Board of Education Meeting 10-28-25

001a couple of minutes. I can't start till exactly seven o'clock. I am reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 regular board meeting on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 at 7 p.m. The recording secretary will now call the roll. Ms. Lupa? Here. Mr. Nieder? Here. Mr. Braza? Here. Here. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Here. Mr. Veneman? Here. Ms. Monsafias? Mr. Polanski? Here. Ms. Newman? Here. I would like everyone else who is present to identify themselves. Kina Jansky, executive secretary. Katherine Anderson, chief human resources officer. Karen Ritter, assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and assessment. Karen Warner, chief communications officer. Tanya Karner, assistant superintendent for student services. Jose Bedina, executive director facility management. Ali Mahanty, assistant superintendent of finance. Hallie Fleischer, principal at Highland Park High School. Will Dwyer, principal at Deerfield High School. Ron Casbum, chief information officer. Mira

002Ante, executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kayla Holland, superintendent. 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. All those opposed say nay. The motion carries. We'll now be moving on to board reports and the first up is the president's report. I did want to provide an update in regards to the collective negotiations that we are currently undertaking with the DEA. We had our second collective negotiations on October 15th. The association and the administration agreed on norms and ground rules and continued discussions on articles two and four. The next meeting is scheduled for November 4th. Last week we celebrated principal appreciation week and principal appreciation day on

003Friday, October 24th, recognizing the leadership, dedication, and commitment of our principals and assistant principals when I use that one name. They work tirelessly to foster an inclusive school community where students and staff are seen and heard. Additionally, last week was national school bus safety week. We want to thank our district 113 bus drivers who are the first and last school employees many of our students see each and every day. They start their mornings early, navigate ever-changing weather, and crazy school drop-off and pick up lines all while ensuring the safety of our students. Please join me in applauding our principals, assistant principals, and bus drivers who help make district 113 a safe, supportive place for all. And that concludes my president's report. Moving on to finance and facilities committee. So earlier today the finance facilities committee

004met a couple of main topics. The first was the annual levy presentation and later in the agenda Ali's got his second show coming up for the larger audience so I don't want to get too far too far ahead of that one. The other main topic that we discussed was the beginnings of the district's master's facilities planning which is something that I think has not been done on a formal basis for quite some time here in the district. There's also something that is connected to excuse me the strategic plan goal number five. And so really part of it was just sort of the initial discussion of what the elements of that plan might be you know just some very general discussion about you know timeline and what the elements are. And then for today also talking

005about some of the very initial steps of taking steps to start gathering the data that we need in particular for the you know the physical buildings themselves. And that's also coming up on the agenda later. You know and a lot of it's connected to us being able to sort of control and own our own data in ways that we haven't in the past which are just going to really facilitate a lot of you know planning for maintenance and that sort of thing going forward. And making sure that we control that data and it's not held by others. Thank you. A True North update. On Wednesday October 15th the True North Leadership Council held a regular meeting. There was an update on the 10-year health life safety inspection. Work is planned to be done by both

006external vendors and internal building and ground staff. The Leadership Council authorized green associates to bring bids for a partial roof replacement and alternatives for a full roof replacement in the District Services Center. The Policy Committee brought several policies to the Leadership Council for second readings. These were mostly minor edits and regular five year policy updates. There was an update on the dissolution and reorganization process including continued revisions to the Articles of Agreement. This meeting was the first reading. The second reading and vote is scheduled for November 19th. And I'm sure Shayla will have some recommendations and insight for District 113 and her superintendent's report. The Reorganization Committee also recommended that Dr. Gunnell and Mr. Nelson continue in their roles through the 2026-2027 school year. There will be a joint negotiations committee formed to begin discussions

007for these roles. The Leadership Council approved a contract with School HR Solutions to assist with professional support and guidance through the upcoming transition and restructuring. The next regular meeting will be held Wednesday, November 19th at 7 p.m. Thank you. Ed Redd and Izby. Thank you. So the Ed Redd had their annual kickoff meeting on October 20th at a nice restaurant. They presented their priorities and that includes increasing flexibility in the world language requirement. MCAT funding which is basically the non-standard increased funding for transportation associated with things that are not normal bus routes. They also want to change law enforcement procedures for off-campus events. So a school district creates a relationship with their local police and what types of things are enforced by the local police what's handled within the school. They want to allow that

008to be expanded to situations where they're not on school property but are still under the control of the school. They want to have the rules that are defined in the school still apply to those situations rather than some general thing out of control of the school district. The last thing is the annual legislative dinner is going to be January 26th at 5 to 8 p.m. Izby our other lobbying organization. So Dr. Hollander and I attended the division meeting and basically the regional superintendent was the main player and they shared different things going on with Izby. We had some breakout topics covering mandates, curriculum, artificial intelligence, mental health, absenteeism, and evidence-based funding. So it's basically discussion of those topics to kind of bring everybody in the room up to speed on what Izby is doing in

009those areas. Quick question, Izby or Illinois Association of School Boards, IASB? Illinois Association of School Boards. I misspoke because we don't have enough acronyms. Thank you, I appreciate it. Yes, I misspoke, I apologize. Okay, next we'll move on to recognition. As for our normal cadence, when we do have a week where we're celebrating specific groups within our building, we like to make sure that we spend the moment in putting together resolution and this is for principals week, which was October 19th through the 25th as I had mentioned previously. Whereas school principals play an integral role in nurturing a positive student-centered culture in elementary, middle, and high schools across the state of Illinois. And whereas school principals are responsible for attracting and retaining the best teachers and support staff to ensure that each child receives equitable

010educational opportunities and services to reach their full potential. And whereas it is the primary responsibility of Township High School District 113 to provide adequate and equitable resources for schools so that all students have access to quality education and foundation for a successful future. And whereas the Illinois Principals Association, which represents over 6,900 educational leaders statewide, believes that educators' experiences and voices are essential to crafting effective education policy. And whereas the Illinois Principal Association is committed to developing, supporting, and advocating for innovative educational leaders through high quality professional development, networking opportunities, and legislative advocacy. And whereas school leaders face many obstacles in supporting and educating our young people. And it is through their perseverance, passion, and hope-filled leadership that Illinois continues to produce quality, career-ready students. And whereas we must continue to encourage, support, and recognize

011our school principals who have a positive impact on Illinois students and the educational system at Township High School District 113. Therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Education Township High School District 113 proclaims October 19th through the 25th 2025 as Principals Week and October 24th 2025 as Principals Day in District 113 to recognize principals or all that or all that they do to help our children learn and succeed. Thank you. Moving on now to administrative reports. Dr. Holland. Yes, good evening everyone. So I'll start just highlighting the Deerfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, October 17th along with Rick Heineman our board member and Dr. Anderson. I was honored to attend and support the DHS Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony. It's a beautiful and heartwarming event that highlighted the contributions of DHS

012alumni and coaches who have made remarkable contributions to the Deerfield High School community. The legacy of all inducted is constantly felt at every DHS Warrior event recognizing that the recipients paved the way for the excellence that exists across the high school. I would like to thank Nate Flannery, Casey Duvall and the entire planning committee. I would like to thank Dr. Dwyer for welcoming us to attend and participate in such a special event. It was really beautiful. We recently had a Highland Park High School and Walters Field neighbors meeting in collaboration with the City of Highland Park and our district. So in this collaborative effort we've shifted our neighbors of Walters Field our annual meeting just connected to the the field to a larger conversation around being neighbors of Highland Park High School which includes Walters

013Field. The meeting is intended to support communication between our district, the City of Highland Park and the neighbors of the high school. During the meeting we received a significant amount of feedback regarding the student experience at Walters Field and specifically issues with sound. The next steps that were determined at the close of the meeting are for our district's team to develop a plan that prioritizes the overall student experience at all events at Walters Field with advised steps towards addressing the sound issue as a part of a larger plan. Once our plan is developed and vetted it will be shared with the City of Highland Park to bring forward for discussion as aligned with our development planning processes that we already have with them. These type of changes are built into an agreement that we have

014with the city and they have to take it before their city council. So I would like to thank the members of the Highland Park High School community for coming out. It was a packed meeting for coming out and sharing feedback with us and just want to reiterate that we're committed to identifying and implementing student center solutions moving forward. On Wednesday which is tomorrow October 29th in partnership with the Family Action Network we're excited to welcome Dr. Mark Brackett for a keynote presentation. Dr. Brackett is no stranger to District 113 having presented and supported our district in the past. He is a founding member of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University and he also has an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted

015by many districts. He's a best-selling author and he will be providing a keynote presentation on his most recent book Dealing with Feeling. It's a community-wide event and he will be signing copies of his book that we'll be giving out and the event is taking place tomorrow at Highland Park High School in the auditorium at 7 p.m. So all are welcome. I would like to congratulate our small but mighty communications department. The Illinois chapter of the National School Public Relations Association also known as INSPRA announced that the speak up for safety entry in the marketing materials category was selected for an award of excellence for the 2025 INSPRA communications awards. Additionally the Township High School District 113 website relaunch was an entry in the website category and that was selected for honorable mention. The work was

016judged by school communicators from across the country and determined by colleagues and so congratulations to Karen and Sam for their work and there will be an awards luncheon on November 14th. Congratulations. Yes. Last week was principals appreciation week with Friday October 24th being principals appreciation day. I would like to thank our two amazing principals of our high schools Dr. Will Dwyer and Miss Holly Fleischer. I'm fortunate to have a front row seat to their leadership grounded in an unwavering commitment to each and every student staff member and families in their school communities. To both of you I hope you feel supported and know that everyone around this table is also here for you. Thank you for being a champion for each of our students and ensuring that they have an educational experience that reaches the

017demands of excellence that is engulfed in an environment of belonging and one that inspires a lifelong passion for learning. I would also like to thank you for modeling strong leadership. The collaboration between both of you this year and your willingness to push each other and support each other in service of our schools and our districts has been really fascinating to watch. So thank you for all of your countless hours that you commit to our schools and I want you to know that you're appreciated. So the annual Illinois school report card will be released this week on October 30th. Just some framing around the report card because we do not have a report around the Illinois school report card until November. It's a comprehensive resource that the actual ISBE, the Illinois State Board of Education, provides

018an annual snapshot of public school performance across the state. The data includes academic achievement, student growth, school environment, and demographics, of course with standardized test scores for us the SAT at the forefront. And there are different summative designations that are given to schools, exemplary, commendable, targeted, or comprehensive. One of the major changes is that the state has consistently worked on a concerted effort to right-size benchmarks for proficiency across all districts. There have previously been issues with citing or challenges with mislabeling student performance and there also has been a lack of alignment with other trusted national and state indicators. So that is something that they've been working on that we should see some differences in. The report card as I mentioned measures academic success, student success, growth, the school environment, and also looks at other data.

019So in advance of the release of the report cards, I would just like to express my gratitude as well for our commitment to a focus on student growth, not just focusing on attainment, and I think that's really important. And as discussed in our other meetings and as aligned with our strategic plan and our school improvement plans, we're committed to ensuring growth for all of our students. And as with any report, we should expect to see some areas to celebrate and we will see also some opportunities ahead for us for further growth, which should be a part of our conversations for continued improvement. And so a report card, official report card report will be given at our November meeting. Yes, the next item on the screen indicates all of the foyers that were completed within the

020past month. Now moving on to your information reports, I believe the first is the strategic plan plan goal update for goal number five. Yes. So as we've done in throughout this school year, each meeting, we have updates regarding our progress on strategic planning. Just a reminder for everyone, our plan was adopted in June of this year, so June 10th. And we have focused this year on implementing the implementation of the plan. At tonight's meeting, we'll have an update from our assistant superintendent of finance, Ali Mahanti, who will go over goal five, which is focused on fiscal responsibility. Right. Good evening. So excited to present goal five fiscal responsibility update and be happy to answer any questions. Feel free to stop me anytime. So the fifth goal centers on optimizing district resources to ensure educational success.

021The strategy for this goal is implement a comprehensive asset management plan to strategically upgrade, maintain and optimize all district resources for the current and future benefit of students and staff. The smart goal for the strategy is by June, 2030, the district will implement a comprehensive asset management plan that systematically tracks 100% of all physical assets exceeding the district's capitalization threshold ensures that at least 95% of essential assets are maintained and upgraded in accordance with established standards and conduct annual reviews to optimize resource allocation for enhanced educational and operational outcomes. The KPIs for the strategy are 100% of all assets over capitalized threshold are documented and captured within the management, maintenance and replacement cycle. 10% of cost savings of capital outlay budget items realized over five years. So for this strategy, what we're learning is that

022establishing a comprehensive asset management system requires strong coordination across the facilities, technology and business office departments, along with consistent data practices, partnering with master library, a digital platform that supports asset tracking, maintenance management and interactive floor plans has provided the shared framework we need to align our work. We're learning how essential, accurate floor plans and standardized asset information are to building a reliable district-wide system. The impact so far is that we've launched the process, the purchase order has been completed, agreement signed and onboarding with master library is underway. Our building floor plans are being digitized, which will allow us to visually map every major asset and begin linking them to maintenance and replacement cycles. The foundational work is already improving how we plan for long-term facility needs, budgeting and resource management. Our next steps include

023conducting building walkthroughs to inventory and tag all capital assets, uploading and validating that data in the master library platform and developing standard operating procedures to support ongoing maintenance tracking and annual data reviews. Continued collaboration among the facilities, technology and business office teams will ensure the system remains accurate, efficient and sustainable. Here for our goal five, the next strategy is to enhance operational systems and procedures to improve efficiency, consistency and alignment within district priorities. The smart goal for the strategy is by June 2030, the district will improve operational efficiency and cost effectiveness by reducing overtime expenditures, enhancing substitute management to minimize staffing costs and strengthening preventive maintenance practices to lower facility related expenses. The three KPIs for the strategy are decreased reliance on overtime across all employee groups by 7%, ensure consistent instructional coverage by improving

024substitute staffing efficiency and increasing initial work ticket completion rate to 90% for all assigned shift and workday. So in this strategy, what we're learning is that implementing systems like Red Rover, which is our new substitute management system, LaserFish and electronic time clocks is helping us bring greater consistency, transparency and accountability to our operations. LaserFish is our digital content management and workflow automation platform that allows us to securely store, organize and process documents electronically, reducing manual paperwork and streamlining administrative tasks. We are seeing that this kind of work requires strong coordination across technology, human resources, payroll and operations, especially as we introduce tools that impact a wide range of employee groups, including adult education, custodial maintenance and security staff. We've also learned that system integration, particularly with Skyward, which is our financial and HR human resources

025software, can present challenges that require close collaboration with our vendors to ensure our systems communicate effectively. The impact so far has been positive. Our electronic time cards for adult education have made payroll processing more accurate and efficient. Red Rover has standardized substitute tracking and improved scheduling accuracy and coverage across schools. Electronic time clocks have strengthened our timekeeping accuracy and provided better real time data to help manage overtime and labor costs more effectively moving forward. Our next steps include continuing to work with Skyward to resolve data linkage issues with Red Rover to automate substitute pay, expanding the use of electronic time cards to license staff for professional development and homebound tutoring and exploring the extension of electronic time clocks to additional groups such as child care staff. We will also continue monitoring Skyward updates to identify

026ways to automate pay processes for third shift and holiday work and develop standard operating procedures to ensure consistency and sustainability across systems. The last strategy of goal five is to develop and implement a flexible and sustainable master facilities plan that adapts to the evolving educational landscape and actively supports the district's mission and vision. The smart goal for the strategy is by June 30, 2030, the district will have completed a flexible and sustainable master's facilities plan that aligns with the district's mission and vision, incorporates stakeholder input, and supports evolving educational needs. The district will have secured the necessary funding to support prioritized capital improvement projects and have started the implementation of the plan. The three KPIs are the first one, 75% of master facility priority decisions completed and documented by the end of 2027, 10% of

027meaningful input from all stakeholder groups and municipal partners, 100% of construction projects reviewed for effectiveness and cost efficiency prior to implementation by the end of year 2030. So what we're learning in the strategy is that developing a comprehensive master's facilities plan requires strong coordination among architects, consultants, and internal teams to ensure that building priorities align with both instructional and operational needs. To date, we have completed foundational work including onboarding new facility leadership, establishing vendor and consultant partnerships, and initiating district-wide building reviews. We're also benchmarking peer districts, reviewing past and current construction projects, and conducting facility condition studies to guide long-term planning. Partnerships have been formed with architectural and building engineering firms to provide expertise and ensure our planning remains aligned with district goals. Leadership feedback affirms that this work is on the right track and

028well aligned with district priorities and expectation. The impact that we're having is at this stage we're still in the information gathering phase. The data and analysis being collected will form the foundation for data-driven decision making and help establish clear priorities for future facility improvements. Our next steps include reviewing our current architectural and consulting partnerships to ensure long-term alignment with district goals, developing the scope and timeline for a comprehensive facility condition study, and meeting with potential consultants to define the plan and establish an implementation timeline. This foundational work will position the district to create a sustainable, forward-thinking master facilities plan that supports both current and future educational needs. Thank you. Questions so far? Obviously, as Dr. Holland said, we've recently received, you know, updates on this, and so it's great to have this touch point and

029we're in all of those since we have these last couple meetings. So we're really excited then to see what occurs between now and our next reports in, so thank you. The next item is the student enrollment and projections for 2025 to 2026. Dr. Holland? Yeah, so this report takes a first look at student enrollment for 25-26 school year and compares those numbers to previous years. These numbers are actually are accurate from the point on which they're pulled, so that was September 30th, 2025. We know that numbers tend to, enrollment tends to fluctuate sometimes in our high schools, and so I just wanted to highlight, there's more information that feeds into this report, but a couple things to note between at Deerfield High School, for example, between this school year and over the next five years,

030we really don't see that much fluctuation. See about 100 students or so shift. Many districts are experiencing a greater decline more quickly, but we will be down, according to this, the projections to around 1300 students. So I do want to note that at Highland Park, there's less of a change by the time you look at the full scope of the five years, and that only indicates around 10 students. I just want to point out that a lot of things happen over the summer, so even though we annually give these reports, we know that shifts happen, expected and unexpected, and sometimes as students move into our district or return to our district, the predictability is harder at the grade level sometimes, but this year we had a surge of freshmen come in at one of our

031schools, more specifically, and that's something that the data would not have predicted in the past, so we recognize that while we have these enrollment projections, there are other contextual circumstances that arise to shift our view of these. I also want to point out, because sometimes there's an assumption that student enrollment projections are directly connected to course selections, as if our numbers and our course sizes or numbers of course sections shift because enrollment declines, so I had the team, we pulled that information and looked at that historically, and over the past several years, our course selections have, in some areas, have gone up, so I just want to mention that we have periods during the school day, and depending on what we're offering, for example, if we're launching an instructional focus on advisory, I'm just using

032that as an example, there are oftentimes as students go through waves of selecting or taking more classes than others. We do have study halls and other experiences, and this will likely even be more unpredictable, especially as we roll out our career exploration efforts over the next couple of years, where we'll have larger blocks of time, possibly, for students to engage in internships and different types of learning experiences. So I just wanted to name, it's not apples to apples, when you look at changes in student enrollment and then wonder, well, why are our sections still the same, or why aren't we seeing those changes there? They don't actually correlate. So I just wanted to name that. Any questions around this information? Okay. Next report is the 113 Advanced Placement Report for 2025. Yeah, so Dr. Karen

033Ritter, our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Instruction Assessment, has prepared an overview and an update of the state of advanced placement in our district. Good evening, everybody. I will be presenting the Advanced Placement Report for 2025. In this presentation, we'll learn about the district's AP program. We'll review some of the 2025 AP scores and trends. We'll look at our AP data, desegregated by race, gender, financial need, and by students with IEPs. We'll also learn about the awards and recognitions that District 113 students have received. And finally, we'll discuss some upcoming opportunities in AP. Is there a clicker? Does somebody have a clicker? Thank you. Next one, please. So District 113 currently offers 32 out of college board's 41 AP classes. We offer AP classes in all of the core subject areas, world languages, and fine arts.

034Our newest class is AP Networking, which is part of the Cybersecurity Career Pathway. And last year, the board did approve that course along with the second course in the sequence, AP Cybersecurity, which we plan to offer next year alongside networking. The next slide is a five-year summary of AP students, AP exams, and passing scores in Illinois. So the gray line on the chart is the number of unique AP students in Illinois. The red is the number of AP exams that were taken in Illinois over the past five years, and the blue is the number of exams that scored a three-year higher, which is a passing score. So you can see since 2021, we've in Illinois experienced an upward trend of number of kids taking AP classes, the number of exams that they're taking, and passing

035their exams. In Deerfield High School, over the past five years, we are experiencing the same level of growth. And you can see from 2021 to 2025, we've increased our passing scores from 91 percent to 98 percent, which is tremendous. And again, at Highland Park, we are also experiencing that very high level of growth among students, exams, and scores, going from a 77 percent in 2021 to 87 percent in 2025. There are many benefits for students to take an AP class. First and foremost is just college readiness. So just the fact that a student takes an AP class, whether or not they pass the exam, has shown to prepare them for college-level work, and their graduation rates and their success rates in colleges are higher than their non-AP taking peers. They build skills like problem-solving, time

036management, study skills, and more importantly, confidence in taking high-level college-level work. AP students also, when they take AP courses, this signals to colleges that they're serious about their education and that they're willing to challenge themselves with rigorous coursework. 85 percent of selective colleges and universities report that a student's AP experience, not necessarily the passing score, favorably matches and impacts the admission decisions. Students who have taken AP classes are more likely to graduate college on time and have the time management skills to be successful. GPA and graduation rates are higher, as I mentioned, for students who took AP in high school than their non-AP peers. And saving time and money in college is also a big benefit, not only for students but for families that are paying college costs. So on the next slide, we see

037that the cost savings is a huge benefit for our District 113 families when their students take and succeed in AP classes. In District 113, students earned over 2,600 qualifying AP scores of a 3, 4, or 5. This equates to almost 7,863 college credits, and at an average cost of $510.67 per college credit, the potential tuition and fee savings to District 113 students and families is over $4 million. That's a lot of money. The $510 per college credit rate is an average across Illinois universities, four-year universities in Illinois, and we know that many universities cost way more than that per college credit. In the spring of 2025, the top AP exams that were taken in District 113 are listed on this slide. PreCalculus was the most taken exam in District 113 last year, and this is

038one of our newest courses this course is very accessible for students who would like to take an advanced level math class before they graduate, and maybe they're not ready for AP Calculus, and AP PreCalculus is also a prerequisite or a good preparation course for students who want to go into AP Calculus, and you can see that it has experienced one of our highest success rates with 99% of the students taking it passing with a 3, 4, or 5. This is one of the newest, fastest growing, and most successful AP courses from College Board in the recent years, and as I mentioned, it's a great option for seniors who want to take a fourth year of math but are just not ready for AP Calculus. Next, we'll talk about equity in AP. We're going to be

039looking at disaggregated data within our AP program. In the context of AP courses, equity refers to ensuring fair access to and success in AP classes, recognizing that students start with different backgrounds and have different needs so that all students, especially those from historically underrepresented groups, have a genuinely equal opportunity to succeed and benefit from AP courses. So we'll look at AP enrollment data and success data with regards to gender, race, students in financial need, and for students with IAPs. First is equity in AP by gender, so I've got two data points for you here. We have the percentage of students in each subgroup who have access to and experience success in AP, and again, the percentages should be relative to the total population in our school. So if you look at gender on the top

040chart, I've highlighted the percentages of females and males in our AP program and the percentages of females and males in District 113. You can see that they're relatively the same with about 50% of males and females both in our AP program and in our school district. So this would mean that there's equitable representation within our AP program by gender. When we look at scores in terms of gender, scores are split roughly in half, with the percentage of scores of males being slightly higher than the percentage of females for each score. These data tell us that AP scores of males and females are represented equitably by gender, but there's an overrepresentation of males scoring a one relative to their female peers. Next slide is AP enrollment by race and ethnicity. Within our AP program, we see

041that there's a slight underrepresentation of Latino, black, and white students in our AP classes as compared to the total district population. Something to note is that on the AP exams, students may choose not to respond their race or ethnicity, and we had an 8.5% of students in that category that represented 117 students. So if they had responded, this may have changed the percentages of each of the racial groups within the AP scores and enrollment. When we looked at gender, it was represented almost equally at each score. Here, when we look at race, we see a higher percentage of white students with passing scores of three, four, or five, and fewer ones and twos. With our Latino students, we see higher levels of ones and twos and fewer fours and fives. These data tell us that

042our students' AP scores are not equitable when we desegregate them by race. Our percentage of students passing AP exams was high in almost every course, but when broken down by race, we start to see the inequities. For students in financial need, our enrollment percentages have parity with about 10% of our population in AP classes, and in our total population, also about 10%. But again, when looking at the scores on the bottom, we see fewer students in financial need getting those higher scores. Finally, students with IEPs represent about 3% of our AP population, as indicated on the circle graph on the left, but they represent about 15% of our total district population. So again, enrollment numbers are not equitable among our AP students with IEPs. With passing scores, we have a very small percentage of students

043with IEPs passing AP exams. So in summary, while we see more parity in terms of enrollments in our AP program and our open access efforts are commendable, we see greater inequities among the subgroups when it comes to the success in passing scores. This means that students from various subgroups are accessing AP classes, which is good, which we've already described as having great benefit, but to increase equity and ground our work in inclusive school communities, we really need to take a closer look at ways to increase success rates for all students. Next, I'll talk a little about some awards and recognitions that we've received through the AP program. One of them is AP Scholars, and one is called AP Honor Roll Recognition. Starting with AP Scholars, AP Scholars program is a way to recognize students who

044show strong success on multiple AP tests. The goal is not to encourage students to take as many AP classes as possible, but to, it's for a way for students to show consistent, high level performance in college level classes. So the minimum number of scores, passing scores a student can get to be recognized as an AP Scholar is three exams with scores of three or higher. There's two other levels of AP Scholars. One is AP Scholars with honors, and then the next one is AP Scholar with distinction. A student can earn AP Scholar recognition any year in high school. It just depends on how many AP exams they've taken and what their scores are. There is one recognition on that previous slide called AP International Diploma, and we did have two students from Highland Park receive

045this award. This is quite an honor. This is not an easy award to receive. Students have to score a three or higher on five or more AP exams. They either need to plan to attend a school outside of the U.S. or already do attend a school outside of the U.S. and the exams must fulfill four content areas, including two languages, classes in global perspectives and math and science or STEM. So that was a really, really awesome award to get. And then finally, we've got our AP Honor Roll. Every year, College Board recognizes schools' efforts to increase access for AP students, and they're rated on three different metrics. There's college culture, which is the percentage of graduating seniors who took at least one AP exam during their high school career, college credit, which is the percentage

046of graduating seniors who earned a passing score, and then college optimization is the percentage of graduating seniors who took five or more AP exams during high school with at least one of the exams being taken in their freshman or sophomore year. So students are spreading out their AP experience across grade levels instead of feeling disproportionate pressure in any one single year. In 2024, these are 2024 ratings, 2025 comes out in January, so this is one year prior. Deerfield received the Silver Award and Highland Park received the Gold Award. So you can see that both schools scored the highest level, which was platinum in two of the three metrics. And to be recognized as a platinum school, which I think is an attainable goal for both schools, we would want to expand our school's college culture

047by enabling 80% of our students to take at least one AP class before graduating. And then I want to finally talk about a few exciting opportunities in the AP world. One is AP Career Kickstart. I mentioned this earlier when talking about our AP Networking and Cybersecurity courses. Those two courses are part of a series of classes called AP Career Kickstart, where College Board is focusing some AP curriculum on career pathways and career readiness skills. So in addition to AP Cybersecurity and AP Networking that we currently are approved to offer, there is another new course that's being launched in 26-27 called AP Business Principles with Personal Finance. And you may hear a little bit about that later tonight when I talk about new course proposals. The other opportunity that I'm planning with some of our neighborhood

048districts is a North Shore AP Roundtable. And this is a group that we're starting this year with administrators from Niles Township, New Trier District, and Glenbrook, where we're trying to get some AP teachers to come together to collaborate to be, to participate in a professional learning community. We are working with our Illinois College Board reps to design professional development for them. Many times AP teachers are the only ones that teach that subject in their school, so they feel like sometimes they're on an island or they have no one to collaborate with. So this is a way to facilitate some regional AP teacher collaboration. This past summer I had the opportunity to go to an AP reading, which is where AP teachers from around the country come together and grade and score AP exams. And they

049often say that that's the best professional learning that they could possibly participate in. So our thinking was could we recreate something like that a little bit more locally for people that don't have a chance to go to one of those AP readings. So I'm really excited about this first session. We are hosting it at Highland Park High School on November 12th. I think Mr. Dan Kim is going to be attending, right, as an AP macro and micro economics teacher. So we're getting teachers together that teach the same subjects from different districts and they're going to collaborate on their curriculum, which is really exciting. And we have about over 50 teachers that have signed up so far. Dr. Ritter, is there a model for that round table that we're using from anywhere else, or is this

050completely? This is something new, and I don't know if anything like that exists around here. But yeah, we just, I got the idea from the AP reading and I think it's a good opportunity for AP teachers. And then, no, that's fine. And then some key AP takeaways. So, well, we have much to celebrate in District 113. Most students in our AP classes are obtaining passing scores. There's lots of savings to be had in college credit. These are all really good things. I do want to remember just the equity discussion and how we, while we show representation in terms of enrollment, we do have some more work to do in terms of making sure our success scores are equitable across all subgroups. And then we hope to learn through collaboration from colleagues from similar districts in

051the North Shore AP teacher group. So next steps would be sharing this AP data with our instructional leadership teams at the buildings. Both schools have school improvement goals centered around AP, so this would be valuable information for them. We want to think about how we can further identify students who are AP ready through our Accelerated Placement Act. We want to promote the AP Career Kickstart courses and embed AP classes in career pathways to further grow their college and career readiness skills. And look to offer more summer enrichment programming to prepare students for AP classes and support teachers' professional growth in things like the AP Roundtable, sending them to AP Summer Institutes and AP Annual Conference. Any questions from the board? Questions? Yes, so my first question, this is great, you know, this is the stuff,

052I speak for myself, I love seeing all this stuff, so this is fantastic. The list of classes, are those consistent between the two schools? All classes are taught at both schools? I want to say yes. We did have AP Italian at Highland Park. It's no longer there, so I'm pretty sure, yes, yes, thank you, yes. I'm just trying to think if there's any outliers. I want to make sure if there was, if there were any plans to equalize that. So, you know, just looking at the chart of like just the number of exams, the number of kids, I mean, it's, you know, the growth is incredible, and I know that we're looking to do, how do we, how do we ensure that going forward as the ranks swell, that there in no way will be

053any potential impact to the classroom experience? You know, so we see the passing grades here, are we looking at the distribution of threes, fours, and fives? You know, we can see how many kids are getting sort of, you know, some level of distinction. I mean, are we looking at that as well to make sure that we're maintaining, you know, that classroom experience for everybody? Yeah, I mean, we break it down by threes, fours, and fives. Some of the work that the teachers will be doing at the AP roundtable is looking at their summative exam, the AP exam, and it breaks it down by every single section of the exam, and we can see how our students did compared to kids in Illinois and across the country. So if our students, if the teachers see that

054there's something that they can improve in the classroom based on those scores, that's what they will focus on. And compare it to some of our own data to make sure that we're maintaining our standards. Absolutely, absolutely. So my next question is sort of, yeah, I'm going to use the, I'm going to use the slide on gender just because it's the first one presented here, and it may not be the perfect example, but, you know, when we see this, right, this is sort of high level, it's just, you know, you know, passing grade, whatever. And in this case, it's very, you know, even, so maybe again, this maybe isn't the best example, but when we see this, before we start drawing conclusions from this, how deep are we going into the data? So for example, you

055know, this does show slightly that, you know, males are performing slightly better than females, just if you look at the thing all the way across. Do we go to the next level and go, well, maybe the female students are taking the harder ones? You know, do we, how deep do we go before we start drawing conclusions? We can go pretty deep in even just every single class, like trends that you typically see are students, female students will take more of the social studies and humanities courses and perform well in them. We still have a male dominance in some of the science and math classes. So when you look at it class by class, you might see some inequities there too. That just answered my next question. Okay. That might get, oh no, I did have

056one more. Hold on, I jotted this one down. So give me one second to my notes. General question. I'm just curious, you know, is there a role that's played here by our center districts? So before kids even get to us in preparing them, you know, right? Because, you know, or do we, are we sort of taking on the full burden of bringing kids in and then sort of trying to, you know, push them on that path? You know, I'm not trying to pass the buck here, but you know, what role did the center districts have to play in helping us sort of get there? They have a huge role in preparing kids for high school level work, right? And once they get here, our role is to really prepare them for post-secondary work. So it

057really is a continuum of high expectations and high support that the middle schools offer first, and then we continue on here. So we receive students into ninth grade that are very well prepared for our high school level work and even beyond. So I think they have a huge role in helping us prepare students for AP classes and beyond. I think our consistent work around alignment and our partnership with the administration and the staff within our feeder center districts is really important. Continuing to collaborate and have conversations around alignment and articulation. So there's shared responsibility. So we're not focused on just a student once they come to the high school, but we care about their long-term growth their entire time within our district to the greatest extent possible. So we've been shifting our work in our

058conversations because we will happily support the growth of each and all of our students as they come to us. Yet we want to start those conversations early, and it's not we need kids to be one way. We want to really look at who our students are, what do they need to grow, and how can we support and enhance that trajectory through the experience we offer here. And so I think that's a significant part. And our goal really isn't for, I was going to ask Karen to talk some about the decision-making regarding AP and dual credit. I think ideally all of our students will graduate with some post-secondary credit that can come in a variety of ways. I think that's, so AP is a path, dual credit is a path, and I know we are consistently

059having conversations about what those experiences are. And also we're really trying to amplify and center student voice to create opportunities, not just us coming up with the experiences that we think students should have, but to really center student voice and what are you passionate about? What are you interested in? We're seeing that with our cyber security class that has skyrocketed. We're seeing it with other areas as well, and really leaning into that. So whether it's our this work, AP, dual credit, which also spirals into our conversations around career pathways, really thinking about what our students are interested in and creating a sequence of experiences for them to go deep in that area. Any other questions, comments? I have a number of follow-up questions, but kind of along the lines that Greg was saying, I think

060this is a fantastic presentation. There's a tremendous amount of information in here. I'd love to see a lot more detail though in terms of what's in here. I wrote down a list of things as I was watching this. I'd love to see what the trends are for the last five years for different classes, how much enrollment shifting in terms of different AP classes, and whether we're seeing some of the stuff that we saw in terms of the percent earning, one, two, three, or four, or five. Has that been constant? Is that changing as we open up AP classes to more kids? I'd just love to see more information behind this. I feel like this is great, but it's a very high level view. So I'd love to get some more detail behind this. I feel

061like I have more questions, but I'm not sure even more questions to ask because again, I'm only seeing this at a fairly high level. So this was intentionally created for a high level, more of a governance conversation. We could possibly think about other experiences if there's a need to go deeper, but as Karen indicated, there is work taking place where the teams are looking at some of the more detailed aspects of this. I think part of the conversation is how can we provide some insight into that at the board without it being the same conversations across different roles and responsibilities possibly. Not the same conversations are occurring in your operational meetings. This needs to be at a more macro level, at the board level. And I'd like to add that I think we're also at

062a unique period in terms of data from the college board. Just thinking about where we were five years ago, we have COVID, there were changes in tests, there were years without tests. So I understand wanting to go back and kind of see some of the trends, but also some of those data have been disrupted. Yeah, I hear you. But at the same time, I feel like as a board member, it's incumbent upon me, and I think upon all of us to be looking at whether or not the trends that are occurring here are supported by the actions that we're taking in terms of the strategy that we're pursuing with the APA controlment is meeting the objectives we're looking for it to meet. I would like to see more detail. I think I understand that we're

063not looking to get into the super nitty gritty about decision making on this, but I'd like to see a little more detail than we're getting right now. And the other point that I just always feel like I have to caution, I think it's phenomenal that we want to and we should continue to increase APA opportunities for students. And the overall well-being of the student is obviously at the forefront. And so we know the effect of a kid taking five AP classes in a year, that some kids that isn't successful for them, regardless of what adults in their lives are encouraging them to do that. So it is that balance. And actually, there's been more research on that from College Board about how that isn't making them more successful. There's a stagnant point where, you know,

064if you take too many AP classes, it's not going to benefit you in the same way that one, two, three, five, max would for your whole high school career. So, yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to the summer school report. Right. So this is our summer school report for 2025. In this presentation, we'll discuss credit recovery, grade replacement courses, enrichment opportunities, and we will disaggregate them by subgroups of race, students with IEPs, students with 504s, English learners, and students in economically disadvantaged situations. We will also present the total cost of summer school for both semesters, and then Dr. Karner will present the extended school year or the ESY program with its philosophy survey results, and she'll be sharing some data there. So summer school planning, believe it or not, begins in the fall.

065I've already started meeting with the summer school principals who are Mr. Matt Wallace from Highland Park and Ms. Donnie Escalante from Deerfield. We discuss what went well last summer and what we can do to improve, and we discuss our goal of offering a variety of extended learning opportunities to our students in District 113. So I'm going to go over the different types of classes that we offer during summer school. We offer several different options for students to earn credit. Credit recovery and grade replacement are two of those ways. We offer innovative credit recovery options in a variety of formats to meet students' needs, offering both in-person options with a teacher and online learning options. Grade data from the school year will be analyzed after this first semester, and then we'll use that to predict our

066potential summer school needs in the area of credit recovery for next summer. Credit recovery is an opportunity for students to earn a passing grade in a course for which they previously failed or received an incomplete grade, and grade replacement courses are available for students if they previously earned a C plus or lower, but not an F or incomplete, and they wish to improve their grades. Summer school staff was made up of a mixture of District 113 staff and staff from external districts, and we offered online courses in edgenuity, and online learning has its pros and cons. It offers flexibility for sure for students working at their own pace. If we do not have a teacher available to teach it, we have that option to teach it online, and for courses that may only have a

067couple students registered, this is an option to offer online learning because we wouldn't necessarily hire a teacher for just a few students. Our enrichment offerings this past summer include Algebra 1 Enrichments, College Essay Writing, and a series of EL classes, Algebra Enrichment, Academic Vocabulary Enrichment, Building Reading, and Building Academic Proficiency. Enrichment courses are designed for students who want to explore an area of interest that they may not typically be able to do during the school year. These courses are offered for general elective credit, and they do not satisfy a graduation requirement. We also have enrichment workshops, and that's like the College Essay Writing workshop. These are shorter in duration, and they can be designed to be more flexible in nature. They can explore a specific area of interest for a period of time determined by

068the instructor. Algebra 1 Enrichment is for incoming freshmen who have had a full or partial year of instruction in Algebra 1, and they were not placed in geometry where they may want to review some algebra skills before they begin high school. This past summer, students entering AP PreCalculus and AP US History were invited to get a head start on some of their AP coursework by joining a Bridge to Advanced Placement course as an enrichment opportunity. The idea behind these offerings was to expose students to the pacing, the skill sets, the expectations needed to be successful in an AP course as an additional layer of support before taking an AP class. Sometimes taking an AP class for the first time can be a little scary for some, so giving them a preview and an opportunity to

069meet other students in the class, an opportunity to build confidence will make them set up more for success in the AP class. So the target audience for these courses would be students enrolling in their first AP course or those who want to get a head start on building their foundational skills. I do just want to jump in really quickly to remind the board this was something that was discussed last year as a possibility and an opportunity for us as we thought about exposure and taking the time to create opportunities for students to be introduced to this experience in a way where they can develop the skills that they may not feel as confident in and also to have form a community of learners in a more intimate setting to have that group of students who

070they would likely be in the classes with during the school year just thinking about the relationship between achievement as well as feeling comfortable, confident, and a sense of belonging in a new experience for students. So we did offer these opportunities this summer as an extension of our conversations last year. And then we also offer academic courses during summer school. This is an opportunity for students to earn credits on their transcript and they may potentially fulfill a graduation requirement. Some of the examples are shown here. We've got consumer economics, graphic design, civics, geometry acceleration, intro to programming, traffic, safety, and health. Geometry acceleration is a full year course taken in summer school so it's very intense. This is for students after their freshman year going into sophomore year. So as far as summer school enrollments, we

071remained pretty consistent from 24 to 25. We had 321 total students in summer school earning 359 credits in courses. If we look at enrollment by school, Deerfield had 163 students, Highland Park had 196 that attended summer school. If we break it down by race, we show, again, if I'm looking relative to our total population, we have a slight underrepresentation of white, Latino, and black students attending summer school. Asian and multiracial is slightly overrepresented. As far as disaggregating the enrollment data by subgroup, the groups are pretty consistent with our overall demographics with the exception of students identified as economically disadvantaged. The total percentage there is about double in summer school of what we typically have during the school year. Summer school students by grade level, the majority of our students taking summer school or engaging in

072a summer school opportunity is freshmen and the highest enrollments for freshmen were in the geometry acceleration class, traffic safety, and civics. The next graph shows the grades earned in summer school with the majority of our students receiving an A. Thank you. This pertains to classes like traffic safety, which is a pass fail grade. And finally, we have the summer school costs with the majority of costs going to personnel, the people that run the summer school, minus the tuition and fees that students pay. So some next steps for summer school. As I mentioned, the two summer school principals and I have been begun meeting to plan out summer school for 2026. We wanted to this year gather some feedback from families. So Mira Auntie is going to be helping us develop a survey that we'd like

073to give parents and caregivers for feedback and helping us, you know, inform us of our planning for summer school of 2026. We hope to increase opportunities to extend learning, such as our bridge to AP class. We actually at our last meeting, we talked about doing an AP bootcamp that would be accessible to all AP students because the AP, the bridge to AP classes is very dependent on the teachers that are available to teach it. So thinking about something that can be available for all students. And then also focusing on ways to further engage our English language learners. And now Dr. Karner is going to present on extended school year. Thank you, Dr. Ritter. Good evening, everyone. Extended school year, also known as ESY. ESY is designed to support students with IEPs to maintain progress because

074typically regression occurs at a greater rate for students with disabilities. Our goal is to ensure students with disabilities are engaged in meaningful instruction to foster independence, confidence, and make meaningful connections between school and the community. Our focus is to ensure equity by providing each student with what they need to be successful in their learning progression. Each student is unique in their own way and we strive to differentiate a plan for each student. When thinking about ESY, regression is a loss of critical skills during breaks from school and recruitment is the ability to recover a loss following a break from instruction. We consider the following questions when determining which students may benefit from ESY. Is there a likelihood that the benefits a student with a disability gains during the regular school year will be significantly jeopardized

075without ESY? Is there a likelihood of substantial regression of critical life skills caused by an interruption? And will the student's rate of progress towards goals, objectives, or benchmarks prevent the student from receiving benefit in the placement during the regular school year without ESY? During the summer of 2025, a total of 30 students participated in the district's ESY program including five students in life skills, eight students in functional, and eight students in future planning for success. Data collected across our programs indicated that students successfully maintained their previously acquired skills with no evidence of regression observed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the instructional supports provided during ESY. In addition to these 21 students, there were nine students enrolled in Egenuity. Egenuity provides credit recovery for classes a student may have failed or required additional support. This the first

076week of extended school year, students are assessed to determine their baseline and that is the first point you see on this graph. The graph represents the average score of all students in the class. What we want to see are consistent scores throughout the summer to show that students are maintaining academic functional and social emotional skills which is the intended purpose of ESY. This first chart represents the life skills classroom. Life skills is a highly structured differentiated class to meet each student's unique learning needs. The focus in life skills is on functional literacy and numeracy, communication, personal care, employability, and employability skills. We utilize evidence-based instructional practices such as task analysis, visual supports, direct instruction, and community-based learning experiences to reinforce skill development. Here you can see that students started off between 70 and 79 percent

077in the first two weeks but leveled off for the remainder of the summer as they were assessed each week. Depending on each student's target, this leveling off is not necessarily a bad thing as these are average scores for the class as a whole. Next we have the functional instructional classroom. As you see students in this classroom on average scored between the low 39 percent early in the summer to 79 percent by the end of the summer. Students in this class have more significant academic needs and really benefit the most from extended school year programming. Again you will see students averaging between 70 and 79 accuracy towards goals. This classroom focuses on core academic skills such as reading, writing, and math taught through evidence-based differentiated instruction, social skills, and transition planning. Next we have future planning

078for success and as you see students in this classroom on average were able to maintain an accuracy rating on goals between 70 and 79 percent. This is an ideal graph as students are maintaining across weeks which is the purpose of ESY. This classroom focuses on emotional regulation, social skills, behavioral skills, executive functioning, academic support, and academic support. The district is currently awaiting a summary of parent feedback from the 2020-2025 school year which will be reviewed and shared once available. In last year's survey results students express interest in more engaging activities and adjustments to the ESY schedule including program hours, times, dates, and the district is currently surveying parents for this year to gather input on potential program modifications. The data collected will inform planning decisions for the upcoming summer to ensure ESY offerings are responsive

079to family and student needs while maintaining alignment with instructional goals. We believe student voice is important and want to honor student requests and also want to ensure that it aligns with parent feedback. There are four key takeaways that the team is focused on currently and these are developing standardized ESY progress rubrics aligned to IEP goals, exploring adaptive scheduling options such as shorter days, shorter weeks, offering training and progress monitoring, social-emotional learning integration, and universal design for learning, and strengthening communication between ESY and regular school year teachers to ensure carryover of gains. Thank you. Are there any questions? No. Thank you very much. Thank you both. Moving on to excellence in effort. Ali goes first. I saw you got pointed at. We did rock paper scissors under the table. So good evening everyone. First we had

080some incredible efforts and outcomes in athletics that Sophie will highlight and I must say for me, I attended last week our Halloween concert which is an annual favorite for myself and the community and it's a place where our teenagers can lean into their childhood innocence. They get dressed up, they decorate the entire auditorium and they heavily lean into the theme, playing spooky sounds and all with just such creative genius and really appreciate our band students for creating the evening. We host elementary students from district 112 in the morning and then we have a community evening for all to join and collage dancers really make it a whole evening of multiple performances. It's unforgettable and it's hosted and directed by Josh Trotteroff, Rettl Shansky and Joel Zizak and I really appreciate their creativity and their dedication.

081Another favorite from last week was the deep inspiration that I felt after spending time with the wise students in my principal advisory committee. The purpose of this committee is a central part of our school improvement plan and my personal and professional purpose. It's to create a vital strategic space where students and school leaders collaborate to make Highland Park High School simply stronger. Adults often think in constraints and limitations and our students think in possibilities. So students shared at this time what they loved about Highland Park and how we could level up. This process started with an initial truth-telling session with my senior advisory from PAC, leaders Caris Walker, Lucy Wallman, Valeria Rodriguez and Brody Landis. I met again with them this morning and their ideas were flowing like Niagara Falls. We already started to bake

082a freshman upperclassmen mentor program possibly. So our PAC is structured for broad continuous input. We meet once a month with a larger group and our juniors and seniors meet separately from our freshmen and sophomores and then we meet as a larger group once a semester. Critically we meet with the senior PAC leaders in between these large sessions to set the agenda and ensure that we're staying focused on the priorities and debrief as a group what we heard. A few highlights from what the larger PAC shared last week in terms of what they love. They love the strong dedication and caring relationships that they have with their teachers. They love all the activities that the school have to offer. They don't feel like there's enough time in the school day to take advantage of them but

083they appreciate it and they love a powerful sense of community and home that's created in our school. Some of the ways that they addressed that we could level up were first more discussions and resources around careers and career planning especially early on in the freshman and sophomore year. Increased student investment in showing school spirit. They want to see students staying throughout the whole football game. They want to see us taking advantage of the theme days. They want to see people rooting for each other in a host of activities and athletic events. And then finally a deeper intercultural connection amongst the student body with authentic connections. Thank you to my co-leader Ms. Misfelt because truly we're committed to continuing these deep conversations and keeping the student experience at the heart of our decision making and dreaming.

084Another highlight of last week was the successful assessment literacy guest panel held for our juniors who are taking our study strategies class taught by Dr. De Pesquale and Mrs. Kuhn. These students are actively working to improve their test taking skills in preparation for the ACT. We wanted to show them that assessments are not just high stakes hurdles so the English department brought in a diverse group of five local professionals including our school's canine handler, a U.S. state's attorney, a lawyer, a business professional specializing in physics and engineering, and 112 school resource police officer. This session featured a gallery walk and panel discussion with these community members. Panelists offered candid insights into career pathways, mandatory professional assessments along the way, and the role of continuous training in their professional advancement. The session provided crucial real world

085motivation linking current academic efforts directly to future professional success. Our commitment to addressing student career exploration was further highlighted when two staff members Melissa Zantara and Jennifer Janopoulos accompanied interested students to the Navigate Career Fair that Dr. Karner brought to our schools at the Lake County Fairgrounds. Each student received a backpack and had the opportunity to explore a variety of kiosks featuring professions ranging from hands-on nursing, cosmetology, construction, dental hygiene, and engineering. Students were given workbooks to take notes on careers that interested them and collected fun artifacts along the way at the stations and during the bus ride home debriefed their experience and talked about what is necessary what are the necessary steps to make their dreams come true. Finally as a central component of our school improvement effort we celebrate and honor the multilingualism

086of our student body and we're proud to share a major achievement. 45 percent of the graduating class of 2026 has already been formally recognized through the Illinois State Board of Education's Biliteracy Program. This includes 20 percent of this year's senior class who have earned the highest distinction the Seal of Biliteracy in languages including French, German, Greek, Latvian, and Spanish. So so much to celebrate, so much creativity, truth-telling, academic challenge, exploration, and dreaming. Proud to be HP. We have a lot of incredible things going on this week and into the month of November of our state champion tennis team. Dr. Holland, athletic director Nate Flannery, and I had the privilege of spending a lot of time Saturday both watching the team and celebrating with them after their victory. The fire truck escort back in the town

087was a lot of fun. We're going to be celebrating them as an entire school tomorrow during homeroom with an all-school indoor parade and we will have an extended homeroom in order to accommodate that event. I also want to take a moment and recognize our Hebrew Honor Society. The group was recently recognized nationally from Brandeis University. In the recognition letter the university stated, on behalf of the consortium for the teaching of Hebrew language and culture under the auspices of Brandeis University, it is their honor to formally recognize the Deerfield High School Hebrew Honor Society for its excellence in student achievement, programming, and organizational leadership. It's an incredible honor from one of the elite research universities in our country and it is because of the hard work and dedication of our staff and the students who have

088been very intentional and deliberate in their work to grow the Hebrew Honor Society. Starting tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. DHS theater will proudly present the musical six teen edition. It's a vibrant reimagining of the stories of Henry the ace of six wives through the lens of pop concert stardom. This production is unique in that it is directed, choreographed, vocal directed, costume designed, and lighting designed by seniors as part of their drama for honors and technical theater design honors capstone project and it really showcases the exceptional student leadership, creativity, and collaboration at play. The show highlights the strength and talent of our theater students and the thriving arts community at Deerfield High School. Next week marks the beginning of a big tradition at DHS, the annual school chess campaign, one of our community's most meaningful traditions.

089This year's fundraising efforts will benefit Halley 225, a non-profit organization created in memory of Haley Grossman, Deerfield graduate in the class of 2013, who passed away at the age of 25 after a courageous battle with cancer. The foundation works to support causes that reflect Halley's spirit, kindness, and commitment to helping others. The campaign will officially launch with an all-school assembly on Tuesday, November 4th, where students and staff will hear from Halley's family and representatives from the Halley 225 Foundation. This event sets the tone for two weeks of giving, learning, and coming together as a warrior community. Students are going to attend one of two assemblies during seventh period. It'll be a smooth and respectful environment where students will leave their backpacks and cell phones in the classroom during the program and we will also have

090brief discussions before and after to help students reflect on the purpose and impact of school chess. This is again one of the cornerstones of DHS culture. It's a time when our students, staff, and families and alumni unite in service to others and this year's campaign promises to continue that legacy honoring the memory of a beloved alumna and the collective generosity that defines warrior nation. And that concludes my report. Thank you very much. I'm moving on to our student liaison reports. Ms. Montsavayas, would you like to go first? Hi everyone. I just wanted to give a quick update on what's been happening at Island Park lately. It's been a really fun and busy month. First off, Homecoming was October 11th and it was disco themed this year. The silent disco was such a hit. Everybody loved

091it and it was really cool having Mama Mia playing outside plus all the different photo booths, food trucks, cotton candy, and even a caricature artist. The whole night had such a great energy. Homecoming week leading up to it was awesome too. Monday was music icon day, Tuesday was tie-dye day, Wednesday was way back Wednesday, Thursday was pajama day, and Friday was class colors. We wrapped it up with an amazing assembly on Friday where we recognized our fall sports teams, played a few games, and ended with a great performance from Banda Acero Azul. We also had a Halloween band concert like Ms. Fleischer was talking about. It was such an amazing performance and everyone really enjoyed it. From October 20th to the 24th we celebrated Italian week which is a really cool way to experience different

092foods from that culture during lunch. There's also a table where students could do tattoos, trivia, and even play foosball. The theater department is holding auditions for Les Miserables which has everyone really excited. With the November 1st college deadline coming up it has definitely been a busy month and sometimes been a busy and sometimes stressful time for seniors but everyone has been doing a great job staying on top of things. The CRC and our amazing staff members have been super supportive in helping students through the process from essay reviews to last minute application questions. A lot of seniors, myself included, have already started getting good news from schools which has made things really easy or things really exciting around school. Out of the 12 schools that I've applied to I've got into seven so far. Our

093charity drive is also starting up this again. This year's recipient is Propel, an organization working to find a cure for Crohn's disease. In sports news our football team made the playoffs. The team is currently 7-2 which makes this one of the positive which makes this one of our most positive and exciting seasons in a while. Huge congratulations and good luck to them. We also have our playoff game on Saturday at Walters so I should see some of you guys there. Yeah one o'clock. Our boys varsity soccer is also advancing in place today against Grizzly Central. I heard they lost but they made it really really far. Our girls tennis team had an exceptional performance this season. They secured the title of conference winners. Overall it's been an amazing and really positive month at HVHS and

094there's a lot of great energy as we head into the rest of the fall season. That's all thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Polanski. Hi everyone good good evening. We have a lot of good things to report from Deerfield. Dr. Dwyer is over here stealing all my thunder because I was going to talk about the girls tennis team. They brought on the state championship on Saturday. They had an incredible season and it was a great way to finish off the year. Another huge accomplishment in warrior athletics is our boys and girls cross country teams have had incredible success. The girls team won first place at an invitational hosted by Niles West and is now ranked number three in the state and the boys team won their regional championship and the girls took second in

095theirs. Last Friday was our boys football last home game where we recognized our amazing seniors and their dedication throughout the year and then some other sports that are starting up in the near future are our dance team decomps, girls gymnastics and boys bowling. In our music and theater department our orchestra had its concert at night in Vienna on the 25th which was an amazing performance and again Dr. Dwyer said that we are having our sixth performance which is our the debut is tonight and then that's going until the 30th so get your tickets and then with our clubs we have our human rights club and its annual fair trade chocolate sale this Thursday and then our art club also started and then finally the final ordering deadline for the 2026 AP exams is November 14th

096so if you wish to opt out of an exam you should do so by then and then Friday marks the end of this month so our seniors are finalizing their college applications. I have not gotten any decisions back but I'll keep you updated on that. The early action deadline was November 1st they've put in so much hard work in addition to the counselors and teachers who have been spending countless hours working on recommendation letters and post-secondary planning for students so thank you to all of them for their amazing help. It's been a very exciting start to fall and we can't wait to see what the rest of the semester has in store for us. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ron while I speak to the next part can you bring up 8a on the

097agenda on the screen? We do have to have a brief conversation in regards to IASB recommendations and the best practice from them is that each school board discuss the proposed resolutions and constitutional amendments from IASB and come to consensus regarding whether to vote in support or against each one of the 2025 IASB delegate assembly items. I will serve as the board's delegate. Following today's conversation the board's delegate may only vote based on the consensus reached at tonight's board meeting. Rick I appreciate the time you took to do the research if you can please share your guidance on how the board should vote on the resolutions and the one constitutional amendment based on your research please. Yes I reviewed the entire document which is attached here. I expect a lot of people didn't but that's perfectly

098all right. So the constitutional amendments are really inside baseball stuff they're trying to clean up the operation make things run more efficiently and to have the constitution reflect practice. So I've got a description of each one of these here but I think that we don't really need to go through at all but I recommend that we support the constitutional amendments. It's a consent agenda item. The only resolution that's come in front of us this year is about school bus safety funding. One of the things that the state has done is that they now have a requirement that we have three point seat belts on buses starting in 2031 and I think it may be just on new buses but what the smaller school districts smaller in terms of number of students but maybe large in

099terms of number of buses because we're talking the rural districts in central Illinois. This is a really huge imposition on them and they've asked basically that the school board association support their ability to delay the implementation of this act because of the cost and impact on them. Background is there's actually some controversy over whether this is a good idea or not because of the issue especially with smaller kids we've got three point seat belt where does it go on them etc but that's moot because the governor and the legislature has decided to implement this plan so the ask is that the smaller districts not have to do it quite as quickly but again I support that we pass that resolution. So your recommendation is that we agree with their plan on the constitutional amendments and

100then the one resolution. Yes. Any questions or differing opinions for everyone that read all of them? Read reviewed and in the past this has come to the policy committee as well just because of timing it didn't go to the policy committee so I echo Rick thank you for taking that on. Yeah fantastic. All right thank you very much. So I will as the delegate vote to adopt the items. We will now proceed to public comments. We welcome your comments and questions to give them serious consideration pursuant to Board of Education policy 2-230. Per policy 8-30 the use of threats, harassment, intimidation, and language as profane, vulgar, obscene, or defamatory is not permitted. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated and failure to adhere to these policies will result in loss of speaking privileges. All speakers should

101recognize the authority of the board president and be respectful in response to reasonable directives which may be necessary to facilitate orderly public participation. We will go in the order of the numbered card you received when registering to speak. When I call your number please come to the podium, identify yourself with a first and last name and city in which you reside and if applicable state the agenda item to which your comment is directed. Please keep all comments within three minutes. The vice president, Jaime, will raise a hand as a 30-second warning and announce time when the limit is reached. You must conclude your remarks immediately. Any questions may be sent via email to the superintendent to receive a response subsequent to the meeting. As a reminder public participation is not intended to be a back

102and forth discussion between the public and the board and with that I will start with speaker number one please. My name is okay thank you. My name is Keith Brinn. I live in Highland Park. I'm Adam president and members of the board. I'm a father of a Highland Park high school student and until last Thursday I didn't think I would ever have to wonder how many times does a teacher have to inappropriately touch a student before they're no longer in the classroom. Now that question is real. You're employing a teacher that has a long record of incidents including accosting students showing movies that feature nudes shower scenes of adolescents scenes of children drinking and those same students kids kissing and a teacher that thought it was acceptable to massage a student's hand to the horror

103of the student and those witnessing what was occurring and her excuse I know what it looked like but I didn't mean it like that. I guess touching kids massaging the hand of a kid in class is okay if you don't mean it like that. I guess it has nothing to do with the student who was inappropriately touched or how devastated she is and now the teacher is going back to the classroom. The investigation found that the movie shown was inappropriate that there was inappropriate touching of the student. The situation was bad enough that multiple students were offered different learning options away from the teacher and the class and the teacher was told not to go near the student she touched and the result the teacher is going back to the class. So that gets us

104to the question how many kids does the teacher have to touch before you take the teacher out of a classroom? Until that gets answered what remains is that our tax dollars are paying for a teacher who touches kids inappropriately getting back to teaching kids. The teacher who potentially committed a battery against a child. Will our tax dollars pay for the lawsuit when the next kid gets touched? Shame on the school district for putting kids in danger. Shame on this district for putting the teacher back in the classroom after the teacher accosted a student in the bathroom. Shame on this district for putting the teacher back in class after she made a girl stand outside the classroom and screamed at her telling her she was a bad girl and shame on this district for putting a

105teacher who touches kids back in class. Is this a safe education for our kids? I'm here because my daughter is a really great kid and I won't let my daughter down the same way this school district has. I don't care where this teacher ends up except that she has no business being around anybody's kids. Thank you. Speaker number two. Good evening my name is Tori Drake and I'm a junior at Highland Park High School. I'm standing here tonight not because I want to but because I feel like I have to. I'm a student and the fact that I'm the one standing up here saying this should mean something. You shouldn't need to know my name or my story to take this seriously. The very fact that someone like me needs to speak out about this

106should be enough to make you stop and listen. The situation involving Profay Farner has gone far beyond classroom issues. It's about the safety and trust towards the faculty from the students in this building. Over the past few years there have been multiple documented incidents involving this teacher. Incidents that have made students feel unsafe, disrespected and unheard. Students have been screamed at in hallways, touched without consent, followed into private spaces and left feeling powerless. In my personal experience I was victimized in front of my entire class, taken out of the classroom, verbally harassed and then left out of the classroom for multiple minutes. Ever since that day Profay had lacked any sort of respect, trust or professionalism towards me. And yet despite after repeated complaints and even suspensions this teacher is being allowed to return. Let

107me be clear, allowing someone with this record of behavior back into a classroom with minors sends a message. A message that student safety is negotiable. That our voices, comfort and boundaries come second to convenience. Highland Park High School has built its reputation on care, inclusion and excellence. But inclusion can't come at the cost of safety. Compassion doesn't mean ignoring patterns of harm and excellence doesn't mean protecting adults over protecting students. By allowing Profay Farner back into our building you are now creating a new reputation. A reputation that reflects your lack of care towards every single student at Highland Park High School. Especially the ones who have shown to be brave enough to use a voice to express our extreme discomfort in a place we are obligated to attend five days a week, eight hours a

108day. Every time a student is silenced, a concern is brushed off and a harmful action is excused, our trust in the school fractures a little more. We deserve classrooms where we can focus on learning, not whether the adults around us will cross our boundaries again. We deserve teachers who lift us up and not ones who leave us afraid to speak out. If this teacher returns and yet another student is harmed, that responsibility will not fall on the students who spoke up but will fall squarely on the people who ignored the warning signs. You are supposed to be the adults who should protect us, yet you are the one sending us right back into harm's way. So tonight I'm asking this board to do what's right, not what's easy. Protect your students. Believe us when we

109say we are uncomfortable and afraid. Stand by your code of conduct and not behind excuses because if you fail to protect us now, you're telling every student here that their safety does not matter and that is something none of us, parents or students, will forget. This isn't over. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number three, we have now concluded. Oh, I'm so sorry. Speaker number four. Oh, I, you know, and I apologize. No, no worries. Lisa Allen, I live in Glenview, Deerfield High Social Studies Department. I just wanted to thank the board for semester after semester hosting our students from the Deerfield Social Studies Department as part of their civic engagement assignment. The numbers are always a bit higher right before the assignments do, but they always learn so much. I love when they say that's

110so stressful. They must get paid so much for that. And just to say that, no, you do it to serve our communities and our schools and your incredible role models of civic engagement and participation. And thank you. Next, we will move on to policy. So we have a number of policies that are up for first reading. We have two different sections. First, policies with updates. I believe we'll go through each one. If that's correct, Dr. Holland, we'll go through each one. And if there are any questions or if there's any discussion, so bear with me as we go through each, then we'll go through policies with updates only to references or footnotes. So we'll start with one dash one zero school district legal status. Oh, the other thing to mention is these have all gone

111through the policy committee and reviewed through the policy committee as well. Questions on one dash one zero. Okay, moving on to one dash two zero district organization operations and cooperative agreements. One dash three zero school organizations, school district philosophy. I just want to mention that this one was updated to incorporate the work that was done in our strategic plan. So that language is now embedded. Two dash eight zero board member oath. Two dash one three zero board superintendent relationship. Two dash one five zero committees. I do also want to, sorry, I'm just chiming in. I also want to comment on this one. We have, as many people know, we've shifted sort of our structure for board committees this year. We have our board policy committee. We have a board finance and facilities committee combined since

112historically most of those conversations have overlapped and been interconnected. And so I also want to mention that we now have an education committee through some discussion. Our education committee is going to be, is framed within this policy as a special board committee, recognizing that we have a new strategic plan. We have great intentions to have more specific conversations around our path, our educational path moving forward, but this will not be a standing committee. So following this year, we'll gauge the scope of the conversations that we have at the board table regarding teaching and learning and the student experience and determine whether we would need an education committee moving forward. So for right now, it's framed as a special board committee. So that's why that's not listed, but we do have an education committee this year.

113The other thing that I want to mention about this section is that you'll notice that the behavioral interventions committee is redlined or crossed out, and that's because there are other spaces in which we engage those conversations. We do have our parent teacher advisory committee, which is very focused on having an avenue to give insight into some of our student-centered policies and the way that they're experienced with our students, specifically student behavior, discipline, and other aspects of the student experience. The behavior interventions committee, that work is actually happening in other spaces throughout the district. And so we feel confident if there's a need to produce notes or information about where we're talking about the behavioral supports that we provide, we can do that, and we do not need a standalone committee for that. Thank you. 2-240,

114board policy development. Next, 4-15, identity protection. Board, next, 4-180, pandemic preparedness, management, and recovery. Next, 7-40, non-public school students, including parochial and homeschool students. I'm just going to pause for a second. If members of the team who have reviewed these policies feel as though there are aspects that, based on what you've learned through this experience that you need to highlight and name, please feel free to jump in like I am. Thank you. Next, 7-130, student rights and responsibilities. Next, 7-140, search and seizure. Next, 7-325, student fundraising activities. Next, 8-80, gifts to the district. So I'm going to jump in. If you open this up, it is primarily all red. During the policy committee meeting, we had a conversation just around the history of gifts, donations, naming, and tributes, and I asked for some additional time

115to pull information, to look at structures that other districts may have, and also to consider not just the here and now, but future possibilities and how we want to structure a way for different forms of donations to come in, for example, or gifts, how we want to manage that, how we want to engage with naming our facilities or different tributes or honors. It's really important for our district to have structures and procedures around those things, especially without them, it can create a lot of chaos and confusion and a lot of requests that sometimes can be mismanaged. And so some time was taken to figure out a structure for accepting gifts and determining the procedures for those, looking at donations and the parameters around receiving donations, whether that's money, equipment, or materials, and managing that. Additionally,

116naming policies, just thinking about how we may want to name buildings, programs, parts of buildings, outdoor facilities, and then the last part is tributes and gifts and memorials. I just want to name that throughout all of these, the board remains or maintains discretion to move forward with naming after a vetting process that's named in this policy, but also has the right to remove names or to change course. It's really important for the board to have flexibility around ensuring that we're accepting donations or renaming buildings and doing those things, for example, that all efforts are aligned with our vision, our direction, our values, and our priorities as a district. And as we know, over time, sometimes those things change or the missions of other donors change. And so we need to be able to be flexible

117with that. So you'll notice all the changes. And of course, as with every policy, as we live it, if there's a need for something else or a modification, we would bring that back. But I feel pretty confident in the structure that we have outlined in this new policy. Thank you for the... Newly revised policy. Newly revised. Thank you for the work and the looking at the background, looking at what other districts are doing and all of the homework and the research on what would go into the policy. Are there any questions specific to this policy? I'll just add, this was probably the one that we talked about the most to the policy committee. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had a long discussion about this. And so I really appreciate the additional work done after a

118holiday after the meeting. And I think this looks like really just much more comprehensive and detailed than we had previously. And I think it really put the board in a better position going forward. Thank you. All right. And then finally, in this section, 8-95, parental involvement. Any questions? So up next, section 11, policies with updates to references or their footnotes only. We have two. There's 4-55, use of credit and procurement cards. And 7-300, extracurricular activities. And then the last section, section 12 is policies with no updates. So as part of the regular review of policies, there are some, when we get press updates, that there aren't updates that we do to those policies, but we still want to memorialize that we've taken a look at those policies, but no changes have been made to those.

119So for those, we have 2-10, school district governance, 3-30, chain of command, 4-50, payment procedures, and 7-90, released during school hours. Any questions on any of those? No. Okay. All right. So we'll have some of those policies that will be coming up to the next board meeting for second reading. Yes. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move on to discussion items. The first is a memorandum of understanding with the DEA provision of physical education to students at Highland Park High School with medical excuses. And to note, this will also be an action item later in the agenda. Yes. So I can speak to this. This is here for discussion and action. Although this has been worked on and we've tried to better understand more of the history behind it, it's coming for discussion and action

120basically as an extension of what already exists. And so this memo was put into place, I believe, two or so years ago, and last year did not come up as a point of discussion, even though it was supposed to be a one-year memo of understanding of agreement or agreement. And so we plan to, it's coming up for discussion because we plan to keep it in place. I mean, the school year has started for this year with the intent of changing the structure for next school year. So our plan is for this to be the last time you see this MOU because we will change the way or engage in further discussions on the way that we support students who have a medical excuse or a need to be absent, a physical or a mental excuse,

121a medical excuse. I'm all over the place. I'm tired. A medical excuse for being absent from PE. So I just wanted to provide that context. Any discussion on this item? Okay. So this will come up for action later in this agenda. The next item is the new course proposals for the 26-27 school year. Dr. Ritter? Yes. I have two course proposals to discussion items tonight. One is a new course and one is a course that already exists but requires significant revision. Before introducing these courses, I just want to let everyone know how course proposals are submitted. Department chairs submitted new course proposal or a course with significant revision, usually in September, keeping in line with the priorities that new course proposals should be built in a career pathway, that it is a district-wide proposal for

122both schools and align with inclusive school communities. In October, our district course proposal committee as well as our instructional leadership teams at each building reviewed the submitted requests and provided feedback. We then reviewed these at cabinet level and are bringing forth the proposals for discussion to the board. The two courses we are bringing to tonight are AP Business with Personal Finance, which is a new course that is set to launch in 26-27 from College Board. This course is part of an AP Career Kickstart series of courses that are focused on strengthening durable skills and preparing students for careers similar to the two courses that were already approved by the board last year, AP Networking and AP Cybersecurity. AP Business is considered a tri-credit opportunity, meaning it provides high school credit, college credit, and industry recognized

123credentials, which would give students entry-level skills towards a career or the experience to study business in college. The course will explore business disciplines such as entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, accounting, and management through hands-on project-based learning and case studies involving real companies like Bomba's Socks. The second course proposal is a significant revision. This revision combines two existing courses, the semester-long Aquatic and Marine Science from Deerfield High School and the year-long Environmental Science from Highland Park High School, and they are being combined into one single cohesive course. This was a result of our curriculum alignment work and we realized that the courses were very similar and focused on the same science standards. So the new course titled Aquatic and Environmental Science will be a semester-long course at both buildings and will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of

124ecological principles by studying the interconnectedness of freshwater, marine, and or terrestrial ecosystems. The main revision will occur at Highland Park High School to transition the existing year-long course into a semester-long course, again to bring alignment to both buildings. Any questions or discussion about these two courses? I have a question. So for both of these courses, at what grade level can you enroll in them and then are there any prerequisites? The AP Business Principles right now we're kind of drafting a career pathway for that course. So right now we're thinking it could be taken in the 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. Same with the Aquatic and Environmental Science. Typically electives for science are 11th and 12th grade. Students can take them at the 10th grade if they are taken in conjunction with chemistry or biology, one

125of the requirements. I had a couple questions as well. The one was with the new AP Business and Personal Finance, is there going to be an enrollment benchmark that must be met for the class to run even with it being a new class? We'll try to keep it in line with any other new course that we offer. We don't want to have a really small section, so we're going to try to boost recruitment and enrollment for that course. It is a pilot this year in many districts, but it is highly, highly popular, so we anticipate it to be a popular course. The hard thing with that is we have our agreement that has some parameter around class size as well. Okay, and then my other question was with the science class going to a one

126semester class at Highland Park, the students will have an option for another one semester class for the other semester? Yeah, both schools offer several different science elective courses that are semester long. Yeah, I knew DHS did. I wasn't sure if Highland Park had the same. Okay, great. Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, the next item is a recommendation to rescind the D113 intent to withdraw from TrueNorth 804. I learned that it's called a rescission. No, you didn't say anything wrong, but it was like, I've never used that word before, rescission. So it's here in the memo. And so many of you know that I've been providing the board with updates on our partnership with TrueNorth. TrueNorth serves as our educational cooperative. And since the end of last school year,

127there have been conversations around the disillusion of the cooperative, which to make a long story shorter, has morphed into a direction of reorganizing the cooperative, saving the cooperative, maintaining it, but scaling it significantly down. And so the information I provided in the board packet provides an overview of some of the updates that I've given along the way to the board, as well as a memo that outlines a recommendation that I'm making for the board to make to rescind our intent to withdraw. Previously, I recommended for us to withdraw at a time when the path was towards disillusion. A lot has changed. We've had two committees, one on disillusion and one on reorganizing, and now we just have one on reorganizing. So I just want to briefly highlight why I'm recommending that we rescind our intent

128to withdraw. A lot of progress has been made. Some of the areas or all of the areas in which there were previously stated concerns about being a member had been addressed through the reorganization plan and process. The new plan addresses the primary concerns, as I mentioned, and it removes membership fees. Previously, there were concerns that high school districts, more so than some of the elementary districts, were paying the largest amount because our membership fees were based on enrollment of the district, not the use of services. So we were paying for services that we sometimes were not accessing. So that's been addressed through the removal of membership fees. There's been a structure to condense some of the programming at True North to focus on having a K through 12 therapeutic day school. You've heard about North

129Shore Academy, and they've had different grade bands for North Shore Academy. This would be one comprehensive therapeutic day school. As mentioned with the scaling, this plan requires almost a 50% reduction in staff. So of course, that's very hard and a very sensitive topic because we have people who have spent their entire careers giving of themselves to True North and the students and families served. It will be operating under a new governance structure that centers more the conversations and needs as outlined and determined by superintendents rather than the board members who represent the different districts, and there will be a reshaping of the leadership structure to align more with other cooperatives, special education cooperatives elsewhere around the country actually. And so the benefits for staying, operational costs would be embedded into the fees for tuition and

130services. So you may be wondering what happens to the membership fees? How can the cooperative maintain all of the expenses? First thing without going into detail, the cooperative gets evidence-based funding, $2.5 million in funding, and no, that's not enough. Embedded also when the financial structure is an increase in fees for tuition and services. So the model includes a greater cost for tuition for our students to participate in some of the programming at True North, but that cost embeds the operational costs as well. Previously, if you remember the model, there were a series of different costs that we were paying that were all separated and very expensive. So that's now embedded into tuition. Member districts, the other thing I want to mention is that member districts will be a part of the new direction. And so

131even though True North is scaling back at this time, the plan is to scale back to get True North in a better state with the possibility for expansion in the future based off of a sound foundation as outlined in the new plan. I also want to mention that this model for districts would allow us to be responsible only for paying for the services that we're using. And so whether it's tuition costs or expenses for related service support, we would pay for those experiences, not everyone else's experiences. And we would still have access to itinerant services, which is really important. Some of the specialty positions and support and services that our students need are very hard for districts to fund independently. Sometimes you may only need a point two or point three in thinking about FTE

132of a position. The fact that they would be offering those services gives us access to them, and they're hard to come by. It's hard to find some of the staff that are needed to properly support our students. So we would still have access to those services. And also the reorganization model removes the risk of us being left behind with expenses or staff members that aren't necessarily included in our long-term staffing or plan for expenditures. Overall, I think that this plan addresses the needs. I think the restructuring can be a positive for us, and it allows the cooperative to remain alive. Many of you know through the journey of when the cooperative was NSSCD through True North, it's well known around the country. It was like the number one cooperative everywhere. People moved here to be

133a part of this experience, and our goal is to help it become that experience once again. And so I do want to name, because I've continuously continued to meet with families and caregivers around our conversations around the transition program. Part of this plan, still just to reiterate the transition program, our transition program and our partnership with True North, but still sunset June 2027 under this plan. And so even though I am recommending that we rescind our intent to withdraw, that work has continued. There have been site visits, there have been planning meetings, a vision laid out for our program, ongoing conversations with community partners as well. So I just want to name we're still planning to take over our transition program, yet I'm still recommending that we remain a member of True North. And so

134at our next meeting, the same way the board voted to approve the intent to withdraw, I will be asking the board to approve the rescission of the intent to withdraw from True North in November. Questions? So how is it different being a member of True North going forward? Historically, we sort of were stuck, right? Do we have more flexibility in the future if we decide that, you know what, we gave it a shot, it's not working for us? Great question. Yes, there is more flexibility. And I just want to, it's a great question. Part of the bylaws and agreements allow for a clearer pathway to withdraw. I also want to name there's no harm in staying, even if you don't use any of the services. That's the main point. Pay for what you use. You

135pay for what you use. If you choose to go somewhere else, we can go do that and then it doesn't impact our membership. I always think there's a benefit of being a part of a special education cooperative, just for access to the knowledge, resources, and the insights. Our educational landscape is changing, constantly changing. You think about funding for services, all of those things, having experts in that level of expertise and access into our local landscape in terms of legislature, but also the national landscape is really important. To be able to provide for our district as well as our families. So there's a benefit in staying, even if we do not use any of the services. How many of the former members are reversing course? So it was a straw poll. So there are 18 member

136districts and from the last conversation we had, I believe there were maybe two that were still considering whether they would withdraw or not, but of course that wasn't finalized with at least 16 planning to rescind their intent to withdraw. So it's been a total shift. It's the complete turn of events. And clearly enough to make a go of it. I don't know where that threshold is, but 2018 seems like that should do it. Yes. So I have one question about the financial model. So you had mentioned that under the previous model, the high school districts really paid a larger share because the membership assessment is based on enrollment and whatnot. I looked at the potential cost savings per district slide, which is the back, and it does look like we're going to save some money,

137but it looks like the savings are actually significantly larger for some of the elementary districts. I think both of our feeder districts, 109 and 112, we're going to see significant cost savings beyond what we're saving. Any idea why that's the case? Yeah. Great question. I had a similar question and wondered if they had all of our information. I do want to name that one of our, and this probably our greatest expense is through our transition program and the fact that we fully rely on True North to guide it and lead it. And so even it is not to say we're not going to create the best program possible, or we're looking to shortchange our students in their experience. We were already having some conversations of whether bringing that back in-house, if that would be a

138financial savings for us. And even in some of the mapping out that we're doing right now, that will be a significant decrease for us that's not represented in their chart. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is the building envelope conversation. So this is an extension of our conversation today in our finance and facilities committee meeting. As a part of our master facility planning processes, we are really trying to get a sense, a better assessment and putting some structures in place to properly assess the state of our facilities. The building envelope item for discussion is associated with that, and this would give us a system to use and information to use and to bring to the master facility process through a separate vendor outside of the use of our architect. And I'm going to let Jose

139Medina talk through this agenda item. Thank you, Dr. Holland. So this would be another portion of our master facilities plan, and what this would consist of would be a complete assessment of the building envelope, which is our roofs, our exterior walls, our windows, doors, and hardscapes across the whole district. A building envelope management system, which is called BEMS, will be implemented and it's a system that the district will own. This will track condition history, leak reports, warranty claims, and repair work over time. The difference between this and a regular assessment from our architects is that this is a deeper, more precise evaluation of our buildings. Technical reports, detailed maps, and specific repairs recommendations that we will have and own that we can use in our own bid documents. All this data will be accessible in

140the BEMS program for future updates and also tracking. The whole work will take about three months to complete, and the total cost of this is about $155,000. The district will own all its plans, its budgets, and data generated from this work. This item is up for discussion for this meeting, but for the next upcoming November meeting, I will have a representative with also a demonstration of the program and what we can do with it. Are there any questions? Can you just briefly explain to the rest of the board what I heard at the facilities meeting in regards to what this actually will be examining? I heard you say the exterior only of the buildings. Correct. This will examine the exterior of the buildings, which includes our roofing, our exterior windows, our exterior walls, any hardscape,

141which includes all our exterior sidewalks, and also black tops of the building. Just a complete evaluation and also giving us the budgetary numbers for the next 20 years that we're able to then collaborate and put together with our master facilities plan with our architectural firm. So a couple of things here. I know they're correct if I say something wrong. One thing is the intent to bring in a group like this rather than having somebody else look at this is that they're going to look at this with a critical eye towards does it need to be replaced? Can we make reasonable repairs to extend its life, that sort of thing, rather than just looking at something and saying, hey, it's 20 years. It's at the end of its useful life. Just replace it. So the intent

142is to create some savings there by doing that. The other thing that you talked about, which is by owning our data, lots of times when you do these sorts of things through, say, an architectural firm and they're putting plans together and that sort of thing, that's their intellectual property. And so they own it. We don't own it. If you've got a good relationship, lots of times, sometimes they'll turn it over to you, but they don't have to. In this way, we own the data now, but then offer us freedom going forward in any direction we want to go and how we want to utilize it in any way that we want. So those are two of the big reasons why we might take away using a firm like this to do a study like this.

143The other thing that struck me, again, not having a technical background at all when I was listening, and so correct me if I'm wrong, I thought what I heard was that we're going to be collecting this information out of humans' brains. Right now, a lot of the information we have about our operations are with historically captured in your predecessors or with our vendors that we work with. And having a tool that we own, it is now no longer in the human's brain. It's actually captured somewhere and can live beyond who's in roles. Yes, correct. And also will be updated too with any repairs, any budgetary data. If I'm not here or anyone else or the board members that aren't here, that data will still be implemented for the district to use for future projects. I

144think it's very helpful. That's great. Outlives humans. I think that's a really great aspect to have it actually somewhere instead of somebody's head somewhere or a folder somewhere. Are there any other districts in the area who've made this switch and how has that affected their budget or their planning, things like that? Yes, I spoke from individuals from District 128, also 112. They absolutely love the program. Even in the budgetary numbers, the ROI, if their architects are requesting a roof replacement, our roofing consultant can come in and say, no, this can last us another eight years, which automatically saves them $1.5 million in roof replacements that year. Then we can either use those budgetary numbers to another project or put in the savings. Great. Thank you. Yes. Any other questions, thoughts? I know this was obviously

145discussed a great length at the phase and finance meeting. Okay. The next item is resolution authorizing intervention at the PTAB and the Lake County Board of Review. Ali? All right. Good evening. So this is an annual item. So we were recommending authorizing FRANZIC to represent the district in large property tax assessment appeals. So while the PTAB recapture law, PTAB, our property tax appeal board, protects overall revenue. Significant assessment reductions can still impact the fairness of the tax base and shift the burden to other taxpayers. So this authorization applies to appeals of $500,000 or more, but the decision to intervene in each case remains at the district's discretion. I also want to point out that we do have shared services with 112 and 109 as well, even with this new law firm. Previously, we had ACELERC

146and they've agreed for us to use FRANZIC and the attorney bill is shared depending on where the appeal is, which boundary, 109 or 112. And also, rather than the district billing us this time, I've spoken to FRANZIC. They will bill 109, 112 directly, saving all the headache on the business office side. Great. Thank you. I'm getting the impression that some of these appeals are not just initially going through this board, the property tax appeal board, but are going directly to circuit court. And that bypasses our ability to have the state reimburse us or allow us to get reimbursement for that amount. Would those types of situations also be covered by this resolution? So we will not lose any revenue because of the PTAB recapture law. Right. But the governed house building on Central Island Park

147bypassed this and got an approval through the court system and therefore, we didn't get the credit. Correct. Will this resolution allow this to have FRANZIC representatives if we choose to? I mean, this will not be the case. For the other issue, we can, yes. So this is the same exact last year. This is just for PTABs, which is the property tax appeal court. Okay. Yes. We'd have to engage them separately. Yes, for the other issue. Correct. For situations like this. Absolutely. Good question, though. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. School bus replacement plan update. Brandon, you've been very patient. Oh. I wasn't sure. Dr. Holland, that's the next topic. Good evening. So this school bus fleet replacement plan, do you have the clipper or Ron? Okay. Thank you. So the purpose of this is to provide

148everyone here an overview and a recommendation regarding the school bus replacement plan, including the FY26 school bus fleet replacement plan. This plan reflects a continuation of the district's rolling five-year strategy to maintain a safe, efficient, and modern fleet while managing long-term costs in capital investments and predictability. Next slide, please. So our goal is to lower the average fleet age to five years and improve reliability and safety. This plan will reduce the long-term maintenance cost and minimize unexpected repairs. It ensures a predictable annual capital equipment budget instead of a large spikes of spending. And we will also integrate the EPA EV buses into the fleet to promote sustainability. Next slide, please. So this slide here, it's identifying the FY26 is what we're currently in now. So 170,000 covers the two wheelchair buses that we rely on

149pretty heavily in our district. Those are our workhorses. Those heavily need to be replaced. They are currently delayed. So a lot of our diesel buses across the industry are being delayed when EPA funding was released. A lot of vendors prioritize EV buses. EV buses and diesel buses use the same chassis. So regardless of what type of school bus you were purchasing, most vendors prioritize EV buses because the EPA was providing them with the funding to build those vehicles. So continuing on with those vehicles, those vehicles are being purchased through the fund balance at 289,000. And the remainder was covered or is being covered through EPA funding in a ComEd rebate as well. Although it's listed as 289, the total coverage for those three buses including the actual Lyft bus as well that we're adding to

150our fleet from two to three, the coverage for those were 1.3 million. But our cost is 289. And then moving on to this current budget year, which were the initial plan. So 471 passenger diesel buses at 206,000 at a three-year lease and one activity bus to be placed at Deerfield High School. So this approach keeps our annual spending consistent and predictable. And the total investment would be 708,000 for FY26. So at that 708,459 comes from the fund balance. And this was previously allocated funds and approved funds. And the only new funds are from the 206,000 and the 43,000 for the 71 passengers in the activity bus. Right. So I do want to mention that these buses have been already previously been approved as part of the every year's budget by the board. Because of the

151delayed, we just want to make sure we provide an update because we're all going to be purchasing in this year because we did not use prior funds, even though the board approved it as part of the budget because of the delay. So just as a refresher. Thank you. Excellent. So this is an example of the maintenance costs to give a better understanding of why we're aiming for a five-year replacement plan. So as you can see here from when we're going from zero to five, jumping up to six to eight to nine to 13. So currently we do have, although we're aiming for a five-year average age of fleet, most of our or a good chunk of our buses will be above five years old. The average age of our fleet is aiming to be five

152years old. So the purpose of that is our route buses and our buses have to go to Peoria or longer routes or longer trips. We have something that's dependable. So if we're a hundred miles away, 50 miles away with large groups, we have something we can rely on. And then our spare buses will be the aging fleet that will be closer to the nine to 10 years of our fleet. Next slide, please. And this is a better understanding or a deeper dive into our maintenance costs. So we use here is the maintenance savings as a baseline. So our current budget right now is a 237 for our maintenance budget to buy parts for our vehicles across our transportation department. So right now the estimated maintenance cost is on 223,000. So if we were to move

153forward with this plan, as you can see in the next fiscal year, it would go down by 49,000 and our maintenance costs would go to 188,000. As the years progress, you can see it fluctuates as our vehicle age fluctuates up and down as well. The reason our vehicle age is fluctuating up and down is we're not purchasing a vehicle every year. We're doing a three-year lease plan. So we'll purchase, we'll complete the lease, and then we'll reset. So we can go to the next slide and I'll further explain it as well. So this is a another example or a visual of that. So this is a current. You'll see there where it says the current is 8.2 is our current age of our fleet. And then moving forward for FY 26, our fleet age would

154move on to 6.3. And our maintenance cost is expected to go down to 188,000. You can see further down in FY 31, it goes up. So we go past the 237 of where we currently are above that. And you can also see that I'm sorry, that average age of fleet goes above 8.2 and it goes to 8.5 aligning with as our fleet grows older, our maintenance cost grows higher as well. So with that maintenance cost is not just dollars and cents, it's reliability as well. So we have 38 buses and we don't have more space for more buses. We're gridlocked pretty much. And we're budgeted for 31 drivers. We have 31 routes right now that can grow. If we include more routes, we have to farm out routes to third party vendors like cab companies.

155So that raises are another line item in transportation. So if we are operating a higher aged fleet that limits our opportunity or puts us more vulnerable to have breakdowns and if let's say we have three spares go down, but we only have 31 drivers or 38 buses. Now we're down to 35 buses and 31 drivers. It puts us in a very tight place, which is why we led to adding the third lift bus because we were leaning on just a backup. We added another one because our special needs population is growing as well. So next slide please. So this is explaining more in detail with the next direction for FY 2029. So the plan is to acquire 771 passenger buses at a three-year lease purchase. The trade-ins will offset the cost in the maintenance cost

156and then for FY 2030 through FY 2031, we'll pause new purchases while completing that three-year lease purchase. FY 32 replace 10 additional buses using trade-in credits and maintenance savings. By FY 2032, we'll have some younger fleet that we can trade in as well. So we'll actually recoup some trade-ins right at that time. Currently when we trade in vehicles, we're either scrapping it and getting a thousand dollars, fifteen hundred dollars. The goal is by the time we get to this portion that we can actually get a real return on our trade-ins and we can actually use them on our new purchases. This cycle helps keep our fleet on track and assures budget consistency through FY 2032. Next slide please. So this is a more detailed, more pictures. So I'm a visual learner so this is the

157example that I'm sharing. So this is a visual acquisition cost minus the estimated maintenance and cost savings in the average age of the fleet. So you'll see in FY 2026, the lease group FY 2025, bus 85 we ordered a couple of years ago, it finally arrived. It actually came last month and then until you know on those two left buses being in FY 2026, we have our diesel buses and then the actual buses that were planned for this actual budget year all in FY 2026. You'll see moving on in 2027 and 2028 we're not acquiring any new additional vehicles and you can see the average age of fleet and the maintenance savings at the bottom being subtracted from that gross of purchasing those vehicles. In FY 29 we move on to purchase those 71 passenger

158vehicles and you can see that reflected in this as well. Next slide please. So lastly our recommendation is to authorize the completion of the delayed purchases using previously allocated funds of $459,144 and support the acquisition of four new 71 passenger diesel buses and one activity bus for FY 2026 and reaffirm the district's five-year replacement plan through FY 2032. I want to add a dotted line to that activity bus that creates another cost savings and transportation. So we have driver shortages and transportation and increased number of activities that we have in our district. So in transportation alone, this is a school bus moving across the district. We covered around 1,450 trips in transportation that's with a school bus. I asked for a report to find out how often our activity bus is going out and then

159how often is a suburban that our schools have out as well. So I use that suburban as an example and it went out 164 times since August of last year up until September this year. So if we take a piece of, we have two suburbans at that time at that school at Deerfield, take a portion of those trips on those suburbans and replace it with a safer activity bus. If we don't have that activity bus with the direction we're going to recommend our staff to use a safer version of transportation across the district. If that's not there, then they now have to use a school bus, which will increase payroll hours in transportation, depreciation on our vehicles, and fuel costs as well in our operation. Thank you. Any questions on anything? Thank you. This was

160really comprehensive. I have a question about the EV purchase. So you note in the fiscal year 2026 that we're spending $289,240 on the EV from the fund balance and then previously it said that that's three EV buses that were primarily EPA funded. So am I reading this correctly that we've received funding from the EPA already and say in the account we just haven't spent it yet because the buses haven't arrived? Yes, great question. So the EPA funding is going directly to the vendor Central States and the ComEd funding is going directly to Central States, which is the vendor that's selling us the three Bluebird buses. So the EPA funding was roughly $595,000 and the ComEd funding is roughly $206,000. Okay, so the total cost for the three EV buses is almost like a million dollars.

161We're just only spending $289,000 of it? Correct. Okay. What's the life cycle for the EVs compared to the diesel buses? So the vendor is painting a pretty picture of it could be 10 years, it could be seven years. No one really knows completely because they haven't had it long enough. So we're getting the newer battery. Our buses actually landed last week off the truck. They're actually finally here two years later. So they're actually not here but at the vendor. So the expectation is seven to 10 years. They're 155 kilowatt batteries or mile batteries, which in real life it's about 100 miles, 110 miles, 120 miles, depending on the weather. Okay. And then we've also done analysis, which we've shared previously. Alex, you were not on the board, but it was about the savings for getting

162those electric buses about I think like $4,000 a year. Okay. And it only makes sense to buy those electric buses at the end of the credit. Right. It doesn't make financial sense. That's what I was- There's a price tag. It's just ridiculous right now. Okay. Without the grant. So that's why we're waiting for the grant until, so we don't want to obviously- Excellent. Before we get the grant. So now we have it. So it's good news. Okay. Great question. What's the impact of climate on the longevity of the buses? For the EV buses? Just wondering if there's a relationship. So in very cold weather, so I actually attended an EV bus training with our lead mechanic here, Brian, last week. We were there with Bluebird and it was recommended if possible that they could be

163stored indoors, but not everyone has that opportunity. So in colder weather, roughly below 20 degrees, you do have some battery degradation. So let's, if we are at 155 miles, you may lose 10 miles. But our plan here isn't to use that full distance. The goal for our EV buses is to use them within our routes, within our district. EV bus distance and batteries cannot handle our operation as a full spectrum right now because we have trips, we have routes, we have midday routes. There's not enough time to charge. The battery isn't large enough to handle our operation. Great question. So when I look at the chart of the years here, given the likelihood of more stuff coming from the feds is not that great in the next few years, it looks like we're going to

164be buying more diesel or leasing more diesel buses in 2029. And the next decision point for EV is going to be 2032. So which is fine. That gives us plenty of time to assess the maintenance costs and the other kinds of things associated with the three buses that we do have. Yes, that is exactly correct. So it gives us a chance to see how to properly train our drivers, where to actually place those buses, how to cut it, I'm sorry, to adjust them to our routes, to our district, to our operation, and then for the vendors, because they're going to adjust as well. When we ordered the buses, we had a 130 kilowatt battery. By the time they were to be delivered, our battery grew to 155 kilowatts. So I expect by that time, the

165battery will be a lot bigger as well, which we can then explore that again. And I expect it'll be cheaper as well. Better technology, definitely. It'll be less. I don't expect it to have to be cheaper. Yeah. So I've got two questions that are rolling around in my head and I can't quite figure out whether, you know. So one is, if you go from the three to five year category to the six to eight year category, it costs you two to $4,000 a year per bus, additional maintenance, right? At least that's, you know, on our experience. A bus costs $50,000. So I'm just trying to figure out, you know, as you do with your own car, right? When does it make sense to bite the bullet and buy a new one or just, you know,

166go a couple more years and repair it? You know, and this gets to this idea of is five years the right fleet age, is six years, is seven years, is eight years, you know, that kind of thing. I see we're recommending five and I, you know, I haven't figured it out yet how I, you know, what my position on that is. I know where you're on it, right? So that's one thing. The other question I'm sort of rolling around is listen, through no fault of our own, our purchases from last year got delayed by a year, right? Should we just roll everything forward by a year and not do two years worth in this year? Just take last year and do it next year, you know, that kind of thing. Great question. So to answer

167your first question, if we, let me recalibrate myself. So just. It's the cost benefit between spending $50,000 on a new bus or an extra $2,000 to fix it further. So over time, although it's saying five on the surface, many of our vehicles will be 10, 11, 12, 13 years old. That's what it's saying on the surface. That's what it is. It's five years. So if we move it to seven or eight, a much larger group of our vehicles will now be 15, 14, 16, or 10 to 15 or 16 years old, which leaves us with vehicles that are now six to about 10 years old, which is our younger fleet. At six to 10 years old, it's a lot more opportunities for higher cost repairs. And this maintenance costs spreadsheet that I shared, that is

168a modest spreadsheet. Just recently we had to, Rob Peter to pay Paul for an example, because we have limited spares and the amount of coverage that we have, we can't rely on aging vehicles. So that question has come up with a first student or Olson's per se, they have a larger fleet, which has a great opportunity of spare vehicles. So then if a vehicle goes down, they can just go and get another one. If our vehicles, if we go down four or five vehicles, we're in trouble. If we have two wheelchair or lift vehicles go down, we're in trouble. We now have to farm that out. By the time we get to the middle of the school year or six months down or four months down, we've probably paid for half the bus by farming

169that out. So it's not apples to apples per se. It's based on your operation and the size of that. There are other, I'm sorry, but there are other issues we also run into by having access accumulation in a transportation fund. So by delaying it, so there are other headaches that we have to go through like another ratio as well. So that's just the second reason. Recommend. So what I heard Brandon say too, because I had asked that question too, is that it's, what I felt more comfortable with, if I'm correct, is that it's that average is five. And that you were saying that the cost can be closer to $6,000, you know, annual maintenance as that gets up to that six year, seven year range of an age of a bus. Yes. And again, that's

170a modest, because we don't know what's going to happen. We can get a bus. As soon as we get past the warranty stage, just our luck, we need a new transmission. And now it's really $11,000. This is a modest approach. That's really what it is. But the intent for this is we need reliable vehicles because when a large number of vehicles and a large number for us is four or five vehicles, when it goes down, we're in trouble and then we're going to pay for it somewhere else by farming out that assignment to someone else. Along those lines, does having a newer fleet on average necessitate the need for fewer reserve vehicles? Because I was thinking about this in terms of like this economics of this, if we're going to try to keep newer buses,

171does that mean we only need to have three in reserve as opposed to five if we're going to be trying to keep, you know what I mean? Like, have you looked at that at all to say, do we need the same number of buses if we are able to buy more new ones and keep them in better condition? So I still believe there's always a need for spares. So outside of breakdowns, our vehicles have to go into service. So for safety lanes, for brake jobs, for preventative maintenance as well. So that's outside of breakdowns as well. So I always believe there's a need for spares. An additional aspect of this is there's a lot of charter work on top of. So the number of buses definitely correlates of how much our demand is. If we

172have 35 routes that doesn't cover charters, extracurricular stuff, so we can cover all the routes. But then again, some of those drivers, we'll have to be using that spare bus like you had said. And to go back to your point, which was where is the start and stop point when you talk about a bus at five years or further down? One of the things that I would like to add to that is that your trade in value. You said a vehicle is $50,000 as an example. So currently we're trading in a bus. I just recently went and we got rid of a bus and I think we got $600 for it. We trade in a, you can't even think of a bus, $600. Wow. Anyhow, if we trade in a five-year-old bus, we're going to

173get $20,000. So your $50,000 is now potentially $30,000 or $20,000 or whatever. So the district will save money if we keep our trade-ins at a younger age as well. I mean, that's your best indication as to what the world thinks about old buses, right? And what their cost is or top rate them or what their utility is, right? So. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Any other questions? No questions. Thank you for all the work. Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And thank you for, obviously it's a later night, so we appreciate both of you being able to stay. So thank you. Okay. Ali, the last is a 2025 tax levy. Everybody looking at me, actually Dr. Holland has actually coaching me how to be really slow while talking presentation. So I'm going to do

174my best job too. And I appreciate that. And it was very slow and succinct. You missed the second part. You missed the second part. Okay. So good evening. So we just had a presentation regarding the tax levy in the finance committee. So I'm going to be just really brief and maybe skip a few slides, but quickly. So if there are any questions, please feel free to stop me. This is once a year or so. I mean, it's an important process. And it's important. It's serious. It's important. So I know. Yes. I was thinking. You should. So just quickly go over what property taxes are and how they're utilized. In state of Illinois, their property taxes are based on properties equalized assess valuation. So if your house is, for example, 300, $600,000, you take that number

175divided by three. So it's one third of the market value of the property. And then the total tax rate applied to that value after any exemptions. And then property taxes are not just levied by school district. They're levied by other municipalities, governing bodies that includes townships, community colleges. And then the assessed values are determined by the county, not by the local taxing bodies, assessor's office. So as with most school districts, property taxes for our township high school district 113, the largest source of revenue, which the chart will show. And then, you know, obviously to fund our operate educational programs, maintain buildings, provide certain transportation, as you saw earlier, and finance that. All right. So as you can see this chart, the largest portion of our revenue sources, property taxes, 89% of our funding comes from

176property taxes, 4% state, 1% federal, 6% is other local, which is investment earnings mainly and, you know, corporate personal property replacement tax and some student fees. So why do we, what do we need to consider when we're levying? We're obviously always levy for the max because our property taxes are our largest source of revenues because we have limited amount of state and federal revenues, as you can see, future expenditure increases in salaries and benefits, capital project needs, a lot of unfunded mandates, special education, one of them, and a lot of unforeseen expenditures. So the process of tax levy, what is tax levy? So the tax levy is a request made from a local government body to ask dollars to fund their operations. So it's a request made. So when you hear the tax levy, you

177think about the word ask and then extension is actually what you actually get after the tax bills are distributed. So we ask for a dollar amount and not actual tax rates and school districts usually levy for a separate amount for each fund and that's based on what is required, how much revenue is needed in that fund based on some fund balance levels and expenditures and future needs. Tax rates are calculated by the county clerk during the extension process and if Township High School District or any local government bodies do not submit a formal request for the use of property tax dollars, then it is not entitled to receive any local property tax dollars. Okay, so the tax extension process are after we levy, after the tax bills are mailed out, we start receiving the distribution.

178The distribution takes place twice a year. Our first major distribution takes place in June, the second one is in June, September. So the next slide just shows how our annual budget and tax levy are connected. So we plan the budget in the spring, adopt the levy in December and receive the revenue the following year. The county clerk then extends the rates and collect taxes on our behalf. In short, there's about one year lag between when we set the levy and when those dollars are actually reached the district. So consumer price index, which is a CPIU, urban, what it does is measures changes in U.S. consumer prices based on a representative basket of goods. So the term urban in the index refers to areas around any city or town with a population of at least 10,000

179or more. As a result, the CPIU covers 93% of the U.S. population. So that is that percentage, not the CPI because that's different. CPIU is what is determined to for our revenue increase every year. And then when we say basket of goods, this is the basket of goods that measures the pricing change of these categories over month to month. So in our case, the December 2025 CPI that we will find out in January of 2026, that changed from December 25 to December 24, that percentage change will determine next year's levy. So in this case, it's December 24. So the change from December 23 to 24, which was 2.9%. So now we have this thing called property tax extension limitation law and truth in taxation. PTAL, or property tax extension limitation law, it was enacted in

1801991 that limits the annual tax extension increase to 5% or 2.9% CPI, whichever is lower. A few years ago, the CPI was 7%. We were only entitled to get 5%. So it works both ways as well. Plus new construction on property. So we can levy an additional amount for any new developments that are taking place. Or if there are any additions to the house, any renovations, basement, that would increase the property value, we're entitled to those extra dollars, besides, apart from the CPI of 2.9%. So the truth in taxation requires the school district, if they're levy for more than 5%, to follow the requirements, publish the notice in the newspaper, and have a public hearing. Even though our levy is not more than 5%, we still follow this process just in order to be transparent

181with the community, have a public hearing, give an opportunity, give a public an opportunity to have any feedback or concerns during the levy hearing, which will take place in December board meeting. Okay, so just a quick example of how the tax rate is calculated for a local government is if a school district that levies and receives $4 million in taxes with a $200 million of EAV has a tax rate of 2% or $2 per 100. So the extension that we receive, you take that amount, which is the total revenue, you divide it by the total EAV of all the district boundaries, which is about $5.4 billion. That's how the district's 113 portion of tax rate is determined, which you will see a little bit later. And there's a separate calculation for each one. Each each

182rate has a each one has a different tax rate calculation. So quickly looking at our inputs for 2025, that we know the district will receive 2.9% increase because that's the CPI for December 2024. So the 2025 levy, this would be a 2024 extension times a 2.9%. EAV is projected to increase by 7%. EAV doesn't determine, doesn't not have a revenue impact. It has an impact on the tax rate because when our tax cap school district, our estimated EAV is projected to be about $5.4 billion dollars. Our estimated new construction is about $21 million. And this is when I said that the district is a county can can get additional increase in revenues based on new developments. So this $21 million of EAV is our estimate that we've gotten from Lake County. That means we can

183capture that additional revenue from all the new developments. Our estimated total tax rate is about 2.4%. And our debt service levy would be about $11.4 million dollars. So now quickly looking at our limiting rate formula is how that is calculated. We look at our prior tax extension for all funds except debt service and then take the new construction. And if there are any tests in the property that are expiring right now, we don't have any tests that are coming off the tax rolls. But we do keep in mind or keep track of there are about three or four tips we have. I think four tips now with Deerfield. And once those are coming off, we need we usually determine the value because that gets added as a new construction. And sometimes the value could be

184a lot more that would for us to exceed the 5% CPI. So you have to keep that in mind as well for your projections. But right now there are no tips. They want highwood right when that one comes. I'm sorry. They want as highwood right when that one comes. The highwood. Yeah, but that got extended. They got extended. I mean, projections wide, Bragg is supposed to be the biggest one, but we don't know what that went. Right. You know, I mean, the highwood got extended at the start. And so how many more years do we have to look over? 13 years, I believe. So now still. So usually the average life of TIF is like 23 years, but could be extended for additional 13 years. Okay. So there's a lot of confusion on how the

185limiting rate or tax rate is calculated. So I've just quickly put a formula for public just to see how everything is calculated. So the limiting rate is you take our prior extension without the debt service, which is our prior revenues from a 2024 extension, which was 113.3 million dollars. Then you take our CPI of 2.9%. That will give us what our revenue increase would be just with that 2.9% CPI, which is 116.6 million. Then we look at our projected net EAV, that estimate that we get from our county. And then we net that out. We take the new construction away from that, which is 21 million dollars. That is the estimate that we receive from the county. So then we get our projected adjusted valuation base of 5,381,000,000, 5,381,000,000. And then we take our extension,

186adjusted extension base, we divide that by EAV to come up with a projected limiting rate, which is our tax rate of 2.17%. And then the difference of what we're actually getting, the 2.9% CPI, and then the 3.3% is the 21 million of new construction. So that 21 million, you take our tax rate, that's additional about $400,000 in revenues that we get from our new construction. So our projected increase from last year is about 3.3%, not 2.9% because of the new construction. All right, so when can the school district expect to receive the levy funds? Like I said, that December 2024, the 2.9% CPI, which was known in December or January of 2025, October 25, we start preparing the levy. December, the board approves the levy. We start receiving the funds in June 2026, but we

187do recognize that revenue that we received, which is the first distribution in fiscal year 2027, which is a good financial practice according to the bond credit rating agencies. Quickly looking at the last few years of the CPI, as you can see that in 2021 and 2022, the CPI was 7%, 6.5%, but the district only got 5% because of the PTEL law. The 2025 projections, even though we're about October, we won't know until November 10th, and then there's November, December CPIs, but the projections about CPI is about between 2.6% to 2-3%, unless something unforeseen happens, and that would be obviously for fiscal year 28. Quickly looking at the last 32 years of our tax cap in Illinois, we use this chart to determine our CPI numbers for years that we don't know what the CPI is

188going to be for our financial projections for planning purposes, so I usually use about 2.5%. As you can see, the last 30 years, the average increase in CPI is about 2.5%, just to be really conservative. The next few charts are our extension history for our cap funds, and then the next chart is our EAV history. EAV is projected to go up by 7%. It has been going up. The property values have been going up, but like I said, there's no impact on the revenue, whether the EAV goes up or down. The impact is on the tax rate, and this is our new construction, which is the 21 million dollars, and that will actually, because our average new construction has been 25 million dollars, so I have to make that change in our projections, so that's

189about an $80,000 revenue loss for us, because my new construction is about 25 million in our projections, but now I have to adjust that number. So once those numbers are known, we adjust our projections right away to make sure our projections are as accurate as possible for future years. Just quickly looking at our tax rate, it's been pretty stable between 2.5% that's our District 113 tax rate, and then looking at our tax rate with other school districts, sometimes the public says that our taxes are really high compared to other school districts, but if you look at this is our school district right here, which is our second last from the Township 113, if you look at the tax rate compared to our other school districts, we're pretty much in line. Just real quick, are any

190of these unit districts on this chart? In that case, it would be basically... I try to put all school, high school districts just for apples to apples. Even Grayslake is not? Grayslake is the high school district 127. Okay, okay, cool, thank you. But yeah, I mean those tax rates, unit school districts tax rate is really different, so that's why I tried not to put... It's just to show that how changes in EAV impacts the tax rate. If EAV goes down, the tax rate goes up. If EAV goes up, the tax rate goes down. And just if you are a numbers person, you can look at the house with a market value of $600,000, assessment at 200, which is the one third EAV, remember? If the tax rate is 2.4%, the property tax are $4,800. So

191let's say if the EAV drops, the assessment is reduced, the tax rate increases. The district still receives the $4,800, so there will be a change in the tax rate. So reduced assessments do not always provide lower taxes and vice versa. Even higher assessments doesn't necessarily mean that they're paying more in property taxes. All right, just a quick summary. The SLEVU represents a 3.7% increase over last year in our cap ones, not including bonds and interest. The district always asks for more than expected to account for any unforeseen increases in new construction. So even though the new construction is estimated to be at $21 million, we're levying for $42 million in case if the new construction is at $23 or $24 million, we want to make sure we capture that additional $3 or $4 million of

192EAV from that new construction, because we don't know that number until March. So it's always good to levy more in case we don't want to leave anything because we're entitled to receive everything from new construction and we just don't know what that number is. So it's a very common practice for all school districts to levy for more than what the new construction estimate is. But based on the CPI and EAV, we're expecting to see $3.3 million. So as you can see at the bottom, our cap levy is about $117.5 million, but if the new construction numbers are around $21 million, we're going to receive about $117.1. Because in case if the new construction is at $25 million, we were supposed to receive some $117.2. And if you were to levy for $117.1, that means you've

193lost that $100,000 forever. So that's why we always levy twice what the new construction amount is. As far as the taxpayer impact in this levy, because the levy bonds and interest is calculated by the county clerk, the district recently issued $25 million of life safety bonds. So that will get added to the bond and interest levy. So on a $600,000 house, if the EAV grows in proportion, the cap levy and the bond levy, the estimated change in the tax payment for 2025 for taxpayers is about $341. These are a lot of tax exemptions where usually taxpayers, the public can qualify for. And the most common one is a general homestead exemption. That's an $8,000 exemption. And it's just interesting. I know a few people who didn't know that you could actually apply for that exemption

194as well. So even if you have one property. So something important for the community to look at, all these exemptions that are available, they'll give you a tax break. So quickly looking at, like I said, you levy in individual funds. Our cap levy is about 3.7%. If you look at all our funds and our operating funds, in reality, we're going to get about 3.3, but we're levy for 3.7. Our bond interest levy is going up by 89%, which is mainly due to life safety. So this total levy represents an 8% increase. There are some changes in individual funds based on the fund balance ratios. But the cap levy is all operating funds. It's all one pot. And like I said, the bond and interest levy is based on our outstanding issues. So we're not levy

195for it. We just let the county know we have six outstanding bonds, and then they look at our bond payments, and that's how they levy. All right. So the next steps, presenting at the Finance Committee. We presented this at the Finance Committee, presenting at the regular board meeting. November 18, the board takes action to estimate the aggregate levy. November 25, we publish the total taxation legal notice, which has a requirement, 7 to 14 days, not less than 7, but not more than 14 days prior to the hearing. That's when the notice needs to be published in the papers. December 9, levy hearing, followed by public levy adoption, and the levy needs to be filed no later than last Tuesday in December. And these are just definitions for audience and public to look at for the

196board of all these terms. And this is it. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much. You're welcome. Moving on to action items, as recommended, the Board of Education approve a memorandum of understanding with the DEA regarding the physical education provision as presented, may have a motion to approve this recommendation. Still moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote, please. Mr. Nieder? Aye. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Mr. Bronk? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Malupa? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. The motion carries. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the Morning Star Behavioral Services Agreement as presented, may have a motion to approve this recommendation. Still moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote, please. Mr. Barraza? Aye.

197Mr. Bronk? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Malupa? Aye. Mr. Nieder? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. The motion carries. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the Intergovernmental Agreement for GIS School Safety Mapping as presented, may have a motion to approve this recommendation. Still moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote, please. Mr. Bronk? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Malupa? Aye. Mr. Nieder? Aye. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. The motion carries. It is recommended the Board of Education approve a Notice of Remedy for Tenured Licensed Staff Member Bridget Farner as presented, may have a motion to approve this recommendation. Still moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote, please. Dr. Elliott-Shermer?

198Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Malupa? Aye. Mr. Nieder? Aye. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Mr. Bronk? 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. A 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? May have a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Dr. Jody, I believe you have the bills. Do. Yes, and so the bills that I reviewed were as follows. So the first one was to Midwest Educational Furnishings for office furniture and the second was a portion of a bill that was

199for Napa Auto Parts and that was to I think replace an oil filter in one of the District Drivers Education Vehicles and the final one was an AP wire that was made payable to Raptor Technologies. All of the bills seem to be in order and I just want to thank Ali for his patience as we emailed back and forth to finish this. Thank you. Is there any discussion? I'm sorry. I do. I apologize. It's not going to be more than 30. I do want to add something for all the Board. So if the cash flow report that we present, if you look at the page six of the salaries expenditures compared to last year, if you look at our salaries, which is about $80 million, this year, September, we've spent about 15% of our budget

200compared to last year, which was 13%. That almost gave me a heart attack because that means that I didn't budget properly. But then obviously when I spoke to Josh from the Bell, we actually had a change in our payroll frequency for certified staff. So we've had three payrolls. Last year we had only one payroll during September. So this is just good analysis for the Board to look at how expenditures are this year, especially salaries and benefits. They're close to about $90 million looking at how they're trending last year. It's just also good for me to analyze as well. So I just want to point that out. Page six is really important for financial analysis purposes. That's it. Thank you. Hearing no further discussion or roll call vote, please. Mr. Heiterman? Aye. Ms. Luzba? Aye. Mr.

201Nieder? Aye. Mr. Brown? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. The motion carried. 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. Opposed say nay. The motion carries. This concludes Business with Township High School District 113 Board of Education for this evening at 10 11. Thank you for your time and participation.