001At this time, I'd like to call the meeting of the Summit Hill School District to order. Will you please rise for the pledge? I take a roll call. Melissa Ryan? Here. Adrienne Chavez? Here. Patrick Oliphant? Here. John Winter? Here. Amy Burke? Here. Ron Petrie here. And Joy Murphy will be late with notice. At this time, we would like to recognize our April Summit Award winner. Okay, so we are excited to recognize two Summit Award winners this month, both PE teacher Martin Acevedo and reading specialist Jamie LeClellan. We're nominated by lunchroom supervisors at Dr. Julian Rogge School. Give me a wave. I see them all back there in their matching shirts. They came in support. So Martin is in his 21st year in the district teaching PE at Hilda Walker for many years before moving over
002to DJR. Jamie was hired in 2003 as a kindergarten teacher before moving over to become a reading specialist. In their nomination, our supervisors from the DJR lunchroom say, we respectfully nominate Mr. Acevedo and Mrs. McClellan for Summit Awards. In addition to their primary responsibilities, they serve as certified staff overseeing kindergarten lunch and recess. Their exemplary organization, consistent adherence to school guidelines and intentional efforts to build positive relationships with our youngest learners, distinguish them as exceptional educators. Through their leadership and dedication, they foster a structured, safe, nurturing, and fun environment where kindergartners feel supported and valued. They embody professionalism, teamwork, and a deep commitment to student well-being, making them truly deserving of this recognition. So then we went and got Francie Boss. And so Francie added, Jamie is an amazing team member. She works hard to
003know each kindergarten student by name and is quick to assist not only their academic concerns, but their emotional concerns as well. During lunchtime, she will address anything from a forgotten lunch, a hurt feeling, or needing help with a jacket. And she is a true professional and always has the best interest of her students in heart. And Martine has done an amazing job with our kindergarten students in the lunchroom, actually making the process of being in the lunchroom fun. You can often hear the kindergarten students chanting fun messages, like be a good neighbor, bear down, I don't know what that means. Mr. Asevedo, everybody knows I'm a Steelers fan. So Mr. Asevedo does an amazing job of connecting with our students and engaging them. We're so thankful to have these people as a part of our
004roguish team. Thank you, Martine and Jamie, and congratulations on your summit awards. Would you please come forward to accept your certificates? All right, come on, ladies, you all have to go. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Can you guys come over a little bit? Are you good, man? Everybody wants to be in the back row. All right, that works, all right, all right, all right. Would it help if I took a knee? No, it's okay. Yeah. You have to sing acapella now. Everybody stand up. I am ready. Everybody, let's be in. Thank you, guys. And if our honorees would like to excuse themselves politely, we will not make you stay the rest of the meeting. We appreciate. Moving on to the Freedom of Information Act.
005Wow, we have had a lot of foyers this month. We had eight in total. Some of them were requesting information about insurance for different employees, classes of employees. The rest were more commercial in nature. And so although we struggled to get them all done, we have them all done. Everyone has been responded to, and we're good on those. Moving on to our Student Board of Education member Leah's report. Good evening, board members. Students across the district have been preparing for their last month of school in May. There are only 25 days left and only 22 school days until graduation. So with this school year coming to a close for all students, pre-K through seventh grade, students have been focusing on keeping up with their grades so that we can attend all of the fun events
006at the end of the school year. As for the eighth graders, we are getting prepared for graduation and then entering the new chapter of high school life and seeing what it will look like. We can't wait to see what the next year will hold for all of us and how much we can grow. Thank you. Very nice. Goes fast, doesn't it? All right, moving on to comments. Lisa Brace. Hello. My name is Lisa Brace. I'm a Summit Hill parent and community member. First thing I want to talk about is some potential issues with some new zoning going on around Rogus School. The AIA Mosque wants to expand, which I support their expansion, but there's concern as community member about they want to put a road, a drive onto 88th, about 200 feet from the school.
007As a community member, my concerns are first, additional traffic on that road. We've got kids who need to be picked up and dropped off, and also those of us who no longer have students at Rogus still live in that area. So we're taking that road as a major thoroughfare. And I don't know how their traffic pattern is. I think they need to do a little more research into what the effect on that road will be, because if there's any expansion needed, that's going to add construction, too. And construction on that road could impact our school transportation and the community. And it's kind of a touchy area, because it really butts up against the county. So it's Frankfurt, it's Tinley, it's the county, which makes it a little bit of a mess. And like I said,
008I support their need to expand. They want to expand, that's great. But I just ask that they put a little more planning into it, so we understand the impact. And I appreciate the board just attending some of those meetings that they've been doing, so that we have a good understanding of what potential impact will be to our community. The next thing I want to talk about is books. So I want to praise the recent change for those science curriculum where we're adding books. There's been a lot of studies, and a lot of us in the community have been concerned about the use of tablets as a primary source of education. So I praise and encourage the continuation of this combination of both tablets and books. Jane is a parent who had a child struggling this
009year. I think one of the reasons that she was able to kind of overcome those struggles is her math teacher, Mrs. Moronto, gives a paper sheet every week that reinforces the lesson. I think she was really struggling doing just as her supportive work. And I think for a lot of students like her, the pencil to paper action helps root that into her head, and it forces her to kind of really just line those math numbers up on the sheet of paper and clearly see where she's struggling. I think it helps the teacher understand what she's doing, and also helps her kind of get that into her rote memory. So I appreciate that, and I just want to encourage more conversion over to a book. And I want to talk about testing a little bit, too.
010You know, our kids, we're doing math three times a year. We're doing IAR. Now, in fifth grade, we've added a science test, and we're spending time prepping for the tests. We're spending time taking the tests, and we're losing instructional time for our students. And I don't know what we're required to do by the state, and I know we have to do what But I think as a community, we need to speak up and say, no more tests, you know, or at least less tests. You know, can we do with one or two tests a year? I think we can, and I think we can get enough information about our students so that our students can focus on learning. So I appreciate your time, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. I just want to
011jump in real quick and add that the township meeting is tomorrow at 630 p.m. It's at 432 West Nebraska Street, and I do plan on attending with some of my friends up here. Yes. So, Lisa, we did make note of last month's public comment. We thought it was a really great idea, so we are doing some follow-up information on providing some numbers regarding, you know, how much internal hiring we've done and internal promotion, and I think it's just great to celebrate that and promote that as well. So just wanted to make sure you knew we are going to report on that. We took a quick look today. Current employees, we have 34 employees who entered in some kind of a position and then moved on to another position within the district. So we've shared that
012information with the board, and we'll start sharing that report out. We have our junior board members. Hello, everyone. I hope you all are having a wonderful evening so far. Tuesday, April 14th, the student council attended the Mokina Village Hall and learned amazing things about finance, plumbing, and leadership. Afterward, we toured the Mokina Police Station, and I have to say it was out of a movie. Afterward, we went to Beggar's and enjoyed some pizza. The experience was amazing, and we thank you in the Mokina Village Hall for welcoming and allowing us to attend this outing. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. To add on to what Olivia had to say, we had a mock board meeting, and we got to have positions of the people of the actual board. We had a live audience at
013home or family who came in to see us in person. It was amazing, and we got to learn so many new things about our local government. We would also like to send a thank you to the Mokina Township Board for allowing us for this opportunity. We hope to do this again next year. Thank you for listening, and have a great night. Thank you. Very good. You know you guys can always use this board room, too, if you guys want to do any mocks or anything. Did you guys talk about Robert's Rules of Order and all that? No? It's interesting. It could be dry, but it's also interesting. It's how you should run a board, and people get turns to talk and everything, and so it's very, very good. So I'll leave that to Laura Lee.
014Hence the name Robert's Rules of Order, but we'll talk about it later. Very good. For E, letters and communication and informational items in newspaper articles appear at the end of the board book. And moving on to five action items, 5A, Consent agenda. I move that we approve the items on the Consent agenda for this meeting as presented, including 5A1A, Enforce, and Enforce. 5A1A, regular session meeting minutes of March 18th, 2026. 5A1B, closed session meeting minutes of March 18th, 2026. 5A2, approval of December, January, February, and March treasurer's report slash financial report. 5A3, approval of bills list of April 22nd, 2026. 5A4, approval of resignation of staff, Toribio Alvarado, effective April 13th, 2026. Payton Hatch, effective April 20th, 2026. 5A5, approval of family medical leave, none at this time. 5A6, approval of employment of staff. Kelly
015Nordine, ESY social worker. Maiden Studenacki, ESY special education teacher. Jen Adams, ESY nurse. Jackie Rozek, ESY occupational therapist. Vanessa Mowry, ESY paraprofessional. Shannon Mielnickle, ESY paraprofessional. Robert Lewandowski, night custodian at Summit Hill Junior High. 5A7, approval of the consolidated district plan for grants. 5A8, authorization to develop the tentative budget for the 26-27 school year. And we will talk about nine and 10 separately. So approval through 5A8. Can I have motion? So moved. Second. Roll call. John Winter. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Motion carries. We will now look at 5A9, which is discussion to purchase your eight approved items from CDWG. Do I have a motion to approve before we can start discussion? So moved. Second. Okay, now discussion. Do you wanna? Okay, so we're
016trying to get in a better cadence of presenting information one month and then looking for approval the second month. And so what our team is doing is putting information in the board member's hands. So you can just kind of read along and then also ask any questions between the time you first get the information and the time that you're asked to vote. And so what we have here is we have a new firewall. This is being looked at to be purchased in conjunction with our e-rate program. The district receives a 40% discount on both categories of e-rate purchasing. And so what we have here is a Fortnight FortiGate firewall. Our current firewall reaches end of life on August 30th, 2028. So that is not, I'm sorry, it's not end of life yet. However, the pricing
017to support that, you'll see it says the one-year Palo Alto licensing for this firewall would cost $28,639.74. The purchase of the new firewall, the district will pay $13,840. And so what we're looking at doing is making the purchase of a new firewall to save in excess of $10,000 next year and each year thereafter. And then saving the current firewall in the event we have a breach or we have an issue with what we're using so that we've got backup so that we don't have to end our instruction or access to the internet. And so on 247, you'll see that the technology department has put together some information for you. It says we would keep the current Palo Alto firewall as a spare in case anything would happen hardware wise and a new Fortinet firewall that
018we could quickly switch back over to just to ensure that there'd be minimum downtime for the district. We received two proposals, one from CDWG and one from Vertec. Vertec is our network consulting company. While Vertec bid on the same Fortnight part numbers, they could not compete with the pricing and product discounting from CDWG. And so the two different proposals, Fortnight through CDW was $3,497. Through Vertec was $5,995. The enterprise production for five years through CDW was $14,863.38 and through Vertec was an excess of 25,000. And so that's the benefit of going out and having multiple vendors give you information on your purchasing. And again, the idea was to purchase a new firewall and have it supported and save a considerable amount of funds rather than just staying with our same firewall and paying a pretty
019exorbitant price to have it supported. So quick question, Paul, when do we got the last firewall? Because it now expires in 2028, but I don't know when it started. I think it was five years, but let me check and get back to you. That's a good question. Because if we're doing another five year, does that mean that this is gonna cost us more money than two as well? So my problem is we already have one paid for 2028. We did a five year plan knowing at that cost and now we're gonna buy another one. And so now we have two, what I'm trying to say. So if I remember correctly, and I might be wrong, so I'll do the research on it, but I believe that the subscription to service has ended. And so even
020though the firewall is still not end of life in order to support it, that's the cost we're trying to dodge. That's it, okay. So that's more understanding of what I'm looking for. So we're not paying anymore. We've already paid for that. Correct, correct. But I'll pull that together. I'll put that inside the communication to the board just so you have a specific answer to that. And again, there's no approvals tonight. And so as you read through this, if you come up with additional questions, please just let me know. And then we'll put that in a format for the board. Do we pay any kind of service contract for them now? Or are we still obligated to that service contract? We are not, no. So we do pay currently and this would take? This would be
021for next year, yeah. So when I was looking at the CDWG proposal, I didn't notice if there was additional costs for them to work on the old firewall that we had. Like everything was just about the new firewall that they would have, right? And the really wonderful detection systems that they operate with, super advanced, like really incredible. Like I think at one point you could consider that every student and every teacher could stream a high definition and it would function just fine. Like everybody at the same time, it's really great. But is there an additional cost to them having to service the Palo Alto firewall should we need it? Because it's not their equipment, they're not proposing it. Correct, yeah. I will get that answer for you and send it along. Okay. Appreciate that. This
022is hidden costs, they show up at the worst times. Any further questions? Are we voting on this right now or are we looking for more information? No, no. Okay. This is just information. Okay. Right. I'm good. All right. 10. So moving on to 5A10, discussion of Dr. Julian Rogus, gymnasium projection upgrade. Okay, so we have another proposal here, again following the same cadence, present and offer information this month and then bring it back with a response to any questions or additional information needed and a potential vote for next year. And so what we are looking at is upgrading the gymnasium audio video equipment at Dr. Julian Rogus Elementary School. Over the years we've worked to create a multimedia ready classroom in each of our larger spaces like our gymnasiums. These spaces are classrooms for our
023gym teachers and also for all school assemblies and presentations to our community. These spaces are the spaces that our public sees throughout the school year. And so we're looking at adding a permanent projector, a large projection screen and new speakers to Rogus' gym. And currently there are cords on the ground and we've got some speakers that are not functioning and so the upgrade time is kind of now. And what pushed this along is that we do have an Eileen Andrew Foundation grant that we've applied for. So that grant we should know by the May board meeting if that's gonna come through and that's a grant of $10,000. We would look at utilizing that grant to purchase the projector itself. The other costs that you'll see, I believe it's on page 304, are for the rest
024of the materials that we would need and that would be the projector screen, the speakers and the installation of all of the equipment. So we had ITR, low voltage solutions and Pentegra all kind of vote or bid on that. You'll see in the second line, the Epson projector is the same all the way across and we would be looking at using a grant for that portion. For the screen speakers and installation, ITR came in at $29,550. Low voltage was $30,480. Pentegra was $28,975. And so in the end we would recommend the lowest competent bidder to take on that project. And this money has already been set aside within our technology budget. So this isn't some, like an additional amount of money we would have to go out and find or that we would have to
025put next year's budget. This is something that we've been planning to do. And so what we would ask for next month would be consideration of doing the upgrade over the summertime. One question that I had is what are all of the different uses that we're gonna have for this brand new projection system? That are planned or theorized that are drivers for this. So I'll kind of poke the DJR team and ask them for that specifically. It can be used for daily instruction. Right now we have a cart with cords and things like that and so maybe not the best technology for the students to see, but then also for our larger scale assemblies and presentations and things like that. So I'll pull the list together from the DJR team and share that with the board.
026Yeah, I mean it just kind of gives a little bit more context to see which ones could be a good fit. I know the ITR screen is enormous. It's like 28 feet or something. Like something or 24 feet, like very, very big. But the Pantegra system or, no, I'm sorry, I had those mixed up. But yeah, no, the Pantegra system, it is the lowest bid, but aren't there kind of riders, like there's only a 90 day warranty on the equipment that they'd be installing. So I'll check the warranty. What we have is they're each bidding on a 16 foot projection screen. Oh, okay. So that would be the size. So at least then as we're comparing across the different companies, that piece is standard. Gotcha. The support would be the same. Yep. Across them, got
027it. Thank you. Yeah. So my question to you, Paul, is with the budget of being in the IT budget, is that money where you can shift that money into another budget? We have this very special person sitting over there. So we'll pitch that over to Amy Curtin. Take it away. Take it away. You're up. You could, but you would need to do an amended budget. Okay. To do that. And I would have to look at all the numbers, depending on where you'd wanna potentially shift it to. But that would come with an amended budget, which would come with a timeline as well, where you have to post the budget and then you have to have 30 days, do a public hearing. So with it already being end of April, it would be a very tight
028timeline to do that. So what's exactly in the budget right now? This is this year's budget, correct? Because it's not next year, because obviously we're gonna be going through that soon. So this year's budget, the IT has money set aside just for what exactly technological stuff that you're talking about. We'll pull that in insanity. So we'll pull the whole budget and then what we have completed and what we haven't completed to give you a really good snapshot of that question. Any further discussion? Okay, moving on to five B, old business approval of Hilda Walker gymnasium renovation. Yeah, they are. Okay, we'll try to keep Walt in the back. But as you know, if I need him, I'll give him the eye to come forward. So we're on page 323, if you're following along on the
029iPad. So I'll give you a second to get there. Just, all right. So this is, yeah. Do you guys, oh, that's all I was gonna ask. Is it out there? Yes, thank you. All right, so this item includes several motions to help move the project forward efficiently. The bidding process began with publication in the newspaper on March 26th, followed by a pre-bid meeting on March 30th and concluded with bids due and publicly opened on April 9th, 2026. This timeline was established to maintain the project schedule developed by our architect, Tria. Following the bid opening, Tria conducted a comprehensive scope review with the lowest bidder, Chicago Heights Construction Company. Based on this review, Tria determined that this company is the lowest responsible bidder and they submitted a base bid of $259,000. The base bid includes new
030doors for the multipurpose room and gym exterior doors, removal and replacement of any damaged wood flooring, refinishing and re-striping of the gym floor, a full gym painting and installation of new wallpads. So what we did because we weren't sure where that bid was gonna come in at is all of the other pieces of that project we put in as alternates. So alternate number one was adjust the substantial completion date from August 7th, 2026 to the contractor's preferred date. The contractor chose not to modify the date, resulting in no cost. Alternate two was renovation of the unused locker rooms into a dedicated teacher workspace and additional storage area at an added cost of $79,915. Alternate three was the installation of two wall graphics located on the northwest wall approximately 45 feet by 14 feet and the
031northeast bump out wall approximately 14 feet by 11 feet for an added cost of $30,915. We will recommend the first three alternates. The fourth alternate is the installation of approximately 89 acoustical panels of various sizes anywhere from two feet by two feet to two feet by eight feet throughout the gym at an added cost of $72,500. So after reviewing the summer budget and aiming to maximize the scope of the project within available funds, the recommendation is to approve the base bid along with alternates one, two, and three. Alternate four, while beneficial, is not essential at this time. The gym currently has no acoustical panels and there have been no reported concerns. This scope could be pursued in the future, potentially at a lower cost through separate bidding. And so once the scope is approved, the
032next critical step will be signing the application for building permits with the Will County ROE to maintain the project timelines. What you'll see on your screen are mock-ups. And so we wanted to do that so that not only could the board see it, but also a visual is much, much different than just hearing someone report out onto it. And so the Wildcats, probably my most frequent question, will be seen in the blue seats while the bleachers are pulled out and pushed in. So you can see a visual of that. There are some dead spots on the floor. There are also some really compromised pieces of wood by the doors. And so this would be to put more of a carpet square, like a walk-off carpet tile, by the doors, rather than have it be wood
033right up against the sill. So it just gives us a little bit of wiggle room as far as containing any moisture. And then we would, if you've seen the Summit Hill Junior High Gym, once the new flooring is in, sand the floor and repaint it with a style that is very similar to what you see. Where you see the Hilda Walker Intermediate School, that right now has a series of short bleachers almost. They're not being used. And so that space would be completely redesigned. Pull all of that out and put a large wall graphic there. And then on the left-hand side, you can see that is what you would see when you would walk in a room. So that's the really, really big graphic. We've got black new pads. So it really just makes the
034whole space look more contemporary. The reason we pulled the acoustical panels is so we could stay in budget. So it gives us just a little bit of contingency space within that budget to do all of this work in the gym and have it ready for the students when they return. We've already separately approved the bleachers. And so this is for the wood, the doors, the graphics, the painting, and the new pads. And so I'll take any questions that you have, but I might have to defer to Walt. This will really, really transform that space. I have been sharing behind the scenes all of this information with the Walker Admin, and they're really, really excited about it. And it's in desperate need. There's not been any substantial work in this space since the building was built,
035so. Can you expand on the renovation of unused locker rooms? Walt would love to answer that question, so he's coming. I'd be curious to know what kind of feedback was given, what's... What do we currently have? What kind of space do they currently have? Walt, could you cover current space for the PE teachers at Walker, current storage, and then what renovating this space would do for them? Yep, where it says, on the current picture right there where it says Hilda Walker, on the right-hand side, there is two locker rooms and a storage area in between that was once a partial bathroom. I mean, it has a sink in there, some weird plumbing, but no toilet or shower, so it was used as an office with a sink. The PE teachers, when I met with them,
036don't like it because you have one PE teacher in there, you have another PE teacher in the, what would be the men's locker room, and then another teacher in the women's. So what I looked at with the architect was gutting the middle storage area slash sink area with one of the locker rooms to make that space larger so all the teachers could be in one space, and then storage is always a premium, so the other locker room, actually we would take out a wall and it would go into their current storage area to make it one massive area, where then we could put a aisle way down the middle and they would have even more stuff. So we've looked at ways to do it, and the easiest way is to put a soffit in, keep
037the existing ceiling in that area, make great costs down the room more, but it'd be one big storage area for them to store their equipment in. Awesome. So they, so how do they exist now as for their office space, individually or? So I believe. Three separate ones? It's three separate rooms, two teachers are in one room, and one teacher was in the middle but moved in with the other teacher into the other locker room, so there's no really cold labbing or cold working, mingling to try to work out on their lesson plans. Without the locker rooms, then how does this affect, for instance, if kids need to use a locker room or whatever or have the other room? So the locker room is four walls and a bench, which the benches have been removed prior
038to me getting here, so two years ago when my son was playing basketball, that's, he was an athletics kid, but came here to the gym, they just sit behind the benches, and that's where they kind of talk. Being fifth and sixth graders, they really don't need a changing locker room, they come in their uniform, they play the sport and head out. Cool. So like the kids don't use it to change during their sports at all? Like our kids that are even in our building, they just change in the bathroom or something like that? Correct. Okay. Yeah, because the teachers have those spaces already occupied. Okay. Well, while we're talking about summer projects, could you just give kind of a high level summary of maybe some of the other projects that we have going on? I
039know you don't necessarily have that with you, but can you talk about ball fields or any HVAC or roofing, anything else that we have going on just so that we can get that out here in front of the board and the public? Yep, so we do have at Mary Drew Roofing Restoration sections that the board has already approved. I'm gonna be starting pre-construction meetings with that soon. Hilda Walker was my next priority on doing the painting, the bleachers, the floor, and getting that gym renovated. District-wide, I have two projects that are next on the list, seal coating and striping lots, and removing and adding a new mulch since the beds are pretty high. And then the rest of the work, after I get those projects worked on, I will get to Summit Hill Junior High
040to get the stage rigging and curtain. That needs to be fireproofed or replaced depending on what cost benefit is more beneficial. And then the outdoor sports area, so the track needs to be resurfaced and dug out to netting at the Junior High as well. What about the field renovations? I know Mr. Petrie and I spoke with Mr. Pufl, of course, with the approval of Dr. McDermott. And then, of course, in our buildings and grounds meeting, we had brought it up, too, as far as what kind of activity or what kind of maintenance are we doing on that field as well, besides the dugouts? So the dugouts and the netting, and then I'm working with Jim Walsh, which is sports, all sports, or he's out of Elson, and he's like the primary field person. New Lennox
041Rebels use him, I use the man. Familiar, yeah. So they're really good sports fields, is the name of the company. And he gave us the lowest price right now to come in, regrade, possibly work on the lip around them, the infield that's pretty big, and then possibly put in some new top rails for fencing. Top rails for fencing. Does that, is he starting to work on that this spring or summer? I have not got that officially yet. I've been working on these other projects, trying to get them moving, because they're gonna take a little bit longer. As far as the stage rigging, the tracks resurfacing, and the nets and dugouts, that'll probably be next month. I'll start working on that. Okay. I know John and Ronnie, you guys have been working on that a little
042bit more. I'd like to kind of push on you guys and just, what is this gonna allow for us to do? What does this mean for the district? Can you build on that? Well, the reason, we had a first round and I talked with Dr. McDermott, and then after doing that, we had a buildings and grounds meeting about just all the different things we have district-wide, but that was one of the things. The track has very serious need of repair, almost to the point where it could cause issues for injury. So it's very eroded from over time. And of course, I know Walt's been doing his best for the last several years, and it's always up to the board to approve things and us to have budgets and also follow our reports that TREA does
043for us. So we're trying to, in that building and grounds, we worked with Walt, and these are all things that have been scheduled that are in desperate need of repair over a long period of time. We're finally getting to it, and I appreciate all the work and effort you're putting into it, too, Walt. So nothing has been, that was something we discussed in buildings and grounds. Just trying to figure out where all these different things need to be done that have been neglected over time, and how do we fit it in our budget over time? Visiting how important that is, and I think because we do host other districts, we host a lot of events, this could kind of open up us being able to host. Yeah, I would agree. And Ronnie invited me to
044walk it one day, and we walked around and checked out the scene. And really, it was pretty striking. We have state championships there, and it does not look like a state championship. For track, for baseball? Yeah, it just doesn't. And it's not normally a hill that I'll stand and die on, but it really, for the kids' benefit, you've got visitors coming in from out of area, and you just want to show a little bit better, right? Because we absolutely have that spirit. We want it to be reflected in all areas. And a little bit of a safety thing, too. Well, the track is absolutely a safety thing. It might not look like it, but I did run track when I was younger. And having a divots like that, that naturally occur over time. It's not
045an image fault. But you can raise major, minor, or most likely major health issues that can come from that. Because when kids are cooking, man, they're cooking. They're not thinking of divots. So one of my goals that I wanted to work with with Dr. McDermott and Patrick is to set another meeting soon with Walt so we can follow up on all the things we talked about in our last meeting, and then also plan out even further, one year, three year, five year. I know Tria does that for us, too. But obviously, and we're going to bring the information back to the board, but we need to also make sure that we're planning long-term. And so there's a schedule of meetings. Right now we don't have a long-term document. Like we don't have an ongoing document.
046So that was our first meeting, and our goal is to have another one soon, and then work on more of a big picture type of thing. So we were planning and not, where things are so bad, now we're chucking up a lot of money versus maintenance and stuff like that, but yeah. So Walt, in terms of the fields, will we be able to have that field done by time June hits? Because when June hits, we have camps, and then right after camps, we go into season. You know, and that's the goal. The goal would be this year is to have that ready to go for the season and for the camp and stuff. That is my goal. Right now we have a big void in July. So my goal is to get all the work
047done in July. So it all depends on sports fields and the other contractors that are out there. There's not really one person that could do dugouts, netting, and everything at once. So I'm kind of bidding everything out individually and trying to see where I could get the funds as far as best price. So once that comes along, again, I've got a few other projects that I want to do district-wide, and then after that, I'll start working on the Summit Hill items. So in terms of the track resurfacing, have we had a company come out yet and look at that? So I went out there, took a look at some of the things from the last 15, 20 years of experience that I've had. Looking at the track, I believe we can resurface it. I don't
048think it's gonna need a total replacement. Okay, that's what I was gonna ask. Yeah, the adhesion of the track surface to the ash vault below is pretty good. There are minor cracks, but again, there are cracks. Last year, I did put in a bunch of drainage because the north, west side, east side of the turns, there were major potting there. So we put in some more drainage over there to take care of that. We want to thank you, too, for all the work you did. After sitting with Patrick and sitting with you and everything in our buildings and grounds meeting, I realize how much you are overwhelmed with a lot of things and we hope that we can find a way with Dr. McDermott to help somehow have more support for you. So, but we
049appreciate you. Driving pride in the area and pride in the school district, that's my language, man. So anyway, we can have maybe like a community walk or something so all the residents can also know about it and see it, that would be awesome. Yeah, so picking back off of Adrian, so I mean, if the community, please come out and support. I mean, we host so many things here, especially at Summit Hill Junior High. We're always hosting conference, regional, sectionals, and people come because of the way our parking is, is great. We have two parking lots and people walk to these fields and they get to see them. And so updating them, resurfacing tracks, those are huge things that can show our pride and how great we take care of our facilities for our athletes. We're
050closer than Kamisky. And cheaper free admission. We'll set a buildings and grounds meeting and we'll bring the 10 year facilities audit that TREO produced for us. I think it was 2021, so we're about halfway through. That might be a really good marker. Okay, well, of all of the things that were listed, what has been completed and what has not? So I don't give a real good outlook. Well, maybe not just not completed, but what was maybe not as emphasized or needed, right? So you don't always have to invest in everything. Stay up here, Walt. The next one's for you too. Okay. Any further questions or discussion? Oh, I do have one more thing. When I took a tour over at Rogus too, I noticed the play area in the center, or like the square area
051is like, their mulch is pretty much gone or eroded. And I know it's another thing in the budget and another thing, but when it rains out, they can't play outside. So they're kind of stuck in there. So that's something I'd like to put on the list of things that we talk about in the buildings and grounds and see how we fit that in the future. That's the next item on the list with seal coating and mulch. Awesome. So that's gonna include in there, okay. Yeah, I'm gonna include in there. They did it two years ago, but it definitely needs it. Did everyone look at Leslie DeBoer because she just grinned? Because she's got a plan kind of in her back pocket about a new playground for that area where we would take all of the
052mulch out and put a rubberized surface in. So we're gonna, one point or another, she really wanted to dish out to her, no. So it's still on the docket. We're looking for grants and things like that to bring the cost down, but that would fundamentally change what that whole space looks like. Yeah, cool. Okay, so we have quite a few motions to go through. First motion, I need a motion that the Board of Education approves the base bid of 259 thousand from Chicago Heights Construction Company to renovate the Hilda Walker gym as outlined in the construction documents. So moved. Second. Roll call. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Motion carries. Second motion. Need a motion that the Board of Education approves alternate one
053in the amount of $0 maintaining the substantial completion date of August 7th, 2026. So moved. Second. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Motion carries. Need a motion that the Board of Education approves alternate two, that is the teacher workspace, the locker room teacher workspace, in the amount of $79,915 for the renovation of locker rooms into a dedicated teacher workspace and storage areas outlined in the construction documents. So moved. Second. Patrick Oliphant. Absolutely. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Motion three, the Board of Education approves alternate three in the amount of $30,915. That includes the installation of wall graphics as outlined in the construction documents. Motion. So moved. Second. Ron Petrie. Aye. Melissa Ryan.
054Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Motion carries. I move that the Board of Education rejects alternate four, so this is no to alternate four in the amount of $72,500 for the installation of acoustic panels as outlined in the construction documents. So moved. Second. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. John Winter. Aye. And Melissa Ryan. Aye. Now you can. Motion carries. One more. Motion that the Board of Education approves the application for building permits for the Will County Regional Office of Education. So moved. Second. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Adrienne Chavez. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Motion carries. Moving on to 5C, new business, 5C1, employment of staff, assistant facilities manager. Manager. Walt's not going far. He's
055smiling, so that's a good thing. So we really took our time with this one. When I entered the district, we had a facilities manager and an assistant, and we got away from that and brought Walt in just to really get our arms around what was going on in the world of buildings and grounds. And so since that time, I'll give the rationale for this and then we'll kind of work through it and answer any questions. To identify cost inefficiency and create operational improvements, Walt has put this document together using the invoices from SDS for FYE 2025. The effort is to shift toward internalizing routine maintenance and small repairs that are currently outsourced at a significantly higher cost. Re-hiring of an assistant facilities manager role will allow him to then concentrate on more critical tasks, budgeting,
056and planning for the future. The estimated fiscal cost by the district for this position, which includes a competitive salary, along with a full district office standard benefits package is projected to fall within the range of $54,060 plus IMRF plus insurance for an annual cost of approximately $85,000. The justification for hiring this position is because of the savings we potentially can have and the shift towards training our own people in maintenance, repairs, and proactive care of some of our most expensive equipment. This position is anticipated to result in the savings of somewhere between $30,000 and $60,000 per year and extend the life of our equipment through careful and proactive maintenance. Again, the savings generated by avoiding contracted labor significantly outweighs the cost of adding an additional employee. This was discussed and supported in a Buildings and
057Grounds Usage Committee. And then on page 337, you can see a chart. We've kind of, well, Walt kind of put a low end and a high end as far as all in costs. And then on 338, in the advent or with the expectation that this could potentially pass, we wanted to have a plan for what this looked like. And so beyond the immediate financial gains, the assistant facility manager's primary role will be to help with day-to-day operations, maintenance, and small repairs. Again, transitioning routine maintenance in-house yields critical operational advantages that enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the district facilities management. And so bullet pointed, we have increased responsiveness, greater flexibility and control, improved oversight and quality, a reduced administrative burden, knowledge retention, and long-term cost stability. And so to ensure a quick and smooth
058transition to this more efficient operational model, the following actions are proposed. We would seek approval from the Board of Education to fill the new assistant facility's manager's position with Jackie Rico, an internal candidate who interviewed for the position and who is being recommended. Onboarding and task assignment, the assistant facility manager will be assigned a detailed scope of work, focusing on documenting and inspecting current mechanical equipment and comparing it to the log that Walt has been keeping of things that have needed repairs. This information will be reported back to Walt, which will help with either immediately making the repair or scheduling this out. And then also training. Many of our vendors offer free training, and so scheduling training with local suppliers and manufacturers to ensure that the assistant facility's manager is learning the manufacturer's requirements for
059preventative maintenance and or repairs of the equipment. And so I'll kind of stop there and take any questions, and that's why I have Walt up here, just so we can kind of help if there's any additional needed information from the board. And then on 339, this is the information that Walt began to pull together to justify the cost of the employee versus the cost of outsourcing the maintenance. Yeah, I just wanted to start by thanking you for putting all of this information together. This is a really well-communicated message that any time there's talk of preventative and predictive maintenance, my heart smiles, man. Like, that's the direction we need to be going in, and this is a great step forward for that. I actually have a question for Paul. Is the language of the contract, or
060the contract, is that finalized? So I sent a separate email to the board today because there are some comments from Carrie Lynn that we added, and so we've got a finalized contract now. So we had the language from past contracts, but I wanted to run it through legal in real time. And so where we're at now is the final language. What's it? You can share any feedback. Yeah, for sure. If there's something that you think we might have overlooked, yeah, please. Yeah, it's not so much overlooked, it was standards, right? So looking at something like the PTO time, is that reflective of the maintenance department? Is that just standard? So there's two different classes. Sorry for the nuts and bolts of the fine print. No one ever wants to talk about this, so it's really
061exciting to me. Yeah, don't be too excited. I know, I like this kind of stuff. So there are two different types of employee, one that is exempt from overtime. So take an administrator, we'll pick on Leslie again. She is exempt from overtime because she's a salaried employee. What we do want to do, and the reason we put a dollar amount there was in the event that we did have overtime that have to be approved by Walt and it'd be for specific projects. But that is the dollar amount that we use for time and a half and things like that. And so this position is not exempt from overtime, but it would be tightly controlled. Yeah. Especially the nature of it, sometimes you're getting called out in the middle of the night. Now Walt has to
062bear that brunt. Comes with a businessman. But I think that's fair. I just have to say that we talked about that in the buildings and grounds, and I just mentioned it a little bit ago about supporting you. And I'm so grateful, like Patrick said, that all the information you brought. And I'm so grateful that we have someone within who is really, I have to say a lot of great things about Jackie because anytime I'm in that building, she's working hard and with a smile, and how can I help? I've seen kids spill a lot of silly stuff and it's not beneath her. She's right on top of it. I mean, she can ask someone else to do it, but she doesn't even hesitate. And I'm trying to help her, and she's like, I got it,
063I got it. I'm glad she smiles when she sees you. Usually she's happy. She knows you've got more work for her, that's why. But no, I just really, I'm happy that we're doing that within, and we have someone that is working really hard and will put all the effort into learning all the things she needs to learn. So I'm very supportive, and especially because it's gonna save us some of these things that we've had issues with as far as boilers and things like that, if we can be more preventative. Nobody's gonna care more than our own employee. Service contractors, I'm sure a lot of fine ones out there, but nobody's gonna care more than someone who has the livelihood here. I completely second that she's showing everything you said. Everything you said times two. From
064the moment I met her here at the district, yeah. She's got the right spirit for it. I mean, you can't teach that. It's really inspiring. It's awesome. It's a couple of Marines. Paul, I wanted to follow back up. In terms of paid time off, is that total, is that a standard for the maintenance department? Because it was something worth note when I was looking at it. Right, so that benefits package really comes with an administrative type of contract. This is not an administrative position, but that's really what helps make this valuable to the employee. So it is the same amount of days that you would find as far as personal time and sick time in a certified contract. And then the 20 vacation days because we work 12 months. And so that number is in
065every administrator contract. So yeah. And it's just clarity, right? Because you're not talking about having a number of PTO days and then costs added because you're gonna have shift coverage. Correct. That's not a thing that we have to bear the brunt of. I just wanted to know the nature of how that number got to where it was. And then my question for you all and for Paul as well is what is the emphasis going to look like if there is one on continuing education? Because I think that this isn't just a role to assist in the operations, but we are a community of promotional growth, right? So we want to train people to become better. And I think that's something that I personally take to heart in my professional career. Let's go. And I know
066there is some language of incentives, but what follow through is in the plan about encouragement to take secondary education classes that are relevant to what we're doing. Nobody's taken Latin or something for this, but there's a lot of great HVAC mechanical classes that are available from a number of sources. What does that look like? So it's not encouraged. It will be done. Ah, I love it. So no, during business hours, NUCO and a few of our suppliers have classes that are one-day classes, two-day classes. And one thing that I want to stress is once we get into, what I want to get to is troubleshooting, having myself or Jackie be able to troubleshoot up to the point of the repair. Yeah. We would call it the service tech. Perfect example today, we had a rooftop
067unit go down, went up there, troubleshot it with Jackie a little bit. Once we saw that it was a refrigeration issue, now I could call out a contractor and have them take care of that. Yeah, that's so important because most of them are honest, but we all know there's a bad mechanic out there, too. People just have bad days, man. Well, I know, or they miss something. I'm not saying anything, but I like the fact that we're really doing our... No, but what I want to do is get to that point because eventually one day, someone's going to have to take her spot. What I want to do is make sure that the mechanical knowledge for the district is pushed into somebody, just not one person. Something should happen. There's always a backup plan. To
068follow up on that, would there be a consideration or any type of discussion about a mandate for, let's just say, night school? I know we're talking about the free classes, but going through a community college, right? Because they have great trades classes. I know, and to fit exactly the message you're discussing, I teach electricity, too, through Triton College, and I spend a month talking about schematics. Sorry to kind of dork out for a second. Talking about schematics and sequence of operations, and it really emphasizes and accelerates the student's ability to function in the workplace because they have to understand not just how systems work, but how to approach them. So when you're talking about troubleshooting, that's my language with that, and you don't get that without having the right education with it that comes with
069a possible program at a community college. You don't quite catch up to that speed as quickly. And again, we want to grow and develop and create a culture of that. Maybe we can discuss this in the buildings and grounds, too, to help lay that out. Go ahead and figure out what you want to implement with that or what else. I was just seeing if they was on the radar. And I think we don't need a center to come in. We don't need a center. We got Patrick, he's the teacher anyway, so we're just gonna host it right here. So we do have a portion of the contract that offers tuition reimbursement. So in the event Jackie wants to go back and take the class, there's some reimbursement language that's there for her. I love it.
070Yeah, I'm all in favor of it. Very good. All right, on that note, I move that the Board of Education approve Jackie Rico for the Assistant Facilities Manager position at a base salary of $54,060. I move, so can I have a second? A roll call. Ron Petrie, aye. Amy Burke, aye. John Winter, aye. Adrian Chavez, aye. Melissa Ryan, a very happy aye. And Patrick O'Font, aye. Motion carries and thank you to Jackie. Congratulations, Jackie. Speech, speech. It's a good day for the district, guys. Congrats, Walt. All right, moving on to 5C2, the scheduling of our regular meetings for the 26-27 year. The board has been meeting at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of every month for the 26-27 school year. The recommendation is to meet on the third Wednesday in January, February, March, April,
071May, September, October, November, December, and the second Wednesday in June, July, and August. And yes, it is after tax day. It is after tax day. We looked, no, it is the April is the 21st. And I will just say the October 21st meeting is my birthday. So just say and mark it on your calendars. Don't be surprised if there's balloons. So we can bring, are we bringing coolers or what are we doing? How's that work? All right, I don't think that's happened in five years yet. All right, so the dates are July 8th, August 12th, 2026, September 16th, 2026, October 21st, 2026, November 18th, 2026, December 16th, 2026, January 20th, 2027, February 17th, 2027, March 17th, 2027, April 21st, 2027, May 19th, 2027, June 9th, 2027. Do I have a motion that the meetings of
072the board during the 26, 27 year be conducted at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday in January, February, March, April, May, September, October, November, December, and the second Wednesday in June, July, and August. Motion. So moved. John Winter. Oh, there has to be a second. Discussion. Yeah. I'm just gonna ask this. Are we married to the third Wednesday of the month? Tradition. Sure, I'm in just open discussion. I'm just asking if there could be a second Wednesday of the month. For me, professionally, it might work better, but that's why I'm just asking. I know I'm the only person. I'm just saying typically we've kept consistency for people that attend and for everybody that obligated to attend or wants to attend. That's why they've been on those dates. I'm looking ahead at what, I mean, we
073can have. Yeah, I think the case would have to be made as to why the second would work better. I'm literally just asking just because I have professional things that are on the same day every month that I don't go to. Okay. But it's not a game changer. I'm just, it's a discussion. No, I understand, because there's times. This is the only opportunity to talk about it. No. All year I've been thinking. That's why we're talking. If there was a way, when I was on night shift too, I'd have to take comp time and vacation time, but there's no way around that because my, the way it rotates, it wouldn't even land on every third, you know, for me. But I get your, I understand where you're coming from. I thought you were just being
074difficult. No. No. I mean, that too, I guess. Just provocative. I was thinking the same thing. But that's the unfortunate, you know, it's like the, it's never gonna line up for all of us. For sure. Kind of thing, but. Are there, I'm not against it. I just want to ask the question. If I could move it, I wouldn't care, but, but it's kind of, like I said, it's always gonna have a ripple effect on everything else. You know? Yeah. Melissa? Yeah, I, it kind of doesn't work for my work schedule. Yeah. Is this something we have to vote on now? Can we discuss it? It should probably work our breasts a little bit. Yeah, right? Could this be changed at a later date if we, if we, or can we table it for next month?
075Or does it need to be done today? You can do either or. You can table it. I mean, like, To get Patrick is to, Was there a way like, Patrick and Melissa so they can do together. Yeah, exactly. Cage match. I'm not trying to upset the apple cart here. You know what I mean? But, No. It's just that, No, it's just, This is the time to have a discussion. I 100% understand. Is there a new motion to table it? So moved. Motion. Second. Roll call. John Winter. Aye. Ron Petrie, aye. Patrick O'Font. Aye. Adrian Chavez. No. Amy Burke. No. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Okay, we're tabling. I want to hear Patrick. What is his best sales deal he's got for us? All right. Moving on to six. Superintendent staff report six eight. Okay. So enrollment report.
076This will be the last one on this year's enrollment because we have to shift our gaze to next year. And when we get to the May board meeting, we're just a handful of days away from the end of the school year. And so the relevance really becomes sectioning a number of students for next year. So I will say that currently we have 186 students registered for kindergarten. And so that number is higher than last year, but we're also making it easy for our preschool students to enroll in kindergarten. So we're thinking we're going to be at about the same number, but we'll continue to watch that throughout the summer. We would need an additional 30 to 35 students to hit that 220 mark, which is kind of where we're anticipating we're going to be. And
077then the next item. I just was wondering, because I was looking at the bottom where you say, kindergarten registration has yielded 105 students. What is the 105 number? Oh, sorry. Actually you can cross that out. We're at 186. Okay. Cause it was the same as last month. So, okay. And then just, so you said we're more than likely going to be around same as last year, 220. I mean, do we typically see, did you see a lot of with kindergarten over the summer or can we, are we safe to say by the end of May, we'll have our? No, we'll have to go all the way right up until August. And reason being is when the ads start coming out and people are like, I have a five year old. That's when we start to
078see that, that last minute group of people come in and register their students. So would you say it's pretty steady from now until August? Or is there, would you like, yeah. I would expect to pick up another 25 to 30 students in the summertime. Okay. Okay. And the second piece in my report tonight is the 2026 joint annual conference discussion. And so the annual triple I conference is scheduled for November 20th through 22nd, 2026. Again, this year in Chicago, it offers board superintendents and business managers. That's why they call it the triple I. So each of our organizations start with I because we're in Illinois. And so I encourage everyone to set these dates aside just to attend. If you could please let Tammy know by May 18th, if you are interested in attending the
079conference. And then also if you're interested in staying downtown for this. Some people stay Friday, some Saturday, some both. It just kind of depends. Amy Curtin and I will be hosting. So it'll be a little bit different feeling this year when we go down there, but we like to go down and host board members and organize the trip and make sure if there's anything that you need that we're down there for you. And then we attend sessions as well. The conference registration cancellations must be made by October 15th, 2026 for a refund minus $100 for processing fees and the housing reservations require a non-refundable $200 deposit. And so as you're checking your schedule, we just wanted you to have all of the details. We'd love to have everyone come. So just let us know. I
080think June 1st is when they open up hotel reservations. And so that May 18th will get us in a little bit ahead of that. I think as we get closer, maybe we could explain to the community more about what some of the goals we may be working towards so the community can also prepare us maybe what we can be looking forward. So if I could speak a little bit freely, so I think if the community knew that this conference, what it does is it brings all these different districts together to speak about different learning opportunities and what other districts are doing. And there's professional vendors there as well to explore and understand what possibilities we may have. So if the community does have interests, if they have concerns, if they have questions, need to bubble
081those up to us so that way we can be prepared to kind of either do some hunting on your behalf and learn on your behalf and then be able to report back to the community as well. Because it is a really great opportunity to kind of just explore what our possibilities are. And so I think we wanna make sure that we're also maximizing the opportunity for our community and what we bring back. That's such a great point because there's tangible evidence of that. Not only meeting different bus vendors, different food vendors, our student board member idea came from the IIII conference. And so I love that it comes back and is implemented. And so sometimes you go to a conference, you're like, you know, well, what are you going to get out of this? I
082love that we have these ideas that we've implemented after going to the conference. Yeah, there is an absolute return of investment. I mean, we all went to different seminars that we've brought forward. I know John and I have talked about AI use and I went through several things there about AI in general and then in the school area. And that's something that we talk about that we want to respectfully and responsibly begin to grow with. And they're really, it's just a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for us to grow as a board. And Adrian, you're exactly right. If community out there, those watching at home, if there are topics that you're interested in and want to pursue, there are avenues for us to explore that and get access to resources that we wouldn't get otherwise. And the
083return of investment is near immediate on it. So here's the challenge for the board. So in preparation, not for this upcoming one, but the year after that, we should consider presenting. Okay, so there you go. Now we put it out there into the universe. So a topic that we feel like we've really addressed well, putting together a presentation and sharing what we know with the other districts, just like they do for us. Well, that would be really dependent on what our community thinks we did well. So we're going to need them to make sure they tell us. I'm sorry, you dress well. I'll be, and I'm down, I'll do that. All right, should we go to building reports? All right, Ms. Murphy is still not here. So we will do building reports. I think I
084started down there last time. We'll start here, Hilda Walker. Hilda Walker, thank you, Ms. Carroll. The Hilda Walker Art Show took place on Saturday, April 11th. Ms. Dominic and the students of Hilda Walker showcased many pieces of the amazing artwork completed in art class this year. The show contained more than 100 entries of various artistic mediums, and including interactive pieces in which a video accompanied the artwork. Thank you, Mrs. Dominic and the students of Hilda Walker for making this event such a successful year. This past week, the Hilda Walker SCO sponsored two Wheel of Wisdom assemblies for our fifth and sixth grade students. Students and staff showed their knowledge in several different categories by participating in a game show competition. More than 50 students were able to participate in each game show, and the staff
085showdowns were exciting. Thank you to our fantastic SCO for sponsoring this event. The month of April brings field trips for both our fifth and sixth grade students. This week, the sixth grade students learned all about fossils and took classes at the Field Museum, and later this month, our fifth grade students will visit the Morton Arboretum to learn about energized ecosystems and woodland ecosystems. Thank you, Ms. Carroll. All right, the Trail Blazers. The students thoroughly enjoyed our weather assembly. They learned about weather patterns or tornadoes. They even had a special guest in time scaling from WGN. It was a great experience for students and staff. It was really awesome to see those postings from that. A big thank you to all our volunteers in ITSCO for all they do for the Trail Blazers and staff. We
086would not be able to do the fun activities and events without all of them. We appreciate ITSCO and our volunteers. Our spring showcase is April 30th with performances at 10 a.m. for last names A through L, and 1.30 for last names M through Z. More information will be shared with our families in the coming days and weeks. Thank you, Mrs. Wright. And I have Summit Hill Junior High. Six weeks until the end of the year doesn't seem possible, but here we are. We are excited for all the end of the year events, including our eighth grade award ceremony, seventh and eighth grade field days, and seventh grade boat trip, banquet, Great America, and of course, graduation. Congratulations to our state qualifying bowler, Renlee Schuster, of her recent performance on the IESA State Bowling event, alongside
087our other bowler who were successful at regionals. In addition, Courtney Koch qualified for the national cheer event and performed over the weekend as well. Congratulations. Our student council students participated in Mokina's Student Government Day last week and had a tremendous experience. Olivia shared a few highlights earlier tonight. Thanks, Ms. Gere, for sponsoring them. Congratulations, again, to our ISBE Teacher of the Year recipients. Everyone was recognized this past week at Bloomington at the annual ISBE event. We are so proud of our staff who were recognized. Thank you, Ms. Goebel. DJR grades one through four. Grandparents and Special Persons Day will be held the week of April 27th for all first through fourth grade students at DJR. We look forward to seeing many loved ones in the building during this week. The Scholastic Book Fair will also
088be open for our families during this time. The DJR Choir performed at the Chicago Wolves game on Sunday, April 19th, for their final home game of the season. Our fourth grade choir students did a fabulous job singing in front of a large audience while also being displayed on the Jumbotron, which is always fun to see. Thank you as well to Ms. Rowe and Mr. Perez, our Choir Directors. We are looking forward to our Party on the Playgrounds, sponsored by Resco on Thursday, April 23rd, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Come out and join us for food trucks, playground games, and what should be some beautiful spring weather. Nomination forms for Resco board positions have been sent home for next school year. Our grade one through four spring showcase will be held on Thursday, April 23rd.
089We look forward to sharing this musical experience with you. Our students have been learning and growing all year long and are excited to perform for their families. Thank you, Mr. Bradley and Ms. Bulfer. I'll do Joy's next, but I gotta work on my impersonation. But so for Dr. Julian Rogus, Kindergarten, we had an All Abilities Week here at Rogus, the week of March 16th. Students had the ability to explore what it looked like for students with different abilities. They had an All Ability Lab and a wheelchair basketball assembly through Lincoln Way Recreation. Rogus Eagle even found his voice using an AAC device. Thank you, instructional team, for planning such a great event. Dr. Rogus also came in to read with all of the kindergarten classrooms this week. It always confuses the children when he tells
090them his name. It was great to see their excitement when they realized their school was named after him. Thank you, Dr. Rogus. My son was very excited about it. We're looking forward to our Party on the Playground sponsored by Resco on April 23rd from four to six p.m. We look forward to coming together as a school community. Nomination forms were also sent home to families for Resco board positions for next school year. We are excited about our Kindergarten Spring Showcase that will be held on April 22nd. We hope that you'll be able to join us. We also will be starting our ABC Countdown to the school year next week already. Thank you, Principal Boston. And then for joy, I have Mary Drew, ELC building report. MDELC students had a visit from Crosstown Exotics in March.
091Students were able to view and touch reptiles such as tortoise, bullfrog, iguana, and snakes. They loved seeing the reptiles up close. MDELC is anxiously awaiting for our baby chicks to hatch. We have seven eggs and an incubator in the library, hopefully hatching soon. Students have been learning daily about the chick process. MDELC will celebrate their Special Olympics Young Athletes Culminating event in May. Students have been working on foundational athletic skills all year and can't wait to show off their skills to families and friends. Preschool registration for the 26-27 is currently happening. Please check the Summit Hill 161 website for more information. Thank you, Mrs. Ilka. Thank you so much. One thing to add for the Junior High as well, if you are a choir parent or a former choir alumni or the parent of a
092choir alumni for Summit Hill Junior High, Mr. Ream just sent out a notice, an invitation to come sing with the Summit Hill Choir. And it's April 30th at 7 p.m. So check your email as you have access to the music drive as well. But we'd love to see the alumni come out and that just went out today. So check your information. And it's April 30th at 7 p.m. All right. We have no action items after closed session. So on that note, our future meeting dates are May 20th, 2026 at the Mary Drew Administrative Center. And then I move that we go into closed session as printed and publicly posted on the agenda. So moved. Second. Roll call, Musa Ryan. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. And Adrian Chavez. Aye. Thanks everybody.