001Graphics one is going to zoom. People on Zoom see that right they'll see graphics and right where you send to it. But unless they're on Zoom, they won't see it. It's not going to go to YouTube or depends on what you're sending to YouTube. I mean Okay, good evening. I'm going to resume the April 14th, 2025 board of education meeting and call it to order. Uh, if I could have everybody stand as they are able to say the pledge of allegiance. of the United States of Americ. Thank you everyone. The first item on our agenda this evening is accent on achievement. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. Uh this evening in recognition of school bus driver appreciation day on April 22nd, 2025, a proclamation of appreciation is being presented to represent representatives of the U46
002transportation department. Members of the U46 transportation department, including drivers, assistants, mechanics, shop staff, trainers, and office staff, work together to safely transport approximately 24,000 children to and from 58 in district and approximately 20 out of district sites each day. To accomplish this, U46 drivers travel more than 4 million miles every school year. And I know tonight we've got quite a team from transportation here. Uh, and so I know we're going to welcome you to the front. I'm going to read just a couple of the team members who I believe are are here and then I'm going to turn it over to Miss Nolan for this proclamation. Uh, so this evening we have Heather Weiss, Beth Lapa, Admirie Westfall, Janice Thompson, Gumamo Martinez Cruz, Nicholas Barcinis, Amy Pulargar, Pette Walsh, Marcy Murphy. think we Amy Oscar,
003if I didn't read your name, please come forward and we're going to make sure we read your name um because we want to recognize and honor you for your your work. So, I'll turn it over now to Miss Nolan. Welcome everyone. Hi. I'm going to read this proclamation of appreciation for school bus driver appreciation day. Whereas the U46 transportation department serves approximately 23,000 students daily, transporting children to and from 55 in district and approximately 27 out of district sites each day, resulting in U46 buses traveling more than 4 million miles in a school year. And whereas U46's bus drivers and assistants dedicate their lives to helping students get to school safely every day, playing a key role in supporting consistent attendance. And whereas U46's school bus drivers and assistants go undergo rigorous training and provide
004exceptional service, often acting as the first and last district employees, many students see each day. And whereas bus drivers are supported by the entire U46 transportation staff who work closely together every school day to ensure a safe and timely journey for students. Whereas the contributions of these individuals are recognized in honor of school bus driver appreciation day which is recognized every year on the fourth Tuesday of April. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education recognizes its dedicated transportation department staff in honor of school bus driver appreciation day and asks administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the community to join in thanking these individuals for their unwavering dedication, exceptional service, and commitment to the well-being and safety of children and youth. presented this 14th day of April, 2025 and signed by the board of
005education president and superintendent. Congratulations. Uh thank you very much for this wonderful honor and it's great that our entire team was recognized for this. It is u very true. We are the first and last group of individuals that see our students most days. On behalf of DUT2, I'd like to thank the board for recognizing us. Um, it's been another uh rough year, but we show up every day. Um, and we'll continue to be professional. Thank you. We're Oscar. Oscar. Yeah. So, Chris is here as well, who's our safety and operations manager, and Oscar is our newest uh PM assistant manager for our big buses. Thank you. Thank you. There we go. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And our next uh accent on achievement this evening is for our national merit scholarship program. So, as part
006of the board of education's ongoing access on achievement, uh, this evening, the board of education recognizes Kyle B. Depacbo, Frederick Laurak, and Nina Mingriotis of Bartlett High School. These students were recently named finalists in the prestigious 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Uh so I'm going to turn it over to board member Khan who will read uh their certificate in a moment. Um the selection keeps these students in the competition for approximately 7,500 scholarships that are offered in the spring of 2025. Hey, I want to first present the certificate of achievement. Um the board of education of school district 46 hereby recognizes Kyle Deepa Kakibbo of Bartland High School. He'll be Congratulations. Okay. And next we have um the board of education school district 46 hereby recognizes Frederick Laur School for becoming a finalist in
007the 2025 national merit scholarship program. Oh, he's not here. Okay. And now we have um the board of education school district 46 hereby recognizes Nina F. Mangriotis of Bartlet High School. Oh, okay. Well, we should just have you our spokesperson. Um we can ask Kyle, you want to want to share anything about this process? Sure. Um honestly earning this achievement was half luck and half my own efforts. um taking the uh it how you get this is through the uh practice SAT which is what we I took my junior year and I just happened to so you know everything just clicked into place for me and I felt like I was able to really do well and through that process I was able to get nominated onto semi-finalist and then it was a very lengthy
008process to actually apply to become a finalist afterwards but I felt that it was a culmination of my efforts and my skills and I am very proud to be able to you know stand before the board today and hold this achievement. So, thank you very much. [Music] And I have your email And then you'll get make Nice to meet you. Okay, the next item on our agenda is comments from the audience. Thank you, President Owens. Oh, go for it. Good. Good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting. We are now at public comment portion of the meeting. Attendees wishing to make a public comment in person or via Zoom tonight were asked to complete a request to speak for advance. Those who chose to speak via Zoom were provided with a webinar ID
009number to call in promptly at 7 p.m. tonight. As always, speakers will be given three minutes to share their comments. The board listens to the speakers but does not respond to individual questions or comments during the meeting. A written response will be mailed to the speaker if requested on the form. Public comments may include the speaker students name if you wish. All public comments must refrain from mentioning any other students protected personal information and name. If your public comments include other students information, we will need to end your public comment at that time. Those who provided a public comment but chose not to speak publicly in the meeting were asked to submit an email to board-46.org. Those emails were posted on the board agenda for public use. [Music] Fore the nurse. information. Essos Our first
010speaker tonight is Betatina Pillo. Good evening. I am a resident of Elgen and I'm also a member of Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgen. I'm here tonight because I would like to have a table in Elgen high schools um to give information about alternatives to the military. once a month at each high school. I had met with the assistant principal of Elgen High School and she indicated she would call me back, but she never called me back. I called her several times and I never got a return. Um, I also uh called the principal and also she never called me back although I called her several times. There is other history. About eight years ago, we came to the school with the same request to have a table about mil about alternatives to
011the military. At that time, you decided there was a violation of the first amendment and you decided that we were allowed to come into the high schools. Then COVID came and we stopped going into the high schools. One alternative that we provide is called a cororps. America Corps is a federal um program which offers $7,395 to students um who work for one year in America corpse. They could be um uh um things like going to uh health clinics or doing ecology work. Um, the military offers education funds also. However, the veterans education fund is being slashed. Students are entitled to hear about America corps and other programs. That is why we need to be in the high schools. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you. Our
012next speaker this evening is Cheryl Rumba Hayford. Hello, my name is Cheryl Burbach Hayford. I'm an Elgen resident and the mother of a U46 graduate who attended Washington Elementary, Kimell Middle, and Bartlett High School. I have to say an aside quickly that I'm still heartsick that Washington is being closed. I'm here to urge the board and the U46 administrators to instruct high school leaders to welcome representatives of our counter recruitment team who have requested to table at Larkin in Elgen high schools during the lunch hour. Prior to the pandemic, I was one of the volunteers who tabled at Larkin every month offering students information about the military that recruiters will not tell them. information that those students deserve to know before they sign up so that they have full knowledge of what they are in
013for. One of my primary concerns has been to make sure that young women and girls since the military recruiters begin targeting students so young well before they are legally of age to sign up that young women and girls know what they face in the military. Here are some of those facts and sources where you can look them up and verify them for yourselves. Some sources say that one out of three women faces sexual assault in the military. The Department of Defense itself reports that about one in four active duty women report experiences of sexual harassment. from a 2021 study by the Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security. Quote, "Despite decades of zero tolerance policies, sexual harassment and assault have long been a threat to the safety of US military personnel and particularly to enlisted
014women. Female military personnel are more likely to be sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier than killed in combat." The Georgetown study notes significant under reporting of sexual assault in the US military, which means that the number of one in4 is too low. In 2018, this is a quote, more than 20,000 service members, 13,000 women and 7,500 men were victims of sexual assault, yet fewer than 8,000 reported it. This is according to a 2021 paper from the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. The Department of Defense's most recent annexual assault in the military, which is for the fiscal year 2023, reported in May 2024. Some progress has been made on decreasing these numbers, but in 2023, about 29,000 military personnel received unwanted sexual contact in the year prior. That represents 6.8% of all
015the women in the military at the time, only 1.3% of all men. It is clear that women and girls face a severe threat in the military. I would encourage you to allow counter recruitment in the high schools. Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is Earl Silbar. Good evening. I'm going to address myself to the question, what is it that military recruiters don't talk to people about? Their job is to recruit. So, Cheryl has just given you information about sexual unwanted sexual assault. I'm going to talk about some of the other areas. I based this on five years experience going into Larkin High School on a designated day and time and place with our literature and talking with interested students about all all kinds of things including the fact that the military doesn't talk to
016them about the high rate of suicides higher than the national average for young people of their age. They don't talk to them about the homelessness that's rampant among military veterans. They don't talk to them about how widespread addictions are to alcohol and especially to drugs. And what I want to spend the remaining minute of my time is the poisons to which military personnel have been subject. I'm old enough so that I remember in the 50s the United States military, the army set off atomic explosions in the Nevada desert and they marched soldiers to within a thousand yards of those explosions and they made sure that the soldiers could not sue the government. and another use of poisons. In the Iraq war, the United States government in the military used [Music] arament penetrating shells that were
017hardened to a super [Music] hardened sorry. They used shells that were hardened with uranium which had the impact of making these shells harder. They could penetrate and blow up people who were defended in who were using tanks or other personnel carriers. That's just the top off the top of my head. I made some notes. If you're interested, please contact me and I'll be happy to show you the information in the sources. I just wanted to get across the idea of the importance of our being present to share information that they otherwise wouldn't get, which I assume you would agree is very important that they should have. This is actually life and death. And the other use of military poison is dioxin which is known in the in the United States as agent orange which is
018one of the deadliest poisons that has been contracted from the chemical industry. Millions of gallons of Asian arms were sprayed over the fields in Vietnam on the Vietnamese and American soldiers indiscriminately because they're released from airplanes like crop dusters and they're not individually targeted. They're whole areas. Thank you for your comment. I'm gonna You're at the three minute mark. Could I have you summarize your comments? Do you have a summary that you'd like to leave us with? The summary is I hope you will follow legal precedent but also the more the moral need to serve our students just as it says in the mission and grant us with a written statement that you support our right to be able to be in the cafeterias. Thank you so much. Thank you. And our final uh speaker
019this evening, Mary Shgrren. Hi, I'm Mary Schescreen. I'm the chair of Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice. We are the group here requesting uh a readmission to the role that our group had before of coming into the high schools to disseminate information counter to what the military recruiters say about what a military career can bring. And so we we did this for years and then the pandemic shut us down as it shut so many things down. We're asking to be readmitted. We understand that you if you agree and do what we ask today and let us back in. Some people in this polarized time may give you a hard time about that decision. So, I'm going to let you know that if somebody does give you a hard time about that, here's what you
020can tell them. In 1983 in Chicago, a group called Clergy and Leoty Concerned, a group very much like Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice very likely sued the Chicago public school system asking for the same thing we're asking for, asking to be admitted into the schools to give information to students about a different way to look at the uh lovely attractions of a military career. And to the surprise of the school system, the court, it was the United States District Court, Northern Division, found in favor of the the clergy and ley concerned, found against the schools and said that by letting the military recruiters in, they had opened up a public forum and that the um refusal to let in people with an alternative viewpoint, a counter viewpoint, amounted to a violation of the
021First Amendment. The military recruiters were let in to talk to the students very freely and the this peace and justice group was refused. but they won. And this decision happened in May 17th of 1984. It still stands. It's never been appealed. It's been used all over the Northern Illinois area and you can point to it for evidence of why you decided to let us come in. Thank you very much. I'll send you the link to this decision if you want. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item on our agenda is other business. Board member and superintendent update. Do board members have any updates they would like to share? Sue? I I just wanted to say to thank Dr. Justin and her team who gave Miss Schwarz night a tour of Kimble this morning and
022the construction has already begun and it's very messy but it looks promising. Don, so I'm sure everyone is aware that this time of year gets very busy for our district and us as board members. Um, since our last meeting, several of us have been at the Kenwin Kenwin Ken, oh my goodness, Kenyon Woods ground breaking, the Kimble Middle School groundbreaking. We did both of those um to kick off some of our work that's going on there. We also had our uh U46 student summit, which I know that update will come at a separate time, but I'm always very excited to hear our students speaking and discussing all the hot topics that are going on within our schools. Um, and just as a reminder for all of our community, we it's kind of just like chaos
023for the next six weeks. So, you are going to see see us out and about at different schools and highlights for different graduations and all of the items. So, I just want to thank our community for always for supporting us as much as they have and our administration for all of the work you'll be doing the next six to eight weeks on all of the great things that we have to wrap up the year. Mahita, I know you'll have a a a bigger update for us, but did you want to say a few words about how the summit went? Yeah, so the summit went really well. We had over 200 students come and participate. There was a lot of lively discussion, questions, and we sent out a Google form asking for more updates and questions
024that people had. So, um, we'll have our like recap and presentation in the next meeting. But I'm really proud of how it went and I want to say thank you to everyone who made it possible. It was a really fun event. Thank you. And thank you for all your work with that. I know it's a it's a it's a heavy lift to get students from every high school uh together and and discuss those topics, but thank you for the work you're doing on that. Anybody else? I'll I'll second Sue uh what she said and and thank Dr. Johnson and the team for the the tour uh that Veronica and I were on on Friday. Um and it is it's good to see some of that initial demolition work happening. Um, also wanted to thank uh
025Anna Mohler's office for having the education policy meeting uh to week and a half ago. Um, and it's always good to to uh be able to have the ear of state representatives and to listen to what's going on at the the state level. So, thank thank you for the time for that. I also uh have some some uh thank yous. Uh, as uh Miss Martin indicated, this is a great time of year. It's very busy. We're constantly celebrating. I feel as though every time I talk to one, I'm somebody I start with my favorite event. One of my favorite events. That's also one of my favorite events. Well, um I am going to do some preemptive proactive thank you for one of my favorite events that's that's coming up this week. Uh so in U46
026we have a foundation works tirelessly to support uh the community and work um across school district U46 for students and teachers and also opportunities for post U46. And so this week we actually have our networking event for the superintendent scholarship uh recipients and that's one of the scholarships primary scholarship foundation works to support. It's very exciting. We're going to have 30 students uh who will have an opportunity to do some uh networking, learn a little bit about what that means and begin to prepare uh their resume and their work for what happens after U46. And then the following week, we we turn around and they actually receive the scholarships and it it's a wonderful event. So, one I want to thank the foundation. I want to thank uh members of the foundation uh Matthew Poose
027who actually happens to be in the audience tonight, Jason Pierce who uh worked to restructure what that event's going to look like later this week. But I also want to send some thank yous to everybody who has made donations to those scholarship funds, specifically the superintendent scholarship fund. And then uh also just recognize that there are some significant donors who have made contributions to the foundation to be able to perpetuate continue that program uh KCT and the Seagull Foundation and I know we'll be continuing to celebrate and recognize that. But uh tremendous thank you from from my part to all involved and I know our students receive it and again it's definitely this week anyway. It's the favorite event for this week but that's the luxury that I have that is like always the next
028favorite event. So looking forward to that. Thank you. Uh that will bring us to a considerable consent agenda. Dr. Johnson. Yeah. Everybody sit back. Um on the consent agenda this evening we have personnel report and workers compensation cases. Minutes of board meeting February 10th, 2025. Termination of Wasif Ali driver's assistant. Termination of Matthew G. Smith, bus driver route. Termination of Terrence Miller Allen, student success advocate. Resolution for the disposal of surplus personal property. Bid plant operations, Larkin High School roof replacement project number 274-25. Bid plant operations, integrated pest control management services. Proposal, assessment, accountability, and student success. Kane County Regional Office of Education Learning Partner. Proposal equity and innovation Northern Illinois University social justice camp. Proposal information services 2025 student Chromebooks. Proposal information services network equipment refresh. Proposal operations Unite U46 Kimble Middle School project.
029Proposal operations Unite U46 new Elgen Middle School project. Contract renewal, assessment, accountability, and student success. Panorama student success dashboard and surveys. Contract renewal chief of staff. Projection staffing and mapping software. Contract renewal curriculum and instruction. Canvas. Contract renewal specialized student services. Care Solace. Contract renewal specialized student services. News to you. Statements of completion. Three. Coleman Elementary School water main project number 685, education services center stairs project number 334 and Streamwood High School picnic shelter project 24-001 occupancy permit one and approval of settlement agreement and general release in the matter of Alahj versus school district U46. Thank you. Are there any items that board members would like removed from the consent agenda? Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as stated? So moved. Second. Any questions or discussion? Roll call, please.
030Miss Kirk, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Next item is discussion action. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. The first item this evening, itemized bills. April 14th, 2025. Dr. Frank Williams, Assistant Superintendent of Finance, 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 26,951,18768. May I have a motion to approve the list of bills in the amount of $26,951,18768? So moved. Second. Roll call. Or I'm sorry. Uh any discussion or questions for Dr. Frank? Okay. 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
031carries. Next item this evening, attendance boundary proposal. Brian Lindholm, chief of staff. Mark Moore, assistant superintendent of human resources, and Lola Murvich, deputy superintendent of instruction, will present the attached attendance boundary change proposal and will respond to the questions from the board of education. Administration recommends the board of education vote to accept the attendance boundary changes. So, I'm going to read the motion into the record and then uh once I do that, I think that the panel will have um a couple updates for us and then board members will have the opportunity to discuss and ask questions. May I have a motion to approve the revised attendance boundary proposal dated April 14th, 2025 and as presented in our agenda. So moved. Second. Okay. Send the floor over to you for uh your updates. Sure. Uh
032so good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to summarize the final attendance boundary proposal uh that's before the board of education this evening. Uh tonight's presentation is the second reading uh to the attendance boundary proposal that was provided to the board of education on March 24th. Uh tonight we'll discuss the following uh summary of the proposal on March 24th. Two recommended adjustments to that proposal. uh more details on our modified residency exception request process and then a summary of next steps. So to start, we will briefly recap the proposal that we brought forward on March 24th. This proposal was based on preliminary recommendations that were shared as early as December of 2024 as well as feedback that we've received since then from the board of education and from the U46 community during the series of
033mapping our future sessions that we held uh across the district several weeks ago. So on December 9th, we presented preliminary boundary recommendations for the entire district which showed significant changes to our elementary and middle schools while only minor changes to our high schools. The middle school changes reflect the shift of sixth grade as well as the uh addition of a new middle school in Elgen, significant additions to Kimell and Kenyon Woods middle schools, and the eventual retirement of Abbott and Ellis middle schools. The elementary changes also reflect the shift of sixth grade to middle schools, the addition of prek classrooms across the district, and the retirement of three elementary schools, Hannenburg Countryside in Streamwood and Lowry and Washington elementaryaries in Elgen. The only high school change was to the attendance area for Bartlett High School,
034extending the boundary west beyond Route 59 to align with the attendance boundaries that we've established for the new Hawk Hollow Middle School. So this evening we will not plan to review the entire district maps again as that detail has been shared uh during the mapping our future sessions that we held in each of our feeder networks and it's all available on the district website underiteu46. We'd encourage anyone looking for more details to visit that page to review prior presentations watch some of the videos that we created and visit our interactive online maps. This evening's presentation will focus primarily on the adjustments that we are now recommending to the earlier proposal and then to share more details on timelines and the process for implementing these changes. So, as a reminder, uh as part of theite46 initiative,
035we had identified several buildings to be renovated, rebuilt, or retired. The boundary recommendations you will hear this evening reflect that these elementary schools will be retired and students will be reassigned to other schools for the 2627 school year. As we shared previously, this is both due to declining enrollments, particularly at the elementary level when we move sixth grade, as well as to retire some of our oldest facilities that are no longer providing the optimal learning environments for our students. Washington Lowry and Hannover Countryside will be retired after the 2526 school year and McKinley will be retired when the new elementary school at the former David Cook site is ready for occupancy. We're also starting work on muchneeded additions and renovations at Glenbrook and Century Oaks elementaryaries. The work being planned will dramatically improve circulation, provide
036more natural light, and create the safe and modern learning environments that we want to see in all of our U46 schools. And finally, Illinois Park will be retired as an early childhood center following the 2526 school year and will reopen as a K5 elementary school the following year of 2627. This is a smaller construction project that will primarily involve site work to make the school more accessible as well as building a new multi-purpose room that's more suitable for elementary students. And another important consideration for tonight's proposal is how we plan to manage the transition of our sixth grade students to our middle schools. In previous updates, we shared that the construction schedule for the new middle school in Elgen indicates this building will not be ready for occupancy for the 2627 school year as we
037had originally planned. The plans that you are considering this evening assume what we had called option C as it allows us to maintain our current schedule of implementing new boundaries and shifting sixth grade to the middle school for the 2627 school year. Under this option, we will need to use Abbott and Ellis Middle Schools or the 2627 school year to help serve the approximately 1100 students that would eventually be assigned to the new middle school in Elgen as it would not yet be ready for occupancy. Our recommendation includes keeping Abbott and Ellis open for an additional year to serve those students. And in this case, seventh and eighth graders that are assigned to the new Elgen Middle School would attend Ellis for the first year. and the approximately 356th graders that reside in this attendance
038area would attend Abbott the first year. Abbott would also be able to keep its previously assigned eighth graders to allow those students to complete their middle school career without an extra transition. And then in the following year, the new middle school in Elgen would be ready for full occupancy for grades six, seven, and 8, allowing us to retire Ellis and Abbott as originally planned. So I will now hand it over to my colleague Mark Moore to describe the specific adjustments to our boundary maps. These are the adjustments that we discussed at the meeting on March 24th and we have just two changes from them. So the ones that will continue uh they are in this final proposal. Northern portions of uh proposed Bartlett Elementary and Liberty we um will discuss momentarily. Uh the section uh
039along Route 20 between 20 and Bluff City Boulevard we talked about that was going to a different high school than the middle school. It will now be aligned. The southern portion of New Elgen Middle School is moved from South Elgen to Elgen so that all of the new middle school can go to the same high school. The uh what we refer to as the Larkin cutout that is the part of Larkin High School that is currently east of the river will switch to Elgen and Larkin will be strictly west of the river. Elgen east of the river. Um the original proposal had a split for Highland going to Canyon Woods and Kimble. We moved the line so that all of Highland goes to Kimble and there is no longer a split. Um there's a small
040change to the Bartlett and Streamwood boundary on Chestnut Street in Hanover Park to align with Ontario School. And finally, the correction that we discussed last time uh near Sterns and Newport in Bartlett. One change that we received many questions about is the new middle school assignment for the Nature Ridge Elementary attendance area uh being newly assigned to EU Middle School in Bartlett. Previously, this area had all been assigned to Kenyon Woods. As we've explained in previous boundary updates, with Hawk Hollow Middle School opening in the southeast corner of the district, the attendance boundary for East View switches from a north south to an east west orientation to keep the school operating near its full enrollment capacity. In addition, Kenyon Woods will now be receiving students that had previously attended Abbott Middle School. So, we need
041to provide some enrollment relief to Kenyon Woods. As such, a majority of the Nature Ridge attendance area will now be assigned to East View in Bartlett. Only the new portion west of Route 25 that previously attended Clinton will remain at Kenyon Woods. We acknowledge receiving many questions about the shift from major ridge families who are concerned about the travel times to school crossing the train tracks and the feeder pattern that would send these students to East for middle and then back to South Elgen for high school. These students currently are assigned to Kenyon Woods which is slightly closer for many of these students. Parents have also expressed concern about heavy commuter traffic and railroad crossings that exist between their homes and East View. Unfortunately, we are not able to adjust the previous recommendation at this
042time given the locations and capacities of our middle schools in this part of the district. We do want to assure the U46 community that as we work to define these new attendance boundaries, our team work closely with our transportation department as bus transportation east will be available to all of the Nature Ridge families. Please know that we establish bus routes in this area that travel these roads every day. For example, bringing students from the Liberty Attendance Area just east of Nature Ridge westward towards Kenyon Woods. Our school bus drivers are able to adapt to changing traffic patterns or road conditions, and we are able to adjust our routes as appropriate to ensure students arrive safely and on time. The Nature Ridge families can also be assured that school bus remains the safest mode of transportation
043for all students. School buses are designed with safety in mind, featuring reinforced structures, high visibility colors, and strict safety standards. For example, school buses follow state law and strict procedures when approaching and crossing railroad tracks to ensure every bus crosses safely and without risk. This is a critical safety measure designed to protect our students. Additionally, our drivers are trained professionals who prior to oritize the safety of every student. School bus drivers undergo extensive training, background checks, and regular evaluations to ensure safe driving practices. They receive specialized training on student behavior management, emergency preparedness, and defensive driving. Our buses are equipped with GPS tracking and surveillance cameras for added security of students, family, and district staff. We also carefully plan designated bus stops to be in the safest possible locations, minimizing exposure to heavy traffic. As
044we design the routes from this area to East View, our designated bus stops will be away from the main roads within the surrounding network neighborhoods. We realize not every family will elect to put their student on the bus and also that families will still need to drive to school for before after school events, athletics or extracurricular activities. We acknowledge this does represent a change for these families and are planning to offer anformational meeting at Nature Ridge later this spring to address this feedback directly. We will share more details with families as this meeting date is confirmed. So now there are only two adjustments to the proposal adjustments we brought forward on March 24th. Um they were based on feedback from board of education members and our community and will allow us to eliminate two split
045feeder patterns. Individual families impacted by these changes received a letter from U46 administration last week informing them of this change to our prior proposal. The first one is in the north end of Bartlett, south end of Streamwood. You're looking at the map. The vertical line on the left is Route 59. Uh the colorful vertical line is the Streamwood version of Bartlett Road and the stairst step is the current boundary between Bartlett Elementary School and Hanover Countryside. With Hanover being uh retired, those students have to be assigned elsewhere. Previously, that section north of the stairstep and south of Irving Park Road uh was going to be assigned to Bartlett. We now move that to Sunnydale. So, in this model, the current handover gets split three ways instead of four. Additionally, because Sunnydale feeds on toft middle
046school, this neighborhood will go to TE instead of Canton to maintain the feeder from Sunnydale onto Middle School. The second change also occurs in Bartlett. This section, the vertical road, north south road on the left is route 59. The blue east west road is Sterns Road. The Walgreens is at the bottom left corner. Um that section currently attends Bartlett Elementary is being proposed to move to Centennial. That doesn't change. What does change is that this section is proposed to move from South Elgen to Bartlett High School to keep all of Centennial at Bartlett. Uh the prior proposal had Bartlett or Centennial being split between Bartlett and South Elgen. This allows them to all go to the same school. And with that, those are the only changes to the boundary proposal. And I now move back
047to Brian for the residency exception. So, at this point, we'll transition to discussing next steps, including our modification to the residency exception request process that we plan to make available to families as part of the transition to these new attendance boundaries. So, while you've heard uh how we've made some updates to the boundaries based on feedback that we've received, as illustrated by the Nature Ridge example, not every suggestion has resulted in a change. We understand this may leave some families with concerns about the impact on their specific neighborhoods. To help address these concerns, we will continue to provide opportunities to submit a residency exception request, which may allow a student to attend a school other than the one assigned under the new attendance boundaries. Our district has an established residency committee that consists of the
048deputy superintendent of instruction, the chief legal office, the assistant superintendents of schools, equity and innovation and teaching and learning and the our executive directors. This committee works to review requests that are received throughout the year and makes determinations based on available information and documentation. Our team has been working to modify our residency exception request process to allow or expedited requests from families due to these attendance boundary changes. So for the upcoming 2526 school year, we plan to allow families to submit requests to have their students potentially preemptively move to their new school a year early if they are impacted by the pending boundary changes. However, we want to make sure families are aware that approving the request will be contingent on available staff and space based on the current staffing allocations at the requested site
049and that parents or guardians will be responsible to provide transportation. Our team will be prepared to process the expected larger volume of requests and will work to accommodate these requests wherever possible within the guidelines that I shared earlier. Once the new boundaries are approved, we will immediately provide our families more information on how to submit these requests. The applications will be linked to our student information system. So, it will require the parent to authenticate with their district credentials or come to their school for assistance completing the online application. Paper requests will not be accepted. We anticipate the deadline for submitting these requests for the upcoming 2526 school year will be on May 15th to allow the committee time to review the requests and to provide updates to our school-based staff before our 10-month employees leave
050for the summer. We realize this will be a quick turnaround, but we need to process these requests to give our schools time to adjust enrollments and student schedules accordingly to support these potential shifts. We will then create a schedule for when we will begin accepting applications for the following year of 2627 when the new attendance boundaries before you this evening would take effect. This will need to happen in the early to midfall to allow to align with our annual master scheduling and staffing timelines. And finally, part of our process will be scheduling individual sessions at each school that is impacted by the boundary changes. These sessions will be tailored for each building, explaining the boundary changes, the timelines, the process to apply for residency exception requests, and more details on opportunities to visit newly assigned
051schools to prepare for the transitions. We will work to get these scheduled later this spring after the board of education has formally approved new attendance boundaries. As we look ahead to these upcoming changes, our priority will be to support every family through this transition. We are partnering closely with school principles to create a comprehensive trans transition plan that includes clear communication, open house events, and community building opportunities. Our goal is to keep families informed and supported throughout the process while providing chances to visit new schools and build meaningful connections before the 2627 school year begins. We remain committed to working handinand with our school leaders to ensure a smooth and caring transition for all of our students and their families. And so next, just a quick reminder of our timeline. The slide shows the timeline
052for implementing the proposed boundary changes um that you're seeing tonight. The new attendance boundaries will be voted on by the board of education uh in this evening's meeting. Following that decision, administration will quickly share more details with our families regarding a timeline to submit their residency exceptional requests for the upcoming 2526 school year. As we've shared previously, the only attendance boundary change that goes into effect for the upcoming 2526 school year is for our new Hawk Hollow Middle School in Bartlett. The attendance boundaries for this school were approved by the board last spring and they will also impact the boundaries of the neighboring schools of East View and Kenyon Woods as well. Then the following year of 2026 27 is when the larger boundary changes that are being considered this evening would take effect and
053our sixth graders will move into our middle schools. As a reminder on the district website under our schools and our boundaries is an interactive map showing the current and proposed boundaries for our elementary, middle, and high schools. Pending approval of the final boundaries by the board of education, this map will be updated and posted to the UniteU46 website for our community. This will be a great resource for anyone wanting to confirm how the new boundaries may or may not impact their particular household. We've also worked with our partner Barraer to provide an address lookup page where a resident can simply enter their address and be presented with the current and future schools assigned to that address. And this link will also be accessible from the Unite U46 page following the approval of the final boundary
054proposal. And that concludes a summary of the proposal for this evening. Are there any questions at this time? Thank you for the presentation and for all of the additional information. Um what I'm going to do I'm assuming that uh board members are going to have some comments uh possibly questions. So I want to make sure everybody at least gets, you know, one chance and then we'll go back for for repeated discussion. Okay. So we can start with Sue. I don't have a question to just say thank you. I know how tough boundary work is and I really appreciate all the work you've done the last couple of years with the forums and I think those really gave people a chance to express their concerns and for you to listen and thank you for being so
055sensitive to all that. So that's that's all I have to say. Kate. Yeah, I don't have a question either. Just my thanks for all of your hard work, all of the details. Um, it's appreciated. It's noticed. Um, thank you. You sine, did you have anything? Same thing. Okay. Thank you, Shondaanda. Same. Thank you. As this being my first time going through this, it's been amazing to see the level of detail and then also the community meetings to generate feedback and and comments. So, thank you for all of your work. Don, yeah, I'm just a thank you to our staff and our administration for the amount of work that's gone in. Thank you to our community who has showed up to these meetings. Um, it really was vital to get feedback from the whole community and
056work together as a team on this. um these these boundaries are going to have long lasting impacts. We are not looking to do this again anytime soon. So I just thank you to all the um all the people involved in the process. Veronica uh and you know I repeat thanks to everyone involved and also to our parents who are going to you know have to deal with changes with their students and modeling that that behavior and and also the schools that are going to be welcoming those new students that you know normally didn't attend their school. I mean, it's a it's a team effort all around with our families and with all our staff and everyone that's worked on this. So, I I appreciate it and I want to just basically thank everyone, including parents.
057And I want to thank you all as well. The my very first CAC meeting way back in 2009 2010 uh was a a boundary meeting. Um, and I think back to the process that we had then, not that it was not that it was a bad process, but um, the the the amount of work that's gone into this has been substantial. Um, and I recognize all of the the time and the effort, especially making this information digestible to everybody. Um, even though the changes may not be everybody's first choice. Um, and I can certainly um say that coming from the Nature Ridge community, um, I recognize that this is, uh, not the most welcome change to all of my neighbors. Um, I do want to reiterate that we've put a lot of time and effort
058to try to make sure that we are making the best possible decision that we can make um based upon the need to first rightsize the the the schools in our district um and also contend with the inventory that we have both with the the older buildings that we that we do need to retire um because they are not serving students the way that we need them to to be and also the new schools that are going in in places where you know we have the land available for us to use. Um, I did ask for uh additional information from administration regarding uh any information that we had on tardy and attendance um for students that live in the the Bartlett West Chicago area that now go to Kenyon Woods. um knowing that that's the reverse
059commute that students are making that the students from the Nature Ridge area will now be making to go to Kent to uh East View. Um and so I thank the administration for pulling that information together. Um I did not see any compelling evidence that there were any marketked issues with attendance and with tardy um concerns with that commute. Um I know that that does not relieve still the concerns that parents have. Um I have gone to a lot of work and I have notes here about you know commute times that um residents from West Chicago right now and Woodland Hills. Those students are traveling 8 to 10 miles a day um to go to Kenyon Woods right now. Um, and so part of the right sizing that we've done with the district in opening up
060Hawk Hollow is to alleviate some of that commute, which brings their commute down to more like the 3m, four mile range. Um, which is very um I I think is going to be a welcome change for for those residents. At the flip side of that, if I measure where my house is going to Kenyon Woods, it's about three miles. And if I go to East View, it's about four or four and a half miles. Um, and so I recognize that there is a a change and that is going to be um something that um is going to to look different for everybody. Um, but when I look at that mileage, it is not all that different from some of the mileage that other residents are doing if they are on the borders of their attendance
061area. Um I think that four mile mark is pretty common if you're out on the border of your attendance area. Um and so you know given all of that um I am going to be voting in favor even though um I know that there's concerns from my neighborhood but there are still these uh what what we are doing comprehensively um is going to serve the district in the long run. Did anybody else have anything else that they'd like to say? Suzanne. Uh, thank you, President Owens. Uh well to begin I want to uh thank uh the board of education uh and I I know uh the extensive leadership support the vision uh that you have provided administration um with this work over really dating back now three plus years uh with starting withite U46 and
062and that that community effort. So I want to thank the board. I want to thank our communities as well. Uh again uh the collective effort of supporting this work um being actively engaged and participating in variety of the meetings, theformational sessions, all of the information that has been shared in a variety of ways. So thank you to the community and a tremendous thank you to uh the administrative team and their ongoing efforts to review the data um and to look at it a variety of different ways. So, as as questions came forward, as scenarios came forward, uh the team really spent a lot of time looking at that. Um Brian uh Lindholm and and Mark Moore uh have spent hours and hours uh driving the district, checking out all of the questions and scenarios and
063the whatifs that I thought and can you explain, please tell me how. And and we really they they've done a tremendous job to do all of that and more. Uh thank you to our principles who have supported this effort as well and it will be an ongoing effort. Uh so it this um you know this evening we expect that this will transition now to the next portion of of this work around communication and literally starting that transition work for our students and our colleagues alike across our system. Uh, but I I thank all involved for trusting us with this work and supporting all of us as we as we move forward. So, I'm excited to be part of it. Thank you. If there's nothing else, I will call for a roll call. Miss Kerr, yes.
064Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Motion carried. Thank you everyone. Our next item this evening is the renewal of school district U46 High School membership in the Illinois High School Association IHSA 20252026. Dr. Dr. Natavdo, assistant superintendent of schools, will present a request to the board of education to certify the renewal of membership in IHSA. IHSA membership will not require payment of dues. The district's five high schools participate in the organization and the district will submit five signed membership membership copies due by June 30th, 2025. And may I have a motion for the renewal of school district U46 high school membership in the Illinois High School Association for the year two uh school year 2025 through 2026. So moved. Second. Any questions or
065discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owen, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Our next item this evening, biology curriculum resource proposal. Uh coming forward we have Lela Mistovich, deputy superintendent of instruction, Celia Banks, director of curriculum and instruction, Deb McMullen, coordinator of K12 science and planetarium, and Frankie Valencia, secondary science instructional coach, who will be available for questions relating to the biology curriculum resource proposal. Hey, may I have a motion to approve the biology curriculum resource proposal with an associated estimated cost of $728,910.76? So moved. Second. Do we have any questions for our science and curriculum experts? Sue. So I'm going to support this. And the reason I am is because I actually took a deep dive into it.
066since it's an open-source thing, I could sign up and pretend I was a teacher and they made all the materials accessible. I was really impressed. Um, just to give you what what what impressed me was it would begin each lesson began with one topic, one subject to sort of grab the kids' interests and then it just exploded from there and brought in different scientific concepts. Um, for example, they had zombie wildfires, I think is the second lesson in biology. Fires up in the Arctic under under the surface, which it so they they explained those, but then they got into photosynthesis. They got into other issues. Really impressive. I was also impressed at the collaboration that they that it emphasized among the students. And I like the fact that um the they gave the teachers a
067lot of details on scheduling. that said you you should spend you know about an 8 minutes do this you should do this sort of material. So I I was really I liked it. So I have two questions for you. One is one thing I picked up as they were you know as you go through this they say well you they should have had this background in middle school. How do we feel about that? Do we feel like our kids have that background or will they have that background? Is is this on I feel very strongly that they're going to have that background. Um, I had my middle school expert here with us, but um, but our middle school teachers have actually embraced this model um, for five years now. And so this has been happening
068at the middle school level for quite a while, the sense making process. So, okay, good. Feel good about it. Okay. And my second question is, I think you said last time this is not going to be for the honest students. This is for the regular biology classrooms. I could see kids getting so excited about biology, they want to take AP biology. Are they going to be able to be up there with the kids who did honors biology? Yeah. Yes. Um so in all the groups that we interviewed um across the country, many school districts have open sad as the curriculum for honors. Neapville is apparently getting rid of honors just using this. I I read. Yeah. Yes. Okay. and we when Neapville was one of the school districts that we talked to and collaborated with.
069So, um the answer to that is yes. I think the honors um curriculum that we have in place is very rig rigorous. It is um it was built to model um preap. Um, but what we we had to do a lot of work to make it threedimensional because as as it was it was very content and actually lower rigor than NGSS. So we had to do a lot of work with that honors biology curriculum to really raise the rigor of it so that there would be a distinct difference. Um, but the as you saw that honors or that that open sad really treats kids like scientists. they have all of the collaborative skills and so a student would would be able to and we did some dives into open sad and actually compared it to
070um honors bio and AP bio like side by side and um all of our reports came back that there was equity in it a kid could go okay thank you yeah of course thank you any other discussion or questions so I'm I'm voting yes um I just want to say though the number of like memos we've seen from instructional counsel in the past. This one just concerns me a little bit because there's just more concerns in general from our instructional council about um the three programs that we're rolling out. So, I mean, I really do look forward I will be watching to see how our pilot rolls out for the other two programs and I look forward to an update for how the staff accepts the program. I do have concerns that it seems like
071it's a little bit more work for our teachers. So, I'm just going to be excited in a year or two to see how the curriculum rolls out and make sure it's working the way we hoped. And I will say though, though Deb provided lots of information for our instructional council members, I think there was still some misunderstandings when the memo was written and I write the memo to reflect what they say exactly. No, that's fair. Thank you. Anyone else? I'll just I'll uh I'll agree with Sue. I would didn't have the time that I would have liked to have had to to do the dive into the the curriculum, but you know, coming from the the generation where biology, high school biology meant dissecting a frog, right? Like that was the only thing we got
072out of high school biology basically. um to be moving in this inquirybased um you know it's uh just I I said again um the when we had the proposal three weeks ago that um given what I've seen um during my own master's program in biology this syncs up so well with that and so you know knowing that the experience that our students are going to get here is continued then in secondary education. I think that that's a that's a huge bonus for us. So, thank you. Welcome. Thank you. We can take a roll call. Miss Kirk? Yes. Miss Khan? Yes. Miss Martin? Yes. Miss Nolan? Yes. Miss Schwarz? Yes. Miss Thomas? Yes. President Owens? Yes. Motion carried. Next item is the chemistry pilot proposal. Our team remains at the deis and they are available for
073questions relating to the chemistry pilot proposal. Hey, may I have a motion to approve the chemistry uh chemistry pilot proposal with an estimated cost of full implement for full implementation of $593,69724. Second. Any additional questions or comments? Sue, just just one question about the pilot. Are you going to allow teachers to say pilot one of the lessons? I mean, if they don't want to do the whole year thing or how much flexibility are we giving teachers? We're going to need them to pilot the entire thing. Not to say that if they aren't in the pilot and they want to dabble, they could, but in terms of making sure that we have the appropriate materials, they need that decision up front. Okay. Do you have a number yet of how many teachers might be interested in
074playing? Not yet, but we hear from we're hearing from people. So, it's good. Good. It's good. Thanks. Anyone else? Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Kurt, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Nolan, yes. Motion carried. Next is the physics pilot proposal. Again, our team of science experts remain at the ready to address questions. May I have a motion to approve the physics pilot proposal with an estimated cost for full imple implementation at 549,61784? So move second. Any further questions or discussion? 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. Thank you. Thank you. Our next item is the German, French, and Spanish curriculum proposal. Uh joining Lala Murvich,
075deputy superintendent of instruction and Selia Banks, director of curriculum instruction, um is Jacob Vandy Mortell, coordinator of K12, social studies and world languages. All are available for questions relating to the German, French, and Spanish curriculum proposal. May I have a motion to approve the German, French, and Spanish curriculum proposal with associated estimated costs of 929,73741? So moved. Second. Any questions for the panel or discussion? None. Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owen, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Next uh is the high school civics, economics, United States history and American studies, world geography, and world history, social studies curriculum resource proposal. Our team continues to be available for questions relating to the high school civics, economics, United States history
076and American studies, world geography, and world history, social studies curriculum resource proposal. May I have a motion to approve the high school civics, economics, United States history and American studies, world geography, and world history social studies curriculum resource proposal with an associated estimated cost of 1,132,125. So moved. Second. Any questions or discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Barton, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Nolan, yes. Motion carried. Our next item is the high school advanced placement social studies curriculum resource only proposal. And again, our team remains uh ready to answer questions relating to the high school advanced placement social studies curriculum resource proposal. May I have a motion to approve the high school advanced placement social studies curriculum resourceonly proposal with an estimated cost
077of 136,87169? So moved. Second. Any questions or discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Barton, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owens, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next item is a proposal from the chief of staff annexation agreement. Brian Lindholm, chief of staff and Dr. Anne Williams, deputy superintendent of operations, will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the annexation agreement with the city of Elgen for the property located at 2604 Rorson Road in Elgen, Illinois, and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. May I have a motion to approve the annexation agreement with the city of Elgen for the property at 2604 Roren Road in Elgen,
078Illinois, and authorize district administration to execute related documents. moved second. Did you have any information you wanted to share with the board? Uh I could provide a a a quick summary. So the um of the two properties adjacent um the southern parcel which is our our new property is currently vacant and undeveloped and it's an unincorporated Cook County. The northern parcel where Hilltop Elementary sits is uh in the city of Elgen. It's zoned in their community facility district. So our proposed middle school project will actually span the two parcels. So to be able to receive the um zoning and permits and things through the city of Belgium, we really needed to annex the property of the city of Belgium as well as to receive municipal services like city sewer and water. Um so the prior
079owner was the arch dasis of Chicago who had owned the property for many years never really came forward with any plans to develop anything on the property. So they had not taken the steps to annex the property. Board members have any questions? Okay. 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. Thank you. Next item. Minutes of board committee meetings. Attached to the board of education's review are the following board committee meeting minutes. February 24th, 2025, Board of Education Finance Committee meeting. Administration recommends the board of education accept the minutes. May I have a motion to accept the minutes of the February 24th, 20125 board of education finance committee meeting? So moved. Second. Any questions or discussion? Okay.
080Roll call, please. Miss Kerr, yes. Miss Khan, yes. Miss Martin, yes. Miss Nolan, yes. Miss Schwarz, yes. Miss Thomas, yes. President Owen, yes. Motion passes. Okay, that brings us to other business. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. Uh, this evening we have the February financial report. Dr. Frank Williams, assistant superintendent of finance, will review the attached financial report and we'll respond to questions from the board of education. Hey. All right. Good evening. The February the district achieved a surplus or approximately 1.4 4 million before financing activities and with the financing which of course is was the bond issuance. Revenues exceeded expenditures by 61.4 million. The district's financial health remains strong supported by cash reserves, disciplined spending, and well-managed fund balances. The monthly financial report provides insight into current spending while aiding in planning for the
081rest of the fiscal year. A revenue perspective, in February, the district received around 55.7 million in revenue without financing, reaching about 60% of the annual budget target. An improvement over historical average of about 53% usually this time of year. Notably, interest income has been strong with 2.3 million in February, bringing the year-to- date to around 20.2 million, which will help in the funding of all the ongoing Unite U46 projects. From an expenditure perspective, total expenditures for February were about 54.3 million, representing nearly 60% of the annual budget. Expenditures as a percentage of the budget are trending a little below historical averages, which is around 67%. The primary spending areas were salaries and benefits, which accounted for roughly 69 to 66% of their respective annual budgets. Construction project spending continued with a year-to-ate total of 25.8
0828 million at the end of February. These costs are expected to increase as we advance towards the end of Hawk Hollow project and have participated in a few ground bound breakings recently. The district's liquidity remains robust with cash and money market balance totaling 364.6 million, investment balance nearing 462 million, resulting in total assets of 826.3 million. With over 330 days of cash on hand at the end of February, the district is well prepared to meet short-term obligations and is well positioned for future expenditures. Thank you for the report. Do board members have any questions? Ju just one on the revenues. We get uh Cook County and DuPage property taxes in May or June or so. Yeah, Cook County was has been coming in through February and March time frame. It's dupage that usually start about
083May. Right now they're scheduled to towards the end of May and then we'll go all the way through typically July. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Okay, that brings us to work session. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. This evening we have the high school career and technical education childhood education curriculum resource proposal. Silly Banks, director of curriculum and instruction. Dorene Roberts, coordinator of career and technical uh education, and La Stovich, deputy superintendent of instruction, will provide the board of education with information relating to the high school career and technical education childhood education curriculum resource proposal. All right. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present this proposal. This presentation is for item 14A on tonight's agenda because there's two proposals. I'm here to propose the adoption and funding of new childhood education
084curriculum and resources for our high school courses. The adoption and implementation of the curriculum and resources for these courses aligns with the pillars of student success and effective and engaged staff in the district's strategic plan. The childhood education courses have not been updated in over a decade. This led to outdated curricular resources, inconsistent curriculum implementation, lack of standards alignment, and lack of common assessments across our high schools. The proposed updates and revisions help us align this pathway to the post-secondary and workforce readiness act that was passed in 2016. In order to assess the effectiveness of our curriculum, we need relevant and common rigorous curriculum and assessments in our childhood education courses. There has been work leading up to these course to these course recommendations over the last few years. This year I was able to
085assemble a team of childhood education teachers to review the resources and the curriculum. This team of childhood education teachers met and supported developing this recommendation. In addition to these teachers, Corey Maynard, U46 preschool coordinator, and Micah Kennedy, U46 assistant director in the post-secary success department, and the assistant principles who oversee childhood education in each high school provided input and feedback. This process began in 2022 when childhood education teachers along with other CTE teachers were brought together to review course relevancy and identify learning standards for their CTE content areas. In the fall of 2024, resources that align with the selected industry standards were identified. A team of childhood education teachers was selected to identify a scope and sequence for each course and reviewed the standard aligned resources. All childhood education teachers were given the opportunity to
086provide feedback on the recommendations of the team. Of our 13 childhood education teachers, 41 resource review forms were completed. The team then reassembled to review the feedback and make a final recommendation. The team's recommendations are being presented this evening. The standards that were selected for these courses include the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education Early Childhood Standards, NAI, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Professional Standards for Early Childhood Educators, Educator Rising Standards, and Illinois English Language Arts Standards. The team determined these standards represent the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in their post-secary journeys in the education field. The childhood education program of study begins with the basics of human development. As students progress through these courses, they demonstrate their knowledge assisting in a preschool setting, planning
087and facilitating learning experiences in the preschool setting, and taking on collaborating with teachers in the elementary school classrooms. In the childhood education sequence, students can begin with child development or childhood education in either grade 9 or 10. These courses do not have a prerequisite, allowing for flexibility in the pathway. In childhood education and advanced childhood education, the high school students spend portions of their time in the preschool classrooms. As students move through these two courses, they learn to assist in the preschool, then plan and facilitate the learning of the preschool students. Students who move on to education internship will use what they have previously learned and apply it to working with mentor teachers in elementary classrooms. Although students in this pathway practice teacher roles in multiple courses, there are opportunities to learn about the many
088careers in the field of education. The learning students will achieve in this course sequence will prepare them for pursuing careers in the field of education. Along with the revised course curriculum, the team recommends texts and resources. There will be classroom sets of texts as well as online access. The online access includes supplementary materials for both teachers and students such as banks of videos for supporting the content, extension activities, and career connections. You'll notice that we have included curriculum resources that are currently used in our district preschool programs. This is intentional to support our high school students and using research play-based curriculum to plan as well as support high schools that may transition to incorporating preschool for all classrooms at their buildings. The implementation of the curriculum and resources in the childhood education pathway will begin
089in the 2025 2026 school year. To prepare for implementation, voluntary professional development will be offered and resource training is included in the cost of our purchase from the publishing companies. As the curriculum is implemented, data will be used to monitor the implementation, monitor student achievement, and determine professional learning needs for staff. Professional development will be offered in each course. Teachers will have the opportunity to unpack the curriculum and assessments and to collaborate with colleagues to plan instruction. Childhood education teachers will participate in training on the resources that will be used in each of the courses. The total cost of initial implementation of the four childhood education courses is listed here. The cost includes textbooks, online licenses, supplementary materials, and professional development time. There will be an ongoing yearly cost for consumables to implement the curriculum,
090which comes to approximately $20 per student in childhood education courses. And as a result of the implementation of the updated childhood education curriculum, we expect students to be engaged and excited about the curriculum and opportunities ahead of them. That common resources and assessments will be used across school sites. There will be alignment with the PWR act and our ability to explore pathway endorsements in childhood education. There may be increased enrollment in our CTEU courses and we can explore incorporating opportunities to earn industry credentials in this pathway and students will be ready for college and career after leaving our schools. The childhood education pathway will be reviewed on reviewed on an annual basis by analyzing feedback and data to inform adjustments in the curriculum and professional learning for staff. And that concludes the childhood education presentation.
091Thank you for the presentation. Do board members have questions, Don? I don't have a question. I just want to say I'm actually really excited to see this tonight. Um, literally last week I had a parent showing me their incoming freshman schedule and the parent was like, "Oh, they chose to take childhood education one. I don't know where they go with this." And I was like, "It's one of our pathways." Like, there's other education courses. It leads through them through ch and they just didn't know. I feel like some of our courses that we have a set pathways because they don't lead to certifications or they're not as they're not talked about as much so that our families don't know. So, I was really excited to see this tonight because I was like I I was
092literally just talking to a parent and they were really excited to hear that that this is a you know that there was an education pathway. They didn't know about it. So, I'm glad to see it tonight. I'm glad that we're putting more investment into it and modernizing it and remind our families that we have lots of pathway options. There's so many choices in our schools and education is one of them. Thank you for bringing this forward. Yes, of course. Anyone else? Okay, thank you. All right, so this team is going to stay right here. And as Darin indicated, there was a second proposal uh for high school career and technical education culinary arts curriculum resource proposal this evening as well. Yeah. Okay. Um well, thank you for the opportunity to present a second proposal to
093you this evening. This one aligns to 14B on tonight's agenda. This is for the adoption and funding of new culinary arts curriculum and resources for our high school courses. The adoption and implementation of the curriculum and resources for these courses also aligns with the pillars of student success and effective and engaged staff in the district strategic plan. The culinary arts courses has have also not been updated in over a decade. This led to outdated curricular resources, inconsistent curriculum implementation, lack of standards alignment, and lack of common assessments across our high schools. The proposed updates and revisions prepare us to align to education pathway endorsement requirements of the PWR Act. In order to assess the effectiveness of our curriculum, we need to have relevant and common rigorous curriculum and assessments in our culinary arts courses. There
094has been work that led up to these course recommendations over the last few years. This year, I was able to assemble a team of culinary arts teachers to review the resources in the curriculum. Here are the culinary arts teachers that met this year and assisted in this recommendation. In addition to these teachers, Micah Kennedy, an assistant director in the post-secary success department and the assistant principles who oversee culinary arts in the high schools provided input and feedback. This process also began in 2022. Mon culinary arts teachers along with other CTE teachers were brought together to review course relevancy and identify learning standards for the CTE content areas. In the fall of 2024, resources that align with the standards were identified. A team was selected for culinary arts. The team identified a scope and sequence for
095each course and reviewed the standards standard aligned resources. All culinary arts teachers were given the opportunity to provide feedback on the recommendations of the team. We have 20 culinary arts teachers in our district and we received 11 resource review forms. Some teachers provided informal feedback and the team then reassembled to review the feedback and make a final recommendation. The team's recommendations are presented this evening. The industry aligned learning standards that were selected for these courses include the national standards for family and consumer sciences food production services and the Illinois English language arts standards. The team determined these standards represent the knowledge and skills that students will need to be successful in their post-secary journeys in the hospitality field. The culinary arts program of study begins by introducing students to residential kitchen essentials and home focused
096cooking techniques. As students advance through the courses, they build on their knowledge to per to perform in a restaurant setting, learning elements of the hospitality industry and running a restaurant within the school. Throughout the courses, students will focus on building content knowledge and applying what they have learned in the kitchen lab setting. The culinary arts courses course sequence begins with the introduction to culinary a arts offered in grades 9 and 10. Students then move into culinary arts, advanced culinary arts, and culinary arts and restaurant management. During two of these courses, culinary arts and the culinary arts and restaurant management course, students will have the opportunity to earn an industry credential. They can earn the serve safe food handler certification and this is needed to work in a setting where food is prepared and served. The
097certification is offered when students are at the approximate age to start entering the workforce. Then in the capstone course, students have the opportunity to earn the serve safe manager certification. The certification expands on the food handler certification by including the skills to manage in a food service setting and set students up for success in the school restaurant. Along with the revised curricula course curriculum, the teams have recommended texts and resources. There will be a classroom set of texts as well as online access to the books. The online access includes supplementary materials for both both teachers and students. There will be banks of videos supporting the content, recipe banks, extension activities, and career connections. The implementation of the curriculum and resources in culinary arts will begin in the 2025 2026 school year. To prepare for implementation,
098there will be professional development that is offered and research and resource training which is included in the cost of our purchase from the publishing companies. As the curriculum is implemented, data will be used to monitor the implementation, student achievement, and determine professional learning needs for staff. Professional development will be offered for each course. Teachers will have the opportunity to unpack the curriculum and assessments and to collaborate with colleagues to plan instruction. They will participate in resource training that will be used in each course. The total cost of initial implementation for the four culinary arts courses is listed here. The cost includes textbooks, online licenses, supplementary materials, and professional development time. There will be an ongoing yearly cost for consumables to implement the curriculum, which comes to approximately $90 per student in the high school culinary
099arts courses. And as a result of the implementation of the culinary arts curriculum, we expect that students will be engaged and excited about our courses and the opportunities that they have. We expect common resources and assessments to be used across school sites. There will be alignment with the PWR act and our ability to explore pathway endorsements in culinary arts and hospitality areas. There will be an increase in CTE enrollment. We hope students will earn industry credentials and students will be ready for college and career after leaving our schools. The pathway will be reviewed on an annual basis by analyzing feedback and data to inform adjustments in the curriculum and professional learning for staff. And that concludes the culinary arts presentation. And thank you for that presentation. Do board members have questions? Sue, uh, just a
100quick question. I know I think all of our high schools had a a cafe that could be a studentrun cafe. Are they active at all these days? I I know they closed down around COVID, but I'm not sure the status of all of them. Yeah, they they still run and that's the cafe that gets um run during the um capstone course, the restaurant management course. Okay. So, usually a couple times a week or Okay, great. Thanks. Any other questions? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is work session bids and proposals. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. This evening, uh, we have a bid for plant operations. Bartlett Elementary School emergency generator installation, Clinton Elementary School emergency generator installation, and Hillrest Elementary School emergency generator replacement projects number 535-25, 653-25, and
101929-25. Sheila DS, executive director of facilities, will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder, Newcastle Electric Incorporated in the amount of 1,728,000 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations and maintenance fund. cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 through 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Okay, thank you. Our next item is a bid early learner initiatives department early learners furniture. Lala Murovich, deputy superintendent of instruction along with Katie Cox, director of early learners. Is Pam coming too? Sure. The entire early learning team uh is here. Uh administration recommends award to the lowest responsible biders discount school supply in the amount of $1,439.95.
102Frank Cooney Company in the amount of $30,168.70. Kaplan Early Learning Company in the amount of $18,544, Lakeshore Learning Materials in the amount of $15,34860, School Outfitters in the amount of $1,12.86, 86 and school specialty in the amount of $112,75859 for the total amount of $179,363.14 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 2024 2025 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions for the early education team? Oh, okay. Thank you. Next, a bid plant operations Bartlett Elgen, Larkin South Elgen, and Streamwood High School's backs stop replacement project number 2072-25. Sheila DS returns to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder
103Omni Commercial Group Incorporated in the amount of $820,000 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 and 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have any question? Okay. Next is a bid for plant operations Highland Elementary domestic water piping replacement project number 9002-25. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder, Northwest Contractors Incorporated in the amount of $913,682 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations and maintenance fund cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Okay. Next to bid for plan operations Bartlett High School Pathways Phase 1
104automotive and engineering and phase 2 culinary arts and healthcare science renovation project number 210-25. Administration recommends award the lowest responsible bidder the George Sollet Construction Company in the amount of 3,791,973 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the operations and maintenance fund cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? done. Is it possible to get a reminder very highlevel overview of what the work is that we're doing? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So, um a lot of things are compliance related and so there are a lot of safety items that um go into effect and so we're going to separate the engineering and the automotive spaces, make sure that the exhaust is done properly.
105We're going to replace the flooring, the lighting and such. Um and then in the culinary spaces um we're doing um very similar work in that we're upgrading some of the appliances, going to do floor lighting and um all of that as well. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? Okay. Next bid plant operations Coleman Elementary School roof replacement project number 686-25. Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible bidder Crowther roofing and sheet metal in the amount of $1,643,000 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged the operations and maintenance fund cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Okay. Next, a proposal plan operations Vermeier brush chipper administration recommends approval of the proposal from Vermeier
106Midwest in the amount of $70,250 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 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? Okay. Next proposal plan operations Hilltop Elementary playground playset replacement. Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Game Time Care of Cunningham Recreation in the amount of $93,38.65 and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This this expenditure will be charged to the operations and maintenance fund. The cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? Don, sorry, I'm full of questions tonight. So, I was looking at our proposals and I noticed that it says that we have a certified playground
107safety inspector on staff. We do. We actually have several within the grounds department. It's something that they're extremely proud of, but it saved the district a lot of money because we are able to install our playgrounds. Um, so we've adopted standards, so they are very familiar with those standards, but they install them internally. That's fantastic. And I'm going to assume that they also do regular inspections then on like all of our PL. So like we have them in-house. We can do regular inspections and use. Correct. They have an inspection program. That is fantastic. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? Okay. All right. And the last one at least for a little while. Uh proposal plan operations prek playground play sets and surfacing. Uh Sheila remains here of course. Administration recommends approval of the proposal
108from Game Time Care of Cunningham Recreation in the amount of $1,470,14062. 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 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. That brings us to work session contracts over 35,000. Dr. Johnson. Thank you, President Owens. Our first item, contract renewal, information services, Microsoft licenses. Jim Wolf, director of information services, will present the attached proposal summary and will respond to questions from the board of education. Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with CDW Amplified in the amount of $149,27.20 20 cents and requests authorization for district administration to execute related documents. This expenditure will be charged to the education fund.
109The cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year. Do board members have any questions? Okay. Our next item, contract information services, Google Workspace. Administration recommends approval of the contract with CDW Amplified in the amount of $44,868 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 2024 2025 through 2026 2027 fiscal years. Do board members have any questions? Okay. And finally, a contract information services mindsite fornet firewall. Administration recommends approval of the contract with Mindsight Incorporated in the amount of 1,54,985 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
110board members have any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that being 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 Owens, yes. We are adjourned at 8:50 p.m.