Board of Education Meeting 05-27-2025

001I am reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 public hearing on Tuesday May 27 2025 at 708 this agenda item is a public hearing concerning the resolution authorizing drivers education fee the recording secretary will now take a roll yes here here here I would like everyone else who is present to identify themselves chief human resources officer Lisa Delacqua assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and assessment Warner chief communications officer Tiffany Rowe assistant superintendent for student services Brian Armour chief operations officer Ali Mahati assistant superintendent of finance Hallie Fleischer principal at Highland Park High School Katherine Anderson principal at Deerfield High School Mira Antti executive director of diversity equity and inclusion Shayla Holland superintendent we welcome your comments and questions and give them serious consideration pursuant to Board of Education policy 2-2 3 0 please

002limit the length of all comments to no more than three minutes any questions may be sent via email to be answered subsequent to the meeting as a reminder public participation is not intended to be a back-and-forth discussion between the public and the board public comment period will be for a maximum of 30 minutes are there any public comments regarding the public hearing hearing in regards to drivers ed fees is there a motion to adjourn the public hearing so moved is there a second all of those in favor opposed motion carries I am reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 regular action meeting on Tuesday May 27th 2025 at 710 the recording secretary will now call the roll our first agenda item our board reports and the first board report is mine as president

003a quick housekeeping reminder that the dates for the triple I conference which is November 21st through November 23rd a registration will open on June 2nd and as we've discussed previously we do want to make sure we as a full as much of a full board as possible are able to attend the conference this fall and obviously as it's closer we'll discuss logistics of that but please make sure you mark your calendars we are looking forward to celebrating our Highland Park High School and Deerfield High School seniors this week at their graduations we want to wish a very heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2025 we also want to wish our students and staff a successful finish to the school year as finals are administered and taken clubs and teams wrap up their schedules and the

004school year comes to a close the board also wants to thank Brian Hallmer for her service to our district as this is his last meeting with us thank you for not only the major construction projects and annual facility maintenance projects that have been completed under your 10 year but also for soothing serving as our covert COVID experts which included the facilitation of vaccine clinics preparing our buildings for staff and students return to in-person learning and working with local experts and leadership to ensure we support the safety of our entire community so very heartfelt thank you Brian to your years of service to us and we wish you the best of luck that concludes my present report the next board report is the Policy Committee report thank you Policy Committee met earlier today to review a

005number of policies that will be coming to the board for first reading at the next at the next board meeting periodically the we review the policies that are with updates that are presented as as time goes on special thank you to Dr. Holland and everybody who worked on policy updates your team and all involved it is a Herculean effort to review policies and recommend changes and have discussions on what makes the most sense to to amend based on changes in legislation changes that are happening both at the state and federal level so thank you to your thank you to you and your team thank you to the Policy Committee members also for your feedback and the review of a number of policies thank you moving on to administration reports Dr. Holland okay this is a

006short report because we have a lot to cover today but this is an exciting week for our districts with our graduations occurring Wednesday and Thursday it's also the last week of attendance for our students and staff there's a lot that goes into making each day one of opportunity and importance for our staff and students in the district I want to say thank you to all of our staff for pouring into the lives of our students in very meaningful ways all year I also want to say thank you to our families who have partnered with us and I want to say thank you to members of cabinet and the Board of Education for your support throughout this entire school year I want to wish everyone a safe and restorative summer break thank you next up our

007foyers so there were no foyers that have been processed since our last meeting next up is excellence and effort which is I think our last one of this school year so which Prince I think dr. Anderson's to go first since it's her last principal report sure president Newman happy to do that for you all right we're gonna start with some heartwarming information and news from the littlest warriors at Deerfield and we will end with our oldest warriors so mrs. Athena Sawyer and the students in Chinese classes work closely with our deer park friends for those of you who don't know that's our preschool by teaching the Chinese zodiac story in symbols our youngest learners enjoy the tale of the animal race and eagerly practice the Chinese words and movements for each animal now we're going

008to move on to all the awards that our students have actually gained as a result of their academics within your field high school so for all of world languages as of May 12th the class of 2025 has earned 81 seals of biliteracy representing nine unique languages and 87 commendations toward biliteracy representing five unique languages so a big thank you to all of our amazing teachers as well as to all of our students on this amazing achievement that will take them well into their futures and into their lives for fine and applied arts congratulations to Jonah Vickus and Amy Bernetti on a fantastic year with honors business incubator the program grew this year to six sections with 33 teams and 10 standout teams were chosen for pitch night 2025 everlam took first place so golfers check

009out everlam to help preserve your golf gloves so thank you to our industry mentors including our parents and community supporters for their invaluable guidance this year congratulations to Brett Schwartz and the DHS TV film students for earning an impressive eight nominations for the National Academy of television arts and sciences and a huge shout out to Chris Sakura and Tim Black in the visual arts department for their students incredible achievements at the state Illinois high school art exhibition earning best in show and silver medals it is clear that we have so many talented students especially in the fine arts department and so we actually celebrated those talented students with a special signing day this past week for those pursuing arts in college so we're very proud of all of their achievements and cannot wait to see

010the amazing things that they do whether it's in TV or theater or dance as they go into college and prepare for their futures for athletics the athletics department proudly honored our outstanding athletes who will be taking their talents to the collegiate level and we're incredibly proud of their remarkable achievements and excited to see them excel in the next chapter of their athletic journeys we're so proud of our students who are making that choice because it's combining academics and athletics and we know how important both of those are not only to our community but to our students as well and then finally as this is my last excellence and effort I would be remiss if I didn't mention my own homeroom so I have a sophomore homeroom this year with Joe Taylor he took me on

011as a partner and we have the best homeroom and I just want to mention how amazing homeroom is for our students and it's especially important because you will be seeing tomorrow night and Thursday how our students graduate in their homerooms so I'm sad to be leaving my sophomores but I promise them that I will be back not only next year to visit them but then I am hoping to be able to graduate or help them to graduate when they are seniors so thank you to our homeroom coordinators to all of our homeroom teachers and all of our students for making that a special community within our schools thank you so much Highland Park thank you recently we celebrated our incredible seniors at their magical prom then came the senior clap out at the end of

012the day last Monday it was an incredibly emotional and beautiful send-off as they prepare to embark on their next adventure we look forward to graduation tomorrow evening and just as we bid farewell to one chapter we enthusiastically welcomed another the very next day we held a junior-only assembly we called them the whole class in and up to their new roles as leaders in our school as we celebrated them we emphasize that with great power comes great responsibility we asked for reflection on traditions that no longer serve the health of our collective and to welcome new ones that bring us together we proudly celebrate also the outstanding achievements of 847 of our students more than 50% of the student body who collectively completed over 1600 AP exams over the last month demonstrating their commitment to academic

013excellence and intellectual growth Highland Park High School freshmen and sophomores spent all year gaining valuable vocational and social skills through their participation in the snack shop program guided by man Maggie Janczak Caroline Sutter and Carrie Schindler this initiative and work is mutually beneficial as students learn crucial social skills and vocational skills and staff get an afternoon pick-me-up from the science department we have an environmental science classes continued their partnership with the Park District of Highland Park and trout unlimited starting earlier in the year students set up their aquariums and raise the trout from eggs they monitored the health of the trout and the ecosystem throughout the year this event culminates in releasing the trout into our local watershed on May 2nd the students and their 300 trout travel to Rosewood Beach in Highland Park to

014release them into the ravine where they will eventually make their way to Lake Michigan the students are supervised by teachers Aaron Fay Matt Crocht and Beth Peterson in American Studies students curated a photography exhibit exploring themes of free versus unfree strong versus weak and progress versus stagnation presenting their semesters work and analysis to a multi-generational group of guests invited into the classroom to engage in deep reflective discussions shout out to Gabby Perlin for my personal invite lastly a heartfelt thank you to the entire staff and school community who are going above and beyond to close this school year with an exclamation point in every part of our organization your dedication and intentionality is deeply appreciated we got this and you all matter thank you thank you both all right moving on to the very exciting

015part of our agenda the the district 113 strategic plan dr. Holland all right good evening everyone this day in this presentation has been at the forefront of my thoughts and hopes since last summer during my transition it's no longer a hope and tonight it is a reality and I'm very excited about it we're thrilled to recommend our new strategic plan to the Board of Education this evening this presentation will walk you through our strategic planning learning journey our recommended plan this presentation will walk you through our strategic planning learning journey our recommended plan and the work that follows to live the plan moving forward to support us in engaging in this very important work the district partner with catalysts for educational change CEC our facilitators were Crystal Conley and Elisa Brent and they were remarkable

016and thoughtfully supporting us through the process towards the development of this plan for tonight I would like for you to meet our co-presenters who served on the strategic planning committee they'll come up introduce themselves and they'll also share their affiliation with district 113 good evening my name is Kristen Neen I am the assistant superintendent of learning and innovation at true north and I am a partner with district 113 we enjoy working with all of you very much I was a participant and that was my role in strategic plan good evening my name is Valeria Rodriguez I'm a junior here at Highland Park High School and I was invited to be a part of the strategic planning committee my name is Alyssa Rivera I'm a Highland Park High School graduate class of 06 I am currently

017the administrative assistant for student activities library media sub coordinator assist and then in the summer I'm also in the coffee room I was also invited to participate thank you and I would like to thank the three of you for being willing to to share in this presentation so strategic planning is essential at this pivotal point of time in our district the last time our district created a strategic plan was in 2017 and through our discussions we realized that parts of that plan were implemented and other parts were not the educational landscape has changed a lot since 2017 and so has the world education is changing the world has changed and we have also changed careers and industries have changed demanding new and different skills from employees to support success more than two-third of this year's

018jobs did not exist 20 years ago let that sink in if our educational planning and direction has not shifted it is likely that we may not be properly preparing our students for success beyond high school organizations have two choices we must choose to take a path of clarity and great intention to rise to this moment in time and create an educational and learning landscape landscape that is designed with today's learners and future learners in mind the foundation of all continuous improvements to improvement efforts are to be clear in our mission our foundation excuse me clear in our mission our vision our goals and our values the mission addresses why we exist the vision speaks to where we are going and why as with all continuous improvement efforts we must pause to consider where are we

019now what's our current state we also need to consider where do we want to be more specifically what do our students need from us what do they need for us what do they need for us to prepare them for and finally we need to ask ourselves how do we get to where we want to be from where we are right now what will that take our strategic plan provides us with an opportunity to reset and to have a fresh start so as exciting as this is we also have to guard against pitfalls that often contribute to the failure of strategic plans tonight we ask all stakeholders to remember this list can take a moment to read them and to partner with us in ensuring that we do not fail that our plan remains a living

020document that breeds and permeates throughout our entire district managing our plan is also an essential part of this work strategic management includes our mission vision values and goals through our view or through our view of them we should be able to confidently state that we are doing the right things the operational aspect of our plan focuses on the action plans for each strategy allowing us to consider whether or not we are doing things right so it's are we doing the right things and are we doing things right both are essential parts of this our strategic planning process incorporated several phases prior to the launch with the full team members of cabinet and our board members participated two of our board members participated in readiness meetings one of the meetings was to ensure that we had

021an in-depth understanding of the process the next readiness meeting focused on members of cabinet preparing for the data retreat we provided an overview of the entire process at our orientation meeting to ensure that all participants had an understanding of our direction following each session we solicited feedback from stakeholders to consider their perspectives regarding our work and to enhance our thinking we had a data retreat a vision retreat roadmap retreat and a final meeting following the last meeting I worked with members of cabinet to refine the draft that will be presented tonight the next phase of this process is to live the plan which will be explained later in this presentation community engagement was a priority throughout this entire process after each of the full day sessions you will hear about we launched surveys to solicit

022community feedback regarding our work our team reviewed the feedback and used it to make revisions based on the feedback and reflection although cabinet members began preparing for this process in January the strategic planning committee met from set from February through May our strategic planning team was made of seven sixty-five stakeholders from across our district including district and building administrators licensed staff members and staff and staff members caregivers parents community partners I'm proud to state that all of our feeder districts were represented on the team and our so was our cooperative in true north and the highlight of our time together I think everyone would agree was involvement of our students whose insights resonated across it within the entire team this process reaching it nearly eleven thousand stakeholders with 780 participants providing feedback to our work

023in addition to the survey and in addition to the surveys that we we gave we hosted in-person feedback sessions following our SWOT analysis now want to invite Alyssa up to share her experience in my position I work closely with nearly every person here at HP and with members at the administrative building on a daily basis given that being part of this team and working on our strategic plan was truly an honor what stood out to me the most throughout the planning process was how voices from all areas of the district weren't just invited to participate but truly welcomed I was especially proud to see how every perspective from our students our administrators our stakeholders our support stuff like myself was valued and taken seriously as a powerful reminder that when we bring together such diverse

024experiences and insights we can create a strong and meaningful vision for our schools I'm truly proud to say I'm from district 113 and thankful I had an opportunity to be part of this important work okay so to reinforce our process during our data retreat we explored our current state during our data retreat there there were members of the district central office cabinet who presented on student achievement and growth climate and culture finance facilities communication and technology at this session the committee learned more about our current state we engaged in meaningful conversations and dialogue in each session the highlight of each session was the incorporation of our student voices and perspectives throughout the process that really kept us grounded and centered now I'm going to invite Valeria who will share with us once again my name

025is Valeria Rodriguez and I'm a junior here at Highland Park High School when I was first invited to be a part of the strategic planning process I wasn't sure what to expect I logged into zoom for the first meeting feeling a bit confused about what my role would be but during the first major meeting the data retreat I realized that my voice was essential although all the meetings were enjoyable I found the data retreat to be my favorite I had the chance to look at data from both schools and finally understand why certain things felt the way they do at school such as the weaknesses in the threats in the opportunities and the strengths so while reviewing the data some of the adults at my table ask would ask huh I wonder why this is

026referring to the threats and weaknesses I was able to explain based on my own school experience I felt heard and more importantly I felt like I was there to represent my fellow peers who want change and growth from this district not only did I feel this way but the other seven students also did when it was time for a break we continuously talked about this data not even taking our break and talking more about it excited for the next meeting so being a part of this process has shown me how powerful student voices can be when they're given a seat at the table I really enjoyed analyzing the data because it helped us understand where we are now and where we can grow and improve I'm grateful for the opportunity to contribute and hopeful that

027the insights we shared will lead to a real positive change thank you for listening and thank you to those who allowed me to be a part of something that truly matters thank you so much so during the data retreat we developed a SWOT analysis analysis which highlights our strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats and by threats we looked at external threats ones that we cannot control that impact our district we then moved on to our vision retreat where we work to define our preferred future state by drafting our mission vision and portraits we considered where we want to go and begin to envision the future of our district during the vision retreat we developed a series of statements outlining our desires and focused in on the creation of several overlapping portraits as you will see we

028started with our student portrait sometimes known as a portrait of a learner or a portrait of a graduate in some districts through these discussions we focus on the knowledge skills dispositions and mindsets that our students need to thrive in life and in a career it was important to start with the student portrait since it was essential to create the other portraits and ways that supported the experiences we desired for students we then moved to develop a staff portrait that applied to all adults working in the school district not just teachers because every adult and every staff members work support student success therefore the language here is broad intentionally this allows us to call in all employees in our district as agents and supporters of our efforts to enhance the student experience widespread successful achievement of

029the student portrait is only possible if a supportive and intentional community of staff work together the organizational or district portrait considers the conditions that we create promote and implement for our stakeholders in service of our students the district is made up of many aspects and it's important that all roads lead to enhancing the learning and engagement experience we provide to our students our core values highlight the commonalities between our portraits and help us bring all of our portraits together in meaningful ways at our setting direction retreat we spent the day really considering how we move from our current state to where we want to be we spent the day identifying long range goals and aligned strategies to accomplish them we explored what we need to do to get closer to realizing our future state our

030mission vision values and our goals all of which require long-range performance planning and an alignment of strategies to get there it was at this session that we developed the draft of our strategic plan with our preferred future statements our mission vision portraits and core values and our strategic plan foundation our goals and priority strategies our final meeting was a virtual one where we were placed in groups to focus on one assigned goal to add some final touches we started by reviewing stakeholder feedback as we had done in all of our other sessions and we worked to revise our plan by considering and incorporating that feedback so beyond this plan approval tonight or review tonight with approval hopefully and our at our June 10th meeting we have to bring the plan to life which will require

031a significant amount of alignment across all facets of our district and a commitment to living the plan you'll notice part of this is a line a line a line a line so that's our work key aspects of living the plan are implementing planning and action strategies consistently monitoring and effectively communicating our learning engaging in data-driven analysis and continuously refining the plan which is adaptive work and transparently reporting on the plan and reviewing our pot our progress okay so let's introduce our plan I'm gonna ask Jaime if you would please do us the honor of reading our mission and vision it would be an honor our mission to inspire a passion for learning and empower students for the future within a supportive and dynamic learning community vision cultivating passion unlocking potential inspiring excellence for every learner

032thank you Rick will you please do us the honor of reading our core values yes first one is communication collaboration and community then equity and access future readiness growth and achievement well-being and resilience thank you and I specifically asked these two board members because they were a part of the strategic planning committee now I'm gonna ask Valeria if you can read our portrait of our students the portrait of our students is communication and collaboration creative problem-solving and critical thinking empathy and emotional intelligence global citizenship and cultural competence self-awareness and resilience the portrait of our staff is collaborative teamwork and shared leadership cultural competence effective communication and relationship building empathy and emotional intelligence professional responsibility and accountability the portrait of our families curiosity and lifelong learning mutual respect and collaborative partnership strong family school community ties

033student self advocacy skills student well-being and resilience and the portrait of our district ethical governance and transparency evidence-based practices and research utilization inclusive innovative and accessible learning environments proactive problem-solving and innovative systems thinking visionary strategic planning and foresight and now on to our goals and our goal statements and strategies welcome Valeria back up to read goal number one okay goal one is student engagement and growth so this prepares students for future readiness through engagement and service of growth and achievement it develops career pathways and programming that provide work-based learning experiences and opportunities for students explore and implement a variety of rigorous and engaging learning strategies to ensure all students receive comprehensive and targeted support leading to improved achievement creative opportunities for students to provide meaningful input and have a voice in decisions that shape school

034policies programs and initiatives goal number two inclusive learning ecosystem create a safe inclusive and innovative learning environment that fosters strong relationships and engages all learners through challenging relevant and supportive experiences the strategies we would use would first continuously assess student learning to inform and adjust instruction ensuring it is differentiated and responsive to individual needs and promotes growth establish a sustainable MTSS framework with clear protocols for identifying student needs implementing evidence-based interventions and monitoring progress to ensure all students achieve growth and proficiency finally develop and maintain physically emotionally and culturally safe and welcoming learning environments for all students and staff across the entire district thank you goal three strategic staffing hire retain and support a diverse staff to cultivate innovation collaboration and shared accountability strategies include enhanced staff capabilities through this professional development initiatives empowering them

035to cultivate inclusive and engaging learning environment and develop and implement staff mentorship programs to foster retention and encourage adaptability learning and growth all four goal for family and community partnerships build and strengthen collaborative school community and family partnerships strategies include create and promote high quality multilingual and culturally responsive resources for parents and caregivers to foster engagement and enhance family school partnerships create meaningful opportunities for stakeholder input and involvement in district and school efforts and initiatives foster and develop strong community outreach and partnerships and goal five fiscal responsibility optimize district resources for educational success we have three strategies first one implement a comprehensive asset management plan to strategically upgrade maintain and optimize all district resources for the current and future benefits of students and staff next strategy enhance operational systems and procedures to improve efficiency consistency

036and alignment with district priorities the third strategy develop and implement a flexible and sustainable master facilities plan that adapts to the evolving educational landscape and actively supports the district's mission mission and vision thank you I'm up here with goosebumps I'm excited about this so thank you all for participating in reading these I'm gonna ask Kristin to come up and share her experience as a part of the strategic planning team thank you so much goosebumps also when Shayla reached out to true north to ask if and to invite us to be a participant I eagerly raised my hand this will be my fifth experience on a strategic plan I've been an administrator for 18 years I think so what I will say is it was truly a remarkable experience in that it was so thorough so

037well planned so thoughtful engaged such a large group of stakeholders and efficient as well which you know sometimes that's a challenging combination and the outcome is so exciting as you just saw so what I will say it was just such an honor and a privilege for sure to be part of this strategic planning process I've always known the district 113 community is a special place and I had the opportunity to experience it this process was a journey very much marked by deep collaboration thoughtful dialogue and an unwavering commitment to excellence it was truly felt in the room that commitment to excellence from defining the cult the current reality to envisioning a preferred future state and ultimately building a clear pathway to success each powerful session was a result of time effort thoroughness and integrity that

038truly shaped this transformative plan I'm profoundly grateful to have partnered with all of you to have gotten to know some of your community members better especially the students it's so wonderful to have time with them and contributed to this plan in a small way it's meaningful work it's exciting work I'm excited for all of you and I look forward to seeing what happens in the coming years with this amazing plan so thank you thank you so to live the plan we will be moving from the strategic planning team to district strategy teams to focus on action planning monitoring and reporting again the focus is alignment our first task is to establish our structures roles responsibilities and expectations for our teams for each goal a cabinet member will be assigned the champion of the goal there

039will also be co-champions and team members each role has different responsibilities all of which are essential to ensuring the success of the goal the action team members will consist of various stakeholders with specific expertise and insights into the goals and the specific strategies task to our mission vision and core values are only as good as their explanation and our ability to actually bring them to life note we do not yet have a motto tasks to focuses on creating the visuals and marketing to foster understanding excitement and clarity regarding our strategic plan these efforts are intended to provide access points for a wide range of stakeholders to join in on the excitement of our future this work is informative and it's also aspirational all of our resources resources should focus or should provide clarity and should

040be designed to engage target audiences across our school communities task three is really about starting to prioritize our work recognizing that plans often incorporate a face a phased approach so that we do not experience burnout we also have to consider our our internal capacity to manage the change process we will need to prioritize our efforts over a three to four year time period recognizing that our plan is for five years it is at this juncture that we determine what our priorities will be in year one for each of the goals the task to be completed in year two and also how we will continue to gather information to be developed in those years towards execution of our goals task four provides an opportunity to develop plan do study act cycles basically and timelines to ensure

041to shore up accountability measures for all goals and for all stakeholders this is also where we will make sure that goal progress monitoring is an essential part of our processes for each goal and we determine our cadence for communicating and reporting out on our progress and our efforts so PDSA once again is planned to study act and those are cycles and they're usually time-bound we will have many resources prompts and templates to assist us with our work and to keep us on the right track so there are many possibilities of the structures and templates we could possibly use but we will choose a structure that actually is informative and can guide our work so our next steps are for cabinet members to launch into a living the plan retreat with catalyst for educational change we

042have an extensive amount of work ahead of us this summer and we will be working throughout the summer on the outline task to prepare for a successful community-wide launch this fall this will be hard and adaptive work requiring us to learn from the process of implementation to transparently share insights and learning and to partner with all of our stakeholders plans are are only as good as their implementation and our shared accountability to living them as we made strides towards our as we make strides towards our future statements we will continue to celebrate along the way in closing I would like to ask anyone in the audience who may be here who is a part of the strategic planning committee to stand and also be recognized can we give them a round of applause stay standing

043no we don't have a big audience but if anyone completed the survey any of our surveys at any point in time can you also stand do we have any takers okay thank you stay standing just want to say thank you your care your hopes and your aspirations are also cemented in this plan you have contributed in the most meaningful ways to the future of our district and we cannot thank you enough thank you now I would like this to open this up for questions comments thoughts I also want to invite cabinet members who are also a part of this process to feel free to chime in with some responses as well before we begin with questions I do again want to thank Rick and Jaime for taking additional time as board duties to participate in

044strategic planning and as you had said dr. Holland the 65 street you know strategy folks that sat around the table multiple tables fantastic so thank you to everyone yes just want to under underscore the thank you for presenting and the feeling of feeling honored and feeling privileged to be able to participate in this process the process truly was an incredible process and to distill it down into this presentation I don't know that it could ever do justice the conversations that were had the connections that were made the spirited discussions all in the favor all in favor of making sure that our community not only for for us but for future generations is in a trajectory that is the best one possible so dr. Holland kudos to you as well I know as joining the the

045district this was one of the major milestones for you to be able to bring a strategic plan to the to the district so a huge thank you to you and a thank you to everybody who participated and we lucked out and we were the lucky board members to be able to do this it was absolutely incredible I agree it was very lucky and an incredible experience I'm always very pleased by the quality of folks who participate in our stakeholders I mean everybody in the room was great students were phenomenally valuable I mean just awesome and one one point I want to make it we've said but I just want to focus on it's a series of learnings and of decisions that we make to build towards the future so for example this plan needed to

046be done before we do a master facilities plan because as I phrase it you have to know where you're going before you engage the engine so you know it's it that's and we will continue to do that and that's built into this whole plan and that's the basic design and the brilliance of it is that it's sequential you you have to learn where you want to go and then you have to figure out how to deliver it so how do we decide what kind of facilities we want for example we got to know what we want our kids to learn what is that we need what do our what does our staff need so it's an important building block for the future say it's incredibly clear that this plan was developed with a lot of

047passion and I love that those that word came up in the mission and the vision of our new strategic plan one thing I did have a question about is if you could sort of expound a bit on what it means to be culturally competent and what a culturally safe place would be words caught my ear sure I can start and I'll welcome any other perspectives but culture is to me the air that we breathe it's a matter of beliefs values and the way that you engage in a space and being culturally competent is recognizing that we're all products of many facets of our experiences and we bring our own cultures into a shared space where we develop a culture and part of really seeing and understanding who our students are and what they need to

048flourish is to acknowledge that our students may be bringing in cultures or ways of being that may differ but we should get to know what they need to grow and to flourish so part of being culturally competent is to recognize the cultures that exist amongst us as we forge ahead to create a shared culture of learning engagement and support for students and so there are various facets of culture I know sometimes those words have one meaning or some people come to them with their own dispositions but being culturally competent is really thinking about the beliefs ways of being that we all that make us who we are and having an understanding of those tapping into those to leverage the cultural gifts that our students bring to school every single day to support their growth and

049development I don't know if anyone else wants to chime in as well I'll add a little bit but you really said so much of what I would have said one of the things that kind of dovetails off of that point is that the cultural experiences that we may have from our home lives from our traditions and things that we practice also provide us a set of skills and competencies that it is then the responsibility and the practice of our teachers and our staff to leverage as dr. Holland said to use for science or math or reading and so that's the critical conjunction intersection that is very much a part of that term and the really living it did I miss a part of your question so part of culturally safe is for our students all

050of our students cross their multiple identities to know that this is a safe and welcoming space for them that we see them we value who they are and what they bring to this space and we hope that we can also pour into their lives as well but it's really a safe affirming space of belonging for our students yes can you speak into the mic sorry you know the goal is develop and maintain physically emotionally and culturally safe and welcoming learning environments but one of our one of our key items in the portrait of our students is we're looking for self-awareness as well as resilience and I guess you know I completely hear what we're saying about the importance of students really included in a sense of belonging but I worry a little bit at the

051vagueness of the ways of stated in terms of you know if we're looking for students to develop resilience that should mean they're pushed outside their comfort zone sometimes right that should mean that they're they're exposed to ideas that may make them uncomfortable that may make them you know not always completely emotionally safe so how do we reconcile those two things where we want to develop resilience and students but we also want to provide a safe environment so I think part of this is developing resilience is the fortitude to keep pushing and moving forward and I do think though that a culturally safe space is a protective factor for students to even feel I don't want to say inspired to keep moving forward but that does that does help students build and foster resilience when they

052know that we are creating with them in mind and that we're co-creating a space where I mean safety probably means something different to everyone the main point of that is that students can show up authentically and not have to change who they are to access success within our schools and so part of that is come we see you we want you here and now let's let's leverage all of the gifts that you're bringing tap into those and build resilience to push beyond hard times as well I mean I think that's part of resilience so I think there's a I mean there's some there's not a balance but I do feel like they speak to each other in more meaningful ways than actually are disparate I don't know if I'm answering your question do you see

053them as separate not necessarily as separate but I worry that the you know if taken too far the desire to make spaces completely emotionally safe could prevent students from being exposed to things that would help them develop some of that resilience and so it's not so much it's one of those things that it's probably in the implementation right it has to be done appropriately right and we know that unsafe spaces call students to to do the opposite not only build resilient date some students do not build resilience when the extreme of not feeling safe seen or valued at all so I do think there's a combination and I feel like a safe space promotes helps to inspire students to have the fortitude to forge ahead but if any student I would imagine is feeling unsafe

054unsafe probably the conversation about around resilience is not where we need to start the conversation and so I feel like there might be a more of a progression of making sure that students have a level of safety that they feel when they walk into this space that they know that this space is built for them and that we're here for them while also pushing them to towards growth and reaching challenging goals and benchmarks I don't think they're totally mutually exclusive I do though think that we have to think about how to foster both I also don't look at culturally safe as not being a challenging environment for students or not pushing them in the ways that they need I think there are things that we all need as human beings to feel confident and comfortable

055showing up and I think that's a part of it sure I would say that having a culture is culturally safe environment for our students and making them all feel welcome and making them experience other cultures to other students and having them come together would make them resilient for the future when they're out in the world where there's all different kinds of cultures to be around I could argue that okay so I'm a first-generation student here and when I entered Highland Park High School as a freshman I was extremely nervous about the honors classes I was taking not only because it would be hard but because I would be an extreme minority I'm not used to seeing people that look like me in my classes this made me have in like extreme imposter syndrome and when

056I when the school like the activities office makes the school environment be more safe it made me realize that I'm not weak I'm not like not not not enough but it made me realize that I can do stuff and that made me resilient to take even more classes and to actually participate in those classes without feeling doubt in myself so I also agree that feeling a safe cultural environment makes students more resilient to take things I'm not sure how to put it but it definitely helps to succeed yeah next question for you because I was interested about this is I was interested the portrait of the student that we've outlined here how do you think that how do you envision that impacting your lived experience now within the four walls of the school okay sorry

057can you repeat your question sure so looking at that portrait of a student I notice it isn't outlining academic excellence that you know in order to a portrait of our students isn't defined by the number of AP classes you take or the number of honors classes so I was interested in if you look at this portrait of a student how do you envision that impacting your lived experience within the building under this umbrella versus kind of the culture that we currently have within our schools okay so I'm sorry I'm not really I guess what I'm trying to understand is these metrics or definition of a student is looking at the whole student as opposed to what traditionally I believe schools have looked at is your outputs how many students are excelling and we define excelling

058by the grades that you're receiving or the rigor of the classes that you're taking and I'm interested in seeing how you feel high school senior junior next year Oh senior next year like living in a building where we're focused more on your ability to critically think and your ability to have empathy over the number of rigorous classes you're taking yeah so all of these like portraits that are put on the board kind of aren't just like the classes but can also just be seen everywhere so even sports or activities all of these things prepare you for post-secondary so that that can mean college or going straight to the workforce so you need all of these skills to succeed so let's say you are just going immediately to the workforce instead of going to college you

059need to be you have to know how to act socially so you can start yeah you can and yeah you just need all these skills to be able to act and that can be taught in not just like the rigor of the classes but in sports and activities and clubs and probably just in the environment so that's so part of the portrait you'll notice are skill-based because we're preparing students not just for success here but it for life and so part of the discussions especially in the creation of portraits what skills do we want to make sure all students like have exposure to and that they learn and that they have embodied prior to graduating this is why some districts call this portrait of a learner or portrait of a graduate and then the rest

060of the portraits in some ways spiral around them and some remember the circles are supportive are they totally apples to apples not in every way but it's what do we want our students to leave district 113 what skills how do we want to prepare them for the world and so they're intentionally not necessarily focused on the traditional skills that we often talk about when we're thinking about goals and achievement and attainment we're looking at life readiness life achievement life success and how to not only engage with each other here but also with the rest of the world so it's the power of and it's the the power to be able to show up as a as a student who is self-aware in that class in that honors class in that sport it's that global citizenship

061that's you know in the in the cafeteria it's the emotional intelligence during group work and the ability to convey what's happening so it's not a replacement it is a way to to attain right so it's it's that enrichment piece and all of it working to working together and that came across in many many of the conversations that were that were had around like what do we think of is the portrait of a student and in each one of these as well so thinking about you know the learning and service of what or you know the the practice and service of what right we don't practice to practice we practice to you know for when it we have that real-world application one the other themes that runs through here is communication yes so you know can

062you talk through sort of the various levels that that that manifests you know it's inside the process right so we're communicating in terms of we can figure out what those all you mean throughout this entire yeah so I mean we talked about you know multiple places we're talking communication right so we're gonna be engaging to help us figure out as we're doing them community communication sort of okay I'm gonna start and then I'm going to pass it to some other people but specifically towards the portraits we want our students to learn how to effectively communicate and to advocate for themselves through collaboration so I'm giving that as an example in the portraits you're seeing the skill sets that we want like we hope our staff members engage in collaborative teamwork there's a lot of collaboration

063there's a lot of communication effective communication and relationship building how do you engage with each other so a lot of this has to do with engagement and one of the larger themes across that directly connects to communication is how all stakeholders are engaging with each other in service of students and the goals that are are shared here and so while communication comes up across the portraits part of it is still in service of us achieving the goals that are outlined here and so I I don't know if that's what you're asking or if you're also asking how do we plan to effectively communicate throughout this process our progress our goals so yes there's there are skills that we want to see fostered across all our stakeholder groups around communication the other side of this is

064living and implementing the plan where we want to effectively communicate and be very transparent with all of our stakeholders regarding the benchmarks and the measures that we put in place to live out our goals and of course this is the next step step of implementing and then we want to make sure that I think a part of communication is not just pushing out information but it's the relational aspect of communication how do we know that we're reaching all of our stakeholders how do we know that we're gathering their feedback and insights in ways that honors their true perspectives and not us just putting our voices to their voices so there's an interplay that is required with communication and so we haven't yet mapped all of that out since that's the work ahead but that is

065a an important part as it was also described in the tasks that are ahead for us to really think about our communication plan how we're not only publicizing our strategic plan but also how we're planning to reach and make it real for all different stakeholder groups like prefer I mean part of the goal is for every stakeholder group to see themselves within this plan and that there can be if not all of it many facets of this plan that resonates with them that they want for their students that they want for themselves and that they're willing to participate in throughout this process because again this is something that we all have to embody preferably all stakeholder groups to live in service of our students so part of it is to continually invite these teams these

066folks back in along the way yes absolutely I don't know if anyone else wants to share anything it's okay if not sure so going back to the in order to achieve that we are really looking at this with different academic you explain a little bit of what you mean by MTSS and how your vision for students all of our learning so going back to the portrait or to the goal I guess thinking about the portrait but then implementation of that I know we're not quite there yet but I'm linking that to can you explain a little bit I guess for sure what that is what that is sure I'll keep it very high level because that can be an entire board meeting so MTSS stands for multi-tiered system of support and it's really grounded in

067a tiered approach to supporting all of our learners based on what they need for their growth and achievement there's tier one that are the day-to-day instructional practices that all of our students should expect to experience what we call high leverage practices restorative practices as well in our classrooms that will reach 80% or possibly more of our students with those supportive measures in place strategies and ways of teaching and learning that all of our our teachers embody we should be effectively reaching a core part of our core body or mass of our students there will always be students who have specific needs that would require a more targeted approach to support and part of MTSS structure is having tier so there's tier one which would support most of our learners tier two we now start to

068get into small group instruction small group support based off of maybe a student has a literacy skill or a reading need that needs to be addressed math whatever the case is so it's more small group instruction that's targeted and then as we move up in the tiers maybe students actually need more acceleration and more intensive support around to support their academic growth or their social emotional behavioral growth that's when it becomes more individualized the more you move up in the tiers and MTSS is really important number one it helps to hold districts accountable schools accountable all of us accountable for making sure that we get to know who our learners are and that we're accountable to providing the supports and interventions that they need if to the extent that they need them some students not

069only need support some students need enrichment they need us to push them further so it's really pushing us to see the wide range of learners and making sure all of them are growing in ways that are meaningful and supportive of where they individually are MTSS MTSS is also important and before identifying students for special education or other services typically a conversation of what supports have we tried MTSS helps to also provide a safeguard against the over identification students should not have to qualify for an IEP just to get the support that they need so again this is part of the tiered approach and making sure that students have what they need and also having more assurances in place if they do need a more more event if they do need an individualized education plan that's

070very general but a high functioning MTSS framework is really important because there are a lot of people with a lot of times in school districts there are a lot of well-intentioned supports and interventions put in place but if we're they're not specific if they're not very intentional if we don't know like it's important that we know what need they're created to address we also need to make sure they're research-based evidence-based and that there's a data collection and progress monitoring a part of that process that's all a part of a high functioning MTSS structure so MTSS wasn't something that was here when I was a student granted was a long time ago but it wasn't the thing we had level one two and three I wasn't good in history or literature I was in placed in

071level three that included I was placed in level three for mathematics for all of my courses mathematics actually excelled in and I could not go up I ended up taking the same algebra class all four years so having an MTSS program would have helped someone like me who doesn't have an IP but who's more of a visual hands-on learner opposed to being stuck in your classroom and you have to do it this way like this is the way so having the opportunity to give our students the ability to learn the way they need to learn is what would be enriched enrichment of an MTSS I think part of the issue is we think of kids who need support is the one say for example they have an IEP but I believe the way we're looking

072at it is every student needs support to achieve more to get where they want to be and where they can be so that means making sure kids take the AP courses that there are available to them they should be taking it's maybe the child who is phenomenal and whatever everything and we need to make sure they get to a hospital learn how to be take doctor stuff as a senior in high school you know so every child needs support not just the old definitions of kids that might need support right every child needs support and every student deserves an access point to support their next level of growth and challenge and so part of an MTSS structure is to recognize who our learners are and what they need to flourish in that case though in

073those instances how do we ensure that from an equity standpoint the MTSS hearing doesn't end up creating an environment of which you're having different standards for the same students in a classroom if it's you know and and and I'm just kind of asking to understand this works like if you are setting up you know enrichment for some kids you know different learning you know patterns for other kids you know is it reasonable then that what it takes to get an A in the same class if those kids are in the same classroom is different for one of the students than another like how do we how do we prevent that from happening how do we prevent students from having us from having different standards for students well I'm gonna start and then I'm gonna pass

074it off to my silent cabinet members to chime in because this is some of your areas of expertise as well so part of it is anchoring all of our courses and standards I feel like the standards and the expectations for learning are something that we should be making sure ensuring all students access how they get to that point may differ based on the needs of the student also how they surpass the standard may differ differ and I think one of the things you mentioned different standards when I think our work right now especially around alignment is making sure that all students have access to learning the standards that exists within all of our our learn all of our courses and they do exist I think the pathway might be more or is where sometimes there

075are different ways to achieve or to support students in learning the standard so I don't know if that's what you're speaking to more I guess I'm what I'm speaking to is just how does this work out you know in practice is there a scenario in which a one child might say well I had to do more where is this other student got all this additional support you know to get this to the same place and I reason I ask is I understand we're moving away from the level one level two level three toward trying to have more inclusive classroom environments and you know offering more again the opportunity for the MTSS to the same classroom I'm just wondering how it how do we ensure that there isn't a an issue of fairness in terms of

076just the what's being offered to different students yes so I appreciate the example connecting to the visual so I might need a visual cue to access the standard but that's not where that stops my expectation is to use that strength of mine because we're going to frame it as like asset based that strength to now teach me another way of learning that same information or engaging with that same information so it's not necessarily we're pushing aside all of our expectations there's a benefit in teaching students how to learn in a wide range of ways we also know the research speaks to tapping into the strengths that a student has and using those to build the bridge to our bridges to learn in different ways and we know that when our students leave here or when

077they go other places they may not have those bridges created part of that is to create the help them develop the skills and the tools they need but also expose them to different ways of learning so the visual one as an example we might start with providing me with a visual representation of the information because that's where I can launch in and begin to engage but that's definitely not where we stop we still teach students how to learn in a wide range of ways and the ways that will support their success in high school it's not to say that visual learning is not it's not the only way and that's also not going to be provided in every space and so it's essential that we still have the high expectations for students and but we

078support them and in getting there I don't know if anyone else wants to chime in the other thing I think to clear up is that an intervention does not replace the tier one instruction and so I'm thinking very particularly about a literacy lab which is a tier two intervention that may be employing an evidence-based protocol and intervention system like reading plus where our student is getting targeted literacy development skills such as vocabulary acquisition reading comprehension and it's we're doing that with extra time and further intensity in order to build a skill that may be lacking to allow for access into that tier one environment so that's a more concentrated way in which to build those skills for that student and then that student is accessing the same exact standard that another student is in his

079or her of their English one class let's say but that intervention is there to complement the skills needed to be successful in that English class so I think that's just it's not replacing it's important to know and for me you know when I look at MTSS frameworks I mean the visualization that comes to my head right away is the diamond right so it's just as much of what sort of enrichment opportunities do we provide for students who need them around a particular standard just as much as it is if there is a student who is struggling to access content in the classroom what sort of instructional supports am I providing in that tier one space to provide access points for students of course we are all going to be working within the same standard but

080there will be different learning targets for students we shouldn't have the same learning targets for all students because we're not all the same and so in that same vein that's why it's really important to remember going back to that tier one space where all of our students are in our classrooms the important thing to remember is that teachers need to have a lot of what Holly calls tools in their tool belt that they can use with a variety of learners because at the end of the day that diverse group of students that you have in your space the way to best serve them is to meet them where they are at and that spectrum is is growing year after year I think that this also shows that as we move through and live the strategic

081plan when we get to some of these goals for example goal two we're probably going to need a full board meeting that is just diving down into the mechanics from an educational perspective I did want to understand kind of taking this up back to kind of the board level I'm interested in understanding for the strategic plan I know at our June meeting we will look to take action and vote on the strategic plan what is then the next step that the board should expect to see after that action of voting on the plane so you won't see all of the work that happens this summer but you will hopefully the plan is for you to receive an update and at our July 29th meeting prior to the launch of the school year when in our

082opening I mean all of this is being presented to our staff all of the work all of the plans for implementation and so you'll receive an update at that point and what role can the board take in helping to make sure that this is implemented successfully I think part of I think part of it is part of our work over the summer is to build out the communication tools of transparency like transparent tools and dashboards to help track it I think part of it is when we have meetings and we're digging down or drilling down on specific goals and providing clarity for the board or maybe others regarding what each strategy entails so there will be will progress monitor the goal but there's also the implementation of the strategies I think an important way to

083support us is to know and I think the way you can support us also connects to what we need to do when we're having different discussions at the board is going to be as essential for all of cabinet to connect help you and others connect the dots between why we're doing specific things and there its relationship to our strategic plan and I think perhaps when the board communicates out as well being very intentional about how the efforts of the board the work of the board is directly connected to the strategic plan so I think that shared accountability and communication at all of the different levels including the board level would be helpful along the way but I think some of that there's a presentation tonight as we work to bring the board along as well

084as the entire school community those different ways to do that may become more clear then they are right now I think so part of that too is sort of that you know you talked about alignment and aligning our efforts and rowing all in the in one direction towards one mission towards one vision one of the other call-outs is I really really appreciated the data dive when we took a look at what's working which is great but also what's not working and I think a challenge or maybe a challenge will be for us to make sure that it's not only what's working and what's working well but what maybe isn't working well and being able to have those honest discussions around you know we thought this was gonna work but turns out it didn't and it's

085not a value statement it's not but it's a truthful and honest look at you know this work this didn't work and being able to continue those conversations I think was incredibly incredibly helpful in the spirit of moving the district forward and I think that's going to be the tricky part too right because it's easy for us to see where it's working really well and where it's not working well at all and yet there's also that gray area in between where things need to be tweaked and adapted and so looking at the data as purely data it's not a judgment it is it is information that where we go next is key I also think it's going to be important to like changes change takes time and there are many nuances that or aspects of a

086change process and so we might not see stark movements and data in a year or two but I think as you come along with us in terms of understanding the steps that we're taking towards change and hopefully we'll start to see even if it's incremental change but I just wanted to acknowledge sometimes plans are developed and everyone expects a miracle the following year right I mean change is not only about changes in practice practice but it's systems is procedures and sometimes it's hearts and minds and so sometimes the change like some of the changes up here we may have to engage in a process of unlearning to relearn more about our direction in some areas or shifting courses or parting ways with things that we have historically done in our district and forging ahead in

087service of all of our students so we will have some of those conversations but I just want to acknowledge like it's great to have the plan but the implementation is going to be a whole other level of change management and understanding how systems change and I believe systems change when people do so it's going to push us all in different ways as you just talked about change I think that brings up the fact that we need to think of this as a living document I'd like to see us maybe not change the words in the main pages but to make sure that we have reference to what's actually happening and the results that we see when I think of it if you think of it like a web page I've been technology so I that's

088what I think so you know when you see MTSS I want to have a hyperlink so I can go and see a definition if I see an objective I might like to see where do we are on it for example so we the 2017 strategic plan was really very different did not take into account in very many ways where we are now so that's why we need this so badly but let's make sure that we keep this alive and changing over time so that we don't get in a situation being so far away from the strategic plan I think as we start living the goals and strategies as a district it'll be really interesting to see or get feedback from staff and students who weren't involved in the planning of the strategy the people who

089are only living it as opposed to having a good measure we don't have weren't there for that to absorb me and comments I will make and using some of your I think it's important for us to also take a moment and realize that this strategic plan is being put in place before that and so thank you seeing the need pulling together the resources external and internal to make this reality in such a short period of time so thank you and it's much needed great thank you everyone for your present thank you there is no one signed up for public comment so I will be moving on to the next agenda item which is discussion our first item up for discussion is consideration of a resolution and a petition for withdrawal from two true North educational

090co-op 804 filed by Glenbrook High School District 225 sure Glenbrook High School District 225 has submitted for withdrawal from the true north cooperative 804 and this comes on the heels of the approved withdrawal of Glenview 30 district 34 while Glenview district 34 followed the bylaws and agreements for their withdrawal which governs the 18 member cooperative district 225 has taken an alternative path for their withdrawal either way our district is asked to to vote on the approval of their petition to withdraw so along with other member districts our board will be asked to vote tonight on district 225's withdrawal from the cooperative later in the meeting and connected to another agenda item while we can discuss this portion right now I would also ask that the board consider this information along with our next discussion topic

091as you consider your vote tonight I so obviously we did go through this vote process with district 34 because there is a lot of pieces that are moving right now in the true north world can you please educate us briefly on this process so every member district needs to vote yes or no and if everyone votes yes five next step it's my understanding of one member to know then there is a different there is if the district is following the bylaws and so district 225 is taking an alternative path their own path we're looking at some aspects of school code and also pending legislation to determine their path so we had a better understanding a process for district 34 what that would require it should mean that they go to the ROE I can't tell

092since they've taken their own path up to they can't predict necessarily what the next step will be it doesn't right they don't do you want to step to the hello my name is and I've been working with Dr. Holland on navigating the true north situation right now so there as you mentioned there's a pending petition from Glenn Brooks School District 225 which they are taking a different path towards withdrawal there's a very detailed articles of agreement document that sets the cooperative and within that document sets forth a process for withdrawal and Glenbrew Glenview the elementary district Glenview 34 has followed that process and they initiated that process you know some time ago Glenbrook 225 has separate legal counsel and is has read the agreement in a different way and their interpretation of the agreement is

093that they minimally they can sort of follow the school code actually has a process for co-op dissolution and withdrawals which is an article 10 and their view is that they're going to follow the process that's set forth in the school code which is much less burdensome than the process and the articles of agreement the articles of agreement doesn't really speak to what happens if someone doesn't follow the process obviously that would be a decision for the true north board to if they wanted to do anything and I don't know what the discussions have been around that but I think for this board tonight I think that ultimately I think what you should know is that if people want to leave the cooperative whether you vote yes or no really doesn't matter at this point because

094if you vote no that might point them in a different direction they might do some other things under the school code but there is still a process for them to leave you are not gonna stop them from leaving and it's not going to change the liabilities or the division of assets or anything at this point like they're there but there are definitely things in in place still that may change that and that sort of is the second topic of discussion though so I know it's a little bit complex and if you have questions I'm happy to try to answer those as they come up I'll say what I what we have and then secondarily we need that we responsibility is we are all sharing in the common the business is educating a member of our

095code to follow their own following different very worried what that means as well as what it means and so I'm stuck then the other side of that is districts so right now the discussion is ready to do that yeah and I think just reiterating so what Dana you shared whether we vote yes or no or the other participating districts vote yes or no 225 is going to continue regardless to withdraw to yes and I don't see any real barrier to their withdrawal you know they're made who knows I don't know I can't speak for the true north board I'm only here to talk about your role in it and so I don't know what actions they might take but I also think that there is sort of a bigger picture of instability because while they're

096dealing with the withdrawal you know Glenview 34 is withdrawal is in process and Glenbrook 2020 225 has you know sent this petition around I think it's without you know everyone is aware that there are other districts that are intending to withdraw and will be withdrawing so when you get to under the agreement two-thirds of the districts withdrawing then you're looking at whether the cooperative can continue to exist in its current form so that that also triggers other things that I think you need to be aware of there's sort of bigger picture items than whether or not Glenbrook 225 you vote yes or which probably the next conversation right correct concern of mine is the moving forward their withdrawal date by essentially a year if they procedure they want to I know district 34 there with

097since it's been approved their exit date July 1st everyone else has until it's my understanding June 30th of this year but again I don't I can't predict I don't know what process they they are both intending to leave July 1 2026 however Glenview 34 started the process much earlier in accordance with the articles of agreement well I mean their their intention is to leave at the same time as Glenview 34 so their intention as as stated in their paperwork is there out July 1 2026 there are other districts within the cooperative the other two high school districts in the cooperative at this point are thinking about withdrawing and if they were to withdraw that withdrawal would not take place until July 1 to the following July 2027 if they follow the process if they follow

098the process correct would it preclude them from getting out of the does not preclude them from getting out in 2026 but again litigation could there someone could decide to file litigation against them I don't know that they would I don't think that we're at that point I think we're at the point where there's too many moving pieces to even really I mean just candidly I think there's too many moving pieces right now to really worry about what 225 is doing you know that is not I think we're folk you're and I don't mean any but pulling 225 out of it is not gonna like make the whole Jenga thing come apart right I don't think you do you do you do have to vote on it so I think it's it is more of a

099vote that you're taking on you know again your members you're under the agreement you sign the agreement so I think you just vote your conscience on this I'm not sure that there is a vote that is strategic here that's what I'm struggling with is that if the agreement is essentially not legally binding is what you're saying that they're not if they're feel free to pursue this then what's to stop like what is legally binding here like what's to stop a district from saying we're out tomorrow you know like like what it well what's to stop a district from you're out tomorrow is that you do need to have approval from ISBE to deliver your own special education services so so basically this is not like even if Glenbrook 225 moves forward so if you vote

100no they're gonna move forward they still have a whole year that they have to establish and there's no regional office of education and cook their regional service centers but they still have to establish that they can serve their students without the services of true north in that whole year the agreement just provides for a longer window of sort of separation and so because we're talking about the distinction between the Illinois law and just the policy agreement essentially of the word there's there's a process under Illinois law that basically says that if you're in a special ed co-op in order to come out of a special ed co-op you need to establish to either the regional office of education or the Illinois State Board of Education that you are capable of serving your own students that

101you are capable of providing the full continuum of services that the individuals with disabilities Education Act requires and that involves a certain amount of paperwork it's going to make sure that you have hired staff right that you have adequate programming that you have the right resources and in the event you need to you know privately place a student it that's what the school code contemplates it contemplates a year-long process where ISBE can come in and ask you questions and make sure that you're doing everything correctly has a more extent I'm sorry they have a more extensive process that the members entered into like article each co-op has its own articles of agreement that can sort of follow the school code strictly and many of them do and really have that only year-long process but some

102of them have added requirements based on how they formulated the co-op when it was first started and what the members agreed to at the time of formation yes okay yes you're still you're still they are still members of the co-op and they're still financially beholden to the co-op during that whole period until they're they're not out until the actual date of withdrawal because in theory and also because in theory their students are still being serviced by the co-op during that year they may or may they may or may not be depending on like whether the students are placed in some of the co-op programs or whether they have cause and everyone uses true north a little bit differently which is another sort of moving piece to this is that they do have their own programs

103which are an additional cost you tuition in but your you get some preference if you're a member and then they also have staff that work in the buildings so it's a little different for each district this is honestly only for my to feel better about this why are we voting on 225 if they're not following if they're doing their own school code why do we have to vote why why do we have to vote because this is I you know I can't tell you what why that their law firm gave them this advice but the advice that they were given is that you're going to do a year process you are going to follow certain parts of the agreement and one of the parts of the agreement that they instructed them to follow was to

104do the petition okay to all the members and I think also you know they can't just pull out clandestinely and and and especially if they're you know under their proposal they they do want to follow this they don't want to incur litigation yeah they may not agree that that process needs to be followed to the letter but they also don't want to like not give you notice and not give the other members notice that would not be a good idea okay I do believe that this conversation is so intertwined because we will take action on 225 in action is there any other specific questions around 225 so then what I'd like to do is have us move on discussion item which is the true north educational co-op 804 yes so I'll provide an overview a

105lot has changed over the last several months regarding the state instability of our special education cooperative true north 804 following the successful withdrawal of district 34 effective July 26 Glenbrook district 20 to 25 has submitted for withdrawal and following a meeting last week with other cooperative superintendents there was an expressed interest of at least 15 other districts out of 18 who planned to bring a resolution to their boards by June 30th for approval for withdrawal true north has been a good partner with our districts as their work aligns with our vision for education so everything that has unfolded over the past few months has been very challenging while there has been a strong partnership in conversations the conversations now connected to true north has created a lot of great concern regarding true North's ability to

106effectively offer services and maintain controls around the financial costs for districts who may remain in the cooperative as a high school district the current financial model for coat for the cooperative leaves high school districts bearing much of the expenses as compared to some of our some of the other smaller elementary districts because the model is based on total school and student enrollment not necessarily the use of services so all of the other high school districts based on my knowledge will be withdrawing by June 30th and this would be our district district 113 left with the bag of expenses to manage and that is not fiscally possible or responsible for us to consider additionally school code language regarding cooperatives has a super tenure clause which would require remaining districts in a cooperative to absorb licensed staff

107if the cooperative was were to dissolve and to place them on our seniority list with our staff this could mean bumping rates in the case that decisions have to be made about our staff members employment while we do not know the amount of individuals exactly that this would apply to this is an area of concern and unfortunately we along with other districts have not received the information we have asked for many of the member districts have been asking for clarity regarding the individual impact of withdrawals on our individual districts and we've been asking for clarity regarding the language in the bylaws that addresses the dissolution of the cooperative if two-thirds of the districts withdraw and we have also asked for different financial and service models for them to provide those with an interest and staying

108in the cooperative so we asked for true north to come up with some solutions with the limitations of time the reality of most districts now planning to withdraw and the lack of information from true north that we need to consider I too am now recommending that our board considers the approval of a resolution for withdrawal at our June 10th meeting I believe that this decision right now being the best interest of our district and creates and puts in place some safeguards that we would need to plan for more stability for our students in the future and for financial stability and clarity on our part with so many unknowns so there are some aligned and related reasons that I'll include I feel like submitting why no submitting for withdrawal now would provide a safeguard for district

109113 against being the lone high school district responsible for incurring the bulk of many expenses for the cooperative it also gives us a runway considering follow our plans to follow the bylaws gives us a runway to develop our own plans for service and support delivery model for our students currently supported by true north and through the development of this plan we would consider the ways that true north supports our district and we will partner with our families and staff to create that plan that not only meets the threshold in which true north is providing services and support but possibly enhance learning for our students and once our plan is collaboratively developed we can submit it for approval by November I think it's November early December for review and approval it also gives true north time

110to develop a service and financial model that may be more appealing for districts to remain in the cooperative allowing us to stay in communication with true north regarding their plans along the way so during the six-month time period prior to the submission of our plan we can rescind our withdrawal if we decide at any time that we want to remain in the cooperative if we desire that there is also a possibility for us to review our spending with true north and design a program that both enhances services and considers potential savings for our districts our district through withdrawal so there's an opportunity for us to recalibrate our spending so I'm confident that we can effectively and successfully educate our own students who are currently served through true north without necessarily being members within the cooperative

111and for these reasons that I think it's in the best interest of our district to consider withdrawal from the cooperative and if it's successful the withdrawal would not be effective until July 1st of 2027 I feel like waiting to submit for withdrawal could have a more devastating impact on our district creating instability for our students and also creating a potential financial hardship and instability for our district so that's a bit of the larger picture there are many districts over two-thirds at this point who have expressed intentions to withdraw by or before June 30th starting the clock for withdrawal to be possibly official July 1st 2027 it's a very unfortunate situation but no district wants to be left trying to figure everything out with that stated there's still there are still answers that we will need

112from true north regarding what a dissolution actually means especially because districts have assets within the cooperative that we need clarity on how those would be managed and redistributed to other districts so I mean notably when you withdraw like if we were just talking about the two Glenn views and then withdrawing they leave their assets with true north they they they get their funds going forward but they leave all the assets they take nothing with them unless true north divide dissolves but it's like a 20-year period like it's it's a very long time before they can get any assets back at dissolution however if there's two-thirds if there is some dissolution because many members leave then the assets would at some point be divided so there are just a lot of moving pieces right now I

113think what Dr. Holland is recommending is a wise course because it gets you on the course where you you're planning your own thing you are in line with the artists articles of agreement you're doing it in a very transparent way because you would you're not what you're adopting when you would when you would approve the motion next month it really is it's first of all not required specifically that you adopt a motion by the Articles of Agreement but it is very publicly and transparently informing true north of your intent and also putting you on this pathway to give you the full 18-month period to really make a well thought out comprehensive plan for your students to make sure that they're getting the services that they need the other important thing here is it is possible

114to rescind so as the other districts you know declare their intentions as well and as there are several districts that are withdrawing there are some districts that are staying true north just had had one council that was advising us they advising true north they withdrew from the representation but they have another very reputable st. Louis law firm now representing them and we've already started to engage because our firm is representing some of the districts that are all the way not Glenbrook but some of the other feeder districts into true north that are leaving and they're already starting discussions with the true north council about how do we do this more thoughtfully is are there going to be enough people pulling out do we need to try to do this more in a collaborative fashion so

115that's still an option where there would be some sort of collaborative you know meeting of the minds of what people are needing from true north some some sort of reformulation that's still very much a possibility on the horizon so by adopting this you're really just signaling intent there's still through the agreement you could rescind and if these talks ended up with true notice sort of reconstituting itself in a fashion that you'd want to be a part of then you could rescind your intent to withdraw and continue your partnership with them I think this just provides flexibility for you to you know make determinations as the situation evolves in the way that that best allows you to best provide for your students and provide stability going forward I feel as if it puts in control of

116our own destiny because now we can do either one of those path sitting waiting what benefit do we get from following the article well I mean I think I think following the articles process actually makes the most sense given where you are I mean this is something that you're just thinking about and I do think like having this longer runway is an important part of it it allows you to make a more reasoned decision I think just pulling out I I just think it's premature like you don't know we don't know what are the moving pieces are and like the agreement that they negotiate because there are now a lot of people wanting to come to the table and negotiate might be to your benefit and to just sort of pick up your you know

117pick up your ball and leave I think at this point would probably not be the best reaction do we know if the other districts that are considering leaving would be pursuing the process via the articles or they're all pursuing the process via the articles so there's an agreement amongst and where our firm is representing several of these districts specifically the new cheer districts and their feeder and there is there is consensus that they are going to follow the articles I mean and I think part of that is you did sign an agreement and you know the agreement is a binding agreement and everyone came together and did it I think and I do I just as someone that does some special ed work I do think having that longer runway is a safer approach it

118allows you to take a more thoughtful approach and it allows us to collaborate with our families who may be concerned about this decision as well and involve them in the planning process I also want to mention that even though there are many districts planning to follow the bylaws not all districts are interested in remaining even if they come up with a different model some districts are leaving because they don't want to be a part of the cooperative and that every district has their own reason correct what other question I have just this might be a question for cabinet members to level set but do we know how many students are currently served by true north from 113 and what the total dollar amount we spend per year is so all right so this year we're

119estimated to spend about four point eight million dollars last year we spent about four million hours now you may we're gonna ask why we went up by nine hundred thousand dollars we went up because of our transition program we had more number of kids compared to last year in our transition resulting in our that nine hundred thousand dollar increase so looking at the membership and all their fixed costs like property plan and all that that remains stable is a transition cost that went up by nine hundred thousand dollars as far as the number of kids leave it to Tiffany to answer that we have about 40 students right now being served in the transition center I don't have my exact numbers in front of me so don't quote me on that we also have about

120nine students at North Shore Academy and then that's not including all of our students who are being served occupational therapist physical therapist vision itinerants thank you for certain though right so the four point eight the four point eight you're talking about be five point two in the twenty six so I'm not I'm not sure how like with Glenbrook because the percentage of like the fixed costs like membership and all those things so like the membership cost is about hundred thousand dollars out of our four point eight million hours I don't know how much that's gonna change so a part of the process district 34 and true north provided us mainly true north with the cost and that already came to our district so you're correct it will be an increase about of about four hundred

121thousand dollars what we've been asking true north for for example if all of the other high schools leave what are those expenses but we will be increasing so for at four point eight it will be an increase and then as more districts withdraw the increase will just continue if the financial model remains the same right so if 225 is successful in their gambit to get out a year early is gonna add up or can ask a hypothetical so let's get together and I'll know once you start on the path never they want but just to devolve I said I was gonna follow up front saying hey it wouldn't be the first time that's I think then it would revert to the school code procedure and they would have to meet the timelines with that and

122and that would still not let them out until at least 2026 so you're you're still looking at a year's worth of work I guess what I'm saying is we all we want to be above board but if some of our say you know what exactly can we also I mean change course there's also pending I mean that to make this even more confusing let's just make it there's pending legislation that the state senator I believe in that represents Glenview introduced and it is pending right now it's not passed yet but it is basically you know Glenview I think is betting on it passing and that will sort of allow them to proceed with this withdrawal that doesn't completely follow the articles of agreement that further supports this idea that the whole thing could fall apart

123well we need to make sure make we need to make sure that we're in a position and I think that's that's not an option that's closed out to you but I think the way it's looking is that there's going to be some districts that pull out no matter what there's still a number of districts especially the smaller districts that will want to stay in so the more likely even though these are hypotheticals I think the more likely resolution is some sort of reformulation and some people leaving and some people staying and people may be getting different types and different levels of service doing more things in-house but still looking to them for some of the services that are maybe low incidence like you you may not have that many students that need a physical therapist

124so that might be a type of service that remains under the umbrella of a cooperative whereas you wouldn't have some of the bigger programs and there's also they also have two schools that you're they're using right now to serve students and that's going to take you some time to create you're looking at the other high school districts creating their own transition programs with their own staff you would need to replicate that so I think I don't think those options are closed out to you I think you still have all sort of options open to you but I do think you should sort of follow the process under the agreement to sort of keep those options very open and flexible so what I'm hearing is more of a concern around following us methodically following a process

125and as other districts leave what does that mean for us financially if everyone's leaving a year earlier so I think these are the types of questions where we've been asking true north like and it's creating panic but I just want to name that we're wondering if there's any recourse so we're not left financially responsible for other districts who aren't following the bylaws because at some point if if the bills start coming to us and they're not following the process we're going to have a problem with that as well as any other district who is just following the path I think there's one sort of thing that we're missing here and that the agreement is set up to favor the people that stay right and just people leaving will may not there has to be dissolution

126I know it doesn't feel that way and but you would have some recourse if everybody left and didn't follow the process because it's the agreement in and of itself is set up to favor the people that stay no one when they're withdrawing when it's dissolving like and again dissolution does not occur automatically someone has to make a motion for dissolution and then all the members would have to pass that motion for dissolution when people are just withdrawing they leave their assets behind so that is something that like if if people like get cold feet and all rescind their withdrawal they are not going to get those assets especially the real estate that is going to stay in the possession of true north and whoever is left in the membership so I think that it's a

127very it's a lengthy agreement it's a complex agreement the way its build is is probably not sustainable over the long term and like I said I think the most likely outcome of this is you're going to have people start the withdrawal process you're going to have a very large group of districts which dr. Holland is already aware of because she was at the superintendent's meeting where everyone made their intentions very evident and plain you're going to have a group of districts that has already started to approach the true north council saying listen we'd like to get out under a less burdensome process and that was that I I know you were on that email this weekend with the districts that are considering withdrawal there's like a group of 11 of them including the new cheer

128feeders like with a plan to say let's figure out how we can get out maybe they'll let us out of some of this burdensome requirement if we end up towards dissolution all of these things it's very hard to have like this discussion right now because it's all hypothetical I think it's going to evolve I think the next it's kind of like you have to do actions in steps and I think the next step is just to consider and approve the resolution next month like again what you do with Glenbrook 225 I think that's really your conscience or what you feel the agreement is holding you to and what it's holding its other members to and then the next important thing is next month looking at the petition or not the petition it's actually a resolution

129to withdraw and again that's just your intent to start the process that allows you to keep all options open there'll be this other meeting in June by the time we come back here on June 30th we might have a totally different will probably have more of an accounting in terms of different options we may have different you know there's just many many moving parts right now I mean I think given all of the unknowns and what the next step is to get closer to some of the answers for the unknowns that resolution makes sense to to prove at the at the next meeting for the purpose of we're keeping our options open to be able to get some answers to those questions I think not approving that resolution limits what we can do and thinking

130about what we're charged to do in the educating of our students and the responsibility of our resources it makes sense to approve that resolution so that we continue to get answers to the unknowns so it doesn't mean that we're out and it sounds like even for a district that isn't following the rules it's not as cut and dry as tomorrow I'm out and that's it there are other steps that need to be taken so I mean it makes sense to approve that resolution I agree with you I would just caution again I'm a third party hearing information I would caution us to to whether or not we will get answers to those questions if they've been asked multiple times and it seems to be not information true North is able to provide to us but

131by us doing the petition next month we can again start but even not getting answers is an answer right if you don't get an answer and we are starting for the districts that are contemplating withdrawal what we've already done a comprehensive FOIA request we're pulling together as much public record information as we can about financial matters so that you can sort of get a fuller picture and make a more reasoned decision but if some of that information is not forthcoming that will you know that will answer some of your concerns I think one point I want to make is that we don't we can't think of true north and so I'm just gonna kind of go away okay these are actually ongoing businesses and I look at this as a businessman think of it like

132General Electric which split into pieces they do turbines they do aircraft they do they have different health care business they have different businesses that were created from that if you look at true north you've got a series of businesses you have the facility where they take where they have the facility where the kids we sent our kids they have a professional development arm that's a business that can be sold there's a business that supplies support services such as OTs and PTs and and and speech therapists etc that's an ongoing business that actually has value so we need to it's a different there's my perspective because I'm from corporate so I think that way and so if we look at true north as a series of businesses each with that they can be sold so I

133don't feel comfortable with that and I'll just say as I don't feel comfortable with describing the cooperative as a business I understand point of view but these are services that are provided to our population and our students so I see what you're trying to get at but I would caution from taking a business approach to this to this lens on the topic of the assets of true north a lot of the real estate footprint of true north actually is in 113 right like you know do we have a sense of you know in the event that that the cooperative were to be dissolved or would be split into pieces or whatever whatever the final resolution would be what would happen to those those buildings that are in our area well the assets need to be

134dissolved in accordance with the articles of agreement if it comes to I mean currently whether or not that would stand and like what like that's such a far-off thing I think from where we are right now but there is a mechanism to divide the assets of the cooperative in the event there's a dissolution and those that have to be valued and everyone would have to like you'd have to look at you know how much you've paid in how many students it's really dependent on how big you are and what sort of percentage of the cooperative you make up but again like I just think there are many you know there are many I think a way to look at is there are many models of co-ops throughout the state of Illinois there are many special

135ed co-ops there there if you're in a very rural part of Illinois they are absolutely essential and so but there's very many different models some of them have schools some of them don't have schools some of them have like a physical footprint that's enough for enough people in the office to come and go and like do a little professional development but no student space so it you know it could change we have asked that question yeah specifically since we're 113 I know 112 also has asked that question these are some of the questions that we have not received answers to we are we assume that the impact on our districts the two of us or two districts may be different than other districts but we don't have clarity regarding how the assets will be distributed

136and then what happens to the property which is I mean I think if you really got to that point the property would have to be valued and if someone wanted to keep it I mean I don't think by virtue of being in your district it's still going to be a division of assets I don't think the fact that it's in your physical boundaries is gonna affect the that's not the way I read the agreement at least Dana would be the fund balance as well all right so just not the assets but there's one more thing which I'm not able to get the answer from the state I don't know if you might know this and it's for the board to know as well so we get this thing called EBF evidence-based funding credit which is

137around 10% of our cost of total so it's about four and a half four hundred thirty thousand dollars now I do know that because I got an answer from the state that if we leave the co-op we lose that credit we do not get that credit what happens to that credit that gets divided among whatever the school districts are remaining so they will actually get more credit I'm trying to find out if what happens to that credit the co-op dissolves and I'm not able to get an answer from the state yet but I do know that if we leave the co-op we lose that credit and that gets divided so for example if Glenview or Glenbrook loses they're leaving the co-op that credit that they use that the co-op applies to them gets divided among

138the remainder of school districts I don't know how much would that be usually for us is 10% of our bill Dana do you have any background I think I don't know I don't know what they would do with that Ali that's a very good question I'm it's not surprising to me that the state board hasn't answered that but that that is true to the agreement if you withdraw you leave your assets behind and really if this was if these were the only two withdrawals they would be leaving everything behind for forever I mean it's just writing off the money I think it's just a different situation if we get to a point where there is a dissolution then there will be this division of assets and but you are forfeiting once you once they pull

139out they're forfeiting those assets so it they're their situation in terms of forfeiture of assets could very well be different than people that don't withdraw at that same time but but but it is I think evidence-based funding is very much dependent on how much money the state supplements you and some of those districts are getting nothing probably in evidence-based funding yeah their share of the real estate right so these yeah it's made a choice to leave leaving assets on the table he has any idea walked away from this no idea what they're walking you can say they decided to walk no I think they knew they were not going to get the real estate assets they made the decision I mean I would assume that they knew that they were not getting that I mean

140when especially when Glenview 34 left they knew they were leaving all that on the table understood understood but seems to me as a responsible some sort of analysis what they're walking away a total windfalls we're just going to leave it well they're part of the dissolution process is for them to do an accounting of what they think their withdrawal what impact it would have on the rest of the so some of the numbers they gave you for Glenview 34 Glenview 34 well it's also what service they're taking and how much they're being charged for it and how much they think I mean it's it's a lot of things it's the salary schedule at true north and can we hire someone to do this service so it's it's many things and I think the the real

141estate is the hardest thing to value because right it's right it is right in the middle of Highland Park and who knows if you're not going to repurpose that if someone wouldn't want it as a school it's going to go on the market and that could be you know just to value it would be a big job so they did I I'm not sure that they can give you a number for what that asset is worth because you don't know how it's going to be and I think that's what the people withdrawing are trying to do by FOIA documents and looking at different things and also it seems like even if you think about the information we received they started the process and more information became accessible because of how the bylaws right what the

142bylaws require so I think it's it may just this is these are my assumptions although we've all struggled to get answers engaging the process based on how the bylaws read there has to be a disclosure of more information through that process so this is once again another reason why I feel like we will continue I feel like to spin our wheels and trying to get answers but engaging this process there are some things that are required by true north we talked about the things that are required by us but to disclose there are things that true north has to disclose through this process and I believe that's why we had so much information about district 34 because they engaged that process and got some of the answers along the way that's my assumption I guess

143that's all seconds and so I do I want to kind of present the other specific questions I have I do our question I think it's related to the vote work practically speaking soon for a second practically real difference between the state or in the process that true north requires curious whether there's a practical difference I do think the true north process is more burdensome than the school code process but I also know that if enough members decide to leave you're in a good position then to go to true nurse council and say this process is too burdensome we're all going to leave anyways let's find a way to streamline streamline this process and so your cost of withdrawal in terms of what the because the agreement requires you to get a consultant it requires all

144these different steps that that may be negotiable based on sort of the negotiation power you have based on the number the mass of districts that is looking towards withdrawal right I guess my question was as we make votes because there's gonna be more coming votes yes or no yes it means we'll probably have an answer to that though because their resolutions to you don't have to come until December right so you're not yeah when they do what does our yes vote and that might be a moot point by that time yeah you've got to follow yes yes it's just basically two paths there's path a which is the path of I don't even know that I'd call it the passive least least resistance because it's no shorter necessarily but there's one path that there's path

145a and path B you're just diverting them to a different path I do appreciate everyone coming with thoughtful very challenging topic first and foremost we want to make sure our students are taken care of we want to make sure we're you know fiscally responsible to our committee and there are other humans involved in this whole piece there are employees that I'm sure have a lot of concerns personally about so this isn't just numbers so thank you all right so we'll look forward to we will look to that resolution energy all right and so our next item up for discussion is paper bit 25 26 how about that for a pivot yeah I'm gonna pass it to Ali Mahanti all right I guess this is one of my non favorite topics paper so we have to

146we did the bid for the upcoming school year and for the 2026 the lowest case price at least the 75% of the paper that we use came out to be thirty six dollars and ten cents our estimated spend moraine paper would be about thirty eight thousand dollars two hundred twenty thirty eight thousand two hundred twenty two dollars and as far as the usage of paper we continue to encourage less use of paper so obviously I encourage the staff cabin members board members to use less paper I asked chat GPT the other day can the district function without using paper and the chat GPT said yes so again our paper usage has gone down it also depends on the case prices as well as you can see in 2025 the case price was higher for the

1472026 bid is thirty six dollars and ten cents so happy to provide any answer question answers to any questions you may have any questions thank you very much this will come back at the June meeting correct yep great and then our last discussion item is the 2526 individual and small group transportation right so I'm just gonna quickly go over a PowerPoint trust me guys so we want to do this on an annual basis right oh it doesn't have to be an annual basis the last time it was done was last year and the reason we're doing it again was because we don't just have enough vendors to use the specialized needs for the sense special students so I just want to highlight here if you look at page four of the PowerPoint real quick is

148we got the pricing from all these different vendors and we're not going with one vendor we already have contracts with two vendors but we always want more vendors because not everyone can offer the transportation services because of the shortage of bus drivers so on on slide five the recommendation is to accept the bits for the four vendors that are listed and reject the bits for the four vendors because out of the two we already have an agreement in place based on last year so that agreement will expire two years from now and then the four vendors were accepting the bid their agreement will expire two years from now as well then we'll hope we'll go out for a bit again in 2027 but what we have done in slide seven real quick is because every

149all prices are different among depending on what services we want for a passenger car van depending on the number of miles we're actually developing this in-house tool which will come in really handy for the transportation department where based on the services needed if they need an aid number of miles van they can input all the data that they get and then they will they can easily evaluate what the total cost is based on the services needed rather than just estimating or guessing that hey okay we'll go with this one vendor because they actually reached out to us before the other vendor because sometimes they're in rush to occupy those services correct me if I'm wrong Tiffany so this will actually help them and it'll help us lower the cost and this actually falls under strategic

150strategy too so I just want to give credit to Pete Netza for developing this tool it's a very complex tool once it's developed we're gonna file a patent and sell it to their school districts because I don't think any other school districts have this so all right so I'd be happy to answer any questions did chat GPT help you with that last actually not this one okay so he's developing on his own full credit to be that's not the tool your comment no that was that was my Ali that was an original yes that was in the brain yes just came out any other any other questions or any questions moving on to action items it is recommended the Board of Education approved the school district treasurer's bond in the amount of 18 million nine

151hundred seventy five thousand dollars for statuary statutory requirements is further moved that the president's secretary be authorized to sign the bond certainty certificates and that all documentation be filed with the appropriate parties may I have a motion to approve this recommendation is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please aye aye aye motion carries oh sorry I'm I apologize yeah I apologize sorry sorry about that guys moving back tonight item 9a is recommended the Board of Education approved the petition for withdrawal filed by district 225 from true north educational co-op 804 as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please no no no no no the motion

152does not carry now moving on to action item 9c it is recommended the Board of Education approved the special issue surity bond decreased rider in the amount of six hundred thousand dollars may have a motion to approve this so moved is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please aye aye aye aye the motion carries is recommended that the Board of Education approved the resolution authorizing the driver education fee as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please aye aye aye the motion carries it is recommended the Board of Education approved the stormwater intergovernmental agreement IGA between district 113 and the village of Deerfield as presented may

153have a motion to approve this recommendation so is there a second second is there any discussion I do want to just make the comment that this has been been worked on for quite a while and I do want to acknowledge from the board appreciation for the village as well as Brian Omer and dr. Holland in bringing this to closure so we can get the work done hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please aye aye the motion carries the next item is the consent agenda items included in the consent agenda were provided to all board members in advance and made publicly available as part of the meeting agenda a board member may pull any item for separate consideration does any board member wish to pull an item off the consent agenda for separate consideration

154thank you because my brain is not working it may have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please I'll keep it brief thank you Ali and team for providing all of the answering all of my questions and all the information for the bills that were reviewed across different departments different schools of different categories thank you for the work in pulling that together appreciate it thank you so much hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please I the motion carries there being no further business may have a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved is there a second all those in favor say aye how those opposed please say nay the motion carries this

155concludes the business of Township High School just 113 Board of Education for the evening at 945 thank you for your time and participation