001All those think bars, those are good. Okay, I'm gonna get started guys. I am reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 public hearing on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 7.05. This agenda item is a public hearing concerning the intent of the Board of Education to authorize certain repairs to school playgrounds or paving using fire prevention and safety funds. The recording secretary will now call the roll. Ms. Lupa? Here. Mr. Nader? Here. Mr. Braza? Here. Mr. Brum? Here. Dr. Elliott-Strummer? Here. Mr. Henneman? Here. Ms. Newman? Here. I would like everyone else who is present to identify themselves. Romina Jansky, second secretary. Catherine Anderson, chief human resources officer, deputy superintendent. Karen Ritter, assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment. Karen Moore. Tanya Karner, assistant superintendent of student services. Jose Medina, executive director of facilities. Ali
002Mahant, assistant superintendent of finance. Hallie Fleischer, principal at Highland Park High School. Will Dwyer, principal at Deerfield High School. Ron Casbaum, chief information officer. Mira Ante, executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Shayla Howland, superintendent. We welcome your comments and questions and give them serious consideration pursuant to the Board of Education Policy 2-230. Please limit the length of all comments to no more than three minutes. Any questions may be sent via email to be answered subsequent to the meeting. As a reminder, public participation is not intended to be a back and forth discussion between the board and the public. The public comment period will be for a maximum of 30 minutes. Are there any public comments regarding the public hearing? Is there a motion to adjourn the public hearing? So moved. Is there a second?
003Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstention, the motion carries. I am now reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 regular board meeting on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 7.07. The recording secretary will now call the roll. Mr. Nader? Here. Mr. Barraza? Here. Mr. Brok? Here. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Here. Mr. Heinemann? Here. Ms. Leopold? Here. Ms. Newman? Here. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, we'll proceed to a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. The motion carries. We'll now move on to board reports and my president's report is first. Two housekeeping items. We had a IASB self-evaluation workshop on February 18th. I wanna thank our board members, Dr. Holland and Laura Martinez
004from IASB for sharing more of your personal time with us to continue our work and strengthening the board's effectiveness during and between meetings. The next night I had the opportunity to see Les Mis at Highland Park High School and to say that I was blown away is an understatement. It was truly a remarkable performance. So kudos to the entire team, whether they were on stage, behind stage, up in the control booth, it was absolutely fantastic. This month we celebrate several things in the education world. We celebrate school counselor appreciation week, school resource officer appreciation day and public school week. We're grateful for the care and guidance and safety our counselors and SROs provide for the collective efforts and for the collective efforts of our staff, students and community that make our public schools so strong.
005And then finally, the district and DEA has had one collective bargaining session since our last meeting on February 12th. During this meeting we discussed article seven, eight and 10 and our next meeting will be on Thursday, February 26th. And that concludes my president's report and that's, oh, education committee report. Dr. Jody. Good evening. So this evening, Ron Casbaum, Lisa Berkoff and Dan Kim provided an overview of AI with a focus on generative AI and large language models such as Chachi BT and CLOT. The committee reviewed key terminology, district guidance, and vetted a list or received a vetted list of AI tools available to staff, including brisk, magic school and school AI. AI is being primarily used for productivity and instructional support, helping teachers with lesson planning, differentiation and feedback while reinforcing that AI generated work
006should be treated as a draft and not a substitute for original thinking. Teachers report that AI tools are time saving and can strengthen instruction when used thoughtfully, particularly as assessment practices are carefully designed in an AI rich environment. Excuse me. All right, then item two, we reviewed data systems. So Karen Ritter reviewed the district's four primary data systems, STAR, Panorama, Power BI and ECRIS and clarified how they work together to support instructional decisions and program evaluation. STAR provides real time data on student performance and math and literacy skills. Panorama supports MTSS goal setting and progress monitoring. Power BI integrates multiple data sources into customizable dashboards, including an MTSS dashboard developed by Ron Casbaum. And ECRIS supports program evaluation and student growth analysis. The committee identified next steps, focused on strengthening system alignment, improving data literacy
007and using longitudinal data for program review. That was it. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move on to administration information reports. Dr. Holland. Yes, good evening, everyone. So as we near the end of the month, I wanna start by acknowledging Black History Month, a month created to acknowledge the contributions of African-Americans in the United States and the larger diaspora across the world. On February 13th, we had a District Institute Day, which was a full day of learning for staff. The day included an overview and update on our strategic plan efforts and connections of the plan to our priorities within our schools and across our district. There was also an opportunity for professional learning communities to meet, department meetings across the district, co-teaching professional development and various departmental trainings, as well as some choice learning sessions.
008I would like to thank Dr. Ritter and her office for organizing the day, for the contributions of cabinet throughout the day as well, and for our staff who actively engaged in learning during the day as well. So I too am still reeling from a remarkable production of Les Mis at Highland Park High School last week. It was remarkable in every way. I'm also looking forward to attending Pippin this week at DHS. Last week, I was also excited to attend the DHS in Highland Park High School boys basketball game, which was very well attended with a ton of D113 school spirit in full effect. In addition, I want to highlight the efforts of the Highland Park and Deerfield High School girls soccer team, teams for joining together to engage in random acts of kindness in downtown
009Highland Park by giving out gift cards, paying for groceries, handing out kind notes, and giving $1,400 to 14 staff members at Walker Brothers as a token of their appreciation for their work and service. I would like to give a shout out to our theater department activities, athletic departments for cultivating opportunities to bring our community together around not only the talents of our students, but also their hearts for others. Thank you. Next are FOIAs. Yes, it's hard to follow with this. These are the FOIAs that were fulfilled since our last board meeting. Then the next information report is the strategic plan goal update, goal number five. Yes, so every meeting we've been providing updates on our strategic planning goals, and for this meeting we have Ali Mahanti presenting on goal five, providing an update on fiscal
010responsibility. All right, good evening all. Just one message for our great students. I was just informed that your teacher will quiz you on this tomorrow. So hopefully you'll take some good notes. I'm just kidding. Okay, all right, so good evening. My name is Ali Mahanti. The board has seen this slide many times, so I'm just gonna quickly summarize the goal five, which is optimizing district resources to support educational success. This is our first strategy, which is to implement a comprehensive asset management plan that ensures 100% of capital assets are tracked. At least 95% of essential assets are properly maintained and upgraded, and all resources are reviewed annually for strategic alignment. This work will strengthen our operational effectiveness while targeting a 10% cost savings and capital outlay over five years. Next slide. Okay, so as far
011as what steps have been taken since the last update, we have completed about 100% of the district-wide asset audit documenting about 4,593 assets across our facilities. Thank you to Jose and his team for doing that, played a major part in that. Each asset was captured with detailed information, including photos and precise location data, ensuring we now have a comprehensive and accurate inventory, and these are related to mainly facilities assets. There were some assets related to technology and security, but primarily this was targeted towards facilities. So all audited assets have been successfully uploaded into our asset management system, including visual mapping functionality. So now this gives us real-time visibility into our facilities infrastructure and significantly improves tracking and planning capabilities. With field work complete, we have officially transitioned the project into the system turnover and implementation
012phase. Our focus is now shifting from the data collection to operational integration. We've also begun scheduling initial system training to support our staff onboarding and ensure consistent, effective use of the platform across departments. Through this implementation, we've significantly improved our understanding of assets, location, condition, and documentation requirement across the district. So I'll give you an example. During our audit, for example, we cataloged rooftop HVAC units. HVAC units document the exact location, model number, age, condition, and attaching photos. So now we're able to, we're gonna be able to track the maintenance history and associate expenditures for each unit, each of that asset. So that level of detail allows us to proactively schedule provided maintenance, monitor repair costs over time, and make informed decisions about when the replacement is more cost-effective than continued repairs. We currently don't
013have any systems like that in place. And we spent a significant amount of money towards HVAC in our budget. So instead of reacting only when a unit fails unexpectedly. This process also reinforced importance of cross-department coordination. In addition to traditional facility assets, we identified and documented security-related equipment, such as district radios. These assets support daily operations and safety, and require coordination between facilities and security to ensure proper tracking, maintenance, and lifecycle planning. So the overall impact is that we now have centralized asset visibility and are positioned to shift from reactive responsive responses to preventive maintenance planning and more strategic data-informed capital forecasting. Our next steps focus on fully operationalizing the asset management system and using it to drive data-informed decision-making. First, we will complete the system training and transition to full platform utilization across departments
014to ensure consistent and effective use. Second, we will launch the preventive maintenance schedules and workflows so we can proactively service equipment rather than respond only when something fails. We will continue validating and refining asset data to ensure accuracy and consistency across all buildings. Most importantly, we will begin using this asset data to guide budgeting and long-term maintenance planning. So for example, if the system shows that multiple HVAC units across the districts are approaching the end of their useful life within the next three to five years, we can proactively phase those replacements into the capital plan instead of facing unexpected emergency failures. Similarly, maintenance histories will allow us to identify assets with repeated repair costs and helping us determine when the replacement is more cost-effective than continued repairs. This shift allows us to move from reactive
015spending to plan strategic investment aligned with district priorities. All right, our next strategy. Strategy two in goal five focuses on strengthening our operational systems to improve efficiency and alignment with district priorities. By 2030, we will reduce overtime expenditures by 7%, improve substitute staffing to ensure consistent instructional coverage, and increase our initial work order completion rate to 90%. Together, these efforts will control costs while improving service and reliability across the district. Since the last update to the board, we've made significant progress in strengthening our substitute management system and our payroll processes. First, we developed a custom payroll reporting template within Red Rover, which is our subtracting system. That's our new subtracting system that we implemented. This allows us to more effectively capture substitute job data and prepare it for payroll forecasting processing. Secondly, we implemented and
016validated integration between Red Rover and Skyward, which is our position control, our ERP system, for our finances, our HR. This allows us, this integration eliminates the need for manual substitute timecards and reduces duplicate data entry between the systems. So keep in mind, before we had, we were processing substitute payments through all the manual timecards we would get in the business office, which is not happening anymore, so that's good news. Finally, we conducted system testing to ensure that substitute tracking data transfers accurately from Red Rover into Skyward, and that payroll processing remains uninterrupted. Together, these steps improve efficiency, reducing administrative burden, strengthening payroll accuracy, and support better cost control and substitute staffing. For example, previously a substitute might complete an assignment, and that information would need to be manually verified and entered into a payroll through
017a timecard process, as I mentioned earlier, that created additional administrative steps and increased the risk of entry errors. Now, once a substitute job is completed in Red Rover, the data flows directly into Skyward for payroll processing, so this reduces manual handling, improves accuracy, and speeds up the processing time. So we learned a lot of things when we were implementing this. There were some challenges. So first, we gained a deeper understanding about how Red Rover and Skyward communicate with each other and where the limitations exist within that integration. Unfortunately, during the testing, we identified that Skyward, which is our ERP system, as I explained, was unable to fully automate the direct integration with Red Rover, even though we were told it was gonna do it, when we were trying to implement it. We ran into challenges.
018Rather than delaying progress, we developed a custom, and thanks to payroll, we developed a custom import process as a temporary workaround. So this solution now allows substitute job data to flow into Skyward in a controlled and accurate manner while we continue exploring long-term automation options. So Skyward just told us that they might fully integrate without the manual import and future updates. They don't know yet. So this experience reinforced the importance of flexibility and problem-solving when implementing cross-platform systems. Separately, through our work on electronic timesheets, we identified that different departments have different approval needs. Some workflows require multi-level approvals for appropriate oversights, while others function more efficiently with a single-level approval process. So as a result, we're now evaluating solutions that allow both multi-level and single-level approval structures within the same system rather than going on
019different systems. And with the help of technology, we have identified a solution, so thanks to Ron and his team. So the goal is to maintain strong internal controls while improving efficiency and reducing bottlenecks while going through the approval process for the electronic time cards. Overall, the impact of this work is stronger. System alignment, improved payroll accuracy, and more thoughtful design of approval workflows that match operational varieties, varieties across departments. We definitely are trying to solve one of the issues that was really important when there was a case when one of the employees did not get paid because they submitted a manual time card and it was waiting on their supervisor's desk and they forgot to, you know, they didn't approve in a timely fashion before the deadline. And when the employee called the payroll department,
020obviously it wasn't our fault, but it wasn't their fault either. So now with the electronic approval, at least, that employee can also track that when their supervisor has approved the time card because it has timestamps, so it's gonna also eliminate one of those issues of getting paid in a timely manner, late. Okay, as far as our next steps towards the strategy, we will continue the phase implementation of electronic time cards across the district. This allows us to modernize time tracking while ensuring departments transition in a structured and supported way. Second, we will collaborate closely with the technology department to determine, you know, the best time card solution for each employee group. As we've learned, different departments have different workflows, as I said. Finally, we will continue working with Skyward to explore additional automation opportunities. While
021we implemented a custom import solution as a temporary workaround for substitute payroll integration, we are actively evaluating longer term automation enhancements to further streamline the processes. Overall, these next steps are focused on improving accuracy, reducing manual processes, and building sustainable systems and support operation efficiencies, district-wide. All right, now our third strategy focuses on developing a flexible, sustainable master's facility plan that supports our mission and adapts to evolving educational needs. By 2030, we will complete the plan, incorporate meaningful stakeholder input, securing funding for prioritized projects, and begin implementation. Along the way, we will document key facility decisions, ensure broad community engagement, and review all construction projects for effectiveness and cost efficiency. Since the last update, we have taken several key steps to advance the development of our master's facility plan. First, we issued RFQ, which is
022called Request for Qualification for Architectural Services, aligned specifically to our long-term master facility plan goals. This ensures that any future partner understands our focus on flexibility, sustainability, and alignment with the district's mission and vision. We then evaluated the RFQ responses and advanced the interview process to further assess alignment, experience, and capacity. At this stage, we have initiated the selection of an architectural partner who will guide the planning process and help shape a comprehensive forward-looking facilities framework. In addition, we have determined to proceed with requests or proposals, which is RFP, for construction management services. This step positions the district to support future capital projects with strong oversight, cost control, and implementation readiness. Together, these actions move us from concept planning towards structured long-term facility strategy and execution. As far as learning, first, the RFQ process reinforced
023the importance of clearly defined evaluation criteria. Establishing those criteria up front, as you can see, ensured that we were assessing firms not just on experience but on alignment with the district's long-term facilities, vision, and strategic priorities. Secondly, the joint scoring process involving the superintendent, facilities, finance leadership, and board members strengthened cross-functional analysis and decision-making. Bringing multiple perspectives to the evaluation helped us ensure that operational, financial, and strategic considerations were well reflected in the review. As a result, the RFQ outcomes demonstrate measurable progress towards our master's facility plan. We now have a structured foundation in place to select the right partners and move confidently into the next phase of our long-term facilities plan. Our next steps focus on moving from evaluation into selection of informal partnerships. First, we will continue evaluating the shortlisted architectural firms based
024on interview outcomes and their demonstrated alignments with district priorities and long-term facilities and goals. From there, we will identify a preferred architectural partner and begin contract negotiations to establish scope, expectations, and delivery. And that's part of the legal process. We have to select, because through an RFQ, we have to select our preferred architects, and then only then we can start the negotiating process. This is part of it. Once negotiations are complete, we will bring forward a formal recommendation for the board consideration and approval to ensure appropriate governance and transparency in the selection process. Parallelly, like I said, we will convene a cross-functional review team to evaluate construction manager RFP responses. This team will help us guide the next phase of facility planning and ensure we're positioned for strong project oversight, cost efficiency, and implementation readiness.
025With these next steps, move us from planning towards structured execution of our master facility. Thank you. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Questions, no, but appreciate how the different strategies build upon each other. So taking a look at the asset management, how that plays into that master facility's plan. So before, because you just adopted something new, that new software. Yeah, so this used to be called Meister Library, Master Library, but now it's actually bought by Follett. Follett? Yeah, Follett, sorry. But yeah, that's the system. So in the absence of that, it was spending less efficiently because we were, to your point, waiting until something broke down versus understanding the complexities. Right, I mean, we didn't have the histories and some were like, okay, well, some people knew, okay, well, this has been repaired so
026many times, there was no documentation. So when you have turnover, people won't know the history. So no, everything's gonna be documented in the system and we can run reports. And again, thanks to Jose for leading that project. So that's, we've made significant progress. Jose, you wanna add anything to that? Yeah, and there's also accountability now. So when, instead of going through emails or certain channels, it's automatically generating PMs and also implementing all the data for repairs so now we have that data to say, hey, is it worth repairing or do we replace? Right, there weren't any practices of PMs more. So PMs are providing maintenance where, for example, custodians or maintenance team knows that, okay, on this day, we have to perform this task for providing maintenance. That was never happening before, it was all
027reactive. So now we're gonna have PMs in place, hopefully reducing those things needed for repairs. And potentially elongating the life. Exactly, exactly, yes, yes, sorry. And if I remember, allowing us to do some of that in-house rather than bringing it outside vendors, which obviously is also a savings. Absolutely, absolutely, because outside HVAC services cost significant amount and we do spend quite a bit of dollars in that. So hopefully we're able to, we're gonna, our goal is to reduce those expenditures for HVAC, especially, yes. And again, other things too, but HVAC is a mean one. Great, thank you very much. You're welcome. Moving on to excellence in effort. Dr. Dwyer, are you going first? Yes. Fantastic. She won rock, paper, scissors. So I'm gonna begin tonight, I wanna highlight some outstanding winter athletic accomplishments. In the
028pool, our boys swim and dive team delivered an exceptional performance at the IHSA sectional at Vernon Hills, finishing second overall, qualifying multiple athletes for the state meet while setting several team records. Savio Mosby qualified in both the 50 freestyle, finishing second in 21.17, a team record. And the 100 freestyle, also second in 46.2, another team record. Victor Pietroski added a state qualifying swim in the 50 free, placing fourth in 21.44, and the 100 free, placing third in 47.19. And then our 200 freestyle relay finished second in 126.16, and the 400 freestyle relay captured the sectional title in 310.17, setting yet another school record. So really proud of them. But on the same weekend, not to be outdone, our boys wrestling program had an outstanding showing at the IHSA individual state finals. Adrienne Cohen finished third
029in the state at 138 pounds. Alex Fartsman placed fifth at 144 pounds, and Jamie Cohen earned six at 113. It was an excellent postseason for the program. And they also got to celebrate and honor that head coach Mark Pector was officially inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame. So it was a big weekend for them all around. Shifting into the classroom and world languages, I really wanna thank Ms. Sawyer, our Chinese language teacher. Last week, her students hosted a Chinese New Year celebration during lunch periods, and they gave students and staff the opportunity to experience elements of Chinese culture firsthand. Participants could practice writing Chinese characters using calligraphy, and they learned how to use a traditional Chinese yo-yo. It was really wonderful to see so many students engaged in a meaningful cultural experience,
030and I can say confidently that I am no good at calligraphy. And they told me. Tomorrow at DHS is gonna be a really special day. As you know, in November, our school raised 391,000 plus dollars for the Halley 225 Foundation. The foundation's name honors Halley's birthday, February 25th, and tomorrow we're gonna celebrate both her birthday and the incredible generosity of the community. A local merchant is donating a sweet treat for the entire school that will be available at lunch. We will have a DJ during lunch periods, and yes, I will be taped to the cafeteria wall during the lunch periods. And then at 225, we'll be making a school-wide announcement, sharing updates on how the foundation has used the incredible amount of money raised, and the day's gonna be a celebration of life, generosity, and
031the power of community. The effort obviously would not be possible without our incredible student body, and I also wanna take a moment to recognize the incredible staff members who helped to lead the work. Muriel Kloss, Molly Kaufman, Peter Comerford, Sam Brown, and our activities director, Brian Varisario, did just incredible work to make that a reality. And last but not least, I wanna take a minute and thank the principal student advisory committee. This being my first year at DHS, the saying is it takes a village to raise me, so I've appreciated their guidance. They've been incredible. These 32 kids have met consistently throughout the year, and they're right now leading really important work to define the Warrior Way. They've developed an anchoring acronym for our values, they are utilizing staff input, and we'll soon begin gathering
032and collecting feedback from the entire student body on possible values for our Warrior Way. Our goal is to codify our shared values by the end of the year, and launch a student-led branding campaign to open the 26-27 school year. I've been really deeply impressed by their thoughtfulness, their leadership, and their enthusiasm. And that concludes my report. Thank you very much. Island Park High School. Thank you. So this past month, our commitment to supporting our multilingual learners was at the forefront as over 160 students completed their access testing. And this is a comprehensive assessment of listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills, and it was made possible truly by a massive cross-disciplinary effort. Our access team, which was comprised of social workers, counselors, instructional aides, EL bilingual and special educators, worked alongside the deans, attendance office, security,
033and our family liaison to ensure success. The focus was not merely on compliance, but truly on creating a psychologically safe testing environment that allowed students to demonstrate the full breadth of their academic language skills. And I very much appreciate this team. The same dedication to excellence was visible on stage, as you heard tonight, during our recent production of Les Miserables. Beyond the electric energy of a packed house, the production served as a master class in intergenerational mentorship. The vocal performances were truly professional grade, and I mean that, but one of the most moving elements was watching our junior high students step up and hold their own alongside older peers. This rising to the occasion is a testament to the power of our arts programs in building student confidence and fostering a collaborative culture that spans
034grade levels. The spirit of creative problem solving has translated directly into our classrooms as well. In geometry, students recently completed a performance-based assessment centered on similarity, dilations, and transformations. Our recent performance-based assessment exemplified the intersection of mathematical rigor and creative problem solving. Centered on the principles of similarity, dilations, and transformations, students embarked on a thematic journey through Alice in Wonderland. This narrative-driven project moved beyond rote calculation, requiring students to navigate a series of chapters where they applied scale factors to Wonderland's shifting dimensions. To find success, students had to not only execute precise geometric constructions, but also critically analyze the results within the context of the story's logic. Recognizing that complex problem solving is often a collaborative endeavor, students worked in partnerships to foster deep mathematical discourse. This structure was intentional. The project's scope demanded a
035meeting of the minds, encouraging peers to audit each other's logic and refine their spatial reasoning in real time. To build the foundational skills necessary for this culminating task, students previously engaged in a hands-on scaling lab by selecting a cartoon character and manually dilating the image to a new scale, they gained a tangible understanding of how ratios govern proportional growth. This scaffolded approach ensured that by the time they reached Wonderland, they possessed both the technical proficiency and the collaborative stamina to produce work of true excellence. And they truly got to feel like real mathematicians. To close out the month, our students took their growth mindsets out of the classroom and onto the slopes. Students from our unique PE, dual language unique PE, and outdoor education programs traveled to Alpine Valley Ski Resort in Wisconsin for the
036annual ski trip. These excursions serve as a cornerstone of our curriculum focusing on truly building resiliency. By providing professional novice level lessons, we ensured an inclusive experience where every student, regardless of prior skill, could navigate a new physical challenge. The success of the trip was measured not just in technical skiing ability, but in the healthy exhaustion and newfound confidence students displayed by the end of the day, even though there wasn't much snow, but they made it. And that concludes my report. Great. Why don't we stay on that side of the table. Ms. Montsavayas, would you like to give the Highland Park student some report, please? Good evening, everyone. I'm excited to share some updates about all the great things happening at HBHS. I'll start with something that really highlights the character of our students. This
037past weekend, our girls soccer program partnered with Deerfield for a random acts of kindness initiative throughout making a difference on and off the field campaign with Buddy Helpers. Even though they're rivals during the season, they came together to serve the community, paying for groceries, coffee and coffees, handing out kindness cards and surprising local restaurant staff with a generous tip. It was featured live on WGN and it was really great to see Highland Park and Deerfield working together to create something positive. It just shows that our athletes represent more than just competition. They represent leadership and community. Moving into academics and competitions, our chess team traveled to Peoria for the IHSA state finals this, the weekend of February 15th and placed 29th out of 128 schools, which is an incredible accomplishment. Our debate team has also
038been extremely busy at national level. At the Stanford Invitational, Junior Isabelle N advanced to the semifinal round and then at the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament, 20 HP debaters competed in a field of nearly 450 students. Six advanced to the quarterfinals and Junior Liam R made it to the semifinals, earning his third bid to the tournament of champions. As a team, they finished eighth overall in sweepstakes. Our robotics team competed in the first Tech Challenge state qualifier, where we hosted 23 schools at HP. Silly Servos earned the Think Award for their engineering design process. Mighty Motors finished ninth in playoffs and Meta Infinity advanced to the state playoffs with an Inspire Award. Congratulations to them all on a strong season. In athletics, spring sports are officially underway. Boys gymnastics began February 17th, boys volleyball
039trials start March 9th and girls softball just kicked off their season yesterday. Boys swimming competed at the CSL Conference Meet and we had wrestlers advance to sectionals in state. Both boys and girls basketball are competing in post-season play, including regionals this week. It's been an exciting time for giant athletics. In the arts, our theater department recently wrapped up a very successful production of Les Miserables with a great attendance each night. Our AP English class has also had the opportunity to travel into the city to see Hamlet perform live, which was a meaningful experience for many students. As charity drive wraps up, our closing assembly will be February 27th at 8 a.m. This year has included so many memorable events from the Cannibal Contest and the Dodgeball Tournament to the Pie in the Face, to the
040Vintage Pop-Up Shop, our Winter Wonderland Dance, Slime and Bedazzling Night, and my most memorable and favorite, the Blue Pole, where many seniors came together to sign. The energy and school spirit has been amazing to see. And finally, as part of class council, we're excited to plan a prom, which will take place May 9th at the Field Museum. It's been really exciting to be part of the planning process and help bring ideas together. I'm especially looking forward towards the banda. Overall, there's just so much happening at HBHS and it's been great to see students showing leadership, talent, and school pride in so many different ways. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Polanski. Good evening, everyone. We have lots of exciting news from DHS regarding the past month. Our school musical is wrapping up its practices and getting
041ready to take the stage this week. This year, our students are performing their take on the musical Pippin. Our performers have been working tirelessly to perfect the show and our crew members have spent weeks designing and building different sets and props to bring the story to life. Our actors have described it as a fun show with a great community, and performances are the 26th through the 28th at 7 p.m. in the Deerfield Auditorium, and we would love to see the Deerfield and Highland Park community come out and support our actors and actresses. As winter sports are wrapping up, we would like to take the time to recognize several incredible athletes for their commitment and achievements, including freshman Ellie Lambert, who competed at State for Gymnastics, our wrestling finalists, as Dr. Dwyer mentioned, and our Boys
042Hockey Conference All-Stars. These athletes had an incredible season and overall a very impressive performance in showing the community what it means to be a warrior. While winter sports wrap up, our spring sports are beginning, including boys tennis, boys water polo, softball lacrosse, and as I mentioned last month, and as Sophie mentioned, boys gymnastics. These sports continue to grow and reach more students, which has been so exciting to see firsthand. There have been no confirmed sightings of Dr. Dwyer at gymnastics practice, but we are hopeful and optimistic to see him suited up and ready to go tomorrow afternoon. So I expect to see you there. Congratulations again to all our winter athletes and the cast and crew of Pippin, and best of luck to all spring athletes for their upcoming season. Thank you. Thank you very
043much. Okay, moving on to information reports. Every two years, we have the opportunity to hear brief reports. You know what, did I, did I? No, I'm sorry. Every two years, we have the opportunity to hear brief reports from the various supporting organizations to our district, which are found in policy 8-90. These organizations will be presenting over the next several meetings to us. And first up is Friends of the Arts, which Jamie Tepinski and Jessica Avin. Hi. You did my job. I don't have to introduce myself. There you go. You guys can just press the button so the light turns green. Perfect. We're on. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting us to speak. I'm Jessica Avin. I have two daughters at Deerfield High School, freshman and senior. I'm sorry for the view. All of
044you guys who got our backs. And I'm Jamie Tepinski. I have two boys in the arts, a sophomore and a senior and an incoming eighth grader. Oh, are we clicking or are we just? Where's the do? Yeah. As Friends of the Arts, we are a group of parent volunteers that meet to provide funds and support the DHS Fine Arts Program to enhance students' education opportunities and experience in the fine arts. We promote and encourage student activities in band, chorus, dance, orchestra, theater, and visual arts. We are able to bring the home and school into a close relationship so parents and teachers can work together to support the fine arts programs at DHS. We also work with local communities to provide increased opportunities for students in the DHS Fine Arts Program. And funding is provided through
045annual membership dues, in-kind contributions, fundraisers, and other donations from alumni, extended family, and community members. So Jamie and I are co-presidents this year, but we have an amazing board. We have about 40, over 40 parents who have volunteered to be on our board, and they serve as liaisons with the various teachers of the different art departments. And so their job is to, I guess I'm skipping ahead, but it doesn't matter. So basically they are sort of encouraging each department to reach out to us to see how we can help them. We receive grants from them that we'll talk more about in a little bit, but we have an incredible team, and our board meetings usually require Dr. Dwyer or someone else to grab extra chairs from another room because they're really well-attended. The different areas,
046like we mentioned, that we do support are theater, dance, band, choir, orchestra, and visual arts. And at the end, you can take a look and see some of our grant requests that we've been able to do over the years to support these different areas. We're gonna move on to tell you a little bit about how we raise our funds. We have five main ways. As Jamie mentioned before, we have membership. We sell yard signs, concessions at all of our events and posters. We have a legacy seat campaign. We do raffles, and we newly implemented this year donations and selling the donation cards. Our legacy seat campaign started a couple years ago when we renovated our Performing Arts Center, and so when we did that, we had new chairs put in, and you're able to purchase
047a seat and dedicate it in honor of somebody, in memory of somebody as a gift to a student, a teacher, and it's been very successful. We had a really big push, obviously, right when it opened, and now we see a push during graduation times, during holiday times. We found that it's a great way for people to give gifts who don't know what else to give or to honor their teachers. We also have had a lot of organizations, student organizations, who come together and purchase a gift for a favorite coach or a teacher, and so that's been another way to honor the staff. Pretty self-explanatory, but we, just like the Sports Boosters Clubs, have our own yard signs that we sell so that you can show a little home pride for your fine arts students. We
048have the six different categories, and we sell them throughout the year. We see sales tick up right around. A new show being casted, or when the dance company kids are announced, and that kind of thing. We have several different ways that we communicate with our families. We do have monthly newsletters, and we'll actually leave some copies for any of you who'd like to grab them on the way out. We also have a website that a student designed for us. They totally reformated it. We try to utilize the students in the arts as much as we can, whether it's designing T-shirts or websites or programs, because we just think they're super talented, and it's a great way for them to show their talents. We also send out emails. You can get on our email list, and
049we have a social media rep who helps us promote shows, concerts, any different kind of events through that. And then our other big way that we promote is during events, during concessions, and when we have teachers and staff kind of shout us out and let us know, let parents and the audience know, here's Friends of the Arts. This is how we got a lot of the donations. You can become a member and make a donation today. We really appreciate all the staff support. So like we mentioned earlier, we have monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of the month. They're only about an hour long. We're always excited to have administration and other staff members come. We recently had somebody come who presented what exactly he wanted his grant money for, and it's just a great
050way for the parents to get a good feel of where the money is being donated to. We rarely say no to grant requests, and it's a great way for us to give back to all the areas in need, and then we get to see the results, which is amazing. Our meetings are pretty standard. We hear from our treasurer. We go around the room, and everybody has their liaison report. We talk about membership, yard sign sales. We do have a liaison who works with the middle school so that we're trying to rope them in and so that they know what's coming ahead. And then we talk about the grant requests and vote on them at each meeting. Some of our highlights you can see here. So like Jessica mentioned, the teachers can submit a grant request
051and we vote on them monthly. So there is a form that the teachers have to fill out. It comes back to us and we present it to the board and we vote on it every month. And so some of the things that we've approved in this past year is this new state-of-the-art lighting system. For those of you who were able to see six this year, it was the first time it was used. It's really incredible, and they've been able to use it for all productions, for orchestra bands and Pippin that they're using it for this week. We also have helping support with visual arts marketing supplies. Like Jessica said, the visual arts teacher came to our meeting and they're really doing a rebranding of the program. So we're so happy to support him in that
052way. Something we're really proud of is that our senior scholarships we give out this year, we've been able to increase them tremendously every year. We started out originally with just two scholarships, like $200 each and every year we've progressively been able to give out more and more. So this year we are proud to give out five senior scholarships at 750 each. We actually just got all, we have about 30 applicants, which is really exciting, up from many more. So we vote on that. We do uniform enhancements, dance choreographers for our dance company shows. We have guest musical artists that teachers want to bring in for their students and for performances. And then, on the next slide is just a list of really all of the other things we've done. I don't know if you want
053to highlight any of the other ones, I don't know. We do things as small as providing snacks and refreshments when the kids have to stay later, if they're going in between performances, all the way to things like the lighting system, which was the biggest thing we've ever been able to provide. You can kind of browse through our list. I'm not gonna read it to you. But it's been an amazing year so far. We're not done yet and we're always welcoming new members and encouraging families to get involved. Yeah, so if you have any information, you can scan our QR code and kind of go to our website. You can also email us or reach out to us at any time, but we'd love to see you. We have a lot of upcoming shows, actually. Like
054you guys mentioned, Pippin is this week. We did just have two middle school and high school band and orchestra festivals, which were really successful. Our choir community just went to Disney. They had a choir show at school before they left to feature that. They had a very successful trip there. Our orchestra is going to Vienna. We have a spring band concert coming up and a choir deep dive concert, where they are focusing on Jesus Christ Superstar. So that'll be coming up. So lots of wonderful events. And we have our dance company show. In April, right, we have the afters for break. Yes, so many wonderful things to attend. So you can check out those dates or pick up a newsletter on our way out. That's about it. We are happy to answer any questions, if
055there are any. We'll move on. Any questions? Fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank you for being our first. There is no one registered for public comment. So we will move on to discussion item. And the first is the Illinois County School Facility Sales Tax. Yes, so there have been county wide discussions regarding the Illinois County School Facility Sales Tax possibility in Lake County. And so I've asked our advisor, Tammy Beckwith Chalmo, to join us tonight to give an overview, just to provide some information and to engage the board if interested in a discussion just regarding what's on the table for consideration. So thank you for being here. Yes. Oh, can you turn on the mic, please? Thank you, Tammy. Thank you. I'm gonna jump on the Les Mis bandwagon because I also saw it this
056past weekend. It was amazing. So I just was incredible. But that's not what we're here to talk about tonight. I appreciated Ali's comments about the planning, the master facility planning process and all the steps that you're taking. And at the end of the day, this sales tax discussion is what we call it for short, is another way potentially for the district to be able to fund capital projects. And we're gonna go through this tonight and explain how the tax works. And as Dr. Holland mentioned, really just give you a good overview. So just from starting point, this law has been in effect for almost 20 years. And it started because some of you may have heard in the state of Iowa, maybe 25, 30 years ago, they ultimately passed a statewide law that enacted a
0571% sales tax so that the money as it came in would be distributed based on public school enrollment to all the school districts in the state of Iowa. So it's not a property tax, it's a sales tax. So Illinois eventually sort of jumped on that bandwagon and gave with this law originally the ability for any county outside of Cook County, the ability via referendum to impose a sales tax up to 1% in quarter percent increments throughout a particular county. This is a map, I know it's very hard to read. About, I think the most recent number is 57 of the 101 counties in the state of Illinois have passed the sales tax. And it is at 1% where it has passed in every single county where it exists. The counties that are in white mean
058that it's never been put on the ballot. If it's in blue, it means it's been on the ballot and it's passed. I apologize, blue means it's failed. Green means it's been put on the ballot and it has passed. And you may notice that there are several counties both where it's passed and it's failed. There have been multiple attempts. But you'll notice really the color counties around Cook County have never put it on the ballot. If it's of interest to you to know, Winnebago County, which is the Rockford area, has it on the ballot next month. McHenry County is also seriously considering putting it on the ballot this coming fall. Existing sales tax rates in Lake County, in case that's of interest to you, and I highlighted the ones in the communities that you serve, so
059as you can see, current sales tax range between 7.5% and 9%. This is just a chart showing what the sales tax has trended for the last almost 20 years. So where you see that dip in 2009, no surprise, the Great Recession. And we had several years of some increases. And in 2021, where you see that big spike, that's because of January 1st of that year, that's when the tax was starting to be collected against online sales. Prior to that, online sales were not impacted. And we've had some nice growth the last few years, a bit of a dip in 24. Probably can attribute some of that to concerns about inflation and consumers pulling back a little bit. Can tell you for 2025, while some of the data for the full calendar year is still being
060finalized throughout the whole state, we work with lots of school districts throughout Illinois that use the sales tax, they're in a county where it's passed, and they've seen double digit percentage growth in the sales tax for 2025. So there's more consumer, a strong consumer sentiment. We'll see though, as there's more conversation about tariffs and just the cost of goods getting more expensive, it'll be interesting to see how this trends into 2026. But there's no question over time, this tax has increased significantly for many counties throughout the state. Okay, I know this data is also very small. Main takeaway here is we did an analysis with the most recently available data to find out from the period of November 24 through October of 25, if a 1% sales tax had been in place in Lake County,
061that would have translated to over $121 million of sales tax revenue throughout the county. In that red box, that's showing you the estimated amount for District 113. We get that by calculating your share of total public school enrollment in Lake County. So these are students that again, only attend public school, does not incorporate private school enrollment, doesn't incorporate homeschool enrollment, it's public school enrollment. And when we look for the most recent data source, we have to look to the most recent fall housing report. So as of the 24, 25 fall housing report for the district, you had almost 3,100 students, which represented about 2.6% of the total public school enrollment in Lake County. That means based on that figure of about $121 million of total sales tax revenue for 1%, your share would have been
062about $3.2 million, okay? All right, one of the things that is always interesting when we're talking with counties that are contemplating putting this on the ballot, is try to get an understanding of the percentage of the sales tax that comes from non-county residents. There's a consulting firm called PGAV Planners that prepares feasibility studies and studies sales tax revenue throughout the state of Illinois. Dr. Karner, who's the regional superintendent for Lake County, secured a report from them a couple months ago, and in that report, they estimate that at least 52% of the retail sales that occur in Lake County are from people that don't live in Lake County. Yeah. Do you know if that includes online sales? It does, yeah. Yeah, so that's a pretty astounding percentage. Before the report was requested, we had estimated it
063might fall somewhere in that 40 to 45% range, conservatively, but given the fact you have Wisconsin to the north, Cook County to the south, McHenry on the west, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's over half, and I actually talked to one of the consultants of PGAV today, and he said, you know, I actually do think that number is still somewhat conservative. Wouldn't give me a more accurate estimate, but still, over half is significant. We've not seen a percentage that high in any of the other counties that we've worked with. Okay, so folks often wonder, well, what can or can't be taxed? So I'm gonna provide this information from the lens of what is not taxed. So a lot of the big purchases that you see here, cars, trucks, all those ATVs that we
064all buy all the time here in Lake County, mobile homes, boats, those big ticket items are not taxed. Farm equipment and parts and farm inputs are also not taxed, and if you think about where the sales tax has passed throughout the state, a lot of rural communities helping get this passed in a lot of those places was saying that farm equipment and parts and inputs would not be taxed. Unprepared food is not taxed, right? So if you go to the deli counter at the grocery store and you wanna buy a pound of beef, that's not going to be taxed, but if you buy something in the grocery store that's prepared food, then that would be taxed. Commonly, this tax is referred to as the Walmart tax, or like a department store tax, okay? And so
065what can you use the sales tax for? So as it comes in, we're gonna talk about different ways you can actually ultimately get to the point of using it for school facility purposes, but at the end of the day, as it says, it has to be used for those types of purposes. So the projects and items listed on the left-hand side probably don't surprise you, because those are all school facility items. If we look at the right-hand side in that box in that light green color, that's just showing you the things that you cannot use it for. Buses, textbooks, computers, detachable furniture, and you cannot use it for operating expenses, including salaries, with one exception, there's an asterisk there, unless you want to use it for school resource officers and mental health professionals, as long
066as you put it in the ballot language. That's relatively new. That law change occurred only a couple years ago, and we're seeing in counties where it's being placed on the ballot, that language is being included now. Okay, so how does this happen? How does it actually get to the ballot? How does it ultimately hopefully get approved if it's gonna be on the ballot? You have to have a number of boards of education that represent at least 50% of the student enrollment in that county. And again, that's public school enrollment. So depending on the size of each of those districts, that might be 15 school districts, it could be 30 school districts, just depend on what that makeup is. It has to be more than 50% of the public school enrollment in the county. So every
067board of education then, if you chose to do so, you'd adopt a resolution and say, we wanna put this on the ballot, enough districts do that. They forward it to the regional superintendent, and then the regional superintendent gives that to the late county clerk, and then the county clerk puts it on the next election. Here's what the ballot language looks like. So as you can see in that blue language, I won't read it to you, but there's a blank there, so you would have the option, you wanna do a full percent, something else, and then you can see the bracketed language for including the school resource officers and the mental health professionals. And it takes just 50% plus one to pass this referendum, much like if you had your own referendum, be the same passing
068requirement. And once the referendum is successful and the sales tax imposed, it starts to come into the district's hands about four months after the tax is collected. I'm gonna come back to that a little bit later. So when the tax is successful and it starts to be collected, so the state treasurer actually takes that money via the Department of Revenue, and ultimately the Department of Revenue sends the money to the Regional Office of Education. And once the ROE receives it, the ROE has 30 days to distribute the money to the school districts in the county. And again, it's only based on public school enrollment. And if you are fortunate enough to pass a sales tax referendum and you're getting money as a district, you have to put it into a separate school facility occupation tax
069fund. You cannot commingle it with your operating funds. It has to be in a separate fund so that it can be tracked for how it's being used in compliance with the law. So how can you actually use the sales tax to pay for capital? There are three ways, and you can do one of these, any combination of these. So some school districts issue debt and use the revenue from the sales tax to pay that debt. I'll come back to that in a minute. Sometimes school districts fund projects on a pay as you go basis. So you're gonna receive $3.2 million of revenue from the tax each year. Maybe you work that into your annual budget. Or maybe you say, we're gonna accumulate those funds for two or three years so that we can do a
070larger project. Or you can use it to abate bond and interest tax levies for previously issued bonds that proceeds were used that qualify a school facility purposes as listed on that last slide. And again, you can do any combination of these. What's interesting though, and you'll notice when we looked at the bout language is it doesn't say anywhere on the bout language how your district would choose to use it. So the educational piece of this becomes really important. And ultimately, if there's a decision to put it on the ballot and there's an effort to get a sales tax passed in the county, certainly as you can imagine, there needs to be kind of a high level message that's consistent from district to district about what it is, how it would be used, but then local
071messaging in your own district, your own community about how you will use it. That becomes really important. Couple other interesting pieces about the sales tax. If you are going to, particularly if you're going to issue debt, sometimes school districts say we've passed the sales tax, we need a new school building. And we want to dedicate sales tax revenue to issue alternate revenue bonds. You have issued alternate revenue bonds before. In your case, if you passed a sales tax and wanted to pledge that revenue source, you could use it to build a new building and you wouldn't have to go seek separate referendum approval to build a new building because you're using the sales tax, okay? So as I mentioned, you could issue alternate revenue bonds like you've done before, you could issue something else called
072a debt certificate, which is kind of like an alternate revenue bonds light, if you will. Either of those are options where you use the sales tax revenue to pay back debt. Before you would be allowed to issue the debt though, you'd have to go through a feasibility study just so that it can be kind of codified that yes, this is a legitimate revenue stream and based on the numbers from that PGAV report I mentioned earlier, just an analysis to say that this is a bona fide revenue source that will be coming in for the district to support the payment of the debt. Okay, more small numbers. And we saw the left-hand side of this chart before. That's isolating your district and the amount of estimated revenue. The right side is trying to just help you
073see how that might translate either into proceeds from a debt issuance or abatement of debt service. So, column G is showing you taking that $3.2 million of annual revenue, we're not increasing it. We are keeping it level, so that's conservative. And we're assuming you use 80% of it because you may remember when you issue alternate revenue bonds, you can only pledge 80% of that specific revenue source toward the payment of debt, so that's also conservative. And we're assuming a 5% interest rate over 20 years. So, using that $3.2 million, 80% of it annually for 20 years, a 5% would generate a little over $31 million of bond proceeds for the district, okay? Then the columns to the right are trying to show you what would this translate if your district decided to abate debt service.
074So, what this is showing you is for levy year 24, your debt service payment was about $6 million. So, almost about half, or I should say the revenue from the sales tax is about half of that number, okay? So, that would translate to, if you used all of that 3.2 million to abate debt service in levy year 24, it would have reduced the bond and interest tax rate by about six cents for someone with $100,000 market value home, that would have reduced their property tax bill by $16. And we use 100,000 because it's an easy number for the math. But just to give you that idea. So, again, you could do a combination if you wanted to. If you wanted to give property tax relief and use it for pay as you go or against
075a bond issue, you could do all of those things. So, probably as you would guess, and I sort of alluded to this a little bit earlier, sales tax is definitely sensitive to economic trends. So, that's an important thing to think about. You could have some ups and downs in that revenue stream over time. Also, if your enrollment as a district changes at a different pace than everybody else in the county, that could impact the amount that you get every year. So, if your enrollment goes down and the neighboring district is going up, you're gonna get a lower share the following year. But I would think in general, a lot of the districts, the enrollment trends are gonna be somewhat similar in Lake County. So, I don't think it'd be a huge variation on that. The
076question that sometimes also comes up, does this have anything to do with PTEL or the tax cap? Does it impact the ability of the district to collect dollars against our operating levy every year? The answer is no, has nothing to do with PTEL. And it also has no impact on what we've talked about before as it relates to your service extension base or your ability to issue bonds on a non-referendum basis. Totally separate from that. This has nothing to do with PTEL or with your DSEP. So, shifting gears now, just talk about election dates. As Dr. Holland mentioned, there's been some conversation about this. We know many boards of education throughout Lake County are talking about this. I'm personally going to about 15 school board meetings in the next six weeks to talk about it.
077So, it's a hot topic. And there's no question that the November 3rd, 26 election date is the date that's in focus right now. And I just wanted you to see this timeline as it's specific to that November 26 election date. Boards of education within Lake County, if they all decided they wanted to take a vote on a resolution to put it on the ballot, you would have to do it by the middle of August. So, still lots of time here, but just be mindful that that is the statutory deadline. And then from there, it would appear on the ballot in November. By the time after, if it was successful, and it goes through the process with the Illinois Department of Revenue, flows through the Regional Office of Education and gets to you the first time
078you would likely see dollars from a successful sales tax referendum in November of 26, would be October or November of 27. So, it would be about a year probably before you'd see any revenue come in. Okay, so just a few key takeaways. I think we've talked about a lot of this. I will say though for these types of referenda to be successful, you do have pretty unified support amongst the school districts throughout the county. And there's no question in certain parts of the state where it's ultimately been successful. It wasn't successful the first or maybe two times it was on the ballot. Lake County is a big county, as we all know. So, messaging is gonna be really, really key. And that may just take some time. But as I said too, it's important for
079you as your own district. If you decided this is something you wanted to support as a board, each district has to have its own messaging about how it would use it so that your voters understand how it would impact the community and them as well. There's no question too on the success rates that we've seen with these types of referenda throughout the state. Communities tend to be more engaged and excited about it if you can parlay it into the use of at least some of the revenue toward capital projects. While also talking to the public about property tax avoidance, because that's really what this is. Yes, it's an increase in sales tax, but it is some avoidance of additional property tax burden on the taxpayers. And there's no question that part of the messaging too
080should be about the percentage of sales tax that is paid by non-Lake County residents, particularly because it is so high in Lake County. And just timeline, we've already I think talked about most of this, but as Dr. Holland mentioned, this conversation is happening throughout Lake County. I know districts are at different points. I'm aware of several that have said, as boards we support it, bring us the resolution. They're kind of gearing up to do that this spring. But ultimately you'll have to have, as I said, enough boards that represent at least 50% of the public school enrollment in the County. And if that happens, the regional superintendent will certify it to the County Clerk. And then a referendum effort would be underway to try to get it passed and it would be on the ballot
081in November. So I'm happy to answer any questions about that. So I got a couple of questions. First off, is the resolution recommended resolution going to include, and I hope it would, the school resource officers and mental health. My understanding is every district that is contemplating it right now has the language in there. Yes, and you would have to be uniform on that. So that's a very good point. Yeah, I'd be clearing that. Secondly, the rules surrounding a referendum that we would put for a capital project require school boards to just supply information and education. Is there a difference in the, and how with this would be approached? Would, for example, an individual school member be able to be part of an advocacy organization? The same rules apply. So leading up to a board action,
082potentially an adoption of a resolution to put on the ballot, you can talk and advocate for it as much as you want, but that line of demarcation, if you as a board adopt a resolution to put on the ballot, then you and your individual capacity as board members, it shifts to factual information, not advocacy. But I appreciate that you asked that because you can imagine if enough boards adopt a resolution to put this on the ballot, there will have to be a district-wide effort to form a very large referendum campaign committee with representatives from every single community and a lot of coordination. While there also would need to be county-wide, every school district, communication effort that's factual so that everyone can make sure all the communities that are being served, are we communicating the same
083things in District 113 that's being communicated up in Antioch, for example? That is also very important from district factual perspective. Yes. On the ballot, would we be able to request the 1% right away or do we start at the 2.25%? At the point, you don't have to, it's up to you. You can go right for the 1%. And most districts have, well, you can put anything in increments of 0.25% up to 1%. And the vast majority have put one, I'm aware of one that passed a 0.5% many years ago and it was going so well, they went back to the voters, subsequently a few years later, and got the full 1% passed, but that's a rarity. Usually districts say, we want the full 1%. Thank you. I have a clarifying question. Each district puts this
084on the ballot or the regional office of the superintendent puts it on the ballot? The regional office, after getting enough resolutions from the local boards, the district send it to the regional office of education and then Dr. Karner would say, we have enough. Then he goes to the county clerk representing all those districts and ultimately directs the county clerk to put on the ballot. And so technically it's the regional superintendent that decides it's the 1%. Well, by way of the resolutions they get from all the members. So our resolutions would be the 1%. Right, from all the districts. Okay, any other questions? Yes, Alex. I have a question about the estimate about, so in the analysis you shared, so that 52% estimated of sales taxes are paid by non-Lake County residents. Do we have any
085kind of sense of what share of Lake County property taxes are paid by residents of this district? And the reason I ask that is that, you know, thinking about this tax would not be you raise taxes in your community and those funds stay here. This would be residents all over the county paying to one pot and then it gets doled out based on student population. So one thing I would be kind of curious to see is, do we have a sense of how much residents of this district would be paying sales taxes relative to how much we'd be getting back from the county? Appreciate that question. And you're the second board member to ask that question in about a week to the point where I had a conversation with one of the PGAV consultants this
086morning for this other district to say, can you calculate this? And they said, maybe. So they're gonna get back to me and I'll just let them know that we need to get it for another district as well. But they might be able to. They were more hopeful than not that they would, but they won't have an answer for me probably for at least another week. I have a question, I'm sorry. Sure. Are there any investment restrictions on this source of revenue? Because with all revenue bonds there are, so I'm just curious. So as the sales tax comes in itself, there's no restriction on how that earns interest. But if you use the sales tax as a pledge revenue source to issue alternate revenue bonds or debt certificates, once you get those proceeds, assuming you sell
087the bonds or the debt certificates on a tax exempt basis, which you would because they're for capital projects, at that point you're subject to the same requirements for investments restrictions. But as the tax is coming in, there's no restriction at all. So obviously tonight was a discussion to understand the big picture and to get some of our questions answered. We then as a board need to decide if any action we want to take. So my understanding is that we might want to delay our action until fairly late in the process so that we have the ability to inform personally the community based on her. Because we have, what we can say changes the day we pass that early resolution. The reality is I think every board is gonna have that philosophy. Right. So yeah, we'll
088have to decide whether or not we want to choose to be one of the leading edge, the bleeding edge or somewhere in the middle. To that timeline, is it when it's, so it's when the board passes the resolution? Yes, that's right. And then I guess along those lines, can districts benefit from this even if they don't necessarily pass the resolution, even if they're not actively working in support of it? Yes, if it passes, you still get your share, yes. The trick, it's 50% of the students in the county. And so, right, like, you know, if you looked at Barrington and Waukegan and. Round Lake. Round Lake. Alex, did you have another question? I just, just operationally, like I feel like. So, is this, is the purpose of this discussion and I just, again, be an
089information gathering, kind of talking about this, you know, are we gonna have another discussion down the road where we actually give, to give us each time to think about this and then have more of a robust conversation about it. Yes, yes. So I also just wanna name, so Tammy was invited to make sure everyone was informed and that you have an opportunity to ask questions. There may be questions that come up after this presentation. You send those to me and I just wanted to make sure we're publicly talking about this. It's being talked about across Lake County. Additionally, I just wanna name that there is a level organizing that is starting to happen across districts. Of course, the Lake County ROE Superintendent, thank you, is trying to gauge where districts are along the way. There
090are some districts at different places depending on the temperature within their communities as well as some of the conversations they're having regarding referendums or other things. So, the purpose of tonight is to make sure that you're aware of this. That the community has an understanding of some of the conversations that are occurring. We will have to continue to talk about this, but this is sort of, this is what it is. Questions come up along the way. I'll work with Ann and we'll map out our conversations as well as whether there's a need for additional information. I will work with our team to consider some possibilities, some options for our districts. And we'll talk about those as well. And it's not to say that we're all totally in support, but I think it's important for us
091to give some consideration to the parameters that were shared in our state as a district and what may be possible. Some creative thinking as well and have those conversations with the board. Ultimately, in order for, the board would have to approve a resolution if this is something we're in agreement with. Right. Tammy, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. Nice to see everyone. Thank you so much. 14 board meetings. The next discussion item is the resolution authorizing certain repairs to school playgrounds or paving using fire prevention and safety funds, which was the hearing that we had at the beginning of tonight. Is there any discussion? Correct me if I'm wrong. This is the second time that this has been a part of conversation at the board. This is fairly new. Right, yeah, so this
092was all part of the HLS work. That's something that we have to do annually for spending towards a pavement. So, yeah, procedure. All right, we will now proceed to action items. It is recommended the Board of Education adopt the resolution authorizing certain repairs to school playgrounds or paving using fire prevention and safety funds as presented. May have a motion to approve this recommendation. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. Mr. Barraza. Aye. Mr. Brunk. Mr. Elliott-Shermer. Aye. Mr. Hindeman. Aye. Ms. Lupac. Aye. Mr. Nieder. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye, the motion carries. The next item is the consent agenda. Items included in the consent agenda were provided to all board members in advance and made publicly available as part of the meeting agenda.
093A board member may pull any item for separate consideration. Does any board member wish to pull an item off the consent agenda for separate consideration? Great. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Greg, you have the bills. I did. I have the pleasure of doing that. So I picked a few of them. The first one was an installment payment for Island Park High School's baseball team spring trip, which sounds amazing. And incidentally, that is gonna get reimbursed for the district. Those refunds were raised separately, but the second one was a fairly large one to Pepper Construction, which also was related to work that has been done related to the health and life safety survey that was completed. And the third one was for
094parts for buses. So back up support, it's got a chance to review the invoices. And in the case of the Pepper Construction, sworn statements and lien waivers all seemed in order. We had a robust discussion of our internal control processes for these things, so we're okay. Great, thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote, please. Mr. Brunk. Aye. Dr. Elliott-Shermer. Aye. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Ms. Lupa. Aye. Mr. Heater. Aye. Mr. Braza. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. The motion carries. There being no further business, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those say nay. The motion carries. This concludes the business of Township High School District 113, Board of Education, evening at 826. Thank you for
095your time.