June 24th, 2025 - Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] again. [Music] Hey [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] I'm [Music] a world. [Music] Okay. The board met in close session to discuss matters covered by the exceptions to the Illinois Open Meetings Act, C1 specific personnel and C2 collective bargaining. At this time, I would like to ask for a motion to go into open session. So moved. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second by second. Miss Lensing. Roll call vote, please. Yes. Yes. Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. We're now in open session. Mr. Losa, would you please do us the honor of leading us in the pledge of allegiance? Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank

002you. Okay. President's report. Um I just have three things to report. Uh first thing is that I attended the uh large unit school district uh meeting of board presidents on uh Jul J June 13th and um it was a good opportunity to listen to board members from other large uh unit school districts in Illinois. I think there were 13 board members in total that participated and to uh hear from the some of the other board members about what some of their issues and problems are and find out that you know we're not all that much that that different. We're all very much alike. Uh last night, June 23rd, we had a um IASB board um self-evaluation took place here. Um that was um presided over by Miss Laura Martinez from the Illinois Associates of School

003Boards and it was very successful. We had a lot of good dialogue and we will be having a follow-up meeting because there was so much more more that we wanted to discuss and and agreements that we wanted to work on. And the third item I want to bring up is committee uh appointments. I asked for uh individuals to give me their selections for what committees they would like to participate in. And I I had response from two individuals. I'd like to ask the rest of the board members to let me know uh of any uh uh board that any committees they're interested in serving on. And um I will I would like to have this vote on by our next uh board meeting if possible. Sorry. Thank you. You're welcome. Student board member report. Hi,

004good evening everyone. So, for my um final board presentation, I decided to do my um three like I guess like my three favorite things that I got to do here like as like a board member. So, my first thing that I want to talk about was like the all staff kickoff event. That was like so much fun. I was a little nervous though, so I was like uh but it it made me like learn a lot and like I got to like I guess like open myself up to like speaking in front of the public. But um it was like I just loved it. I got to see all like my old teachers. Um and yeah, like I just got I had like so much fun engaging with Mr. Ala Jack is. And I think

005Miss Maximo was like behind stage two if I'm correct. Yes. Yeah. And then my next thing was um just like engaging with Miss Hannah, Mr. McBride in No, not Mr. McBride, Mr. Riddle, I'm sorry, in the wellness committee. Um I thought it was a great idea that um they got a student perspective on what posters they should put for anti- vaping. And I think it was like a really good idea because like there needs to be like a problem. There's is like a problem that I see a lot at school. Kids are just like vaping and vaping. Like I feel like it needs to stop. So on the next slide I put the five posters that I put. Oo. Oh. Oh. Um honestly my favorite one and I kind of laugh at it a lot

006is a Reese's. Yeah. Is the Reese's one. Um, and my last thing was honestly engaging with the student body and engaging with the principles as well. Um, one day me and Dr. George got together and we like reflected on one of the issues that was like happening at Brookside a lot and it was honestly the tardies. We noticed that like the hero station, so whenever you're late, you have to go get a pass like at the hero station. That was like one of the biggest problems because the lines would be so long and it happened to me once where I was late because I went to go talk to a counselor and I was like sent to that line. I didn't get out of that line halfway through the period and those like lines are

007like super long. So what they did now I think they removed them and instead you had to go like I don't know what the plan was because I was never late after that day. Um I don't really know what happened after that but I just like noticed that all the tardies started going downward and with principal Hamilton like he noticed that like not too many students were like attending these events like the hot cocoa and gram and I think other like study sessions like the bees are better and I had told him like well honestly I think one thing that you guys would need to do is like kind of like repost them like on I know the school has an Instagram page and a Facebook page, right? And I told them I was like,

008"Well, one thing I can do in my part is also post them on the on the board meetings and I kind of saw like I think one Bees are better event that I went to. There was a lot of like people there. So, I was like, okay, like that worked." And then my final thoughts were that um very grateful to be here. Yeah. Thank you very much. We're very grateful that you are here with us. Yeah. Okay. Item seven, special recognition and presentations. Good evening, uh, board of education, board president Rodriguez, Super Placencia, uh, guest community. I am, uh, pleased to come up and report on student registration for the 2526 school year. We had a, uh, we had a successful campaign. We did annual registration um, right around spring break time. um up through

009May to get students ready and all of us set for the new school year. Next slide. Uh the annual update is very important. Uh we need to ensure that we have correct contact information for students to help prepare for the number of classrooms we need in the fall. So uh phone numbers are changing all the time. We want to make sure we have correct phone numbers. Want to make sure we have correct emergency contact information. This year parents registered via the parent portal. So that's um through Infinite Campus. They were all able to go in there. When you uh register through the parent portal, all your information pops up. You just click yes, that's right. Yes, that's right. Yes, that's right. Or you change the phone number. You click submit. It's done. It's in. It's

010It's fairly quick and and painless. And it was either this year or the year before. Infinite Campus improved their app. So, it's a little bit more user friendly to see on your little phone. Kind of go through there and get that in there. students that are entering sixth grade and nth grade when they're going to the middle school and they're going to the high school. We asked those parents to submit two proofs of residency. At one point in this district, we did that every single year. We've pulled back on that. Say when you go to middle school and you go to high school, we want to make sure you live in Walkegan and and have that proof of residency. So, we do that. We closed the window on May 2nd for submissions through the parent

011portal so that the school secretaries through the month of May could process the applications before they left on summer break. Next slide. Last year, our submission rate was 50%. So, half of our parents uh registered and half did not. This year, we've improved to 71%. Yay. All right. [Applause] The average rate for elementary schools was 79.5%. And I want to uh recognize our outstanding schools. We had two schools with 100% of their parents committed to it. Um, we have representation. So, if Clark Elementary and Greenwood Elementary Clark is here, come on up. Go Clark. All right. [Applause] We have Principal Glattus Rodriguez, um, assistant principal Rosie Cardina Ortiz, and the instructional support teacher [Applause] Click m uh Greenwood also 100% and Click Magnet had 96%. That seems right. [Applause] Also here I see representation from

012Glenn Flora Elementary School who also bested 90% with 92% for Glenn Flora. We have assistant principal Abby Aguilar. All right secretary who does a lot of Thank you. Wow. Great. The next slide. Yes, that's um for middle school and high school, uh participation is a little bit lower, but um we we got 65.6% of our middle school and high school parents submitting online registration. I do want to honor the top school for that category, which would be Abbott Middle School at 79%. Wow. And we have with us principal floor Carter and assistant principal Tanya Evans. All right. [Applause] As I said before, those entering sixth grade and those entering nth grade need to provide two proofs of residency to register. That is something we are still working on and still needing to improve. It's it's

013gotten better, but we do need to improve with that. Um, so for sixth grade, we have 918 fifth graders moving up to sixth grade. 543 of them are completely registered. So about 2/3 completely registered. There's another 137. They went through and they clicked through, but we are still needing the proof of residency from them. So 238 students, we don't have anything for at all. 137 we have updated information, but no proof of residency. You can see uh for 9th grade it's about 444 totally registered. So about half of them are completely registered. Another 200 gave us their information. We're still looking for proof of residency and 307 have not registered at all. So we will be continuing to seek those parents out to get proof of residency and make sure they're registered to attend our

014middle school and our high school. How can they do that? That's the next slide. Parents who fail to do registration have another chance. the last week of July. So the last week of July, we're going to do the back to school registration. And we did this a long time ago. We're bringing this back. Return to school registration. So the last week of July, July 29, 30th, and 31st, we're going to have sites. You can come to any site where you know, grades kindergarten through 12th grade. Come to any of those sites. One that's near your home. Just one on the night that you're available. It's from 1:00 to 7:00. Uh July 29th will be at Benny Middle School, Clear View Elementary. July 30th will be at Smith Middle School in Whittier Elementary. And July 31st

015will be at Lewis Middle School and Carmen Buckner Elementary. Come to that event. We will get your um get your sheet with your information. Make sure you update your information, update your health information, your contact information, and if you're entering sixth grade or 9th grade, bring two proofs of residency and we'll help you figure out what those are. If you have neighbors that are brand new to Walkegan, we encourage you to have them start registering right now on our website. Go to wps60.org. Go on the website and um and student registration tab. You can start the application right there online. You can also make an appointment there online to be registered at student support services. New plug. Next week we're going to be moving in right next door over here. So right now we're at

016the welcome center. July. So, so through these windows right over here is where we'll be. So, if you make an appointment, um we'll get you in the right spot to kind of go through there. You can also come to the back school registration events. The staff that are at those events will help you out and get the process started and we will finish the registration up and get you going. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Can I have a comment? Board President Oh, Mr. McBride, you want to go first? Yeah. I I heard you mention uh all the way to kindergarten and you know uh sometime uh well more than sometime parents have little kids. You're going to have preschool there too as well when they come preschool. Yes. If if

017if preschool comes those back to school registrations, we will help them out as well. So um we'll get their information. We'll get them started on the application online. We'll have computers there for them to to submit the application and we will pass that on to the prek staff. They uh prek has also been doing events uh through this month um at the welcome center uh to help uh parents register and there's another event Thursday. Thursday at the welcome center this Thursday uh uh prek potential prek parents can come to the welcome center. Yeah, they've been pretty busy. I see them at several functions. Actually, the last function I seen them was at Junth. They were out there. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lindsay. Um, I have to say that from a parent that's been

018doing this for seven years, this is the most excited I've been about registration. Um, it's it's very well organized. So, I know we're saying we're just doing our jobs, but this is a heavy lift. And to go from that jump to get the registration done, that percentage leap is huge. And it's well organized. I know my school is just like constantly posting and I actually did it ahead of time this year, not on the last day. So, it's it's been very consistent, right? And sometimes you have the parents who are just like, "Yep, I'm going to get to that today." And then they forget and they just need that consistent reminder. So, I just want to thank you, your team, our district staffs or principles, head secretaries, the ILT teams, everybody. It because it takes

019an army, right? and the smoothest we can get um registration going, the easier the start of our school year is going to be and the more successful our kids are. So, I really want to thank you for all of the hard work that you and everyone involved have done. Thank you. Great. Um Mr. Christensen, you talked about um sixth grade, ninth grade. Okay. Can you explain um to those parents that's listening that has a sophomore or junior or senior what's the process for them? Right. So if they didn't click through on the app to do that the process is for them to come that last week of July or they can also contact the high school because the high school has staff that's there year round. So they can go directly to the high school

020now or they can come to these events. And what we'll do then is we will print out a sheet that has their information. will be on paper. Their information will be on the paper and they'll they'll look through it and say, "Yes, that's my phone number." And they will write it out on paper um in person rather than doing it from home on their computer or their phone. And then they'll they'll be um and that's for returning students. Returning students, yes, returning students. They just we just need to verify you got the right phone numbers, right emergency contacts, and then there's some health questions to ask them. Thank you. Okay, Miss and then just real quick, another reminder for parents that there was an email sent out with all the health requirements. So, if you're

021not sure if your child needs um either dental, I or immunizations or physical, um check your emails because that information was sent out recently and it outlines what grade levels and what you need to do and what forms you need to use. So, keep an eye out for all of that registration information. Thank you. Job well done. Yes. [Applause] Next item under special recognition presentations, item B, black abolition movement for the mind. Further blanks. Hey, you're in favor. All right. Thank you. It's your first edition, right? Thank you, brother Blanks. Black abolition movement for the mind founding chief president. what you have before you uh pretty much is the encore of the last paper that we presented before you guys updated uh with our QR code working. You might even see where we last presented

022before the school board. Uh that was one of the updates and you might want to know how do this benefit your student. Um I think I heard your student board members say something about you sometimes still have challenge with getting past and past your fears of public speaking, right? where the earlier that we able to help our children find their voice through creative writing, it helps with their critical and creative thinking skills and also motivates them in that area of getting past those fears. The earlier that they're able to do that that when they become their student when they become student board members so they're prepared, you know, to be able to uh voice their concerns. Uh uh not only that uh many of our students that are in the schools now and you know

023they often say uh what is it that you want for your family you want for your community as well. Uh poetry and writing has been good uh for myself and my family personally. So allowing our students to be able to see their voices in print and that gives them a good sense of self-confidence and also like I said being able to bring them once they have it in writing to be able to recite it. So this helps your students to better become uh good with their public speaking and finding their voice. That frees up my time also from having to come before the school board when students are able to present themselves and have the right approach in doing so. So I wanted you guys to I wanted to come back and present this to

024you guys. Uh so you'll have a copy of it and just let you know what our intentions are uh not only for our organization and the community but many of your students which already come to our organization. This is something that we've been doing that's offered free to our community and to our students as well. So I've worked in the school board and y'all know our organization has been in the board school board I mean in the uh school district working with the students for a long time. Uh many times we was working under contract but if we can provide these services for free it cuts through all the red tape of having to you know go through and I don't get me wrong we we're not trying to circumvent you know your rules and

025your regulations but anywhere we can work to cut through the red tape to work with the students that makes it better for the school district. But more importantly, it allows us to be able to work with more of the students. And uh so that's pretty much it. I wanted to find out the last time I was here, it didn't present you guys because you had a new structure with the speaking and the audience time. And so it didn't give you guys an opportunity to ask any question that you may have uh for what we're doing as well as what our intentions are with our papyrus son. You guys have any questions or anything you'd like to pose? about what we're doing. Yes, Miss Hannah. Um, this is the second paper. That is actually that I

026have Say again. This is the second one that I have seen. Okay. And uh they were they were phenomenal. Okay. Well, the first one was Oh, you see them in the community cuz you was here the last time, right? Yes. And I got it. Okay. Um and uh there's good stuff in here. Yeah. And um I I'm I say that this this paper uh is the start of something bigger. Yeah. In my mind. I haven't talked with you yet about it. I haven't talked with you yet about it. But uh I'm glad to see Yeah. Uh this um that you're doing this, okay? You know, right for the community. Yeah. is still in its infancy stages of development even with our independent national independent black students. You know, we really want to be this par

027be this uh paramount for them. Uh something that they could work on as well. But we're very serious about our national independent black student union even to the point if we have to whenever sometimes we might have to restructure it. But we want all of our independent national black student unions to be able to live up to uh you know the uh regulations. and I I won't say regulations but the expectations if you will of what we expect of them uh to be reflective of the organization and uh so with that anybody else may I go ahead please sir go ahead uh I just want to commend you for your uh your vision in terms of the community uh I ride past your organization all the time and stop in sometimes yeah I there's family

028members of mine you've touched. They grown now and you touch them through poetry, right? And uh they got nicknames. I'm sure one is L. I can't think of L. You know who I'm speaking of. Luca Yuka. Yeah. And also to uh I watch you go over to Karm School and remind me of a uh DJ, his name was Lou Palmer. He always said, "Listen to the talking drums." Yeah. And when you had him over at Common School beating the drums doing uh I think that was Quanza. Quanza. Yes. Uh it reminded me of Lup Palmer when he said listen to the talking drums. But that's a old African problem. Palmer. Yeah. And I do understand uh that what you're doing keep listening to the talking drums and stay on the wall because there's not too

029many brothers like you that's out there doing what you're doing. Yeah. I appreciate that. I receive that. Uh consistency is key particularly when it come to our students and uh one of our student members one of our Yeah. You want to ask Okay, go ahead. Hey, I just had a question. I'm sorry. I had a question. How can we have these papers available for the students to be able to see them in the libraries or whichever way they're able to read besides what's already available? Um we'll work with you on that, Dr. Cesario. I know Dr. Andrews isn't here. So, um, if you can just touch base with them before they walk out. Thank you. Mr. Blanks, I just wanted to say I I've only had I thank you for doing what you're doing. I

030I just I think it's very important poetry as as Mr. McBride said and we know that you are a poet and to teach poetry and I'm just I just happen to read Sharita Wilson's uh poem in here. Yes. And I think it's beautiful and and it expresses I think as you said letting these students uh come forward and see their what their work in print and share that with others means a lot to them and will encourage them um to do more in poetry. Uh so I just want to thank you for what you're doing with this. I think it's just really great. I appreciate it. And I hope we can put these in um our school library so that other students might be motivated to also express their feelings and and writing writing is

031just a beautiful thing and it carries on and you don't know who it touches. Absolutely. But it does touch others. Yeah. We we're putting out about 4,000 copies between here and so yes, thank you very much. Yeah. And uh uh one of the things that one of the things that definitely uh inspired us to really move forward on this is something that we was going to put in motion. And I remember first time uh student national independent student black union that was being was presenting to you guys at the old bill at the uh other um uh at the other school board meeting chambers. Uh I remember Mr. Satan from the new son. He came up and he asked me about you know the national independent black student union who we were what we was

032doing and I said well it's you know it's a new initiative that we have and he went on to say he says well if it's something new then it's newsworthy. So I thought he was going to go on to ask me something about it and maybe it was going to be a write up in the news sun but uh it never took place but like I said sometime that inspire you to do the things that we need to do and that is to have our own voice and to control our own narrative and news and let our students have their voice. So uh if Mr. S I would like to appreciate let him know I appreciate that encouragement cuz sometimes those things where it might be a setback is something for you to come forward

033and do what you need to do. So, uh, any other Mr. Satan is here with us tonight. Oh, he's here. Oh, yeah. There he is. Right there. Appreciate that. You know, sometimes, you know, you don't have your own voice. It's time for you to create your own. So, there you go. Uh, so with that being said, everybody, uh, you have any other questions, Miss Lindsay? Yes, Miss Lindsay. Um, so when you came the first time, I went home and I told my husband about it and he was like, "He's still doing that?" And so he remembers you from like 20 years ago and you had been doing it well before. Um I and I'm just going to be the continue the broken record of the same accolades. You're not only like giving them the platform

034to have their voice, you're also providing that safe space to explore their voice. Right. So this is an age where they're trying to find themselves, find their identity, find out what they want to say and put out into the world. And you're doing it in such a nurturing way that it's so very exciting to see. And I can't wait to to sit and like really dive into their words while you're doing that. Well, I really appreciate somebody that coming from somebody who really value your first amendment, your first amendment right as much as you do as when it comes to the flag or whatever else. And I think giving our students the courage and the bravery to be able to exercise that first amendment right to be able to push the envelope on it and

035but to do it with the right approach and everything. So giving our kids and uh giving our students the uh free voice that they need uh to be able to express themselves without fear is important to me and I appreciate that in you as well. Yes. So I know you like to um volunteer a lot and give back for free a lot but it all comes with a cost. So could you please highlight where people can donate to your organization so that you can continue the work, you can continue to create all of the goodness and support our schools? Absolutely. You can do that with uh uh BAM for the that's uh BAM for the mine and that's at we're located at 801 Mallister. So yeah, you make your checks payable to BAM for the

036mine. You can uh send that to uh 801 Mallister Avenue, Walk Keaggan 60085. So like you said, you know, it do cost uh we try to cut that cost down. We've been having the support of uh definitely one of our uh one of our representative I always uh bring her voice up. Senator Adrienne Johnson has been very instrumental in supporting us in our initiatives and everything. So that really help us to offset the cost. But there's nothing like that grassroot fundraising when the funding and the uh that kind of money is there. We value more the grassroot funding and the fundraising because that is the kind of money we need long after grants has been cut and funding is no longer there and if we can get the great say it again which is very

037possible in the times we're living which absolutely absolutely so uh those and I want to see it continue. Yeah. would like to donate and contribute or you can call us at 773-510-1713 and that is on your paper on the paper. So, and that that's our number and everything. So, we really appreciate that and uh whoever would like to support in what we're doing. Thank you for that question. Thank you, brother Blanks. And we'd like to tell you we appreciate what you're doing for our children. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it. [Applause] Thank you. Before we move on, I would like to acknowledge former board president Brandon Yuing, who is here with us tonight. Brandon. And the next thing I would like to do is ask who is responsible for these beautiful strawberries.

038I know I know where they're from. They're from the John Lewis Greenhouse. Mr. Green did yesterday and today. They're beautiful. Those two pretty neat so good. I just had one. They're really great. I'm going to pile on to this as well. We were I was just talking with my aunts. We celebrated their birthday on a trip and all of us were just talking how we can't find good strawberries in the stores right now. And so to see this is just a major delight. So, thank you very much. Thank you. And and thank the the children that the students that grew them. Thank you so much. I remember having one last year. You said just pick one off there. I said whoa. It was good. I I just want to say thank you. You're going to

039help me when I get home tonight late games to my wife. She loves strawberries. All right. Next item. Item eight is approval of minutes. And we're going to take these separately. I believe every was anybody um absent from any of these meetings? I think everybody was here. So if you are are there any uh comments or corrections on any of them? If not, we can probably take them all. Make a motion that we that we approve minutes for A, B, 8, A, B, C, and D. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Fabian. And that is the minutes for the open session meeting May 27th. The minutes of the micro open session meeting June 10th. And the minutes for the special open session meeting June 17th. Approval of minutes for the special open session

040meeting June 18th. All 2025. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that motion? Roll call vote, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. All minutes are approved. Item nine, opportunity for public comment. We do have a couple of names here. Um when I call your name, please come to the podium. Uh you will have three minutes to speak. Please state your name. And the first name on the list is Randy Sbecki. Good evening everyone. So I'm here tonight and we're going to talk about an incident that took place at Jack Benny. Yep. Still going on. So I went through the whole process of the chain of command. I met with Dr. Cesario who I talked to him a couple weeks ago and still asked for the meeting with the

041super superintendent and that still happened had no contact. Um no one reached out. So, we're going to talk about that incident. So, there's an incident that took place at Benny and it did infect my student. It involved a lookalike weapon that did have projectiles and it came out a month afterwards. It took my son, my own son, over a month to tell his own father what really transpired that day. And it did affect him. On that day, the students were playing Russian roulette with that gun. passing it back and forth, pulling the trigger, putting it up to their head, and pulling the trigger. Can we pause, Excuse me. Can we pause you for a second? We're The clock is not on. We're supposed to be timing this. I think he's got a little more time

042than that. I don't think he spoke for a full minute yet. May make it two and a half minutes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Sorry, Mrs. P. All right. So, at a couple board meetings ago, you guys had it on the agenda and you guys talked about lookalike weapons and whatnot, which should have been at to my opinion on a student achievement meeting to talk about this because this incident did infect my my son and it was brought to the attention. There's cameras at Jack Benny. Remember all those cameras we installed? and this incident took place and it's on video and we know there's a video that exists. Why this incident still has not been brought to this board and it's not about one student, it's multiple students. Why hasn't it been brought to this

043board? I was told during that investigation when they interviewed my son cuz I was present and we had the special principal at that building interview my son which had no contact what even in the district when this event took place and was asking my son questions that he can't answer. He can't answer how somebody else feels or what's going on and the mental health part of it. And here's the thing where it involved my son. But now to know to anybody else, two and a half years ago, his uncle committed suicide with a gun. He was being placed under arrest by a police officer. He pulled out a gun. He shot and killed himself. And that affects my son still to this day. After this incident, he still has trouble sleeping at night and whatnot.

044And like I said, it took him a month to come forward to me to tell me. I notify the schools immediately and that it's on video. There's a video. It it exists. Any other kid, if that was my kid that did that, he would have been expelled. That was African-American student that did that, it would have went before the board. It would have been expulsion hearing. I foyed nine lookalike weapons. Every one of them were expelled from this district. Why was this incident different? And we could smirk. And I got a a nasty email from our general counsel basically trying to threaten me to be quiet. Well, it's not going to work cuz I know my first amendment rights and my rights because we do. Mr. Riddle, I give you kudos when you brought up

045about mental health, how this does affect other students cuz we don't know who all witnessed that that day and what's going on. And obviously it was a big issue because right after this incident took place, how come whether at a principal's training at Green Bell Forest Preserve, why was it a topic with Mr. Dupri and that about lookalike weapons if it wasn't a big issue? I have videos and and tons of photos and give you I've taught classes on this stuff. They are making toys that look like weapons nowadays. It's not against federal law. You can paint the tip of a gun orange and it's not against federal law. So, I'll still be waiting for my meet up. Thank you, Mr. Specky. Brandon Yuing. I'm good. Good talk. All right. Uh, super excited uh to

046be here with you all. I know it's been a minute. Hope things are going well. I do watch online to keep up to date. Uh but I'm here under happy news. We had our Junth event uh this weekend and I just wanted to come Friday night. My grandmother always said when someone does something, you know, nice for you, you say thank you. So, thank you to Walkegan Public School Board for um allowing us to use the parking lot of Washington 214 um here as well as um the support from the phase department, Yvanda Fulton with the college and career center um as well as countless staff. I know um when we do these events, we have good ideas, but somebody has to set that stuff up, somebody has to drop that stuff off, somebody has

047to make sure that those things get in place. people have to be here to make sure that things are secure. So, it's never easy to say yes, but I appreciate that the district has uh made a commitment to support community events. And so, we are already in the planning for next year and I hope that you all will continue to be supporters. So, with that, I hope you have a great evening um and a great meeting. So, thank you all again. Thank you very much and thanks for being here. Okay, next item. Item 10, consent agenda, academics. Okay. The uh consent agenda is a list of topics that are going to be voted on and these are all items which the board has had presented to them and we've discussed them in um uh committee

048meetings and uh these are considered to be non-controversial. So, we have a number of consent items under academics that um are up. They are on the agenda. They are on the screen. We have a motion to Well, board president, I'd like to remove H from the consent and vote on H separately. You want to vote on H separately? Okay. We're going to allow a request. That's the SCDS conference. Yes. Okay. We're going to separate out this item. Um and Is there anything else anybody want to separate out? No. Okay. So, we will be voting on items A through G and then I through P. Any um any other requests? Okay. Do do we have a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve items um 10 A through G and I through P. Okay. Motion

049by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Glensing. Mhm. Okay. Any further discussion on that motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, yes. Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion Motion carries. Okay. Next item, consent agenda for operation. Oh, I believe we have to read. I'm sorry. I'm moving on. Item H. We have to vote on. Okay. I'll make a motion. We cannot vote to skip it. We voted to separate it. Do we have to read the titles of all the items for the record? Oh, yes. Yes, we do. Okay. The items that we approved were renewal of Newella for grades 6 to 12. Item A, item B, removal of renewal of Brain Pop for G grades K through 8. C, renewal of Panorama

050Education SEAL screener. D, revision to Whittier professional development request. E, purchase of Sydney. F. Renewal of Boys and Girls Club of Lake County programming. G. Lewis Middle School Center for Applied Linguistics Professional Development Request. I APSI Computer Science Training. J. APSI Calculus Conference. K. Renewal for Edmonton Software. L renewal of school licenses. M. Renewal of Hapara. N renewal of Reminder Parent Square. O bilingual speech and language evaluator contract. M P renewal of partnership with network for college success. These are all the items that we approved. Next item is item H the ASCD IST conference. Yeah, please read it. It is a recommendation of the administration at the board of education to authorize the superintendent or her designate to approve the attendance at the ASCD IST conference in the amount of $8,646. Okay. I'll make a

051motion that we approve this item as recommended by the superintendent. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Aan. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. McBride, yes. Mr. Riddle, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lensing, no. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Moving on. Consent agenda for operations. Again, this is a a number of items that are being recommended for approval. We've already had a chance to discuss these in committee meetings and they're considered to be non-controversial and these are brought to us for approval tonight. Uh item A through J. Should I read them now? Wait. Yes. Why don't I read them now? 11 A, renewal of contract for excess workers compensation insurance. B approval of informed K12 recommendation digital document solution. C approval of purchase of

052FAMARE social services software for wraparound service center services. D. Approval of attendance to 2025 National Wraparound Initiative Training Institutes. E. Approval of FY26 supplies general paper PE uniforms. F. Approval of FY26 custodial supplies. G. Approval of me memorandums of understanding supporting emergency services response crisis intervention. H. Approval to allocate capital project funds for Oakdale greenhouse or John Lewis kitchen proposal. I want to separate. Okay, let me just finish this. I approval of job description review and recommendations proposal from RJ Harrison Associates and J approval of frontline time and attendance system and implementmentation recommendation. Okay, Miss Hannah, you wanted to separate out something? Yes, I want to separate I. Item I, the approval of job description review and recommendations proposal from R.J. Harris Associate. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve um consent agenda items

05311 A through H and item H? Item 11J. Yes. Move. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second by Miss Hannah. Any further discussion on that motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, yes. Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Roger, yes. Motion carries. Um, item 11 I, approval of job description review and recommendations proposal from R.J. Harrison Associates. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of education approve the proposal of R.J. Harrison Associates for review and recommendations for non-UN non-UN job descriptions with a goal to streamline and simplify recruiting, hiring, and managing the expectation for specific employees within the district. The total cost of the proposal is $125,000. Mr. Riddle, I make a motion to accept the recommendation as read by the superintendent. Motion by

054Mr. Riddle, second by Miss Fabian. Any further discussion on that motion? Miss Hannah. Yes. Um I'd like to um ask is this um an additional contract with um RJ Harris? Um, other than the one that is that he has, the other contract that we approved for him um for um I think it was $90,000 and um is so at this point he has two contracts with the school district. Correct. This will I'm sorry. This is a separate contract and a separate scope of work for job descriptions. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And so um Okay. Call the vote. Okay. We who made the motion? Mr. Riddle. I did. Yes. Second Fabian. Correct. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle. Yes. Mr. McBride. Yes. Miss Hannah. No. Miss Fabian? Yes. Miss Linding, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez,

055yes. Motion carries. Item 11, I is approved. Okay. Um 12, purchases and contracts. Approval of architective record recommendation. It is the recommendation that the board of education authorizes superintendent or her designate to negotiate a contract with three architecture firms to be the district architect of record based on qualitative evaluation completed by the district administration. The three firms will be Wold Architects and Engineers located at 220 North Smith Street, Sweet 310 Palletine, Illinois 60067. STR Partners located at 350 West Ontario Street, Sweet 200 Chicago, Illinois and Wright and Company located at 2500 North Frontage Road, Dariion, Illinois 60561. Okay, I'll make a motion to accept the recommendation as read by the superintendent for uh our three architects. Second. Motion by Mr. Riddle, second by Savian. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle,

056yes. Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Item 13, personnel items. Yes. On the personal items for 13A, Miss Hannah is asking that we separate separate um I asked to separate out from the administrative schedule L949 the first and fourth names to be voted on separately. Second. Oh, they have vote on. No, no, we're not going to vote on it. I'm just going to take it as a Got it. Okay, got it. Okay. It is recommended that the board of education accept the administration's recommendations to approve the appointments, retirement requests, retirement extension, and accept the resignations and terminations as found on schedules F10002, L949, T317, and G660, except the first name on the administrative schedule F10002, and the second and fourth names

057on the administration administrative schedule L949. Correction. The first and fourth names on the schedule for L. You said second. Oh, I'm sorry. First. Okay. No, first and forth. Yes. First. First and fourth. Is that correct? So, we're we're separating out on the administrative schedules the first name on F10002 and then the first and fourth name on schedule L949. Okay. First and forth. Okay. I'll make a motion that we that we approve the recommendation um for uh item 13A personnel as read by the superintendent and tenant and corrected by legal. Okay. Motion by Mr. Riddle with those two se with those separation two items separated out. Okay. Do we have a second? Second Miss Hannah. Any discussion on this motion? We have a roll call vote, please. Mr. Mr. Riddle, yes. Miss McBride, yes. Miss Hannah,

058yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lindsay, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. It is the recommendation that the board of education accept the administration's recommendations to approve the resignation of the individual listed on the first administrative schedule L949. Dr. Kevin Brown. Do we have a motion? Just you're going to vote on that one. separately. Okay. Each uh mo is that correct? Okay. A motion. I I'll make a motion that we approve the recommendation is read by the superintendent. We have a second. Second, Miss Favian. Any discussion on the motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle? Yes. Mr. McBride? Yes. Miss Hannah? No. Miss Fabian. Miss Lindsing. Pass. Miss Ramirez. Yes. Mr. Rodriguez. President Rodriguez. Yes. Motion carries. Second item. It is the recommendation that the board of education accept the administration's recommendation to

059approve the resignation of the individual listed on the listed fourth on the administrative schedule L949. Mr. Isaac Kirkwood. Motion to approve. The recommendation is read by the superintendent for motion by Mr. Riddle. Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Yes. I would like to say that um when um that when individuals are um are found to do something so egregious that um that it is harmful to uh other human beings. the um the board in my in my experienced opinion um it should not be um uh settled if you will with a resignation and I was under the impression that this was going to be a termination and I agree with a deter with a termination and not a resignation. Miss Lindsay, um I share the same sentiments as Miss Hannah. The the

060conduct and the information we've been provided to me uh resignation is inappropriate and we should be proceeding with a termination. So, not that I don't think that this person shouldn't be in our district anymore, but I disagree with the approach in which they're leaving our district. Absolutely. Any further comments? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, no. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lindsay, no. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. administrative appointments. Yeah, we have some new administrators joining us. Well, I believe one. At this time, I'd like to welcome Miss Claudia Munoz, who previously served as an assistant principal in Chicago public schools. She will now serve as a new assistant principal at Whittier Elementary with a starting salary of $77,000. Congratulations, Miss Munoz, and welcome to Wagan. Who was

061raised in raised in Walkan? We should highlight that. Thank you, Miss Munos. Congratulations and welcome. Welcome to Congratulations. Thank you for coming back. I guess you got one, huh? Okay. Um MC, amendment of the intergovernmental agreements. No, I think it's Is that it? B. I skip one. 13. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. I did. Yeah. 13B is approval of the annual non-union and SEIU personal cost of living raises for FY202526. It is the recommendation that the board of education approve the recommendation of the administration to gain a 4% cost of living pay raise for non-union staff with a value of approximately 949,913.76 and the SEIU union staff of approximately $331,822. Effective July 1st, 2025, the total fiscal impact for this item is 1,281,735.76. Motion to approve. Motion approved by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss

062Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Yes. Um M Mr. President. Yes, M. I am wondering uh based um in reference to the um the this um um the salary um or the compensation study that was done and the caps that were put on um staff members. um ability to um to increase their salaries. How will this impact them? Um I mean and also let me finish also um how are the upper administrators receiving a um a raise or an increase as well. And um the are the raises that they going that they're going to receive? There's no cap on their salary um potential. And so are they just going to be allowed to continue to get the increases like um the other non union um individuals and that's what I I'm I want to know

063because they would they're on a different schedule be uh the the deputies the superintendent every they're they're on a different schedule and so are there are they are you all included too with this 4%. So I'm going to take your questions in order and Mr. Molton if you want to come up just um in case I miss something. So yes people that are capped will still receive 4% but it will be off their base salary. It will not be compounded. So they will still receive the 4% but it will not be compounded on their base. So they're going to this is no let me let me since you said that it provoked an additional question. So the um so you all if I'm understanding their base pay will not increase but you all's the upper

064administration's base pay will increase and those the increases these 4%s they're going to be paid on a one-time basis in a stipen. So, it is not a stipen. It is their 4% raise based off their base that they will get. So, if you're at the cap of the salary structure um as was presented at a previous student achievement, you would get the 4% based off your base pay. So, you will still get your 4%. I also want to state so if I can go through your questions because if I don't keep the I'm going to miss some of your questions. So that's answer number one. I will also state that it was the recommendation that with every within 3 to four years we go back to our salary schedule to look at the bands to

065see if those if that um ceiling should increase or um and just to review the process. So that is part of it. So I believe I answered that. The second part of that is is I don't know what you mean. Well, I'm going to assume. No, I'm not going to assume um what the upper You said, is the upper administration receiving the same raises? Yes. Everyone from the deputy down administrators will receive the 4% effective July 1st. And and so when their contracts come up for vote, then we will be voting again on increases for them. You've never I Well, I they're going to receive a 4% increase cost of living increase as all the other administrators. I I'm not understanding your question. So, if you could give me more. So, okay. So, everybody is

066getting the 4%. Yes. That's non union. That's non-union. Yes. That even the administr the uh administrator. Yes. So everybody is getting it now all nonun right that's what I said it so what I understand through the compensation study that all increases that uh they they go on they get stipens for that. So, nobody is going to be getting stipens. I think words matter. So, I think that when you're saying the stipen, it's not a stipen. They will get a 4% cost of living increase, but it will not be compounded on their base salary if they're at maximum pay. So that means they will receive a check of 4% of their base salary paid out by the finance department. Yeah. If they're at the maximum at their if they're at their maximum level, if they're at

067the ceiling for their band. Yeah. I I am totally against this practice, this new practice because it um as I said before, it um it hinders staff members ability their pensions in the future and their their pensions will be impacted. But the upper administration team, their pensions won't be um won't be uh impacted. And and that's not fair to our staff. And like I said before, what message is that sending to our staff? Thank you, Mr. Minds. Um, so I just wanted to expand a little bit from when we had the question the um the lumpsum payment. My understanding and let me finish um my understanding is that the lumpsum payment if they are at their cap is still pensionable earnings. Mhm. Miss Hannah's point though, just to clarify because people are going to be

068like, "Well, it is punchable earnings." To Miss Hannah's point, um, just like Miss Poke talks about, if we don't raise the taxes, it's compounding on itself, and even though it's been 9 years, that's totaled to $35 million for the district. What Miss Hannah is saying is that this is the same. Yes, it's still pensionable earnings, but it's that stagnant rate and it's not growing their pension with that. So, that's the concern that she um I hope I'm elaborating it correctly with the pension component. Yes. Um my I guess my question right now is when we did the study, we were told no one was close to the cap and I believe I just heard uh superintendent when you started that those that are capped are going to get the lump sum. So I I just

069want clarity. Do we have people that are capped? Yeah, I do. And I don't Mr. Molton, I'm gonna turn it over here, but I I do remember us during the presentation when we went through there was a few people that were close to the cap or were at the cap. Um and then we talked about what that would look like with the pensionable earnings or were they able to make more money. You definitely I mean if you I shouldn't say more make more money. it's the wrong terminology. Were you able to move within the bands of those pay bands? And the answer was yes if you applied for another job if it was at a um at a different administrative level and a different administrative grade. So I lost train of thought and I was

070I'm going to I'm just it's you were going to turn over to Mr. Motton, but I I think I'm going to have to go back. Yeah, I'm going to have to go back because when we had that discussion, my memory, which is not perfect, was that nobody was at their cap and now I'm hearing that there were there were a few. So, I'm misunderstanding and I can just go back to the YouTube, which thank you. Prior boards before I got on here got us to YouTube. Yeah. Um, did I answer all your question, Miss Lindsay? I lost my train of thought. I think we're waiting to see how many are if there are people that are at that cap or not cuz I was going to be my question is how many but that was

071her question is are there people that are at that cap or not there are people that are are that are at that cap if we can give you the exact amount tonight I may have to send that to the board at a later time not to misspeak it's in the executive content oh it's it is in executive content I'm I apologize. Okay. Thank staff and community. Um, so to provide some additional context, uh, Miss Linding, we can certainly go back and listen to that recording. However, based on how individuals were, uh, replaced prior to us adopting this compensation analysis and the results, we do anticipate every year there will be additional individuals who are at the the max range or exceeding the max range. So, as the superintendent said earlier, we're going to be reviewing

072this every couple years. Um, but every year the list of individuals potentially will grow as they continue to get their 4% annual cost of living increase and they get to the max of their range. There is information provided for personnel um within this agenda item under executive content regarding a 22 individuals within the district that are under review for this so one um I want to clarify that there all administration is on that same scale it's what grade you are on so one administrator is not being treated differently than another. No. So, I think that's the clarity that I need to hear because it sounds like there's two different schedulings. So, regardless, whatever grade you are at as an admin, as a non-union, if you get to the cap, you are all treated the same

073and frozen. So, this number is always going to grow because once you're frozen, you're frozen. So that we're always so that's why I said we have them because if we had them year one they don't fall off the list right so that that number is going to continue to grow which is why you go back every 3 to four years and that's common practice um in any industry to look at those bands and see if they need to to grow. So I just wanted to clarify on that that there is not a different process for certain administrators versus other administration or non-union staff. You are correct, Miss Fabian. I'll wait. Any other discussion on this motion? We do have a motion. Correct. Yes. Mr. Riddle mo made the motion. Miss Fabian seconded. We have a

074roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle. Yes. M. McBride. Yes. Miss Hannah. Um Yes, I will vote for the cost of living raise. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lindsing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Okay, moving on to item 13C. It is the recommendation that the board of education authorizes superintendent to sign the amendment of the intergovernmental agreements between the Illinois State Board of Education and Walkegan Public Schools District 60 approved on January 14th, 2025 for the purpose of supporting the recruitment of bilingual teachers and biol and the bilingual program. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Lindsay. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, yes. Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lindsay, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries.

075Item D. Teen D, vacation rollover request. It is recommended that the board of education approve the vacation carryover request as presented. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Favian. Any discussion on this motion? Yeah. How we usually know who the individual is that's requesting u this uh roll over it as employee. We usually know the name of the person right who is asking for this request. We the the number is nothing is means nothing to I don't want to know the name I mean does it matter who the individual is? Yeah it does color your vote. I will say that this motion is presented as it has been in the past, but I don't have a problem saying this is my request. I have been swamped with work. I

076have been I have been um also um we were short staffed for many months this year, so I was not able to get my time in. All right, that's all. Don't worry about what I'll be asking. Any further discussion on this motion? Um I would like to make a comment. Um I for me the the name of the individual doesn't matter. It's the circumstance, right? And because I'm very much more wanting to stay within our policy because we set the policy for a reason. And if we're going to be making exceptions here and there, maybe it's something we need to revisit. Very similar to to other discussions that we have. the rationale of our personnel being overloaded, not having the opportunity to step away, not having someone to delegate to, right? That rationale is what

077I'm more curious about. Um, and that rationale makes sense. Um, so I will be even though I prefer to stick with policy, um, the rationale of having no one else to to do that to, it really is unfair to the individual. So, I'll be voting yes for this. Thank you, Miss Lindsay. Me, too, Miss Aen. And so that was going to be my only comment was that hopefully the individual gets to use these days because if we're rolling them over, it's with the expectation that they're going to be utiliz no um your benefit time is your benefit. No, the request was um to just clarify that this is allowed in board policy. Yes, there's a rollover of up to 10 that can take place, but this through administrative approvals, if it's over 10, it has

078to come to right and it had nothing to do with coloring a vote. Board proceeds. Any further discussion on this? I I just like to ask a question, Mr. McBride. I'd like to ask the question. I think we did talk about this and and uh when you roll over your vacation uh how does that impact us financially? Does there a buyout on that or you just take them and you uh somebody help me because I do know that uh one one one entity that I set on we don't allow that because of the fact it impact us at uh because of the fact you have to pay that out at the end of the year. Yeah. And on here Mr. McBride, it says that there's no financial impact, but I am I I I understand

079what you're saying and it it makes perfect sense what you're saying, but you know, can we clarify? Because I thought sick time sick time impacts the pension benefits, but I don't know if they can. I can do you want Kathy, do you want to explain it? Anyway, I can Gwen might have to correct me on what payroll practices are. That's probably your best source. I didn't even see Gwen. What it boils down to is that instead of miss instead of the employee taking their time and the allotted time, there wasn't time. So, they're just going to take their 10 days. There won't be a cost after the July 1st timeline because they were not able to utilize the 10 days prior to it. And there is no buyout is I guess that's what the there's

080no buyout. No, we're not paying I didn't use it. So that is why we have the policy for the rollover because she can't cash that in essence. She can't cash that time out which is part of her benefits that we've already calcul. Yes. And it is within policy. Anything further? Roll call vote please. Mr. Riddle. Yes. Mr. McBride. Yes. Miss Hannah. Yes. Yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Item 13E, termination of probation. We're skipping that. Oh, we're skipping that. Okay. I'm sorry. We just need to tell the Yeah, we are skipping that item. Okay. Yeah. Item 14, grants and donations. I see none. Item 15, other nothing. Financial reports. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of education ratify the 2nd June 2025

081processing of board bills, manual check request payments, and old national bank insurance payments for the period of June 4, 2025 through June 17, 2025. The accounts payable board payments for the period of June 4th, 2025 through June 17, 2025 total $0. The manual check request payments for the period of June 4th, 2025 through June 17, 2025 total $493,69945. Though national bank insurance payments for the period of June 4th, 2025 through June 17, 2025 total $1,515,46155. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Mr. Riddle. Seconded. Second by Miss Fen. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, yes. Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lindsay, pass. Miss Ramirez, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Item 16B. It is the recommendation of the administration that the board of education authorize

082the treasurer to make and all interfund loans with the general fund not to exceed the aggregate sum of $10 million as authorized by the Illinois school code 105cs 5-20/20-4 as required in order to make appropriate payments of expenditures of the school district. This authorization will expire on July 1st, 2026. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Fabian. Any discussion on this motion? Yeah, this I'm looking at the description. The shortfall may exist due to the timing of revenue receipts versus the payment of expenditures. So, we just we're doing this as a temporary measure measure and we're going to pay back um pay back this before the end of the the fiscal year. Okay. Anything further for the audience? Um that was a yes and a yes. Okay. Did we have a

083motion? Yes. Yes. Motion by Mr. Riddle, seconded by Miss Fabian. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle? Yes. Mr. McBride? Yes. Miss Hannah? Yes. Miss Fabian? Yes. Miss Lensing, yes. M. Ramirez, yes. President, yes. Motion carries. Item 16 C. Continuing resolution authority. It is a recommendation of the administration that the board of education approve the proposed continuing resolution with this authority to expire upon adoption of the FY26 budget. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second. Second by Miss Lensing. Any discussion on this motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, yes. Mr. McBride, yes. Miss Hannah, yes. Miss Fabian, yes. Miss Lensing, yes. Miss Harris, yes. President Rodriguez, yes. Motion carries. Okay. Item 17, reports and presentations. Do we have any committee reports? No committee reports. Do we have delegate reports? Um, just that uh

084I attended the um the Illinois Literacy Summit. um um with the um with a bunch of um board members and uh lobbyists from all over Illinois. and we are working on our agenda for the upcoming uh year. Um, in terms of um what we're going to uh be asking um asking the legislation for in terms of literacy for schools and for um for uh reading. Um because I I was really sad to know that well we had asked we got $3 million last year in the budget and unfortunately we asked again for the um well we asked for 16 million because just to let you all know that $3 million was supposed to be spread throughout the state Mhm. of Illinois. And as for as many school districts that we have, that was simply I

085think we calculated it at maybe $8,000 7 $8,000 for um the implementation of the science of reading. And so, um, last year we were able to do do some things, but unfortunately this year in the governor's budget, uh, they cut that 3 million in half. And it it makes me just want to just scream at them. and they, you know, it's kind of like they wanted both ways. They want our kids to be good readers, but then they take the resources from them. And so, you know, um we're we're going to still be uh working and doing the lobbying. And I don't know, uh, I know I've mentioned it to, um, Deputy Cesario, um, and the superintendent about witness, uh, witness slips. And when they come forth to me, I'm going to um, send them

086or have the superintendent or Nick send them out. And if we could um if we could uh sign the witness slips so that we could get the support in the legislation because reading is so very important and um I know we're we're doing uh from what I'm understanding from the literacy here in the district we're doing good you know with uh implementing it and stuff like that. And so I'm just wanting to let you guys know that that uh we are very well represented down there. Right. Okay. And uh the senators and um um represent I don't know if she's a senator Mayfield but also Langford Lightford. He's very instrumental. Right, Miss L. Hannah, I want to thank you on behalf of the board for being our representative there and for your dedication and concern

087for literacy as we all care about, but I really appreciate the work you've done on that committee. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McBride. Yeah, like Mr. Riddle said, I don't think your work is nowhere near not recognized. I know I do anyway. I mean, uh, the 29 years mean something, but I just want to say that Chris's, uh, hands is tied. He's robbing a Peter to pay Paul. Just like he took money from Mister, he gave more money to preschool. Yeah, he did do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that that's true. Thank you, Miss Hannah. Superintendent report. Good evening. At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Eric Christensen to come up. Um, our five essential survey data from our schools is in and he will be presenting that tonight. of education, President Rodriguez,

088Superintendent Placencia, colleagues, and community members. I am very pleased tonight to uh share with you the results of the five essentials survey. Um I've been asked to do this on behalf of associate superintendent Mandy Malooki who is taking her well-deserved vacation days through this. What is the five essential survey? We get asked to do this every year. We have a big push every year for all the parents to do this. Uh all the uh staff members and students take this uh survey. It is an evidence-based system designed to drive improvement in schools nationwide. Um it the researchbased survey is required to use by the Illinois State Board of Education. The five essential system is based on more than 22 years of research by the University of Chicago consortium on school research and the results provide

089a comprehensive picture of the district and school environment based on five essential areas critical for student improvement. The next slide shows that over 22 states utilize this. So 10 million students, teachers, and parents provide the data for this, which helps the University of Chicago paint a good picture as to how these five essentials help. Next slide. There are three surveys. One is for the teachers, preK through 12th grade. The other is for the students, 4th grade through 12th grade. And then the last is for parents. All parents have the option to take it. The parent survey asks questions about the parents overall relationship with the school. Our goal for the parents is to get 20% of the parents to to um to participate. And we'll get into part participation rates a little bit later on.

090What are the five essential categories? So these questions are are driven to give us information about ambitious instruction, collaborative teachers, effective leaders, involved families, and supportive environment. The different surveys have different questions about these topics and they merge them in together to uh to create a composite score towards these categories. Next slide are the five essential ratings. So the scores that you get are are as as follows. the the the top score is to be well organized. So that is the top score. The next one is organized. In the middle we have moderately organized. Then we fall to partially organized and the lowest score you can get is not yet organized. So that is the ranking system for the five essential survey. Next slide. Walkgan's overall district status is moderately organized. It's number three right

091there in the middle. You see how it's all that golden tone over there? That means every category, all five categories are ranked as neutral. Um the green categories would be strong or very strong. The red would be weak or very weak. We are right in the middle. Um it was the same as we were last year. The next slides I'll go into some more details about that. This one shows the five categories specifically as to what our exact scores were in each of the five categories. The moderate or the neutral category is from 40 to 60. And you see they're all in there and they're all creeping up towards the strong. Um the top one is effective leaders. Effective leaders went from 56 points to 60 points. One more point and that area will will

092turn green. You see other ones are 56. That has four more points to go. 55 is five more points to go. Um, our lowest is school environment. That was 42 last year, which was just two points away from being red and now we're up to 46. So now it's it's it's inching away from the red and towards the green. The next slide shows key highlights. So we can dig into this uh report to find out where is Walkegan performing at the highest. So the highest one is parent influence on decision-making in schools with 64 points. English instruction 62 points, quality professional involvement 62, instructional leadership at 60, and program coherence at 58 points. So those are our top individual items within the categories. The next slide shows which individual categories have improved the most. So

093program coherence, which we got up to 58%, that was an 11 point jump from the year before. So 11 points in in a single year. Peer support for academic work was also a a major jump. Parent involvement in school was a jump. Um other ones that have improved our teacher parent trust and parent influence on decision-m in schools. The next slide shows which went the other way. An important thing to also consider. So our our our lowest uh category is expectations for post-secary education. This is pulled from teachers, parents and students. So that is our lowest ranking. Um followed by safety, schoolwide future orientation, student teacher trust, and teacher principal trust. So those are our low areas. Um opportunities for improvement. The next slides we're going to review the individual schools responses. we have student,

094teacher and parent and the uh the p participation percentage. It's important to note that at the elementary schools this is only fourth and fifth grade. So it's only two grade levels at the elementary schools. Early learning center are on here. It's the Robbie Lightoot early learning center. It's only prek. They have no student participation. You see the um teacher participation and the parent participation. Next slide. Here we have a few more schools just to kind of take a look through and see what they are. On this slide, I do want to highlight Clark Elementary School. 83% of their parents participated and submitted the survey where our goal is 20%. They far exceeded it. Most of them were around 30 to 50%. How did they do it? Yes. Amazing. So, they have a lot of good

095data from their parents. All right. Next slide. We got North Oakdale, Washington and Whittier, their participation rates. And then the middle school and high school, you know, as the high school participation is 6%, um survey taking gets to be a little bit uh less when you get into high school. Our goal is 20%. That 6% is still 250 uh of our parents have have have submitted. So we do have good data and we are able to look at the data. It's just not part of a published report when it's a 6%. We need 20% to get a published report, but lower than that we do get to see individual results. So, we do get that as long as as long as you have at least 10 parents uh submit. This next one talks about our

096individual schools. Us as a district, we went from mildly organized to mildly organized. We stayed right there in the middle. Each school has their own rankings. We have the rankings as we go across through the years. So last year we had five schools that were well organized. This year we bumped that up by one. We have six schools that are well organized that achieved the top ranking. Organized went down from six to three. Of course, one of them went up to well organized. Uh moderately organized increased from 1 to 7. Partially organized stayed the same. And not yet organized took a decrease five down to one. So there's only one school. Last year there were five. This year there's only one school that is at the lowest rating. The next few slides we'll go through

097and see the individual school results. If the last column is blue, that means they stayed the same as the year before. If it's green, it means they improved. And if it is yellow, it means they took a step back. Take a look at the first batch of schools here. And here is the second grouping of schools ratings from 2022 23 24 and the current ones from 2025. To summarize it on the next slide, nine of our 22 schools improved their five essentials rating. Seven of our 22 schools maintained their five essentials ratings and six of our schools decreased. Everything went either up by one or down by one. The next steps are our focus for next steps. Uh with our face department, we're going to work with um family and community engagement to collaborate with

098principles on increasing parent completion rates and setting goals for each school specific to the parent responses. Post-secondary teachers report they disagree that most of their students will go to college. How are we developing mindsets of teachers about our students post-secondary futures? How are we communicating our post-secary work with the teachers? How are students sharing their aspirations with the teachers? So, we'll be taking a look at that and and working on that through the year to improve the perception of Wagan students going on to post-secary success. And then the last category is safety. Students refuse report they feel mostly safe in classrooms and in hallways. They report they feel less safe outside and around the schools and in the bathrooms. What structures can we implement to help with safety outside around the school during arrival and

099dismissal time? What systems can we implement to increase safety in bathrooms? These are questions and things that we'll be working on through the year to help improve our schools so that walking can continue to improve and grow. Thanks. I have one question. Um few slides back when it was you're talking about the expectations for post-secary education came up with a 31% number and that has gone down. Yeah. This one right here. How how was that derived? So they ask questions about postlingary to teachers, students and parents and they take those those responses and they composite a a score from that. So um so they ask teachers questions about do you feel your your students are going to be successful in a post-secary career? Are they going to be successful in college? Are they going to

100be so they ask the teachers feelings on that? They ask students do you feel you're getting prepared for for post-secary? They ask parents do you feel that your children are getting prepared for post-secary? They asked different questions along postsecary. They composite that into the score. So the score is 31 points. I don't have the what the score was last year. Whether that went up or down, I don't have that in front of me, but that's the lowest score we got out of the categories. Thank you, Miss Fian. Um, sorry. All of the questions are online if you go to the five essentials and you can view the report per district and per school so that you can see exactly like it'll give you the graph on each question. Um, and Illinois is actually the only

101state that requires it and includes it as part of our uh, report card, which is why for us more than any other state, that 20% mark for parent participation is huge because that goes into and ties into our report card. So, when we're not hitting that mark, that means in our report card calculations, we're not hitting that mark. So, um, I know it's a struggle in the high school, but we've got to come up with ways to really get parent participation in there. But what I really was noticing is why we don't have the teacher participation at a higher rate when we have frequent staff meetings where all the teachers are together. Why isn't their time being set aside? um we shouldn't have like a 70% like if teachers are there there should be time

102that's set aside for them to be able to do this. So I would personally like to see not just that parent component go up but the teacher rates also go up the staff rates go up because there should not be an excuse as to why unless the teacher's you know obviously out during that time uh but it's like a three-month window. So um that that's my piece on that one. Um, when you guys were talking about next steps, um, there are on the ISBY website different tip sheets and flyers that are made that can be shared. So, every year, um, you can go in and and pull those down that kind of tell you what you can do to to increase those numbers. And then the other thing to also think about is when you're

103looking at the actual questions in the elementary level as a parent, it's a lot easier to answer versus middle and high school because it doesn't separate out by teacher. So when they're asking you questions about the school environment and they say like does a teacher contact you or how often does a teacher contact you weekly, daily, whatever. If you're in the elementary school, it's you've got one teacher where if you're in the middle or high school, you have, you know, five to seven teachers. And so those questions are how do you gauge that when you have one teacher that may call you every day, which I did, or like message you every day, what your child is doing versus some that you've never seen or heard from. Um, so that's the only thing with with

104when when you're looking at the middle school and high school. I personally always take those results with a little bit of a grain of salt because it's very hard to capture the whole gist when you're not asked specifically on all the different um areas in the school or or teachers in the school. Um so that's just that piece there. Thank you, Miss Lindsay. Um I do want to touch on that. So in elementary school, our our students do have multiple teachers, right? So, I get messages from, "Thank you, Mrs. Dudley," about, "Hey, so and so didn't bring their violin today. Really get on them." And it's like, "Huh, they brought it, but it's in the car." Um, so, so they do have a wide range, right? But there there is still a a difference between

105the the communication or being able to designate that. So, that would be great even if they filtered it down to the elementary piece. Um, ever since I was elected, it's always been, well, even before it's been about trust. And so, what I was really excited to see is that the perceptions of our teachers, our students, and our families is that um the teacherto parent trust, their perspective is that has increased, which is great. And I love that from their perspective, parent involvement in school has also increased, which is great. where I have concerns and it's come through a lot with some of with I'll just be specific with our black male achievement initiative is that there is a large lack of trust between that student population and their teachers and it's a widespread issue because

106we're we're sitting at 45 and that is a primary relationship right and I I said it before I'll say it again I know we do it with our elementary school students taking those first two weeks of school to really focus on relationship building within the classroom. It really needs to happen at the older grades. You really need to make sure you're building a community in your class even though you have six or seven of them throughout the day. But these kids need to be able to come to you for a variety of reasons. We're mandated reporters. you never know where these kids are going to find inspiration to propel them in life. Um, so I really want that to be a focus. And also our staff has the teacher to principal trust under 50. That's

107also a concern. So, I want us to I do like the recommended areas for focus for next steps because these are important, but I don't want that piece to be lost because if we are building communities within our community, within our classrooms, within our buildings, you're going to see increased safety. You're going to see an increase of interest in postsecary. Right. So, I just wanted to to point those pieces out. Thank you, Miss Hannah. Um, yeah. And the only thing that stands out me is um why are the teachers um why do they dis that most of their students go to cop that that that bothers me and um the first thing that came to mind was about um how we have lowered press And if that has played a part in I know it's

108next step you guys look at it but I certainly hope more that question noted Miss Hannah. Thank you Miss Hannah. Thank you Kristen. Okay, that's it for the superintendent report information items. A foyer report for May 2024 24. This is just the report that summarizes boy work for the last month. If there are any questions, let me know. That's supposed to be 2025. Yes. OA report May 2025. Okay. 18B student support handbook FY2025 2026 first reading. So this is the first reading of the student support handbook. Mr. Dupi is here as if anybody has any questions at this first reading. it is geared up to come back for a second reading at the first meeting in July. Um we have um addressed within here policy updates, practice updates, uh recommendations coming out of the discussion

109on managing lookalike weapons among other things. Thank you. I just wanted to highlight that um a lot of the addresses for admin have been updated to this building. So, I'm just kind of excited to see as a board that we're finally moving into this building because I feel like we've been waiting on that for quite a while. So, if we're updating it, I'm hoping that that means they're actually going to be moving here before the start of the school year. That is the plan. Thank you. Old business number 19, Yman Creek Lease Extension. I'm waiting for it to come up. I'm telling you, I'm not having a good time with board dogs. It is the recommendation that the board of education authorize the board president to execute the third amendment of the limited limited ground

110lease and the operations agreement with BQ Energy LLC for a lease extension at Yman Creek through December 31st, 2025 as approved by the Yman Creek Remediation Group and as recommended by the board special environmental council. Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Riddle. Second by Miss Hannah. Any discussion on this motion? Only that I am so pleased that we are moving forward with that and that they are starting to or will begin very soon to uh um solicit families to sign up for um our Yman Creek um uh solar farm. And um this is exciting. And so we're you know it's it's it'll be by the end of the year it should be operational. It's a long time coming. It's been a long time coming, Mike. Long before. Yes. Back when I was on the board

111before. Yes. Long time ago. Yes. But it's finally here. So, it's great. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Riddle, yes. M. McBride? Yes. Miss Hannah? Yes. Miss Fabian? Yes. Miss Lindsay? Yes. Miss Ramirez? Yes. President Rodriguez? Yes. Motion carries. Oh, okay. Item 20, new business. There is none. 21 student discipline matters are none. Board member time. Let's start with uh Miss Fabian. Um I hope everybody's summer's going well. I know summer school is going to end here soon. Um so please get those registrations for the following year. But also, I know there's been a lot of um emails being sent out about the back to school resource fair, which I'm always excited to see um the continuence of that. So, if you are

112a parent that is able to volunteer, please sign up. You do get volunteer credit, which helps reduce the cost of the fees that you owe. Um and if you are um uh um would like to attend, there's also a registration app um that you can also do. So please, please, please, if you have the time, go and volunteer. Thank you, Miss Favian. Miss Lensing, um I will say that June has been a crazy month professionally, personally, board member-wise, and I have not been able to make many of the events because it doesn't line up. So, my deepest apologies. I have not been able to attend Junth. I will not be attending the Walkagan parade. There's just a lot unfortunately conflicting with that. But I do want to plug that The Walk Pack is having their

113performance of Finding Nemo Jr. this weekend. So, Friday night at 7, Saturday at 3:00 p.m., Saturday at 6:00 p.m. You can purchase your tickets online. I'm not a fan of the service fee. I understand the the aspect of it. I'm not a fan of it. But if you wait until you buy it at the door, the ticket may not be there. Um, so just plan accordingly. Uh, the team this time did a really great job packing it all into to one month after summer school hours and um the kids are are going to do great. So, please come out, support the kids. Um, they're absolutely fabulous. Um, I am excited that we're finally getting to updating our job descriptions now that the the board has approved it. I hope they are easily accessible so you

114can go and if you are looking for that next level up, you can just go online, see what the job description is so you can start working on those skills. Um, so I'm I'm really excited about that. I will say as another component that I've been talking about is having SOPs or standard operating procedures. Um I know there's been some kind of discussion even at the board level of having something put in place. It just makes sense if we're going to have people um being promoted within the district. They need to learn their new job. So someone coming in needs to have a document where it's easy to kind of go off of and learn the ropes and and get it going. So, I'm hoping that's going to follow these job descriptions that that's something

115that we can take on as initiative. Um, two more things. The strawberries were amazing. I'm not I'm just I wish I could sneak in and and pick more. I won't. That's not that's not the right thing to do. I'll gladly pay your students, but my goodness, they were great. Um, and then the last thing is just we're we're in the summer months. We are going to get a little break of heat tomorrow, but it's ramping up. Make sure you're staying hydrated and make sure you're just pouring love into those around you because that's what we need most right now. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lindsay. Miss Hannah. Um, okay, Miss Hannah. Thank you. Okay, Mr. McBride. Uh yeah, Miss Lindsay kind of touched on what I was about to say, and that is that it's

116it's not it's hot out there. So, just be mindful of uh your seniors and stuff around you and uh because it ain't no joke. And uh at any given time, your neighbor, seniors around you, just people in general, just be mindful because of the fact that uh it's hot and and uh it's nothing to play with. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McBride. Mr. Um just the fact that um July 2nd um uh there's uh our Walkegan High School graduation for those who have now completed uh high school and I just want to be there and congratulate those people that that uh maybe needed a few more credits and and worked on that and and have succeeded. So that's uh 10:00 um on July 2nd. Thank you, Mr. Riddle. Thank you, Mr. Mirs. Uh strawberries were

117phenomenal. They actually smell really, really great. Uh I'm not a huge fan of strawberries, but the smell was phenomenal, so I had to eat them. Um yeah, heat is getting something terrible. Uh we're revving up. Um I know that it just seems like we just finished school and we're just getting ready to finish summer school. Um but in my regular job, we um start preparing for back to school fairs and I saw the calendar that we go back August 11th. Uh so parents, please prepare. It doesn't seem like it's a very long time away, but August 11th uh is coming up sooner than we think. Thank you, Mr. Ramirez. And uh first of all, I do have my tickets for Nemo. I I did buy I did buy them online and I am a big

118fan of strawberries. So these are going home with me. One for me, one for my wife. Anyway, man. Anyway, I just um want to um comment on this board. Um this has been a very demanding time for us. You know, um we've had a lot of meetings, a lot of different issues coming up, a lot of different uh responsibilities, board uh self-improvement, um various issues. And we have I don't think anybody realizes how much time the board actually devotes their responsibilities. And uh it's just been uh very uh impressive to me and very gratifying to see that all of our board members are making all these meetings. Um no matter how difficult it is, people work in the city, people have other commitments, have children, um other obligations, and yet everybody is making the time

119to be here to to uh fulfill their obligations as board members and everybody here wants to have their voice heard and wants to participate in the process. So, I just want to commend the board and thank you all for all of the hard work and dedication that you've shown. So, with that, I'd like to ask for a motion to journ. Motion by Miss Your first motion of the evening, Mr. The most important. The most important second by Mr. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned at 8:51. All right.