001I am reconvening into open session. Township High School District 113 regular action meeting on Tuesday, June 10th 2025 at 701. The recording secretary will now call the roll. Dr. Elliott-Shermer, Mr. Hyneman, here. Ms. Lupach, Mr. Nieder, here. Mr. Braza, here. Mr. Brunk, Ms. Newman, here. I would like everyone else who is present to identify themselves. Romina Jansky, executive secretary. Tom Krieger, chief human resources officer. Karen Warner, chief communications officer. Ali Mahanty, assistant superintendent of finance. Hallie Fleischer, principal Highland Park High School. Katherine Anderson, principal at Jerfield High School. Mira Ante, executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Shayla Howland, superintendent. Okay, great. Moving on to board reports. My report will be very brief, but I'm so sorry. It's not in here. Sorry, it is not in my script. That's okay. Do approval of agenda. It
002is recommended that the agenda be approved as lifted. May I have a motion? So moved. A second? Second. Okay, and that can be a verbal. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? The motion carries. Moving on to board reports. I guess I stole my own thunder. My report is very brief. I will be taking time later this evening to be honoring our cabinet member who is retiring. But I did want to use a little bit of my time for Mr. Heineman to give an update on the Ed Redd meeting that he attended last Friday. The Ed Redd meeting, we discussed all the bills that had gone through the legislature. Most of those come back to the district through our lawyer so that we can get updates through that. I didn't plan to
003go through all the specifics, but there's a whole lot of stuff that was done. They'll probably come back in the summer again for another session. And then back again, of course, in the fall for the next session. One recommendation I'd like to make though, one of the things that we decided I first started thinking about doing Ed Redd is that we as a board would not really spend a lot of time worrying about things that didn't directly apply to our district. And we relied on the superintendent to inform us if it's important. What I've since then become very comfortable with the recommendations made by Ed Redd. I respect the people there. They know what they're talking about. They know what is important, even if it's not directly to our district. So what I recommend that
004we do is that when we get those the night before a vote's going to take, email saying, please submit something that we should really just go ahead and submit something if it speaks to us, if we think that it is important, even if we don't have direction from Dr. Holland. But before we take it any more significant action, like contacting a state rep or anything that is more than just submitting a witness slip that we wait for Dr. Holland to give us direction on that. So that way we can do the immediate transaction of the witness slip that's due the next morning. They don't even really read them how many A's and A's. And then so we can respond to that without having to get Dr. Holland involved in each issue. But if it's really
005important, we want to go further. That's when Dr. Holland will be providing us direction. If that makes sense. It does make sense. But I feel like I should at least avail myself to provide clarifying information just because it may whatever it may be, it may sound good, but it may operate in a very different way or function within a different way within our district that might require some explanation, which is why maybe I wouldn't support it. Because some of what comes up with the bills are contextual requests that may not effectively apply to our district in the same way. So I'm actually okay with responding to that those immediate requests. If something's due, you just might get a response the next morning saying this is something you should support. And it's okay if not everyone
006submits, but if there's at least one person who's submitting on behalf of our district, I think that's okay. And then I can also submit. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Fantastic. Moving on to the finance committee report. So the finance committee met earlier this evening where we got a detailed presentation of the fiscal 26, 26 budget from Ali. It's an upcoming agenda item. So I don't get too far in front of his repeat performance for tonight. But very good discussion. Committee members got to ask a bunch of questions. So we're looking forward to that upcoming presentation later in the agenda. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to administration reports. Dr. Holland. Yes. So good evening, everyone. Since our last meeting, we have celebrated our graduates with two beautiful graduation ceremonies. Each ceremony was a reflection of
007each of our schools and the traditions that make them unique and special. Thank you to our principals who hosted each of the events and their amazing teams who spent a lot of time planning, coordinating, and facilitating these special events. Graduations are always an important reminder of the why behind our work and our efforts. So the district team has been working hard to support the transition of our new administrators, to support summer professional development for our staff, launch summer school, and begin the tedious planning process for strategic planning implementation. As our district is in an important period of transition, which is a process or period of changing from one state or condition to another, it is also a period of progress, which we shouldn't lose sight of. So our district continues to evolve and grow. And
008I'm very excited about our future. It's a busy time, but it's also an exciting time. The last thing I want to mention is that I would like to publicly thank Dr. Tiffany Rowe. She's not here tonight, but she's served and led in our district for the past 10 years. So I want to thank her for her service to our district. And I also want to publicly wish her the best moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Next, our FOIAs. Yes. So there were several FOIAs that were completed since our last meeting. They will show up on the screen. Okay. And then next is we have two reports from you and your team. The first is district issued divisive. Yes. So Mira, Antje, and I will engage this presentation. I also want to thank Ron for his
009support in developing it as well. So tonight's presentation is focused on the administration's recommendation and plan to implement the use of district issued devices starting this coming school year, but our full implementation by the 2026-2027 school year. So Township High School, District 113 launched its one-to-one Chromebook initiative during the 2014-2015 school year. This program provided each freshman and sophomore student at the time with their Chromebook to use throughout their high school years. Prior to the one-to-one device adoption, the district had a bring your own device program, which included the use of various forms of technology. The primary goal of the one-to-one initiative when it was launched was to prepare all students for college and career readiness by integrating technology into their daily learning experiences. By equipping all students with Chromebooks, the district aimed to enhance
010critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and digital literacy skills. The use of Chromebooks facilitated access to digital educational resources. It enabled personalized learning and supported the development of essential 21st century competencies. So I'm excited to walk you through a few of the specs of the device, and I just want you to know that I'm also using one here, and you'll notice that this is a two-in-one device, so that's a stylus and the notebook feature. One of the things that's important, too, is to understand that the processing of the processing mechanism of the Chromebook is very powerful, and we are able to really support any of the aspects of the learning that needs to happen in the classroom, even in a crowded space, and that processor helps to do that. Memory is also that eight gigabytes, as
011you see there, of RAM is also important to note in that students will not see a slowdown in conferencing or the aspects of the kind of the work that they need to do within the environment. Storage, we use a lot on the cloud now, but the storage is sufficient for the work that they are asked to do, as well as the connectivity using the latest Wi-Fi. I think I stopped paying attention at a 5G, but we have a 6E, and the design, as I mentioned, is important, as well as the size of the screen, so if you notice that's about the size of a sheet of paper. I'm someone who's really visual, and so I have been playing around on this and really enjoying both elements of the Chromebook. Our ninth and tenth graders will
012have this device, and then as we continue working through the phasing of Chromebooks, all students will have it. This is our latest and newest, and we'll, I think, really, when we then update all computers, we would see, you know, when that next generation comes on, but this is really exciting. All right, so we also wanted to walk you through the current structure that we are really running right now and the allowances of the structure, and so the first note is that all students receive a Chromebook. It's really important to acknowledge that, and while they may receive one, they're not required to use the Chromebook, and so as Dr. Holland mentioned, we have also a bring-your-own-device environment in where students can bring a different, you know, let's say an iPad or whatever it may be, a
013different model. The thing that is important here, too, is that we use the state level of filtering within our system, so when you're getting on our network, as well as when you're on the internet itself, we create the safest situation possible for our students, meaning understanding where they're going on that internet or that worldwide web. What is important there to also note is that that's for a student who would bring in their own device as well as using the Chromebook, so this is the current structure and one we wanted to highlight so you understood where we are going as we start to head into this next phase of the presentation. I also think it's important to mention that our students are charged a $100 tech fee associated with this. Again, every student is provided with
014a Chromebook, but there is a tech fee that goes along with that. If I understand correctly, every student receives a Chromebook. If a student says, yeah, I don't want a Chromebook, they receive a Chromebook. They receive that Chromebook. It's under their bed. Another part of this, which is named later, we require the use of district-issued devices for standardized assessments just because we do not provide service and support for their own devices. Who knows what type of laptop a student or device a student may have? We can't guarantee support, and so we don't require or expect our personnel to support those, and so we do tell students that they need to bring that device. Because of state testing, they have to be on that device because of the browser security. Those district-issued devices. Yes. So we
015believe that now is the best time to consider a change to our current state. We continue to assess our safety landscape, and we have primarily focused on, through many of our discussions, physical safety. Although we continue to enhance our cybersecurity, as our chief information officer recently shared in his update to the board, we are implementing this shift to enhance our ability to tie all internet traffic to individuals. While continuously monitoring devices on our network, shifting to the required use of district devices provides us with more access controls to block and limit sites where there are concerns regarding or block and limit sites students should not visit at school. We do have some situations where students engage in online activity that we don't support, and there are sometimes challenges in our ability to gather the information
016we need to effectively and efficiently facilitate our investigations in order to keep students and staff safe. The launch of our new cell phone policies and procedures also supports the timing of this change. The use of district devices came up throughout Mira's work with focus groups and meetings that occurred, recognizing that some students use their personal devices to engage in chats, messaging, and other forms of communication. Finally, the expectations for the use of our devices is an important aspect of fiscal stewardship. The district remains committed to ensuring that all students have access to instructional resources, and we have also invested in purchasing them and providing them to all students. So part of the thinking is that there should also be an expectation for their use across our district. All of our courses and our spaces are
017outfitted with the technology required for the class, so some people may say, well what about this CAD class or this engineering course? I would prefer to use my MacBook, my personal MacBook, in these spaces. Just to reiterate, all of our courses have the technology that's needed to enhance the learning experience, so we don't require anyone to bring in anything extra. All of our spaces are outfitted with additional technology that may be needed for that specific course. So we decided to gather usage data from a month that did not overlap with standardized testing, because of course if we gathered this information during a month where standardized testing occurred, we would probably have a higher usage. We typically require students, as I mentioned, to use district devices for standardized testing since we do not support personal devices.
018Based on this data, you will notice that a significant portion of our ninth and 10th grade students use their Chromebooks. Although lower, there's still a significant portion of our 11th grade students who also use their Chromebooks. Across both schools, we see a significant decrease amongst our seniors, and this can be for a variety of reasons, including the possibility that many students are starting to purchase and use devices for their post-secondary plans. So moving forward, so what we're suggesting or where we're planning to move for our future structure, all students will continue to receive a Chromebook as they currently do, but starting this coming school year, 9th and 10th grade students will be required to use their district-issued Chromebooks during instructional or class time, similar to the alignment with our cell phone policy. Also for this
019current year, 11th and 12th grade students with a personal device can still bring them for this upcoming school year, but they will be required to sign in to the network and will no longer be permitted to sign in using our guest network. Our guest network will now have a password associated with it. In other words, we have two ways for students right now to sign in or to access Wi-Fi during the school day. We have a BYOD account and we also have a guest account. The BYOD account requires students to basically log in so we know and submit their credentials so we can more effectively monitor it. Our guest network doesn't require that. So as a transition, 9th and 10th grade students will be required to use their Chromebook. 11th and 12th grade students who
020aren't using their Chromebook but who bring a personal device will be required to sign in in a specific way in our system. All students in alignment, all students will be required to use the district network and install what's called an SSL certificate. This stands for the secure socket layer. It allows us to see all traffic regardless of whether or not it's encrypted. This only applies again when using district Wi-Fi and in addition this method of onboarding to the district Wi-Fi is required as I mentioned for all BYD access points for our students. In the 2026-27 school year, so one year from now, not this current school year, but two years, I guess two years from now, all students will be required to use the district issued the Chromebook. So you see that we're supporting a
021phased-in approach. If students bring a cell phone or other personal devices they would have to install an SSL certificate but this will not be optional. And so we do, I'm mentioning this because similar to our discussion around our cell phone policies, students will not be allowed to have their cell phone during a class or instructional time, a scheduled period. They can use their cell phones during the lunch periods or passing periods. If a student by chance still wants to bring their personal device it would be the same type of a situation but they would not be permitted to use during instructional time. If they want to use them on their own and just bring it with them for whatever other need that they may have, they would still be required to log in as we're
022outlining. So again, we're taking a phased-in approach to ensure that we properly assess our inventory and account for the additional Chromebooks that this will require us to stock. We typically place orders a year in advance and want to properly prepare for a scale up, although possibly small. We are expecting a slight increase to our backup loaner inventory by about 10% or less. Because Chromebooks have a longer shelf life, this won't have a large impact on our inventory needs. So 10% is on the higher end. We're not expecting that to be a permanent amount and because we continue to upgrade our Chromebooks, the shelf life shifts. Okay. I'm just pausing for any questions. One thing I just want to highlight, if you aren't thinking this, think of the cell phone as a BYOD because it essentially
023is a computer in our pocket. So that's just an important piece. As we use that language, we are including cell phones in that. A lot of these challenges were mentioned throughout our report, but I think it's important to recognize that students are familiar with Chromebooks. We checked all the sender districts and they all use Chromebooks. And we also think it's important for us to acknowledge some of the possible challenges that may come up. And so we wanted to talk through them for a moment and talk about how we'll address them. One challenge we anticipate is that some specialized software may not be compatible with Chromebooks. If you're a gamer and your Intel, it says Steam or different platforms, this could pose a challenge if you're on a Chromebook. However, as Dr. Holland said, anything that
024we are providing as curriculum and work within our school will be supported. So we will provide any of that software and hardware that's needed. We also understand that some families may have already purchased a personal computer for their students and we recognize that. But as Dr. Holland also mentioned, it's really important to note that the fantastic really software and hardware support that our district provides is only for a district provided Chromebook. And so that access becomes null if you have a device from your own home. And so we want to really reinforce that all the support you need, we can give you if you're on a Chromebook. The third thing is that versatility. Some students might feel Chromebooks are too school focused. And I don't want to sound condescending, but that's kind of the point.
025And so they are very much geared towards educational purpose. And so that is what we want to reinforce. However, we also want to hear kids' feedback and understand the growing needs that they may have. So we're definitely open to that. And lastly, there may be some worry around the tool itself and if it's adaptable to the learning styles that our students need. And we wanted to really make sure we stipulated that we are always going to follow any IEP, any 504, anything that stipulates that we need to use, a student needs to use an alternative device. If it's a phone to monitor their glucose and they are diabetic, if it's medical need or if it is about adaptive learning and needing a specific brand of a tool like an iPad, of course we will do
026that. We are all about maximizing accessibility and we're committed to ensuring that all students, whether they have diverse learning needs or not, are being supported by our system. And so that's a really important piece for us to note here as well. So the next steps of this plan is to communicate the shifts across our entire district, specifically targeting, of course, our families, our feeder or center districts. We think that's important. Our incoming students, our current students, we want to ensure that this information is easily accessible through our registration processes, our annual update platforms. So these are systems that our families have to engage with regularly and on our websites. Similar to other updated expectations, these changes will be noted alongside our student handbook information and other changes for the 2025-2026 school year. We want to
027ensure that the language and our acceptable use policy and our policies associated with technology are also aligned and we'll make sure that our cell phone efforts and procedures that are designed to ensure compliance and accountability are also aligned. So I just want to open it up for questions or additional comments. You had mentioned that you're not anticipating a large or significant change in the cost to the district. I guess I just I did want to ask that question. So I know you said a couple potentially some more loaners in this model. I wasn't sure if there's anything around our FTE resources that we would have IT staff that are supporting more devices than they currently support. So right now we are partnership with Bex Bookstore. Bex actually our contract through our contract they service all
028of our one-to-one devices. So we already have that contractual service. So they're expected to the entire student body. They just don't right now because not everyone's using it. Okay. Yes. Okay. So their contract is fixed. Yeah. Okay. And Mary you had mentioned I'm sorry did other people have Mary you had mentioned obviously you would you guys had through this process been receiving feedback. I was interested in as we move forward in this phased approach what kind of feedback mechanisms were going to be in place so that as parents as students as they lived this potentially came up with some concerns or some issues how those would be collected and addressed. Yeah I think that's a good question. The feedback the initial feedback was really also from all of those stakeholder groups wondering about that it
029kind of creates a loophole around the cell phone and so especially from staff wanting to know right if we're going to remove that and then parents when we talked about it briefly the Chromebook being used instead were very supportive of that and so then your question regarding what mechanisms will we use one of the things that I think is really important is that we have a natural set of mechanisms from an open house and I've been thinking a lot about that presence within both schools and asking some of those questions as we are existing in a situation like that which is a very large focus group if you will. I think the piece regarding the technology end and understanding what's happening on that Ron and I are talking about everything from the information that will
030go out to when it would be when are those natural mechanisms for collecting that information happening already and how can we enhance that so I am not as familiar of when the technology asks for you know when they do their assessments through use whether it's I think you know thinking about the number of computers that we have talking to becks but also with the staff and asking those questions I think those are I don't know to be honest with you when those questions are coming in but I do know that we are doing that because otherwise how would we have our software loaded and all of the things that are on our computers so my point is is that there's stuff for me to learn regarding our natural moments where we're collecting that information to
031piggyback on it because I don't want to right build in a lot more surveys and things trying to gather that information. So our technology department regularly constantly is monitoring what's coming through our system so I think we'll actually end up with better insight into what students are doing what they're viewing I also plan to just thinking about the situations that come up every year regarding inappropriate use and as someone who usually is managing or supporting the investigative processes looking at the time difference in terms of like how quickly we can access information if there's an inappropriate use part of the challenge with any place that is managing significant use of technology is that there are always sites that are popping up that we have to identify and lock them down so like we're constantly chasing
032after these sites and that's the reality of any place but I think this will provide greater insight and accessibility to shut some of those systems and some of those access points down because there are less ways to bypass our filters. And that's almost because it was one of my other questions is how are we defining success and that's one of the elements and I would hear that okay. And that doesn't take added steps of creating surveys or doing extra things it's really just yeah looking at what were our current practices and then how they're being improved or streamlined or better okay. So when you use the phrase our software I assuming that means that there's a dashboard if you will that the district provides for the Chromebook when they open it up then they can
033pick their courses and they can look at policy look at whatever whatever they need to look at is that the case? I don't have that in my I don't know so I didn't I think I used that too loosely meaning what software is available through Chrome there are different apps and we have them pre-loaded but there are other things that can be added you know with let's say a pad lid or I'm that's probably old now but there are various other apps that we have access to I don't know what the stock yeah apps are but having a district dashboard which gives you a lot more control we're not talking about misuse I'm talking about good use. So we don't necessarily have a dashboard but we do have approved apps and instructional tools that are
034loaded and accessible for students to use and most of those are all most if not all are fully aligned with the different experiences that our districts support it right to support instruction and learning in the classrooms. So it's really it's not like a software there are different instructional apps yeah because I think about it with a dashboard that enables you to have a section for messages a section for things that you want to communicate so it provides an overall framework. Well we well Google we're a Google school so we have Google suites and we do support their chat but it's still encrypted and we still have access to that information our district supports chat services that provide us with insight into if we need to what the discussions are so they can be pulled at
035any time and we'll I'm guessing this will be addressed in the communication out to parents and students if you guys could just take a moment and explain to us do students receive a new Chromebook when they come in as a freshman and keep that Chromebook for four years yes yes and so if we're rolling this out to ninth and tenth graders are the tenth graders going to use their Chromebooks that they received as freshmen or are they getting these new ones or do they already get these new ones? So that depends on I know Ron has a deployment cycle that he's because part of the plan when I feel like our phased-in approach is supporting it there's a plan to upgrade upgrade the current Chromebooks okay so that students do have access to the newer
036technology and I just want to say based on what he shared yes the latest Chromebook is a bit a little bit more advanced but it's not that far ahead from the one we currently have that was gonna be my and it will be outdated and you know we're here that four-year discrepancy of when I start ninth grade absolutely but like there that's accounted for yes and so the 11th and 12th grade rollout will be with what they again with what Chromebook they received coming in as a freshman layering on top Ron's replacement yeah plan great okay so there isn't that obviously major expenditure too of replacing Chromebooks for students okay he's factored all of that yeah absolutely if a student doesn't want to install the SSL on their bring your own device they can always
037use their Chromebook right so oh right for the until everyone has to and then there's no change in anything that's happening at home and how they can access any of their work this strictly has to do with well the things that we control yeah right exactly right and even if it is on their computer or on their will be on their phone I'm guessing many of them will want to use their phones it will it is not activated it essentially goes dormant when they leave our wi-fi so and no you know that's just an important piece does that make sense you know what that's an implementation point and it's probably not something we need to to as a board be concerned about right so I've I've I can sometimes put my parent's hat on and
038that's not the point of this so okay any other questions great moving on to the next report which I believe this is the school improvement plans yes so the purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the development and implementation of school improvement plans in district 113 while each school annually develops goals and priority areas for their schools and for their buildings this is the first year that we have developed goals that are aligned and guided by the vision for student growth and achievement championed by the district in the form of school improvement plans also known as sips so a school improvement plan is a strategic blueprint that schools develop to enhance student learning and overall educational practices it's a living document that outlines specific goals for improvement the actions a school will
039take to achieve these goals and how progress will be measured there are many benefits for the implementation of school improvement plans they provide clarity regarding a school's direction and efforts to support improved outcomes they are a source of accountability working towards desired outcomes using data to inform decision engage or to inform decisions and to gauge progress sips are often collaboratively developed and they support a shared vision professional development and prioritize spending sips are intended to support continuous improvement and transparency regarding the efforts of a school and ultimately the district the sips that were developed at both of our high schools this year are anchored to our focus on inclusive school communities and the pillars of access achievement and belonging there are sections within the plans that directly address the relationship between the efforts outlined with
040all three of these areas to support clarity and purpose and direction sips are also connected to the district's equity and inclusion resolution that was previously adopted by the district in may of 2021 so within the plans that you'll see both schools share a common instructional school improvement target this actually this target is something that both schools have as a target and it supports alignment of their goals across the district it's what brings their work together using each school's personal data each school developed goals and benchmarks across key areas there are academic targets with english language arts math and college and career benchmarks there are also scl and sense of belonging targets with a sense of belonging and attendance benchmarks so just as an example and we'll do a deep dive but just to present a
041part of what they look like you'll see this is an example of where you can see the common instructional school improvement target these also focus these are also areas of focus for both of our high schools as i mentioned you'll also notice that following the target each school was asked to provide a rationale for the instructional targets this section that you're looking at is important because it provides baseline data that is specific to each school and also provides the foundation for the rationale for the goals that will later be mentioned the benchmarks and the targets and this is just an example of deerfield high school's school improvement plan just the first part of it and i just want to mention that highland parks is set up the same way while the common instructional school improvement
042target is what brings our efforts into alignment is really important to consider the contextual needs of each district by centering that school's data in this process here is an example of a common instructional target as well improvement target for both schools where this one focuses on the common target for scl and a sense of belonging and you'll see the rationale for the instructional targets dhs has their own highland park also has their own and so now i want to ask that our principals share their work to develop these plans and to provide more specific information regarding their school improvement plans all right we will start with dhs and we will be starting with academic targets to provide some highlights of this foundational data for deerfield high school's class of 2024 over 70 percent of students
043met ela and math standards but there are large achievement gaps 48 to 50 percent for students with iaps about two-thirds of students earned c's or better in all of their courses and nearly 68 took at least one ap course 60 of ap students scored three or greater on those exams just over 20 of graduates earned a college career endorsement or seal of biliteracy about 19 took dual credit courses with participation varying by race and ethnicity the data highlights the need to improve course offerings and support for college and career pathways especially for underrepresented groups all right so moving down then into the benchmarks over the next three years dhs aims to raise the percentage of students meeting or exceeding ela standards to 77.4 percent and to narrow the opportunity gap between students with and without
044iaps to 39 percent the annual benchmarks are to increase proficiency to 73.4 percent and reduce the gap to 45 percent in 24 25 reach the 75.4 proficiency and 42 percent gap in 25 26 and ultimately achieve 77.4 proficiency with a 39 gap by 26 27 school year for mathematics the three-year goal is to increase the percentage of students meeting or exceeding mathematics standards to 72.8 percent and reduce the opportunity gap between students with and without iaps to 41 the annual benchmarks are to reach 68.8 proficiency and a 47 percent gap in the 24 25 school year 78.8 proficiency and a 44 percent gap in 25 26 and ultimately 72.8 proficiency with a 41 percent gap by the 26 27 school year just a point that you'll notice her both holly and i when we are
045sharing this information is that this data is represented on our school report cards so you can see that information there and the standards and the proficiency scores are based upon the is b standards for this data based upon the sat all right over the next three years dhs aims to have 80 percent of students enroll in ap courses and 30 percent of graduates take dual credit courses additionally we seek to ensure that hispanic latino students participation in these courses closely matches their representation in the graduating class aiming for a difference of no more than one percent these annual benchmarks include reaching 72 percent ap enrollment and 20 dual credit participation with hispanic latino representation within 1.75 percent in the 24 25 school year 76 AP participation and 25 dual credit participation within 1.5 percent for
046hispanic latino representation and the 25 26 school year and 80 AP participation and 30 dual credit participation within one percent representation for hispanic latino students by the 26 27 school year and this is all for the college and career pathways benchmarks so have you seen for the academic targets we started with the ele and math benchmarks and then progressed to the college and career pathway benchmarks all right some of the important work as a part of these sips is to have an action plan as a part of our work for this so the key economic tasks and instructional action plan for dhs included d surveying our 10th and 11th grade courses we plan to roll out standards based curriculum maps ensure consistent assessment and grading practices and leverage co-teaching models to support every learner another
047academic task is professional development empower teachers through training and differentiate instruction culturally responsive teaching and inclusive strategies to better serve students with IEPs focus on data-driven decision making foster a culture of continuous improvement right regularly analyzing student data with course teams and support groups to inform instruction and targeted interventions speaking of targeted interventions and also progress monitoring our plan is to deliver focused interventions for students who need additional support systematically monitor progress and refine strategies to maximize student growth we plan to expand college partnerships we would like to strengthen collaboration with local colleges to broaden dual credit opportunities and enhance students college readiness we also plan to remove barriers to access identifying and addressing obstacles that limit student participation in AP and dual credit courses and provide robust academic advising to guide course selection finally
048our focus is on outreach and support by engaging families with clear communication regarding the benefits of AP and dual credit programs and offer preparatory workshops and tutoring to ensure student success so this work has already started within our schools and this will continue to progress over the next three years you'll notice that I use a term like course teams when I was talking about data-driven decision making and of course next year we'll be focusing on PLCs so each year we are we are beginning the work and we're progressing each year to ensure that we are focusing on meeting our benchmarks that we've established for the next three years I also just want to briefly mention you're seeing I know you saw an example of this school improvement plan and the structure the section that actually
049has the action plan there's too much to capture in it so it's we structured the presentation this way but there are action plans that actually have what's happening by the month I mean literally they're fully laid out so this is again yes this is just an overview it's too much to fit on a slide and later on we're going to look into other just to the strategic plan all right so now we will be moving on so we first focus on the academic targets and now we're transitioning over to the SEL and sense of belonging targets like I did previously for the academic targets wanting to first focus on the information that we are using the rationale for our instructional targets first highlights from the Panorama SEL survey includes most students 94 felt supported at
050school but only 78 percent of black African American students felt this way confidence in learning strategies was 74 percent overall but much lower for black African American students at 19 percent compared to Asian students at 80 percent and white students at 75 percent 69 percent of students felt confident in managing emotions Hispanic students were the highest at 73 percent and black African American students were the lowest at 50 percent only 23 percent of our black and African American students felt confident in emotion regulation versus 68 percent of white and Hispanic students and students with IEPs reported lower confidence across all areas especially in learning strategies and emotion regulation another important aspect of our SEL and sense of belonging targets is a focus on attendance so some of the data highlights for attendance was that our
051overall attendance was high at 94.18 percent with freshmen attending most regularly chronic absenteeism affected 18.4 percent of students and 82.79 percent of students freshmen through juniors were on track but only 64.29 percent of black and African American students and 76.56 percent of Latinx students compared to 83.83 percentage of attendance for white Asian and multiracial students using that data we formed our sense of belonging benchmarks and over the next three years DHS will gradually implement the Wayfinder SEL program across grade levels to improve students sense of belonging the goal is to increase the average self-reported feelings of connectedness and inclusion by 0.5 percent each year for all students and by one percent in the third year with a targeted two percent annual increase for black and African American students as measured by pre and post surveys
052the rollout begins with our freshmen and sophomores in the 24-25 school year and expands to junior and senior students in the following years for our attendance benchmark over the next three years DHS aims to steadily increase the percentage of students who are on track with attendance moving from 82 percent to 88 percent overall special emphasis will be placed on improving on track rates for black and African American students with a goal of rising from 68 percent to 78 percent and for Latinx students increasing from 79 percent to 85 percent by the 26-27 school year all right similarly to our academic targets we have an action plan for meeting these benchmarks some of these key action plan items are first to launch the Wayfinder SEL pilot by introducing the evidence-based Wayfinder program in freshman advisory and
053sophomore health classes to nurture social emotional learning and a sense of belonging from the very start of high school next we want to promote inclusivity and a positive culture and this is by developing and sharing resources with students and staff that celebrate diversity promote inclusivity and foster a welcoming positive school environment for all next we want to enhance our attendance data review by conducting a comprehensive review of attendance data to uncover patterns and root causes of absenteeism with a focused lens on the unique challenges focused by demographic groups especially our black and African American students and Latinx students we also want to enhance our student engagement we want to evaluate our current programs such as clubs extracurriculars and hands-on learning opportunities to ensure that they align with our students interests we want to identify gaps
054and opportunities to create new programs or boost participation where needed next we're establishing an attendance task force assembling a dedicated team of staff to develop a strategic plan for improving attendance including proactive family outreach and targeted support for students and lastly implementing an early warning system we are launching a system to quickly identify students at risk of chronic absenteeism providing timely personalized interventions such as one-on-one check-ins intense incentives and ongoing support to keep our students engaged and on track all right so provided you with all of the data about where our class of 2024 was our foundational data and shared the benchmarks our three-year plan and then each of the benchmarks for each of the years so this is where we're currently at for each of our benchmarks after the 24-25 school year for our
055ELA literacy benchmarks for success while DHS surpassed its opportunity gap goal for the class of 2025 by reducing it to 42 it did not meet the overall ELA standards goal of 73.4 with 70.9 meeting or exceeding the benchmark as a reminder this is for the class of 2025 so this data already took place before the SIP was even created we received this data around October with the release of our information via the Illinois school report card however noting that for the class of 2026 where a lot of this work has been taking place this school year our preliminary results for the class of 2026 indicate strong performance at 80.2 percent as a reminder ISB actually has different standards than ACT and SAT so although that ACT results show 80.2 percent meeting or exceeding standards this
056might actually change once ISB establishes what those benchmarks are for the state so this is again just preliminary data and how they will be presenting the same information as well so then moving on to the mathematics benchmarks similarly DHS surpassed both its mathematics standards goal and opportunity gap target for the classes 2025 with 70.6 meeting or exceeding standards and the gap was reduced to 43 percent the preliminary ACT results for the class of 2026 show continued strong performance at 74.3 percent for the college and career pathways benchmarks for success DHS surpassed its college and career pathways benchmark for AP enrollment with 77.52 percent of students enrolling in an AP course and 76.92 percent of hispanic latino students enrolled in an AP course and this is for the class of 2026 so this is actual data
057representing the work that we completed this year and how our students are enrolling in those courses DHS also surpassed its college and career pathways benchmark for dual credit enrollment with 21.71 percent of students enrolling in dual credit courses and hispanic latino students making up 8.33 percent of dual credit enrollments which is more than their representation within the school community both exceeding their respective goals so that covers our academic targets moving to our sense of belonging our sel and sense of belonging targets for the sense of belonging benchmark DHS maintained supportive relationship results on the panorama survey since last spring with 94 percent of students indicating supportive relationships and 78 percent of black african-american students and native american and alaska native american students are showing supportive relationships please note that these subgroups were combined by panorama
058as they were smaller population sizes whereas previously they were indicated as individual subgroups we are therefore unable to accurately assess this data because we are not provided the individual student data but we are representing all of those student groups together unfortunately we learned that panorama does not show less than the whole number changes so we were unable to determine if there was an incremental change with our goal of a 0.5 increase in results that said although the overall percentage was not changed there was a one percent increase student feeling like they can be themselves with an adult at the school at 89 percent in terms of our attendance benchmarks dhs had an overall on track attendance rate of 83.9 percent although dhs increased on track attendance for all students by 1.9 percent we fell just
059short of our goal of a two percent increase unfortunately we did not meet our demographic goals with on track on track rates at 57.89 percent for black african-american students and 72.83 percent for hispanic and latino students notably we are meeting our goals after the first semester but saw a market decline during the second semester it is worth highlighting that despite these challenges the overall attendance percentage for each demographic group remains strong exceeding 91 percent this suggests that while students are present targeted and individualized interventions from the very beginning of the school year are essential to ensure that our students are on track everything grossed so okay thank you dr anderson so similarly we start with some foundational data for highland park high school's class of 2024 we saw that 80.8 percent of students at highland
060park high school were earning c's or better in regards to their grades 75.3 percent of students from the class of 2024 took at least one ap course during their time at highland park high school 41 percent of students took at least one ap exam last year 83.9 percent that's from freshmen through seniors 83.9 percent of ap scores were three or higher with a 3.62 average from the 1454 exams taken 25 percent of the class of 2025 took a dual credit course and 86 percent of students who took the panorama survey last year reported that they have a teacher or other adult from school that they can count on no matter what continuing and looking at the sat data from last year 56 percent of students were proficient on ela ela standards with a stark gap
061in that zero percent of students identified as english learners were proficient on ela standards 47.8 percent of students in the aggregate were proficient on math standards with again a stark gap with zero percent of students identified as english learners proficient on math standards the data highlights an intense need to improve course offerings and support for college and career pathways especially for underrepresented groups and this really informed our focus on multilingual learners within our school so our school improvement plan looks at over the next three years highland park high school looks to increase the percentage of all students in the aggregate meeting or exceeding ela standards from 50 to 60 percent and we are looking to close the achievement gap with a focus on students who identify as english learners to grow from zero percent to
062nine percent meeting or exceeding ela standards the annual benchmarks are as follows for the 24 25 school year 53 of all students will meet or exceed e la standards at highland park high school students who identify as english learners will grow from zero to three percent meeting or exceeding ela standards and 25 26 66 percent of all students will meet or exceed ela standards at highland park high school and students who identify as english learners will grow from three to six percent meeting or exceeding ELA standards. In 26-27 we are looking forward to 60 percent of all students meeting or exceeding ELA standards and then students who identify as English learners growing from 6 to 9 percent meeting or exceeding ELA standards. Over the next three years the goal is to increase the percentage of
063all students meeting or exceeding mathematics standards at Highland Park High School from 47.8 percent to 58 percent and students who identify as English learners growing from 0 to 9 percent meeting or exceeding math standards. In 24-25, 51% of all students will meet or exceed math standards. Students who identifies as English learners growing from 0 to 3 percent meeting or exceeding. In 25-26, 54% of all students will meet or exceed math standards. Students who identify as English learners growing from three to six percent. The following year, 26-27, 68% of all students will meet or exceed and students who identify as English learners growing incrementally from six percent to nine percent. I do want to highlight that in the ELA section, I believe for 26-27, the goal was 70% rather than 60%. Yes, thank you. Sorry, I
064read that right wrong. Thank you. In regards to our college and career readiness standards, over the next three years, Highland Park aims to increase the percentage of students who enroll in one AP course throughout their high school experience to 85%, increase the number of earned SEALs, not just commendations, but earned SEALs to 35% of the class, and the percentage of graduates taking dual credit courses to 35%. Incrementally, that looks like 24-25, we're looking to increase the percentage of students from the class of 2026 who enroll in an AP course for the 25-26 school year from 75% to 78%, and those who earn the SEAL by literacy from 22% to 28% in the class of 25, taking a dual credit course from 25% to 28%. In the year 25-26, school year 25-26, we're looking to increase
065the percentage of students from the class of 2027 who enroll in an AP course from 82%, and those who earn a SEAL by literacy from 28% to 33%, and those who are taking a dual credit course from 28% to 32%. In school year 26-27, we are looking to increase the percentage of students from the class of 2027 who enroll in AP courses for the 26-27 school year to 85% and increase those who earned the SEAL by literacy from 33% to 35%, and then finally taking a dual credit course during their time at Highland Park High School from 32% to 35%. So as Dr. Anderson discussed, the next step is to think about how will we go about planning so that our goals will come to fruition. First, similar to Deerfield, we embarked in our last
066desurveying efforts with 11th grade courses, biology and US history in particular. We rolled out standards-based curriculum maps and worked on common summative assessments as well as formative assessments and common grading practices per PLCs or course teams, also leveraging co-teaching models to support every learner. We also engaged in department share calibration and learning. This was to ensure consistent implementation of key areas of focus. When department chairs have a shared understanding, calibration of what effective PLC inquiry looks like, MTSS practices, high-impact tier one strategies, and standards-aligned curriculum, when they can see what that looks like in practice, they will lead their departments more consistently and effectively toward our school goals. We also engaged in professional development, focusing on multilingual learners, investing in multilingual learner series for our dual language teachers, our department chairs, and all staff around
067high-impact strategies to increase tier one efficacy specifically for multilingual learners, focusing on an asset-based approach. We were also focused on data-driven decision-making, fostering a culture similar to Deerfield of continuous improvement by regularly analyzing student data with course teams and support groups to inform instruction and targeted interventions at the tier one level. Next, focusing on targeted interventions and progress monitoring, this is really through our MTSS model, deliver focus tier two and tier three interventions for students who need additional support, systematically monitoring their progress through Panorama, and refining strategies to maximize student growth, specifically expanding our multilingual interventions in a tier two and tier three system. We also began to strategically improve instructional outcomes through a phased PLC approach, building upon recent department chair learning, we've initiated a, like I said, phased approach. Currently larger PLC groups
068this year were focused on deeply understanding and applying the four critical questions of learning and conducting thorough student data analysis. This deliberate practice will pave the way for successful school-wide PLC implementation next year, ultimately empowering all teacher teams to refine instruction and boost student achievement through collective efficacy. Lastly, we focused on school family outreach, our community liaison along with various administrators and counselor-led teams focused on parent workshops, focusing specifically on access, registration, post-secondary options, going on college visits with our first generation parent groups and Spanish-speaking families with a particular focus on programs for first generation college students. So next, we were looking at our SEL and sense of belonging targets, in particular doing a deep dive into our Panorama data from the 23-24 school year. We found that a strength was students overwhelmingly feel supported
069by relationships at school. Areas for attention, a significant portion of students, around 35% do not feel supported in having learning strategies. This is particularly pronounced for our Latinx students and students with IEPs. Also, confidence in managing challenging feelings, particularly emotional regulation, were areas where fewer than two-thirds of students feel confident, with Latinx students and students with IEPs consistently reporting lower scores in these emotional management skills. Disparities exist while supportive relationships are strong across the board. There are these notable disparities that emerge in learning strategies and emotional regulation, specifically for our Latinx students and students with IEPs, who consistently report lower scores than their peers. So we then created a sense of belonging target. In essence, from a research perspective like that presented in Belonging, the Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides by Dr. Jeffrey
070Cohn, Stanford professor, this question is a powerful diagnostic tool. And the question in particular that we utilized is, when you think about Highland Park High School, how often, if ever, do you wonder maybe I don't belong here? We were specifically looking to go from a 61%, which was our fall benchmark this year, to 80% over the course of the next three years as favorable answers to that question, as well as those who take the survey with a specific focus on raising the favorable response for our Latinx students from 55% to 80% over the course of three years. We're targeting this eight percentage point increase also for on-track attendance for all students over the course of three years. More significantly, the district aims and our school aims to accelerate attendance improvement for students who are from
071economically disadvantaged backgrounds by 6.12 percentage points, and for our English learner or multilingual learner population by six percentage points. This focused effort is designed to close existing attendance gaps for these student groups. The established benchmarks provide a clear roadmap for Highland Park High Schools, for Highland Park High School students to achieve these important targets through consistent yearly gains. So the way in which we will go about trying to achieve these goals for our students is first we have embarked on a B giant charter. This is a foundational agreement co-created with students and staff outlining our core school values that include generous, inclusive, accountable, nurturing teammates with which students can name at the drop of a dime that guide behavior and define the school culture. The impact here is to establish shared values like inclusivity and
072accountability, foster a welcoming environment, otherwise thought of as increasing belonging, and motivate students to be present. We utilized PBIS assemblies which are school-wide gatherings used to explicitly teach, model, and reinforce our B giant values and specific behavioral expectations like our non-negotiables show up, beat the bell, and take care of la casa y familia. The impact here is to reinforce our community values and attendance expectations, also strengthen school connection, and directly encourage attendance. Our next strategy is to increase tier one engagement strategies, universal instructional practices implemented in all classrooms to make learning active, relevant, and supportive for every student such as encouraging focused interaction through one of our non-negotiables disconnect to reconnect which we further encourage next year with our new cell phone policy. The impact here is to make learning more interactive and irrelevant, increasing
073student participation, and a desire to attend while fostering a sense of being a valued part of the classroom, increasing attendance and belonging. Next we focused on our wayfinder implementation in civics and health classes in particular, and next year we'll be looking to do so in the advisory. The integration of a specific curriculum, evidence-based wayfinder, into core ninth and tenth grade classes designed to help students explore personal purpose, values, and build meaningful connections. The impact is to help students find purpose, build connections, enhance their sense of community, and make school more meaningful, thus encouraging regular attendance. We also strive to promote inclusivity and positive student culture. An overarching strategic focus on creating a welcoming, respectful, and supportive school environment where students feel valued, affirmed, and safe achieved through various programs and practices, including our student activities
074office. The impact here is to create a safe and affirming environment where all students feel valued, making them more likely to attend and engage within the larger school community. Our deans and counselors engage in attendance circles and utilize student voice. The attendance circles are supportive group meetings for students with attendance challenges to discuss barriers and increase their own locus of control through finding their own solutions. Student voice initiatives involve actively soliciting and incorporating student perspectives through empathy interviews on school matters. The impact here is to provide direct support for attendance challenges through peer connections and empower students by valuing their input, which can improve their engagement and presence within our building. Lastly, engaging in attendance data dives and implementing an early warning system. This is a systematic approach involving regular analysis of attendance reports through
075our administrative team as well as our counselor teams and finally our MTSS teams to identify students who may be at risk using this early warning system. This data informs timely and personalized interventions at the tier one, tier two, as well as tier three level parental notifications and involvement and then support plans, which are progress monitored. The impact is to enable timely personalized support for attendance issues, showing students that they are noticed and cared for, which motivates them to improve their presence. So now we will look at our goals and the progress that was made this year. So our goal for ELA was that 53% of all students will meet or exceed ELA standards. The metric that we found this year for all students in the aggregate based on ACT of the class of 2026 was
07662.3% meeting or exceeding standards. The school exceeded its goal by 9.3% percentage points, but according to exactly what Dr. Anderson said, ISBE has yet to solidify its benchmark standards. We have to see, we have to know that this is based on ACT standards, not ISBE. ELA goal, sorry, so the math goal was 53% of all students will meet or exceed their math standards and sorry, 51%. I'm going to back up. 51% of all students will meet or exceed math standards and this year's benchmarks for the class of 2026 based on the ACT was that 56.1% met or exceeded standards. This was a good performance in that the school exceeded its goal by 5.1 percentage points, but reminder that this is based on the ACT and our benchmark, our baseline data was based on the SAT.
077Due to the fact that we do not have disaggregated data for the ACT at this point, I decided to take a look at our access scores to understand growth with our 172 multilingual learners. The most significant advancement was in speaking, which surged by almost 20 points from last year. That is from 325.5 in the scaled score in 2024 to 342.4 for our this year score and this is again in the scaled score. Strong gains were also seen in literacy where we improved by 9 points based on the scaled score and oral skills which increased by 8 points for our multilingual learners. Reflecting this broad progress, the overall composite score rose in the scaled since by 9.1 points to 376.8. Our listening domain remained high at 400 showing a slight lowering from 403.2 for the year
078before. So that was to give us our team an understanding of where we were in regards to our multilingual learner growth. Overall, the 2425 data clearly indicates significant student growth, particularly in critical literacy areas for our multilingual learners in accordance with the access testing. For the college and career goal, 90%, the goal was 78%, 90% of the class of 2026 has enrolled, will enroll, or has already enrolled in at least one AP course and that's 88% of our Latinx population has enrolled or will enroll in an AP class. That is way surpassing our goal. I'm very excited. 43.85% of the class of 2026 will have enrolled or has already taken a dual credit course and that's 59% of our Latinx students have enrolled in a dual credit course. Our goal was 28% so that is
079a huge surge. Percent of belonging, so the goal was 70% responding favorably to the belonging question by the end of the school year and we had 75% in the aggregate of students responding indicating a favorable sense of belonging. So this was a strong performance. The school exceeded its goal by five percentage points. In regards to our Latinx population, we also saw an increase for Latinx students from 55% to 64%, so proportionate increase. There was excellent progress in regards to our sense of belonging goal. The school, like I said, exceeded its goal for Latinx students by five percentage points moving from a baseline of 55% to 69% against a target of 64% attendance. So our goal was to increase the on-track attendance, so that's for all students attending 90% or greater, for all students from 78%
080attending 90% or greater to 80%. How we did was we moved to 78.82% so we did not meet our goal. The school made slight progress from the baseline of 78% but did not meet its 80% goal, falling short by 1.18 percentage points. In terms of our multilingual learners, the goal was to increase the on-track attendance, that's our multilingual learners attending 90% or greater of the school day from 76% to 78%. What we found was that 56.35% of our multilingual learners attended at least 90%, while the attendance rate for EL in general was 88%, meaning we have quite a bit of students who were just beneath that 90% and with further targeting we could raise that to our on-track attendance goal, which will be the future work of next year. This is obviously an area of
081significant concern and it's discrepant with the gains that we made in regards to the growth in the four composite areas. The school did not meet its goal with multilingual student attendance, which was 21.65 percentage points below the 78% target. We also had a goal to increase the on-track percentage for students who are economically disadvantaged from 74.88% to 76% and our metric was 74.31% on-track attendance this year. This is also an area requiring significant attention. The school did not meet its goal with student attendance or students who are economically disadvantaged, looking at 64.31%, which was 11 percentage points below our target. So first I want to say thank you for your patience and understanding as they went through the details. The board, part of why our principals presented this level of detail is just so you
082are aware of the type of work and the granular nature of our work. Not so like you shouldn't expect us to constantly report this type of detail, but because it's not at the governance level, but it was really to demonstrate for you that there's a lot that goes into continuous improvement cycles. Our strategic plan is one of those cycles that intersects with the work of a school improvement plan. So I wanted to name that while the work of our schools is this granular, it's not necessarily the work of the board, but I wanted to demonstrate the connection between the work of our schools with the work of the district. And so with that, I just want to go into briefly the relationship between our school improvement plans and our strategic plan. So there's a direct
083relationship. Strategic plans focus on the long-term vision for the district. It articulates what the district aims to achieve and why those goals are important for students. It encompasses the entire district, providing a unified direction for all schools and departments, and it addresses big picture priorities. Strategic plans are visionary and focused on long-term outcomes. It sets the overarching strategic initiatives and priorities for the district. School improvement plans provide an annual implementation process and goals for the work that's happening within our schools. Unlike a strategic plan, school improvement plans are short-termed, operational plans created by schools to improve student outcomes. A SIPP includes steps, actions, and strategies to achieve the district's long-term goals. It defines how the school will contribute to the district's vision. SIPPs are specifically focused on a school specific and unique needs, strengths, and
084challenges, and as you could tell, they use a lot of school data. So the focus of school improvement plans are operational and action-oriented. So the interconnected relationship. There's alignment. Every school improvement plan within a district must be aligned to a strategic plan. This means that the goals and priorities outlined in each of our schools' improvement plans should directly contribute to the achievement of larger or broader district goals. The district strategic plan acts as a guiding framework for all school level improvement efforts. The SIPP also serves as the implementation arm of the strategic plan at the school level. The district strategic vision is realized in the continuous improvement efforts that happen through our schools. The alignment ensures coherence across the entire district. Instead of a school working in silos creating disparate initiatives, both of our schools
085are working towards common objectives even if their specific strategies vary based on their unique context. This prevents planning overload and ensures resources are also effectively and officially used by the district. Something else I wanted to mention. So accountability. The district strategic plan provides the framework and progress on SIPPs is monitored regularly and that progress impacts the overall evaluation of our strategic plan. Both plans are part of continuous improvement, as I mentioned, and data from our school improvement implementation informs adjustments to individual school plans and can also provide feedback for future iterations of the district strategic plan. If you think about it like this, the district strategic plan is like the GPS for a road trip. We know the final destination, our vision, the major stops along the way, which are our broad goals and the
086overall route or route that we're taking. Each of our school improvement plans is basically thinking about the journey is a detailed daily itinerary for one segment of the trip. It outlines specific directions, activities, and milestones for that particular leg of the journey, all while keeping the ultimate destination in mind. In essence, the strategic plan provides the North Star and the big picture, while the school improvement plan provides the specific actionable steps that individuals schools are taking to reach that star. So as a reminder, which will be up for approval later, this is our current strategic plan. And these are the goals and the strategies. And so the work of the district is really to guide our mission vision to ensure that we're living our core values. The goals, the strategies, that's the work of the
087district. That's the work of cabinet, which flows through the implementation processes of our school improvement plans. So launching SIPs for the first time in our district and a strategic plan at the same time would have been a huge lift. I'm grateful that our principals were open and receptive during my entry time to create school improvement plans, because both are essential aspects of continuous improvement. The principals will take time over the summer to update and create the next iteration of their SIPs, part of this process to really see whether their goals were ambitious enough. What got in the way of meeting some of the goals? Are there things, I mean, this is also just that adaptive nature of school improvement planning. So we will collectively ensure alignment between our SIPs and the goals of our strategic
088plan through our implementation conversations. We will also align the cadence of our data collection and reporting for school improvement planning efforts to ensure that staff members are always aware of our plans, that they understand the relationship between the larger district strategic plan and our SIPs and have a clear understanding of the roles that each of our staff members, no matter what role they're playing, it's important for our staff members to see themselves in the work of the school improvement plans and also to understand that North Star. The board's work and focus, of course, as mentioned, is on the mission vision and core values. Cabinet's work is on the implementation of the goals and strategies of the strategic plan and the daily day-to-day itinerary work of school improvement plans is the work of our district, excuse
089me, of our schools. In closing, I do want to thank Holly and Kathy for partnering around the development of these SIPs and for trusting my crazy suggestion throughout this process. I understand that it can be overwhelming. You saw how detailed they are, but the development of our SIPs was one of the first areas in which we were able to partner around goal setting and the direction for our schools. Although they weren't common to this district, school improvement plans are a common process and both principals stepped up. They understood the value and worked to create these SIPs in order to support the growth that they know their students need and deserve. So like all improvement planning process, we learn, we adjust, and we'll continue to refine. And we're a lot further along and I feel like
090we're in a better place because we now have this process already underway to further align with the efforts for our strategic plan. Any questions or comments? Thank you very much, A, for the amount of data in this presentation. I understand it's a simple slice of the work that's been accomplished over the last year. So thank you. What questions do we have? My only comment is I had a series of questions and as you went through the presentation, I was like, okay, there it is. Okay, there it is. So kudos on the comprehensive nature of everything that went into it. No questions. I mean, just you can tell how much work has gone into this. So just, I mean, it's incredible. Thank you. This fits into the board's role in oversight. We need to know that
091there are structures in place. We don't need to know the details of the structure necessarily, but this gives us a very strong feeling, I believe, that structures are in place to do the work the district needs to do. So again, your point taken, we don't need to see this every year, but the fact that it exists is what we need to know. I actually think we do need to see it. I think we need to see that we're meeting these things. I think we need to understand how we're doing, how we're getting to where we need to be. I do think that's important for us. You know, I don't know that we need to go through all the steps that are being taken, you know, but I think it is important for us to see
092that we are setting these benchmarks and that we are jumping over them. Right. Another question, I guess, is, well, obviously, each school improvement plan needs to be unique, right, to the environment in which, you know, they need to work. You know, in general, the things that we're trying to get to are similar, right? It's, you know, it's measuring, you know, achievement and standards. It's, you know, SEL benchmarks. So as each school does its thing and we start to see what works, maybe what doesn't, I'm just curious how much collaboration there is in saying, hey, this is something that's working, you know, you know, can we, you know, can we implement this in both places or, you know, or back off on things that aren't working out kind of. I think number one, just a lot
093of the work that was even done this year was learning from each other. A lot of the reasons that are increases for dual credit and AEP for DHS was actually Highland Park had a dual credit class that Deerfield did not have, and by having that dual credit now class that Deerfield has increased our numbers already just in that effort. Also, a lot of the work that was done this year in terms of the department chairs and departments working together to better align our courses that we're offering has also made a tremendous impact and the work that we will be doing next year with our PLCs, just reinforcing how our teachers work together rather than having to be siloed and do everything on their own. Just the power of being able to work together. I think
094we'll continue to see more and more impacts that only in our individual schools put together. I think also moving forward, it would be what the note I made was I'm interested in understanding the what if. What if we exceed the benchmark? What if we fall short of the benchmark? What are the next steps? Or organ the plan? And this is a procedural question. It's a curiosity question. I was curious when you were going through the benchmarks, what drives those numbers and that stepping down or stepping up, of the number? I'm guessing it's not pulling from the sky. I'm curious by that. What drives that change? A lot of our numbers came from longitudinal data. If we looked at gains that happened over the course of years, we wanted to exceed those. Okay. Then also, I
095think to your first question, the adaptive approach is to really consider. I'm thinking about my, for example, we rose way above where we thought we'd be in terms of AP enrollment, so I was not ambitious enough in my goal setting. It's still to be celebrated, but I need to then now adjust for the years to come. And where I fell short, which is in my attendance benchmark, I'm going to sit with my team. We're going to collaborate across the highway so that we can talk about what kind of procedures we have in place and then what targeted supports and data analysis we're going to do to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all of our learners. Because as Dr. Holland has said before, these numbers aren't just numbers, they're stories and they're students.
096I feel very responsible and accountable for each of their growth and engagement as individuals in our school system. So making sure that we're doing the best that we can and learning from our outcomes and figuring out, I think, Greg, as you said, what worked and what didn't so that we're not falling into a pit of shame, but instead we feel excited to try something new and look at it through an action research lens so that we're learners along the way as well. Which is modeling for our students. So I think to that point, those annual or continual, I think, here's what worked, here's what didn't work. That's really helpful. I mean, it's part of that living of the plan. And I think the other part of it as well, which is incredibly powerful, is that
097collaboration. So not only sharing in what worked really well, but problem solving on what might not have worked. And I mean, that's truly living the mission and vision and our values around building that space and learning from the pockets of excellence or all of the excellence that's happening in various degrees. And I do believe you somewhat answered this, but I want to frame it again. Because the SIP is the how, right? And we're focused on the what and the why. What role does the board play in the SIP in understanding these school action plans? Is it an annual update to us as it ties into our work? I wanted to understand that a little bit better. So good question. Again, the work of the school improvement plan is the school's work, I do think, and
098we can discuss. So the board will have updates on progress towards our goals. Additionally, I think there are ways I have seen and experienced the benefits of school improvement plans being an annual conversation, because it does provide more insight into the steps and approaches we're taking. Yet I also feel like we can bring it up to a higher level to some extent without all of the details, but possibly provide you with the plans for your review and present a higher level of presentation. But sometimes the more you share, the more it's like, well, what about this? So I think there's a sweet spot in between all of this work, because the work of the schools is the work of the district. And the only way for things to happen is through our buildings and the
099work that's happening there. And this is a platform for celebration too, that we want to make sure we use. So fantastic. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, I wanted to make a comment about some of the things that are happening within the environment here. So we have a dramatic decline in affordable housing in our community, especially in Highland Park. And that may lead to a change in the demographic makeup of our student body. One obvious point is we want to make sure we don't lose our tremendous level of support that we want to give to the folks that need extra help. Don't want to lose that. But it may change the numbers. So some goals might be exceeded simply because of the change in the student body, not necessarily because
100of being successful in our implementation of a plan. So I'm not suggesting that, I just think we need to keep aware that there's other stuff going on outside of our control that are impacting how we measure and who we have in our buildings. And I think that's an iterative process that you all were talking about, correct, is that it's a constant review of the data on our students, the impact of our community, right? And I would say that our goals in particular are to disrupt predictability so that our locus of control is to be able to grow every learner. And so this shouldn't be predictable based on who's in our building. So that our goal is to actually not have that be true through our work. All right. Moving on to public comment. We welcome
101your comments and questions and give them serious consideration pursuant to Board of Education Policy 2-230 and Policy 8-30. When I call your number, please come to the podium, identify yourself with the 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 will raise a hand at the 30 second mark and will 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. I believe we have a public comment. I only do this so that I can be number one before I begin. Not necessarily a community member. Okay. Who was recently called a
102quote, a dried out prune and quote, an obnoxious jerk? The correct answer to that question is Bruce Springsteen. The name calling was obviously dishonest, ignorant, disgusting and probably self-serving. Now, I will pause just to say that I made a grave mistake by watching broadcast news this afternoon and so I hope that my comments are going to soon become totally irrelevant. Okay. So you may know that that particular nasty takedown was a retort after Springsteen's observations about that individual. Do you know who I'm talking about? Administration being quote, corrupt, incompetent and treasonous. So recent and current and ongoing while we speak events have indeed validated Mr. Springsteen's observations. These events, which continue to expand our horror at the justified reality that the United States of America is now under fascist rule. So what do we do?
103Well, we acknowledge the nomenclature. We use accurate definitions and we provide resources. Yes, the normative school year is over. Our nation, however, is in continually deepening crisis. So it's my opinion that we, District 113, with the greatest of respect and opportunities and individuals in the district could create opportunities for students and the community to meet with each other and be able to interact with adults who have academic backgrounds and or environmental experiences to talk, discuss and answer questions, if at all possible. My suggestion is for our district to arrange for such programming during the coming months. It's being with each other, learning with each other. That's what this most excellent school district has demonstrated this evening that is a goal of the district and right now I'm confident that the district can facilitate such a
104program. I would offer any help that I can offer to do this. Right now there's nothing more important that we can provide education, togetherness, dialogue, conversation, and get some questions answered by pulling in resources that we have in the community and with all the universities around here as well. Things for students to read and other ways for them to express what they feel and what they know. Thanks. Thank you. Now we will move on to our policies for first reading. Jaime. So at the last board meeting we gave an update on the policy committee that recently happened. You'll notice there are a number of policies A through X who are up for first read. We won't read through each one of the titles but just wanted to call out that there are a few themes
105that appeared for those. All board members have had a chance to review those as part of first read. So if there are any questions please let me know or let us know. But those themes are one, just annual updates as there's press updates where there are changes in language in accordance with press. That's the first batch of updates. One of those batches of updates is the rolling back of Title IX to the 2020 verbiage. So you'll notice in a number of these policies that's noted as one of those one of those changes. Any questions on any of the policies that are first read or Dr. Holland or anything else that I missed? Some of the policies are updated to align with some of the changes that we discussed tonight specifically connecting to our cell phone
106conversation and district devices. The only other thing that I would add is that there are some policies that we review annually and so some of those policies are part of this process and they're updated based off of shifts in the landscape, the legal landscape. And then the last thing to mention as well is if there are any administrative procedures that you for the board that you see in here administrative procedures aren't approved by the board but they are reviewed annually as well as part of ongoing updates to policy to keep everything as up to date as possible. There's one thing that I forgot and just for the purpose of transparency during our policy committee meeting we agreed to bring an additional update to the board meeting for policy 7.325 and the updated language in that
107policy was to make sure that we're including co-curricular activities and our fundraising activities and expectations so I just wanted to name that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Agenda item seven. All right so we'll move on to or sorry no this is your old agenda item eight. I'll just keep going. Move on. All right I'll keep going. So there are as part of that annual review of policies those that have updates to references and footnotes only those you'll notice in section eight so all that's been updated are those legal references and footnotes no other changes for those policies. What we did as a policy committee was break those out so that it's easier to see which ones have certain changes and which ones which ones don't but are still part of that continual review
108of policy. Any questions? Thank you very much. Moving on to discussion. We have one discussion item tonight that's the fiscal year 2026 tentative budget presentation. 2026 tentative budget was presented earlier today in our finance committee as it was mentioned. In addition board members received a copy of the tentative budget to support this discussion. The clicker is not working. Okay so good evening. This is just a summary version. I'm going to go over pretty quickly and I do have some responses. I know Greg asked me some questions earlier in the finance committee but finance committee members feel free to chime in with your thoughts and board members are not part of the finance committee. Feel free to ask me questions anytime. All right so we're going to look at our operating funds for our budget and
109what are the operating funds. I mean those are our day-to-day funds that covers our day-to-day operations for the district which is salaries, benefits, and as well as non-personal expenditures such as electricity, purchase services, materials, supplies, things needed for the classroom, contract services, etc. Looking at our next slide, got to get the remote as well. Looking at our expenditures by fund for FY26. Obviously we're here working for our students, educating our students so 84% of our expenditures go towards educational fund. 10% is our operations and maintenance which is buildings and grounds, repairs and upkeep for our buildings. Then 4% is transportation and 2% is our Illinois municipal retirement fund which is a pension application for non-licensed staff. Looking at our categories, object categories for fiscal year 26 budget expenditures. It's very common for school districts to
110have 80% budgeted towards salaries and benefits where about 79% then remainder of the categories are purchase services, supplies and materials, capital outlay, other objects which is mainly tuition. I'll get into it a little bit later and then non-capitalized equipment. The next chart is our fiscal year 25 budget for our operating funds and then looking at our fiscal year 25 forecasted year end expenditures based on our forecast five system that analyzes based on the trends how are we going to end up our fiscal year end because we haven't ended our fiscal year. Obviously these are going to be unaudited expenditures. Looking at our budget of 117.5 million dollars were forecasted to end with 116.9 million dollars and that is under spending is happening due to special education expenditures trending under budget due to the enrollment of
111the students at those private facilities enrollment board. And then comparing it to our FY26 budget which is 122.1 million dollars. This is an overall increase at least from budget to budget about four percent and I'll get into it what are those increases later. Okay so salaries and benefits here which is close to 80% of the budget. Salary remains the district's largest expenditure despite a net reduction of nine FDs. Salary costs are projected to increase due to contractual obligations such as step and lane advancements advancements and cost of living adjustments. In responsive declining enrollment district leadership has strategically reduced both instructional and non-instructional staffing levels in a manner that preserves high service standards and ensure that student experience and classroom instructions remain unaffected. Benefits are projected to go up by six percent and that is due
112to a rise in PPO premiums of 10% driven by higher pharmacy and medical claims. We did transition to blue choice PPO plan from a regular PPO plan that actually helped us save additional three percent initially we're projecting a 13% hike and then HMO premiums will increase by two percent with no planned structural changes to the HMO design and that is obviously all discussed and you know approved by the insurance committee that we have that represents different bargaining groups of the of the district. All right so looking at our non-personal expenditures our non-personal expenditures projected increases about 4.8 percent. Non-personal expenditures represents 21 percent of our FY26 operating budget as I said salaries and benefits are 79 percent. Some of the categories of our non-personal expenditures at least in the purchase services are transportation for special
113education special education idea which is tied to a grant technology legal services property liability and workers comm insurance and security and then moving to the next slide looking at supplies materials we have utilities and those are major expenditures in those categories buildings and grounds transportation field and technology softwares looking at our capital and non-capital which is our computers and buildings and grounds equipment some transportation equipment our vehicles and then our other objects are mainly special education tuition which includes co-op and placements. All right so material changes to our FY26 operating expenditures now I still call it material but I'm just going to give an example so let's say for our budget is a dollar 150 000 increase is basically one penny one tenth of a penny of total dollar so yes I mean on a
114grand scheme of things not big but we still call it material so I'm just going to go over like high level changes of what is changing so our professional development budget increase which is 72 percent or 150 000 dollars and our non-personal expenditures that increase reflects targeted investments and core instructional priorities aimed at enhancing teaching quality strength strengthen collaboration and improve curriculum alignment design and execution. Dr. Allen if you had something to add to that feel free I'll keep going all right okay so the next increases are our software services and our security services mainly ECRA and canine. ECRA is a software we used to have before then we did have it and we introduced it this year adding hundred thousand dollars to the budget canine security services were as part of a new initiative
115for this year's budget but it wasn't included in this year's budget because it was approved after the budget was adopted that resulted in a 260 000 increase and then our electricity costs is about 30 28 percent of the budget and that is due to the prices that we were locked in pre-covid were a lot lower now the new renewal from the energy co-op they were part of obviously it's higher prices and other school districts are also facing a similar increase that basically is doing a solar project is even more attractive now because the increases in these electrical costs that's going to have a shorter payback compared to what we initially projected in 11 years to a nine-year payback for the solar project that's obviously going if both of the schools are energized right now the
116data field is energized but we're still waiting on comment to make sure we get Highland Park High School running the solar panels have already been installed we're just waiting for Highland Park to be up and running on solar panels all right all right so non-personal expenditures just looking at the history of what it used to be and these are audited expenditures so if you look at our AFR and FY20 our expenditures were 23.7 million dollars and compared to what we had in what we spent in FY24 audited 25.4 million our budget was 24.9 million dollars for FY25 and FY26 we're budgeting 26 million dollars based on those material increases so I just want to say that we have a lot of processes in place to analyze those non-personal expenditures and on average our budget spending
117has been on average up by 1.7 percent each year on average so we've done an excellent everyone else has done everyone in the departments and the budget managers have done an excellent job controlling those non-expense personal expenditures I do want to point out Greg asked me a question about copiers actually in my first year when I came in I noticed that there were 21 copier contracts so I consolidated everything to one contract centralized it and we saved about 100,000 dollars and then we did transition from our old food service provider which was Sodex such a quest that resulted in 300,000 savings annually so that's 400 and then I actually looked at other budget years we've reduced departmental budgets Cathy Anderson I'm sure is aware of it with all that time being spent that resulted in
118a recurring savings of 800,000 dollars which is still half a penny of our total budget so we again uh we always continue to look at efficiencies um whether resulting in a material impact or not because you know that's our job to maximize the resources for the kids in the classroom but those changes in the non-personal are even harder to find or those reductions that it'll provide a material impact and toward a budget in a positive way I like that question in the facilities meeting because I also thought it spoke to mindset um and so I think that's even key I agree there's you know only so much money we can get out of a copier paper um and we've probably realized all that but constantly having that mindset and not just the mindset in this
119building but in every employee I think is going to help us and the reason for that mindset is more important because that's also part of our strategy goal five right strategic plan to be you know optimizing district resources and good point so it's not just about you know um just saving dollars but you know finding efficiencies and reallocating restructuring as well so all of those items add up yeah exactly so I would prefer for us not to focus on the big shifts right but to consider all of the shifts that can result in a larger shift absolutely absolutely so just to inform the board we continue we have a um so that's just showing in charts on our average increase of non-personal expenditures and uh one of the process we uh implemented here um to
120control that is zero base budgeting which we introduced about five years ago and what that is is that we it requires each all department managers that are accountable for their budget to justify every single line item every year uh what used to happen before was they were given an allocation and it would increase allocation by cpi but basically we start everything from scratch so just because if each department has 100 000 our budget they even get 100 000 hours they start from the ground up and build up the budget and it's based on the needs uh so that has also helped us reduce or control those non-personal expenditures as you can see the result 1.7 percent increase even with high rising electricity costs and software costs and all those things all right so this is
121just an example of the zero base budgeting and non-personal expenditures that every budget manager is required to uh put every single detail now obviously we're not gonna we don't ask if they put pens what brands we don't go to that level but uh just a lot of details associated with the non-personal expenditures but also helps the department managers and budget managers get better at their budgeting you know because if you know your household budget you know how much you're spending on netflix and that's exactly how you what we want the budget managers to think like their whole household budget that they can control and you know find any efficiencies okay all right so now we're going to talk about revenues that not much in our controls so revenues as far as our funding sources as
122you can see that 89 percent of our funding comes from property taxes we don't rely heavily on state or federal taxes sorry state and federal sources of revenue and then the six percent is mainly comprised of the other local revenues comprised of investments and corporate personal property replacement tax and there's a small portion of student fees now looking at our fy 25 budget for our operating revenues 123.2 million dollars are forecasted year-end revenue is pretty close 123.8 million and then fy 26 budget is 127.3 million dollars and depending on how you look at it whether it's projected actual to the budget or budget to budget is between 2.89 to 3.34 percent increase all right so material changes in our operating revenues our property tax revenue is projected to go up by 3.9 percent and that
123is mainly due to the cpi consumer price index which was based on 2023 december to december consumer change in 2023 december to december which was 3.4 percent the additional 0.5 percent is mainly due to the new development we get extra revenue from new construction new development and then our interest income which is projected go up by 38 percent and that is based on our estimates our conservative estimates still from our financial advisors pma and we build that into our budget but we got to keep that in mind that this is highly volatile and we shouldn't be relying that much on interest income because that can change from year to year okay and then we have corporate personal property replacement tax that is based on the net profits there is a formula that is determined by
124the irs in the state of illinois and there is a certain allocation giving and that is again highly variable as well we budgeted about 2.3 million dollars based on fy 24 actuals but we're going to end up receiving 1.2 million so now in checking with our even our business manager group because we don't have the estimates we're basically keeping the same as what we think we're going to end up receiving just to be on the conservative side uh federal revenues as i explained earlier because of special education expenditures are going down especially in our room and board and private facilities that is also going to cause a decline in our federal revenues by 32 percent then okay so operating deficit uh what that is is an operating deficit occurs when an organization's operating expenditures exceed
125its operating revenues during a specific period typically a fiscal year in our cases july 1 to june 30th so given these changes changes in both revenues and expenditures um and the districts projects a 743 000 operating deficit for the fy 26 budget so this despite inflation despite inflationary pressures and revenue volatility the district has pursued strategic adjustments and sustainability measures to maintain educational quality and financial responsibility as you saw we took big hits in our revenue but we did also control our deficit by in our staffing process otherwise that resulted in additional 700 000 savings by you know nine fds otherwise our deficit would be a lot so it'd be 1.4 correct okay correct yes all right so this is just a snapshot of all the operating funds together showing the history of the actuals
126from 22 23 24 versus won't be budgeted and what we have in fy 26 as i mentioned if you look at our surplus deficit at 743 000 and our ending fund balance is going to be projected at 59.7 million dollars now keep in mind that the it's looking at from budget to budget our actual is going to be different when we get our audited but this is based on that information we are at about 49 of our projected fund balance compared to our expenditures and our board policy remember is 40 to 50 percent and that typically it's when you look at from how many months of cash in hand it's six months cash so it's at the bottom uh this is all funds and this gets a little complicated the way you look at it
127it's showing a big red in fy 26 of 8.7 million dollars because that is mainly due to our spend down of the bonds that we issued in 2022 as you can see uh 2022 we have a surplus of 52 million dollars because at that point the board issued alternate revenue bonds of 50 million dollars so depending on how we spend that down uh it changes so this is not operating funds but this is just a picture of all funds together um and this is just a budget calendar it's basically a 12-month process looking at currently we are at uh june which we're discussing it with the board previously it was shared with the finance committee before and in august we're going to have a public hearing at our board meeting followed by board adoption and
128this concludes my presentation questions i know half of us more than half of us were at the either participating or sitting in the audience of the facility at the finance committee okay um i guess just i do want to ask the one question um is you know what what cost containment measures are you targeting in order to address that deficit right so so continually we look at the non-personal expenditures but as we all know that 80 percent of our expenditures are in staring and as you can see that uh the staffing has been reduced without instructional impact to our kids in the classroom by 9 fd you know that is additional 700 000 hours my job as a cfo is to work with the superintendent and the leadership team to provide the impact of you
129know anything that needs to be added or reallocated um and uh it's mainly during the staffing process the teaching and learning team works with the buildings to look at the course enrollment to see how much staffing do we need do we need um so the cost containment measure measures also to look at the five-year outlook of financial projections which we're going to share with the board just to make sure that the superintendent and the board is fully informed where we're going and try to control the deficit by those reallocations or attrition if needed without impacting instruction so in addition to that part of um our collective responsibilities including the cfos is to identify um redundancies in spendings or inefficiencies so it's not necessarily just to advise but to pay very close attention to how we're
130spending money what we're spending money on um and also um i think we collectively have to ask is this a priority is this moving us closer to our vision and mission our goals our goal strategies the work of our sips because some of the things that we've invested in previously are no longer part of our direction so part of this um part of our discussions are where are we going and what do we need to prioritize and also what do we need to cut ties with and part ways with because it's no longer supporting our direction so that's um an ongoing conversation that not only happens during the budgeting process but it comes up when we may want individual things we may identify an app or software or an instructional um tool that we might
131want but it's not um it may not be something that we're going to collectively adopt as a district so having some hard conversations also looking at our spending um many people are aware that we just went through a process of looking at our legal services so really just figuring out how can we support our own growth so we're not reliant relying on some of the services and supports that we have historically and how can we hold ourselves accountable um to having a greater understanding so we're not always relying on external resources so so it's that changing the business practices as much as looking at the bill absolutely yeah absolutely you know looking at shared services centralized purchasing i mean or uh every school each school had their own spirit we're consolidating that you know taking
132advantage of the economies of scale even though uh looking at capital funds too even though they're non-operating but looking at different uh models of how we can you know uh like the solar project we didn't use the architect save eight percent on the 10 million dollar project so looking at that as well that helps because that's going to give more money to the capital product so we continue our job my at least my job is to continue to look at efficiencies and identify savings where possible as i said the first couple of years we identified those savings and did it and we continue to do that so and you know working with the superintendent i do know that shela was part of the budget hearing process and she was questioning science partners you know which
133i wouldn't have questioned because you know i don't know much of the programming side so having that partnership with you know principals and looking at the budget looking at the line items and see where we can identify savings informing the board okay thank you okay moving on to action items it is recommended that the board of education approve the township high school district 113 strategic plan as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion the one point that i would like to make after our presentation from last week is that you know obviously our strategic plan is going to frame all of the work that we do moving forward so i really encourage us as board members to ensure that our questions our
134thought process is always framed from the lens of the strategic plan because it really should be our mode of operation from this point forward any other questions or comments i hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr hinderman aye miss lupa aye mr neater aye mr farazza aye miss newman aye the motion carries we have a new strategic plan it is recommended that the board of education approve the resolution of notice of intent to township high school district 113 to withdraw from true north educational co-op 804 as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion dr holland can you just for a moment uh recap our conversation from our last meeting in regards to why it's important for us to make
135this resolution right now and how it gives us that control over our own destiny basically so at our may 27th meeting we had an extensive discussion regarding the current state of true north the relationship current relationship between true north and member districts and the impact on our district based on what's happening district 113 as mentioned during that meeting has always had a positive relationship with true north and have really benefited from a partnership the resolution for our intent to withdraw from the cooperative is not a reflection of the services provided by true north but rather our inability to bear the fiscal and staff responsibilities due to a possible dissolution additionally by submitting our intent to withdraw it allows us to partner with true north to explore possibilities to reimagine the co-op while also protecting the
136interests of our district in the case of a disillusion and so there if we moving forward with the withdrawal would mean that we have a window of time to develop our own educational plan to support the needs of our students additionally it gives true north as well as member districts an opportunity to remain at the table to determine if something else is possible outside of a disillusion so if we can work to recreate a structure around the co-op so all in all again it removes us from being liable or responsible for bearing a brunt of the brunt of expenditures pending a disillusion but it also allows us to continue to partner with them in the meantime and so if you do go fully down a path for withdrawal this would not be effective until july
1371st 2027 so there is a window of time in which the dissolution would be final our plan at this point in time pending there are no other changes would be to remain our continue our partnership and our services additionally i do want to mention that the development of an educational plan for our students is not something we're doing behind closed doors there would be it would be a collaborative process with our students staff and family members to make sure that our plan is attentive to the needs of our students and our families and so there would be a feedback loop there will be opportunities to provide insight into it as well as ongoing conversations and of course if a transition is required we would make sure that all of our families are supported and honored
138through a transition process thank you any other comments or discussion fantastic hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please miss lupa aye mr neater aye mr braza aye mr heineman aye miss newman aye the motion carries it is recommended that the board of education direct that the fiscal year 2026 tentative budget be posted as presented set public hearing there on august 26 2025 with posted notice and authorize expenditures and purchases during the first fiscal quarter in accordance with the tentative budget until the final budget is adopted may i have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr neater aye mr braza aye mr heineman aye miss lupa aye miss newman aye the motion carries it
139is recommended the board of education award the 2025-2026 paper contract to moraine paper the lowest responsive bidder meeting quality standards for a total of 38 is that 38 200 yeah 222 as 60 um may i have a motion to approve that recommend this recommendation so move is there a second check is there any discussion i know i saw the wrong number hearing no further discussion roll call vote please mr braza aye mr heineman aye miss lupa aye mr neater hi miss newman aye the motion carries it is recommended the board of education award bids for individual and small group student transportation services to collaborative student transportation first alt 214 enterprises and city care transportation as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion
140hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr heineman aye miss lupa aye mr neater hi mr braza hi miss newman aye motion carries is recommended the board of education adopt the resolution for the one-time transfer of 2 million 120 1637 from the operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund of township high school district 113 as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr heineman aye miss lupa aye mr neater hi mr braza hi miss newman hi the motion carries is recommended the board of education adopt the resolution transferring funds from the o and m fund to the bond and interest fund to pay debt services on the district's general
141obligation school bonds alternate revenue source series 2022a as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr neater hi mr braza hi mr heineman hi miss lupa hi miss newman hi the motion carries is recommended the board of education approve the deerfield high school and highland park high school hockey association agreements as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion thank you i know this has been a while and updating so thank you very much for getting this done hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr braza hi mr heineman hi miss hi mr neater hi miss newman hi the
142motion carries the next item is the consent agenda items included in the consent agenda were provided to all board members in advance made publicly available as part of the meeting agenda 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 and i have the bills you guys have not heard me talk enough today um i would review three bills and of course shockingly they were all in order uh and i appreciate it was everywhere from uh reimbursements of expenses to equipment for the dhs football team to tutoring services so thank you very much i want to give kudos to josh ever since
143he started as you will see that the description on those bills it's it's very clear compared to what we used to have so anytime memorizing questions you can go in view the bills view the description so i just want to give credit to the business office and josh for implementing those you know strict procedures strict internal controls reviewing it and you know making sure that they're described properly as well so thank you is there any other discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr heineman aye miss lupa aye mr neater aye mr veraza aye miss newman aye the motion carries now to the very fun part of our agenda recognition of our retiring cabinet member tom i put together a couple of thoughts from the board that i'd love to share and
144i'm not sure if there's other there's anything else others would like to share Tom on behalf of the board of education we want to express our gratitude for your service to our district over the last nine years your role as chief human resource officer may be one of the least glamorous in the world of education but it is unquestionably among some of the most vital you've done more than managing hiring policies and compliance you've ensured that our staff ensured that our staff from our teachers to custodians to bus drivers felt safe respected and heard your leadership has been a constant through three superintendents and multiple interim superintendents a testament to your professionalism adaptability and commitment to this district you provide stability and ensure that we didn't lose sight of our most important our staff there
145are several moments that define your impact tonight we want to highlight three your mentorship of dr anderson which has been instrumental in her transition and her success your role in securing our first district-wide collective bargaining agreement a milestone that will shape our future and your navigation of ever-changing covid protocols which kept our staff safe thank you for all that you've done to support the mission and vision of this district we wish you and hope the very best for you in your next chapter thank you tom if there's anyone else allen that would like to share any thoughts in regards to so i'm not going to look at you um i didn't write anything down because i was like where do i begin tom um thank you for being a wonderful friend a colleague confidant we
146spent a lot of time together this year um you are just a wonderful person wonderful human being with a heart with a huge heart um you have supported me immensely this entire year navigating many different um situations you have served as a critical friend someone to provide insight into various angles into the matters of the district that i wouldn't even imagine your humor has been welcomed and needed um and i'm going to miss you so much i can't even imagine being without you but i just want you to know that you are loved and i greatly appreciate the person you are so thank you yes i'm sorry but i have to add something too because i've worked with tom for the last eight years i was my second year and he's been an amazing mentor
147he's i've learned a lot from him and i just want to thank tom for his service and i'm really going to miss him looking for for kathy as well and on that note i had actually tom ai generated tom's picture in july 15 just sharing that it's got 10 000 mice already was that during done during work hours i think we might have one last hr issue okay others anyone else want to share anything tom no i i didn't write anything either because i didn't know we were actually going to get to speak um but i want you to know just because it's public now that um your dry humor and ability to deliver a joke in the face of a moment that is serious but also like it's they're teachable like they always kind
148of stick with me i want to say thank you for that um but more seriously the work that we were able to do um with operation red apple has taught me a lot and i wanted to extend my heart in that way and wish you the best as you move forward so thank you um i will close out the meeting and then i do know that we have some uh treats as well to help celebrate we also have a gift for tom the boss lady says yeah tom is there anything you want to say see i wasn't i wasn't going to put you on the spot how about a joke what's this about this humor you got something seven minute joke no i didn't write anything either and i definitely didn't expect to say anything
149but christine gonzalez and diana roman who are um two of the other three members of the human resources department are here tonight and if you expected to show up here tonight and not be called out you were following um i know what you do every day and i appreciate it and i thank you i should say i know much of what you do um so thank you thank you for being here um shannon our third um member could not make it tonight um otherwise she would have been here um and thank you to all of you it's been wonderful it has been the highlight of my professional career um i am full of gratitude for this these nine years thank you thank you thank you there being no further business may i have a motion
150to adjourn the meeting so moved is there a second second thank you all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed say nay the motion carries this concludes the business township high school district 113 board of education for this evening at 9 24 thank you for your time and patience