001Calling to order Township High School District 113 Committee of the Whole meeting for Tuesday, October 10th, 2023 it is now 702 and we have a roll call please Romina. Dr. Elliott Schreiber here. Mr. Heineman here. Ms. Neumann here. Mr. Nieder here. Mr. Shapiro yes please. Mr. Garza here. Stephanie Diaz here. Lillian Dowlands-Shoppe here. Mr. Schmuck here. I would like everyone else who is present at the table to please identify themselves. Romina Dickie, Secretary. I'm Krieger, Chief Human Resources Officer. Michael Ock, Assistant Superintendent Curriculum and Instruction Assessment. Karen Warner, Chief Communications Officer. Tiffany Rowe, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services. Brian Armour, Chief Operations Officer. Ali Mahatia, Institute of Finance. Debbie Finn, Principal, Highland Park High School. Katherine Anderson, Principal at Deerfield High School. Ron Casbone, Chief Information Officer. Mira Ante, Assistant Superintendent of Diversity, Equity and
002Inclusion. Amy Oliva, Director of Security. Bruce Law, Superintendent. Thank you. First item of business is approval of the board meeting agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as listed? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Yes. Opposed? Abstentions? Motion carries. We now move on to our recognitions. Yes. We have two recognitions tonight. First is the school bus drivers. We have our Chief Transportation Officer Brandon Hayes on TV. And he is going to take care of that for bus drivers. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So as Bruce shared, next week is School Bus Safety Week. And it's one of my favorite times of the year to acknowledge the amazing people that transport our students. Get the day started and help them finish their days as well. So I just wanted
003to share a few facts. I thought it would be cool to share about our specific transportation team. So amongst our transportation team, we have over 500 years of experience. Exactly 512, actually, of a driving experience in our district during that time. So last school year, we drove 359,000 miles, 372. That's enough to travel to earth circumference 14 times. So put that into a sort of perspective. Our two district mechanics are also certified school bus drivers. So sometimes you may have seen some of our mechanics transporting our students after school. So our mechanics, they maintain 73 vehicles. 38 of them actually are school buses. And then the other thing is I wanted to share, I'm just sharing some more accomplishments that I feel, it's kind of amazing to me when you, you know, put the numbers
004together or look at it on paper. So since I've been here, we've never turned down a trip. And the country is experiencing a school bus driver shortage. So just to put this into perspective, just last year, our drivers drove 1,622 trips between our two schools. So again, just thank you for giving me a moment to come on here and acknowledge our drivers. It takes a special person to be a school bus driver. And I'm very grateful for our transportation team. Thank you. We are very fortunate in District 113 that we have our own drivers, a lot of school districts, outsource transportation services. We do not. And I think it shows in our drivers have a tremendous amount of pride in the work they do for our students and for our staff. And as you know,
005from the last meeting in our video series, we're trying to have a passion for excellence. The next one we show in October may or may not be a bus driver, just giving that as a teaser for the October. Pressure. No, but Brandon, we truly do owe the bus drivers an appreciation. I mean, it is when you said that your group did not miss a trip this year, that's unbelievable in the current economy and the current markets. I mean, I can't go buy a school building or a bus lot without seeing help desperately wanted. And so that we are able to respond to the needs of our students is phenomenal. It's a great job well done by everybody on your team. Agreed. Thank you. I'm going to jump in on Dan because he says something every
006time that's so important. Your drivers are the very first face our students see and the very last face they see. And their ability to impact our students day is immeasurable. And we absolutely could not run this district without them. Thank you. Thank you. So the next recognition is for principals because October 15 to the 21st is principal appreciation week. And October 20 is principal appreciation day. So there's a resolution and I'm not going to read the resolution. Says what needs to be said. But I will say this. I don't know of a job in education that's easy right now. I cannot think of a job more difficult and more important than the job of a principal. And we're very fortunate we have two principals who approach their jobs with a great deal of skill and
007grace and caring for students and staff. It shows in the work they do. And we're appreciative of our principals all the time. But this is the week when we say especially thank you, Debbie. Thank you, Kathy, for the work you do. It's extremely important and much appreciated. Absolutely. Hear, hear. Next up is the board reports. First up is the president's report, I guess. You just want to say that the entire board, we're really looking forward to hearing from our student liaisons about all the great things that are going on within both Highland Park and Deerfield High School today. And maybe we'll even hear about the recent safe, that's important, and celebratory homecomings that happened at each school. So go Giants and go Warriors. But I had hoped that this would be a brief upbeat president's
008report. But then this past weekend happened. Our communities have incredibly close ties to Israel, whether we have family members or friends living there, whether we have visited once or multiple times, whether our grandchildren or children have visited through camp, through Birthright or a similar program, or have spent a gap year or a year of studies in Israel. Some of us have journeyed to Israel to celebrate important life celebration events. There are just so many connections. As a parent, it is unthinkable that among the fallen, nearly 300 young adults were purposely and methodically murdered while attending a music festival. Given the close connection that our communities have to Israel, there is a good chance that we know someone, or at the very least know someone who knows someone who has suffered due to the barbaric and
009cowardly acts of hatred and brutality by the Hamas terror organization. There is no doubt that these incomprehensible evil actions have resulted in pain, in anxiety, and in considerable uncertainty for students, staff, and families. This is a time to come together as a school community, as families, and as a broader community to provide support for each other. This is a time for all of us to embrace those that we hold dear. This is a time to model the thirst for justice, to model dignity, and to hold fast to that which is most important. We can certainly add our collective voices in the unequivocal condemnation of the horrific acts on the people of Israel and on visitors to Israel. There is absolutely no place within the human community for purposefully hateful and terroristic attacks that brutalize innocent
010civilians. Attacks that were motivated by hatred for the very presence and existence of the victims. These were the acts of a hateful cult of violence. We offer our deepest condolences and solicitude to all who are mourning, and we hope for the safety of all who are sheltering from brutality. May all who are held captive be safely returned to their communities and families. May we someday all respect and value each other in our shared humanity. We also know that many students, staff, and families within the 113 community have been impacted by the tragic events in Israel. As a school community, our first responsibility is to come together in order to support each other during this trying time. This is a time to listen closely to the concerns and uncertainties felt by our students and our staff,
011and to respond to their needs with understanding and generosity. Please, if a student is in crisis or needs support during the school day, please encourage your students and your children to visit their counselor or other social and emotional support resources within Deerfield and Highland Park High Schools. That ends the President's Report. Thank you, Dan. Finance Committee met today at 5. We talked and had discussions on three different subjects. First was on the concept of putting solar panels on the buildings. We have an extensive proposal in front of us, which would add, I think, 2.7 megawatts of solar power to our grid. This proposal next goes to the Finance Committee, which is probably next week, so that they can evaluate it and then we can bring it to the board after that. Second was alternative revenue
012bond expenditure update. The law requires us to have spent a certain amount of the money that we raised under the alternative revenue bond program within three years. We will meet that goal so we're totally complying with the law. There was some other discussion of other expenses we might have after the summer of 24, but at this point there's no resolution on that, and that'll be through the Facilities Committee. The third area is the tax levy, and that's where we're talking about how much we're going to levy next year in taxes for the following summer. Right now we had a discussion in the meeting, but it comes to the board on October 24th for further discussion. We've already heard some information on this, but what we got today was a pretty detailed analysis. One point I
013would like to make is that the EVA in the community went up, the value of property went up by 9%. Approximately, on average. When you look at your assessment, you need to compare what your assessment was to that to calculate whether you're going to pay a larger share or a smaller share. If your assessment went up 20%, as mine did, you will pay a higher share of the taxes that are paid by the community. If your assessment went up under 9%, then you will pay less relative to other folks. What happens with your assessment is not a direct driver of what you pay in taxes. It's a factor in the calculation. That's it for the Finance Committee. Thank you. Thanks, Rick. We have administration informational reports. Dr. Lough? Thank you, Mr. Schrock. One thing, just
014one thing on my report tonight. It is time to share with the school community what I shared with the board in June. I'm retiring from public education at the end of this school year. I have a job I love in a school district I love. I love the great people in District 113 with whom I work. I love my team. I love the board. Not many superintendents can say that they have always had a good board during their tenure, but I have had a great board every year in District 113. This board is one any superintendent would want to work for. For all the times this has ever been said, this time it's true. It's not you, it's me. I want to thank the board for your support and confidence in me. We have been
015through some stuff. Retiring this year right after the board extended my contract. It feels like I'm retiring sooner than I should, but it is time for me to retire. My goal this year is to do everything I can to make the next superintendent successful. We have put in place a lot of processes and procedures to allow the district to operate more effectively and efficiently, and that work continues. We have a contract with the District 113 Education Association that allows us to remain competitive in recruiting and retaining the best licensed staff members, which is so important given the tight labor market for teachers. Now we need to pay for it. We also have many other needs that cost money, but we will bring a balanced budget for FY25 so the person who follows me does not
016have to worry about the budget. The instructional program in District 113 is strong and in very good hands. I have a lot to do this year and I'm looking forward to working with the board, my team, and the DEA to get things done. I have said this before and it is even more true now. The best years of District 113 lie ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Law. I'm just going to say a couple things. Of District 113 at the end of the academic year, Dr. Law has led this school district through an unprecedented period. Turnover of superintendents throughout the Chicago suburbs is evidence of how challenging the last five years have been. We will all miss Dr. Law's grace under pressure. We will all miss his patience, his intelligence, his commitment to this district's
017students, his commitment to this district's mission, his simple decency and generosity no matter the situation, his willingness to listen, his desire to be fair, and his dedication to equity and inclusion for all students. Dr. Law has been a model of qualities that seem to be in short supply in our world's current state of affairs. I don't want it to sound as though I'm delivering a eulogy because there is so much work to be done this year. Dr. Law will continue actively and passionately to guide this district through this academic year. I want to be as clear as possible. The Board did not ask Dr. Law to resign nor did it encourage or suggest that he do so. Quite the opposite. Dr. Law's tenure has seen a number of previously unimaginable events through which he has
018provided calm and steady leadership, including working to restore collaborative district culture after several tumultuously years of revolving administrations, navigating the uncertainties and disruptions of the COVID pandemic, and providing a steadying and compassionate voice through insensible gun violence and a spate of spoofing and swatting attacks. Dr. Law also has provided a voice of moderation and calm through the arduous process of negotiating the first collective bargaining agreement in this district's history. That does not even include those typical events that routinely take place within a school district that cause a superintendent's hair to turn a bit grayer with each passing day. No matter the challenge, Dr. Law has endeavored to further the core mission of DHS and HPHS to cultivate passion, to unlock the potential, and to inspire excellence in every student, no matter who they are or
019where they come from. Anyone who has spent any time with Dr. Law knows that he is unwaveringly committed to doing what is best for all students and to creating an equitable and inclusive environment. Certainly, from time to time, there have been differing opinions about what is best for students or the district, but Dr. Law always has treated his critics with respect and dignity and with an abiding trust in the good faith and sincerity of every district's stakeholder. When Dr. Law's final day as superintendent comes at the end of the year, he will leave this district in better condition and more prepared to respond to whatever the future may bring. The single most impactful responsibility of any school board is the hiring of a superintendent because it is the superintendent who is responsible for setting the
020tone of the district, for turning the mission of the district into a reality, and for making overarching operational decisions. The District 113 School Board will act with alacrity and due deliberation to search for and hire a superintendent who will be dedicated to achieving the mission of this school district. The school board is resolutely committed to soliciting and listening to the counsel and priorities of the district's stakeholders, including staff, students, parents, and guardians, future parents and guardians, and all other community members. Island Park High School and Deerfield High School share a proud tradition, and we are committed to finding a leader who will build upon that tradition. To that end, the board will hold a special meeting on October 18th to interview search firms and will vote to engage one of those firms on October 24th.
021This district is blessed with the staff, the students, the resources, and the community, sufficient to make it among the highest achieving high school districts in the nation for each and every one of its students. This board is committed to finding a superintendent who is passionate about District 113's unwavering commitment to providing all of its students with opportunities to realize their unique potential through a rigorous and engaging curriculum, meaningful relationships, varied experiences, a positive school culture, and the cultivation of individual passion and resilience. It is and will continue to be the touchstone of District 113 to cultivate passion, to unlock potential, and to inspire excellence in everyone, everywhere. We thank Dr. Law for his leadership, and we look forward to working with him over this school year to continue to move this district forward. Thank you,
022Dr. Law. Anybody have any comments? I just had a couple. Dr. Law, I appreciate your unwavering focus on every student living up to their fullest potential. I appreciate your calm and methodical approach to running our district, and I know you're committed to your very last day to leaving this district in better shape than when you arrived. And no better words than thank you. Superintendent number six for me. No offense to any other superintendent I've ever worked with, but I can tell you I've never worked with a kinder superintendent who is willing to listen and who truly values making sure each and every kid gets what they need. And for that, I will repeat Anne's thank you, and no one who was on my speed dial more during COVID. And once again, I will go back
023to those very dark days that I think Brian can probably do a big giant, yeah. There was no one who didn't think not only of our community during that time, but every community around us and what we could do to make sure everyone was getting what they needed. So July 5th, I remember walking into Highland Park High School and getting a big hug from Dr. Law and just thinking, we're going to be okay. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you've done. I appreciate you and everything that you've done for our community. We're better off for it. So agreed with what's been shared already, but thank you. Well, I've only worked with you for a little over a year. I have to say that as an educator, a concern
024is always, will the administration hear what's best for teachers, what's best for students? Because sometimes there's a fear that when you're removed from the classroom that you forget. And I have to say that I've never had that concern with you, that in all the conversations that we have, all the decisions that you make, it's always about putting the needs of the students and the teachers first. And I think that that is an incredible trait, that even for as far as you are in your career and for all of the minute decisions that you have to be a part of, you never forget the true purpose of why we're all in this room. So thank you. I guess moving right along to 2023-24, students enrollments and projections. This is the meeting where we bring these numbers
025run. CASBOM works very hard to update these meetings as a cohort survival. And it's showing the year over year changes student enrollment in both schools. Just keeping in mind, whenever we talk about student enrollment, it's a point in time. It changes every day. So at some point that student attendance number will be taken and it'll be in the Illinois report card for each school. But as you can see, we're not seeing the demographer thought that there might be a little drop off. We're not seeing quite as much as we thought. Can we use, next up is, or any questions or comments? And we'll move right along to the FOIA requests. It's a brief one this week. Yes, the FOIAs. Next up, we have actually a positive thing, school reports, our student liaison reports. Sorry for
026stealing some thunder, but do look forward to hearing from you. Yeah. Last week for DHS, the week of October 2nd, we celebrated homecoming week. Looking forward to homecoming on Saturday, which in my opinion and many others, it went really well. And each day there was a different dress up to collect school spirit. And there was a pep rally on Friday, which was very entertaining for all students, I think. And I think everyone had a lot of time. And even my friends were saying, oh, I didn't know I could feel so much school spirit. So I thought that was really successful. DHS has been formally recognized as an Illinois democracy school, which is just like, sorry. Illinois democracy schools recognize school-wide commitment to promoting civic learning by all students focusing on fostering participatory citizenship and emphasizing
027the fundamental ideals and principles of our constitutional democracy. And DHS is now one of 90 Illinois high schools recognized since 2006. Ball athletic playoffs started last week as well, the week of October 2nd with boys golf. Hunter Winnie and Owen Moskovitz are advancing to the IHSA sectionals while Amanda Adley is going to stay for girls golf, or she went on Saturday. The counseling department ran a suicide prevention program on September 21st for junior and senior homerooms during an extended homeroom period and where they just went over the signs and different resources available to students. The DHS auditorium is currently under construction for renovations to improve the theater. Construction is scheduled to be done around October 31st, but will not be moved and ready at that point. I'm not that sure. And on that note, the
028DHS theater is set to present Mean Girls from November 1st to the 4th in the Highland Park auditorium. And that's it for your film. Well, since the last time we spoke, we had our Hispanic heritage kickoff, which consisted of having a photo wall type thing. It was very beautiful. And then the next day we had a Mariachi band come in during our school lunches, which was very nice to see. It was really cool. I've never experienced that in any of my, like at my time at Highland Park, so it was very nice to like see that we were like formally recognized. And then we also had our senior seminar, Spanish classes, make little videos or commercials about what being Hispanic means and just making a video based on that, which we showed on HPTV. We
029also had our homecoming week, which started on Saturday the week before with Paint the Town Blue, where various clubs had a wall to paint or a window to paint around the downtown Highland Park area. And then we also had spirit days and a really amazing pep rally, which was handled very well. It was so much fun. Then of course we had our game, which we won against Niles North and our dance, which went very successfully. I had a blast. The food was very good too. Moving on to athletics, our girls tennis won first place in the conference. Football had a big win against Niles West last Friday to celebrate senior night. And our boys and girls cross country are getting ready for conference this weekend. And last week I had the pleasure of going on
030the outdoor adventure education camping trip, which was approved by you guys. And it was so much fun. I had the best time. It was amazing to just completely take a break and get away from everything. And I am very thankful I went and had the opportunity to go. And that's what happened at Highland Park. Oh, it was beautiful weekend. We had the warm week. It's all about temperature. No, it is the seventh period. There's two classes, seventh period right now is there up there right now. And it's a bit chilly over there. So I got lucky, but it was amazing. So I really appreciate you guys approving and having a lot of trust in that because it's it's a bit dangerous, but it was all safe. I never felt lost. It's adventure. No, but we
031had trust in each other to make sure that we set it up everything right. And knew we weren't going to find no injuries. We're beautiful. Thank you so much. You actually made it a positive meeting. You're the highlight. Two are the highlight. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to our discussion items. First up is long-term facility planning. So we were talking to the finance committee about all revenue bonds. Those are bonds that the board sold and we pay for out of our operating budgets to give us an infusion of cash to work on construction projects. So the board has been discussing for a while its long-term facilities planning and the work that goes beyond what we're doing currently. That work that's being funded through our operations or from other sources. Tonight we have
032Paul Hanley who is from beyond your base. He's here to provide the board with information about the District 113 electorate because in schools about every 10 or 15 years just because of the way things work, schools need an infusion of cash in order to pay for construction. We've been very diligent in making sure that our infrastructure is kept up. But there are a lot of other needs the District 113 has that we're not even attempting because one day we'll need a referendum. The reason we have Paul here tonight is because this is a timing issue. If the board were to decide to go to referendum in November of 2024, has to be in a time when there was an election obviously, this is the time of year when the board would be putting that into
033motion so that all the things could be done in order for us to be able to put that ballot in front of the electorate in November 2024. So Paul's here not just to provide a report but also the timing of the report is extremely important in terms of what if any steps the board wants to take after that. So Paul, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. So death by PowerPoint, I do have a PowerPoint presentation. Before I jump in, I just want to say that I was counting how many superintendents I've worked with in just the last 15 years and I've worked with 62 superintendents throughout the country. And Dr. Law is hands down one of my favorites. He's wicked smart and he's an incredible leader and most importantly, he's just a
034really good guy. And I really enjoyed working with him where I had worked with Dr. Law in his previous role as superintendent, the last school district. And it was tough going but he led incredibly and I'm really just really sorry to hear that you're going to be losing him but hopefully our paths will cross again. So let me try and share my screen. So again, my name is Paul Hanley, I'm managing director of Beyond Your Base and I've spent the last 31 years working with cities, counties, school districts, community colleges, fire districts, park districts, all sorts of public entities in trying to figure out what the taxpayer wants and whether it jives with what the public entity is trying to do. And so tonight, as Dr. Law mentioned, I just want to go through some
035timing issues and go through a little bit of strategy and answer any questions you might have. Before I jump into that, just know that during the 2022 election cycle, here are some of the Illinois school district clients that we've worked with. In November of 22, we worked with the NECFA 36, North Shore 112, Daughters Grove 58, Palatine 15, Joliet 86, we assisted in the April election in 23 and then Lake Forest High School District April of 23 as well. So those all passed, Lake Forest High School District squeaked by. We were brought on a little bit late in the game on that project. They didn't jump through all the hoops that we normally jump through, but I was very excited that they were able to get that important bond measure passed. The only one that
036didn't pass during those election cycles was Prospect 23. They were trying a limiting rate increase and the polling indicated that they would get approximately 47% support. In the end, they got 47% support. And so I believe they will likely be going back on the ballot in 2024. So these are all the services that we provide. Not going to go through them all. I would say that our secret sauce is on the bottom left in terms of proposal development. We have 31 years of polling data, polling data for individual clients, polling data for the collar counties, and then we do statewide polling. So when somebody asks, will this particular part of the package receive strong voter support? I have a good sense of whether it would or not, depending on what you're trying to do. So
037in terms of upcoming elections, here are the elections. So if you're looking to put something on the ballot, there's November 2024, the presidential. April 2025 would be the next after that. There is no November 2025 election in Illinois. The next one would be March 2026, which would be the gubernatorial primary. And then you have November 2026, the gubernatorial. Each one of these has a unique timeline attached to it. So when we think about referenda, we think about pre-referendum. That's all the work that happens prior to the adoption of the question. And then we think about the campaign and that's work that happens after the adoption of the question. And I'll talk a little bit about in just a minute pre-referendum work can be done by the district when it comes to a campaign. It's a
038group of concerned citizens that come together to advocate for the measure. So for those of my clients that are thinking about November 2024, they've already started thinking about what their proposals might look like and getting ready to move forward with them. So our process is broken into four parts. The, just note that the dates that you see here are based on a November 2024 election cycle. So as I go through that, just keep that in mind. So these first three parts can be paid for by the district. The last part, citizen led campaign is paid for by a campaign committee. I'll dive into each one of these parts. So phase one is focused on doing your homework. Call it needs assessment. And as part of that, if you were thinking about a proposal, and I
039don't know if you are or not, but if you were thinking about a proposal for November 2024, right now you'd be wanting to think about what is your plan A and plan B. Plan A being what you truly think voters would support and plan B being something stepped back from that. We'd also be doing a voter analysis. I'll show you some data tonight. I already looked at some of your voter data. You'd be assembling supporting information. Another thing that we recommend would be the formation of a citizen task force. It's basically business leaders, civic leaders, faith-based leaders, seniors, parents, non-parents, major property taxpayers, and others. And unlike a facilities planning committee, it's not as friendly, I'd say. It's a group of concerned citizens who are willing to tell you whether you have a chance or
040not. And if not, how would you modify your package to have a fighting chance? And again, when you talk about secret sauce, this is one of the steps that we think adds tremendous value when it comes to trying to dial in the right proposal. And then lastly, we work with our clients in developing a core message. So as mentioned, I started to look at your voter data to get a sense of who's going to show up for any particular election. Illinois has great voting data. Here's a map of your district. Those blue dots are Democrats, red dots are Republicans, gray dots that are kind of hard to see are unaffiliated voters. But as you can see, there's just all sorts of data that we have access to. Not all of it we use, but we
041do look at gender, age, party affiliation. Is there a child likely in the home, historical voting records? So a lot of this comes into play when we think about pre-referendum strategy. Right now you have 44,309 registered voters in your district. So one important thing we look at and when we think about timing and we think about strategy, it's just the age of the electorate. So on the far left, you'll see a pie chart of all your registered voters. And 54% are 18 to 54 years old, 17%, 55 to 64, 29% are 65 plus. Now the last presidential election, you can see that those percentages change. So we still have 43%, 18 to 54, 21%, 55 to 64, and then 36%, 65 and older. Paul, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Will you be able to send
042this presentation to us as a board since we do not have it in our board packet right now? I will send you some of the slides, but not all the slides. That's fine, as long as so we don't have to keep frantically all taking notes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the reason I'm showing all these various elections is that voters are creatures of habit and elections oftentimes mimic themselves. So if you were to go in November 2024, that age breakout is going to kind of look like that. If you went in April of 25, well, this age breakout is going to kind of look like what you see on the right there that happened in April of 2023, where now we don't have 36%, 65 and older. We have 49%, 65 and older. So it's very
043common to have lower turnout elections like an April election dominated by an older electorate. Does the candidate quality have anything to do with the turnout for an election? I mean, our April 2023 consolidated was sort of a, I put it, they weren't the most competitive races. Yeah, yeah, great question. We were running on a post. Jab at our board members here. I was thinking the same thing. So I went back and I looked at previous April's and it fluctuates a little bit, but it wasn't radically different from this 17% turnout. Sometimes it's a little higher when you have a hot race that everybody's excited about. And the reason age matters. So this is polling data from, I believe, Winnetka 36. And this is very common. So the gray bars are yes vote or when we
044poll are indicating that they support the measure. And then the orangey red bars are against. And what you see is that younger voters are most supportive all the way through from 18 to 54. That 55 to 64-year-old age group, we almost never get about 50% support. And then as we move further out in age, that 75 plus what's happening there, at least for Winnetka, is what I call a grandparent effect. So you have a lot of kids who leave. They come back. They start a family and their parents are still in the community. And those grandparents are still highly supportive of the schools, in part because they have grandkids in school. The other thing we look at is party affiliation. Again, we'll see in a second why that matters. So in your district, all registered
045voters, they've identified 52% Democrat, 15% Republican, 33% unaffiliated. During the last presidential, 61% Democrat, 16% Republican, 23% unaffiliated. And the last April election, 78% Democrat, 8% unaffiliated, 14% Republican. And again, this one I looked at, I was like, wow, that's a really high percentage of Democrats. I went back multiple April elections and you continue to see it hovering around 75 to 80% Dem turnout. So why does it matter? Well, this is kind of what we normally see when we poll. Again, gray bars are indicating they would support the measure. Orange bars are saying, no, we wouldn't support it. I'm not showing the don't know or undecideds, but you can see that there's a fairly large percentage of undecideds for the Republicans and we only get up to 39% support. Unaffiliated is usually more supportive than
046Republicans when it comes to tax-related referenda for education. And then consistently Democrats are usually kind of this 70% plus support level when it comes to tax-related referenda. That's not just for education, but that's for, I don't know, fill in the blank, all the different types of public entities that I work with. And when we do the polling, it's kind of what we see. So the other thing to think about is like, how many votes are needed to pass? Well, if you went in November, 2024, I think you need 18,917 votes to pass. If you go in April, 2025, worst case, I think you need 5,382. So when you look at that, you'd say like, well, why wouldn't you always go in April? You need the least number of votes. And the reason is that, as
047I mentioned, right, we have a potentially older electorate. Yes, there is a higher percentage of Democrats, but still a lot of those older Democrats will act in a fiscally conservative nature. And it's also just this concept of should we be on a ballot when more people vote, which is a presidential or a gubernatorial would be another thing. And there's other factors to consider. You know, as mentioned, you have board elections that happen during these April odd years. And so that can play a factor. I do a lot of work in the state of Colorado. And if you look at Jefferson County and Douglas County and all these different larger communities where you've had boards that went very fiscally conservative, some of that happened because they had, you know, they were pursuing tax-related referenda. Paul, do
048you see in those off-year elections when there's a referendum such as this on the ballot that the numbers change, the participation change, the voter turnout changes? You're asking, would the voter turnout change if we had a tax-related referenda on the ballot? Correct, yes. Yeah, so you'll definitely see a bump in turnout. Occasionally, you'll see a radical bump in turnout. So, for example, in New True High School District 2010, I didn't work on that measure. I did work on a successful one after that, but it was very controversial. And they had turnout that was as strong as a gubernatorial election. So, yes, you can sometimes, depending on, you know, how controversial it is, you know, turnout might be great. Surprisingly, though, if it's not controversial, you don't get a dramatic increase in turnout. And that's because,
049again, voters are creatures of habit. And if you typically don't vote in April, it's tough to get somebody to vote in April. So, you do your homework, share with the community. During community outreach, it's snail mail. It's presentations being made by the superintendent and others. It's informational videos. It's earned media, basically the press. It's a landing page on your website. It's leveraging existing communication channels. I know that you do a newsletter, so you'd have information in that. There would be emails that come from principals. If you typically do that, you would leverage those. It's basically doing everything you possibly can to get the word out. Not in an advocacy nature, but in just the facts type of approach. So, people still read, kind of. They like infographics. They like photographs. They like headlines. They like
050sub-headlines. We spend a lot of time when it comes to polling. And other strategies to figure out what voters want to know. And we focus aggressively on that. So, we meet the needs of both skimmers and readers when we're putting pieces together. We work with a lot of videographers that do informational videos. These happen to be for North Shore 112. They did like five different short videos that they used to get the word out. So, I call that phase two, priming the pump. And then phase three is where you ask the taxpayer, what do you think? And most importantly, would you pay for it? And for our clients that have enough voters, we do a combination of both a mail survey and what we call a hybrid poll. And so, in the case of a
051mail survey, it's half information, half questions. We typically include a fact sheet. I work with a variety of rural districts. And sometimes they'll come to me and say, we have no money. I say, okay. They say, you know, we can't do all your mailers you want to do and all this stuff you want to do. What should we do? And I say, well, you should do a mail survey at a minimum because I know from our research it's the most red piece. And while participation rates are usually 8% to 17%, I know that a much higher percentage of people are actually interfacing with the piece. So these mail surveys are not scientific. There are consultants out there that say, oh, yeah, ours is scientific. Well, it's not. You send these things out. You're at the
052mercy of whoever responds to it. In our case, we send it to every registered voter household. And the good thing is that we've done enough of them that we can read the tea leaves and give you a sense of a general undertone of the electorate. But again, it's not scientific, unlike a scientific hybrid poll, which is a combination of phone and text message. So typically on these hybrid polls, and I think you've done some in the past, in fact, one recently, it's usually 70% phone, 30% text. We usually use public opinion strategies. Again, I believe you used this firm in the past, same firm that does the Wall Street Journal NBC poll. I've used them almost exclusively in the state of Illinois when it comes to scientific phone polls. Why? Because their data is really
053tight to what the final results are. In fact, when people ask me, well, do you trust your mail survey more than you trust the hybrid poll? I say, oh, no, I trust the hybrid poll more because it is scientific. We're doing a random stratified sample of voters for the particular election that you're looking at. So if you're thinking about November 2024, for example, the pollster would try to target precisely the percentage breakdown of all the various demographics. So gender, age, party affiliation, what precinct they look in, what they live in. We call it perfect replacement. And they work and work and work to try to get 300 completed calls in this case so that we have a margin of error of 5.66 percent. Now, some clients will say, look, why would you only do 300?
054That seems small given that you just mentioned we have 42,000 people. And I think the pollster probably shared with you in the past that the reason that is is that you have this diminishing return. So, for example, if you did a statewide poll, you'd only have about 600 completes that you would need to get a margin of error that you would want. And then on a national poll, you only do a thousand, right? We don't do 10,000, 50,000. It's a thousand in a national poll. So 300 is actually a very good number these days in terms of completed calls, completed hybrid poll calls or text messages. Now, the last thing I just say with hybrid polls is we can do things like split the sample. So this is Downers Grove 99, a high school district
055that we worked with a number of years ago. They were looking at a 136 million dollar measure versus a 90 some odd million dollar measure. So they had their plan A and plan B. If you look to the bottom left, you'll see these bar charts. When we tested the plan A, it tested at 61% support. So half of those being surveyed heard the plan A. And then during that survey, they hear a little bit more about the proposal. And then at the end of the survey, we asked them again, would you support it? Here, it goes up to 63%. Now, the other half here, the 90 some odd million, and they're at 64%. They hear some more and they get to 66%. So when Jim Hobart and I looked at his data, we're like, oh,
056well, they should go for everything. We're typically shooting for 56 to 58% support at a minimum. In this case, they broke that threshold. And so we are confident in recommending that District 99 go for the full amount, which they did in the past handling. And the other thing is just we can test parts of the package. We can test arguments for and against. We can test tax sensitivity. There's just all this great data that we can bring to you. So that, as I mentioned at the top of the slide, there is absolutely no need to guess whether this thing has a chance or not. And if not, how do you modify the proposal to have a chance? So I mentioned this task force that we put together, business leaders, civic leaders, and others. So we
057bring this data back. Jim Hobart and I show up. I present the mail server results. He presents the hybrid poll results. They pepper us with questions. And then they make a recommendation to the superintendent as far as go or no go. And if it's a go, what should that proposal look like? Superintendent then in turn would make his or her own recommendation to the board, obviously keeping in mind what they heard from the task force. So I'm not bond counsel, but I spent a lot of time talking to bond counsel. And the reason is that these ballot questions are super important. So the good news is with a bond referenda, you have the opportunity to add a little bit of detail, even though it's in a big chunky paragraph. So in this case, it was
058North Shore 112. And we knew based on the feedback we got from polling and from public meetings, et cetera, that secure entrances was the top item followed by fire protection systems, and then ADA, technology, HVAC, classroom innovations. So we knew precisely what taxpayers cared about. We made sure that that was showcased in the ballot question. So you do your homework, share with the community, get the feedback. And then finally, we come to the board just like we came to the task force. We present all the data. Superintendent would present all the information he or she heard as they were on the road making presentations. Any other ways that you gathered input from your taxpayers. And then as the buck stops there, as elected officials, you have to make that final decision, go or no go.
059And what does that final proposal look like if it's a go? And in this case, if you're looking at November 2024, you would have to make that decision in August of 2024. If the decision was made, yes, let's go. The data looks great. We think this has a fighting chance. Then you have to kind of step away a little bit. Illinois election law kicks in. I'm not an attorney, but I spent a lot of time trying to keep districts out of trouble. You cannot use taxpayer funds to advocate. You can send out informational pieces that are not advocacy pieces. And you can do some other things, but you have to be really careful. It's when you have to let go of the reins and let a group of concerned citizens, usually super moms and super
060dads, and some super seniors that come together to advocate for these measures. And these are kind of all the things that go into a great campaign. So in the last five years, I always say there's never a good time to put something on the ballot. In the last five years, oh my gosh, COVID, recession almost, rapidly rising inflation, home values increasing, Ukraine. Now we have the Middle East. It's just like never a good time to put something on the ballot. But the reality is that our process, we've had a few that failed, but most passed. We passed 26 referenda in just the last five years during all this massive COVID and everything else for $1.46 billion in funding for schools and others. And they didn't all pass with 50% plus one vote. We had North
061Shore 112 at the top, 72%. That community showing up in force to say, yes, we support our school district. Joliet 86, 72% support. Downers Grove 58, 68. Go down the list. As mentioned, the one that squeaked by was Lake Forest, but they didn't jump through all these hoops that we just talked about. They kind of did some polling and put it on the ballot, and then they came and said, hey, help. So we tried our best to educate the electorate, but you don't want to educate and advocate at the same time. So you want to have these things, one, before you ever put anything on the ballot, which I think you can do with the process that I just described. So why do these pass? These pass because we're, one, focused on respecting the taxpayer,
062and two, making it the community's plan. So not the board's plan, not the district's plan, district staff's plan. Surely not the consultant's plan, whether there's an architect or construction manager, et cetera. It's truly got to be the taxpayer's plan. And when you do that, then that's when you get the 72% support and 68% support, which is exciting because usually a third of all voters will vote no on everything. So we start to get numbers like 65% or 72%. It's kind of amazing because now we've broken through that. And even those who typically always say no are saying yes. And I think that it builds taxpayer trust, and it builds trust in the community, trust in the institution, and it ends up being a really good thing. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any
063questions you might have on timing or strategy or what have you. Open the floor. Kind of timing is the group thinking of. And thanks for that because that really is a question. I mean, if there's a process to follow when the time comes, every school district has to go to the taxpayers and ask for money for construction. This is the process to follow. I mean, not only successful in referendum initiatives that Paul led, but in Hinsdale, we worked with him, didn't even get to ballot, but used his playbook, couldn't work with him, used the playbook for the referendum that did pass. So this is, this is, he has thought through this is the process. But the first question is, what is the board's timeline? We're right at the point that if the board said it's
064November 2024, we got to go. If it's November 2024. I have two concerns with November 2024. One is a new superintendent. Two is a new superintendent. No. And then the other is I do think spending a little bit more time paying down the out revenue bonds or paying that back and getting that further along in the process shows our good stewardship of the financial decisions that we're making. Yeah, actually, my concern sort of builds upon Anne's that there was a referendum in this district that was successful. Was it now? 2013. 13. So 10 years ago now. And that was the second go around and it was still very, very close. And much of that referendum, a big selling point for that referendum is we've, you know, this is our 20 year. We've got everything wrapped
065up for a long time. Never won't have to ask for another one for a long, long time. We're still paying for that referendum. We're getting close to being done, but we're still paying. And I just, I'm very boring and conservative when it comes to stuff like that. Until we're paid, we've gotten closer to paying off the last one. I'm really uncomfortable. I just worry about going to the taxpayers. I'm in a couple of things. I think that Dan brings a good point that we would just be 11 years from our past one, but the reality is that I think the way public school funding goes these days and the ages of our buildings and us wanting to save two schools and not combining. I have a feeling this is going to be a regular occurrence
066because that's just the reality. We have two schools that are aging for smaller population, et cetera, et cetera. Um, with that, I'm trying to find the right way to say this. I think there's going to be enough hostility and enough chaos in the 2024 election that I'm not sure we want to add more to that. And our community has been through a heck of a lot in the last few years. And maybe we ride this one out. That's my only thought on that. And I could do the flip side of it and say, you're going to have the highest voter turnout. And that's what I'm saying. So that's where I go. And so that's why I say that's what I say. I'm not sure how to say, because I'm not sure how, but I think
067it's absolutely something we need to think about. I don't think this election is going to be a regular one. And do we want to add to that? I don't know. And I just think it's something we really need to think about. And I think it's something that you, Paul, I had to turn around because I forgot your name. And I can read your name over on this one. And I don't know if it's something that you could have information for on us, not that there's ever, you know, that in a more contentious election or more, whatever time we live in, whether that's a better or worse time to do this. OK, Jody's next to me. So she's the other Jody. I mean, I think my comments were around how you ended in terms of I'm
068not sure about the timing. I feel really torn because I do think in some ways, not that we want chaos ever, but it is going to be an election. I'm predicting that there will be high voter turnout. People will be talking about the elections are going to go to the polls. And it seems like from Paul's presentation that might bode in our favor in terms of people, possibly younger voters going out there and wanting to pass this referendum. But I do think that to Dan and Anne's point, we just want to be careful that we are making this decision because we are being fiscally responsible and it's like the right thing to do, weighing that with the growing needs of our community and of our schools, because there do seem to be more conversations around
069wanting to support students in a myriad of ways that are expensive. So between 2011, the failed referendum and 2013, the successful referendum, this district made an enormous amount of effort in involving the public. And that is really an extraordinary amount. And I would say that the needs assessment part of this might take longer than typical given that our community really felt empowered by the fact they were able to participate and come up with and be a major part of the proposal. And I hesitate to not make sure we build that into the timetable. We need to make sure we get tremendous input from the community and do a really good needs assessment. I mean, right now, I can't even tell people what it would be for. We really have to have worked through all these
070things and do a full master plan that's really more extensive. Yeah, I'd echo Rick's comments. Certainly, thinking about timing and strategy and sort of when people are going to be engaged is important, but I don't think we can do it if we can't identify what it is that we're asking for and why and what those needs are. So we'd have to be confident if we're thinking about something like 2024. Certainly not suggesting that we are or would. We have to be able to commit ourselves that we're going to know soon enough what it is that we are proposing so that people can make those decisions and be involved and engaged in the process as Paul has laid out. And I think something to add as well, not that I am advocating for pursuing the ballot
071measure, but the buildings are aging. They're not getting any younger. The needs aren't getting any less complex. So, I mean, there's a lot that has to be done. So weighing, you know, we want to find the most right time, not the right time, but the most right time balancing, you know, it will become more expensive the more we wait to do what we'd like to do. So I think finding a way to balance that agreed. We don't know what we would be asking for. We have that master plan development, all of those things that need to take place. But the clock, I mean, is ticking. So that's something that we need to consider as well as we're evaluating when. I think it's just really important to bluntly state that if we were doing November 2024,
072we are saying Dr. Law's priority for these last several months that he's in his role is the referendum, right? And so versus helping us transition, helping us go through a search, you know, we obviously have a principal position that needs to be filled. So that's one of the key decisions that's being made. And I'm not comfortable with that. And there are plenty of operational issues that still need to be addressed. I mean, we've talked about some of what's available for students who are going through and consistent with Illinois law and our own policies and alternative suspension. We need to build that out, I think, is our first priority, at least in my mind. I do think this discussion is part of the continuing due diligence of any school board because we are the, you know,
073we are, in essence, fiduciaries, overseeing facilities that vary off. There are parts of Highland Park High School that are 100 years old. And there are parts of Highland Park High School, say, the music wing, that are far exceedingly outdated. And there's a big empty space in the middle of Deerfield High School that's an empty cavern. Great storage area. That there are absolutely needs. And we need to be thinking about that all the time because it's part of our job on the board. We also, I think, do need to start getting serious about having, I think, the model in 113 and 112 that has worked is having, and 109, is having a very, very engaged community even before there's any decision about going to the ballot. The community is part of the planning process. That's what's
074worked here. And I think it's important to get the sense of ownership. Because really, you know, I happen to think that the high schools are the central entity in any community that we need to start thinking about that process before we do anything else and get rolling on that because we have plenty of people in this community who have very good ideas, who are very, very smart, who have a lot of commitment to the schools. And it's important to get their say or their view before we decide on whatever needs to be done. I mean, I could easily come up with 25 million dollars in security improvements in this district just off the top of my head that we could do. And so we really do need the input from our stakeholders. And that can
075always start that process. And I think the other thing, too, that oftentimes we think about, you know, coming from a school district that is well resourced in Illinois, we don't have that bottomless pit of money and we can only sharpen our pencils so much. And a referendum or ballot measure is something that due to school finance and how we can fund and how we can raise funds and not something that we have to do. And it's not out of a lack of financial oversight or lack of financial responsibility. It is how costs are rising and how, you know, we aren't able to obtain the funds that we need to obtain. And it's something that isn't always easy to hear, but we need to be mindful of that as well. I mean, yeah, the expectation by
076the public needs to be that, you know, it's every decade, every decade and a half-ish that schools need to go out for a referendum. That's a part of what our financial book needs to look like. And so let's make sure this time and moving forward, people are not sold on this idea that they're never, ever going to have another referendum or it's not going to be for a really long time because that's ridiculous. You know, to that point, there was a study that was done in 2016 that actually provided a calculation for school districts that they wanted to be able to spend enough money every year on their facility so they never had to go out to referendum. And in 2016, they used $400 a square foot for new construction. I don't think Brian would
077say that was, that's even, yeah, it's a lot higher. But in 2016, using that $400 per square foot, given we have 11, 1.1 million square feet, that would require us to have in our budget every year. In 2016, $18.6 million just for construction, just to keep up. And we are at $5 million. They started that. That was very wise. And we've been adding to it with inflation. But as you can see, over time, you fall behind because if we were to say, we're going to take $18 million or I don't know what it would be in today's dollars. Call it 20. It'd be a lot more than that. But just say $20 million out of our budget, where would that money come from? Only one place, student programs. There would be no other place we
078could take $20 million. And this is why school districts needed an infusion of cash because over time, they fall behind in their projects. Because we're not decreasing students. We are not. There's no way we would ever have a budget that takes $20 million out for our facilities. So over time, the projects pile up and then we go to the community and say we need help. One of the things that 113 has done to its credit is kept up with infrastructure. Projects. And that is our responsibility to make sure our buildings are well maintained and they continue to function. Because that'll be the first question taxpayers ask. Where have you been when it comes to infrastructure? We've kept up with that. But as Dan said, we have needs that we don't have the money for. So
079everything you're saying is true. But the day will come when school districts are going to need an infusion of cash. Is it reasonable for us to try to get to a not before type of statements this evening or shortly after this evening? Meaning we as a board, for what we know today, we're saying not before November 2024. I would suggest we try and make that line a little bit further down. But I don't think it's necessarily realistic for us unless we were going for November 24 for us to say it's going to be March 26. I don't think we have enough information necessarily. And I don't think I'd want to make a statement past November of 24 because we don't know. And so for me, I think we were to make a statement, which I
080think is a great idea. So people know because this idea has been bouncing around a community for two years already to be able to come out and say we will not be seeking one on the November 2024. And I would put in there the reasons why. But to go past that, I would be worried that we are now strapping another board with a decision that at least three of us are up in April 25. And to be strapping another board with a decision that we have made, I would want the people who take these seats to be able to be part of that decision. And I would not want to put a statement that we make and something happen and people say, but you said. Which is all that much more reason to start a
081citizens community committee engaged in interest in facilities and identifying priorities, working with us and working with the architects and most importantly, the staff and students who actually have to spend their time in those places. So is that what we're saying? Then it will not be on November 2024. And we will start the due diligence process to figure out which one it would be. Also, what it would involve. We have a very good master plan. But I think that anything that's going to be going to a referendum needs to be honed and really identify that these are what we need to do. The things. And that takes a little bit of time. And there's certainly going to be a debate amongst people over what should be done. Yeah, because reasonable people can disagree about these things.
082I like Jody's idea of saying why. And I don't know if that goes in the official statement or if that is just a part of our messaging as a whole that we are committed to the searches that we're undertaking. Because that is really going to shape the future of so many people who will be impacted in this district. Thank you. I agree. Okay, Laura, are we good? So I think we've got a sort of a long-term vision. But, you know, it's a discussion item. Look what you won't be doing for the next seven months. We'll need to have an action item. You're welcome. Uh-huh. And Brian can come back in 23 hours. Yeah, we'll need an action item on what we should do next. But yeah. Thank you so much, Paul. This is incredibly instructive.
083Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Next item up is on discussion, legal firm for property tax appeals. All right, I can talk about this. This is something we do annually. We intervene in property tax appeals over $500,000 of EAV. There was this law that was a PTEL, which is the law, property tax extension limitation law, which was amended. What it did was it actually provides that a district level automatically be increased each year to recapture property tax refunds made prior 12 months from PTEP appeals. So there's no financial incentive for the district to intervene on those tax appeals anymore because of the law change. But we do it anyway because anytime there's a PTEP appeal and there's a refund to the taxes, by district recapturing those funds, what means is that
084the existing remainder tax base, the burden gets shifted to the remainder of the tax base. So in the best interest of all the taxpayers and to ensure that we are intervening in those appeals so that we have control on the assessment increase or decrease of the remainder of the tax base if, let's say, there is a tax appeal by, for example, Discover that happened last year. So yeah, so there's again, we spent about $50,000 collectively with District 109 and 112 to intervene in those appeals. And what we do is that I work with the attorneys to intervene in those appeals and then we figure out what District 112 portion is of their appeals and 109 and we bill them, the attorney fees. I don't bill them for my services, even though I'm, you know, dealing
085with those attorneys. So my services are for free for them. But anyway, so yes, again, in the best interest of the taxpayers, we still intervene. So this, any questions we haven't answered? What is the rationale for $500,000 being the number? Is it art? Is it science? It's more, I mean, before it used to be cost benefit, more like how much we want to spend in attorney fees to, for example, $500,000 of appeal, for example, based on our tax base, would mean $10,000. So for spending $9,000 or $10,000 or $11,000, it's not, you know, so we have to look at that. So it's not an exact science to it, but how much we want to, you know, spend in our attorney fees. And then if it's a, for example, it's a big EAB that requires an
086appraisal, that appraisal could cost an additional $15,000 or $20,000. So just based on that assessment is made by me and, you know, 109 and 112 to see what we think we're going to spend in attorney fees. Is it worth fighting? So to see if I could summarize my view of this, somebody has to represent the taxpayer. And it's good that they have an advocate and we've chosen to take that role. Additionally, the other tax paying bodies that don't have our expertise in dealing with this appreciate the fact that we're willing to take that role and that can't hurt. Right. I do know a lot of school districts, some schools I'm aware of are not intervening anymore because they get the money back. But again, it's, it's just not good for the remainder of the tax
087base. So something will get its money, right? The district gets its money. So we're not getting it from, you know, someone who's objected to the taxes. Then that means other people have to pay more in order for the district to get its money before it didn't use to get the money. So we would intervene, but now we're getting that money anyway. But I think this is good practice to intervene in those appeals and represent the taxpayers. What have we spent in the past for this? Or have we done this in the past? This just seems like a lot of money. So I actually have last year's information. So we spent our share, district 113 share was $28,000 last year. 2023, the year just passed, we spent $1,400. I'm sorry? The 500,000 times we would raise
088an objection to. I thought we were talking about that. Thank you. I was so confused there for a moment. I had a blonde moment. I apologize. I was like, I know Debbie, I know Debbie, I shouldn't say that. I had a senior moment or I had a tired moment or the world is stressing me out moment. We'll go with any of those, but okay. Forget it. I'm good. Sorry. So it's a minimum amount we spent in attorney fees. Yeah, I'm good. I've always had the opinion that I would rather that the no longer lives in this. The billionaire with the house should be. Oh, let's not even get started. We can't say his name because he'll sue us. I know we can't say his name. Should be paying if it's a zero sum game. I
089don't think the guy, the 80 year old gentleman who lives down the street with from me, who's been in the same house for 50 years, should be paying more because somebody who can afford. The law firm of somebody who's probably on trial right now can afford to protest their tax bill. It's I think it's always been that simple for me that the taxpayer with fixed income should not be paying more because somebody can afford to protest. Any further discussion on this item? If not both. No, I would say no, no, no, I'm not going to say that one. Okay, so we've got the two people, the Muppet. We want credit for our conversation and the previous one about the revenue, alt bonds and everything and how great we did at that. So first is Ali,
090how did we do on the district finance and distilling it down from a board level perspective of our role in the board? We thought we did a decent job of. For the referendum. Understanding referenda or from the work that you've done with the board. And how you've taught us. Oh, yes. Gold star. More than gold star. Sorry. No, that wasn't the question. That wasn't the question. That wasn't the question that I had. Okay, but what I did want to share a comment is so this is an example of something that as a district and with our partner districts, we're taking on as good fiscal stewards who are looking out for our tech space. Is this something that somebody who might not be watching board meeting or reading the board meeting notes know about? And where
091is this something that we can share in any capacity at any point? Or is this a note in something of here's how we try to take care of our taxpayers? And this is something we can include in the next newsletter that we share with the community, that this is something because a lot of people are not aware of this law that it's passed. A lot of people because PTABs are complicated. So just to show them that we do represent our tax base, mostly residential tax base. And because most of the appeals we intervene in commercial like last year, as you know, we intervened in Discover, which was a huge settlement. I mean, if we would have ignored it would have been a lot of burden shift to the existing tax base. So yeah, something we
092can share. Thanks, Ali. I think the consensus is that this can come for action in a future meeting. Sure. So that moves us along to public comments. For policy 2-230 at each open school board meeting, the Board of Education has a public comment period for a maximum of 30 minutes. We are ready to listen and appreciate your comments. We recognize that it takes time and work to prepare a three minute statement. Public participation is not intended to be a back and forth discussion between the public and the board. Questions asked during public participation may be sent via email to be answered subsequent to the meeting. Is there a sign in sheet? This one is empty. It was brought up for me. Does anybody want to provide public comment? Mr. Perez, do you want me to
093call out, let you know when it's a minute left? Yes, please. Sure. Thank you. Okay. Green. Oh, there we go. Okay. In the October 5th edition of the patch, in the police blotter section, it was reported that two handguns were stolen from inside a safe in a home in Highland Park. The theft occurred at some point between July 24th and August 3rd, but police were not told about this until September 23rd, according to the blotter. So as of now, as far as we know, two handguns have been floating around in the community in criminal hands for over two months. Can any of you here ensure that neither of these guns has ever or will ever be brought into Highland Park High School? In the debate leading up to your August 8th WDS rollout vote, much
094talk was given to the idea of interventions as being critical towards reducing the potential for school shootings. One of you on this board even once so far as to state or had stated at a previous board meeting that if, and I'm paraphrasing here, we just passed Ethan's law, mandating gun safe storage that school shootings would end. Well, guess what? At least the paradigm of Ethan's law failed miserably in the last couple of months, even before Ethan law has gone into effect. And even as it's still stuck in committee in the Illinois General Assembly on August 28th, the Highland Park police arrested an 18 year old person for setting fire to a mailbox. While the police blotter lists more specifics on the case, and it is therefore a public record, suffice to say that it is
095reasonable to conclude that this individual is or probably was at some point a Highland Park High School student. I only bring this up because if a current or former Highland Park High School student is out there setting mailboxes on fire, what did school staff know about this individual before his crime spree? Was it in his potential to escalate his bad behavior? In the previous board meeting, once again, folks were talking about interventions, not about metal detectors per se. I had point blanked at one point asked the question, does anybody know if anybody at Highland Park High School is having these kinds of mental issues that can escalate into something more serious? That question still stands. And just today, the Washington Post put out an article titled, guns are seized in the US schools each day.
096The numbers are soaring. The article states that 1,150 guns were brought into K through 12 schools last year. That's one in six guns each day that are seized. And that's 1.1 million students that are exposed to this. I will remind you also of the May survey by your own numbers that 21% of the respondents believe that students are bringing guns into school on a regular basis or have done it at some point, including 16% of the responding students. I think now is the time to install the weapons detection system at every entrance of every hour of every day. What are we waiting for? Thank you, Ms. Perez. Ms. Wall, did you want to speak? Go ahead. I don't need a warning. I'll keep an eye. Thank you so much. Hi, everyone. Last time we spoke,
097I asked if any of you would fly out of O'Hare without the deployment of metal detectors or weapons detection systems at every entrance, every hour, every day. Wisely, none of you raised your hands. You may be unaware all flights to Israel from the U.S. have secondary screening in the gate area. As a former United employee, I can say that all gates for United Tel Aviv-bound aircraft have a second set of weapons detection systems and a literal wall of security personnel in the gate. When I think of the lack of security at Highland Park High School by comparison, I'm terrified. As if the serious direct threats to Highland Park High School on April 4th and September 28th, plus the murder on August 13th and the additional security issues mentioned by Enrique are not enough to warn
098every entrance, every hour, every day. We now have a formal declaration of war in Israel issued on Sunday, October 8th. Please stop bringing Israel into this. I'm begging of you, Suzanne. Please. Okay. I'm truly begging. Okay. I'm very concerned. Please stop this. I'm begging of you. Okay. Well, when you add in the events proceeding, it really is negligence to proceed with our security as it exists today. We taxpayers paid for and you wisely voted for the weapons detection systems, not to be used sporadically, not to be shoved up against a wall, but to be deployed at every entrance, every hour, every day. I have some serious questions for you, which I will later email and I do request answers. Why are the weapons detection systems not currently at every entrance, every hour, every day, including
099all staff entrances and after hours events? When will weapons detection systems be deployed at every entrance, every hour, every day? What will it take to get the weapons detection systems at every entrance, every hour, every day? How can we help? If you need, our parents SOS team can be out on Vine Avenue directing traffic every morning. I have several reflective vests. We remain ready to do whatever it takes to secure our schools. I'll close with a text I sent to my husband who was at school on September 29th prior to the PEP rally. At that time, I certainly did not know that weapons detection systems would be redeployed at the rally. I said, Bill, please be careful. Someone we know opted their kid out of the rally. Smart move. Stand by the gym doors and
100make sure you can see Lily. If you need, run to her. I love you. Be safe. This is really how I feel every day, sending my family to school. What are we waiting for? I suggest we honor Dr. Law and his wonderful service by turning his vision for school security into reality. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wall. Anybody else? No, I understand. Does anybody else want to provide any comments? Move on to our Consent Agenda. Next is the Consent 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? Hearing none, it is recommended that the Consent Agenda be approved as listed. Board of Education Regular Action Meeting Minutes of September 26, 2023. Board of Education Regular Action Meeting
101Closed Session One Minutes, September 26, 2023. Board of Education Regular Action Meeting Closed Session Two Minutes, September 26, 2023. And personnel noted. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? I'll see. Is there any discussion? Can we have a roll call, please, Ramina? Ms. Newman? Aye. Mr. Nieder? Aye. Mr. Pirra? Yes, please. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Schrimer? Aye. Mr. Heitemann? Aye. Mr. Strzok? Aye. The motion carries. We are now to our closing. It is 836. Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Extensions? The motion carries. Everybody have a good evening.