001Good evening. The CCSD21 June 12th, 2025 regular board of education meeting is called to order. Uh Doug Maro, would you please take attendance of the board members? I'm here. Debbie here. I am here. Carrie here. Harland here. Here. here. Thank you. All right. If everyone would please rise for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic to the indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Welcome everyone. Uh Sherry Qu, I see you are here. our dear friend from the Wheeling Park District. Um, any other elected friends in the audience? Okay. Well, welcome everyone else who came. Um, if you uh any individual physically present at the meeting tonight wishing to address the board must complete a comment card and provide it to Miss
002Del Rail on the end over here. Written public comments may also be submitted by emailing us at district21cccsd21.org. Um, so we made it another school year. I feel like since co we've been saying that was a tough year. This was a tough year, but I feel like we ended on a more positive kind of vibe. I feel like we're we're really getting back into it. So, I have a huge appreciation for our staff across the district for that. And I just want to say a hearty congratulations to the the class of 2025 eighth graders who were successfully promoted last week and their families. We are so proud of you and we wish you all the best. Uh and in keeping with that, let's move on to uh awards and recognitions. Uh Dr. Connelly. Well, good
003evening. Um we are very excited to highlight um some of the exciting activity that has taken place um in our recently completed school year. And so I'm going to turn it over to Cass Young to introduce our first presentation. And I'm going to turn it over to Kim Peterson who is a teaching assistant at Tarkington. She created the robotics club. And this club has allowed students to think creatively, problem solve real life issues, and just think outside of the box. And I'd like to invite you up here to discuss it a little bit more. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening and thank you for having us at your meeting. My name is Kim Peterson and I'm a teaching assistant as well as a robotics club leader at Tarington Elementary School. Look at this. I did
004it. You want to race? You could hear any one of these comments. If you walk into our robotics club on a Thursday after school, students have been so excited about this club and their successes with robots. It started two years ago when I received an email asking if I wanted to lead a STEM engineering or robotics club. For me, robotics. At the training, they told me I could use five new Spike Prime kits, 12 weeks of club to accommodate 20 fourth and fifth grade students. So, I sent out an interest and 38 students wanted to be involved. I accommodated them all by splitting the time into two sessions and adding other kids. The second year I sent out an interest. 56 students wanted to be involved. Borrowing kids from other schools and recruiting another leader
005um a Thoth bag, our second grade teacher. We accommodated them all. I find finally I also offered a robotics experience as a prize at Tarkington's bingo night. And so six other students um came to make each make their own robot. With all of these opportunities, in the past two years, 86 students from Tarington have participated in robotics. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to have this club. I'm so appreciative of the support from the staff at Tarington, particularly my partner in clubs, Ke Kelly Burnbomb, who had a STEM club at the same time. And I do love the excitement and enthusiasm from the parents and students. We would like to show you a robot in action. One team whose designer is Banu Ralabandi and programmer Idris Kankar wanted to make their robot vehicle
006go faster than all the others. Well, Banu started researching design adjustments and he found one that brought results. They will demonstrate their dragster called draggy. A separate vehicle without the design adjustments will also race so you can see the difference in speed. If you have difficulty seeing these on the table, you are welcome to come forward as we're setting up. Um, Banu, would you like to tell us what change you made in the design or would you like me to? You would. Great. I I used something called gear ratio. It's like a big gear turning a smaller gear. Like a big gear has more more teeth than the smaller gear, which makes the smaller gear go more quicker. Thank you very much. Why don't we stand over here so everyone can see? And you can
007you can just pick that up. That's fine. Okay. Do you want to stand on your mark and set go? Three, two, one, go. It is. I don't know if they're running on this table. All right. You ready? Go ahead. Go. [Laughter] So you can see they tested theirs on this table and I did not. But there's is uh the do you want to race comment quite often came from them because they were very confident in their speed of their vehicle. But um thank you so much. Thank you. And Kim brought a bunch of other um items and vehicles and robotics out in the lobby area if you'd like to take a look and maybe you can demonstrate some more out there as well. Um I also want to list the students who are in your
008club. So let me put that up there. So, we're not going to read the names, but we're just going to highlight last year's club, uh, Tarington fourth graders, fifth graders, and then this year, look at the growth. The fourth graders in the robotics club at Tarington, and then the fifth graders. Would all the students who are part of robotics club stand up and we'd like to acknowledge you? So, this isn't part of the script, but um and any of the kids that are in the audience feel free to to to answer this question. What was the favorite thing or the most successful robot that you were able to build? Anybody want to kind of volunteer that doesn't like put you on the spot or anything? Okay, maybe this is an easier question. You can be
009show of hands. All right. How many of you as part having been part of this club are now thinking about when you get into uh when you get out of high school and into college and career being an engineer or working in robotics or being in in a in a STEM uh career? Show of hands. Couple. Okay. All right. Awesome. I think one of the things that that is so um amazing and powerful about this is that it's exposure, right? Um it's an opportunity for kids to to really um you know very actively put something together, understand how it works. Um and it it gives them um a level of of just discovery um that you know you never know down the line um as they kind of you know grow and learn more um
010you know say you know what I do want to do that I I I can build that yeah I can build that machine and I or I can design that machine. Um, and uh, there's just amazing things that that kids have been able to discover. Uh, you're talking about kids in high school that have been able to manufacture robotic prosthetic limbs. Well, that all starts someplace. And, you know, uh, at the elementary level and and and our STEM uh, programming is is just really uh, really amazing. And um, so thank you very much uh, for sponsoring and for joining and for being part of this presentation tonight. Thanks so much. Um, we also have some other celebrations that we want to note. Um, and obviously as as the school year is over. Um, we uh
011these individuals weren't able to to join us this evening, but we did want to recognize um some other end ofear successes that that we experienced. Um starting off uh at Cooper, we have um an eighth grader uh now ascending Buffalo Grove freshman uh Claire C who qualified for the Illinois uh the ILMEA uh all state choir. Uh so we congratulate Claire. Um our seventh grade girls volleyball team um at London uh won the regular season uh MSMAC, which is our conference uh title. So, they brought home the gold. Um, we also the eighth grade uh girls volleyball team at Cooper um took home the regular season uh MSM SACE title and uh the end of season tournament winners. So, congratulations to the eighth grade girls at Cooper. Oh, paper sticking. at Field. Um we had
012fourth grader Julia C uh who performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Um so that's amazing. Congratulations to Julia. And we had state qualifiers uh for wrestling and track and field. Um so multiple sports with state qualifiers across the district. Uh congratulations. And then finally, um the seventh grade boys volleyball team at London took first place at the MSM uh SACE tournament. So, congratulations to boys volleyball at London. And that completes our announcements and celebrations for the month. Uh once again, thank you so much um members of the robotics club uh that came out tonight. And um I hope you guys have a wonderful summer uh and keep building those robots. All right, let's move on to staff communication superintendence report. Um, first we will have a presentation from HumanX Ventures. Uh, Dr. Connelly. Yes. So,
013um, as the board may recall, um, this past school year, uh, we began our our working relationship with Human X Ventures, um, which is an organization that really supports, um, uh, not just school districts, um, but companies and corporations, um, really in the art of developing and recruiting talent, um, but then also, um, really working, um, with organizations to, um, really produce high um, functioning positive um cultures, you know, culture and climates and and really being able to make sure that we've got the right people on the right seats on the bus um to to do the work that that we need to do effectively. So um we began this year uh working with HumanX um on uh some of our um recruitment um efforts and and kind of bringing in some talent screening as
014well as as uh at the administrative team level. Um really engaging in um some uh professional development and discovery around leadership um qualities and and kind of what what uh leadership talents uh we possess um as leaders within the district. And next year we're going to be expanding into um utilizing Humanex uh to start to do some um some really important culture and climate work across the district. Um and we'll be introducing um uh uh staff's uh culture and climate surveys um very comprehensive. And that's really what Brad is here uh tonight to do is to kind of introduce that portion um of our work with Humanex. And so with that, I will turn it over to Brad. Thanks for being here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. You
015know, one of the things that we had a chance today at Ed Red, this is the kind of the mini summit. A number of you were there to be able to talk about how you invest in leaders because as we invest in leaders, we are equipping them to lead. You know, you're not just not born to be able to do it. It's like, well, there's, you know, how how about if I had an instruction manual, how about if I had a classroom curriculum, etc. So a big part of the curriculum and this is highlighted in our book. So there's highlights you know that you would read about in Jim Collins research because two of his uh organizations are kind of the bedrock a lot of ours. It's where I was in top leadership roles and
016recognized whether it's Gallup or Disney other people came to study us. Jim Collins said if people could just understand about talent and culture in teams they would be transforming the world but we don't go to school and learn how to do that. So, you know, we here and there you may see, you know, a coach, Olympic, uh, professional, collegiate, a leader in business or wherever and going, oh, as soon as they came, everything changed. Well, that was one person who came and all of a sudden, you know, there's a Detroit Lions and the people in Michigan are like, you know, we have 60 years of pain went away. You know, we have a team that's winning. We have Olympic teams. We work with Olympic teams. We work with West Point. We work with school districts,
017hospitals across the board. But we don't find people literate about talent. We don't find people literate about culture and we don't find people literate about teams and they all matter in performance at a significant level. So obviously I highlight you know the the model that became famous was number two highlighted in Jim Collins great by choice research. So if you ever have read or would read that book from Jim Collins and it's from a business research perspective because they have access to financial data where they can compare 22,000 organizations and all their profit and all their growth and all their stock. Well, you can't do that when you start mixing industry and professions like education. But I can do that because I've been in those organizations measuring culture and we do it in schools and
018we can look at hm look at Shamberg 54. Look at they have elite culture just like the organizations that would be in Jim Collins research. So we're trying to create a common language in a community around talent culture and teams and that book came out last year is highlighted here. Many people many organizations you know of in Chicago land are highlighted in this book. You know they're they're worthy of the you got to go there and see what they're doing. And it at the beginning of the journey they didn't know what they were doing. they were taught, they were equipped and they become literate and then they become masterful. So the focus here and this is it page 215 of the book uh version of this shows that you know you you have a large
019district 14 buildings. Okay. Well, Shamberg was twice that 28. How do you perform at a high level at scale over years? They've been on their journey for 17 years. Well, you kind of run the plays in the playbook. You know what you're doing. You know how to do it. You do it again and again and again and again. And so that visual up there highlights our most predictive question from research about a great team. If you have a great team, you have a great building. You can walk in and feel a great team. The parents can, the students can, you know, in the sense when you're creating a great team at a building level, it's contagious into the classroom. So if there's a great culture in the building, you are lifting up the classroom. It's
020there is a direct correlation. So once you do that work with the adults called adultcl uh you're focusing on creating the great conditions where they want to come to work, where they want to give their all, why everybody wants to work there, why they're telling people you should come work here. You know, you've created what we call the pride flywheel, but you do it with metrics. You do it data. You know what you're working on. You're always working on making the best better. You're always working on the worst, making it better. And so again, that's a visual that's highlighted in the book. And like I we could talk about it all day long, but it's at Northshore. It's Hawthorne. It's all over the country. Menitakona, Minnesota, Indian Hill, in Cincinnati. And again, especially in education,
021we know it has a direct correlation back to the students, their achievement, their growth, and whole child development. So, as we think about the product, so to speak, the service, the process, it's called insight x, insight into excellence. We're looking for where excellence is. It's anonymous confidential survey. It's 92 questions. Somebody go, 92 questions. Yeah. And we have 100 80 to 100% participation every time. So, people, of course, I'm going to do it because they're committed to it. I want to be in a great culture. I want to answer it honestly. I don't answer it all, you know, five five55 strongly agree. They may answer one strongly disagree to one question, five strongly agree to other questions. We get great data because it's confidential anonymous. You build trust from the very beginning. You don't go
022into it with people worrying about, you know, retribution or forced confessions or arguing. It's constructive. It's focused on the future. Um we think about it with kind of the whole approach of hey if it was a fivepoint what would we be doing? Appreciative inquiry is you know the technical term we would use uh to walk in and have a feedback session. We lead those feedback sessions until and if an organization is ready like Shawnberg was year three and they said we seen it enough you taught us we do it twice a year we're ready to do it our ourselves and so for last 14 years they lead their sessions they get the data the next day after the surveys are done. Wow. So there you have 20 buildings that are building their culture and because
023of the way it's designed 92 statements 15 dimensions but the next piece is the key is they're asking they're answering questions about themselves not just everybody else there there's a there's not a perfect symmetry but about a fourth of the questions are about you. You're answering about you. They're I questions and then there's the we questions and then there's the them questions. So we look in and say everybody has a job, everybody has a role. I bring my attitude and effort to work every day. Nobody else does. Nobody else made me have my effort or attitude. I brought it. So once that happens, people embrace it's our culture. It's our building. Those results are ours and they own it. And that's what's neat about building the flywheel. Then they can't wait to see the results.
024And they're not, you know, blown on the thermometer, meaning they're not answering the question. So you're happy with the answer. They're answering it honestly and they're working on it, you know, with honest, accurate, comprehensive, uh, objectivity. And so again, that's part of the design. And that buys in very quickly, really in one cycle, people realize, oh, the culture is ours. So you get ownership times 14. When you get ownership times 14, it's like, you know, it starts top down with a with a commitment, but it's built bottom up. So, when 14 buildings are embracing it, it doesn't matter my title, doesn't matter my role, doesn't matter my status, my tenure, we're working on our culture together. We got to vote on what the most important thing was. Um, so it becomes this democratic team oriented
025approach to building a culture. And that's why again I have the advantage of after we built the model at striker that's the company that I built it at when Gallup came to study as and you know they inducted me in the hall of fame they said could you teach us about culture so now you know I can obviously build on that work that I did over 25 years ago and so when you read about Gallup says and you know uh engagement well this was a pro this was created that so when Gallup is reporting engagement at 30 31% of the working population. That's not very good. That's pretty sad. Better than other parts of the world, better than certain industries or professions, but a Shamber 54 is flirting with 90 in a world where it's
0263031. And so that's what we're teaching is every building where you at is a baseline. Let's go to the next level. And you might start off at 30. Next year you might be a 40. Next year you might be a 50. But we just did this in uh Yorkville out west of here. They had two buildings right away, 90% dreambox. They were thrilled. They had no idea how good they were until they got on the scale, measured it, so to speak, with the surveys. And one measurement later, one of the buildings is now 100 because they knew what to work on and they were excited and they were not satisfied. You know, 90 doesn't make you satisfied. It just makes you proud. It's like, yeah, I'm going to keep working on it. And that's what
027will happen here. The where we find that best building, they will be the least satisfied. They will be back, you know, like we can't wait till we get our halftime scores. So that's what's fun is you build those flywheels where you have you really unleashed everybody. Let's go build a great culture because it matters to the adults and when it matters to the adults, it'll be felt by the kids. So that's a real key to it. That's the design visually as you see see it. Um, this is basically if I would, you know, use a analogy in education, I say these are the subjects you have to master if you're going to build a great culture. I don't care if this is the Marines. I don't care if it's Southwest Airlines. I don't care if
028it's Striker, I don't care if it's Chick-fil-A. Anybody who's ever studied great culture will reverse engineer and going, "What do they do different?" Well, they have different kind of relationships. They innovate. They're they're continuously improving. They're building the processes to do all this really well. When we baseline an organization, we typically see five of the 15 dimensions that is strength level and above. So on the lacker scale 1 to five, strength is four and above. So you know when we see those results here coming up after the first measurement just remember what I said typically five of the 15 dimensions are strength. Now that means when you put it all together all the buildings when you average it all together when you average all the questions together but you're like oh so we have stuff
029that's best. Yes, every building has best and every building has worst. So that's why we're never going to be satisfied and we're always going to have things to celebrate. But they also when I say they, the people that are involved in it, they realize what this means and how important it is and what to do with it. So there's not one question measuring a dimension. There's four to eight questions measuring every dimension. And there's literally gas pedals and gear shifts, you know, like the actionable items like, oh, when score is low, we look at these questions and we know what to do. So, we can change the, you know, the let's say the dashboard items because they they teach us in the survey what are the actionable items. So, it becomes an education about how
030to build a culture for everybody. And you imagine again Shamberg at Rafferty and Andy D. Ross started this 17 years ago following Mike Lubell and some of his early work. But if you've done this twice a year for 17 years, you have a common language about culture. You you have pride when you are, you know, one of 28 that's a and A+. Your community knows it. Your board knows it. The kids know it. The families know it. And that's really what it is. It's the essence of that. So when we reverse engineer great cultures, this is what they master. So it becomes kind of a graduate class and how we build culture. So any questions when it comes to the the dimensions that we're measuring, how we measure it. Here's an example of top five
031questions. So there's a previous mean, meaning we always look at it longitudinally, meaning well how was it last time? Did it change? Did it stay the same? Did we regress? And so these are common top items. So you see an item, then you see the dimension that it falls into. Pride is a number one correlated dimension to engagement. When people are proud of what they do and who they do it with and where they're at, they're going to wear the uniform. They're going to tell people where they work. They're that is it's almost a one for one. You never see high pride and low engagement or vice versa. They're either high high, medium medium, or low low. So part of what we're doing is teaching people how do you build pride. Um second one you
032see is engagement inspiration and talent and fit innovation communication. Again just a sample of questions that people have answered. That's how they got to be the highest. You know let's say these are the top five out of 92. It wasn't one person who made it. My answer didn't cancel yours. Both of our answers counted. It's just that there were more of them that were fours and fives that got up to the top. And we even know that people will strongly disagree with the best item. That's okay. This is America. This is a everybody got to vote and, you know, answer their their own way. But the person who can say I strongly disagree with that realizes, hm, everybody doesn't feel like me. Uh, now I only feel like that. So it educates people about how
033they feel compared to a building or their or their group they're being measured with. And that in of itself is kind of an adult lesson and that everybody doesn't feel like we feel. We can't talk to two people and then say everybody feels like we feel. This is a comprehensive way to say everybody went to the polls and this is what the polls say and then we know what's best because it was safe. It was, you know, anonymous, confidential, 80 to 100% participation. We know it's accurate, comprehensive information. So there's the best and we set goals around the best. So like all right, we'll talk about and say which one is the one that you vote on that will make the biggest difference in the next measurement cycle and everybody votes. You need to vote
034on all of them, but the number one vote will be the one we're going to focus on and create a what we would call a GPS coordinate for our next trip. We're literally going to say it's question let's say 16. We're going to work on that. We all are going to work on that. We're going to focus on 16 together. We have homework to do together. So there's that collective buy in. And then oh look when we measured it again it went up by 2.3 point 4 you know 0.1.1 is the bottom threshold of of statistically significant but we could see something move up 56.7. Talk about how excited people are when they see the result of moving it that far and they know it's real. They just want to do it again. So that's
035kind of where we start the process is the best and we go to the worst and like all right well let's let's peel the onion and understand what we're doing, what we're not doing, what we need to do. And even again if I just use your district with 14 buildings, there's a best of the 14 that we could learn from. there's a best of the 14 that might be a whole point higher than than the mean. Like what are they doing over there? Well, guess what? We have somebody who we can learn from in our district, in our profession, in our community because we have the data to look at 14 examples and one of going to be the best. So again, I just use Shawnberg as the example because the same year we started
036the 17 years ago measuring culture was when they introduced PLC framework, the professional learning community because it's basically let's learn from whoever did the best. Like who's the top building on communication? Then you get to teach. Who's the best building on recognition? Well, you get to teach. Who's the best building on on continuous improvement? You get to teach. And the rest were the students, so to speak. I mean, they're the ones that were going to learn. If they weren't the best, they were learners. if they were the best, they were the teachers. So, you just keep developing that and and basically hardwire best practices internally. Build a lot of pride because it's not predetermined who's going to get high scores and whatever. It's open to 28 buildings in this case. Whoever's going to do it
037is going to earn the chance to teach. And then you're going, "Huh, I would have never thought of that. I guess we could do that." And so, you start multiplying the excellence internally, which again adds to the pride. Then this is the bottom line and this is a kind of a common language around Chicago or around Ohio around Michigan around the country on Twitter on LinkedIn. You'll see this visual. You'll see this visual with numbers. A Monica Shrader at 112 will be talking about, hey, we get achieved championship level. Well, they know that means is 80%. Not 30%. But when they have 80%, they're bragging about it on social media. Well, guess what they're doing? and they're building a a magnet to the people in the profession in the community going, I want to know
038what's going on over at Indian Hills or whatever the school district or school building is. I want to go work there. I want to go apply there. Because they basically put publicly out there their results that they know came from their staff. It wasn't marketing material. It wasn't something they wanted to put in a in a brochure. It was the results of our staff and that's what they're saying about us. So the walking talking billboards of a culture are the people and when you publicly show the results. So out of the 15 dimensions these are two that are the bottom two of the bottom line ones. Meaning the x-axis is we want to give our all. It's engagement. We are highly engaged. And when adults are engaged everybody can tell when they're not everybody can
039tell. And satisfaction means I want to do it here. So both are important. So it's the intersection of those two that creates the dream box. And this would be if we were going to do if I was going to take my Gallup work over the years and our work and AON and Huitt and all the rest, the best way we could do a meta analysis would show that around 35% are where you'd want them to be. About a third are close but not there, and about a third are a long ways from there. They're the ones throwing their orar in the water, uh, rowing the other way, throwing the car in reverse. um you know I they're just not good for a culture. So that rim as we call it it's just it's almost cancerous.
040It's toxic. It's dysfunctional. It works against. And so, while everybody answered it honestly, it's like, well, I could be in the 12 and no one knows who I am. But they probably look at my comments or hear my comments when I say everybody nobody and everything is negative. And people pretty pretty quickly figure out that's where I live in the 12. And then they're hearing somebody else, doesn't matter, tenure, doesn't matter, title. And they're like, they talk like the 35. Like they're positive. They're goal oriented. They're what we've done, what we want to do, what we can do. So you literally see behavior in that nine box, but it's safe because we don't want to know who's where. We just want to work on taking it to the next level and taking the 35 and
041growing it to 45, 55, 65 and at the point, and I see this all the time where zero is in the rim. No one is in the rim. I can walk into an entire building or an entire district and find nobody in the rim. It's like it's almost like you just woke up and you're in Hawaii on a beach. It's like, well, it's really nice. Do you know how nice this is? You guys don't know how good this is. And so, again, we kind of give it a chance to give them a context when they look at the results going, hey, I didn't we didn't compare results. I just answered my survey. You answered your survey. You answered your survey. And nobody's in the rim. No wonder we love working here. No wonder we have,
042you know, that 90 80 90 100% in the dream box. And then a part of this is back to as I talk about like graduate school, we teach from research how you build great culture. So we help people understand the biggest gas pedals are right here. When you're building pride by setting high standards, by talking about your wins, by talking about your progress, by talking about your impact, you're building pride. Keep doing it. That's not bad. That's good. It's contagious. Or talent and fit. Have high standards for the people you get. Get people in the right role. Develop teams the relationship. Continuous improvement. Keep moving up. One that we've seen in the last 5 years pop into the top five. It didn't happen until the last 5 years. And you could say that's co. You
043could say that's Gen Z. You could say that's just the times. People don't join an organization for 40 years anymore. They want to look and say where I want to go and I'm going to and I have choices. So you better create a better culture where I choose to come, I choose to stay, I choose to grow. So that's the career development piece that again we can look at elite organizations and they have the highest engagement levels, highest retention levels, but they also become a farm club. That doesn't mean they keep everybody. They don't want to keep everybody. That would mean they could stunt people's growth because maybe the growth opportunity is, you know, 10 miles away and a new opportunity. Think about a new opportunity. You know, somebody want to say you can't leave
044here once you come here or we just want to grow you and create a farm club, meaning you're going to go out in your profession and you're going to keep growing. You know, Shamberg has people that are in superintendent roles that, you know, were formerly principles at Shamberg 54 and today they're superintendent. So when you create a career development path and a mindset and development, you're growing everybody without the intention of you have to stay here or we're not going to grow you. You just grow people and you be develop that reputation. So this again will be something after we do the first measurement you'll have a context to compare to with this this visual. Um so last uh last piece that I was going to highlight other than just again Jim Collins research a
045culture of discipline means processes are established and processes are followed and there's a lot of discipline behind doing it again and again and again. And that's again where wherever we're going to study the very best they don't stick their toe in the water and try it one time. They commit to it. They stick to it and they keep getting better and they master it. So questions that I can answer. So just a quick question on the on the questions. They appear to all be framed in a positive sense. Correct. Do you not phrase some that are I need more support from a supervisor? I need more assistance in this. I need a longer well time with my principal. I mean, I'm just throwing things out, but is there not anything where if somebody has issues,
046this is a place to We see the issues as soon as they say strongly disagree. Like I have quality time with my supervisor. Strongly disagree is oh, we got an opportunity. So, we can phrase everything in a positive, but people can answer however they want. And there's emotions on the end. One is strongly disagree means heck no. Five means heck yes. And then there's three undecided and then there's six. I've been here a week, I can't answer. So we give people the whole range. But it's that liker scale that gives us the chance to basically say it's a thermometer and we're looking at the fever and the fever or is the fevers are in the ones and the twos and that's where we look at the opportunity. But again, I'll go back to we can
047look the very highest item in the whole district and the people will strongly disagree with it. Okay. Well, that's how those three people feel. that's not hundreds. And so you have a context as well. You give everybody a chance to answer, you know, honestly and the way that they feel, but you address the issues at a local level, department level, building level, what do we want to work on? Um, and again, whether it's a supervisor related item, whether it's an organization related item, whether it's a team related item, or they look in the mirror and going, I'm kind of embarrassed that I can't answer five to that question. you know, I'm committed to, you know, my organization and I'm answering it at two. Huh. That only I control that. So again, there's that four layers
048of where somebody has a job to do. But to your point, the range of the response gives us the the clarity of it's strong or there's a fever. Debbie, no. I just want to say that uh NSSO has been using Humanex for several years now and we get well over a 90% response rate from all of the staff. Um so that that's wonderful. And great results, too. Oh, yeah. And and we have found things that we've had to to work on and that's that's what it's great for because it is anonymous. um we can get you know oh we obviously we're getting all these problems but it's only from this school so that's we've got to look at that school but there is no there's really I mean we do have one facility that's got
049like six people so it would be kind of kind of easy to figure it out but because we have integrity we don't go in depth at that that facility but we've been using it for years and watching things go up and down and it's been a great tool for us. It creates the right environment where people go, they want to know and they care and we're going and we're all going to get to work on it together. It's not someone's fault. The fingers don't the fingers get put away, so to speak. And stop pointing fingers at other people because they think, "Wow, it's their fault. It's their fault. It's his fault." Well, it's our responsibility collectively. We're going to work on it together. It's a team. That's what's also fun is when you start seeing
050those high results that 80 90 they bond as a team they want to wear the uniform other did you have a question? I did have a question um two actually. The first one is when they're answering these questions is there an option to add a comment in their answer? No. No. Um you you open a Pandora's box and you start saying what do you want to say about who? Um because there's people that use a certain language or comment and go, "Oh, they must have said it." And there there can be inflammatory words. Um there can be defaming words and you're just going down a rabbit hole. And if you say, "All right, let's just stick to the measure." And if it's a bunch of ones, we know we have a fever, but we don't
051have to name call. We don't have to defame. we have to be, you know, and whenever the open-ended questions happen, you're like, well, where did it come from? Well, we don't know. So, it just stays there as this kind of taint. It's like, oh, somebody did something to somebody and we'll never know. And sometimes words have a life of their own versus, well, one person said it versus 90 people didn't agree. So that's why sticking to the numbers gives us a clarity and a consistency without you know fling fanning the flames or pressing the perception of anonymity because while that person might have put the comments in there and we don't know who they they are. There's times people always use those words and we as soon as we see the comment we oh it
052must have been them and so you're pressing the perception of anonymity. You don't want to go there. You want to protect not only the fact but the perception of anonymity. Let's just get to the issues and opportunities. Let's go to work. Let's put all our energy there. So yeah, it's again I'm going to show my bias as a practitioner when I was teaching Gallup said don't do that. do. You will be so sorry if as soon as you open up to open-ended, you might as well just put the editorial page on the front page of the paper and whoever wants to say whatever they say about somebody now it's said and there's nothing constructive about it. The understanding when you get to the issues or opportunities is when you have the let's say the appreciative
053of inquiry when it's a 2.5, it's a low item. Well, what would we be doing if it was a five? So you're immediately going out of fingerpointing and you know who did what to who into what should we be doing. The energy is focused 100% on the constructive future what we can control and influence. Nobody has time machines. Nobody can undo anything that's been done in the past. And that creates again the environment where I want to go to the poll. I want to participate. I want to go to the feedback sessions. people leave the feedback sessions more engaged than when they came in for the first time. So, and again that just builds on it because of the trust we build, the confidence we build, the results you see, the ownership that's experienced. So,
054there's a lot of, you know, decades of work design expertise that goes into what we're doing. Great question. Yeah. My second question was, do you also facilitate using a framework to action plan and then communicate the action plan? Yes. Yep. That's what I was referring to on the appreciative inquiry on the low end. So when we're looking at the low items, those bottom, the appreciative inquiry is the approach we take. But it's um there's electronic uh dashboard, you know, it's all documented. You know, the the voting on what item is documented, the action items are documented. You go in and you look and say, "Oh, let's go into if I'm gonna use Shawnberg as the example, Eisenhower and Duly, what what are they doing? What are they working on?" You start to look at systemic
055opportunities and issues. Oh, they're all working on Q25. Oh, they're all working on Q65. Oh, we can study that and we can look at that because most of the items are at a local level, but there's some that are systemic. Like, you know what? If we address those three things, we would make it better for everybody. And that's again through the feedback and action that we lead. So it's our team that leads that because it's really hard to lead your own information. It's really hard for people to feel like, oh, you're going to be objective about your own results. We come in, we're process experts. We're content experts. We've been doing this a long time. We come in from the outside without an agenda. People feel safe and then we walk away and we already
056know what we would call a GPS coordinates. what we're going to work on. When we leave, everyone's got their GPS coordinates, the items they're going to be working on. They go work on them. We come back, you know, let's say do the fall as a baseline. We do it in the spring. Where did we move the needle and we do it again? Do it again. So, yeah, there's a there's a tight design with the feedback and action planning. And if you don't do that, well, you shouldn't even do it because the last thing you ever want to do is ask a question, not do anything with it. That's what builds trust, credibility. That's why we have 80, 90, 100% participation because it's designed well. We follow through well, you know, we teach and people like,
057ah, I don't ever want to drive without the lights on. That's kind of what it's like. It's almost like we introduce lights at dusk or at dark and people now want to always have those to know where they're at and where they're going. Any further questions? I had one question. Yeah. Um, this might be a question for Mike. When are you planning to administer the survey? Is it a twice or a once? We're good twice. Uh and so that's something that we need to work with uh DEA on. U particularly just kind of the mechanics of how to you know make sure that but uh my goal would to be very early on um in the school year. uh probably not you know August of like you know like let things get started and and
058um you know but you know sometime in September um to be able to do that that first um measurement uh and then obviously each of the the buildings will have their own um kind of you know uh feedback session thank you feedback session um and that will take some time to you know u plan um and then yes again in the spring. So, okay. And that was my second question was are we looking at this from a district level or are you breaking it down to the buildings and having principles lead both? Okay. Right. So, um it will be something that that um you know we'll have both abilities to do. Um so one of the things that uh and again working with with DEA on um is to um form a a joint committee
059um at the district level a joint committee on equal representation um equal DEA and and administrative uh representation on uh culture and climate. And so, excuse me, at the district level that is going to be a vehicle um for being able to um do that aggregate um you know, kind of of approach uh in in kind of trying to help um identify those those very things um that we need to be um systemically working on. Right. So, that's that's uh kind of the the management piece at the district level is that joint committee. Okay. Yep. Any further questions? Going once, going twice. Thank you so much. Fun fact, I went to district 54, K through eight. Good district. Love it. Yeah, I should be proud. And I have a copy of your book, so it
060is on my TBR for the summer. And page 215 is 54. Well, they're highlighted throughout, but the visual everybody goes to is page 25 in the book. They should be very proud. Jim Collins asked about that. So when we were working with him on some of the research, he was just so intrigued that outside business we could do this. And so I said, "All right, I want to I want to talk about Chamber 54 and there'll be a time that Jim Collins might be coming out going, hm, I want to know how that's happening because obviously it goes right into social emotional learning and all the things you know about that matter." So thank you. Thank you very much. I just wanted to note that uh June 25th and 26th um HumanX Ventures is is
061having um their legacy and leadership summit um at the University of Nebraska Omaha and we are actually taking a team um of 10 uh five administrators, five members of the DEA, Ben will be one of them. Um and uh so we will be going to Omaha. Um, and I really felt like that was going to be a very good kickoff um for our team to really be able to kind of kind of get steeped in in the the uh the process and and hear some really, you know, fantastic speakers. Uh, those of you that were at um, Ed this morning, Tim Elmore um, who uh, gave the keynote at the Ed's um, uh, mini summit today is one of the keynote speakers that will be out in Omaha. Um so really looking forward to that
062and I think it that will be a very good opportunity for us to to really um you know do some of that planning right to kind of get some of those logistics starting to get talked about and and just learn together as a as a DEA administrative group. So thank you appreciate the opportunity very much. Thanks Brad. All right let's uh move on to an an update from the language services department. Yes. So, uh, Ana Figueroa, our, uh, director of language services is going to present. Um, Dr. Chillis, did you want to do any leading? Nope. Ana, take it away. Okay. Um, good evening. Can you everybody um Ana Vig, director of language services. Thank you, Dr. Connelly, Dr. Children's, and um board members. Uh yeah, I wanted to take you to a little journey
063of what has um what we have done at the district level, at the school level, all the work that has been going on for this school year and some preliminary data in terms of our um access assessment, which is a state accountability assessment for English language learners. So, oh yes, I have the There we go. Really quick as a snapshot of who we um serve in our district. Um 47, you see the breakdown and and you've had this information before. We we are about still between 53 and 54% of our um entire student population qualify as English language learners. And then our top languages right now are still standing, right? English, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian. This is another quick snapshot. I think you've seen some of these numbers before in previous presentations in terms of
064our dually identified students. Um, this is information from the start of the year. And um right we have a significant number of students who we serve in our district that are dually identified. This year our department focus um for instruction has been with um a lot of collaborative work with our director of math, literacy, social studies and science in integrating the um Illinois English language development standards which we all know by WEDA 2020 um which is the consortia that created um the access assessment for ELS. and set forth the English language development standards that the state of Illinois adopted. Um so WEDA updated their standards uh in 2020 and Illinois adopted those standards about two years ago and it's been a a true journey of um in at the state level with N with all
065the directors and everyone in the multilingual world to really get to know and unpack these standards. They're very complex. They're very rigorous um and they do combine both content and language um objectives and and standards. So very tightly um aligned to our academic curriculum. So that has been part of a big focus this year prek through 8th. We've also I continue to work on supporting new to the country families. Um we have seen um right now um decrease in just the volume of students and families that we're welcoming since um since after winter break. Um but at the peak of all of this in back in um 2021 2022 um we've had about 8 um 70 students uh that are within three years right now as um um identified as new to the country student.
066the state does um we do follow the students and and they still qualify within that um label for three years in our in the country. Um and then we are continuing to um build capacity among our staff to use different data sets and um triangulate different um information about our students to better serve and be more strategic about how we are supporting the language development of our students. and also the academic um progress. And finally, the other we only had four initiatives. So our four um areas of focus, but um they're they're very hefty. Um specifically to our K5 dual bilingual programming in our schools in Spanish language and the Russian language. Uh we've aligned and adjusted our language allocations so that um there's more more consistency and fidelity in terms of um teachers providing
067um instructional time and space for students to have more targeted instruction and and practice with that English language as they're coming in at different levels. Um so that's something that into next year we'll be um supporting teachers monitoring that time especially at the K2 where for example in kindergarten we have an 8020 model and 80% of instruction is done in the home language so all the reading skills all the math skills and then in um part of the day we spent practicing um doing cross linguistic connections and practicing that English language at the kindergarten level and then by the time they get to third grade um it's more of a 50/50. We transition into English um shelter instruction at um in math, science, social studies. We continue to support cross linguistic connections into the from
068English to the um home language. And then in the schools where we have the K5 programming um then that flips and we have more time in English learning those content areas and then bridging back to their home language whether that's Russian or Spanish. So, this is a little bit of our preliminary information and and a four-year historical um exit rates of our access for EEL's um assessment. As a reminder, that um that assessment is the way that the state of Illinois um right keeps us accountable and and and and ensures that our districts are doing what we need to do to support our English language learners. Um we're very proud to say that we're in a good in a good track right now uh in terms of seeing some increases in the the rate of
069um students attaining the the state criteria which is uh 4.8. Um you see that little dip in 23 which is was that period of time that we were the state was getting um a very fast rapid growth in the um new to the country students. Um and then um right we've continued to to move on the right path and really what this means is that our students are that are meeting the criteria that 4.8 ate in overall proficiency um have the academic language that is necessary and the proficiency in in English academic language to access grade level standards um just like any other student. Right? So that is really what what this information is telling us that um then accessibility to that academic instruction is on par. This is a breakdown of um our students
070kindergarten through 8th grade as it stands right now. Now you you have this on your presentation so I won't go into specific numbers. Um also our preschool we've been we have been looking at um also just the large number of students that are identified at the preschool level to align our programming as they transition into kindergarten. As you see also, this is a breakdown of each of our schools and how they've done um across the uh four years in terms of those exit rates. Um Tarington continues to show um over 20% this year of um students that met criteria. We've seen just a big change in demographics at Tarington that have um impacted some some of these pieces. we have um that dove a little bit deeper into some of that those factors and at
071Tarington where we're seeing that um the new students coming into the school at the kindergarten level are coming in at higher proficiencies already to start with and also the staff at Tarington has done a really great job of just a collective focus on just best practices and instruction which is definitely impacts how our students continue to grow. Um the same thing at Cooper. Um our team there rally this year in terms of strategically looking at students who were um on the higher end of the proficiency level, making sure that we were sitting with them, having conversations with those seven, eighth, and sixth graders in terms of what does this test mean, right? and um setting goals and for the students to really take that um accountability for themselves, that responsibility to continue to grow in
072these skills. This is another um just a grade level breakdown of um the um exit rates. So this is important because we do want to see that um students we know that uh historically with with English proficiency students that attain that um proficiency at the fourth and fifth grade level uh do really well afterwards in terms of um not becoming that what we used to call the long-term eelss and we're calling the our expert eelss um that stay within the the middle school where content becomes a lot more harder. The assessment becomes very very complex and then students kind of get stuck in that um in that world. Um this trend is something that we wanted to get to and and see. So again, we're like on the right path. We still have some work
073to do. We still have um some higher percentages, especially at the eighth grade level that we're looking into and analyzing deeper in terms of where those students are. the schools and how can we be more strategic with um instruction and support into next year. Literacy proficiency growth is another um data piece that we look at in terms of the access test. This is important. Literacy proficiency score is 50% reading, 50% writing. So gives us the best um predictor for academic su success as well. Uh so he's this is another um area where we're seeing some really great things happening an increase from year to year. Again, we still have some work to do, especially in that green um area that you see with the negative growth and then no growth. So we're going to be
074looking deeper into who are those students, where do we see um those trends, is there something specific? We want to look at the whole picture of the student um to more strate strategically provide support and services. This is the number comparison of that same um breakdown of the literacy proficiency levels. And again, we have some really good things going um yeartoyear right now, but there's still right some work that we want to analyze as now summer comes things we can really dive into this analysis and and start making some plans for each of our schools. In terms of services for um this year, our language services have been offered um in all of our schools, preK through 8th grade. And then you see the breakdown. We have EL resource support which is usually when a
075um a teacher comes in who specializes and has the endor ESL endorsements and sometimes the bilingual endorsements and then they push into the um general education classroom to provide strategic support for our students. All of our schools have those services. We also have um general education teachers who have ESL endorsements and they provide that within the classroom without having um sometimes with some support, sometimes by um on their own. Um they just naturally embed those great strategies of support um within their classrooms. And then we also have um the breakdown in terms of where you where we see many of these um programs across our district in terms of our dual Spanish and Russian bilingual program, the K5 um and then shelter instruction and transitional bilingual. And these are the programs that we have currently
076for this school year. I do want to note that um Frost moving into next year um our the graphics there had been changing um a little bit ago and and we had been transitioning into the transition bilingual program. So that we will be having that program between kindergarten through third grade. So, we're looking at those um supports going on to fourth and fifth grade as students have been moving and facing out of the um previous dual program that we had in that school. And then Tarington also is a school that has experienced a lot of changes in the last few years where unfortunately our Spanish bilingual program has been phasing out because we can't sustain the um the number of students that are qualifying. um it's much um less students and we are having conversations
077with the families and offering services that feel numbers in terms of sections and and programming are always um dependent on registration how the students are qualifying. So, we are keeping a close um we're monitoring right throughout the summer to ensure that um we we're ready to go in the fall. If we see an increase of enrollment and students qualifying, then we would have conversations about having to reopen a program or a classroom in in our schools or if we don't have that many students, then what are the other options for families which right we're monitoring those. We have um our eligibility and placement for into next year. We're already working on those pieces and we've had some screenings already that took place in May with our current preschoolers that are moving on to um kindergarten.
078We're finalizing all of that information and placement recommendations to be able to send that information information out to parents. And then um additional dates for all of our new students that are registered. I think we have about 179 students as of yesterday um that are new to our district within um kindergarten and um 8th grade. I think I only saw kindergarteners and first graders at this point in time that would need screening. Um so those students and families have been um contacted to start making appointments to come to the days that we have um screenings going on which start next week. And this is just kind of our timeline for communication for that process. Um, and again, we have some the June dates. Um, June and August dates. We offer those days all day. We're
079here until about 6:30, 700 p.m. with staff. Um, and then we do offer Saturdays as well, so you make it um available for our families. And we want to continue ensuring that we're communicating these pieces. is a very complex um system with recommendations with how we need to um look at the information to recommend the right placement for our students. So this year we do want to make sure that we're offering additional information especially in the summer when maybe some of our families have already gone on vacation. They might miss the email, they might miss a phone call that to have uh multiple opportunities for connecting and making sure that they understand our services. and overall reflections and next steps. Um this is the part where right we really get into our um data information
080and and with our teams with our principles with our um building teams and our our district teams to really start looking at what what other trends do we see and and the why, right? and and trying to figure out some of those factors that are impacting um the the progression of the English language um growth for our students and um right looking at it from different perspectives looking at it from a whole child perspective as well. So triangulating all the information that we have and then continuing to build capacity around best practices, ensuring that our staff and families also understand what do these levels mean that students who are at the higher proficiency levels are really um have right as you see those 4.0 all literacy proficiency levels are students that um have the academic
081language to be able to access core curriculum with minimal support. So ensuring that our um staff can support and differentiate when needed um and then looking at our dually identified students who need different layers of support um and just continuing to enhance those practices. And then the last couple things, um the state announced just recently that the WEDA 2020 standards um the English language standards will be integrated into the access assessment next year. So it's taking us right we've been trying to train ourselves and train our staff. Um, so that's just going to continue the conversation into next year and and the um and preparing our staff to understanding how to integrate these pieces within core instruction. Um, so we that was all the information we've gotten so far. We um I'm hoping more will
082come um since we do have to uh retrain um our staff on the access test. Um and hopefully by um we have a director's meetings usually in September with the state. So I'm hopeful that be we'll know more before in terms of are they going to change any of the norms? Are going are there going to is next year assessment going to have to reset norms again? Um so more to come on that. I we try to get more information. Um and then as we move on to um finalizing our action plans and the strategic plan pieces, then just looking at those program reviews and the needs assessments to align to the needs and and be able to support our students more and continue the the trend that we're seeing, questions, go ahead. If we
083could go back to uh slide 10 for a moment, the rate by grade level. I'm just curious when when we see a number for example uh third grade 12.7%. Are those children who started with us in kindergarten or are they children who came to us at any age? It's a combination. So um all of our students if they start in kindergarten they're taking the test every year. Also families that do refuse services and the students right don't receive that direct support. They also take the test. they're required to by the state of Illinois. Um so that is a combination. It could be new to the country students or it could be higher um level proficiency students. What I mean when they come to the district if they came to us in second grade are they
084included in these numbers? Yes. Yes. So I guess the question I have is to make these numbers fairer is there a way to see how we're doing with kinder with children who start with us at this gray age as opposed to that age? Right. And that's those are pieces that we want to dig into a little bit more to see where those breakdowns are. So we we do want to look at um right because this is preliminary data. These are pieces that are it's kind of like the the overview um that into actually we have a um data session with my team next week where we're going to be disagregating even more some of these pieces because just looking at it is when I see 6.2% 2% in seventh grade. Those could be children who
085started in kindergarten. Correct. Would be a concern. Correct. Or they could be children who started with us in fifth grade, which is much less of a concern. Correct. Yes. So all of the students are mixing here. So we we're trying to disagregate that information. Yeah. If I can just chime in kind of not exactly answering your question, but I do want to highlight and I don't know if you can go back to that slide, Anya. the the percentages by grade level um didn't always look like this. When I came into district, I spent a lot of time talking with um our administrators about the importance of this 345 being the sweet spot, right? That's that's the sweet spot where we need to get our students strong enough with their English proficiency to qualify to exit.
086We use the term exit a lot, but really what we're saying is those students are strong enough with their English proficiency to be able to do well without additional EL scaffold type of things. And this pie chart um didn't always look like that. Those percentages weren't in that sweet spot. And the reason I reference that a lot and every time Anya presents she knows I interrupt her at this point because I think it's important that everyone in our organization understands that that's the sweet spot that we need to get our students strong enough there because when we don't with the changes of the test at each of the different benchmarks by the middle school it's very very challenging to get students to exit from that. The other piece is access in itself. The the assessment
087itself is very challenging. We could give that same assessment to students who don't speak another language and they probably wouldn't score high enough to exit. And that's and there's there's been studies on it. So, we know that that is, you know, definitely a thing. But to your point, yes, we should look at, right, and have that data breaking it down who's been with us. The reality is most of the students have been with us, right? So, um there are some that come in later. Um but the majority of our students have been with us. There might be a little bit more of a bump from the influx that we had in 22. Um but for the most part, the majority are ours, which is again why I emphasize that's the sweet spot. And that's a
088little bit of a philos philosophical change that I don't know that um everybody, you know, felt that way. Um and you know again bilingual education there is a lot of philos philosophical right different perspectives there is but ultimately we want our students strong enough where they are able to exit from the program because that means they have more educational opportunities in middle school but particularly in high school. And to add to that high school piece, we recently met with 214 and we have some good conversations and collaboration and um in conversations with some of our staff a few years ago. I remember speak right them questioning kind of you know our kids for the um state seal of literacy and and qualify for that at the high school level. Um and and promoting that home
089language which is absolutely something that we continue to do and value. Um however the the um application for that for a student in high school to apply for that CLA biiteracy they need to be um they need to be out of the EL program they need to meet criteria um in access either in high school or if they met criteria at the elementary level then they need to have the there's a score range in the ACTs in the English language arts pieces. So they put a lot of le u a lot more weight on that English proficiency piece for that seal of biiteracy. And then students do take a target language test whether it's Spanish or French um which is similar to access in terms of um the listening speaking reading and writing um but
090not as I think rigorous as maybe the English proficiency test with access or the ACTs. just so so two things. Do we have any idea why we have 21% uh negative growth? We we'll be looking into that. There's a couple of thoughts um for this particular group where we're looking at um you know the the test changes from fifth grade to sixth grade considerably. So, we want to look and see is the majority of the are the majority of the students the ones that are in sixth grade now that took that before were in fifth grade at a higher proficiency and didn't maybe do as well because of the complexity of the test. That's one thought. Um, but we are really going to be spending some time to look at that. We also have students
091um that are dually identified students who right this test might be if they have a reading um in IEP right services in reading reading comprehension or any of those areas this is going to be very hard for them um so even right with accommodations so we want to look into that a little bit further to really see what are the trends that we see with that so I will say this is probably the most comprehensive report in this area we've had in a very long time. And I think that's great. U if Stacy Allen was sitting here, she would say the reasons for the original family learning program was to supplement everything we do in the daytime with evening tutoring for kids where the parents were coming in, you may recall, with the students and
092the students were tutored at night u as well as having some gymnasium time etc. Is there any thought that we can up the ante at some point? I mean, the whole ball game is right here. And this is not a criticism. I think everybody's working very hard. It's a terrific report, but if we can't make this work, where do we go? Some of the preliminary information that we're looking at really um falls within, you know, we had about 200 students that fell within um this literacy proficiency piece that are in the um 4.0 O right higher proficiency almost reaching that full proficiency um across the entire district right and to us that gives us an insight in making sure that the core instructional practices the things that we can control here within our instruction are
093really solid and strong for them more so than maybe external factors. Um so we really want to look at okay we had 200 students almost to I think 204 um who fell very close like tenth of a point a 4.7 a 4.6 4.5 who are also when we looked at MAP scores um are doing fairly well right in in academic pieces. So really honing into um the four walls, the things that we can control within our system to enhance that. And absolutely there's so much room still to grow in terms of right you said remember family learning. I wasn't here for that. I've been here four years. You weren't. I know you weren't. So um those are things that uh in partnership with um our family liaons um trying to restructure our um to structure
094newly structure our um bilingual parent advis advis advisory council and just looking at creative ways to engage families more at the building level and right at the district level in terms of also inform informing about the demands of this test right and and the instructional opportunities or um right all the things that come with that. Thank you. And if I can just chime in here and and Anya, thank you for saying what you just said because I was, you know, the four walls is where we make our biggest impact. What we control during the day, we can't, you know, so if we're looking at something supplementary outside the school day, that that is not going to be the the thing that is going to really, you know, strengthen the program like as you what we
095do within the school day. we can't control people's participation, people's ability to to to be part of that. And you know, quite frankly, it's it's a supplemental um it isn't the core and and if the core continues to get stronger, those results are going to be what we we want and need them to be. The other thing is I just want to point out um that the 21% negative growth was during the 23 24 school year. The this year's negative growth is has improved. uh it's at 18%. Um so we are moving in the in the right direction. So um you know and I so I really just want to emphasize that um same thing in terms of you know on the top end um you know the growth of you know more than one
096point um that was at 24% in 23 24 and at 30%. Um in in 2425 so you know there's evidence of gaining traction and and moving in the correct direction. So, I just wanted to make sure we we pointed that out. Thank you. The last thing I'll say about the newcomer piece, um, like I said before, I think you mentioned we have about 800 or so students that still qualify under that three-year newcomer piece. In the full picture, if we take those 800 students in terms of all of our eels, it's about 24% 25%. And then brand new to the country within a year, um, that's less than 10% of our students. So really the majority of our students have been in our system for for five years or longer and really it's it's the
097longer especially middle schoolers right now um the trend that we see is that they they have been with us six seven eight years. So, that's really a piece that we want to um continue to dig deeper in and and um look at those breakdowns in proficiency levels to be able to better right um support the students that really need the support and then maybe like a little bit of that fire for students and um right for some of our students it was all it took was a conversation and setting some goals. So, getting more of that going on at um at that level. Yeah. Um going back to the slide with the exit rates. Um I guess this is more for like the schools that have like the dual language from K through 5th. If
098the students like let's say for example by third grade they're already um qualifying to exit the program. Do the parent are the parents able to keep them in the program or is it ultimately the district saying they're already qualified to exit, they must exit now? Now we've had conversations. We had a few focus groups a couple years ago in terms of when we were making those changes and the they are still in the program. Um I think the the piece that we do have to look at is in our schools where there is maybe limited capacity or classrooms are really right larger. Um looking at those pieces by grade level by classroom to see if it makes sense and also um right to see that the students are um in that progression. Sometimes the student
099students themselves um start choosing how to best communicate. And as a parent of a child at home who for a number of years didn't want to speak to me in Spanish um right that is is a a true story that happens with our um especially our our simultaneous bilingual students, right? That um they they start identifying in one way or the other. So and and we don't want that to become behavior or or or have a social emotional impact so that then they shut down with instruction which we've seen in some cases. Um so right so looking at all those factors any other questions? Yes, I had a question. I think it's on relating to the different programming at the different schools 15. Um, you had given the example that at Tarkington the transitional bilingual
100I think is being phased out because the need is lower based on the enrollment. What is the like threshold enrollment threshold to have a class or a section of that program? Sure. So we typically try to have those um classrooms at right 15 or or or larger, right? It it may vary within the school just to to leave right some some room. Um at Tarington last this school year, right? 2425. At the start of the year, we had um a total of seven students that qualified for the Spanish bilingual classroom um in kindergarten, right? incoming incoming kindergarteners. So for those families, we had some conversations and offered um the services at field and and some of those families didn't want the bilingual program either way, right? So then that um takes that num that student
101out. So then we had six students, right? So those those are some of the variables that that we see with that. Thanks. Okay. Anything else? Thank you very much. This was eagerly anticipated and very much appreciated. Thank you. All right. Um our last item under staff communication is an update on student enrollment. So for the final time uh in district 21, um Bob is going to give us our enrollment update. And for the final time, you put me after Anna. That doesn't seem fair at all, but she did a really nice job. Nice job. Oh, there we go. Nope. Just kidding. You turn it off. There we go. Now it's black. I memorized the slides. There we go. All right. So each one of these slides has um we actually added returning students registered to
102kind of have a comparison for the number of students that have not registered and the number of students that have registered. We're hoping like we did last year that being more um open about the fact that we don't have all of our students registered yet uh we'll have more families jump right in because that's really going to guide our staffing. We also wanted to add the new students enrolled and how many of those students it went black again. Um, how many of those students are actually kindergarten students, which is not a big surprise that the majority are kindergarten students? I don't know what's going on. What are you hitting, Bob? Who's pranking Bob? I'm not going to touch it. Am I touching the wrong button, Matt? There we go. Um, so right now at the
103elementary level, we don't have any core sections exceeding the guidelines. Um, and we'll see the guidelines at the end of this presentation, but again, we're really looking for those families to register as soon as possible because that really guides our registration and enrollment, uh, let alone staffing process. And then we get to the middle school where we've got a couple sections. Eighth grade, we've got pullouts for math and reading. So, we don't see these averages as high, but for science and social studies uh at Cooper and London, you'll see a slightly higher average in eighth grade. For our class sections, we've actually added this this column which has range of class sizes. So, before we had the average class size, we also have now the range of class sizes. So, you can see across the
104board where we are as far as the number of different classes and the range there. Uh when I first started in this role in 2019 2020, we had 34 blended classes across the district. Um we're down to zero now. Um you can see the change from 23 24. Oh, that one should have been 2425. They should be the change from 2425 to 2526. So you'll see uh Field is losing one section, Ross is losing two, whereas Kilmer and Longfellow and Poe are increasing by one because of those higher class sizes at Cooper and London. We did add another section there, too. And when we added that, that's where we kind of landed for those uh classes. We're right at 28 for just a few classes for those two middle schools. And then we've got some
105hot spots. When we look at those hot spots, we're looking at classes that are right at that number. So, we've got Field, Frost, and Kilmer. And then a couple classes at Cooper and London. And these are the numbers I've referenced before. K through three, we're really aiming for 25. It's not a ceiling, but it's really what we're aiming for. And then fourth and fifth, we're looking at 26 kids per class. And then sixth through eighth, we're looking at 27 students per class. These are some additional supports that we've provided. We've got a larger class uh over the last few years. We've we've taken these steps to make sure the kids are supported. That was all I had. And um I just wanted to kind of circle back with Kilmer. Um as we know uh you
106know Kilmer is our hottest of hotspots uh in terms of overall enrollment. Um we are very very very closely um monitoring on a daily basis um our um enrollment at Kilmer. Um, we actually uh last week um sent out a a a message and and the Kilmer staff have been making phone calls um to families at Kilmer that have not yet registered um because again it that's really it's not helping, right? Uh to be able to to really know exactly where where we land. So, um I will say though that um Bob, can you flip? Thank you're already there. Thank you. Um when uh last week before um those efforts were were being made uh we had over 200 um students that had not returning students that had that had not been registered. So that's
107down to 155. So you know they're they're working their way through. Um I will say that we are um very very close um to needing to enact some of the enrollment management ef um which is basically kind of cutting off new enrollment um to uh Kilmer and having those new families um that may be coming in at alternate sites. um you know when it when it says that like for instance fifth grade um is the hot spot there's no ability to allow another section to pop um in any of of the grade levels. So also I will tell you one of the things that and and the Kilmer staff um and and Colleen and Alexander are here um they really have done just an amazing job um over the course of the school year. It's
108tight. Um, you know, they're not just running out of classroom space, but just the movement in the building. Um, if you've got classes that are trying to go from one place to the next, they have three lunch periods, almost 200 kids in each lunch period. Um, you know, it is just physically tight. So, there is truly no more room at the end. Um and so um you know I would anticipate um some information being communicated um to the board in the next couple of days that kind of really you know solidifies where we think we are um and what we're going to need to do moving forward. Um you know we just need a little bit more time to to kind of try and and make sure that we're uh we've got a good line
109on on those registrations. But um yeah, we're we're going to be putting some caps in place. Yep. A big thanks to Art and Carmina. They are really instrumental in kind of getting these numbers for the board. So, they're kind of behind the scenes to do a wonderful job. I think that's it. Thank you. Thanks, Bob. Thank you, Bob. Mike. Mike. Okay. Can I ask you a quick question before we go? Not on Kilmer or any particular school. Uh I did mention to you and uh sent you an article that one of our local parochial schools is closed. Have we received any inquiries that you're aware of uh from those parents specifically from St. Alphonsus? I don't know. What I will say is that we do believe that that there could be um you know another
11060 or 70 students um you know just in terms of um we are expecting uh to to see some new students coming in from that. Now, what I'll also say is that I think mostly um that those students will be in schools on the the southern end of our district and and um not necessarily on the north uh on the north end. I would say that um those uh that are enrolled in Catholic schools are more likely to be at St. Mary's uh from Buffalo Grove area than they would be at. So, I don't think it's going to have an overall um huge impact on anything and certainly I'm not expecting that to be the case at Kilmer. So, and we've got room to be able to absorb students at at Frost at at, you
111know, talking at, you know, so yeah, for the last time. Thank you, Mr. Gurnie. Okay. Um, we've reached a public comment section of our meeting. The board will allow any individual present to share public comment for up to three minutes. Such comments should not include discussion of personnel matters which should be brought directly to the attention of the appropriate school official. During public comment, the board and administration listen to comments but may not respond to the public. Leticia has just handed me a public comment card. Ben, do you want to come up? Good evening. My name is Ben Kman and 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 here as part of an ongoing
112tradition that started earlier this year where we address the board on a regular basis. I think I speak for most of the staff here in District 21 when I say that we are very happy that the school year has ended and many of us have the chance to rest and recuperate. I say most of course because many of our staff must work harder in the summer to update, repair, renovate, clean, and refurbish our vast array of buildings, classrooms, and miscellaneous spaces while they aren't full of kids. We appreciate the hard work of our custodial maintenance staff over the summer. I know, for example, that Holmes has a very ambitious list of summer projects. And I appreciate the hard work and experience of people like Patrick Connor, head custodian at Holmes, who has been planning and
113preparing for the summer for months. We also know that we would not have schools and classrooms if someone wasn't in charge of enrolling students, helping parents with paperwork, handling phone calls and deliveries, and running school offices. We appreciate the work that our office staff does over the summer, and I am grateful that I do not have that job. I would also like to congratulate the seventh grade staff at Holmes for putting together an amazing last day assembly for the seventh graders which included the entire seventh grade staff racing each other around the gym in inflatable Halloween costumes. It was probably the single most enjoyable last day experience I have had in my 18 years there. It would not have been possible without Elena Kufus as MC and giant inflatable bull. Lastly, I want to say
114something about our continuing efforts to establish regular meetings between board members and school staff. We are disappointed the board has declined our meeting requests, especially after several members pledged to do so. We represent almost the entire workforce here in District 21. Many of us have decades of experience, multiple degrees, and valuable perspective. We think that we can offer a great deal to you that would help you make the thousands of decisions that you are tasked with. We think we can help you make our district better. 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. I should also say that the uh Lego Mindstorms devices outside were awesome.
115Please make sure that you check those out. They're very cool. Right. Thank you, Ben. Uh any other comment cards? Okay. Um Cass, have we received any written public comments? No. No. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, let's move along to our consent agenda. This month, we received four Freedom of Information Act requests. There are board conference and travel expenses for two board members mandatory uh training, including the trauma-informed practices training for reelected board members in the amount of $100. I had an opportunity to talk to Mike Zagger this week to go over the financials. I had just a few questions uh for clarification. Um please pass along to Mike that I appreciate the quick and satisfactory explanations. Uh there were no major concerns though. They were just clarifications. Um moving along, do we need any
116does anyone need anything pulled from the consent agenda? Yes. Uh as we discussed earlier, I would like to pull uh the board agreements from the uh agenda for the consent agenda. Um and would request a separate vote on that. Um in discussing it with the superintendent, it appears as though I have a problem with the media section of that agreement. I don't have any problems with the rest of it. And so, um, I would think that we could have pulled that one item out, but Mike doesn't believe that that's feasible. So, I would, I guess, recommend then that we vote on the board agreement separately from the rest of the consent agenda. That's fine. We can pull item L. Uh, with that, may I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item
117L? So moved. Second. Thank you, Arlland. I Debbie, yes. Yes. Bill, yes. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Thank you. All right. And may I please have a motion to approve item L, approval of revised board agreements? So moved. Second. Debbie, yes. Yes. Bill, yes. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlland, nay. Thank you. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you very much. U Dr. Connelly, do you want to make some introductions for us? I do. Um, so, um, much to the to the to the the chagrin of of, uh, the Kilmer staff, uh, but, uh, to the overall, uh, joy of the district, I'm very, uh, pleased to welcome Alexander Juul as our new, uh, language services coordinator. Um, Alexander has been our assistant principal at Kilmer. um but uh came it was part
118of our EL team and uh this is a just really a great um next step in her professional career. So uh congratulations and I'm trying to avoid some of the the Kilmer folks who who who are you know very very very sorry to see you go except he'll still be there just not as assistant principal. So yeah. So well thank you um for u this approval. I'm super super excited to have Alexandra back in our department in this capacity. She's um has over 12 years um 10 years 12 years of experience um as an educator coming to um the district from district 63 in Displayplains as a dual teacher. Um she taught at Frost in the fourth grade dual bilingual classroom and then I snagged her from frost to become one of our um specialists
119and then she took on the the next responsibility step and has been serving at um Kilmer for these couple of years and I'm so sorry Kilmer staff but not sorry. Um so we're very excited her expertise in instruction and in that focus in the um dual bilingual programming um e practices is just going to continue to enhance our efforts um to ensure that instruction is solid um high expectations and um right just continue the work that we're doing. So thank you. I'll let you Yeah, I have a couple words in my pocket. Um, I just want to say thank you to the board, Dr. Connelly, Dr. Childris, and Anya and Colleen for supporting me and taking on this new role in the district. I'm only here because many people along my educational journey have encouraged
120and pushed me to grow in my career and I am excited to rejoin my language services family in a new capacity. I look forward to advocating for our students, community, our programs, as well as continuously improving and growing where we need to. Um, thank you again for this opportunity, and I hope to make many people proud along the way, including my family, of course, but our students and the many incredible educators of D21 I've had the privilege of working with over the years. So, thank you again, Well, Anna's grin ear to ear tells me all I need to know there. So, welcome back, I guess. Um, all right. Was that Was that it there? Okay. Um Oh, now we get to do some really fun stuff. We are going to consider the FY2024 2025 amended
121budget. Drum roll, please. Um, our first step now is to enter into a public hearing. May I please have a motion to approve the resolution to convene a public hearing? So move. Second. I don't want to my handwriting to the anticipation is building. Yeah. Oh, thank you, Carrie. Um, yes. Bill, yes. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlland, yes. And Debbie, yes. Thank you. Motion carries. Right, we are now in public hearing. Dr. Connelly. So, um, as is pretty standard procedure for for the district, um, we are presenting an amended budget, um, for the, um, current fiscal year. Um, as, uh, is noted when we have the the budget adoption uh, in September, um, budget is a plan, right? And so as we are executing that plan, as we were going throughout um the
122school year, um there are changes that that are at times being made um and just trueing up uh kind of numbers, expectations versus actual experiences. Um and so uh as we uh kind of come to the end of the year, we want to make sure that we kind of capture all of those things. um statutoily uh if our um budget variance is is 10% or more, we actually have to um present an an a um amended budget. So, uh with some of the decisions that the board has previously made with some of our fund transfers and things of that nature, we are certainly over that 10%. Um, and so with that, I'm just going to turn it over to our chief operating officer um to give just a very very high level uh kind of
123overview of of the changes um in the budget and then we'll take any questions that anybody may have. Thanks, Dr. Connelly. I can actually skip the first part of my notes here now. You covered that. You covered that nice. You're welcome. So, just a summary of and we kind of brought this the second page here of the operating funds to to the forefront here. Um, at a high level, we're in really good shape. uh revenues. We're looking at a um an increase of roughly 3%. Um and with that, within the local funds, we had an uptick in interest in property taxes, and that was mainly due to some conservative estimates upfront with that. Um and then also in in the grant section there, you'll notice there's an uptick of just over a million dollars. Um
124that's additional title money, um funds, and and some other funds that came in. So about a 3% total increase there. Uh with expenditures, we're looking at about 5.9%. So um if you'll noticed under uh salaries, we had an uptick of about 650,000. That was due to some increase in substitute needs, uh state and federal grants, uh staffing those. Um also in purchase services, we had an uptick of about $2 million uh outsource services. Some NSSO non-tuition costs were the the the cause for that. Um and then also we had an uptick of about uh 1.3 million in supplies and that was due to our our tech team actually we had um as the board approved uh that would be two months ago now we had an early opportunity with Chromebooks to purchase those and save
125some funds there. Um so we jumped on that and that actually there was some unfavorable lease uh interest rates on that as well. So overall you know savings there. Um and then last obviously the the capital outlay we had the the 2.3 million for the for the land that we purchased. So all of that again board approved. Um you know we're happy with that with that percentage at 5.9%. I will note too um obviously we had the two transfers that were board approved noted noted in here as well as a total of 24 million excuse me and this brings to our total fund balance percentage to to roughly about 44%. Uh just below 45% I know we had the the board policy of 35 to 45% so you know that brings us nicely to the
126top end of that that range and we're we're very comfortable with it. So, thank you. Um, ironically, today one of our fellow districts released a report financial where they are projecting a $7 million deficit and are concerned about the clawback of funds from the federal government. U, do we have any concerns in that regard? Can we be hurt in any ways in that regard? Um, as far as the claw back of federal funds, um, you know, that's always a possibility. Um, I think based on what I read in the in the in the article that, uh, some of that was attributed to, um, ESSER funds. Um, that, you know, um, so, you know, we're in a slightly different kind of position, um, in terms of there's really nothing to claw back. We've already spent all
127of our ESR funds. Um so um so I I am not um concerned about that so much. Um now we will see um where federal funding goes but again um federal funding is is it's about 10% of our budget. Um but I don't anticipate um there being uh a complete you know drop off um at least in the coming fiscal year because remember uh the funds that that are coming through um for the next fiscal year have were in the last federal budget. Um so unless they just don't you know I know yes but but you know again um that's something that at least at this point in time um I'm not super concerned about and again um you know as we're looking at at uh next year's budget um we're we're in we're still
128in a pretty uh good shape. Um so we're not I'm not looking at any kind of bringing a an unbalanced u budget to you. uh in in you know July and August and September. So great. Thank you and thank you Mike. Any other questions? Uh Laticia, do we have any public comment for this hearing? No, we do not. Okay. Thank you, Cass. Any written public comments for this hearing? No. No. Good. Um okay. Uh can I have a motion, please, to um adjourn the public hearing and reconvene our regular meeting? So move. Second. Thank you. Phil, I. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Harland, I. Debbie, yes. Yes. Motion carries. Okay. Public hearing is now adjourned and we have reconvened and regular meeting. May I please have a motion to approve the amended budget
129for fiscal year 2025 as presented? So moved. Second. Carrie. Yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlland, yes. Debbie, yes. Yes. Bill, yes. Motion carries. Wonderful. Very good. Um, okay, then let's move on to board communication. Uh, let's start with NSSEO. Debbie, do you have an update for us? Uh, yes. Actually, I've got quite a bit here. Um, I don't know if everybody noticed, but this afternoon I received the um, governing board brief from NSSO, and that's going to be attached every month to everyone if I have it before our meeting. Um, it just came in this afternoon, so you just got it. Um, so there's a lot of information there about events that they're doing, what we've done in the past, and things like that. So people who aren't as familiar with NSSO as I
130am can see what's happening. go out to events, take your kids to things. It's it's wonderful. Um, but as for our meeting, uh, we had our first reading for the policy committee, uh, we had 25 revised policies, three new ones, and most of them were title 9 updates. It was the legal stuff that we had done last month here. Um, one of our wonderful things that we do is we do um, shining stars for current um, students or staff or whatever. Every November they do the board. Um, but then we have these shooting stars which are students that are graduated from high school and how they're doing in the future. And this month we had uh Daniel L who was a uh had gone to Timber Ridge, graduated from Cooper, graduated from BG High School,
131and in the fall will be attending U of I and hoping to get his master's degree. So, it's wonderful to hear, you know, these kids that had pro they had trouble they had troubles in school and seeing what they can do and what their aspirations are. It's always one a wonderful part. Um then we had our board reorganization uh because district 214 did not have did not seat their new members until after the May meeting. We do our reorganization in June. Um I am pleased to say that this year I will be the the president for two years. Uh thank you. Uh Chris Chris Leto from district 57 is the vice president and Liz Nearman from district 25 is the secretary. Um we're looking forward we've got a lot of work to do so we're
132really looking forward to it. Uh that's the main thing we're doing is working on the uh reorganization based on the strategic plan which creates not only the governing board but also a superintendence board for all of the member districts. Um we've got a lot to do uh with that. Um one of the things we're doing is renew reviewing our articles of agreement which is kind of like a intergovernal inter governmental agreement um with the eight member districts um that's last was reviewed 10 years ago. So it's like it's quite timely. We are putting that on a two-year rotation. So that will be changed. Uh we have no meeting in July. Um that's traditional. We have decided we don't need the only thing we really have is bills to pay. So we will pay the bills
133and then ratify it in August. We'll be doing the same thing now in January as well because we only have two weeks of school. So this there's not really a lot of time in between. Uh we had a facilities update. The Kirk HVAC, um, the boiler has been replaced. It's about half the size of the one that they put in 40 to 50 years ago that they could not find parts for anymore. They could not make parts for anymore. So, they just finally had to bite the bullet and replace the whole thing. Um, that whole system will be a two-year project. um those are the kids that are ages 14 through 22 and so it's not our current students but all our students will be going there. Um and the last thing is uh I
134mentioned it to Dr. Connelly, one of the things we're doing with our uh agreements is we're going to have a committee of the whole meeting, which it was a lot with us with seven with eight people. That is going to be all of the governing board representatives and all of the superintendents. So, we will have a good 20 people there, but we will be able to get everything worked out so that we'll be operating in a much more efficient manner than we are now. So, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of exciting a lot of exciting things. Anybody that wants to come, we are also going to be doing tours of the facilities. We'll do Miner. We're not sure which month yet. We're going to go to Miner, Timber Ridge, Kirk, and
135do a a meeting out at uh Sunrise Lake. So, if you have not been out at Sunrise Lake, that would be a fun meeting to come to. It's a hall. It's out in Bartlett, but it's a a wonderful facility. So, right. Anybody have any questions? No questions, but I'm glad to see you've graduated to a yellow legal pad. [Laughter] Th This was from the student interviews, so I'm just keeping it. Crack me up, Debbie. Well, congratulations on your presidency. Looking forward to great things as usual from NSSEO. Um, Bill, can you give us an update from Edra? Certainly. Um, as you heard earlier today, Ed Redd's second annual mini summit was held. I attended along with Carrie, Debbie, and Arlland. I attended a breakout session on advocacy, and I presented at a panel discussing frequently
136asked questions from the viewpoint of experienced board members. There was also the general session speaker sponsored by Human X on leading through paradox. Ed's last member meeting of the school year was held here last week. It featured an end of session legislative recap. I'm just going to give you a couple of the highlights. The FOYA AI uh bill that I discussed with you all a couple months ago was not called for a final vote and it's likely to be brought back again in the fall veto session. EBF funding was passed however without the property tax relief grant. Mandated categoricals were flatfunded which effectively is a proration to us due to the effect of inflation. The PE waiver bill was killed due to intense opposition from education groups. Good job, guys. And the cell phone uh
137policy bill also failed to pass, but you could expect to see that come back again in the fall. You can view the update, all of uh the update from EDA on their website. And finally, ED's third annual legislative breakfast will be held here on Friday, August 1st at 8 a.m. Watch your email for registration information. Great. Thank you, Bill. Would you do IASB as well, please? Yes, I will. And it will be shorter because we did the same thing at IASB of doing a legislative update. So, if you would like to see IASB's version of a legislative update, that is also available on their website. Um, their government relations team is considering creating and distributing talking points for us on major legislative initiatives. So if we happen to run into our legislators over the summer,
138we might have information to talk to them about. There'll be more on that to come. And finally, if you are planning to attend the joint annual conference and haven't yet signed up or signed up for your pre-conference workshops, just remember some of them have sold out in the past before, so you may want to get on it. And that's it. Thank you so much. Uh, next is North Cook ISC. Arlland, do you have any update for us? Two two things. First of all, you have in your packet, sorry about that. You have in your packet a uh update from superintendent, our superintendent, but I want to highlight a couple of things. It's a pretty exciting time in North Cook. 6 years into our new facility, we've outgrown it because of demand and need for more
139space. We're need for a gymnasium for our kids and so forth. So, we're smack dab in the middle of a project to look for new space. We actually have a very tight time frame in making a decision uh because we have to decide by November uh on our current lease. And so we're working with Archon on what our options are. They've isolated four or five options including building a facility, uh renting another facility and upgrading it, keeping this facility longer and expanding it until we can move to another facility. Uh so a lot of balls in the air and um we've thankfully saved a significant amount of money towards the initial work that we need to do. So that's a great thing. So our finances are absolutely uh outstanding right now. And then you also
140have so that I'm not going to go through all the rest. You have it if you take a look through there. The other thing you have is a more comprehensive look at North Cook since we never really talk about it. So to give you an idea of the scope of the organization, we have 137,500 students within North Cook, 12,650 teachers, 3,500 teacher assistants, uh, 1176 administrators in 41 educational organizations, including 32 elementary school districts, seven high school districts, and two special ed organizations. areas that we provide services and the space needs include more classroom space uh more space for teachers etc. uh is professional learning, mentorship, leadership, coaching, al alternative education programs, uh lensure, McKenna Vento for homeless children, health and life safety, and transportation. So, it's a very comprehensive organization that I'm I'm happy
141to say from the years that I've been on this board, which is over 20 years now, uh, it has gone from being, as as Mike knows, uh, on the edge of of of disaster because of the financial issues in the state, uh, to now being on solid footed ground and being able to help all the districts within our area in so many different ways. and our new superintendent, Hope uh Hope April, uh Jordan is doing a fantastic job. So, we're delighted with that. So, the organization is going well. Take the time to to read through what I've given you and you'll have a more comprehensive look, but I appreciate your time. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for sharing those resources with us. Uh members, remember if you have updates for local government
142or liaison uh updates, please make sure you send those in uh next month for inclusion in the July agenda. Um all right, with that, the uh next regular meeting of the board of education of district 21 is scheduled for Thursday, July 24th, 2025 at 7 p.m. Please note this is one week later than usual. Um we are going to recess into a close session to discuss a few items. We will return after close session for consideration of one item. The following section is our close session. I just said that be it resolved. The board of education approves to recess the district 21 June 12th, 2025 regular board meeting and convene in close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a
143park, recreational, or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal council for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee. A specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity to discuss the purchase of le purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired and to discuss minutes of meetings lawfully closed under this act for the purpose of semiannual review of the minutes. Second. Thank you, Bill. Second. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlland, I. Debbie, yes. Yes. Bill, yes. Carrie, yes. Motion carries. Okay.
144Thank you. We are now in close session. Um, just a reminder, we will be returning to consider one item after we conjure our close session. If anyone wants to stick