001Can I have Kamora say the pledge? Vengeance to the flag of the United States of America. Vengeance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I'd like to take a roll call. Melissa Ryan. Here. John Winter. Here. Amy Burke. Here. Ron Petrie. Here. Patrick Goldfein. Patrick. Present. Patrick is calling in due to disc nerve injuries on his back. And Joy Murphy has a family emergency as well. So they are both at, Patrick is calling in, and Joy is absent with notice. We are on four information and proposals. We will acknowledge students recognized by the faculty of their school for their exemplary academic progress during the 2024-2025 school year, this annual recognition by the
002board of one student from each school has been in place for many years. It provides the opportunity for the faculty to reflect on the accomplishments of a student who has exhibited determination and often has overcome challenges. Each principal will read the letter and present a framed copy to the student. This is one of our favorite meetings. OK. First up, we have Mary Drew Early Learning Center. Would Kim Zilka please come forward to introduce her student and the celebration can begin. Hello, everyone. I'm not going to do this alone, so I'm going to call up my early childhood team. Do you know who you are? I will call you out individually. Miss Bernie, I know you're here. I saw you. And then if we can also bring up Xander Dugan and his family. So this is
003our first time since this is our first year at Mary Drew that we are able to recognize one of our students. So I'm very honored to be here tonight to read the letter that my team has written about Xander. The faculty and staff at the Mary Drew Early Learning Center are thrilled to nominate Xander Dugan for the Exemplary Student Award for the 2024-2025 school year. We have had the privilege of watching Xander become an exceptional student during his time at MD-ELC. He came to our program upon turning three. He was a quiet, intimate boy who often required high levels of adult support in all areas of development. For staff who have worked with Xander Report, Xander is a good friend and classmate, often seen smiling and giggling with his peers and teachers. He is clever,
004humorous, and persistent, even towards those tasks that are hard. Xander takes pride in his many accomplishments and his witty comments keep all of us at MD-ELC on our toes. That was from Mrs. Rozek, his occupational therapist. Xander is a hard worker and has made tremendous progress building his speech and language skills during preschool. He has a great memory and recalls information I tell him days and weeks later. He often makes interesting comments which put smiles on our faces. Ms. Gutierrez, his speech and language pathologist. Xander will carry on conversations and has a great imagination. He was timid on the stairs when he started, as well as with his climbing and movement. Now he runs up and down the stairs with no hands and is all over the playground equipment. Ms. Swankowski, his physical therapist. You
005do. Xander has made so much progress since starting preschool. He is a good friend to all, greets everyone in the hallways by names, and always has a smile to share. My favorite is his appreciation for jokes and silliness. His giggle brings a smile to my face every time. I am so happy to be a witness of the incredible progress he has made and proud to be part of his story. That was from Ms. Galvin, his social worker. Xander has flourished into a curious, humorous student. He has grown to be independent and understands much of what is expected of him. He will complete routines, happily do challenging academic tasks, and enjoys the fun parts of school, playing with friends, having conversations with teachers and peers, and sharing his enjoyment of Spider-Man, as well as making everyone
006laugh. We believe Xander is an excellent candidate for the Exemplary Student Award. He has overcome hardships, shown tremendous growth, and has grown into a sweet, upstanding member of the school community. We are proud of the progress he has made and have enjoyed the time we have spent together teaching each other. We know kindergarten will be nothing but a success for him. And that was from Ms. Hayek, his classroom teacher. So, good job, Xander! Alright, thank you! Next up, Dr. Julian Rogus, kindergarten. Good evening, everyone. Definitely one of my favorite board meetings as well. I'd also like to follow suit from Mrs. Zilka because that was a great idea. Staff, come on up. Family, come on up and join us. It's my privilege to acknowledge our very first ever kindergarten exemplary student. This is Ivan Donovan.
007Those staff are waiting for you. Alright, Ivan, you can join mom and dad if you want. The staff at Dr. Julian Rogus School is honored to recognize Ivan Donovan as our 2024-2025 exemplary student. Ivan has earned this distinction through his hard work, resilience, and kindness he shows to everyone around him. He's a role model in every sense of the word. Ivan's journey began with significant challenges. Diagnosed with, I'm going to try here, superventricular tachycardia, he spent the first three months of his life in the hospital to regulate his breathing. From a young age, he received early intervention services and began his educational path in early education through early childhood within District 161. At that time, he required extensive support through social work, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech services to address his developmental delays. For
008three school years, Ivan had an individualized education plan, an IEP, to help him progress. Ivan began kindergarten in a self-contained developmental kindergarten classroom this year with Mrs. Kalibik with paraprofessional support. Miss Jackie, who's also here. And quickly, he emerged as a leader, making friends and excelling academically. By midyear, he transitioned into the general education classroom, which is Mrs. DeLuca's classroom, and within weeks demonstrated age-appropriate skills in all areas, social, emotional, and academic. Thanks to his incredible determination and perseverance, Ivan met and exceeded all of his IEP goals. His progress is so substantial that he no longer required special education services. He has since been dismissed from special education and now thrives in a general education classroom with no additional support. This gives me goosebumps. In just three years, Ivan has transformed from a student with
009significant delays to one performing at or above grade levels in every area. Every staff member who has worked with him can speak to his bright spirit, positive attitude, and the joy he brings to each school day. He is respectful, patient, friendly, and compassionate traits that shine in every interaction, whether with his classmates or with staff. Ivan exemplifies what it means to overcome adversity with grace and strength. We celebrate his remarkable accomplishments and share in the pride his family must feel. I told you, Mom, I couldn't look at you. Congratulations, Ivan. We wish you much continued success in school and beyond. Your journey has already inspired so many, and we know you'll continue to make us proud. I just want to recognize that Adrian Chavez is here at 725. This will be Mr. Bradley and Mrs.
010Bullford. Come on down to the podium, please. Let's invite up the DJR staff as well. All right, this is Natalie, and Natalie's doing what she does best, which is she's very smiley, and this is constant all day, every day. So the Dr. Julian Rogge staff is proud to recognize Natalie Rice as our 2024-2025 Summit Hills School District Exemplary Student. As you'll hear from our staff, Natalie's superpower is her ability to blend unwavering positivity with a quiet yet determined resolve. Her secondary power, the unique gift of inspiring those around her to feel the same. Spending any time with Natalie leaves one feeling more optimistic and joyful, ready to face the day with a renewed sense of positivity and hope. As the DJR staff will share, Natalie is exemplary just by being herself. Ms. Gallagher shares, Natalie
011is kind, sweet, and easygoing. She is endlessly positive and a delight to be around always. At the same time, Natalie is hardworking and doesn't let anything slow her down. Natalie is a true joy in and out of the classroom. Natalie is such a hard worker and always up for a challenge. She is positive and never fails to make the class smile and laugh. Not only is she hardworking and positive, but she is also respectful and a friend to everyone. Everywhere she goes, she's making friends. That's from Mrs. Gallagher. Ms. Reno writes, I am beyond proud that Natalie is our exemplary student. I've had the privilege of being Natalie's fourth grade teacher and have watched her blossom into a remarkable individual. Throughout the year, I have witnessed Natalie's display of exceptional qualities that set her apart.
012She is always kind to others and begins each day with a positive attitude which is reflected through her actions towards daily tasks and her peers. She readily volunteers to contribute to discussions, eagerly takes on math problems at the board, formulates extensive writing assignments, and confidently reads aloud, showcasing her improved skills with each passing day. Natalie's determination, dedication to learning, and positive attitude have led her to academic success and personal growth. Moving forward, I know Natalie will do amazing things and will continue to grow. Ms. Morgan writes that she has an ability to overcome obstacles and embrace learning with such determination that it's something to be proud of. Her courage reminds us that success is not just about what we achieve, but the effort and the heart that we put into everything we do. I'm so
013proud of her and excited to see all the amazing things she'll accomplish. And Mrs. Metcher writes, Natalie is the perfect candidate for exemplary student. Despite any challenges in her day-to-day life, she maintains a positive attitude and is a role model for both her peers and adults. She looks for the good in life in such a mature manner for only being in fourth grade. She challenges herself to be successful in all she attempts, and she is her own best advocate. Natalie has a smile that lights up the room and makes others feel welcomed and important. I know that Natalie will continue to accomplish many more achievements in the future. As you heard, Natalie is a remarkable student who exemplifies kindness, positivity, and determination. She's hardworking, respectful. She's always eager to take on challenges with a smile,
014making her a joy to be around both in and out of the classroom. Natalie's ability to overcome obstacles, her infectious enthusiasm, and her ability to brighten any room make her an outstanding role model for both students and staff members. Natalie is truly exemplary, and we cannot wait to hear about all she has accomplished in the years ahead. Congratulations, Natalie. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the Indian Trail fourth grade, and Mrs. Wright, and Mr. Sedonis? Come on, I told you you're not going in the back. All right, the man of the moment right here, Emmett Brooks. He's our exemplary student from Indian Trail School. The faculty and staff at Indian Trail School are honored to nominate Emmett Brooks for the Exemplary Student Award for the 2024-2025 school year. We have had the privilege of
015watching Emmett flourish in remarkable ways throughout his elementary years. He has shown extraordinary perseverance in overcoming personal challenges and has demonstrated significant growth in both academic and social and emotional areas. In the face of adversity, Emmett not only rose above, he excelled. Over the past four years, Emmett has made impressive strides in his social-emotional development. In first grade, he often struggled to manage strong emotions and found it difficult to form and maintain friendships. Through consistent support and his own determination, he has made tremendous progress. By fourth grade, he demonstrated increased emotional regulation, using effective strategies to navigate moments of frustration or anxiety. He has built meaningful friendships and consistently shows empathy, cooperation, and conflict resolution skills. Academically, Emmett has become an exceptional independent learner. His confidence has grown as he has learned to persevere through
016challenges, engage more actively in class, and take pride in his accomplishments. He has also begun to face social fears that once held him back, participating in group activities and advocating for himself with increased assurance. Emmett's resilience and growing self-awareness will continue to support his success as he moves forward in his education. There's a fun little story here. Mrs. Hyde fondly recalls a favorite memory from second grade. During a small group activity, Emmett and another student were playfully taking turns helping one another and writing on the whiteboard, and the other student one time wrote, Mrs. Hyde loves Bob. Well, he thought it was the funniest thing in the world, laughing and clapping and having a good time. You know what? To this day, Mrs. Hyde still doesn't know who Bob is, but she cherishes that moment
017of the connection between her and her students. It has been a privilege to be part of Emmett's journey We are confident that he will continue to thrive as he transitions to Hilda Walker School. Emmett, as you move forward, always remember your school family is cheering for you. Emmett Brooks, 2024-2025 Indian Trail Exemplary Student. Can we have the Hilda Walker sixth grade student with Ms. Carol and Ms. Horan? Good evening. I'm going to give our team here a minute to assemble. This is a really cool kid. On behalf of the entire staff at Hilda Walker Intermediate School, it's my honor to recognize sixth grade student Blake Keck as the Hilda Walker recipient of the 2025 Exemplary Student Award. Each year, this award is reserved for one student who consistently demonstrates outstanding qualities like hard work, dedication,
018responsibility, honesty, and respect, all of which Blake embodies every single day. We cannot imagine a student more deserving of this recognition. Blake's positive outlook, kind demeanor, and willingness to work hard even when things aren't easy uplift everyone around him. He's truly exemplary in every sense of the word. This year, Blake's teachers were eager to share their thoughts on why we chose him for this honor. Mrs. Holman shared, I've had the privilege of working with Blake for the last two years, and the growth he has shown from fifth to sixth grade is what we hope for all students. This award is a testament to Blake's hard work and dedication across all skill areas, academic, functional, behavioral, and social. This year at Walker, our school theme was the sky is the limit, and Blake truly embodied that.
019He set and surpassed academic goals, was a kind and respectful friend to all, and a leader among his peers. Blake will truly be missed at Walker next year, but the sky is the limit for him at the junior high. Ms. Middlestadt added, Blake did an awesome job in math class this year. He always worked hard and gave his best effort, and he is very deserving of the Exemplary Student Award. Way to go, Blake. Mrs. King shared, Blake has also shown remarkable growth, and his perseverance is admirable. He continues to make progress and meets every challenge with a great attitude and a smile. And Mrs. Badastoni reflected, I watched a nervous 11-year-old enter my classroom. I saw him grow more confident each day, ultimately exceeding every expectation, from academic achievements to being the bigger person in
020times of conflict to looking out for kids who needed help and a friend. Blake was a true role model. To speak in Blake's language, you hit a grand slam, you pulled off a hat trick, and you nailed a three-point buzzer beater. And for that, you absolutely deserve this award. The staff at Hilda Walker Intermediate School are incredibly proud to celebrate Blake's achievements with this well-deserved recognition. Blake, we wish you all the best as you move on to Summit Hill Junior High School next year. Know that we are cheering you on and are confident that you are ready to tackle whatever comes your way. Congratulations, Blake. Okay, put your hands up. Everybody smile. Everybody smile. Thank you so much. Can we have the Summit Hill Junior High 8th grade exemplary student, Ms. Goble or Ms. Lox?
021We've got some really great students coming up to the junior high. I can see, right, Nate? All right. Thank you so much for having us tonight. As teachers and staff at Summit Hill Junior High, we continue to reflect on academic objectives. Moreover, we think deeply and carefully about the critical goals of education to spark a pursuit of knowledge in our students, to encourage them to realize their fullest potentials, to learn to appreciate and exhibit admiral virtues, and to move onward as productive and fulfilled adults. It is within this worthy pursuit that we can appreciate the students who move towards these educational aims with exemplary status. And it's our honor to recognize Nathan Fitzlaff, standing right beside me, with the 2025 Exemplary Student Award. So, Nathan, this is for you. Truly, to be called exemplary, one
022must demonstrate the positive behavior and integrity deserving of being a model for others. Nathan is a student who does just that. He is a unique and polite young man who meets his daily challenges head-on with optimism and persistence. Nathan is a consistently enjoyable student with his bright demeanor and kindness. He is liked by his peers because of his cheerful disposition, his supportive comments, and his willingness to always help his classmates for the simple sake of being friendly. Across each school day, Nathan enters the classroom ready to learn and ready to make connections with purpose marked with admiral intrinsic motivation. When a new concept is presented in the classroom, Nathan will apply himself with focus and diligence. Throughout his two years at Summit Hill Junior High, not only has he grown in height, he has made
023significant gains to ready himself for high school. His academic gains are nothing short of impressive. Further, Nathan was an enthusiastic part of our school's bowling team. He made his teachers very proud, and he responds well to compliments and simply with a smile. Nathan is always happy for classmates when they have moments of success and sets an upbeat mood during group learning. Both his teachers and classmates recognize Nathan's respectable character and describe him as a courteous and responsible young man. Moreover, it is impressive to see how well Nathan maintains his schedule and will even provide gracious reminders for frazzled teachers. Nathan has his ducks in a row and then some. He is always seeking to do his very best for himself and others. It is with his good-humored participation and his interest in learning that he
024leads his classmates. We, as a school community, are super proud to award Nathan Fittsloff for his virtues as a student and to thank him for his positive impact at Summit Hill Junior High. And the good news is he gets to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at this year's graduation. Congratulations, Nathan. Thank you. Moving on, on May 2nd and 3rd, 10 students went to the University of Illinois to compete in the IJAS State Science Fair. On Friday, students presented twice for poster session and once again on May 3rd, paper session was presented on May 3rd as well. Can we have the hardworking sponsors come up to honor them? Hello. We would like to recognize the students from the Illinois Junior Academy of Science and the Illinois Junior Academy of Science and the Illinois Junior Academy of
025Science who have spent the majority of this year working successfully on their individual science fair project. The Illinois Junior Academy of Science exists for the benefits of students in the state of Illinois by guiding them and hosting them several science fairs throughout Illinois, which culminate with the state exposition. The process students follow when participating gives them insight into scientific discoveries in science. It allows students to experiment using scientific equipment and allows them to develop their own investigation beyond the classroom and progress towards a career in STEM, hopefully. We celebrated our students' accomplishments at the Science Expo in January and selected 25 projects to compete at the regional paper and project sessions. A smaller group of students presented their project to two to three judges and defended their results in March. During the first weekend in
026May, students participated in the IJS State Competition at U of I. As a collective group, they earned eight gold medals and two silver medals as they competed against the top junior high students across the state of Illinois. This year, our number of state finalists has decreased due to a few changes at the IJS state level. Students can only compete in the paper or project session, not in both, like in the past, because they are occurring at the same time. Also, each student is required to present their project in order to increase the validity of their scores with the judges. Consequently, some students couldn't commit to both days. We would like to thank all the parents for their support and time judging other students' projects and their nine-month commitment to the science fair process. We would
027also like to thank the Board of Education, our administrators, the Summit teachers, all of the teachers, and the Tech Department for their assistance with this challenging project. Go ahead. Students, if you competed at the state science fair, we only have about half of them today, but earning a silver, Jacob Tadros, earning a silver, Vivian Dombroski, earning a gold, Parker Racette, a gold, Maddie Law, a gold, Elaine McCormick, a gold, Isla Turns, a gold, Logan Nola, a gold, Charlotte Ogle, a gold, Abada Kanafsa, and gold, James Gonzalez. In addition, in addition to earning gold, James also earned the top innovator award for IJS, meaning he had one of the top 100 projects out of the whole state for the junior high. Two more, Abada is also the recipient of the Jamie Jaster Science Fair Award for
028his extra effort and volunteering to develop and project his project independently, while Elaine McCormick is the recipient of the Annette Schmidt Science Award for her outstanding project in biomass types of gases. So congratulations, everyone. We would like to recognize our May Summit award winner at this time. Okay, before we do that, Laurie, Amber, so they put so much time into this project as a testament for the number of emails that they both sent me about help along the way and making sure that this process went smoothly, but it gives students an opportunity to explore STEM. And that is just so critical, especially at this age. If you take a look at what the ACT research says, it says that this is the last year where kids are this impressionable. And so the work that you're
029doing is really outstanding. So thank you. Appreciate it. We do have a Summit award winner also. I know that she's probably watching Game Changer right now, so I'm gonna read this and have Chris Kavanaugh come up. But this one is just really special. So this month's Summit award winner is Dr. Julian Rogus, school kindergarten teacher, Chris Kavanaugh, who is in her fourth year of working in our district. She was nominated by Hilda Walker, school social worker, Christina Labriola, who is also a DJR kindergarten parent. In her nomination, Christina wrote the following, This email is long overdue, but I wanted to send a quick note to let you know how incredible Chris Kavanaugh has been as my daughter's kindergarten teacher. As a parent, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for Ms. Kavanaugh and the sense
030of community she has created within her class. It is so evident that she cares deeply for her students. The communication with parents really links us all together. We recently attended a birthday party for one of my daughter's classmates and all the parents and I instantly began speaking of how much we love Ms. Kavanaugh and the sense of community she has created within her classroom. On Sunday evenings, oh you can clap, that's really good stuff, go ahead. On Sunday evenings, my daughter always tells us how excited she is to go back to school the next day. Since being in Ms. Kavanaugh's class, she reports that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She even wants to have a Ms. Kavanaugh theme for her sixth birthday this summer. I just read what's on the
031paper, everyone. So, while I'm not entirely sure I will be able to find Ms. Kavanaugh themed party decor, it warms my heart that my daughter is so loved and supported in her classroom that she would even think of that. Francie Boss, the DJR kindergarten principal says, Ms. Kavanaugh is an amazing educator that is in tune with not only the academic needs of her students, but also their emotional needs. She goes above and beyond in her classroom to help all students feel comfortable and valued. Her classroom works like a mini family. Students are encouraged to do their best, but feel safe enough to make mistakes and try again. And so we are just blessed to have her a part of our kindergarten team. Thank you, Chris, for all that you do for our kindergarten students at
032DJR, and congratulations on your summit award. Please come forward. Smile. At this point in time, we would like to present our very first community contributor award. Okay, this one is actually going to be a little bit of fun because there are some things that no one knows other than myself, not the board, or Barb who's sitting back there. I saw her back there. So the idea for the annual community service award came from board members Patrick Oliphant and Amy Burke. We hope to start a tradition of honoring a community member whose service to the district has gone above and beyond and impacted our schools, students, and staff. We even received a summit award nomination for Barb also. So both awards that we're giving tonight. This year we would like to recognize Barb Mazarakis with our
033first ever community contributor award. Barb was nominated by board president Amy Burke, who wrote the following. I've had the privilege of working alongside Barb as our children went through the district. She's a valuable resource for our SEO parents, teachers, administrators, and students. She has organized, prepped, and run everything from field days to hot lunches, treat days, book fairs, and all the things that the kids really enjoy. She's served on SEO boards throughout the district and is relied on by staff and fellow volunteers. For 11 years, she's done all of this with a smile on her face, knowing her value and making memories for our kids. There is no one more fitting to receive our inaugural community contributor award than Barb. And so we poked our admin a little bit. So Hilda Walker principal Maura Carroll
034adds, over the past several years I've had the pleasure of working alongside Barb at countless school and district events. What stands out most is how deeply she cares about our schools, the students who attend them, the staff who work in them, and the community that surrounds them. Since her children began attending our schools, Barb has devoted countless hours to the SEOs of the three district schools, as well as the 161 fan boosters. That's in a measurable number of treat days, hot lunches, class parties, field days, book fairs, teacher appreciation weeks, fun nights, open gyms, and of course the spaghetti dinner. So the pool of school volunteers can be small, as many parents work. That's why people like Barb make such a tremendous difference. They show up, they're dependable, they give freely of their time and
035talents, and they make a lasting impact on our schools and in our community. Barb has a true talent for organizing events and mobilizing volunteers and making the work that we're doing fun. It's no surprise she often finds herself in leadership roles of the organizations she joins. Barb embodies the true spirit of community service. She is grounded in selflessness and compassion, a genuine desire to make a positive difference. Her years of dedicated service are a testament to that spirit, and we're all better for it. And, Ms. Goble added, on behalf of the Summit Hill Junior High School community, I want to extend our deepest gratitude and heartfelt appreciation for Barb's exceptional work and unwavering dedication as the SEO president and volunteer. Her leadership has been nothing short of inspiring, from organizing again open gyms that give
036our students fun, crazy, loud, hectic places to run and connect and grow, to making sure that she has touched every corner of our school. She approaches each project with purpose, putting the needs of students and staff first. Our staff have always felt loved, appreciated, and supported through the years at teacher appreciation events, and that is because of Barb's leadership, planning, and organization. She's also an outstanding communicator. She is clear, she is thoughtful, she's approachable, and that has made working with her not only productive but also enjoyable. Her ability to bring people together, to listen, and to lead with both heart and vision is a gift for everyone who comes in contact with her. Barb's selfless dedication, tireless efforts, and sincere passion for making our school the best it can be certainly do not go unnoticed.
037She's made a lasting impact on our students and our families and our staff and we are grateful for everything that you have done for our schools. So Barb, would you please come forward as our inaugural recipient of the Community Contributor Award. Thank you. There are any reward recipients left and they want to escape to the exit now would be a perfect time. Or you can stay, hang out. Okay, moving on to 4B, freedom of information request. Okay, as printed in the agenda, we had four requests over the last month. All of them have been responded to in the appropriate time frame. For number one, that anonymous, there were no records that matched that request. We had two purchase record requests so those tend to fall more on, say it again Julie? Okay, so accounts payable,
038those are more commercial requests. We also had one for a bus video, those happen to be student records so we cannot release those and that was supported by our attorney and the PAC. But all of those have been completed and we have a few more that are on the docket for the June meeting so we'll add those to the agenda then. Moving on to C, public comments. Lisa Brace? She's coming. It's hard to keep up with them, especially when there's two. There's only one tonight. My name is Lisa Brace and I'm a Summit Hill parent and tax payer. So, as you know, I run one of the local Facebook forums and our concentration is what's going on in our district. So I kind of just reached out and said, hey, our board is going to
039be planning what our goals are for over the next year and what do we as a community want from, for our board to focus on. And obviously one of the big pieces is lowering that tax burden. You know, I know people would love to see that thing stop creeping up and we don't even, it's not even creeping, it's leaping every year and that's always a concern and hopefully we'll be able to focus on that. Some people mentioned a review of the curriculum. They were concerned that some of the science materials were vastly outdated and that we were doing a lot more virtual labs versus hands-on labs. So really just an overall review of the curriculum and making sure we're updating materials to make sure our kids have the competitive edge. Some parents expressed a concern
040about the case load of our special needs staff. There were concerns about the floating between schools. Schools like Indian Trail don't have very many, if any, special needs staff actually located in the school. They seem to be floating in and out. So there's concern about whether our special needs staff have all the resources and support that they need to continue doing the excellent job that they do. There were some concerns about the switch over to the new bus company. Parents are obviously apprehensive about not having a repeat of what's happened over the past year. And I kind of had a funny idea and I just thought I floated out there. Could we turn one of the dry run days into a meet your bus driver day where students might wait at their stop at their
041normal time and get to greet their bus driver and introduce themselves and maybe even have a little coloring contest or something that the kids could give their new bus driver a picture that expressed their appreciation. One thing that is important to Quinn here is there's concerns about the overcrowding at Rogus, specifically in a lot of the ancillary activities like gym, music, lunch and recess. We're modifying activities in gym and at recess for the safety of students. And it's kind of not allowing them to really get that full experience. And honestly music class is the size of a small chamber orchestra. That's a bit much for elementary school. And it can cause a lot of chaos and things. But Quinn wanted to give you her perspective as a student who's experiencing that every day. Hi, my
042name is Quinn Boyce. And like my mom said it's very crowded in certain areas like recess and lunch and music and PE. And it's chaos. There's three classes in my PE class, I believe. Two Gen Ed classes and one UNTIP class. And it's just not right because like how do you think poor Miss Crick and Mrs. Acevedo and Mr. Sherrick and Mr. Welsh are supposed to handle 80 some 60 kids in a gym? Just because you can fit that many doesn't mean there should be. You should put that money in. And I know with the spacing issue since we closed two schools that it's hard to find time to have all the classes. And it's something that's kind of irreversible. But it's just we can't get a proper education. We've never had an actual game
043of something. In volleyball we never had actual games. In basketball we never had actual games of basketball. It was all just practicing stuff. There's only really supposed to be like 10 kids on a basketball team. You can't have 30 kids on each team. It's just not suitable for that space. And in recess normally it's fine, but quite often in there because my class is like you have all these gigantic hallways and sometimes like this past week it's been rainy and cloudy and we've only been able to go onto the blacktop. We're both third and fourth grade on the blacktop. That's 200 plus kids on a fairly small parking lot. We don't even get a proper blacktop. We don't have basketball hoops. I'm pretty sure it was mentioned before. My mom probably mentioned it to any
044of you who are people on the board remember, but it's just there's too many people. You can't have 40 kids in music, 60 kids in gym, 200 plus kids in are out at recess. And most of the time by the time my class gets out there's not enough equipment for everyone. It's just that's not enough. It's overwhelming. I don't know how you guys are going to fix that, but I hope something changes. I won't be able to see it happen, but I hope you do. Thank you. Moving on to letters and communication. Letters, informational items, and newspaper articles appear at the end of the book of your board book. The consent agenda, number 5A. We will have a motion to approve the consent agenda after hang tight while I have read all of the things
045that are included. So there will be a motion for the consent agenda as presented 5A1A, regular session meeting minutes of April 16, 2025. 5A1B, closed session meeting minutes of April 16, 2025. 5A1C, special session meeting minutes of May 7, 2025. 5A1D, closed session meeting minutes of May 7, 2025. 5A2, approval of the April Treasurer's Report and Financial Report. 5A3, approvals of the bills list of May 21, 2025. 5A4, approval of retirement or resignation of staff. Stacey Juzong, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Lauren Jursitz, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Alexandria Canino, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Savannah Stimich, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Carmen Higierto, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Mary Friel, effective at the end
046of the 2024-25 school year. Maria Stanchion Bertek, effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Five A five, approval of family medical leave, employee 2783. Five A six, approval of employment of staff. Taylor LaPage, special education teacher at Dr. Julian Rogas, effective for the 25-26 school year. Catherine Doe, district wide permanent sub, effective for the 25-26 school year. Jaina King, Spanish language pathologist at Indian Trail, effective for the 20-25-26 school year. Michelle Miesh, special education teacher at Indian Trail, effective for the 25-26 school year. Veronica McFarland, early childhood teacher at Mary Drew for the 25-26 school year. Laura Rodriguez, social worker at DJR, effective for the 25-26 school year. Stacey Zhizhong, ESY speech pathologist two days a week. Nancy Smith, nurse at Hilda Walker for the 25-26 school year. Marissa Corona, ESY paraprofessional. Emma
047Esposito, ESY paraprofessional. Maria Stanchion-Bertig, district wide night custodian supervisor. Five A seven, approval of memorandum of understanding, planned time compensation. Five A eight, approval Blazer works and stepping stones contract. Five A nine, approval of job descriptions, Senate bill seven. Five A 10, approval of district literacy plan implementation. Five A 11, authorization of annual claim for pupil transportation reimbursement for 24-25. Five A 12, approval of the continuation of the supplemental bus transportation program. Five A 13, authorization to submit for 25-26 grants. Five A 14, approval of sixth grade volleyball program. Do I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Second. Can I get a roll call? We got discussion. So is there any discussion? One thing, it was Jane King is speech language pathologist at Indian Trail School. Just accidentally
048you said Spanish, right? I don't have anything else. Anything else for the consent agenda? I do have a question. Can you explain the Blazer works and how that works Leslie and why we're hiring the paraprofessionals just so we can have clarification? Yeah, so these three individuals have been with us for a few years. So they, we like to provide the continuing, you know, the continuity for the kiddos. So they are ones that work for us during the school year through them. So they're just gonna continue for the summer school session and they know the kids very well. We were very fortunate. We didn't have to hire. We had enough staff for ESY. So we were very excited. Any other follow-up questions or discussion? You wanna go ahead and we have a motion. You wanna go
049ahead and. I'm gonna get a roll call. Adrian Chavez. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Motion passes. All right, moving on to 5B, old business, approval of grade four accelerated program. So we're gonna turn this over to John Snipes and Nicole Smyth. They're gonna talk about the approval of a fourth grade accelerated program, something we've been working on and designing over the past year. All right, good evening, everyone. This is Nicole Smyth. If you don't know already, I'm John Snipes. We have been working toward a goal of expanding our accelerated or enrichment option down to the elementary building and at this point we are ready to recommend a grade four option to begin next school year. So let us try this. There we go. So
050we'd like to elevate our elementary enrichment and bring that down to our elementary schools and these are the steps that we kinda took to get there. So today we'll go over the options that we've kinda entertained throughout this year. We'll review some of our NWEA map data. We'll talk about teacher feedback, give the program recommendation and next steps. So these are the possible program options. For those of you that were in attendance for the board planning session this winter, you probably recall seeing these. So I'd like to just quickly- We're on 120. Just so they know where they're at. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, 120 if you wanna follow on your board. Quickly go over the options and give a quick explanation. So the periodic pullout program is something that would occur where a specialist
051like Nicole would periodically randomly come around. So maybe every Tuesday I come to your classroom and take your three top students and we do a fun activity in a different setting. We're not teaching core reading or core math skills. We're enriching and then going back to class. And so there's an option. The next is the self-contained program where one of our classroom teachers or two or three, depending on the number of students that would meet the identification criteria, would keep the kids all day long. So you come to me, I'm your core teacher for all subjects and you don't move around to other classes. The third is single subject program. So we would identify students based on their unique needs. So you might have, reading might be your highest area. Math might be your highest,
052maybe both. And you would get to move based on that need. So maybe we'd have a partner teacher set up where we follow the same schedule. I teach high math, Nicole teaches high ELA and the students can move among the other teachers even into our classroom for that reading or math session. Scheduling, logistical concern, make sure those teachers teach reading and math at the same exact time and perhaps have the same special schedule. So if people are coming and going for PE, that should happen at the same time so that we can keep those reading and math classes intact. The fourth option was designated small group time. So we do offer differentiation in each classroom but we would offer opportunities for staff to improve and elevate the differentiation time with coordinator and administrative support which
053would mean improving our guided reading groups or math centers and stations. So whatever happens within the classroom we would provide the core teacher and we would support that. And the last is universal target time. You may have heard win time before, whatever is needed. So it would be beefing up that universal target time. Both of the elementary schools offer something like that but due to time constraints it might be once a week, maybe twice a week. So we would want to make that a little more regular. Again, it wouldn't be, this option would not be core instruction. It would be targeting maybe NWA map skill data. So we would look at a collective data, take all five or six of our teachers, mix the kids up for that half hour or so and target that
054particular group's needs. So that's another option too. Hello, as John said, I'm Nicole Smite, the gifted coordinator for our elementary program. The first thing that we took a look at is our current student data. So the graph that you're looking at is our current third grade data as it stands. So what we did is we took this data from the NWA map test and we use it to project the possible fourth grade students that will qualify for this program. So for ELA, 75 incoming fourth graders have already qualified using the 80% average of their best two map scores from this school year. That is 31% of our incoming fourth graders. For math, we have, I can't see it behind someone's head but I think it's 96 students and that is going to be 40% of
055our incoming fourth graders. In the chart, you can kind of see it color coded by school. So Indian Trail is in yellow and Dr. Julian Rokas is in blue. So just looking at this chart, we can see the impact that this would have on our students in getting academics at their level. The interesting piece about this data is that we never expected to see that percentage that high but this just goes to show that our students are performing well and doing well according to NWA map, our local benchmark assessment. We take that test three times a year. So the data you see here is the best two tests for the students that the school year is, it's the third graders. So we rule out, drop the low sword, look at the top two and show
056the average there. So this goes beyond one teacher. We couldn't do one teacher as a self-contained option because the numbers wouldn't warrant that. We'd warrant two and or three perhaps in certain scenarios. So the first thing we did is we wanted to reach out to our staff to discuss all these options and get their feedback. So John and I went to PLCs at both elementary schools, including administrators, and we went through all of these different options. Prior to this year, I was actually a fourth grade teacher at Frankfurt Square School. So I have been wishing for something like this as a former fourth grade teacher. So we got feedback from our staff and this is the Indian Trail feedback. You can see third grade staff in blue. They widely wanted small group differentiation and then
057fourth grade was split between periodic pullout and single subject. We then went to Dr. Julian Rogus and got the same type of feedback. So here you'll see that single subject was mostly desired from third and fourth grade staff with a small desire for small group differentiation as well. When we took all this feedback and put it together, there was an overwhelming desire for a single subject acceleration because it allowed students to qualify for one or both subjects. We didn't feel it was right for a student to be at the 99th percentile for math and maybe not the 80th percentile for reading and then not get the enrichment they needed. So with this feedback, we bring you a program recommendation. Just to pause for a moment and reflect on the teacher feedback. Mrs. Murphy has always
058told me that small group differentiation is more work for teachers. So I don't know if there's still teachers out here, but I will say, I always stand here and say, it is more work, but it's different work. It's a different kind of work. But when we went to talk to teachers, that is exactly what we heard. It is much more work to do that. But I don't want to forget something or forego something because it's harder for us. If it's better for students, of course we'll want to do that as well. So I appreciate that feedback from the staff, the honesty. I mean, I think we had great conversations with the teams and Nicole left them with the opportunity to just share feedback at a later time, which I think you had a hundred percent
059participation anonymously sharing that information after our group meetings. So I feel like there's a desire for some teachers to improve their craft with the differentiation piece, but there's certainly a group that is also not interested in that being the sole model because it is a different type of instruction altogether. So I do feel like when we look at our recommendation here, the single subject acceleration is our best bet moving forward in the elementary fourth grade setting. And what this would look like is reading or math or both, depending on your needs. And so this allows some flexibility in our placement, which we found to be most important. And we also talked a lot about not taking the students and moving them to a class with one teacher to be isolated for the rest of that
060year with that one core group. This would allow students to be in a different homeroom and stay there for science and social studies. And then I get up and I leave for reading. Nicole gets up and she leaves for math and so-and-so gets up and leaves for reading and math. So if the students in those shared groups are able to get up and move about throughout their day, it's probably less noticeable, but then it's also allowing them to have common homeroom time with their core teacher for science and social studies. Accelerated teachers, as I mentioned earlier, would need to follow similar schedules. They don't have to be identical, but of course they need to be reasonably similar so that we can share students, which is not typical in our fourth grade setting yet. And I
061should mention too, we're looking at using a similar grade level curriculum just at a more accelerated pace with increased rigor. So we're not talking about buying new books or taking the fifth grade books and moving them down to fourth grade. And we're talking about the opportunity. And I always tell teachers both ways. Sometimes you'll feel like, oh, I can really move at a fast pace with this particular lesson. These kids understand it. We're moving on. We're gonna get through so much more content. But other times you can do the opposite and you're gonna slow down and dive a lot deeper than you could do in a traditional classroom setting. So you can go faster, you can go slower depending on the need and the lesson. We have a secondary goal. We recognize that a lot
062of our teachers like the small group differentiation and we don't wanna pull our advanced learners out of the classroom and still not differentiate for the rest of our kids. And so we think that differentiation has a place in every classroom. And when we use the word differentiation, we're talking about how we can change the content, how we deliver instruction, what the product might look like or the learning environment. So just like a parent doesn't treat all of their children the same, same with education. We have to treat our students by their individual needs. And so we'd like to elevate this strategy in all of our K-4 classrooms. And we wanna do that by giving more coordinator support with an emphasis on small group instruction. So that looks like math centers, reading centers, using data to
063see what kids need and then reaching those goals. And then we'll also be reflecting in our professional development next year to help support this goal. And as a secondary goal, I think just through the feedback we received from teams, we knew that this could not be the sole goal for next school year. So I feel like with the original first goal, the recommendation for single subject, that's gonna take care of most of those students in that 80th percentile and above. But like Mrs. Smythe said, what about everyone else? So we need to continue to push students and allow them to have differentiation as well. But teachers, through our conversation, teachers cannot do that alone. So that's what we heard from our conversations with teachers. So we know that that wouldn't go, that wouldn't be our
064most successful option next year without support. So if we continue to offer that support as a secondary option and grow into that, I feel like we would continue to improve. And don't get me wrong, we do differentiate. We do small groups. We do guided reading. But it may be different from one room to the next. And teachers start hearing that during their PLC conversations. Oh, that grade does it that way. Well, I do it this way. That's way different. So we want to bring some of those consistencies to light. This is just a quote, if you'd like to take a minute to look at it. Carol Ann Tomlinson is one of the original gurus in education related to differentiation of instruction. It basically summarizes what Mrs. Smythe said. You're taking your whole class and deciding
065on what each student needs versus teaching one particular way. Well, thank you very much. Oh, go ahead, are you still going? There's just a little more. Oh, okay. Oh, I hit a question, I'll save it. Go ahead. I'm ready for questions at the end, I promise. So our program mission, one of the things that we're looking for next year is to bring a more rigorous and higher depth of knowledge to our more advanced students for both math and ELA. We're hoping that we can dive deeper into learning, creativity and develop independent thinkers. One thing that we're really looking forward to is laying the foundation for future success and readiness for grades five, eight. Our accelerated and summit programs are very rigorous and by bringing this down a grade level, we're hoping to increase the amount
066of students who can go into these programs. I also believe by taking these students and putting them in accelerated programming, we allow new leaders to arise in our on-level classes. So those kids who are above that 70th percentile, 60 percentile, we're giving them the chance to participate more, become leaders in their classroom, which I do think will also increase the amount of students that we have who are gonna be ready for these programs. One thing that we wanna take note for is that we're using the NWA test to qualify these students for fourth grade. So at the end of fourth grade, students will have to re-qualify for accelerated and summit in grades five, eight. In grade four, we take the COGAT test. It is an IQ test, a cognitive ability test that we use to
067determine summit placement. And because of this, we will be retesting all students in fourth grade, and then new placements will be decided moving into grades five and eight, okay? All right, so identification. We are gonna use the NWA map test. That's our district benchmark test. We take it three times a year. So as we said, we're gonna take the two best map scores, that we're gonna take the two highest, kind of move that outlier out, and we're gonna take the 80% average of those scores. Additionally, we're going to reach out to teachers to consider student learning attributes. We're looking for students who are self-starters, who are organized, who we know that can handle this rigorous coursework. We're also going to discuss and determine a file review process for incoming transfer students, so if they're coming
068mid-year, we have a process to make sure they're being placed in the right courses. Again, we talked about some of the goals, increased readiness for advanced programming, and then some of the student attributes that we wanna grow in our advanced learners. We are modeling this after our current accelerated program with that 80%, so if you're wondering why 80, why not 75, or why not 90, it felt like we should keep it in line. We saw the number of students that were at the 80th percentile. It'd be easy for us to say, let's go 85, let's go 90, but then why is it okay to go 80 when we get to fifth grade? So we'd rather include those students now and continue to push them so that there are opportunities perhaps for that summit recommendation. Not
069a guarantee, but something that could push them over to that next step in fifth grade. So what changes in these classrooms? So when we're talking about instruction and curriculum, all of these classes are still going to be aligned to the Illinois state standards, which is Common Core. All of our fourth grade teachers will still be utilizing the power standards that were created for standards-based grading. However, they are going to be teaching possibly at an increased pace or a deeper level. So if I am a teacher and I have moved on to fractions and my kids have mastered it, maybe I'm going to do a real life application project and think about how I can go deeper. If we're talking about decimals, maybe we're talking about taxes and multiplying numbers together. And so thinking about how
070we can use problem solving in 21st century skills with these students. We're also still gonna have an emphasis on differentiation. Just because we pull all of our advanced learners into one class does not mean that every student's the same and we still have to differentiate for them. So for math, this looks like doing our core standards with the additional of four weeks of advanced content. At the end of our fourth grade math book, we have a chapter called Step Up to Fifth Grade. There are 10 lessons that model the content that's going to be exposed in fifth grade. So students will be exposed to that content at the end of fourth grade. For ELA, we're gonna still teach grade level standards and then we're going to encompass a novel study in a student led passion
071project where students get to decide what they need to learn based off their own student data and then they get to create a project of their own choosing. So kind of creating boundary lines but letting our students be independent and creative thinkers to create their own products. All right, let's talk about our gifted and talented coordinator. So that is the role that Mrs. Smythe holds now and you probably recall that we have a 0.5 coordinator at the junior high and Walker as well. So if you look in the middle of that slide, it kind of shows you our current plan. We have one coordinator, K5. So Mrs. Smythe goes to all three of those buildings and then we have a 0.5 individual, Mr. Evenhouse, who works six through eight and he actually teaches in the
072morning social studies. So we'd like to increase that from 1.5 FTE to 2.0 FTE, essentially making that Mr. Evenhouse's position a full-time position. And we see that as a cost neutral shift because of our enrollment declining a bit. We don't need that extra section or sections of social studies. There are two and a half social studies teachers right now in eighth grade, so we could go to two social studies teachers in eighth grade. And that would allow us to shift our buildings a little bit where Mrs. Smythe's role would be both elementary schools and then Mr. Evenhouse's would be the two older buildings. And why is that important now? If we're going to add programming in fourth grade, it seems important to have a coordinator who's more available to be at those two buildings and
073not pulled over for fifth grade at Walker. And then if you flip that scenario and think, well, does Mr. Evenhouse need to be at Walker more? Absolutely, because right now he's teaching in the morning during the time where some of our summit teachers are available for him and he's missing out on those opportunities to either co-teach or co-plan with them. So this would free up his availability to work more closely with the summit team and those accelerated teachers at five, eight. And here's our next steps. So we are ready, if you're ready. We have started the identification process, so we need teacher input next. So we have that information ready to go. We have a half day in service on Friday and Mrs. Smythe will be on the road to get to those two schools
074to meet with third grade teachers to ensure our identification process is in line with their thinking and then notify those families. Assign teachers to that accelerated program and align their classroom schedules like their time allocation. We will work with the building principals on that. This is not like an application posting process, an interview process. Usually it's teachers express interest and we may throw out a few characteristics like have you ever had any gifted type training that might help in the background or let's take a look at your NWEA data. Are you showing consistent growth over time? Have you worked with students in that 80th and above percentile range before? So that type of thing. Have you used components of our curriculum program beyond the must do's, we call them must do's and may do's. Do
075you dive into some of those auxiliary resources and have knowledge of those because that would be a great opportunity to dive in here. We talked about curriculum and pacing. We'll need to rehire a position as well as if you probably recall from a previous board meeting, Mrs. Smythe is moving on to stay home with the family so we would need to post and rehire that position as well but we wanted to wait till we had our conversation today to take care of that posting and that person would focus on K4 and then designate time for the coordinators to work with his teachers and that's ongoing not just right now before school gets out in a week, oh no, how do we plan for it but ongoing support and planning with this team to ensure fourth
076grade students are successful. All right, we'll take questions. I've got a question. Can you go back to that slide that shows the two schools and how many children are being enrolled into the advanced placement? Can you give me some more context on that as far as the numbers as to how many students are testing and then of those numbers, how many are qualifying? So our two elementary schools, one school has 117 students, the other school has 124 students. Now I worked with all those numbers today and I actually couldn't tell you which one is which right now but our Indian Trail numbers, so we have 44 students, I believe they're the 124. So I think 44 out of 124 students are qualifying for ELA. 62 out of 124 students have qualified for math. I also
077broke it apart by how many students qualified for both subjects versus how many qualified for just math and just ELA. So for Indian Trail, I believe it was 38 students qualified for both, 25 students qualified for math only and eight for ELA. Now this is based off memorization so don't hold me too tight but I'm pretty sure. For Julian Rogus, I believe it was majority students that qualify for both subjects with under 10 students for both. When I ran those numbers of what that does to our class sizes, we're looking at three accelerated math classes at Indian Trail, three on level classes and the class sizes were actually identical. So we're looking at about 20 to 21 students in all classes for both accelerated and on level. When I was looking at ELA for Indian
078Trail, we're looking at approximately two classes, again about 20 to 21 students. For Dr. Julian Rogus, we're looking at two sections for ELA, two sections for math. Again, the class sizes between accelerated and on level, there was only a difference of approximately one student. So the ELA accelerated classes at Rogus were a little bit smaller class sizes but not what you would think with on level classes. Our on level classes are not taking on more kids all the class sizes were pretty even and all under the number of 23. Can I do it? Go ahead. So you guys have had data for a while for Accelerate Program, Summit Hill Program has through the years, have we grown more students in the Summit Hill Program through the years, has accelerated grown through the years and therefore
079is it smart for us to kind of trickle it down to fourth grade? Because obviously we'll take on even more students hopefully because obviously when you expose more curriculum to students, then they will excel more on the standardized testing component of it. So can you kind of explain how like last couple of years have gone for us? So we know what we've done. Yeah, definitely. I have that information not in front of me right now but I can tell you one of the neat things about adding the Accelerated Program has been that transition from Walker to the junior high, we've seen more students then transition into the Summit Program. So I started out accelerated, I got that extra push and now I'm moving into Summit. So each year we monitor that information and this is
080a particularly high year too where like all right, they moved into the next set. So yes, that does definitely happen. Can I do another follow up question? Can I do another follow up question? All right, now this is a question of what climate inside the buildings. Are your fourth grade teachers excited for the new challenge? Because here's the new challenge. They are used to the same students in the classroom all day. Now students are coming in and out, which is a whole different aspect. I know Amy and I have been always used to that because we're high school teachers, but they're not. So are they excited for that climate to change that atmosphere having 21 new students for math or 21 new students for ELA or 21 new students for both? Are they, and the
081next question is real quickly, is are they close in proximity the classrooms to each other? Because in fourth grade, we don't want to be spending them all the way down the hallway and then we have to monitor that concept. We want to make sure they're all close to each other so we're moving quickly through the class. I'll start with the second question. That's easy, yes. They're in close proximity at Rogus and at Indian Trail. The first question depends who you ask. So we had a teacher meeting yesterday actually and our coordinators had the smart idea of let's make sure our teachers know what's being presented tonight. So we went through this entire presentation and collected their feedback. To be clear, especially for the administrators too who will be helping with these programs, we're not expecting
082all fourth graders to now start switching classes. We're looking at, you know, if I'm an on-grade level student and I'm in a fourth grade class, I stay with my homeroom teacher all day long, self-contained like we do today, we would only kind of start transitioning in those accelerated classes. So of the six teachers, there might be three or two that you'll see students moving in and out of, okay? So when I said it depends who you ask, we did have some feedback yesterday that said, oh wow, that seems more overwhelming than I'm used to because I have my 23 and I have them all day long and they're mine and now I might have kids shifting in and out. But it's not like a high school period where all right, bell rings, everybody's up and
083now a whole new group comes in. It would be maybe, I don't have the numbers. I think like three to five students might be coming or going. So we're gonna try to compile a lot of students into one class, but in order to not take our high learners out of all subjects, we're thinking that like majority of this class is going to be accelerated math. But maybe there are three students who are on level but they're accelerated reading. So those three students might leave and maybe two students from another section come in. So we're not thinking like 21 new students for every course, whereas like you might have an additional three or four students and then the power school roster would reflect that and then teachers would only be responsible for grading their students for
084that class. And I will say that there were a lot of teachers who were very excited for this. I think the biggest fear is relationships with parents, relationships with students. The things that we wanna care about the most is how am I going to build relationships with those students that I'm not with all day? I think we had similar fears when we started this program at Hilda Walker. I was a fifth grade teacher when we started the accelerated program there and we had the exact same fears. Within a year or two, it was no longer existed. And so I think our kids are resilient. I think they're gonna be excited to be challenged. And I think that as long as we give continued support to our teachers, that this will be a great thing to
085not have to teach a student at the 99th percentile and the first percentile in the same class. So I think long-term with the right support, I think the teachers will appreciate this. To, can I ask, so just to kick the hive because I'm not understanding this, but I am understanding this, how could we open the door a little bit to other students? There was something that you mentioned about was like the mid-year review that you're having also with like students that's transfer in. I mean, kids bloom at different times, right? So is there like an on-ramp that you guys were talking about? So that process is gonna be for transfer students. But when we looked at our secondary goal, that's one of the reasons why we want that is because we know that those, we
086do have kids who are sitting at the 78th percentile, 79th percentile, who technically did not qualify for this program. Those kids are going to have to be differentiated for within their classrooms. So that's why you see that secondary goal because we're hoping that those kids become accelerated kids in grade five. Well, can we take a look at like the number of students that are like at that 78th percentile and if it's not that large of a load, would it be too much of a challenge to roll them in and push them a little bit more? Yeah, so this is a conundrum we're always in. There's always gonna be a bubble student no matter what number we set. So if we say, let's go to 75, well there's gonna be a 74. Let's go to 70
087and there's gonna be a 69th. So we feel that keeping it aligned with 58 and in remembering that the standard Belker 50 is in the middle, so to be at the 80th percentile and above, you're in the above average range already and that's the group this program is targeting. So do we forget about the other kids? No way. That's why we need our classroom teachers to continue to differentiate for those students and they'll probably be the best model student in that classroom and continue to get that differentiation and acceleration in their own way but not necessarily in this program. Super valid. I'm just saying if there is the capability to accept 10 more students and there's some students that are on the cusp, shouldn't we adapt to the students versus the students have to kind
088of. And right now our Hilda Walker and programs, you can in summit, you can opt in to accelerate and not the summit but if your student is borderline but they get teacher recommendations and the staff feels the parents feel that they're a good candidate, they have the option to sign away. So I don't know if we're gonna be dealing with all that with this program but right now for older programs, we have that option for those kids that are kind of right at that point. Yeah. That need that. I don't know if it's something we wanna consider. I just did like that like also on top of it about like transfer students getting that mid-year review. I mean, if we were to open that up also to some other students that might start accelerating at
089a different time and kind of creating a pathway onto it. I don't know if that would disrupt anything and I wouldn't wanna just. So you make a lot of sense. I mean, I think there's about three kids I can think of off the top of my head who are at that like seven, to be clear 79.5 is in. But I think I can think of three students right now who are 78.5 and 79. So I know it's hard to say, well, why not them? We are gonna bring the data to the third grade teachers on Friday and they're going to see all of their students and they're going to have the opportunity to advocate for kids. As far as moving kids mid-year, the problem with that is these other classes might be moving at accelerated
090pace. So now we're creating a knowledge gap in content. So that is the tricky part about moving kids mid-year after benchmarks. But with this program, Adrienne, is that they're able to test again after end of fourth year and it can get in accelerated fifth grade. That with previous way it's done, it's like you're tested in fourth grade to go into fifth grade, but then you're tested again after sixth grade to go into seventh grade. And so that's why the teacher recommendations as well as the parents have to advocate to say, hey, my student's been at this level, his NWA scores are here. Do we recommend it? Can we get him into accelerated in sixth grade? So that's kind of like where Amy was talking about that that's where that you can get into. So I
091do like that they're testing again to go into fifth grade. So that's nice. And I have a question. This team, the teachers that are working in this program, are they going to be working with Hilda Walker accelerated and something like to go? Yeah. So I was an accelerated teacher in fifth grade and I also was an FMLA for Summit. And so I worked very closely with those fifth grade teachers in my time then. So this year I've collaborated with our Summit and accelerated teachers in grade five. And I said, what do you need these students to know to be ready for accelerated in Summit in fifth grade? And so I've had individual meetings with these teachers. They've talked about some of the content the kids aren't as strong in. So in our math, you'll see
092that additional four weeks for fractions and decimals. That was brought up by our fifth grade summit teachers. And that was a skill that they wanted our kids to be more advanced in. And so the content that you see up here, the novel study in the student led passion project, those are the things our fifth grade teachers are doing right now in advanced programs. So these ideas are not mine, but the teachers that teach it within these programs. So this is their feedback that you see up here. Curriculum wise, are you guys also tapping into like, like nationally what's working, what other schools are doing, you know, like what's what's affecting that advanced curriculum and how it's being built? So how, how was it, how are those teachers kind of? So we're considering keeping the common
093core state standards throughout, you know, just as anyone in the state of Illinois would. And then using our current core curriculum. So we have Wonders as our reading core and Envision Math as our math core. And then using what they have to offer to offer these students different opportunities. So there's so much involved in these programs that teachers can't get to them all. So we'll be able to dive into other features that just you can't in an on grade level course. So yes, we have considered what others do. We talked to the other Lincoln Way area districts as well. Some offer accelerated or advanced options. Some don't start till certain grades. Some start earlier than others. So yeah, we do have those conversations as well. Yeah, I would say like, I would rather we tap
094also not only like other public schools, but look at private sector, look at home schools, see what's working with them. And then yeah, we have the, I might be speaking out of turn, but yeah, we have the state of Illinois expectations, but I'd rather torch those. And then try to not use that as our benchmark, but shoot higher. I know we are, but, and I know we do a great job of it, but I'd rather not just use that as our baseline. One more question about the coordinators. So you're saying we're taking a 0.5 away from Summit Hill Junior High and then making that instead of being a 1.5, we're making a 2.0. So therefore there's no additional cost for a coordinator, correctly? This year coming up? That's correct. Okay. So I had a question
095about the periodic pullout program. You said it was a standalone enrichment project. So does that mean it's like personalized based on the student then? Or would it be personalized based on like the group of students, say if they were good at ELA, it would just be like personalized for them? That is a great question. So periodic pullout is very similar to some of the types of things that I do right now in my role. So it really depends on the needs of the students and how many students might be in a particular class. So to give you an example, I work with a couple of second graders in one of our elementary schools and there are two of them who are very, very bright. And so I periodically pull them out. I looked at their
096data from NWA, look at that. They test at like the fifth and sixth grade level. So we've been teaching them skills that are at their level. I meet with them twice a week. Another group, I have an entire fourth grade class that I meet with once a week for target time. I also meet with an entire second grade class of target time. These are the 20 top students in the grade level for this elementary. And then I look at all their data and we do creative projects. A student just read a book and made a song on GarageBand and each verse is a summary of each chapter read and the chorus has to do with the theme of the entire novel. So depending on what the needs of the kids are, it could be a
097student. It could be three students from one class. It could be the top 20 fourth graders in an elementary school based on NWA. So the periodic pullout program would be somewhat of looking at data, deciding who needs to get pulled for enrichment and then meeting with those kids and figuring out a schedule. So working with teachers this year, it was great for those kids but it just wasn't enough for them. So they still went back to class. They still had to sit through the same lessons where they already know the content and they just weren't being challenged enough. So when we explored that option, we just felt like it didn't do our students justice. Okay, so I have another question. You were talking about how COGAT is at the end of the year. So does
098that mean you're combining the NWEA scores and the COGAT scores? Great question. So our summit program, we use a matrix and students have to qualify for summit by getting five points. I think everyone needs to hear this part. So I don't know if people are completely aware of the matrix that we use. So NWA is one component and it's our achievement component. So if you get a 90th percentile to 92, that's one point. You get a 99th percentile, that's gonna give you four points. Then we have COGAT. It runs on its own line on the rubric. You need a minimum cut score of 120, that's only one point. However, if you get a 132 COGAT or above, that might give you four points. Teacher recommendation gives you a point. An essay in ELA gives you
099a point. So all of these factors are determined together. So for summit, you would need five points or above, which means you need a high enough COGAT score in combination with NWEA. For accelerated, we do not use that COGAT component so we can reach more students. Does that make sense? Do we have any other questions or discussion? No, I think everybody answered some of the mind that I had, so. Can I have a motion that the Board of Education approve? It's on 115 of your board book. Can I have a motion to approve the accelerated program? So moved. Second. And I do, do I do, okay. Roll call. Amy Burke. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank
100you. Very excited about this. Great job, guys. All right, moving on to Board of Education Staff Climate Survey. I briefly mentioned that you might have heard that the board is interested in gathering some feedback directly from employees. We had sent a draft to the board at least two weeks ago now. So they've had time to look at it. We can thank Adrian for his draft. He put a lot of time and effort into creating a very in-depth survey for the staff to get a feel for where they're at. So at this time, all the board members have gotten to look at it and have feedback. I'd like to approve that unless we need to discuss anything, any changes, modifications on the initial survey. I'd like to approve that and then figure out the best way
101to send that out. I thought it was well thought out and I like the very end of it that allows people to go ahead and give opinion, not based on any particular question, but just other. So I like it. Thank you. Any other? I thought it was very well in-depth and covered a wide variety of areas. So I'm excited to see the feedback that we get. I thought the wording was very professional in there. So at this time, do we feel, what's gonna be our best way to go ahead and do that? Any thoughts? I have an idea. This is Patrick here. I just think that using a SurveyMonkey distribution system, that way any of the educators can actually respond anonymously and nobody would know exactly who that is. It would protect their, the one
102person administering it might be able to see where their IP address is from, but you won't see who is actually responding. It would be anonymous. It would protect their identity and it would encourage educators to be, and staff to be way more honest about their school environment without any fear of repercussion whatsoever. I was gonna suggest the same SurveyMonkey and I would appreciate the feedback from the teachers and the teachers' union too if that's acceptable to them and if they have a particular person that they want as the administrator, we're okay with that too, at least I am, and then they can print everything off and then give it so nobody can see IP addresses except you guys. That's my suggestion. We definitely want you guys to participate. We definitely value your opinion and we
103wanna do whatever we can to make this the best environment. It's a great environment, but we'd like to elevate it. There's areas of weakness we'd like to know and see how we can support you the best. You guys are everything to our kids and I know that you guys put a lot of smiles on their face. My kid, every grade he's been in, he's been, he absolutely loves his teachers, so we appreciate you guys. And I second that to go with John is that, we are together as one, so with this board, and I know for a fact this board, as well as the teachers, as well as the students, as well as the community, we wanna make that a one fluid thing. So we wanna get teachers' opinion on exactly what's going on with
104the climate, how they feel, so then we can best move forward as well with them. And I think we'd like to do that before they're out for the school year, so that way we can have that over the summer too. Yeah. Take in and move. So are we on agreement then the directive would be to go ahead and implement that survey by the end of this school year? Yes, correct. Okay, great. All right, moving on to 5B3, Student Board of Education member discussion. We just wanna congratulate and thank Kimora and Audrey for working all the way up to her last moment before her dance in graduation. So we appreciate them. They've been very inquisitive. They've been asking very good questions. So as they complete their term in June, we look ahead to continuing our student
105board member program for the next year. Included in your board book, you will find a copy of policy two, colon, four, zero. Please direct your attention to the end of the footnote number one, bracketed for your convenience. This offers the Illinois School Code for reference and outlines information for boards who have student members. Also included is some research that Ms. McLeish originally provided from her training and experience at the IASB on bringing student representatives to the board table. Aside from this background, there's also an additional copy of updated application form. There've been suggestions for changes in the process and I also wanna offer a space for any suggestions, improvement. Anything that we want to modify going forward as we utilize our students for input. So Tamora, do you wanna start with any feedback on your
106experience? Sorry. Well, I'd just like to say, I'd like to be a part of the process or selection after graduation because I feel like it would be beneficial so they can learn from other student board members. Do we have any discussion or feedback? I know I'll start with, at some point I wanted to create some guidelines and expectations that we have. We can pass it on as we have new members come in and out. There's a structure, there's a policy of what's expected of them, what their role is. So I know that's something, I don't know if we wanna bring that to the policy committee and have them look at what they would want to modify. Modify, I know there's obviously certain sensitive issues that they are not privy to and discussing what's within their
107realm and what's not. When do we want their feedback? How long do we wanna keep them at meetings? Things like that. Because it is late. But also it would be great to leverage them a lot more. So to get more direct reporting or direct feedback from students or have them actively collect some insight from the students, that would be extremely beneficial, I think, to this board. Yeah, I kinda like how we do the building reports from our principals. It would be like their own building report, like student report. Yeah. So we do have a separate, specific student board member orientation. So we took all of the materials that the board went through and we kinda pared it down and made it appropriate for our junior high school students. And so once we select the board
108members, then Amy and I would take them through kind of that, here's a look at board policy, here's how we make decisions, here's how we communicate. So as you know, anytime you see Dr. Paul, that means a student is on there. Also, if the doctor is gone and it's just from myself to the board, then that's kind of the signal that's board member talk. But I think that the process has been incredibly beneficial. I've spent a lot of time with the student board members. So it's been good for me. I'd like to see if we're looking at this in the future, having maybe pairing up a board, like an adult elected a board member with our student board member, just to give insights that maybe I miss. My perspective is just different because I'm on
109the administration side, but having just a tie between board member and student board member I think would be really important. There's things she, Kamara would have learned from you that she would not get from me. So just for future reference. Cool. And if everyone is good with the process that we had, we've got the new form ready. So we would start distributing that to our seventh grade students. The form is on 139. And that goes to all students or just, okay, great. Are we wanting to stick with that method of the applications and having them apply and then us going through them at a meeting and going through the interviews and selection process? Are we good with that? I'd like to propose at least an idea to interject into this because obviously Audrey and Kamara
110have done a fantastic job and they went through the interview process and they were not a part of the student council. But I think that we also have an opportunity here to streamline a connection between student government and local elected officials, local government, where if we want to do the same interview process, I'm not against that at all. I think it turned out fantastic. But I would like to find a way to link the students with their student body, with the student council, because I think it's also an opportunity to promote civics and the importance of having a voice and seeing that voice matter and making a difference in the community. To the point that I think Adrian was bringing up of getting feedback and maybe having like a student report, to equal our board
111report. Maybe these students, if we go to open interview process, they can work with their local student council in their school, start to gather information that way and get into the student council. I think it's a really great opportunity in our hands to incorporate the importance of civics in the lives of our community with the students. And I think that's worth evaluating. That's just me, I don't know. I had the same thought, Patrick, so I like that. And I think that those student council members will have a certain amount of resource too that they can collaborate with the student board member and it'd be more productive that way. So I like your idea. Yeah, and I think it would make it easier for the student representatives to, they would have help in getting information from
112the student body as well. They don't have to walk around and conduct surveys on their own. They can have a council assistant too. Yeah, it does that. It's kind of a win-win. I agree with that. It also adds like a layer of prestige also to the student council as well. Yeah. Yeah, it gives it actual meaning. They're not just talking about, do we want hot lunches? Whatever it is that people think the student councils talk about. Make your way out of the streets. When really student councils deal with volunteering. But they can actually, they have some more meaningful contributions. So are we looking for our student board members to attend student council meetings or come from the student council? I think come from the student council. I agree. Well, I'm not saying they have to
113because I think Audrey and Kamora have set such a great example. But at least have them work, if they're not of the student council, to work directly with the student council. I agree with that too. And start building bridges there. I agree with working together at least. Can I ask a question to Kamora? Kamora, would you, would that be something that you would be looking, like say you've started this all over again. Would that be something that you would actually want to do in your school is go work with the student council, talk to them a little bit more so you can get more feedback to bring to the board. Well, student council really just does like the PEP assemblies. They don't really make decisions for the school. So me personally, I would not recommend
114having someone from the student council become a board member. I would say do the application process to actually get people that want to. Because student council is just hanging out with your friends, planning spirit days. It's not really about wanting to learn about the school board. Did you get more value out of like the principals meetings, getting information about like what's going on in the school? Like when they would gather the groups and get the information from the students? I would definitely say I got more insight from the principals panels with Ms. Goble. Yeah. Because you actually could see student voices in there. Yeah, but wouldn't this also kind of influence the student council to not be just to hang out with their friends, like you said, it would say, hey, this is also a
115responsibility that comes with it. And they would kind of go, oh, okay. Well, then maybe that's why I'm running because it galvanizes that it's actually like a civil position, you know? And if you're elected by your student body, you have this responsibility to reflect the student body. Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think it gives us an opportunity to craft an improved system where the student body can, you know, the student council can actually, you know, what Kamora and Audrey think they could have benefited from, right? Instead of trying to have the student representative go meet the student council where they're at, it's an opportunity to improve the student council body itself and the roles and responsibilities. So yeah, I guess, you know, talking this out, I'm in favor of having the same
116open interview process that we had and using this as an avenue to improve the student council position in the school. Yeah, I would agree with, I would agree with that. So does that mean they would probably have like a president and vice president because now we don't even have that. They just have like the planning stuff. What's gonna happen with student council? Should probably do a dive in on like what the student council is doing as well, right? And have a better understanding of how that's being rolled out. But I think it would be a great responsibility for the elected president of the student council to participate and to know that this is a responsibility. We also had two members. So we could do one member through the interview process and one member from the
117student council. I like that idea. So we could combine the ideas and that seems like right now to be the easiest way to combine. Yeah. But I'm just saying. Love it. That means we kind of like have to change the student council because Hilda Walker, I think Ms. Carroll said like a couple months ago that they elected officials for student council. Am I correct? Because theirs is more advanced than ours because ours is just like not really doing as much. So we would probably have to like edit stuff on the school website to actually show, if you want to be a part of the board, that means you have to really be a part. There's a different set of responsibilities and we don't want to put any more work on the sponsor in terms of
118them coming here and representing. Cause I know their parents do a lot of the work of getting them here and there and allowing them to do that. So right now the directive would be to go through the interview process and then we'll look into expectations, policies and tying to student council. So yeah. So we'll continue with our process. We'll go through that and then we'll make advances in tying it to student council. Any other discussion, question? Moving on to 5C, New Business 5C-1, approval of new copiers district wide. Here comes Brian. So I want to preface that it's not common to put this many large purchases in one board packet, but due to the threat of the tariffs and price increases and then the potential supply chain issues, we really felt it was necessary to
119bring these different items to the board for consideration. And so in the idea of the pursuit towards excellence, I believe it requires us to challenge the status quo and to look towards new opportunities or paths. So with that said, let's talk about new copiers. So this year we will have printed over 6 million sheets of paper. I think my heart stopped when we printed that many sheets of paper, but I came to realize when I talked to our colleagues throughout LinkAway that we really weren't printing that much. But while our current copier fleet is still extremely functional, it is costing the district on average about $12,000 per month for both black and white and color copies. And so the district also spends on average about $36,000 just to buy the paper to print as well.
120And so Kevin and I had this idea of looking to replace our oldest 14 black and white copiers, which also included the highest cost per page. So we initially began a conversation with our current vendor, Proven IT, back in March. And they initially gave us a proposal to replace those 14 copiers, but instead of using Canon copiers, which is what we've had for years, they were proposing the brand Sheeva. And in that proposal it was for $13,770 and it was for unlimited copies. Although Kevin and I really weren't thrilled with the idea of moving to Sheeva, and after doing some internet research, we realized that this proposal really wasn't a mesmerizing proposal, is what they explained to us. And so we realized this deal really wasn't a good deal at all. And so we asked
121them to come back and said, if we would stay with you, what would Canon copiers be with going through Proven? So they came back with a deal of 19,217, or an increase of over $5,000, and that's per month, over a lease period of 60 months, or which would have cost the district and the taxpayers over $326,000 for the course of that lease. And so it was at that point, Kevin and I knew we had to reach out to other dealers, other Canon dealers specifically, to begin a conversation. And so we reached out to other large dealers, companies like Gordon Flesh, Pulse Technologies, and Canon Direct. And so we met with each of these companies and talked about how we could look to save money, leasing versus purchasing, and really how we can improve the overall
122copier fleet in our district. We initially talked about just replacing our black and white fleet, and were open to the idea of replacing everything we had in its well, which would then include our color copiers. By replacing our entire fleet, the proposals provided us a fixed pricing for 60 months on our copiers, in the sense of monthly payments, as well as black and white and color copying costs. Additionally, we found and learned that Canon would be increasing their prices due to the tariffs by 12 to 15% starting in June. So by tonight, if the board would approve this proposal for new copiers tonight, we would lock in the deal and would not have any tariffs on this proposal. And so when we received these proposals, it was quite eye-opening because they continually aggressively outbid each
123other for days. And so one company would outbid each other or then improve something else. So if you looked at our second page, you can see in my chart here, you can see that we've looked at what Proven provided us with the Shiba and Canon copiers, Gordon Flush, Pulse Technology, and with Canon. And so simply, Kevin and I are recommending that we move forward with Canon USA, or it's really Canon Direct. What they did for us was initially started out as a $4,000 or $4,300 monthly lease, and eventually came down to $3,727 in included staples, which usually is not included in a lease. And you sit there and go, how much really are staples? And then as we found out, we spent about $2,000 in staples annually over the course of five years, it's an
124additional $10,000. And so it's a nice piece of change. What Canon did was also lower their black and white cost per page. And so instead of us paying currently on some copiers at a rate of one penny per page, we are now down to .0045. We would get all new color copiers. Our color cost, instead of being at nine cents per page, we're now looking at .0356. Staples are included. The one change is that we have moved from what we would currently use now, which is called UniFlow, and we've moved to a different product called Papercut, which is more like device agnostic versus being, it's really the same thing that what UniFlow does, but it allows us to do some better printing with all of our iPads. So here you can see our cost per
125month for leasing is really $3,727. And on an estimate, if we printed on average 500,000 black and white copies and 65,000 color copies, that would come out to around .4564 or a monthly total of 8,291. And if we take that $12,000 average, we're saving somewhere around almost $3,000 per month. And again, take that over 60 months and then add an extra $10,000. So we're looking at almost saving $190,000 by changing our company, but staying with the same type of product. And so recommendation, hopefully to the board, is that you would allow the district to move forward with Canon USA to allow us to move forward with the new Canon copiers. One thing I'd also like to add is that the district owns all of our copiers. What that means is that the current copiers we
126have, we can sell. And so while some of those black and white copiers might be old, our current color copiers are two and three years old. And so they still hold value. And so what we would like to do is look out and put it on our listservs and see if there are some districts out there that would be interested in finding a used copier and then basically take that money and then apply it to monthly payments for the first couple of months that we would be able to have our proposals, or I'm sorry, our monthly counts towards the Canon copiers. So that's kind of a... So we currently have six color copiers, is that correct? And then we have eight black and whites, or because you said 14 copiers altogether. So overall, the total
127count would be 24 copiers. 24 copiers in total. We have three large-scale color copiers, and those are at the three larger buildings. And then we have three smaller black and white, I'm sorry, three color copiers. One stays at Indian Trail, one's over here at the Early Learning Center, and we have one here at the admin office. So when you say six new copiers, that's gonna kinda... We will have the big ones still and... Correct. And now they're all the same model versus being different ones, yep. Second question is a maintenance included in this. So when things break down, this lease has maintenance all included. It is, yeah. Second thing, is toner all included? It is. Okay. I did ask them if they would actually fill them up with paper when they delivered them. So that
128was the one thing they weren't willing to do for us, so. So we're still looking at that $36,000 basically budget for paper, but we're including now the staples in there and everything else, okay. We are, yeah. And we're doing a five-year lease, is this correct? It would be a five-year lease. And then after those five years, then we obviously have to negotiate again for something. I think we would just, I mean, this was a very eye-opening experience for us, right? I mean, we truthfully had no reason to leave proven. And it was one of those things, I kind of equated it going to a car dealership, right? And they said, this is the price. And either you want it or you don't. And I was like, this doesn't look like a good deal. And then
129we were sitting in these conversations with other companies, and we realized what other companies were like, well, that's not correct, and we can offer this, and we do regular parts. And it was one of those subtle things we found, like we weren't getting Canon toner anymore for our copiers. We were getting an OEM equivalent. And it just kind of like all of a sudden, one day we're like, when did this start happening? You know what I mean? So it was like these subtle things. And to be honest, we really had a great relationship with proven, but you can't make that deal with that kind of, with that number, when other people were coming down aggressively much lower. Competition is good. Is this just an introductory price, or is this something that, is there some kind
130of guarantee over? This is locked for 60 months. So there is no change in this contract until the end of the lease. So there is, for when we talk about budgeting for Julie, this is locked for 60 months. There will be, the only variance, John, is gonna be what we pay in the sense of cost per click. So if we run 600,000 sheets in black and white, then we're paying for 600,000 sheets black and white. In July, when we're gonna run 100,000 sheets, then we pay 100,000 sheets. You know, proven, talked about how much we were running, and they wanted to do an unlimited. And it sounds great, but when in June, July, and August, when you're not really taking advantage of that potential unlimited, you're paying for something that you're not taking advantage of.
131So we still believe that the cost per click is the truest way for paying, because you're paying for exactly what you're printing. And this is your best estimate about 500,000 black and white copies and 65,000 color copies within that, like, one month period. I kind of estimate, yeah, you know, everybody had a weird estimate, right? I know, it's all different. So some people estimated at 450, some were at 550, so I took the difference. You know, my thing was like, I think you had, I'm like, you played with house money, and you still had $1,000 a swing. So even if you went 550, you're still underneath where we were averaging. So, you know, every month, we were averaging between nine, 10, $12,000 with proven. And again, you start looking at the cost per page, and,
132you know, we're not paying a penny per page on black and white. Every one of our copiers is going to be 0.0045. And that is, again, for the life of that copier. And again, in five years, we start this whole process over again, and we know what the companies exist out there and what price points, you know, are. Do you have any, sorry. Do you have any idea about their customer service? I mean, I don't know what you've been dealing with with proven, but like, you know, if something breaks, what is the turnaround time? When can they get a tech out there? Absolutely. So, you know, what I can tell you, Melissa, is that, you know, none of these companies are done without vetting. So, as a part of our CTO group, there's a listserv.
133And so, when I was looking for Canon companies, I mean, I already knew Canon companies that existed out there. And so, I was already talking to other CTOs or other technicians that were out there that were already using Gordon Flesh, or I had a previous experience with Pulse, and we were talking with people we're working with Canon. So, I already had feedback from them about what turnaround time was. And so, you're looking at basically a four-hour window, which is really no different than probably what we're, you know, looking at, you know, right now. Maybe it's a little faster with proven, because, I mean, they're within our district. But, I mean, we're not, you know, we're not talking days or things of like that. And, you know, what's different in our district is, you know, there
134is no single point of failure. So, if one copier is down, I mean, we do have ancillary other copiers that, you know, a teacher has the ability to go print to. But, yeah, we absolutely did talk to other districts that were using Canon Business and had no issues with them. So, Brian. Yeah, I'd like you all. I'd like to confirm what Brian was saying. I've actually dealt with this before, with renting out a copier and the service time. I was in a really small location, and whenever I needed help, I would call, and it would take like a day or two for a tech to come out, but we were super low volume. I imagine being a school, four hours is a very reasonable time from a call to getting a service tech out there.
135I think it's gonna be very helpful. I don't think we have to worry about them selling us a bill of goods on services, right? Because that is, it's a real concern. You know, companies will sell you the world, and then when it comes time to own up to it, especially with service, you know, look at car dealerships. No, nobody likes to bring their car into a car dealership. It takes forever to get things done. But I don't think we're gonna experience that with this. I think piecing this out is actually a really good idea. I just got a quick question. Sure. So the, these prices are comparative between Gorda and Pulse and Canon, but was there any talk about what models these new copy machines would be? Are they, do they differ at all or
136are they all the same? Correct, so great question, Adrian. Yep, so, you know, what we did is we really looked at, so initially the conversation was, hey, let's put 90 page a minute copiers all over the place. But, you know, a 90 page a minute copier in a main office of five people is a complete waste of, you know, it's driving a Lamborghini on a brick road. You're never gonna get it out of first gear. And so it really didn't make sense. So it sounds great that, hey, we got the same model all across the board and really these companies wanted to work with us to make it right. And so I sat there and said, you know, I started looking, I said, our current models were really, the highest we had was 70 and
137our lowest was really 55 and the offices were like 45. So we really wanted to stay above that 45 threshold. And so our base model is a 60 across the board. So for anything outside, so let me start with this. Every office gets, or every school gets one 80 page a minute copier. And that comes with an external finisher with a three hole punch and a stapler. So that's an 80 page a minute copier. So every building gets one of those. And then we did everything with 60 page a minute. And we did that because the copies that we were seeing on a per month really weren't dictating the need to go spend the money on an 80. I'll take that. The one exception was really Walker because they had a second floor and a
138first floor that did warrant an 80 page on the second floor. And so we did, you know, do that. And you see the price we're paying. It was pennies on a dollar to do an extra one. But we really did look at what we were paying or what the duty was on these copiers and looking to make sure that we were putting in the right speed for what we were really using that copier for. What we were able to save money on too was that on these 60 page a minute copiers, we learned that we didn't have to put an external finisher on there to get a stapler. And so when we sat there and said, well, I mean, an external finisher is an extra $1,500. And they said, no, you can do stapling on
139the inside. And so holy smokes, you know, all of a sudden, you know, you have 14 copiers that you don't have to put $1,500 on. And so that saves another set of money on there. And so, you know, now all of a sudden, when you save this money, now all of a sudden we can go put extra three hole punchers in our schools and give things that people have, you know, schools that they want with extra three hole punches because now we have, you know, I have to say extra fund money that you can do, which is things that they actually want. Yeah. I have a couple of questions, Brian. Yes, John. That'll be pretty quick. Sure. What are we paying monthly again? I know that Proven IT, this is their projection for the leasing,
140but what are we paying now a month? Approximately. So with Proven, we own all of our copiers. So in the sense of that, we pay zero for the cost of the copier. We average about 12,000 on average. So if we took what we've paid so far this year, our average is 12,000 just for printing costs. Okay. Not repair and all that stuff. No, because your repairs are built, are paid for by the cost per page. Okay. Then the other question I had was how many copiers do we have over at Rogus? Five. Five. Okay. Because I, there was a complaint I heard that some teachers have to stay till five o'clock at night to get their stuff done. So maybe, maybe survey them too before we... So this has all been run past all of
141our principals long before we went out to bed. But I said teachers. The teachers are the ones that... Well, I mean, our principals are the representation of those teachers. Well, hopefully in the survey they'll comment on that because I'm getting direct feedback from the teachers. Sure. And so that's why I'm asking you to consider them because they are the ones using it every day. And I've spoke to them and they said that they're a little short-staffed on the printers there. So I had one more question. I'll let someone else go ahead and I'll come back with my last question. Oh, no, I know what it is. How much did we pay for the last newest copier that we're gonna turn around and sell? We bought it like three years ago. How much did we pay
142for that copier? Like our biggest color copier? Well, they were the large color ones. So we paid for it. We had smaller color ones. They were about 3000 a piece. And then the larger color ones were probably about 15 to 20 a piece. Okay. And what do you think we'll get approximately? If we can shoot for half? Do you know what I mean? If we could sell all six or? At the end of the day, we're still saving money. Yeah, I mean, if my goal is we could sell six and get $30,000, I mean, you know. Put it into the, yeah. That's three months right there. You know what I mean? Sure, sure. And even on the big scheme of things over the whole year, we're gonna still save a ton more money than that.
143Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Any further discussion or question? Can I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the proposal from Canon USA for 25 new copiers leased for 60 months at a locked monthly lease rate of $3,727. Second. Still so moved. I apologize. It's 24. That's my mistake in there. Oh, sorry, 24. I wrote it as 25, but it is 24. I apologize. 24. Can you go ahead and re-motion? So moved. Second. Seconded. Can I have a roll call? Roll call. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Patrick Wolffant. Aye. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Motion carries. Moving on to 5C2. Brian's staying right up there. Approval of structured cabling district wide. Yes, I am back again. So this proposal is for structuring cable. And so this is specifically
144focusing on adding additional network cable for additional security cameras at each of our schools internally and outside, as well as for our R-Lock security for our strobe lights and the dual sided displays throughout the hallways and the main entrances. When we go to a different motion with all go displays, you could see what those strobe lights and dual sided displays actually look like. And then the cabling would also be pulled for the R-Lock pull stations in case of a lockdown that could be pulled as well. So with the installation of these new devices, we need cabling pulled to each of these various locations. As I counted it up, it was about a hundred different cable runs, some on the second floor, drilling holes outside for security cameras and having this done by applied communications group.
145They have the manpower to get this done quickly. Each of the buildings would take about one week to get done. And we have used applied cable communication previously for other cable pulling projects. And so we reached out to three different companies, Low Voltage Solutions in Joliet, Great Line Communications in South Holland, as well as Applied Communications Group in Schomburg. And as you see, they came out with a different price or all the different prices. As I mentioned, the quote with applied communication group actually includes 32 more cables and they significantly came in lower than the other two companies. I didn't go back to the other two companies to ask them for a revised quote because they are already significantly higher than what applied cable or applied communication was. But what I'm looking to do here
146is truly cable everything as much as possible. So we're taking care of all the requests that our building principals are looking for. So any dead spots that are inside, again, with the communication I've had with principals, we laid out a building map and said, here's what I think. And then I worked with them to find dead spots in areas that they found an area of concern. And so before I went out to bid with cabling, I made sure I knew every spot that we wanted to cover. So it was only not only dead spots internally, but then we really worked to make sure that we had our parking lots covered because that was our next big area that had no coverage was our parking lot. So it really started with knowing that we were doing
147the work in the Walker parking lot. And so it started with that and working with Walt to make sure that we could have cabling pulled out to the front parking lot at Walker. Then it really kind of mushroomed there and said, well, if I'm gonna do Walker's parking lot, how do I start doing Summit Hill? How do I do the West parking lot at Summit Hill? How do I take care of Rogus and Indian Trail and everything? And so I figured there are really three times a year you can do cable pulling, summer, winter break, and spring break. And so if we're gonna have these guys here, then let's take care of this and then have everything we could possibly need and cover. And so again, what we're looking to do in the next motion
148is cover everything we possibly can in the sense of interior cameras at all the buildings, as well as exterior with us. And so obviously the foundation to get that done is structured cable. And so that's where- Quick question. Did you take into consideration like if there's in the future any changes to those parking lots? Are these cables gonna be affected or? So at Hilda Walker is the only one that's really being trenched. Summit Hill is being trenched as well out in the parking lot on the west side. All the other ones are really cameras that are gonna be attached to the building and then looking out towards. So the only two that are being trenched is really Summit Hill and Hilda Walker. Summit Hill has to be trenched because if you looked at Summit Hill's
149west parking lot, I can't put them on the building because there are trees that are in between the building and the parking lot. So I had to go into the parking lot to try to be able to cover the parking. Whereas at Rogus, I don't have any tree interference. That's why I could go on the building. So those will be on poles, light poles then? The cameras? In the Summit Hill west parking lot, it'll be on a light pole, correct. Is that ideal or would we wanna enter, just to get at the wall here, would we wanna entertain like trimming those bushes or those trees out of the way or moving those to make it more efficient? I don't know if it would be more efficient, no. It's not that big of a deal though.
150It's under 10 grand for us to make them pull a trench. So it's easy for us to have them do the trench and the electric is already out there for us too. So it's quite all right. You'd probably spend them out the same amount of money tearing down trees. Okay, John, anything you can kick in? No, I got myself up to speed and figured out what you guys were talking about as far as the cameras go. I'm gonna call the state's attorneys and sheriff's office too, just to see if we can get additional, it's called flat cameras. It wouldn't cost us anything, but it would be at their cost. But if anybody comes in and their plates are flagged by law enforcement, or we can even, if there was a really tough situation with a
151parent that's not supposed to be on property, we can even ask them to flag it. But they'll get alerts. I get alerts on my OIC phone, officer in charge phone. And if there's a car that's coming through town with a stolen plate, we just add more flat cameras. So they're up everywhere. Sheriff's and state's attorney's office will be happy to put them on your list. Awesome. I'll check into that as well. Then can I have a motion as recommended on page 150 in your board book to approve the proposal from Applied Communication Group? Can we hold off just for a second? Melissa will be back in a second. Thanks. Any big vacation plans this summer, Brian? It'll be touring college towns. That'll be about it. Cableing. Cableing. He's crunching. That's outsourcing. You'll be dreaming about
152vacation, right? We'll be on college tours. Wow, that's awesome. We're all over the Midwest, right? We will be going to Purdue, and we have Ball State and Valpo. Do have to find a way to make it up to Minneapolis to see the University of Minnesota. That's where we're at so far. They've got a long other list, and I'm very much heavy into music education. I'm on live camera. I can't say that. It's recorded forever, so I can't splice this one out now. We don't need Paul's phone. All right, we're ready. All right, now can I have a motion as recommended on page 150 to approve the proposal from the applied communication group for a total of $47,627. So moved. Second. Can I get a roll call? Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye.
153Amy Burke. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Motion carried. Moving on to the 5C3 approval of AVA security cameras district-wide. Strange enough, I'm still here. All right, so now thank you for approving the structured cable. So now I'm looking for approval for the AVA security cameras. So last year we used our school maintenance grant to purchase AVA security cameras, which is basically Motorola's Avigilon line that they bought that is basically all in the cloud. And so we have those cameras currently now at Summit Hill and at Dr. Julian Rogas. And last year what we did is we took all the cameras that we had at those two buildings and then used them to increase our security camera coverage at Indian Trail and Hilda Walker. And so while those buildings have more security cameras, they're
154on the old system. And so our goal now is to move everybody to the same system. So now we would include Walker and Indian Trail in our new security grant. So the grant is paying for about 60, I'm sorry, hang on one second, I apologize. I'm getting lost on my own. So we have, I apologize. We have $41,000 earmarked on this year's Illinois School Maintenance Grant. And while the total for CDW is $63,425, that is because that's when we started talking about adding outside cameras and a lot more things than initially when we put the grant in. So when we talked about that grant and we had to put it in, once you put that money in, it is non-amendable. So it's like either you need to know what you wanna do with it. And
155if you go over, then it's out of your money. So at that time, we knew we were replacing all the indoor cameras and I knew I wanted to put an extra camera outside at Summit Hill. I knew I wanted to do one at Rogus. But then all of a sudden, we're adding four more cameras outside at Rogus. We're doing the outdoor cameras at Walker. And so all of a sudden, there is your extra $20,000. So I'm not necessarily worried about that extra $20,000 because we're gonna move that into, I'm glad Paul didn't spit out his water. As I said, I wasn't worried about that $20,000 because we're gonna move that and pay for that in the July new fiscal year. We can also look at using the next year's school maintenance grant to pay for
156that. The COPS grant is also coming out again, which I know is another long shot, but it also is another opportunity for us to try to go ahead and look to do some more security stuff possibly. So of the $63,425, which is coming through CDW, $41,000 is covered by grants. And so really $22,000 is really coming from the district. We did use another company to get a competitive bid, which was ITR Systems, which is a company we've used before. But again, the problem there is they had a 20% markup. So instead of being $63,000, now you're looking at $89,000. And so even though they had different incentives and things like that, it's still very hard to try to price match when CDW can get almost at dealer cost. So the big thing there with these
157cameras is that again, we're focusing on all of our outside parking lots at all of our buildings and focusing on all of our dead spots that principals have identified. And so I feel here with principal collaboration, there's really no stone we haven't unturned. And that's why we matched the cabling with what they wanted with the cameras that they were looking for. So here, I think we've got a good match with this project. So here, I'd be looking for your guys' approval here for $63,425.87 from CDW, please. Any questions, discussion? I have a quick question. So with the addition of these cameras, I know we have external cameras at Rogus that are going in and it's in the proposal, from what I saw, it was gonna cover all the parking lots. Is it gonna cover all
158of the recess areas as well? Correct. So what we're looking to do is in the back where the playground and then there's gonna be a new black top area. We will have cameras on the playground and that black top area, as well as like the parking lot along 88th Avenue and the parking lot that goes on the southern portion of Rogus. So what you're looking at is you would see cameras basically mounted on the gym and you'd see cameras mounted on where the art room and music rooms are. And that would face the west and face the south. Yeah, that's great. I think that's awesome. I'm a huge fan of that. I think it's important for the community to know that this isn't just for safety from outside intruders. It's something that can govern if
159accidents happen during recess or play areas or if there is an incident between students, it's easier to identify what's exactly going on. And it's just to have more transparency for the faculty and staff and for parents. I think it's a really great idea. I'm all in favor of it. Thanks, Pat. And one of the things I wanna say too is our outside use of the facilities has been starting to increase, right? So the facilities are not done at three o'clock anymore. And so you're seeing nighttime activities upwards of nine, 9.30. And so when people are leaving, that's great. We have them on camera inside or up to a vestibule, but then we don't have anything that happens outside. And so that really kind of holds us as a district in a bad spot if something
160did happen in a parking lot. One thing I did wanna mention is that all of these interior cameras are easily accessible for us. And so our team is able to do that. And if we contracted that outside, these companies are looking for $150 per camera to be able to do something that could be easily done by our team. So really anything that is inside, we'll be able to take care of ourself, even outside domes, but something that is a 180 camera that needs a boom or something like that, we contract that out. And someone who had way more skill than us, but things that we can do in-house, we'll do that to save installation costs. So the $63,425, that is just for the cameras itself. It's not the installation costs that we're gonna commit. What's
161the estimated cost on that? Have you looked into that? Because obviously you guys will do the interior at $150 an hour. What would that be? It says you said in here it's gonna be $6,000 saved. You're gonna save us, but what would be the estimated cost on that? I'll be honest with you, I didn't print the quote for the CDW, so I'd have to think how many exterior cameras we had. And they really just, they don't necessarily charge me by the camera. They just charge me by the day's labor. So I really just say a couple of days worth of labor. So if you figure every day is maybe about $1,200. And then the other thing is that 41, so the 63,000 includes that $41,000 grant, which we already have basically. You're basically just asking
162us for the approval to put that $41,000 grant inside that $63,000. Is that correct? Yes, the 41,000 has already been approved or has already been given to us by the state. I know that. I just wanted to make sure I'm clear on that. Yeah. So we have that grant money already in our position to use. Yeah, so the great thing is the state of Illinois does pay their grants. So we do have the $41,000 on hand. So we'll gladly apply that to the CDW order right now. I do see on here with the ACG, right? That's what we're on with this $47,627. No, we're on the next one. I apologize. We're on the approval of ABA security cameras. 150, yeah. I apologize, so then that negates my question. CDW. C. Brian, you're so good. Thank
163you. Because I was looking at the other page and I saw labor costs, so I was a little confused there. Thank you. You're OK. All good. Do I have a motion? Does the Board of Education approve the proposal from CDWG for $63,425.87? Second. First. And so moved. Second. Can I get a roll call? Melissa Ryan? Aye. John Winter? Aye. Amy Burke? Aye. Ron Petrie, aye. Patrick Oliphant? Aye. Adrienne Chavez? Aye. Motion carries. Moving on to 5C4, approval of ALGO digital displays and RLOC post stations district-wide. Yeah, so thank you. So this is also part of our safety and security plan. So again, the foundation was laid in that previous motion with the security cabling being laid. So the guys from Applied Cable are going to pull the cabling for those clocks that you see kind
164of in that picture there. So those ALGO clocks are going to be put in our hallways. And so those clocks are clocks, but they're strobe lights and a speaker all in one. And so if you've been to Summit Hill, you kind of see one hanging in the hallway out by the cafeteria and out by the gym. So that was our first test run, and we had a lot of positive feedback from students and teachers that kind of liked that they were more clear. And so it's just not a clock. It turns into a digital display. And what happens is is when an event would happen that gets signaled from our phones. And so the RLOC system basically allows us to turn each of our phones into a panic button. And so you're going to have
165seen that screenshot there that each of our phones has a lockdown button that exists. So if that button was pressed, it goes into a series of events that automatically are happening for it. Continue until you tell me no. But things that happen there are 911 is called on our behalf. All of the administrators are called and texted to let them know that a building has gone on to lockdown. An automatic page is automatically happening on behalf of whoever had done that. And so when you think of an emergency, I don't have time to sit there and think of, I'm looking for a guy. Be unaware of a guy in a white shirt. Our first goal is to shelter, and close our doors, and signal a lockdown. And so what happens there is that RLOC is
166doing all these things for us, and doing the communications to the police and to our administration and to the building. And so once somebody gets into a safe location, then they can use any phone to then make an all-school page and provide instructions. And so that display then, you'll see in that picture there, immediately then turns into a digital display providing instructions in each of those main hallways. And so that digital display will exist not only in Summit Hill hallways. So example, at Summit Hill, if you've been to Summit Hill, you see all those Duquesne clocks that sit in the hallway. If you figure those Duquesne clocks would then be removed, and then that gets replaced with those two-sided clocks, they'll be in Hilda Walker, they'll be in Indian Trail, they'll be in Rogus's hallway.
167So everybody's getting the same stuff. We're looking to put strobe lights on the outside. So if you're walking in and you see a strobe light flashing, you know that there's something happening on the inside of the building. We heard about it today. We have a lot of teachers that are traveling between buildings. And so as they're entering, they might not know something is going on, but they have a visual signal that maybe something is happening if a strobe light is possibly going on. So RLOC is helping us to communicate in a much timelier fashion than if we were trying to do all these different things at once. It's not necessarily just lockdown. It allows us to do shelter in places, shelter in places, fire drills, evacuations, and again, all these different things can come through
168the RLOC and then again communicate. So the differences between the shelter in places and things of that sort is obviously it's not calling 911, but we're still communicating with all those people involved. So if something happened at one building and we're here, we would clearly know that something is happening to another versus the principal trying to deal with what's happening at that building themselves and then going, oh God, did I communicate with Paul or the other principals? Did I text our group chat to let them know there's something going on here? Like again, in an emergency, time is of the essence. And so this system is allowing that communication to happen for us. This system here is allowing us then to provide visual communication and audio communication the entire school. And then what you'll see
169too is that we will install those blue pole stations, much like a fire pole station, but those will exist. So I believe I gave you guys a copy of my mind map of how this is supposed to be laid out. And I tried to help explain how it was, but in each of the hallways, whether it's the start of the hallway or the end of the hallway, they would have that blue pole station. So if something was happening, anybody didn't have to find necessarily a phone, they could use that blue kitchen to. So can I, this might be a question for you or Paul. What is the phase right now when we do lockdowns? Because we know we have state mandates on how lockdowns happen. So what's the difference between what we currently do, which
170is very, I believe is very successful compared to now all of a sudden we have this as a $68,000 fee that's coming out of our budget. What's the difference? Do you wanna start or do you wanna finish? I'll let you start. So I think one of the key differences is that we're trying to take as much of the human element out of it as we can. If we've been in a high pressure, high stress situation, if you can automate some of these functions, I think it increases safety. And so in closed session, we kind of have some more explicit conversations about what our school safety plan was. We wanted to give, so generally speaking, we wanted to give as many people access to being able to trigger an alert as possible. In the old days
171when we all started, it was centrally located. So everything would come through the office and what we know now about an event is it could happen anywhere at any time. And so giving people the permission to create a lockdown or to communicate in this fashion, time is critical. And so now rather than having to call the office or call 911, we've given the permission and the ability for every single staff member adult to create a safer place for us. So all of these projects are kind of intertwined. Again, I apologize for all of this information coming at the same time to the board because it's a lot. So this pairs up with some of the other motions that have been approved. So we've got all the cable runs now approved. So now this is kind
172of the end product on the end of those cables so that if a student sees something, a student can pull a lockdown. If a student sees something in the classroom, theoretically they could initiate a lockdown. What if their teacher's stepped out to use the restroom or what if the teacher's doing hallway duty beforehand? So it's just giving us some additional options. We're giving access to kids on the app then, on the phone app? Not on the phone app, just on the actual telephone itself. So what we've decided to do for next year, and I'm gonna keep this really short because I don't wanna steal Brian's time because I told him to be brief tonight, as you can tell, is that at the beginning of the school year, we're going to take some time and explicitly
173go through our school safety plan with all staff members. It's one thing to have it on a piece of paper, it's another thing to role play it and practice it and make sure that we understand it because I won't be running it and it might not be a principal running it, it might be a teacher who's running it. So again, just to kind of reconfirm, safety is gonna come first, safety comes before learning because if you're unsafe, you can't learn. So these are pieces that we wanted to put in place. We did a little touring, so we went down to Brando Junior High School in Manhattan to take a look at what they put in, what state of the art, what's really current, and this is a system that we felt could improve safety. This
174is a big one that I think we talked about almost a year ago and it might even be in the state statute now, but. It actually is gonna be in January. January 1st, it's called Alyssa's Law where it's looking to basically require schools to have a mobile panic system. And so where I wanted to kind of say, Ronnie, sorry, John, to steal your thunder here, but it's like. No, that wasn't it, but I. But I think what I'm trying to do is, we talked about, I wanna be the leader in this, right? I mean, I wanna give, I wanna make these the safest schools possible, right? And so Walt and I really work hard to make sure our doors are safe, our doors are secure. At some point, we're gonna work on access control, improving
175that system, but it gets really disheartening when you look at the news cycle and you see a shooting here and then a day later you'd see another shooting. You always tell yourself it's never gonna be us. And I wanna make sure that it is still never gonna be us, but if God forbid it ever is us, I wanna make sure that we had everything in place because if we didn't have it in place, the next question is to be, well, why didn't we put it in place? Well, here's the question I was gonna ask you, is how did the police access our building? Because when the guys are, everyone's locked in and the bad guys locked in, how do they get in to stop the bad guy? Because that's actually, I think, part of the
176state statute now that says they have to have FOBs. We're supposed to... So they do. So our police officers have FOB to our buildings and everybody has access to our knockboxes. Perfect. Thank you. So even when it's locked down, they can still access? Absolutely, 100%. Okay. Perfect. And I was wondering if in this system was there any way to make it even easier so it's an app on the officer's phone where he can hit a door, like I know door 14, boom, going in, you know? That would be nice. I know it might not be there yet, but maybe they'll come up with the software for it and... So this system here, there's another really big popular system out there is called Bluepoint and it's super expensive. So Rival 5 is a company in Mokina.
177And while it's our phone system, this is something that was a passion project for them. And so it really ties into our phone system, but it works well when we start looking at other systems and you guys are in education. So it works with, you know, if we wanted to look at crisis goal for offsite reunification stuff. And so, you know, they start working with a Raptor. And so we were looking for other things that work together. What I'm trying to avoid is buying these silo systems. Like I don't want to buy a phone system. I don't want to buy another system. I want systems that start working, you know, working together. The reason we went with the AVA security cameras was because we were moving the OpenPath. And OpenPath and AVA security systems are
178under the same umbrella. They work together. Like I didn't want to buy two separate controls because, you know, we're in a day today where like systems should start being interoperable to each other. And so, you know, this is a system that we know if we had to add on pieces has that ability to. With the access to the school for the police officers with either the Knox Box or the FOB, Tinley has Rogus, Tinley has Walker, but Will County has Summit. So does Will County and Tinley have access to Summit? Because likely, Tinley will be the first responder to Summit, you know, just like Sanford went off several months ago with a, went up being a ghost call, spoof call, whatever you call it, different things. But it was, Gail's Park was the first on
179scene. We were right there across the street. It's a great question. And I don't have the answer. And I know we never asked that question during our safety and security meeting. So something to coordinate with the local law enforcement. Great question. Thanks, Brian. What grants have we looked in to pay for this? This was actually in the COPS grant. It is. Yeah, we did put it in the very first COPS grant and it got denied. So, I mean, we could look to put it in the, you know, COPS grant again. So it was in the COPS grant. And then in our last grant that we did, which was the Stop the Violence grant, which was through those guys at UIC, it was also put in there. So we tried to put this specific project in
180two different like school violence grants. And we just haven't gotten the funding. But it has been in two previous grants. You feel like it's well within the budget though? Brian's budget. Well, it is, right? I mean, you know, to me, it's, it is something I went in front of, I went in front of the staff in last January and said this was something that we were gonna do. And it was important for us to do on their behalf. And so, you know, I wanna be at least a man of my words and say we have the ability to do it. Like we couldn't do it in January because, okay, we didn't have the funding. And so now, you know, again, if it's one of those things, if it's important to you, you'll find a way.
181Right. And so, you know, here I am today saying I'm gonna find a way to be able to do it. Appreciate it. Do I have a motion as recommended on 159 in your board book that the Board of Education approve the proposal from Rival 5 Technologies for $68,532.10. So moved. Second. Roll call. John Winter. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Motion carries. Moving on to 5C5, approval of building automation systems upgrade. I know you guys are trying real hard to get rid of me, but yeah. The great news is this one's an easy one because it's already paid for by a grant. So, look at everybody had a sigh of relief. Notice. We like those, Brian. We like those. Yeah. More of that, more of
182that. So, as we come into the 10 o'clock hour, I'll bring you guys home. So, as part of our last school maintenance grant, Walt and I put in the need to upgrade the building automation system over at Dr. Julian Rogus. So, this all began when we initially put in the cooling tower at Summit Hill a couple years ago. And initially, we had a system called Metasys. And when they put the cooling tower in, they replaced that system with a product called Niagara. And Niagara is an open source system, meaning that anybody can come in there and program. It's not closed source or closed software. The problem there was that we were then running Summit Hill Junior High heating on Metasys and running all the chiller plant on the Niagara. And so, what I did was
183in that next year, we then upgraded the whole system to Niagara at Summit Hill. So, currently Summit Hill right now is 100% Niagara. When we are looking to do our upgrades at Indian Trail with heating and cooling, a portion of Indian Trail is gonna get upgraded to Niagara in that bid process. And so, using Rogus is gonna be one of our easier upgrades because a lot of the controls there are much newer than some of our other buildings. And so, what we're looking to do there is just upgrade what they would consider the head end or the main computer part at Rogus. And so, now we would have a portion of Indian Trail, Rogus and all of Summit Hill on Niagara. And it's our Walt and I goal to continually kind of do a building
184every year or so to get off of the Metasys. And so, our problem is the Metasys controllers are like 20 some years old. I mean, they're really like really a computer running Windows XP, if that gives you an idea of. Then wasn't there service issues with that and pricing? Correct. And so, right, the Johnson controls only works on Johnson controls and so Johnson controls can set their own prices. Where we were with, you know, here with Niagara is that other people can work on Niagara. And so, we were able to go through different prices. And so, for example, we use Promistar a lot for a lot of our service calls. And while they bid on this Niagara upgrade, they were very much higher than the Aberdeen group who was a part of the initial Niagara
185upgrade. And so, here, when we're looking at that and we reached out to Hayes Mechanical and they came and toured on site, but they'd never provided us a proposal. And we reached out to a couple other large vendors and they never called back to provide a bid. So, we have Aberdeen group and Promistar and Hayes Mechanical and the Aberdeen group came back at just under $35,000 to do that work. So, it's basically a replacement of that like head end unit and then all the programming that comes with it. And then what we do is we're gonna, now that we have multiple units, we create what's called a supervisor computer. And so, now, each of those subunits now talk to one computer and we log into that versus logging into each computer, each school separately. And
186so, there's two motions. One is for the $34,646, which was covered by the school maintenance grant and the $9,908, which will be paid for by district funds. Both will be done by the Aberdeen group. But that's kind of where we're at with that one. Again, it's one of those things when, again, we do another large scale kind of HVAC project. It would be our goal then to look to replace the MetaSys controller. Like it works, right? It's doing what it needs to do, but again, it's based on technology from point A. Any other questions? Yeah, I'd like to jump in real quick. Wanna really commend you guys for getting away from MetaSys. I've worked with MetaSys. It's a really good system, but your point is exactly right. They upgrade every year. They charge technicians an
187astronomical amount of money to get the training for their upgrades, and then nobody else can work on it. So, it's really not in our interest to continue with that system. I'm also familiar with the Niagara system. It's very user-friendly. One of the things that jumped up about this proposal is the incorporation of the optimal start system. I know you guys didn't really mention it. It's not something that you guys really know much about, but the best way to tell you why this is such a good idea, the optimal start system, what it does is it takes into account not just the building temperature inside for equipment startup and turn off. Like your thermostat, you might have your equipment set to turn on at 6 a.m. and turn off at 6 p.m., right? No different for
188buildings. Optimal start will take the average temperature inside the building, but it'll also take into account the month of the year, so it accounts for the solar load. It accounts for the outside air temperature, the outside humidity, which does have a huge play in heat exchange, and it calculates the most efficient time to start your equipment, to condition the building as best as possible in the most efficient way. It not only saves money on energy, but it saves money on the equipment use. So, think of it in a way that makes sense to you guys. Think of it like going to work out. With the optimal start, it would be like stretching and easing into your workout, and without it, it's kind of like just sprinting into a workout. It's real dangerous. Brian's smiling in
189agreement with you, Patrick. Patrick, that's why we're so happy you ran and won, because we knew this was gonna be your area of expertise. Brian's very happy with it. And you are also a nerd, but go ahead. Can I pull a hand to be talking about it? No doubt. I'm trying to keep it brief, because we're longer, but Brian, I do have a question. Sure. Your supervisor equipment that you were talking about, you know that mainframe? Yeah. Is that going to have enough storage to incorporate all the rest of the schools in the future without additional upgrades? Because we wanna invest in futures, and that is really gonna be very beneficial if it can incorporate the rest of the schools in the upcoming years as you planned out, which is a smart way of doing
190business. But as long as that supervisor equipment can incorporate Build-A-Walker and Mary Drew in the future, I'm all for it. I think it's really, really good. So the server actually will sit on a virtual machine, so we'll be able to expand it at without any... So it won't be a physical server, so we're not limited by its physical capabilities. Yeah, no, that's outstanding. And for everybody else, just so you understand why this is so important for the day-to-day operations, we're tasking Walt to run five buildings at once that are distances apart. By incorporating all of this together, he can in accurate, in real time, read what's going on in every building and make adjustments in every building from one central location. It's a game changer, guys. Walt's happy. With that, do I have a motion
191on 169 of your board book that the Board of Education approve the building automation system Niagara upgrade proposal, including the three-year software agreement with the Aberdeen Group for $38,940? So moved. Second. Can I get a roll call? Patrick Oliphant. Adrian Chavez. Amy Burke. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Ron Petrie, aye. I remember when I first started, Walt was still going to the different buildings. Carries. One more. We need one more motion that the Board of Education approve the Niagara supervisor server installation proposal, including the three-year software agreement with the Aberdeen Group for $9,908. And this is not covered by the grant. Correct, this will be district funding. So that motion. So moved. Second. Roll call. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. Ron Petrie, aye. John Winter. Aye.
192Moving on to 5C6, approval of new school zone traffic signals, district-wide. Brian, you staking up here? This is all mine. So I feel like I owe you dinner at this point. And Paul told me I should talk like an auctioneer at this point. So, yes. So when we talk about new traffic zone signals, we're talking about the 20 mile an hour beacons that exist. Really right now they exist simply on North Avenue, outside of Summit Hill, and outside of Indian Trail on Frankfurt Square Road. While we have three, two only work because one controller doesn't keep the time. And so if you didn't know, this is actually the district's responsibility to own and maintain, hence why I'm talking to you today. So with the opening of Mary Drew Elementary School, it really should be something
193that we should invest in by adding those traffic beacons around Mary Drew. And so in the motion, you saw I kind of gave you some maps of where they would be. So we would put two on Rosewood and one on South Spruce. We would look to replace the two that exist at Indian, over at Indian Trail on Frankfurt Square Road. We would replace the current one that exists on North Avenue, but also add another one on North Avenue, which would be really if you came off of Harlem and came westbound on North Avenue. So you get two at there. And then we would also add one on Mary Drew Parkway coming into Hilda Walker. And I've also talked to Tinley Park Public Works, and they have no issue with us putting traffic signals on 88th
194Avenue. So we have them outside of Julian Arrogance as well. So that has been a concern that we've heard from the public about people obviously speeding on 88th Avenue. So ironically, I've had a great conversation with Public Works. They referred me back to Frankfurt Township Road, which of course referred me back to Tinley Park. So those both are very happy to have us take care of that. The township is very willing to help us put those in for us. So there's a great partnership with that. So the one thing I failed to explain to you if you're looking at this specifically is why wouldn't I be going with solar traffic systems? Because they're the lowest. So Paul pointed this out and as I was writing seven motions, I really didn't explain this one very well.
195And so I apologize. So while traffic systems or solar traffic systems looks like they're the best, they're really only a partial system. So they really only sell you the lights and the controller. The pole is a separate purchase from a different vendor and they don't sell you the base. And I said, well, really, how is that helping me at all? So they really became a non-viable vendor because they don't give me everything that I needed. K and K system and Tapco, again, while they gave me everything, the problem with that was that they moved all their controls to a cellular base model, which sounds great, but I'm only controlling those once a year when I'm changing a schedule. And then I incurred an annual cost because of the cellular. And so it basically doubled the
196cost of what the traffic light really was that I wanted to spend. So then RadarSign is who I recommended because it was an all-inclusive product. It allowed me to update the traffic signs through software. Now I have to go visit each traffic sign, but then I'm just uploading a file to each traffic sign to upload the schedule per se, again, once a year. And then I turn them on and then I turn them off at the end of the year. And then once a year, I visit each of the computers. Then everything is at least warrantied. They're all the same model. Again, we're not doing anything really fancy, right? Like if this was a 60-mile wide county, yeah, the cellular stuff really makes it super easy. I mean, I'm going from 80th Avenue to Harlem,
197so we're not talking. And there is a huge difference in the price. And so the big thing was is that the Frankfurt Roads talked about helping us put in those concrete pads. They came with a concrete anchor kit that the roads would be able to put in for us. So we would get those now. They'd work on putting the pads in. When the poles came in, we'd be able to install them and then get them configured. So again, we're looking at four to six weeks to be able to get those in. But really, radar sign was the most economical one that existed out there. I have a quick question, Brian. 15 miles an hour, is there anything that we are regulated by the speed that we set? Because I see that it says 15 miles
198an hour on the thing. Because most school zones are 20. It's 20. The picture I had was just a picture I grabbed off the internet, sorry. So the sign would be 20 miles an hour. What I put on there was just 15. Sorry. No, it's good. Brian, I was fortunate enough to get a tour over at Indian Trail, but one thing that was pointed out was also 78th, which is where it's on the back. It's the back street. Yeah, they fly down there. Yeah, that's like a drag strip right there. And it was voiced that there's kind of concern as well obviously the kids playing back there, the playground. Just wondering if that could be kind of rolled into this or considered in the cost. And then also, just because I'm curious, but is like
199our speed bumps like off the table, is that something that is even? That'd be with the county. That'd be with the county. We have to get that approved by them. Yeah. So like 80th Avenue is township really up to that nursery. And then once you hit curbs, it becomes Tinley Park. Okay. So I probably don't foresee them. Yeah. Consider it being a. So I mean. I gotta say, I don't know. I don't know because I never really asked. Yeah, that's 78th as well. Our third and fourth graders go back there. Their parents go back there or the fourth graders, I believe, but it is, they go very fast back there. The concern with that though is like, is there enough traffic over there to warrant the cost? And then obviously, yeah, safety is number one,
200but also we gotta be sharp about that. Sure. Yeah, I mean, you'd be looking at, I mean, I'd still be in there. I'd probably talk with them and see if we would need to do something north and south or just south only, you know, and I probably would do it as. Most people come from the, from Lincoln Avenue? Coming from the north. North, they come from North Avenue and they head south. They come, yeah, to the school, so. Sure. So probably what I would do is talk to Dana and Jason and some more and then bring that, if that's something they would consider or would want, then I'd bring it back to June and look to have this at least ordered and then at least be able to, and if that's what we, 77th Avenue.
201Sure. I mean, obviously the price, you know what the price is gonna be, so. Sure. So this. I wrote it down, so. So this price is off of nine signs, basically, is what you're showing me here, right here, correct? Is that, because it says quantity nine, is that correct? Yeah, it is nine signs. Okay, I was double checking. Because the other one, the solar one, which makes it kind of confusing because it says three, quantity of three, which if you look at it quickly, you're like, oh, why would we go with 40 grand instead of 14 grand? But then, yeah, actually take that as nine, it's $42,000. So it does make more sense now to kind of go with that one, so. Yeah, I mean, the solar traffic place was, I mean, it really sounded
202great because they were in Lamont, we could have picked them up, and I'm like, we don't sell the pole. I'm like, well, that's kind of an important part of the process. Yeah. Okay. All right, so can I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the proposal? Go ahead, Patrick. Go ahead, Patrick. Yeah, go ahead, Patrick. You have the floor. Aye. I motion. Oh, motion, okay. So moved. Let me reread it. Let me finish it. Board of Education approve the proposal for radar assigned for nine new school zone traffic signals at the cost of $40,887. So moved. Motion. Second. Roll call. Patrick Oliphant. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Melissa Ryan. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Ron Petrie. Aye. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Motion carries. Moving on to 5C7, approval of new help ticketing software. All right, this
203is honestly the last one, I swear. She said that last time. I did, I know. The parking lot is dark, Brian. There was a backdoor bet in the back that said I couldn't talk longer than John. So I took that challenge to heart, and here I am. So the last one here is changing our help desk ticket, ticketing system. So currently we use School Dude, and for our outdoor events scheduling, we use a product called ML Schedules. We're not necessarily in love with both. And so this spring, I took our entire tech team and said let's go see what's out there and see if we can see if there's anything better. And if there is, great, let's take a look at what's out there. And if we don't find anything we like, then we'll stay
204with School Dude. And so through this we looked at products called Incident IQ, Frontline Ticketing and Inventory, Zendesk, and Master Library. The reason we started looking at new help desk tickets is that the Learning Technology Center came out with what they called 48 Cybersecurity Best Practices. And the idea there is that it requires us to now start keeping not just a spreadsheet of software or hardware inventory, but an inventory system more or less. And so School Dude was a system that did not have that module. And so it required us to start looking outside the box. And so we started looking at these different systems. What we liked about Incident IQ was that they had a module that did events. And so it was a more modernized system than what School Dude had. And so
205it had things that included the ability to have Google single sign on, unlimited users and departments. So again, we're still able to combine our maintenance help desk tickets and our computer help desk tickets into the same system. It integrated with our systems that we already had here like Power School or Jamf for our iPads. And it really was a much more modern interface than what we were currently using. While we really liked Frontline, Incident IQ came with a price and I asked them to discount and see if they were gonna lower it to basically meet Frontline to which they did. So we are recommending that we move forward going with Incident IQ, which would provide us modules for ticketing, asset management and event, outdoor event management and allow us to go live somewhere in July.
206But what we would do is we would start with like $1,000 now to at least get us starting the implementation in June and then we would be in July. But overall, the cost of the system itself is $14,036.69. So it's a little bit more than about double what we. Is this like a want or a need though? Because that's the thing is like, we have to say no at some point. Sure, no, I understand. And this is something like, what do you mean? Can you expand a little bit about like the, and I hate to ask that right now, but can you expand on like what does this do about that? You said for outdoor events and. Sure, so currently right now, if like the Walker Wildcats or a basketball team wants to rent out
207the gym, they are using ML schedules to request. So it's keeping their insurance. It's working with the building secretaries to make sure that that resource or that section of the building isn't being double booked. And then it's also putting it in so that we have our custodial support, building support, anything else I'm forgetting there, Kevin? So can we live with ML schedules? 100% Adrian, it's not like we have to. I think there are things that are better out there than I guess what I would say is if the concern is that incident IQ would be too much, we are 100% comfortable moving to frontline, which costs less but provided us basically the same things in the sense of help desk ticketing and asset inventory. And then what we would do is we would just stay
208with ML schedules, which is our current system for. So this is more of a recommendation or request? Because it's saying it's going by the learning center's request, it's more of a. So it is. So part of it is that this request is now it's the learning, so our CLIC is our insurance provider and they have a cybersecurity portion of it now. And so now we get audited by the LTC and this CLIC insurance company and they go through these 48 different things and they say, do you have a software inventory? And I said, sure, on an Excel document. And they said, that's not good. So you get graded on that and they say, well, what do I need to have? And they go, you need to have a real software inventory. And I said, well,
209okay, so they provide the recommendation of where you need to be to get the grade to pass on that specific thing. So there's a variety of different things of what we did. So we had an audit with them last year. And so we kind of know where we stand with them. And so there are areas that we were trying to improve on. So the idea of asset management was something that we were looking for in our help desk area. So the idea with this asset would be now as a teacher making a help desk request, it already has their computer or their iPad already assigned to them as they're making the help desk request. So if I'm making a help desk ticket, I click on my computer and it says, what's going on with your
210computer? I already know what the CIRA number is and what the model is versus just blanket notes and saying what. I think based on that, I would like to make a motion to table this until we have more information on the front, the other options and costs and have it maybe go to, I know the finance committee's meeting, I know that maybe we can go through that and they can give us feedback on whatever information you provide to them and we can talk about it later. So I'm gonna motion to table the item. The new help, okay. Roll call, Melissa Ryan. Aye. John Winter. Aye. Amy Burke. Aye. Ron Petrie, aye. Patrick Goldfant. Adrian Chavez. Aye. Okay, so motion is tabled till further information is provided to the board. So just to be clear, you
211want me to provide the board just the differences specifically between incident IQ. I appreciate all the other votes. Thanks for standing up there for so long. No, thank you for listening. Thanks for all your work, thank you. Okay, moving on to our next item, which we will just get a preview of and then we'll do more work on it at the next meeting. 5C8, the current board of education goal assessment. Okay, so I can work much, much faster than Brian. And so what you have in your board book is you have just a copy of what's in board policy. You have the current board goals and then you have a document that I've started to take some notes on things that I think we could consider to be accomplished. And then behind that is a
212strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats document. They call it a SWOT document. What I would ask the board is that over the next couple of weeks, just mind map anything that's been on your mind. If you have a project, if you're thinking about something, if you wanna set a goal to drop it onto this document, then our admin team will combine all of those, we'll share all of those documents with the full board and we'll draft a infographic based on that content for next month's meeting for your review. It's not a finalized document, it just kind of puts everything kind of in a nutshell for you. That would begin the goal development and resource allocation for the 25-26 school year. So there's nothing to take action on with this particular item, it's just informational. As are
213most of the items in my superintendent's report. And so if you take a look at page 190, you'll see that our kindergarten total right now is sitting at 174 students. Last year at this time, we were at 141. So we're seeing some good numbers. If we run that all the way through to the end of July and into August, where we're getting ready to start school, that reminds us more of like a 210, 215 number versus a 190 number, which is what we have right now. So that's just kind of an FYI, we're gonna track that very, very closely, especially as those numbers change. Graduation update, I know here we are in May, Tuesday, May 27th, 6 p.m. at Lincoln Way West High School. That is the space that they have offered us, which we
214are appreciative for, also because it's air conditioned, which is a very, very nice thing. You'll also see information on the IIII Conference. It's the 2025 Joint Annual Conference. And there's nothing really needed at this time. It's more to check your calendars to see if you're available. We have spent zero nights downtown. We've spent one, we've spent two. It's totally, completely up to the board and what kind of sessions you might wanna attend, what kind of professional development you're looking for. Julie and I typically host that. So whatever you decide to do, then we mirror our reservations based on that so that we can kind of host you. That way, when Carrie Lynn is down there with us, you can focus more on professional development and we can focus on like scheduling and getting you from
215place to place so you don't have to worry about those types of things. Our summer schedule is just about here. So we work longer hours so that our people have Fridays off. It's something that we've done in the past. And then we also, we rotate our hours so that we have maximum coverage in our offices. So we'll have some people starting as early as six and people staying here through 430 just to make sure that we've got the office covered in case people need us. And then I'm even gonna cover Julie's for you just because this is something that we do quarterly. This is a part of board policy 430. So when we start talking about revenues and investments, you can track what kind of return on investments we're getting over time. You'll see that
216there is this gentle decline. If you're taking a look at that first little paragraph on page 194, Julie outlines what our return on investment was. You can see that it's dropping. However, historically, if you look at that second paragraph, there were some lean days when CPI was 0.1. Your return on investment was basically zero. And so any interest comes in, we typically count that as revenue and transfer that to the Ed Fund so we can use that on our kids. And so that's just kind of a snapshot of those informational items that takes us all the way to board reports. For seven board members, our district co-tenants meeting. Ms. Merca got settled and got to know everybody. And I'll go along with her for one meeting. This is the alternate to see if you get
217appointed and... Thank you. I was saying Ms. Murphy got settled in her role as A43 rep. She's gone to your meeting. I'm sure she'll have more information at the next meeting for us, but they've been very welcoming. And I will attend a meeting with her once just to get acclimated as well. We had a really good community outreach committee. Is there anything... Adrian, do you wanna say anything about your first community outreach meeting? It was awesome. It was great. It's a great department. Yeah. Fantastic. No, obviously we... Let me add on. It was great. I love seeing some people that are passionate about the community and especially about the schools. We generated some ideas. I'm excited to get to work with them. So looking forward to it. They all wanted to stay, so we didn't
218scare them off. They all wanted to stay and continue working, which was excellent. That's great. And they wanna add to it. So we're looking at adding additional representatives from each building and adding a staff representative at some point as well. We talked about highlighting local businesses and cooperating with them. We talked about getting more visual and allowing parents to understand what it is by attending open houses in the fall at each of the schools. So those are some of the things. Yeah, making sure we have a presence at these events and also kind of invite others to engage with us to get direct feedback from community, parents, and staff through them. Yep. Onto 7C, board member reports. Do you wanna just start? Sure. Adrian, do you wanna start and go this way? So for Mary
219Drew Early Learning Center, so the MDELC had a wonderful young athletes culminating event last week. Our students showed off skills that they have been working on all year and we had 90% of our parents come to cheer us on. We're so grateful for the support of our staff, staff family members, local law enforcement, and board members who came to young athletes. The event could not happen without your support. The amazing MDELC parent group put on a wonderful preschool prom, Never Glow Up. The neon glow and the dark themed event was a hit with students who danced the night away. MDELC is so appreciative of the support from staff, parents, community members, as well as family members of staff. And this year could not have happened without all of you and we are excited for more
220great things next year. Patrick, did you wanna read your report? Yes, I would love to. It was a very exciting month at Dr. Julian Rogus grades one through four. We started with the second grade composting lessons presented by the Will County Land Use Department. Fun fact, the second graders were collecting some compost equipment all year long for this. And all of the second graders came home with milkweed plants for Mother's Day to give to their moms. And fun fact about milkweed is it attracts butterflies and who doesn't love butterflies? We planted ours right away. We had a double day. We had the second grade pet show by The Great Miss Steel. She had students bring in pets from home and explain their stories and what they meant to them. In total, we had six dogs,
221a cat, a hamster, a tortoise, and even a bearded dragon. And then we also had the young athletes program at Dr. Julian Rogus. Several of us board members were there. It was really just a wonderful day. Families were there. The Mokina Fire Department was there. We had vendors there. And the fourth grade leaders helped the younger students out throughout the process and really just what a day. It was really great. And then we had the second grade's living museum in the atrium there. We had students dress up and tell the stories of American heroes from recently and in the past, including Simone Biles, Lucille Ball, Mr. Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, and Abraham Lincoln, just to name a few. Upcoming events, tomorrow we have the fourth grade party and we have field days coming up
222on May 27th for the kindergarten and first grade, and then on May 28th for the third and fourth grade. Excellent. And then Adrian agreed to pick up one more for us tonight. Yeah, I'm going to be impersonating Joy for this one. Our kindergarten students enjoyed stepping up to first grade at Rogus and stepping over to first grade at Indian Trail on May 2nd. The students had an opportunity to meet their new principals, teachers, as well as see what to expect in first grade. It was a great opportunity for our students. Dr. Julian Rogus joined us at the building to read to the kindergarten students. The students enjoyed visiting with him and thought it was amazing that his name was the same as the name on their school. We held our kindergarten readiness night on May
22313th. We had a wonderful turnout of approximately 100 incoming kindergarten students. One of mine was one of them. And their families, I was one of them. It was so fun meeting our new Eagles. And Resco did an amazing job hosting a special week for our teachers and staff, for staff appreciation. We are thankful for our school community organization and all that they do. We are also hosting our young athletes through Special Olympics today. Our students have worked hard for this wonderful event. Excellent. I have a Summit Hill Junior High. Our Summit Hill Junior High band, choir, and string students wrapped up their amazing spring concerts. The amount of talent, work, and dedication given to the program speak volumes. Thank you, Ms. Goglin. Ms. Goddard and Mr. Ream for the support of our students. Our eighth
224grade students are in the final stretch. This week, graduation practices are held and tomorrow night will be our banquet. Additionally, the staff did an excellent job on Tuesday when the weather did not cooperate and a Great America trip had to be canceled. They had fun activities and pizzas for the students. Graduation is set for Tuesday, May 27th at Lincoln Way West. We are so incredibly proud of our graduates. Our track and field athletes crushed school records and qualified for state. Athletes and coaches will be heading down this weekend to the IESA state competition. And we could be more excited to root them on. Go green, go Spartans. Congratulations to our three retirees, Ms. Bottomley, Ms. Cantor, and Mr. Smalter. Thank you for your dedication to Summit Hill Junior High and our students with a combined
22570 years of service will be surely missed. We are so thankful to have been beside you along the way. Keep inspiring. Thank you, Ms. Global for this report this month. Hey, and I have a little nostalgia. I get to go back to Indian Trail. As part of the science curriculum, the fourth grade students went on a field trip to Pilcher Park. The students learned about the connections between animals, their ecosystems and how animals adapt to their environment. Future Trailblazers visited Indian Trail on May 2nd. Kindergarten students from DJR met with the first grade team toward the building and learned about Indian Trail. The staff is looking forward to spending more time with the students next school year. The second grade students at Indian Trail became paleontologists during their dinosaur living museum exhibits. After conducting their
226research, the students presented their dinosaur facts to students, staff, and visitors. The students had a roaring good time with this project. In partnership with Itsco Indian Trail School hosted baseball night on May 8th. This family focused event included baseball themed games, food trucks, a book fair, and bounce houses. Additionally, many from Trail's learning community went to a Juliet Slammers game on May 15th. Congratulations to Trail and thank you to Mr. Ace Donis for that report. Okay, on to Hilda Walker, lots of fun stuff going on. We have enjoyed spring performances from the strings, choir, and both band programs during the last couple of weeks. It has been exciting to see how much our students have grown over the school year. We are so proud of their hard work. Hilda Walker students have been working very
227hard up to the end of the school year. They've completed their NWEA spring benchmark, are turning in their final summative assessments, and wrapping up novel studies. Way to finish up the year on a strong note, Wildcats. A big shout out to Hilda Walker Green Team who completed their final project of the school year by cleaning up our garden, adding mulch, and establishing a butterfly garden behind our school. The garden looks beautiful and we can't wait for the butterflies to come. Earlier this month, Hilda Walker welcomed 244 incoming Wildcats for our annual step-up day. Our fifth grade students hosted classes, gave tours, created a welcome video, and answered questions to help prepare our newest Wildcats for fifth grade. We are also celebrating three retiring staff members, Amy Bednars, Julie Nance, and Carmen Igyarto. We will miss
228them dearly and wish them the very best. Thanks, Ms. Carroll, for the update. Thank you so much. And to, on behalf of the board, to our staff, have a peaceful, reflective, positive end to your school year and enjoy your 70-plus days of summer. And we thank you for all of your service and hard work. Our future meeting dates are June 11th, 2025. Quick turnaround, June 11th at the Ed Center at 7 p.m. With that, can I have a motion to adjourn? Second. Roll call. Melissa Ryan. I was gonna say all in favor. All in favor. Any opposed? With that, we are adjourned. Thank you.