SHSD161 Board Meeting 11/15/2023

001You guys ready? Got your mics on? Got your mics on? Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Summit Hill School Board to order. If you would please all rise and join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can we get a roll call, please, Mrs. Campbell? Mr. Carey? Present. Mrs. Burke? Mrs. Campbell here. Mrs. McClish? Here. Mr. Winter? Here. Mrs. Murphy? Mr. Martin? Here. Okay. So we're going to begin this evening with recognition. At this time, we'd like to recognize two Summit Award winners for November, Hilda Walker Custodian Jackie Rico Dahl and our District Director of Business and Transportation, Julie Stearns. I'm going to hand it

002over to Dr. McCurr. I'll take the applause. Thank you. We are very excited to recognize two Summit Award winners this month. First up is Hilda Walker Custodian Jackie Rico Dahl, who is nominated by tech teacher Erin Boors and art teacher Holly Dominic. In their nomination, Erin and Holly wrote, Jackie is a great addition to Walker. Her timeliness, efficiency, and friendly nature are just a few of her excellent traits. Jackie communicates with teachers to make sure all their needs are met and demonstrates the ability to jump in and help at a moment's notice. Her positive attitude and problem-solving abilities are what make her such an asset to the Walker team. In addition, Hilda Walker Assistant Principal Marianne Hauerhand wrote the following about Jackie. Jackie is always looking for problems to solve before they happen. She is

003super proactive and she is a huge part of our community at Walker. Her hard workday in and day out does not go unnoticed. Thank you for all that you do, Jackie. And finally, Hilda Walker Principal Maura Carroll added the following about Jackie. She joined our team at Walker a little over a year ago and has made an impactful difference in our building. Walker is a big place and there is never a shortage of tasks to complete, things to fix, staff to follow up with, and Jackie does this all with a smile and positive demeanor. Her commitment to keeping our building safe, clean, and welcoming for our students and staff does not go unnoticed. Jackie embodies the spirit of the Summit Award and we are very fortunate that she is with us at Walker. Jackie, thank

004you for everything that you do to help our students and staff at Walker. It is truly appreciated. We please come forward. Next up we have Director of Business Services Julie Stearns who is nominated by Board of Education member Stephanie McClish and in her nomination Stephanie wrote, since being employed in the district, Julie has done amazing work to find a plethora of grants and opportunities for the district to save money and increase revenues. The amount of work that goes into finding grants, gathering evidence, filing paperwork, and securing grants in general is extremely time consuming, but Julie will do anything to ensure the financial aspects of the district allow for the best educational opportunities for our students. Additionally, Julie is a warm person who always makes people feel seen and feel important. She greets you with a

005smile and it is clear that she genuinely cares about how you are doing and Julie has been an integral part of the financial stability we have had the past few years and our district is lucky to have her. So because Julie and I work so closely together, I can tell you that she's a good hearted person, she's extraordinarily persistent and financially intuitive as the Director of Business Services. We started at the same time, now each in our third year, with a goal of making finances a district strength. In this time, under Julie's leadership, we have moved from ISBE's financial review status to financial recognition, their highest financial designation for the past two years. Although Julie has instituted financial safeguards to ensure the district is following proper policy and getting the best prices for the goods

006and services being ordered, she's also instrumental in preparing financial documents and information behind the scenes so that the appropriate recommendations and guidance can be given to both the administrative team and the Board of Education. She makes my job easier and helps me perform at a higher level because of her strengths and as a human being, she is generous, kind and thoughtful. So thank you to Julie for partnering with me here, you're very deserving of this award. Will you please come forward? We're going to also talk about School Board Member Appreciation Day. So November is a month during which we give thanks for many, many things. Deciding to run for an elected position, raising your hand and saying I'll help lead our school district can bring about a myriad of emotions from anxiousness to excitement. These

007members of our community are volunteers, offering their time and their strengths and their skills to helping our district be the very best it can be. Being in this capacity is not easy, but this team of people have committed themselves to attending meetings, reading hundreds of pages of documents provided to them each month, weighing in on important topics regarding the school district and working together as a team. On this School Board Member's Day, I hope you will join me in giving thanks to the seven people who lead and support our school district on behalf of the community. This evening, will you please join me in thanking our Board of Education for their leadership, commitment to our students, their families and our community, and their support of our mission to continually improve the education of our students.

008So thank you very much on behalf of the district. Could we give them a round of applause? Thank you, everyone. We have next, we're moving on the agenda to freedom of information requests. Dr. McDermott, anything to say about those, please? Yes, we had three FOIA requests this past month. You'll notice those in the agenda are listed. PURCURE is for purchasing records. That's a routine commercial FOIA, and so we have complied with that. We had a FOIA for Arabic race ethnicity numbers in our schools, and so you'll see the information in the board book. We've also added that to our FAQ document that pertains to buildings and grounds, and so we complied with that FOIA and then also added it to the FAQ. And then lastly, copies of contracts. There were no records that matched that

009request, so we communicated that to the requester, so all of these FOIAs are complete. Thank you very much. At this point, we're going to move on to public comments. One of the things I wanted to say is by the sign-in sheet up there, I put the board policy that was adopted in 2019, so it's not anything new. This is something that's been around for years about public comments. Public comments is allotted for a 30-minute time period, and it's usually only 20 minutes per subject, but everybody's on the same subject, so we're going to go ahead and allow 30 minutes for that. We're also going to limit the time to three minutes to make sure we give everybody the chance to talk as much as possible. So please, if you would focus on what you're going

010to say, in order to make sure that we fit everyone in, I'm going to say who's up and then ask the next person basically to be on deck so we can make sure we give everybody the chance to speak in their time. Ms. Burke is going to be our timekeeper. She'll give signals of one, two, three minutes, and then when you're near the end. Okay? First, our, what, enough to get, we'll be able to get them in in these 30 minutes. Well, I think that's up to the board. I mean, that's, again, this is our policy. Show of hands, anyone want to suspend the 30-minute time limit for this meeting? Very good. So, we'll make sure we get everyone in, but we're going to stick to the three-minute time limit, okay? So, our first ones

011are Brian and Beth Dvorkin, and next would be Nicole Sayer. Good evening. Members of the Board of Education. My name is Brian Dvorkin. I'm a father and I'm a high school physics teacher. I believe in public education. I have three children in this district, two at Frankfurt Square and one at Summer Hill. I'm here tonight to express my concern for the tentative reorganization plan for the district. I'll be brief. I'd like the district to consider a couple things as you make your decisions about the future of our children, our teachers, and this district. The first is it's not the building that educates our children, but instead it's the people who are the most important part of public education. It's the Mr. Asdonis's, the Mrs. Murphy's, the Ms. Sobchak's, the Mrs. Smyth's, among many others. Those

012are the people, more importantly the relationships, that have directly impacted my children's growth. I hope those names are the highest of the district's priorities when considering the future of this district. The reason why I know those names is because of my next point. Longevity and stability matter to children, to parents, and to teachers. It becomes much more difficult to foster those deep relationships with educators if we simply pass through rather than settle into our educational homes. I don't have my wife's involvement at Frankfort Square School, and yet because of the many years at Frankfort Square School, many if not all of the educators in that building know me by my name and by my face. It is a testament to the relationships that directly benefit my children. That's important as we all work to educate

013the Caleb's, Nolan's, and Cameron's, and again amongst the many children in the district. Whatever you end up doing, please do make choices that ensure this district remains attractive to these quality educators because quality is in short supply and quality matters. Thank you for your time. Following would be Lisa Brace. I'm a resident and a mom to three kids that attended Frankfort Square School. One is currently still in second grade of Frankfort Square and I have an older daughter in Summit Hill and one in Hilda Walker. All my kids absolutely loved Frankfort Square, again longevity of the teachers, there's consistency, the kids are comfortable there, they're able to ride their bikes, they're able to walk, they feel safe in the community. We need these neighborhood schools for our kids to feel safe and comfortable and to

014be able to learn and feel safe in that environment. With COVID, after that happened, it rattled everybody. So these children don't need to be moving every two years to new schools. They need that consistency of a school and knowing other kids and knowing other teachers and knowing each other by names. All the teachers know all the kids' names in Frankfort Square. They know almost all the kids because it is a smaller school, but they know their needs, they know each child pretty much their whole family. So it's something we definitely need. I don't know, there is a time where you need money, but sometimes you have to think about the children before that, just like you do in your home life. Usually the children come first. I definitely think we need to think about other

015options, maybe selling Mary Drew or maybe combining Arbery and Frankfort Square or looking into different options that can make less of a transition for these children, not to just say, hey, you're being tossed around here and to there, and once you get acquainted to this school, two years later you're going to be moved to a new school right when you're settled in. It's not going to be good for our kids or our teachers because we are definitely going to lose some teachers, and like I said, we have a very lot of great teachers at Frankfort Square. We moved to this town back in 2015 because of the school system, and like I've said, we've always loved Frankfort Square. My kids loved Frankfort Square. The minute they hit fifth grade, they missed Frankfort Square because they

016did have that close-knit family. It's like a family, and like I said, all of them share multiple teachers. They knew each other. The teachers knew the families, and it's just a great team of teachers, and I think we definitely need to keep that. If you do anything, maybe think about making it K through four or K through five. If you're worried about us not having enough children, why can't we have our kindergartners, or why can't us as parents, we really want our kids to grow up in that close-knit family type school where they're succeeding in learning, and you can tell by the grades they are doing a good job at what they're doing at that school. So Lisa Brace is next, and after that is Patrick Elephant. Hello, my name is Lisa Brace, and I'm

017a parent to two children at Arbury Hills Elementary. The Summit Hill School Board is taking a sledgehammer to a situation that requires a fly swatter. According to the school board FAQs, closing schools will not decrease your tax liability. Taxpayers in our community will see no fiscal benefit to this proposal. Our school capacity is calculated using square footage along with fire and safety building standards. This doesn't consider usage. This is why when we were at full capacity, makeshift classes were conducted in lunch rooms and gymnasiums. Perhaps this is why parents like me can't understand why our buildings appear to be bustling centers of learning activity and not the desolate, echoing hallways that the board portrays them to be. Our community has new home construction at Brookside Glen in Tinley. There are new homes for sale in

018Lighthouse Point and Prairie Creek neighborhoods in Frankfurt. New ground is broken at the corner of Willow and 88th and Mokina to build even more homes. These are several of many new housing developments in District 161. Homes in Frankfurt Square over the past 30 days have spent an average of 34 days on the market. Our median sale to list price was 100.1%. The story for home sales and the remainder of District 161 tell a similar story. Look around your community. Do you see boarded up or unsellable homes in your neighborhood? I don't. We once had higher enrollment in District 161 and there's nothing that indicates that we won't be there again in a few more years. Our tax base is growing, not shrinking. By closing schools, the board will be cutting us off at the feet

019and it will leave us vulnerable for overcrowded schools and classrooms. The parents and community of District 161 did not ask for changes to our educational model. Our students consistently perform well and improve on standardized tests year over year. We don't want to be Frankfurt 157. We want to be Summit Hill. We are middle class working families that want neighborhood schools. Our children deserve an environment which is equipped to focus on our students' social emotional development. Soft skills like interpersonal communication, leadership, creativity and emotional intelligence are just as important as standardized tests and they are in abundance in our neighborhood schools. Let's avoid further disruptions to students and community of the Summit Hill District and say no to closing our schools. Thank you. Patrick Oliphant and then after that is Kerry Bunda. Thank you everybody and

020thank you everybody for showing up. I'm a firm believer that every reason for civic engagement is a good reason and I want to thank the board for maybe incidentally bringing facilities maintenance up to the forefront. I have a career in facilities maintenance as an engineer and an engineering manager so this is an important topic. But I'm not here for that. I'm here as a parent. I've got a first grader and a fourth grader at Arbery Hills and I'm biased but Miss Boss, her staff and the educators are the best in the business for me. They're incredible and the entire district is incredible. Everybody's going to have their own opinions. I'm up here to call on the board to make this a referendum on the November ballot for 2024. This would give you guys and those

021who are opposed to it a full year to make their case to the public and there are two ways that this can happen. One way is that the school board can vote to put this as a referendum and that would go through the county. They'll process it and then it'll be on the ballot. The second way is through petitions to get signatures. I will very happily organize and lead that to get this on the November ballot. Not the primary ballot but the November ballot because it has the highest turnout. This is this should be for the voice of the people. This should be for the voice of the taxpayers. It should have more than enough time for all sides to make their case to the public and that's what I think should happen. So that's

022what I'm here for. I'm calling on the board to pass a resolution to put this on a ballot. That's all. And if not, I will very happily lead the charge. You guys have until the first week of August, we would have until the second week of August. Way more than enough time to get the signatures. So thank you all for your continued work and I know that you guys care about the people. I know that you care about the public. I come to meetings. I see it. I want to thank you guys for having this discussion, for electing to go past the 30 minutes should need be and thank you for everything. You guys have been great throughout all of this and thank you guys for showing up. Let's vote on this. Let's leave it

023up to us. Thank you. Kerry Bunda and then following is Ann Jenkins. I personally don't think that Mr. McDermott, Mr. Martin and half of the board members are really putting the kids first. I think that you said yourself, this has been in the works for like seven years that the talk of closing the schools has been going on. But if they close, they'll be under both of your leaderships. So we will remember that just like we did when Mary Drew closed. Speaking of which, Jim, you and Joy are the two board members that were present when the school closed. And Joy, you were quoted in the patch saying that this was an opportunity for us to bring in revenue if we rented out half of the building, right? And yet we're not renting it out

024since 2012. We haven't taken in one penny, but we put money out to loan it to a dance company that does not pay rent. So I don't know. I'm here tonight because as I requested before, I think we need a town hall. I also want to formally ask that we have a parent committee. We're entitled to have that. And there are many people back here that are on board. We want a parent committee. So whatever we have to do to go through the process, we will do it. Stephanie, you are the new community outreach person. I have heard nothing. And I could be wrong from you regarding this, putting this out in the community. So I'm concerned. You know, we have people that are supposed to be reached out to the community, and yet I

025don't see any reaching out. I think we also pay somebody part-time, like our PR person. I don't know who this person is. I saw it on the bills list or somewhere. We're paying a person, and yet where are they? Where are they putting this information out? It's like through word of mouth that people are finding out about stuff last minute. So Mr. McDermott, you made a point at the last meeting to say that the information that is being passed on social media is inaccurate. And I want to say that I felt like your slides were inaccurate because two meetings ago, Matt, thank you so much, you asked, can we see the cost versus the expenses of closing schools? And just the last meeting, we didn't see any of that. What we saw was a slide

026that said our savings was going to be about $8 million, but you didn't give us any of the expenses. We have huge busing expenses that will go up. We have teacher salaries that we'll have to pay every year as long as they're employed. We'll have maintenance and whatnot. So that is what we are looking for. Let's see. So I just want to ask again for a town hall, request a parent meeting, and say that we need new leadership all the way around except for three board members. We need a new superintendent. We need a new curriculum director. The money for the curriculum should have gone to take care of the school roofs, not for a half a million dollars of a school curriculum. I'm sorry. We should have fixed the roofs at Indian Trail. Thank

027you, Ang Jenkins and Sophia Evie. I might have pronounced that name wrong, excuse me, if I did. Is your mic on? No. Sorry. I am on the community outreach as well, with Mrs. McLeish. I just wanted to clarify that I am one of those members as well. Your time hasn't started yet, Ms. McLeish. Please go ahead. I would like to address some of the statements you've made in the last few board meetings. I have been a resident of the 161 school district since 1999 and had five children go through the Summit Hill School District. Despite what Mr. Martin has said, Arbery Hills and Frankfurt Square are neighborhood schools. I kindly ask you to drive over to Arbery Hills during dismissal, the way I did the other day, and watch all of the cars in a

028line three blocks long picking up their children. The mothers walking up with strollers, the fathers picking up their sons and daughters. There were two Safeway buses with roughly 40 children total, 28 on one and like, I don't know, 14 on the other. That means about 147 children are not provided transportation by the 161 school district. My kids were in Arbery when they had to split the multipurpose room, as Mrs. Urvig said. They had to split the multipurpose room down the middle and hold classes. I think it was third grade on one side, fourth grade on the other. The art and music teacher pushed a cart around. They had nowhere to, not even a desk. Arbery is now where it should be instead of bursting at the seams. There's 187 kids in that building. It's a

029first through fourth building. That's not a small number. I asked a mother from Frankfurt Square to check her school at dismissal. She figures that around 70% of the kids at Frankfurt Square don't receive bus services provided by 161. If you close Arbery and Frankfurt Square, you will now have to transport 80% of the Arbery students, 70% of the Frankfurt Square students, and probably 80% of the first and second graders from Indian Trail that you are now going to send to Rogus. This will be a huge cost to the district. As far as saving money, there is no cost savings in closing these buildings. You have stated you are not laying off any staff. Let me be clear. I don't want any staff laid off. But the fact is that payroll is the lion's share of

030the budget. If you don't lay off teachers, you don't have a declining enrollment problem. You still have to maintain these buildings. You can't let the roofs cave in, and no one is waiting in line to buy these buildings with the supposed millions of dollars in repairs. When you closed Mary Drew, board members were quoted in the newspaper as saying someone will buy it. You saved nothing closing Mary Drew. You didn't lay off staff, and you still have to maintain the building so a dance company can use it for free. You also used a Catholic grammar school, Incarnation in Payless Heights, as your example of when it's time to close a school. You stated that the Catholic Archdiocese closes schools when their enrollment drops to under 200 students. What you failed to mention to the school

031board and community is that Incarnation and most Catholic schools are kindergarten through 8th grade in one building. You are comparing enrollments at a K through 8 Catholic school with public schools that are 1st through 4th grade only in one building. But as long as you want to compare the 161 school district to Catholic schools, I should mention that St. Mary and Moquina, our neighborhood Catholic school, has seen enrollment increase of 22%. Okay, thank you. Sophia, Eva, and then after that is Greg Tom, and Greg Tom will be our last speaker. My name's Sophia, and I go to Indian Trail. And imagine if your kids didn't know how to read, do math, and draw. They go to their desk and do nothing. They would do a scribble. They would enter 10 plus 10 is 335, and

032other stuff like that. So, that, so now... Take your time. Just take your time. You're doing great, okay? Your kids would be running all over the room, and they wouldn't be doing anything. They wouldn't even know what words mean, like hyperbole. They wouldn't know what that can, they wouldn't know what that means, and other stuff like that. That's it. Thank you very much. And then finally, Greg Tom, please. It says Greg Tom. I'm sorry. It's okay. Thank you. So, again, good evening, Greg Sand. Thanks again for holding this meeting tonight. So a couple esteemed speakers before me had brought up some great points that I'd just like to reiterate. We've got some people here that are pretty high up in Tinley Park, and so what I wanted to just bring up is that we would

033like to have a referendum and bring this to a public vote. I think that would be imperative, as was already mentioned, that that would give everybody enough time to plead their cases between now and November 2024. One thing is that somebody had mentioned about the budget. At the last meeting, there were some points that were not discussed, and so that was talking about what the taxpayer revenue that was brought in versus what the expenditures are. And Dr. McDermott had provided some information today about how the expenditures, the expenses for all the schools, matches exactly with what the taxpayer revenue coming in is. And so if anybody is concerned about where our taxpayer money is going right now, it's going to the schools. So anything that is being talked about today about closing the schools is

034not supported. Where is that extra revenue going to go? Everything seems to be working just fine the way it is. If there's supposed to be capital improvements that are supposed to be done, well then that's Julie Stern's and the board's decision to earmark those funds. So I think that's what we need to get down to is where are these funds being earmarked? There's lots of others, $9.8 million on the budget. Where is the other money going to? So again, as Patrick mentioned, we'll be happy to get signatures if the board is not willing to put this on a referendum. Thank you. We had two more people, well three more people sign up. Erin Noor, no I guess not because I called it and he said his name is Mr. Sand, but he's on this one.

035And afterwards, I'm sorry, Cecilia Conti will be after, please go ahead, I'm sorry. Hi everybody. So my name is Erin Noor and I have two kids that go to Arbery Hills. They actually prior went to Frankfurt Square. When we decided to move, when we left Frankfurt Square, we wanted to stay in Summit Hill 161. My kids loved Frankfurt Square and it was sad for us to have to move, but we needed a bigger home which led us to here in Mokina and now we're at Arbery Hills. The kids absolutely adore their teachers and the staff members and the principal, Mrs. Boss. Having to stand up here and to defend why my kids love their school is heartbreaking. We should not have to put this on our poor children. I understand that money is a concern

036and I know that there's a lot of schools under this district. I'm an educator as well. I actually have been teaching 17 years at District 126. So my heart completely understands the educator dilemma this brings. All of the families here get that too and all of us adults are not stupid. We know that this doesn't look good when you put up all these slides. However, having said that, we don't want to sit back here and listen to hour long presentations about how equity matters, how the overall budget is going to be in the red. We don't want to hear about how the enrollment is dropping or how teachers might be going to live to Hawaii. We are here for our children's stability and we are here for their social emotional well-being. We are here for

037the amazing educators and staff members whose jobs are hanging in the balance. You say that the closing of the school is right for the kids, but have you asked the kids opinions? Have you asked the staff members how they feel? What if there's another pandemic? Do we really want them in tighter quarters? And don't try to scare us saying that if we had more money we could have better safety and security. That's not true. If you have the money, you're just mismanaging the budget. You also say that teachers aren't going to lose their jobs, but is this because you have several retiring so you don't have to hire anybody else? What about the custodians, the principals, the secretaries, the PE music and art teachers and every other staff member that matters? You say equity is

038an issue? Do we know the definition of equity? Because it's not about equal class sizes. You say the roofs are damaged, but shouldn't we be taking care of those long before this became a discussion? And what about teachers? Did you check if they're okay with being shoved into new schools in new situations? Bottom line, our kids are not a test score. They are not just something that we can throw around. Consider what the kids want and consider what the teachers need. We're already successful the way we are. Thank you. Ms. Conte and then last will be John Letere. As a resident of this school district, I am appalled by how our current school district has wasted money and time on subjects that have no place in any school. Priorities are messed up. The school district

039has admitted that enrollment has dropped significantly and instead of looking into the reasons as to why or maybe looking to our budget, I can think of a few examples like the famous equity audit that we had to pay for and that was promised to us that it was not going to be about, I don't know, SCL or CRT. This is a complete disregard of taxpayers' money that just received a record raised in the residential taxes. It's my humble opinion that maybe it's time for a new superintendent and a curriculum director. As a local realtor, I've helped a lot of families to move to this neighborhood in particular and to this area because the taxes were doable for them. They understand they're paying a high price for great school districts. They don't want this neighborhood to

040turn into, unfortunately, I have to say, country club hills and Madison, where the taxes are higher than our current taxes. This closing of schools is not the first thing you guys are going to do. This is just the beginning and you're going to destroy your neighborhood and you're going to destroy the biggest investment a lot of people do when they buy a home. With that, I would like to repeat that as an immigrant, as a minority myself, I do not think that we need to focus on equity. That's something that needs to be taught at home by parents. Thank you. John Letear? Yes, there are. So you're going to be on the last latter part? Okay. Thank you. Moving on. Yeah, you can always sign up for a second one. What's your name? I'm sorry.

041So at first, I was going to come up here and try to give you like a research kind of base taxi speech, but I decided maybe being a little bit more vulnerable is best. I have a daughter in second grade at Arbery Hills School. I walk my daughter to school on my days off with her two younger sisters in tow. On our way, we see my daughter's friends and we see their parents. We see kids riding their bikes and their scooters. We all walk together. We talk and we actually have built relationships with each other. I don't just have a neighbor that I don't know. I have actual friends that I've met through these neighborhood schools. When you get to school grounds, everybody knows you. Your child's greeted by staff that you might not even

042know who they are. Half the time, I'm like, hey, Lela, who's that teacher? Because they know my kid, but I don't know them. Last year was my daughter's first year of public school. She was very anxious. She was apprehensive, just like any six-year-old child would be. Going into second grade, my daughter had a 50-50 chance of having the same peers in her class, and why is that? Because there's only two sections of second grade, because it's a neighborhood small school. The relationships with her peers then only became stronger. We have gained so much from this neighborhood school within the last 15 months that we've been a part of it. My daughter has made everlasting friendships. I constantly have neighborhood kids at my home, a lot of them. They're crazy. We have neighborhood get-togethers. We had

043a neighborhood party a couple months ago with a bunch of kids and families. It was awesome, and do you know why that happens? It's because of neighborhood schools. The kids are getting an amazing education. You have amazing educators, but school and education is not life. It's not everything. Test scores aren't everything. I can give two, sorry, about test scores. It's about social relationships. It's about the community, which you guys say you're committed to, but I don't really feel that way. I know so many faces behind me because of our neighborhood school, because I see them multiple days a week, and we talk to each other. And it's such a great feeling, and I'm afraid to lose that if my kid has to get bussed all the way somewhere in Frankfurt. Marbury Hills is a tiny

044little piece of Moquina that has to go with the rest of Frankfurt schools, so that's opening up so many, it's just, okay, I don't know where I'm going with that. But this is all what I care about for my family and for my community. My child's getting everything that she needs here and more. So I just, I don't understand why we're trying to fix something that's not broken. And I feel that if you listen to the community and you let us vote on something like this, and you listen to the children, you know, maybe not the tiny little ones are going to tell you they don't want you to close their schools, but even these older kids that have, you know, more of that strong opinion, you would see that we're all on the same

045page here, that that's what we care about most. Thank you. And that concludes public comments. The first session, letters and communication are in the back of your board book. We're going to move on to the action items, and we're going to start with the consent agenda. I move that we approve the items on the consent agenda for the meeting as presented, including 4A1A, regular session meeting minutes of October 18th, 2023. 4A1B, closed session meeting minutes of October 8th, 2023. 4A1C, buildings and grounds usage committee meeting minutes, November 7th, 2023. 4A2, approval of July, August and September treasurer's reports, financial reports. 4A3, approval of the bills list of November 15th, 2023. 4A4, approval of resignation of staff, Eric Sanchez, effective October 30th, 2023. 4A5, approval of family medical leave for employee number 2780. 4A6, approval of

046employment of staff, Lona Mucha, FMLA teacher at Hilda Walker School. Second. So we have a motion and a second. Does anyone have any questions, comments, or anything? I have a question on one line item on the bills list. The Amplify Ed. I had a question that Mr. Snipes hopefully can answer. It was an ELA training for their program. And my question was just, what training when we purchased this were we given, and this is additional training, kind of just to explain what that training was and why that training maybe wasn't included in what we purchased. Sure. So we had originally purchased in our agreement four different types of trainings. And two were for teachers. One was for administrators, a leadership team. And one is called on-site coaching, where they'll come and visit classrooms. Two of

047those have already taken place, the two teacher ones. The other two will continue to schedule. We needed a third teacher opportunity. So at the last in-service, we hired Amplify to come back and work with our ELA teachers. Excuse me. For what? I'm sorry, I'm just asking why we required to have a third training session for teachers. Sure, because it's a new program that we're implementing this year for the first time. So teachers needed that additional piece. So the first one was an overview. The second one was called supporting students. And the third one was digging into the data. So you couldn't do that program early, because they wouldn't have data yet. Students wouldn't have completed assignments. But now that they've been in it for a few weeks or two months at that time, they were

048able to learn about running data, reports, and supporting individual student needs. Do you think this is something we can lower the cost on in the future if we need to do this again by training in-house, like training less and then kind of train the trainers? It's possible, yeah. So this is an in-person training, and it always costs a little more when we do in-person. But it's always more effective as well. But like lowering the number, so then those people then train our... Yeah, it's possible. So the leadership training will have the principals and the coordinators involved in that as well. So that would be in-house people that can support. Did we pull subs for this training? No, it was an in-service day, half-day in-service. Thank you. We would not be able to get enough subs.

049Amy, did you want to pull that from the bills list or not for a separate vote? Are you saying something? No, I think my question was answered. I'm now looking at the future that we don't incur that cost again when we already have four training sessions available to us. I know they're different. I just wanted to clarify that and look to the future to cut costs when we're trying to do that. Thank you. Anyone else have anything? I have an item that I'd like pulled from the bills list to discuss later on in the meeting. It's reading recovery. There's two bills, just so we could listen to what Mr. Snipes is going to talk about and then vote on it after. Is that it? I'd like to pull reading recovery, two bills for reading recovery

050until after Mr. Snipes discusses that in his update. So during the superintendent's report, Mr. Snipes is going to be doing a curriculum update. So after that update takes place by him, then we'll bring that back for a vote. Does anyone else have anything besides that? I just had one more thing. There was an item as part of a training. It was a mental health training. I just was wondering if Leslie could clarify that, because when you see that on the sheet, we don't know exactly what that entails. She could just kind of describe so that everyone knows what that entails. Yeah, years ago, we used to have Lyndon Oaks. We would partnership with Lyndon Oaks and they would provide us training for youth mental health. And that's just like a one time thing, you know,

051as we had administrators, social workers, school psychologists. And then as the years have gone on, we actually ended up training our own train the trainer. One of our special ed coordinators who has a social work background became our in-house train, you know, trainer for youth mental health. So we have those periodically throughout the school year. Back in the day, we started heavily with training more of the junior high staff and then fifth and sixth grade. And then we've been able to, you know, try and just fit as many people as we possibly can throughout the school year. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. This time, we are going to have a roll call vote with the exception of those two bills for reading recovery. Mr. Carey? Mrs. Burke? Aye. Mrs. Murphy? Aye. Mrs. Campbell? Aye.

052Mrs. McClush? Aye. Mr. Winter? Aye. Mr. Martin? Aye. And the motion carries. And we're going to move on to old business here. For those of you on your iPads there, it's page number 144. It's way deep in there. So give everybody a chance to get to that point. OK, so this is the second and final reading of board policies. The policy committee met on September 20, 2023, and reviewed the policies that are included in your packet. Does anybody have any additional questions on any of those policies? OK, in that case, I move that the Board of Education approve the second and final reading of board policy 2, 80, 2, 110, 2, 170, 3, 40, 4, 45, 4, 60, 4, 100, 5, 30, 5, 90, 5, 125, 5, 150, 5, 170, 5, 230. 5, 260, 6,

05310, 6, 135, 6, 190, 6, 230, 6, 240, 7, 275, 7, 305, 8, 20, 8, 25, and 8, 95 as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call, please? Mr. Kerry? Mrs. Burke? Aye. Mrs. Murphy? Aye. Mrs. Campbell? Aye. Mrs. McClish? Aye. Mr. Winter? Aye. And Mr. Martin? Aye. And the motion carries. Now we go on to the bid for snow removal. Dr. McDermott, would you like to talk about this, please? The public bidding process for FYE 24 snow removal services throughout the district began in the first week of October when it was published in the newspaper for the first time. We received two bids via mail for the FYE 24 snow removal services, and the lowest bidder is Alpine Snow Management. After a few different scenarios of

054calculations on what services they could provide and what can be completed in-house, our department recommends it would be best to have Alpine Snow Management perform all snow removal to include salting of parking lots, sidewalks, and pass for the district. The results of the bids are in the attached document for your reading. Any questions or comments for noon? That's page 181, by the way. You did talk to them about the time so that they could get here as early as just to have it all clear for our staff and students. Correct. And in between snow events, there may be a need for our own staff to go out and touch things up, and that is something that we feel equipped to do as well. Any other questions or comments? And I just got rid of that

055page. Do we just need a roll call vote? That's all we asked for, OK? So we didn't have a motion in a second. That's what I thought. Sorry. Too many pieces of paper. I move that the Board of Education approve the Alpine Snow Management and Company for the bid for fiscal year 2024 snow removal services. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call, please? Mr. Carey? Aye. Mrs. Burke? Aye. Ms. Murphy? Aye. Mrs. Campbell? Aye. Mrs. McClish? Aye. Mr. Winter? Aye. And Mr. Martin? Aye. And the motion carries. The next is our ISABIASB resolutions. This weekend is the board conference, and at that point there is a vote that takes place amongst districts that attend about certain resolutions, certain policies that the State School Board Association would

056support. Those new resolutions should be on page 198 in your board book. The new resolutions, there are five of them. One was about industrial construction was a do not adopt. The other was school resource officer funding. The recommendation is to adopt that. There is a bus driver regulations. The recommendation is to adopt that. Employment history review is recommended do not adopt. And the alternative safe schools funding was also recommended as do not adopt. Is there anyone that had anything that they'd like to bring forward about that or any questions about that? Right, well that's what I'm going to say. I'm just waiting to see if anybody has anything. All right, so Mrs. Murphy is going to be, is our delegate to that meeting this weekend. So we don't have a motion on that, do we?

057I don't think we have a motion on that. So apparently everybody is OK with that. So that'll guide your voting, Mrs. Murphy. OK, so now we're going to move on to the public hearing regarding possible school closings. Dr. McDermott, would you like to have any comment about that? Sure. At this time, the Board of Education continues its public discussions on future uses and possible configurations for Summit Hill School District 161. The impetus for this difficult decision and discussion rests on the continued decline in student enrollment down over 1,000 students over the last decade. As a part of the process, advanced notice has been provided and the topic was publicly discussed as recently as last week's Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting. To date, there have been two preliminary discussions occurring at the October 4th Buildings and

058Grounds Committee meeting and at October 18th Board of Education meeting. Additionally, there have been two properly noticed official meetings to discuss this topic occurring on November 7th at the Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting and again tonight. We are providing the same, as a part of this, the main driver's equity in whether we are providing the same educational opportunities to students regardless of where they live in our district. We thank the public for their interest and participation in the discussion. Several additional questions have been received by the district and compiled on the FAQ document available on the district's website. Expect an update to come by the end of the week on that document and again each time an update is made to the document, both employees and families will be made aware. And so for some

059specifics, the FAQ currently has 128 total questions, 100 of them have been preliminarily answered. Many of these also point back to the district website and documents that are posted there. So of the 128 total questions, many have to be researched, verified, and reviewed for accuracy before they're posted. That's the process we're in now. Over the last week, like I said, we've answered 100 of those questions. When updates to this document are made, we'll send the email to parents and employees so that they know to check back to the document for additional information. This number changes as questions are submitted and we will continue to answer these as we strive to offer an unparalleled elementary education to every student. In fairness to the board, an update to this document needs to be released with ample time

060to review and process the comments and questions from their constituents. Along with this, before specific scenarios can be outlined, I believe all questions should be carefully answered. The district has previously scheduled another board, buildings and grounds committee meeting for November 29th at 6.30 p.m. here at the administrative center. This is posted at the end of the agenda for tonight. We also have a board of education meeting on December 20th at 7 o'clock p.m. here at the administrative center. So we have received a widely varying amount of thoughts on this topic representing a spectrum of ideas. What seems to have been generally agreed upon is that we should look and do something. So the work of determining this and the discussions that are going to take place now are carefully being done and this sets the

061stage to continue the conversation with the board here this evening. And as I said in the buildings and grounds meeting, the PowerPoint that I put together for that and presented was definitely biased. It was mine, okay? We had to start the conversation somewhere. This is the first time we are meeting as a board with the ability to have some kind of discussion about that. For everyone here at the table, I took the slides that I had on the buildings and grounds meeting and just put those together here so we wouldn't have to flip between anything. For those of you that were not listening at that time, the five scenarios that I brought forward as possible were maintaining the current configuration of buildings as we have. There was a suggestion of closing one building. Another one

062of returning kindergarten to grade level buildings. The fourth was close Frankfurt Square and Arbery Hills grade schools. And the fifth one was to close Indian Trail, Frankfurt Square and Arbery Hills schools. And both of those last two were about in order to do that to establish grade centers in those. So at this time, like I said, I brought that forward the last meeting and I talked a lot there. Anyone like to start the conversation? I would if that's okay. So just so the public knows, there are certain committees that we are all on and the building and grounds committee is comprised of several individuals on this board. Unfortunately, I'm not part of that committee so I was not able to speak at the most recent building and grounds meeting out of respect for those committee

063members and its policy. So there were a few things that I wanted to share and bring up as part of the discussion. The first thing that I wanted to bring up is test scores were mentioned several times this evening and I agree that test scores are not the end all be all. Our students are so much more than that but I did some digging and some research specifically about the fourth to fifth grade slump with math. And so that's something that's been brought up at the board table pretty consistently concerned regarding that. And I looked at all the different feeder districts that feed into Lincoln Way and I also looked at a few others. And in my research, I discovered that every single district that I looked at is experiencing a drop from fourth to

064fifth grade math, that it is not just our district. And so to me that says that there is an issue either with the math test or there is an issue that math is getting harder across the board for all of our students in the area and in the state of Illinois. So something to bring up at a later time but I would suggest that our district maybe reach out to neighboring districts and create some kind of a task force to look into this issue further. The reason I wanted to bring that up is because I don't think that that is a reason we should be looking at specific configurations. I think that that is not, it just shouldn't be part of the discussion because it's not a viable piece. Another thing that I wanted to

065bring up is I've asked a few times for a five-year projection of our revenue and expenditures and I know that that is a question that's still being answered. However, I think that we can't even continue this discussion until we see that. Additionally, I think we have the AFR that is typically submitted in October, October 15th, but we asked for an extension so we won't even have that till December, mid-December. I don't think we can really continue discussions until we have the clear picture. I did some other research and I found that I was looking particularly at the money that we have in reserves and I know that that money is allocated for different things that, you know, we have financial guidance on how we use that money, but I looked at a series of years.

066So 2018 we had $4.1 million in reserves, in 2019 we had $7.5 million in reserves, in 2020 I couldn't find that one, in 2021 we had $12.7 million in reserves, and in 2022 we had $19.8 million in reserves. So I am just wondering if we could get a breakdown of how we typically use that money and the financial recommendation of the state in order to get the highest financial designation is that we should have 20% of our budget in reserves. We have more than that. So just thinking about all the financial aspects of what else we can do to lighten the load of some of these issues that we're having with repairs. The other question that I have, I'm sorry, I know I'm taking a long time, I have a lot of questions that have

067been going. My other question is, sorry, I lost my train of thought, give me one second, yes, yeah, so I would like some questions answered about should we save money in any of these particular scenarios? Where is that money going to go to? Because looking at the numbers specifically about all of the repairs that we have, I'm extremely concerned that that money is only going to go to repairs and not to our students. And so I think that that numbers, I need to see numbers. And in terms of the grade school, grade center versus neighborhood school conversation, and I've spoken with many of you on the board about where I stand with that. And I am not convinced, and I've said this, and now I'm saying it publicly, I'm not convinced on the grade center

068model. That doesn't mean I'm not open to it and I'm not listening. I am not convinced that changing the entire configuration of our district, that there are enough benefits to outweigh the disruption. I just don't think that there are. I understand that it would allow for equal class sizes, and I think that that is really something we need to think about, but I also think we need to think about what other ways can we get closer to that besides going to grade centers. There have to be other options. We have talked about redistricting, and I know some people are against that. That is not a long-term solution, but it could be a right now solution. And if we were to get a handle on some of these repairs, maybe we would be in a better

069financial standing and we wouldn't have to do that again and again and again. It's just a thought. So I understand that the gifted programs have been brought up, the EL programs have been brought up, but if we were to redistrict, and again, I'm not saying I'm not open to other ideas and thoughts. If we were to close one building, wouldn't that make more students to qualify for a gifted program or more students in one place for an EL program for those EL benefits? So that's kind of where I'm at. Where I stand, I need more convincing when it comes to grade centers because I'm not sold on it. And I think we need to look more at our financials before I can weigh in on any specific scenarios or solutions. I'll go next if that's

070okay. Matt? Or Matt, go ahead. I had a couple things that I just wanted to add, and I know we keep talking about repair costs in our buildings, but when we had our building and grounds committee, too, these were architect recommendations, right, that they walked through the buildings. A lot of these are over a span of several years, too, so I think a lot of people, there's a misconception that all this needs to be dumped right now to, you know, our buildings are going to implode on themselves. I mean, some of them were, what, 15, 10, 15 years that some of these things need to be accomplished by, and if we're looking right now at, you know, our great finance director and how many millions we have in reserve, and our trend is that we're

071still moving upward with that, I don't see that being an issue that we need to close schools for right now. I also keep hearing the term equity getting thrown around, and my question is really equity to who, right? What about equity to the parents that decide to live here and decide to put our kids into schools? You know, the last board made a decision to put kindergarten into, you know, full day at the same times that first through fourth have right now, so for me, and I've said this before, moving kindergarten into the same school as people that have multiple students, why aren't we showing them equity? Because we're making it much more difficult for parents with more than one kid to get their kids from school, and we want to retain them in our

072school district, but we may be forcing them to go send their kids to another private education because they can't be in multiple places at one time. And again, equity, the term, what about to the teachers? If we do go to grade centers by my calculations and close stuff down and we retain every employee that we have for teachers, we're really not changing all that much but a couple heads per class per teacher, so we're not talking drastic changes unless my math is off. I know that I did ask Dr. McDermott for where our boundaries are for a couple schools if we did, like Stephanie said, you know, to maybe redistrict as a short-term solution if need be, and I also asked for the amount of money spent on Mary Drew this last fiscal year. I'm

073sure that's probably still on your 30 other questions that need to be answered, so I'm not, you know, pushing on that, but I do know that we spent just this last month and over $1,000 in maintenance for our chillers here at Mary Drew that we have nobody in, so what are we spending on it yearly for no one to be in or somebody to receive the perks of using our buildings without paying anything toward it? That's all I have for right now. John, did you have something to say? Yeah, if I can go next. Go ahead. I agree with a lot of the sentiment of Matt and the building and grounds committee last time, we talked about the Mary Drew Center and how it was closed and how it was said that it could be

074sold and it never was, and I think before we, I definitely believe that all this information needs to be entertained, and I'm looking forward to the financial aspect of that, you know, how much is it going to cost to bus the kids, how much, you know, we say we're not going to let go of any teachers, but if you close down a whole building and you're consolidating classrooms and trying to utilize schools more and use more, you know, put more kids in a classroom, how do some of the teachers not lose their job, which I'm against? But one of the things I would like to see is us put Mary Drew on the market right now and use that as a test to see if we can even sell one school, let alone two or

075three schools. So make this the test as we just go on further with our discussions and get everybody's input and make Mary Drew the test. If we have all these empty classrooms and open spaces, we can certainly move the 16 employees at this center here to any school. So that's a big thing. The other thing that I don't think has been discussed much, I think it was brought up in one of our committee meetings is, you know, where have our students gone? You know, they check out and they say, I'm going to private school or I'm going out of state or another district, and we did get the answer on that, the general answer over the period of time, which I appreciate, but one private school in the area or church, I should say, that

076some of our parents go to went from 30 students last year to 60 students this year. It doubled. And that's just a private pod school. So how many parents doubled over the last couple of years, one year after the other? How many parents are homeschooling their kids? I know an awful lot of them, and I know some of you in the audience homeschool your kids. I know you personally. You guys are great parents and just trying to do the best way you think is for your kids. But I would like to make our school continue to improve as we have, and I credit Dr. McDermott on our financials and all the different things that he's implemented for our grades going up and everything and all the staff that's put all their time and effort. I

077love our schools. I love Indian Trail. That's where my son goes. And I couldn't imagine going only there for two years and not having the full four years. I'd love to see him start in kindergarten even though I loved Brogas for the year that we were there. But I think that the community schools are so important to Frankfurt Square more so than anywhere else because we don't have a mayor. We don't have a town hall. We don't have a Village Green where they do concerts in the park. Our community comes together, as some of these parents put, is on the walk to school. And that gets eliminated completely by busing our kids everywhere. So I'm for our community schools to stay one through four, and if we can, add kindergarten back to those who are

078in those districts. So if they are going to attend Frankfurt Square School, then they should start kindergarten in Frankfurt School, if it makes sense. If it makes sense, if we have enough room to do that. I would like to look into that. That's all I have for now. I'm sorry, what was that? I said don't make room. We'll make room. I know you can. Moms are awesome. Sorry. No, I just wanted to say, you know, I appreciate everybody's time that came out here tonight and I hope to see more parents come out and give us your input because I believe in a mastermind. I believe the meeting of the minds who mash the ideas together and this is your schools. It's mine, too, because my son goes here and I'm a taxpayer, too, but this

079is your schools and your voice matters more than anybody because it's your children that are going to these schools. So thank you guys for coming out. I just wanted to add a couple more things as I'm listening. One of my questions was, you know, we're talking about equal class sizes so we can make our classes more equal and the experience more equal, but, I mean, shouldn't our curriculum already be aligned? Shouldn't our, you know, shouldn't the students already be getting an equitable experience? So that's, I'm confused where that is coming from because I have not heard parents say, oh, my student, you know, didn't get as good of an education because they went to Indian Trail versus Arbery versus Frankfurt Square. I've never heard that. So that to me is confusing that they're not getting

080an equal education. Also, like, if we were to go to grade centers, I worry about the amount of teachers trying to collaborate. Fifteen teachers trying to collaborate together, it's very challenging. The teachers that I work on are in teams of like three and four, and I'm saying, you know, that's a little small, too, but that's a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and there will be factions that will break off and who will do their own thing regardless, and how is that any different than what's happening already? So I'm really trying to understand the benefit of the grade center concept, and I'm struggling to truly see what the rewards of that completely different configuration is. I want to echo on that. When we did do full-day kindergarten, it did take away the common plan for

081the kindergarten teachers anyways. So the fact of that community planning and common planning, like I said, it isn't always as ideal as you think it's going to be. So just second that. And the kindergarten teachers have already functioned kind of without that at the end of the day as they had prior to the full-day kindergarten. I also would like to see numbers for the maintenance of any building we're considering looking at, and especially here at Mary Drew. Those maintenance numbers, like it was over $1,000 just for the chiller in the last billing cycle, because that's going to still have to be maintained until it's sold. And also getting the input numbers, information, if kindergarten was moved to the homeschools, what that would look like. And input from the teachers, input from who's at the buildings

082already, like all that, those kind of numbers. What is it going to take to make it look right for them if that plan is considered? Anyone else? Steph, I just want to thank you for your time and all the stuff that you asked to and digging up numbers, because I'm sure that people sitting out here were thrilled to hear the amount of money that's sitting in our reserves right now. I think we really need to see our annual financial report from 2023 to see really where we're at. And we will have that in December. So I think that'll give us a better sense of where we are currently. We can look at the trends over the past few years. I did want to mention that we did receive ESSER funds over the past few years

083because of COVID. So that was additional revenue that we received. However, I don't think it's so much that our district will be in the red. But I need to see the annual financial report. Like I really want to see that before we really start getting into the nitty gritty. A couple things I'd like to bring up. People keep talking about busing. One of the things I wanted to make clear is we get 80% of our busing money reimbursed from the state of Illinois. So I don't think that that I haven't seen that in the FRQ or anything like that. I wanted to make sure that everybody knows that 80% of that, as a matter of fact, one of the things that we did this year for field trips is we're not charging when when large

084groups go on field trips, we're not charging the students for that busing because we can get 80% of it back from the state. So we're trying to make lower those costs for for families so kids can participate in those field trips and that. Secondly, Stephanie brought up grade centers. And one of the things I think people don't understand about grade centers is that it's not everybody thrown together in one big pool. You can't do that because you have to provide plan time and lunchtimes for staff members. You end up teaming people together. And that that's the whole maybe people have heard the whole idea of school within a school. There's no way around not doing that. The only reason that the kindergartners used to have plan at the end of the day was because busing

085forced them to leave school at that time. So that was the only way to do their plan was common plan at the end of the day. If you look at our junior high and you look at Walker, that's what happens there. I mean, those teachers are in teams because you have to. You can't give everybody a break at the exact same time. You have to do it throughout the day. And those collaborative groups allow those teachers to do that and kids get to travel in in groups to do that also. So there is not just one huge group of, you know, people thrown together. That's not the way it can't be that way. Because you can't give everybody a plan at the same time. You can't give everybody lunch at the same time. That's not

086how that kind of thing can work. I agree about the numbers. I think we need we need to have we need to have some more information on numbers. One of the things I would say in terms of equity, maybe maybe equity is the wrong word. Maybe it's fairness. You know, there is a building where there are 26 kids in a classroom and there is a building where there are 16 kids in a classroom. That's not fair. I don't care how you cut it that those students are getting a different amount of staff attention in that way. And the only reason it happens is because of this. One of the things I would say is in terms of bringing the kindergartners back to their home schools, you are going to increase costs. Because right now the

087reason why we have and the reason they put that in place at the beginning is we never know how many kindergartners are coming into the district until literally they all arrive in August. When you have a grade center concept like a kindergarten, you can parcel kids along and see if you have to add another class, then you can add a class. If you move the kindergarten students back to the home school or back to the grade schools, you then just exacerbate that problem the same way it is now with class sizes being unequal. And you can set them to be equal in the beginning, but they will soon quickly diverge in that. And then you end up having the same families that live either along 80th Avenue or live along St. Francis Road, those are

088the same people that are going to have to switch buildings all the time in order to equalize those class sizes. It's a problem that just doesn't have to be. Those are major concerns that we keep having to have these conversations. If we go to a grade center model, that's done. That doesn't have to happen again. None of these types of discussions have to happen again in those ways. So those are just a few pieces that I wanted to bring out that are things that we need to consider. We definitely need to get deeper into this conversation. And we don't have all of the data that we want to have to do that. I have nothing against the schools. Those schools have been great schools and are great schools. There's no doubt about that, and I

089understand people's attachment to it. That's not in question. The problem is, where do we go from here? Because we have seven buildings and this will not work for the long term. It just won't. We financially can't afford it. You may disagree with me. That's fine. And I sat quiet as you were saying it. Please allow me to finish too. Is there anyone else that has anything? Dr. McDermott, for like we have reserve money, money in reserves. I've been on the board where the state stopped paying us for months and we needed the reserves. We were lucky to have them so we can continue to pay our teachers. Bruce Rauner did that under Governor Rauner. We didn't receive half our transportation money and we only received three out of four categorical payments. So I just want

090to know like what is, what is, I can't. Go ahead. I mean, all we can do is ignore, you know. So I was just wondering like what do you recommend us having in reserves just in case, you know, I know that 18 million is a lot. It's great. But what is the number? What number? So I'm going to defer to Julie. We actually had a question about that earlier today. So we have a working cash fund that has eight million dollars in it. So at any given time as, and you can correct me if I'm wrong and then fill in any gaps that I miss, as tax revenues come in, we immediately invest them in short term investments. The reason that we do that is so that they're available for a payroll or available for

091payouts. But while it's sitting in the bank, it's being invested. And so you will see over time, it's almost like a heartbeat. The finances operate that way. So there's two major installments of tax revenues that come in. And then in the interim between those times, we've been down as low as eight million dollars. And so I'll let Julie kind of discuss what she thinks is an appropriate amount to be in there. But at any given time, we may have anywhere between eight million dollars and 30 million dollars in our different funds that are being invested. So they're generating interest income. I think Jim brought it up before what we're using our interest income for on our working cash fund is to move that money into the education fund so that that fund is working for

092students and not for any of the variety of other expenses that we have. And so I'll turn it over to you in one second. We've heard a couple of times today, how will you consolidate buildings and keep every staff member? And so the answer was in there. Someone said it earlier. Yes, we'd use retirement attrition. As you saw today, we announced and approved additional people to be in the retirement pipeline. When you look out four years, we currently have 12 retirees in that pipeline. Also life situations occur. It was a joke about Hawaii. That'd be a nice place to go. I do appreciate people teasing me about that. But life for people changes. We have hundreds of employees and so people get married, people move. That is a time for us to reassess whether we

093need to have that position replaced or not. We do have the funds to employ everyone that is currently here, but not indefinitely and not into perpetuity. So generally speaking, if you have 12 retirees, you're talking about $1.2 million. On average, an employee may make a little less or a little more, but with their salary and benefits, just an easy number is think of $100,000. So in the next four years, we have the opportunity to reduce staff in key places where it won't impact students. Case in point, this past year and maybe even the year before, as Julie and I look at the number of employees that we have, we have slightly and gently without having people lose their positions, reduce staff without impacting students. So we had a math teacher leave Summit Hill Junior High

094School. We didn't replace that person. Students were absorbed into other sections. We know that fewer number of students are heading to that school in the future because we can look all the way down into first and second grades and see how many kids are there. We did the same thing with an ELA teacher at the junior high, the same thing with a PE teacher at the junior high, the same thing with a PE teacher at Walker. We've slowly over time just kind of compressed our staff so it more accurately represents the students that we have in attendance. So our retirees and life situations will allow us to continue to do that, but we proactively started that when I arrived. Maybe if you take a look at our AFR, go back in time when we had

0953,600 students, we employ about the same number of employees then as we do now, but we have far fewer students. And so this offers us an opportunity to compress staff and save money. Someone, I think it was Mr. Sand, I think he said the majority of our expenditures are in salary and benefits. That's accurate. It's about 75 to 80 percent. And so that's an area where over time again we can compress that without having to cut programs, without having to take things away from kids. As we see lower numbers of students flow through our school system, if we do that, we don't have to do mass layoffs or RIFs. And so I did a calculation. If we have 240 students in each grade level, and if you take a look, we have two pockets, one

096at 260 and another one at 240, so first, second, third grade, all about 240. If we have 240 students in every grade level, we have approximately 2,070 students in the district. And so when our graduating class and our incoming kindergarten class or first grade class, we typically pick up a few students there, are equal, then the decline in student enrollment has leveled off. So there are some decisions that we have to make, obviously by the conversation tonight and the four preceding conversations. It's a discussion that no one wants to be in, but I think everyone understands we need to have it. There isn't an idea that has generated across the board support from the Board of Education, and there are financial pieces of data that we're extracting so that we can give it to everyone

097in a meaningful way. Case in point, if you look at the budget online, someone who asks for the budget is asking for a prediction of what's going to happen. If you want to know what happened, you look at the annual financial report. That's the AFR. That's posted online also. Also today, I posted the IGA between ourselves and the Park District, and so if you're looking for how it can be mutually beneficial for both parties to be in an agreement, just like we allow the Park District to use Mary Drew, they allow our students to use SquareLinks. And so there are these cost savings that go back and forth, and we're talking about our taxpayers and their children. So rather than charging them a fee and then having that be paid by the taxpayer, we're spreading

098that out between municipalities, which is very common and at the benefit of our students. And so I wanted people to know that that IGA is posted in its entirety. It was passed, I think, in February of 21. It became active July 1st, 2021, and it was a 10-year agreement. So that is out there for people to see, because we want people to have information, we want it to be accurate. So Julie, can you correct the amount of money that we have in a working cash fund and then maybe speak to the amount of money that's on hand that we're investing to reap an interest benefit before we pay it out to payroll or to other expenses? Sure. So actually, if we wanted to point straight to our AFR that's online, the working cash fund balance

099as of June 30th, 2022 was $7,754,853. That was the cash in there. Then we did accumulate interest income that brought it up over $8 million, as we'll see in the current AFR that we'll receive in December. So there is savings, and there's a lot of planning and foresight to look to the future with that. Let me ask you one other question. With the AFR, they are due in October. We typically file an extension because of the accrual basis that we're on. So we deal on a cash basis, which is what is advised. And so as receipts are coming in and expenses are going out, they get attributed to the fiscal year in which they occurred versus some school district where there's a hard cut on June 30th and July 1st is a brand new school

100year. So in order to reconcile our books, it does take additional time. And we're currently in audit with Mackinac Associates right now. So we're pressing them to have this ready for November. It looks like the December 20th board meeting is when we'll have that available. But again, it's not because of delinquency or because of trying to wait or pause. It's part of how we do our business through accruals. I did not mean to imply that it was at anyone's fault. Do you have anything else to add on that one? One of the key factors that is also kind of helpful as far as how much money to keep in your accounts, it's discretionary. But basically when you're in a situation where you know that you have at least 50% of your costs, say you're looking

101at it annually expecting to pay out $50 million. If you have $25 million, you're good to go for half the year without collecting a penny. So like Dr. McDermott said, the way our money comes in, it comes in through the bond payments, I mean the tax payments, excuse me. And then it dips, it goes low, and then it comes back up again when we receive the money. So we work with our PMA investors who assist us to invest our money. And then we make the interest income, which is quite helpful. So it is considered pretty astute and really good. If you can be six months ahead, it's not necessarily what people do. But actually on this here, annual financial reports, it's showing 261 days of cash on hand that we looked at today. So we're

102not looking to wait for an extreme problem to answer issues. We're looking at it foresight to see where we're at, use the information to make the best decision for everybody, whichever way that may be. It is good to see how much money you have and make sure that you keep a certain amount in there. To receive the highest designation for financial security, what percentage do you have to have in that fund, in reserves, to receive the highest designation? I can actually just turn to the page because I want to rather tell you. Or what do they say, how many days of cash do you have on hand, or what is the percentage that you have to have in reserves in order to get the highest financial designation? Give me one second to pull this up.

103It's okay if you can't answer it right now. Okay. It's usually accumulation of criteria, so if I can, we can give it to Paul and then we can put it on. Sure, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you. And it can be found online too. If you look on the Illinois State Board of Education, it is on there, the designations of those levels of what it is. I downloaded it today and I can't seem to find it right now, but it's a three-page document. It's not that hard to read. You can find it on the site. Before I lose my train of thought as long as I've got the floor right now, if we could for the FRQ, could we compare year-to-year comparables in June? Okay. Yes, please. Because as Julie said, we get

104paid twice a year as a district. That's it. In June, we get it in September, so we take and put that money in short-term investments to try and get every nickel out of it that we can, but that pay comes in in September and it's got to be paid down all the way through the year, so to really find out what we have in actual cash reserves, if we could get a number in June, which would be the longest period of time away from when we've received our tax payout, that will be our lowest amount. Right now, it looks like we're flush, but it's not the case because it's got to be spent over all the intervening months all the way to June. Can I ask a quick question, too, for Julia? I'm sorry, Paul.

105We were talking about, and I might have missed it because I was coughing over here, so I apologize, but we're at about $8 million for cash reserve. What's the total reserve? Because I know we have long-term investments as well, and I might have missed that part, but what's our total, including the $8 million, our total reserve? Right now, we have long-term investments, too, that we make, the money we have in reserve. So, when we're talking about $8 million, that's like the total amount that's in our working cash fund. So, it's basically sitting there, and it's the amount that will be available for emergencies or special projects or something like that. Do we have additional, do we have other investments that we keep and earn interest on that are longer-term that we also receive interest off

106of to put back into the general funds? So, we receive interest and money that is in all of our funds, and we receive interest, interest income from investments that are made from PMA, which is our financial investors, so they handle our money, and they invest it, and they keep it highly liquid, because, I mean, they invest it according to when they need the money back to make payroll every two weeks. So, we have only total $8 million in reserve. We don't have longer-term investments that we have in our bank account. Julie, let me pull the investment schedule, and what you'll see is that there are some that are longer-term. The longer-term, you stretch it out to higher the interest rates, but we have to make sure that we have the available funds for payroll and

107other expenses. So, PMA does provide the district with an investment schedule so that as we're preparing for a payroll, we have things that mature, we gather the interest, and we make the payroll, but we don't need all of that right at the very beginning. So, there's a graph that they provided I'll share with the board. So, what we're pinning all of that is the amount of money that we have that we can invest longer-term. So, yes, we do have some short-term and some longer-term investments. So, in fund accounting, which is the way that the district runs, we have an education fund, transportation fund, et cetera. There's a working cash fund that we levy in. So, what we have been doing is, rather than building that fund, we've been designating the interest in that fund into

108the Ed funds so that we can spend it on kids. And that's the $8 million? Growing, that number. That's the $8 million. But is there additional, is there another $20 million in the long-term funds? So, what is our total short-term and long-term? It wouldn't be $20 million. Again, it fluctuates as the taxes come in, and then we're utilizing that to run the district. At any given time, we could have upwards of $30 million or more that's being invested as we spend it down. But I have some information from PMA that will clarify some of that. Thank you. The other piece is, sorry Julie, a portion of what is being extended to the district, that's the money that the district is receiving, is based on bond debt that we have. And so, what you'll see is,

109we don't need $46 million to run the district. A portion of that, I think it's $8 million, Julie, you can correct me if I'm wrong, is the amount of money that's owed on building debt from years past. So, it's just like a mortgage on your home, it's the bond debt that we're paying to pay for the buildings. And so, what happened is, years ago they refinanced that, so it saved money in the short-term, but it compressed all of the debt and spiked it. So right now, we're living through a spike in taxes. I'm sure our taxpayers feel that. The debt for buildings will be done being paid in 2027. And so, right now, if I looked at some of the preliminary numbers for our levy, it's sitting at 4.2%. I'm pretty confident that when the

110debt rolls off after 2027, that that's going to fall below 4% into the threes. And so, that's relief for people who are paying high taxes. It's not necessarily mismanagement of money, it was the refinancing and compression of debt. Typically, you want your debt to be steady, so that people aren't seeing these big spikes, but a decision was made to compress it, and there's not enough years to stretch that out, and it would not be financially advantageous. For the district to restretch it out, you would just be then paying the money that was saved years back. So in 2027, the taxpayers will see a difference on their tax bill. In 2027, the taxpayers will see a difference on their tax bill? It will not be enough to go to Hawaii and take me with you, however,

111yes, there will be, there will be a drop off there. That is, we're talking about the tax rate. Because all of our buildings will be paid for at 2027, everything. The tax rate that is being extended, you will see a drop. Does that mean that people in their individual homes are going to pay less money? No, it means that the tax rate is going to drop, so the increases will not be as large. When you have a building referendum, which is what we had to build the schools, that is a specific thing, it's a specific thing that we pay for over time. When that rolls off, it's not money that the district gets to keep. That money is always taken out first before anything that is given to the districts. That's the way those bonds

112work. We as a district can't get that money back because it is specific for that loan that was given out to do those buildings. So it's not something we can reclaim. It is something that will definitely roll off to the people that live in the district because those bonds will be retired. It's different than what you call an Ed Fund referendum. Those kind of referendums extend forever. You increase your tax rate and that never goes away. Building bonds are different. They exist for a specific amount of time until you pay your mortgage off. That's when that stops. So yes, that will roll off. We have no choice in that because the county pays that off first. We always have to pay the bonds off first. So I just wanted to answer John's question. He did

113ask about other funds because when we were talking like safety, security, extra reserve funds, I was referencing the working cash fund. Just because I like to speak right from an AFR that happens to be right in front of me, basically at the end of June 30, 2022, because I do have that AFR, it's showing that in the education fund there was $10.4 million, operation fund $1.8 million, debt service $4.4 million. That money in the debt service fund is just for bonds. It's considered reserved. We can't spend that on anything else. It's going for bonds that came to this administration and inherited when Dr. McDermott and I were here. So all we've been doing is paying down on that and have never increased it at all. So transportation had a fund balance of 2.2, but what

114we look at as reserves is what's just sitting out there just flush making money and we're not touching, and that's what we were speaking in terms of reserves. So yes, the other funds are also making interest income because with the CPI, again, a high close to the 5% range again, we're benefiting from that in that area. So Jim, if I may ask a question. If we are in 2027, we're not servicing that debt anymore. If we were just using like an example, if I had a credit card and I had paid it off, that means I have more exposable income in my household? Well, it'll be more income to the taxpayers because that is a separate entity. The taxpayers approve that building referendum for the specific time until the building is paid off and that

115money is taken out directly out of their taxes by the county. Everything else is our budget that we use to run the district. That just pays like the mortgage. So yes, in 2027, our mortgage will be paid off. That's not money that the district gets to get back. It's money that will directly reduce the taxpayer's tax rate. And that's to get closer to your question too about what we do with the investment. We invest things and we try and get interest in it right up to the day that we cut the checks for people for their pay and everything like that. So that's why I asked about having that number in June. Because by the time you get to the end of June, it's the end of the fiscal year, we have paid our bills.

116So that's really the money that we have or our savings, if you want to put it that way. That's when we'll know when that savings number is. Right now it's not. You know, it'd be like saying that the day you got paid, you'd go out and blow everything. You can't. You got to make that last for the period until your next paycheck. So it's kind of like that. If we can get that number out to everybody, I think that'll be a number that everyone can kind of wrap their heads around. And it's that end of time. And if we could get a couple years of that, that will help us. Matt? We talk about our highs and lows obviously with the tax time and what the county or state reimburses us. What is our low

117point number roughly? That's what I'm asking for in June. That's what they're going to see. Right. New offhand. Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe she does. I'd rather look it up. I'm not asking for a definitive number even. My concern is, and since we are floating around that our transportation costs are 80% reimbursed by the state, we then flipped it around and said, remember that time the state didn't pay us for several amount of months? Are we ready to incur the quadruple cost to pay for our busing? If we have to dip into those funds, do we have enough then? But we can't play both sides of that. We get money from the state, yet they might not give us money from the state. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Well, and to add

118on to Matt, even if the state reimburses you 80% and you have more students being bused, you're still increasing the cost to the district of busing kids. And then the kids are on the buses longer, too. So when it comes to financially, you're still going to pay more because if one of the parents said you might be busing 70% more kids from Arbery if they happen to go to Indian Trail now for first and second grade or whatever designation in the grade center thing. So to Matt's point, you're still going to be paying more because you're going to be busing a whole lot more kids around, even if you're getting reimbursed. So that was a question. I actually wrote it down and showed it to Dr. McDermott. But I would like to know the percentage

119of students that are currently actually taking the bus. It's not the ones that are eligible, but the ones who are actually, if we can get a number of students who are actually taking the bus at each of the schools. I'm to the point that I'd like to see some numbers. I feel like we're at the top of this funnel with all these proposals, but I can't talk to people educatedly about numbers. And everybody wants the numbers. And give me the numbers. And I'm like, I don't have them either. I need, yeah, I need to see some numbers. What does it weight out? And also, I asked in a question of mine. So if we were to go, you gave us these proposals, or these scenarios. So if we go with number five, say close Indian

120Trail, Frankfurt Square, and Arbery, and we were going to just put them all into the three schools, what does that look like? I'd like to see a visual of how are we going to put those students in the school? Would it work? Won't it work? Each scenario. So we could see how much extra space is left over. Is there any space left over? I just feel like the capacity is 5,000 students. We only have 2,500. But if we close those two schools, it's 1,000 kids. But how's that going to look? I'm just really uncomfortable. Talking to people about the scenarios, because I don't feel like I have that. I have enough information. Also if you could write down, like the kindergarten, I know it says return kindergarten back to grade level buildings. The kindergarten center

121was built just for kindergartners. It has the bathrooms, the sink, in the rooms. Each room has one. I know it has that rug in the center. It has a bunch of... Kindergarteners don't have desks. Speak into the microphone. It's still not echoing. It's not echoing. I know. Okay, I don't feel good, Jim. Really. I know. Don't look at us. Look at the mic. That's all I'm saying. So with the kindergarten classroom, I just wondered how are we going to take, like say we put the kindergartners back into the elementary schools. Are we going to need more supervision in those classrooms to walk the student down to the bathroom? How is it going to change the dynamics of the kindergarten if we move it back? That's about it. Just more visual. I want to be able

122to see how are we going to fit the students in the schools if we go with a certain scenario, and also how much will we save if we do close Indian Trail, Springford Square, or Arbery? How much will we save on each building just from closing it? You know, the typical everyday expenses that we occur. If we can get a number. That's it. And that number should include Mary Drew as well. Just as an, just when you're doing that number, it should include Mary Drew as well. One thing I'd like to say about Mary Drew too is, you know, while the value of Mary Drew might be listed at something, that's like the replacement value of Mary Drew. That doesn't mean that's something you'd be able to sell Mary Drew for. Okay? I know early

123on they tried to market the building, and we couldn't even get a real estate agent that was willing to market the building because it's too big for what it is, you know? So, you know, that's not what I said. I did not say that. Yeah. Yeah. This, Mary Drew is a large building, so that's one of the issues with Mary Drew. Plus, you know, the bond issue that we're paying off in 27 paid to remodel this building. So if we're not going to recoup what was put into the building, it doesn't make any sense to sell a building that you're not going to recoup the costs on. So I'm just bringing that up. That's just part of the conversation. Just something to think about. Anybody else have anything that they'd like to bring up at

124this point? I was hoping that we could try and cut this down a little bit for Dr. McDermott, but I think we've got some financial pieces that... I would say maybe just echoing what Katie and Joy and others have said too is that maybe if you could just pick one scenario that you think, Jim, might be your most ideal. We all have different favorites. I think we need to go at least two. Or two. Yeah, that's fine. I think there's a clear argument for grade centers versus one through four. So I think we need to look at it from both sides. The savings and then the increased costs on busing and other things too. One through four, eight through four grade centers. And I think it's doable that we're able to find what the building

125expenses are for those buildings. I think that's something that we could do. To bring up Amy's point, I think it'd be easy to do what the bills are for Mary Drew. We could do that. We know how much we have those things in alignment. What's our specific directive to Dr. McDermott? I do appreciate he has been jumping through hoops for all of us, both board and community, answering these questions. But at some point, we have to move forward. We have to get into the details and get working, whether it goes this way or whether it doesn't do anything. We can't do any of that if we're constantly answering questions. And God love you, I'm glad it's your job and not mine. I can't even imagine the number of hours you guys have worked on that.

126But what directive do we need to give at this point to say, okay, investigate this, this and this, or investigate this and this, or forget about it? What do we need to do at this point to move forward? If we were to say forget about it, what will it look like moving forward? That's what I've been asking for, a five-year projection if we do nothing financially. I know it's a projection. But if enrollment were to stay around the same or even slightly decline just a little, what does that look like financially for us? Yeah. So what direction are we giving the superintendent? Just so we're not wasting a bunch more of everybody's... I think we need to get the financial pieces of building operations for the three buildings. Because those are the three buildings that

127are up for it. Can we take any of them off? Can anything be taken off? I thought closing three schools, please. I personally think that that's too aggressive. I've always thought that that was too aggressive. Does anyone disagree with that? Yeah. I agree. I would not. So taking off those three buildings. We're not closing three schools. No. Yeah. No. Right. So we're taking that off. Yeah. All right. We've been answering this frequently as questions for so long, and obviously this has been the talk of the community for so long. Why don't we set a deadline for our questions and be done with this, and we have everything answered then that us as a board needs? We need to proceed with the meeting. Go ahead, Mr. Kerry. I wouldn't have an objection to setting a deadline

128for the community questions and our questions, so we're done then trying to keep coming back to I'm busy answering more frequently asked questions. We can only ask the same question in some type of variation so many times. So why don't we set a hard date that we are done answering questions, we've got all the data that we need presented, and then we move forward? Tonight? But in fairness, in fairness, I'm a very analytical number person, and sometimes, right, but sometimes when one question gets answered, new questions come up. And I'm not trying to waste anyone's time. These are questions that deserve answers. I don't think anybody's saying anybody's wasting time, but at some point we have to move forward. Well, I think we need to look at specific scenarios. Right. I think I'm just saying

129right now, if Dr. McDermott feels the rest of the 30 questions that he has and he takes another week or two weeks or after the holiday, and those are answered for us on the board that we say, we have another two weeks to ask questions now because we have hard set numbers. After that, all of our questions should be addressed. Okay. Sorry. I was taking it personally. And I don't mean just us, I mean community, too, because we keep talking about different things and different scenarios, but we can come up with something different every single day for the next year or two years or three years. And if it would be helpful to consolidate questions, maybe we want to use the community outreach committee and have parent representatives on there. So get some parent reps

130on there to consolidate questions and try to move forward, if that's something we want to look into. Well, you'd have to set a date for that that you would want to do. Right. You and Stephanie would have to. If it's helpful in kind of going through the questions, it might be an option. Just a thought. Going back to what's our directive. Well, I think we can take off the five, number five, closing three schools. I don't think there seems to be anyone on the board that favors that. Okay. The next, I would say, there's close one building and return kindergarten to grade level buildings I personally, again, returning the kindergarten to grade level buildings just exacerbates the problem that we still have and that we're going to have to keep changing boundaries in that way

131over time. So to me, that's one. I'm just throwing that out there. So one that's on their close one building, return to kindergarten, kindergarten to grade level. Kindergarten, not close one building. I didn't say that one. I said returning the kindergarten to grade level buildings, because as Mrs. Murphy pointed out, the building was specifically designed for the kindergarten. Everybody in the district gets that benefit with that building and sending, putting more classes in the smaller buildings, again, you're still going to have inequities in class sizes in that and it's going to be more expensive over time because you can't, you're going to have to hire. Right now, we have a class size for kindergarten that we can stick with. You can't do that if you return them to the buildings. We haven't been able to

132do that with our grade level buildings at all. One school has 26 in a class and another school has 16. That same thing would happen with the kindergarten. So now not only have you not saved money, you've possibly raised the amount of money that you have to spend. That just doesn't seem to make any sense to me. So would it make sense to the board for me to look at, maintain the current configuration, return kindergarten to grade level buildings, close Frankfurt Square and Arbery Hills, establish grade centers and supply all of the hard numbers for those three scenarios and then whatever is discussed beyond that can be a variation of those things. Say that one more time. I thought you said four instead of three. I'm looking at your paper. One, three, and four. So

133one, three, and four as scenarios. So if you go, so the variation of that would be to, for example, number four is to close Frankfurt Square and Arbery and establish grade centers, would a variation of that be one through four? Push those into Indian and Rogus and not have grade centers. Would that be a variation or would that be a second whole or another whole study is my question. And what they're getting is that. OK, so you would say number four would actually be two different scenarios. One where you close those two schools and establish grade centers or you make those one to four buildings. So that would be number four. That grade centers and the opposite of that would be to establish one to four buildings with those two buildings being closed. So is

134everybody good with one, three, and four with the part four A, four B for him to investigate and give us money on or money, numbers? So one, three, four, and four A? And I think a part of that would also, when we run the financials on Mary Drew, that will give you numbers for. And that would be. In the event that enters the equation, then you have numbers on what it's costing to keep Mary Drew open. But if at some point we wanted to, right, it's like I was going to say if at some point we want to go back to looking at number two, like that's the problem. Like that's. Well, I think if you look at two and then you can make your decision about well. And I would argue that if you

135have number four where you're looking at those numbers on those buildings, we're going to get the numbers on those buildings. So it applies to the one no matter what. OK, that's true. That's true. Got it. All right. So that's your directive. Does everybody agree? Is everybody on board with that? So Paul, say it one more time in your microphone. One, three and four, four A and four B, and the Mary Drew numbers. Correct. So still looking at kindergarten movement, that would be under three. Yeah, it was three. OK, OK. Yeah, that was three. Yeah. Yes, we can do that. Does anyone have any final comments on this? Stephanie asked, we've been here a while, if we could take a 10 minute recess so people could use the washroom in that. Any objection to that? All

136right. We're going to stand in recess for about 10 minutes. We'll start at, let's make it 9.15, OK? If we could all settle back into our chairs, please. We're going to go ahead and continue with the meeting. Thank you very much. We're going to move on, on our agenda to new business. First is, I should have done this already, retirement of staff, 202. Thank you. Under retirement of staff, anything you'd like to say about that? We appreciate the service of our employees. Obviously, in these conversations, we're talking about both from the community and from the school side, how much we appreciate the work that our staff does. And so within our collective bargaining agreement, we do have the option for employees to put in for retirement. And so we have several teachers this evening that

137are going to do so. And those teachers are Nancy Sobacek, first grade teacher, at the end of the 2026-2027 school year. Daniel Pearson, seventh grade social studies teacher, again, at the end of the 2026-2027 school year. And they're all that way. Donna Wojcik, first grade teacher. Carla Ervick, second grade teacher. Linda Leodoro, reading specialist. And Kathy Crick, physical education teacher. So at this time, I move the board to accept the letter of retirement resignation from Nancy Sobacek, Daniel Pearson, Donna Wojcik, Carla Ervick, Linda Leodoro, and Kathy Crick at the end of the 2026-2027 school year with our thanks for their many years of service. So moved. Second. Can we get a roll call, please? Mr. Kerry? Aye. Mrs. Burke? Aye. Mr. Murphy? Aye. Mrs. Campbell? Aye. Mrs. McClish? Aye. Mr. Winter? Aye. And Mr. Martin?

138Aye. And the motion carries. We are going to defer D2, approval of reading recovery, because Ms. Murphy asked for that bill to be pulled, and Mr. Snipes is going to be speaking on it, so we're going to wait on that one and vote afterwards. So we're going to move to number three, approval of the tax levy estimate resolution. This is one of the most misunderstood pieces. Dr. McDermott, please? Julie Stearns, please. There you go. Okay. Good evening. As it pertains to the levy, the consumer price index is 5% again this year, so the districts are proposed to receive an excess of 5% if they levy for it. That means 5% is what they will receive, and it will go up from there as new property increases. We have worked with the county clerk and received

139new property projected at $8,765,815, so in order not to leave money on the table, the district should levy in excess of that. The resolution is attached for the board, and with that, we are looking to propose a tax levy increase for the percentage, which is 8.42%, and that is for the bonds, which the district actually doesn't levy. It's the county clerk that levies for that, and that is to take into consideration of the bonds that we have already received, that we already have, and we have to pay for. The part that we're looking to levy on the district side is 7.27% over the prior year, and that is what we're looking for, and that's what the resolution is intact for. I know there's a few of us that are here that it's the first time

140you're probably hearing the levy. If you have any questions about it, it's really a misunderstood piece. It's just about capturing new construction within a district. If you don't levy for it, and you don't gain that value on it, you lose that taxing ability forever, so we always levy above just to make sure we gather any kind of new construction that comes in, and it is the county that actually sets what we get in return. It's not us, it's the county that sets that number. If you don't mind, I'm going to go ahead and read the resolution. The resolution of Summit Hill School District 161 Will County, Illinois estimating the levy of taxes for the year 2023, whereas the Board of Education of Summit Hill School District 161 Will County, Illinois has heretofore adopted a budget

141resolution for said district for the fiscal year commencing July 1st, 2023 and ending June 30th, 2024, whereas it is necessary for this Board of Education to determine how much money must be raised by a special tax for the 2023 year for educational purposes, for operations, building and maintenance purposes, for transportation purposes, for working cash fund, for municipal retirement purposes, for social security purposes, for fire prevention, safety, energy conservation, handicap accessibility, and school security purposes, for tort immunity purposes, for special education purposes, and for lease purposes. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Education of Summit Hill School District 161 Will County, Illinois that the estimated taxes levied on the equalized assessed valuation of the taxable property of said district for the year 2023 are $31 million for educational purposes, $4,345,000 for operation and

142maintenance purposes, $593,000 for transportation purposes, $310,000 for municipal retirement purposes, $610,000 for social security purposes, $440,000 for tort immunity purposes, $580,700 for special education purposes, and $20,000 for working cash purposes, and $7,847,600 for debt service. The estimated total levy is $45,746,300 and it would be adopted this day, the 15th day of November 2023. So at this time, if no one has any questions, I move that the Board of Education adopt the resolution for Summit Hill School District 161 Will County, Illinois estimating the levy of taxes for the year 2023. Second. Any questions or comments? Do we have a roll call, please? Mr. Carey? Aye. Mrs. Burke? Aye. Mrs. Murphy? Aye. Mrs. Campbell? Aye. Mrs. McCrush? Aye. Mr. Winter? Aye. And Mr. Martin? Aye. And the motion carries. Next is setting the date for the special

143meeting for board planning of 2024-2025. So during November, during our Board of Education meeting, we began to talk about setting the date for the annual Saturday Board Planning meeting. These dates have been brought forward as possible. They're all on Saturdays and it happens in the morning on Saturdays. It's a long meeting. January 20th at 8.30, January 27th at 8.30, February 3rd at 8.30 or February 10th at 8.30. Does anyone have any of those dates that's a definite no-go for them? The 27th is a no for me. I'd prefer to do January if I had a choice. I think January 20th, if everyone's okay with it, the sooner the better. I worked that day. I couldn't make it in the morning. Which one was that, Jen? The 20th. I can make the 27th, which I know

144you can't write stuff. How about the 3rd? It's only a week or two weeks later. How about February 3rd? I worked the 3rd. I'm off the 10th. Every other weekend. You've got a couple months. Do you think you can do it? Thank you, Joy. Is everybody okay with February 10th? Let's set that date for our meeting, February 10th. Very good. Thank you. Time to start, 8.30? 8.30 is the start time. For the planning meeting, do you want, do you want us to give you any, like how are we, this is the first time I've had a planning workshop with you, Dr. McDermott. How do you normally conduct it? Do you take some ideas from us or is it, I know of course you're administrators and teachers, but how, I don't know, do you need our

145input, I guess? So a starting point for the discussion would be board goals and superintendent goals. Where we're at with each of those and then if those will remain goals for the following year, are there any more additional different resources we want to put? Any other questions? Does that, will it follow your goals? You gave me 13. So there's 13 goals for the superintendent and administrative team. It links in each administrator in the district into the goals that support the board goals, the overarching goals of the district and so at that meeting each of the district administrators will present and give kind of a state of their department address, the progress that we've made on specific goals, goals that we have not made progress on and then it gives an opportunity for the board to

146really direct the administrators in which direction they want to go. But we used to have a planning workshop and I thought it was that, but also like any kind of improvements that might need to take place. Like if we have things that aren't in your goals that since the goals till now have come to mind, should we address any of those or, because I'm used to one way and this is changing so I'm just wondering. So absolutely. The goals are just a starting point and so if there are other things that have come up throughout the school year even if they did not make it into a goal, that's the time to do that. That is a public meeting also so the public is welcome. It's a long meeting because there's a lot of presentations,

147but it really does give a state of the district kind of overview, really beneficial. Any other questions? Okay. Next, oh we're moving into the superintendent and staff report. Oh setting location for eighth grade graduation, sorry. Okay. On here, let's see it does say superintendent. Right now the tentative date being offered by Lincoln Way is Sunday, May 19th at 4 p.m. at Lincoln Way Central High School. That's what we've been told. That is correct. That's what's being offered. Offered may not be the word. Although we have checked around in the past it becomes really cost prohibitive to run our own graduation elsewhere and pay for a different venue. So this is what's being offered if there's consensus by the board that that date can work then we'll start communicating to our families, our parents, and back

148to Lincoln Way that that's agreeable and that we'll take the date. I know Sunday seems to be a hard date for the staff to attend so I do feel bad about that because that is their family time and they have their own graduations to attend and how can we at some point talk about Sundays being difficult for, I mean unless we don't want our staff there we can't, you know, I know it's an option for them to be there but I know that they truly want to be there. Sundays are difficult especially that time of the year. The alternative would be to find an alternative location to do it and not use the high school. So what the high school offers is they offer one site all of the feeder districts have a different time

149whether it be Saturday, Sunday, or Monday I do believe and that's the time that you're assigned. They try to take smaller districts and larger districts and pair them together because parking can be quite an issue in the transition. So in the event the board gives me the direction to take a look at another venue then we'll do that. And we did do that several years ago and it really is expensive. I'm sorry. I'm moving. I'm going to suggest that if it's costing us any money and we're having the discussion about closing schools that we take whatever is offered to us for free. Yeah, I'm not talking about the money. This doesn't cost us anything, correct? There's a cost associated with it but it's minimal in comparison. Much more minimal than what we've. Correct. Yeah. So

150alternatives we've looked at. I was in the field. We've looked at the Tinley Park Convention Center. We even checked in the CD and me to see if they could accommodate us. And it's expensive and probably not the best solution for us. Now last year we had Sunday also. Do all the buildings have Sunday? No. Obviously they've set this out for all the districts but if, you know, in your discussion with the superintendents can we say we've done two Sundays in a row, you know? Some kind of a rotation or something to keep it fair. This also allows for as many people who want to come to be able to attend, right? There's no tickets. So as many families, people in their family who want to come are able to attend which is nice. Unless it

151rains and we're inside then there's tickets. If it rains and we're inside then I believe we're in the field house at Lincoln Way Central. And that venue is offered because they have pullout bleachers there to accommodate. So I don't believe that's ticketed either but I can check on it. Any other questions or comments? Let's move on to the superintendent staff report. So if you take a look online you will see an updated document regarding our enrollment. So we have accurate numbers as of 2023. The number of students in each section, kindergarten, first, second, third, and fourth grade. And then down at the bottom you'll see there's a breakout for Walker and Summit Hill Junior High. This is typically the last time I present information this way because we will start looking forward to next year

152and matriculating students forward and how many teachers might need to be moved if we stay in our current configuration. And what that does is that also allows us to forecast do we need to hire? Are there positions that we need to pick up for based on what we know about our staff members? And so there'll be a little bit different feel to this when we get to December. What we'd like to do is if we know about a position that we need to replace, post that in December and interview in January. And again the idea is to try to get out first and secure the best candidates for our school district before other districts get out and start doing the same thing. We do have also in the superintendent's report, you'll see that there's a

153holiday schedule. So I've made some adjustments to this. So the 12 month staff at the district office will follow a holiday schedule with offices open each day, excluding holidays. We've removed the remote working portion of that COVID is over. People are coming to the office to do their work. So break is from December 25th to January 5th. The offices will be open nine to three daily. The practice since 2010 has been to inform 12 month staff that in addition to December 25th and the January 1st holidays, the district is closed on one additional workday. This day we're asking for December 29th in consideration of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. And this day has been considered a district holiday and has been awarded as such in the past. And so at this time I'm just

154requesting board consensus that we continue this practice and extend it to our district office staff. Any objections to doing that? Okay. Next is in accordance with board policy 430, this is the PMA quarterly investment report. Revenues and investments are done through PMA through Charlie Couture. It's a quarterly economic investment update dated October, November 23, an October 23rd portfolio summary and a November 2023 PMA asset management market update. This is to make sure that we're following board policy 430. So the quarterly economic investment update discloses the rate of return in investment earnings are significantly improved from the near 0% rate seen throughout the COVID. Investments placed in the third quarter of 23 had an average investment rate of approximately 5.40% and 5.3% as of November 2nd, 2023 for overnight liquid deposits held in the Illinois school

155district liquid asset fund. The investment strategy is terming out CDs, treasuries, et cetera, with district payroll, accounts payable and debt service payment schedules. The performance report discloses that the portfolios yield to maturity as of October 23rd, 2023 at 5.3% compares favorably to September 30th, 2022. So a year prior, which was at 2.18% and even more so during the COVID year, September 30th, 2021, when it was 0.11%. The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee met the week of October 30th, 23, rendering decision to hold the target overnight rate from 5.25% to 5.5% and cuts are not expected soon but could be around June of 2024. The PMA market update indicates that the consumer price index is above target growth at 3.7% in September of 2023. And then we have included the documents from PMA just for your

156leisure so that you can take a look at those and let Julie or I know if you have any questions. And then lastly, we have John Snipes, we have a variety of different pieces of information to present tonight. We knew that the meeting was going to be lengthy, however, the pieces of information that we want to present are things that we've been asked for repeatedly. So the embargo on the IAR scores from last year ended at the end of October. So this is our first opportunity to present those scores, to take a look at our map growth and just give a general overall high level curriculum update from our director of curriculum. Okay John. All right, thank you. Dr. McDermott, do you want me to start with that or do you want to talk about

157reading recovery first? Okay. All right, welcome. I'm excited to talk to you tonight about our IAR results as well as the Illinois School Report Card and then a few curriculum updates while I've got the mic. So let's take a look at the Illinois School Report Card first. I would encourage everyone to go there. The website is hard to see there, but it's called illinoireportcard.com and if you go there, you'll be able to find historical information about our schools and it may be enlightening to you for people that are coming to ask about data from the past. You'll see not only test scores, but enrollment information and financial information. So this is obviously my focus today will be on test scores and our school status, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows that it's available

158and it has a plethora of information. When you go there, you'll see an interactive dashboard and you can click through as a district level or building level all information related to Summit Hill. So our summative designations came out with the school report card and I want to explain how those are designed. So in order to determine the summative designation, the state looks at 75% of the indicators coming from academics and 25% coming from school quality and student success. As you can see at the bottom of the 25th percentile there, numbers 9, 10, and 11 are not even identified yet at this time. So those do not factor into our overall rating. The pie chart on the right does a nice job of showing you where the biggest pieces of our puzzle come from. So growth

159is important. So growth from IAR represents 50% of the pie, 25 for reading and 25 for math. Achievement or proficiency is also important, but you'll see that weighs 15 percentage points. That's numbers 3 and 4. So let's take a look at our overall designation for the school, for the district. All six of our schools are commendable and that's where we were last year. So we didn't see a change, but we were so close to seeing the next level and I want to show you the levels here. There are five levels, exemplary, commendable, targeted, comprehensive, and intensive. So the easiest way to explain this is exemplary is always the top 10 schools, top 10 percentage of schools throughout the state of Illinois. And comprehensive tends to be the lowest performing 5% of schools, however, it's a

160little bit higher than that based on schools that may have come or gone from that targeted support. So if you don't make the top 10% of schools, you're a commendable school as long as you don't have an underperforming subgroup, which we do not. So with all of our subgroups, maintaining achievement and not being in the top 10 percentile were considered commendable. In order, the state looks at all these indicators and they compare you to the top 10% and they compare you to the bottom 5% to determine your rating. Subgroups are listed at the bottom, so they look at all major racial and ethnic identities, students with individualized education plans or special education, English language learners, students that are low income. This is an example of throughout the state, how many schools are exemplary, commendable, targeted

161and so on. ES stands for elementary and of course HS is high school. So you see the majority of schools are in the commendable range, 71% for elementary. This graph is important because I want to point out how close two of our schools came to becoming exemplary schools. So Hilda Walker was about two points away and Summit Hill Junior High was 13 hundredths of a point away. Dr. McDermott had me check the numbers, not once, not twice, three times and contact the state just for clarity and absolutely we had high hopes that they would have gone over the line, but we were just shy and that's all from student growth. We saw a lot of growth in those two schools this year. Let's take a look at the data. So this is IAR, our ELA

162scores, this is our historical data. And you see this in the frequently asked questions document that was requested. So it may not be new information for you, but if you haven't seen the 2023 data yet from last school year, you'll find it in the right column. The reason it's shaded in certain areas, I like to show both ways. So if you take eighth grade, you can look across horizontally and see the gains from the year 22, 23. But you can also follow that diagonal line from last year and that's the cohort and jump back to fifth, jump back to third and follow that diagonal line and see the gains that those eighth graders made as well. So that's just one example. I look both ways to see that improvement. Look at our overall gain for

163ELAs, 10 percent. When we take a look at math, similar story, we see gains throughout and if you're looking at, like your eyes sometimes get drawn to an outlier, take a look at grade seven. You'll see last year was 42, this year's 37. But follow the cohort. Look at that group of students from last year was 20 percent of students that are exceeded and now 37 percent made their exceed. So that's why it's important to look at it both ways. And overall our composite grew throughout the district six percentage points. It's just a graphical way to look at it. There are five levels to the IR and anything beyond that zero mark there in the center is meeting or exceeding. So the light green and dark green. Subgroups are important. So we'd like to take

164a look at that data as well. We started collecting this information three years ago to, it's available online further back than that, but we started looking at it more closely as a district within the last three years. And we'll see, I'd say, tremendous improvement in some of our special populations. And this data, isn't there a change this next year coming from that subgroup? Isn't there an Arabic subgroup now? I have to look into that. I thought Governor Pritzker approved something like that, that they're breaking that out. I could be wrong. That's why I'm just asking. Okay. It would probably more or less be, if it was going that direction, it could be middle Eastern, North African, versus Arabic being the language. True. Thank you. And what are we doing to continue to support our students?

165So we have amazing teachers. We have great instructional coordinators. I can't do this job alone. We have principals that are the instructional leaders of each building. And so together we work to ensure that our students receive the best education. So we put together a few ideas here, options that are continually happening in our buildings to maintain those supports. So of course PLCs are amazing. So we found that at the junior high. We found success. We brought them to Walker with success. And now this year, first through fourth grade, not at the same scale, not daily, but they'll have an opportunity at least once a week to meet as a team. And we're finding success with that as well. It gives us time to get in and talk to teachers too. Last year we increased our

166English learner time, and we're going to continue that this year. And our coordinators of support meet with teams regularly daily, sometimes as a group, sometimes as a group, and sometimes at individual request. We have new math and reading programs. We use our IAR evidence statement analysis report. So for those that don't know, it's just a report that comes with our IAR data that tells us all of the standards and how we did on those standards. So it helps us hone in and target specific areas. Standards based grading at the elementary levels to really focus in on power standards or priorities. Using those evidence statements from the previously mentioned report, we find teachers creating spiral reviews. So you see this mostly like the morning work or bell ringers when the kids come in, five minutes to

167do a quick activity, and it helps expose them to these standards they may not see for a while. We have adaptive differentiation programs like Freckle inside our Envision math program. There's an adaptive program called PracticeBuddy or MathXL, depending on your grade. RTI is so important. RTI is our intervention time dedicated to what the students need. And win time may not be true RTI, but it's what teachers offer students for reteaching and supporting. All right, quick look at MAP growth because this is our local data. This year we started sending home the family report, which is a little different than in the past because we wanted to include that growth data. So in the past all we were able to provide was achievement, but through this new report you can see growth and achievement together. We

168have amazing achievement percentiles. So this report is looking at last year's beginning of the year fall compared to this year's beginning of the year. Sorry, that's this spring. Last year, I'll show you that one in a minute. So this is all of last year beginning to end. Take a look down, looks like maybe the third or fourth column, it says achievement percentile. And then the very last column is how we ended the year. So with 50% being average, we'd like to see everyone there or higher. And you'll see that many are in the 70s or 80s, a few in the 60s, and one says 59. So we're seeing great achievement. Now this, however, looks at growth. So the blue bar is the observed growth for that school year. The little diamond is the projected growth.

169So we, the system, projects where the student should be, where it thinks they should be. So an example like kindergarten, the growth and the projection meet. But in fourth grade, you see the diamond is higher than the observed growth. So now those are our current fifth graders. So we'd want to investigate and support any reading gaps that may be there based on growth. But achievement was still high if we look back at the previous graph, but did not grow according to our expectations. And the same for reading, sorry, for math will be coming up next. The achievement percentiles are high, all above 50. And then this is the growth graph. And don't worry about the, you see how the blue bar trails off as the kids get older. That's natural. That's what NWA expects. Those

170are RIT growth points. So you'll see the RIT scale decrease as the students get older. So where you may see 10 to 12 points growth in the primary grades, you may only see two or three points growth in the higher grades, and that's expected. That's normal. All right, standards-based grading. Just to keep you updated, this will be quick here. We have full implementation in grades K through three. Because third grade is added this year, they're getting the most support through meetings and articulation. And then fourth grade is starting the planning process. So they're meeting now to plan what next year will look like. So to be determined is fifth through eighth. We've already talked about not going to standards-based grading in those older grades, but we're talking about something called a hybrid model, which still

171uses letter grades and averaging percentages, but gives you a little more detail on a report card than just an overall grade math, 92%. So you might dive in and get a little more detail than that. This is an example of a standards-based report card. So you'll see you'll get in math, now you'll get several indicators of progress rather than just a math score. I wanted to let you know, we're conducting a science pilot through my work with Dr. McDermott. In his work with our teachers, we listened and we knew elementary teachers are going through a lot. So we've had a new reading program. We had a new math program the year before. They're doing standards-based grading. So this was their year to put pause on a brand new program. But we are looking at science

172in five through eight at this time. So we'll bring an update at the board planning session in February. But I wanted you to know that it's underway. We have a committee of five, eight teachers. We've narrowed it down to our top options, two options, and we'll bring that recommendation forward later in the school year. English language arts. So as you know, we moved to two new programs. Elementary is Wonders K-5 and Amplify 6-8. So we're providing ongoing support with our teachers through PLCs, training from the vendor, and then our coordinators, of course, for daily support. We're finding there's so many instructional options. Teachers are working to find their flow. So I appreciated one teacher putting it that way. She's like, I'm just not in a flow yet because there's so many things to pick from.

173So we're working, again, through training and PLC time with teachers on implementing Wonders with Fidelity. Amplify, teachers are working to generate additional opportunities for practice as well as accommodated assessment. So we found, working with our special education teams, that the assessments are rigorous and finding ways that we can accommodate for students and kudos to teachers for recognizing that. And then next step, we have upcoming training being scheduled for leadership support. And that's kind of what Ms. Burke was talking about earlier, is that something that we could bring in house. And after the leadership training, I think the answer is yes. In math, it's not new. We've had InVision math for two years now. But what might be new that you may not be aware of, we've talked about it before, but bounce pages. I want

174to make sure everyone's aware of bounce pages. If you're a parent at home and you're struggling to get your kid to finish their math homework, you can use bounce pages. So you just open up your smartphone, don't open the camera, go to bouncepages.savisrealized.com. That will open up, it'll ask permission to open up your camera. And through that app, or that webpage, you'll take a picture of the workbook page. So you just hold your phone over the workbook, there's no QR code, take a picture, and it will bring up any related support tools for that. Usually it's a video. Sometimes you'll see something else, but oftentimes it's a video. So it might help spark a reminder in your child or help a parent answer a question for a kid with an example. So I think that's

175a cool thing to remind people of. Are there any questions about curriculum before we talk about reading recovery? All right. I thanked a lot of people during that, our teachers, our coordinators, our principals, and say that the IAR improvement, a tribute to their hard work. So I just want to mention that before we wrap that up. All right, let's talk about reading recovery. Since we're talking about money, I should mention too, when we were talking about that Amplify training in the bills list, that was also grant funding. So we look at Title II is a federal grant that the state manages for us, and we get grant funds each year, and we can only use them in certain ways. So Title II allows us to spend money on professional development, and that original piece that

176we talked about earlier was paid through title money. And what I'm about to talk about now is also going through title money. So I wanted to point that out as we jump in. So reading recovery, if you're not aware, is our most intense intervention for reading and writing. It's only done at the first grade level, and it requires intense training for the reading specialists. So our reading specialists are already highly trained individuals with that extra reading specialist endorsement, and then they would go on to further learn about the reading recovery program. So again, obviously reading and writing are top priority in first grade. It's a short-term intervention. It lasts between 12 and 20 weeks. So this would not continue into second grade or third grade. It's short and intense. It's part of our multi-tiered system

177of supports, MTSS or RTI, response to intervention. The program is based on the idea of intervening early, because that early intervention is crucial for preventing long-term reading difficulties. Reading recovery has shown to be effective in helping struggling readers make significant gains in progress, sorry, in short amount of time. We've been using this program for over 20 years, 22 was our best estimate this morning. And what we're doing today is paying a bill. So once the bills get over $10,000, I bring them to your attention. And so I've prepared just a little information for myself. And if you have questions about reading recovery, but it's not new. So maybe it appears like, oh, we've never talked about it before. It's an intervention that we've been using for a number of years. With reading recovery, you're investing

178in professional development. The program requires teachers to receive ongoing PD. So there's, at minimum, depending on your level of experience, at minimum six opportunities where you get together with colleagues from throughout the region and you continue to learn and you go behind glass, one-way mirror glass, and you watch teachers teach a lesson and you critique and then it's your turn and you provide the same type of feedback. So that continuing professional development is key and can be paid out of Title II funds. These fees will span all four of our elementary schools because it's offered in all four of them and it includes seven reading specialists. A few talking points here. How many students roughly? So in first grade, we service about 22% of our first graders receive reading recovery. It comes in two waves.

179So there's a first set from the beginning of the year until about Christmas, maybe a little bit past the holiday. And then there's a second half with new students that take on the second half of the year. The district has exceeded the national norms in the areas of year-end text level. So they really monitor data in the reader recovery. So they start with whatever your current text level is. Often it's beginning reader. You're not even at a text level, you know, one or two yet. And then you progress into a level 16 is where they want you to go. That would be like first grade, sixth month. And many of our students are there and passed even into level 20, which would be 2.0, second grade. So we're finding that there is a successful intervention.

180Students who participate, this is a big one for us too with the early intervention. Students who participate in reading recovery typically are released from reading interventions within the first two years. So instead of staying in RTI, again, you can only do reading recovery in first grade, but some students may need more support in second, third, fourth. We're finding that students in reading recovery are exited from RTI after the two years. Also I'll point to Leslie for a moment with special education. RTI is important for identifying these gaps and filling them early. And that avoids moving through those tiers and then perhaps into a special education referral. So yeah, we definitely appreciate the reading recovery program. We're already using it this school year, so there are bills that need to be paid related to it. And

181this is the annual cost, but it goes to multiple sources because National Lewis University is our current sponsor and we receive our continuing education from them. Last year, they're always the regional hub, but last year we used Oak Lawn Hometown, so we would have received a bill directly from a different school district. You'll see another bill there for East Main School District. One of our teachers is brand new to the program, so there's an additional cost for training a new teacher too. And so that teacher gets support through a cohort group at a different school. So that is reader recovery. And because the cost is over $10,000, we wanted to bring it to your attention. How much does it cost to train the teachers each year? Each individual teacher, $1,700. So when I saw it

182on your update, I noticed, I just kind of looked around, because I know reading recovery has been around for so long, because it was around when my kids were small. But did you ever think of looking into a different program that might, like the science of reading seems to be the buzz right now? And this doesn't really fit in that category, because I've been reading up on it. And I was just wondering if you would ever consider trying or looking at a different program, just because we've used this for so long and now there's so many new programs out there, and they might even be cheaper. So rest assured, we do have other interventions available as well. So this is considered a tier three intervention, the most intensive available for our students. But we do

183have other options. And so if a student is not responding well to this intervention, the reading specialist would choose an additional or different intervention for the student. So there are other options, and we do have other options at our disposal already. But this is the most impactful and the most intense for that short amount of time, rather than continuing to keep the student in year after year after year for RTI. And we are always open to looking at interventions. We actually meet with the, the building levels meet at least monthly, if not more, and we meet with the reading specialists and intervention teachers three times a year each trimester. So we always talk about what's new, what's out there, what have you heard from your colleagues during these collaboration meetings. So it's not out of

184the question, but this is certainly something that we value. Well, I just noticed like when I was reading up on it, it said it was like queuing was the big thing with reading recovery. So you say you're reading a story and the student is stuck, it was, you know, I read up on it, I was, you might have to correct me. But it did say, you know, like, what did you look at the picture? What is the mom and dad doing? Or it's not sounding words out. It's not the font, the phonics isn't in there is it is in other programs. And I know phonics is huge in reading. So I just wondered, you know, it's been so long that we've had this program. And I was just wondering, at any point, were you going

185to consider ever looking into a different one? Yeah, so I'd say reading recovery does teach phonics skills. It definitely has a systematic approach. And I can provide more information, you know, at a later time. And I can bring in experts to in the area that are actually using it. And I'll show you the information I gathered together, because I know states across the country are dropping it, Oakland dropped it, the one that used to host it, they just dropped it. So if other districts are dropping it, and it's such a costly program, you know, I just wondered why we still have it. And if we've looked into others, that's it. Thank you. You're welcome. Would it be possible to like, get those RTI interventions or even just like the reading specialists on a rotation similar

186to like other curriculum? Like when you do these pilots and you think about reviewing curriculum, maybe like on a similar like schedule or rotation that is like more set in stone so that it's reviewed specifically every few years and exploring other options and then kind of piloting and deciding? Yeah, sure. You may recall a few years ago, too, our math interventions were stale and we didn't have very many options. And so we've worked the last two or three years to really build those up because it's nice as an intervention teacher and really necessary for students to have options. So if it's not respond, if one student is not responding to this, you flip to something different or a program that offers, you know, a targeted skill in their need or deficit area. Any further questions?

187All right. Thank you. So that's your presentation. John, you're done. Thank you. All right. You pulled the two bills and... I just want to ask you a program. I want to... Sure. Go ahead. Okay. So at this time, going back to the reading recovery bills, I move that the Board of Education approve the $16,800 for reading recovery fees to be paid from the Title II grant. So moved. Second. Any other questions or comments? Can we get a roll call, please? Mr. Carey? Aye. Mrs. Burke? Aye. Mrs. Murphy? Aye. Mrs. Campbell? Aye. Mrs. McClitch? Aye. Mr. Winter? Aye. And Mr. Martin? Aye. The motion carries. All right. Moving on to... 205. Yeah, that's where I read from. Oh, I thought that was for the bills. No, that's where I read from. Because it was still paying

188the same bill. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to Board Member reports. My District 843 reports real quick. Salaries and benefits right now are less than budgeted for 843. They're transporting 581 students a day. Right now, Pioneer Grove is a victim of its own success. It's expanding in numbers. They're going to have to displace the district office staff in order to make more room for classrooms for those students. So, that's a good thing. It's a successful program right now. And one thing that we have to keep an eye on is right now, District 210 is using the McKay Center for one of their programs. And it's an asset that belongs to all the member districts of 843. And that building is in term... It looks like it's going to need some major repairs. So, we're

189going to have to really take a good close look at what we do with the building. Do we repair it? Do we sell it? Do we tear it down? Whatever it might be. I'm sorry, which building? McKay. In February? Yes. It's the old library in New Lennox. And that's been the site of that extension program for 210 for a long time. So, that is in the pipeline. We're going to be taking a look at that. So, that's my 843 report. Okay. We move on to board member building reports. Mrs. Campbell, you want to start, please? Sure. I'm going to read Ms. Murphy's report for Arbery because she asked me to and she's not feeling well. So, Ms. Boss says, we held our fall festival parade and party. It was a bit chilly, but the kids

190had a great time. We packed the lunchroom for our Breakfast with Buddies stars event. Grandparents and special friends came in before school to enjoy breakfast with the students. We had the Frankfurt Fire Department at Arbery present with their engine to teach the students about fire safety. It was great. It was great to meet your son. I was like, I'm reading. I'm reading a prepared statement. Our first grade students attended the children's farm in Payless. The students enjoyed picking out pumpkins and learning about farm animals. Fourth grade choir students had their first choir concert and did an amazing job. We had Red Ribbon Week at the end of October and the theme was be a hero, be drug free. So they had that. We had a land of smiles presentation from Delta Dental for our first,

191second, and I don't know, students. What levels? Oh, I'm sorry. It was like Roman numeral. Sorry. Students learned about the importance of taking care of their teeth. We're looking forward to hosting our principal for a day and having our first trimester celebration. The students and staff will be coming together to celebrate the great trimester and how we can keep that momentum going for second trimester. Community did a great job of packing the pantry. All food went towards the Frankfurt Food Pantry. We hope this will help families in our community during this time of Thanksgiving. We're looking forward to meeting the families during parent-teacher conferences and we will also be visiting the Manitino Veterans Home with the Arbery families to sing and celebrate our veterans. Thank you, Mrs. Boss, for that information. I'm going to go

192right into Summit Hill. Absolutely. Keep moving. Keep it moving. So Amy and I will share this one. I'll read some. She'll read some. Seventh grade girls basketball team played in the IESA Regional Tournament last weekend. The Spartans outlasted Markham Prairie Hills in the first round winning 19 to 10. They advanced to the second round and played in undefeated Hickory Creek. The girls had a solid lead at half and played their best game of the season. Hickory Creek still prevailed 37 to 28. The team finished with an impressive 15 and 7 record. Great season girls. The eighth grade girls basketball have their regional tournament starting Saturday at 9 a.m. Their current record is 12 and 8. So good luck to the girls as they go into regionals this weekend and congrats to the seventh grade. Boys

193basketball is underway. The seventh grade has a strong start of 5 and 3 and the eighth grade is 6 and 2. Both play at Mokina tomorrow with many games coming up in December. So good luck to the boys. The pep band which I got to witness at a couple of the basketball games I went to and I particularly liked Sweet Caroline. Our Summit Hill junior high pep band has been doing a great job performing at the girls and boys basketball games. They're heading to perform at the Chicago Wolves game, hockey game this Sunday, 11-19. The band hosted an amazing Veterans Day concert last week and they have their holiday tour coming up where they will be visiting Arbery, DJR, Frankfurt Square, Ending Trail and Walker. That's on the 14th and 15th. Amy, were you taking

194over at some point? I will go ahead right now. So continue with the Spartans. Again, their percussion concert December 4th, strings December 7th, choir December 19th and the full band December 21st. They will have their Lincoln Way East eighth grade transition and step up. So the kids will get to check that out. They recently had a successful book fair which I got to volunteer at. It was awesome with a new local vendor, Anderson. So thank you to our parents, our SEO, our librarians, our volunteers. For American Educator Week, the Summit Hill students wrote letters to their elementary teachers and they're going to be handed out after parent teacher conferences. I thought that was really cool. The JAMA club is anxiously awaiting the cast of The Little Mermaid announcement Friday. So you'll catch The Little Mermaid

195at Summit Hill in March as well as St. Baldrick's Day March 22nd at Summit Hill as well. And I'll go straight into Walker. Walker did a beautiful job honoring veterans with their breakfast and program. It involves choir. The kids get to bring in their friends and relatives. It's a really nice program as well. Thanks. As long as we're at that end, why don't you go ahead, Matt, finish that side. Reporting in on Frankfort Square School. Frankfort Square Helping Hands Club is partnering with NAWS Humane Society of Illinois. The student club is sponsoring Darcy the dog for NAWS. The student and school community have been collecting items for Darcy and the other animals in the shelter. As of this morning, 60 items for the animals have already been collected. The students of the Helping Hands Club

196want to thank everyone for their donations. Frankfort Square SEO hosted a Mustang Gallop on the 10th. 129 students attended the activity. Students played beach volleyball. Games participated in coloring activities, had snacks, and listened to a DJ. The money raised from the event will go towards field day for the students. Earlier today, like another school, it was already mentioned. First and second grade students learned about the importance of dental hygiene from the National Theater for Children. Students learned the information on brushing, flossing, dental visits, and how to prevent cavities. Each student received a dental hygiene kit as well. The program is sponsored by A Land of Smiles at Delta Dental. And last but not least, the final pieces of the Sensory Path have been placed on the floors of the hallways. Students had the opportunity to

197place Sensory Path stickers on the floor of the hallways at the school. When students need a break, they can walk the path. When needed, the students can hop, skip, stretch, and count while using the Sensory Path throughout the hallways. That's all I have to report for Frankfurt Square. Thank you, sir. Mr. Winter, why don't you go ahead. We'll work our way in. I'll let Stephanie go first, and then I'll add on to hers. Okay, so parent-teacher conferences are right around the corner. Students are continuing to work towards fluency in their reflex, and students are preparing for the winter program in music. And the Make a Difference Club is collecting toys for tots. The Kindness Crewmates are still doing a wonderful job supporting the Kindness Crew and spreading kindness throughout the building week. So just a

198reminder, the different classes get to sponsor and kind of be the Kindness Crewmates for the week and kind of take on that role in the school, which has been really fun. Fourth grade students participated in a virtual field trip with a presenter to Buffalo Bill Nature Center in Wyoming. Students integrated this into their social studies, ELA, and science units of studies. And then third grade students also participated in a virtual field trip with Rangers from two California state parks. These Rangers were experts in sequoia and redwood trees, which students were learning about through their stories in classes in ELA and social study units. Keep up all the great work, trailblazers. To add on to what Stephanie said, they had Treat Day on October 12th. They celebrated Red Ribbon Week. Say that fast after no sleep.

199And then they also were able to wear a sports jersey this week to school. So the kids got to wear their favorite jersey to school. So Johnny was happy about that. So move on to DJR. The fire department was there, too, and it's popular with all kids that age. So same same report. The Pre-K is going to have their Thanksgiving feast on the 16th. Nice event for them. They got to make snacks and things like that for their guests. The third grade read balloons over Broadway. And then part of that activity was each student got to create their own character balloon. And then they were going to blow them all up and they're going to have a balloon parade, which I thought was really a nice, engaging type of activity. Again, Book Fair is going

200to be starting. Parents are welcome to stop by on Monday the 20th during parent-teacher conferences if they choose to shop instead of sending their kids to do so. And the winter program is December 14th and the EC winter program is December 20th. Thank you all very much for the reports. Now we're going to go to public comments. Mr. Leteer, we asked him, he asked to wait. Would you see if there's anybody else? Thank you. Amy, could you time, please? Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Leteer. Thank you. And with that saved money, you know, where it is all planned to go, because I've just heard some big things. Safety is important. You know, I love band, but I also love extracurricular activities and other things of that nature. So I think you guys all addressed all

201of that. So I'd like to thank you. You know, Dr. McDermott, personally, I support you. Mr. Snipes, I support you. Our principals and teachers, I support you. Our board members, I support you. You know, I ran with and against some of you. And honestly, what I came here originally from was I listened to the buildings and grounds meeting last week, and I started to hear some of the tones that our previous board meetings used to take. And it's just unacceptable to me. Your personal agendas matter nothing to me. My daughter's livelihood and education matters everything to me. You lose political points because you don't satisfy your fraction of community members. I'm sorry, but you're up here to do a job objectively. And that's all you're tasked with professionally and objectively. So I do hear some

202of that, and I even can form my own opinions on what board members seem to be pushing their own agendas. And I'll continue to talk about that at future meetings because I have opinions on some of them. But that's what I'm watching just to keep you all on notice. I think I spoke at when some of you were elected, and I told you that's what I'd be watching. And I'm just here again to remind you, like, that's what I'm watching. You want this group behind you to galvanize and gel, then you can't pick her up there like they're going to model what they see. So I'm going to say thank you again. It's good to see all of you. Please call me back. Please call me back. It's good to talk to you. Have a

203good one. Thank you. Thank you for all your work. Thank you. Susie? I think it's Sue or Cere? Cere? Okay. And then Hope Savage or Say Which? Sorry. I should ask people to print. Good evening. As you guys are making difficult decisions for our children, that's exactly what they are. They are children. Our family made the decision to move here. As my last one will be moving out from Frankfort Square this year especially, Mr. Jason Idonis, Mr. Mattelga, Ms. Kathy McNeil made our two younger children an unexpected move to the school district, welcoming and amazing. My oldest did not have that at Summit Hill Junior High that you all are claiming as a grade center right now. Are you also letting the parents know that your so-called grade centers, you make your students clean up

204after them after the whole lunch room? Because at Frankfort Square they have a wonderful custodian there that cleans up after them. I had to find this out through my daughter that she is on her hands and knees in a school cleaning up with no protective gear. That is your grade center. How are we going to be taking away from taxpayers or amazing teachers and combining our students like this? You guys have not explained what your grade center is going to be. You're giving numbers. When you look up online what a grade center is, it's a very different way of teaching. Is that what you're going to be forcing on our students? You guys are only, and Jim, your III has to stop. Your tone towards everybody is what gets everybody angry. It's your delivery. If

205you delivered to us more information and transparency, you wouldn't have so many angry people here. Closing the schools is not ideal as you will bring down home buildings. Can we think about asking the students how they would feel about being brought into each other? Because if you don't have a student going here from outside, you don't know what that is and what anxiety and depression it caused for a child that got thrown into your grade center. I ask that you please keep in mind the students' safety and mental stability when you are making these decisions. Thank you. Thank you. Hope? What is your last name? I'm sorry. Thank you. Please. As a former Frankfurt Square student of all four years, I would absolutely love Frankfurt Square. I absolutely love Frankfurt Square. I would ride my

206bike to school every single day, rain or shine. And I would feel so safe seeing other kids riding to school on scooters, bikes, skateboards, and more. During the school year, I always looked forward to so much because of how much my teachers communicated with me. Every day they had a smile on their face ready to have a lesson that involved learning and activities. Mr. Stonest was always one person I looked forward to seeing at school no matter what. He knew everyone's name by face and everyone's family. He always made me and my classmates feel comfortable and welcome in school. In PE, we always had a new lesson around something athletic every week or two. In technology, the tech teacher always had a new lesson every other week for me and my classmates. And we always

207looked forward to the tech games and lessons. Frankfurt Square School brought me and all my friends together. On the last day of school, it made me extremely sad to leave the school that I was in for four years to pass on all those memories and make new ones. A little later, my brother and sister were both in Frankfurt Square School. The teachers knew my whole family and they brought back happy memories and started happy memories for my siblings. And I hope that continues for other families. Thank you very much. Nice job. Andrea Elman. Eamon, thank you. I'm going to get up to talk, but I heard a couple of really great points that I just kind of wanted to reemphasize to everybody. I have been in this district for a very long time. I know

208several people in this room, all of the administrators, staff, and so on. I have two children that have been through the school district. My youngest is a seventh grader this year. My oldest is a freshman in college. And I just want to take a minute to thank all of the staff at Frankfurt Square Elementary. That is where both of my children got their start. My daughter, who is a freshman at Bama this year, grew tremendously. And I know Mr. Ozonis and all of the teachers there can attest to how shy and quiet she was. She is now at Bama, succeeding her first year, having a great time, making friends, going for her pre-med biology degree with scholarships, thanks to the start she got at Frankfurt Square Elementary, and the teachers there that pushed her to

209just engage as much as possible in every single class, as well as socially. She's coming home on Saturday for the first time in three months, and she is more excited than anything to see her two best friends who she met at Frankfurt Square. It wasn't the kids she met at East that came over from all the other schools and the other districts and stuff like that. It's her two best friends that she has had her entire life through Frankfurt Square. It says a lot about the neighborhood schools. I can definitely back up what Hope and everybody else has said. The staff over there knows the kids, knows the families. I see Mr. Ozonis, you know, at meetings like this. He comes up to me and asks me how Katie's doing and how she likes Bama.

210We've had that conversation one time. So the staff there, friends, family, you know, they're family members. They're not teachers. They're our friends. They're the people that care about our kids and started our kids on the right path in this district. The neighborhood schools are definitely the way to go. And what is going to prove the most beneficial for these kids as they move on to the middle school, the junior high and over to the high school. They're going to have the friends. They're going to have the support. And everybody still asks about them. So I feel that that is probably one of the most important points that I can possibly make tonight. Thank you. Melissa Jerzyk. Is Melissa Jerzyk still here? Go ahead. You've got three minutes. Just a couple of things that they should

211think about. Again, my name is Greg Sand. Can everybody read the screen here? It says serving the communities of Frankfurt, Mokina and Tinley Park, Illinois. OK, so everybody up on the board, as Mr. Leteer just mentioned, I think it's in your best interest to poll the community members and speak to all of the students if, God forbid, you actually want to speak to a student right now. I wouldn't dare mention to my children right now that you're threatening to close their schools. I couldn't imagine having that conversation with a first grader and a fourth grader right now. So I think you should think long and hard before you make any sort of decision here. Talk to the constituents. All of these people that are in this room, in your neighborhoods, when you walk your kids

212to your community schools in the morning, ask them, are you in favor? Because I haven't heard one person tonight, either on Facebook or in this meeting or anywhere in the community, in favor of closing any of our community schools. We did a separate poll. We set it up and we took a survey. 166 people responded. One person said, close the schools. 165 said, no. We'll continue to run it. We'll continue to pay the day rate to collect as many respondents as we can. So, again, that's your job. Listen to the community. It says, serve in the community right here. Talk to the community members and find out how they think you should vote. This isn't supposed to be a rogue board acting on behalf of one or two individuals up here. Thank you. Thank you.

213Future meeting dates, November 29th, 2023 is a Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting, a public hearing regarding the possible school closures here at the Mary Drew Center at 630 and December 20th, 2023. A regular board meeting here at the Mary Drew Administrative Center at 7 p.m. Can I have a motion that we adjourn? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. We are adjourned.