001Oh, we're ready. Good evening, everyone. The Board of Education will now resume its April 16th, 2026 regular board meeting. Thank you for your indulgence as we ran over a little bit on closed and needed to transition. We're going to go ahead and get started tonight. Um Carrie, would you please take attendance of the student representatives? >> Yes, Selma. Alex. Fareed. All right, we have a quorum. Wonderful. If everyone would please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty [clears throat] and justice for All right, welcome everyone to our meeting. I have a couple remarks that I'd like to start with. Um returning student registration for the upcoming school year is now open.
002As of April 15th, I'm pleased to report we had 2,345 students already registered for the next school year, which is much higher than we were at last year, which is wonderful. We still have a little over 3,000 returning students who have yet to register. I'm going to please encourage any parents or guardians listening tonight to please register as soon as you can. It helps us make staffing and classroom space decisions as soon as possible for next year. If anyone needs assistance with registration, please reach out to our main office or to our registrar. They will be more than happy to help you. Um we are also now at that time of the year when we are accepting applications for next year's student representatives to the board. All current seventh grade students are encouraged to apply
003by Friday, May 8th. You will have some very big shoes to fill. But we're looking forward to it. Um April is recognized as World Autism Month, National Bilingual and Multilingual Month, and the Month of the Young Child, and we're proud to celebrate and acknowledge all of these. April 6th through 10th was National Assistant Principal Week. We recognize the dedication and leadership of all of our assistant principals, and we are grateful for the work they do every single day. Um London Middle School has been redesignated as a Horizon School to Watch for the sixth time. Way to go, Lightning. School Literacy Nights are wrapping up with Twain scheduled on the 22nd of this month. I'd like to extend my gratitude to all of our partner libraries for hosting us, our staff, students, and their families for
004participating. I have not made it to one of the literacy nights, but from what I understand they are an absolute blast. Kindergarten preview nights are coming up early next month in May. If you have an incoming kindergartner, uh please take a look at your school's calendar and information will be shared with families that have already registered with the district. April is also the 180th anniversary of Dred Scott and his wife Harriet Scott fire filing their first civil rights suits for freedom in St. Louis, Missouri in circuit court in what is now the old courthouse. In 1846, which ultimately, and I don't think this is an opinion, led to one of the worst US Supreme Court decisions ever in 1857. Finally, I would like us all to take a moment to remember Samuel Harris, who passed
005away recently. Born in 1935, Zalman Resnick was just 4 years old when the Nazis took over Poland and forced Jews into ghettos. And within a few years, most of his family was sent to various concentration camps. He was survived He survived by being hidden by one of his sisters. After liberation, he and his sisters made their way to New York and he was adopted by the Harris family, who moved to Chicago. In the early 1980s, he rededicated his life to fighting anti-Semitism, ultimately being one of the founders of the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie. Our world and our own community is still plagued by racism, anti-Semitism, and intolerance. I would encourage you to read about Mr. Harris's life, go to the museum if you haven't been, and please join me in a brief moment of
006silence to honor his life and his work. Thank you. I'd like to acknowledge the presence of some of our local official elected officials joining us tonight, Sherry Klump and Sue Stein from the Wheeling Park District. Sue Stein's also one of our alum. Um any individual physically present at the meeting wishing to address the board must complete a comment card and provide it to Miss Del Real at the end of the table. Written public comments may also be submitted by emailing us at district [email protected]. Forgive me, I've got something in my eye. Uh let's move right along into our awards and recognitions. Um Dr. Connelly, take it away. Well, good evening. Thanks everybody for joining us this evening. We have a number of celebrations that we would like to recognize this evening. I want to start
007off by recognizing our Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel Award winners. The Those Who Excel Award program is a series of awards that are granted by the Illinois State Board of Education and actually coming up on Saturday, the annual Those Who Excel Award banquet will be taking place in Bloomington, where they will be all of our award winners will be officially honored by the State Board of Education and also the Illinois Teacher of the Year is officially announced. So, it's a really lovely evening and looking forward to being able to join our award winners down there. But, I wanted to recognize all of our award winners. We have eight this year and our honorees represent a wide wide range of roles in the district from classroom teachers to administrators and support staff, demonstrating
008the strength of our entire system. And again, like I said, this this program honors educators across Illinois for excellence, leadership, and commitment to student success. And so, I think most, if not all, of our award winners are here this evening. And so, as I call your name, please come on up. And if everybody could hold your applause until after we get through the entire list and then we'll take a little picture and move on to our our next set of celebrations. So, first of all, starting off with Gustavo Atempa, who is one of our Spanish interpreters, language interpreters for the district. Gustavo, come on up. >> [laughter] >> Uh Michelle Cuta, who is our art teacher at Frost. Allison Parker, an eighth grade teacher at London. Connor Podman, who is a fourth grade teacher at
009Frost. Gordana Rink, second grade bilingual ESL teacher at Frost. Marcella Rodriguez, bilingual ESL instructional specialist across the district. Sammy Roth, our principal at Whitman. And last but not least, Jacqueline Share, our language services teacher facilitator at Holmes. Again, we just are really, really pleased and proud of all of our Those Who Excel Award winners and looking forward to seeing you down in Bloomington on Saturday. So, let's give them another round of applause, everybody, please. Now, my job on Saturday night is to be there right when the doors open, so I can run through, tackle anybody in my way, and make sure I get to a table so that all of us can be in the same area cuz it's open seating. So, those of you that are going to be down there, you just heard
010that. So, just look for a ruckus and look for me, and if I'm successful, we'll all be able to sit at the same place. So. That is the District 21 way. >> It is. Like, just power through. Okay. But again, congratulations to everyone. Next, very exciting, I wanted to take a moment to recognize some of our budding young authors. The London Fright Club publication, 18 students from London Middle School have been selected for publication in Fright Club: The Hidden Presence, a national student writing anthology organized by Young Writers USA. Students participated in a unique challenge, writing a complete, compelling, spooky story in exactly 100 words. That's a for for young writer, that is for a seasoned writer, that is extremely challenging to do. Um this on-demand writing experience required planning, drafting, and revising within a
011single class period, which is even more impressive. Um and uh our publishers our published writers included from the sixth grade. And and if you're in the audience, if you would once you hear your name, once you come on up to the front and we'll also take a picture. So, from sixth grade, Maya S, who wrote The Haunted House. Peyton N, who wrote Always Watching. Maya B with Voicemail. Cal F with Facing the Monster. JP with Missing. Emily S with The Horror of '84. I had a Bryan Adams song go through my head there for those of us who are not young. Summer of '69, Horror of '84, same thing. Um Kaylee T with Fun Town. Me B with One Halloween Night. Isabella T with The Night Before Halloween. And our eighth graders who were selected,
012Uthica N with Defiant. Angelina A with You Look Better Awake. These are great titles, huh? >> [laughter] >> Um Francesca H with Dear Diary. Cassie H with Father, I Have Sinned. Samantha LS with Annie. Josiah S B with vampire castle. Acuri F with my perfect family. Ozil A G with the carnival. And Maja G with the deadly doll. So, um beyond the writing itself, um you know, students gained experience writing for an authentic audience, um which greatly increased their engagement and motivation. Um if for many students seeing their work published alongside peers from across the country uh has got to be a powerful and inspiring moment. Um this accomplishment reflects both student creativity and the intentional instructional practices that are happening across um our district and classrooms. And we're just really happy to be able
013to provide um some a little token uh that we've put together, which is uh a little booklet um that has all of the stories um that were selected um published in it. So, you've got two publications under your belt now. So, uh one in the district and one uh in the uh in the fright club. Um so, congratulations. Amazing work. Keep writing. And we'll take the picture. And before we take the picture, I would also be remiss if I didn't recognize their teacher who did this, Mrs. McCall. So, where are we? The middle. Oh, there you are. Okay. And take a picture right after you come. Don't be shy. There you go, Mrs. Netzhammer. All right, one, two. That's parents. Uh we also this evening have uh several of our student athletes um that we
014wanted to take a a moment to recognize. Um first starting off with our wrestling um state and sectionals. Um just really proud to be able to recognize our middle school wrestling program for what has been a really outstanding season um across Cooper, uh Holmes, and London, numerous student athletes qualified for sectionals, um an achievement that reflects their dedication, their discipline, and their perseverance. Um several of our athletes uh advanced even further qualifying for the state level representing both Cooper and London. Um competing at sectionals and state is really just an a significant accomplishment and speaks to the strength of our programs and coaching. Um and we just want to commend all of our wrestlers um for all of their hard work, um sportsmanship, and commitment throughout the season. And so, um from Cooper, we have
015Eldar A. Uh these are our sectional qualifiers. Um Eldar A, um Manny C, David C, Andrew K. And by the way, if you're here, come on up. Uh Tommy R and Aiden S. You guys come on up. And from Holmes, we have Eric A, Antonio D, Kevin M, and Andres T. Come on up, guys. Our sectional uh qualifiers from London, uh Jayden A, Ozil A G, uh and um did I say Da- uh Jayden A, David A, um Edriette A, Come on up. Uh Jackson B, J C D, John D, Jack J, and Eli T. Come on up. Now, from those sectional qualifiers, um uh the these following athletes became state qualifiers. So, wave your hand when I say your name again. Um Eldar A from Cooper, uh Andrew K from Cooper, Tommy R from
016Cooper, uh Aiden S from Cooper. From London, uh we have Ozil A G, David A, Jack J, and Eli T. All right. So, wrestlers, let's take some pictures, huh? I'm forgetting the adults here. Coaches, please come up. We also uh have just wrapped up our girls our girls volleyball season um and just really want to just congratulate our our girls volleyball teams across the district. They had really um strong and successful seasons uh marked by uh you know, growth, teamwork, competitive spirit. Uh at Cooper, um the eighth grade team uh competed hard all season long and earned a fifth place finish. Um more importantly, um they demonstrated just resilience, teamwork, and continuous improvement from start to finish. At Holmes, um both teams competed in conference play and showed consistent determination throughout the season. Um players
017made clear strides um in both individual skills and overall team performance. And at London, both seventh and eighth grade teams had exceptional seasons uh earning second place in their conference tournaments. Um their success reflects strong teamwork, uh skill development, and a high level of competitiveness. And across all schools, um we're just super proud of our student athletes for representing their schools um with dedication and pride. So, um I don't know if do we have any of our um girls volleyball players here tonight? Okay. Well, let's give them a round of applause anyway. They'll hear it. And that concludes our celebrations this evening. That's great. I love >> Thanks everybody for coming. We appreciate it very much. Congratulations again. Great when we can recognize so many students and staff. Can everyone hear me? Am I No,
018I'm You got to go. Come on up. >> My mic okay. Um as we're transitioning, we're going to move on to the next item agenda, which is staff communication, uh superintendent's report. We have quite a few presentations tonight. Uh the first is a budget presentation from the Northwest Suburban Special Ed Organization, and NSSEO, which is our special ed co-op. Dr. Connolly. Yes, um so this evening um both our NSSEO superintendent, Dr. Meg Schnoor, and assistant superintendent for business services, Gavin McGinn, will be joining us virtually. Um they had some important meetings uh in the NSSEO um district office this evening. So, we that hard to be in two places at once. Um so, we thought, let's use technology. So, um without uh much more introduction than that, um Gavin, I see you on the screen,
019so I'm going to throw it to you. Yes, hello. I think Meg should be joining us as well here. Yep, I'm right here. All right. So, good evening, everyone. I'm uh Dr. Meg Schnoor, and the proud superintendent of the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization, NSSEO, and um of which Wheeling 21 is a member along with seven other area districts. We are very grateful, as Mike said, to District 21 for their flexibility in letting us join remotely tonight as we are in the middle of participating in our contract negotiations this evening. NSSEO provides special education programming to students whose special needs are so complex and or severe that they cannot be met within their home district here at District 21. We have been in an existence for more than 50 years and well before public law
02094-142 made special education the law in the United States. This fact is a true testament to the history of this area and its commitment to educating all students. I'm happy to present our assistant superintendent for business services, Gavin McGinn, to review the District 21 portion of the budget for NSSEO for next school year. Gavin? Awesome. Thank you, Meg. Can you guys all see the presentation? I just wanted to confirm. Yes. Okay, great. >> Yep, we can see it. Perfect. Um so I just kind of wanted to start by running through um the process of our budget. So what we do is we start in December and this is when we reach out to all of our member district uh special education representatives. So what we get at this time is your projected enrollment and your
021projected purchase services and things like that. Um so we take that in December and then in January we start with our finance advisory committee, uh which is made up of our member district business managers, uh special education representatives, board members, superintendents, kind of everyone um that's involved within NSSEO. Uh so during January what we do is we um build the rates that are built into the budget. So this includes insurance rates, workers' comp, TRS, IMRF, all of those those big items that get built into um our typical budget. And so we take uh the projected enrollment that we get from all of our districts. Uh we kind of look at different needs, teaching needs, related service needs, all of those things. And what we do is we build out um a budget and build a
022tuition for our programs. NSSEO doesn't get to um levy taxes. So our only sources of revenue are tuition. We get a little bit of state EBF funding and then we do get some Medicaid funding. Um so everything else does come from tuition or or services provided to districts. Um So on the next slide here, so you can see um NSSEO's projected budget for next year is about $55 million, which is a 4.34% decrease uh from our current budget. Um the big decrease is uh we are wrapping up a capital improvements project at one of our schools. We're doing an H-H-HVAC project. Uh so that's falling off the books for next year and that's where you can see that decrease. Um NSSEO runs a zero balance budget, which means our revenues and expenditures match identically. Um
023and then at the end of the year what we do is we take any leftover money um in any of our programs and we send that back to our member districts. So we kind of look at all the usage for the year, look at how much, you know, our prog- our programs were used, any purchase services, things like that. Anything left over gets split out with some calculations and returned back to our member districts. For the upcoming year, um this is a snapshot of District 21's usage for next year. So you can see at Timber Ridge, uh 21 students projected, Miner 25, and then our DHH program, which is deaf and hard of hearing, uh there's a a combined 13 students. Um so on the right here you can see from year to year it
024is an increase of about 18 uh 13 students. 18 students from the projected for this school year, 13 increase from where you're at currently. Uh you have gone up a couple students this school year. Um so the projection is 59 students for next year. Uh like I said, we do offer purchase services. So this is related services, OT, PT, vision, things like that. Uh so you currently buy uh purchase 2.4 FTE of vision services from us and you'll be continuing that as well as uh 0.1 in PT and 0.4 in AT. And then an increasing next year, there'll be a purchase of about 0.2 in coaching services and an increase of 0.2 in AT, uh which is assistive technology. So overall, based on the the large increase in students and the slight increase in purchase
025services, it's projected to be about a $1.1 million increase from this current school year. Uh this next slide shows a uh this is page 24 in the PDF that I had sent out and this is kind of the best overall snapshot of your projected budget for next year. Um what you can see is our different to uh programs. So like I said, Timber Ridge, Miner, and DHH. Uh and you see the number of students, the tuition at the program, and the total cost uh at each program. Then as we move down, um you can see the purchase services. So like I said, vision, PT, AT, and the projected cost for each of those services. Our DHH itinerant services, which are itinerant DHH teachers who come out to the programs and work with deaf and hard
026of hearing students. Uh your coaching services, um and then we also, I don't know if any of you have ever have been out there, but we own Sunrise Lake Outdoor Education Center, which is a really great resource that we have out in Bartlett. It's a it's kind of a experiential learning. It's a big campground. There's a couple different buildings for for students to go out there and and work on different experiential learning. So really great um facility that we have out there and something that all of our districts contribute to. Um and then you also see direct bill. So [snorts] some students do have one-to-one services um and we do bill out individually for those students. So that's built in as well. Um and then there's a building fund, which is our annual maintenance cost,
027and then a capital uh projects reserve, which is something we just started about 2 years ago. Uh but this is for us to start saving for some of our bigger ticket items, you know, window project, HVAC pro- project, things like that. So we've been working with our architects to to kind of create, you know, 5-year plans, 10-year plans, and then working with our member districts to kind of plan out um when we'll be completing some of those projects. And then [clears throat] down at the bottom, you'll also see um just any other costs that may end up coming through. So we do all sorts of evaluation services for um DHH, psychologists, things like that. Uh we do run ESY. All of our students qualify for ESY. So we have a really robust ESY program. Um
028and it's basically a continuation of the school year for 3 weeks each summer. Uh we do um invoice for uh some IDEA um services. So that goes into our PD department, which we use for all of our member districts, uh some of our central operations and maintenance, and some of our administrative staff, like our payroll, um accounts payable, things of that nature. Uh and then there's also a transportation line on there. So um just these are any other additional costs that may come through other than just our tuition program tuitions. Um I just like including them on here just so so the district knows that they may be charges that come through. Uh again, it's it's really early. It's April. So these are all projections. Um by August you may see additional students or less
029students or things like that. We do only end up billing based on the actual usage for the school year. This is just a a snapshot here a couple months early so you're able to build it into your budget. Um There are a few outstanding budget implications. As Meg said, we are currently in negotiations with our staff. So um we kind of built in some projected numbers into the budget in terms of negotiations, but as we work through those, things might shift a little bit. Um and then there is a a new thing called the S fund, which is uh a new initiative through ISBE, where they are starting to reimburse uh school districts for sending um students to public schools. Currently they only have been at private facilities. Um so there's been a lot of
030of people in the special ed world who have been fighting for this for a long time. Um and it is it is something that we're really excited about for our districts. There's just some kind of outstanding questions about uh tuition rates and things like that as we work through that. But we'll be in in constant contact with all of your superintendents, business managers, and making sure that everyone's up to speed on on any changes that are happening at the state level. Does anyone have any questions on any of that? I know I talked a lot and I talked fast, but Okay. Questions, anyone? I I think one of the things that um Gavin certainly noted and I just kind of wanted to reinforce is that our our costs um are going up um with NSSEO
031and and it is because our our tuition spending is going up. We are seeing more students that we are needing to place um in NSSEO programs. Um so it's just really a great you know, option to be able to send them to, you know, to so they're getting the services that they that they need. We always want to try and keep our our our students as close to home as we can, but sometimes it's just not a good fit for the for the for the students. So to be able to be part of a cooperative and have access to those programs um is just um really helpful. But um so there's a good reason why our our costs are up with NSSEO. Thank you, Mike. Okay. All right. Thank you very much, Gavin. We appreciate
032you being here tonight. All right. Thank you for having us. Sorry we couldn't be there in person. No problem. Thanks. Good luck tonight. Thank you. All right. Uh next up, we have a few presentations from the educational services department. Dr. Connelly? We do. Uh so I'm just going to turn it right over to Dr. Childers um to uh introduce our various presentations from the uh services division this evening. Good evening. Yes, thank you. Um so we do have a number of presentations this evening. Um first, uh Janelle. There you go. >> [laughter] >> We have a great partnership with um our high school district 214 and Janelle's going to talk a little bit about uh the Ed Academy partnership. Thank you. We have a have a team here, but we're going to be quick. So
033we only have a few slides. [laughter] We just thought it was really important to allow you to see some of the faces that make this program such a great reality for us in the district. So, I'm going to start with Tim Pasik right here. He is the Ed Pathways instructor at Buffalo Grove High School, my counterpart in helping to place different 214 students in our classrooms. And so, he'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute. And then we have Claudia Alvarado, who is our home structured teach teacher in the structured teaching program. We have Louis Myers, who's London Middle School sixth grade teacher. And then I'm going to let them introduce the teachers who the students who are looking to be teachers who are with them right now. If you would
034introduce them quickly. Sure. Um, this is Gabby Tibor and she was my uh high school intern in the first um trimester. Just your name. This is Ava Graner. Uh, my intern. Thank you. So, we are going to just quickly walk you through some of the benefits that are part of this program for us. And um we'll have that on different slide. But I just want you to see that we're going to do a little intro that has a video that's just about 2 and 1/2 minutes long that Tim created with people at Buffalo Grove and our staff. And it does a great job of just explaining the program. Tyler, do you start that for me? Okay, thank you. >> [music] >> Ed Academy is a capstone course that we offer at all of our high
035schools. But Ed Academy is for seniors and they get to learn all of the foundational material, philosophies, theories, classroom management, instructional practice. Then they get to go into the community and into our schools and they get to work with teachers, they get to learn from the teachers, work with the students. And so, Ed Academy gives them that glimpse of what it's like to be in [music] a classroom prior to making the the full commitment to going and and studying in college. Barkley barked at the seagulls and scared them all away. Today I'm at Kilmer in Miss Ellie's class and the second grade class where I get to participate in reading aloud to the students, working with them in group settings. Every now and then I get to work with them one-on-one, see if they need
036individual help. And I do a lot of reading and writing skills and [music] vocabulary. Very good. I really liked getting this experience in high school. It really solidified for me the fact that I want to be a teacher. But for me, getting to see like what Miss Ellie does and how she can help >> [music] >> the students and getting that one-on-one connection has been really inspiring I was able to observe in a first-grade classroom and it's one of the [music] reasons I agreed to have someone come into my classroom because it was impactful for me and it was motivating for me. So, I would encourage anyone who's [music] interested in a career in education to take any opportunity they have to step into a school, volunteer. It will be an impactful one way or
037another. Through my internship, I feel like one of the biggest things that I've learned was that to be a teacher, you really need to have a passion for it. There's going to be good days and bad days. And it's and it's important that we all see that there's not going to be perfect days, which is what happened in my internship. There were good days and there was bad, but it just made me have more passion for it. So, I feel like that's why [music] it's so important to be able to do the internship and really know what it means to be a teacher. This program is so unique. Not only are students acquiring [music] four dual credit courses in this program, but they get to go into classrooms and see if it fits them, [music]
038their personality, their passions, and what they're excited about. It gives them a level of confidence when they go off to college that they've actually created lesson plans, they've reflected on lesson plans, they've implemented lesson plans, [music] they've stood in front of students, they've developed relationships with students. They've failed and again, that's okay. They they've struggled through lesson, they've realized, "Man, I would do this differently." But they've experienced that all in high school. Being a part of a program like this is tremendous. It's an advantage over any other students that go to college who never got to experience [music] that. And it's the community partners that we work with that make it successful. And so, every opportunity that our students have to be teaching, to be practicing is beneficial for them. So, we know we had
039three placements before the 2019-2020 school year. But since 2019 and 2020, we've had robust groups of students in our our system in '20 and '21 for all the years from then until now. They do two placements each year. They do a first semester and a second semester placement. They are approximately 30 students year over year who are with us in our classrooms. So, obviously that's many different people over the course of the year. And students are placed in areas of interest when possible. So, Tim, you want to talk a little bit about that process of asking the kids what they're interested in? Yeah, uh first I just want to say thank you. Uh I would love to think that being in the classroom and the dual credit is what really prepares them, but in reality
040it's being with your teachers and them opening up their rooms across your district and all of our partnering districts 214. Um, they get 30 hours in the first semester, 30 hours in the second semester, once a week in the afternoon, and then twice a semester they do a full day to experience truly what it's like to be a teacher. And the typical response at the end of that day is, "I'm exhausted." >> [laughter] >> But uh they all of them are exploring different interests and we really don't even mind having them in different placements in each semester. I've had some students that originally thought they'd want to be a second grade teacher that fell in love with middle school. And it's having that opportunity to be in different placements in two semesters that really just
041prepares them. Uh they're not there to observe, they're there to interact, to lead lessons, uh to get the the jitters out in front of students, and to fail forward and learn with the awesome teachers that are providing that experience. So, thank you. So, we're going to ask for a few of the faces of our 60-ish people who have had this experience this year to just share really quickly what are the benefits for the high school students. So, Tim and Ava and Gabby are going to handle that for us. Ava wants to go. Um, I can start. Firstly, for me, it's helped me um solidify to know what I want to teach. Um, being in the classroom with Mr. Myers has really taught me a lot of things, but also how to have relationships and how
042to connect with the students. And that really helped me uh know that I wanted to teach history in middle school education. And that makes me even more excited to journey like go through this journey and uh to become a teacher. This this internship was an amazing opportunity. I got to not only observe the way that Miss Alvarado um interact with the students and her like teaching strategies, but I also got to work one-on-one with the students and in small groups and implement those teaching strategies on their own, which I failed and I reflected. >> [laughter] >> experience that I am so grateful for. She did great. >> [laughter] >> And and I'll just follow up in saying that now that I've been doing this for several years and Janelle, you've been instrumental in that and
043again, the teachers. The stu- I get text messages from students that are in college that are so far uh more prepared than so many other students because they get to be in your classroom. Uh and again, it is just so amazing. Uh your teachers inspire them, they inspire me, and it just keeps me excited uh excited for the future. And so then when we think about the benefits to our students and teachers, this is just a few of them. It truly helps our students with social interactions. They see someone who's not too far away from them in age potentially, but they see what's possible and they see what career paths might be possible. So, it's a positive peer model, some extra support and attention in that classroom on that day. And as the teacher, it's
044a great opportunity for collaboration. It's another moment for them to share some of what they've learned and to have someone with you and be able to plan and talk through those strengths and those challenges on those given days. And it's really leadership and professional development opportunities for our teachers as well. So, we just are so appreciative of you allowing us to come and share that and for the district to allow us to be able to have those opportunities. Um, I'll tell you that there are students who are coming back now from 214 and are doing um other internships. So, they're out there at Harper now on the Promise program and they're asking to do observations in our classrooms or they're at other universities and are asking to come back and start the clinical entry teaching
045process. So, we do see that feedback loop sometimes across the board. So, um thank you for that opportunity. Um, does anyone have any questions about the program? Arlene, go ahead. Well, not a question. Not First of all, I think it's vitally important that our districts work together in many areas, but I can think of no more important area than giving students an opportunity to actually experience the joy of teaching. And so, I think it's just a marvelous program. I'm delighted we're doing it and it's it it's just very exciting to see from the outside. So, thank you very much, all of you. All right. Let's go down the road, Debbie. Um, just real brief. Um, sorry. Well, always be Coach Myers to me. Um, my eldest wrestled for him. Um, this I loved this program
046because my son was planning to be a for college professor in psychology. He is now a seventh and eighth grade science teacher. So, totally different. So, you might be in one thing now, you may decide on something else. Keep your minds open, but this is I love this opportunity that they've had. So, thank you. Anyone Anyone, Bill? Thank you. The career pathways program that 214 has is just fantastic. And I'm just curious, so this may be beyond what you specifically do, but there are are there other opportunities for other pathways to also interact with us? I'm specifically thinking of things such as the Project Lead the Way students engineering students who might be seniors coming back to help. We have a variety of internships that are offered in the district. And those placements are whether
047or not they're within 21 or in other areas. I think they're always seeking out opportunities to have a meaningful internship experience and anything that's closer to the building is valuable. And if if 21 were to find opportunities, whether it be engineering or manufacturing or all anything related to those pathways, I'm sure they would be open to finding opportunities. Bill, we had two interns work from the communications department from 214. They were wonderful. Uh I just just a fantastic program. I'm I'm so glad you both were able to participate and that you had good and bad days and that you get a chance to see what your potential future profession is like. You know, that's that's the reality that some kids miss and I think it's fantastic and we're so glad that you did this. I
048have a freshman at Wheeling as my oldest and she's trying to figure out what career pathway she might fit in and I think it's just amazing that she's going to be able to get that real-world experience as a high schooler. So, thank you and thank you for coming tonight and sharing with us the wins and the losses. I think overall great great work. Glad we can help. Thank you for being here. We're so incredibly fortunate to have a really great partnership with District 214 and are always looking for new ways to expand that and actually we will be expanding our partnership with them this summer with a STEM program and that you'll hear more about at another time cuz I got a lot of slides and my team's got a lot of slides this evening.
049>> [laughter] >> And I've already been shamed for it. So, next up we have Anya Figueroa and Alejandro Alvarez Jewel who are going to give us an update on our language services programming. Hi, good evening everybody. We're very excited to be here in this space today. There we go. I was just looking for the clicker. Anya Figueroa, director of language services. And I'm Alejandra Alvarez Jewel, coordinator of language services. And today we really want to walk through a celebration lens. Share a little bit and review some data that you've already seen that it's not anything new and then highlight some pieces again from that lens of celebration and then share a little bit of what we're doing and what are some of the next projects that we have in the way. So, as many of
050us know, April is multilingual bilingual advocacy month. The state of Illinois and national at at a national level, we're all taking this month as a way to advocate for multilingual education for the learning of different languages and just spend some good time celebrating in more intentionally the diversity in our schools. So, Alejandra is going to share some of the things that are happening across the district. Okay. So, as you know, D21 schools are celebrating our multilingual community in lots of different ways and this is not representative of all of our schools, but here are some highlights we'd like to share. Poe and Frost teams have put up bulletin boards representing the different languages spoken in their communities as well as some student work describing how being multilingual is their superpower. Longfellow students are comparing and
051contrasting flags that represent their heritage and Tarkington is getting ready for Multicultural Night in May and they're working on a display where staff can share about the traditions that they participate in. And we love hearing student voices, so there is a clip here of a student from Frost sharing about their language. April is multilingual month. Here at Frost, we want to celebrate all the different languages we speak. Each week in April during morning announcements, two students will tell you where they are from and they will teach you how to say hello in their language. When you see your friends at school, greet them by saying hello in a new language. My name is Vasudha and my family is from India. We speak Tamil. This is how you say hello in my language, Vanakkam. When you
052see your friends at school, say Vanakkam. And on the next slide we have one more from Riley morning announcements representing a different language. Today's greeting is going to be in Russian. All right, awesome. Thank you so much for celebrating the different languages that makes Riley special. And this happened across many different schools in this month. Twain and Kilmer have created diversity quotes that students made that celebrate where they come from, their background, as well as unity across the building. And lastly, there are several heritage clubs that occur throughout the district that honor students' languages and cultures and that is year-round. We really appreciate our school leadership and staff who have taken the time, whether it was this month or just anytime in the school year, to celebrate our students and our community. And we continue
053celebrating also with connections with our families. Some of the things that have happened throughout the year include our Thanksgiving celebration that it it is for our new to the country families at the middle school level. It is hosted by Cooper Middle School. It takes place in November. We invite all of our families from across all of the three middle schools and they engage with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It's it's organized the dinner's organized by Organic Life. The students do different projects throughout that time frame and then they present to the parents and it's a space for also the parents to connect with other families from across the district. Another way that we also connect with our families and celebrate the diversity in our district is by having a couple of language affinity groups where we
054have had some learning seminars for Russian-speaking community at the elementary level focusing on learning about the US system, the D21 programs, different community resources, parenting tips, anything that the parents do want more information about and to learn. And also we have our Spanish and English monthly parent advisory committee. Also we engage in those conversations about programming, assessments, academic progress, what's happening in our community resources. But the most exciting part of it is having the the families in conversation connect, right, um across the district and also having the opportunity in May to take a group of the families to the bilingual parent summit at the state level. So, we're looking forward to May 2nd which will be that event taking place at the state level. We also have our middle school Spanish department. Just as a
055reminder, we have we offer two courses, one for Spanish proficiency and then Spanish heritage. And we took an opportunity this year for teachers to check in with our students. What are how are they feeling about our programming? How do they celebrate and how do they see their space as multilingual learners? They administer a survey to our students around why is multiculturalism important, why is it important to learn other other languages and then their experience in their Spanish program at the middle school. These were some of the themes that came out of that survey. Students talked about the importance of it from a communication and social connection, the importance of it through the cognitive and academic growth that they feel, right, connections to culture and heritage, the career opportunities that open up and then of course
056it's essential for when they travel and when they have they want to connect with our community as well. And then these were some of the highlights from the students and there are a couple quotes. I won't read all those quotes, but one that a couple that I liked were that they as a language learner that they enjoy being well-versed in a cultural world and I feel inspired to explore that world further through that communication. And then another one that they there were many quotes about how much they love their teachers, the activities that they do and everything that their teachers in the Spanish program provide for them. We continue to celebrate our demographics. We have this hasn't changed from before. It's it's not a a new data point. We're still steady at 51% English language
057learners with our majority of students coming from Hispanic backgrounds. And then also our EL population continues steady being right um, continue to stay steady and having 75 languages represented across our district. Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian are the top three languages other than English that we still, um, support across our district. And then thinking from that celebratory piece as well, um, that we wanted to present some data information about our Spanish bilingual programming and then the growth that, um, we are seeing, um, in academic growth and then their EL growth for for our district. All of the work that we're doing is tied to our strategic plan goal, um, that it's about our unique learners and and really evaluating and looking at the practices and the programming that we have in our, um, district to support our
058students. Um, so everything that you'll see in the next few slides relates to celebrating that from that from this lens. For our department, we have focused on continuing to integrate, um, the ELD standards or the Illinois language develop English language development standards, supporting our families, um, implementing data-driven decision-making at the, um, school levels for instruction, and providing support for our teachers to continue to elevate our bilingual programs in Spanish and our Russian bilingual program and at the middle school, uh, reviewing our resources and strengthening our our instructional practices. One of the pieces that, um, it is, uh, right now a celebration, you'll see in the next couple of slides, is for year for the last 4 years our, um, ACCESS scores have grown in terms of the number of students or the percentage of students
059that have met the state criteria. Why as as you know, our ACCESS assessment is, um, our measure for from the state, uh, that measures the the English language proficiency of all of our English language learners. It is a test in English that we administer once a year. The one thing I did wanted to share tonight was that the this year the, um, test integrated the new standards, the 2020 WIDA standards that the state adopted a few years ago. So it is a new test because of this new standards being integrated into the test. This summer the WIDA consortium and the state of Illinois members of the state of Illinois board will engage in the, um, standard setting for the test and we will get a new base this will, right, um, get a new baseline
060for us in terms of the 2026, um, scores. So we'll share a lot more when the new ACCESS scores come in in May, uh, so probably over the summer once we analyze that information and have more information from the state and see the impact on that we'll be sharing that information, um, to you. But again, in as in the, celebratory lens, we do want to highlight that for the last 4 years we've seen the growth in our, um, students' language progress as a district, by school, by grade levels. And now I'm going to have Alexandra talk a little bit of the highlight, um, for our academic, um, uh, achievement and growth in our Spanish bilingual classrooms. We're focusing on the Spanish language tonight, um, because it's the state the MAP assessment that we do have,
061um, data, right, that is normed at a national level that we use. Our Russian bilingual program we are in the works of having and developing assessments that will help us norm that data for our district because there's not a tool that exists, um, right now anywhere, to measure that. We're one of the very very few, I think it's the only program in Illinois that has a Russian bilingual program. So I'll have Alexandra talk about that. I'll keep I'll fly. Um, so based on walk-through data from last year, this year our department alongside bilingual staff and school leadership have worked hard on specific instructional goals that are reflected in this data. So this is Spanish reading growth by grade level and that blue is the percentage of students who are beating that growth. Um, again, this
062is a baseline for this year with MAP testing, but we can see that our students from fall to winter have shown growth with no less than 40% of a grade level meeting that goal. And this is a school view, so you can see in parentheses the number of students who took the reading Spanish test by school site. Kilmer does have the least, which means they do have a smaller pool of students contributing to that data. Field and Whitman have the most students and are showing overall very high growth. Uh, these next two graphs are reading Spanish achievement data that measures our students against that nationally normed criteria. Two great celebrations here, Whitman has 20% of its students performing above the 80th percentile. Frost has a combined 32% of students performing above the 60th percentile. So
063some really great things happening there. And in general, overall, second grade across all those bilingual school sites are showing high levels of achievement. Um, so you can see that here in this graph. So we have teachers from Frost, Whitman, Twain, and Field who are collaborating on lesson planning this, uh, for this cohort of advanced readers in the second grade Spanish bilingual classrooms, and that has occurred with great success. And this is a picture here of actually Miss Rink, if she's still here, there she is, reading, uh, with a cohort of those students who are advanced readers in their first language. And as we continue to work through our, um, strategic plan goals and our, um, perform all right, getting to our key performance indicators, uh, these are the four areas that we continue to focus
064on to, um, move this work forward. So our um, English language development integration, data-driven instructional practices, continuing to strengthen our bilingual Spanish and Russian programming, um, and also our middle school programming. We're in, uh, finalizing, reviewing some new resources for our middle school program, so we'll probably share a little bit more about that at a later time, um, and then continuing to, um, implement and monitor the, um, new or the allocations for our language, uh, within our K-5 programming. And then as the school year wraps up and we have our summer work laid out for us, we'll continue the one of the first things that we're anxiously waiting for May to get here and get those ACCESS scores, um, and see where we land for this year, um, and then analyze some of that to
065see what our, um, next steps will be for, um, using that to inform our programming and instruction. And then of course our language, um, screenings that take a good, um, chunk of our summer as we have different teachers from our department, um, come during this month of June, July, and August to meet our new learners and do all the screenings. Um, so that's what we have for you tonight. So great celebration. Thank you for allowing, um, the time and space for this. Any questions? We're here. Any questions? Very thorough presentation. >> A lot of information. That's That's a [laughter] lot of information. Yeah. I think our students might be a little bit more than you are. >> [laughter] >> Just a quick comment. Our diversity is is our greatness in this district. Our diversity is
066our greatness in this country. Anything we can do to accentuate that, to share that knowledge, to share the experiences and the cultures is a great thing. So I admire everything that you're doing, uh, in expanding the knowledge of our diversity throughout the district. Thank you. We appreciate all the support from the board, Dr. Connolly and Dr. Childress as well. We wouldn't be able to do a lot of what we do without your support. Thank you. I guess that's great. Thank you very much. Okay. Next up we have, um, Amy Bryler, our director of literacy, and Sherry Massa, our director of student services, that are going to give us an, um, some information about, uh, our new foundational kindergarten that we're looking at opening up, um, for next school year, and I will just share, uh,
067with the board and with the audience that um, there is a lot of excitement, um, about us opening the foundational kindergarten, uh, sections, um, and actually Dr. Connolly and I have been digging around in the schools and we think that we probably are going to find two spots, two locations. Um, that's hot off the press. Look at the directors, they're like, look at they don't even know. >> [laughter] >> Um, >> [clears throat] >> but it lots of excitement throughout the district and in the various groups that, um, I meet with all throughout the the weeks, um, this question keeps coming up and people are, um, extremely appreciative. So I want to make sure that I share that with the board that our staff is extremely appreciative that the board is making the investment in
068these foundational kindergarten classrooms because they see that there is such a need for them. So I don't mind to steal all the thunder over here. So let me turn it back to these ladies. I'm going to start with my thank you. Out of time as a former early childhood teacher myself, right, this hits very home, right? Um, some of our earliest learners coming into school and, um, the district does, uh, such a wonderful job, um, with your support of, um, looking at the programming and supporting the needs of all of our students in the district, right? A heavy emphasis has really looked at our incoming kindergarten students over the past few years and have as identified an area of need with a group of with a you know, population of students who are age eligible
069age eligible for kindergarten but would benefit from some additional skill development and school readiness and some just some additional time in a foundational classroom. So our goal is really to help students build confidence and independence within those foundational skills. The program will be very flexible and fluid as students as we as we all know, right? Students grow and change even within the first month of school when they come into kindergarten. So looking at just giving them some added time and devotion to developing those school readiness skills and hoping to get them back into that traditional kindergarten program within that year. So what does this program look like? We're as I said before, we're really looking at increasing that school confidence and readiness, really leaning into additional support for social emotional learning, those developing those executive
070functioning skills, that oral language development, having additional time for that and that foundational academic readiness and it's going to expand our program offerings. So we have a much more diverse offering for our students. It will improve our kindergarten outcomes. It will narrow that opportunity gap as students move throughout the grade levels, student achievement will increase. All right, so a little bit about what we're thinking for the program. Obviously as you just heard, we might have two classrooms. So that's super exciting. We weren't sure if it was going to be one or two. But really when we look at identifying and and kind of that student profile, we're looking at starting our classroom sizes with about 10 students to start the year but capping it at 15. So a little bit smaller because we know that
071we need to have some really direct intense support for them. We're still working on those locations. We're still going to be anchored to those core kindergarten curriculum standards. So we're not going to deviate from what those core expectations are. However, we're going to embed some supplemental supports and resources really targeting that social emotional learning going beyond just what we're doing in all of our kindergarten classrooms but really expanding that to have some higher social emotional explicit instruction. Also fine and gross motor skills because we know that that's something that we see sometimes is a little bit of a delay with some of our kindergarteners and then again like Amy said with that oral language development. So how are we going to identify these students because we could probably fill a lot of classrooms. So we
072really have to look at what are the students that are really going to be able to benefit the most from this program. So we're looking at our general education kindergarten population incoming. Prior to the start of the school year, we're going to be sending out a questionnaire to all of our families. It's called the ASQ-3. This is our first year that we're doing this. So we need to start somewhere knowing that we're going to build upon this as the years go on, right? So for this first year, looking at sending out a parent survey asking them for some of those developmental and readiness skills. That's what the ASQ-3 will score for us. It looks at the not just the fine motor but how does your student play? How do they develop and get along with
073their peers? Once we're able to take in that information, we're going to couple that with information that we gain from summer screenings when we take our our incoming kindergarteners for language screenings, we'll look at that executive functioning development and we'll also look at their readiness and their maturity based on social emotional standards from either those kindergarten screening days or when they even come in for some other opportunities over the summer. We'll take all of that data to compile that to kind of look at almost like a ranked system of who is going to be the students that we feel are going to be the most appropriate for that program. That's where we'll target our students for where I'm starting the year. But we also know that there will be some parents that aren't able to
074complete the survey, register late or that we see them in kindergarten and we identify them in October, right? So that's why we're capping we're starting with 10 to leave that room for those students to come into the program after the school year starts. So we want to have that flexibility. We also know that there will be students that start with us and within the first 30 days, 45 days of school, they get that extra boost and will be able to go back into a regular kindergarten classroom opening the doors then for the potential for other students to come in that may be start the school year okay but as the other students start to progress, we see that maybe there is a greater gap. So we'd be able to move students in later on. So
075having that fluidity within the program. So where do we go from here? So hopefully within the next couple of within the next week or two actually, we should be sending out the survey to all of our kindergarten families that are already registered. At upcoming information nights in May, we'll have QR codes that will also link that survey for parents. So they'll have another opportunity if they haven't yet filled out that survey to be able to fill out that survey. And we'll have other copies of the survey available over the summer as they come and complete those language screenings. We'll take all of that data, compile it and by end of May into June, we'll start looking at the students that may be appropriate contacting those families and having communication about what the program is and
076seeing if they are interested in participating and having their student join that foundational program. But like we said, this is our first year. We've already started talking about what this could be beyond this first year. So we've talked about starting next year working with our kindergarten teams to really develop a more robust program for identification for our students looking at additional opportunities for summer screenings but also offering a jump start kindergarten session in future summers to help even more of our students be more prepared for the start of kindergarten. So we are super excited not just about the potential for this foundational kindergarten for this coming school year but even in subsequent years after that of how we can really build up that early learning opportunities. Questions? So this will still be a a full
077day kindergarten class like all of our other kindergarten classes with sort of kindergarten plus. Correct. >> Yep. Okay. Yeah. That was one of my questions. Yeah, so you guys that was very thorough. You were answering my questions as I was jotting them down. So >> [laughter] >> um as an elementary teacher, I know some of our most challenging learners are unidentified going into a program. So I like how you explained how the cap in the enrollment is different. Um Do parents have to give permission for a program like this though? Mhm. So have we thought about maybe how we would support some of these children if their parents were not on board with them because I'm assuming they would go to likely a different school than their home school which some will not be comfortable
078with. So do we have like a contingency of how we're going to support them if they don't want to go? Yeah, so one of the benefits that we've talked about with the ASQ-3 with that screener is even students that may not um be be on our list for that targeted kindergarten program, we still are going to identify needs that they may have. And so this will allow us an opportunity to better plan to support our kindergarten teachers and our kindergarten program but it also allows us an opportunity to be able to say, hey these three kiddos, they qualified and they chose not to attend. So here's some additional supports that we're going to be able to provide for you as a kindergarten teacher in your school with your administrators. So by being able to get
079some of this information sooner for our students, we're going to better be able to plan to support whether that be through additional curriculum resources. We've talked about some additional whole class lessons with either our social workers, our OTs, our speech paths that would be able to go into all of our kindergarten classrooms. So we're excited about the information not just for those two classrooms but for what this is going to do for all of our kindergarten programs to be able to to help make it a little bit more robust for them. And I think it's going to allow [clears throat] us to move from the right the to move into the proactive instead of the reactive, right? Really providing that support early on to as Sherry said, right? To teachers as well as students. Mhm.
080And obviously hopefully we can convince parents why their child would benefit more so to be in the actual program versus getting supports in their regular classroom. Um and are we already pre-screening some of our early learners since they're already in our program? So we have. We've talked about I mean obviously our kiddos that are coming out of our preschool program. But we've also talked about when looking at students, students that have had no prior experience to school may actually have a greater need for something like this foundational kindergarten because they've had no prior school experience. So we've talked a lot about how we're going to balance the students that we have a lot of information coming out of our preschools versus students that maybe have had no prior school experience and what we really need
081to help them to be able to be school ready. Okay. And I have one more question, sorry. Um how does language play into this? So obviously if we're preparing for these sections but we have students that would potentially place into a bilingual classroom instead, are we preparing for that? So we are and we're and we're working on it. He's been with us as we've been developing part of that and that's also why part of that overall identification is including how students have performed during that language screening that they take over the summer. So that that becomes part of the considerations not just for identification but how we're going to help develop once they're within our classrooms, what does that look like? Anything else, Anya? No, we've been part of the conversation and that's part of
082the data that we've collected right now. Mhm. We'll do our for current preschoolers and kindergarten, we'll do those language screenings in the main. Okay. Be able to make some other recommendations. People are to give me our mighty moral might have a slight need converse and it depends on the year, depends on right, what's Mhm. how many kids are Some of these Okay. We'll look at that information later. Yeah. Okay. I know this is still early, but I'm very excited by this. I know foundational kindergarten is a huge need in so many places, so I think this is really great and if we can kind of, you know, identify some of these kiddos a little earlier, hopefully we can set them up for a path to success. So. Great. Well, thank you. Any other Bill? Well,
083first you guys shortened my questions cuz you've answered 90% already. Thank you, that was an outstanding presentation. On a separate front, have you already looked started looking into the transportation that's going to be needed bussing 10 or to 20 students from really across the different home schools to one or two locations? Yeah, it's it's the same as what we would do with any of our specialized programs that are in specific locations. They they are routed through our transportation system, so you know, that will all be taken into account and and transportation will be provided. Thank you. How big do you think this wonderful program can be? Well, we're this year, this is our first year, right? Right. >> [laughter] >> Right. Right, a lot of work to do over the summer and as right as
084Sherry just said, right when Beatrice confirmed, right, we're going to have places for two classes at the start. Right, I I understand the start. Do you have a a vision of where it can go? You know, I think it's it's going to be all based on data, right? All based on student need. Hopefully someday we won't need, right? We won't need to have a foundational kindergarten, but looking at the needs of right from year to year, how many kids need that type of support is is where we're going to. I think we can get that summer jumpstart program in place, right? That's going to be even if it's only a week or two, that's going to help address a lot of the needs that we may down the road have had students that were identified
085for this foundational kindergarten that we're going to be able to meet those needs in a jumpstart summer program. So, you know, we're hoping that that too as we build up that and we get hundreds of students, right? We get all of our incoming kindergartners to do that to do that jumpstart kindergarten where we can really meet the needs of so many students, that will help to perhaps maybe eliminate some students Thank you. I think the other thing to note and and you're going to hear about something within the next presentation on early childhood, which are some, you know, kind of precedents to the foundational kindergarten program. I think the whole point of this is to be able to get to a point where we don't need to do it at the level that that, you
086know, other than what we're already planning to do. So, so stay tuned. Yeah, Arlene, if we go off of current trends, right? When I've shared with the board that we've been kind of doing some work with our building leaders on students that are high need students in identifying high need students. I would say the trend is we've been averaging about two kindergartners, two to three kindergartners in every site that have kind of some elevated needs. So, if we think about just that number, that it basically equates to two classrooms. Right? So, again, if the trend holds true, Yeah. then that should be sufficient, but time will tell. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah. Just a couple of other things while Amy and Sherry were our presenters, I will say that all of the Ed Services directors
087participated in kind of this development and and working through the program model. Um, you know, I shared that Dr. Conley and I were talking about this and wanting to do this and then they came back with something, you know, faster than I could even have the conversation with them. So, they too, right, have a lot of time and and energy invested in it. And the other thing is right after spring break, I'll share that we did an all call for kindergarten teachers, their building leaders that wanted to come and give feedback. So, these slides that you saw this evening had already gone through a feedback loop with some of our teachers and our administrators and they had some really great questions. Um, and again, tons of excitement about it, but we were very pleasantly surprised
088how many people the room was full. And they had some really really great questions, so I think that that really is helping us to as far as the development of the program, tapping lots of people's expertise and thoughts. Definitely, definitely. Juliana, go ahead. Um, really great presentation. Thank you. I like Bill and Carrie said, they answered like 90% of my questions. I only have one question left. So, just to clarify, because you guys were talking about the flexibility throughout the year for this next school year, so do they go back to their home school if they were to be eligible for that in the middle of the program? I think we've discussed not having a a true blanket 100%, but yes, the intent would be that students would go back to their home school, but
089we'd obviously look at that in a case by case. It's, you know, if a student is in May and they've developed long relationships in a building, that might be something different than October 15th, right? So, we'll certainly take a a look at that as a case by case, but the intent would be that they would go back to their home school so that they can start building the relationships with their peers that they will be with for the rest of their school career. So, that would be the intent would be to go back. I think developing those tight partnerships, right? With the foundational kindergarten teachers as well as the home school teachers, so that when when we do make that transition, that it's that it's a smooth and and very supportive one for our staff
090as well as the students that will be transitioning back. Right, and I think that's the key is the transition, right? So, if you know, there's a runway here of of a transition back. So, it could very well and again, it will need to be, you know, predicated on the need of the of the child, but it could be that over a period of a week, you know, you're spending you're kind of doing that soft transition, maybe you're doing a quarter of a day, then a half day, then, you know, you're kind of, you know, building that up. And and that's the nice thing is that we have the ability because we've got our our in-house school bus fleet, we have the ability to be flexible with transportation to be able to kind of be able
091to do that. I think one of the things that I've, you know, continued to kind of look at this program as as it's it's providing on-ramps and off-ramps, which we don't always do well once we get locked into our our kind of our school year, our school environment. So, it's really about being able to to to, you know, meet the kid where they're at and and but get them to where we we need them to be. So. Yeah. I have one more question, sorry. I may have missed this if you said this, but this is not including students that have IEPs. Right, the priority would be general education students. Non-identified general education students. Okay. There there may be a student with an IEP who maybe has a speech service or some other service, Okay. the
092goal would be for general education students because a student with an IEP, we would be meeting their needs yeah, through that IEP. Okay. Perfect. Um, I have one question. Um, what about the students in kindergarten that are like ahead? Good question. Instead of behind. >> [laughter] >> That's an awesome question. Um, we work, right? We we have fabulous kindergarten teachers throughout the district and one of the things that we, right, we work with all teachers on is what we call differentiation, right? Meeting the needs of of kiddos that that need extra support, that right, that are that are meeting grade level expectations and then what do those kids need that need that little bit of extra differentiation and right, some some acceleration with some of their some of their skills, right? So, in kindergarten, right,
093that may look like kids kiddos that come in that have that know all their letters, names and sounds and they're already reading, right? So, how are we doing more reading activities with them or more enriching more math games and getting them to think a little bit more critically. That was a great question. The other thing we do is kids that really truly are very high, their their parents have an opportunity to ask for them to be assessed to see if they need to be grade level advanced. And so, that's not something that we see happening a lot cuz the threshold to be able to do that is very high, but it is something that is available to parents if their children are excelling and they're concerned about us adequately meeting their needs in the kindergarten
094grade level. It is something we explore. I'll just add one more to to kind of mirror what what Beatrice was talking about in terms of the team and the work that they've done. You know, Beatrice and I really started talking about this, I think probably the Monday after Labor Day. You know, the the need at the kindergarten level to to do something, right? And this is by the way universal. Every superintendent I've talked to, no matter where they're, you know, in the state of Illinois, in California, whomever, we're all like, yep. It it is a kind of a universal thing. So, by November um and the continued conversations and the data that we were gathering and the need, um we pretty much were like, "Okay, go." Um and I as a middle school guy, as
095a as a high school guy, I I you know, kindergarten, I walk in, you know, it's like controlled chaos. I don't know how they do it and and I you know, stay just long enough and go, "Bye." Um so, I don't Hey, they're the experts and I was blown away um cuz I was trying to conceptualize myself what this thing looks like um and uh you know, the the program that came back was it was like it made complete sense and it was just so well thought out and so, I just want to add to what Beatrice said about the work of the team, um the thoughtful feedback um that that the uh preschool kindergarten uh teachers have have been part of. Um all we needed to do was say, "Go." Um and they took
096over from there. So, I think we've got some good things happening. Thank you very much. And then, our last Ed Services presentation this evening, um Melissa Scoletta will be talking with us about um our preschool program and also a an exciting [clears throat] new opportunity with that program as well. Hey, thanks for having me. All right. So, I am Melissa Scoletta. I'm the director of early childhood here in the district. Um I'm here tonight to talk to you a little bit about preschool in District 21, review the Creative Curriculum pilot that we are doing this year with half of our preschool classrooms, um highlight some outcomes from that pilot, and then talk about our next steps in preschool. So, just so everyone knows, preschool is housed at Hawthorne, Whitman, and Tarkington. Um and we currently
097when I put this together, had 482 students enrolled, but we have increased since then at this point um because kids are enrolling every week um based on just that need and turning three. So, we are going to continue growing. Maybe we'll hit 500 by the end of the year. I don't know. We'll see. Um our locations, like I said, are Hawthorne, Tarkington, and Whitman. We have a total of 13 blended classrooms across the district. Um those classrooms have one teacher, one teaching assistant, and they go up to 20 students. Those are our general education classrooms with um special education students in them. Um and then, we have three self-contained classrooms that are all located at Hawthorne. Those classrooms have one teacher, two teaching assistants, and can go up to 10 students. Some of the benefits
098of preschool, um we learn through play. And we learn in all of these different skills, motor, sharing, self-regulation, curiosity, problem-solving, all the things they need to know to be ready to be a student in kindergarten. Um and those those benefit them in closing those achievement gaps. Um they build that communication and social development early. They start to lay the groundwork for those academic skills that they're going to need the minute they walk and step foot into kindergarten. They get that physical development. Their outdoor time isn't just recess. It's structured gross motor time. Um and they have that thinking and problem-solving, and we do a lot of partnering with families. >> [gasps] >> So, our current curricular resource before our pilot was HighScope. We have just a handful of options based on the PFA grant. Um
099this curricular resource is research-based. It is hands-on experiences. They follow a plan, do, and review process. So, students plan what they're going to do during choice time. They actually physically do it, and then they come back at the end, and they review what they've done. Um the emphasis for this curricular resource is on routines, independence, and some of those adult interactions. It doesn't have a strong of an um emphasis on academic skills. And so, we wanted to kind of refresh and take a look at what that looked like, so we could align to kindergarten a little bit more. So, we considered a change in our curricular resource. As we were thinking through that, we wanted to have opportunities to strengthen that teacher guidance and the classroom structure that we had within our classrooms. We wanted
100that implement implementation to be more consistent across the district. Um we wanted that ability to expand our differentiation for our students, for those students who needed a little bit more extra help, and those students who are high-achieving, and we need to push them a little higher. Um we wanted that potential to really increase our family engagement. We see a pretty steady family engagement, but we want to really increase that. We've increased our numbers, we want to increase our engagement. Um and then, having that capacity to increase that academic learning. So, as part of our strategic plan, we wanted to have that continuous improvement. So, we want to align with those district goals, strengthen our instruction, meet those needs of our learners, and increase that kindergarten readiness, as well as aligning with some of our assessment.
101So, a little bit about our resource pilot. We are piloting the Creative Curriculum across eight classrooms. Um and this was offered to teachers throughout the entire preschool program, and it was voluntary to be part of the pilot. Um we have currently one self-contained special education classroom piloting this. We have three of our bilingual classrooms across the district piloting it, and we have four of our English ESL classrooms piloting it. So, a total of seven are our blended classrooms and the one of our self-contained classrooms. And they're all working together, collaborating, um talking, sharing resources, sharing ideas, and then continuing to go through training together and coaching. Um and then, as we go, we're gathering feedback from parents and teachers um and looking at that student data. So, a little bit about Creative Curriculum, it is
102also still a research-based framework. It focuses on the whole child's development. It does encourage that exploration and that inquiry that we're seeing in our HighScope curriculum, but we're starting to see more of that explicit instruction. And then, we are aligning it with some of those assessment tools as well. Some of the benefits that we've seen is we're seeing an increase in student engagement in the classroom, um more intentional teaching, some of those routines that were built are seeing improvement, and we're having a stronger alignment with our assessment. You can see here that kids are engaging in things that they may never have engaged in before. Um here at Hawthorne, we had our custodian bring in the dolly. They were talking about a wheels study, and they were learning about wheels. And so, they explored how
103the dolly worked and how the wheels worked on the dolly. So, we're really starting to explore some more of those concepts. Um teacher feedback is never something bad to have, and so I have been collaborating with the groups of teachers. They have shared that it's a clearer planning process. They have structured things that they're teaching. They're intentionally teaching specific concepts and skills. They have increased confidence in their teaching. Um and that alignment to that assessment, they're better able to support all of their learners in the classroom, and they're having a positive experience overall. I gathered some parent feedback. Um and this is just I'll let you kind of take a look. They're seeing improvement in the communication of their students. They're seeing those generalizations from home to school. Um they're noticing some of the deeper
104dives that we're doing into some of our curricular resources and in how that's playing out in their everyday life. Um and they're they're seeing some of that connection. Um they're seeing that hands-on, more parent feedback, that hands-on learning, that social-emotional development, engagement, and interest in learning, um the language and communication, and one of the big areas that they really spoke highly of was that alignment to kindergarten readiness. The student impact, right? Our students in our classroom are highly impacted. You can see, we had students go out and visit a vehicle during the wheels unit, right? What does that wheel do? We have students measuring balls. Um this group of students was on a bus. They were taking a trip somewhere, right there in the classroom. We didn't have to leave. It didn't cost anything extra.
105Um and they even made their own steering wheel. Um we're seeing growth in all areas, all of the domain areas. We're seeing higher engagement in the classroom, um stronger peer interactions, and we're able to individualize some of that support to help that growth. This is from the mind of the preschooler. So, in the classroom, we ask them what they're learning. What are you learning about? And Everett says that water freezes into ice. And Oliver, water makes us grow trees. Um ice melts when it gets hot. This was clearly from their water unit, right? So, we get to hear how they're starting to generalize and process some of that um at home as well and that transfer. Um, one of the most important pieces that we look at is their growth, right? And we only have
106at this point two data points with this assessment tool and the curriculum. Um, and the teachers are learning the curriculum as well, right? They're still going through some of the training. They're still opening and getting getting used to how this is different than HighScope. Um, but you can see each of those domain areas has growth um and and growth in great ways. Um, we're really seeing that below expectations start to shrink and that's really just from fall to winter. So, I'm really excited to kind of go back in see our summer data and our spring data. And then this is just the rest of the It didn't all fit on one side. But you can see all of those data points are shrinking and are exceeding expectations even in some areas are really growing. Um,
107this also comes with some parent resources, which is really helpful in our parent engagement because we know as as a working mom, I know I can't always be there during the school day to come and be part of school activities. Sometimes I'm busy at night and I can't be there for a night engagement, right? But I'm still engaging with my kiddos and this is giving us opportunities to provide to our families who maybe can't make a parent engagement night or daytime activity. Um, these are parents that are using the app that's connected to our curriculum. So, they have access to activities, um things that they can do at home, academic things that they can work on with their children and they're all connected to outside of school activities. It's not what they're doing in class,
108but it's connected to it. So, this just shows the number of families that were reaching out and using it in the blue and then there is a button for them to click and say that they've completed activities. So, that red kind of shows those parents that have learned that button and have been sharing that with teachers as well. And we're going to do some more education on what is that app and how parents can use it and how they can access that as well cuz we've been learning it as we've gone through. Um, when I gathered feedback from families, they shared that it was that app was very user-friendly. The photos that they were getting as part of that were aligned to the standards. They're getting updates from what's happening in the classroom. Um, they
109have ideas right there in their hands to with step-by-step directions to do at home activities. Um, and they're able to track their own kiddos' progress in there as well. Um, we do get access to a large collection of books to read. So, while we try to encourage families to have actual books, it's a great resource to have on the go and be able to read a story instead of a show or other app. Um, and then they get up updates from their classroom teachers through there as well. Some of the data and results it's showing those positive trends, improved documentation of growth, and it's really more consistent instruction in the classroom. So, we're hoping to really bridge that gap to kindergarten. Some of the challenges and considerations that we're looking at are right now our
110current program is only half day, right? We only have 2 and 1/2 hours with kiddos and we want more. Um, and really just continuing to support our teachers in being able to roll some of this out and have confidence in this curriculum um as well as our families to be able to connect with the app, to connect with our teachers, to connect in the classroom. Um, so we're we're continuing to look at those pieces. Um, in that we're looking to do more professional learning opportunities for staff. Right now we're doing a curriculum um training the month of April. So, we're going through the curriculum pieces to be able to roll that out next year to the remainder of the preschool classrooms. So, teachers have the opportunity and TAs have the opportunity to come and be
111part of some of that training now um and get their hands on some of that material since we have it already with our pilot. Um, we'll continue to do assessment training in May. So, we're going to kind of round out our school year with curriculum and assessment and then we're going to do some more training as we roll into the 26-27 school year and we get some feedback from teachers on what else they need. Um, we're going to continue to build that parent engagement and those education opportunities around our new curricular resource and what it looks like to be in our classrooms and how they can make those connections. And be big, we're going to implement a section of full-day preschool because we know that this is where it's needed. Um, and hopes that we
112don't need to have students go into foundational kindergarten that we can build this program to support our students right here right now in preschool. So, the purpose is to increase that school readiness. We know early intervention is going to get us what we need. Um, it's going to build those foundational skills, that SEL development, and reduce some of that academic pressure. Um, we're going to expand program offerings. Um, it's going to improve our kindergarten outcomes and it's going to narrow that opportunity gap for us. So, for next year we're looking to open one classroom with a maximum of 20 students and this is going to be a little different than that foundational kindergarten. We're going to fill this classroom not quite to 20, but pretty close to 20 because we're hoping to meet as many
113kids' needs as possible um right out of the get-go. Our location is still TBD um and the eligibility is going to be specifically for those kinder-bound students. So, they will have to be kinder-bound to be eligible for the program. Um, and we're going to use our same weighted eligibility checklist that we use for our current half-day program and we're going to take the kids with the the higher needs. Um, and we are going to look at kids from within our program to start and those kids through screening as we continue screenings in the spring. Um, and their curricular resource is going to be the Creative Curriculum. The Creative Curriculum also has a full-day program and so we're going to use all of those components to help support that as well. Our next steps are going
114to be to continue to review that data. We're going to meet and look at the criteria um for enrollment and we're going to start to identify some students that we think are already in our program that could really benefit from that full-day next year that are kinder-bound. We're going to go through that eligibility checklist with them um and then we're going to start reaching out to parents. So, I will leave you with a full day of preschool and a classroom is not more of the same. It's more time for meaningful learning, connection, and growth. Thank you. Uh, did anyone have any questions for Melissa? I always have questions about something like this. Sorry. Um, okay. So, obviously this is wonderful. I loved your whole presentation. Um, I'm glad that there's so much positive feedback with
115your curriculum. Uh, for for our full-day kiddos, I mean 20 high-needs kids in one classroom sounds challenging. So, are we providing teachers' assistants in those classrooms like five or something? >> [laughter] >> So, when we're thinking of high needs, we're thinking of all the aspects, right? We're looking at all the criteria. So, they may just need extra exposure. So, yes, they will have TAs. Okay. >> [laughter] >> But not five. Yes, obviously. And I'm assuming though that this would include a good handful of students that have IEPs. We will still ride that 70/30. So, >> Okay. we'll still have that and we will allow students with IEPs in there, but it will be that same blended setting. Okay. And obviously I know going to a full day, 2 and 1/2 hours to a full day
116is more than double a day for them. So, it but they're following the same hours as our regular building would, 9:00 to 3:30? They're going to follow the same preschool hours. So, they'll be 8:30 to 3:00. They won't be at Hawthorne as far as I know, but location is still TBD. Okay. Right, one of the reasons why it won't be at Hawthorne is because lunch. Right, so you know, just you know, the the elementary are are better equipped to handle a full-day program like that. So, yeah. Well, and when they're kinder-bound, it I actually think it would be better to have them in a regular building in my opinion. And we will build in quiet time, right? Because we have to kind of build up to that full day, right? We know that when they
117come in in August, they're not going to be ready to make it from 8:30 to 3:00 and be going because we know that our kindergarteners aren't always ready. So, we're going to have to work to prepare them, but that's what's going to help them be ready for that full-day kindergarten. Okay. Awesome. Sounds great. Um, and uh to build on that, um do parents have to opt in for the like is it something like, oh, we think your kid, you know, similar to the um the foundational kindergarten that we think your kid would benefit from this, but they have to buy in. If they say, no, I just want like a half. It's it's still the parents' decision, right? >> It would still be the parents' decision, absolutely. >> Great, thank you. All right. I think
118one of the things that's important to note um is that this is another investment that you are making as a board. This is not grant This is not grant funded. Um this is not a preschool for all expansion grant um from from the state. Um this was a need that was identified um and is something that the district is doing of its own resources and accord. So, I it's a really important to note um because you know, our preschool funding generally speaking is grant based. So. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. All right. Uh we've reached public comment section of our meeting. The board will allow any individual to share a public comment for up to 3 minutes. Such comments should not include discussion of personnel matters, which should be brought directly to the
119attention of the appropriate school official. During public comment, the board and administration will listen to comments, but may not respond to the public. Thank you, Leticia. Um Leticia has just handed me a comment card. Um Ben Coleman, you want to come on up? Oh, well, sorry. I I don't have eyes at well. Good evening. My name is Ben Coleman and I am current I am the current president of the District 21 Education Association. We represent the teachers, certified staff, education support personnel, and custodial maintenance staff here in District 21. I'm happy to share that some big things have been happening in my life in the past month. I got married finally, I sold my house, and my daughter chose a college. She's graduating from Prospect in a few weeks, and in the fall she will
120be attending Washington University in St. Louis to study art. She was recently chosen to represent Prospect at the District 214, sorry, District 214 art exhibition, and if I'm not mistaken, she was the only student chosen to do so. She's amazing and I'm very proud. I want to take a second and just show my show some support and appreciation for arts education in District 21 and in general. Both my son and daughter benefited enormously from music education in elementary, middle, and high school. My son was in several bands in high school, and it helped him stay engaged and challenged even when he had to stay home because of the pandemic. My daughter wasn't as passionate about music, but her interest in art, including dance and theater, made up for it. For both of them, the arts
121provided an opportunity for them to work toward and achieve mastery, a very different idea from competency. I've talked a lot in other places about the importance of success to motivation. Kids often enjoy and are willing to work hard at things they're good at or feel successful at. No one is born good at drawing. It takes years of drawing and erasing and redrawing to get good at it. The same is true of music and theater. I think that the arts can give a lot of kids a chance to feel that, and I'm glad that our district is willing to support arts education at all levels. I wanted to give one example of a D21 teacher I've worked with for a while at Holmes and Cooper. Heidi Flowers rehearses with her students in the room next to
122me at Cooper, and I've commented to her several times about how beautifully her students play. Some of them are playing instruments that are larger than they are, but that doesn't seem to matter. Heidi gives them all a chance to play a part in a successful organization, and that can be transformative. Thank you for the chance to contribute, and thank you for the work that you do in support of students and staff here in District 21. We are excited to be a partner in the decision-making process. Thanks, Ben. And congratulations on everything. Um any other comment cards? Nope. Nope. Good. Cass, any written public comment? Okay, good deal. Let's move right along into our consent agenda. Uh we received six Freedom of Information Act requests this month. There are board conference and travel expenses for the
123board, excuse [clears throat] me, to approve in the amount of $629.18 for conference conference travel expenses for one board member to the 2025 Joint Annual Conference, and one board member to the 2026 IASB Advocacy Day. Uh I had a chance to sit down with Mike Zager and go over the financials. He answered all of my questions. Thank you again, Mike. Uh does anyone need anything pulled from consent this month? Good deal. May I please have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Jessica? Yes. Debbie? Yes. I vote yes. Arlene? Aye. Iliana? Yes. Bill? Yes. And Galica? >> Yes. Motion carries. I just want to note we just approved Tuesday, June 2nd to be the last day of school for the 2025 school year, and that we will once again waive registration fees for next school
124year, and we have also set the Board of Education meeting schedule for the next year. Um Dr. Connolly, any introductions you'd like to make tonight? >> Yes, several. Um so um I'm going to have uh Dr. Childress uh take over here as uh you have just approved the hiring of two new assistant principals and one uh coordinator at the district level. So, Dr. Childress. So, last month Where's the Thank you. Last month you actually approved um Tracy um for her new role in our district as a special education or I'm sorry, as a student services coordinator. Tracy's here this evening. So, we wanted to introduce her since she was here this evening. Um we're going to reintroduce her. So, if you don't mind standing, Tracy. Um you're next to me. I'm not going to ask
125you to speak at the podium, but just stand here next to me. Tracy's proudly served in District 21 since 2024. She's currently the assistant principal at Longfellow. She brings 10 plus years of experience as a school social worker, MTSS behavior coach, and school leader with a strong background in student support in school systems. Her strong expertise in SEL, MTSS, PBIS, and restorative practices, crisis response, and data-driven behavior systems um have all benefited all us already here in District 21, and we anticipate even more so in her new role next year. She's got a master's in educational leadership from Concordia and a master's in social work from Loyola, and a bachelor's in psychology. Um she has a professional educator license with endorsements in social work and administration. So, thank you, Tracy. Excited about you in your
126new role. >> [laughter] >> All right, and then next we have Marta. Oh, I have the controller. My gosh, sorry, folks. It's getting late. Marta Mohammed, Marta. Oops. Okay, here we go. Marta brings um 9 years of experience in supporting students, families, and school teams in special education. She's served as a special education teacher, case manager, LEA representative. She's currently a special education teacher in Oak Park School District 97. She brings strong expertise in special education, inclusive practices, staff leadership, and family collaboration. She's got a PhD in special education from the University of Illinois, and um a master's in the principal preparation um program from Concordia. She has her uh LBS1 and principal credentials, and she is also a fluent Polish speaker. So, we are really excited because if you don't remember, that is our
127fourth largest language in our district. So, now we have representation of all four major languages on our district team. Um and so, we want to welcome Marta. We're really excited about her joining our team. And now it's Louis's turn. All right, so we had um a search for two assistant principals and a uh the principal for Riley. Um so, I'm going to start with our two new assistant principals. Um so, first we have Aaron Lim. All right, so a little about the search first. Um So, we were really we we shared with the the board we were really lucky um in our search this year. We were able to we brought after some paper screening, we brought 14 candidates um in for for assistant principal interviews, um and narrowed it down to to these two.
128So, Aaron's background is actually as a school psychologist. Um during the interview, Aaron really stood out from the other candidates for a variety of reasons. The first was her wealth of knowledge and deep background in special education. Sh- um she spoke about her knowledge of interventions and building systems to support the identification and ongoing monitoring of special education students. Aaron is also bilingual in Spanish, which will be an asset to our district. During the interview, she was articulate and communicated clearly and directly. Her references spoke about how well-respected she is in her current role and her ability to build strong relationships as she meets people where they are and builds them up from there. So, Erin, congratulations and welcome. >> [applause] >> All right. Next, we have our new assistant principal for Longfellow. There she
129is. All right. So, this is Sarah Swanson. Um during the interview process, Sarah definitely stood out. Um she was calm, professional, and able to articulate her thoughts and experiences with very clear examples. Sarah's been an elementary school teacher, a coordinator in teaching and learning, and has had several years of school administrative experience both as an assistant principal and a principal. Her references spoke to her high levels of planning, organization, and knowledge of teaching and learning. They also praised her as a person of higher integrity high integrity and character who will be able to build positive relationships with all stakeholders. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> All right. And finally, we have our new principal for Riley. Um and first, I want to apologize. Tara, I think you're Is this your family right here? Okay. Tara, you >>
130let's let's actually approve her first. Oh. And then we can introduce her. >> [laughter] >> Tara, do your thing. If you don't mind. >> process, who knows, you know. Well, congratulations to the the four we were just introduced to. Welcome to District 21. Super excited uh to see what you will bring to us. But let's move ahead into new business for just a mo. Uh we have one item, the approval of the appointment agreement for the principal of Riley Elementary School. What all surprise, no one knew that was coming. Lewis. >> Okay, now you can introduce her. >> [laughter] >> Wait, we have to vote though. We may have done that on purpose, Lewis. Just to make you move back and forth. >> you get them for you, we do actually have to vote for
131a second. Uh I'm sorry, it's been a really long day. Just [laughter] stay there, Lewis. I think we're all getting a little loopy. May I please have a motion to approve? >> Thank you. Second. All right. Jessica. >> Yes. Debbie. >> Yes. I vote yes. Arlen. Yes. Iliana. Yes. Bill. Yes. Angela Cut. >> Yes. All right, motion carries. Go ahead. Wonderful. >> [laughter] >> Okay, now for real. All right. So, we have Tara and her family. So, first family, I want to apologize. Tara said, "What time do you think they should get there?" And I said, "Well, we've got some presentations." I asked Leticia, she said, "Uh 7:30, 8:00." So, that was my bad. We were a little off on the timing. I appreciate your patience. So, Tara, if you want to come on up.
132So, Tara's held a variety of positions in education from classroom teacher, instructional coach both at a special education cooperative and middle school. And for the last 3 years, she's been an elementary school assistant principal. Tara presented herself as a very personable and approachable candidate. During the inter her interview, she demonstrated strong knowledge of teaching and learning. This was also echoed by all of her references. She came across as a candidate who will be present for all stakeholders and lead with kindness and compassion, but will also hold those around her to high expectations while supporting them in meeting those expectations. Her references spoke to her excellent communication skills and her ability to create and implement effective systems. Welcome to District 21. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much. I will
133keep it brief because I know it's been a long night. Um I am thrilled to become the next principal of Riley Elementary, and I would not be able to do it without my supportive family. So, thank you for being here. Um I'm really looking forward to building strong relationships with our students, staff, families, community partners, and learning all about Riley. Two of the things that I'm really looking forward to in this next year is establishing a safe and collaborative environment for all students and staff um to have what they need to succeed, but also to foster a strong sense of belonging and unity as one school. And I am just so grateful for this opportunity, and thank you so much. All right. So, to those uh who we just introduced as well as the uh
134support team that's here from their schools, you are more than welcome to stay, but you do have permission to leave. I know you all have work tomorrow. >> [laughter] >> All right. Again, congratulations to our new hires. Uh we're going to move right on into board communication. Uh first, I want to extend our thanks to Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton for hosting a state of the county address here last week. I received a number of compliments from local realtors and chairs of chambers of commerce on our building and our meeting facilities. Uh I think uh what struck me the most, and I know several of us were in attendance, uh and perhaps you left with the same feeling is that despite all the work that is being done at the county level, there is still
135just an ongoing need for the basics of humanity, of food, shelter, and health care in our community. Uh I also attended a webinar last week hosted by ISBE on the attendance and engagement in Illinois schools. It seems we are already incorporating many of their suggestions or approaches to this issue, including partnering with families to understand their challenges and needs and shifting the power dynamic from blame to understanding. Uh they also discussed that when students are chronically absent, there's a ripple effect beyond just that individual student to all the other students, the teacher, the classroom, and the school culture. Um let's uh do board policy committee, Bill. Thank you, Jessica, and a a brief indulgence for a personal matter. When you meet on the third week of every month, you typically meet on certain specific dates,
13615, 16, 17, 18. April 16th happens to be my anniversary. Um 30 That's a She's happy, it's okay. 37 years, so that uh just wanted to thank her and to thank her for letting me be here. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Any more happy, healthy? We hope. Um in any event, the board policy committee uh did meet earlier this evening to discuss proposed changes to board policy as recommended by IASB's Press Plus service. Most of the suggested changes were minor in nature or related to changes in statutory references. There was a small expansion of policy required by state law relating relating to leave time for employees with children in NICU. You should expect to see this in next month's agenda under first reading for policy. On a related note, IASB's webinar held last week indicated
137that next the next policy update will likely include a significant change for us to discuss, which would be on district cell phone policy. So, keep that in mind when you see that come out. And that is it for the policy committee. Great. Thank you. Um did anyone have a board champion update this month? Debbie? Uh yes. Um For my neck just want to say the CAS has been actively meeting with fundraising professionals, community members, alumni, and donors to strengthen our relationships and to meet and deepen community engagement. Through these conversations, she is gaining valuable insight and mean and building meaningful connections that will support our ongoing efforts. She is also thoughtfully exploring several additional engagement opportunities to further expand connections and foster collaboration within the community. On April 6th, uh she and Dr. Connolly presented
138at the Village of Arlington Heights board meeting. They presented uh information about our health center and the golf outing. And also, just last night, there is a group of wine, women, and networking. It's all women entrepreneurs. Um and she presented information about the health center and the golf outing there as well. And it was very Both were very well received. Great. Iliana, did you have anything you wanted to Got it. Okay. Anyone else? Board champion? Okay. Uh Debbie, why don't you do NSSCO then? Okay. Um everyone should have received the April board brief from uh NSSCO this afternoon. Leticia was going to forward it out. Uh might have been just before the meeting. Um at our meet at our most recent meeting, we discussed the ongoing ongoing negotiations. We had a moment of silence for
139a minor student that we lost last month. Um unfortunately, that's way too common of an an occurrence with that group of of children. Two shining stars from Kirk. Kirk is the 14 to 22-year-olds and they will be both be returning to District 211 for the remainder of their transition time. We discussed the possibility of a resolution and signage regarding ice activity. We directed all members to discuss at their next meeting, which is tonight for us, to obtain direction as to whether or not each district wants NSSEO to advance towards making a resolution and or installing signs. When I'm done talking, I'll ask for a just a voice. Simply due to the structure of this board, this will be a several month process. At our May meeting, we will vote on whether Dr. Schnoor and staff
140should develop both the uh I typed that wrong. Then at the June meeting, provided we are directed to move forward at tonight's meeting, um we will vote to bring the resolution back to each board for the approval. Um cuz they she will be working with all of the resolutions cuz every district has got a a slightly different resolution. Um and then in August, we would uh move forward to actually approve them because NSSEO does not meet in July. Um as a point of reference, all of the superintendents that were in the favor were in were in favor of moving forward with this. And we will be conducting this as two separate items because I know that there are some districts that may not be in favor of the signage, but are in favor of the
141resolution. So, we will be doing it as two separate things there. So, I would just like to know from everybody just out since we have done them both, I would presume that we are going to be in favor. Does anybody have any objections to NSSEO doing it? No. In favor of both. Mhm. That and that'll be it. Thank you. Good deal. All right, Bill. Ed-Red? Okay. Ed-Red's March monthly meeting was held here last Friday. A number of our board members attended either in person or virtually. There was an interesting discussion held with representatives Daniel Didech and Laura Fine or Diaz, most of which focused on unfunded mandates and the legislative proposal downstate to extend unemployment benefits. There does remain a certain cognizant cognitive dissonance in the legislature and the legislature as a whole on that
142so in these two particular representatives, where they agree that unfunded mandates are a problem and should be avoided, except for the next one coming up. Um upcoming Ed-Red events, the next Ed-Red meeting will be held on June 5th at 1:30 at the District 207, that's Maine Township administrative office on Dee Road in Park Ridge. There will be a virtual option. At that meeting, Representative Didech will be honored as Ed-Red's legislator of the year, so want to be involved in that. Um you could surely come on down. If you need a ride, let me know. Um Ed-Red's mini summit will be held Thursday, June 11th from 8:00 to 12:00. There will be 10 different breakout sessions to choose from as well as a keynote speaker. You should have all received information this week via email regarding
143registration and more detail as to the breakout sessions. If you're in interested in attending, please contact Leticia. And that's it for Ed-Red. All right. Do you want to take IASB? Oh, certainly. If you'll give me a minute to get to that part on our new Diligent system. Yes, that was a comment. Um and Gilke and I were able to attend IASB's advocacy day last month. We heard from a number of leaders from Deputy Governor for Education Martin Torres, Senate President Don Harmon, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, and uh one of our local legislators, Michelle Mussman. We were then able to go to the capital where we met with representatives Katsbul and Grassi, as well as to sit in on what must have been one of the shortest Senate education meetings in recent memory. Lasted all
144of about 5 minutes. Uh the North Cook board will be needing meeting next month to discuss topics for next year's dinner meetings, among other items. If you have an interesting idea for presentation, something you want to hear about, please reach out to me in the next couple of weeks so that I can bring it up at the meeting. Thank you. Arlen, anything from North Cook? Yes, thank you. Um you should have received and you did receive the updates, so I'm not going to go into all of that. I will tell you though that last week after two meetings that I attended as well, one before the planning commission of Mount Prospect, the second before the board of Mount Prospect, our proposal to build our new uh community center district center, North Cook Center, uh was
145approved. And uh after 25 years that I've been on that board, we will finally have a home that really services the students as well as all of our needs throughout the district, so I'm very excited about that. Uh also attended the Ed-Red meeting with Bill. That was uh interesting in terms of the pending legislation, some of which is pretty inane, but it's but it's out there. Um one of which, for example, uh bans compu or gives an an op an op out, as I understand it, for parents to opt out of computers because they feel students are not reading enough. So, there's a lot of interesting stuff out there. Um so, thanks everybody for your hard work and I'm delighted about North Cook. I think it's going to be great. We should open sometime this
146summer. No hard date yet. All right. And congratulations on the new facility. >> The team did it. It was uh a big team effort. >> [snorts] >> Okay. As I mentioned in the beginning of the meeting, um we have opened the process for students, seventh grade students to apply for the student board representatives. If there are any board members interested in participating in the interview process, please let me know and we'll figure out which ones of us will be doing that. Uh and if anyone has any other updates for local government or liaisons, please send those in for inclusion in the May agenda. Let's move right into the student representatives report. Uh Dr. Connolly. Yes. So, in addition to kind of their updates from their schools, um this month we asked them to kind of
147weigh in from a middle school perspective on a topic that is out in the zeitgeist a lot and that is artificial intelligence. Um so, over the past year, um our staff have been using AI in small ways, kind of dipping their toes in, um to support their planning and instruction. Uh back in January, staff began using Magic School AI in small pilot groups with students. Um our student board representatives tonight will share their perspective from a middle school lens. Uh now, some of them have not used the AI in school, Magic School, that's the small pilot groups, um but they have used it in different ways, either at home or school. Um so, just kind of more information on this topic from a district lens, Chris Lepetino is getting queued up to provide that in
148May. Um so, tonight is really just a small preview. So, um who'd like to go first? Selma, thanks for volunteering. Okay. So, the students at Homes are very excited for the last 6 weeks of school since we have many uh end of the year activities coming up that are really fun that I'm actually very excited for. Some of the sports are boys volleyball and track and field seasons are going great and are ending soon. And yesterday we had the spring musical and I personally thought it was so fun to perform. And about artificial intelligence, I think it's beneficial to students, but they also use it to their advantage, like getting answers in something like that. And two of the things that we use at Homes is Magic School. Magic School provides like step-by-step feedback and
149Snorkle. It lets you do the work and then tells you if it's right or wrong and then gives you feedback. Um over at London for updates, um track and field recently started like 3 weeks ago and our first meet is going to be next Tuesday at Wheeling. Boys volleyball also started tryouts, think we're like 2 weeks ago or last week and their first game was last night against River Trails and both seventh grade and eighth grade won. Our spring musical will be April 29th for the student show at 3:00 and then April 30th and as well as May 1st. I are also and I are testing also ended last week and I ISA testing only for eighth grade ended today. Artificial intelligence, on the topic about artificial intelligence, I have used AI for feedback on
150like essays and like to help me summarize large amounts of information and it also gives me like ideas for like projects when I'm stuck on what to do. But at London, Magic School hasn't been used in eighth grade, but only been piloted in sixth grade and seventh grade. For the April update for Cooper, our musical's also coming up on May 7th and 8th. It's Legally Blonde. Boys volleyball is in full swing and going strong. And our latest schoolhouse is also coming up on April 24th. On the topic of artificial intelligence, I think that it can help students make study plans and better understand things when they're at home. For example, Google AI can be like a personal tutor at home helping students better understand the lesson or find new ways to do things easier that
151might help them. Um also just noting that tomorrow afternoon is the final superintendent student advisory council meeting of the year. So looking forward to seeing two of the three. We got a field trip happening over at Cooper. So Alex won't be able to join us, but and just in terms of little preview of topics of conversation with that group. It as it's the last meeting of the year with them. I'm just going to kind of do a year in review and get some feedback from them about you know from their perspectives you know [clears throat] what have been a highlight of the year. I always kind of like to ask the question if you had a magic wand what you know would you do have done differently and we get a lot of great insight
152from from our students. They are not shy about letting us know what they think which is one of the reasons why I love doing it, but looking forward to having those conversations tomorrow. Sounds good. All right, the next regular meeting of the Board of Education of CCSD 21 is scheduled for Thursday, May 21st, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. our last meeting of the school year. Uh with no further ado, may I please have a motion to adjourn the regular board meeting? So moved. Second. I'm writing down and got it down. All right, Jessica. Yep. Debbie. Yes. I vote yes. Arlene. Yes. Iliana. Yes. Bill. Yes. Motion carries. All right, thank you. We are adjourned.