001I hereby call to order this regular meeting of the board of education for Wilmet Public Schools, District 39, this Monday, May 18th, 2026. Will the clerk please call the role? Ann >> here. >> Judy Berlin >> here. >> Aaron Stone here. Kristen Dcastro >> here. >> Alison Pilis >> here. >> Amy Paling >> here. Katy Hilton >> here. >> Thank you. Principal John Baffo is here this evening to introduce members of the Wilmet Junior High 8th grade Symphonic Band to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Oh, there. >> Lovely. Well done. >> I apologize. So, good evening everyone. Uh, thank you so much for having us tonight. It's an absolute privilege to be here. Though I have to admit it's always incredibly difficult to choose and recognize just some of our students when we
002have so many exceptional young individual doing wonderful things. Still, it's a joy to celebrate these fantastic students with you tonight. You may have recently seen the faces standing before you as these multi-talented individuals were honored just a short while ago across the street during the student recognition ceremony for their outstanding achievements in other areas of school life. And if you arrived earlier tonight prior to the start of the ceremony, you had the absolute privilege, as I did, of hearing these wonderful musicians play live. So tonight, we want to shine a spotlight on their collective dedication as members of the WJHS symphonic band, echoing the wonderful accolades given by our award-winning band director, Mrs. Dufek. As Mrs. Dufac shared, it's been an extraordinary season for this ensemble. We are thrilled to celebrate and recognize the Wultt
003Junior High Symphonic Band's outstanding performance at the IGSMA state contest where they earned a perfect score. The judges highly praised their musicality, precision, and artistry, a reflection of months of hard work and collaboration. We could not be prouder of how these musicians represented our school and our community on the state stage. I'm going to hand the microphone over to the students themselves. Each band member will introduce themselves, share the instrument they play, and mention any additional recognitions they were fortunate enough to receive earlier this evening. >> Hi. Um, my name is Luke Fang. I play the bassoon. Um, and tonight I was recognized for the ILMA Allstate Junior Band. Um, National Latin Exam Gold Medalist. uh and um a D essay winner. >> Hello, my name is Maddie Newman and I play the flute. Tonight
004I was recognized for being in the symphonic band, playing in the all Illinois all Illinois junior band and writing an essay for the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest. >> Hi, my name is William Physicas. I play trumpet and I was recognized tonight for being in the founding band. >> Hello, my name is Holden Wallace. I'm part of the percussion section and tonight I was recognized for being in all Illinois junior band and being part of symphonic. >> Hello, my name is Connor Dugan. I play the euphonium bassclft and I was recognized for being in the symphonic band. >> Hi, I'm Lucas Viola. I was recognized for being symphonic band uh and for playing in the all Illinois junior band. Oh, and I play trump. Hi, I'm Sean Sun and Shine. Uh, I play
005a trumpet and tonight I was recognized for being in symphonic band, jazz band, and being a part of the all Illinois junior band. >> Hi, my name is Jackson Foley. I play the clarinet and tonight I was recognized for being in symphonic band. >> Hi, my name is Elanor Eington. I play Barry saxophone and I was recognized for being in symphonic band and OAK National Honor. >> Hi, my name is Nicholas Azpel and I play trombone. Uh, I was recognized tonight for being in uh, symphonic band. >> Um, my name is Lucas Rivera and I play clarinet and I was recognized for being in the symphonic band. >> Um, I'm Kora Rose. I play the trumpet and I was recognized for being the symphonic band. Now, please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of
006the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all very much for being here this evening. And earlier tonight when we were walking back across the street, we were talking about how much we all enjoyed the music um at the start of this evening's celebration and just brought such a great energy and positive vibe to to start off um all the celebrations. And these are just really impressive accomplishments by all of you across such a range of you know activities and areas and I think it's um really a reflection of a lot a lot of hard work. So congratulations and thank you very much and we'll meet you over here. We have a small gift for you and
007then you can meet your family in the lobby. Thank you. Thank you parents for sticking around and helping to celebrate our students with us as well. Take care. Thank you. Oops. Drop your magnet. Both of those are great. I will now turn our attention to the artwork. The McKenzie art showcase is on display in the boardroom this month. Kindergarteners learned about the line types combining first a movement of exercise of walking the lines on the art room floor and then drawing those same line types with fun crayon characters. First graders were introduced to self-portraits with anal emphasis on how artists show emotion in their artwork. They learn colors of the color wheel and mix their own paint to create their primary and secondary color fish paintings. Second grade artists continue to build on these themes
008with more detailed self self-portraits, learning feature placement, proportion, and paint mixing, illustrating their favorite books. Second graders also learned the parts of a landscape and their watercolor landscape paintings and created patterned color wheels with a writing component about how color makes them feel. The third grade art display features mixed media projects inspired by artists Giorgio Keith Wasali Kandinski and Winslow Homer using pastels, radial weaving, watercolors, and origami. Fourth graders used the McKenzie garden as their inspiration to draw flowers in various art styles and learned advanced 3D perspective drawing and shading techniques to create their Wayne Tibo inspired cake drawings using oil pastels. I now seek a motion to approve the minutes for the April 27th, 2026 Board of Education regular and executive session meetings and the February 12th, 2024 executive session meeting. I move to
009approve the minutes for the April 27th, 2026 Board of Education regular and executive session meetings and February 12th, 2024 executive session meetings. >> May I have a second? >> Second. The motion has been made and seconded. Board members, are there any comments, errors, or omissions to the minutes? All those in favor of approving the minutes as submitted, please indicate by saying yay. >> Yay. >> The motion carries. This is now an opportunity for the public to address the board on any topic. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? Okay, then we will proceed with our agenda with board reports starting with committee reports. Um, facility development. I don't believe we have anything this evening, Mrs. Dcastro. Okay, so we'll move right into school finance. Mrs. Paling. >> Yes. So,
010the school finance committee met on May 11th as part of our committee of the whole. Mr. Boltzmeer presented the draft budget which included a more in-depth look at the key revenue and expenditure items in the budget for fiscal year 27. He also discussed the ti the approval timeline including the board approving the tenative budget at the upcoming June board meeting. The board discussed the overall budget and the district's financial position. >> Thank you. And we will move to strategy committee. Miss Stone. Yes, the strategy committee also met on Monday, May 11th as part of the committee poll meeting. Two items were discussed. The first is or was the comprehensive school climate inventory or CSCI survey. The second was an update on where we're at with the formation of our new district strategic plan. Kelly Jackson
011reported that the schools as well as our joint district leadership team for culture and climate have received the results of their comprehensive school climate inventory survey conducted earlier this year. The survey replaces the five essential survey that was previously administered each spring. A review of the district-wide results as well as some of the celebrations and opportunities that have been identified by the joint leadership team were shared. The results will help to inform planning for action steps in the upcoming school year under the new strategic plan. The board discussed standardized testing and the board's result the board's role in conveying the value of district measurements of student achievement, the increase in safety measure scores, the transparency of opportunities for improvement, and the improvement of leadership and efficacy results. The second item, the district's strategic planning efforts.
012With respect to that, Dr. Dr. Kmcoli provided the board with an update regarding the district's strategic planning efforts. Survey results have been summarized and were shared with the board. The district team is prioritizing themes as the strategic plan is beginning to take shape. The district is on target to present a draft plan to the board at its June committee of the whole for review and feedback by the board and expects to present the final plan for approval at the board's June meeting. >> Excellent. Thank you. We look forward to that. And we will move on to liaison reports starting with community review committee. Mrs. Hilton. >> Yes. Dr. Kascali and I attended the May 5th meeting of the community community review committee where they finalized their presentation that they will be giving us tonight. Um
013and we thank them for their work on that. >> Great. Um next D39 Educational Foundation Mrs. Tailing and Dr. Kremcoli I believe attended. Yes, that's correct. Uh they met on May 11th at which point they reviewed and approved the proposed 2627 budget and the slate of trustees. So uh lots of introductions were made and it was really nice. They had an update about several of the grip grants that they've given out. So they shared uh pictures and stories from things. I'm not I don't think this is comprehensive, but the Yodo audio books, Pompei Living City project in 8th grade, the Tony audio player, string r instruments at HMS, which are cardboard instruments to help with singer placement, and the light up pegboard at remote. It was fun to be able to be there for that.
014Grateful for all of their work. anything to add, Dr. Kiscully? >> Uh, I just thought it was so fun. Um, and they're welcoming some new members to the board while celebrating some outgoing uh chairpeople. So, it's just the the group as a whole has really become a a very vibrant group. It it's a lot of fun always to to be with them. >> Great. So grateful for their work. Um, Illinois Association of School Boards, Mrs. Berlin. >> Um, there's no report from them. >> No report. Okay. Okay, then we will move right into legislative update. Mrs. Berlin. >> Okay. Um the there isn't really a new report on the legislative update, but I would like to or I'd like to give you an update on something that I mentioned at the last board meeting, and
015that is a Senate bill about uh the notice to remedy is what they're calling it. IASB actually feels pretty strongly about this. Um notice to remedy is not a disciplinary action. It's issued. It's a like a corrective action when when the district deems it's necessary for employees. This new bill would impose binding arbitr arbitration on school districts with no appeal possible. So they have a problem with the position which is that even to give a notice of of of remedy would require um arbitration. But also they have a problem with the fact that it would in a statutory way impose binding arbitration on something that it hasn't been before. Usually arbitration is something the parties agree to and then move forward or it could be in a collective bargaining agreement. This would be statutoily required.
016This bill has already passed the Senate. It's going before the House of Representatives and it could be called any time. So publicly I'm just saying that the has asked that um why I said that backwards. It's been passed by the Senate. No, I said it right. It's been passed by the Senate and it could be called by the House at any time. Um and so they're asking to this is like a final opportunity to reach out to our representatives for anyone who's interested to share that at the very minimum this bill needs more work. >> Great. Thank you for that update. All right, we will proceed with information items. Our first information item is written communication. Dr. Kremcoli. >> Yes, thank you. The board received written communication from Candace D regarding her children and from
017Katie Degan sharing an article on the decline of nationwide test scores since COVID celebrating Wilmet's increase in scores despite that decline and sharing a technology suggestion. >> Thank you. Um please feel free to proceed with administrative announcements. >> Excellent. Um as was mentioned earlier um tonight uh we celebrated many of our students at our first student recognition event. This event um had the we had the opportunity to celebrate achievements by many students at from both Highest and Wilmet Junior High School as well as a couple of teachers. Uh we celebrated the achievements of over 160 students in music, science, Latin, math, athletics and more. We really thank the parents, coaches, and teachers as well as board members who attended this special event and helped to honor the amazing efforts of our students. We are as
018we celebrate our students uh nearing the end of the school year. So, we are preparing for all the many celebrations and performances scheduled for the end of the school year. And we look forward to celebrating all of these special moments with our students, staff, and families. Um each of our schools enjoy special traditions at the end of the school year and we appreciate each of the PTOs and PTAs um for their support of these events. Uh thank you of course to our students and staff for all the extra efforts that they put in to make these special and memor memorable. Um it's really been a great year and we're excited to celebrate together. I know there is the outdoor concert coming up. I would encourage everyone if the weather holds out for us to join
019us for that. but many many concerts coming up as well as um some other celebrations and I'll mention just a few. The reflections celebration um is coming up later this week. In addition to celebrating our students, we're very excited to celebrate our staff with the annual end of year uh reflection celebration. Uh reflections is our annual district-wide celebration of retirees as well as those employees who have reached important milestones in their careers within district 39. So this year we have seven is it seven retirees? Eight. Seven. Seven total retirees. I was just looking over the notes again today. Thank you, Leo. Uh who will be honored along with 48 additional employees who will be celebrated for having reached important milestones within their career here in District 39. We're always really excited to celebrate um our
020colleagues and friends at this event and we're grateful um for everyone's support of this event. And then we turn our attention back to celebrating our students at the WJHS graduation which will be held this year on June 4th. Um Wilmet Junior High School students will be honored at the celebration the evening of June 4th at Newer High School. Again, it's celebrated in the new gym at Nutrier Wanetka campus. Remember that parking can be a challenge, but the venue inside is really outstanding. So, just get there a little bit early so that you can park and find your way to the seats um as you are welcomed into the venue. It's really just a a fantastic place for a graduation. We're really excited that all of our students uh can celebrate together and um be recognized
021in that way. So, in addition to our eighth graders, um they're preparing for their upcoming end ofear visit uh to Great America on Tuesday. Um and then the PTO sponsored 8th grade graduation party is hosted on May 29th. So, lots of events coming up for those students as they prepare to transition to high school. And I will just mention um in terms of FOYAS uh the Freedom of Information Act um requests that have come in and been processed by the district. Uh we received and processed one from Justin Wenig from Starbridge requesting all executed contracts, purchase agreements, and purchase orders with professional learning and development services including any exhibits, agenda or amendments that are in effect or have been in effect for the last three years. A foyer was also received and processed from Sunlight
022Access requesting any documents that um detail payments to vendors issued for goods and contract contracted professional services rendered to the Wilm District 39 from January 1st, 2022 through February 28th, 2026. Lots of work always goes into those. And then we have property tax appeal information. The district received one PTAB in the last month. An estimate of the financial impact has been prepared for the board of education should the appellets uh be successful in their appeal. >> That our reports. >> Great. Thank you very much. We will move on to annual business starting with the CRC report. Thank you. We are thrilled to again welcome members of the CRC to provide their report. I know that the board has taken the time to review the report. It's also posted online so that members of our community
023can review it in detail, but we have members from our community review committee here to present some highlights and recommendations from their year-long study. We're really very fortunate to have uh these representatives here with us this evening to present the report uh titled Supporting Educator Well-being. This report is the culmination of many, many hours of collaborative work, research, and study on this topic. Our CRC brings together parents, community members, teachers, administrators, and other support staff who contributed to this important work this year to study this chosen topic and provide the board with a report of recommendations and suggestions based on their findings. I'll say this year it's especially connected because as we have been doing our our um strategic planning work, our focus groups and our surveys, um educator well-being has really risen to the
024top as one of those areas that's important to our community. And so we're really grateful that this was the chosen topic and that um the findings will help to inform our next steps. In past years, the CRC's work has led to significant and meaningful sustained changes to the work we do here in District 39 schools, and we're so appreciative for their continued efforts and support. So, this evening, representing the CRC, I'm pleased to introduce Amy Peters, president of the CRC, and Laura Kirk Marik, Secretary of the CRC. We also want to recognize Hoy Long, um, vice president of CRC, who unfortunately was not able to attend this evening. I'd also just like to express my gratitude for every member of this really hardworking team. So, thanks for being here and I'll turn it over to
025you for your report. >> Great. Thank you. Is it okay just to hold this here? Thank you for having us. Um, my name is Amy Peters and I am um the proud mother of a fourth grader at Ramona. >> Hi, Laura Merrick. Um, I have a first grader at Central and also a threeyear-old who will be at Central in one year, four months, and three weeks change. So, um really cannot think of a better way to support our staff and um advocating for them and um just really appreciative of your time than listening and soliciting uh community feedback. So, we'll start with some thanks. Um so the last few years have been in the CRC very student centric and so we really as we were talking about topics you know saw a strong community desire
026to support teacher and staff resiliency to retain staff avoid burnout um and absenteeism and part of that research cont um part in part of that research context you know teachers ERS um report substantially higher levels of jobrelated stress compared to the general working population. Um in terms of policy implications, sustainable well-being really requires moving beyond isolated wellness programs toward integrated systemic um systemic policy. Um I do want to mention you're going to hear us kind of alternate between staff, teachers, all of that. A lot of the research we found really was about teachers specifically. Um but in our in our report in our heart you know we are thinking about all staff in the educational setting from teachers to support staff to our paraprofessionals to our custodians. So again as we alternate between that language.
027Um also as we looked through the research we realized there was no widely accepted or common definition of educator well-being. Um, so for the purposes of this report, we've developed our own definition. And while I hope not to u read slides to you all evening, I think this one is worth reading out loud. Um, for the purposes of our our studies, the CRC defined well-being as a sustainable state created by a school ecosystem that provides the autonomy, social support, and structural resources necessary for educators to foster student growth without compromising their own physical or mental health. >> Great. And so when you open our uh report, it has a detailed literature review summarizing some of the existing research from peer-reviewed articles um focusing on educator well-being. Um and as you might expect, there are uh
028lots of articles out there explaining the importance of well-being and what it correlates with. So low levels of staff well-being are correlated not only with a poor school culture and climate or a fragmented culture as it's often referred to but also tangible negative effects on classroom performance both academically and socially. Um there are also a number of reports about all the downsides of classroom management and how that starts to deteriorate over time as uh staff begin to feel um sense of burnout. On the flip side, we know that um high sense of staff well-being can have the opposite effect, higher quality of teaching, higher academic and social outcomes and things of the like. And then, you know, key to this culture and climate surveys that have gone out, our report on um sense of belonging
029last year, um is that healthier school climate and all the wonderful effects that that can have. So next I want to talk a little bit about how we can grow or enhance the sense of well-being um based not only on the peer-reviewed literature but also some of our survey results. So the number one thing you see listed here is psychological factors and a big contributor to a sense of staff's well-being is that sense of self advocacy and efficacy. What I'm doing here matters. What I'm doing here makes a difference. Um but also because uh staff take that so importantly. There's a lot in the literature about importance of boundaries. Not only mental health boundaries but boundaries on time um and all sorts of not the feelings of not being overwhelmed from an administrative standpoint as
030well. Um things that also are born out of the research and as well as our survey are administrative support, material factors and social factors. So report fleshes out those quite a bit. What factors can detract from staff well-being? Um, the first item here is something I want to pause on for a moment. A lack of autonomy. Throughout our report, you'll see a number of references to this concept that staff really like to feel this autonomy over their classroom, their workload, and their curriculum choices. When that autonomy is taken away, or staff feel that it's been taken away inadvertently or intentionally, then we start to see a decline in staff. Uh ne next item I'll flag for you here is compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a newer concept to me. It's similar but not identical to
031burnout. And what it basically comes out to is the sense that individuals who are in caretaking professions tend to take on some of the trauma or um trials or um concerns of the populations that they're serving. So for staff who are um interacting with folks that might have different issues throughout the day, we notice in the literature that there is a sense that they might have a lower sens. Um other items here like bure bureaucratic pressure, student behavioral challenges um and overwhelming workload. Those were factors that were identified again not only in the peer-reviewed research but um also in the study that I'll u that our own committee conducted which I'll talk about now. All right. Well, this uh district loves surveys and I'm happy to report that uh we had a great an overwhelming
032number of thorough thorough responses to the survey that we sent out to staff this year. Um almost 300 district 39 staff members participated in our short survey which was just five questions and it was all centered on this exact topic really teasing out what are the I factors um and things that this district can do or keep doing to enhance a staff's sense of well-being. Um the numbers here are pretty striking. over half of the individuals who responded to the survey um stress that daily plan time um is crucial to their well-being. Um other factors were open communication with admin, no surprises there, and a culture of recognition. And for those of you doing the math, yes, I know those numbers do add up to more than 100, and that's because we invited survey respondents
033to um select three out of a list of a dozen or so menu options in terms of identifying sources of well-being. Um, one last thing I'll pause on there is, um, as a part of our survey, we invited respondents to make suggestions for things they'd like to see maintained or to add to district 39 offerings. And three things rose to the top, benefits, admin, communication, and student supports. Um, so when you take a look at the report, you'll you'll just uh um see some really thorough and great answers of um staff fighting um to maintain some of the well-being supports they have in place and to advocate for themselves for new ones as well. >> All right, I'll turn back to Amy. >> Add my notes a little bit. So um the committee is offering
034a number of strategic recommendations based on the research as well as direct input from our district 39 staff. Um these the committee decided to kind of organize these recommendations into tiers. The systemic level recommendations, organizational and individual. And we'll give some examples or potential ideas under each of those categories. Um in terms of systemic level some of the things that came up um optimum size maintaining small school and class sizes to strengthen trust and organizational connection that protection of planning time that's come up already really institutionalizing blocks for collaboration um again this was reflected in the survey findings as well as in our research um that emphasis on incentives and recognition programs. I know this is something you've you've talked about this evening. This is something this district does really well and continuing that. Um
035just to really reinforce reinforce the purpose of staff work and professional autonomy. Another interesting item that came up is this idea of an evolution to a coaching model. And what we're talking about here is kind of transforming existing onboarding or members or mentorship programs that typically have a very discreet beginning and end turning that into a longer term coaching model that fosters belonging, safety, growth and support over over time among staff members. Um lastly at that systemic level is personalizing development. So really prioritizing individualized differentiated professional learning for both novice and veteran teachers and sports staff um that aligns with their prof personal goals, professional goals, inclusive practices as well as student outcomes. Um at the next level, organizational level, there are three areas we would like to look at. Um institutionalizing professional learning communities.
036again embedding time and effort into these communities to drive growth and um collective efficacy. Um thinking about those meetings, providing that meeting time um allowing perhaps to shift some of the focus from operationally focused meetings to really that collaborative professional learning time with peers. Um promoting useful peer observation. This again goes along with that evolved to coaching model. allowing for regular reciprocal cap classroom visits and debriefs to foster that culture of continuous improvement and professional learning from each other for staff. Um, and again, as we've we've brought up a few times, empowering teacher agency and autonomy. So, really supporting staff leadership by involving staff in core decision making and improvement planning. Uh lastly at the individual level that facilitation of team building and this kind of hearkens back to our our study last year with
037belonging for students. This is really belonging for for all members, belonging for staff as well. So really designing intentional opportunities for social and collaborative activities um focused on social emotional growth and just positive relationships through that community connection. Um peer recognition practices. Again, this is something the district is doing, but um you know, specific practices and surveying staff on how they like to be appreciated. Not everyone and not everyone likes to be appreciated in the same way. For some it may be very public, for some it may be something tangible. Um thinking about that and um supporting differentiated self-care. So really offering varied wellness options, you know, things like some of the the things that you might think of, you know, mindfulness, yoga, offering a a a menu of that to support stress management for
038staff. Sorry about that. Um and then lastly, um uh recommendations around accountability. How do we think about what we're doing and making sure that we implement this and and continue this moving forward? Some of the things that came out of our research are practices like establishing wellness steering committees um with really a diverse and representative body of staff um elevating well-being is a key measure of growth and I know this is something that the district has been doing but really integrating those staff um you know mental health well-being metrics into strategic planning and really formalizing this idea that educator wellness is a is a foundational driver of our students well-being and their achievement as well. Um implementation of feedback loops. So having a process for actionable channels for staff to provide feedback and share experiences
039just to improve building a district level practices to improve that to give feedback on what's working. Um conducting systematic workload audits. That's you know workload is something that that that continues to come up in the research. um evaluating things like administrative tasks, communication protocols, and um scheduling procedures to try and and streamline as much as possible some of those non-instructional stressors. Um there was also some talk and really this came out of our survey with considering ways to offer flexibility and staff time off. So just considering the idea of evaluating how personal time and sick day practices um are utilized. Are there options? Are there options such as quarter days, things like that to limit loss of instructional time and add flexibility um for staff and that monitoring of staff absenteeism um to continue to
040do that. But from a p perspective of support and communication around um those the use of those types of days that we wanted to keep it short and sweet for you. I know you've all had the report. Um we would really like to acknowledge all of the committee members that you see listed there. We would like to thank all of you that came to our meetings throughout the course of the year and really um an extra thank you to all of the district 39 staff members. Um again from all all of the walks of life that we have here in the district that participated in our survey. We really appreciate their their feedback. >> Um we open to any question. >> Thank you very much. Um board members any questions? Mrs. Dastra, >> first I
041just want to say thank you for all of your hard work. This is really great and very important topic obviously and I really appreciate all the actual recommendations. I did have one kind of more detailed question. The issue of compassionate that really with me in your research did you see anything other districts are doing to tackle that issue? If you don't think you had mentioned that They're all very Thank you guys. This is super helpful and interesting. Um, and I know it takes a ton of work. the the thing that I was sort of interested in was some of the coaching model stuff. Um, and in particular if I don't know if you could tell from the survey, but who was sort of requesting it more of the younger teachers it sounds like you said
042versus the older or both or >> was that from the survey itself or research as well? >> Was it? Yeah, I think that was more of a research, you know, directly from the literature based recommendation on a way to really support staff and and keep that going in a longer term model. >> And so would that be older staff taking a like turning a mentoring into a coaching thing and so they stick with the same group or is that how it has worked nationally or >> I think that would be like that would be kind of the ideal. >> Yeah. um to keep that going. And again, I I imagine district 39 similar to other districts kind of assigned a a mentor perhaps and that that's your person for two years and then it's like,
043okay, now now you're on your own, but finding ways to strengthen that long term or you perhaps it would be connecting with other people. You know, how how wonderful and powerful to get to learn from from multiple, you know, multiple peers throughout the district. I think the my group was flip the woman added this one to the report, but I think um the whole thought behind it is not having it just be a one year or a two-year kind of mentorship partnership, but really fostering that long-term relationship where it's really uh you're the mentor turns more into a partner over time and in a coach in essence, but um coaching, partnership, what have you. Yeah, >> could be really beneficial. >> Yeah, I it seems like a really interesting idea. >> Other board members. Yep.
044Mrs. Bailey. >> So, I'll just add to the thanks. I don't know if the broader community knows what a job this committee is. Like, you don't often sign up for a committee that has such deep thinking and homework. So, uh we're very grateful and this topic is so important and Dr. Skully said will be a part of our strategic plan um for years to come. So, I think it'll it you may not have this off the top of your head, but I think it'll be helpful for us to find the districts that are knocking this out of the park, right? Whether it's from data, from surveys or just anecdotally that we know like what because these ideas are wonderful and tangible and some of them are hard to pull off. And so, you know, it'll
045be good to see who's doing it well and how do they manage logistics. Thank you. >> Any other board members? >> Okay. Well, I will just end with a sincere thank you to you and your team um for generously sharing your time and your talent and your dedication to complete a project that we know will have a lasting impact on our entire school community. And um I think I've said before, I think that the willingness of community members to step up like this um on behalf of students and staff is part of what makes the community so special. So, thank you very much. And I guess I also just want to mention that this is one of my favorite things to see come across when in the board materials. I'm always very excited to read
046the CRC report because we just know how much work goes into it and that there will be um just you know real defined action steps and things that we can look into and start working on improving upon right away. And so anyway, thank you again. >> Thank you. And we will for sure pass your thanks along to the whole please do. Thank you. All right, that was excellent. Um, okay. Next, under annual business, we have the 2026 2027 student staff planning. >> Yes, and this is an annual report that Dr. Glowaki provides to us. So, we'll let her share a little bit of information. >> Thank you. It's been about two months and we since we started planning for next school year, which is hard to believe, but um this is an update in terms
047of where we're at at the moment, but as you've heard me say over the years, it is a process. And so this is a point in time that I'm reporting out, but um it will evolve throughout the summer months and as we prepare for that first day of school. Student enrollment is holding pretty stable. We're about 3,200 plus or minus depending on the year. But um for the last couple years, we've been holding at about 3,200 students. As you know, we're wrapping up our first year of full day kindergarten, and that has gone very well, much to the hard work of our staff, teachers, and administrators. So, thank you all for that. We haven't seen um an an impact yet regarding enrollment relative to full day kindergarten. you know, we weren't sure how that was
048going to play out in terms of our kindergarten numbers and then first grade. I think we're still too um new in the process to be able to determine if there's a pattern or an impact, which in all essence is pretty good. We're holding again pretty stable in those areas, but continue to monitor. And I will say our secretaries at our schools and our building administrators have worked really hard. So, thank you principles for getting our new families in and getting them enrolled and registered for school next year because that all has an impact on the class size. In grades five through eight, again, you've heard me say the last couple years we've really worked um taken an effort at looking at what students want to take, the classes that they're interested in, and balancing that
049with a class size that's manageable. So it is looking to see what our students want but also what we can offer to to those students who who are with that. This is specific to the creative arts modules, the world language, which language they want to study for four years as well as some of our physical education units. And so this is now an embedded practice in what we do each year. We will continue that with nice positive outcome from our strategic plan over the last five years. The one ment that I will add relative to student services is that we've been able to repurpose a position, if you will, into an additional behavior support for our earliest learners. And so adding a behavior support specialist to the elementary level for next year has been a
050request of our staff and administrators able to do that creatively, not increasing our our teaching load at all, but being able to to shuffle around. So, we're excited to be able to implement that support our little littlest learners next year. And then, you know, we, like I said at the start of this, we will continue to monitor this. A lot of our staff leave for the summer, but many of us are still here and we will be looking at this weekly, if not more often than that. If we know that there's a certain grade level at one school that we're watching this week, we're on top of it and we will make decisions in So you'll get an update in August settled into the school year. >> Excellent. Yes, it does look like there are
051a couple of classrooms that you'll be definitely monitoring over the over the summer to see what enrollment does. And I think last summer when I was looking at the numbers, we had like 40 um new enrollments over the summer. Does that sound right? I mean, it can be a significant number. So, and yeah, makes an impact. So, I just had a question about the um behavioral support position. Is that um employee shared among elementary schools? Okay, great. Yep. Okay, great. I'm glad you could make that work. Um any other questions on enrollment? It also just I know you touched on this, but it does seem like it's kind of amazing how good the kindergarten numbers are. like they must be out there holding up signs or something to get folks to sign up. But >>
052our principles are hard at work with the school secretaries calling. >> Honestly, >> anytime someone's interested, there's there's quick followup because we know how impactful it can be to our class size and staffing needs >> compared to last year. >> Yes. And as we heard from some community members tonight, they're excited for their children to start kindergarten. Exactly. Yeah. How soon can we sign up? Um, okay. Anything else on that topic? >> Nope. All right. Great. Then we will move on to board policy. >> Yes. This is the second and final reading of the board of education policy 8:30 which uh governs visitors to and conduct on school property. Uh the board has provided some feedback on this. Um, so we're grateful for that uh during first reading in April and that has been incorporated
053into this updated version. So tonight is the second and final reading of this policy. I'll also mention we're really grateful for so many um members throughout our district who were able to weigh in on and and give us some feedback on this policy to really make sure it reflects what is needed in our schools and also how we can best support our our families and our staff um in appropriate um kind of activity on campus and as they visit our schools >> and throughout digital communication >> and also throughout the many ways in that we all communicate now. It's it's important and I think some of the electronic overlooks for mentioning that >> okay then we will are there any questions? Okay, we'll see that later on the consent agenda. Um we will this is
054an another opportunity for the audience to address the board in public comment. Are there any audience members that would like to speak at this time? All right, seeing none, we will continue with the agenda and action items. The next order of business is the consent agenda. Under action items, are there any items the board would like pulled from the consent agenda? Okay, Mrs. Papless, please proceed with the motions. Okay. Um, I move to approve the personnel report dated May 18th, 2026. I move to approve a second and final reading of board of education policy 8 col30 visitors to and conduct on school property. I move to approve the accounts payable for bills listed between April 28th 2026 and May 18 2026 in the following amounts. Educational Fund $88,86186 O andM fund $50,67287 transportation $228,64586 capital
055projects $237,760 total all funds $65,88659 I move to approve the manual checks issued between April 28th, 2026 and May 18, 2026 in the following amounts. Educational Fund1,240,9783 O andM fund $211,268.32 debt services $475 Transportation $3,833.91 capital projects $46,21 tors $5,380. Total all funds 1,58,666. >> Thank you, Mrs. Pathless. May I have a second? Second. The motion has been moved and seconded. Would the clerk please call the role? >> Kristen Castro, >> yes. >> Alison Pathless, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Erin Stone, >> yes. >> Thank you. The consent agenda is approved. We will now proceed with conference items. Old business. Is there any old business? Okay. New business. Any new business? >> Oh, I think Judy might
056have a bit of old business. Oh, great. actually um as I finish my first year on the board and knowing that we're kind of now entering into questions about uh budgets and capital improvements. I just want to put a pin in one topic that I brought up as old business a while back, which is that I'm hoping that the board will find a way to look at those spaces, those high use spaces in the district that are not yet airond conditioned and see if we can find a way or at least evaluate which ones might still we might still benefit from from doing. I just kind of want to put a pin in that as a topic. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other old business, new business, good and welfare? I'll just mention
057there truly are a lot of recognition events coming up in the next couple of weeks. So, we hope that the board might take the time to enjoy some of those events. We know our community at large, parents certainly will be in attendance at many of those events. So, we're grateful for all the opportunities to celebrate our students and staff, but please come out and join us. >> Have one more >> good and welfare. And that is that it's everyone's favorite time of year because on Instagram, they've been doing the eighth grade graduates and the newer graduates, which I always love. So, everyone should check those out. It's our account, right? It's the main one, Leo. >> It is. It is. >> I see you back there, Leo. You >> Yeah, those are really fun to
058see. >> Really are. I love them so much. um the administration is busy with and I just want to say that I appreciate that you added another one being tonight. Um so um I thought it was just wonderful to bring all the students and the families together and to celebrate some really outstanding accomplishments and we had some some kids who uh were repeat award winners multiple kids that were you know came through the line a few times. So knowing everything else that is going on right now, um I thought that that was a great change and appreciate all of the work that from the team that went into it. So thanks. Um okay. If there is no other business, we will adjourn to executive session. May I have a motion to adjourn to executive session
059to discuss specific personnel, special education, individual student matters, and collective negotiations? I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss specific personnel, special education, individual student matters, and collective negotiations. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Motion have been made and seconded. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Alison Pathless, >> yes. >> Amy Paling, >> yes. >> Aaron Stone, >> yes. >> Christina Dcastro, >> yes. >> Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Katie Hilton, >> yes. Yes. Judy Berlin,