001I hereby call to order this committee of the whole meeting for Monday, January 12th, 2026. The time is 8:01 a.m. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Annart here. >> Kristen Dcastro here. >> Alison Pilis here. >> Amy Paling here. >> Katie Hilton here. >> Judy Berlin here. Erin Stone >> here. I seek a motion to approve the minutes of the December 8th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive sessions. >> I move to approve the minutes of the December 8th, 2025 committee of the whole and executive session. 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? >> Um, I have just two on the executive session um minutes. uh members absent. I was absent, so
002that would be me. Um and then on the last sentence of the last page, I believe instead of Mrs. Pap was moved, it would be Mrs. Stone, Miss Stone moved, I believe. >> Sounds right. We can verify that and make that. >> No, I remember doing it, but yeah, we could verify. >> Okay. Yes, that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other comments, errors, omissions? Okay, seeing no more um does everyone approve the amendments? >> Yes. >> Okay. If so, all favors um I'm sorry. If so, all members in favor of approving the minutes, please say yay. >> Yay. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. We will start this morning with facility development committee or actually we will not because there are no items for discussion this morning. Um, so we're moving right into school
003finance. Mrs. Bailey, >> thank you. And I will turn it over to Corey for two items, I believe. Summer enrichment fees and the 2027 budget calendar. >> I'll start with the summer enrichment fees. Um, every year we do come in and talk about what the most what our recommendation is for summer enrichment program fees. As a reminder, we have three programs for summer enrichment. We have the um hobby kind of classes. So, those are the fun ones. Um, we have review and reinforcement and we have extended school year. Extended school year is based on a student's IEP. Only students who are eligible qualify and there are no fees associated with that for families. So, that's not what we're talking about in this regard. Um, and looking at the uh hobbies and the review and reinforcement
004classes, the board has traditionally wanted the summer enrichment program to be self- sustaining. And we have seen as we've had um postcoid we've had sort of a change in enrollment and we've had fewer and fewer families choosing to do our summer enrichment program uh which [clears throat] means that we've had a harder time making it a self- sustaining program. In looking at the uh fees that are charged by our park district for a class or other things, we do believe that our fees for those hobby classes and even our review and reinforcement classes are are under market value substantially. So in looking at that, we are proposing a slight increase. So going from $200 for a hobby class to $250 and $100 for the review and reinforcement to 150. Again, that is um you many
005park district programs or other programs are six weeks for substantially more. Uh we're talking about 20 days of of classes. Um so we do think that we're still providing a really excellent value, but bringing it a little bit more in line with market value. Does anyone have any questions about that part of it? Um and then the next thing is we really looked at the transportation. Um that is an area in which we significantly um we do not recoup our cost for transit transportation every year. Um, in looking at it, last year we had 24 students who rode the regular bus out of all of the students who attended. And so we are proposing at this point in time not to provide transportation for uh the summer enrichment program. For those students who are eligible
006for extended school year and have transportation on their IEP, that would continue to be provided, but for other students, we would not provide transportation. And does anybody have any questions about that? >> I don't. And and just to I think we talked about this previously. So we're not seeing the decline in participation. We don't believe the decline in participation is at all due to cost um because of you know the comparisons that we've done to the park district and other programs. We just think that it is due to um the proliferation of programs available every year and the variety available through other >> Yes. the the thing we hear the most is that families are looking for a full day program for their children or that this you know bringing a child for one two
007or three hours is is traditionally not something that many of our families are are interested in at this at this point >> that they're they're looking there are many more park district programs and other options I think available now than there used to be. >> They give them more coverage during the day as Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Any other Yes, Erin. Um, I know we don't always have the classes at the same schools because it depends on what schools we're doing work on and not having them there. Do you know where they're going to be this summer? >> I believe they're going to be at High Crest and Central. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Alison. >> Um, yeah, just one other clarification. So, you said 24 students used the transportation. That's out of
008how many? >> About 183. >> Okay. Thank you. So this will be um on I think consent agenda for the ne the board meeting. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. So the next item um each year we've uh done is done this in January. Um part of it procedural, part of itformational. It's the fiscal year 27 budget calendar and resolution. The resolution just directs the administration to begin work on the next fiscal year's budget. the one document that has the budget calendar that's maybe more a little more helpful or interesting um you know from the administration's perspective probably starting in uh February the business office and many other departments that's really when from say February through uh the beginning parts of May is when we kind of put together
009our first draft of the budget May we'll present that at the committee of the whole June um that's when the board would approve the tenative budget and then every year between June and August there's always going to be a ton of small changes. Um we aggregate those and share them with the board and then our historical practice has been to have the board hold the public hearing and then approve the budget at our at our um a August board of ed meeting. Um just for information, that step always has to be done no later than September 30th each year. And then the other few dates on this uh budget calendar impacting fiscal year 27, we uh as once we get into October, we start to look at the tax levy and go through all the
010steps for that. Um and then rounding out the the calendar year, we we uh have on there for the five-year financial projections and then then the audit for the previous year. Um, so that's kind of a high level look at at what will likely occur during uh calendar year 2026 as we start to look ahead to fiscal year 2027. Um, happy to answer any questions. Uh, if not, this is uh more or less a procedural step more than anything else. >> Members, >> thank you so much. very helpful. >> Yeah. Okay, we'll move on to strategy. Miss Stone. >> Yes. Thank you. And I am turning it over to Dr. Koscoli who will introduce our presenter. >> Thank you so much. We are pleased today to have with us Lucy Melon, our shared sustainability coordinator.
011We share Lucy's position with a variety of the other governments here in Wilmet. Um she primarily works for the village of Wilmet but also shares some time with us and with the park district and and other agencies. We're really pleased to have her as a partner um and we launched a sustainability audit um I'd say probably about a year ago, maybe just under. So Katie Lee got us started with that and Kelly Jackson has taken over and partnered with Lucy, making sure that Lucy had all the information um that she might need in order to conduct this audit. So we're really hopeful that the information Lucy is able to share helps to inform some next steps for the district and and also find some bright spots of celebration and maybe some opportunities for improvement as
012well. So Lucy, thanks so much for being here. >> Thank you. Happy to be here. Um, like Carrie had mentioned, I'll just be giving an update on the sustainability audit. So, we did sort of an audit of the audit. The initial audit was done in 2016, so just about 10 years ago. So, first just a little overview. We'll give an introduction, give a summary of the assessment, and then talk about the audit progress, which is broken down into three distinct pillars from the initial audit itself. So the audit was complete in 2016 like I mentioned and the update is intended to serve as a resource for both the school board and staff offering various insights into the progress of recommendations that were made at the time that the audit was complete. The layout like I
013mentioned is broken into three pillars. The first pillar focusing on reducing environmental impact, energy use and resource use. Pillar two includes improving health and wellness of students and staff. And pillar three focuses on environmental literacy or providing infective effective environmental and sustainability education. So total recommendations there were 37 listed broken down into those three pillars. We see 21 in pillar one, 10 in pillar 2, and six in pillar three. or the summary key, which is sort of how I'll start to explain all of these recommendations going forward in the presentation. You can see not started would be 0% initiated is things that are about 25% complete. In progress is 50% nearly complete at 70% 100 complete at that full circle. There's a variety of things that are ongoing. So they're things that have been initiated
014throughout the time since 2016 and are continuing forward. And then there's a few that are no longer applicable either because the recommendations aren't provided anymore. For instance, green apple day of service no longer has dates assigned to it. So the recommendation is no longer able to be implemented. Then breaking that progress down by that summary key, we see two recommendations not being started, two being initiated, one in progress, three that are nearly complete, 12 that are fully complete, 14 that are ongoing, and four that are no longer applicable. So you can see we're sort of majority heavy in that nearly complete complete or ongoing category. Now getting into that progress a little bit further. So for pillar one reducing environmental impact energy use and resource use we see the breakdown being um 16 recommendations in
015the energy category three in the resource and waste reduction one in certification and one in comprehensive energy and resource management. And you can see to the right there, the majority of those are either continuing or complete with one in that category not started. Uh, one being in progress and two being complete. And the one that wasn't started is utilizing Energy Star portfolio manager which we'll talk about a little bit more at the end how we intend to excuse me explore that further this year. And so some highlights from pillar one. This is fully broken down um in the report but just sort of highlighting um sort of larger things that have been complete. Uh first is retrofitting the building's heating water pumps with v variable frequency drives. So this has been done at three out
016of four recommended buildings including Harper, Mackenzie and WJHS. Um and then replacing buildings temperature systems with direct digital control systems. This has been complete at all recommended buildings which was Harper, Highest, WJS and Ramona. And sort of to give you a little bit of context, the recommendations don't apply to all buildings. They outlined in the initial audit the buildings that they wanted to see these implemented at. And then lastly, retrofitting the buildings with indoor LED lighting. That's continuing and ongoing until it um ultimately is complete. And that's occurred at all seven buildings, although building estimates are um or all buildings are estimate to be complete by 2027. For pillar two, we see um improving the health and wellness of staff and students. Uh the subcategories, two recommendations in indoor air quality, one under pesticides. They
017had no recommendations under health and fitness, one in outdoor activities, two in acoustics, and two in maintenance protocols. Uh we see three in this category being no longer applicable, five continuing, one being initiated, and one not being started. And the one that wasn't started is the um development and implementation of five and 10-year indoor air quality plans. And this is because since co indoor air quality has been addressed in a variety of different ways. So this was determined not to necessarily be um needed to be pursued. So some highlights for pillar two. Um each classroom and occupied space should be adapted with CO2 sensors and this has been implemented 25% with classrooms at Central and Ramona having seen those implementated. Uh newly remodeled or added classrooms should be designed to meet ANSIASA standards for acoustical
018performance and this is ongoing since newly remodeled or added classrooms have been designed to meet this criteria. continue current practices related to inspection and cleaning of current systems and the district has continued these practices. So this is seen to be ongoing. The last pillar pillar three environmental literacy providing effective environmental and sustainability education sees one recommendation under curriculum maps four under civic engagement and one as uh building as a teaching tool. The majority of these are either complete nearly complete or continuing. So there's none that have not been started in this category. And lastly, some pillar three highlights. So proceeding with the district strategic plan to implement an environmental literacy definition was complete in the 2017 2018 school year. Creating a more defined structure for PTA's involvement, having garden committees and/or environmental chairs created for
019every PTA or O in the district. And then lastly, utilizing buildings and sites as demonstrations of sustainable practices, noting that in 2022, the district did receive multiple grants to install educational solar panels at each school, helping to fulfill that. And so, some next steps, uh, continuing with proceeding with implementation of recommendations that are in progress or continuing to help ensure that that gets complete or just continues as an operational practice. Second, working with staff to explore the possibility of beginning the recommendations that haven't been started. And then working with staff and the district's sustainability committee to determine additional objectives for 2026. And I'll pass it over briefly to Kelly who can kind of highlight some of those items that we've discussed. >> Great. Thanks. Um, we had a meeting gosh, I think that was like
020in November or de early December. It was a while ago it seems like. Um but it was a great meeting and we had a lot of opportunity to talk about things [laughter] um that have been completed but then also what are some next steps that we might undergo as a district and where can we prioritize some items. So um we talked about um first of all the the energy star portfolio um it's a free resource and Lucy has agreed to help us uh kind of take a deeper look at that. So um that would be one area that we want to dig into um moving forward. Um additionally we did some ideation of some things that um in the short term we might be able to accomplish in in this year as we move into
021next year. Um including um things that align really actually with uh things that are going on at our buildings already. Um first of all including more student voice or increasing that student voice. So using our green teams, but also our student councils and really identifying some point people for um point kids um for sustainability in that area. Um and maybe developing some leadership roles such as like monitoring compost at the at the buildings and making sure that kids are um composting correctly and using the bins as indicated. Um additionally uh increasing teacher voice. Um again we have green teams and we have teacher leaders of those green teams but are those the point people at our buildings? Is there an opportunity for additional point people for sustainability at our buildings to help um lead things
022at our individual buildings but then also to come together as a district and collaborate and um talk about efforts that we could uh undergo as a district. And so we would look to implement some of those point people in our buildings. Um, and then finally, some lowhanging fruit, if you will. There are, uh, community opportunities, um, throughout the school year, but, as we move into spring, um, beach cleanups and having staff and students engage in some beach cleanups, uh, do some playground cleanups, uh, districtwide where we can engage families and students, um, in taking pride in their area and also contributing to the sustainability of our buildings. Um, so those are just a few things that we identified in the short term that are are easy to approach and and hopefully um have a big
023impact moving forward. So I think with that we'll open it up to questions. Thank you so much for this. This is extremely helpful and important and I really appreciate the um direction of the next steps. Board members, are there any questions or comments? Mrs. Pless >> um was so why what um who decided to do the audit and was it part of the strategic plan or anything like that? I mean how did that start at the beginning? I don't >> I can speak to that simply because um Kelly was not yet in her position. Um Lucy probably was at the meeting and some of our um our committee for sustainability members are here too. But we were talking about some next steps that might be possible for us, thinking back to when this audit was
024first conducted and recognizing that we could take some additional opportunities to celebrate what has been accomplished, but also to review um maybe what was needed. And so as we were talking about opportunities for accomplishing that, um Lucy uh Rose as a as a resource who could help us with that um look back in that review. So definitely part of our strategic plan as we look at um goal five and we're thinking about how we're using our resources in a sustainable way. Um and then we were also thinking as we're starting to move into this next strategic planning phase, it would be helpful to kind of take a take a um measurement of kind of where we are and where we want to go next. So um we know that in our facilities we've done quite
025a bit over the last five years. Um, and we're beginning to think about what are some of those next steps. So, we were hopeful that this might help to inform some of that as well. So, Lucy, was there anything else that I might have missed that you might want to highlight um in your conversations with Katie Lee as we started this work? >> No, I don't believe so. Um, just sort of emphasizing what Carrie had mentioned that majority of these things had been done and it sort of hadn't been documented that, you know, everyone and staff were working towards all of these things. So, just making sure that that was sort of institutionalized and noted. Great. Thank you. >> Any other board members? Yes, Mr. Castro. >> Is there an end date or a goal
026for these objectives? Um, or is it kind of open-ended? Is there a deadline, I guess, is what I'm asking. >> Yeah, there wasn't a deadline when we started 10 years ago. Um, it really was an audit of kind of what some of those next steps were. There's a few items that clearly do have some deadlines to them, but others that are are meant to be ongoing. Kelly, Lucy, >> I was just going to say I think um for me coming into this role and then seeing this work and and reflecting on this work with Lucy and the team, it's it's great to see how hardwired sustainability is into our practices and and how it has become a lot of these things, especially for our students and staff. Um just how we do school. And so
027that's exciting to see. I would add that um as we look at facility projects um that tends to be one of the areas that gets a lot of attention around sustainability as you're doing um new additions or remodels or updating the building's infrastructure. And so I think that that's something too that we wanted to document that we have really taken a close look at and it is part of our kind of institutionalized way of doing projects and and we're grateful that those are some of the findings. >> Yes, Mrs. Berlin. So, in in 2016, clearly a lot of the attention, appropriately so, was on building sustainability districtwide in our practices. But because we're a school district and not just any governmental agency, I'm curious to know what additional steps might be taken to help build
028that capacity in our children in terms of curriculum. And that might have been less of a focus. I mean, it sounds like there's some, but you know, we have green teams and things like that, but in terms of across the board curricula that would affect or potentially impact all students. Um, can you kind of speak to what we have done or might do in the future? >> Yeah, and I think um Lucy mentioned also um as one of the the areas in that third pillar um really environmental literacy is is woven in throughout our curriculum. there are specific lessons and and um work that's been done to address not only state mandates but then also um the work of this committee and in the audit that we've been doing. Um and I would say we
029were ahead of the curve. Um there was actually a recent state mandate that we have already accounted for within our um our curricular objectives. Um, but it continues to be an area that we want to look to um, improve and I think um, especially with having our outdoor classrooms at all of our buildings and having um, opportunities with our PTO's and AS um, to reinforce some of those lessons that kids are learning in the classroom. Um, that's definitely something that we um, will continue to evaluate and make sure that is a part of um, our regular instructional program. Any other board members? Miss um Hart, >> thank you. Um I I guess my question is just that there's I I think you said 37 um priorities here and um is it safe to say, you
030know, AC across those priorities and across the pillars that the areas that you've highlighted are also the areas that have the biggest impact? You know, I'm just I'm just wondering of of everything that we've tried to accomplish, where are we seeing, you know, the the greatest impact or result? >> Yeah, the areas I did choose to highlight in the presentation were the ones that sort of would have the most impact or were the most impactful when they were complete or as continuing or the most impactful, but there are updates um in a full report about the whole audit that can be seen if you're curious about the things that weren't highlighted today. Um, and there are things that it's not to say that the things that weren't highlighted today didn't have impact. They just might
031have been of less note um, in a time-sensitive manner. Yeah. >> Okay. Great. Thank you for this. >> Any other board members? >> Okay. I'll just say that um, we have had green teams from the students come here to do our pledge of allegiance at our 7 p.m. board meetings. And it's very edifying to see them explain what they're excited about. And it is baked in, I think, to their education now. And I was thinking about just Nutrier has all these opportunities if that's where they go to high school to continue doing stuff and they have a surf sweep club that does the beach cleanup. So if they can start doing that here now that'd be fantastic. So I love the I love the next steps and the direction that we're taking there. Um I
032think that's it for strategy. So I'm turning this back over to Mrs. Hart. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. This is 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? Please stand to address the board. And I must remind guests to state your name and community of residents. And by board directive, you are allowed three minutes to address the board at this time. >> Thank you so much. I'm so excited to hear about all the green team references because I was part of helping put that all together for the district. So that means a lot to me. Um, hi, my name is Megan Butler. I am the chair of the PTO district-wide environmental awareness committee. I'm also the
033parent of two D39 students and a member of the board of directors of Go Green Met. I'm speaking today on behalf of Go Green Met and I'm here with my colleagues Nicole Boombarten and Beth Ducker. The three of us would like to thank the district 39 for the opportunity to serve on the sustainability committee now headed by Kelly Jackson. We recently met with Kelly and her assistant Sam Picaro and Lucy Melon, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with them. We had a wonderful meeting. We're very excited about the progress we've made. We're here today to hear Lucy Melon's review of the now 10-year-old Wald sustainability audit. We hope that the audit will offer a way to begin creating a district-wide sustainability framework similar to the one that the New Trier High School is
034currently developing under the direction of Deputy Superintendent Chris Johnson. We would also like to take the opportunity to make four suggestions that we believe will benefit the school district and the greater Wilmet community. While acknowledging that some of these suggestions may already be underway, we suggest that district 39 one integrate sustainability issues into the ongoing strategic planning process. Two, designate a school board member to oversee sustainability. Three, send a district 39 representative to the 16th annual green schools conference next month in San Diego. This is a premier conference for green school leaders from across the country to network and share best practices about a wide range of school sustainability issues. Having spoken to conference organizers and past attendees, we are confident the benefits of attending this conference. Go green Wilmet would like to offer to
035contribute funds to help offset the cost to the district. Details of the conference can be found at the center of greenschools.org. Fourth, and finally, we suggest that district 39 hire or designate a full or half-time sustainability coordin coordinator dedicated to the school district in addition to Lucy's 3% allocation, which works out to 1.2 hours per week. Experts agree that districts that have the greatest impact in this area are those that have the leadership and support of their school boards, superintendent, and high level administrators and who have adequate staff dedicated to sustainability. Go Greenw Met looks forward to supporting district 39 in their continued efforts to integrate sustainability throughout the district. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Anyone else here today that would like to speak? All right, seeing none, we will
036continue on with our agenda. Old business. Is there any old business? Okay, I will just mention that as a reminder, the Student Ambassadors League of Women Voters event is on Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock. Um, I'm planning to attend. I think I've heard from most board members who cannot make it, but if you can, well, either way, let me know and if anything changes, we would still love to have you. [snorts] Um, new business, any new business. >> I was just going to mention two things. One of which was the League of Women Voters uh leadership program kickoff. So, thank you for mentioning that already. And then the other is um our board knows we're planning a parent safety and security presentation. We're in the process of finalizing those details, but the date that seems
037like most of our preferred panelists are able to attend with us would be the evening of Thursday, January 22nd. We're looking to begin that presentation at 5:30 p.m. at Highest Middle School. Um, I wanted to get the board's um consideration of that date before we finalized that. Um, we were looking at either 5:30 or 7:00. um 5:30 seemed to be the panelists some of the panelists had a preference for that time slot due to some other prior commitments. Um so that's what we're we're considering. Um but we know that anytime we schedule something um that's of interest to the community, there's some who won't be able to attend. So we are planning to hold this in person. Um we won't be live streaming the event at the time. Um but we will record it and
038have it available for people to watch after the events. Um and we're envisioning the presentation to look somewhat similar to what we have traditionally done in our August safety updates where each of our um presenters has the opportunity to give a brief update. Um we'll provide an overview of what safety and security looks like in our district. Some of the features of um safety and security that we have um within our district that we're able to to share and highlight. Um representatives from our police department will be there to talk a little bit about our partnership and their response in critical incidents. Um and then we'll also have um representatives to speak about um safe firearm storage. A representative from BS Smart we're hoping will join us. and then a mental health professional as well
039from family services center. So we're also planning to allow for a Q&A at the end. Um so with all of that kind of understood, I just wanted to get some feedback from the board if there was any regarding the preferred time of our panelists of 5:30 and the date of January 22nd. Also open to any other feedback that you might have. I would like to come if there's space and 5:30 works a lot better for me than seven. >> Great. For whatever that's worth that's helpful. >> I'm just curious. I mean obviously it's important that the panelists be able to attend. Yes. >> So if they can't come at seven that's a different question. But >> have there I don't recall any meetings that I was told about that were actually 5:30 meetings. Is 7
040o'clock more than normal time for our district? because if it is that might yeah say 7 o'clock is more sorry I would say 7 o'clock is more typical of our board meetings for sure um in some of the other kind of professional meetings so ed foundation does tend to meet at 5:00 and obviously the school board tends to meet at 5 o'clock I mean I'm sorry at 7 o'clock I misspoke those meetings start at seven at the school level there's any variety of meeting times that happen and what we were aiming for is something in between when people get home from work and that kind of dinner hour and all the evening activities that so many of our our students and families engage in um which seem to happen later than 7 o'clock. So, um
041there is certainly not a perfect time um because any time we pick will definitely conflict with someone's schedule, but that was kind of our thinking. I don't know, Judy. Do you think that maybe >> No, I just if if all the if if this was way out of character for school related meetings, then some then there might be some legitimate criticism of why we would take a different track. >> But if there are parent meetings going on in the schools within that time frame, then that totally would make sense. Does that make sense? >> Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Other thoughts about 5:30 or 7? How long do you expect it? We expect it to be about an hour. Um, but there will be time allowed for Q&A and so if it goes a little bit longer
042than that, we'll certainly allow that. But what we find is for any kind of parent presentation about an hour is about as long as people have available to us for our presentations. We want to try and keep it to about an hour. Maybe maybe a little more questions. Yes. >> You said it is being it is going [clears throat] to be recorded. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. We'll record it and post it so anyone who isn't able to be there can can watch it. >> Only other thought is thank you for all the time and effort um that has gone into pulling this together across multiple agencies and working with all the panelists and to make this happen quickly as it is a priority. So, thank you. All right. If there is no other new
043business, uh, may I have a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss collective negotiations, specific personnel, special education, and individual student matters? >> I move to adjourn to executive session to discuss collective negotiations, specific employees, individual students. >> May I have a second? >> Second. Motion having been made and seconded, will the clerk please call the role? >> Ellison Pas, >> yes. >> Amy [clears throat] Paling, >> yes. >> Katy Hilton, >> yes. >> Judy Berlin, >> yes. Annne Hart, >> yes. >> Christine Dcastro, >> yes. >> Erin Stone, >> yes. >> Thank you. Motion carries. We are now.