001The mission of Sunny School District 171 is to maximize student achievement by cultivating critical thinking skills, innovative instructional practices, and collaborative and roll call >> here. here. Any person wishing to wishing to address the board about an item that is on the agenda agenda should do so when the item is up for discussion. Visitor statements will be limited to two minutes per person. A total of 30 minutes will be allocated for visitors comments. All comments about items not on the agenda will be held as visitor statements at the end of the meeting. Items related to personnel issues will be redirected to the appropriate administrator. Item F, recommend a motion to approve the regular board of education meeting with minutes of July 21st, 2025. Close session minutes of July 21st, 2025. August expenses in July payroll
002in amount of 351,388.86 as presented. Motion. >> Second. >> Motion by second by >> Yes. >> Smith. >> Yes. >> B. Yes. >> Thompson. >> Yes. >> G. Communications. H. Informational items. Dr. David Shrader. The tenative budget will be on display beginning August the 12th, 2025. 2025 in the year unodudited financial assignment item I [Music] >> Good evening everyone >> good evening >> uh just wanted to uh briefly summarize what you have before you is that you have a one-page summary of how we finished up last fiscal year which was definitely in the positive due to the bond that we sold in July which is this this school year. And then this next year on the second page you see our projected tenative budget um which will be on display for the public um beginning
003tomorrow. Um, but I wanted you guys to have a sneak preview and uh on that 10-minute budget, you see there is a deficit, but that goes falls in line with the budget and the capital projects that we have currently going on this summer that will hit next uh this fiscal fiscal year 2026 and then beyond some other capital projects. So uh and then beyond that you see the um state budget for um it's a summary. It's a cash summary and then it also has uh our expenditures and revenues. And uh we'll do a greater presentation on this in September. But uh in the meantime, I wanted to just get this into your hands and if you should have questions, please reach out to Dr. Erica or myself and we'll be happy to answer your questions.
004That's all I have. Thank you. Thank Mr. Ster. Item I order and item J administrative reports. So the first day of school is August 20th. So let me repeat that again. August 20th, which is a Wednesday, is our first day of school. We are very excited to welcome our students back. But having said that, I want to remind everybody on August the 18th at Heritage Middle School. It is our back to school mana. You will see the flyer was sent out on our Facebook page on parent square. So a lot of different forms of communication that went out. We just hope to see everybody out there because we have our so >> Dr. Lori almost. >> Good evening. I have nothing this evening >> and Mr. Miss Julian Green. >> Hello. Good evening. Good evening.
005I'm standing before you tonight because I'm seeking approval for a part-time special education case manager for the 2526 school year for people services. And I'm sure you're going to be asking, uh, why do we need this person? If we look back to last year, we had 250 special education meetings and um position would be to support students with disabilities and the staff who serve them. So right now we have approximately 170 students with IEPs within district. 58 of those are our placement and they're attending local programs or private schools. We're in year two of preschool for all. And um the staff that we're going to be supporting, we have 11 par profofessionals, seven teachers, and about nine related services staff. The teachers and related services all have input into the IEP. And we want to
006make sure that um we maintain those complex demands of legal compliance, continue to support our students, and have great communication with our parents. Um, what would this part-time case manager do? Basically, their main role would be to um sit in and facilitate IEP meetings um to develop and moni monitor those um special education plans and make sure we stay in compliance. Right now, we're doing it. We just want to be able to do it a little bit better. Um who would this person be? Um, well, they'd have their professional educator's license and the director of special education. This would make sure that they had skilled knowledge with the law and the rules of IDEA and 504 and so they had some really good communication skills. This would be funded through a grant and um it
007seems like a budget friendly way to help maintain our high quality services and communication. Is there any question? Are there any questions that I may answer for everybody? Question the grant has already been secure. We have the grant submitted to the state of Illinois and there would be some grants some. >> So to answer the question is yes, we get we get a grant every year with and they allocate us a certain amount of funds. Yes. I wanted to say briefly to respect your child. >> Okay. Now, the social workers, do they assist with the IEP? >> They sure do. We have four social workers to the problem with that is that they're not represented. Lure to be a special. So you have to so you so when you have your type 75 with your
008administrative license you have to go back to school to get the special endorsement. So yes social workers they do come to me but by state law we can get how many special education teachers do you have? We have five special education teachers or six of you who are prek teacher and then we have another preschool teacher. So we have seven teachers. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions for Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Dr. Michael. >> Uh no report this time. mentioned fellow Cambridge principal Heritage Middle School. I do have one thing to say. >> Um tomorrow we'll be kicking off the uh double goods fundraiser for our house activities for the year. And so the email for parents will go out the parents message will go out to the parents and
009we're sending it out to the kids. And so the house leaders will be overseeing most of this. So we are hoping that you guys can contribute and help the school raise funds for our house activities for >> Mr. Kent. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> I was almost thrown off balance because my sister over here said she didn't have a report. So I'm like, uhoh. But she got to do anything. So that's all. So I want to do just to take you all back to the original presentation of the reading place. Uh because you all have okay to move forward on it. And on our end, I think we just want to show exactly how we're moving in the direction that we said we were supposed to be moving in. So, the whole package
010together is the reading bus. We talked about at the last one, uh, you had some, uh, prices in front of you. The new carpet, which you okay, was $50,000. Um, the smartboard, $7,500. Those are in place. All furniture was $166,000. We didn't deal with that. We talked about acoustic ceiling panels 20,642. All the prices are the same. Nothing has changed. Uh painting uh quote we still need to get but painting is being done inhouse and we started that this weekend. Um downsizing of the circulation desk. Um the footprint has actually taken place. It is done. I know a few people walked down there. I don't know. I when I walk down there, listen, it touches all my senses and I just start moving. It feels good. It smells good. It is what we said we
011want to do and that's create a place for our kids that they want to go. Now we'll jump to where we are. Phase one is completed. The smartboards all the actually the drops are already there. Uh Dr. McGallan will be putting together the smart boards. The Smart Roots will be in place the beginning of school. The new carpet is in place. If you haven't, go down there. Just go down there and walk on a little bit of it. Just go down there and smell it. Just go down there and not sit on the floor if you have an opportunity to do so. Um reduce the circulation desk. We did that. And in one of these pictures, I uh actually ran out with the tape measure. And it is that portion that you talked about. It's
012an additional 12 to 17 feet in which we can bring a classroom and they can actually sit on the floor engage in a restorative circle, a community circle. So, it's just good stuff. The part that we wanted to show was that it is exactly what we said it was going to be. So, the transformation begins when you gave us okay for the reading place. If you remember that carpet, it's hard to forget, but if you remember, these are some before shots and that S up there stands for really something had to happen if we wanted those kids to come in there. Something had to happen different. They didn't want to go in there. We didn't want to go in there. When we did go in there, and if I if it still looked like that,
013I wouldn't be saying sit on the floor. Go in there and sit on the floor for a few minutes. So the trans transformation began and the going was tough. They stripped all of that old carpet out. And the reason I put this down there is because it was really a tough job. That green area you look at on the screen is actually excessive amounts of adhesive. They had to bring in a special machine. the machines that they brought in before actually once they hooked it up to pull the carpet up, it began pulling the man on the machine. It did not want to give up the goats. But the fact of the matter is they worked it for us and upstairs and downstairs on the loft. The loft, if you look at at the top
014picture, the reason that's great is because they had to go over the adhesive. They had to seal it. They had to swoop and leveled it out. And even the little bench area up there, the semiircle, you can see it up. It's saying, "Thank you for giving this little carpet off of me. Thank you. Go up in that loft and take a look because we are going to have library on the first day and those kids are going to be up in that loft. But what I want you to see when you go up there is that it makes you want to sit down. It makes you want to be up there. And we began to see that transformation take place. That he on there quite frankly was simply because it was absolutely exciting what we
015began to see. It was wonderful. It was exciting. And that room looked absolutely fantastic. That's the upstairs. If you take a look fully carpeted, this is interesting. the old carpet that was up there, if you notice, it doesn't have the corner wraps. As they as they were stripping the carpet down, they began to think about, well, why isn't the new carpet fitting over there? They call it waterfall. The new carpet, which is commercial carpet, didn't dig in correctly, so they had to cap it off to make it nice and tight. They believe the old carpet that was there wasn't commercial carpet. It was more of a residential carpet and that's why it wasn't capital. But please go up there. You have an opportunity to take a look and it is just really spectacular. And then
016the teeth. Oh my gosh. Totally totally change your mindset. You can see in the top left, you can see in the top corner that 17 ft that we talked about on the side where the ladder is left on the bottom that's the 12 ft. That's just a clear picture on your right. When you go down there, you will see exactly what we said it was going to yield and that is additional space in our library. And bam, before I went home on Saturday, I had to add an exclamation point because what I spilled up was truly sweet. This was sweet. The painter had finished top to bottom. And yes, I am proud to say that is not royal blue. It is blue jean blue. And I didn't pick out that. That is my interior design
017who picked it out. And that was Miss Fix and the ladies at the office. and they got down on the floor with the swatches. The most important part is when the kids walk in their room and be like, "Oh my goodness, this is different and I want to be there." Phase two is going on right now. Paint done in the house. That's what we're doing right now. We are painting around there. The cost is the paint only. And right now, we haven't had to spend anything on the paint because we're using the same paint that we're using in our classrooms. I put phase three and phase four because that gives you all something to think about. This is just an update as we finish out phase one and phase two. The acoustic ceiling panels, that's
018the same cost as it was before because we were in we are in that gym structure and we want to make up the noise. And then all furniture costs $166,000. Knowing that there are tears and things that have gone in place. What we are looking at is that's the that is the cost that you presented. We don't plan on going over that cost. So as you think about that much like the boomerang, I will be back to see you again in September. But right now, I hope you feel the excitement that's going on in that library because we have changed some total mindsets with that and that's where we are with that. I cannot stop there. That's the end of the presentation. Uh but I don't want to stop there because Mr. Terrell asked me
019coming in and at the end of that time he said, "You know what? You're going to be ready for the start of school." My answer is the same thing. One way or the other, we going to be ready for the start of school. And it's starting up right now for us this week. As a matter of fact, starting tomorrow, uh the fourth grade team, it's our meet and greets. And so fourth grade, their meet and greet will begin tomorrow from 1 to 3. They've already sent things out to parents. On Wednesday, third grade goes 1 to 3. Um uh Thursday, first and second grade go different times. First grade is going from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 3 to 4:00 p.m. and second grade is going 12 to 2. Now all of this information is
020going out to parents. We have found that truthfully it's a way to get rid of some anxiety for the students, for the parents, for the teacher. The kids will come in, they'll meet the teacher, see the classroom, see where they're sitting, all those sort of things. If they have any supplies, drop them off. Some supplies, drop them off. So that means on the first day of school, we don't have a bunch of people walking in like this with a big old bag of supplies to navigate around. And then kindergarten begins Wednesday the 13th, 2 to 6, and Thursday the 14th, 9 to 2. Theirs is a little different. Theirs is by invitation only. They've already called their parents only. for students, selected a time for them to come in and they will sit with the
021children, get to know the child, and also do just a quick snapshot of what that child brings with them to kindergarten. Once that happens, let me tell you, the first day of school is coming, but we are already fixed. Thank you. Have a good night. >> Okay. Recommend a motion. Recommend a motion to approve each lounge in amount 16,9681 industry as >> yes. Recommend a motion to approve the hiring of a part-time case manager, special services. >> Motion by >> Yes. Yes. >> Recommended motion to approve the employment of Miss Aller Professional Heritage Middle School with salary of $21.50 per hour effective August 18th, 2025 background check by second by Yes. >> Yes. >> Statement. We'll move on to item N. Recommend a motion to move close session for the purpose of appointment compensation student
022discipline performance of specific employees of the district. Most >> we're not going to go straight to close session. I don't think we need to come back. So am I. >> Thank you.