Board Meeting - September 8, 2025

001[Music] around. Oh. Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Yeah, [Music] heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] D. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Ah, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Today, September 8th, 2025 board of education meeting to order. Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> here. >> Miss Khan, >> here. >> Miss Martin, >> here. Miss Nolan. >> Miss Schwarz, >> here. >> Miss Thomas, >> here. President Owens >> here. May I have a motion to move into close session to discuss individual student disciplinary matters pending probable or imminent litigation, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific

002individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public or legal council for the public body. The purchase or lease of real property for the use of the school board. The setting of a price for the sale or lease or pro real property owned by the school board. An internal audit. Control weakness. Identification of potential fraud risk areas. Known or suspected frauds and fraud interviews. Collective negotiating matters between the school board and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. The review of close session minutes and individual student matters. >> So moved. Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr. Yes, >> Miss Khan. >> Yes, >> Miss Martin. >> Yes, >> Miss Nolan. >> Yes, >>

003Miss Schwarz. >> Yes, >> Miss Thomas. >> Yes, >> President Owens. >> Yes, >> we're in close session at 6:16 p.m. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Yeah. Heat. [Music] Don't know. [Music] feel. [Music] Hey Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I want to be [Music] Yeah. Nah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, [Music] heat. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, [Music] here we go. [Music] Here we go. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh. Oh. Oh. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Yeah. [Music] Hello. Okay. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat.

004Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] I don't want [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening and welcome everyone. I am going to resume the September 8th, 2025 board of education meeting. If I could have everybody stand as they are able to say the pledge of allegiance. United States. >> Thank you everyone. The first item on our agenda this evening is strategic plan report. Dr. Johnson. >> Thank you. President Owens, this evening, our first strategic plan report is a 2026 2027 boundary transition update. Lala Mistoich, deputy superintendent of instruction and Griselda Pertell, director of multilingual, multicultural department, will

005present an update to the board of education on the 2026 2027 boundary transition plan. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to provide our monthly update on the district's work to support a successful transition to new boundaries and the movement of sixth grade to middle school, all set for implementation in the 2026 2027 school year. Tonight's presentation will cover two key areas. First, we'll provide a brief update on our plans for sixth grade dual language and ESL programming, including our language allocation model. Then, we'll review progress across four critical work streams: student and family engagement, staffing, curriculum and instruction, and finance and operations. Each of these areas is essential to ensuring a smooth student centered transition. Let's begin with family engagement. Our team has made significant progress in preparing student school assignments. Most families will

006receive their assignments by the end of October via mail. And for students who will attend a satellite site due to programming needs such as our gifted programming or magnetmies, we plan to notify those families before winter break. In addition, we've designated uh November 1st through November 13th as the official window for residency exception request. And in order to help families feel informed and excited, we're developing hype sheets that spotlight what makes each school special, so they'll have this type of preview prior to um hearing from their principles. We're also preparing for in-person community engagement. Two parent sessions are scheduled, one at Abbott Middle School on September 15th and another at Ellis Middle School on September 23rd. These events will focus on boundary changes, new school structures, and program information so that current and incoming families

007can feel prepared and informed for this transition. To ensure consistent messaging and support, we're also finalizing communication toolkits for principles and teachers. These will include FAQs and suggested talking points to help address student and family questions with clarity and care. On the staffing front, we've worked with the Elgen Teachers Association to plan for an earlier staffing process. That process will be finalized and communicated to administrators and staff by the end of this month. Principal positions for our new middle school in Elgen and for Illinois Park are currently posted with the goal of filling them by winter break. Additional administrator positions will follow in October with similar hiring deadlines. This early hiring window allows leadership teams to begin building strong school cultures and collaborative instructional planning well before students arrive. And now I I will hand

008it over to Griselda Purle, our director of multilingual and multicultural education to discuss plans for dual language and ESL programming for our sixth graders in middle school. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to provide updates on our multilingual programs. In the following slides, I will share the newly developed dual language allocation plan for sixth grade, as well as our plans to launch an integrated ESL program model for sixth grade starting next school year. A key component of a successful dual language program is a thoughtfully designed language allocation plan, which specifies the language of instruction for each subject area. This strategic approach ensures that students engage in a comprehensive by literacy experience that aligns with the program's by literacy goals. The new sixth grade dual language allocation has been carefully developed with the full

009prek through 12 by literacy trajectory in mind ensuring ensuring continuity and progression in students by literacy development. In creating this allocation, input was thoughtfully gathered from multiple stakeholders, including curriculum and instruction, human resources, and instructional cabinet to ensure a collaborative, well-informed process. This slide demonstrates the difference between the current sixth grade language allocation plan and the change that will take place next school year. In alignment with the requirements of a secondary dual language program, we have established two courses to be taught in Spanish. You will notice on the right that these courses will be social studies and Spanish language arts, which is also known as art deu in espanol or al. Additionally, math will now be taught in English. As a reminder, each dual language course is expected to engage students in the bridge process,

010which transfers concepts learned from one language to another, ensuring that students meet their biiteracy goals. In alignment with the current with our current integrated ESL program model at the elementary level which are housed at Liberty Timber Trails and Creekide, we will be implementing a in an integrated ESL model at the middle school for sixth grade courses. Sorry, excuse me. For sixth grade ELA courses, this model will roll up to seventh and eighth grade in subsequent years. As a reminder, an integrated ESL program model is an approach in which English learner students participate in the same core ELA classroom as other non-English learner students. It's designed to ensure both groups of students have a have rigorous and equitable access to grade level content while English learners receive the language supports they need. You will notice at

011the top that English learner newcomers will continue to have a dedicated ELA ESL class in order to continue providing the academic language and social emotional supports they need. They will not be integrated in a general education classroom. The bottom portion of the slide illustrates our sixth grade integrated model. It is important to emphasize that both courses do require an ESL endorsed teacher. I will now turn it back to Lela to provide additional updates. In terms of curriculum, our teams have been working hard over the past two and a half years to prepare sixth grade curriculum and we're excited to preview a few of the middle school elective offerings that align with both the middle school model and our portrait of a graduate competencies. You will be hearing presentations on our proposed curriculum recommendations later this

012evening for these courses. They include Spanish language arts known as artes elenu and espanol fine arts rotation electives and career and technical education or CTE courses. These electives offer students both voice and choice as they begin their middle school journey. Our finance and operations teams are working closely with both curriculum and transportation to ensure operational readiness in August of 2026. This includes adjusting transportation routes for the new boundaries, ensuring curriculum materials are ordered and delivered on time, and aligning resources with instructional needs. These behind-the-scenes efforts are critical to making sure everything is in place on day one. And looking ahead, each board meeting will continue to provide an a monthly update on transition progress. In October, we'll focus on special education programming and progress on our family engagement efforts. And in November, we'll dive into

013course selection guidance for rising sixth and seventh graders and provide an update on staffing progress. Thank you again for your ongoing support and engagement in this important work. We know this transition will impact every school and every student and we're committed to providing clear communication, thoughtful planning, and equitable implementation. At this time, we'd be happy to take any questions. >> Thank you for the presentation. Do board members have any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Our second strategic plan update this evening is an update on chat GPT. Coming forward, we have Rola Tariq Muhammad, coordinator of strategic initiatives, and Jim Wolf, director of information services to provide the board of education an update on chat GPT. Good evening, President Owens, board of education members, Dr. Johnson. Uh thank you for the opportunity to provide an update

014on our AI integration work including the proposed adoption of chat GPT edu for staff use only and how we are aligning this work with U46's priorities of ethical and responsible AI use and the newly updated board policy access to electronic networks. We want to start by explaining why Chad Gupt Edgue is the right fit for U46. Chad Gupt Edgue is the education grade version of Chad GPT. It offers enterprise leper security, oversight and compliance with state and federal laws. It provides a U46 controlled environment where staff can utilize time-saving tools for lesson planning, research, and communication while keeping U46 in full control of its data and usage. We know that privacy and data ownership are top priorities. With Chat TPT Edu, U46 will fully own everything our staff creates using this platform. None of our

015data is used to train OpenAI's models. When we choose to end our contract with OpenAI, we have the ability to delete all content from their servers and export it to our servers. We'll also be guiding staff through training and our AI guidelines to ensure responsible ethical use at all times. >> In addition to privacy protections, we'll also have oversight through analytics and compliance tools. The analytics dashboard allows us to track adoption, engagement, and license usage. will be able to answer questions like how many staffs are active this month, which teams are using AI the most. This helps us manage licenses effectively and understand usage trends over time, and if needed, the compliance interface allows us to review pumps and outputs for legal or audit purposes. This ensures transparency and accountability for both staff and administration.

016This work is anchored in board policy. On August 4th, the board approved an update to policy 6 col235 which provides the framework for our district AI plan and responsible use guidelines. It outlines expectations for professional learning, community input, risk management, and ongoing oversight, ensuring that AI is integrated responsibly and is in alignment with our educational mission. The U46 AI task force, which was formed in January 20 2025, has made progress guiding our AI pilot efforts, developing the district guidelines for staff and teachers, and reviewing national research. Looking ahead to the 2025 2026 school year, the task force will focus on implementing and overseeing the district AI plan, updating the responsible use guidelines, refining our risk management framework, implementing and evaluating professional development and AI literacy initiatives, and gathering gathering evidence of use and the latest

017research to inform decisions. Once developed, these recommendations will be brought back to the executive cabinet and the updates will be shared with the board of education. Excuse me. It's important to clarify that chat GPT edu will be will be available only to U46 staff. Students will not have access to the platform. All staff will be required to complete a Canvas course focused on AI basics, responsible use, and our district guidelines before ever accessing the tool. Beyond that, we're offering both in-person and virtual professional learning sessions along with opportunities to work directly with OpenAI trainers. This in this ensures staff are confident and prepared to use the tool effectively and responsibly. As for next steps, we request the board to reconsider the proposal from OpenAI at your September 2020 September, excuse me, Sep September 22nd meeting.

018The proposal includes up up to 4,000 staff licenses at the negotiated cost of $432,000. This proposal was originally introduced on June 2nd, and tonight's update is part of our continued effort to answer questions and provide clarity. Pending board approval, we are ready to move forward with the implementation and support our educators with the right tools and training. Thank you and we welcome any questions. >> Thank you for the presentation. Do board members have questions? Shondaanda, >> thank you for the presentation. So, on slide eight, when it says up to 4,000 staff licenses, are you starting out with seeing who decides that they want a staff license, or are we paying for the 4,000 staff licenses at once and then up to 4,000 people can actually use them? >> Yes, we're paying for the 4,000 staff

019licenses and up to 4,000 can be used. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, summary. Um on slide nine I was just looking at number two content must align with board approved curriculum and standards. Um just as an example like a case case study if we were to look at something are we saying so the curriculum that's been approved for say sixth grade that we were just talking about um is that being inputed into the chat GPT into the analytics and then people can create their own curriculum or their timeline for the year. How how is this actually being utilized in the classroom by by a teacher or a team? >> Um so I think when when it comes to that the the main thing is that the teachers need to be depending on the board a

020full curriculum. They can use AI as a thought partner in order to create activities and engaging um activities for their classroom. Um and they can be inputting the uh resources, the board approved resources into the uh GPT, but they need to be uh like uh over uh reviewing it before sharing it with the students and also making sure that it aligns with the 46 guidelines. >> And do we know if um neighboring districts are using chat GPTedu or >> the staff? So when we were doing our research, we talked with several uh neighboring uh districts. Um some of them are using CHP however only for uh for staff because it's not um it cannot be used for um under 18 uh years old. So, as far as the cost, um, obviously earlier today we did

021a financial committee meeting where we're discussing changes in budgeting. You know, thankfully this year, even though we're losing approximately 14 million from the state of Illinois, we've been able to absorb it in some other places where we had, you know, um, some changes in money like investing. Um, one of the big why people sell as a pro for AI is that um, this is going to sound bad, but as it makes things easier, you're able to cut things other places, whether it's curriculum, whether it's staff, as we're adding in, you know, just shy of a half a million dollars in cost, have we looked at where we can cut elsewhere, or where this is going to enable us to cut elsewhere to incorporate these costs without changing budgeting and being able to roll it out

022in the future. Can you please repeat that question? >> So, uh, no. So, uh, my question is, so if we add in this 400,000, one of the things they push about AI is that it's it's using companies push it as a way to cut staff, as a way to cut other resources you're using. So, if we're going to spend the 400,000 to um to make things easier and to add this element, have has our staff has our administration given thought to where we're going to have cuts, especially given that we're going to have budget constraints moving forward. For me, 400,000 on AI is not a good use of funds. So, that's why I'm wondering if we have thought about where this money is going to come from and what cuts we could make if we

023needed to next year in order to continue it. >> I can jump in, Miss Martin. So I I think in as specific to curriculum and instruction and as we give greater consideration to how this can support the use of resources certainly some of our assessment work as well whether that be focused on formative assessments at a variety of grade levels I think that does give us some opportunity to find places where we have greater efficiency and specific reductions in costs in some of those areas. I don't have those for you at this time. Our next step, you know, one of the next steps with this could certainly be as well as a really focused pilot in some of our curricular areas and some of our grade level areas to give us some of that more

024focused feedback um around areas where we could look to find greater efficiencies and fiscal savings. um until we do some of that work and we're able to actually implement some of this at greater scale, it's difficult for me to give you a commitment on what th those other reductions would be at this time. I'm convinced that we can absolutely do that. Um but that that is work that would still need need to be ahead of us. And again, if we were to proceed perhaps with another focused area for pilots, that would give us some some greater ground to be able to move through that with as well. Um, I just want to respond really to your question, not not so much with an answer, but with a a focus on another aspect of this that

025isn't financial, but that this is an area that is here to stay and isn't going to go away. And it's behoo it's it behooves us to train our teachers in its use and set up these guidelines. And that's what we're we've been doing with in just setting up this task force and having them look at all of this and move forward in this regard. It's how we're going to model this work for our students moving forward and in the future as they use, you know, AI all over the place. So I I don't want to I don't want to diminish the financial aspect of it. That is part of it. But the other part is this is a major um form of technology that is now being adopted worldwide and it and we need to

026be at the forefront and that's of value for us and for our students. So I look at also as that value even though it it might be you know costly um and we don't know what savings there will be it is still a very necessary cost if we want to be at the forefront of of educating our students and it starts with our teachers in how we want them to work with AI. So I find real value in that. So I just wanted to make that comment >> and I would also like to like quickly intervene that cost is one of the criteria we also look at and one of our some of like our negotiations with like different AI um companies is cost and how can we ensure that we as a as a

027like public education uh are able to access these tools but at the same time at the lowest um cost possible while at the same time uh providing our educators with tools that can help them save time and at the same time in a safe environment where we're not worried about any um data or like security or protection. >> Shondaanda, >> I wanted to comment and I guess touch on my concern. Um when Dr. Johnson when you mentioned a focus pilot, I've always been for a focus pilot with this. I have not been in very supportive of doing 4,000 licenses. And part of it is the cost, but the other part is when you roll out software and you're trying to train so many people, um, being able to get more of the data that that

028I think we need for efficiency. Um, we haven't really had teachers that have piloted in the small group come forward to the board to say, I used it this way. This is what I saw. I saw a reduction in my time. I saw efficiency with planning and curriculum. And so that's where for me I like this the scale up approach where if we have a larger focused pilot then we can say it's more efficient. This is a good use of our money. I'm all for AI. AI has been around for a long time. It's not going anywhere. It's evolving. I'm in support of it. But my concern mainly is we're going from a very very small group to 4,000 almost like not zero to 100 miles per hour but like 15 miles per hour to

029100 miles hour and I think it would be more controlled if it was a focus pilot to respond to that completely took the words that I wanted to say but to also kind of um if we are doing a pilot is it possible to get like an optin or a plan just to kind of how many would participate and then if we even say we do a thousand licenses and that's what you know you come up with with a with a project. Um would there be consistency? So like if a third grade teacher wants to adopt or third grade team in one school, it wouldn't really be consistent across the entire district. Would that be correct to say? >> So if if I can jump in with a couple of considerations. Um so we do

030recognize of course that if we adjust the original like all of these are going to impact the original bid right for for cost savings or not. So while that's that's one discussion if we adjust the number of licenses cost per license will shift like we we all have to recognize that. Um so we'll that would be a task that would go back to the team for additional follow-up. we would have to bring that back here of course to the board of education. Two, um it is beneficial certainly while it's a pilot to be able to get enough participants in a pilot across courses or grade levels that run across the system so we have enough data to give us feedback as far as what that looks like. Additionally, it'd be beneficial if we're able to

031do that in simil in alignment with some of our other practices that support our current strategic plan as well. So, we'd have to spend some time identifying that for teachers. Typically, when we utilize the term pilot, we give our educators an opportunity to opt in, right? So what would be, you know, how do we support that optin as to what they're doing and to be able to clearly outline the data that we would like to be able to collect on that usage to be able to measure the um effectiveness or efficacy of that roll out and then best create our plans moving forward for other grade levels. So, I can't tell you specifically this evening without certainly having consultation with curriculum and some of our additional programs about what some of those target areas would

032be. Um, and area by area I do mean content and grade level and programming. And being a diverse district, it would be very important that we have diversity represented uh across programs, across dual language, across ESL, monolingual instruction, specialized student services, right? the list grows long. So, those would all be things that we'd need to return uh to you with for for greater uh detail. >> Okay. Um yeah. So, my question is I'm looking here and the cost is 432,000 for 4,000 staff licenses. How long is that license valid for? >> 12 months. >> 12. If we started October 1st, >> right, >> it would be one calendar year. >> Okay? So, and all 4,000 would be good for a year, whether they were all picked up and grabbed in October or November, December, they

033would all expire September 30th, right? Whatever it was. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Sue. So, I understand the concern about having a pilot and not having 4,000 licenses, but I've been playing around with AI, and I'm not an expert at it for the last few weeks. And um it's it could be very easy to use. And I wonder if people once they see what it can do won't want to opt in. And and you know, if we limit the number of licenses, we may be limiting people who suddenly realize this could save me a lot of time. Um, I was playing just, you know, putting together activities for a third grader learning multiplication tables or US history, put together a game on the Civil War. Um, and it, you know, five minutes you have suggestions

034and a teacher doing that would take hours. So, I I I can't help but think that it may be more popular once once it gets going, >> right? And and one of the um one of the things we'd like to provide with training is prompt engineering. So, it's not just it's not just asking questions. It's knowing how to ask a question to elicit a response that you're looking for. >> Like you said, like working with a third grader, >> right? So, you'd say, you know, I'm a third grade teacher. I'm working on um multiplication. Um and then and then give it other other reasonings, other examples of what you're looking for. And there are all sorts of um different prompting formats you can use and we've done a lot of research on the different formats

035you can use um that really help narrow it down so you're not just grasping at things. I mean we we don't want to just here you go here's your license. That's why we have the training. It's training is very important. There'll be a course that that everyone has to take in order to get their license. Um, we we want to make it very intentional. We want to make sure that people do their due diligence to get that license so it's not just another thing, right? I mean, we want it we want it to be currently the thing if they're going to if they're going to do this. >> And a couple more thoughts. It it also strikes me help teachers who have to differentiate the students. So if you have a child who isn't learning

036the way you've been presenting the material, it may suggest different ways of presenting the material. >> Do we also see it a use for it with administrators and have we thought about that? >> Oh, absolutely. We're also looking at for for operations departments. I mean even um with my department programming, I mean it can actually I mean you can give it like okay I'm working in this language and I need help and this is what I'm trying to accomplish. this is where I am. It'll provide code for you. I mean, is it always going to be perfect code? No. So, it's your responsibility obviously to go in and and to read the code to see if there's any bugs in the code and then to apply the code in a controlled environment to see how

037it works and then make your changes. >> And then you can also take um I've I've used different AIs and bounced results from one to the other >> to see if I get a better result. >> Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. But as the user, it's your responsibility to follow up and to make sure that you verify what you're given. >> I would also like to add to what Jim has been sharing that when it comes to optin like already like your 46 staff are interested in AI. So when we for example ask the different AI companies even like JPT like we at least have 1,600 staff members using the tool. Um but by having the license we're ensuring that it's a like safe U46 um environment where we able to also protect our

038data and at the same time help our staff do better work. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because it's it's it's a walled garden, right? I mean our information doesn't feed outside of the model, but the external model does feed into our organization. So just to follow up on that, in other words, if you're using it through U46, you've got the license, you could access our curriculum materials, but our approved curriculum through Chachi the the U46 version, but you the public version could not, >> right? And and we could, you know, you can even create custom GPTs where you you could take the whole like third grade math curriculum and put it into a custom GPT and then other people can access that who if it's third grade who teach third grade and it you know you

039say okay here this is the curriculum and it can help you know you can you can query off of that GPT and ask it directed questions about the curriculum and as you said as you stated earlier about um differentiating the instruction. You can do things like that within within the platform. >> And we've already like um like ex like experimented with that a little bit. So we created a custom GPT just for U46 lesson planning using depending on like the board approved curriculum. And then we tested it to see if for example um an eighth grade math teacher want to create a lesson, how would this look like and would it really fit like the board approved curriculum or not? And it did fit it. and at the same time also helping the teacher like

040differentiate so creating different activities to like different uh levels of the students. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I was struck by one of the um one of the phrases that you used and I and I wanted to just kind of talk about it for a second. Um, like in life, I'm one of the first people to make John Connor and uh Sarah Connor jokes about the whole idea of AI, but I um I particularly like the fact that you talked about the responsibility because that makes me feel much more comfortable. I trust our EU46 teachers. They're really great folks. They have dedication to our students. Um, and the idea that it's going to be part of the training of great, it's created something, but you still have to look at it. You still

041have to figure out what's going to work for you. you know, having been in a in classrooms my whole life, like I've gotten great lesson plans from books, but I've still adjusted them, right? So, this is the same kind of thing. Um, I mean, it is a lot of money and, you know, having to pay that again because the idea then we'd have to pay that 432 a year from now, right? >> Well, what um I I think part of this also is we also look at usage. >> Okay. >> Right. And then we can go back. That's why we we wanted to do this for a year because then we can go back after year and say okay um if we look at the data maybe 3200 people used it >> okay >> and

042then we can go back and we can negotiate now for the next year of 3200 with the with the possibility of raising that up bas you know with with seat licenses. >> Okay. >> Um but we we need to see um if you know how we're going to do that. I mean it's yeah >> okay >> there's a lot of different factors involved but part of it >> I think if we if we provide the training >> Yep. and um provide the explanation behind the use of it rather than again it's here you go it's another thing >> um >> I think it'll help >> and and I think it's important that at this point students will not have access to >> no they will not >> um are there going to be same rules

043or whatever about like in the middle of class say like it's a social studies class and they have a question can the teacher pull up chatbt chat whatever chat gpt edu in class and as a group work together to like create a or something like that. >> For now, the guidelines is not to use AI in the classroom or with students and it's basic like um essentially for teachers and staff to use it like in >> Exactly. Yeah. for the material or >> the door is open maybe next year, the year after we could be doing things like that. >> It it's it's really important if we're going to do this intentionally to make sure that our teachers and our staff are trained how to use it. >> Okay. before you can ever use it

044with students or even show students how to use it. >> Okay? >> Because, you know, we need to be um no one is an AI expert, right? I mean, because but but we need to be as expert in it as we can be before we ever even think about introducing it to students. >> Thank you. I appreciate the fact that you're being very thoughtful about this um and very deliberate. Um you know, still wigs me out a little bit with Dun Connor, but um we'll get there. >> Skynet. Yeah. >> Yeah. done. >> Um, so as far as like judging how well a the AI is working for our staff, are we so other than just looking at like, okay, so 80% of the staff used it, are we going to be able to see

045things like, you know, of the 20 third grade teachers who used it, 10 of them are actually getting similar information because they're using it over and over again for like similar prompts. Would we be able to see if say an 11th grade math teacher attempted to use it but actually didn't have success because it's just not set up for like the level of math that they were teaching? Like maybe are we going to be able to see that sort of level of detail as to the efficiency of it? >> I I think >> I think what we've been what we've been told by um by the rep from from um Open AI is that the analytics and and we've looked into >> a lot of the analytics but we more people using it to get

046again to get better data. But there there is there's a lot we can do that with that. Plus we can take the data and put it back in and you know gather more information based on the data based on the teachers that are using it. I mean it's one thing to see the data but then to to create that data story which is I think what you're looking for is the data story. And I think additionally also we will probably need some also qualitative data from teachers and staff who are using it like throughout the year. So we can also foresee maybe having some like listening um meetings or like focus groups also with uh teachers who are like a representative sample to also better understand their experiences and to be able to um accompaniate

047the data to better have a like a bigger picture. >> Yeah. With our task force, we did have meetings where we discussed anecdotal data where people step forward and say, you know, I used this one and I got horrible response when I used this one got a much better response that made sense. So it it's you know having that that data I mean that was one of the things that that we were also looking at and then we're having open discussions and then we were talking more about prompt engineering, right? Well, how did you ask it? what exactly was the prompt you put in? Because that's the other thing is getting that um the data on how they're engineering their prompts because again that becomes more of a training issue again to know how to

048better uh query the AI. >> Any other questions? >> So I have a couple questions. walk me through the next steps here of what you're looking at. >> Okay, >> we this is going to come in front of the board again on September 22nd according to this, right? What are we going to see on September 22nd? >> So on September 22nd, you will see the uh Chad Gupt edu um proposal. Um you also like after that after it's approved uh we'll be able to roll out uh the training program which will includes include a canvas course that is mandatory for uh each and every staff who wants to get access to the uh JPT46 workspace. Uh and after they are done uh with the course and we confirm they are done with the course um

049they will be able to get access to the um JPT edgy workspace and that we'll be having uh virtual and in-person uh training um sessions uh for teachers, for instructional coaches, for tech coaches and also for administrators. And then we'll be also following up uh on usage and usage data in order to better understand how it's being utilized in our district. >> So, are we are we voting on this on the 22nd? I think we we I'll have to follow up with the team because we've heard some some additional pieces of feedback here tonight that may have to impact that proposal. So, I'm I'm uncomfortable saying that you would vote exactly on what came forward to you at this point two and a half months ago on the 22nd. Um, so I think after some

050followup, the other piece that I heard, um, this evening coming from the board of education, uh, is potentially then, you know, whether it's it's a a data usage agreement as well or some way for us to monitor the use and some of the other outputs. Um so you know maybe maybe this the sample or the these um educators or administrators who opt in to utilize this are going to agree to provide us with some additional data some additional feedback to Mr. um we'll point a little bit ago about how we can better utilize that information for a year from now. So maybe those are some of the additional parameters that we would bring forward as well. not only the the professional learning but what are we going to do with that data their willingness to

051share that data. Um so I I would like the opportunity to debrief with our team after this evening and then identify whether or not it's the same proposal or a slightly different proposal that we would get back in front of you. And of course, depending on those revisions and what would be presented to the board of education, that would indicate whether it would come to you uh next week as a as a um discussion action item or as an initial proposal again with action later. >> All right. I appreciate that. Thank you. I think that I think that for me some of the information that I need I mean I'm looking at slide six where it says that the 2025 2026 work also includes also isn't in there but includes you know oversight of the

052plan updating responsible use guidelines refining our risk management framework implementing and evaluating PD and literacy initiatives gathering evidence of use and latest research that's a lot on top of training 4,000 people on these licenses. Um I would really like to see a breakdown of what the cost would be if we scale it down for the first year um similar to what um Shondaanda had proposed as is being whether we want to call that a pilot or not. But I'm a little concerned about the timeline of purchasing 4,000 licenses in October and even getting anything close to usage on that at what we should be getting for if we're paying that kind of money, if that makes sense. Because I just don't see how we can scale up full usage of 4,000 licenses in an immediate

053term. I might be wrong on that, but I'd like to see where those cost breakdowns are um so that we can make that that decision because, you know, we are talking about and I think given the budget constraints that we know that we're facing, we're going to have to be looking at all of these kinds of new initiatives with that kind of lens unfortunately. >> Um >> so for my mind, that's that's what I would need to see, I think. >> Can I ask one last thing? >> My apologies. Um, so I mean I think it's obvious like I'm I'm not I'm not a pro AAI person. I'm trying really hard to like I understand it's policy. I understand that districts are doing it. So I'm trying to get in my comfortable space to sign

054off on us spending money on this kind of thing. Um I'm not going to get into my why I'm not, you know, pro AI. I'm just not. Um as far as the Canvas course that staff are going to be have access to, is it possible for board members to have access to it? Not all the Zoom, not all the other training, but possibly just the Canvas ones. so that I can work on my comfort level with what our staff are how they're being trained and what how they're being told to use pros and cons of AI and that kind of thing. >> Thank you. >> And and and we it is a lot. I mean not just the cost. I mean the whole concept it's a lot to wrap your head around. It really is.

055And I mean we've had um R and I have had a lot of conversations about the ethics of AI. I mean not just um the usage here but I mean just overall it's a lot and it's a lot to think about. I mean even down to like you know if you go and you and you you know want um a summation of a book is is the author getting paid for that? I mean I mean there's a lot of things like the amount of energy it takes to run a prompt, right? It's a lot of energy. There are ethical considerations just all over the place. So, we totally understand. I mean, I I want you to I mean, we get it. We get it. It's a lot. It's a lot to take in. It really

056is. And that's why, you know, we will keep coming back if we have to because we want you to be comfortable with this because we're asking a lot and we understand that. I appreciate that because because I I also have a lot of ethical concerns about this. Not not in in in what it would be useful here, but just in general, and I appreciate you speaking to that. >> Um, >> so thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, the next item on our agenda is the public hearing for the 2025 2026 school district U46 budget. So I am going to uh declare the budget hearing is now open and we will begin by a presentation by our finance team. All right, good member. Yeah, good evening

057members of the U46 committee and thank you for joining us for the 2526 budget public hearing. Tonight, we are presenting a proposed budget that reflects both our responsibility to remain fiscally sound and our continued commitment to student success. This budget is guided by the strategic goals adopted by the board of education which is building strong early academic and social emotional foundations, ensuring safety, belonging, inclusion, supporting academic growth and mastery and preparing students to thrive in a diverse and changing world. Although we continue to face a dynamic funding environment that's has limited resources, this proposal represents the best efforts to maximize opportunities for students, address inequities, and maintain long-term financial sustainability. So, this next slide actually outlines our key milestones in the budget process. So, the tenative budget was presented to the finance committee on June

05816th, which began the format of the cycle. And in August, the budget was on public display for a minimum of 30 days and public notice was issued as required by law. Adoption is scheduled for September 22nd, ensuring compliance with the requirements for the budgets to be adopted no later than September 30th. And this timeline only keeps us in compliance with state laws, but also ensures transparency and opportunity for input. So before sharing the budget details, I'd like to briefly outline the budget's adoption requirements that guides our process. And these requirements are designed to ensure transparency, accountability, public involvement, and how our school district manages taxpayer funds. So this fiscal year begins July 1st. By law, all districts must adopt a budget no later than September 30th. And once adopted, the final budget must be filed

059with the county clerk within 30 days for tax levy purposes, making it an official public record. And these steps ensure that the budget not only is balanced and sustainable, but also accessible and accountable to our stakeholders. The board of education and administration recognizes their responsibility to taxpayers of U46 to operate in a school system that is fiscally sound and sustainable. When what sets U46 apart is our intentional focus on fiscal equity. That means we start by examining a diverse need for our students before allocating resources and we measure success not only by balanced budgets but by the impact of financial investments on academic outcomes. With limited resources and various needs, equitable access to opportunities guides how we prioritize. And this tentative budget presented for this evening reflects those commitments. So early tenative budget projections suggested

060that U46 could receive up to 18 million in new funding under our evidence-based funding model. That estimate assured that our district would remain at a tier one district. However, after the state reclassified U46 as a tier 2 district, our financial allocations was substantially reduced. So instead of 18 million, we received 4.8 million of new dollars. So this outcome highlights the importance of cautious financial planning. While our district remains stable, the reduced level of new funding requires that we are going to continue with their strategic planning with our investments to ensure that every dollar is aligned with student needs and district priorities. So with this process and principles of the budget established, we will now shift to the revenue side of the 26 budget to better understand our funding sources and how they align to our

061student priorities. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Robin Cornelius, who is our executive director of financial services. >> Thank you, Kyle. Um I'm actually going to start with some of our budget highlights. Um, the U46 budget provides strategic investments aligned with our goals to build our early academic and foundational skills, providing a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for our students, provide academic growth to meet or exceed standards, and develop skills and interests for successful post-secary transitions. outside of salaries and benefits. These areas are associated with these goals and identified in this slide as associated with um requested increases in the FY26 budget. So, quickly I'll go over the purchase services is requesting an $ 8.9 million increase including non- capital and maintenance projects and technology repairs and maintenance. Supplies and

062materials will see a $ 1.5 million increase in um including spending in instruction, textbooks, replenishing classroom, consumable materials, and food service materials. Capital projects will see an increase of $144.7 million, including the capital spending for the Unite U46 capital improvement programs uh or projects, including the completion of the new middle school in Elgen, additions to Kenyon Woods and Kimble Middle Schools, new elementary school in Elgen, and renovations and additions to Glenbrook Centry Oaks uh elementary schools, and the transition of Illinois Park to a new elementary school. Other objects will see a $1.6 $6 million increase, including um an increase for the students placed in education programs outside the district, as well as our principal payments on our district debt and non-C capital objects with a $4 million increase for purchasing classroom furniture for collaboration and

063education and additional funds for new technology for staff and students, including wireless access points throughout the district. This chart illustrates the percentage breakdown of our total deposits of $819 million. The largest portion portion of 319 million is allocated to the education fund which also covers the majority of our expenditures. We continuously evaluate our allocation distribution particularly with respect to our EVF. Our historic and proposed revenues. To summarize our revenue, we anticipate receiving $819.4 million for FY26. The difference between the FY25 unodudited actuals of $840.7 million and the FY26 proposed budget of 819.4 4 uh million is the $21.3 million decrease you see here. This is specifically coming from the ESSER funds that was um fulfilled in our last fiscal year. This chart shows our expenditures in by fund. You can see that the largest portion

064of our expenditures which is 65% or 626 million comes from the education fund. The next largest section is our operations and maintenance fund at 11% or 105.9 million. In a later slide of this presentation, I will discuss the impact of these planned expenses and how it affects each funds fund balance. In the area of salaries, the district has budgeted for additional certified teaching positions as a result of the implementation of the 20 minute elementary school day extension that started this school year. Extending the elementary school day by 20 minutes will allow us to offer increased highquality instruction and improvement student and improve student learning as well as additional special classes that allow students to explore these interests. For FY26, I'm recommending a budget of $963.2 million. Over the past few years, the district expenditures have

065represented several key areas such as the return for more stable financial operations as schools adapted post pandemic, focusing on recovery, student mental health, and re-engagement of students. rising costs in staff compensation and benefits, curriculum updates, and inflationary pressures impacting transportation, utilities, and contract services. In addition, the capital projects related to Unite U46. Looking forward, the FY26 proposed budget is set at 963.2 million. This anticipated growth is largely attributed to the large-scale capital improvements being made as part of UniteU46 and the increase of 44.2 million in salaries and benefits due to the addition of various positions throughout the district. The consistent upward trajectory in expenditures underscores the district's commitment to student success, but also highlights the need for long-term financial planning. This slide provides a high-level summary of the legal budget that will be submitted to

066the state as reflected on page two of the document. The summary presents revenues and expenditures by fund with fund names listed across the top. While the majority of the district expenditures typically come from the operating funds, which is the education, operations and maintenance and transportation funds, the capital project funds is highlighted here with the green arrow. Now that we have visited both revenues and expenditures, this slide will wrap up our review by looking at the fund balance projections for June 30th, 2026. If we spend every budgeted penny and deposit every anticipated dollar, our ending balance on June 30th, 2026 would be $54.9 million less. However, it's important to note that this decrease of 54.9 million is a planned deficit and is due to the ongoing construction projects. The projected ending fund balance as of June

06730th, 2026 is $821.4 million. After reviewing the revenue and expenditures, let's now take a look at their impact on our fund balances. Now that we understand our proposed budget, we now need to review our estimated ending fund balances and projections for future fiscal years. Over the past 5 years, the board has strategically seen its fund balances increase. The strategy was twofold. One, increase our fund balances as a rainy day savings account, and two, increase our fund balances to prepare for an increase in capital construction and maintenance projects. The start of UniteU46 campaign showed a commitment from the board of education to the taxpayers to improve the school buildings by either retiring and replacing older buildings or by improving the buildings. This commitment came with an estimated price tag of $350 million. In April 2023, the

068U46 taxpayers unanimously approved issuing debt of 179 million to pay for the portion of the Unite U46 campaign with the remaining 171 million to be paid for through the district's cash reserve. This chart shows the strategic increase and spendown of cash balances in order to accomplish the goals of UniteU46. Future finance committee meetings will provide greater visibility into the spendown strategy, including phased construction costs, reserve targets, and long range financial forecasting. The district remains committed to rem maintaining adequate fund balances even after these capital investments, ensuring continued financial health, flexibility, and in alignment with our strategic goals. So in summary, as U46 continues to advance its strategic priorities, particularly those tied to the Unite U46 capital campaign, the FY26 proposed budget reflects both a continued investment in our schools and a responsible use of financial

069reserves. The district begins FY26 with a strong unodudited fund balance of 876.3 million built over several years of deliberate financial planning. Estimated revenues at 819.5 million with total expenditures being forecasted at 963.2 million. The plan deficit of 143.8 8 million is projected for FY26. This is not a result of overspending, but a calculated investment as a district begins drawing on reserves to fund capital projects in strategic initiatives. After accounting for the new referendum and working cash bonds that will occur in early 2026 and all revenues and expenditures, the district projects an ending fund balance of $821.4 4 million. I will now turn it over to an Dr. Anne Williams for discussion about the future considerations that the district will be reviewing. >> Thank you, Robin. As we close our presentation, I want to remind everyone

070of the budgeting methodology that has been embraced by this district. It is tied directly to fiscal equity, which means we distribute resources based on actual student need, not simply giving each school the same amount. For example, schools with higher concentrations of English learners or students with special needs may receive more support, while schools with lower needs may receive less. The budgeting methodology also considers accountability, which means we show transparency in how every dollar is used. That includes making sure the board of education, the staff, and the community can see the connection between spending decisions and student learning outcomes. There are three levels of financial pressure um that we will continue to look at throughout the budgeting year, local, state, and federal. At the local level, we know that Cook County property tax delays continue and

071we do not know when we will receive those funds. We also know that we are limited by the property tax extension limitation law. The tax levy for this year will be based off of a 2.9% inflationary increase. So that limits the increase in revenue to the district. We also know that the housing market is a bit unpredictable as well as interest earnings are unpredictable as we anticipate two decreases in interest earnings this year. At the state level, we know that state revenue is in question and that there are long-standing financial challenges with the state reporting a $3.2 billion deficit at the last look. We also know that there are pension obligations and unfunded mandates at the state level. We'll talk a little bit more about the state level on the next slide, but also at

072the federal level, we know that there is budget instability there as well as policy decisions. You may recall the temporary freeze on grant allocations that occurred throughout the budgeting process. So, all of these pressures impact how we move forward as a district. So going back into the state funding concerns, the state of Illinois reduced the evidence-based funding allocation for this year. Historically, the new funding has been $350 million. This year it was reduced to $37 million with roughly 25% of those dollars going to one school district, Chicago Public Schools. Chicago public schools was recently designated as tier 1, moving from tier 2 back to tier one and thereby creating a disparit impact on other districts in Illinois, including district U46. So what are our next steps? Our next steps are listed here. We plan to

073maintain the commitments that have been established by the board of education, continue with the unite you 46 initiative, um continue with our increased staffing to support our student needs, to support the middle school transition, and to support the extended elementary school day. We plan to maintain fiscal solveny by monitoring structural cost growth and re re-evaluating our projections on a regular basis. We want to limit the expansion of reoccurring expenses without sustainable revenue and prioritize reserves and financial flexibility to protect against volatility. We want to stay the course and stay committed to our fiscal equity meth methodology and ensuring that every dollar is tied to student needs and outcomes. And lastly, we want to continue to advocate and communicate with our partners in Springfield as well as in Washington on funding stability and we will continue

074to keep the community informed as we are responsible stewards of their resources. So again, in summary, our budgeting methodology has not changed. We will continue to evaluate the fiscal pressures that persist at the local, state, and federal levels. We do recognize that we have a planned deficit for this year, very different from a structural deficit. Um, and that was that will allow the district to maintain a healthy fund balance. and we will continue to manage those challenges and evaluate um evaluate the impact of those pressures on a monthly basis. With that, we'd be happy to address any questions that you have at this time. Thank you for the presentation and I'll just add um for the purposes of this hearing, the uh board finance committee was held before the regular board meeting this evening and

075board members had the opportunity to an ask questions. Um we saw substantially the same um presentation. and there's a little bit more detail, but I can, you know, certainly direct um the public to view that meeting as well and see the questions that were asked. Um, very good presentation and very thoughtful questions. If there are no further questions from the board, then I will open up the hearing to public comment. And again, this would be public comment specifically for the budget hearing. >> And we have no public comment. Okay. >> With that, then I will close the budget hearing. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. The next item on the agenda is comments from the audience. >> Again, we have no public comments this evening. >> Okay. Thank you. So we will move then to other

076business board member and superintendent update. Does anybody have any updates to share? Dr. Johnson, >> sorry I didn't mean to put you on the spot. Always updates. Uh so um certainly we this is this is week number five already uh in the school year which is certainly exciting for our students as we continue to move ahead as well as our community and our team members. Um, one of the things I want to provide an update uh on is our ongoing collaboration. I say our collaboration, it's really the school district U46 foundation, which I have the pleasure of getting to be part of and our collaboration as well with the Gail Bordon uh foundation. So, as many of you will recall uh last year those two foundations uh came together um to host a 5K walk.

077We had done this previously, but we had the great pleasure of collaborating with Gailbornne last year and we hosted um the Elrae de Las Kalakas and this year we returned for our second go at this on October 18th at 9:00 a.m. Um we are working at getting this information out to our community, our staff, our team members to be able to support this effort. uh keeping in mind that together we both have this amazing interest in impacting our community by uh supporting literacy learning opportunities certainly celebrating our communities and the diversity uh across our community. We'll continue to have more information on the U46 website as does Gail Bordon. Um, but I wanted to take this opportunity as superintendent update because we are certainly working to uh make this a huge success to support the

078foundation's work uh for both of these tremendous organizations. So looking forward to that. >> Thank you to the board for your support as well and participation. I know many of you walked last year and uh looking forward to that day. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, next item is for request. Dr. Johnson. >> Uh this evening we have six Freedom of Information Act requests that are available on the public domain of board docs and later this week will be moved to the school district U46 website as well. >> Next item, consent agenda. Uh this evening on the consent agenda we have personnel report and workers compensation cases, minutes of board meeting June 2nd, 2025, termination of Pamela Butler, food service lead, termination of Dominic J. Kosa Jr. Subbus driver termination of Patricia Duckworth, sub bus

079driver. Termination of Deborah A. Jones, bus driver route termination of Jacqueline B. Cramp uh grants manager termination of Ayadelli Du Udona driver's assistant termination of Melissa A. Schaefer PARA crosscat special education termination of Nicholas Vensus bus driver route and contract renewal assessment accountability and student success King County Regional Office of Education Learning Partner. Contract renewal chief of staff Gallup Incorporated. Contract renewal curriculum and instruction elementary literacy consultant. Contract renewal curriculum and instruction K12 science and planetarium HMH 6th grade science contract renewal specialized student services health services automatic external defibrillator maintenance program and we have 16 occupancy permits and I will be reading all of them. Bartlet High School Pathways Phase 1 renovations permit number 31-1593. Bartlett High School backtop replacement permit number 311595. Coleman Elementary School roof replacement permit number 311594. Elgen High School auditorium

080rigging and upgrade permit number 311413. Elgen High School backtop replacement permit number 311596. Heritage Elementary School electrical switchboard replacement and emergency generator installation permit number 311397. Highland Elementary School domestic water piping replacement permit number 31600. Horizon Elementary School electrical switchboard replacement and emergency generator installation permit number 31398. Larkin High School back stop replacement permit number 311597. Larkin High School roof replacement permit number 31604. Lords Park Elementary School emergency generator installation permit number 311396. Ronald D. O'Neal Elementary School parking lot reconstruction permit number 131589. South Elgen High School backstop replacement permit number 311598. Streamwood High School backs stop replacement permit number 311599. Sycamore Trails Elementary School HVAC renovation permit number 311539. And warehouse and distribution center roof replacement permit number 13 number 316 1629. Number 31629. Sorry. >> Thank you. Are there any items that board

081members would like removed from the consent agenda? >> Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as read into the record? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Okay. Next item is discussion action. Dr. Johnson. >> Thank you, President Owens. The first one this evening item this evening is itemized bills for September 8th, 2025. Robin Cornelison, executive director of financial services, will respond to questions from the board of education regarding the attached bills. Administration recommends the board of education approve the list of bills in the amount of 50,582,222. May I

082have an appro uh motion to approve the list of bills in the amount of 50,582,222? >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion or questions? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. Our next item, approval of 2025 high school graduates. The board of education certifies the listing of high school graduates on an annual basis. >> May I have a motion to certify the listings of high school graduates as listed in your attachments? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan,

083>> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. Yes, Miss Thomas. >> Yes. >> President Owens. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Next item, minutes of board committee meetings. Attached for the board of education's review of the following board committee meeting minutes. June 16th, 2025 board of education finance committee meeting. Administration recommends the board of education accept the minutes. >> May I have a motion to accept the June 16th, 2025 board of education finance committee meeting minutes? So moved. Second. >> Any questions? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Martin? >> Yes. >> Miss Nolan? >> Yes. >> Miss Schwarz? >> Yes. >> Miss Thomas? >> Yes. >> President Owens? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Our next item, contract renewal, school safety, renewal of school resource officer

084contracts. Richard Bosch, director of school safety, and Brian Lindholm, chief of staff, will be available to respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewals with the city of Elgen, the village of Bartlett, the village of South Elgen, and the village of Streamwood in the total amount of 1,384,63568 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the TOR fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. May I have a motion to approve the contract renewals with the city of Elgen, the village of Bartlett, the village of South Elgen, and the village of Streamwood in the total amount of $1,384,63568 and authorized uh execution for district administration for the related documents. >> So moved. >> Second.

085>> Any questions for our panel? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Tonight's agenda also includes item 13E, a proposal for a plat of easement for storm water, storm water management, plat of easement for water main and plat of dedication for the property located at 1835 Worson Road in Elgen, Illinois. These agreements are required by the city of Elgen for providing the right of access to the property. Namely, a permanent permanent easement will be granted to the property for storm water management, water main infrastructure maintenance and inspection purposes. These agreements also address the dedication of portions of the property along

086Warren Road to create a right of way for municipal infrastructure over which the city of Elgen will assume ownership and maintenance of and oh I'm sorry city of Elgen will assume ownership and maintenance responsibilities. May I have a motion to approve the plat of easement for storm water management plat of easement for water man and plat of dedication for the property located at 1835 Worson Road in Elgen Illinois. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion or questions? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, >> yes. >> President Owens, yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. The next item is other business. Dr. Johnson, >> our first item this evening, secondary

087schools financial report for the fourth quarter. Robin Cornelison, executive director of finance, will review the attached secondary schools quarterly financial report and will respond to questions from the board of education. >> Hi, good evening. This report analyzes activity within middle and high school activity funds from April through June of 2025. These funds support extracurricular programs including athletics, performing arts, academic clubs, and student organizations that enrich students educational, recreational, and cultural experiences. As the school year was coming to an end, schools were hosting events and competitions that drive both revenues and expenditures. Prom, fundraiser, fundraisers, field trips, and tournament participation highlight student involvement across all schools. At the middle school level, band and orchestra events and field trip fees made up the bulk of the revenue. While expenditures were larly largely tied to field trip expenditures

088such as entrance fees and transportation, athletic expenses such as cheer clinics and athletic admissions. In the high schools, spring activities were in full spring with prom, boys and girls athletics, performing art productions, and club trips leading the way. revenues were boosted by large fundraisers, field trip fees, athletic tournament fees, and concession stand sales. Meanwhile, significant expenses included field trips, prom, athletic tournaments, and concessions, the school musical, and travel and lodging expenses for student trips. The combined beginning balance for these funds was 3.4 million. By the end of the quarter, the balance had reduced slightly to 2.9 million, reflecting a modest decrease of 552,000. Do board members have any questions, Sue? >> So, it looks like just in a few cases, we're also closing out inactive accounts and moving the money to another account on some

089of these schools. It just seemed like at the bottom of each high school or middle school, there were accounts being zeroed out. So, it is part of the Illinois admin code that if the account goes dormant and is no longer used that we need to work with the schools to move those funds to another related and appropriate account. Okay. >> So, that does occur on an annual basis. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. You're welcome. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Our next item, the administrator and teacher salary and benefits report for school year 2025. Mark Moore, assistant superintendent of human resources, will present the attached report and respond to questions from the board of education. Also attached for your information is public act 97256 amending sections 105 ILCS 5/1020.47 47 and 5/34-18.38 requiring

090school districts to report to the Illinois State Board of Education. Honor before October 1st of each year the base salary and benefits of all administrators and teachers employed by the school district. Present the report at a schoolboard meeting, submit it to the district's regional superintendent of schools, and post the report on the district's internet website for consistency across school districts. Once the information is entered into ISB's web application security system, the state's reporting system, a report is generated and sent back to the school district to be posted on their website. >> Mr. Moore, do you have anything to to present or take questions? >> Provided every year it's posted there, will be added to the website later. It's already been reported to the state in the ROE and does not require a vote. >> Thank

091you. Do board members have any questions? Thank you. >> That moves us to work session. Dr. Johnson. >> Uh thank you, President Owens. So this evening, this is really exciting because coming forward, we have a team of curriculum and instruction experts uh to provide actually updates and to walk through several proposals for you. So very much appreciate the board's support uh as we have been updating curriculum, bringing forward several proposals and presenting them cohesively. And tonight this is no different. I'm going to reach uh read each of the proposals into record and then I'm going to turn this over uh to the team. I'll introduce them all, but it looks like Celia Banks is poised and ready to take uh take control of this situation. Um but you're we're going to get to hear an

092update, which is what is so terribly exciting. We've spent so much time working on updating the instructional spaces, especially those instructional spaces within our CTE elective rotation world. We have additional work that is still planned. And tonight we get to hear about how the instruction and the learning experiences are going to become different and updated uh to best suit our students needs in this world that we are we are currently finding ourselves. So this is terribly exciting. So I say all that. So before us we will have middle school elective, sixth grade Spanish language arts curriculum and resource proposal. Middle school elective career and technical education business culinary arts and healthc care science curriculum proposals. Middle school elective fine arts art choir dance and theater curriculum proposals. Middle school elective rotations. explore justice, design, and

093enterprise and explore voices, vision, and vocation curriculum proposals and middle school elective sixth grade AVID curriculum. And so, uh, in order to make sure, uh, that this goes off as well as it possibly can, as I've already mentioned, Celia Banks, our director of curriculum instruction, has joined us for this. Uh, we will also at some point, I believe, have Mario Pastana. Is he he's hiding in the back? Our coordinator of multilingual multicultural education, Dorene Roberts, coordinator of career and technical education, Jamie Geraldo, coordinator of fine arts, and Beth McKini, coordinator of student success and AVID, who are going to present and be available to respond to questions to the board of education. So, Celia and Mario. Okay. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present the middle school electives curriculum proposal for implementation

094in school year 2627. As a reminder, the middle school literacy, math, science, and social studies adoptions that have come before you already included sixth grade, so they will not be a part of today's presentation. The electives included in this proposal are in the areas of Spanish language arts, also known as ALI, career and technical ed, fine arts, and AVID. Rotations includes classes from both career and technical ed and fine arts. The purpose of this proposal is to bring forward multiple new and some revised elective courses for middle school students in E46. With the implementation of these courses, several existing courses will be phased out. We will provide greater detail on that later in the presentation. This proposal addresses goals two, three, and four of the U46 and the in the U46 strategic plan. The proposed

095curricula will provide our middle school students with exposure to multiple disciplines such as technology, arts, and life skills, helping them make informed decisions about their future educational and career directions. This flexible system supports holistic development, keeps students motivated, and ensures a well-rounded educational experience that offers students choices to meet their needs and interests. The curriculum development process began in April of 2023 with calls to committee and writing work has proceeded from the summer of 2023 through February of 2025. The curriculum for each of the proposed courses was written based on the learning standards for each content as outlined here. Each middle school student will have two elective choices each school year. They will be able to mix and match their selections from these categories. There are year-long elective courses for students in all grade levels

096as seen on the left hand side. year-long elective course rotations for students in sixth or seventh grade and semesterl long elective courses for students in seventh or eighth grade. I will now turn it over to Mario Pastana for the SP the Spanish language arts/ala portion of tonight's presentation. >> Good evening. On this slide, you can see the new grlone sixth grade alua espanol SLA Spanish language arts course which will be a required course for sixth grade dual language students through the theme of culture, language and identity. Dual language students will further explore their bilingualism, biliteracy and bilingual identities as well as continue their Spanish language development while meeting grade level EB Spanish language charts standards for content and language. The research selection criteria included alignment with the ALE six grade curriculum framework, culturally and linguistically

097responsive and think connected tests, authentic and trans adaptations by bilingual authors and integration of adopted literacy resources and technology. The committee review over 200 resources and recommended 118 of them. Among the resources selected are textbooks from current sixth grade classroom libraries, literacy teach database and port approved Spanish resource arrival. We are proposing one day of professional learning in May and in August 2026. The professional learning session will cover the following topics. Sixth grade alle curriculum framework and resources overview. Culturally and linguistically responsive instruction within sixth grade. AL Spanish literacy instruction, biliteracy portion model, optimal dual language learning environment and collaborative planning for ali teachers with a focus on unit one. Three additional professional learning days will be offered on the topics of a Spanish language arts instruction, language acquisition and valeracy pedagogies and collaborative planning

098time for our teachers. Uh this is the total cost for 24 classrooms based on projected number of students. It includes the course for theme based grade level test bookshelves and professional learning. Next is Dorin Roberts. Thank you. In the area of career and technical education, we are proposing to revise and add courses that better align with the pathways and magnet programs available in high school. Mix, Inc. is a course designed to teach students about business and entrepreneurship. We currently do not offer a middle school course in the area of business. Here you can see the breakdown of this new semesterl long business course. Adding the opportunity to take Mix Inc. will introduce students to entrepreneurship. They will evaluate the world around them, identify a problem to solve, create a product concept, simulate selling a product

099in an ecommerce marketplace, evaluate the performance of their business idea, and iterate to incorporate what they have learned. Mix, Inc. edu is a precursor for incubator edu and can lead to the business pathway or the lead academy in high school. A CTE area we have enhanced is family and consumer sciences. We will be offering two culinary arts courses that focus solely on culinary arts. This will replace the current fax courses which include a combination of child development, leadership, and culinary arts. Both culinary arts 1 and culinary arts 2 will be semesterl long offerings. The culinary arts one course introduces students to the fundamentals of cooking and food preparation, emphasizing essential kitchen skills, safety, and nutrition. Students learn various cooking and baking techniques, explore different cuisines, and gain handson experience in preparing a wide range of

100dishes. The course also covers key concepts such as recipe planning and food presentation with a focus on creativity and teamwork. Students work collaboratively in the kitchen, developing both practical skills and a deeper appreciation for the culinary arts. The culinary arts 2 course introduces students to the fundamentals of working in a kitchen while focusing on nutrition and meal preparation. The course includes hands-on projects where students will explore both traditional recipes and creative variations. Lessons also incorporate kitchen safety, sanitation practices, and an introduction to food science, fostering a deeper appreciation for the food groups. Through collaborative group work and individual projects, students will build confidence in the kitchen and develop a foundation for lifelong culinary skills. The culinary arts courses serve as an introduction to the culinary arts pathway in high school. Project Lead the Way Medical

101Detectives is another new semester long course. This course is designed to engage students in hands-on exploration of biomedical science. Students will step into the role of realworld medical detectives as they solve mysteries involving the human body and disease. Through problem based learning, students investigate how infectious diseases spread and explore the structure and function of the nervous system. This course combines critical thinking, teamwork, STEM focused activities to inspire curiosity, and prepare students for future studies in health sciences and biomedical fields. In addition to yearly consumables, there are curricular resources for each of the CTE courses. The resources include the mix inc curriculum, adventures in food, text and supplementary resources from goodart Wilcox and the medical detectives curriculum from project lead the way. Professional learning for each course will include time to unpack the curriculum and assessments

102and training on the unique resources. And then here is the projected initial cost and annual consumables cost for these CTE electives. And I'm going to turn it over to Jamie Geraldo. Good evening. On this chart, don't see a chart. There we go. On this chart, you can see each of the semesterl long courses for uh visual art, which will include the grades that they are available to and course highlights for each one. You can also see on the far right which courses that we currently have that will be phased out with the implementation of these new courses. Graphic Artistry is a dynamic semesterl long course where students explore digital art, architectural perspective, 3D product design, and packaging design while developing technical skills and creative problem solving skills. Throughout the course, students will build a personal

103portfolio showcasing their artistic growth and innovative designs. Artistic Vision is a semesterl long course where students explore 2D landscape drawing, 3D sculpture, mixed media, and digital art while experimenting with various techniques and materials. Throughout the course, students will create a personal portfolio that showcases their artistic growth and creative expression. On this chart, you can see each of the new year-long choir courses, including which grades they will be available to and course highlights for each one. You can also see on the far right which courses will be phased out with the implementation of these new courses. The new leveling structure of these course of these choir classes provides onboarding opportunities at any grade level for students who wish to learn how to sing. Level one choir is a year-long course where students develop beginning music literacy,

104vocal technique, and ensemble singing skills through engaging repertoire and performance opportunities. Students will build confidence in their voices while learning the fundamentals of coral singing in a collaborative and supportive environment. Level two choir is a year-long course that builds on fundamental skills with a focus on intermediate music literacy, advancing vocal technique, and ensemble singing. Students will also be introduced to solo singing, gaining confidence and expressiveness through diverse repertoire and performance opportunities. This course is repeatable for students who take it in seventh grade. On this chart, you can see each of the new dance courses, including which grades they will be available to and course highlights for each one. As you can also see on the far right, there are no existing dance courses, so nothing will need to be phased out. Dance Conservatory is a

105semesterl long course where students develop fundamental skills in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and tap while refining technique coordination and expression. In-class performance opportunities allow students to apply their skills and build confidence in a supportive creative environment. World Dance Exploration is a semesterl long course where students develop fundamental skills in hiphop, African dance, ballet pllorico, and Indian dance while exploring the cultural significance of each style. In-class performance opportunities allow students to showcase their learning and celebrate diverse dance traditions. Both of these courses provide opportunities for students to explore dance as they consider if the dance academy at the VPAA is right for them. On this chart, you can see each of the new theater courses, including which grades they will be available to and course highlights for each one. You can also see on the far

106right which courses will be phased out with the implementation of these new courses. All theater courses, including p include public speaking elements to support students in future speaking roles or careers. Broadway Bound is a semester long theater course where students build acting, improvisation, and ensemble skills through engaging units like Whose Scene Is It Anyway? The Storyteller Stage, It Takes Two, and We're All in This Together. Students will bring their performances to life both in class and in exciting showcases beyond the school day. Here we come. Hollywood is a semesterl long theater course where students explore acting for the camera, storytelling, and broadcasting through exciting units like lights, camera, action, breaking news, epic tales, starring role, and here we come Hollywood. With in-class performances and hands-on experience in video recording, editing, and broadcasting, students will bring

107their creative visions to life on screen. These courses support students in skills that transfer to many career areas as well as the VPAA and Beacon Magnetmies. The recommended resources vary based on the needs of each specific content area or course. For art, the resources will include primarily art making equipment. In addition, there will need to be an annual budgetary allocation to provide for consumable materials such as artmaking supplies for choir. The resources will include ongoing access to the existing music first classroom suite of digital applications as well as teacher instructional res resource reference books. In addition, there will need to be an annual budgetary allocation to provide for consumable materials including student theory and sightseeing workbooks. For dance, the resources will include student textbooks, a Bluetooth speaker for the classroom, as well as various instructional

108equipment, including ballet folklorico practice skirts and slip-on tap shoes. In addition, there will need to be an annual budgetary allocation to provide for consumable materials, which will support bringing in guest artists and choreographers for world dance exploration. For theater, the resources will include Adobe Creative Cloud software for video recording and editing, teacher instructional resource reference books, and video and audio recording equipment. In addition, there will need to be an annual budgetary budgetary allocation to provide for consumable materials, including props, costumes, spike tape, set building materials, and more. Professional learning needs will vary based on content area and resource. All fine arts content areas will need professional learning time to unpack the new curriculum and assessments and plan for instruction. Some areas will need additional professional learning to support resource implementation or skill development as indicated.

109The curric curriculum and assessment unpacking professional learning for fine arts areas will be a half-day session uh which will occur during the 2526 school year. This will be repeated on an August 26 D uh PPD for any staff hired or assigned late to their position. For fine art fine arts areas needing resource training that will occur on the other half of that same day as detailed above. Training for world dance styles will occur on an as-needed basis depending on individual teachers needs and will be scheduled in collaboration with those teachers. Here's the projected initial cost and an annual consumables cost for these new courses in each fine arts content area. I will now pass the presentation back to Celia Banks who will share information about the elective rotations. Thank you. So, as I previously mentioned,

110the elective rotations include classes both from fine arts and career and technical ed. So, we'll take a look at these year-long rotation options available to sixth and seventh graders. As you can see on this slide, explore justice, design, and enterprise offers courses named art, exploration, civic justice, design and modeling, and intro to business. Each course is nine weeks and while students will take all four of these classes, the order in which they will take them will be based on scheduling. The second rotation that's available is called explore voices vision and vocation. And again you can see the names of the classes are be a star, career exploration, computer technology and human development with class highlights on the on the right hand side. Similar to explore justice, design and enterprise, all students enrolled in this rotation

111course will take all four of these classes. However, the order may vary. The recommended resources for explore, justice, design, and enterprise can be seen here based on each of the needs for those different classes. And then the recommended resources for explore voices, vision, and vocation can be seen here. Again, in response to those different courses, the professional learning, as much of the slides you've seen tonight, um would would include curriculum assessment and unpacking, resource training, and any additional professional learning needs they may need, such as the Project Lead the Way core course. The same holds true for the second rotation and then here is the cost initially for each of the rotations and then on an ongoing basis the consumables that are used in the course and now Beth McKini will give us an overview

112of AVID. Thank you. AVID 6 is a year-long elective. AVID, which stands for advancement via individual determination, supports the same skills that are developed through the AVID elective in grades 7 through 12, but currently runs in all of our middle and high school buildings. The AVID standards that we are currently using are aligned with Illinois Common Core and Illinois SEAL and they help students develop academic skills in the areas of reading, writing, organization, collaboration, and inquiry as well as help students set goals, explore college and career opportunities, and become self-directed learners. Offering AVID 6 allows us to better meet the goals of the AVID elective by starting with our students one year earlier. Curriculum resources are provided through our membership with AVID. Currently, each U46 middle school has an AVID membership. This membership includes the

113AVID weekly resource and an AVID resource called Weeks at a Glance, which provides curriculum for our teachers. AVID elective teachers can receive professional learning directly from AVID through um a couple of different venues including their summer institute or path trainings where staff developers from AVID join us here on site. Teachers will also be supported to implement the AVID 6 curriculum through professional learning at the start of the school year scheduled with teachers based on their availability. Um, finally, because we already pay for buildingwide AVID subscriptions, adding sixth grade results in no additional costs. Sixth grade teachers and students will have access to all existing AVID resources. The 2627 academic year will mark the fullscale implementation of the new elective course structure across all U46 middle schools. With the adoption and implementation of these proposed courses,

114various existing middle school elective courses will be replaced as outlined here and throughout the presentation. Staffing will be determined following the existing enrollmentbased protocols and teaching assignments for these electives will be managed by building administration. The Association for Middle Education emphasizes that exploratory and elective courses enable students to investigate areas beyond the core curriculum, aiding in the development of well-rounded individuals prepared for future challenges. These electives reflect a well-rounded selection of electives designed to expose students to a variety of fields in alignment with our educational pathways and magnet programs and district strategic plan. We will evaluate the offerings based on student enrollment and demand c course assessment data and teacher feedback and collect feedback and data to make any needed curricular re revisions. Thank you for your time tonight and the team is available for

115any questions. >> Thank you and thank you to all of our presenters for coming up here and and explaining and walking this through for us. Do board members have any questions? Sue, just a couple. How is the intro to business as part of the rotation different from the semester long intro to business that seventh and eighth graders can take? >> That's excellent question. So, the resource actually is a year-long resource. And so, what we did was we took parts of it and that's the year the semester long course and then we took the beginning parts of it and those are the nineweek rotations so that students are prepared. But neither one of them are dependent on the other. You don't have to have taken the first one to still enjoy the the second semester long

116course. >> And and just an observation on another change you made, you're replacing four semester long art classes with two semester long art classes. Would students be able to take them more than once or would just be encouraged to take something else? >> So, as you saw the different selections, so in sixth and seventh grade, they have different options to to explore art. So parts of the art courses were pulled down again to sixth and seventh grade. So if you really love art, you have options in sixth grade, you have options in seventh grade, and you have options in eighth grade. >> Okay. Thank you. >> No problem. >> Okay. Um I'm super excited about adding Excuse me. Adding all of the extra stuff, the more choir, the more dance, all those kinds of things.

117I'm just Are we going to be able to find teachers who are certified to teach all these? Do we have teachers who are already certified to teach these? >> Jamie has a plan. So we're working hard to ensure that we do have that. Okay. Um as she also came with the VPAA curriculum. So we may have to have a teacher who floats to the different schools and schedule that accordingly. But yes, that is our hope. >> And I guess the same too for the business and the art and all that. We've got plans. >> Absolutely. We're trying our best. >> Any other questions? >> Just speaking a little bit to that that staff resource um with all of the new courses that we have, but also all of the new opportunities that we have for

118our sixth graders. Do we have plans then to go into our elementary schools to work with the fifth graders to get them prepared for making these selections? >> We've started conversations. We don't have a a detailed plan yet, but we do have we have started like what might that look like to bring down some some choices down at the elementary level. And of course, part of our elementary integrated curriculum does involve exposing students to different um topics and themes that then can lead into that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Were you also asking about the process for having the fifth graders select which courses? >> I was Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I mean I mean I know that we do that in sixth grade now going into middle school, right? But this is there's

119more opportunity here, right? And so, you know, just thinking through what that's going to to take at the elementary school level to to go out to the sixth graders or to the I'm sorry, to the fifth graders. So, we have a whole team of people um including counselors, administrators, um building administrators, as well as our our team here at at ESC, um that have been working on what that course selection process is going to look like and who's going to be going to which school to give that overview of courses. So, you'll hear more about that in our transition update, I believe in November. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And that was Lala Metovich, deputy superintendent of instruction, who stepped in to answer and clarify that that question. >> Thank you so much. >> Great.

120Thank you for the presentation. >> That brings us to work session resolutions. Thank you, President Owens. Our first is a resolution for the disposal of surplus personal property dust collector. Michelle Chapman, director of post-secondary success, will review the attached resolution and will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends the board of education approve the resolution for the disposal of surplus personal property. Do board members have any questions for Miss Chapman? >> Thank you. Our second is a resolution for the disposal of surplus personal property damaged furniture. Robin Cornelison, executive director of finance and Denise Smith, procurement coordinator, will review the attached resolution and will respond to questions from the board of education administration recommends the board of education approve the resolution for the disposal of surplus personal property. Do board members have

121any questions? Thank you. Next is a resolution authorizing a transfer to school district U46 of subdividers or developers cash contribution in lie of school sites and cash donation at time of occupancy permit. Dr. Anne Williams, deputy superintendent of operations will review the attached resolution and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends the board of education approve the resolution authorizing a transfer to school district U46 of subdividers or developers cash contribution in lie of school sites and cash donation at the time of occupancy permit. Do board members have any questions? >> Thank you. And finally, a resolution adopting school district U46 budget July 1, 2022 through June 30th, 2026. Dr. Anne Williams is being joined by Dr. Kyle von Snazy, both deputy superintendents of operations, and Robin Cornelison, executive director of finance, to

122present the attached FY26 budget resolution with supporting documents and will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends the board of education approve the resolution adopting the school district U46 budget July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. Do board members have any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next item on the agenda is work session bids and proposals. Our first item is a bid procurement for Kimble Middle School Furniture. Uh Robin Cornelison, executive director of financial services and Denise Smith, procurement coordinator will present the attached proposal summary and will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible biders. Frank Cooney in the amount of $26,81026 or 20. Garvey's Office Products in the amount of $12,432. School Specialty in the amount of $4,935.34 and Warehouse Direct

123in the amount of $13,79.94 for a total amount of 57,25748 and requests authorization for district district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the capital projects fund and the cost is included in the budget for the 20252026 fiscal year. Um there was a question on this. Can I go ahead and ask? Yes. Okay. Um so if um Robin Cornelius or if Denise Smith if you could clarify if we are utilizing uh referendum um bonds or specifically the budget line for for this item that would be helpful. >> Yes, that is correct. This is being funded by the capital projects fund which is part of the 1946 referendum. >> Thank you. Are there any additional questions? >> Thank you. Next item is a proposal from the office of schools upstate 8 athletic

124conference dues. Mark Spone, coordinator of athletics and activities will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Upstate 8 athletic conference in the amount of $37,500 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the education fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? Just a general question. So, one of our administrators is at least the treasurer of the upstate 8. >> Yes, currently with everything rotates throughout the uh throughout the years from school to school. >> Okay, that's >> so currently we're the treasurer uh at Streamwood High School this year. Yes. >> I thought it was interesting she was sending herself a

125letter. So, >> it was Yeah. Thank you. Any additional questions, Don? >> So, I noticed that it's just a lump sum for each school. >> Yeah. >> Do we know if um at all five of our high schools, we are offering either at the school or as part of a co-op all of the activities that are available through the Upstate 8? >> Yes. Everything that's eligible, we participate in the Upstate 8 with both co-ops and the individual school programs. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next item is the proposal operations construction management services. Brian Lindholm, chief of staff and Dr. Anne Williams, deputy superintend superintendent of operations will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval

126of the proposal from International Contractors Incorporated, ICI, in an amount not to exceed $762,82749 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the capital projects fund. Cost is included in the budgets for the 2025 2026 and 2026 2027 fiscal years. >> Do board members have any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next item is work session contracts over 35,000. >> Our first item is a contract renewal plant operations video and access control maintenance agreement. Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations and Cassandra Rekenbach, assistant director of planning on planning and systems will present the attached proposal and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with convergent in the amount of $322,578 and requests authorization for district administration to

127execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Finally, contract office of schools athletics huddle all school package. Marks become coordinator of athletics and activities and Paul Pennington Elgen High School athletic and activities director will present the attached proposal and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract with Huddle all school package in the amount of $95,000 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the education fund cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? John, >> so especially with the changes that are

128happening with NCAA, it's becoming more important for students to have access to whether it's footage or stats or things that they can use for recruiting opportunities at all levels. Do we know at this point, especially with the addition of additional cameras, if all sports have coverage at this point at our five high schools? >> Um, most of the major sports do. So, like football, soccer at both levels, flag football, anything at the stadiums, anything that's at the gyms where huddle cameras are would have access. >> Um, is there are we looking at or is there a way to have portable ones? So things like our swimmers still have access cross country things of that nature. >> Um with this type of system with cross country it doesn't >> cross country I know is super difficult

129but I mean it's you know >> with the cameras that we have with portable uh some of the some of the sports have access to so like a coach could take a camera out to practice or out to an event. >> Okay. >> Record that. I don't know if it can be streamed, but the athlete would have access to that. >> It it allows them to load it up. So, with this new this new renewal of this contract, we go from 200 hours of um recorded time to 500 hours of recorded time. So, we have a greater capacity to put that into the system so that we can we don't have to delete over old footage so that we don't lose anything. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that all our coaches know

130so certain sports aren't being overlooked for at the benefit of others. >> And and really by bringing in the extra cameras into baseball and softball, we're covering two major sports for all of our schools. That was that we had a huge hole in coverage. So now we're expanding the coverage so that we can get more. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Any additional questions? >> Thank you. That is the last item on our agenda. I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Kerr, >> yes. >> Miss Khan, >> yes. >> Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Nolan, >> yes. >> Miss Schwarz, >> yes. >> Miss Thomas, yes. >> President Owen, >> yes. >> We are adjourned at 9:01 p.m. >> Thank you, everyone. Heat.

131Heat. N. [Music]