Board Meeting - May 5, 2025

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the board of education meeting. I am going to resume the ma May 5th 2025 meeting. If I could have everybody stand for the pledge of allegiance as they are able and please remain standing for a moment of silence. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We thank you for remaining standing to join the board of education and remembering Dr. Jose M. Torres who passed away on Friday. As many of you recall, Dr. Torres was superintendent of school district U46 from 2008 through 2014. He was a lifelong teacher, learner, and mentor who lived his life with purpose, principle, and a commitment to excellence and equity in education. Decisions and changes that

002Dr. Taus made more than a decade ago continue to have positive impacts in U46 today. In addition, he touched many hearts and made a lasting impact on current and future educational leaders, one of whom is our current superintendent. Dr. Johnson, would you like to say a few words? Thank you, President Owens. Uh, I'm going to do my best to say a few words, but like so many, I was deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Torres. As a leader, mentor, and education advocate, Dr. Torres invited embodied the values of equity, service, and humanity. I had the profound honor of being hired by Dr. Torres as the principal of Bartlett High School and as the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. His belief in people and his insistence that we lead with

003purpose shaped the trajectory of my career and my life and the lives of countless others, including thousands of students. Our students in U46, who will never know this amazing man, benefit every day from these principles. Dr. Taus championed programs that reflected his unwavering commitment to inclusivity and educational excellence. Our award-winning dual language program was launched under his leadership, and it now serves more than 12,000 students in preschool through 12th grade. He established the superintendent scholarship for first generation college students, supported the creation of leadership institutes for Hispanic and African-American parents, and invested in early childhood education and programs for students with special needs. But above all, he reminded us and required that we must truly know our students, not just their academic data, but their stories, their struggles, and their dreams. He led with his

004heart and intellect. His legacy lives on in every classroom where a child feels seen, in every family that finds a voice, and in every leader who dares to imagine a more just and compassionate world. I will always be grateful for Dr. Tor's vision, his courage, and his wisdom. He made us all better. May his memory be an inspiration. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. If I could ask you all now to join us in a moment of silence in Dr. Taus's memory. Thank you all. We will keep Dr. Taus's family, friends, and former colleagues in our thoughts. A link to Dr. Taurus's obituary has been posted on the U46 website and is available on our social media. Thank you. The first item on our agenda and I think this is very appropriate in memory of Dr. Torres,

005Accent on Achievement. Thank you, President Owens. Uh this evening we have the pleasure of recognizing teacher appreciation week. Uh we have with us ETA uh current first vice president Scott Sternal in recognition of National Teacher Appreciation Week. The U46 Board of Education will present a proclamation of appreciation on behalf of all U46 teachers for delivering inspiration, knowledge, and the motivation in an effort to create exemplary citizens. School District U46 has approximately 2600 teachers serving nearly 34,000 students from 11 communities across Kang Cook and DuPage counties. The role of a teacher is to provide knowledge to build a welcoming environment to mentor students and to be a role model while continuing to grow in their individual knowledge. Our educators demonstrate a commitment to education and a love for teaching and learning. board member um board secretary

006prom Shondaanda Schwarz uh is going to recognize our teachers proclamation of appreciation for national teacher appreciation week. Whereas teachers inspire, motivate and mold future citizens through guidance and education. And whereas our country's future depends upon providing quality education to all students. And whereas teachers are constantly learning and adapting to meet the needs of young people in our schools, working to maintain student engagement and ensure students have the tools and support necessary to reach their full potential. And whereas teachers develop relationships with families, treating them with respect and care. And whereas school district U46 employs approximately 2600 teachers. And whereas our community recognizes and supports its teachers in their valuable work of educating today's students. Now therefore, be it resolved that the U46 Board of Education proclaims May 5th through the 9th of 2025 to be

007teacher appreciation week. And be it further resolved that the school district U46 Board of Education strongly encourages all members of our community to join with it in personally expressing appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and devotion to their work. Adopted this fifth day of May 2025 and it's signed by President Owens of the Board of Education and Dr. Suzanne Johnson, superintendent. Congrat [Laughter] I'm gonna go all millennial too. I'm ready to go. All right. So, just want to thank you for the proclamation recognizing our Elgen teachers association members during this teacher education appreciation week. On behalf of all of our dedicated educators, I accept this proclamation with gratitude. Our teachers work tirelessly to inspire, guide, and support students every day. the ETA thanks you for honoring their commitment and impact. So, thank you all.

008Okay. And our next recognition is for National School Nurses Day. In recognition of National Nurses Week, the U46 Board of Education will present a proclamation of appreciation on behalf of all U46 nurses in recognition of National School Nurses Day on May 7th, 2025. School District U46 encourages all members of our community to join with us in personally expressing appreciation to our school nurses for their dedication and devotion to their work. This evening we have Patti Kenyon, our health services supervisor here, and she is now joined by board of education member Sukur. Okay. And I will also read this proclamation of appreciation for National School Nurse Day. So whereas all students have a right to have their physical and mental health needs safely met while in the school setting and whereas school nurses play a vital

009role in student health and academic success and supporting students in times of crisis. And whereas school nurses address the various factors that impact students health. And whereas school nurses act as a liaison to the school community, families and health care providers on behalf of ch children's health by promoting wellness and improving health outcomes for children. And whereas our community recognizes and supports its school nurses in their valuable valuable work of meeting the needs of today's students. Now therefore, be it resolved that the U46 board of education pro proclaims Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 to be school nurse day. And be it further resolved that the school district of 46 board of education strongly encourages all members of our community to join with it in personally expressing appreciation to our school nurses for their dedication and devotion

010to their work. Adopted this fifth day of May, 2025. Signed by board president Melissa Owens and Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Johnson. Thank you, Board of Education. And on behalf of all the nurses in our school district, we want to thank you for recognizing us. We work really hard every day to try to keep our students safe and healthy. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is comments from the audience. Dr. Johnson. Oh, I don't know. Do we have Do we have a comment tonight? No. Okay. I didn't I didn't see any. So, I was like looking for the We do not have any public comments this evening. President Owens. Thank you. Uh the next item on our agenda Yeah. The next item on our agenda is other business board member and superintendent update. Does anybody

011have any updates to share? Shondaanda? Yes, I attended the first annual gayla for the I am lead group and they recognized I believe 144 girls and they were all dressed up and there's a DJ and dinner and they um gave out I think what eight categories of awards. I remembered some of them. They gave out awards for outstanding attendance, quiet to queen energy, low-key leader, creative queen, she got game, leading ladies with heart, and it was just really a great event to uh celebrate our young girl scholars in the district and the girls just had a great time. So, I just want to thank Melanie Patterson for the invitation and for everyone who works on the IM lead program. Anyone else? Sue. So I had the opportunity to be here actually last week for the

012Stream High School student government day. I know Miss Martin and Miss Owens were were there. It was an all day event and they were there for the early part of the day. I got to be there for the late part of the day when the students actually gave presentations. Half of them pretended to be schoolboard members, the other half admin administrators. They came up with proposals on a couple of items. And I was really impressed. The kids took it seriously. Did a great job of working together, putting together powerpoints in in a few hours. So kudos to Streamwood High School. Well, they they did take it very seriously and I want to thank the the staff from Streamwood High School that that came out and all the administrators that that participated in that. I was

013joking with the students when they the beginning of the the morning they broke up into if they were administration, they went with their administrative partners to learn about their jobs. The the students that were schoolboard members stayed behind. and I joked right off the bat, how many of you realize you signed up for a job that you don't get paid for? So, they they were they were asking some great questions about why we do what we do and and what it is that we do. So, it was it was a great great opportunity to to to work with the students and to share a little bit about what we do and also to see the ideas that they come up with and it's a it's a great day. Anyone else? Dr. Johnson. Sorry. Uh I

014want to recognize and celebrate our teachers who were nominated as King County Educator of the Year. Uh so on Friday evening, several of us had the opportunity to be able to recognize them uh at the Q Center. So, I want to recognize Kathy Daker, Jessica Ventrella, Katie Finn, uh Janelle Murphy, Rebecca Pesh, and I think it's Katie Kelly Plate. I apologize, Kelly Plate. So, those were our nominees this year. Um serving in a variety of roles, classroom teachers, PAR educators, and administrators as well. So, thank you for representing school district U46 uh so well. We appreciate you and your ongoing commitment. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is consent agenda. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. Uh this evening on consent agenda, we have personnel report and workers compensation cases. Bid operations, Unite

015U46 Kimble Middle School project abatement phase 1B and 1 C. Bid operations, Unite U46 Kimble Middle School project electrical and technology infrastructure. Bid Food and Nutrition Services Food Service Equipment Bid number 344. Bid plan operations warehouse roof replacement project number 2073-25. Proposal plan operations picnic pavilion phase 2 Elgen High School Memorial Field. Proposal curriculum and instruction character strong. Contract renewal curriculum and instruction Bratonica Education Subscription. Contract renewal curriculum and instruction learning a toz. Contract renewal curriculum and instruction scholastic classroom magazines. Contract curriculum and instruction better lesson building permits 11. Bartlett Elementary School generator U46 project number 553-25. Bartlet High School Pathways U46 project number 210-25. Rilet High School um back stop U46 project number 2072-25 Clinton Elementary School generator U46 project number 653-25 Coleman Elementary School roof U46 project number 686-25 Elgen High School backtop

016U46 project number 2072-25 Highland Elementary School DW46 project number 902-25 Hillrest Elementary School generator U46 project number 929-25 Lurin High School Back Stop U46 project number 2072-25 South Elgen High School backtop U46 project number 2072-25 and Streamwood High School backtop U46 project number 2072-25. Are there any items that board members would like remove 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. The next item on the agenda is discussion action. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. The first item is itemized bills for May 5th, 2025. Dr. Dr. Frank Williams, assistant superintendent of finance

017will respond to questions from the board of education regarding the attached bills. Administration recommends the board of education approved the list of bills in the amount of 17,793,813.14. May I have a motion to approve the list of bills in the amount of 17,793,813.14? Moved. Second. Any questions for Dr. Williams. Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Short, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Motion carried. Next, uh, we have the elementary physical education PE waiver. Brian Tennyson, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. Silia Banks, director of curriculum and instruction, and Tracy Jakitis, coordinator of student wellness and physical education, will be available to answer any board questions. The requested waiver will allow for elementary physical education to take place less than the required three days per

018week in grades one through six due to physical space constraints. Thank you. Do the panel have any information they want to provide the board to start? Okay. There's any Okay. In that case, may I have a motion to approve the request for a waiver of the physical education requirements of the Illinois School Code 105 ILC ILCS 5 back slash27-6? Second. Any questions for the panel? Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Short, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owen, yes. Motion passes. The next item is a resolution amending the current administrator's employment contract. Trisha Olsen, chief legal officer, and Mark Moore, assistant superintendent of human resources, will be available for questions regarding the attached resolution. Administration recommends the board of education approve this resolution amending the

019administrator's contract and benefits document. And may I have a a motion to approve the resolution amending the administrator's contract and benefits document? So moved. Second. Any questions for Mr. Moore? Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Kirk? Yes. Miss Khan? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Short? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President Owens? Yes. Motion carried. Our next item is a resolution declaring the need to continue usage of temporary classrooms. Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations, will be available for questions regarding the attached resolution and updated summary list of mobile classrooms that will be used in the fiscal year 2026 school year. Fisc year 2026 temporary facility reports are attached and contain a part one and a part two. Administration recommends the board of education approve the resolution declaring the need to continue usage of temporary

020classrooms. May I have a motion to approve the resolution declaring the need to continue usage of temporary classrooms? Some moved. Second. Any questions for Miss DS? Roll call, please. Miss Kirk, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Short, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. Professor Nan, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Uh, next we have the bid for operations, Unite U46, New Elgen Middle School. Brian Lindholm, chief of staff, will be available for questions from the board of education. Administration recommends awarding the following bidding packages to the lowest responsible responsible biders in the total amount of 67,427,140 in addition to the award of alternate one in the amount of $16,68 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. I'm going to read all of the biders and the bids into record. Premium

021Concrete Incorporated 4,870,000 Midwest Masonry Incorporated $6,985,900 Affordable Welding US Incorporated $5,824,000 Straw Builders Incorporated $2,818,450 Straw Builders Incorporated $2,578,450 Stu Builders Inor Incorporated1,497,450 Adler Roofing and Sheet Metal Incorporated $4,144,700. H&Z Fireproofing Incorporated, $57,884 CAD Contract Glazing Incorporated, $2,454,500 Security Builder Supply Company, $1,142,190. LJ Morse Construction Company4,198,845 K&J Painting LLC $573,680 ENK Companies $1,449,750 H2I Group $260,50 CCI Florine Incorporated $163,700 H2I Group 581 $175 Stra Builders Incorporated $236,450 H2I Group $500,197 Great Lakes Hotel Supply Company $766,694 TK Elevator Corporation $165,000 Absolute Fire Protection Incorporated $588,400 CR Leonard Plumbing 3,4 $446,750 Flowtech Mechanical Systems $6,996,000 High Power Electric Company $12,350,000 Burger Contractors Incorporated $1,297,000 Abbey Construction Company Incorporated $759,925 and Twin Oaks Landscaping $820,000. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. May I have a motion to approve the bidding packages as read into the record in the total amount

022of 67,427,140 in addition to the award of alternate one in the amount of $16,68 and uh including authorization for district administration to execute the related documents. So moved. Second. Any questions for Mr. Lynholm? Roll call, please. Thank you. 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. I apologize, Dr. Williams. I didn't see you on the Zoom, but thank you. Our next item is a bid office of schools elementary supply kits. Dr. Dr. Annette Oavdo, assistant superintendent of schools will be available to respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends a word of the lowest responsible bidder, Palace Supply Company incorporated in the amount of $599,688 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This

023expenditure will be charged to the education fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. May I have a motion to approve the bid from PA Supply Company in the amount of $599,688,000? So move second. Any questions? Don. So I'm going to um thank administration because I sent some last minute questions today. Um nothing like 3:00 on a Monday. So thank you for trying to get back to me and I just want to reiterate I'm very excited to vote yes on this. Um, I'm happy that we're doing what we can to still support students and families in need. Um, you know, we rolled out um back to having to pay fees next year as ESRE funds have dried up. So, being able to do this is great. Um, I am

024still very hopeful, especially given everything that's going on federal level and state level with funding and a lot of unknowns when it comes to um what's going to happen with families and other sources of funding that we do our best to um reach out to the families that are not in title one schools and support them the best as we can. Uh things like supply kits don't seem like a big deal, but they do really do add up for some of our families that might be struggling. And I think sometimes it's harder for the families that are not in a title one school. I think things are just handled differently sometimes and the way funding is used. So I just want to make sure we're working as best as we can with the principles in

025those schools to identify families and do everything we can to also help the families within our other buildings. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. So, the motion is on the table. Uh, I'll take a roll call for the vote. Miss Kirk? Yes. Miss Khan? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Schwarz? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President No. Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you. Our next item is the approval of the Education Support Service Organization ESO tenative agreement. Mark Moore, assistant superintendent of human resources, will present a proposed 2024 through 2028 tenative agreement with ESSO. Administration recommends the board of education approve the agreement. Mr. Moore, could you give us a brief update on the or overview of the agreement? You bet. I am uh pleased to present the ESO agreement here for you

026tonight. We uh your administrative team began bargaining with ESO in April of 24. So about a year's worth of bargaining. We came to a final tenative agreement on April 2nd during spring break. ESO ratified on April 25th uh and it passed. So we are bringing it to you for final approval. Um I would before talking about the contract itself take a moment to introduce the administrative uh bargaining team for you. Um on the zoom out there with me leading to uh the process was Dr. Anne Williams where wherever she is in Zoom land. Also on our team uh Dr. Frank Williams on this side. Uh over here, Mike DeJoya, Jeff Seagull joined in December, January, uh Sheila DS joined when she re rejoined the staff, and Nick Horn from the uh plant operations department. Not

027here tonight are Ashley McCainy and Erica Washington, also on the team. Uh we do uh feel the settlement is very fair and appropriate for both sides. In the end, it is a four-year agreement retroactive back to July 1st of 2024. uh the total new cost value will end up being somewhere between 1.52 million and 1.72 million depending upon um inflation or CPI because the final year salaries are based upon inflation. Thank you. I move to approve the 2024 through 2028 tentative agreement with the Education Support Service Organization, also known as ESSO, as presented and to authorize the president of the board of education and the superintendent to sign the tentative agreement. Second. Second. Any discussion or questions for Mr. Moore? I just want to thank the the entire administrative team uh the team also from

028ESO for uh getting to this place where we have the this contract. I know there's a lot of extra work and hours that go into these contract negotiations and agreements. So, thank you to everybody who participated and um same with the the team from Messo. Okay, roll call, please. Miss Kurt, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Barton, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Motion carried. The next item on the agenda is other business student disciplinary cases. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, uh, President Owens. Uh, this evening, student C, and the matter is before the board and whether to expel student C for the term of two years, that's two calendar years, and the date of action by the board of education. May I have a motion to expel student C

029for the term of two years to clarify the two calendar years from the date of the action that we will take tonight? So moved. Second. Any discussion or questions? Roll call, please. Miss Kirk, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Motion carried. Okay, so the next item on our agenda is recognition of service as student board member. And I cannot believe we are already at this moment. Uh so I will have Mahita join me up front. I wonder go upstairs and look. I think we usually have a theater which is you also get your sleep. It's the hot part. highly official. Okay, we will we will do this. So, Mahita, I just want to thank you on behalf of the board of education

030for all of your dedication this year and the work that you put in. I don't think anybody realizes I mean we have these meetings at least twice a month um that Mahita has attended now for the last year but all the work behind the scenes um the work with the I know that you've worked closely with Dr. Johnson with the uh advisory councils that she has, all of the work that you did for the student summit. Um your leadership in that capacity is invaluable, especially when we look at the report that came out of the student summit. We now have years of of those reports that have been built by yourself and by your former uh student adviserss that came before you. And how's that for stalling time? Yep. Um, just thank you for all

031of the work that you do. I know that the the the breadth of information now that we have for all of these years for these student summits really helps inform the board as we make our decisions going into the future. So, thank you. Thank you for your leadership. I know that we all wish you the best um especially as you wrap up the last two weeks of school um and in everything that you do in the future. I know that your your leadership capacity will follow you and serve you greatly in the years to come. So, I'm going to read off this plaque for you. Um, this says, "Maha Ratakanda, as the 17th student serving on the U46 Board of Education, we thank you for your dedication and applaud you for your faithful and committed

032representation of those we serve, our students. Congratulations and good luck. I put you on the spot, but did you want to say a few words? Um, as my time as student advisor to the board comes to a close, I just want to say thank you so much everyone. From day one, everyone's welcomed me with so much kindness and support. And by sitting in at all these board meetings, I've been able to see like the immense thought and heart that goes behind each and every decision, which has given me a whole new appreciation for the district that I've grown up in. And I've been super lucky to play my small role in the student summit and the superintendent student advisory council and the core planning meetings. But I've learned valuable lessons such as leadership and the

033strength in our community, which are lessons I'll carry with me wherever I go. So, while this is my last official board meeting, U46 will always be my home. I'll always be cheering it on. So, thank you so much everyone for this wonderful opportunity. [Music] Definitely take your picture. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And that moves us on to our next item, which is the oath of office for our new student board member. Our new newly appointed student board member of educ student student board of education me member Dvi Dapani will be sworn in by the board of education secretary. If you could please join me at the front. Please say I will after the following oath. Do you solemnly swear that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of board member for the

034school district of U46 in Kain County, Illinois in accordance with the Constitution of the United States? the Constitution of the State of Illinois, the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of your ability, and further, do you swear that you shall represent the school district and all of its constituents honestly and equally, and refuse to surrender your responsibilities to special interest or partisan political groups, shall avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriy which should result from your position, and shall not use your board membership for personal gain or publicity. shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by your fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board. Shall take no private action that might compromise the board or administration. And finally, shall abide by major

035decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. Congratulations. Now join us. We will have your name for you shortly. Davi, welcome to the board of education. You're welcome. I am pleased to present information regarding the precincts voting in the April 1st, 2021st election. And I'm pleased to present the abstract of votes and the canvas of votes for that election. Attached to the board's uh agenda for this evening is the abstract of votes and the review of the abstract and election results for the election period. I please ask for a motion to approve the April 1st, 2025 abstract of votes. So moved. Second. Hearing such a motion, I would please now ask for the role to approve the abstract of votes. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss

036Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Approved. We will now begin the process to seat newly elected members of the board of education. I'm pleased to announce that the board of education will be reconstituted. Can I please have members Melissa Owens, Don Martin, and Veronica Nolan join me in standing before the board of education. I will now administer your slightly longer oath of office. If you could please say I will after the following oath. Do you solemnly swear that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of Board of Education of School District U46 in Kain County, Illinois, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the state of Illinois

037to the best of your ability? And further, do you swear that you shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as faithful protector of the school district's assets, shall represent all school district constituents honestly and equally, and refuse to surrender your responsibilities to special interest or partisan political groups, shall avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriy which could result from your position and shall not use your board membership for personal gain or public publicity. Shall encourage and respect the free expression of your opinion by your fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. Shall take no private action that may compromise the board or administration and shall respect the confidentiality of privileged information. Shall recognize that a board member has no legal

038authority as an individual and that decisions can be made by majority vote at a public board meeting. shall abide by majority decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. Shall as a part of the board of education accept your responsibility for your role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. Shall foster with the board extensive participation in the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Illinois school district 46. shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. Shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance

039with state law. Shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of our students and our community schools to advance the vision for Illinois School District U46. and finally shall strive to work together with the superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision of the board. The board vision that you created fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. I will. Thank you so much. Congratulations. I will now call the role for the newly reconstituted board of education. Miss Kerr here. Miss Khan here. Miss Martin here. Miss Nolan here. Miss Schwarz here. Miss Thomas here. Miss Owens here. Seems very similar. The current officer's terms have ended. The election process will now be turned over to me as the board secretary and I will lead the

040election process for the board president. The election procedures are as follows. Nominations can be made by any board member and do not require a second. However, a motion to close nominations is required. Election will be by roll call. Although the school code specifies that board officers may serve two-year terms, the board of education for school district U46 has passed board policy 2 110, limiting these terms to one year at any given time. I will now open the floor for nominations for board president. I would like to nominate Melissa Owens as board president. And I have a nomination to close. Can I have a motion to close the nomination period? So moved and a second. Second. Thank you. I will now take a role to close the nomination period. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss

041Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Schwarz? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President Owens? Yes. The nomination period is closed. Can I have a motion to elect Miss Owens as president of the board of education? So moved. Second. Hearing a motion and a second. I will now call roll. Miss Kirk, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owen, yes. Congratulations. Thank you, Miss Olsen. I will now take a nomination for board vice president. I would like to nominate Kate Thomas for board vice president. Can I have a motion to close the nomination period? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call to close the nomination period? Miss Kerr? Yes. Miss Khan? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Short? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President Owens?

042Yes. Nomination period is closed. May I have a motion to elect Miss Thomas as vice president of the board of education? So moved. Second. May I have the roll call to elect Miss Thomas as vice president of the board of education? Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Congratulations, Vice President Thomas. Hey, and I will now take a nomination for Secretary Prom of the Board of Education. Um, I'd like to nominate Shondaanda Schwarz for Secretary Prom, please. Thank you. May I have a motion to close the nomination period? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call to close the nomination period? Miss Kerr? Yes. Miss Khan? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Schwarz? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President

043Owens? Yes. The nomination period is now closed. May I have a motion to elect Shondaanda Schwarz as Secretary Prom of the Board of Education? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call to elect Shondaanda Schwarz as Secretary Prom of the Board of Education? Miss Kirk? Yes. Miss Khan? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Schwarz? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President Owens? Yes. Congratulations. Thank you everyone and again welcome to our newest student board member and we will continue now with the rest of the agenda that will move us to other business appointment of IASB governing board representative. Um so this is a position that ISB which is the Illinois Association of School Board uh requires us to put forth so that they have a name and a point person to go to uh

044specifically for our region which is the Kushwaki region of their organization so that they have a board a point person for the two meetings that they hold annually in the spring and in the fall. This is not the same position as the delegate at the uh triple eye assembly. Um this is solely for just to have a point person for that for those two meetings. Um right now our position is held by Miss Thomas. Um and I have already spoken to Miss Martin about um taking over that position which she is willing to do. Um, and Miss Thomas was willing to to give that up. Um, and so, uh, if there are no further interest in that position, then we will put forth Miss Martin's name for that position. Are we okay with that? Okay,

045Miss Martin, it's all yours. Not a problem. Congratulations. Thanks. All right. And that moves us to other business. Dr. Johnson. Uh, thank you, President Owens. I do want to pro provide an update. I apologize for all the back and forth tonight and and looking for items. I apologize for the confusion. Um, we will we will be providing a a temporary name plate for Donby. Um, as everybody is likely aware, except for our newest uh student board member, we we are actually moving um at some point this summer to the welcome center. That's our plan is to move to the welcome center for board of education meetings and everyone is going to receive a new a new name plate at that time. Uh so luckily uh Miss Bevvens was was able to immediately deescalate my concerns

046and was like no no we we will have something for her. Um but it will be temporary until the time that we officially make that move. So I apologize. Welcome Danvy. Um and and um congratulations to all of our returning board members and our returning officers as well. I look forward to getting to continue to serve this board of education in our community. Oh, thank you. Thank you. All right. Now, back back to other business. I uh our our item under other business this evening is the March financial report. Dr. Frank Williams, assistant superintendent of finance, will review the attached financial report and respond to questions from the board of education. Okay, good evening new board. The March uh the in March the district posted a monthly surplus of about 36.4 million bring the total

047fund balance to roughly 18 818 million. Cash reserves at 339 days on hand and discipline spending keep the district in a solid financial position as it heads into the final quarter of FY25. Of note on this report is the total amount the state currently owes the district at 4.9 million as of the as of the end of March. However, by the end of April, that amount was down to $19,000. Oh, wow. Showing that the state and the federal government are making their payments. From a revenue perspective, revenue roughly was 94.9 million, bringing year-to-ate collections exclusive of financing to 588.4 million or 72% of the annual non- financing budget. several points ahead of the historical pace for this point of year which is typically 62%. This is primarily due to the tax receipts from Cook County

048which were delayed as we remember over COVID. They were delayed throughout the entire year but Cook County is caught up now. Local revenue remained a driver at 62.4 million for the month booied again by the Cook County property taxes which came in about 58.2 million. Federal programs also added 3.2 2 million and now sit at 81% of their yearly budget, well above last year's 38% of this time of year. From an expenditure perspective, March were roughly 58.5 million, pushing year-to- date outlays of to 562.4 million or 65.6 of the annual budget, still below the historical 74% threshold for 9 months of activity. Capital outlay rose to a year-to- date total of 29.8, 8 reflecting steady progress on Unite U46 construction projects. From a liquidity perspective, cash and money market balances ended the month at 375.2

049million with investments at 460.3 for a total of 835.5 million in cash and investments, up roughly from 9 million from February. Overall March, strong revenue inflow, measured spending, widened the district's fiscal cushion, positioning U46 to meet upcoming obligations and continue advancing our capital initiatives. Thank you, Dr. Williams. Do board members have any questions, Sue? So, we just approved 67 million and 16 million for U4 U46. So, I assume that's going to start bringing our surplus down. Yes. Quite a bit. Yes. Yes, it will. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. That brings us to a very full work session. Dr. Johnson. Correct. President Owens. Our first item tonight is the elementary integrated curriculum proposal. Celia Banks, director of curriculum and instruction. Jackie Johnson, coordinator of literacy and library. Jacob Vandy Martell, coordinator of social

050studies and world language. And I believe Brian Tennyson, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, uh will provide the board of education with information relating to the elementary integrated curriculum proposal. Before they get started, I'd like to just take a moment. We collaborated with the MME department, but unfortunately there was some miscommunication and so they aren't joining us tonight. But they will be with us all next week. Um, good evening. This evening we are here to present to you our new elementary integrated curriculum for grades 1st through 5th with the purpose of incorporating additional social studies units in our elementary curriculum. This does align to our strategic plan in student success and effective and engaged staff by making sure that teachers have all the right resources that are aligned to our standards so that our students

051have high quality instruction. We're bringing this forward because um as you may know our science course at the elementary level is now a special um which left three of our units without content. And so what we've done is we've focused our units on fostering a love of learning while also building literacy, critical thinking, and character development. So these units integrate both reading, writing, and research. They have an emphasis on deep engagement with complex text um collaborative learning and the social studies focus on student- centered inquiry with our goal of our students being able to leave elementary school being able to express express themselves confident confident I can't speak today confidentially and become responsible global citizens which you'll see outlined in our units. Um we did work with an elementary task force. uh these are the

052members who spent time with us to even strengthen these units to make sure that they are the best that they can be. Our process began back uh spring 2024 when the contract when science became a special um we worked as coordinators along with some consultants and with our counterparts in the MME department. Uh and we also held informational open houses so that our teachers could come and take a look at the and give us feedback on those units. Um to then which then led us to presenting to instructional counsel which then led us to working with the elementary integrated task force which allows us to now be presenting to you um which we were hoping to do this early in the year but now is as good as time and any. So, the standards that

053we focused on are literacy standards, which you can find on the right. There's a key underneath here. Sorry. Um, and then also our social study standards, which you can see on the left. Okay. Now, for our proposed changes, our proposed changes involve new units of instruction with common assessments. So students will have common reading assessments and they will also have common performance tasks which will integrate social studies and writing. Uh we also have with this our foundational literacy instructional guidance and resources. So you may remember last May maybe we brought together the foundational literacy resources um as a supplemental. This is now asking that those become our core curriculum for language development. Uh we will now have common reading text reading passages. uh we are including keyboarding in our elementary classrooms uh along with handwriting

054and cursing. The integrated curriculum which Celia initially wrote comes on the basis of really having big ideas and essential questions having students do a lot of exploratory um aligned with standards but really having that interdisciplinary connection and not isolating out one thing but integrating everything together. Um and so everything that this was built on originally that still is in play. Um and we're just really focused more on that student centered learning experience. Indeed. And so um as we mentioned the old science units uh units 2, four, and six in the integrated curriculum um are being replaced with new social studies units. Units two, four, sorry. Yeah, two, four, and six and one, three, and five remain largely unchanged. Unit two, uh they're all vertically aligned. Unit 2 across the board is a social justice unit

055drawing on civic standards. Um ensuring that kids have uh chances to learn skills like empathy and critical thinking, have opportunities to engage with diversity in text um and have a chance to opportunity sorry have the opportunity to recognize um bias and injustice. Um unit 4 will always be an additional history unit. Um, a lot of our, uh, uh, curriculum is drawn from history standards and there's a lot of cool history opportunities that we have and we'll talk more about those in a moment. Um, and then unit six will always be anformational and media literacy unit, excuse me. It is really an inquiry unit drawing on all the things we've learned throughout the year in units 1 through 5, putting those together into a student- centered inquirydriven process where students have the opportunity to do some

056research um and communicate things that they have learned while being critical thinkers and responsible digital citizens. So, there's a ton of new resources and I'm not going to speak to every one of them, but the first chunk there on your screen is really about addressing those Illinois State Board of Education mandates around handwriting, cursive, keyboarding, things like that. The bottom chunk is really about, as Jackie mentioned, formalizing the resources for foundational literacy to address the Illinois's the Illinois literacy plan. Yeah. Thank you. Uh and then there's so many resources. We have even more. Um we also have the story of our towns, which is a really cool physical and digital uh resource from the Elgen History Museum uh that focuses on Elgen area history um written by a former Elgen history teacher and adapted just

057for us by their staff members. Uh additionally you can see a number of decodable text sets um and inquiry text sets plus you'll see the student text and the book club text those are for those unit twos um where we in we provide uh readings for students around the social justice units uh and around the standards implementation will begin next school year 2526. Uh we have begun doing some um informational sessions with uh teachers who were helping us with some of the changes uh and and when we're board approved we'll be able to again begin as early as May uh with thoseformational sessions about the rollout um with backward planning beginning again as early as May and um resource training from the learning without tears. That's the handwriting cursive and keyboarding again. Oh, and express

058as well beginning as early as May. professional learning on this. Uh there's a couple different modalities. Uh the required sessions will be live and in person uh about backwards planning and unpacking curriculum frameworks with the new units. Uh we'll have available live virtual and asynchronous sessions as well. A lot of our resource partners have like asynchronous packages you can work through and we can provide PD hours for those. And then we will continue to provide the support we always do in our Canvas blueprints and um some of the resources our teachers have access to through our existing structures. Cost is outlined here. Bottom line is $2,882,000 $282,57342 uh for all the various things you see there on your screen. Oh, I apologize. I will go back. The uh consumable cost is uh $149,70 and the

059average per pupil uh cost is $1237 a year. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you for the presentation. Do board members have questions, Don? So, thank you for your presentation. Um whenever we get to May and I'm getting curriculum, I get really anxious because we won't be voting until the 19th. Um, to be honest, I don't think you guys could have moved this any faster considering what it was predicated on with the contracts and everything. Um, so my question is, I'm going to assume that we'll get our prints in time, but there's a lot of things going on. Um, that are affecting supply chain and there's just a lot of unknowns right now. Are we in a position to um do things like PD and start supporting teachers if we don't have the print versions

060when we're expecting them? Yes. So we can do that. So trade books uh the trade books aren't required until unit 2. So we do have some time for that. Fantastic. Have teacher print available so they can if they want to read the novels and things like that we can we can support that. Good. The handwriting without tears material. So, learning without tears materials, those um come in digital format as well. We would just need to print those pages. Um and cursive doesn't begin until second trimester. Um so, so that would be like November. Right. Right. So, so we do this isn't dependent on because they're they're units we've written. Those are supplementary to get to the standards and the assessments. Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. Also just want to reiterate that units 1, three, and

061five, they've had for a while now. And so it's only half of them that are newer and a lot of the reading assessments they've been piloting, well, they've been trying them out for two years. So many of them, much of what is in the curriculum isn't new. And I would also be remiss if I didn't correct Jackie in saying I didn't write the old integrated, I brought them forward to you. You did a lot of work on them. Sue, um, one question about cursive. I know we've had some teachers teaching cursive, some who have it. Are we recommending a certain amount of time per week, per day? Uh, so we are, so after reviewing the curriculum, um, it is it will not take the entire school year for them to do that. So that's why

062we did decide to wait till second trimester to give teachers time. Um, and that they will be doing it for a daily practice. Okay. um during that second trimester or the fact of just getting fluent with it, right? Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Our next item then is the elementary library and media curriculum proposal. So um Brian Tennyson, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, Selia Banks, director of curriculum instruction, and Jackie Johnson, coordinator of literacy and library, uh remain at the deis to provide the board of education with information relating to the elementary library and media curriculum proposal. Would you like her just to start talking? I see lots of things going on. It there's a PDF of it. metal. I see it right there. There it is. There it goes. Yeah.

063We'll try. Okay. Um so I'm here to present the elementary library media curriculum that is proposed for next year for 2025 2026. The reason um this again aligns to our student success and effective engaged staff as we work towards our students uh digital digital learning. Um so the rationale for this curriculum. So in 2022 we the ISBY updated our computer science and computer literacy standards um and they were introduced along with public in public act 101 0654. Our goal for this course is our students are need to be prepared for a digital world and that's constantly ever evolving and so having learning around digital citizenship um and even applications is vital. um that learning then will empower students to navigate their digital information world that they're constantly constantly living in. Um in addition, the curriculum

064promotes responsible and informed use of information. This curriculum is also coming forward as a result of digital and li digital literacy becoming a special at the elementary level. It currently is offered in 10 of our buildings. Um but the reason why we had we wrote the curriculum everything is because it's now a special at all 38 sites. Um these are committee members. These are the 10 lovely teachers that have been working alongside me on this curriculum. They are currently teaching this class at their site. So our process was um they actually began in 2021 2022 just aligning practices when this became a special for our schools of equity and rigor. Um and then part of and then as a share as part of the bargaining agreement it is now available for all of our schools.

065So in 2021 they started and then in 2024 fall just so just this fall we organized together and basically framed out their current learning to look for commonalities and identify themes that would go from kindergarten all the way through sixth grade for next year. U we submitted our proposal and now I am presenting in front of you. The standards that this curriculum covers are our library standards which are our eyes standards. You may remember earlier this year I brought forward the middle school and high school library curriculum. So this does align up to that curriculum. Um also computer literacy standards and then computer science standards. These are different in computer literacy is a lot of like how to use things. Um where computer science is your your coding. Um so they're going to have both

066those areas of focus. Unit one is all about them being an innovative designer. So this is actually a low tech unit. So this is about them just knowing design process along with basic computer skills and basic library skills al um and then embedding some digital citizenship in to it. Unit two is where the creative commun come communicator comes in play and that's the ability to use different platforms to communicate give feedback and create documents. Um this also will in incorporate the research components and using databases and how to use um research with intention. Then unit three is our computational thinker and this is where they will practice and learn coding. So we will start in kindergarten with sequencing um which is actually not there they train things to follow paths all the way up to

06756 which will be a cumulative coding project um that they will be involved in. And then you'll notice that we use robots. So those are all robots listed there that they would practice their coding with. Then our recommended resources. So there's different buckets that these materials go in. So the first one is equipment. So when we talk about things that they need to practice with design, um three decks go box is cardboard. It's a lot of cardboard and connectors and pieces along that. Kea planks are like building building blocks. Um magnet tiles which are magnets to build things with dominoes, marble mazes, and then just maker space consumables. um digital resources so that the students can capture their own learning and improve what they are able to do because a lot of that's going to

068be in the moment. Um we've designed they will have access to Padlet um book creator breakout edu we currently have in our libraries we just need to expand it to all sites. Um Sparro Screencastify so they can videotape what they're making. Canva blocks and shape grams. So depending on what grade they're in will depend on which platform they're engaging with. And then we have recommended resources. So giving them consumable budgets along with collection development. Um so these are the similar budgets that we offer for our middle schools and high schools. Um but they will need more materials because these students all of our students will be engaging in the consumable supply use. Um and then collection developments just making sure our books are current and relevant. and that if we lose books, we have new

069books. Um, but then also working towards our equitable li equitable libraries and so making sure that we have diverse collections that are modern and up to-date. So our implementation plan is for next year. Um, all teachers will participate in in professional learning during district collaboration days. There's also a day in the summer that is reserved for them to come in for professional learning. Um, this group is very motivated. So they are anxious to get their hands on everything. Um and all of our platforms offer asynchronous learning on them. Um we'll be monitoring implementation through observational data and coaching data along with common assessment data. So they are different common assessments for each unit for each grade level. Um and then again here's the professional development and then cost. Um, so our digital resources, our equipment,

070our consumables for a grand total 1,814,910.39. And then staffing just because we did have to add FTEES this year. and then our evaluation change. Um that like I shared we will be using assessment data or feedback. Any questions? Thank you for that presentation. Do board members have questions? Sorry, couple questions. Um the most of this will be taught as specials one or two days a week. Specials one day a week. one day a week for 40 minutes and we have to hire additional teachers. Do we have them yet? I'm just thinking of the training they'll give. We have most of them. Okay. We still looking seeking out um this will be offered in English and in Spanish. So we're still seeking out some dual language teachers. Okay. And my final question is artificial intelligence. How

071are we addressing that? Um, so I did I have been working with um Roola Rola and um so we we are looking for intentional places where we can add it um and knowing that it needs to come up in our intermediate grades. Okay. Um some of these Yeah. No, no, no. I know some of these platforms have the ability. We just have the ability turned off right now. So once that um the task force for AI um releases their findings then we'll be able to insert where that belongs mostly in the digital citizenship component. Okay. Because it really is are you using I mean they have to appropriately I mean it's it's with us. So it is it is and I remember saying that about a lot of things that are still with us right

072like it's it's their future. Yeah. The only thing I would add is that we are in you know in the process of developing uh guidelines and so we want to make sure that as we educate we are thinking about age appropriateness and how how to introduce um the use of AI in a responsible citizenry kind of way. So that is actually under consideration right now. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? And just to clarify that that additional AI work that's being done with a a separate task force that's not part of the team that was working on this that is correct that that's more of an overarching yes but it will have implications as to how we roll it in. Correct. Okay. Okay. So that work started first with educators, administrators, the tech team, um

073really the the the hands out of ESC and those that are implementing in classrooms to pilot a couple of different options when we look at AI gather a lot of feedback. They're going to be making some recommendations for moving forward. So trying trying to give some additional thought and consideration to what needs to happen as far as building a structure and a system before we just and we'll also be training teachers in how to use AI uh so that they understand how to use AI which puts them in a better position then to be able to teach how to use AI. Then one additional question about the the resources. You said this uh we're looking for dual language teachers to be able to to teach this dual language. So some of the books that we

074are are getting will also be multilingual. Yes. Okay. And then the the programs themselves are they multilingual as well? There's a toggle I learned on the computer that can change the language for them. Okay. Y Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. I know a couple of you I think are staying still but all three of us have had a busy year. All right. So, um our team remains to provide the board of education with information this time relating to the middle school English language arts curriculum proposal. Uh last year Oh, just a second. Hold on. Um, we are here to recommend the middle school English language arts curriculum and resources for the 2526 school year. Um, this aligns to our strategic plan in the areas of student success and an effective engaged

075staff. Um last year you may recall that I brought forward middle school ELA as a pilot. So we have um been working through that pilot this year and after a successful year and making some tweaks and adjustments to pacing and units. Um the evidence of of the work that the teachers are doing and the evidence of the students supports us to adopt us as the official curriculum for grades six through eight. Um, we saw a positive impact on student engagement. Um, I wish I could show you all like the thanks that the kids have for the books that they get to keep the books. Like that's been huge. They're just they've I guess many of them have never been gifted a book. So that was a huge impact. Um, but we're also seeing kids engaging

076in conversations and in writing on a regular basis. We're seeing kids transfer from one school to the other seamlessly without missing a beat. Um so there's a lot of celebrations that we've seen and that show why we need to um continue on this journey. Our participating schools and teachers. So these are the teachers that participated in the pilot. Um we have about 55 teachers here that participated. So we also also had an overwhelming amount participate. We started this in spring of 2023. um we worked on the curriculum process. We came together um with a team of teachers. Some of those teachers were on piloting. In spring of 2024, we brought this to you as a pilot after um recommendations from our instructional council. And then throughout this fall, we have been piloting and working with

077the EL education coaches um to support support our teachers. This aligns to our Illinois State standards, which you see listed here. And then we have our units. So, grade six involves three units. The first one's Greek mythology with a focus on the lightning thief. The second one is critical problems. Um, and they really focus in on the wind design. Um, and just how do you solve a problem? Uh, and then the last unit is American Indian boarding school with the book two roads. I just clarified that sixth grade would not be rolling out in 2526. It would roll out when they move to middle school. One thing that we did learn during the pilot as well was pacing. And so you'll see each of the units is now equally um out paced out in 12

078weeks. Seventh grade, our units are lost children of Sudan um epidemics and Harlem Renaissance, followed by eighth grade with the Latin American folklore, food choices, and voices. Um through the pilot we learned that we've swapped out um just mercy for food choices uh and that our students are actually surprisingly very interested in learning about corn of all things. Our recommended resources include print editions for our teachers of the trade books e curriculum guides. Um, in addition, we're adding patterns of power as a grammar support for our classrooms. Online access for with this adoption would include access to open up resources, which is an OEER website, um, which is open education resource website, their Canvas courses. So, we've built out teacher supports within there. Um, we are asking to bring back no red ink. We did

079not have that this year. We're asking to bring that back. um as evidenced through this curriculum does actually embed a lot of grammar practice in it to make sure our students are ready for ACT. Um in addition common lit we would like to keep that because it they have available text that we can um differentiate and provide more background knowledge to our students with uh and then also professional learning and coaching. Our students would receive three consumable trade books so that they could practice their annotation. Um there and then also if we need to change books we don't feel like we've invested in hardback hard coverver books and it's a hard change. Also equitable access. So to asking kids to read online is not always easy or available. Um and then that does a lot

080of brain research shows that that enhances reading comprehension. classroom libraries um so that they can extend their background knowledge and then those two online platforms students would also have availability. Our recommendation for implementation is for next year um we're going to offer with 55 teachers out of about 75 we do have most teachers participating. Um we will offer teacher launch professional learning at the end of this year um if it is adopt if it is approved. And we offered sessions also on April 17th for teachers um just because we were still in the pilot. Teachers are required to attend professional development in August 2025 and we do have job embedded coaching through the ETL education. Teachers will receive six sessions on at their site um where they are getting small groupoup support that way. Um,

081and then we'll monitor implementation through that coaching feedback, common assessment data, um, resource usage, um, and really I'm excited to look at A data when that comes, um, for the teachers that we're piloting. And then here's the, um, professional learning mapped out just a little bit more in a different way. So especially the sitebased coaching what that will involve is fishbowl um discussions really around using practicing a high impact strategy. How do I do that? What did you know this is students doing? And um that's our next step with that materials cost overall is 2,440 thou 670,30 and annual cost is 219,930 with an estimated cure per pupil cost of $30. evaluation of change. Again, we'll review our alignment with standardized achievement scores, resource resource usage, and common planning, time support um and to see

082that impact on our AR test scores, questions members have questions. Okay. Um yeah, I have a couple questions. So looking back at slide I think it's must be 9, 10, and 11 where you have the grade six, seven, and eight year at a glance. So if I'm like looking at grade six, the year at a glance. So module one, they're going to read they're going to read the lightning thief, you said, right? Yes. And then expand upon it within those other units. There's so three units underneath. So they'll through out their reading. So each the way that EL education builds its curriculum is each unit is the first unit is building background knowledge. Okay? So that's where they do most of their reading. Okay. To then in the next unit it's always going to be

083asking them to do writing writing to do something like to communicate out, right? And so they're using what they've learned during their first unit of reading to then apply it to their writing. Okay? And then in the last unit, it's that research and um take action. Okay. Okay. So there's the 42 lessons is not necessarily 42 days we learned, right? Um and so that's why it we paste it out longer and then in addition giving teachers time if they need to re do a reteing or want to add in a short story, they have the time to do that. Okay. So I I guess my question kind of is going to actually revolve around I think module three here. So of course the the the Native American boarding schools were a very rough part of

084American history and I I had not heard of that book two roads before. So I did a quick look at it there. But there are so many wonderful things that we can celebrate about Native Americans. Why are we looking at boarding schools? Is it just the book is so good or so it's their curriculum like so we didn't we did not pick the book we picked the curriculum okay um we are meeting the social studies mandate with this unit for sixth grade okay um I can get you more information though on why they picked that unit that would be really helpful because I I mean it looked like a great book I might even try to get it read myself here the next couple upstairs if you want it. Well, you know, I might take

085you up on that, but um yeah, I mean there's so many other things that we can celebrate with Native American culture. Why are we focusing on something that took away their culture? No, absolutely. Um I think also that this um the curriculum has been national, you know, nationally available and so that uh then what we do is off of the menu basically choose which units are going to be kind of put together. Okay. Okay. Would it be possible to see some of the activities with that module in particular? Um I mean the rest of them the the children of Sudan and all that that all looks maybe that's it. Some of the others just seem broader than that really hyperfocus of the boarding school. So right the and I will tell you like the title

086of it is right the the for no other reason than they're saying American Indian as opposed to Native American or indigenous peoples both of which are far better terms to be using. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for the feedback and I'll get you the information. Great. Shanda, I just want to ask a follow-up question to uh Miss Thomas's um comments about uh focusing on culture being taken away. Is there consideration to balance it out? So, celebrating still doing the the book. I haven't read the book either. I would love to read it. Um, but also adding in the celebration of it so that you're balancing it out if it feels like the entire unit is going to be focused on one part if that makes sense. No, it 100% makes similar. I think that's

087why we have other resources. I think that um in a responsible way we have to have a you know an ability to be able to address that. Um but yes, it should be balanced out. It should not just be a one-dimensional examination of any culture. I was and I was going to add to that because if you look at slide um 11 um just balancing out any culture um to making sure that you're not taking away what happened in history that they're aware of it but then also celebrating that culture at the same time. Right. Agreed. Miss Owens, can I add one more thing? Yeah. Are you done? Miss Schwarz, as I'm sitting here too, I think we also need to have some consideration to the trauma that this could push on some of our

088students. I I know of a family in U46 whose kids are in U46 and the mother's grandmother was sent to a boarding school. And so it's very specific within that family and I would hate for those kids to experience additional trauma by by the way by the way by the way this this thing happened. So I I just think we need to consider that one very carefully. The units do come with um sensitive is sensitive content for the teacher. So things to be aware of but we will definitely Yeah. And I mean I can see the same thing happening certainly with the lost children of Sudan, the Harlem Renaissance is going to have triggers and then certainly anything to do with the Holocaust is going to have significant triggers for everyone. So yeah, we need

089to be sure we're ready for that too. And I know what I have done for the high schools is I have met with the social workers um and that we've partnered with them and the teachers have partnered with them just for the this might come up and then how do we support? Okay. Thank you. But thank you. Any other questions? Don, would you please go first? I um I did question, you know, some of it and I and I agree these are really tough topics, but I'm also in a way kind of glad that they're being addressed because some of this this is some of our reality, our family history. Um so it's nice to not shelter our students. So thank you for picking such um trivial topics, too. Thank you, Don. So my question

090is going to go a different direction. So, um, in the middle schools, I know that we offer different different types of English classes. Is this the curriculum that all English classes are using? It is the foundational curriculum for all English classes. Yes. So, okay, we have honors as well. And so, the honors will have additional text to supplement. Um, so when I say additional text, they're going to have paired text sets that will come from common lit. That was also the feedback that we had received from particular schools because we actually did go around to all the middle schools. We've got one more I think to get to um to listen to the teachers that were actually implementing this. I had one additional kind of question when you're talking about follow-up from teachers. Um when

091we were looking so as part of the pilot program, did we get feedback from families or students regarding the program? And I ask because one of the things I've heard um from families is kind of the the disparity when it came to English language courses across our district. Like you talked about how students, you know, were very excited to have books. So, I I'm excited to see that there's going to be very set like everyone's going to read three novels a year, like right like it's going to be a set curriculum. But I was wondering if we had gotten feedback directly from families about that just the difference that their children saw this past year. We have not. Okay. Yeah. Um usually, yeah, it's not we've never surveyed them outside of our five essentials um

092curriculum. I can tell you that one of the instructional council members gave feedback because because she's a parent. Oh, okay. And she said um yes, she agreed too that her children loved having books cuz that's overwhelmingly what we heard from all the teachers that the kids loved having the books. She said there was one book that her son wasn't crazy about, but that she heard other kids were did really like that book and so she said, "You're never going to pick a book that everybody loves." So, of course, that that one piece of informal feedback from a parent we did get. Thank you. Any additional questions? So, just to to clarify the we haven't piloted at all the grade six. Correct. Correct. Right. It's just the grade seven and the grade eight and they were

093these exact same texts that we that we piloted. Yes. So, one was swapped out. Yes. Well, the texts that are in the presentation. Okay. So, and those texts if if this um proposal is approved, those will carry through then for the next six years of this proposal. So we will keep those same texts for all six years or they make I would rather not completely commit to that because I would like to be a little more responsive so that if we receive feedback that there is a different unit that that we should be open to that. Okay. And EL we aren't using all the same overall curriculum and in its approach. Um it would be just which which books and you know which drive the unit but the structure would be the same right okay

094we aren't using all they have four units per grade level and we are not using all four units because because of pacing okay so we do have some flexibility even to stay with that curriculum that if we felt that we weren't getting the the response or we weren't getting the the the growth in learning that that we yes think that we should get we do have some flexibility to change and I guess it's also possible for E to decide they're going to modify a unit and say you know you know it may not stay the same for the next five years okay so yeah I think it's important to stay responsive yeah any other questions thank you. Right. Our next item this evening, high school freshman seminar curriculum proposal. Michelle Chapman, director of post-secary success

095and Beth McKini, coordinator of programs and supports for the post-secary success department will provide the board of education with information relating to the high school freshman seminar curriculum proposal. Hello. We're going to be talking about a proposal for an updated curriculum um including rubrics and assessment for a one semester high school course freshman seminar. Um this course relates uh closely to the strategic plan. It supports students success by developing skills in critical reading, goal setting and organizational skills and promotes a strong culture and climate and community by building a lot of relationships among students, helping them with their transition to high school and helping them build positive relationships with staff. I don't need to do this, do I? Oh, I do. Okay. This is a one semester elective course um that is currently offered in

096the high schools that we are seeking to revise and update um through this proposal. And the idea is to address the high need for supports as our students transition to high school. So we're specifically looking at meeting district goals and our freshman ontrack rates. Um the curriculum focuses on self-concept and personal success through some goal setting and career exploration, organizational skills, collaboration and annotation, critical reading and note takingaking. Um it's available both as a general a and general education course and there's a multilingual option. Um again, it's a revised course focused on this adjustment addressing both academic and social emotional shifts that come from that transition to high school. Um and the update um seeks to help students develop some skills that will help them throughout high school by promoting a growth mindset, making positive

097connections in the high school community, thinking a little bit about their future. Uh, freshman on track is one of the Illinois State Board of Education's measures for high school success. Um, students are on track when they have earned 10 credits and have earned no more than one failing grade in an English, math, science, or social science course at the end of their freshman year. So, our goal with this course is to increase the freshman on track rates at all our high schools. So, these are the committee members that work together um to make these updates. And um if you recall uh last summer, last June, and then again in October, we took a team of um assistant principles for freshman success and then some of their teachers to the National Freshman Success Institute at the

098University of Chicago, uh where we learned a lot about how to make an exceptional freshman team and what we can do to help with that freshman transition. And one of the one of that one of the pieces the big piece that came out of that was the fact that we need to redesign this freshman seminar course. And then as Beth said um this is a freshman seminar course that we've just revised. It's available to true freshman only. It's one semester first semester. Um and we're offering it to support all of our students who are not taking study skills or AVID. Um it's credit bearing and it again it supports our transition program. Uh these are the standards we selected to prepare the students to be to be successful in all their curriculum. And then again

099these are our resources. Um these are things that we already have. Um the AVID schoolwise advisory which is a part of our AVID um curriculum that we already purchased. um all the learning that we had from the National Freshman Success Institute and then our school links program. Our implementation plan would be to offer the revised curriculum for students registered to take freshman seminar in fall of 2025 um to help support those students with their transition. The professional learning could begin um this month by sharing with teachers who are going to be teaching freshman seminar our frameworks, summitives, and rubrics. And we could use time throughout this um later this summer or into the fall to support teachers in understanding the learning for the course and also um receive their feedback as it is a new

100course and support them in working with the curriculum because the curriculum does draw on AVID strategies and uses the AVID schoolwide advisory particularly with critical reading skills organization and goal setting. Um we've invited teachers teaching freshman seminar to be part of AVID site teams and attend AVID summer institute where they'll also receive training directly from AVID and teachers who cannot um AVID has offered our school district a free path training which means they will send staff developers to us. we have a few new sites and part of their um appreciation is to um provide that staff developer to come to us and so we can train some freshman seminar teachers at that path training as well. So there's no cost for those things. Um we also already um like Michelle said have the schoolwide advisory

101and we have already purchased school links. So these are resources we already have. Our goal would be that we can continue to increase our rate of freshmen on track and will improve student achievement through their participation in this course. And that our freshman success teams at each high school will continue to monitor the freshman on track data and our assistant principles of freshman success will lead that work as they are now. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Do board members have questions? Sue, couple questions. You said we've This is not a new course. We've offered a version of it before. Yes. Have we been able to run it at all five high schools? I believe a few years ago, right? Um, no. We've only ever run it at Streamwood and Elgen. Okay. Okay. So,

102we're hoping it'll be more. It will. Right now, it's um projected to run at all five high schools. Okay. And why would a kid take this course instead of AVID? I think that students taking AVID um that course is more rigorous. There are a few features of the AVID elective that make it a more challenging course because we are pushing students in the AVID elective to reach for um honors and AP and dual credit courses. And that push isn't just to be successful in high school, but to reach for more rigorous coursework. We are hoping that some students through freshman seminar will have success with those strategies and think maybe AVID would be a good fit for me and recruit them to try AVID. Okay? Because we do think there's probably some reluctant students out

103there in the mix. We think the strategies AVID uses are great to use in all classes, but the AVID elective um really um seeks to take students who are kind of in the middle and want to be pushed that next level. Okay, that's a great question though. We talk about that quite a bit. And are we looking at eth grade parents? And you know, if a kid is struggling in eighth grade, you might have concerns about what's going to happen in high school. Are we even going to the parents and saying, you know, we think this is something your child should should take? Yeah, our APS of freshman success have been doing that um um to recruit students. That's why we're offering it at all four five high schools um next year is because they've

104really been working with middle school counselors and middle school families and by students that would, you know, this would be a good place for them because they're not an AVID and they're not in study skills. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I know it it came out of the um student summit. Um some of the the comments from the participants was was an expansion of some of those AVID strategies, right? For for other uh more of the student body that that aren't going to take AVID. You said that um you've been piling it at Streamwood or not piloting it but running it at Streamwood and Elgen and Elgen. Um so I know that you know part of the goal on this is is looking at the freshman um on track for success. Can

105you give me a sense of how like what kind of numbers are you looking at? I mean, are you are you looking because you've got the on the proposal, you've got the percentages of, you know, students that are that are on track right now, right? So, is there a a goal in target for what you'd like to see? Well, we would like 100% Yes. of our freshman to be on track. That's the big goal. That is the huge goal. Um, we would like to be above 95% at all high schools. We find that um first semester um the percentage is higher than second semester. Um, so right now we're really working on that. We're also along with the freshman track rates, we want to make sure that students are doing more than just passing. We

106want to see how many um of our freshman can get C or better or B or better um because that will lead to more success, more rigorous coursework and then better opportunities. These numbers though that you're giving on the proposal, that's those are schoolwide numbers, correct? That's not just for the students that like and streamwood. Are you going to look at the per, you know, the trajectory of the students that that take this course to see if that if they wind up having a higher percentage of on track, right? Yes. Versus the rest of the student body. And I I was going to um just reiterate what you had shared, President Owens, about student interest coming out of the student summit and some of the post-secary interests and preparation for success in high school and

107then post-secary. One of the pieces that I think this course also aims to support is that it's a one semester course and that many times is one of the challenges that our high school students contend with. There are so many other requirements or electives and that AVID course as wonderful as it is. It's big is a is a big commitment. Um, and so it's it also I will share I was very um excited last week I had the opportunity to visit TU Middle School uh for their uh celebration, their 60th anniversary celebration. Spent some time in the AVID classroom, took a fabulous building tour with eighth graders and they were talking about this class as well. Oh, so I found it to be very interesting um that that the students were having these conversations uh

108about electives and how it fit into AVID or supported AVID or didn't and how they were encouraging others to take the course too. So I think that's very exciting. Now they many students from TAF do attend Streamwood, so that likely helps. But I think it's always great when other students are encouraging other students to take a course. So it was exciting. Well, that's so good to hear. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Okay, thank you for the presentation. Thank you. And the next item on the agenda is work session bids and proposals. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. Thank you, President Owens. Our first item tonight, bid plan operations, Ronald D. O'Neal Elementary School parking lot paving project number 1406-25. Sheila DS, assistant superintendent of operations, will present the attached proposal summary and respond to

109questions from the board of education. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder, Manaval Construction Company Incorporated, in the amount of $382,800 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations and maintenance fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 through 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Next item. Next is a bid plan operations Elgen High School parking lot paving project number 251-25. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder, Schroeder Exphalt Services Incorporated, in the amount of $3,435,000 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged the operations and maintenance fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 through 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have

110any questions? Great. Next item. And next we have a proposal information services 202520 2026 staff laptops. Sheila DS assistant superintendent of operations is joined by Nal Kjo manager of technology operations to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the proposal from PACE Systems Incorporated in the amount of $875,000 and re 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? Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Next item in the agenda is work session contracts over 35,000. Dr. Johnson, our first is a contract for equity and innovation. Trinity breakthrough coaching. Dr. Latrice Satderwide, assistant superintendent of

111equity and innovation, will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract with Trinity Breakthrough Coaching in the amount of $60,000 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? Okay, next item. Next is a contract renewal curriculum and instruction Savas My World Interactive. Brian Tennyson, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, Celia Banks, director of curriculum and instruction, and Jacob Vandy Mortell, coordinator of K12 social studies and world languages, will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with Savas Learning Company in

112the amount of $620,655.98 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? Zoom. And I assume this will be used with the elementary integrated curriculum we heard about earlier today. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Next, we have a contract renewal curriculum and instruction career and technical education techsmart incorporated. Darin Roberts is joining Brian Tennyson and Silia Banks. Darin is coordinator of career and technical education to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with TechSmart Incorporated in the amount of $87,750 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents.

113This 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? Don, so is this one of the um software programs that actually works on the Chromebooks or students who are It does. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Next item. Next is a contract renewal curriculum instruction career and technical education electude. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with Electrude USA LLC in the amount of $67,622.50 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? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That being the last item on our agenda, I will ask

114for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Roll call, please. Yes. H. Yes. Miss, yes. Nolan, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We are journed at 856.