001The District 21 May 21st, 2026 regular board of education meeting is called to order. Carrie, would you please take attendance? >> Sure. >> Jessica, >> I'm here. >> Debbie, >> here. >> I am here. Arlin >> Here. Bill, >> here. >> Angelica, >> here. >> S. Alex and Nefrey is not here yet, but I won't mark him absent yet. Okay. All right. We have a quorum. Great. >> Uh, would everyone please rise for the pledge? >> I pledge algiance 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. >> All right. Thank you and welcome everyone to our May 21st, 2026 regular board of education meeting. Our last meeting of the school year. What a year it's
002been. Uh a few remarks before we go into our meeting. Uh May is recognized as mental health awareness month. It's a great reminder that your mental health is just as important as your physical health. If you have concerns about your child's mental health, please contact our health center. May 4th through 8th was staff appreciation week. We are incredibly grateful to our staff and thank them for their dedication and commitment to our students and the community. We wish to extend congratulations to Dr. Erica Slack, our nurse practitioner of our district 21 health center, who was recently recognized with the 2026 for all excellence excellence in clinical care award from Advocate Health. That is fantastic. Kudos to the London seventh grade boys volleyball team for winning their conference and having an undefeated season. Let's see. On Saturday,
003our fifth grade choir students from Poe, Whitman, Twain Field, and Riley schools will be performing the national anthem at the Shamberg Boomers baseball game. And the fifth grade choir students from Tarkington will perform on Tuesday. We wish everyone luck in their performances. Uh, I want to congratulate everyone uh on the middle school track teams on an incredible sectionals track meet last weekend. Um, while I experienced a horrendous sunburn, that's not really the point. Um, some of these kids honestly are so incredibly talented, but everyone tried so hard. It was really a neat me. This was my first year in at a middle school track meet and it was really incredible just to see the sportsmanship between the schools, between the athletes. Um, and a thank you to Sue Stein who apparently is the announcer. Um,
004thank you to Organic Life for the beautiful dinner they prepared for our celebrants and for us tonight. As always, everything was delicious, especially those meatballs. Uh, but I know we appreciate their efforts to help us show our appreciation for staff at the May meeting. Uh, another reminder that student registration for the upcoming school year is open. If you have not already done so, please register your children to help us plan accordingly to make staffing and classroom space decisions for next year. Uh CCSD21 will again participate in the seamless summer lunch program providing free healthy meals throughout the summer to students and members of the public. We just ask that you're 18 years of age or under. The program begins May uh Monday, June 8th, and a list of all the times and locations can be
005found on our website. And last but not least, congratulations to all of our eighth grade students. We are so proud of your hard work, growth, and accomplishments throughout your middle school journey. We will see you at your promotion ceremonies next week and we wish you all the best as you move on to high school. Uh, I'd like to welcome Sher Clump, one of our local elected officials from the Wheeling Park District with us tonight. Thank you for being here. Any individual physically present at the meeting wishing to address the board must complete a comment card and provide it to Miss Del Rail. Written public comments can also be submitted by emailing us at district21cccsd21.org. All right, let's move into our first section of awards and recognitions. Tonight, just prior to tonight's board meeting, our district
006came together to celebrate our staff by honoring our retirees, recognizing distinction in our support personnel, and celebrating excellence in our licensed staff members. We had a total of 23 staff members retiring, five staff members uh five recipients of the recognizing distinction award, and 13 staff members receiving the celebrating excellence award. Congratulations to all. And the next set of individuals we would like to recognize are our student representatives. Um these students have done an incredible job representing their schools on our board and we are so grateful for your service to your community and to your district. Dr. Connelly. >> Thank you. Um so I'm going to turn it over uh to Mr. Lapatino who has um been um their administrative liaison uh all year long and I know he'd like to say a few words. Um
007so Mr. Lapatino, >> thank you so much. Um I just wanted to I won't make this long, but I just wanted to take a few minutes and just uh recognize and thank you um for the time that you all have committed. Um so I just want to speak more specifically to the two of you that are here tonight. Um, Alex, um, I want to tell you that you are a leader who leads with intellectual depth and conviction. I think your vocabulary is far more superior than mine as an adult. Um, so I thoroughly impressed by that. Um, you uh, you have a complexity of your thought and you articulate all of your thoughts so well. Um, for being for being an eighth grader, right? Um, you demonstrate your powerful growth and your capacity to influence
008and guide others. Um, I also think um you just you have taken on such a leadership role and such a thoughtful piece and all of the questions that you've put to the board to to all of us to help us learn and grow. So, thank you for that, Alex. Um, Selma, your leadership is defined really by a humble example. Uh, though you seek to avoid the spotlight at times, your actions seem to speak volumes regardless. Um, your willingness though to actually be on stage for for the musical, for band and choir. You're a growing leader who shows your true influence comes from a commitment and dedication and not the desire for attention. Um, thank you both so much for just your your dedication and >> timing is everything. >> That is amazing timing. Um, I
009just wanted to tell you, Fred, um, just that you as a leader, you embody the the observant and confident leader. Um, your peers naturally look to you. You're there drawn by your genuine curiosity that has grown um, this past year. You lead by presence. Uh, whether you're guiding your team on the court or contributing to discussions in the classroom, really just setting that example for others. um just thank you so much for the time that you've given, for your thoughts and ideas, for just helping to kind of constantly steer us and and help support us. So, thank you so much. And if I could just add that um it has been really great getting to know you this year. Uh having you on my superintendent student advisory council, uh you were leaders in that group.
010um oftentimes facilitating conversations with your peers um which is always uh sometimes can be a difficult thing to do particularly when we're asking for um feedback on on different things that you all are are seeing in our schools. Uh and just the insight um that you have brought uh to this room uh to the board of education and to me uh as the superintendent has really helped us make hopefully what are good decisions um for you and for your peers. So, um I can't wait to see what you do in high school. Um if you're uh already as engaged as you are in 8th grade, stick with it. Um that is uh one of the major keys to success in high school is being involved uh and being dedicated to something that you enjoy. So,
011I encourage you to not that I think it will be an issue for you, but to get involved uh and to find those things that that really drive your passion um in high school. So, um, we have a an award for each of you, little plaque, um, that you can put up at home. Um, and you have definitely earned it. So, um, we're going to come around and present these and take some pictures together. Um, and, uh, let's give our our, um, student representatives a round of applause. Tell you what, let's get you Thank you. Parents parents take I also just wanted to make one quick um recognition. Uh also um uh two weeks ago, our principal at PO Elementary School successfully defended her dissertation. So, um, we can now refer to her as Dr.
012Stallman. Um, and just wanted to say congratulations to Dr. uh Stallman. Um, that's a lot of work. Uh, and, um, we're very proud of her and, uh, she is doing an amazing job, uh, leading Po and we're looking forward to many more years of that to come. So, congratulations Dr. Stallman. She was here earlier, but I think she like went home to her kids. So, you know, exciting stuff. All right. Next on our agenda is staff communication superintendence report. We have a few presentations tonight. The first is AI arts and enrichment curriculum presentation. Dr. Connelly. >> So, yes. So, uh, very excited, uh, to, uh, have our final round of, uh, presentations for the, uh, current school year. Uh, so, Mr. Lepino, I'm going to have you come on back up to the, uh, to
013the mic and, um, talk a little bit about where we're going with, uh, arts enrichment and AI. Big topic right now. >> Sounds good. Thank you so much for the time. Um, so I am I'm excited to be able to kind of just update the board on some of the the actions that really we've been taking over the last two years. Um, so it won't be just me tonight just talking through some of those pieces. We have uh quite a brain bank behind us uh just working through some of these pieces that we've been working through literally for years. Um so we're excited to kind of work through um and update you on where we're at and where we're going. So the first part that we're going to be um really focusing on is um
014leveraging artificial intelligence in district 21. Uh the reason why we wanted to really try and leverage on that is really to um the point about using the artificial intelligence in a school setting is not about replacing screen time. It's not about more screen time. It's really about trying to use our time uh more effectively. Um and so I just wanted to really point out why why are we even considering artificial intelligence when there's there is a lot of controversy that surrounds this at this time. Um, and so we really wanted to point out the whole purpose is that point on the very bottom of the screen is just that maximizing the achievement and honoring the uniqueness of every student. We do feel like AI can help us to to meet that need to really help
015support our students and grow as much as they possibly can. Um, and really that's um AI as I hope you'll see in tonight. um we were able to find some really strategic points where that can really help to support that growth for students, provide that individualized attention and to help to support the teachers in the classroom, right? That that are trying to meet the needs of so many learners within and in front of them. Um and trying to find that that opportunity to really to really support that. Uh and this overall is really just the map of where we have been over the course of the last two years uh since the inception in 2023 with chat GDP and how the world just kind of stopped for a moment to to realize what could happen
016with this this evolution of of chip development and what that looks like. Um so I won't go through each and every bullet but basically these are each different stopping points where we were trying to figure out what is AI's place going to be in our in our school district. We started back in 2023 trying to set some just parameters and guidelines for our staff to make sure that we knew when we should and when we should not use artificial intelligence was really our focus. Um we really sat with that for a while as as the landscape changed literally on a daily basis as as tools changed as the power and the the capacity of AI just changed literally overnight. As time went on, we felt more comfortable kind of dipping our toe into things. So,
017starting in 2025, um, is really when we we took a stronger stance in and finding that tool that we thought was a good fit for us. Magic School AI stood out for us as one of those strong tools that we could use with staff first. And I I will I want to you'll hear that a lot tonight as we started with is we wanted to take a very um very careful stance and a very restrictive stance as we try to to leverage that use of AI. Um and so we really started in 2025 with staff focusing on what the tools were. Uh they came out with some fabulous tools that were very specific rather than being a overall generative guidance. it was much more built around a very specific tool for a very specific purpose.
018Um, and really trying to hone in on that. After that, in December, we started doing some pilot groups where students were actually the ones using it under very clear guidance, communication home, letting letting families know, letting staff and and and students what we were doing and why we're going down this path. Um and and really it's um that that last bullet as we talk moving on that upcoming goal, we'll talk more about where we really think we're going and and where where we think those next steps are. Um so so we thought we we'd get a lot of staff that have that interest and that perspective uh and bring them together in a committee. Um but really we we called this committee our AI integration team because it was really trying to find those those
019natural points on when artificial intelligence would really support that instruction support that student learning as much as possible. Uh so these almost monthly meetings we were coming together and really sharing out th those ideas supporting each other um trying to find different ways and different tools to integrate. every month it was changing and we were finding new different paths that we could that we could attempt and explore. Sometimes a dead-end moment. We're like we're not going to go there. Uh but really we're trying to to bring all of that knowledge together as a cohesive unit. Um and really the the focus was on supporting staff trying to to dip their toes. The this committee was charged with bringing those ideas back to their buildings and to find out what we were learning and bring that
020knowledge back to our back to our integration team. >> Good evening. So, from the start of our AI journey, we placed a focus on protecting staff and student information. As our dependence on online tools continues to grow, uh it's an obligation that gets harder to balance, but it's one that we can never lose sight of. In the early days of staff AI use, we approached it as kind of a wild west time and didn't immediately move to any embrace to embrace any particular tool uh that was out in the world because buying into an online tool becomes an endorsement. An endorsement creates a sense of trust that might not be intentional and might not be earned. Uh so we encourage or we provided general guidelines on responsible AI usage to our staff and encouraged them
021to explore its possibilities and its ethical considerations as well. So in our AI guidance to staff, we made sure to stress to teachers to never put personally identifying information into AI tools and chatbots as that data is often used to train and refine future AI models. Our data is how many AI services survive and thrive. So over time as the market matured uh some services did start to offer guarantees to not use chats or other data to improve their models and we dove into some deeper conversations with a few of them and we obtained data privacy agreements for all of our approved online educational tools. It's not just a good idea it's the law now. So we have fura and soapa privacy agreements for our approved AI tools such as Magic School and Google Workspace
022and we even arranged to have a HIPPA compliance agreement with Google for our workspace environment. So while we love to see experimentation at the staff level, we want to be very deliberate when it comes uh to the student level even in trials. So the doctrine that we operate under is the students should not speak to AI without oversight. This is in line with board policy and helps with accountability at all levels. Magic School's offerings are specifically designed around the needs of education and give teachers full insight into student usage and student conversations. Teachers have every ability to make sure the students are behaving and that the AI is behaving as well. Google Workspace has had their Gemini artificial intelligence tools available for some time now with the same high privacy guarantees as the rest of
023the online suite that we pay for. Their offerings are always changing and recently added deep integration of Gemini AI into the everyday tools we use like Google Docs and Google Slides, allowing teachers to quickly create and modify content, even generate entire presentation slides complete with bespoke pictures. So they do offer a version of Gemini that's geared towards students, but the ability to audit that student usage is not there yet. So until it is, we cannot recommend it or offer it to students. We've deliberately only enabled Gemini features for district staff. We do have a great relationship with Google and our representatives have heard our request for this accountability loud and clear. So we hope to see more on this front in the next school year. Good evening. Um, so beginning in December of 2025, our
024AI integration team started implementing a tiered voluntary pilot group um, and a roll out of Magic School AI student features. These are AI powered educational tools designed specifically for student use within the classroom to support learning activities such as brainstorming, writing assistance, tutoring, studying, um, and guided academic practice. All of this while operating within a safe, school-managed, and educator monitored environment. Prior to the start of the trial, we wanted to prioritize responsibility and transparency um by requiring teachers to review our district's student AI guidance with students before classroom implementation. We also wanted to ensure strong communication with our pilot groups by having teachers um both notify both their school administrators and their families prior to using Magic School with their students. So between August and March of this year, over 400 staff members have actively
025used Magic School as part of their instruction planning and student support activities. These staff members generated more than 15,000 AI assisted outputs, demonstrating strong engagement and consistent integration into their daily practice. Educators used over 80 different tools within Magic School, which highlights the platform's versatility across a wide range of instructional and professional needs. Our three most top used tools were our Raina, which is a chatbot. So, this is um anytime a staff member was not sure of a specific tool because it could be a little overwhelming. They could talk to Raina and she might give a recommendation or feedback or you can customize Raina to be a um customized tool to your liking. uh our text translator was our second most used tool and our writing feedback tools which were primarily used by the teacher
026to support student writing and give feedback and res revision uh for them. So our usage trends and our data indicate that staff are primarily leveraging AI to improve communication, increase accessibility and provide timely individualized feedback to students. Good evening. So, uh, we also wanted to find out from our CCSD 21 staff how many staff were actually using AI tools in the district and what they were using it for. So, we took some time to survey all staff. We we sent out a a survey in February of this year. Um, we had about 138 staff members respond to that survey out of which 30% reported to be using AI tools almost weekly. 40% of our staff who took the survey reported they were using AI tools to support the unique needs of needs of our you
027our learners. For example, helping them um plan for acceleration or advanced learners or meeting the needs of our ELELS or students with IEPs. Some of the common applications they mentioned using was um using AI for differentiation. Um maybe changing the reading levels of complex texts or adapting assignments uh for students with IEPs or EELs. Sometimes they also reported using uh AI to help them with providing students with specific feedback based on rubrics that were uh CCSD rubrics or for enhancing revisions on a claim response evidence. So the writing pieces that go on in especially in the middle schools. Um some of the teachers reported that uh students were more re receptive to feedback from the chatbots than from the same things that were mentioned by their teachers. But so yeah, that was a unique piece
028there. Um and the other piece that they also reported using AI for was lesson planning and resource creation. So uh creating assessments, um word problems in math, some rubrics or even like writing social stories and providing visuals for our learners. So these were some of the ways our our staff reported using AI uh in the classroom. So, in just a moment, you'll see a sneak peek at how students have been using Magic School in our pilot group. The first few students in this video are from Miss Crowley's class, and they actually presented this exact magic school use case in Springfield at the state capital. So, enjoy. Okay. What are you guys up to today? >> So, we are doing a home story, a wildlife home story about like endangered animals in Illinois. Me and Emily
029are specifically an eastern muscle saga and rattlesnake. >> We were researching about a piping clover and we added all of our writing in so that it can tell us some feedback and growth. >> And we're using it. It shares with us our areas of strength and areas of growth and we use that to help our writing and make it better. >> All right. We had a chatbot on Magic School in our classroom uh created to have my students chat with historical immigrants who came to the United States that were able to share their immigration stories. And here's a student who's going to talk us through the process so you can see what a cool experience it was. >> Hello third grader. Welcome. I'm immigration voices and I'm here to help you learn about real people
030who came to the United States from other countries. Before we start, which language would you like to use? English, Spanish? Just let me know and we'll chat together. >> It says, "Great. You chose English. I'm going to introduce you to a famous person who immigrated to the United States. You can ask questions about them so you can find out. What are we going to find out, Janna? Read us some questions you can ask. >> We're going to find out why they left their home country, what their journey was like, and the challenges they faced and how they succeeded. I'm doing a reading tongue twister. Ruby reads really exciting stories about red robots. Big bulky boats raining with basic math basics. >> Water bottle wobble while kids gulp greedily. >> Calculating cats count correctly on colorful
031colorful calculators. Busy backpacks bounce with books and binders. >> Sunny skies shine brightly on sleepy students. >> We've just finished working with magic school. What did we use it for? We use it to uh make uh compound sentence and compound complex sentences. >> Mhm. And how did it help you? >> It helped me cuz like it gave me like uh tips and like ideas to make my sentence better. >> Okay. And have you used it for anything else? >> Uh yes, I've used it for for math to help me with uh my equations and for uh social studies to help me to get my questions for inquiry project. So looking ahead to next school year and the future, we aim to further prioritize professional development. This means targeted training on AI tools as well as
032different differentiation so that we can adapt the tools according to our students accommodations and needs. We also want to offer teachers some time-saving applications for their own work. and we're going to have a larger focus on student usage. With this, we want to of course reinforce the idea that we are not looking to increase screen time for students, but rather we're aiming to maximize student learning and the time that they're spending on their devices. This is going to accompany more best practices that we'll share next school year. So this includes responsible usage for both teachers and students and reviewing feasibility of opening up staff and students uh for more opportunities and best practices as we move forward. Thank you. >> Are there any questions before we move on to the next segment uh that's covering
033enrichment and those next steps? >> Um I just had a had a comment. Um, I think this is amazing work that you guys are doing. Especially when I I double clicked through on the student AI guidance and how they should use parts for the prompt. I was like, "This is amazing. I need to print this out so I can use it as well." Um, and I actually just listened to an NPR podcast today talking about AI and how a lot of teachers are getting burnt out, especially with all the paperwork with IEPs and things like that. And there were teachers on there saying that they were using them to kind of help craft their goals and they were doing it in minutes and as opposed to saying like it usually takes me like 30 minutes
034to do something like this. So I think it's great that we're embracing these tools cautiously but also helping you know helping the burden that a lot of our teachers have that are that's leading to burnout. So thank you for all the work that you guys are working on this. And you know, I think that's actually one of the things that I see as one of the major uh potential benefits is our teachers ability to be more efficient with their use of time. We know how much our teachers are going home and working on things, right? Um I as I was playing around in magic school, um went back to my social studies teacher days. uh took an eighth grade social studies standard, put it into magic school and asked it to generate um a series
035of open-ended questions um at various layers of they call it depth of knowledge. So DK 1 2 3 4 each layer being more and and and the questions that it generated again it's that 8020 rule you know it's not 100% straight out you have to go through it you have to make those modifications but it would have taken me an hour um to come up with even half of the questions at that level um and in seconds uh I had it and just to the level of productivity um that would uh be available there I think you know when I was teaching you know 25 years ago. Um would have been amazing. >> Chris, um two things. First of all, could you introduce your presenters? >> Yes. >> My apologies for not starting. We have
036Elizabeth. We have Anthony. >> Thank you. You you talked about the work with the students and staff. what is the um the integration of it or the the work you've done with parents as they've come to discuss these things with you? How how have they been reacting? >> Um I I think we've we have heard some um mixed pieces with parents. Sometimes it's more a matter of um a parent's own experience with artificial intelligence and some of the worries that we have. Right? So so many of the artificial intelligence pieces that are out there in the world don't have those same safeguards. So there's a lot of those pieces that I think we need to continue to communicate some of those pieces out of what our tool does differently, why we're wanting to make sure
037that we teach our students about AI. Um it it's one thing to try and and ignore it and pretend like it's not there. Um, but we we know many students go home in an unfiltered way are using AI in different pieces and and we need to to teach them how to to better utilize it and use those tools and be ready for it. Um, and to also to build that capacity that they are not leaning on the tool so much that they are not building that knowledge and strength within them. And that's where we need to reinforce that it is truly a tool. Um, so I I think we need to continue as we look at rolling out more strongly in a student lens. I think we need to continue to share out um part
038of that parent communication when we did the piloting groups. There is some clear-cut communication of here's what we're using it and here's why we're using it. We're not just swapping out a a worksheet for screen time and in artificial intelligence. We're really trying to find that that natural connection. So, I think we're going to need to continue to do that. I think we're need to continue our staff to support it. There are still staff that are still unsure about it and and and rightfully so. There's a a lot of pieces to that. So, I think we have a lot of work to do to bring our students up to to speed, to bring our staff and and parents along. >> Thank you. >> My Can I piggyback on Bill because my comment similar to his.
039>> Sorry, Arlin. I heard you start to talk. Go ahead. >> Um, first of all, I think I agree with what you said. The teacher side of things, I think AI is incredible for the teacher workload. The tools are amazing. I agree with Bill with the parent communication. Like I think as we continue our journey with AI moving forward, there's a lot of like misconception from parents. Elizabeth, I loved your comment about we're not increasing screen time, we're just making it more purposeful and we're giving kids the opportunity to get feedback while they're on their screens. It's not just fillers, right? So I think the more we can kind of share that vision. So, because there's a lot of um not in 21, but just educationally wide, there's a lot of concerns with screen time.
040>> And I know when we say AI, it just makes it sound like, whoa, whoa, wait, I thought we were all pulling back from screen time and now here we are like going faster. So, again, communicating how we're using it, you know, really trying to educate people on how it's maximizing time that kids are using screens versus adding time. So, >> it was great. Lots of detail. Thank you. So Chris, I've probably had more questions about computers and AI than anything else in years. Um, you mentioned that teachers can control have the ability to control what's happening with AI. I think the problem you're going to have is to convince parents that that there's a way to do that. I'll give you an example. I had a call last week from a parent in another
041district but who was her head was on fire because her son had asked the teacher if he could experiment with AI. They had an assignment to write a poem and she said, "Oh, sure. Go ahead and do that." He went on and fed the AI some information about the poem. AI spit out a poem which he then submitted as his own work. teacher never knew it was his AI work, graded it as an A, and his mom was just livid because she knew what had happened. And the question that I've got is how do we control that kind of stuff? I think going back to the tools that we are purposely using or not using. So going back to Magic School, we can see what students are how they're communicating with the the tool. we
042can kind of put those guard rails up of how much they're using it, the frequency, whether it's open or closed for them. Um, I think that's the first step. The other piece is taking some of this offscreen, right? Going back to some of those pieces of just writing some going back and handwriting some of the problems, just working through that that as I can hear Amy Bryer in the back of my head saying like that that piece of that that physicality of of writing that interaction is still so good for kids, right? And so I I think it's about trying to find that balance of when are we purposely going on the computer to to have that communication so that a teacher doesn't have to have 27 different conversations, but they can put everyone on
043a screen for three minutes and everyone can have an individualized conversation and come back. Right? If we can save that time from from that staff member having to connect every single moment, that that that's going to give us some of that time back that we can really hopefully gain some moment momentum and speed and what we're able to to support our students in their growth. So I I think I think choosing our tools carefully is going to be critical in those next steps. >> I also Thank you. I also think the more we educate kids on how they can use it, you know, that story was a child who didn't know how to use it and then right was exploring on their own and look what happened. So the more we can take advantage of
044that and teach our kids how to use it to enhance their own work, then they're going to do less of that exploring on their own and hopefully understand how to use it with a purpose. >> Maybe Thank you so much. All right, so we are going to then shift gears um to our some updates on our enrichment programming that that's also been playing out this last year. Um and some recaps just to kind of make sure that we are all on that same page. Um so for this first part, we just want to stay grounded in our strategic plan. um making sure that we are um purposely uh utilizing our resources to focus on these three areas especially that's called out in our strategic plan. So that first area we're going to cover tonight is
045on STEM, music and arts and trying to go back to the idea of continue to provide highly successful programs in technology, music and the arts and seek ideas for growth and enhancement was was our what we're trying to go after in our strategic plan. Um Esther Rodriguez is is going to cover this first part related to our STEM fields. >> Good evening everyone. So um related to our STEM field for this school year, we have a few updates. Um so the first thing that we did this year is we're trying to um increase STEM opportunities for our students in the middle school. So we started with um a new elective, a project lead the way elective called medical detectives. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Okay. So, that's medical detectives that we started at the middle school. It
046was started at Cooper Middle School for 8th grade students. Um, currently um and students, we had about eight sections of medical detectives right throughout the school year. Students were able to collect and analyze medical data and diagnose it for diseases. One of the highlights that students did was the a dissection of a sheep brain as well as learning about the human body and how the breakdown of the human body leads to dysfunction and disease. Um we had a lot of success at Cooper and so for the next for the next upcoming school year we would we are trying we are going to be implementing medical detectives at um London as and as well as and as at homes as well. Um so that was at the middle school level. Another thing that we did at
047the middle school was to continue with advanced coding. This is for our sixth graders who um at the in fifth grade who have who have shown an excitement and um wanting to do a little more of coding. Um at the elementaryaries in the fifth grade our elementary STEM teachers identified about six to eight students in each of their schools. Um then at the high at the middle school level uh we had a class of one section of about 24 28 students who participated in in advanced coding for one trimester. Um a highlight of this particular group of students was um just on Monday they these students went to see district 21 district 214's app showcase wherein high school students displayed some apps that they had created. our students got to go over to Hersy High
048School, view the apps as well as discuss how they how the students coded it along with the with the with the high school students. So, it was a great opportunity for the students to see what's going on out there, actually see the apps that could be created and u maybe over the summer create their own apps. Okay. Um so that was one and then the third thing that we we have been doing starting from last year and I'll talk a little more about this in the next slide is project lead the way um especially at the elementary level. I'm going to talk a little more about that in our next slide. Um the school year is almost coming to an end but we always want to keep continuing and growing and giving our students additional
049opportunities even in the summer and we are going to be doing a STEM camp this summer starting June 8th. Um the STEM camp has a lot of activities where students will be engaging with Lego spike kits, snap circuits, bbots as well as drones. Um the morning part of it will be done mostly by our district teachers. But in the afternoon we are also partnering with D214 uh teachers and they will be coming in to teach our students um a lot of fun STEM stuff. of some of the classes they will be doing will be spa science like learning about the science of salons um science of candy that's always a fun one as well as Lego robotics so excited for this STEM summer program in June and hoping that will go all well so that's
050about STEM at the for summer in addition I just wanted to uh give you all a quick update about project lead the way and afterchool programs times for at the elementary level. So last school year we had received uh $10,000 for three of our middle for three of our elementary schools. Uh we used that money to start training our teachers in project lead the way and we were able to implement two afterchool programs um for project lead the way. We had about 25 participants for each of those clubs um totaling to about 49 participants. This year we decided to try to um give that opportunity to all elementary students across the district. We were able to get grants for all the rest of the six elementary schools. We were able to train about 17 teachers
051across the district. And the number we had about 15 after school clubs. This is only specific to project lead the way but it's all STEM related. And we moved from 49 students last year to 231 participants in all of the STEM clubs. U actually project lead the way clubs. So really um excited about that and looking forward to increase that participation giving early elementary students the opportunity to get get involved. They always so curious just to help them nurture that curiosity and and get a little more interested in robotics in just experimenting and having fun with science and STEM. Um, and back to our middle schools, we applied applied again for a few more grants for the middle school level. We have received $15,000 for the next school year for each of our three middle
052schools and we will be using those funds to increase Project Lead the Way implementation at all three of our middle schools. So, really excited about that. Thank you. This is just also a highlight of some of the the clubs in action. We just wanted sometimes it's so much better just to see some of the times of of what some of the students are doing. So, some of them are engaging in some of the coding activity uh and doing some construction and some building. Again, some additional pieces of just kids engaged in just good good deep STEM knowledge. All right. So, we're going to switch gears and we're going to switch to music and just really highlighting some of the pieces that we've been able to work over uh really this last year. Some of these
053things have been in place for a while. Um many of our our student board reps were actually part of our musicals that happened this last uh these last spring um with all the different productions that they had at our middle schools. We had our performing music academy that happens every summer. This summer we're actually up to 400 participants of students coming back for orchestra, band, chorus, all in that jump start of getting the school year started. So, we are we're excited and we're we're kind of packed to the gills, but we're working through just making sure that we're we're starting off the year well with the performing music. Uh we always host our solo and ensemble contest. This is just an opportunity for judges and adjudicators to come in and provide some constructive feedback to
054students and how they're doing with their instruments, with their their coral programming. We had our our second annual coral festival bringing together what felt like everyone. Um we were able to bring together uh roughly a little over 400 students or so uh both the high school both from fifth grade to 8th grade for that coral showcases for the voices rising through the storm. That was fun. >> It is. It is great. So much work from the staff and from from Emily Buhenik that helps to lead and and organize that. It's just a great showcase. And just again highlighting our orchestra band and chorus programs. Um just I wanted to kind of reiterate um because sometimes I lose track. Uh in currently this year in orchestra alone we have 516 students actively participating. In band we
055have 627 and in choir we have 330 students. So just speaks volumes to the the the amount of of focus and strength that we have in our music programming here in district 21. And just to highlight one more piece, we also partner with Wheeling High School during the summer to provide an extra opportunity for our orchestra students to have like a week-long camp session as well for orchestra. All right. So, we're going to switch gears one more time to that that idea of art and trying to really um really give some focus attention on this as well. Um so, starting off on the right hand side where that photography lens um we started this back a few years ago where in the middle school programming they were actually incorporating digital photography. We're we're keeping that
056we're we're keeping that pieces engaged. We're we're going to look at continue pieces of some of the different apps that we can utilize at both of the iPads just to really enhance that programming. Um, we are also holding just like the coding in sixth grade, we have an advanced art class in sixth grade that our staff actually help to support and kind of give like a some a bit more freedom for some students to perform art and kind of at their own speed for students that are like all in on the art projects and and really wanting to go a little bit deeper than maybe a student typically would. the the one on the right, the digital art, excuse me, it was the left on the on the left is our digital art edition that
057was new to this year. This is for fourth and fifth grade. Uh thankfully with uh Dr. Childress's support, we've been able to to purchase uh 90 iPads that are in those feeder patterns. Um where 30 iPads are in each feeder. Each each elementary school actually gets to keep those iPads for about a month or two. Um during that time they're working with an app called Procreate, which is a horrible name for an app, but it is a I know I'm >> sorry. Uh but what I will say is it truly helps with that creation. Um we are this app is is really used by artists, illustrators, people that are in that art field. Um our students are getting exposure to this in fourth and fifth grade and and are able to really engage with it
058at a really high level. Um, the ability to change and manipulate art on a digital device is far different than if you are painting. If you've ever experienced frustration from a first or second grader that just oops on their their their drawing that they've been f focusing on for a week and what happens when they spill paint on and when they do something they don't want to. There is an element that we should be teaching kids to deal with that struggle and so forth. And that's good. But for that digital art to be able to undo, to go back to to be able to fix things and and create at at such a deeper level is something that that is is just a wonderful opportunity for our students. Um they are just working on their
059communication skills and just really um we're looking to enhance this moving forward with some additions of stop motion advertising and really just some visual culture pieces and and trying to see where else we can go with this. Perhaps the last part I'll speak to this is um not only are we having the STEM camp over at uh being hosted at homes this summer, but we are also having the art and design academy um that'll focus on those same pieces for that week-long programming from June 8th to the 12th that they're able to engage in that art for kids that are just again all in in art and working to go through that. And just because their work speaks much much better than my my verbal speech. Um these are just some of the the different
060uh creations and and we have some different animations we'll we'll show share with you once we are kind of done with the units but just as kids ga engaging in the artwork is great to switch gears one more time. Thank you for just allowing me to stay up here. Um really just working through on just wanting to highlight again for the the 60 plus sports teams and clubs that we have that are that are across the board. Um just again highlighting all the support that you've provided with all the different sports and opportunities in our district. Uh we've been able to enhance a bit more our soccer clubs been able to do some competitions between the buildings themselves and kind of host a much larger competition where we provided busing for that. So that's been
061a great addition that we've been able to enhance this year. Um and one more summer program that we've been able to add from June 8th to the 12th is that sports and fitness academy. just for the for the sheer sake of it, we've been able to triple the involvement of the number of students that we can reach in these three programming lenses than what we have the last few years just by being able to to offer it up and try and find those different areas of focus. So, sorry for the Latin reference there, but but um that's just really an update. I think what we're looking for moving forward is find those moments where we can really continue to enhance and support where we can grow in these areas and find those those points of
062leverage. So, um any questions >> exciting? >> Thank you so much. >> Alex, did you have a question? >> Yeah. So, um for the medical detectives program, I know it's currently at Cooper, but like you said, you're going to roll it out to the other two middle schools next year. Are you planning to still be only for eighth graders or is it going to be through all middle school grade levels? >> Uh, at this point, medical detectives we feel is the best fit for eighth grade because of some of some of the the science terms, some of the health terms that are used within it that it's really a good fit for eighth grade for sure. >> Okay, thank you. >> I was worried there for a moment, Alex. >> Um, I had a comment
063for the digital art. So, I have a brother in fourth grade and he told me about how they were using iPads. I didn't believe him at first. That was really surprising to me. I'm like, "Why are you how are you guys using iPads in our class and he's like he's like it was really fun and that they use Procreate to draw?" Like, he really enjoyed it. >> That's great to hear. Thank you for sharing. >> Great. Thank you so much. That's great. >> Right. Lots of exciting stuff. All right. Next, we have a presentation on the literacy curriculum. Uh, Dr. Connelly. >> So, uh, going on that continued theme of exciting things, um, I'm going to turn it over to our director of literacy, Amy Bryer, who is going to, uh, present to the board,
064um, our, uh, recommended new, uh, literacy curriculum for early adoption, uh, next year. So, Amy, >> thank you. I am really excited to talk to you about the work that we have done this year. um and a a very proud um director this year of the work that the staff and the specialists um have done in bringing you this resource for adoption. Um so we set out this year with a purpose to really work together to coll collaboratively identify a resource that supports that guaranteed and viable curriculum um that also aligns with our district strategic plan priorities um the science of literacy research evidence-based instruction um within those PLC framework practices with strong student outcomes teacher instructional support and usability. We just had a few things that we were going after. Um and our goal
065um our main goal as we work toward that PLC framework and philosophy is to really establish leaders in the buildings um and get them on board with um being part of that process, an integral part of that process. So our main goal was to establish a literacy leadership committee um that then would go back out into the buildings and lead the charge um of doing that literacy resource review. Um so one of the quotes that we talked about is the process is not about preference, it's about evidence and impact. I talked a lot to the literacy leadership um committee about we're not going with vibes, we're going with evidence. Um so as we've been on this road to alignment with our with our district strategic plan goals one and two um and or one and
066three sorry and the comprehens Illinois comprehensive literacy plan um aligning to goals one and two to look for and creation of an evidence-based curriculum review model and cycle um and ensuring that every student receives highquality evidence-based literacy instruction and every leader is equipped um to create maintain and sustain equitable conditions for highquality evidence-based literacy instruction. We leaned into those um seven components of literacy um oracy, phonological awareness, word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing um to really look for resources that support um the research base of explicit instruction and systematic instruction. We also wanted to ensure that we leaned into those guiding values and beliefs about teaching literacy that we wanted to ensure equitable access. We wanted to ensure student agency um and multilingual success that every learner has the right to develop literacy in
067two or more languages. Um the uniqueness and complexity within the resource. Um, and then those valid assessment practices that every learner has the right to um right to reliable and valid assessment measures that accurately measure their literacy skills. As a committee when we first started in January, we looked and we developed a set of collective commitments. What did we need in a resource? What have you heard from teachers? What when we did some surveys, right? We talked to the specialists, we talked to principles, we talked to teachers, and we um decided on some collective commitments, our shared commitments. When choosing a resource, we wanted to ensure that every decision will be grounded in what serves what serves our students and teachers learning, guided by research, culturally relevant materials and practices, and a commitment to highquality
068evidence-based and equitable literacy practices. Those collective commitments were ensuring equity across different languages. Um, we want to ensure that we had a resource that both supported our um, our Spanish uh, bilingual program as well as our English bilingual program with Russian supports that we're going to be building in for our Russian bilingual program. We wanted to prioritize student learning. Um, we wanted um, a program that was grounded in research and provided evidence within that. Um and we wanted to ensure that we were aligning to the comprehensive Illinois um learning plan as well as the common core standards. Um as well as promoting inclusivity and accessibility for all students and that students and the materials that um that were collected in the resource that the teachers and the students were going to be utilizing reflected the
069diverse cultures and experiences and learning needs of all of our students in the district. We wanted a resource that supported professional growth as well as that protected instructional time and gave teachers quality instructional time um throughout the day as well as throughout the year. So, um, we gathered a committee and sent out a survey, um, in late January and we ended up, we wanted to create a very diverse committee with all different roles represented on on our committee from all nine of our elementary schools. Um, we have teachers from bilingual teachers, we have gened teachers, we have shelter teachers, specialists, we have interventionists and principles and assistant principles and library media specialists. Um we have 46 committee members from all nine elementary schools. Um and we also had um 56 staff members that participated in
070a optional review. We had two different um uh evaluation tools and I'll talk about those evaluation tools in a minute. Um but the literacy leadership committee um worked toward um looking at um an evaluation tool that we created um and they really dove in for three weeks um and answer it had about 80 questions in it that aligned and I'll talk about those domains in a minute but they worked together and provided those supports and went through all of those domains and then the optional staff um survey was based on the PLC question four questions um and we had 56 staff members that took advantage of that. So they were able to um review one resource or all three of them. So the literacy leadership committee in action took leadership and ran with it. Um
071we started here in end of February with um three different resource presentations and they were tasked with going out to their buildings. We provided supp um samples from the three different resources that we looked at and they were charged to ensure that all staff was engaged in the review um and that staff participated. They led building level communication. They led team meetings. They had lunch and learn sessions. They had literacy curriculum cafes, munchkins and resource review. Um they did meetings uh staff meeting overviews. and they held open office hours during school um school lunch and breakfast. The work that they did in the buildings brought the excitement and the deep research that was grounded in in this review. So our database outcomes not vibes. Um we we reviewed three different resources. We reviewed Amplify CKLA
072um and its partner Caminos. We reviewed HMH interreading and Aribba laura and we reviewed benchmark um uh benchmark advance and benchmark adilante. Um we had um six different components that we looked at within um within the resource design and delivery, word recognition, language comprehension, reading comprehension, writing and assessment. Amplify CKLA and Amplify Commaminos outscored the other two by leaps and bounds um in every not to mention the overall but in every single other area. So, we have our are we when we when we first went into this, we decided right that we were either going to pilot as I presented a couple months ago that we were either going to pilot two different resources to measure their effectiveness next year or um if the data came back that one outtood the others, we would early
073adopt. So, we are on the road to early adoption this year, this next year. Um so um our early adoption survey went out last week and we had um the teams in um working together had to make the decision as a team not as an individual but as their team right they had to work together whether their team was going to adopt the new resource or not. We had 34 teams across the district K to five and 107 teachers who will be implementing the new resource next year and that's just the spread across the across the grade levels. Um we will work to um do some summer implementation training um with amplify not only with amplify but also doing some level setting and some um of the big shifts in um the science of literacy.
074So um our team will be providing some PD along um along with amplify and then teachers will be having some instructional planning time with the specialists and the amplify reps as well. Um we will continue professional learning and coaching support all through next year. We'll strengthen consistency of instructional practices across classrooms that are grounded in research. Um, and we're going to monitor student literacy growth and instructional impact. Um, and we're going to expand family communication and literacy support resources. Um, Amplify does a really nice job um, supporting families with their caregiver letters um, and giving teachers some um, wording and some guidance for presenting this to at curriculum night as well. Um and then we're going to use staff and um student feedback to guide our continuous improvement in order to be on the in
075order to be an adopter. Um staff also had some certain criteria that they had to adhere to. Um one of them was that they um had to provide um feedback um throughout after the end of each unit that we will use to gather data about student outcomes. um that design and delivery piece um the integration piece and support that is needed. Um they also have to maintain an open door policy um in trimester 3 where staff members who aren't piloting or if their entire school is or sorry not piloting reframe um early adopting um if a fifth grade teacher wants to come down and observe a kindergarten teacher um so they can see the the integration from kindergarten all the way up through fifth grade. >> Amy, can I ask a question about that last
076before you go on? >> Yeah. So these numbers are amazing. They seem really high. How many teams does that like leave out >> there? I don't have that exact number. About nine >> like total teams >> about nine teams throughout the district. Yes. >> So everyone is going to be adopting this curriculum the year after. >> The year after we will do full implementation 26 27. >> So the people who are choosing not to early adopt, they'll just continue doing what they did this year. they will continue on with the resource that we're right that and the scope and sequence that we currently have. It was a um as we moved into a new resource last year, we wanted to give teachers the autonomy to make that choice, right? And some teachers depending on, you
077know, where they were at, there are teams that have people that are retiring next year. Um so they've chosen, right, to to maintain um for that person. Um, so >> will that give us an opportunity maybe at this time next year to look at the data of the teams who stuck with what they were doing versus the teams who were >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Because that would be very >> pretty. >> I am I am really excited about this resource and the excitement that that is that is overwhelming with teachers. One of the big main shifts over the last few years is building of looking at is it building knowledge, right? Um we always talk about background knowledge of kids, but we need to actually build their knowledge first, right? So it has a huge
078impact with um and alignment with um science and social studies as well. So, um the third, fourth, and fifth grade um scope and sequence is about 75% um social studies and science-based with some really great units in it and topics. >> Yeah, I've had experience with this curriculum and the topics are really robust. Um is there a reason why third grade was more reluctant to early adopt >> there? Is there something they love about their current third grade curriculum that they don't want to jump on or >> There were there were a few third grade teams that do have those retirees, right? And same thing with fifth grade. Yep. >> That's fair. Don't want to start something new for one year. >> Yeah. I think, you know, we're we're really excited to see so many
079teams and so many teachers jumping on, but we wanted to make sure that we gave our staff a choice because of the new math adoption, right? And that's a lot in in a very short amount of time. Um, so we're very pleasantly surprised to see how many teachers um have decided to become early adopters even with the new math adoption this year. >> That's great. >> Um, moving forward, our focus will be on deepening literacy knowledge, right, and those evidence-based practices. Um, as this, um, Dr. Luis Simotes, right, her this is a a quote that I lean into all the time. Informed teachers are our best insurance against reading failure. While programs are very helpful tools, programs don't teach, teachers do, right? And those are our most valuable resource. So, as we move toward really
080deepening understanding of the science of of literacy, um I am very excited to share that our first letters cohort is done with unit two and out of eight. Um and we have 42 staff members in that and we will continue on that journey next year. It's a two-year course. Um and today um we launched our letters cohort um 2 and actually that number has changed and we've gone up to 59 staff members um who joined our virtual launch today um with um starting with with unit one and deepening their understanding and their knowledge base. And I am it is amazing to listen to some of the conversations about what people have learned and how they've how they are are using their knowledge to impact student learning. Um and I always tell people they're like I
081wish I would have known that before. Like I feel bad I didn't do that for kids before. And I always tell people know better do better right? I mean I I grow every single day. So, and then something very exciting um uh as we've been very privileged to send Katie Eckllin, one of our um instruct literacy instructional specialists who will be at the district level next year um as our um to a letters facilitator training. She will be our district letters facilitator. We her and I are going to partner next year and create a administrator D21 letters um academy PD and we have 17 administrators, directors, coordinators as well as building principles and assistant principles that will coming along that journey with us. >> That's great. All right, questions. >> Really fantastic. Thank you for
082walking us through the whole process. Really excited to hear next year how everything pulls out >> questions, comments. >> Yeah, just uh quickly I'd reiterate what Carrie was saying. It'll be interesting to see I know when we were looking at the math scores, we saw after introducing the math how great the math growth scores are that I'm looking forward to seeing next year with this program the reading scores going up. Um but I had two questions um for you. I noticed that the that the Caminos is great for our Spanish um speaking students. Does the CKLA does that also include like our Russian speaking programs or is there something for them in that? >> So currently there is no Russian curriculum right resource out there. What we are going to be working on is looking
083at the um we've worked really hard over the last two years to support those reading foundations piece Russian phonics. We've developed phonics assessments. We've worked with them to develop a scope and sequence kindergarten through um third grade. Um what we're going to be doing is working with that team of teachers that we meet with every couple months um in curating resources that can support the instruction within CKLA. So those those language comprehension pieces, the reading comprehension pieces and the knowledge building, right? The skills that they can teach within that, but then working with them and doing being a few units ahead um so that we can help them curate resources that they can use to build that as well. >> Great. Yeah, I know. I just with Scholastic we have a hard time. They don't
084they don't have the Russian Ukrainian. So I know it's it's hard to get programs and I'm glad that we're >> I always tell the Russian bilingual staff I was like you will be a millionaire if you could create that program. >> Um and and then uh my second question you know given we we kind of talked about a little bit with AI but like the overall trend of trying to reduce screen time you know with LA and there's a little bit of legislation in Illinois that we don't know what the future is going to hold for this new program. How does how do the resources lay out between like digital and non-digital? Is it a good balance or you know just trying to think of if things change in the future that we're set up
085well either way? >> Yes. Well, I will tell you I am a strong believer in books and hands of kids and pencil to paper. Um we especially in our in our youngest students. Um so as we looked at um the design and delivery portion of the rubric that we utilized that was an integral question. Does the resource um create have appropriate balance of print and digital materials that work together to support literacy, engagement, accessibility rather than um rather and and emphasize be an emphasis? Um and it scored 85% um in comparison to the other two research. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. No other topic that's more important than this one. So, thanks to you and your team. >> Thank you. I'm gonna say thanks to the
086team because they did a lot of work. >> All right. >> Thank you, Amy. >> All right. >> Moving right along. Our final presentation is the spring 2026 data overview. >> So, this is um just kind of a a a quick um intro to data. We'll we'll come back and kind of go more into depth. Um but one of the things that as um the ED services team has really been taking a look at our spring assessment data, map data, access um you know uh and just overall uh attendance data, there's some bright spots um that we're seeing some very exciting trends that we're starting to establish. And so I wanted to take an opportunity um to have Dr. Childress take us through um some of those bright spots. So >> good evening. So, I
087just want to start by saying that we're so fortunate that we have so many dedicated and talented educators in our district. The gains that we're seeing, not just in our MAP data, but in our access data and with our attendance, that's that those are those gains are a result of a collective effort. It's not anyone's right gain. It's it's because we're all working together as we continue to refine our efforts as we become a professional learning community here in District 21. our um these first couple slides are slides, right, that I always put at the beginning of a presentation in case anybody is not tuning in and is just clicking on uh what we have linked there so that we can uh keep an eye and remember who our student body is, right? Where half
088of our students are English learners, about 18% of our students are IEP students, and just under half of our students come from lowincome families. And then our racial demographics there are also outlined. Um and then again remembering that we have 75 different languages in our district with our top three languages being Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian. We um as Dr. Connie kind of already mentioned our this data is hot off the press. the map window closed on Friday. Um and on Monday we were meeting with our principles um briefly to kind of start to go over the data as they prepared for school improvement tomorrow with their staff um to dig in more with the entire staff. So they're working on um all of the teams across the district whether they're in the building teams or
089our team here at the district level are spending some time digging into the data but this is um intended to just be a really highlevel overview. we couldn't uh resist because we are seeing some really nice shifts in our data. Um and so this is just a preview um of that. I will say that um right those bubbles there on the end being the median percentile right so if you put for um all of our grade levels every child's score what does the median uh score of a child at any particular grade level fall? That's what those end bubbles indicate. And it's nice to see um that all of those are getting closer to that green and blue um band range of uh the percentiles. Those um gains, I will tell you, have shifted as
090much as um as low on the low end was for math was uh four uh a gain of four to as high as 13 percentiles in any particular grade. Um and again those are those are really significant gains just looking at from fall uh to spring um this school year. You know typically we anticipate when we do a new resource implementation that it's there's even a term for it. It's called an implementation dip that you expect for your scores to take a dip. Um, and we obviously are not seeing that. When we look across all of the grade levels, we're most definitely not seeing that. We're seeing a lot of gains. Um, just some initial um, comments about that. As I spoke with Carolyn earlier this week about like, okay, what are we seeing, right?
091Because we haven't had a ton of time to dig into the data. And as I mentioned, all of the teams are digging into their individual data. Um, but we part of what Carolyn shared with me is that she feels like the teachers are really adjusting very well to the new curriculum. Um, and our students are adjusting really well. Um, and that's what we're seeing in our classrooms right across the district. They really have, um, dug deep into that. We've seen our teachers collaborate with one another a lot. Um, and then also, uh, Carolyn gave a survey about this implementation, right, and how how our staff is feeling about it. I mean, overall it's pretty positive. There's a couple of areas that we're going to dig into a little bit more, but as a whole, um,
092the the feedback that we've gotten about the new resource is very positive and most certainly that the data is showing that. Any questions about this slide? Okay, this should be a familiar visual. It's one I pull often because it shows us right with NWA what do they project that the growth should be for every particular grade level. So it basically looks at all the individual children's RIT scores and then based on their RIT what should their projected growth be. Um we want those um blue bars to always exceed those um orange diamonds. And so we see that um you know pretty consistent here everywhere. fifth grade has been a a tricky one for us through the years, even before the new resource. Um, and so that's something that we just continue to dig into to
093try and figure out what's going on with fifth grade. Um, but definitely um seeing the blue bars over those diamonds in a lot of those areas. This is stronger than we've seen in other um in other times. So definitely some good gains here on our math um projected and observed growth in looking at our reading data. Um right, we just heard from Amy Bryer about our new resource and all of the excitement around that. We're anticipating, right, that that is going to also um serve serve us well and support our staff in um helping our students with their academic achievement in reading. Um but here again, we see some nice um gains. Not as strong as math, but definitely um again gains in every uh grade with the exception of uh sixth grade actually for
094reading was kind of flat. But other all of the other grade bands saw an increase of anywhere from three to nine percentiles from fall to spring. So those are those are um significant gains and we're we're excited about that and know that that is again a collective effort. It's not any one person. It's a collective effort of educators in our district um helping us make those gains with our students. And similar to math, right? When we look at projected um projected and observed growth, um a great thing again to see that all of those blue bars are um in line or higher than those orange diamonds. So we are exceeding uh the grade level norms for the projected growth percentiles for the um or sorry for the RIT growth um with uh the MAP assessment.
095So this is most definitely um a really positive sign that we're moving in the right direction um with our students and supporting our students in terms of um academics in both uh reading and math. Again very highlevel overview of MAP Dr. Connley when he was we were looking at the data actually as the collective administrative group with our with our principles we were like okay we kind of wanted to at least preview it here this evening. >> Yeah. I kind of threw a curveball in the dirt at him. I'm like, "Guess what? Thursday night, you're presenting some of this." So, they got to it. >> Questions? Yeah. >> Um, not so much a question. I mean, this is all fantastic news. Um, you and I spoke earlier and just as a thought, we see these
096presentations multiple times a year, and I think we've gotten used to looking and reading the graphs. Um, our community may not be quite as savvy for that. Is it possible to get perhaps just once a year a an executive summary that we could give to the community to explain what these graphs mean and the growth and the excitement that we have from it? >> Yes, absolutely. I think that that's um a really great suggestion. I think that um you know, we're always looking for ways to better communicate with our parents um about how our students are doing in the district. So absolutely we'll explore that um to do that at least once a year some type of executive summary around the data. Thank you for the suggestion Bill. Any other questions about MAP before I
097jump into access? So we have preliminary access data um that without trying to steal Anya's thunder around access because right language services is her thing. Um absolutely. Um but with trying to keep the presentation relatively short, I'm going to be the presenter for the evening. Um but our preliminary access data is showing that we um actually have our exit our students who um met criteria for exit is up to 11.6%. So that's up 2% from last year. We actually have seen a a consistent increase in the percentage of students who qualify to exit over the last few years. Um, and while 2% might not sound like a lot, it is pretty significant when you're talking about exit data. The state has not yet released what the state exit rate is. Um, last year our exit
098rate was 9.52 and we were about 2% above the state. Um and so we'll see where we end up falling with the state this year, but this is definitely a really good sign. And again, um it's it's a gain that is reflective of some of the changes that we're making in with the programming in our district. Um some of the things that we're doing with our staff. Um all of these pieces are so interrelated when you're talking about math and literacy and student engagement, right, with the presentation that Dr. Rodriguez and Chris did earlier. All of these things are interrelated that impact students and their achievement. And this is huge, right? When we have such a a large percentage of English learners in the district to be able to show that we are um having
099good percentages of students meet exit criteria. Um I picked I cut down the slides right again in an effort to try and keep the presentation a little bit shorter. But um this slide I think is important. Throughout the years that I've been up here talking about access or had Anya up here talking about access, you often have heard me say that the sweet spot is that 345, right? We've got to get our students strong enough with their English proficiency before they go into the middle school. Um and so this is something that we definitely should be um proud of that at fourth grade we have 28% of our eelss ex qualifying to exit at fourth grade and 33 uh plus at fifth grade. Those are really strong numbers and again while a lot of that
100is the efforts of those grade level teachers, it's a buildup through the years, right? And a and a and a number of different factors that play into that. But most definitely those are very strong numbers um as we prepare our students to be strong enough with their English proficiency to start to be able to move out of the programming. Any questions about either of those? >> Yeah. Um that graph that you're just referring to now shows the number who've met and the total who have taken the test. Would it be helpful to have a third column that told us out of those who took the test how long how long each were in our classrooms? For example, if we have a fourth grader who's only been in district 21 for one year, that has an
101impact on the percentages that are actually exiting out. >> Yes. >> So, would it be helpful to examine that from length of time in our programs as well? And we may be doing it. It's just not on this graph, but to show that >> yes, one of the data points that we look at and we actually have it in powers school. So, it's a piece that we can pull out is years in program. So, it is a data point that then we look at as we look across to see how our students are performing. It's just not a part of this slide. So, but but it would be helpful to know, for example, if a large percentage are out in four years, >> that's actually even more success >> than showing a certain number at
102a certain grade level. >> Understood. Yep. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, Shapiro is going to come up for the attendance slides, which are also really some nice gains here. >> Good evening. I am excited to be able to share continue the positive news tonight. Um so just a quick refresher. I know I was here a couple months ago and presented and and read um these definitions, but just a reminder that when we talk about attendance, we look at three different main pieces. Um so one of those is the average daily attendance, which is that average number of students who are present on any given day um or reporting period. So over a certain amount of time. Um we also look at chronic absenteeism which is missing 10% or more of the academic year for
103any reason right and this is that big piece of it is excused and unexcused absences. Um and then we look at our chronic truency which is missing 5% or more of the previous 180 school days without an um a reason or an excuse. Um so we took a look at this and we um last time we now have a system analytics and insights which we're really excited to be able to dig into the data further and and really disagregate the data. But um we pulled out the top reasons for absences and so the number of students you can see in the middle of how many students used that code um throughout this school year so far and then the number of days. And so we can see that this school year so far we've had
1045,214 students take a day for illness which amounted to over 26,000 days of um of absences across the district. So um we can also see that the next top reasons for absences was vacation or out of town which we had over 1,700 kids take vacation days which amounted to over 7,000 days missing from school. Um, so that's a huge portion of their day and so that is a lot of kids who are missing for that reason. Um, we are continuing to work with our our staff and our families to make sure that they're calling in. So that's that absent office is not informed. It's a safety aspect. We want to make sure that we know where kids are. We're accountable. They're sending their precious students to us every day. And so we want to make
105sure that we we know where they are if they're absent. And so we that is a huge piece of making sure that there is that communication. Um we've shared multiple ways that families commun can communicate via parent square via email. We have generic office emails. They can send text messages. Um there's lots of ways to communicate. And so we really want to continue to encourage that our families are reaching out and sharing that their student is absent. And then again medical and dental appointments is um over almost almost 3,000 students for over 5,000 days. So here we can see we um have about 55% of our students who have attended 95% or more of the school year thus far which is where we want them to be. We want students here as often as possible
106missing as few u amount of days as possible. Um and we are at 17.39% as of earlier this week um of students who have missed more than 10% and have that less than 90% of attendance or are chronically absent already. So where does that compare to where we were at last year? We have seen some drastic um improvements and so we have increased that number of students and the percent of students who are here 95% or more. um we've increased that almost uh about eight and a half% over last year. So kids are coming to school more often and we've also decreased by nearly 5% the number of the percentage of students who are chronically absent. And so again we're getting kids to school which is really important so that they can learn and we're
107seeing that also as a positive impact in our learning and our map and our our other academic data. Um so major um shifts there. Here we can see our attendance by grade level. Um so still struggling working to get our early learners to school as much as we can. Um those preK, kindergarten, first grade have that higher number of chronically absent students. And so really continuing to work with our families about the importance of of early learning, making sure that we're closing gaps early on. Um making sure that students are here just because it's a half day. There's still lots of learning that happens and it's important to be here each and every day. And so we'll continue to work on that. Um and then we see as we get into those older middle grades,
108um sixth, seventh, and eighth grade spikes again with the a little bit higher numbers. Um so we're we're making a strong push to finish out the school year strong. Um but it is we've seen a great increase in our attendance which is really exciting. Any questions? >> Um just a quick question. When you're when you're talking the medical dental appointments, I know like I think is it if the student misses an hour or more, it counts as like a half day. So if a student in the district goes to our health center and comes back, does that would that be included if they were gone for more than an hour or is it just for like outside doctor's visits? Yeah, it is because they are not in the building receiving instruction and so they are
109technically absent and again it's that safety piece. They're not in our building. Um, and that number of minutes that a student can miss is based on the state guidance of how many instructional minutes are required for a student in the day. So, right at our elementary level, it's if they miss more than 30 minutes, it's a half day absence because of the number of instructional minutes. >> Gotcha. Thank you. Um, so looking back at the attendance by grade, I know like you mentioned sometimes the little kiddos it's harder because you know the half day and stuff like that, but is it I don't know if you know this on the top of your head like for prek for example or kindergarten even these higher numbers is there like a is it higher because of illness?
110Maybe because they're younger kids, they're not really exposed to, you know, the germs and illnesses and stuff like that. Or is it just like a vacation or >> do we have any idea? >> I can definitely dig in further. I think from just the, you know, information that I've gathered, right? Um it's a combination of everything. It's right, it's easy to pull them out because it's just prek and so we hear a lot of that they do get sick because it's a lot of their first experiences. Um, so it's been a lot of work with um with working with our staff and our families to when can we send our kids to school, right? It even if they're coughing, if they have no fever, if they have no other symptoms, they can still come to
111school. Some of those coughs last for months, right? And so we can't keep our kids home for months, but we need to continue to send them to school. Um, so some of it is that parent education piece, but there's a lot of different reasons. Um, we do have some people who, oh, I don't have somebody to get my student off the bus when they're done at the end of the half day because I work. Um, so there are some of those pieces, but it's a a combination, but we could definitely look at with this new analytics and insights um system, we can pull preK specifically and look at those absence codes and why students are missing for in in each of those grade levels. >> I'll just jump in here really quick. One of the
112one of the slides that Alyssa created that I pulled to try and condense the presentation showed preschool at the three sites. So, Hawthorne, Tarkington, and Whitman. And what was interesting was Hawthorne's uh chronically absent was significantly higher than the other two buildings. So, I think that there is a parent education piece and and a piece of like they're going to an elementary school and so that feels different to parents than they're going to a preschool center. I interesting that and something we need to dig into more but it was significant enough enough that it caught our attention. >> Do we know the reasons why attendance is improving? Is it because of the health center? Is it better tracking? Is it the liaons? I I actually think it's a collective effort and I'll let Alyssa jump
113in after I do, but absolutely the liaison have been intricral in supporting the buildings with, you know, um some of the parent pieces and trying to dig into why our children are missing school. But again, when we see more enrichment activities, we see more engagement of of children, more things offered to students, then they're more wanting to come to school every day because they want to be a part of those things. So, I think it's a number of things, but a lot of efforts even in the buildings where they're doing different competitions for attendance and and just other ways to just really keep a focus on it. Some of it is is just that even that we're paying attention to it and we're asking our parents to pay attention to it. Alyssa, I don't know
114if there's anything you want to share other than that. I would just add right it's a collective effort and so I think it's it's everybody putting forth that awareness of what it means to be in school and why it's important and we've had families that are like oh we didn't know you kept track of that and so even just that information so um even sending information home we've been able to communicate a lot more of here's where your kids are at um you know maybe oh I didn't notice because I didn't open the report card and now our report cards are all printed so those go home again and that's in the top corner Um it's our leazison. We've really been working with every building to go through students, but our our staff has really
115worked to do from that tier one level of what are we doing preventatively and um proactively to inform our families and get kids excited. So there's lots of different end of the year challenges happening right now. Um but throughout just constantly having those conversations, but I think right the health center is a great tool. our our um the secretaries in our buildings, the second secretary going full-time. That's made a huge difference because it's allowed for them to have the time not just to check in on the safety of where are those kids in that half day, but they've been able to really take that time and say, "I'm going to call you back and then talk through, did you know that your students has already missed x amount of days?" And so just all of
116those pieces. There's no one magic bullet here, but it's the the it takes a village and we're everyone's coming together to really make sure kids get to school. >> And I think that is a critical thing to cast to your point as we are telling the story um is that you know we're human beings. There's never one thing that makes something happen for us, right? It is a multitude of things. it is. We're pulling every lever um we can uh to try and and you know get those um conditions right for all of these things to start moving forward and and gaining traction. And so it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible and quite frankly not correct to point to any one thing. So, we do need to be able to continue to say um
117that it is that and it's that and it's that and it's that um and that sometimes, you know, blows people's minds um and they want that one metric. You know, where's the ROI on this? Well, it's all of these things. That's where the ROI is coming from. So, yeah, that's um a critical need and a challenge in terms of how to communicate that. Well, I know I've struggled for years knowing that like dentist and pediatrician appointments are almost always during the school day and you know, god forbid your kid needs a tooth pulled. The dentist doesn't do procedures on Saturday. You I actually had to pull Jacob out of school for an hour to get a tooth pulled. That like it actually drove me crazy. And I know that that's very common with pretty much
118every pediatrician and pediatric dentist is that they have limited evening and weekend hours for even, you know, routine appointments. And I mean, I have friends in my mom group who are, oh, it's fine. We're going to start spring break a day early or we're going to take an extra day this weekend. My kid can miss. And I just I I feel like they don't appreciate how that compounds over the year or the message it sends to their student and then the other students in their child's class that because a vacation is starting or a weekend is starting, school becomes less important. And I just I think it's a mindset shift that I know we're we're working on. Um, and I just, you know, I'm grateful for the efforts that you're putting in. And I'm just
119I'm think we're fully aware of the challenges that we have ahead of us. >> And I think that's right one of those big pieces why we don't want to reinforce the need for a perfect attendance anymore. There's been a big shift in right we if you're sick, please stay home. We know that life happens that you need an occasional doctor's appointment. But missing 5% of the school year to be within that 95 to 100% still is you can miss 10 days throughout the school year. So it's generous. And so right we know that to be chronically absent, you're missing more than 17 days of school. And so that's a lot of school. And so, you know, we we're prepared for life and we know that, you know, dentists and and pediatricians don't always have the
120most convenient hours, but we we we do allow for that occasional, but it's being conscious of it adds up when it's a day here and a day here and another day here. And so, we want to make sure we're aware of that. >> All right. Any other questions? Anyone? >> Thank you both so much. Great exciting news. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's move on into public comment. The board will allow any individual to share a public comment for up to three minutes. Such comment should not include discussion of personnel matters which should be brought directly to the attention of the appropriate school official. During public comment, the board and the administration will listen to comments but may not respond to the public. And Marlin has just handed me um Ben, do you
121want to come on up? got taken off the agenda. >> Hello. Uh, my name is Ben Kman and I am the current president of the District 21 Education Association. We represent most of the people who work here in District 21. I didn't actually have much going on in my personal life over the past month, thank goodness. My son did come home from his year abroad in Barcelona, and he did share a scary story about a hiking trip near the Russia Georgia border where he encountered a military checkpoint and was detained for only about 20 minutes by soldiers from the country of Georgia who thought he was a Russian spy. But I don't know all the details yet. Also, I am a Cavs fan and the current score of the Cavs game is Knicks. So, uh,
122sorry, I digress. We are excited to be here to celebrate both staff who have been selected for the celebrating excellence in recognizing distinction award and staff who are retiring this year. Some of these people I've known for a really long time. I'm going to mix them all together and talk about all of them just because I love I believe all of them should be celebrated. Summer Rearen, for example, has been a hero of mine since she, Lindseay Weiss, Andrew Sher, and I shepherded about 40 seventh graders through Springfield, Illinois in my first year of teaching back in 2007. Pat Fehee, along with Ken Bach, Hillary Morris, and I performed as the Beatles in the variety show that same year, though Pat wore a bright red wig for some reason. Uh Sarah Massie has been in
123the district for a long time, but I didn't meet her until this year when I had to tell her that I was going to have eight classes of eighth graders dissecting brains in her classroom in the afternoon. >> She's been very pleasant sharing her very patient sharing her classroom with my students and I during this medical detectives pilot, and I admire her ability to handle almost anything. Heidi Flowers and Tim Theon as retiring Cooper teachers have both already come up in speeches this year, but both of them are awesome and will be very hard to replace. Annette Lero deserves special mention as the person who introduced me and most of the home staff years ago to the tradition of punchkys on the day before Len starts by bringing in dozens of these delicious Polish pastries
124that resemble jelly donuts but come in interesting flavors like rose hip and prune. The last person I want to mention is Janet Jordan, who has been also come up in these speeches before and who, like so many teaching assistants and support staff, was really important to the school community at homes for so many years as both a mom and a teaching assistant who always seemed to know the kids and the families better than almost anyone. I'm proud to work at a place with so many skilled and dedicated staff members. It's unfortunate that the PDS program, a partnership with Illinois State University that brings in many talented young teachers as interns who often stay and become excellent long-term staff members, including some of the people mentioned above, is ending due to declining enrollments in their program
125at ISU. I hope that this program can return in some form soon. Thank you for the chance to celebrate staff in this district, and thank you for all that you do for the staff, students, and families in this district. We look forward to continuing this partnership and success. Jessica. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Skipped that presentation. Super. >> It's not. >> Um, Cass, do we have any written public comments? Okay, very good. Um, let's move on to the consent agenda. We received 11 Freedom of Information Act requests this month. And there are board conference and travel expenses for the board to approve in the amount of $18,566 for the attendance of two of our board members to the 2026 ISB advocacy day. Uh I had a chance to sit down with Mike Zagger and review the
126financials and had a great conversation. As always, thank you, Mike. Um, he answered all of my questions satisfactorily. Uh, did anyone need anything pulled from consent? Okay. May I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Jessica, >> yes. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Arlland, >> I. >> Yes. >> Bill, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Uh, Dr. Connelly, I think you have some introductions to make. >> Uh, we do. Um, so I'm going to ask uh you've just approved the hiring of uh two new assistant principles, one at Holmes and one at Cooper. Uh, and so I'm going to ask our principles at uh Cooper and Holmes uh to come on up and introduce new assistant
127principles or Lewis, you're doing that. Lewis is doing that. Okay, he's only human resources. Why shouldn't he? And notice what the panicked look on my principal's faces going, "No." Just we will start with Holmes. Um, so you just approved the hiring of Miss Laura Nello or if you want to come up, you're going to talk about yourself a little bit. I'm kidding. Um, so riveting, I told you. Um, so Laura brings um a wealth of experience to homes with a decade of school administrative experience as an assistant principal. Prior to her 10 years in administration, she built a strong foundation in education as both a classroom teacher and an instructional coach. Throughout the interview process, it was clear that Laura's leadership style is defined by a mastery of relationship building. She is deeply focused on
128fostering professional connections rooted in trust and mutual respect, a strength all of her references highlighted. Furthermore, her peers characterize her as exceptionally organized, thorough in her planning, and dedicated to progress. She was described as someone who will hold those around her to high expectations, but she balances that accountability with a consistently supportive, respectful, and encouraging approach. Her extensive administrative experience, organizational strength, and balanced approach to leadership make her an asset to our school district. So, Laura, thank you and congratulations. I will share most of these times when I call people, I say, I need about 10 to 15 minutes. And Laura's one reference goes, that's all the time I get to talk about her. said yes. All right. So, for Cooper, um, tonight we have Miss Kari Thixon. Ki comes to us with a rich
129and diverse background, having excelled both as a classroom teacher and as an instructional coach for technology and advanced learners. Throughout the interview process, she deeply impressed the committee with her technical instructional expertise, demonstrating a strong ability to unpack standards and design intentional assessments that drive academic growth. What truly set her apart is how she balances this academic rigor with a deeply student- centered approach. She is a clear, concise communicator and an unwavering advocate for students. Her references and peers consistently describe her as kind, positive, and a supportive leader who is fiercely committed to doing what is best for all children. Her unique blend of technical expertise, empathetic character, and dedicated leadership makes her a great addition to our administrative team and to Cooper. So, please join me in congratulating and welcoming Ki to our team.
130You two are welcome to stay, but also welcome to leave. We're very excited to have you. Um, and we're looking forward to working with you in the new year and um I glad that you're coming to us. So, thanks very much for joining us this evening. Welcome. >> All right. Now, we're going to do some fun money stuff. We've reached the section on the permanent transfer in the amount of $20 million. First, we have to enter into a public hearing. To do so, may I please have a motion to approved to approve the proposed resolution to recess the regular meeting and convenient public hearing for this purpose. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Debbie. >> All right. Jessica. >> Yep. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Arlland >> I. >> Yes. >> Bill,
131>> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. We are now in public hearing. Uh before we get into the hearing, Leticia, have we received any comment cards for public transfer or public comment comment cards for public comment about the permanent transfer? It's like a Dr. Seuss story. >> No, we have not. >> Okay. Um, are there any members of the public here that would like to share a comment? Okay. Um, hearing none. May I please have a motion to adjourn the public hearing and resume the regular meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Right. Jessica, >> yes. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Arlland, >> hi. >> Bill, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Okay, we have adjourned the public hearing and resumed our regular meeting.
132We will now take action on the P permanent transfer in the amount of $20 million from the education fund to the operations and maintenance fund. May I please have a motion to approve this permanent transfer? >> Second. >> All right. Uh, sorry. Hold on. Okay. Jessica, >> yes. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Arllin, >> I. >> Yes. >> Bill, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. Motion carries. >> All right. The final item under permanent transfers is the consideration of approval for permanent transfer of $20 million from operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund. >> ISB hold on ISB regulations require school districts to use the capital projects fund for major capital facility projects. Therefore, we will be considering the approval to transfer these funds into the capital projects fund. May
133I have a motion now to approve the permanent transfer of $20 million from O andM to capital projects? >> Uh, yes. So, move. >> Second. >> All right. Too slow. Jessica, >> yes. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> I vote yes. >> Arlland, >> I. >> Yes. >> Bill, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. Now, that may have sounded like a lot of administr. There's actually very, very specific reasons that we have to follow that process to make sure that when we're transferring money that we're doing it appropriately and from the funds that we're permitted to transfer it to and that we're doing so with full transparency and accountability to the public. So, that was actually a very, very necessary process that we needed to follow. If anyone has questions about
134it, please feel free to ask one of us later. >> And it will also make sure that all the construction projects that are getting ready to start in the next seven days, 7 days, 10 days, when are we done? Um, will be funded. So, we are almost done. Yes. >> All right. Well, that's very exciting and we wish our construction teams the best of luck this summer and all expediency. >> All right. Let's move into board communication. The first item is our board champion updates. Uh first, on April 29th, we held a meeting to review the goals and accomplishments from the first year of our three-year strategic plan. I want to thank Dr. Connelly for providing this opportunity. Uh as well as all the participants who came that evening to go through that process with
135us. Um, I have an update for the social and emotional growth section. Uh, at our April meeting of the district behavior committee, we invited parents into the meeting to go over items like our board policies on discipline and bullying and our various school practices with relation to discipline. U, I had an opportunity to walk around the room and listen to some of the different conversations. I am happy to report all were very lively and by and large very supportive uh of the work that we're doing with some really constructive comments for next year. Uh our May meeting was held just earlier today. Uh we reviewed the results of the April parent meeting and prioritized the areas that the committee will address next year. Uh there's a workday scheduled in the beginning of June for building
136teams to meet to go over what our committee has prepared for them for the next year and Sherry Massa and I are going to connect after that June meeting after they've had a chance to work through with their individual buildings. We'll recap the year's progress of the committee and discuss our plan for year two of the strategic plan. Uh who else has a board champion update this month? Hannah, go ahead. >> Um, so my area is meeting the needs of unique learners from our strate strategic plan and I, uh, there's two areas of focus in this. The first one is to conduct an evaluation of current programs and practices used to meet the needs of ESL and bilingual students. Um, so as we saw earlier tonight, there the state has released preliminary data for access.
137Um, and then just to keep in mind that this year's access test did integrate the WEDA 2020 standards. So just a reminder for that. And then some feedback from the end of the year, language services departments. There were some key areas that um were identified or key needs, I'm sorry. There was professional development, collaboration, and then assessment and uh progress monitoring. The second part of this um part of the plan is to conduct an evaluation of the MTSS model and the gifted and talented program. So there is uh data analysis that is underway that um looks deeper into high achievers and advanced learners to ensure adequate growth and then also to strengthen uh student transitions from grade to grade. And that is all >> great. Any other board champions this month? All right, good deal.
138Um, NSSO Debbie, would you give us an update? >> Yes, thank you. It was a brief brief update today. Um, we began our meeting with our retirees celebration as everybody does this time of year. We had we are losing nine people with almost 190 years at NSSO for just those people. Um, was amazing. Lots of tears were shed. Um but we've got other people coming in that will sometimes bringing in some new blood also brings new changes which are good things. Um the other big item on the agenda was the ICE resolution for signage for both a resolution and signage and all eight districts did approve that. So, we are now going to our attorney to get the resolution written and the uh verbiage for the signage which we will be getting back next month
139and that at which point we will be bringing it to our districts for approval. >> And that's it. >> Thank you, Debbie. Um Ed Red, Bill, >> thank you, Jessica. Just a couple quick reminders for Ed Red. Um coming up on June 5th, there is their last ED red meeting of the school year. It will be held here at 1:30. There will also be a virtual option. Um, the highlight of that meeting will be honoring their legislator of the year, although after today that may change, but um, Daniel Ditch is I I was trying to get you to laugh, Mike. Um, Representative Ditch will be awarded the legislator of the year. Um, I hope somebody's able to attend from our district because I will be out of town at that point. Great. Thank you, Debbie.
140I will be out of town going to Springfield for IASB. But the second thing, the week after that on June 11th is the Ed mini summits. I've been mentioning that to you before. Um there are multiple opportunities for breakout sessions as well as a general session speaker. Um just get online and register and see you there that morning. And that is it for red. >> Great. Would you do IB as well please? >> Absolutely. This is a bit longer. Um much has been doing uh work has been being done on the advocacy side as we're approaching the end of session. Now I'm going to have to start freewheeling this because things changed this afternoon. Um ISB had been working very hard to amend what it was known as SB 2914, the notice to remedy bill.
141Um it did pass this afternoon. Um, but the good thing about it, not so much it passing, but the impact that schoolboard members had in discussing the legislation with their legislators. Um, the feedback that the IASB governance team was getting was they have never seen that level of involvement by schoolboard members. And that's one thing at the IASB governance level we've been trying to push out is to get more and more people active. To that end, if you haven't joined the uh ambassadority ah advocacy ambassadors and are interested, you could go online and do that. There's no limit as to the number and it on top of everything else will give you more background on the different legislation that is going on down state. Um now let's to move to the next bill that has
142been worked on which was SP 3735. We talked about the AI today and technology and downstate as has been alluded to here. There's been a great deal of discussion. They haven't reached great conclusions yet because there's multiple bills out there right now that they're going to have to work their way through. Um, however, we've heard talk about allowing opt out from technology. That's currently been dropped out of the current bill and may be subject to f uh future discussion. Um there is emphasis right now and what they're doing on talking about is prohibiting teachers from utilizing AI where professional judgment is involved and that would be on things like grading and the rest of that. That's where their focus is at the moment. Obviously with AI changing as fast as it is there will be
143constant discussion on this going forward. Um there are also a couple items to note on the federal level. The COSBA federal advocacy conference will be held on se from September 21st to 23rd in DC. Um they are looking for people to go there. Um for what it's worth. Whoever scheduled this didn't bother looking at a calendar because those are the first two days of Yum Kapor. But if that's not a problem, please feel free to take a look at that. They also have a uh their major initiative is which we'll be seeing more and more of the next few months is labeled 40 and 40 or 40 by 40. Um as we've talked many times over the years the federal government has not met met its promise in idea funding special ed funding. When they
144passed the law it was supposed to be 40% of the cost. We're now around 11. I think the highest that they've been at since I've been on the board is about 19. And the goal is to drive the federal government to get to 40% by 2040. I don't know that I'll be on the board still by then, but good luck to that. Um, that will be rolled out in the coming months and we will be asked to pass a resolution eventually in support of that. Um, in the next month I will be going down to Springfield as one of the directors for the board of directors meeting. Some of the topics that we expect to be discussing, and I say expect because I haven't got a board packet yet, include a review of the first
145draft of the strategic plan, which many of you may have had the opportunity to comment on, an approval of IASB's budget, and Debbie, something that'll be interesting to you, a review of the resolution committee's report on streamlining um the IASB position statements. That's come through the resolutions committee and now it's going to the board for its review. Okay, I'm done. Thank you. >> All right, that was a lot, Bill. Thank you. I appreciate you keeping tabs on all that. >> Uh Arlland, do you have a North Cook update for us? >> I do. Before I do, though, Bill talked about the engagement statewide of school boards with their legislators. You need to know that he's been one of the key proponents talking to school boards across the state about doing that. And it appears that
146your work is having some uh traction now. So that's really good news because we all believe that that's the key to better schools in Illinois. So thank you for that work. >> We've been lucky here because there's so many people on this board and in this community that have been strong in that area. We're trying to expand that throughout the state. That's that's the goal here. >> Yeah. Um North Cook, uh you have the latest updates. I'm not going to spend any time on that, but I will tell you that next week, Wednesday, we will have a hard hat walkthrough on the new facility. Uh we expect to open after Labor Day, although they'll be in before slightly, but I don't think they'll be operating until after Labor Day, but I'll let you know more
147after our uh walkth through next week. So, very exciting stuff. >> Great. Great. That's wonderful news. Um, before we jump into our student representatives report, uh, I just wanted to update everyone that, uh, Debbie and I recently, uh, interviewed candidates for next year's representatives. Uh, we had a total of 16 applicants across the three schools. Um, like I said, Debbie and I interviewed them. I mean, honestly, I think you would have been so impressed with the >> caliber of students that applied for this position next year. I I think we could have just blindfolded picked any of the three and they just really would have been rock stars. But I believe all of the applicants have been notified. Uh and the individuals who were selected have been notified. So uh you should have emails in
148uh in your inbox letting you know who our next year's reps are going to be and they'll have some pretty big shoes to fill after the three of you. Um, next year, um, Debbie and I have done the interviews for a couple years now. Next year, I would really like to have two other board members do the interviews, um, where possible. If you're interested in how this year's went and are thinking about it for next year, uh, you know, reach out to Debbie or me and we can walk you through, um, the process. Um, but we can talk about that at this time next year. Uh so let's let's move on to the student representatives report. >> So uh this month um in in addition to just kind of giving their final update on the
149goings on uh in their schools um we also thought we would just invite our student reps um to uh share any final thoughts they may have. Um so we didn't have a specific topic that we asked them to comment on. Um but uh the floor is yours. So who wants to go first? So for the final updates from London, track track and field sectionals were this Saturday and we had one state qualifier. And then boys volleyball is today's their last game of the season with the championship. Um so it was fun being student rep and a good experience. 8th grade was very fun and I'm going to miss middle school and elementary. While not from my view, but also from London's students body. Many of us are going to miss our friends going to separate
150high schools since London splits between Wheeling and BG. Even saying the word high school still surprises some of us and we don't realize how close it is. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to be student rep. >> You're going to do great in high school for the final updates from Cooper. Track and boys volleyball closing out their seasons and our eighth grade promotion is coming up on May 29th. This past year, I have really learned a lot about how my school and district works. I've had to step out of my comfort zone, interview people, and present these findings to this wonderful board. Through all of this, I have become more confident and educated on what it really takes to run a school district. Along with all these challenges that come from it, so
151I thank you for giving me the opportunity to try something new and grow from it. The final updates for homes is the boys volleyball team has wrapped up their season with their last home game being on a May 18th and it was pretty awesome. I saw the seventh graders won their first set and track and field ended and it was great. Some of our Hornets made it to sectionals and one special hornet even has made it to state just as a seventh grader. And as you may know, the eighth grade promotion is on May 28th. My final thoughts is just to say thank you for this amazing opportunity. It was so fun. And a thank you to Mr. Lavatino because he is such a funny man and he makes everything so fun. And also a
152thank you for saving my fear of public speaking because that was a challenge. And every time I hear some kid at school saying how much they don't appreciate um school and they don't like it, I always come back to this place because it takes so much time, work, and money just for kids to go to school. And I'm so grateful for it after this because I know how much work it takes. I think that's it. Thank you. And I'll I'll let any of the board members express their appreciation, but I want you to know how much I appreciate the three of you being here with us every month. I'm not sure you're aware how much you add to our meetings. This was the first year that we had you come for the full meeting so
153that you could really get a sense um of what we do. And I just I hope this experience has been as worthwhile for you as it has been for us. That you continue your engagement in civic opportunities like this. Just watching you all grow in your communication styles and listening to your thoughts about your schools every month has been really rewarding for us. I hope you continue to work on advocacy as you go on to high school, which I have no doubt you're all going to be amazing at. And come back and see us. Let us know how you're doing and what you've been up to. Have an awesome summer. And I think I'm doing the home ceremony, so I'll I'll see you there, Selma. But congratulations to all three. Wish you the best of
154everything. If anyone else wants to bid a fond farewell, this is the time. You said it perfectly, but we appreciate your time. You guys asked great questions this year and it was really enjoyable to have you. >> Just thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Well, great job, guys. Um, the next regular meeting of our board of education is scheduled for Thursday, June 18th at 700 p.m. Um, the board is now going to move into close session. Uh we will not be taking any further action after closed. We'll adjourn directly from closed. Uh, be it resolved, the board of education approves to recess the district 21 May 21st, 2026 regular board meeting and convene in close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as
155an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. Is there a second? >> All right, Jessica, >> yep. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Arllin, >> yes. >> Bill, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> All right, we are now in close session. Again, we will not be returning to open. will adjourn directly from close. Thank you all for joining us tonight.