001All right. I need >> Sorry. Okay. I'm calling to order the uh public hearing for the purpose of the school year 26 budget. Uh, roll call, please. >> Here, here, >> here we are in session. Uh, all right. The fiscal year 26 budget. >> All right. So um in the board packet is the um the proposed FY26 budget for this year. This goes into effect as as soon as board approves and it gets turned into ISBY. Uh it has to go to the ROE as well. So hopefully tonight we can hear from the public if there are any um questions or comments about it and then we'll take action later on in the board meeting. >> Okay. Okay. So, there is no public comments. All right. And yes, um later in the agenda in the
002regular meeting, we'll have a further discussion about the the budget. Um All right. I need a motion to adjourn this portion of the meeting. >> Stop key. >> Washington. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Eyes have it. All right. Let's try this again. Calling to order our regular board meeting of Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 at 7:04. Roll call, please. >> here. Here. >> Here. We're in session. Please stand for the pledge. Great. Any additions to the agenda? Hearing none recognitions and celebrations. >> All right, Mr. Kulick, if you could come on up. I think we have some awesome Lewig Bulldogs to celebrate. programming for all of our incoming fourth grade students and then fourth grade students moving up to fifth grade to keep them connected with their learning. And
003if you follow my language that I use on my newsletters and across the website, I always talk about our students as scholars, right? Scholars are always people that are striving to do their best. They're striving to grow each day and go above and beyond in terms of their education. So, we would like to highlight um 11 students tonight that completed all of the aspects of our summer learning challenge from this past summer and I think we have five of them here today. Um before we recognize them, I do want to um give thanks to Mrs. Matalis, Miss Vandermir, um Mrs. Stoula and Mrs. Murphy who helped organize this summer learning program for our kiddos. And we do have Mrs. Matalis here who's going to help recognize our students. So, Kelly, if you'd like to come
004on up. >> The floor is yours. >> Do I get to call? Okay. So, we're really really proud of you. Um, as we said at our Monday morning meeting um when you earned this reward. So, we honor the students by just basically we u we want to give them some incentive aside from just acknowledging their name because that's really exciting. Um that they spent summer time to continue their learning um which will benefit them throughout the school year and beyond. Um so they got to have a special lunch in recess with um the interventionists and also we had a special visitor Oiler the bulldog came and got to do some dancing with us and then um we got to just have a little extra recess which was really nice and it was nice to sit
005and get to know you guys. Um and I hope we'll get to see you again next year. Um and so the students that are here that um participated um are Jessa Jazerki. Do you wanna should we have them come up? >> Come on up. Um, James Urbanzic, Charlotte Dudek, Emory Munoz, did I say your name, last name right? Okay, good. Um, and Amelia Hassan, thank you so much. We're so proud of you. Nice And real quick, did you call the ones that weren't able to make it? >> I did. >> So, they couldn't be here tonight. Um, Aubrey Valdez, Blake Pool, Alinda Stevens, Alexander Maddingley, Aubrey Weber, and Luciano Petti. Congratulations to everyone. Thank you so much. >> All right. I also wanted to celebrate some of our staff members tonight as well. So, today
006is National IT Professionals Day >> and we have an amazing tech team um led by director Sean Walsh, Kenny back there, manning the camera, all the things holding the get close enough to the mic sign for me and uh along with Cindy, Reggie, and Chris. So, we have a quick video because not all heroes wear capes. So you can have your attention on the screen. [Laughter] That's cute. >> So, we just we want to shout out our tech team. I think that we take them sometimes for granted because they do so well at their job and we just know things are working, but we know how to call them when things aren't working and they always deliver. So, we're very appreciative. So, it was just a small way to show our appreciation for such an
007amazing team. >> Very good. >> All right. Excellent work. Um, all right. At this time, we're going to continue on with our regular business meeting. If you would all like to head back home, maybe stop and get some ice cream for your awesome students. Uh, now would be the time. Oh, sorry. Hold on. Uh, >> yes. We have a student report tonight if you would like to come up and then we'll >> we like you can't wait. >> Yeah. There you go. Get close. We can hear you. >> I'm Emily and I've been in student council and I'm in seventh grade. So I this is my second year in student council. Um I'm Kay. I joined student council last year and I love it. and I'm in eighth grade. >> We're all part of the
008Oak Prairie Junior High Student Council. >> Oak Prairies Student Council is an after school activity usually taking place on Mondays. During our meetings, we plan handouts for spirit days, fun events, and more. We currently have 87 kids in our Google classroom. So, um starting off um on our first day back to school this year, um the student council welcomed all the students in these cute fun um bulldog inflatables. Um so that really showed the school spirit. And we also handed out um these uh super cool um colorful rubber bracelets and it said like I heart school and back to school and stuff like that. We just did this a couple weeks ago. Our color splash is the first student council sponsored event of the school year. This year we had a total of 245 kids
009come to Color Splash. This year you can throw colors at your friends and have fun. This year we added a foam pit in addition to our color zone. This event is always a big hit and is always one of my favorites. City student council organizes spirit days which we call wear Wednesday. For example, for example, football jersey day, breast cancer awareness day, bring your teddy bear day, book character, historical picture day, Disney day, winter onesie day, and twin day. The students never fail to disappoint when it comes to our spirit days. On example of September 3rd, we had football jersey day, which is the month that is coming up, October 8th. bring your teddy bear to school day and then on October 1st that's our breast cancer awareness day like wear pink and then we
010hand out little bracelet bracelets and little ducks. Um we also have some more fun um events coming. So some of them are um Emily will after this. Um there's red red ribbon week um support our troops and right back. >> So during the month of October we have what we call soctober. We will be collecting socks for those in need. Did you know that socks are the most frequent frequently needed item for the homeless? Last year we collected over 2,000 pairs of socks. The socks will be donated to Way of Will County. They collect items from other schools and businesses to assemble care packages for those in need. Our yearly donation is one which enhances many in the Will County region. Um red ribbon we have ribbon week. It's a daily spirit with host agent
011from the drug enforcement agents. >> Um also be um spearheading support our troops in November um along with helping recognize our veterans and other military members. >> One of our next big events of the year hosted by Oak Prairie Student Council will be the Frightfest. Frightfest is our Halloween party where we have music to dance to, a haunted house, costume contest, and more fun activities. That's all we have for now, but there will definitely be more to come. >> All right. Now, if you would like to leave us and uh >> now you or you can say thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. See you later. Talk to you soon. Oh, cute. >> Oh, sorry. Penny's gonna make you come up to the >> mic. >> Oh, yeah. No, it's not the camera. It's the mic. >>
012Thank you. >> I don't have any notes. I'm just gonna talk. Uh, okay. So, and I can't see any of you. That's kind of how I like it. No. Um, so we did meet uh with our local 604 um rep to get a training in terms of the negotiations this year. So, we did meet several hour training. Um, we are establishing um who we want on our negotiations team. And um the next step that we are going to I just wanted to let I guess everyone and you know the staff and the principles know we're going to send out a survey and kind of fill out like what are the biggest concerns for um the membership. So I just wanted to let you guys know that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any public comment
013for items on the agenda? Right. Administrative reports. Dr. Frankovich. >> All right. So my report um is in the packet. One thing a couple I wanted to highlight one um Dave mentioned in the financing facility meeting that we had previously a few years ago partnered um with Jerome McKibben and other local lockport theater schools in the high school um in a demographic projection study. We are in talks about bringing him back for a refresh um it would be with in conjunction with the high school and several other feeders. So, that's something that's on that I think would be really valuable as we look forward to our long-term facility planning. And the other thing that I want to make sure that I point out is um a huge shout out to our staff members. So, coming
014back after summer is never easy, right? Um it's you you've just left a amazing group of students that you've molded that know routines, that know each other, that know the expectation. So there's always the um excitement but also that learning curve that our staff has to have and this year brought additional challenges to our staff. They are doing a phenomenal job with our new ELA resource CPLA but it is a very time consuming and rigorous program. So so it brings challenges to them. Um we also are implementing standards based learning and grading that we've been working on for you know the past three years. So I I just wanted to go on the record that our is really doing a phenomenal job, but this year brings new challenges. They are rising to that challenge. If
015I do have staff members listening, I just kindly ask that they give themselves the same grace, patience, and love that they give to our kiddos every day because they're also students this year, too, learning this and and they really are doing a tremendous job and we're here to support them. So, I just want to give a shout out um to everybody for for starting a new school year and, you know, taking it in stride. Any other questions regarding my report? One uh the last thing I wanted to talk about was um enrollment. So we do have um enrollment numbers. We saw a slight increase but I just did want to point out that we do have that smaller cohort. We talked about it last year if you can recall in that cohort last year where
016our second graders that moved up to third grade. We did have a retirement that we were able to absorb through attrition, but we you can still see that we are showing that cohort to be significantly smaller than fourth grade. So, that's something that we'll be continuing to watch this year. >> Now, I'm done. >> All right, Mr. Bradley. >> All right. Good evening. Um, so in my board update tonight, there just uh one thing from the memo that I wanted to highlight and that's kind of an exciting thing that we are actually demoing a time clock system. So we are moving into the I don't know which decade we are, but we're getting there. And so uh we're we're moving beyond um time sheets, which is fantastic. It'll it'll help. It does off set a
017a lot of of effort though or it's put a lot of effort on I'd like to call it Lisa Krueger from from payroll who spent a ton of time. Also the tech team again we've already shouted out for you guys tonight but thank you to the tech team for doing so much leg work to make sure that this was up and running. We've demoed it for two payrolls and so we're making sure that the old system works and um works and cooperatively we're seeing the same information then in in the system as well. So, we're doing both safeguards just to make sure that everybody can still get paid. That's an important thing. >> And uh it looks like it it's it's working well. So, also then in the board book, I've got my tuition reimbursement
018notification for the board of of um advancements there. And then lastly, the um August attendance incentive from Grand Prairie. So, um principles, they they know that they'll and the secretaries know they get a text from me in the morning showing uh who our our subs are. And I would say I I can't really put a percentage on it, but we've had more days without subs than we've had days with subs. So, um, a great trajectory that we're on right now, which is really nice to see. So, Grand Prairie has has stepped up with, uh, staffing. I would like to say thank you to the board because maybe the, uh, the incentive is perhaps working for us. So, um, that that's perhaps a real good, um, a good indicator of where we're at. So, thank you.
019>> Anybody have a question? Why are we paying this? still paying you. >> So this is that incentive that we had. So we we demoed it for the year and it it was successful. So we're still maintaining that. >> Do we have to vote on that because the motion back to the school year ended? >> Let me double check on that. I I will find out and let the board know. Absolutely. Good question. director of student services >> in the packet. You'll see it. Couple things to highlight. We have Kevin Mueller coming out again tomorrow. He'll be at two schools. He was already at two schools a couple weeks ago. Great presentation, lots of feedback from staff, just getting that for staff and students and looking at behavior. So, we're excited to have him back
020this year. Our Bulldog Academy started their creative curriculum which we've had in district, but we've gone with that and we have an online assessment with it. So, the teachers are really working hard to get that off the ground and going. They're doing so many things in EC. It's great to see. So, we're excited about that. And then safety care training will be rolling out. Three of us were trained two weeks ago and we'll be rolling that out to the buildings in the coming weeks. And then I just have an update on that early childhood enrollment. Right now we're doing >> Any other questions or comments on anything? >> Appreciate it. director curriculum. >> I'm just gonna get this presentation up so that you can see it. Okay. So, just two things I wanted to touch
021on tonight. Um, the new Illinois performance levels and then the building goals that we have for the year. So, Illinois came out with performance and we're talking about performance levels on our state and they're doing this really. So for us that means the take our third through eighth graders and how they're doing on math on reading and then the science assessment that we'll take for our fifth and eighth graders. And so the state did a couple of things. So there's some key changes here that we want to talk about. The first thing they did was they unified the performance levels across all of the state of they went and changed. So we have four performance levels now depending on the assessment that we had. Some had five performance levels and some had four which I
022think is a little bit confusing for parents. We wanted to kind of all be the same so we have some consistency. Um and we kind of know how our students are doing when it comes to the standard. The other thing that they did, which you know, we'll see this in our scores this year, is they lowered the cut scores in what you needed to be proficient on, and then they raised the cut scores or the score that you needed to be proficient on the science. So, what this means for us really is we're not going to be able to compare achievement from last year to this year, but we'll have other ways that we're able to compare. Um, so I guess this You can't really read it, but let me talk you through it. So
023on the left, it's showing you what the previous misaligned performance levels look like. So the top one there is, and you'll see it has five different performance levels. And then we have ISA and SAT that have four performance levels. The interesting thing from my perspective is when you look at it, what they call the different performance levels changes depending on the assessment. So if you're really well. You might be exceeding expectations on one expectation or on one um assessment, but you might be exemplary on another. And for those friends that were proficient on one assessment, it was proficient on another one, it's expectation. So, it's just a little confusing. So, one thing that they wanted to do is kind of clarify that. So, if you look at the picture on the right, it's going to
024show that the language is the same for all of these state tests that we're taking. Um, and we just performance level. So hopefully a little bit of clarity for families when they get these reports home that it makes a little more sense to them on how their child is doing on these state assessments. So then I think when we talk about um you know why why this change why are we lowering our cut scores? So and here's the rationale behind it. So what they noticed was that Illinois had some of the most restrictive benchmarks when it came to math and reading. And they determined this based on this NAPE assessment, the National Assessment of Educational Progress that it's taken nationwide. And if you look at the chart that's up there, they'll have all of the
025different states up there and they're showing you what they would need to score on that national assessment to be considered proficient in their state. So what's interesting the states choose what they consider proficient. So they choose their own cut scores. And what they discovered was Illinois was higher than all of these other cut scores. And what we're finding is it's maybe not representing how our students are actually doing. So they looked at it and they said, "Okay, we're going to change the cut scores and we're going to lower them." And for they lowered it anywhere between five and 15 points depending on the grade level. we saw um we saw bigger numbers that dropped in the lower grades and then by eighth grade it was about a 5% change in the score. Um so that
026was one way that they looked to correct that because really the goal is that families have a good idea of how students are doing. Um what they also found was that kids were doing fine in the classroom but they didn't look like they were proficient on these assessments. and they had said um of like twothirds of our graduates in 2022 went on within 12 months to enroll in college. But when you looked at how they scored and what was reported to parents, twothirds or half of the students, a half of the number they were saying weren't proficient in ELA and even more weren't proficient in math. So we're sending this message to families that they might not be ready and we don't want to hold anyone back by not reporting correct information for them. That's
027really of for this change. When we look at science, we see that it kind of is the opposite. So in science, we see that those test scores are going up by about 13 points for fifth grade and for eighth grade. So we anticipate seeing fewer of our kids that are proficient in science. And one of the things that they noted was that originally when we did these benchmark scores, it was 2021. So all of our kids in the state didn't take that science assessment because so we just didn't have the number of students participating and the representation to really have a fair indication of what those cuts. So the state now correcting it and they increased what score you need to be proficient on science so that it it align because what they saw was
028we had a lot of students who were proficient on these tests but when you looked at their performance in the class it wasn't matching. So just working on that alignment piece. Um so sometimes when we talk about okay we're we're lowering the cut scores we might get a little bit worried that now we're lowering our standard and that's not what's happening at all. We're not changing our state standards. Our rigorous standards that are here are still here and that's still what we're teaching to. We're not changing the rigor of the test for administering. When your child comes home after taking they're probably telling you it's really hard and they're really there was a lot on there. We're not changing that test. We're not changing the format of the test. So, that's all staying the same.
029What is staying the same, so we can't compare how they're doing achievement from last year to this year because we've changed those boards. But what we can do is we can look at that student growth piece and say, how did they do last year compared to how did they do this year? Because that isn't changing. We look at and I know you've talked about those student growth percentiles in the looking at the raw score. So that score out of 850 and they're saying when they compare growth percentiles, they're saying, "Okay, these are all the kids that had this score that had this raw score and I'm going to take all these kids that have that exact same score and I'm going to line them up and I'm going to look to see what growth do
030they make the next year. The child that makes that least amount of growth, they're in the first percentile. The child that makes that most growth is at the 99th percentile. So because we're not looking at proficiency levels, because we're looking at that actual raw score, we can compare those students and we can see, you know, how did we do, how did our student growth look last year compared to this year. So we're still able to do that. So we still have that measure, which I think is nice. So the principal and I have talked a lot about data and so we wanted to look to see gosh, what are we going to do for building goals this year? And we kind of thought, let's look at building goals for reading and math. We spent really
031a lot of time digging into our fast bridge data that we have from the fall and also looking at to come up with some goals of what we'd like to see students achieve this year. Um so we settled on 80% of our students would be at the 60th percentile on fastbridge for reading and math. We chose fast bridge because we do have three measures that we can look at during the year. And then we looked at that 60th percentile and we had a lot of really good discussion about it like how did we land there? So we looked to see our students that were proficient on felt where did they fall on fast bridge so that we could say this would be a good good target. So we found that students that were you know
032around the 60th percentile we had more of those students that were proficient on so that's what we targeted. We know it's an ambitious goal but we also know that our students can do really great things. So we're just looking forward to seeing all the growth that they make this year and the building are looking at strategies to support students throughout the year with these goals. So, we're we're really excited. We know it's ambitious, but we know what we know our questions on our building goals or changes to the performance level. >> I love the fact this is the first time I can remember aligning fast with and and we've we've done And we have all that data and we use that right >> but uh now we can say in a year >> right in
033October of next year >> when we get the I we can say yes we >> predicted what >> and how close to that are we >> right >> and we found that fast seemed to be a better indicator when it came to reading um there was kind of a narrower of what it needed to be. It was a little bit wider for math. So, we'll look at that and we'll look at it over multiple years and see how that changes. But, we did like that we had three measures to look at. Sometimes when schools choose a goal like, hey, we're going to have 80% of our students proficient on. We only have one measure for the year. This gives us three measures during the year to see how are we moving toward that target. >>
034We're excited. We did. Those will come home next Friday. >> I don't know. Anything else? Okay. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> Looking forward to the principal. Um differenti >> went the microphone >> well trained >> brownie brownie points >> uh director of maintenance any good principles A >> no. >> And and it was bad. It was a bad loss. Not a not a good Not close. >> Yeah, it's all good, though. >> Probably. >> Uh Chipotle. Actually, it was Chipotle. She wanted Chipotle. So, >> yeah. So, >> all right. So, the start of the school year has gone really well at Oak Prairie. Um, a couple of updates that I just wanted to kind of uh fill you all in about is uh we decided uh to make an update to our practices
035around cell phones at Oak Prairie. Um, Oak Prairie has always had um an off and out of sight policy. However, that meant that cell phones were still on student bodies, right? Um, and to be quite honest, they were not off. Um, they were buzzing and um, alerting and going off during instruction. So, uh, we kind of tried to get ahead of some of the stuff that's probably coming down the line. A lot of states have mandated, um, cell phone bans in in classrooms. Um, so we tried to find a nice compromise for our students. Um, and what we ended up doing was saying that you can bring your cell phone to school. Um, however, it cannot be on your body during learning time, so in a classroom. Um, and they had the option of either
036leaving it in their locker or when they come in the classroom, we have little pocket charts that they could put their phone in. Um, or a teacher can kind of have their own system of collecting the phone so that they're not on the students while um, instruction is taking place. And we've had an awesome response from the students. Um, most of them have sort of just uh, given up on bringing the cell phone to class in general. They're like, well, if it's not on and I can't have it on my body, what's the point? Right? So, they've just left him in their lockers. um and just gone about their day and the teachers have reported that the engagement in the classrooms has really increased. Um they've noticed like the kids even socializing more and and
037not really because there's nothing there distracting them anymore. Um their attention is is on the teacher on the lesson and with each other. So, um, it has been such an awesome change and I'm super proud of our students for adapting and our teachers for, you know, holding students accountable for the expectations and, um, it's gone really well. So, um, yes. Yes. Um, another update is our students also this year we put locks on lockers in the hallways. Um, in the past they were not they did not have lockers on locks on the hallways. Um but if we're asking students to keep their devices in their lockers, we wanted to make sure that we have secure spaces for them to do that. So um they uh they were it was different, right? They've never had to
038start the school year with managing a lock on their locker and it did it was a little bumpy for the first few days like it always will be. Um but they've adapted really well and um adjusted. So, uh, the teachers also report too, like there's a it's just a lot there's the systems seem to be a lot smoother with locks on locks and cell phones out of the classrooms. Um, just everything's running really smoothly. The PE teachers loved that we have locks on the lockers in the hallways because they did not have to teach the students how to do locks. Yeah. The smoothest year in PE ever, they said. So, >> that's funny. >> Yeah. And then finally, um, as you guys heard from student council, we've had a lot of great, um, events already
039take place at Oak Prairie. Almost every single one of our clubs is up and running already. So like art clubs going, math team, uh, robotics is starting up here in a couple weeks, um, game club. So there's a lot of opportunities for our students to get involved at Oak Prairie and, um, they are taking advantage of those things. So it's been a great start. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Now go feed your children. >> All right. Good evening board again. Um so, uh Dr. Frankovich started off by talking about thanking our staff, right? So, I have a list of things I want to highlight, but this one is first and foremost because we know um in fourth grade we are um going down the standardsbased learning and grading path, right?
040And at both grade levels, we are embracing our new ELA resource. And for as good as I'm going to tell you that the start of the year has gone for all of the logistical clerical things from the front office and the nurse and myself, I know that the teachers have been feeling that stress and they have been doing a phenomenal job during their team meetings, during the school day that we've built into the day to work through just these changes. Right? There's nothing that is uh too difficult that we can't handle or tackle. We just need the time to to get there and we we've provided that time and we've seen our leaders really rise. Our team leaders have been doing great work and all of the staff um just have been doing just a
041tremendous job. So, I just want to thank them for all the work and all the long hours that have gone into getting this school year off the ground. So, thank you staff. Um I mentioned um starting off the school year, I've done 12 um unveilings of a school year as a building principal. This is arguably one of the smoothest just due to everybody's efforts, right? So, I've been knocking on wood every time I say that to ensure that it continues, but it's been a great launch to the year. Some things I do want to highlight, um, you know, we had a successful drill day, um, early on in the school year. Um, our collaboration with our first responders, um, fire and police is really second to none here. Um, I appreciate all of, you know,
042their faces being around our building so frequently. We have Officer Andy, we have Officer Frank that are going to be um working with our fifth graders on Too Good for Drugs. And we just appreciate their presence because when they're there all the time, it makes when they're there not any different than a normal day, which is fantastic. Um we've got a great rapport with our um our colleagues at Grand Prairie. We've instituted some some new things in terms of busing this year, which has helped with busing at the beginning of the year. first off is um common expectations from Walsh through our oldest learners here, right? So, the same language is being used, the same expectations are out there no matter what your age is with some caveats, of course, kindergarteners to eighth graders. Um
043but we're also highlighting positive behavior on the bus with our Bulldog Bus Awards. So, you've seen maybe some of that come out on um social media and on newsletters. So, anytime students are doing exactly what we expect them to do, we're highlighting for that. and the bus drivers are getting behind that and we've seen a huge impact positive impact on our bus referrals. our gross referrals are almost non-existent at the start of the year, which is generally when we have a lot of them come in because it's the start of the school year, right? So, that's been going very well. Um, along the lines of highlighting student behaviors, we've also started this week, Monday, um, incentivizing our lunchroom behavior as well. So, our lunch has changed a little bit to where we have more classes
044in the lunchroom. Um, so we want to make sure that our behaviors stay appropriate and um, they're called lunch, excuse me, lunchroom leader certificates. So again, when students are doing what we expect, following those school procedures, they have the opportunity to earn these tickets. And then we are raffling off um random winners to have free seating Friday to go sit with your friends, but we're also giving them the opportunity to win what's called a chef experience to where they get to go back with our lunch ladies, put on the the cook hat and the um the apron and and have a chef experience where they help um pass out food to all of their all of their friends, which is cool. So the >> Yes, friends talking about this. >> Hey, >> it is like
045a big >> anytime we can have positive facetiming going on um from school. That's a beautiful thing. I'll take that. So the first experience is slated for two weeks from this Thursday. So we'll let you know how it goes. Um principles 200 club again, we highlight students doing great things just overarching around the building. You can see a common theme here like we're we're pumping our students up for the start of the school year. Um, today was the 19th day of school. I've made 28 positive phone calls home for students that have been recognized for doing great things. And again, I always uh tell our families, right, when you see Lewig come up there, it doesn't have to be a scary thing, right? Because most of the time it's probably going to be me calling
046with um some positive things happening. Um, and then all of the extracurriculars are getting underway. Um, choir is starting. I believe that's starting this week. I know we have upwards of 70 kids in fifth grade band. Um, sectionals are happening, full band starts in about a month. Um, and our Club 92 is starting this week, too. So, all of those extracurriculars on top of what we're doing dayto-day are getting off the ground now. And we're excited for the trajectory that we're on. So, any questions? Okay. Thank you so much. >> Oh, man. I get rid of my brace and you got a >> I know that's a point of contention. may not want to bring it up. It's been a while. It's been about seven weeks in the boot. My husband could tell you all
047about it. Okay, so here to share a little bit about Reed and how the start of the year has been um over on our side of town. So, kicked off the school year with our new staff theme, which was row the boat. Um very intentional just kind of knowing everything we would be going into with new standardsbased grading, new ELA resource. And I thought, okay, we need a constant reminder about what to do when we are feeling like we're at the end of our rope. Like this is really hard, really challenging. So, it was a huge kickoff. It was row the boat. They've got stickers. They did a scavenger hunt. It was really fun. And we set sail day one and we have been rowing ever since. Yes. But it is serving its purpose for
048sure because it's challenging starting something new when you've been doing it for so long. um working with a new resource when you've had one for so long. And I think what I've come to find is that teachers want everything to just be perfect because they care about the work that they do. Um which is a great problem to have. So it is constant reminders to give yourself grace that we will get through it together and that it probably won't be perfect, but we'll get there. Um so we've been rowing the boat at Reed. Uh teachers have been collaborating during what we call at REI their daily power huddles. I may have mentioned this in the spring, but each of our buildings were able to incorporate 30 minutes of team collaboration time built into the school
049day. They get it five days a week, which we truly felt like again for this sort of year would be a gift, the gift of time. Uh I feel that has posed that has shown to be a really great um opportunity for all sorts of different things. Barb has come to quite a few power huddles to help with any sort of question that would come up in terms of curriculum and instruction. Penny, I know, has been there the past two days helping with power teacher and how to input assignments and assessments using new standardsbased grading and how things might look different on their digital grade books. So, that time is uh great conversations around how to make our MTSS process the most efficient as possible. Uh we talked about teachers sharing students even though they
050may students even though they may not be their own students during tier 2 uh interventions just to make sure that we are using that 30 minute power time um getting the biggest bang for our buck essentially. Um so we're very excited to do that. So, typically during power time, every student kind of shuffles to a different location because everybody is getting whatever it is that they need, whether that be intervention um or enrichment or tier 2, tier three, um or just additional tier one support in the classroom. So, excited about that as well. Um students are doing great. Um they are, uh we had our first character pillar assembly for students for the month of September. So, our pillar is respect. So, in a few short weeks, we will be announcing our students of the
051month. So, that's a big deal. Uh, our yard signs are back. I know families and kids loved the yard sign to be able to put in the front lawn and kind of brag about their student of the month. So, we're excited those will be back this year. Uh, something new we're doing this year is uh lunchroom VIPs. Uh, so any student that demonstrates positive uh behavior in the lunchroom gets to earn VIP status. So, that was a really big deal. Uh it's very fancy. VIP tables are decked out in black and gold and they get gold wristbands and very official. Um and uh they get to go out. They get early access to recess that day. So that is like the big bonus. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> I get the swing. >> Oh yeah. Yes.
052Yes. So that was that's been a hit. Um, and on the topic of, you know, a new resource, and I know I kind of talked about it from a teacher's lens, but our students are loving CKLA. So, I had the opportunity to sub today in a third grade classroom. So, I got to teach a CKLA lesson, and we read chapter 1 of Mulan, and interestingly enough, I don't think many of the kids have seen the Disney movie Mulan. Um, and so chapter 1 ended, and the kids were like, "No, no, no. You have to keep reading. till tomorrow, which in my mind like major win that they are excited for reading tomorrow. So, I'm excited for all that's to come, but we're off to a great start. >> Great. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Thank
053you guys. >> Sorry, >> Katie. Walsh. So, we are have very similar theme as Reed. Our theme for this year for our staff is together we succeed because you know we have nine new staff members which has been so exciting and so refreshing. The perspectives they bring from their past experiences, their ideas they bring to our staff who have been there all and vice versa, right? Sharing back and forth has just been incredible. Um so we have really focused this year on the goal of collaboration because like every principal has shared the new resource can be challenging. Um not only do we have CLA but our EC team um is also implementing a new resource called creative curriculum. It's part of our rebranding of our tiny bulldog academy and it has been incredible. So I
054think to start off and celebrate our students success is the most important piece. So like u Miss Golden was talking about you know we our first grade students they finished up a fables unit and I know Dr. Frankie was in a classroom like to hear the vocab that our students are using and their language and the things that they're sharing because of their exposure to this resource has been absolutely incredible. um we know at a early young age nursery rhymes is so so impactful to their learning um and then their ability to read and so it's cool to hear all these nursery rhymes that kind of have taken a backseat for a little bit. So today some of our first grade classes they had the Fable Olympics to celebrate you know the end of a
055unit and their celebration. So, it's just it's very cool to hear kids, first graders, talking about the themes and the morals of these stories. Those conversations were not happening last year. And part of that is just the resource that we had didn't have just the the compilation of it all. So, that is very exciting. And then we had in our EC room, I was in there today and we had one kid who was trading. He was it was actually priceless. They were sitting in cube chairs and one kid had a fidget, the other one wanted. So he traded his talker and a fidget to get the fidget wanted. And I go, that is a skill in creative curriculum is the concept of trading. Fantastic. You know, so our kids are really feeling the benefit of
056this. But behind the closed doors of all of that is a lot of work of the staff. We are collaborating daily. Um, one of the great things about those we call them collaboration meetings is they we are able to have all of our essential players around the table. So, not just our first grade teachers. I have my special ed teachers in there. I have my reading specialists in there. I have all the people that need to be around the table to have these really important conversations which that common plan previously was a barrier that really was difficult for collaboration. So it is very exciting to see the great work that our staff is putting into implementing a new resource. So huge celebration for them. You know, the start of the school year started off wild
057at Walsh with the dismissal procedures. Um if you know, you know, um you know, it was a lot of work. We had great ideas. They didn't go great. We needed a pivot. We pivoted several times, but we're doing really well now. So we have dismissal down. It's done by 3:30 every day. It's a 10-minute process. So, I'm very excited that the car rider dismissal is working swimmingly. So, that's that's a big celebration for us at Walsh. Um, but we also finished our first assessment window. Um, last week we had our data review meeting. So, we actually start we have them starting in EC. Um, and we go kindergarten and first grade. We had an incredible conversation around how to support not only our tier 2 and tier three students, but how to in how to
058bulk up with best practice our tier one instruction. So, we are really taking approach this year a little different with our littles is really how can we support all of our learners and focus on tier one instead of just those few students. Yes, of course, we're supporting them, but also looking big picture. So, we had I mean data review meetings are long. They're all day. You sit in a room and you talk data. It can be long. And I left two days in a row and I was pumped. The staff celebrated it today at our SLT meeting. So, great things happening there. Um, but I did want to give a really intentional shout out. So, I always brag about the community that I work in of being so supportive. I don't know if you guys
059remember, I put out, you know, a a plea for donations for our back um what used to be the old garden at Walsh that hasn't been a garden for years. Um because we have some students who like to run and it's a little it's a little stressful when you have your three and fours who take off on you. So, we wanted to revamp our fenced in area in the back. I think I have at least 12 families have that have poured in with donations of things that can support that area to be more intentional for our students. We just got a whole donation today of school supplies for our kids. It's just the community shows up and answers the call. Um, and that's really important. Whether it's volunteering and copying, all of it is just
060as important and impactful as our staff and the work they're doing, too. So, I want to give a shout out to the community because it really has made a big difference. And, you know, I remember my kids are older now, but what do you do with the playet that's in your back? You know, um there is definitely a time when it's nice to get rid of it and see it go to a good home. So, we're really excited for the things happening at Walsh. Um we are continuing on doing the hard work, but every day gets a little better to go. >> Yeah. All right. Thanks, guys. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, I need a motion to present. Sorry. To approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Washington stop key. >> All
061right. Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Motion carried. All right. I need a motion to approve the fiscal year 26 budget. >> Correct. >> All right. Um I'll just open up the presentation and we can uh go through that component um as well as once we get into the um the isby um report as well. So, >> are you going back on the screen? >> I can go in the G. >> Oh, sure. Sure. >> No worries. Okay. [Laughter] >> All right. Well, so to to jump into the presentation while we're waiting on that load, I did put together a PowerPoint for tonight just to highlight where we're at with the budget. Um, so in terms of items to highlight the the major goals of what's been driving the the budget development has
062been really two things. One is board policy. So, um, that is board policy 4 col 20, which is about our fund balance. Sean, do you want me just to drive it or do you want >> Yeah, I can just do that then. That's probably faster. One second. Get rid of the crisis here. as big as it's gonna get. Okay. So, um in terms of of goals for us then the the other big goal which is really nice for us is the new strategic plan. So, uh what we have then is goal one for finance and facilities. So, it's responsibly use financial resources to provide a safe and innovative environment. So that's a great these two principles are great guiding um uh points for us when it comes to the budget. The next part then is
063to just provide a recap. It's a brief. We haven't received the audit yet. So John Michael Elesco at Gazen Smith are still working on the audit. We should be getting that next month. So these are preliminary fiscal results and you can see in terms of our funds down the lefth hand side and where we ended up for u fund balance then along that far right column I also just wanted to provide just a comparison of budget to actuals and so we talked a little bit about this at finance and facility committee meeting. So in terms of variance, I think it's a nice point just to highlight where is the variance and what were things that were different compared to the budget we passed uh the amended budget we passed compared to where the actuals came
064in at. So we did see a bit of a discrepancy with real estate taxes and that's mainly because there's a large portion that still is due to the district for fund 10. Um and so that's going to be um coming over as well as CPPRT the corporate personal property replacement tax was less than we had budgeted for. So those two pieces impacted fund 10 uh 20 and 40. So that was s sort of the uh challenge there. Other variances then in the positive for interest earnings also then in line with exception uh with expectations rather was just evidence-based funding because we know yearbyear pretty much where we're at. And I have a slide for that. Uh we are seeing some timing of receipts for other state sources and then federal grants as well. And then
065there was a fairly sizable portion that came in from sale of equipment donations um private grant or the state improvement grant and then site impact fees. So the builders that we have in town, there was a sizable portion of that. The rest of that really was made up of the transfer that we did uh for the capital projects fund. All right. Um, and then for expenses, I got to make this a little bigger. My eyes can't quite see that. Um, so in terms of where we're at for salaries, uh, budget efficiencies really drove a lot of the the benefit there for for the district that we saw for last year. And so that was a positive flow through for us that we're seeing um the benefit for FY26 as well. So you can see actual
066versus uh what the budget was. So we I budgeted 19.5, we came in at 18.5 with um some of those efficiencies for benefits. Um we were in line with um expectations there. Purchase services. You know, that's one of the challenges when it comes to student needs that we never really know at the beginning of the year where things will play out, but you can see we were um a delta there for purchase services, supplies, materials. Um not surprising. We're very good with being accurate when it comes to supplies, materials. Pretty spot on there. Um timing of receipts. So for some capital outlay, timing that is also uh funds from um from taxes. The um other two components then were fairly in line with expectations. So tuition and then non- capital equipment. So you can see
067from the budget of 35.8, we came in at 34.5 um for actuals. And again, the actuals haven't gone through the audit yet. So, we're still waiting on on final final numbers probably next month from Gaz Instrument. The I I love the just the historical perspective of what CPI does for us and paints a picture. Um obviously, we can go all the way back to 1995 to see this this comparison, but really the last four years tell us a lot. So from 24 25 uh when we saw 5% maxed um capping out on what we could obtain for um for revenue growth to where we were uh for fiscal year 26 coming up and the funds we're looking at there a little over 3% to what's uh forecasted now for 27 funds for next year uh
068under 3%. So CPI is really that that component of what we talk about for new revenue. So as I as I was talking about earlier during finance and facility when we know we're looking potentially at surplus for next year for this year we can kind of look at what will be that new money for next year. So when we talk about what new money does the district have if we can't make savings from our expenses we have new new revenue that comes in from um CPI. I've talked a bit about CPPRT. Um, it's a mouthful, but you can see back in 22, really from 21 to 22, what the state, the department of revenue did. So, in 21, we were a little over 600,000 that we received. 22 um over 1.4. That was a massive
069influx of funds. At the same time, we were getting esser funds. Um, and then in 23, they even upped that again. Now you read the note down below and you know department of revenue then acknowledged the miscalculation and said uh now we're making cuts for that for those funds and so now we saw the 34% drop in FY24 33% drop in FY25 and we think we'll be fairly steady for um for FY26. We've seen the final numbers come in. So last month when I gave the um tenative budget, we didn't have the final numbers from CPPRT. So that's why there's some adjustments as well. Um as I've said, the budget is a living document. The budget will live and grow with us for the year. There's there's nothing that's finalized in it even though we
070approve it hopefully tonight. There this is still a living document. We're still living through last year. We're living through this year and we're building for next year. So that's sort of the relationship that we have to the budget. Um, evidence-based funding. I don't think I've ever presented this view of just sort of what do we have for money when it comes to new funding. Um, because evidence-based funding is that state initiative where it was to level set school districts uh, school districts throughout the state. So, you can see in terms of what we've seen for for new evidence-based funding dollars. So this column that says statewide that the state has been giving EBF as a whole that pocket that that big bucket of money the state has been putting in that much money every year
071a little bit of an uptick in 1920 but flat since EBF so the evidence-based funding allocation just for district uh 92 um you can see what we're receiving fairly steady there for us so I've been ballparking that same 1.4 for and change for us and that's been steady money that we received. But then when you see the new EBF dollars, $1,280 for us for for new money. So that's a challenge. So when it comes to life getting more expensive for us having to pay more for supplies, materials, purchase services, equipment, um labor that we have to have done, um the plumbing issue we face at Lugweight, all of those things, that's new dollars that we're spending when from the evidence-based funding model, we're not seeing a ton of new new money there. So our growth
072truly comes down to CPI. All right. So for this year, what am I looking at? So I looked at how do we gauge the salary expenses that are going to be going in. So we are thank goodness beyond the time of hourly rates going up. So we we we've um that's been sunseted for our hourly staff members, but we know we're in bargaining this year. So there will be um changes with the collective bargaining agreement. Um I already highlighted the employee benefits concern that I have for health insurance. So we're right now right now looking at a 10% increase, but we know the is much higher potentially for FY27 and and that is that is a serious concern for us at this point in time. Um we've seen increase in technology. We know that the
073COPS grant and the work that we're doing on security is super important and we intend to continue doing that, but we know there's a price tag to to the to that initiative. And then ultimately we're going to need capital um capital funding to continue the facility work that we're doing. So these are the really initiatives that we have this year that it's really going to take a whole team to make sure that we're hitting these things. All right, the timeline for us, we we hit August 12th, August 13th. That was a lot of the tenative budget tonight. You can see all the things that are happening with um with hopefully you obviously the public hearing and then um the deadlines and timelines to file the the um the budget and do all the things that
074we need to do and also the stuff behind the scenes that has to get done. I did highlight for for you just some of the changes um from the tenative budget that I showed last month to this month's proposed budget. So that I've been um strategic in and how I've named it because it is just a proposed budget for you tonight. Um so hopefully we'll get an approved budget and so on the on our website it would hopefully become approved but there were some changes from expenditures. So the tenative budget had the wrong um expenditures. It had carried over FY25 instead of the up updating the FY26 numbers, made some adjustments for special ed transportation costs, O& and M, some state uh and federal grant carryovers that we're looking at and then ultimately like I
075said, the health insurance benefit increases as well. So, these are some of the changes from last month to this month. So, again, it's it's a living document. Um, so FY26 budget comparison. So where are we at from the unodudited numbers of 25 for revenue? So I'm looking at the these um two columns for revenue numbers. So uh ending FY25 June 30 starting FY26 um July 1st and you can see basically there is a slight uptick there um from from the revenues. So we're looking at from last year 37.1 to this year 37.7 for revenues expenditures you can see last year at 35.8 this year estimated for expenditures of 37 uh1. So that's why that surplus that we talked about on the um on the ISB budget form is so is so it's closer that way.
076So uh we'll get to that. So what are the things we think about with the budget? So, you know, Dr. Frankovich has already talked about enrollment. I talked about enrollment earlier tonight at facility and finance. Um, obviously enrollment impacts every aspect of what we do. We're here for kids. We're here to make sure that our programming um and staffing um meets not only our strategic plan, but what's in in the best interest of students. And so, it really takes everyone's effort to do that. Um, wanted to provide a little bit of a snapshot. And again, I know it's a little challenging to see. It's better online, but you can see from the standpoint of our enrollment breakdown of where things have changed for us over the last 10 years. So, this is just a Will
077County School District 92 snapshot. It's our data looking at uh 2015 to last year. And you can see the gray bars represent student enrollment. And we've gone down over 200 students in that last in that 10-year cycle. Ups and downs obviously, but yet still the threshold we're at now is is a a smaller number than where we were 10 years ago. The other item to note to recognize is just that um is the low income number. So that is a number that's on the increase. And so we've seen that number go up over 30%. Which has an impact on us as well. So these are important enrollment figures for us just to to be aware of and evaluate. All right. Now, oh jeez. Hello. Hold on. Let's try that again. Okay. So now I'm gonna
078present a different view. And so this for those watching on online um looking at a peer group that's a little bit different for us and that is Will County elementary school districts. So we have different ways of sort of looking at peer groups because peer groups are great information for us. It's it's a point in time. So it's it's you take it with a grain of salt, but yet you can still sort of look at like school districts that are that are around us in Will County. So elementary districts only. I didn't tie in high school districts. The difference here is that like we could look at a peer group as though they were the same EAV, the same low income, same enrollment. That's not this group. This group is geographically close to us, but
079yet still paints a picture, I would say, of where we fit into this. Now you can see of the bulk of Will County elementary school districts outside of four of them or three of them rather um enrollments are going down. And so that's what this if you just take anything our our blue arrow represents where we are. You can see that um we are not unique in that situation of of enrollment dropping. Our demographer told said that to us, you know, several years ago, which was you're going to see a slight decrease because families are starting later and families are smaller than they were, you know, 20 years ago. So, we're having less kids. We're starting later with those families. And four or five years ago, we were already at that point talking about houses
080not selling, people weren't leaving homes because there was nowhere to go. We're still facing that. So, you know, we're still suffering from some of those same um challenges with enrollment numbers, but I just thought it was it was a nice visual to see how do we fit in compared to other districts in Will County. All right, financial. So, again, I'm taking the same sort of lens. Where do we fit in when it comes to our funds and where we where we actually spend our money? Um this shows you um our funds. So everything from the ed fund on and m capital transportation debt service. So um as well as you know capital and so you can see for us there were uh the blue section represents large capital projects that we've done. So when we
081sold bonds back in 15 you can see the work that we did for three years based off of that in 20 uh two 20 and 23 24 you can see the work that we did as well. So this is just again just a a picture of us and the fund balance numbers and where where our spending goes. But again staying on that same sort of theme, where do we fit in with other school districts within Will County? Well, there is an outlier. So you again the thing with averages are kind of fun. So um good and bad. So we would almost want to take the outliers out of this because in this picture Joliet's throwing everybody out out of whack there. Um, and you could say the same thing about um, you know, the districts
082on the lower end. Either way, it doesn't necessarily matter. This again is an average for us of where we fit in with within Will within Will County and for our peers when it comes to um, expenses by fund. And so again, you can see numbers and, you know, the the dollars along the left hand side and where we fit in. you know, you can and it's interesting with data because you can jump at, you know, obviously Joliet with their um transportation cost, but you know, other districts that had larger expenses when it came to capital um and where we fit in. Um obviously some districts larger debt service and that's kind of what that tells me with that red section. So several district districts jump out at me for what are they spending on debt
083service, you know, paying paying off debt, things like that. So again, just a a nice visual. Um, now getting into a little bit more meat. So, we've talked a lot at this table about operating expenditures. So, operating expenditures are what it costs us to educate a student. And so, you can see for us over the last 10 years, our operating expend expenditures have gone up to educate students. So, if I just move in here a bit more, you can see we were at 14,000 uh 10 years ago to where we were most recently at 226. Um, so that means it's costing us $22,600 for every student that we're educating. Um, and we haven't again seen the new number yet from the audit. Um, and my hope is that with efficiencies that we've had, we will
084see that number come down. And that's obviously been the goal of the board through attrition to um to reduce costs. And so we're still we're still uh working towards that. Now if you take that same you know again the same theme operating expenditures versus peers. So how do we fit in because again there's there's been a lot of um question about that of how how are we doing compared to our our counterparts. So this is a different group here. So you can see in terms of groups on the high end, those districts that outpace us, there are four districts that outpace us and we are above the average out of those Will County elementary school districts. So that's again information that that that's that's what that's telling us at this point. So like to like
085districts, we are o over that average. But then I kind of took I I had a thought about how do we compare this historically the same group that same Will County Elementary School District group from uh in this case 2015 and where were where were we at at that point in time compared to last year and where were we at? And it's rather interesting that you can see from 10 years ago, if you scroll into this, you can see that we were over that average 10 years ago by several thousand dollars compared to where we are now. Uh instead at that, you know, 10 years ago, there were only two districts that were had higher OEPS than us. And now there are four districts that are a little bit higher than us. We're still above
086the average. And I know there's still work to be done for um cost savings and and pulling back and right sizing after COVID, but this kind of says where we were 10 years ago is very similar to where we are today. Um the other key takeaway from this is if you look at Will County, every district is pretty much following that same path of you know 10 years ago where they were spending compared to where they're spending now. So there are naturally halves and have nots unfortunately in the system of of public education. EBF helps out a lot of that, but a lot of it comes down to just local property wealth unfortunately. All right. So I I thought that was interesting information just historically. Now our personnel cost. So this is another big driver
087for us is um obviously where were where were we on salary and benefits 10 years ago to compared to today? And we've seen we've we've seen that uptick. And if you look at sort of the key um year of 21, I'll highlight that in a moment. Um and we'll come back to that. This slide, it's challenging as as I'll get out to kind of make sense of it. But I I put a star next to our line just so you can see two things really on this. first off is what is the percent of operating expenditures going to these different um objects on the left hand side and then the actual dollar per student. And again, you can see this is a little bit of a different view because now you're looking at all of
088these um different objects. You can see that there are more schools, more districts rather that are are spending more than we are. um and when you tack in all of those other objects that way. Obviously, another um piece that we always look at is our fund balance. Where do we fit in with fund balance? Looking at all of our funds, again, the same thing with ED on and M debt service, transportation, those funds, you can see that over time we, you know, have had uh peaks which were related mainly to capital expenditures. Um and so that goes back to 1516. You can see that that uptick there as well as what we did back um in uh 2122 when we sold bonds again. Um we've come back down and the next slide then highlights how
089do we fit in at our at our fund balance compared to all other Will County elementary schools. And I thought this was rather interesting because I I know it's super super challenging and small to see this, but if I scroll in, we're at 70%. So remember, I I know we have board policy um that that highlights where we're supposed to be at. We're a little bit above that, but if you notice where all the other school districts are in Will County, we're right in line with the majority of them. There are outliers like there always will be, but this this is a uh an interesting chart showing where all school districts are in Will County for 2024. All right. Next point to highlight kind of getting into the levy. So I I know everyone's excited
090for a couple months from now when we get into the levy, but so uh it's a thrilling time. So, we get to talk about our tax rate and um so this is his a historical view of our tax rate over time. I I thought that was rather interesting, but again, I was kind of drawn by this peer group and this was the one that really jumped out at me. So, this is our tax rate compared to all other um Will County peers and where we fit in. So, that arrow highlights where we're at on that list. So, if you um you scroll in at about a three 3.126. So, um, interesting data again when it comes to where are we at and how are we fitting in with with our peers. EAV, so the equalized
091assessed value of Will County um has gone up over over those last 10 years. This is just a picture of how our EAV has gone over over the last 10 years. So, great for Will County that, you know, in terms of a county, you know, It's improving that way. How has um how has EAV per our uh peers uh changed? Um so here's 2024 where we fall. Um so again just a a nice image a nice visual for us with EAB and then wanted to talk personnel. So the other big part of our budget obviously a large portion of our budget between salaries and benefits comes down to personnel. So I I looked at full-time equivalent. So FTE change versus enrollment change and then also looking at FTE count, studentto staff ratio, and then average
092salary um for our staff. So this took just this this year's snapshot of our of our um salary schedule and again presented us along with all all of our peers in Will County. We're on the far end here with the arrow. Again, averages I I take with a grain of salt, but you can look at that a couple different ways. Obviously, there are some outlier districts that have perhaps salary schedules that go up more quickly than ours, have a higher ceiling than ours, but there are a lot of district, and that's only three. There are a lot of districts that are with us and some that are below where we're at. So, um I always like I I would always prefer to be in the middle of the pack where we're not um obviously underpaying.
093We have to be responsible stewards of our finances. So, we wouldn't want to overpay. On the next slide, I think you'll see kind of the impact that we have of our staffing levels. And so, there's a direct correlation to our operating operating expenditures per pupil to our staffing levels. So this slide shows where we were at for um staffing. So that blue line and then our enrollment trend is that orange line um highlighting you know the middle of the road there. And I I I the uh school year 2020 was COVID and so that one year I didn't have data for um in the system. It was very common for a lot of different sites to have problems during CO. Uh this was one of those data points that we didn't have, but you can
094still see the trajectory both in 2019 and then again in 2022. You can see that we went up. Um we know that during COVID we hired about 14 FTEEs to handle the the balance of remote instruction, distance learning, um all the challenges that we were facing with social distancing, all of those things. You can see that we've come down and we've tried to rightsize but there's still quite a large gap there between our staffing levels and then where our enrollment is. So still a lot of work to do but we are moving in the in a better direction I would say from the COVID time which was again the board's direction three years ago and and so I think the effort that's been made over the last year is is quite dramatic. This then takes
095position control analysis into into consideration. So, um I just put one star so you can see where we're at that orange line. Uh looking at FTE compared then to our peer group, we are at average for FTE. So full-time equivalent staff student for FTE, we're below the average. Again, I showed that on the previous slide because again, we've got more staff. Um we're adding staff when we're losing enrollment. So that this uh number there shows that we're below the average for um Will County. Obviously there are some uh districts that are are well above that average. And then um the average salary, so us compared to Will County, you can see that we're above the average. So um and great information I think for last year uh where we were at and sort of the
096takeaway on that point. That that's really it for the PowerPoint presentation. Um, I wanted to answer a lot of the questions that we had. Uh, before getting into the budget itself, I will highlight that um, the ISBY budget form does need to be signed tonight whether you approve it or not. Um, and all the information that I have identified from the tenative budget. I've communicated either through um one-on-one or at least through the PowerPoint hopefully tonight >> to identify why there were changes and variances in that regard. >> Um >> yeah. >> Yes. >> The form right I have it here that we all have to sign >> correct >> before we leave. >> We have to do not leave before you sign. One or the other. Yes. >> Sorry. What is the what are
097the consequences of not passing a budget? Um, great question. Um, I would think because we have statuto deadline that it has to be filed as 30 days. Um, we have limitations. So, we would have to call the board meeting or how many we would need to do to get resolution. But legally we have >> required by >> and then I >> other questions about the budget and where we're at. >> I have a few page five >> of which one of the presentation. >> Okay. in anybody's way. So I know >> Okay. >> So in there maybe for next year. Yeah. Um I'm looking at some of these where in line with expectation >> I mean for some of them they're kind of rather large differences. So maybe next year maybe get a little more
098detail. I mean >> um like the one for supplies and materials it's 14% difference >> and then like the tuition and other it's about you know just under 14% difference right >> just on those maybe a little more detail next time I >> I would urge that's a great point and I I would be happy to share some other detail I I would urge um Jim is fantastic with contacting me about bills and so all bills are in board book uh special ed in particular we we get tuition updates monthly and I'd be happy to dive through that I mean, it would be helpful. It's >> not so much what the bills are, but why, you know, we budgeted one amount and we're 10%. >> Well, I guess what I was trying to say was
099um there are things that are out of our control. And so for like purchase services, unfortunately, tuition is one of those things that's out of our control. I hear you completely like for a supply and material budget line item. Yeah, it' be great to be locked on. Um this was probably money that in terms of we didn't need certain things. And so I think because we have a lot of new staff, new administrators, we're still, you know, tweaking the budget to figure out, Barb and I have had numerous talks, Nor and I have had as well during the budget time. And I tell you, one year to to the next, it's like, hey, you know, Gina, what do you need next year? And we talk about it, we have a meeting, and all of a
100sudden it's like, well, everything's changed, you know, and so when we get new people, there's always going to be that risk, I guess. But it's it's a legitimate point. Jeeoff, I would love to be to the penny on these items. It's awfully challenging, but it's it's a great direction. I think it's it's great information that I think we can take and continue to try to streamline this and make it as accurate as we can. >> Next question on page 12 where you have the fiscal year 2026 budget comparison. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So those two columns for the budget year 2026 are different than the ISBY budget lines. Okay, I we're going off the ISBY form right now. So it it might have been a data entry. I will double check, but the act the
101accurate form we're using at this point in time is the ISBY form. So it's possible I brought in the proposed or the uh tenative budget numbers. I'll double check that. Okay. But e either way, just so you know, the PowerPoint for you guys tonight and for the community is not the final. This is a presentation for us to have talking points to. I'll go back though. I will provide an answer to why there's a discrepancy there. But our our accurate number that comes out of our finance system is the ISBY um for Yes. Yeah. So, apologies about that. We'll twe we'll clean that up. >> Next on page 23. cost broken down by object versus >> sure. >> Yeah. >> So when you look at that, what exactly is that telling us? >> Okay. So
102it's a visual. It's it's it's rather difficult to discern much from this because it's showing you the percentages um on the left, which is ends up just being a visual for us. So it's telling us how do we compare for for instance um if you look at salaries so that brownish color you can see how as a as a size goes you could sort of see the percentages on the bottom but you're going to have to be doing a lot of like small math there to figure that out. So that's it was just a visual. It's it's not something that you can discern very much from because even the employee benefits I look at that and say okay I can see that pink portion that jumps out at me. Where do we uh compare to
103maybe Homer? Where do we compare to Frankfurt? There are other districts there that we compare to. It's just nice to see where we compare, but you're not necessarily going to be able to discern very much from that slide. I mean on this one right the important we don't have a big red >> our you know and our brown area our brown section is relatively smaller than >> like union or um right >> or the um >> Taft for instance. I mean there there are districts that jump out at us. So, I think one of the things I want I was trying to respond to your question, Jeff, about objects. You were looking for some object explanations. This was about as close as I could pull from the system that we have, but but are you
104looking for like a specific and actual >> Yeah, I agree with you. It's, you know, kind of hard to tell how far off you are from the rest in the various groups just and that's probably the downfall of like a stack bar, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good, good, good takeaway there. I will also say it's just the challenge of dealing with a peer group. So if everyone remembers from when we did the strategic plan, you know, that peer group was was a different peer group. And so it's it's just challenging to find. It's only going to give you so much information, I guess. But it's it's a good point. And so my interpretation of this particular one is that shows what we say often and that is the bulk of our money is spent
105on salary staff >> showing we don't have cost we're in line with everywhere else >> and if we're over anywhere >> absolutely >> and we've always said that >> right >> that's how district Um page 31. >> Okay. Yeah. What's the takeaway that we should see from this? >> So, salary schedules are a little tricky. I I would say um because some districts aren't even listed here because they don't have salary schedules. So, it's it's all the steps that exist within a contract have been identified on this on this list. So, the the finance system that we use took every step and applied it to this chart just to again show you a visual basically of how do our steps fit. If we were to take from step one up to the cap, the ceiling
106of our salary bands and say where does everybody fall on this? It's not telling you how many people fit into each. It's not giving you a dollar figure for what the cost is. We know that we're spending over $8 million on salaries for for this group that ties into regular ed teachers. But what this tells me is is I look at basically the low. Where are people coming in at? And how do we compare to other school districts? I can kind of go over along that bottom red line, the bottom red mark there of that bar and say, "All right, we're we're if I were to follow that across, I can see we're close to 50,000." It's nice to know who's above us, who's below us in that regard. But each different color within that
107chart, it's not going to give you a lot of information. So, so if we just look at say the very left top bar, >> so the bottom of the graph, that's what they're >> that's entry point. >> That's their entry point >> and then the top is their top salary. >> yes. So they don't have a they don't have a salary schedule. >> They don't some have been um tried that and have negotiated out the salary schedule and come up with alternative methods of increases. >> Yeah. >> With respect to color MA. >> Yeah. So can you take these colors and interpret where we would have you know >> I could do another chart. Yeah I >> Or is this like each one is just arbitrarily given different >> just arbitrary. So there was another
108way I could project this but it was even worse than this. So I thought no I'm not going to do that to you guys tonight. Um but there are some other data points where it will show like basically where do all our people fall on a chart and a graph. Basically we call that in in bargaining scatteragramgrams. And so we do that's what we'll do during the bargaining process is is show a scatteragramgram of where do all of our people fall on our salary band and schedule because that's good information. Do we have a lot of people BA, you know, 10, MA, you know, where where do we fit basically is is and that's called the scatteragramgram that we'll do for in a couple months. >> Yeah. Not not that it helps the budget, but
109it would >> that actually makes more sense when you're comparing this district to that and you say, "Okay, well, >> yeah, >> you know, this district has more higher percentage of of staff in this top >> because if you were to look at numbers in each of these bands, you know, longevity matters and and you know, we have we are a district with a lot of longity. And so that's going to show differently if you were to look at actual numbers of people, how many FTE are in each of these columns. Yeah, that would also give information as well. But that's where the scatteragramgram comes in. Anything else, Jeff? >> Is there anything you're going to present on the ISD budget? >> No, not anything more than what I've done through the um through the
110finance and facility. I will highlight though just the the page that is the critical page for us which is um Matt highlighted it which is that the first page we sign. Um and then I will point out a couple things just so we are all looking at the same thing. So this is a a format um that we file with is so on this first page that's being projected up there you can see that we have um we have to uh take action. It's voting members that say yes, members that say no, and then we submit. There's quite a bit of verbiage that's required for stool code. Um, it's broken down by budget summary, which is data that was represented in the in the PowerPoint. And then really the the the key for us, and
111I think I highlighted this during the um the earlier meeting was where do we fall when it comes to the um the budget summary. So for school districts, obviously running a balanced budget is critical that goes along with our strategic plan that goes along with um our board policy. So in this in this model that we have right now in front of you, it's a balanced budget. There's no deficit reduction plan required, meaning that we're bringing in more than we're spending. And this model shows that we have a surplus in the operating funds of $590,000 at the end of the year. So with that, I' I'd be happy to answer any of the questions about the ISSB form. >> So for our revenue, we're pretty confident in the revenue numbers that whether it's the federal
112or state fund that we're pretty confident those are going to be coming throughout the year. >> For FY26, everything that we are hearing is title funding is is solid. Um I'm extremely concerned about transportation. We um the board made a decision to share some costs with parents for field trips when we were with first student several years ago. We are maintaining that because of some of my concerns about the costs that we're seeing with Grand Prairie. So I I would like to say Jeff 100% that the revenue is solid, but I don't feel like that 100%. Because there's a lot of things that are in flux with reimbursements. The other thing that's in flux is interest earnings. I would like to say that we're savvy investors and we're doing our best to have return uh
113that you know that we saw for instance like last year but we know with the potential of of future rate cuts and where where the um where the Federal Reserve might go we might see perhaps less of that interest earnings. I've been conservative with that approach just because I don't like to overpromise. Um, I think most of those numbers, the one that I was surprised about that I mentioned earlier was that we uh didn't receive all of our uh real estate taxes and that there was um there was still some that were to get in FY26. So, that's that's a a surprise. We normally don't have that happen. So, that was a little surprising. So, we'll monitor that uh closely. So, I I get a report the minute we get that money in Fris uh
114which is the the finance system through ISBY. So, ISBY gets the money and then they tell us that we got the money. Um, so we'll be we'll be watching that closely. But no, I I think for the board to know that some of the revenue is questionable and I I think I'm, you know, cautiously optimistic that the year will be on target, but I I think there could be potential uh challenges for us as as we proceed into FY27. I think FY27 could be um a year where federal funding could actually be cut drastically. And that that's been the the word we've heard is that you could see a reduction of up to 50% potentially for federal funding. >> It's over a million. So just for special ed. So um that would be sizable million
1151.4 I think. And then with the challenges we've already seen with transportation that's another concern. So al already seeing funding drops there. CPPRT is still another one that's an outlier that 600,000 we hope to get or the 700,000 but I still think there's some some concern with that as well. So the the st the the base we have is DBF and our property taxes. Um that's our base. That's what we can count on. So you know we want to be very careful about living within our means and doing what we can to manage. That's why we bid out transportation like we did two years ago. That's why we're looking some other work that we've got, contract work. Um, we will always evaluate that, but there are limitations that we have when it comes to some
116of our programming though. >> Is that 1.4 all title? >> No, that that's IDA. >> Yeah. And then so for title one, two, and four. I mean, we were we were told at the beginning of the summer that we weren't going to be getting two, and then suddenly we're getting it. Um, we didn't didn't think we were going to get title one, and we ended up getting more than we thought we were going to get last year. So, it's really it it's up in the air. So, we don't see as much from the title one, two, and four, though. >> Yeah. >> And the expenses, so we're budgeting about 50,000 more in expenses than we did last year. >> Um, yeah. So, in terms of some rough estimates, we know what the CBA says for
117um salary increases for this year. So a lot of expenses obviously are are salaries and the other thing is that 10% increase for benefits. So we know that there are some things that we target for. Uh we also know that the um contract with Grand Prairie was set but otherwise I held pretty much flat pretty not flat. We we we weren't doing a zerobased budget with our with our um budget directors but it was pretty much looking at what did you have last year? were maintaining that uh as long as it could be justified, but we weren't really making drastic increases. I will say a building like this age, we're seeing more and more upkeep. The pipe is a great example of that where out of the blue, we weren't expecting to have the smells
118we had or potentially have to shut this school down as an emergency day on Friday. We didn't know if we were going to be facing that. Frankie's here on Friday on Thursday night. I'm here. Gary and Jim are here Thursday night trying to figure this out. they're down in the hole trying to figure out how bad it is. Um those are things you can't necessarily obviously we have PM preventive maintenance and we do our best to make sure that we're staying up on what has to be done but we've had freezers go out in our kitchens. We've had a water heater we just had to replace at Oak Prairie that just supplies hot water to the kitchen. No joke 10 years ago it would have cost us5,000 maybe $7,000 to to buy. We just spent
119$20,000 on it. Now, that's one water heater. And get this, the warranty is three years. >> So, um, can we make life out of our our equipment? Heck yes. We are very resourceful and our guys do a heck of a job keeping things alive and keeping, you know, squeezing as much life out of it as we can >> and I think we do a great job of that. But I am worried about, you know, age of our buildings. I'm worried about what we're going to be facing with when we actually, you know, start thinking about the the parking lot here. I think we don't know the underground. >> Um, I've shared a little bit about what we know we have under the the floors and the crawl spaces we have and the challenges that we're
120going to be facing there, but there's a lot of unknowns that we don't know at this point in time. We know the roof at Oak Prairie is on borrowed time and again, we're squeezing life out of it, but there are needs there. And so we we know we have capital needs and and we're we're going to try to keep it all going, but as you can see from just my variances, there are so many things that could eb and flow between and it's it sounds like big dollars. I get it, but a couple hundred thousand here, a couple hundred thousand there, that sounds big, but when you're dealing with the $35 million budget, those things have to be taken into consideration, you know, and so we will continue to do our best. And if you
121have needs and if you have things that you want to see from the budget, hands down, I want to hear about it. I will also say talking about budget, um, thank you for bringing up the attendance incentive. So, I think that was my mistake because I went back and looked at the motion. The motion only said, uh, I made a recommendation to approve it. I didn't go back and see in the memo that it said 2425. In the minutes, I see that it said we were approving it. So, I was going off of that. So, if the board I think I'd be I'd feel better if I held that bill tonight. I could bring back an action item if the board so approves for next meeting. Um, we just have the one we have the
122August incentive. So, if the board feels like it'd be best to have you guys have a choice in continuing this program of the attendance incentive, I I'd happily pull that bill and we can we can sit on that until next month. So, thank you for saying something. I thought we had it. I I I had thought it was a grand prairie timeline that we had locked it in with with their contract. So oversight >> about any expenses. So at least for this budget, there was no programs that we cut or told someone that we can't do that because we don't have the funds. Correct. >> No. No. And the only thing the board has directed and that we followed is uh staffing levels and that's through attrition. Attrition. So that means when someone leaves we
123have thought long and hard done the analysis looked at class size looked at custodial numbers we've looked at para numbers we've done everything to say is that a is that a required position for us we've really tightened the belt on those things >> with the the current budget you're projecting a surplus 900 some thousand >> so next question how come you weren't proud that you budgeted a tax cut. >> Well, that's just the the winning message there. So, you guys can go back and tell all of your friends, hey guys, we're we're winning here. >> Unless there's another message you want me to send. >> I just thought it would be something, you know, for the fiscal part of it. Someone would mention that you budgeted in the tax >> and came in. Yeah. Came
124under that. >> No, I mean in the budget you're budgeting so the levy will be lower, >> right? in December that prior. >> Well, that's because our our operating extensures are coming down and that's because we're good stewards of of your finances and that's that's our goal. I So, I I guess I it wasn't something that I felt like needed to be cheerleaded. I thought that was just sort of what my job is. So, um I think that's what we're here to do. >> Totally. [Laughter] at any given time. >> That's a good point. >> I appreciate your PowerPoint. >> Thank you. >> I like the visual person, so it was it was nice to see the colors in the graph. >> Yes, I do feel like that, too. So, >> yeah, it's easier. >>
125Thank you for that. I I do think um to the point of the tax rate as well, that does help us and leads us into the levy. So, as I've talked numerous times, you know, these are all connected. So, our long range um facility planning, our budget, the levy, staffing levels, all of these are intertwined. So, that's why it's it's hard to kind of like pull them apart. So, they're all connected. But, uh it was a great call out. Thanks. >> All right. Um We were We have a first and second on the budget. Any uh roll call, please? >> Yes. Motion approved. Motion carried. Um I need a motion to approve the inter intergovernmental agreement with Blackport Police Department, >> Washington. Dokey. All right. So, tonight you'll see the reciprocal reporting agreement with the
126Lockport Police Department. This um helps just establish our partnership with them and allows us to be able to make sure if we need them that they're able to access our camera systems, be able to see the things that we need. So, I'm excited to bring that tonight and recommend the board approves it. >> Question. >> Roll call. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Motion carries. I need a motion to approve the board policy. Uh the second reading of the current set of board >> Washington. >> Correct. >> All right. So, no changes from last month's meeting. If you recall, everything was a revision except for our new mission statement. So, that was the re revised um statement that we made. So, I'm excited to officially have your stamp of approval um hopefully tonight
127to be able to get that new mission statement on the books. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. Motion carries. All right. Discussion items. Delegate assembly for the triple eye conference. >> How you doing, Jim? [Laughter] I I'm I'm kind of excited. Um I could be wrong, but I read the uh I read the delegates uh positions this year. I've never seen a single line item for that document. Usually there's anywhere from 8 to 20. Um but uh revised position statements. again updating language, you know, so you know, it's pretty exciting that they're uh they're looking at things, especially uh they took to heart last year, the last couple years actually. Um the this conference is is a really big deal. um especially for for the folks downstate and a lot of them
128can't budget to do this. So um there is serious discussion about uh opening up the assembly to some form of u whether it's uh email voting or or some type of >> uh potentially I would assume like a zoom type application where you know you can get more of the people that can't get up here. Um, but that that was something that I was excited to see that, you know, gets gets the participation they want for for those people that really can't travel. So, >> yeah, I'm in. And uh >> as I said before, I think uh you know in the in the coming years um depending on you know capacity of the room, you know, we bring in another board member just to observe so that there'll be a transition it'll you know be
129pretty straightforward that way. >> He's looking straight at me. It's it's actually again it's it's really interesting because you know it's your opportunity to see you know establish policy at a state level and get it in front of the legislation. >> No, >> you're a people person. You lobby. Come on. >> No. >> All right. >> Appreciate we do. >> All right. Um Regional Office of Regional Office of Will County School Mutual aid agreement. >> Yes. So, this is something that came um from the regional office of Will County, which sometimes it's confused with us. Will County 92. Uh we get some of their phone calls. Diana does a great job. >> Um but one of the things that they talked about was a mutual aid agreement. I'm excited that they're bringing this discussion to
130the table. Um, in the event that we were to have a water main break or, you know, a pipe situation that's larger than we're able and we need to shut schools down or transport people, we have currently an intergovernmental agreement with most of the local lockport. So, with the high school, um, with 91, with 33C, so we're able to combine with them, but this opens us up for those that will join on this. So currently this is just a discussion item. We did have um the board's attorney look at the agreement and there were a couple language changes that we wanted. So we have sent that back to uh Will County. They are looking at it as well and have um said they'll be in touch with you know accepting those changes or what language
131they're thinking. But the hope is that by the end of this school year multiple districts would join and that just helps us pull resources to be able to support each other. things as simple as busing or translators that other districts might need. So, being able to pull resources all to make sure that we're able to keep staff and students safe. So, I'm I'm excited to see where we go. >> All right. Um, will we have to approve that? >> We will. I don't have it yet. Once I have it, bring it back. Yep. So, it may even not be next month. >> It may not be next month. >> Okay. And, uh, the district logo update. >> So, this was exciting. So, our communication team um presented uh some logos for us that they had
132put in. Their goal was to bring it with the strategic plan. When they beautified that, they had some scheduling conflicts. So, we're getting the new logos now. So, I have put them in the packet and they should be also available to the public so that they can see. We have asked for a style guide. >> I had never heard of a style guide. So >> there's a specific number to this blue >> that >> we had this conversation >> because the ACE has a very specific guide you know >> we are all learners this year I'm learning I did not know about a style guide um so they are our communications team is working on our exact style guide we had also asked them if they could just maybe pop if you look at the
133logo the D92 will county school district so if they could pop that we thought that might be easier to embroider um on sweatshirts or logos polos or things like that. So, their team is working on that. So, I'm excited once we have that style guide. I'll I'll bring that back. But, I just wanted to be able to put that out and share. It was It was pretty exciting when they delivered it. I was like, "Oh, that's cool." >> So, yeah, looks good. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any There's no old business, new business. Um, I guess more of an announcement. Uh, just so everybody's aware, on Thursday at 5 o'clock, Dr. Frank and myself are meeting with the high school. Sorry, the board presidents and superintendent from US 33C Fairmont 91 >> and high school
134are meeting uh the president at the high school set the agenda. The first one um talking about curriculum alignment um you know what are we doing towards curriculum alignment? what are we doing to make transitions for eighth graders? Um just some of the things that are on the agenda. Uh it's the first meeting of that type and >> is this part of like when they came and >> so um Dr. Bron Shaw is the president at the high school sort of her initiative to just have more communication between the theater district. the first one. Um, and those are the districts that I know are attending. >> Yeah. A couple days. >> Is it at the high school? >> Yeah. Yeah. And, um, see how, you know, just sort of see how it goes and um,
135>> give us a shout. Let us know how it goes. It's going to be great. Is it an open meeting or no? Like, is it does it have to follow any of those standards or >> No, it's a meeting. >> Yeah, it'll be >> Oh, yeah. It'll be in your Friday update. >> Yeah. Got it. I had all confidence either. >> Um and and honestly as a as board president there was a time during COVID when I was communicating with 33C at least in I think 91. um as we were just trying to figure things out and so building those relationships and having that opportunity will be really I think perfect >> this is regular practice we do this >> I think it's a great idea >> right I mean we do it now with
136curriculum for sure and special ed is we transition students you know over so um It's certainly not uncommon um to to do that, but we have not been doing it. Um so it's good. Uh information items are in the in the packet as usual. I have a question on the FOYA for the request number one. Did we have any response? I don't know, but were there some? >> We didn't. >> Okay. Uh any public comment for items not on the agenda? All right. I need a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Washington. >> All those in favor signify by saying I.