget. Um services provided to other districts. Uh food service is Quest. So uh what that is is we provide satellite we um provide food service for our satellite schools. And what used to happen is um Quest, our food service provider would bill us and then we would turn around and build the satellite schools and recover that money. Um this year the model changed in the middle of the year and now all the schools are build directly. So you'll see that
047on the expenditure side as well. [clears throat] The expenditure side will be zero. Uh we do uh receive some commission for doing that. Um it's about this year was about $25,000 um for providing that and using our equipment and our uh our building for that. Uh corporate personal property replacement tax CBPRT. Um, I have that decreased based off of what I anticipate as the fiscal year 25 actuals. We are expecting one more payment hopefully this month, which would bring the actuals to this year around 540,000. Uh, the tricky part with this is the actual amount isn't released to August. So, right now it's a little bit of a guess, but that's where I think it's going to come in at. And then, uh, lastly on the revenue side, interest on investment. Um I held it
048flat from what we budgeted this year due to the market impact from interest rates and inflation. Um the investment cycle is March through February. So we've already started to see a significant increase in that last uh quarter of our investments. And so our estimate is based off of that. Um on the next page are before we go to expenditures Dr. 10. Just one thing I'd point out to the board members, just a reminder, third assumption, although it wasn't covered, we're not expecting significant change. Evidence-based funding, you know, um, in education, we love our acronyms. So, EBF, that is the primary funding source. You'll hear that talked about at the school board conference. You'll see that in literature you receive about evidence-based funding and the governor continuing to put $350 million every year towards evidence-based funding.
049Here's all I would prepare you for. We've talked a little bit about that and if you're following what's going on in the state of Illinois, um financial hardships are probably at some point coming towards the state of Illinois. They already know that he's talking about a fiscal cliff. So, what we have to be prepared for is if they impact any of that evidence-based funding. Now, nothing has been sent out. So, this is, you know, a strictly a speculation, but we should be prefer we should keep an eye on our EBF. I anticipate one of two things. either they start to adjust that formula to where they don't keep continually putting $350 million of new money each year into that or they'll stick with that, but they'll somewhat backdoor you in the way of they're going
050to have you pay for more of something else. This could be an area where they could try to have us start to cover pensions, a small portion of pension payment or passing on some of the passion payment. Hey, we'll continue to fund EBF, but we're going to have districts pick up a X amount or percentage of P. That could be something. Maybe it won't, but there have I could just see from the literature the superintendents are starting to receive from the state superintendent some fiscal tightening of the fiscal straps is coming. So, that would be the one area it would address. Would that apply like across the board in every school district same pay the same percentage? I I don't know how that would apply right now with EBF. We we we qualify to get
051some of the highest payment every year, right? Or some of the other districts get some of the lowest. So, I don't know how they're planning on That's a great question because if you're not getting a lot of money from the state, how could they pass on, right? Right. I'm I'm not sure that's that's just been something that's come up. there has to if in order for the governor to continue to fund the EBF model, they're going to have to, you know, whether it's transportation, categoricals, you know, something they're going to have to give some somewhere. So, if I could add some additional commentary is that they are scheduled to adjourn by the end of this week. And um the knowledge I had today is that there's not been a state budget bill introduced as of
052yet. So, I think this is there's some also some speculation that there's there'll be a temporary budget passed and maybe once um federal impact is more strongly realized on the healthc care side perhaps come back in the fall. I think there uh I think it's appropriate to be conservative with this number because there's a fair amount of uncertainty. That's that's my read on it. Thank you, Dr. Fentan. We go to expenditures. Mhm. So on the next page, um you'll see some of the expenditure assumptions. Um the biggest expenditure is staffing and benefits. There are several different line items in uh throughout the entire budget, but that accounts for at least 80% of our budget. Um so the first line item when you look at certified staffing salaries, um I anticipate this year coming in a
053little under budget, which is why the percent increase is um only showing 2.63% 63% and not higher. We're also trying to contain some staffing costs by not filling retirements with full-time personnel unless course selection, student course selections indicate that that's needed. Um insurance costs, medical and dental, um the increases due both to staffing uh as well as changes in premium rates. So you can see our PO is going up almost 5%, our HMO is 8.2% and our dental rate is 4%. textbook expenditures increased to reflect um the board approved textbook adoption and replacement and repairs which uh Kylie Linquist presented to the board in the spring. The big increase is due to a new math curriculum and the five-year licenses [snorts] associated with that. So I don't anticipate that being a consistent cost uh from
054year to year. Um as I mentioned uh salaries the next line item to highlight is the non-certified salaries uh ESP salaries that's our support personnel um those changes uh are due to reflect the uh contract as well as staffing changes. Uh stipens are set to increase at 3% but then I also accounted for new stipens based off of the student participation this year. So, it's not um set in stone if they had high participation this year and they got an additional stipend. Um but I wanted to budget um for those that [clears throat] we were aware of so that if they do continue to have high participation that's covered in the budget. Um Airmark is our purchase service for maintenance and uh custodial and facilities. um that will be increasing to reflect contractual uh agreement
055which um is tied to CPI with a floor and a ceiling of 2 to 4%. Um and then solar panels, the last item is um some capital items. So solar panels, the estimated cost for this upcoming fiscal year is 825,000. Um, if you remember, we paid a down payment of about 225,000 this year and then the remaining part will hit in fiscal year 27. Um, plus 100,000 for Eller Park improvements. We initially had budgeted for it this year. Um, and uh, we will actually be paying for that next fiscal year. And then 200,000 um, for the little theater HVAC unit. That's worst case scenario, but we are working through um right now the heat exchanger broke and so we are working through um whether or not it makes sense to do a repair or if
056it makes sense to do a replacement um based off of the lifespan of the little theater unit. So that is worst case scenario if we had to replace it. So that's a current placeholder in the budget and hopefully as we work through that process I'll be able to finalize that before the budget uh gets finalized. Moving on to the summary page. So, this is the last page I want to cover tonight. On the next page, you'll see [snorts] um that the district is anticipating a deficit next year of 1,247,24. Um, as we've said multiple times, this will change as the budget's finalized over the next uh few months. Uh, but this budget, this deficit is, you know, significantly, if you think about what I just said, solar panels are 825,000. Um so that will hit
057this year's budget which accounts for um a significant portion of that deficit as well as lowering the collection of property tax to 97,000. We can raise that to 98 or sorry 97%. If we raise it to 98% it'll provide an additional 260,000 and then we can try to refine the budget to um get closer to a balanced budget assuming we can you know um assuming we know we've earmarked those things. Um if you were to not consider those things it would be somewhat more of a balanced budget. Um at the June board meeting as Dr. just can get said you'll see this updated with May 30th or May 31st actuals. Um and then if uh depending on what those show if there's any necessary changes it'll be made and presented to the board uh at
058that time as well. When will the board see the black boxes? Uh so the black boxes the board will see um in August. So, the reason we um black that out is because those if you look at it says beginning fund balance as of July 1, 2025. Right now, I could give you the fund balances. I reported out on them earlier, but they're going to change uh in the next two months. Um you know, the the ED fund alone will probably change by probably $4 million. So, it doesn't make sense to update that and not have accurate information. Um, so we always wait until we close out the fiscal year. Um, and then we put in those fund balances and then you'll see what our projected fund balances will be uh at the end of
059fiscal year 26. Thank you, Dr. Smatana. Let's all take a deep breath when you see the $1.2 million deficit. Let me give you the back of the envelope kind of like layman's breakdown of this now. Okay, 1.2 million 8, let's just use round numbers. 850 is solar. We went down at one percentage point. So 250 is a property tax collection went from 98 or 99 went down to 97. So let's say 250. So$850 and 250 that would already get us to 1.1 million. So really our operating deficits about $100,000 on a $33 million budget, right? We're doing well with our managing our expenditures and how we're moving our money. The thing that I want you to be prepared for though and or understand the 850 from the solar. So, this board made a decision. We
060took out the bonds to pay for the culinary lab. We're going to pay them off in short-term. They're short-term [clears throat] bonds. So, the 850, the reason we chose not to put the money for the bonds or for the solar panels in bonds and pay them off and to take them out of our operating funds is because within the next 5 years, we should make back this the cost of the money that it cost to put the solar panels in next five to seven years between electricity savings, right? So, it's a return on investment. So, we'll eventually earn this money back and then we'll be making money additionally after that by having electricity savings. So, it's important to say that on TV. It's important to say that to you so the public understands because when
061I see 1.2 million, I've prided myself on making sure we are fiscally responsible and we, you know, when you start running deficits, 1.2 turns to 2.2, right? And before you know it, you're running down your fund balance and we're we're back to where we were when I got here in 2011 or 2012. We're not on pace for that right now. We just So, I thought it was important for me to just do that quick airplane analysis for for the board and for those watching on TV. I'd like to add two things, too. The other reason we didn't take out bonds is because then we can capitalize on the incentives that are available for solar because we needed to use uh we needed to use dollars that were taxable. Um, and issuing non-t taxable bonds wouldn't
062have helped us capitalize on those incentives. Um, and so it would have taken longer to recover the money. Um, the other thing too is I don't have a number yet, but I do anticipate um I have a much better sense at the next board meeting, but I do anticipate finishing this year with the surplus and we are projected to do a 1 million a$ 1.2 million deficit this year um because of solar and because of alert. So all we're doing is shifting what we thought was this year was going to be the deficit year to next year. So um this year finishing with the surplus where any money that we get from the surplus will just go into those individual accounts and it'll be used towards expenditures in the future. I think this was covered
063before but uh you said 5 to seven years on the on the solar panels as far as paying off what we're paying for them. What's the life of the solar panels? Is it 30 years? I I vaguely remember that from between 20 and 30. Yeah, I know that. I thought it [clears throat] was uh I believe I thought it was 25 off the top of my head. All right, there's so but we should be in and then in the future we save about the anticipated amounts and savings on electricity is 18%. Right, I remove that. Okay, thank you. Any more questions on the preliminary budget? And like everyone has said, we'll keep looking at this over the next few months. This is not our only visit of this document. It's a lot of information here
064and I would also offer up Dr. Smantana with specific questions if you need to get them answered. Um, moving on to the IG with West 40. Uh this is this is more of a uh annual um practice. The board of ediso, you know, again to reiterate to everybody, the board of education. We are a member of district 208, a member of uh West 40, West Cook. It's called West 40 because there's 40 school districts. They used some they back in the day they used to be called the regional office of education. Now they're called the intermediate service centers. Um they do receive some state funding. Um, we use two specific programs. We also participate in several other programs through West 40. Uh, Kylie Linquist serves on as our representative on the West 40 board. Um,
065but uh they they process all of our teaching certifications. Our applicant uh make sure that their lensures are up to date. Um, subcertificates, things like that. West 40 Regional Safe Schools program is an alternative school that we use in the event of somebody that um is not being successful at RB or has had a disciplinary incident to where they need an alternative uh setting. Um so the West 40 Regional Schools program is where we one of the options that we have to still provide student services but also get them uh to a new location and where they can maybe be more successful. The rate is $115 [snorts] per student. That has not changed. Uh that's what's still on the agreement. And so that's only paid if if uh we have a [snorts] student placed there
066and for the number of days they're placed there. The other program is the alternative learning opportunities program which is called ALOP. Uh this is the funding for this. Um Kristen could maybe elaborate on this, but this is a program that we use and Dr. Freighas and his MTSS teams, the multi-tered support services between student services, social workers. We have two workers from West 40 that are permanently in our building, but they specifically work with our students that are like school refusal, attendance problems. They need wrap services to where maybe someone's working with the family at night to try to be have the student be more successful during the day. So, all that is purchased through this AOP program through West 40. So, it's technically an annual function that we budget for every year, but just
067to be transparent, I ask the board to always approve the intergovernmental agreement on an annual basis. Dr. Freredis or Dax Dana, anything you want to add? No, you covered it well. you know, we have two advocates, you know, that support our needs students that struggle with attendance, you know, behavior or grades and then that extra support, they're that extra reminder that help our kids, you know, not only get to class, but pass and and kind of start, you know, following right out of our school expectations. So, they've been a great help since we've had them here. And I I think our track record on our alternative placement through them has been also very successful. Right. I think we've been able to return and pick correct. I don't think we've had a negative experience. Never a
068negative per student that have gone to a safe school, have come back, have graduated, you know, so it's been a it's been a positive partnership. What uh how often is it utilized? How often have we sent students? We we you know, like it's a great year, Patrick, if we don't use it ever. Right. Right. So, it's only in the event of expulsion or assist. So we're talking maybe one to two kids a year and it's maybe for a semester or a quarter and so yeah what what's the like that was the next question is I they charge per day so what's the typical length you're saying a quarter quarter to a semester I mean unless we have a student that I mean historically if I just off I mean at one point we will have
069a student that's maybe expelled for a year or a full school year uh equivalent of two semesters that's a really bad discipline iplinary incident. Sure. Um but the the the history of my during my time here is the board has always unless it is absolutely something that we cannot support where the board has the opportunity to expel a student for up to two years and not provide any services. The history here and and and my philosophy is we you know that's kind of like the I don't want to say death penalty that's a bad so we've always tried to come up with alternative services. So the board is always um but and so historically it's usually a quarter or a semester. We have even had um a student or two request uh an extra semester
070because it was a safe setting for them and they did very well and the school you know was amiable to that cuz you know it was geared to that those students. So my my question was only on the tuition and the fact that it hasn't stayed is is interesting. I think that it stayed constant. I expect most things to creep up. Um, I'm not asking to pay more money. I just thought it was interesting that it had Are there other funding sources beyond the the each district [clears throat] paying into per day per student? I do think they get some state funding as well as I know they are also doing some consulting for CPS where I think they've generated some revenue from that. Um but the staffing at West 40 is increased as well
071as the services being provided. So they have to have some sources of revenue. Yeah. Clear they would have to right more than $15 a day. Well and and you can't predict it would be a lot harder to predict. West I give you an example. West 40. So they they bought the school in Maywood that's now the new intermediate service. They bought an actual school used to at one point in time West 40 was in an office in this building. It was one office with [snorts] uh an administrator and like one secretary and that's was the regional office of education. Then it moved to somewhere in Maywood and then or proviso and then Maywood. But now they actually have an actual full-blown school building that they bought, renovated, run classes, an alternative school. They have an
072alternative site now. Um and recently they have just partnered up with the state board of education. I believe they will be serving as the administrative agent who run the uh um it's going to be an alternative school for wards of the state or uh St. Joe's IHM campus. Uh they'll be running that. So they're they're supposed to be working as the state's administrative agent to help um operate that as well. So is that open yet? That's not it's not open. Okay. So, the board could if if uh I mean this is one of those you always have a right to to to look at something twice. Um if you feel comfortable we could approve [snorts] it tonight. A roll call would be necessary. What are the thoughts from everyone? Do we want to approve this
073tonight? Another week to look at it. Approve it. We can approve it. [clears throat] Okay. Thanks. The board of education, Township High School District 208, Cook County, Illinois, approves the intergovernmental agreement fiscal year 26 between West 40 and school district 208 for the purpose of placing students into the West 40 regional safe schools program with the tuition of $115 per day and or alternative learning opportunities program as presented in the May 27, 2025 board agenda packet. Second. Second from Mr. Durkin. And we do need a roll call. Mr. Williams, yes. Miss Alis, yes. Mr. Novak, yes. Miss Ruska, yes. Miss Gasca, yes. Mr. Durkin, yes. Mr. Kuruto, yes. Under board of education discussion items, um, we included once again the district goals. We had a a longer discussion about the district goals in April, I
074believe, when Dr. Dr. Freighas and the team presented out on each of those. Um there have been some preliminary discussions with IASB about um setting hopefully a Saturday for for this board to meet and and discuss facilitated discussion about district board uh district goals and and operational matters. Um so Dr. Skinkis, what what is your intention for this tonight? I just I just wanted a board to see so you know obviously the district goals are all the way up at the top then what's been happening on an annual basis is the administration addresses what we feel is a priority um under each of those administrative goals and we create a smart goal and then some action steps and we we leave these on committee of the whole agendas this being the last committee of the
075whole meeting for the year um for you know any updates or questions there's we try to include include little status updates completed, ongoing, more information needed, things like that. Um, and then in April, the we provide to the board a detailed report of all the action steps that were completed and whether or not we achieved our smart goal. Purpose of tonight's discussion is provide I need some preliminary direction from the board um on the priorities and areas of focus for FY26. Now, this is an interim framework that for the board until they were able to conduct our retreat. So, my thoughts on looking at these goals, they're very general, the smart goals. I still think there's some work that could be done with the ACT and the MTSS. Um, we can still do some work
076with our diversity uh committees. Um, Miss Fletcher and I are already talking about some things we're going to update with um community engagement, doing more branding. So, there's enough here where we don't have to update the smart goal at this time. What I I guess what I'm saying to you, it would not usually when June, July, and August is when my team's working on [snorts] their new smart goals and then we update the board in August or September of like here's the smart goals we're we're addressing this year. It wouldn't make any sense for them to put that time in and then the board have a retreat in August or September and refine the goals or change something. So, I think for the time being, my recommendation would be continue to, you know, status quo
077with these smart goals. If there's some areas where we feel we can improve on, let's continue to refine those areas and address those areas until the board's able to conduct their retreat um and and refine the goals and then we can revisit whether a smart goal is needed for the remainder of this school year or if we set new smart goals um early next spring. We just provided updates on things we're working on. There's always work to be done in in these areas. So, it's not like the board's the general board goal can be right. There's going to be enough to update the the the board of educ. I don't want you to think we're taking a year off, but I also don't want to do work go one direction and we change it in
078three months. So, that's that's why I asked that to be on there tonight. So, in in conversation with Kylie when we were going, you know, going through some of the notes um from the curriculum um advisory council, I I think there's a a place where uh Kylie was bringing up with the switch back to the ACT and some and some of our um student achievement and meeting, you know, progress benchmark that that benchmark and um she did talk about how those scores in the test and getting the students back in that transition kind of speaks to that goal. So, I'm not quite sure when that would be presented and you know, I know Kylie had mentioned that there is talk among the different heads and how they're using that data and moving forward looking at
079some of our um annual benchmark data. Our annual benchmark data is reported out in October like it is annually. Okay. So, the board will get the more detailed reversion than the curriculum council got as I stated earlier. But what I'm saying to you is I think we can still do under like Kylie's action steps, those four things listed in the blue category. There's still work that could be done on those to where we don't have to write a new smart goal just yet while the board has time to do their retreat and redefine some things. Yeah. or even if they're gathering more evidence or more doing doing more with that smart goal because she did speak to that right like Dr. Freighas under communication can host parent univer continue to host some parent universities in
0802526. All right. We could work on the surveys or we can work on to increase the volume content to help us brand better. I mean there's things I can do under these smart goals and these action steps for another year. I think a really good um thing to look at is which of these goals are now going to be institutionalized. So for example with the parent university is that something that is not going to be a part of um RV um moving forward right it and that way we don't have to have it in our smart goals for next year but because it was so wildly successful this school year it's something that worked and you want to keep it going for next year. Yeah. So maybe take the summer to review which of these
081goals um could now move into being a regular part of because there's probably some some refinement to use parent university, right? Some of them were less successful than others perhaps. Maybe it's as they get incorporated into the calendar, what areas need to be added? So maybe the the goal ultimately is, you know, review parent outreach um efforts and determine what what's what's missing, right? And to continue teasing this goal out, another one of the goals was um administer surveys throughout the school year. Um take a look at the surveys, what were the results, right? How can we continue to improve um parent university based on so like I guess now is the okay, so now what now what are we going to do with these goals? Well, I think we had some of that discussion
082when when they were here. So, I think my inclination for this is to have the team kind of continue as they described it in April and give us that chance to have the the board retreat. In in my opinion, we're not going to sit down and throw any of these smart goals out. We spent so much time on them, but they'll maybe need some word smithing and some refinement and you know, in in light of where we are. Um, but if the question from Dr. Skinis is, you know, full speed ahead on these. I think I think softw walking it is probably the right approach. But that's my thought. I I'm curious about the the in the first action step uh the data the relevant student data about uh academic achievement, academic interventions, that type
083of thing. Is it I'm new here, but is is it all just ACT, SAT, uh or what are the other relevant student data we're looking at? Right. So, we do have some additional data like that like like the curriculum council saw like uh uh DF report. We have a star report where they do uh math and reading annual progress monitoring. What about like AP testing? Do we get that data? Oh, that will come out in October. the board will see like how many students took AP test, how many students took AP classes, how many of those students took the test, and how many of those got three or better. We we'll have different Do we have like historical data with that, too? Like to see how we're doing AP wise because there's obviously a lot
084of AP tests just happened. So, yes, we do have historical. Okay. And we try to always keep that every three year, three to five years. We update the charts. Mhm. Well, I mean that's that's a good question. [snorts] And even you know Kylie or even talking with uh Miss Augustine talking about some of the programs have expanded to help students with executive [clears throat] functioning. So not just using test to get data and that where some of the students u might do well on testing but they're not doing their homework or they fall off task and so and tracking those kind of results. And so as a board we can start to say what's additional data that helps us know you know the kids beside test data because you can learn to take a test
085but maybe it's not helping. Yeah. Yeah. So what I'm hearing from the board is continue to refine, tweak, review this the presentation we got in April and the smart goals that were presented for 2425 [clears throat] school year. I'll use that to guide us as we enter into 2526. Mhm. Um until we get more of a see if there's any changes at the board. And then I would say as we move into the retreat, can we get an update on what you have found on these goals so that now we're making informed decisions at our retreat? Yeah. Now remember the the board's goals are the top, right? And then what's happened is the smart goals the admin have written a smart goal to say like hey this is something that falls under you know whether
086it's academics which is blue or communication or diversity and equity or um financial and the other one is facilities right so those are like the if you think about the main advisory councils for the board and so the boards come the administration takes that general board goal and comes back and says hey this is something that needs to be a priority for us this year, right? So, at some point, like if we thought about with Kristen's purple goal, at some point we're going to have to start talking about a long range and a short range plan of financing, all these different capital improvements we're going to need, right? Whether it's HVAC units, the refuring of the pool, the roofs, right? So, like that would be an example of a smart goal where she's going to
087use a year to bid that out, work with the construction manager, come up with a financing out, right? So, Um the same would happen I think with uh each of these individual goals and I think that's what I'm hearing you say like okay well what's next? So that's kind of what's come from the administration is here's [snorts] what we think is a big thing we need to work on and it falls under the boards explore how to maximize curricular opportunities. In turn, the board may say, "Hey, we want to go full steam ahead on dual credit or we want to go full speed ahead on AP like Patrick or just whatever." Right? That's where the the discussion would occur. Until you guys have your retreat, we can't go have that back and forth. Just But
088I think maybe what Lorena, correct me if I'm wrong, maybe what Miss Easque is looking for is we've had these goals in place for three years, right? So we had action steps for 23 24 22 23 23 24 and 24 25. So at the risk of making this a horrific document and it already is a horrible document. Maybe we need to say what were all the action steps taken [snorts] for the individual goals since we adopted them. Is that is that the smart goal has changed each year? The smart goal itself has stayed consistent. No, the smart goal, the board of education goal has stayed consistent. The only thing that has stayed consistent is the top row. So like when you think about the smart goal for the blue box, the original one for like
08922 23 was buying that panorama dashboard where there was a way for us to track students attendance, academics, and social emotional learning. So we used it here to like I think I'd like to see all of that. I could get you a different copy of each sheet. Well, that's maybe what it is. Like board of education goal one. Here are the different smart goals and action steps for board of education goal one. But that doesn't still doesn't give me any direction for the summer. It doesn't [laughter] help you for your retreat. I'm thinking ahead of the retreat. Here's your summer direction. Your summer direction has put together an update on these action steps, right? Like I want to know what the survey results were. Um it's good that it's on here to I think those
090were reported in April though. Um, then I'd like to see them going into the retreat. I just to have it all together. Yes. Yes. I'll put it all together. What I'm saying to you though is that still doesn't give the what I'm what I'm talking about with my team is for 256. I don't need them working on something we've done already in the past. I'm trying to say like let's look at what we've done like take these current smart goals. There's probably some things we have seen from this data we can still be doing in 25 26 or get better at a new smart goal for 26 27 but I think an anthology almost of like you said this is year three you know we just take student progress because that's easier some of the
091ones like we have the new system so let's put that down so that we're not suggesting hey we need a system to start tracking data you know we have that we're using that let's capture it somewhere. So, you know, this is the document we look at, but there should be almost like an appendix that lives somewhere that tracks those things that we've added on. So, if you look at that, I mean, we're I think we're all saying if you look at that smart goal, the second sentence says using the Panorama dashboard to identify and respond. So, that was from the previous year. we implemented the plan dashboard to now track the transition from SAP to AC. So I'll be honest I this document is so hard to read [laughter] and we've always had that kind
092of reaction. So I think you're hearing some you're hearing some push back because of that but I think if we had you know literally five different pages right and again we're getting ahead to the retreat. So, board of education goal is maximizing curricula days and and then the smart goals that have been reviewed year-over-year. The various action step because you're right, some some action steps, some smart goals have gotten a little bit more um attention than others and that's the nature of a of a dynamic organization, right? But I think you need to be able to um we don't want to reinvent the wheel. We don't want to go back and and buy something new. And especially for as you know, board members transition, it's good to know, oh, we looked at this two years
093ago. You know, we did do a survey of surveys and the the response was not great. I'm making this up, right? So, why would we do a survey of surveys again? Let's think of some other way to communicate externally. And we want to make sure we're still using the stuff like we we've got a system to collect data. Are we still using it? Is it still valuable? Yeah. So, that was more that was more my mind dump for the retreat. I think to answer your immediate question, I think you have the direction you need, which is we're no one's looking to throw this out kind of business as usual for the summer until fine and regroup on these until further notice. Y what I'm hearing. There you go. Anything more on that? We're good. Okay.
094Um, [snorts] and it has proven difficult to uh schedule with IASB. So that may end up being more of a September. Well, that's that's all I'm saying. If that leads us into a fall retreat, we're already from a administrative standpoint be 12 month 3 or [snorts and clears throat] 4 months into our new year. Like it doesn't help us to give us a new goal in September, October. So, yep. Understood. Focus on these. Understood. But they also have game plans for next year. So, they can they can weave the two together. Yeah. Um, does anyone have any items for future meetings from the board of ed? Not seeing any. We will move on to matters for close session, appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body. Student discipline, individual
095student matters, purchase, sale or lease of real property, probable imminent or pending litigation, collective negotiations, and school safety. 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 May 27, 2025 board agenda packet. A second for Mr. Williams. And we need a roll call, please. Mr. Caputo, yes. Mr. Der, yes. Musc. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. William? Yes. Mr. Okay. :30 a.m.