001good 7M regular meeting of the Board of Education District 208 I pled the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Miss n a roll call please here here here here here here and say here uh visitor statements do we want to visit first so for those watching at home we have some period costume um hello as you all can probably tell We Are all uh students that are part of the RB theater program and we're here to invite you to our show Guys and Dolls the show dates are February 29th at 7:00 p.m. Friday March 1st at 7:00 p.m. Saturday March 2nd at 7:00 p.m. March 3rd at 2: p.m. when you're a guy or a adult please
002come and see our show in our auditorium at our B wonderful tickets on sale beforehand or how do we get tickets I you can buy them online or you get them at the door okay I think it does sell out often so people should be advised to buy them beforehand okay I love guys and Bs Miss Johnson is a sponsor do you want to say anything or share anything um they've been working really hard we have over 100 kids involved in this production so um one of your advisors to the board is our house manager he's he's and I meant to say about the last show that without this guy the evacuation would not have gone as well he really was I was going to make a comment about keeping the lights on but I
003won't do that um so anyway over 100 kids that's awesome no fog machine this time though right not I don't do fog ever that's not meama about that ticket we'll break a leg and good luck and we'll be there thanks everyone all right tis um other public comment everyone doesn't mind letting the the students go first but who is here for public comment seating area the seating is just so little it's shrink I think we're okay I think we're accommodating okay yeah H good evening my name is Liz busho I live in Riverside and I am here today to express my disappointment in the uh decision to cancel the Bulldog buddy choir again we were informed there were six students signed up and therefore it was not viable but I really question if there would
004have been more students signed up if they hadn't been discouraged from taking it I sincerely hope the board will ask the administration the following questions how many students asked about the class but were told by their counselors that it probably would not run I did hear of a few that that happened to how many students from the general population asked if they could sign up for one semester but were told no and were the students in the special education department made aware of this class and if special education was not made aware of the class why not when we came to you in May of last year and asked if this class would run or if it could run we were told it was too late well it's February and I know it's not too
005late to put this class back on the roster and it's especially shocking in light of the efforts being made by RB to improve diversity equity and inclusion that this class was cancelled I mean what better way to integrate the special education students with the general population than through music so I urge you to listen to the community regarding our support for music education and have this class run for two years before you determine if it's viable or not because we all know it really does take time to build a program thank you thank you L thank you we will have a list of all classes that are running at the March board meeting is that correct Dr right hi I'm Annabelle Ventura I'm a senior here um I will also kind of be adding on
006to miss Bush's uh statement um I really think that Bulldog buddy choir would be such a great opportunity for so many students in the school I was supposed to be taking it this year but unfortunately it didn't run I was one of I think six students who signed up and was told it was going to run and was informed when I got my class list that I was not going to be in it which like expecting to be in a class and then it not shung up on my schedule I obviously went to my counselor and said hey like I was not put in this class is it still running and then she told me that there was not enough numbers and it was very upsetting and then I got really excited when we were
007told that it was going to run this year and when I found out just yesterday that it's not going to run I was very frustrated went home so upset and personally I have experience with like my older brother he was in the special Department here and he was in choir all four years and seeing how much he grew as a student in the music department and in choir it's such an important thing that we need to have a bulldog buddy choir because my mom fought tooth and nail for my brother to be in general education choir but now that we have this opportunity it needs to run and give these students what they deserve that's just my personal opinion and I I know so many people agree with me in the fact that we need
008this class to run thank you thank you thank you thank you oh thank you for signing in do we have additional public comment this evening questions comments from the board good good um foyer requests I think there was one fo request uh the one foyer was um from the Illinois retired Teachers Association asking for uh names and emails of certified staff are retiring this year no comments were submitted on that uh moving on to consent agenda I didn't see any comments on that one beforehand you might [Music] the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois takes the following action on the listed consent agenda items approved minutes from the meetings held on January 9th and 23 2024 open and closed as presented in the February 13 2024 board agenda packet second
009second for Miss lock all in favor I I any opposed moving on to Old business uh nothing under Life Safety but there's an update on the nania contract well we did two site visits U myself um board member Novak um Burham our facilities manager I cannot say his last name I apologize so I don't want to be disrespectful to his last name so I just call just go by his first name and then Dr sman was able to join us on the second one this uh two weeks ago um definitely a feasible project for the district and I know the board has an appetite to do this as well and we've got a lot of feedback from the community and the students uh that they'd like to see us you know continued our sustainability initiatives
010um so I've asked Dr smana uh to provide two recommendation or provide some background to the board on kind of how we plan this out and also how we Finance this um and we have the commercial kitchen as well as the solar panels um and so I'm going to let Dr smana give you a little back kind of what we've discussed and how we're looking at this uh to finish the discussion on the uh solar project uh we were able to confirm that it won't have an impact on the roof or it's warranty um and we did receive notification last month that we did receive that $50,000 matching Grant from the state that we had designated for the solar project you have to write the grant specifically for something and then you cannot change it
011um that money has to be used within 2 years from dispers bement or we need to uh return that money to the state um I do anticipate sometime this school year in the next month or two we should probably receive it from the state it just depends on when their timing is um so then that will start the two-year clock uh I I attached the option that we previously discussed at the board which is that middle option that we discussed for um solar panels that provides the biggest return on the district's investment and was also large enough to hopefully have several companies um interested in competing for the project um Nicholas and Associates would be able to help overse the project um but they would not be a CM at risk which is construction manager
012at risk due to the design build structure of the project um again before we engage Nicholas we would bring that to the board for approval um so the district should anticipate that this probably will come in in about $1.5 million um and again we recover a lot of that money but we have to spend up front 1.5 million Dr sman can I pause you there make sure to board if you're not it's on page 23 of board book um the second page of Dr sm's background sheet is laying out what she's talking about now and this was all added uh for this meeting so if you want to look at it if you can't see it on the screen uh that's the page you should reference sorry Chris please continue uh so that project like
013I said the updated estimate for that is one .5 million however the updated estimate for the culinary lab is uh currently $3 million um we haven't um fully have it designed yet we're meeting with the architect tomorrow once we can you know narrow down what the design looks like we'll be have a better estimate of what the cost is but the rough estimate is $3 million so this in combination with the solar panels would cost $4.5 million spending uh this month money would drop the fund balance as a percent of expenditures to 43.93 and so that percentage means that the district could operate for a little over 5 months 5.3 months without receiving additional Revenue prior to co I would not have right probably batted an eye at that but given that c County the
014last two years has been um very late in paying property taxes or Distributing property taxes um we need to be able to operate through December um sometimes we don't receive that money to January so um I don't have a crystal ball to what the Cook County is going to do but it makes me concerned that we spend this money and should Cook County be delayed on uh Distributing property tax uh we would have to issue tax anticipation warrants so I would recommend that we maintain at least a 50% fund balance in order to be able to um account for anything like that that may come up since that's been our reality for the last 2 years so there are really uh two options for the board to consider the first option is to prioritize The
015Culinary lab since that has a more direct impact on students um the district could go out to bid this spring and then the work could start late summer and be completed hopefully during the first semester of the school year that would also help save a little bit of money if we can do some of the construction during the school year and then once we got to bid we would know exactly how much that project is going to cost and that would give us a better estimate of what our fund balance would be at that time um and so then we could discuss when and if to pursue solar panels the second option is to complete both projects at the same time um this timing would save a little bit of money because we could engage
016Nicholas and Associates to do both projects at the same time um this option would require uh in my opinion I would be recommending that we issue uh non-t taxable working cash bonds specifically for uh capital projects if we did both at the same time um since the district has some bonds coming off the books in December uh of this year that those were the two-year Life Safety bonds that we issued um we would be able to give the taxpayers a break while also completing both projects um so if the board is is even interested in pursuing that or having a conversation about that and what that looks like um I can have uh L Tennessee come who's our bond councel uh come and present to the board um myself and Dr skinkis are meeting with
017her uh tomorrow um to review in more detail uh what the numbers would look like but um in my preliminary conversations like I said we would be able to give taxpayers a break wall also completing both projects um so we we have some significant debt coming off the book so taxpayers should be receiving a a significant tax break uh like year 25 when a lot of the referendum bonds are starting to come off of the books so so just to reiterate they come off in December of 24 correct yes but we we get that money again in the collection period then we kind of pay it back the calendar is always remember when you're in the rear with your levies and paying taxes back but there'll be a pretty good tax break uh for the
018for the taxpayers um for those two the small Life Safety bonds we talk about taking out a bond we're talking maybe like half the project a million to 2 million just to make sure we have enough um should it cost a full three and we want to still do the solar panels at one point like we're and we're not we could dedicate that to the capital project um and not you know totally diminish the fund balance in the event we have to go 6 months we do a short-term payback extend our debt limit a little bit um so that's definitely an option that uh the board should consider how do we get the money back because the solar panels are basically going to fund seven years they'll pay them they'll pay about 50% off which
019you get 623 or 7 or today say seven years we should pay the 1.5 off seven years we would recoup all the money that we spent right um we'll get a large chunk uh back from the federal uh rebate but it's a brand new program and so um people are not hopeful that you get the money right away um especially cuz we're school and schools don't have taxes to pay and so they're still needing to work out what that process looks like so um my concern is that that that rebate isn't going to happen in the same fiscal year uh it might happen a year and a half from when we spend the money and so um we won't really recover all of the money we spend um until seven years roughly but it is
020anticipated I think from the presentation we had to be a full recovery at the close of of that seven years um thank you that was one of my questions I wanted just to to reiterate and the 50,000 matching grant that can be used for design or is it it's not limited to implementation correct it can just be used towards a project so what I was thinking is we have a finance advisory council meeting already set up for the end of the month to review um Financial projections uh I don't see what the harm would be to have lzs show us what what it would look like to borrow a million and a half or $2 million do short term and see uh what the impact is on the community as well as on the district
021uh it can't hurt it would just give you the board the full plate of knowledge before they make a final decision does that cut into the money that we've held aside for the land acquisition that that is that is set aside separate remember that was specifically now sometimes when people hear the word working cash Bond they get nervous because it's um like a could use for anything we would specifically do working cash tied to a capital project there's specific parameters that you have to follow similar to how we did the the field work right so that it's assigned to a capital project and when that's done it's paid off and it's not so it can't be thrown into general fund balance to use for salaries or something of that nature or random expenses and do
022we anticipate a need for additional Life Safety bonds possibly but the roofs that were completed in 2009 under the large referendum they only have a 20-year warranty so they don't start coming out of warranty till 29 so we have a few more years left on their warranty before it would even start to look to replace those roofs so theoretically we be looking to issue working cash bonds before the end of 24 no or sometime in 25 no in 24 you have we would have up until February of 2025 to issue them so sometime between now and February assuming the the county is late with tax bills is that what the risk is that's what the bigest concern is we would not be able to last cycle was less than I would anticipate those bills being
023issued closer to a yeah deadline so I think we get the background knowledge from Lizz we see what the impact is to the community to and for the and how it benefits the district and its planning um you know the other option is Go full you know we have kids signed up for classes and that that enrollments has increased again uh so far through the Staffing process so you look at um doing that project first once we go out to bid and we see what the final numbers are it may give us a clearer picture of hey we can start the solar now or we need to wait a year on the solar well we the other option and we are in election year so things could change and so sometimes it's might be better
024to start on projects because a year into a I mean there could be a whole new Administration and so things priorities could flip and so the federal grants or something St Federal level yeah I mean CU it's a big election year 24 November 24 it's a presidential election I know I think so I mean there could be new priorities and different things and so in some ways if we think it's a good time to go now I if we start into the program with the rebates can they resend that offer no no so that's I mean one thing that's that's yeah that's what I'm thinking know if we but they could say no more right they could well it's subject to an annual appropriation which was Dr sm's point right so it's it's legislatively allowable
025but then it has to be appropriated and because we're not perhaps at the top of the list being a public sector entity we may not get first bite but we would be in the queue and once we'd have an obligation they they would have an obligation to fulfill it yeah right um again I don't I think we let the Chris and I meet with Liz tomorrow we get some Bond options we bring it to the finance councel if it makes sense we can bring it to the board in February maybe take action on it in March and the only reason we're con considering those bonds is because of cook Count's tax yes I don't feel comfortable because of that okay why thought also I mean it's so assuming that there's a regular tax Cadence we
026would still be dipping to 43 44% what did I read here yes we would still dip to that percentage but the reality is I wouldn't need to dip into that money to pay bills correct um right where like I've been um even though the field project money has been earmarked for the field during the past two years I've been using that money to pay bills until our property tax money comes in and so um that that's my concern is that when we dip to 43% if we are delayed I'm not going to be able to pay the district's bill so how does that compare maybe this is if I'm taking your question run with that how does that cost compared to a tax anticipation warrant then that's exactly it uh I believe there's a a
027very high interest rate for the but I think I think that being spelled out might be helpful as well I I would I would anticipate the bond market is still good right and so issuing a DI Minimus amount of bonds does make a certain amount of sense assuming henness agrees right I i' like to see some actual numbers though just to kind of kind of compare right this board took out 2 million to do the cafeteria project correct we do right 2.35 2.35 and those are set to come off the books December of 24th that's what's coming off the book so we paid that in less than two years correct two years so we're swapping out yeah one for the other okay that's kind of what I was thinking okay so if we can understand
028what the potential uh tax anticipation warrant would be with the hopes that we don't to go there that is an option the bond is the better stable option and we are looking at is there discussion yet I know it's in the document but is there discussion on it just makes sense to run the two at the same time in terms of construction management specifically when Nicholas wouldn't be overseeing but they would or rather they would only be overseeing and wouldn't be managing the one pro the one project that gives right I I'm seeing heads no is everyone in agreement with that we probably should if anyone wants to bate or I'm asking but also supporting that so yeah no that does make sense that's one of the things we we were kind of doing RT
029chart of plus minus right like student priority you know even though the solar panels will pay for themselves student priority and the student need is it's pressing yeah and we are at um how large are those Foods classes now Dr fredis you were involved in Staffing today do you have that information or do you know off top of your head like our our number of sections for foods and for Foods um I I believe we're at about 20 sections I believe um but we will follow up with the specifics in that was almost two fulltime but and this is also to get the Triton piece right correct yes no yeah I I think there's a lot of dual credit piece correct I just thought we' we've seen some some growth in this area and I
030wanted to make sure it was sustainable all right all right I think we got our Direction Chris we we'll get cracking with Liz and put a couple options together and bring it to the finance Council before the end of the month and then the board okay thank you no thanks everybody uh new business payment of bills were there any questions no questions were submitted Dr smth anything you need to touch on no okay um miss gaska the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the payment of bills as presented in the February 13 2024 board agenda packet second second from Mr Derk a roll call please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes um student registration fees taan any update uh this is a first read further registration fees for
031the upcoming school year uh I'm recommending that we uh keep all fees flat for next school year yeah I didn't see that there were no changes guess which is the same as all fees flat um were there any questions this is a first read so we'll move this uh do want move this to consent for next meeting yes any objection from anyone okay we'll do that out of state field trip request first read good evening honorable board members um you know very proud of our our head baseball coach Mr Mark Cory who's also our special education division head because he brought a unique opportunity to take our baseball team to play at a professional stadium in Milwaukee on May 3rd you know if you if you guys all know that we have two currently former
032Bulldogs that are playing the professional level right if you want the kids to be professional you got to get them there so this is a unique opportunity um and I am asking that this trip is approved this this evening if that if that's the pleasure of the board because we do need to begin fundraising for it you know the only commitment is that the team has to fund raise or sell $10,000 worth of tickets so there's no cost but the students do have to give effort and sell those tickets so how are they fun how are they raising money to go they'll be they'll be selling U Milwaukee Brewers tickets to two games so they'll be selling Milwaukee Brewers tickets so when you you play the game as the high school and then you stay
033for the Milwaukee Brewer game right but I I'm sorry so are they selling tickets to a brew game now to raise that money to go authorization to do the fundraiser to do the F yeah I'm not understanding the fundraiser I'm sorry that's what I'm asking about it's for them to play in may they also got to sell the tickets to the game yes that same game that they're playing the same game that they're playing and they would start selling those tickets now right they need board approval before they could start selling those tickets I just trying to understand what happens if they don't reach the $10,000 well I know there the boosters is supporting this so we will reach it okay I just curious thank but I think there was also some things where the
034if the other school over seeds their limit that in order to still play the game as long as they come up to a combined number oh okay as long as it's 20 I think so just curious cuz that's it's an unusual that's a big number and that's an unusual ask yeah help tiets aren't a dollar either no right and multiple levels it's a regular game to it you know if you were to take about 25 know dollars a ticket each kid maybe we have to sell 15 16 we normally go to a Brewers game so I'm hoping we can make it to maybe we'll sell you a ticket to a brew game but I was just curious about the structure of the playing Fe I think we often see um field trips with individual fundraising
035requirements it's we never really see them in the aggregate so that's maybe some of the shock too usually see an individual to go to New York you've got to raise X number of dollars right here it's the shock is that they're asking us to buy tickets to a professional baseball game that's all so thank you so no student is going to be like penalized if they sell less tickets it's all going into one pool one pool yes one General Pool and so either the whole team goes or nothing right correct yes and we do have the support and backing of our boosters who are supporting in this okay so is the request to approve this evening then does anyone have any objections to that no no all right the Board of Education Township High School
036District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the out ofate trip for varsity baseball to participate in the high school jambur future Champions baseball tournament at Miller Park in Milwaukee Wisconsin for a baseball game on May 3rd 2024 as presented in the February 13 2024 board agenda packet second second for Miss lock and a roll call please M Rus yes Miss yes Mr yes yes yes yes yes thank you board members thank you uh visitor statements this is the second opportunity know wish to speak um we I did not ask earlier I apologize were there any discussion items requested by members of the board this would be the time where we could bring things up looking to my right looking to my left um any consideration of items for future meetings from any board members anything from
037our student board members I figured I'd open up the floor okay okay we're probably nearing that time of year we need to think about um the student advisers to the board next year they're already calendar post okay okay you guys are on top of it U matters for closed 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 probable imminent or pending litigation Collective negotiations and school safety I think we have all matters the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois enters Clos session for the purpose of considering the Clos session matters as presented in the February 13 2024 board agenda packet second second from this block and we need a roll call yes
038yes yes yes yes yes yes okay it is 7:30 everyone we want to just meet up here for close session it should be