November 18th, 2025 - Regular Meeting - Open Session 7:00 p.m. - Closed Session 6 p.m.

001Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. Oh my [music] god. What's [music] up? You will Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. I'll be happy. You yourself. [music] Ooh. [music] Are you? [music] Woo! [music] Oh, [music] heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> feeling. Hey, hey. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. It is 7 p.m. and I would um I call this being to order. The board met in close session at 6 p.m. to discuss matters that fall fall under the following categories that are exceptions to the Illinois Open Meeting Act. Personnel matters exception C1. Student matters exception C9. Negotiations exception C2. legal matters exception C11 close session minutes exception C21 at this time I'd like to ask for a

002motion to go in open session >> so move motion by Mr. Riddle second by Miss Hannah roll call vote please >> Miss Fabian >> yes >> Miss Hannah >> yes >> Miss Lensing Mr. McBride >> yes >> Miss Ramirez >> yes >> Mr. Riddle. >> Yes. >> President Rodriguez. >> Yes. Motion carries. We are now in open session. Um, is that principal compost back there? >> Would you please do us the honor of leading us in the pledge of allegiance? >> Thank [cough and clears throat] you. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, next item is president's report and I just want to report a few things uh that are going

003on that have happened over the last month. On November 5th, the board had our second our followup self-evaluation meeting with Laura Martinez, our IASB representative. It was a good meeting and um we uh concluded with the board agreements. I they were supposed to be on tonight's agenda, but there was a uh some confusion and uh they're not on the agenda tonight for approval, but they will be on the next um agenda so the board can formally vote to approve them. Um on November 6th, I was invited to participate in the student council meeting at Miguel War Middle School along with Principal Compost uh invited by Mr. Patrick Fryin and I met with a number of their students on the um student council and I had a very very uh uh nice meeting with them. There's

004some very um motivated young individuals that are um involved in student council that uh want to make a difference and very impressed with them. Uh principal compos and I were there. we were in the hot seats, had to answer a number of questions and we also had a chance to ask them some questions. So, it was a very nice exchange and I really appreciated the invitation. Um, on November 7th, I participated in the large member uh district um quarterly meeting. It was a Zoom meeting that um uh involved all of the board presidents of all of the unit school districts in the state of Illinois. It's always very uh enlightening to participate in those meetings and and hear what other board presidents have to say. On November 7th, uh that evening, which we mentioned at

005our last meeting, uh Mr. Riddle and I participated in the Bravo Walkan concert that was held at the Gorton Center. It was a beautiful event. We got to see the mariachi uh performan uh school district's own mariachi. And um it it's really it was really great to see how far they've come and in just just a few short years and uh I was very impressed and uh um I'm I'm just so happy to see that that program has succeeded. Um November 10th participated again Mr. Riddle and I participated in the ribbon cutting event for the um Yman Creek solar project >> and that was really exciting. you know, we had that big snowfall overnight and it was kind of questionable whether everybody was going to be there. I I even uh uh emailed the lady

006that was running the the thing telling her, "I I don't know if I'm going to be able to dig out in time to be there, but I made it in time. It was a beautiful event." And we [clears throat] had a very very uh nice uh front page story by Mr. Steve Saden. And I don't know if all you saw this, there are a couple of familiar faces on the front page here. Mr. Riddle and I were there. Um, I was cutting the ribbon along with Mayor Cunningham and I just want to st thank Mr. Satan. I know I saw him here. There he is in the back. Uh, for all of the wonderful press that you've given us. It's just so nice to see that all the good things that are happening in the

007district are being recognized. So, thank you. >> Um, on November 14th, uh, Superintendent Placencia and I met with our student board members at Quanid Pizza for, uh, pizza and discussion. and had a chance to get to talk to the student school board members and get to know them a little bit. And we had some pretty good pizza, I think, wasn't it? >> Yeah. >> And they also learned what a quanset is, right? [clears throat] [laughter] >> Okay. >> What is it? >> And let's see. Also, um on the 14th, uh Superintendent Placencia and I uh had a Zoom meeting with Perry Hill from the Illinois Association of School Boards. He's from Southern Illinois and he is going to be the person that's meeting with the school board um in close session to discuss conflict resolution

008and um I think the date of December 10th was floated to the board members um uh to see if they're available all available on that evening that he gave us a few dates and we kind of narrowed it down. That seemed like the best best date when there were the fewest conflicts. So if you haven't responded yet to um the email I think Mr. Jack has sent it. Please respond because we'd like to firm that up uh as quickly as possible. And uh I think that's all I have. Okay. We have student board member [clears throat] report. Are we going to do this tag team or are we doing it individ? >> Tag team. Okay. >> Treasure and Frank. >> All right. Sounds like a song. >> All right. Hello everyone. So this is me

009and Frankie student board report. So today at school I had made a survey to get the students overall opinion about the food and I placed QR codes all around the tables to further get all the kids attention. Uh so for my responses I have 30 responses I believe 14 I mean 13 being seniors and 17 being juniors and for the overall students who actually eat the food it's around I would say like 73% and some don't eat the food but there's a nice amount who actually do eat the food. Uh so one of the questions that were asked that was there any food that you would like to see on the menu and we've got they they wanted more varieties of fruits. Um they would like to see pasta quadillas uh orange chicken and rice

010chicken cup of noodles pizza dippers more varieties of sandwiches and salads and and some seafood boil. >> I'm I'm there. [laughter] Mr. Motton, you hear that? >> Coming up. Seafood. >> Um, we also have breakfast food recommendations that included muffins, pancakes, sausages, waffle, eggs, and waffles. >> All right. And then when asked further more questions, they requested more pineapples, different chips, and especially a microwave in the cafeteria since a lot of kids do bring their own foods from um home. >> So, that would be very useful for the kids. And then improvements on burgers. I've seen like a lot of comments about adding more toppings on the sandwiches and also different types of salads like Caesar salads, different types of salads like that. Um, and then in result, I know adding or even considering new

011uh new items on on the menu takes time, but I really appreciate everyone for actually hearing out the students and valuing their ideas. >> Thank you. >> All right. [applause] Thank you. Thank you for the very professional report. May >> may I stand up? >> And hopefully uh board and superintendent deputy, you all are hearing the students and hopefully in talking with our um our food service, they can replicate what the students are asking. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Thank you, Miss Hannah. Item seven, special recognition and presentations. I see none. Item [clears throat] eight, approval of minutes. We have three sets of minutes up for approval. And uh I'd like to take them individually if we can. Item A is the approval of minutes for the micro meeting open session October 14th, 2025.

012>> Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Do we have a second? Second by Miss Hannah. Any uh comments, corrections, changes? I have one correction I would like made, please. Page three at the very bottom. Um the single line about the third item up. It says Miss Vanderbore stated. Okay. I'd like that a name uh a correction to the name, please. >> Spelling. >> All right. Just a spelling mistake. Other than that, everything that stand do we Okay, we have a motion, a second, and no more corrections. Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Miss Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Next one is the minutes for the open session meeting of October

01328th, 2025. Do we have a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle. >> Second by Miss Fabian. Any comments, corrections, changes? Okay, on this one, um there were some, uh version that was uploaded on board docs was actually a uh version before some changes were made, maternal changes were made. And so that is what the board had an opportunity to review. What I'd like to do is is uh highlight the changes that were made since uh the board has not had a chance to see the revised um version. They're minor things but um on and um yeah you have copies of this already all these these items I want to highlight. Yeah. On page four under L renewal of Ponapto uh just the word authorize take out the S. So

014it's authorize that the board of education authorize. Uh items let's see page five at the very bottom items EFG GH and J were grouped together and taken as one. I asked uh for to enter entered who requested it and why were they separated and um uh the the revised version states states that several board members requested that um these items be taken together as one. And on page six at the very bottom uh finally items I and K were grouped together and taken as one. And I again I asked who requested and on the revision it shows uh they were separated by a request by Miss Hannah and Miss Lensing. And on page seven um 11 consent a uh agenda item C was taken separately. Again I requested uh who requested it? It was requested

015by board member Hannah. And let's see on page nine uh B personnel 1028 that the board of ed education accept the administration recommendation as a matter of removing the yes these are minor changes but I just want to make sure that we have the final version for the board to approve uh on page 10 second paragraph uh at the very far right second line from the bottom it says the issues being discussed are personal matters But they are but uh the point that I made was that they're personnel matters. Personnel so the word personal should be changed to personnel and let's on page 14 at the very bottom was a motion by Rick Riddle and seconded by Carolina Fabian at 8:55 to go back in open close session. It doesn't say how the vote went

016so I asked that it be put in there. The vote was that all vote all me board members voted yes and that is it. So um I'd like to ask Oh, do you already have a motion? >> We already have a motion in a second. Okay. >> Um so who made the motion? Was that Mr. Riddle? >> I did. Yes. Okay. I'll amend my motion to um include the changes. >> The changes. Okay. Motion by Mr. Riddle to accept to approve the minutes as amended. >> Second by Miss Hannah. You are seconding that motion. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, any other comments, corrections, changes to minutes? Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. I was >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >>

017President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. >> And then the last one is item C, approval of the minutes for the special open session of November 5th, 2025. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle to approve. >> Second by Miss Favian. Any comments, corrections, changes? Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> yes. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Item nine, opportunity for public comment. Do we have a signup sheet? >> Thank you very much. We have three names on the list. Uh when I call your name, please uh come up to the podium. Uh you will have three minutes to make your comments. And the first

018name is Lynette Oliver. >> Before my official time starts, I'd like to say hi to Treasure, who's my former elementary school student. Hi, Treasure. I'm proud of you. >> You [clears throat] must be proud. You must be proud. >> Get that out of the way. Sorry. Um my name is Lynette Oliver. I'm here tonight not just as an educator, but as someone whose entire life has been shaped by Walkagan. I was born here. I was a preschooler at Walkagan East. I attended Washington Elementary, Jefferson Junior High, and I am a graduate of Walkagan West High School. Wkeheaggan has always been special to me. I grew up in this district. I returned to serve in this district. And I have remained loyal to this district for nearly three decades. When I entered my teacher prep program

019in Wisconsin, I made special arrangements so I could complete my student teaching here. When the cooperating teacher I was with passed away, I requested special permission to stay in that classroom with those students and in this district because Walkegan matters to me. After graduating, I was happy to be teaching in Waggan. Even after I moved out of the city, I chose to continue teaching in this district. and I have driven to walk because I believe in this community and its children. Teachers are evaluated using the Danielson framework. Part of that framework is component 4E growing and developing professionally which clearly states that effective teachers must seek out opportunities for professional development actively pursue professional learning and model lifelong learning for students. Keeping this framework in mind, I completed 15 hours through Idaho State University last

020spring. I submitted my transcript and lane change paperwork in June and HR acknowledged that all necessary paperwork was received. This summer, I completed another 15 hours and I submitted that transcript and another lane change paper in August and again HR acknowledged that everything was received. When I logged into I visions and saw my lane listed as masters plus 45, I was proud. I had put in the work on my own time using my own money balancing teaching and family life. But then the day before the raise was, we were informed, not [clears throat] by the district, but by our union that the district would not honor the coursework. No email from HR, no communication from Lincoln Center. After 28 years of dedicating my entire professional life to this district, that silence was devastating. More than

02140 educators completed coursework through Idaho State University and suddenly after all the work was done, the district decided that these courses don't count. Why wasn't anything said in June or in August? Why were the hours acknowledged, uploaded, and visible in I visions only to be reversed at the last possible moment? Tonight, I'm asking for fairness. Honor our work, time, the money we invested, honor the lane change, and honor your teachers. We upheld our end of the deal, and we deserve the district to uphold theirs. Do the right thing. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Oliver. >> Rayanne Nickerson. >> Hey, Rayanne Nickerson. I too like Lynette, we went to high school together. Born and raised here in Walk Keaggan. Andrew Cook, Jack Benny, Walkagan West High School. I've been teaching 29 years, 25 in Walkaggan.

022I'm in the final phase of my career with five and a half years remaining. This makes the accuracy and the consistency of my compensation critical. Like many teachers, I also took the Idaho State because I they were affordable. I could get them done on my own time and I took them for lane changes. Teachers I personally know were granted these lane changes from this same program in February March of this year. Last year they were granted these um lane changes. Yet those of us who submitted for the po for the fall HR decided we're going to pause it. My credits too appeared in I visions recorded and verified. I had every reason to expect my master's plus 45 on my October 31st paycheck. We were blindsided on Thursday, October 30th at 5:09 p.m. with an

023email from our union who notified us that HR told them the day before that they were pausing it. I don't know why it's paused. It seems like it was just because. I don't know if a number of us had put a credits in. It was a lot of money and they're like, "Oh, hold up. Let us check it out. You've already approved these prior. It's not the first time. You can't just stop it while we're in the middle of it." What makes this even more unacceptable is that we have not been notified. The courses are graduate level. The only thing, like I said before, that changed was was that it probably had to do with money. I don't know if there he's investigating or they're investigating whatever they think needs investigating. I heard it was

024contractual language. I have no idea cuz I have not been told. Um, this discrepancy is indefensible. Indefensible. The tactic is not only unfair, it directly violates expectations and timelines that we have followed in good faith. We have earned these lane changes. I worked hard all summer to make that cut off of credits. I deserve it and HR should not have the authority to suspend a process that this district has repeatedly honored. I also submitted my final uh 15 for my masters plus 60 on the 28th of October. I'm expecting that in March of 2026. On what grounds is this being denied is what I would like to know. Why didn't they notify us sooner? There are teachers in the bilingual department who are taking courses through Oklahoma Christian. Those are not being paused. This situation

025needs immediate correction. We expect our lane changes to be granted and our retroactive pay issued without further delay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Nickerson. [applause] >> Ray Vukovich. >> Hi. Good evening. I'd like to address the board on item uh 11 C on your agenda. It's an item I spoke about the last time that it came before you. has to do with the sale of property on Greenwood Avenue, formerly known as the uh uh welcome center. At that time, I questioned that you were had a minimum bid of $900,000 for a building that this school district paid almost a,200,000 18 years ago. And you know, that's quite a drop. And now what you're asking do is to have no minimum bid. So theoretically, somebody could come in and uh pay $1,000 for that building.

026I mean, there's no minimum on there as long as they qualify. I mean, what parameters do you have to make sure that that's the best use for the community? Uh what if a private school comes in and offers you a minimum bid? Can you turn it down? Somebody that's going to compete with this school district. There's a lot of things there. You you've got brought to your attention also that parking lot across from uh the high school that was a donation that this this district spent uh $80,000 about 15 years ago to demolish a building and repave and then a couple of years ago the board voted to lease it to a neighbor for about $100 a month. That you know that's taxpayer money that it's gone. there's other property. You need to do a

027complete inventory of every piece of property in this district. Look at at some of the school grounds you have to see if you ever need to add a building or can it be done. It would just kind of hodge podge to say 18 years ago we needed that building. Now you don't need it. So, put that on hold and and do a complete assessment of all the real estate this district owns because uh to just give it away now. If you could get a million dollars for it or half a million dollars, that goes a long way to help some of these uh schools that need improvements. You know that uh your list is always what 30, 40, $60 million for for the school improvement uh physical improvement. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vukovich. I

028just want to say for the record that uh the board has a right to uh reject the offers. We do not we're not forced to accept any of the offers. So, you know. Okay. And that's it on the list. Thank you. Next item is consent agenda for academics. The consent agenda is a number of items that are lumped together for a single vote. Uh these are items that have all been presented to the board at prior meetings and um have been discussed and board has had opportunity to ask questions and discuss it in meetings and at this point in time they are considered to be um non-controversial and for that reason they are being lumped together. So, we have on the academics consent agenda, we have uh three look like about eight eight items. And

029I'd like to ask if anybody here is requesting that any of the items be separate out. I believe Miss Hannah does. >> Yes. I'd like to separate item B. Vote on that separately. and um um have >> Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I just asked for the um >> yeah, >> to separate them out. Okay. >> Separate >> before I ask for the motion. Okay. So then we're going to ask for a motion to approve all of the consent items, consent agenda items from A through H with the exception of item B. Is that correct? >> And E. >> Oh, and you're asking for B >> B and E. >> You want those voted on individually or lumped together as >> uh individual. >> Individually. Okay. So then we are going to um vote on all

030of the consent item agenda items except for B and E. Does anybody else have any requests for separating any items? Okay. Items that we're going to vote on then and then I'm asking for a motion for are A infinite campus campus workflow add-on product. C renewal of branching minds for preK through 12. D attendance at National Science Teacher Association NSTA conference. Anaheim, California, April 14th through 19th, 2026. F. New course proposal at Walkegan High School, AP Research. Um, GMLE Institute for Middle Level Learnership at Wares Middle School and AVID Summer Institute 2026 [clears throat] at Wares Middle School. Do you have a motion to approve? >> Yes. Motion to approve. >> Motion approved by Mr. Riddle, second by Miss Fabian. Any uh discussion on the motion? Um I just would like to say that um

031the um the consent uh agenda for academics is full of um professional development and um later on in the meeting I will talk about that but um the professional development it it's getting it's becoming excessive. Fabian. >> So the only thing I want to point out once again is ensuring that we have um proper total estimated costs. Uh we've talked about it before on your pdiums that the travel dates have a lower perdm than the days that you're in conference. And the only reason I want to highlight this is because those that are going on professional development, I don't want them overspending thinking that they're going to get reimbursed um when they are not going to be reimbursed at that rate. So, whoever is looking at these documents, if they can check those things out

032just to make sure that our staff understands what their limits are so that they don't go over them. >> Uh, >> any further discussion on the motion? Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> I'm pass then. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Consent agenda items previously listed are approved. Next, we're looking for a motion to approve item B, Lewis Middle School, Italy and Germany and Bise trips. We have a motion. >> Moved. >> Motion by Miss Favian. >> Second by Mr. Riddle. Any discussion on this motion? >> Yeah, I am um I I I love exposing children to everything. they deserve to be exposed to everything. However, in this um [cough] current um

033world climate, um I don't think it's a good idea at this time. Um and we the conference is pushed out until um next year and we still we we're just um assuming that things will be different then. But uh my other um concern is that um trips overseas um should be um should should be held for high school students and um because middle schoolers I'm not real sure if they're ready um to to do um such an um an extensive um trip like this. But that's just me. But also um also the um if the I if we introduce children to things too soon, what do they have to look forward? These kind of trips again should be for high school. Now, let me ask this one question and hopefully I can get an answer.

034The children that are going to be attending or participating in this trip, are they um CPS? Uh, is that how you say it? >> The um >> the GAP. >> Gap. >> Yeah, the GAP students. Are they the um are they the regular ed students just common? >> Principal Schaer. >> Yeah. >> Would you please step up to the mic and shed some very important >> kids? [clears throat and cough] Always love being here. Hi. Um, >> we love having you. >> Thank you for the questions, Miss Hannah. The students going on the trip, the trip is open to anyone at Lewis Middle School and we also extend the trip to uh other middle schools as well. For some of the students, they also do trips later on in high school, too. And the families

035appreciate the ability to start um a little bit earlier. For some families, this is the right time to do it. They have other things coming up in a couple years and that might not be the same the right time. Um, I will say we've been doing these trips for a couple years now. They've always been very successful and they are specifically geared toward middle school students, not toward high school students. So the agenda, >> the times, the places they visit, all are appropriate for middle school age students. How many [clears throat] how many chaperones do you uh take on um a trip like this? >> Usually um it's dependent on the number of students. And just so you know, we're talking less than 10 students on these trips. Like we have seven who are interested

036in going to Italy. So they'll have one chaperon the staff member who set up set up the trip and then a couple of parents or other staff members will go at some cost to themselves they go with to chaperone the trip at some cost and >> Miss Fabian [clears throat] had her hand up for a while. >> Did you go ahead? >> No, it's okay because I I'll wrap up the Okay. Okay. Well, >> trying to get through this without an hour of discussion, >> right? We're not going to do no hour. Um uh and so um the the chaperones that are going are putting their own bill. >> One chaperone gets a trip with seven kids. The other ones going foot their own bill. Yes, ma'am. >> And you say 10 students [clears throat]

037>> less than 10. Seven are current. This is the size of the trips. They're really small, but for the students who are interested, we like to offer them that experience. So I'm going to try to help a little bit with this. So this is an educational company that works with school districts to set up educational learning trips for students whether it's going to DC bise or etc. Right. So this is an educational company that sets this up. So >> and so we there's insurance involved with it. It's all included in everything. So, um, the safety, any kind of refunds, if something happens internationally, all that's taken care of. There are experts doing this trip, not just me. [laughter] >> Let me finish. I'm going finish with this. >> Um, um, are you aware that there

038were that there um have been um, incidents with the tour with some tour company? I don't know the name of it and they had arranged a big tour for the students in the schools and parents were paying students were fundraising the whole thing and they found out that it was all a scam. >> This school company EF Tours um you can do your research. They're really a longtime company and um we have not had any problem with them. I don't know of any problem with anyone with this tour company. They're really top-notch and have a history of proven success. >> Now, Miss Fabian, >> so um real quick for me, my only issue is again just making sure that parents are fully informed of all of the and aware of of um everything that's going

039on in this world so that they can make an informed decision. However, as a parent, that's their decision to make. I know I've traveled abroad with my kid as young as one year old, right? So, I never think that I don't think that it's ever too soon for you to take your child out. Yeah, they they have to have the passports. I I never think that it's too soon to take your child out into the world. I think it gives them a worldly view. Most other countries do travel amongst each other and learn each other's culture and language. and for whatever reason this country I think that's one of the things or areas that we're lacking as a society. Um so I don't ever want to pull away student opportunity when we can give it

040to them because in some cases this might be the most affordable way that a family can send their child. It is costly, but it might be more costly to go as a whole family. And it's more structured where they are going to get to get into all of those different um tour sites without having to try to go months in advance and make that schedule and all of that. So, I personally think middle school is a great time to go. We could take them sooner. I would. Um it gives you a lot of background knowledge when you're doing literature, when you're doing uh social studies, history, and all of that. they can make more connections [clears throat] when they're there hands-on actually visiting these places. So, for me, it's a great experience for our students

041um because then they're able to take all of that knowledge that they actually saw up front and and connect the dots more easily than had they not gone and and done that experience. I wish it was more affordable so that more of our students could go because I'm sure you would have more than the seven had it been um a lower reduced price, but I understand. Um, so again, for me, it's just a matter of making sure that our our families are fully informed of the risks during this um, federal climate so that they know the process and protocols should anything happen. >> Thank you, Miss Fabian. We have roll call vote. >> Thanks, Miley. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> no. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes.

042>> Mr. Riddle, >> absolutely. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Okay. I looking for a motion to approve item E, attendance of National Art Education Conference in Chicago, Illinois, March 4th through 7th, 2026. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle. >> Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Is this the conference where the teachers or whoever um were participating, they were receiving the um the $500 per deal? >> Is that this group? >> I think so. >> It says >> not here. It's in Chicago. >> 322 over the four days. >> Okay. So if a >> this conference is being held in Chicago from March 4th through the 7th, >> right? But we had a um we had a presentation and the um the area superintendent told us that um

043that forms were $500. >> Miss Hannah was that last student achievement meeting. Well, let me Miss >> um good evening board and members of the community. Um if I may, there was a professional development request for an overseas trip for some members of a team at Washington Elementary School um for a a trip in Tokyo, Japan. We have not uh completed to bring that one back yet at this point in time. So, you're not voting on that at this time. This is a separate a different professional development. We did not bring that back at this point in time. [clears throat] So, Miss >> the one you're referring to, we have not yet brought back for approval. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any further discussion on the motion? >> No. We have a roll

044call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah. >> Mr. McBride? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ramirez? >> Yes. >> Mr. Riddle? >> Yes. >> President Rodriguez? >> Yes. Motion carries. [clears throat] >> Okay. Item 11, the cons consent agenda. Once again, this is a an agenda, a list of items or five items that have been presented to the board before. We've had a chance to review them and discuss them and ask questions and get our questions answered. And at this point, they're considered non-controversial and are being presented as one item so that we can vote on them all together. Is there any request to separate out any of the items? >> Please speak into your microphone. Yes. I'd like to separate um B and D. >> Miss Hannah is requesting that we separate

045out items B and D. Did you want to vote on B and D together as one vote? You want separate votes on each one? >> Okay. So, what we're looking for is a motion to approve the consent agenda items A, C, and E. Item A is FY26 bulk paper order. [clears throat] C is approval of sale of real property located at 742 Greenwood Avenue, formerly welcome center. And E is approval to amend board agenda item attendance and National School Boards Association 2025 cube conference May 27th, 2025. >> Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle, second by Miss Ramirez. >> Yes. >> Any discussion on the motion? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. McBride. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >>

046yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Next, we are looking for a motion to approve item B, the approval of child nutrition consultant agreement with Walker [clears throat] Quality Services LLC. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle to approve. >> Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> no. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Mirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Rto, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Now, we're looking for a motion to approve item D, which is approval of architect agreement with Crimson Design and Construction for the Lewis Middle School kitchen project. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle to approve. >> Second by Miss Ramirez. Any discussion

047on this motion? >> Yeah. Um, I certainly hope that this is not the a roundabout way to um not put this out for a bid. Um because this was the uh concern when this um when this came up before. Now, this is It says it's just for the architect. >> Mhm. >> And um and I don't know what this $50,430 is. But I certainly hope that this is not the backdoor way to get this um project started without a beat. [clears throat] I apologize my mic was off. I'm going to ask our general counsel to speak to this because she has looked into this and she can give us some clarification around this. >> Sure. Um the project the construction component of this project will go out to bid under this the standard bid rules

048under the local government professional services selection act that sets up an RFP process by which we can select architects of record but it also has a waiver process of that procedural competition as as long as the total value of the contract for that architect service in this case would fall under what at this point is a approximately just a little over $50,000 figure and this contract does fall under that. So that's the explanation for the board recognizing that and waving the competition set up in that statute, but it is it's not a backdoor way to avoid bidding. the construction component will still be bid. >> Any further discussion? >> And there is no >> go ahead. >> And so there there's no question with or no concern with our architects of record um with with

049this um item because it's a different architect. But we have architects. >> Mr. Monton's in the back shaking his head. No. Explanation, elaboration. >> He's saying no. >> Yes. So, Miss Hannah, um, our architects of record, uh, are aware of this and there is no concern for them for us to wave the the requirement to have Crimson Denying and construction do the architecture services for this project. >> Thank you, Mr. Motton. Thank you. >> Any further discussion on the motion? Roll call vote. >> Miss Fabian, yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> no. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Item 12, purchases and contracts. I see none. 13. Personal items. It is a recommendation that the board of education accept the

050administration's recommendation to approve the to approve to approve the appointments retirement and accept the resignations and terminations as found on schedules F1002 L949 G660 and T317 except for the last name on schedule T317 terminations non-certified by staff last name Pyola Panedo. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle, second by Miss Ramirez. Any discussion on the motion? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >> Miss Hannah, >> yes. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Item 14, grants and donations. >> We're not there at this point. There was there was earlier an ask to separate out the last name for a separate vote. >> So if the superintendent could read that please. >> It is

051recommended that the board of education approve the administration's recommendation to ter for the termination of the last name as found on schedules T317 non-certified staff. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion approved by Mr. Riddle. >> Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on that motion? Roll call vote please. >> Miss Fabian. >> Yes. Miss Hannah, >> no. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Mr. Rto, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. >> And that involves Miss Poeda. >> Okay. Uh, number 16, financial reports, ratification of the second processing of November 2025 board bills, manual check request payments, and old national bank insurance payments for the period of November 5th, 2025 through November 11th, 2025. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of education ratify the 2nd

052November 2025 of board bills marriage check request payments and old national bank insurance payments for the period of November 5th 2025 through November 11 2025. The accounts payable board payments for the period of November 5th, 2025 through November 11, 2025 total 1,200,24122. The manual chest request payments for the period of November 5th, 2025 through November 11, 2025 total $38,79859. Though national bank insurance payments for the period of November 5th, 2025 through November [clears throat] 11, 2025, total $0. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion approved by Mr. Riddle. >> Second by Mr. Ramirez. Any discussion on that motion? Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. Miss Hannah, >> yes. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Miss Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Rto, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Okay. Reports

053and presentations. Do we have any committee reports, >> Miss Fabian? >> Uh, just real quick, the AI committee uh has been meeting to start that new policy. Our copyright committee is going over that as well to uh review that, which hasn't been done in quite some time. As we're reading through, we're seeing old technology Um and then the PTAC also met which is the parent teacher advisory committee uh November 13th to start talking about the policy on student technology use. I was happy to see that more people attended. Um the next meeting is going to be December 18th at Huarez at 4:30. Again um for the PTAC I would love to see more parents come out and community members um join that and and really um look at some of those student policies. That is

054all. Thank you, Miss Hannah. >> Yeah. Um um we did have our first capital uh improvement meeting and it basically was going over the um the um the the procedures and the welcoming and you know all of that and we'll get into more um in-depth stuff I'm sure at the next meeting. >> Thank you. Any other committee reports? Okay. Delegates reports. >> Uh just uh quick um quick reminder that um Triple Y is this week. um the end of this week and uh I have not received any responses for the resolutions um that the um board would want vote yay or nay on. So if get me that before um for I'm going to say Friday at the latest. >> The meeting is Saturday, correct? meeting is Saturday at 10 >> delegates meeting. >> Okay.

055>> The delegates. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. The resolutions were sent to us, right? Okay. >> And then I will >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Uh that's important because um there's going to be I I don't want to miss but the uh literacy coalition going to there and we're going to uh the news going to >> Okay, >> Miss Hannah, I'm going to ask Mr. Alajakis to work with you tomorrow so he can get that out to the board members so that they can have that from you. >> Yeah, they should have gotten >> We'll just resend it. Just put on top of their email. So, u Mr. Aljackus will reach out to you tomorrow and we'll get it to all board members. >> Right. It was sent out September 8th. >> Thank you very

056much. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, they can respond. it. Okay, you got it. >> No, if they can resend. >> They can resend it though. >> Okay, >> they can resend it. >> Okay, superintendent report. >> At this time, I'd like to um ask Miss Malooki um to come up. We will be discussing the 2024 25 state designations and our state district report card. [clears throat] Dr. Brown, is he coming up with you? Good evening board. We uh Dr. Jonathan Brown and I will be presenting um a recorded presentation of our 2024 ISBE designations and our end of year data. And so we will ask that if you could kindly listen to our presentation and then we will be available for questions. >> And I apologize Dr. Brown. I didn't see you back there. >>

057He's here. [laughter] He's hiding out by the wall. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Tonight we will be presenting on two presentations combined into one where we review the 202425 ISBE school designations and the endofear data that drives those designations. Tonight I Amanda Malooki will be presenting alongside Dr. from Jonathan Brown. As we begin to dive into our designation information and our end ofear student data, we want to be reminded of our mission and vision. We also want to be reminded of our core beliefs that help guide our daily actions. The following information is new from the state of Illinois. It would it was published on October 30th, 2025. And this information will cover the 202425 ESSA designations. First, we'll cover some definitions and metrics for the asset designations. Schools based on their performance in

058a variety of categories are categorized into one of five ESSA designations. The top 10% of schools across the whole state are considered exemplary. The next level is considered commendable where no student groups are underperforming. The third level is considered targeted support where the school's overall score is commendable but may have one or more underperforming student groups. The fourth level is considered comprehensive and that's where the overall is overall score is considerably lower than the commendable range and also has multiple student groups who are underperforming. And lastly, the category that is the fifth category is intensive support, which is the lowest 5% of schools statewide. These categories and designations are determined by multiple different measures, which we will cover on the next slide. for our elementary and middle schools. You can see the types of data

059that are pulled for the ESSA calculations on the left side of your screen. It's a combination of reading and math proficiency on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, a combination of reading and math growth on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, English learner progress towards proficiency, science proficiency, as well as chronic absenteeism and climate survey participation for the high school. The metrics that are used for the calculations are on the right side of the screen. A portion is considered for reading and math proficiency on the ACT, graduation rate, English learner progress towards proficiency, science proficiency, chronic absenteeism, 9th grade on track, and climate survey. Some highlights from this information for our designations for the 24-25 [clears throat] include strong results on the five essentials. We've had nine schools improve their scores and the district inc increased growth

060across all areas of the five essentials. We're proud of our graduation rate having increased four consecutive years. Our diverse learners inclusion rates continue to rise, meaning more students have access to grade level curriculum with their peers. For our English language learners, our access scores and overall English proficiency have improved. In academic achievement, our eighth grade algebra 1 passing rates are up significantly since 2024. and our district's average daily attendance has gone up and our chronic absenteeism and tardiness are down. Here is a look at some of our schools designations for the 2425 school year. You can see 23, 24, and 25 going across for each school. So you can see how they have performed over time. And on the far right column, you can see their overall score and any identified student groups who need

061additional support at that particular school. The next slides cover the same information for more of our elementary schools. Again you can see the three years of designation across the columns to see the pattern between 23, 24 and 25 and the growth as well as you can see in the far right column their overall score and any identified student groups who need additional support at that particular school. The last slide right here covers our middle schools and our high school. We'd like to congratulate all of our commendable recipients including Clark Clear View Cook, Glenwood, Greenwood, Hide Park, Little Fort Lion, McCall, Washington Elementary School, and Walking High School. One of the important pieces that we use this data for is to dig into the scores in each category um or each part of the house. And

062then we are able to look for areas of strength. Look at where we have uh scooped up points for different aspects that we are accountable for and where we fell short in terms of opportunities for growth. And we can also filter by student group to see which students are finding more or less success. On the example on your screen, this particular school got full points for their climate survey. They got strong points towards their ELP. They received about half of the points for their proficiency in both reading and in math. Had much smaller growth in ELA and math. Did not have a lot of science proficiency yet. and had about half of the points available for chronic absenteeism. So knowing these scores in mind and seeing where the school had some successes and areas of

063next steps, it helps the area superintendent, the academic team, and the principal and their instructional leadership team dive into this data, identify which students need more support, and what schoolwide strategies they will use to help support student learning. In terms of next steps, every school has the opportunity to meet with ISBE to review their data, discuss areas of meeting growth, and establish actions. Schools that are considered comprehensive are required to participate in monthly coaching meetings with ISBE, identify a state approved learning partner, and participate in a needs assessment. The academic team works on ensuring that principles and their ILTs and grade level teams are working on providing supports interventions for students. We have recently provided training to all principles on access data to ensure that they are looking at this data point and supporting their

064students who are English language learners. We check in with each principal on student groups and specific actions and supports that are being taken at the school level and we progress monitor student performance using our tier 1 assessments. The next few slides will be Dr. Jonathan covering the raw data and the outcomes from the IR, the preACT and the ACT, as well as covering some other important data that help shape the designations that we just covered. >> Thank you, Miss Malooki. Now, let's take a look at how our students performed on the 2025 state assessments for grades 3 through 11. With each student performance presentation, we start with a look at our students attendance at each level and across the district. The data here reflect attendance through the end of the year for each of the

065years shown. Our students continue to attend school at higher rates each year. Our district average last year was above 90%. In addition to monitoring the regularity of student attendance, teams track and take closer notice of students that have excessive absences. The state defines chronic absenteeism as being absent 10% or more of the school year, regardless of the reason. Our chronic absenteeism rates over the years show a positive trend with last year's rate dropping to just under 35%. Freshman on track is a metric that we report because it is closely linked to our graduation rate. The rates listed are from the official report card. At the end of the year, students identified as on track have earned at least five fullyear course credits, that's 10 semester credits, and have earned no more than one semester F

066in a core [snorts] course. A core course is with English, math, science, or social science. Our freshman on track metric is nearing 70%, continuing an upward trend. [snorts] Our 4-year graduation rate is currently just below 84%. And has also been trending upwards with an almost 10 percentage point increase since 2022. Our first state test results come from our English proficiency exam, the access test. Students participate in this exam yearly until they achieve the comprehensive proficiency performance level of 4.8. Each year, students progress towards achieving that proficiency level is monitored with an assigned growth target. Students that meet or exceed that yearly growth target are on track to achieve the proficiency score within 5 years. Two years of growth target performance are shown here. Across the district in grades K through 8, 42% of students met

067their growth target in the last year compared to 38% the previous year. Five elementary schools increased the percentage of students meeting their target. Here are the first eight elementary schools. Here are the seven remaining elementary schools. While our middle school's ELP growth has lagged behind our elementary schools, last year all five of our middle school students showed tremendous growth towards proficiency. All five schools more than doubled the percentage of students meeting their growth target. [applause] Earlier this year, the Illinois State Board of Education completed the process of setting new cut scores for our state assessments. These new cut scores determining performance levels were created to provide more uniformity across the assessments. As you can see, prior to this process, performance levels for our main assessments were different. Now going forward, they are all in alignment

068utilizing the same four performance levels. The state board of education will begin to use these results as a new baseline for measuring student performance. They will not go back to recal recalibrate previous year's test scores. District schools are listed, excuse me, on the next few slides in the order of performance. Here we have our Illinois science assessment results using the new performance levels. Four of our elementary schools have 40% or more of their students scoring proficient or above. Seven elementary schools scored above the district proficiency rate. Now our middle schools high school data [clears throat] will be presented later. Although the state isn't going backwards applying the new performance levels, we are able to see a measure of growth between 2024 and 2025 for our students using the growth percentile measure the state provides. The

069growth percentile for a student is a ranking of their growth when compared to students across the state that were in the same grade with similar starting scores. Average growth is typically around the 50th percentile. Students with growth percentiles above that have above average growth. Students with growth percentiles below that have below average growth. School growth percentiles are the average growth percentile for all students in the school. Here we show both math and ELA growth percentiles for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness or I AR. Across the district on the AR, our students average was the 43rd percentile in math and the 40th percentile in ELA. Four of our schools achieved average growth percentiles above 50 in the at least one subject area. Those four schools are on the screen now. Clark, Little Lion, Magnet, and Whittier.

070Here [clears throat] are middle schools. Now, turning to our ELA results by grade level, we see that across the district, about a quarter of students in grades 3 through 8 attained scores that were proficient or above. Grades three, five, and eight attained higher than the district proficiency rate on the ELA assessment. Of our noted student groups, four out of nine performed better than the district proficiency rate of 24.6. [clears throat] District schools are listed on the next few slides in order of ELA performance. Four of our elementary schools have 40% or more of their students scoring proficient or above. Seven elementary schools scored above the proficiency rate. Here are eight more elementary schools. And finally, our five middle schools. Moving on to IR math results, we see across the district about 19% of students earning

071proficient or above scores last spring. Three grade levels, all elementary, performed above the district proficiency rate. Of our noted student groups in math, four out of the nine performed better than the district profic proficiency rate of 18.7. District schools are again listed in order of performance on the IR math assessment. 10 of our 15 elementary schools students earn scores above the district's proficiency rate. Here are our remaining seven elementary schools and finally our middle schools. Our last data set will be our high school assessment performance from the preACT and ACT using the new ISB performance levels. The ACT assessments are divided into four subject areas, English, reading, science, and math with a required external writing prompt component. As with the IR, the state reports math and ELA results. Although the performance levels changed for this

072administration, the state [clears throat] still provides growth percentile figures, which you see here. The 50th percentile is average growth across the state. Our school average was slightly above the state average in 9th grade math and approaching the state average in 9th and 11th grade ELA. Here we have the results. [clears throat] Excuse me. Here we have results using the new performance levels for students in grades 9, 10, and 11 in ELA, math, and science. More students score proficient in ELA than in math or science across the three grades. Grade 11 students showed higher levels of proficiency in math and science compared to students in grades 9 and 10. Here are ELA results for the grade 11 ACT by student group. Our math results for the grade 11 ACT by student group and our grade 11

073ACT science results by student group. So what are some impactful actions that are planned to enhance learning? We are laser focused on high quality tier 1 instruction. We will continue to provide all teachers with high quality instructional materials. We will review and refine common pacing guides for a guaranteed and viable career. And we will support the development of strong instructional leadership teams or ILTs. Please reach out with any questions you may have and thank you for joining us for this presentation. [applause] Miss Hannah, >> I have one question. Dr. Brown, >> Dr. Brown, you knew Miss Hannah was going to have a question for you. >> I was waiting. [laughter] I wasn't going to leave. >> Good evening, sir. Um just a question. Now, all the scores that were presented um were presented um in

074correlation with the new proficiency cut scores, right? >> Yes. and make me understand totally the the proficiency cut scores are lower than they were before. >> They've changed the scale scores to be slightly lower. Yes. >> Okay. >> Right. I understand. >> Yes. >> ELA and math versus science. >> Right. And so um now [clears throat] I did okay that was the one question. Second question you were um you were presenting with the district um like the schools in the district. >> Yes. What about you did not compare the scores or if we were um getting close to the state, you just did the district, >> right? >> You did not >> compare to the state >> for for the um test scores. >> Mhm. The only comparison to the state was with the growth

075uh percentiles, but you're right, the other performance levels, those were not compared to what the state averages were. And that's primarily due to the timing of when the data comes out on the report card and when we thought we were going to do the presentation. >> Can I'm sorry. Can you expound on that more? I just because talk about the embargo and so they understand what the holdup. >> So the report card didn't come out until October 30th I think when it was officially able to be released. >> We thought that we were going to do our presentation uh close to that time. Um so we prepared it quite a little uh a while ago. Okay. And usually when we have the uh presentation, we will have a state data file that will tell us

076about all different other school districts and and how the state performed, but we just didn't have that to put it into the presentation at that time. >> And so, superintendent, are [clears throat] we going to get an updated >> presentation because we can't just let this stand because like it's like incomplete. you you are specifically asking uh for our K through eight they performed at this particular level how does that compared to the state K through eight >> we can also with the um with the U8 and 9 12 >> yes >> all of >> yep >> can you please update the presentation with that in it >> we can do that >> thank you >> yeah Thank you, Mr. Fian. >> And I do want to clarify the report card designations themselves are a

077comparison. So when they're receiving com, you know, commendable, targeted, etc., it's because they are being compared to every single school district within the district. So that also kind of tells us where Yeah. I mean within the state, sorry. So that also tells us where our schools are falling in comparison to the entire state. within you. Yeah, because the Yeah, the proficiency metrics raised were raised for everybody. So, >> but also >> for well for science they were no for science they were raised for ELA and math they were lowered but that was changed for everybody so the comparison still stands. >> Does that help? >> Thank you. >> No problem. >> Thank you Dr. Brown. Thank you, Miss Malooki. >> Thank you. Some really exciting u information in that report. >> If I may, we

078do have our principles in the audience today. >> And I was just going to say that I was just going to mention that we have a lot of principles and um just want to commend all of you because there's so much great progress that has taken place and so much good things that are happening in the district. So, um, you all deserve a lot of credit for all that you're doing and continue to do. And, uh, Miss Malookusi and Dr. Brown, anytime you want to have a report like this with so much positive information, feel free to to do it because we really like to get this good this good feedback. >> Absolutely. Thank you to the principles for being here tonight and for the work that you've done this past year. [applause] >> We

079would like to honor our schools who received com commendable status. we did uh provide them with a banner and so we'd like for to call up our schools our school principles to receive their banner and uh when you hear your school and your name please come on up uh Mr. Daniel Hill and Mr. Eric Hamilton principles walk high school >> all rightelcome [applause] >> Dr. Anzison, principal Lion Magnet Elementary School. [applause] I would be remiss if I did not say Dan Hill was principal of the year for Lake County Regional Principal. Am I correct? So, big shout [applause] out again. >> Miss Amy Gman, principal, Little Fort Elementary School. [applause] Mr. Jason Sigolac, principal, Washington Elementary School. [applause] >> Right. >> Miss Carol May is not here tonight, but Miss Carol May, principal, McCall Elementary

080School. [applause] Miss Joyce Meyer, principal, Greenwood Elementary School. [applause] Miss Glattis Rodriguez, principal, Clark Elementary School. [applause] Mr. Brian Carr, principal, Hyde Park Elementary School. [applause] Miss Cababrina Williams Lenu, principal Glenwood Elementary School. [applause] Dr. Stephanie Jensen is not in attendance, but congratulations Cook Magnet Elementary School. >> [applause] >> and Mr. Jose Salazar, principal, Clear View Elementary School. [applause] Thank you again, principles, for all your work. We appreciate your diligence. Thank you everybody for your attendance this evening. Thank you. [applause] Yes. [laughter] Come forward. Guess But you're not on. [clears throat] >> All right. [applause] Good job. Good job everybody. [applause] Dead now. And we know we know that our principles um have to be up early to receive children in the morning. Um so please do not feel obligated to stay to the end

081of the meeting. We want you all to get your rest and we do understand you had early start to your day. So thank you for all you do. Can we give them all a round of applause everyone? [applause] All right, that was very uplifting. >> Very nice. Very nice. >> All right, moving on to item 18, information items. Foyer report, October 2025. >> This report summarizes the foyer work done last month. Thank you. Number 19, old business. I see none. >> Wait, wait, wait. >> Oh, Miss Hannah. >> Um, well, I know I don't know, Mr. um President, if this um if this qualifies for old business, but I think it does. Um um at the past meeting, Mr. McBride asked for um for the uh a total amount of monies for professional development and

082I am just doing a followup to make sure that that is being worked on. And if I could um just maybe add some things, superintendent, >> can um can I just address the first? Yes. Um so Miss Pope did send me something. I believe it was today. Um and so we are still looking at it. So it Miss Pulk has been working on it and we will get it to the board um once we button it all up, which I can foresee by the end of the week. Well, I I'm I'm not I'm I'm not trying to rush anybody or put put more work on anybody. I know this is the conference week >> and so >> That's right. >> Yeah. And so it's a conference week and so I'm not even expecting it. >>

083Miss Hannah, thank you. We would need till next week. I I did forget we were going to triple I this week, >> right? And so if I can ask superintendent with that information, can you um um separate or show the board the um regular professional development, local and uh board paid professional development. versus grants that professional development are required from the grass and if we could get that separated. >> Miss Hannah, I want to ask Miss Pulk is Miss Pulk, is that feasible? Do you understand the request please? And then if it's labor intensive, we may need to know so that we can get a consensus from the board. I just I want consent when just for clarity purposes. >> Oh, it's okay. >> Okay. I apolog I didn't want to jump into board president's

084lane but one of our agreements is that when it's um labor intensive that the board as a whole would say yes we want this or no it's just a protocol procedure it's not because of any individual ask but when it's labor intensive that question is um posed to the board for a yay or a nay. So I will turn it over to you and you can please let us know if that's labor intensive or what that looks like for your department. >> Yes. um board president, board members, superintendent, colleagues, and community members. At this juncture, it would be labor intensive because we've pulled the data based upon the names and um where they went for travel. We didn't particularly pull the account numbers. Uh what we could do uh is to go into the grants

085and see what allocations were uh approved for PD. Um but I would say that it would be extremely labor intensive for us to go back and to replicate the work that we've already done. >> So um board president, I'll defer to you. Is that a request for the board? Um, do we have a consensus on >> Can you tell me exactly what it is that you would have to do? What the breakdown would be? >> We would have to literally go through our ledger and pull um the travel requests that have been approved and include the account numbers. What we did, we maintain a uh spreadsheet right now with all of the requests for credit card usage, but we typically don't include like the account numbers on that spreadsheet. And we also uh have uh

086a ledger uh of everyone who requests reimbursement, but again, that ledger doesn't include account numbers. So, we would literally have to go line by line uh inside of our financial system and pull expenditures and sift through it to uh extract travel. >> If you were to assign that to a person tomorrow >> to pull that information, how long would it take? How many days, weeks? Um, I would say that work coupled with the work that they already have. I would say maybe maybe three to four weeks. >> Okay. At this point in time, then we have to ask the board if and I'm going to let everybody has a hand up speak. have to ask the board if they feel that having this information justifies the amount of manpower uh that it would take to

087do this and also pulling the individuals uh that would do the work away from the work that they already have to do. So Miss Fabian had her hand up. >> I just so when we do the presentations that usually has the account numbers and it's usually noted if it's a grant or not. So for me, >> I'm okay when we've had like PDS on the on the PowerPoint presentation that they make because I know that that was an ask that uh Miss Lensing had >> to put what account number and if it's coming from schoolbased grant, etc. So, for me, I'm okay. But I don't know if it's something that in the future on your ledger since it's already being put on those presentations if you could just put like schoolbased grant whatever moving forward.

088>> So, then it's not taxing. >> Yeah. >> On your department. >> Yes. >> So, go ahead. >> Security for the board. So, Miss Poke, what I'm hearing is that moving forward, you can put some identifiable number or whatever fund line or whatever so that we can in the spreadsheet. Yes. >> Yes. So, you will be able to track in the future. Is that correct? Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Because Yeah. I just want to know okay when Okay. Why wouldn't we know whether uh uh professional development was in let me the um pick one out the science grant. >> Mhm. >> Right. >> So it's the science grant. How much professional development was for the science grant? That's what I'm talking about. I I'm not sure labor intensive, but we do know what grants

089we get, right? >> Yes. >> And so we also should know within those grants, >> we know that those grants say a required amount of professional development. >> It's required in that grant. So I I'm not understanding the the intensity of getting this information and I I keep hearing this. It keeps driving me crazy >> because of all the millions of dollars >> that we have spent >> on technology on the ERP system. >> Yes. where everything is talking to each other, but we have to spend an exorbitant amount of time labor intensive gathering this data. It does not >> let me help you >> work. >> Okay, let me help you. Um first of all uh our ledger does capture uh the source of funds and that's assuming that's assuming that when the requests

090are put into the system they're utilizing the correct accounts. uh we do have account codes that would capture professional development but if the the correct account is not utilized then normally throughout the year Mr. Losa and the rest of my team have to reconcile and move those charges to the right line. Another thing is uh the reimbursements they're not always paid uh to individuals. Sometimes they're paid to the credit card company and that too has to be reconciled from paying the credit card to uh crediting the the grant. So right now, Mr. Losa, before I came here, we're reconciling some of the some of the grants to make sure that the appropriate charges are charged to uh the grants. This is not abnormal. It is a normal practice. But again, um, for us to really

091be able to go in, we capture all expenses, that's something that we pride ourselves in. But to say we could certainly provide a report to you and pull it as it is, but we can't assure you that it's capturing 100% of the travel cost. We would have to put a disclaimer on that until we can actually do reconciliation. >> I said professional development. >> It's Yes, that's what I mean. >> Travel people, >> Mr. Riddle. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Um some of you some of you may have been aware of the um problems that Cook County is having or that the Chicago school system is having regarding this and they had some scandal or some you know the attorney the inspector general uh rose some uh you know some concerns about travel to foreign countries

092and other such places and resort areas and and um they have suspended their travel for the rest of the here pending further investigation. But I'm just curious if we could not just get a uh how much has been spent this school year that was approved, whether it was actually spent or not. Just looking through board docs and seeing how much was actually approved for travel. That would be would that give us what we are needing instead of trying to that would give us an idea of how much has been approved for travel. It may not all have been spent because we know that, you know, we normally budget more or approve more than is actually spent. You know, they may get a cheaper rate or whatever. Um, would that satisfy the board's questions? It would

093be seemed to me it would be easy to just go back and look at how much was spent maybe last year and how much was spent or approved last year and how much was approved this year from our board docs. I'm looking >> I do believe Miss Poke has that already prepared and we are ready to send that out. So that's what I said I received today. So Miss Poke has prepared that already. >> Mr. Might been trying to get a word in here. >> Uh to Mr. Riddle's point, that's not where I'm coming from. Cook County >> was taking traveling trips. They was taking limousines when they got there, taking safari trips. >> They were doing everything else what they shouldn't have been doing. Uh I am just asking overall for a total budget.

094I was I Miss Hannah had her her uh opinion about separating things. That's okay. But I mean I was looking at a total budget where you can really get the scope of what you're really looking at in terms of what you're spending for travel. I think >> travel PD period. Yeah. >> Period. >> Okay. So, we we'll have to pull the budget number, but what we've uh provided to the superintendent today was all of the approved travel for 2025, FY25, and FY26 to date. >> Okay. >> And that's instate and out of state, correct? I just want >> PD all travel. >> We didn't go we didn't do a year >> uh because we're not even done with 2025 >> FY2. FY2 is over. >> Yes. >> FY24. >> We're done with FY25. >> We're

095done with that. >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, did we go back uh to 23? >> No, we didn't go back to 23. We went back Yeah. July 1 of 2024 through June of 2025 and then one July to date. >> That would my opinion go ahead. >> Yeah. My opinion is that would just give us a starting point. We can then go on and if we need more data but for now that would just give would that not answer your question Mr. Well, >> again, I just think it's just transparency just where you know the board can actually really see what we're spending period. And then, you know, to Miss Hannah's point, I get where she's coming from, but sometime uh you have to see it to really understand it because, >> you know, uh

096you're coming in, you're spending $3,000 for a travel, but you doing it all year long. It adds up, you know. >> That's right. >> And I just think, you know, we just need to see what we're doing, period. But I'm going back to the Chicago, we ain't nowhere near doing what they were doing. >> Absolutely not. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> I do want to state that >> when we when we're bringing professional development, it has been budgeted for what within schools budgets, etc. So all this we've already approved in our budget adoption that we had at the beginning of the year. So I I just want the public to understand that. So we will get those numbers to the board. Why don't you look at what we send you um some not this week,

097next week, and then once you see what's before you, we can come up with some other questions to see if we could solve for that. Does that sound like a plan? Thank you, Miss P. >> Yes. >> Miss Fabian, you have a comment? >> Nope. I'm good. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Pulk. >> All right. Um that was old business. >> Yes. >> Moving on to new business. We have one item that was pulled. This is the approval of the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Walkegan and Walkegan school district on the emergency response services and that has to be approved by uh Walkegan City Council and I believe the they were waiting for the uh police chief to review it and give his and weigh in on it. Okay. 21 student discipline matters. >>

098Yes, please. >> Just to add a clarification, the city did approve it subject to the police chief's review. He did make a couple of suggested modifications that their attorney is still reviewing and we're waiting to get that back. So that we're both ending up approving similar language. So this will come back and we're hopeful it'll be done by the next board meeting. >> Thank you for the clarification. Okay. 21. Student discipline matters. We have a student discipline agreement for student number xxx222. It is recommended that the board of education approve the student discipline agreement regarding student XXX222 and authorize the board president to sign the agreement. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle. >> Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on the motion? >> Roll call vote, please. >> Miss Fabian, >> yes. >>

099Miss Hannah, >> yes. >> Mr. McBride, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Ramirez, >> yes. >> Mr. Riddle, >> yes. >> President Rodriguez, >> yes. Motion carries. Okay. Item 22, board member time. Let's start with Miss Allen. >> Okay. Hi everyone. Um, so, uh, the Italy trip, I feel like that would be like a good exposure for like middle schoolers to like give them an idea of like the like outside of the United States and possibly encourage them to pursue an education outside of the country. So, I feel like that that's a good idea and I really hope that it does, you know, feed into other middle schools cuz I would have loved to like, you know, experience that. Hopefully, that would be fun. Um, uh, and then that's all. Thank you very much, >> Mr.

100Hakobo. >> What about the same thing about this uh proposal of new field trip? Uh I personally, in my opinion, say that it's it's a very good idea to introduce this to the middle schoolers to further expand their viewpoints. Um I hopefully get to see more of this coming up. That'll be all. Thank you, Mr. No, Miss RmIrez. >> Hello, and thank you everyone again. Um, I want to excuse my absence for last week, but um I I really um appreciate for allowing me to call in, so I did have some technical difficulties at the end. Uh but, um I really like to thank you. Tomorrow we have a face advisory meeting, so I'm um looking forward to um to that. Um, it's getting cold, so families, please remember to buckle a button up and

101uh always remember that there are uh ways and means if your in family is in need of coats, hats, um let somebody know. Do not um send our kids out now that the temperature is dropping without what they need. please um let a teacher, a social worker, someone know so that we can assist and help your family um obtain those items for >> Thank you, Mr. Riddle. >> Um yes, I would just second um what our two student board members said uh regarding travel. I have traveled to um a number of those places uh in Europe that uh the students are going to visit. Um, and I can tell you it was the first time out of the country. Um, and it made history come alive. And I was much older than middle school or

102high school. Uh, it was compliments of, um, Uncle Sam that took me over to Europe. But uh it it sacrifice it indeed was an education because seeing things uh you know I had studied about the Romans and castles in England and stuff and actually seeing those things um made a big difference and and meeting the people that lived in those communities. So yes, it's wonderful. It's a wonderful education. Any child or student or family that can support their student in doing that um please by all means do it. Um, and then I'm looking forward to our triple I conference later this week. Um, uh, we'll be meeting with, uh, thousands of, uh, schoolboard members, uh, and staff from around Illinois. It's always a great opportunity, uh, to, um, participate and learn what they are doing

103and hear the speakers um, so I've already got some seminars picked out that I want to, uh, go into, and I'm pleased that one of our student board members is going to be along, too. Frankie, thank you. um we hope to see you there and that you'll come back excited. And then um thanks all to all of our uh principles um who earned awards and those who didn't um because they work very hard to uh enrich the lives of all of our students. So thank you for all the hard work you do and your staff and a and a blessed Thanksgiving to everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Riddle, Mr. McBride. >> Happy Tuesday. [laughter] >> Thank you, Miss Hannah. Um just want to um first shout out from me to all of my

104board members, colleagues. This is um uh board member week. And so congratulations to all of us. >> All right. and what we do. [applause] And I also would like to shout out >> uh the ro because they sent um a board um board member uh appreciation to to all the board members. So that's what all I had. >> Miss Fabian. >> So the rising nine is tomorrow at Brookside from 6:00 to 8. So, I'm kind of uh happy and sad since it'll be my last bulldog in in my household going. Um, so if you have a student that is going to enter the high school next year, please be sure to check that out so you can learn about the clubs and all the different courses that they can take. And if your child is

105in high school, remember that they should be looking at courses to select for next year. Um, I also uh want to remind the board, I know in public comment, we talked about inventorying the district for properties. We did receive [clears throat] that spreadsheet with the inventories of all the properties that the district does own. So, that should be in your emails. >> Um, and then I would also like to encourage Miss uh Schaefer if she could let us know the fundraising um whatever the fundraising opportunities are for the students if she could share that with us so we can also help them fund raise to get them um into those trips. And then lastly, I just want to say I um in the spirit of thanksgiving, I am very grateful to serve and for the

106support of our our community. Um and I'm very grateful for our staff, our students, our families, and especially those of you who come to these board meetings and watch them online and and really um spread the word and the work that we're doing. So, thank you all. >> Thank you, Miss Fabian. And we received an email from the uh Illinois Association of School Boards on Saturday, November 15th that says uh thank you for your board service. Uh Saturday was school board members day and uh I think all the school school board members received this email. Um I just like to say a little bit about um professional development. You know, we want the best for our students. We want them to have the best education possible. We want them to succeed. And one of the

107ways that we can help to make them succeed is by having the best possible teachers teaching them. Walkagan is very fortunate to have some of the best teachers anywhere. We are really very fortunate. I' I know so many of the teachers in this district and they're really dedicated and and devoted to their jobs and to and to just developing and and teaching our students. The way to keep educators at the top of their game is to provide professional development. And this means seminars, this means trips, this means spending some money to keep them at the top of their game, keep training them, developing them. I realize that we're expecting that when we hire all the individuals that we hire that they're supposed to be experts in their field and should have those skills coming in,

108but you know, things change and people need constant constant tune-ups, let's say, or reminders and and constant exposure to new ideas and new concepts and and just other other ideas, other ways of doing things. And you know, we have the right to question the money that we're spending for professional development, but we also have to be very careful because sometimes our discussions here become very negative and and it almost looks as if that sometimes uh teachers and motives are being questioned and and and uh principal's motives for for sending their their teacher sending their staff for professional development and sometimes I get the feeling that they're almost being made to feel guilty for for doing what they're doing for going on a trip. Okay, some of these trips are maybe in nice places, you know,

109but um uh we just have to be very careful because this can be a very demoralizing thing for for teachers and staff to feel that that they're they're being made to feel that they're doing something wrong by going on a on a trip by or by going to a conference and spending school district money. Well, you know, that is that is part of what we have to do to provide a good education for our students. We have to keep our educators >> and that means everybody. Yeah. Keep them educated. Right. Exactly. >> Got it. >> So, >> you know, we Yeah. We need to know how much we're spending for personal development. We need to know how much we're spending for travel. And I have a lot of faith in our administration and in our

110finance department that has done a fantastic job [clears throat] >> of keeping us on track and keeping us out of trouble and letting us know what the financial picture is looking like and letting us know what we're doing and how we're doing. You know, there's an article, front page article in the New Sun today about a school district that's trying to overcome a $4.2 million deficit. I don't know if any of you saw that 4.2 $22 million deficit. We haven't had those kinds of things happen in this district for a while. I remember a time when I was on the board where we had to sign TAWWS, tax anticipation wars, just to make payroll. Other words, we're borrowing money every payday just to cover payroll. And and we've gotten on a very sound, very strong

111track. And it isn't by accident. It's because the people that we are entrusting to to make some of the decisions for us and help us to make our decisions are being very fiscally sound and very fiscally responsible. And so I think that we just need to to continue to promote excellence, promote development, promote education, and just kind of watch how we're presenting uh our opinions on on some of these some of these uh adventures, let's say, that some of these educators are going to experience because for them it's a great thing. A lot of these a lot of these events that they go to may end up being life-changing events for them. They may come back with a whole new uh frame of mind, a whole new attitude, whole new idea about how to approach

112their job and how to do it better. So, you know, as I said, we just need to kind of kind of make sure that we're not making them feel that we're questioning their motives and and and and making them feel guilty about that. Now, another issue that really is troubling me is this um Idaho State University situation. It is Idaho, right? Okay. That is very troubling. And I I look at that and and I'm hearing that this university is not accredited by the accrediting agencies it's supposed to be accredited to. And I just think that we need to look very closely at what the situation is. I think I need more information. Okay. I think Yeah, I know. I'm getting all the notes of caution about what I say and I'm I'm I'm hoping not

113to say the wrong thing. If I do, Kathy, please kick me. Okay. >> No, I don't. [laughter] Well, sometimes we need it. But what what I'm going to say is that as a board member, I'm troubled by this and I think I need a lot more information that I don't have. So, I'm just going to ask that the administration keep us informed and let us know what happened, what we're doing in response to it, and what and what kind of a solution uh is going to come from this or what we can expect. So, I just hope that that we get a good outcome without me taking a position on anything, but it is a it's something that troubles me because, you know, I know that that there are a lot of people that spend

114a lot of time and, you know, hoping to advance themselves and um uh I wouldn't want to be in their position right now because it's very very uncertain position. And all I'm going to say is that I'm going to ask for the administration to keep the board informed so that we know what's going on because a lot of people are asking us a lot of questions and frankly I just don't know how to answer them. So with that I'd like to ask for a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Riddle. >> Second by Miss Ramirez. All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. meeting is adjourned at 8:55 p.m.