President Harden, before you begin today's meeting, I would like to read a few announcements. Good morning. Welcome to the May 14th, 2025 agenda review committee meeting. Before we start the meeting, I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting
announcements. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is the door which are used to enter this morning. If you are leaving the room, please use this door. The restrooms are outside the boardrooms to your left. During the meeting, we ask that you keep all aisles and exits
clear. If you need any assistance during the meeting, please wave the attention of one of our security officers. Please mark your calendars for the upcoming meeting. The next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 29th, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. and will be held at 42
West Madison Street Garden level boardroom. For details on how to register to speak or observe at the meetings and to learn about the speaker lottery process, please visit Chicago Board of Education website cpsb.org. If you have any questions about registration or public
participation, please contact the board office for assistance. Thank you for joining us today. President Harden, we are now for you ready for you to begin the meeting. Good morning everyone. Welcome to the Chicago Board of Education Agenda Review
Committee meeting. Today is May 14th, 2025. I'm President Shan B. Harden. On behalf of my fellow board members, thank you for joining us today. We are holding today's agenda review committee meeting in the boardroom at the CPS Loop office, 42 West Madison
Street, Garden Level. I'd like to note that board members and senior leadership are physically present in the boardroom. Registered speakers may join us in person or virtually if they've opted to do so, and registered observers are joining us in person.
The agenda review committee meeting of Wednesday, May 14, 2025 is hereby called to order. Board secretary, please call the role. Thank you. Member Lozano, present. Member Smith, present.
Member Thomas, present. Member Bole, present. Member Wallace, present. Member Pope, present. Member Rivas, present. Member Brown,
present. Member Gutierrez, present. Member Bigs, present. Member Thodicura, present. Member Blae, present. Member Zachor, present.
President Harden, present. We have 14 members present. We do have a quorum. I'd also like to recognize Pedro Martinez, chief executive officer. Ruchi Verma, general counsel, Bogdana
Shikumba. Um, thank you. Thank you. Before we begin, I have a couple of announcements. Uh, I'm pleased to announce the Chicago Board of Education is hosting a series of in-person community gatherings across the city to engage the public in shaping
the future of Chicago public schools by selecting its next superintendent CEO. The board is hosting an event in each of the 10 CPS elected school board districts. These gatherings are among several opportunities for CPS
stakeholders, including students, families, educators, and community members to provide input during the search process in the weeks ahead. The first event is scheduled Thursday, May 15th at Styutz College Prep from 6:30 to
8. The second event is scheduled for Friday, May 16th at Hubard High School from 6:30 to 8. The third event is scheduled for Saturday, May 17th at Malcolm X College from 10:00 a.m. to noon. To RSVP for these events and other
inerson community gatherings, please visit our website at cpsboe.org and select superintendent CEO search in the top navigation. You'll be directed to our search landing page. Once on the search page, scroll to
schedule of community gatherings and click RSVP link for your preferred event. Attendees are welcome to attend any gathering that fits your schedule. The public is also invited to engage in
the process now by taking our community survey which is shared on our search page. The superintendent CEO search page will be used to share news and updates throughout the search. We are committed and intentional about keeping you
engaged. So, please bookmark it and visit it regularly. The second thing I'd like to do is just take a moment to acknowledge Chief Chopa. This is your last board meeting with us.
Your contributions to the district are far too numerous for us to would be here to tomorrow acknowledging it. You've been an incredible asset to the district. You'll be missed. Please, board members, join me and giving Chief Tacoma a hint a
warm welcome. Thank you. Thank you for your service. The order of the meeting will be as follows. Public participation discussion of agenda review committee meeting items 1 through nine. We'll recess. We'll reconvene from recess.
Discussion of agenda review committee meetings 10 through 15. We'll go into cold session. Reconvene from cold session. And then adjourn. So let's now proceed with today's public participation session. Thank you for joining to share your comments with the board in compliance with the Illinois's
Open Meetings Act. Public participation, sometimes referred to as public comment, is the portion of the board meeting or hearing that grants district stakeholders the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments. Note that public participation of a time for board and CPS senior
leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members during or after your remarks. While we can't discuss personnel matters, public participation is a key component of transparent governance and it provides us as board
members as well as senior leadership an opportunity to listen to everyone who has signed to speak. This board takes equity of voice seriously. While we may not address your comments directly during public participation, CPS leadership is always present at our
meetings and are able to address concerns as follow-ups after the meeting. As a district and as a board, we also have many other spaces for authentic dialogue. For example, each and every one of our board members hosts board office hours so that we can have a
conversation. Please use our website cpsb.org or if you want to meet with a board member during office hours. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with board members outside of a board meeting. Thank you for your attention and consideration. As a
reminder, union representatives will be allotted 5 minutes to speak before public participation and any elected officials will be allowed 5 minutes to speak after the conclusion of public participation. Board Secretary, please share the rules of public participation.
Thank you, President Harden. Members of the public who registered to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format. For those who prefer to attend via an electronic format, they were given information to access this meeting by dialing a number and using their phone. We did this so
that speakers with limited or no access to the internet or who may have weak internet connection could still participate using their phones. Also, members of the public may submit written comments for board of education meetings via the written comments form on the board's website at
cpsbee.org or mailed to one north Dearborn sweet 950. Written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the board of education meeting will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website at
cpsb.org. Speakers, please listen while I provide directions for public participation. I will call your name and number when it is your turn to speak. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to unmute, please enter star six. Once you hear your name, please state your name for the record. I will
then start the two-minute timer. When there are 30 seconds remaining, I will inform you so that you can proceed to conclude your remarks to allow for the next speaker to begin. For anyone standing with the speaker, please stand along the glass partitions to keep aisles clear. Thank you, President Harden. Before we begin calling speakers
from the speakers list, we do have union reps who would like to address the board. We'll begin with Caroline Rutherford, CTU Charter Division Vice Chair, who is here in person. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Caroline Rutherford
and I am the vice chair of CTu's charter division and a proud educator at Aero Marquez Charter School. Each month since October, I've come before you to advocate for the students and staff at Aero Charter Schools because our charter operator chose to walk away from over
2,000 students and 250 educators. And when this board voted in February to keep five schools open, it gave our communities a desperately needed moment of relief. Thank you. But our fight is not over yet. We are still fighting for the students and staff at Asera Paz,
Asero Cruz, and Espira Hogan as Aspira made the decision to close that school at the end of this year. Before I want I continue, I want to be upfront. I'm about to take us a little bit into the weeds because the details matter, especially when lives and livelihoods
are on the line. Our union has been meeting with CPS to negotiate a memorandum of understanding to support the potential transition of our members at these schools into district managed CPS schools. In both of our collective bargaining agreements with these charter operators, we have layoff procedures
that allow for educators to retain employment at these charter networks based on their seniority. Included in these rights is the right to bump their less senior colleagues in other Asero and Aspira schools respectively. While this protects individual workers, it will
create disruption, especially at the five Aero schools now transitioning to CPS if we don't create other viable employment options for those being laid off. We are grateful for the partnership with CPS to ensure the success of the
five Aero schools as they transition, but we have been fighting for our school communities to remain whole since day one. And here are some minimal steps that are required if CPS truly hopes to keep these schools together as directed
by this board. Guaranteed job interviews for educators from closing schools. No loss of pay for affected staff and short-term residency waiverss to allow educators to make new arrangements or obtain high needs endorsements. The deadline for educators
at these schools to decide whether to exercise their bumping rights is June 12th. So urgency is key. CPS talent office has connected with our members and guided them on a path to apply for positions. Thank you. However, once
members resumes arrive to principles, there's often no followup. And we're asking for your support in guaranteeing that laid-off members will be interviewed for positions that they qualify for within CPS. These educators did not choose to leave their schools.
Charter companies made that decision. If someone out lives outside the city, they were allowed to by CPS policy that holds staff at district and charter run schools to different standards. CPS as the entity that authorizes and oversees these charters must take responsibility
for what happens next. Transitioning the fiveo schools to CPS must be done in partnership with everyone, parents, students, teachers, CPS, and CTU in order for it to be successful. Families will stay if their trusted educators can
stay. And we must do everything possible to ensure those educators remain without taking a pay cut, uprooting their lives, or being bumped out of their own schools. So, let me be clear. This fight is not with our students, families, or even the school communities these
charter schools serve. It's with the companies that operate these schools. Companies that made a business decision to walk away when the profits dried up. And we cannot let these families become collateral damage in the failed experiment of privatization. These schools are their
communities and these teachers are their lifelines. This painful chapter could have been avoided with stronger oversight and accountability and support during the charter renewal process. That's why we are urging this board to pass a resolution that prevents closures
from blindsiding families and educators, holds charter operators accountable to the communities they serve, and protects educators from retaliation when they organize in their workplace. This isn't just about this year or these schools. It's about how we
move forward together. Any good faith charter operator would agree. And we now have an opportunity to chart a new path. We can rebuild trust with the communities. You have 30 seconds remaining. Thank you. And together we can reimagine these five schools not as the remnants of failed charter
contracts, but as thriving district-run schools deeply rooted in their neighborhoods. Let's stop seeing the obstacles and start seeing the possibilities. Let's get this transition right. Not just for today's students and teachers, but for the future of the public education in our city. We need
the following. an agreement that allows educators to be kept whole. A resolution that centers families and students, not charter profits, and a commitment to build better, more accountable partnerships moving forward. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments.
Our next union rep is Kia Banks, CPAA Chief of Staff, who is here in person. Good morning. I don't have to tell you that school leaders in Chicago public schools are busy people. We work year round to prepare the children of Chicago for
success. Right now, with just weeks left remaining in the school year, we are preparing to celebrate milestones with our students, our staff, and their families. And once our students walk across the stages in June, our school leaders will continue working into the
summer getting ready to welcome children back in August. See, we show up every day and we work for the children of our city. We work for their families. We work for our teachers, for everyone that works within our buildings and all we
want is to provide a stability and uh provide stability in our schools to create communities where our children can learn. I am proud to represent the members of Chicago's principles uh all Chicago's principles and assistant
principles. No one else speaks for us. I am here to tell you that our members are too busy to be drawn into political drama by people who claim to speak for us. We continue to be baited to take positions that favor one political opinion over another and to make
statements that go against our values of partnership and problem solving, to point fingers instead of rolling up our sleeves and doing the work of finding common sense solutions. While some seem focused on the
distractions, CPAA is focused on negotiating at the bargaining table, doing the real work of creating conditions for our school leaders to lead and to protect our leaders so they can actually do something about these issues. See, that's what principles do.
We don't just point fingers. We actually work to solve problems. What is even more troubling is what our current leadership is asking members to do in the coming weeks. a strategy that implies it will put pressure on the school board and the city council. We
have been asked to build misleading budgets for our students and our schools based on hundreds of millions of dollars that we have no guarantee we will see before we open school doors in August, less than three short months away.
Understand we are being asked to present things that inaccurately present things inaccurately to our local school councils and work for weeks to produce a budget by June. In July, we will likely have to tell hard-working teachers and support
personnel who left for the summer expecting to return to their jobs that they've been cut. Other staff who remain will find out that they are only going to have a few weeks to get ready to teach even larger class sizes and maybe
a whole new subject because of your failure to plan. We need leadership, not fingerpointing. We need leadership like yesterday. Someone who can step in immediately understanding the landscape and the severity of the situation that
we are in. We need someone who has the relationships and the ability to inspire confidence in the future of our district. We need someone who has an actionable plan for a local and downstate strategy to rebuild trust with
our civic and philanthropic partners. And if that individual happens to have some credentials, that would be great. But what we need is leadership right now. Having us go forward with this magical budget will create distrust. It
will create chaos. Cutting a school budget is hard. It is painful. Raising hope and setting expectations based on incorrect information is irresponsible and destructive. It will make our work as
Chicago school leaders much harder. We are the faces of Chicago public schools for our staff and our neighborhoods. We are the ones who greet young learners in the hallways. We are the ones who coach our teachers and seeks. We take the
calls from parents. We work shouldertosh shoulder with local school councils. We work to build communities inside and outside of our buildings. And we are just too busy to waste our time. We have two weeks to create a plan. But what
about you? Take this lesson from a principal. You have 30 seconds remaining. Passing the buck and pointing fingers just doesn't make the grade. Having no plan is planning to fail 300,000 students. Again, you are dumping
the hard work on principles. Where's the mutual accountability? We're looking for you to give us a plan we can work with. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, President Hardin. We are now ready to
call speakers from the speakers list. But before I start to call the speakers, I do want to note for the record that board member Deberry joined the meeting at 10:52 a.m. and Charles Mayfield, chief operating officer, has joined the meeting at 10:47
a.m. We'll call speakers from the Urban Prepmies. Speaker number one, Dennis Lacewell. Speaker number four, Dr. T Trey Childress. Speaker number five, Brandon Lenor. Speaker number eight,
Troy Boyd. Good morning. My name is Dennis Lacewell and I serve as the CEO and interim CEO of Urban Prepmies. First, thanks to President Harden for attending our 16th annual signing day at the Daily Plaza last Tuesday. Our young men were pleased to see you again. But today, I want to
acknowledge the many parents and community members who have stood at this podium over the past two and a half years sharing how Urban Prep has transformed the the lives of their young men and the community. The only network with more parents at these meetings over the past few months has been Aero, which
received strong backing from the CTU. Did you know that Urban Prep teachers have been dues paying CTU members since 2015? So, I ask, why haven't Urban Prep teachers received the same support from the CTU? I've heard that some CTU board
members have allegedly criticized our young teachers based on classroom visits of less than 3 minutes. Three consecutive one-year renewals have made it nearly impossible to provide the extensive professional development our young teachers need at an all boy
school. Before unionization, Urban Prep had 30 professional development days each school year. But in 2015, one of the one of CTU's first bargaining points was to reduce that number from 30 to 10. Now, we have to rely heavily on summer on the summer to train our staff,
something short-term renewals make nearly impossible. Lastly, I recently came across a troubling social media post that had a picture of Urban Prep young men and read, "Trump is investigating a CPS program for black boys and threatens to pull funding." Not sure. 30 seconds. Not sure if this is
true or not, but I would hate to think that in 2025, a CPS board education with strong CTu ties would be aligned with Donald Trump about the educational needs of black boys in Chicago. But when CPS board members from neighborhoods like Edgewater make the effort to visit
schools in Bronzeville and Inglewood, only to later become the most vocal proponents of the shortest post renewal term for a school, which is led and managed by black men for black boys, a school with a proven record of success. Well, that sounds kind of Trumpish. We're not asking for favors. We're
asking for fairness and the stability to continue doing what we've done successfully for nearly two decades. Educate, empower young black boys in Chicago. When Urban Prep succeeds, CPS succeeds, the black community succeeds, and ultimately Chicago succeeds. Thank
you. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker, Dr. Trey Childress, speaker number four. Good morning, esteemed board members. My name is Dr. Trey Childress, and I am proud to serve as board chairman of Urban Prepmies. Urban Prep was founded
with a clear and urgent mission to educate and empower black and brown boys, young men who have far too often been left behind by education systems. We prepare them not just for college, but for meaningful lives of leadership
and purpose. Today, I want to share with you that we've accomp what we've accomplished together. Urban Prep is outperforming both the city and state averages in key metrics for black students. Not simply black male students, but black students, including
freshmen on track, four-year graduation rates, attendance, and chronic absenteeism. These aren't just numbers that reflect real progress for students, but for those who actually deserve every opportunity to succeed. We also know
that sustained outcomes require stability. That's why we respectfully advocate for a 5-year charter renewal for urban prepmies. A multi-year renewal allows for strategic strategic planning, resource alignment, staff retention, and
consistent academic programming conditions that research consistently demonstrates are necessary for school improvement and student growth. Urban Prep's impact extends far beyond just our campuses. We've helped drive
citywide gains in black male graduation rate. Thank you very much. Black male graduation rate and college enrollment. This is not just our success. It is CPS's success. As some of
you have already taken advantage of, I invite each of you to come visit one of our campuses, meet our students, see the impact for yourself. Let's continue to work together to ensure every student in Chicago, especially those who need it
the most, has access to a bright and boundless future. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Before the next speaker begins, I do want to note for the record that member Lopez has joined the meeting as of 10:53 a.m. Thank you. Brandon Lenor, speaker
number five. Good morning. Thank you. Today I come before you on behalf of Urban Prepmies. Both excited and admittedly a bit confused. I'm excited because for the first time in a long time, it feels like the school board and district representatives are being
intentional, truly taking the time to understand Urban Prep's mission and inviting us to be a part of community programming. With that, I would like to thank Dr. Smith for giving Mr. Caleb Hayden the platform to shine and represent Bronzeville with pride and
excellence. I'd like to thank President Harden for showing up for our young men during our signing day that was just around the corner at the Daily Plaza. I'm excited because our students aren't just participating, they're leading, they're inspiring and they're
achieving. Through the Jordan Wings program, Mr. Raymond New and Mr. Javon Burns were able to showcase their creativity. That journey led Mr. New to receive a prestigious scholarship covering his education all the way through his doctoral degree. With our
partners at Otis Elevators, a group of freshmen and sophomores competed in a global AI challenge made to move communities and finished third overall, outperforming teams across the country that were made up entirely of seniors.
Mr. Caleb Harris, one of our students, was selected to be the youth keynote speaker for the Obama Foundation where he'll speak to peers about leadership and possibilities through our internship program partnerships. And it doesn't stop there. Our young men are involved
in programs like the Hidden Genius Project, Foot Locker Design Program, and Gray Matter Experience. Each of these partnership represents a door opened and opportunity earned. So yes, I'm excited, but the confusion comes in. Well, how is it after all of this, the very existence
of Urban Prep is still in question? With the future guaranteed for one more year, we should not be debating whether to support schools that's given young men in Chicago a path forward, a voice, and most importantly, a vision for who they can become. Urban Prep doesn't just prepare students for college. We prepare
them for life. We teach them to dream big, to lead boldly, and to serve with purpose. And for that reason, Urban Prep deserves a maximum charter renewal. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Troy Boyd, speaker number eight.
Good morning, members of the board. My name is Troy Boyd. I am the chief operating officer of Urban Prepmies, and I stand before you today to urge a full 5-year charter renewal for Urban Prep's two schools, not just as a vote of confidence, but as a commitment to the
future of black boys in Chicago who deserve both excellence and stability. For years, Urban Prep has been more than a school. It's been a safe haven, a launchpad, and for many, a lifeline. This institution has achieved
something truly rare. It has built a culture that expects greatness from black boys and supports it every step of the way. Just one week ago, we announced that for the 16th year in a row, 100% of our graduates have been accepted to four-year colleges and universities. The
class of 2025 has been accepted to 200 different colleges and universities and received nearly $12 million in scholarships. Two members of the class received the prestigious Gates Scholarship and the Jordan Wing scholarship. Two awards that will cover
any post-secary schooling they choose for the rest of their lives. That isn't just flash. It's substance. Substance that changes lives. Every year that Urban Prep exists, it affirms to young black boys that they matter, that their futures matter, and
that Chicago believes in them. Continuing to disrupt that affirmation with short-term renewals, renewal decisions undermines that very stability these students and families need and deserve. We are currently witnessing attacks from a presidential administration on
programs that support the most vulnerable populations in this country. Those attacks have begun to make their way to Chicago's doorstep. I implore you to be an example of what real leadership looks like by not adding to the attacks, but by committing to and investing in an
organization dedicated to protecting and supporting one of the most vulnerable populations in this city, young black boys. Urban Prep is not perfect, but it is powerful and it is essential. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our
next speaker is Mariel Lauraniano, speaker number two. Good morning. I'm Marielaniano, a former proud principal of Prito Math and Science Academy. Currently, I serve as a director at the Chicago Public Education Fund, an organization whose mission is
to support the work of talented educators in the city. As a principal, I led through five budget cycles with an overall deficit. Over 60% of current principles do not have that experience. In addition
to engaging in this budget process for the first time, they're doing it during a CPS superintendent change. I'm respectfully asking you to consider three factors today. First, implement a budget that
maximizes available resources for students while minimizing long-term harm to the families. I led through years with revenue expectations that did not materialize. which meant cutting staff
midyear. I also experienced short-term borrowing to close gaps which meant bigger cuts for students down the road. There are ways to avoid both but they will require pragmatic leadership and negotiations at every
level. Second, communicate the implications of decisions to school communities and be clear about tradeoffs. release school numbers as soon as a realistic plan is complete. You have 30
seconds remaining. Third, please sustain and support local control and autonomy, especially important if school level cuts need to be made. No doubt you are facing tough decisions with no easy solutions. For
our part, the fund will deepen its support for budget creation, contingency planning, and communication strategies for both school leaders and local school councils. Because to be clear, on August 18th, over 600 school buildings will
open the doors to all students. We must continue to work together to ensure that that welcome is the welcome that students deserve. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Irene Bermuda, speaker number three, who is joining us virtually. Please enter
star six to unmute. Good morning, esteemed members of the Chicago Board of Education. My name is Irene Bermudeire and I serve as a community relations coordinator at Chicago Math and Science, also known as CMSA.
I'm a lifelong resident of Edgewater and I have been a dedicated member of the CMSA staff for the past 13 years, witnessing firsthand the transformative impact our institution have had on the lives of countless students over its 20-year history. As you know, CMSA is
recognized as the second best charter high school in the state, a testament to the hard work of our students, teachers, and staff. I am here today to express our strong opposition to the proposed resolution that would mandate an 18-month notice period for charter
school closures and impose the requirements of securing new placements for all students and employment for all teachers. While we understand the intent behind ensuring a smooth transition for families and educators, we believe this
resolution in its current form presents insurmountable challenges and fundamentally misunderstands the operational realities of charter schools. First, this resolution infringes upon the fundamental right of families to choose the educational environment best suited for their
children. Mandating that a closing school must find new seats for all students effectively removes the prerogative of parents to select a new school that aligns with their child's individual needs and preferences. Second, the requirement of
a couline charter school must find all this regards the professional anatomy of educators. teachers have a right to choose their place of employment. Most critically, this resolution fails to account for the inherent uncertainty in the charter school renewal process.
Charter schools operate under contracts with this very board, and the length of these contracts dictates our operational timelines. Requiring an 18-month closure notice is impossible to guarantee when the board itself may delay a renewal bolt as in the current case, potentially
leaving a high performing school like CMSA in a position of non-compliance, though no fault of our own. If a school faces a potential closure due to delayed renewal decisions, the 18-month clock may already be taken down before a final determination is even made. This creates
and undermines the very stability the resolution aims to achieve. Finally, I must address the fact that one of our architect Please conclude your remarks. We believe that a more reproductive approach would be would involve open
dialogue and collaboration between the board and charter school leaders to develop solutions that are both supportive of students and families. Number three, please conclude your remarks. You can also submit your statement via the written comments form on the board's website. Thank you for
your time. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ed Cideritz, speaker number six. Good morning all. The core principle of the catalyst schools is right relationship. It was in this spirit four months ago that
catalyst set out to put this principle into practice with each of you. Recognizing that the ground was shifting beneath our feet and with a newly elected school board, Catalyst reached out to each member of this board, invited you to visit one of our schools
to witness our way of education in teaching minds and touching hearts. Our intention was simple. Build positive relationship. Board members Gutierrez and Blae were the first to promptly reply, "Yes, definitely. Let's make this
happen. Member Brown followed as did member Smith and member Rivas and member BGS. It mattered not during these visits our own personal views on on the structure of education in Chicago
today. What we all brought to the table during these visits was an open mind and an open heart. Together we searched beyond the window dressing of things that divide us to find a deeper ground. together searching for what unites us
and connects us in our common humanity. Thank you member Smith for visiting Catalyst and thank you member Deerry and thank you member Pope. We we know you see and understand what we are trying to do. And thank you
member Rio Sierra and thank you member Zakur. You have 30 seconds remaining. Thank you member Rosenfeld and member Boyd. We learned something from you during these visits. We learned that you have a genuine care for all students and
we can only hope that you learned something from us as well. In our 30-year history in these neighborhoods, we have seen the detrimental impact of short-term renewals and community disinvestment. Our one request is that
you reverse this to longterm renewals and community investment. On behalf of the Catalyst Schools, I offer you our gratitude and we look forward to continue building right relationship with you moving forward. Thank you for
your comments. Our next speaker is Allison Jack, speaker number seven. Good morning board members and CEO Martinez. I'm Allison Jack from Inks and I once again I'm standing before you to talk about charter renewal. Renewal votes have historically been in January
at the latest so educators, families, and students can make plans and critical decisions about their schools and their futures. We're halfway through May and not even close to finalizing renewals for 21 campuses, the opposite of strong charter school oversight. The continued
to delay has left more than 10,000 students and their families without confirmation that they'll be returning to their beloved schools this fall. And it's left educators without certainty that they'll have jobs this year or next year. It's left schools with no ability to plan for long-term programming,
support services, and critical facilities improvements. For months, the charter community has spoken to you all about the disastrous con disastrous consequences of short-term renewal. Yet CPS has proposed two-year renewal terms for the majority of schools. There's no
doubt that short-term renewals hurt schools and only set them and their students up for failure. The this board claims to believe in equity and prioritize student centered policy. So why isn't that reflected in these renewal recommendations? And while it
was thankfully pulled from the agenda at the last minute last month, we must acknowledge the backroom resolution a few board members tried to push through with no notice or engagement with the charter community. Chicago parents and students deserve better. To the charter
community, this all feels like a concerted strategy to kill charter schools. Let me say that again. to kill charter schools. Schools parents have carefully chosen for their children. A death by a thousand cuts to charter schools instead of support, collaboration, and respect for charter
families. And as we've said so many times before, and we'll say it again, the no school should receive less than a three-year renewal. You've already taken seven to 10 year renewals off the table, but two-year renewals are just bad policy. Even though I sound really mad, the
charter community stands ready and willing to work together on a fair and just charter renewal policy and a new framework to make make sure that the schools are strong and their communities are strong as well. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Uh, President Harden, that was
the last speaker from the speakers list and this concludes public participation. Board members, are there any questions or comments related to public participation? This concludes public participation. Board members will now proceed with potential board reports to be be considered at the May 29th, 2025 regular
meeting. After each item is presented, board members will have the opportunity to ask their questions and make comments before proceeding to the next item on the agenda. Board members, we will begin with the following education items numbers one through nine. We'll begin with item
number one. Amend the academic calendar for the 2025 2026 school year. Good morning board members. My name is Nicole Milberg and I'm the chief of teaching and learning. Thank you for having me first on your long agenda. Today we are recommending the board to
amend the 2025 2026 academic calendar at the May 29th board meeting. I want to start by providing a little background on the academic calendar approval process. In the fall of 2023, the office of teaching and learning began an
intensive process of co-construction of the academic calendar. Surveys were conducted with students in grades 6 through 12, CTU members, SEIU members, families, faith-based leaders, and school school leaders. And focus groups
were held with families, school leaders, students, and faith faith-based leaders. We heard from over 10,000 stakeholders through this development process. At that time, we learned that 81.6% 6% of our families requested a
two-year calendar to support planning and stability. 75% of school leaders requested a two-year calendar and 85% of teachers and staff requested a two-year calendar. We were pleased, sorry, we
were pleased to be able to respond to this feedback. In February of 2024, a school year calendar for school year 25 and school year 26 was passed. That academic calendar was posted for public comment from January 31st to February 7th of
2024. During the public comment section, the we heard from 4512 people who responded to that proposed calendar. A question in that survey was posed. The district is proposing the spring break. That spring break is scheduled the last week of
March each school year. Do you agree with the proposed spring break schedule at that time? 68.6% of respondents agreed with the proposal and 31.4% did not. So, at this time, we're requesting two small amendments to the
previously passed 2526 calendar. The first change is a result of the new religious holiday policy that was passed this past fall. change changed the professional development day which is a non-attendance day for students from
April 24th to April 3rd 2026. April 3rd is Good Friday and would be a non-attendance day for students. This past month, this past April, over 13,600 religious holiday requests from staff members were made on Good Friday,
April 18th, 2025. The second request, in the spring of 2026, we have LSC elections and local primary elections. We propose to move the March 2026 elementary school report card conferences for March 17th to March
18th, so elementary schools and high schools are on the same day and do not overlap with the March 17th local primary elections. We would then move teacher professional development day, non-attendance day for students from March 16th to March
17th. March 17th is the local primary election. We are informed that LSC elections cannot happen on the same date as the local elections due to the support needed to run both sets of elections. Safety and security and school leaders also do not want to have students in the building for local
elections since the majority of our schools also serve as election sites. We have met with LLC relations and facilities to ensure this plan addresses the operational needs of our teams and there are operation efficiencies gained when we have attendance days that are
consistent for our elementary students and our high school students. Welcome any questions at this time. Yeah, I appreciate all the thought and effort that has gone into this and as a former uh parent over the course of many
many years, I and as a former teacher, I understand the complexities of it. I do also understand how complicated it can be for parents who have children both in elementary school and in high school. And I'm wondering, I know a couple of
times we've had them on the same day. How has that impacted attendance and participation? Attendance and participation at the conferences, right? At parent conferences. I don't I don't have the data for number of participants. We have
very high participation in pickup particularly in our elementary schools, but I haven't looked at that. We can get that for you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next item is number two. Authorize the commencement of the public comment
period for the accelerated placement policy. Hi, good morning board members. My name is Erica Baker Perkins and I'm the executive director of advanced learning and specialty programs within the office of teaching and learning and we are recommending that the board approve amendments to the accelerated
placement act policy APA for public comment at the May board meeting. If I may just begin with a little bit of context. This policy was developed in response to state statute when the APA act was enacted by the state and the law
required that all school districts adopt policies for early entrance to kindergarten and first grade as well as single subject acceleration and whole grade acceleration in the elementary schools. Then the law was revised in 2021 and encouraged districts to ex
further expand access as well as expanding it for high schools through automatic acceleration. So last June 2023, we updated the policy to reflect the changes in the law and we
um incorporated some changes such as lowering the GPA requirements as well as providing direct notification to parents when their students qualify for the um acceleration. Those revisions already resulted in remarkable growth in the
number of students that we have applying for acceleration as well as moving forward with receiving acceleration. But despite that progress, we continue to see an equitable access across the district. For example, 69% of all
elementaryaries applicants are from networks 1 2 4 and six. while networks on the south and west sides 3 5 7 11 12 and 13 account for just 7% of students who are applying. So though there are
some limitations to the demographic analysis that we can do just based on where our students are situated in the schools that they're attending, we can surmise based off of that data that our black and brown students are those who are not being served by the current iteration of the policy. So over the
past eight months, a crossf functional team of content experts convened bi-weekly to analyze the trends and to propose solutions. And then we also held focus groups with um key stakeholders such as the community um action councils prioritizing those on the south and west
sides as well as the LSC advisory board and our central office partners in order to inform these recommendations that I'll share with you. So for one, we are proposing some amendments to expand access. So we are proposing that we
expand access and eligibility for single subject acceleration and whole grade acceleration to include not only students who are scoring above proficient on the AR, but also those who rank within the top 10% at of the
students at their local school. And that shift we hope will be um impactful because it ensures that at least 10% of students in every school will have access to apply for acceleration. And though those students will still have to complete the external testing, it at
least gives them an opportunity whereas the current policy they're excluded from even beginning the process. The second way that we hope to um expand access is by eliminating some barriers. So, one is to allow families
who have initially applied for whole grade acceleration and and changed their mind are able to then convert that application to single subject acceleration. We also hope to um eliminate the Iowa acceleration scale
which is a subjective school-based questionnaire as a requirement for single subject acceleration to leave it for whole grade but to eliminate it for single subject. And then finally within the policy um revisions we have are
introducing an appeals process for families as well as the elimination of any external testing fees for families. The other thing that the policy seeks to do um is a smaller thing, but it's a
trend that we're noticing and we want to address a growing concern related to students who apply for both early entrance to kindergarten as well as entrance to our classical or gifted schools that already accelerate a year or two above. And the concern there is
that um the double acceleration, which is not the intent of the policy. And so we're proposing that if families qualify for both that they choose to either apply for early entrance to kindergarten at a non- selective school or choose to
enter at the correct um grade level in a selective school. So, the proposed revisions are deeply aligned with the CPS equity framework, which calls for fair policies that prioritize students most affected by structural inequality. And by adding this local qualification
measure, we hope to broaden the pool of eligible students, especially in our underrepresented communities. And then furthermore, removing that Iowa acceleration scale uh removes some of the bias that is inherent within the design of that assessment. And even
though the APA policy is a state requirement, it does support the CPS strategic plan, specifically our commitments to learning acceleration, post-secary access, and rigorous instruction. If the policy revision is not approved, we risk continuing to
overlook the students that the policy was designed to support those who are furthest from opportunity. And we believe that the amendments we're proposing strike a balance between compliance, equity, and thoughtful implementation. So, I'll answer any questions that you
may have. Member Deerry, I really appreciate the plan, especially removing the fees and the top 10%. I love that stuff. I'm wondering how we are um connecting with parents. I'm from
one of those succeeding network communities and I know the parents are advocates. they understand how the system works and they've been part of it in various capacities and I think some of our neighborhoods that are lacking the parents don't know how to navigate as well and so we have to figure out how
to connect with them. Yes, that is a great question and we got a lot of feedback when we met with the community action councils in those communities and one of the things it doesn't show up in the policy. It's more on the implementation side of things but we are hosting um parent information sessions
as well as um the parent notification letters that are sent out to inform them of the opportunity as well as um directions in terms of like how to apply via the gosp site. So those are some of the things that we're doing on the implementation side of things that you
won't necessarily see the language of that in the policy, but those are the things that were recommended by the community and the parent notification letters that started with the last iteration of the policy and so that will continue as well or members of core. Um thank you so much
for uh your advocacy for broadening uh access for students for accelerated programs. Um last June I retired from a school that is an early college school and um I think it's a school that has gone maybe even further in removing
barriers uh so that uh students don't have to have had a particular uh grade or test score. um there's work done individually with students to discuss you know their objectives their motivations and to give them the opportunities to take these classes and
I want to say that the result has been that about 35% of the um early college credits have been earned by students with IEPs who might not have um under ordinary circumstances been afforded the opportunity. So, I just want to
encourage um uh maybe a greater emphasis on language that um encourages schools to rely on other factors. I I noticed that you're mentioning some, but when I read through the document, it still seems to be kind of heavy on the the
test score element. And so I just want to uplift um you know that there's there's other things that can determine whether a student's going to be successful like their motivation to succeed in a challenging class like that. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um
and I'll just uh add a point of clarity here. The um the policy is specifically for high school auto acceleration is this is the the bare minimum. And so this is like schools are still able to identify students outside of what's
required in the policy. And so schools can still have um whether that's placement exams or the um meetings with counselors to determine which students are eligible for different courses. This is just a bare minimum that at least these students must be automatically
accelerated. But it does the policy does not preclude schools from doing things just as you mentioned. Member P. My question was answered. Thank you. Okay, great. Member Brown. Thank you, President Harden. Thank you
for your presentation. Um I I appreciate um really acknowledging the the bias that exists that that creates barriers for our young people. So, I'm curious about your your position on like culturally relevant and responsive
curriculum and inspiring young people to want to take advantage of those opportunities or believe they can take advantage of those opportunities in the first place. Um, do you do you see that as being part of the the formula? Yeah. So, not
necessarily connected explicitly to this policy, but one of the things that we hope through um removing some of these barriers is that then on the program implementation side of things that we're supporting our school leaders. Um, for
example, um, there's learning around support and belonging within the courses. And so, how do we support our educators once the students are accelerated into these courses? How do we start to address some of the the mindsets and um that created the
barriers in the first place? And so, that's part of the learning that we do within our department and in these support and belonging cohorts that um teachers participate in. And then also too, we do have a uh partnership with equal opportunity schools that also
support schools and identifying students for courses. But again, it's about the support once they are in those courses and how do we shift the way that we're doing teaching and learning to ensure that even within the advanced courses, students have access to differentiated
supports based on where they are when they enter those courses. I appreciate that. Um I'm raising that question because often the uh it's the whole notion of you know achievement gap versus opportunity gap
right and the achievement gap uh does not admit embrace accept the fact that there's there's inequity woven into our into the DNA of this country right um how a black child is seen at age seven
versus their white counterpart and then there subsequently how resources are availed or not availed to that child. So there's been a historically there's been a lot of success with the
Council of Independent Black Institutions. These were schools that were created at the end of the Black Power movement. Um Betty Shabbaz used to be the Institute of Positive Education. It was one of those schools where people created African- centered curriculum.
Um, and as a young man, I was a volunteer in one of in those spaces. And you saw the impact. You saw young people that were inspired. You saw young people who expected to be leaders in their community. And I don't think we've take we've acknowledged the need for it enough
um and kind of woven it into what we do at the district, which is why I'm excited about being on a board like this, like to finally do something like that. But then also to recognize that the issue is not
with the thoughts of our parents in our community. Right? Parents don't not come to schools because they don't want to be involved, right? Parents sometimes don't come to schools because they're not welcome, right? And I think that that's
so in creating this type of initiative to help young people be prepared for something like that. I'm just humbly suggesting um that we look at examples where, you know, education has worked for black children and you didn't need any pixie dust. you didn't need, you know, some somebody to parachute in your
neighborhood. There was an approach and it's it's got decades of evidence that it works, right? So, I just wanted to offer that. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your comments, member Lopez, President, and thank you for the
presentation. Um, glad to hear that we're making it more accessible for many of our diverse communities. I was just wondering for testing, is it accessible in other languages beyond English? Yes. Do you know which languages are available? Currently in Spanish. Have we
considered any Mandarin or other languages given our student population? I think there that's just a limitation from the external testing provider that we have, but it's certainly a conversation that we've been having. Thank you. Thank you very much for your
presentation. Thank you, President Hardin. Before we move forward with the next presentation, I do want to note that member Bannon has joined the meeting at 11:29 a.m. Um, noted for the record. Thank you. Item number three,
authorize new agreements with Lakeshore Parent LLC. Good morning, board members. My name is Cara Thorstensson. I'm the director of digital learning and libraries with the Office of Teaching and Learning. Um, we'd like to ask the board to approve a
new two-year agreement with Lakeshore Learning and School Specialty to provide educational supplies to the district at a not to exceed dollar amount of $22 million over two years. These agreements will allow schools as well as district departments and networks to purchase
traditional classroom supplies, including things like crayons, markers, construction paper to support day-to-day student learning. This is a new agreement because the previous agreement with these vendors has expired. Um, we have been working with Lakeshore Learning and School Specialty to provide
educational supplies to the district for many years and they are well known and trusted across the district to provide educational supplies. Good morning. Thank you. I am a huge fan of Lakeshore supplies. I've used them for my children. I'm wondering if this plan will allow uh is that taking away
from parents bringing in the school supplies throughout the year or is this how how is that working? Um the the individual school decisions about what supplies are purchased by parents is that's up to the individual school. So this pool has existed historically ju
just to be able to have um existing vendor agreements at the district level to allow any district entity, you know, schools or the central office to purchase educational supplies. So it's not going to limit schools where they historically have had parents provide materials, but it does offer um a
continued opportunity for schools to purchase those for students. Thank you. And has there been any consideration of uh having this type of program allowing students that have IDs to go into Lakes Shore maybe also get these types of discounts? Um that's a
great question. We've never discussed student specific access and we don't act we don't really work with them directly through a particular storefront instead through their um like distribution and shipping entity that like provides materials to the district via shipments.
Darn. I thought I got something. Thank you. member thought understand a little bit more about this. So this pool does not currently exist and that's why there's no historical spend listed. Um this is a new agreement with these with these partners that
begins um after the after the official board meeting. However, we've had we've had previous many prior agreements with these partners. The the agreement that it we're we're currently under with Lakeshore Learning and School Specialty expires. Um and so we had we therefore
must come to the board with a new agreement. However, historically we have been working with these same partners to provide ED supplies for many years. Thank you. At the same spend level, um we asked I um historical spend has actually varied dramatically. Um I have
5 years going back of historical spend and um during the time of CO 19 lockdowns unsurprisingly spend was significantly lower as um students were not in schools to leverage said school supplies. But um in the in recent years
we've had approximately um approximately $17.8 million a year in spend on school supplies through these two um vendor agreements. and and so we um ask for the not to exceed dollar amount to try to accommodate that with a
consideration of potentially some um decrease in overall spend based on um budget changes for schools and central office departments. Thank you. And just uh one more question is you know the kinds of materials that are listed here um teachers do buy a lot of these out of
pocket and we have um teachers relying on parents to purchase some of these materials out of pocket. So what is the process right now for um teachers to get the materials that they need for their classroom from this pool? Is it that they go to their administration? The administration requests it and then if
what they request is not available then they have to fill the gaps. Um and how is prioritization of um how we distribute these resources decided? Um so it's totally based on the discretionary spend for the individual school and how the principal chooses to all lot their funds and um so it it
really it's a on a school by school basis there's no mandate or expectation about school supplies that are purchased or not purchased and the same is true for um district entities. So as a for example in a prior project that has functionally now concluded I know that
the office of early childhood was doing a lot of spending with Lakeshore Learning to outfit early childhood classrooms when there was a big expansion. However, that project is now concluded. It's not to say that they would never purchase a variety of some materials. But um it's really at the
discretion of the individual school how they choose to purchase educational supplies from this pool. Thank you. Um, hi. Thank you so much for your report. Um, I'm just wondering if you have surveyed schools to get like a um a
rating for uh delivery and satisfaction because I just have to say I've heard negative things about school specialty. Um, and just wondering if you have any data like that. Um, we haven't done any direct school outreach. Instead, we rely on the um way that purchases are made
through our um through our enterprise system and the records of delivery. But um we're happy to connect with Lakeshore or I'm sorry, with school specialty to talk more about that or to address those concerns and um also potentially to engage with schools if that's of interest.
Member Rivas. Uh thank you, Mr. President. Um so I uh talk about this each and every meeting every time this is brought up and my good friends from procurement uh are here uh and and and so my question is going to be around uh what's our uh MBE WBE uh and in
particular how are we ensuring that those vendors that we're using um are making sure that these those tax dollars stay in Illinois at least right making sure we're we're stimulating local economies when we're spending you know $22 million or the up up to that amount
over the next two years. Sure. I'll defer to them on that one. Hi, good morning everybody. I'm Tina Lorie Harris, executive director for office business diversity for the MBE. You notice it's 22 million, but we're only getting 75% for our aspirational
goals because of the market share. That's all we really can deliver is the seven what is it? Seven $9 million. So the 75% of that based on the MBE and WBE we check and monitor all the processes
for all MBEs and WBEEs monthly and then we do a vendor performance sometimes semianually we've been trying to do it more often but the number of contracts makes it difficult. So, as we approach the renewals or amendments, we're monitoring and tracking that
information. But so we so then for this one we don't know if those vendors that would be providing these supplies under this contract if do we know if there are local vendors if they're uh if that money is staying within our state there it's a combination of both loco here in
the city of Chicago state of Illinois and other useful vendors across the country predominantly because we want to make sure that those folks can deliver and be prompt with delivery of services and products to our school district. Previously with this vendor, they were
very successful and exceeded our goals of 37%. Um I would say probably a little bit higher. I'd have to get back to you, but when our last sort of performance, they were above 38%. Wonderful. Globally. Yes. So we're achieving it and exceeding it. Great.
Thank you. Thank you, River. Yes. My question has to do with equity in this situation. Having had my children at uh schools of privilege, I will say where parents had no problem supplying
markers, you know, art supplies, tissues, anything that the teachers needed. But having taught in schools where I would never have dreamed of asking the parents to put extra money into things, and therefore, of course, I bought those things myself because kids
still need to blow their noses and use markers. Uh but is there any way that this money I understand that it comes out of the principles of discretionary funding. Is there any way that this takes into account the differences in
ability of different communities perhaps using the opportunity index as a guide can supply school supplies of for their children in their schools? If I may jump in here, board member
Pope, this is Bugdana. Um, well, uh, this is a great question. Um, well, if you think about what is the best, um, approach that we have right now to deliver resources to the schools that are furthest from opportunity, they have these challenges. It's through the
school funding model. So schools are funded, you know, and their discretionary funding, the title one direct um, you know, infusion of dollars that they have, but also the way how we provide overall resources. This is actually embedded in the current school funding model. So schools that are
further from opportunity have more leverage um to utilize some of that. And the other aspect that I want to bring in here, I know these are local school decisions, but also um you know um you probably are aware of this, but each teacher also have an amount of dollars
that they can be reimbursed for supplies that they also purchase on their own. So this is also a process that our team has been working around. But thank you. I guess I'll follow up by uh asking is there anything I mean I wanted lots of
supplies that my principles didn't have money to buy for me understandably and I'm not faulting the principles here so if anybody's still here from CPAA it's not an attack uh my concern is that money is needed for so many things in
the schools that are further from opportunity and therefore Well, I really think that the school supply the school supplies in at Gage Park High School didn't look anything like the school supplies at Whitney Young. I'll tell you that. And does that
affect student learning? Absolutely it does. if you have an attractive set of markers that you're coloring your map with. I mean, it's a little thing, but it does make a difference for kids in terms of whether you have only three colors of crayons or whether you have 24
colors of crayons, you know, all of those things. So, I'm wondering if there might be a way in the future, and this is beyond the scope of today's discussion, to specifically earmark a greater amount of supply money to
schools that are further from opportunity because there are so many things preying upon their discretionary funds. Yeah, we can ask for um our finance team to do an analysis on supply spent um at
some point, but um yeah, we I have to say that uh schools are utilizing their their dollars. They're working with their local school councils uh around budget allocation. So, these are definitely discussions there. Teachers, as you know, are participating
in all of these uh venues. And um I have to say that our schools right now are also getting a lot of support with curriculum resources and materials that we're providing through our own uh digital curriculum and also materials like books and supplies that uh schools
needed to purchase before. So I think right now they're in a good position but definitely we can take a look and this is this is always a concern. We want to make sure that every student and every school has what they need. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for your presentation.
Our next item is number four. Authorize the pre-qualification status of and new agreements with various vendors to provide educational technology and digital resource services. Hello, it's Cara Thorensson again. Um, I would now like to ask the
board to approve new agreements to establish a new pool of educational technology and digital resource vendors with a not to exceed dollar amount of 36 million over the three-year life of the agreements. This pool was originally stood up in 2021 and um now that those
agreements are expiring on June 30th, we are bringing you um new agreements. This pool was stood up to provide a robust selection of educational technology resources from which schools, district departments, and/or networks can select and purchase. This pool was also initiated in order to fulfill the
district's responsibilities under the state's SOPA legislation. Um, this pool includes educational technology products to support student learning across grade levels and content areas. Thank you. Um thank you. Uh similarly
what was the historical spend for these? Um sure. So again, historical spend has has um varied significantly, but um over for the last two years, there has been um very similar even though obviously this school year is not quite over, but
has been about $10.5 million a year in annual spend and um it was a less than that at um 6.5 in 2022 and five almost six million in 2023. Thank you. Um and could we see the KPIs
um for these vendors for previous years as well after this meeting? Um absolutely. I'm happy to share those with you. How um bless you how these vendors align with Skyline. Yes. So um there's an expectation in the agreements that
vendor partners sign that if they were to be purchased at the district level that they would be expected to integrate with the digital platforms that make up Skyline. Um in right now there's only really only a couple of a handful of vendor of products that are purchased at
the district level for utilization across the district and those products are either actively or in the process of integrating into Skyline per their contractual obligation for products that are purchased at the individual school level. We we of course ask that all
partners have um their agreements and their data share filed that's public facing. That's the SOPA requirement. But schools are able to leverage those resources to supplement Skyline instruction or instruction with other high quality or core curriculum. Thank you. You're welcome.
Member Thomas. Uh good morning. Uh thank you for your um report. I see there's 124 vendors uh total in the pool uh and 10 vendors between MBE and WBA. Can you tell me what the level of participation
uh is in the for the spend? Sure. For for this agreement, it's full participation for the value of the contract. So, as we're monitoring it and as the spend is happening, we will be
able to give you specific numbers. For the historic, I have to get back to you to provide that. But this is for the full contract value is 30% MBE and 7% W unlike the other we're only at 75%.
Thank you. Thank you. Member Rivas. Uh sorry to call you back up Tina but uh in the previous for the historicals though we've hit the 30 and the seven for this for these vendors or contract for this contract for for lakes
for lakes share learning. Yes for the historic for this contract. Okay. For this contract has an exclusion provision for the information technology and for patent. So that for the for the remedial policies we have five sort of
exclusions. intergovernment technology piggybacks um utilities all those things would be excluded. So any software unless there's some implementation or system implementation there would be an exclusion. Okay. Thank you. Sure thing.
Thank you. I think that concludes our questions and comments. Thank you. The next item number five, authorize the first renewal agreement with various vendors for the purchase of library books, ebooks, and related services. Hello, Cara Thorensson. Again,
um I would like to ask the board to please approve the first renewal agreements for library books, ebooks, and related related services vendors with a not to exceed dollar amount of $16 million over two years. This is a pool of vendor partners who provide
highquality culturally relevant texts to the district in both print and digital formats. This pool was established so that schools, district departments, and networks can purchase books for school libraries, classroom libraries, instructional purposes, novel sets,
teaching and learning generally, and for professional learning. Moving right along. Item number six, authorize the first renewal agreement with Curriculum Associates LLC. Good morning, board members. My name is Peter Leonard and I'm the
executive director of student assessment in MTSS. We are recommending the board authorize the first renewal agreement with curriculum associates for a K2 reading and mathematics assessment suite known as I Ready. These services were originally selected via competitive RFP
with the evaluation criteria informed by a partnership with the regional education laboratory Midwest. The renewal will enable the vendor to continue to provide an assessment suite that's available in both English and Spanish for grades K2 for our schools as
well as the ad administration support, professional development, data collection, reporting, and project management to support schools comprehensive and balanced assessment systems. The assessment suite includes an adaptive screening and benchmark assessment, which is referred to as the
I Ready Diagnostic, which is typically taken three times a year, beginning, middle, and end of year, as well as supplemental screeners, early literacy tasks, and growth monitoring assessments that enable more targeted supports over the course of the year. The contract is
in the amount not to exceed $2,250,000 with the term date starting July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2027. The original license costs in the initial term are held consistent through
the renewals. This is a student level license and this is per our initial negotiations. We expect a year-over-year consistent budgeted amount. The slight increase that you'll notice in the not to exceed amount reflects a cushion to cover potential license costs of schools
that may decide to newly adopt during this term. The vendor has committed to 37% MBE participate participation for the aspirational goals on the renewal and the compliance teams continuing with assisting them with womenowned business
certification. For some context, each spring, per the collective bargaining agreement, school teams vote on and approve an assessment plan for the following school year. Screening and benchmark assessments are one important part of the balance
assessment system that help school teams get a general understanding of where students are in math and literacy. In CPS, 95% of our schools have chosen the last few years to use I Ready as their screening and benchmark assessment in grades
K2. So without this contract approval, we would not be able to uh provide these continued assessment services in K2 for our schools to inform instruction, supports, interventions, and progress monitoring. We would not be fulfilling one of our district reciprocal
accountability uh requirements within the CIDT policy. And finally, we would not be able to measure one of our together we rise strategic plan goals around K2 reading and math assessments which references I ready in the strategic
plan. The key performance indicators are around the implementation and for math we're at 98.5% of adopting schools and 99% of adopting schools for reading with only a handful of schools deciding to go a different direction once the school year started. And then finally, a note around
stakeholder engagement, feedback, and equity. Uh when we first started rolling this out, we heard clear feedback uh from the field in relation to the Spanish reading assessment. This is from many of our educators in dual language schools and those with transitional
bilingual education programs. We made this our number one priority in vendor partnership and worked with curriculum associates over the last few years, including many of our educators to provide feedback on their development of an adaptive Spanish reading
assessment uh which is built from the ground up um and is an authentic um Spanish reading assessment called a value that will be uh available to our schools starting this fall. So, thank you for your uh consideration.
I welcome any questions or discussion at this time. Thank you for your presentation. Item number seven, authorize the first second final renewal agreements with UTJ Holdco. Inc. Good morning. I My name is Jamie
Brightite and I'm the director of prek programs from the office of early childhood. Today we are recommending the board authorize the first and second renewal agreements for the purchase of early childhood curriculum and assessments at the May 29th board meeting. The proposed not to exceed
spend is $3.5 million over two years. The creative curriculum and teaching strategies gold are the required curriculum assessment tools for CPS preK classrooms. The creative curriculum has been approved by ISBY for use in our preschool forall funded programs. These
tools allow preschool teachers immediate access to our curriculum and assessment resources in addition to professional learning opportunities and ongoing curriculum updates from the vendor. The use of creative curriculum and teaching strategies gold as our common curriculum and assessment tools in pre-K programs
ensures that all children in all CPS preK programs regardless of their school or neighborhood receive highquality consistent instruction. It helps us reduce disparities by aligning teaching, professional development, and support across all district and community- based organizations. The vendor is also
utilized by the Department of Family Support Services and allows the city to provide a common prek curriculum and assessment tool for all of our preschool forall funded programs. This is a continuation of a long-standing partnership between CPS, the office of early childhood, and teaching strategies
as teaching strategies is the only publisher of these curriculum and assessment tools. If not approved, our programs run the risk of being out of compliance with expectations in the early childhood block grant. Risks also include being out of alignment with our citywide programs and being out of
alignment with our K12 colleagues in curriculum adoption efforts. Please note that spending varies year-over-year as we have historically been able to been able to obtain approval for two-year licenses for digital curriculum access. And we've also invested in the most recent update of the creative curriculum
for preschool guided edition and this has helped us lower costs year-over-year. Any question or comments from the board? Thank you for your presentation. Item number eight, authorize a new agreement with National Lewis
University. Good morning. My name is Jamie Bright and I'm the director of prek programs for the office of early childhood. Today we are recommending the board authorize the new agreement for class observations for prek for prek classrooms with national Lewis University. The proposed
not to exceed spend is just under $1.7 million for FY26. The McCormick Center at National Lewis University conducts observations of pre-K classrooms using the class observation tool. This tool provides valuable feedback to teachers, school leaders, and the office of early
childhood on the quality of our instructional and emotional support interactions between teachers and students within our pre-K classrooms. The data from this observation is used to inform and improve teacher practice through coaching and professional development. The data obtained also
allows the Office of Early Childhood an external and common lens to determine the impact of our current investments which include coaching, professional learning, school support, and the curriculum and assessment tools that we just discussed. The uh perspective enables a more objective uh evaluation
of effectiveness and informs our intentional distribution of resources across um schools for the following school year. If not approved, CPS programs risk not having up-to-date ratings for Accelerate Illinois, which is an ISBY requirement. Note that the
increased in proposed spend reflects increased salaries and training costs for the vendor's assessment team. And although this is a new agreement, NLU has been providing these services to CPS since SY20. Uh in addition, the vendor is also utilized by our partners at the
Department of Family Support Services and assessors are utilized citywide to create cohesive and aligned approaches to early childhood education services and program quality throughout the city. At this time, NLU is the one organization that measures quality for Accelerate Illinois and has the capacity
to provide these services for all of our preschool classrooms and teachers. I don't think we have any questions or comments. Thank you. Item number nine, resolution authorizing payments for specialized education services to
various state approved non-public facilities. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Josh Long and I serve as the chief of the office for students with disabilities. We are recommending that the board approve a resolution authorizing payments for special
education services provided by various state approved non-public facilities for CPS place students with disabilities. These are students with IEPs who require intensive support beyond what CPS can offer, including placement in
residential settings. Resolution extends services from July 1st, 2025 through June 30, 2027 with a not to exceed amount of 175 million. If not approved, CPS risks being unable to provide
legally required services and could face significant litigation exposure. This recommendation reflects ongoing input from families and school teams who advocate for continuity and access to these critical supports. It is also rooted in equity and our commitment to
ensuring students with disabilities receive services aligned with their IEPs that are rigorous, joyful, and tailored to their needs. Yes, sir. Um, couple questions. Um, one, um, would you be able to share with us
what the district does to ensure compliance with all these types of facilities and where the facilities are located um, that are uh, caring uh, in essence for our students uh, because I think that would be very important for us to kind of understand especially
given the uh, the big spend here on that. Thank you. So we just have uh over just a little bit over 1,000 students who we're talking about and there's two main groups of students uh receiving services. Those are students who are going to what we would call you know a
school like non-public school like a therapeutic day school and then a very small number just over 60 students who are placed in residential settings. Uh the therapeutic day schools are typically within the Chicagoland area because they're day schools. We provide
transportation to these students and then the residential schools are spread across our nation and and they far and wide both coasts. Um the distinction that I also want to make is within our residential settings we have what is both ISBY approved and non-ISBY
approved. Now, ISBY approved schools are what we always start with, but and we send out referrals and when referrals are not accepted, then ISBY has authorized us in addition to other school districts throughout Illinois to then seek out placement at a non-ISBY
approved. And so, we always start with ISBY approved and then move to the non-ISBY approved. I want to make that distinction because all of the ISBY approved schools both for the therapeutic day and residential have stringent guidelines that must be followed when it comes to compliance and accountability and and we work with them
on that. For the non-esby approved, we internally OSD follow up with those schools to make sure that IEPs are completed on time. We also look at progress on goals and then we look at standards that are upheld within those settings.
I guess I'm I I'm thinking of I guess I'm thinking of it how many students are we placing out of the state but also because they are residential facilities
um and we are um paying for services. I mean, it has to go above and beyond, I think, some of the IEP stuff like like how do we know that these facilities are proper are proper are properly meeting, you know, their
standards for the students that are that we are providing care for. Yeah, absolutely. If there's a rating system, I think that would be really really helpful for us to to understand in terms of of those services. Yeah. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you're
probably asking me more about the non-ISBY approved than you are the ISBY approved. Uh, just because there are less guidelines around the non-ISB approved. Um, in terms of your first question, out of state, the majority, if not all of our residential are out of state. Not positive if we have any that
are actually in Illinois. Um, and with those residential settings that are non-SB approved, you know, we don't have anybody on ground that is there Monday through Friday. I mean, naturally, uh, I do have staff that most recently just went to Massachusetts to
observe where we have three students. So, we do on-site uh, observations, but that's typically once a year at most. And so, to your point, um, we have ongoing communication with the schools. They also within an agreement provide
feedback to us but it is coming from them and we do not have people that are there on a daily basis observing. So it's certainly a good idea to think about you know what would be the consistent way for us to gather feedback and then would be something that we could share with you in a forum like
this. I think it would be great if we could even have like the total number of students that um from the district that are uh placed in um some of these facilities throughout the nation. That'd be great. Sure. And the number, just so
you know, is 63 for residential. Number um what are the kind of performance indicators that are looked at um to evaluate how these programs are going for the students? We frame everything based on the IEP and so everything is driven by the student need
and that's what's really important when we're sending out the referrals. These are really uh these are students with really complex needs and and that's why we can't provide them uh for them here in CPS and it's a very indiv individualized decision uh and one that when we look at the referrals you know
it's it's a it's a relationship with the site also to make sure that the site feels comfortable and thinks that they can also meet the needs of the students but it is all driven by what's in the IEP. Thank you. And I think going off of board member Gutierrez's point about how you know beyond the IEP, there may be
some factors and feedback that's received from students um from families um about a certain um partners' ability to meet their child's needs outside of what's what's in the IEP. So to the extent that feedback could be collected, but that also could be a monitored performance indicator, I think that
would be really helpful. um because otherwise I'm sure there's a lot of factors outside of what's written and documented in IEP that affect um students ability to succeed and the way that students is supported. So, um if I'm sure that some of that information is tracked, but maybe not as formal as
like a continuously monitored performance indicator, but um that's information that I would love to see. Yeah. No, you rais a great point. I mean, just think about the wide variety of, you know, environmental space that the school could be located, what part of the United States it's located in, what access they have to local
resources. So, you're absolutely right. Yes. And yeah, and uh Cedto just raised a really good point that I should be very clear in making. we do not have a lot of options, you know, and and Isby recognized this after COVID statewide.
There was such a large increase in the number of students who uh required a residential setting. They opened up this opportunity to be able to reach out to schools that are not SB approved. This was this was not a rule that ever existed before, but they the state
opened this up to say that okay, we cannot meet your needs. We don't have resources for you. So, you know, look everywhere within the nation. Member Thomas. Good morning, Mr. Long. Um, I I
certainly want to thank uh membershoru and uh for their questions regarding uh review on compliance. Uh I have a a couple of questions and then maybe a recommendation. Um, how many how many
parents uh have applied for services that are perhaps nonresidential? How many parents? Yes. Are we ser What I'm asking I I think is are we serving all of those people who have applied for
services that um go beyond uh IEPs? Would you mind if I just rephrased your question to make sure I understand? Sure. So are you saying um because it's not typically the parents who apply. So it's an IEP decision and it's a team that then leads to the recommendation
for residential. So is your question how many students have been recommended for residential that we are actually serving. Well, you've told us how many you're actually serving. What I'm trying to find out is if there um there are
students that uh need services that have applied that we are not currently able to help. Yes. And I don't have that total, but I can get that for you. Part of the process that I was talking about with the referral is
finding the provider that can meet the needs of the students. And that's a process and that's not an overnight process. And it's also based on beds available, you know, or rooms available in a residential setting. So, we do have people who are students who are currently waiting for placement for
various reasons. I could get that number for you and I appreciate it because when you came before us at Coleman, um I I think I asked a similar question. Uh but I would also like to recommend that there probably
uh agencies in every state that have a um someone to overview, someone you could get feedback with, someone you could collaborate with to to in these residential settings is very important
that we have some sort of guard rail on uh students we're providing services to. And I do appreciate how difficult it is uh to get uh services for students who
have disabilities. Thank you. Thank you. Member Paul. Yes. Uh my question is we talked about ISBY approved facilities and non-ISB approved facilities. Of course, hisby is not, I assume, in the business of
approving uh facilities in Virginia and Massachusetts and other states, but I do assume that other states have some kind of licensing or approval within their states. So, is that a factor that we look at? like you mentioned
Massachusetts. Is the facility that we're using in Massachusetts approved by the Massachusetts Board of Education or whatever or state board or whatever is that do we check that? Yeah. Um I can confirm that for you, but I will tell
you that my understanding is that all of these facilities are approved by the local uh or the SEA the state education um organizations. Okay. Um the interesting part is that you know there's such different profiles with
each of the schools that it's it does vary but yes my understanding is that yes they are all approved by their appropriate jurisdiction. Yes. Okay. Thanks so much member Lopez. Thank you president. Um very similar line to what has been asked and thinking
about the family input. I just want to make sure that we are being proactive, not necessarily just in a uh reactive and that it's available in different methods that families whether they speak English or not are able to provide that feedback. Do you know what the process looks like?
The part of parents providing feedback in different languages? Yes. So, we do have a diverse team of individuals with lots of talents, bilingual skills being one of them, and so we do have a lot of conversations with the families. I can tell you that, you know, our goal is to
always have, of course, the most family input as possible. What I've observed with my team who has handled the residential cases is there is a lot of conversation back and forth just because they're balancing the needs of the family, what the family wants because
our, you know, when these referrals take as much as six months to actually find a placement for a student, the last thing we want is for a family to not be satisfied or to not feel like they've been involved in the process because that's just not a a viable solution for any of us. Um so the conversations
definitely are you know plentiful uh to say the least but yes we do communicate with the families in their own language. Thank you. And my uh final question is I was wondering if there has been a trend of number of students that been needing more of this type of support. If there's
any data you can share with us um you know after the meeting in the last three years. Yeah, I can certainly uh I'll get back to you on that, but I can tell you as a whole, we've seen generally about a 7% growth uh year-over-year and have certainly seen a lot of increase of
students needing residential and therapeutic day since the pandemic. Members, um hi, thanks so much for your presentation. Um I want to go back to board member Pope's question. So, I just called up an article about an outofstate
a New York state uh for-profit residential facility um for which there apparently isn't an oversight process that was serving some CPS students and there were accusations of abuse. So, um I do want to raise this concern because
I've actually heard other horror stories as well about these out of state schools. um we are spending a lot of money and so I just uh really have a very intense concern about what oversight there really is.
Member Dair, I share those concerns and I'm wondering if uh we've tried collaborating with other school districts in the state who may be facing this issue as well. I know families would much prefer to have their
children closer to them and I think that that would be mutually beneficial to the children. So, have we thought about a network of school districts? You know, um this expense we could build our
own schools here. Yeah, that's a good suggestion. Of course, as a parent also, we want to be as close as we can to our children. Uh, Chief Long, could I interrupt for one second just to respond to board members of Coror's comment? Um, board
members of CORE, I I know the article that you're referring to. Um, I just want to note that yes, for the most part, some of these outofstate facilities, we do believe that they are authorized by their seas. Not all of them are. Um, and some of the ones that
we do find our students attending, it is done by parental consent. We make sure that parents understand the risks um to uh see what the facility may add to their child's education and what risks
we foresee and seek their consent in order to place those students. Thank you, Roachi. We have additional questions or comments from the board. Uh, Chief Long, I just really appreciate your leadership in OSD. So, thank you
for all your great work. That's very kind. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Long. Thank you. Thanks. This concludes the first portion of the board reports on the public agenda. We will now move into a short recess. Board
member Brown, do you have motion? M1. Yes, sir. I move that the board takes a 30-minut recess. Is there a second? I second that motion. Thank you. I'll proceed with a roll call. Member Lozano. Yes. Member Smith.
I. Member Lopez. I. Member Thomas. I. Member Bole. Yes. Member Wallace. I member Pope. Yes. Member Rivas. Yes. Member Brown.
Yes. Member Bannon. Hi. Member Gutierrez. I. Member Bixs. Yes. Member Thorakura. Yes. Member Blaze. I. Member Zachor. Yes. Member Deberry. I.
We have 16 eyes, zero nays. This motion is adopted by the board. This meeting will now go into a 30 minute recess. board members. We will now proceed with the second group of potential board reports to be considered at the May 29, 2025 regular meeting. After each item is
presented, board members will have the opportunity to ask their questions and make comments before proceeding to the next item on the agenda. Board members, we will continue with the following information and technology items numbers 10 and 11.
We'll begin with number item number 10. Authorize the first renewal agreement with various vendors for the purchase and or lease of network servers. I'm sorry, network servers. Good afternoon board members, President Harden, Seo Martinez. I'm Norman
Fleming, the chief information technology officer of the great Chicago public schools. You are going to be inspired today by some of the greatest technologists in Chicago. And we'll first start with Mr. Patrick Canard. Thank you everybody. Good
afternoon. My name is Patrick Canard. I am the server manager for server operations within its work with Ed here. He help he is my ma he's my manager and helps me provide good services for the entire district to allow the students to learn and be learned an efficient way to
get their work done. We recommend the board to authorize the renewal of multiple vendors for the purchase and lease of network servers and hypercon convergence at a cost not to exceed 4.7 million for a one-year
term. Authorizations requested for the first renewal agreement with multiple vendors for the purchase and or lease of enterprise servers and associated components essential for the use across schools, network
offices, central office departments and data centers. In IT terms, hypercon convergence, for those who don't know what hypercon convergence is, it combines servers, storage, and networking at a data center into a
single system that's managed by smart software. This simplifies things and simplifies things, makes it easier easier for makes it easier to scale and to be more cost- effective than traditional
setups with separate hardware for each function. These agreements enable its to acquire or lease vital school-based and data center servers along with necessary installation, configuration, extended warranty and maintenance services.
Enterprise servers are fun foundational infrastructure that underpins the district's technology ecosystem within the data center. They host enterprise applications such as student information systems critical for district-wide operations. Currently at the schools
levels, servers support the essential functions such as student labs, administrative desktops, and safety and security camera systems along with students performance evaluation platforms allow the students to take tests. Implications if the agreements are not
approved. Failure to approve this agreement will prevent the district from replacing outdated systems, expanded the capacity of existing systems, provisioning s safety and security camera systems that protect our schools or from prevent them from deploying new
functionalities. This will negatively impact critical data processing and efficient student management and overall safety within the district. Equity focus in alignment with CPS equity framework. Every school benefits from equitable assets to core
technology services supported by these servers. This ensures that students all students regardless of their school's location or resources have access to a robust reliable technology infrastructure ultimately enhancing and
facilitating their learning. The vision connection is the modernization of technology systems. The increase is due from the previous year is due to the additional deployment of safety and security cameras. This is part of the review the the renewal cycle that safety
and security goes through as part of their deployment of safety and security systems and camera systems questions. Board member thora thank you for the presentation. So are the safety and security cameras um like the additional
3.7 million or how much of the 4.7 million are the safety and security? 4 million about about 4 million would be for the safety and security. Okay. So that explains about like most of the increase between um previous years and this year. Correct. Correct. 20 FY24 was
the previous cycle for safety security upgrades. That's why you see the number reflected there. Last fiscal year we didn't have as much. this year coming up is plan for an increased roll out of more safety security systems. Thank you, member Bannon. Just to get a sense of
the the cycle that we're in, um in fiscal year 24, 2024, the 3.6, Six. How many cameras did that replace or what percentage of of the if you're saying that this money is
focusing on security cameras? What percentage of of the CPS system got replaced that fiscal year? If you can boil it down that way. I'll get back to you on that. That's from the safet OSSC uh department. They provide those numbers and just want to facilitate the deployment.
Okay, thank you. Member Zachor, did you have a question? Okay, thank you for your presentation. All right, thank you. Item number 11, amend the second renewal agreement with various vendors for field support services. Now, I'd like to
introduce you to Angela Hamlet and Deborah Price. Thank you, Chief Fleming. Uh, greetings CEO Martinez, board president, and esteemed board members. My name is Angela Hamlet. I am the director of shared services. And as Chief Lemon
mentioned, I am joined by my executive director, Deborah Price. We are requesting to authorize the amendment to the agreement to extend it by one year for field support services with the five vendors who provide uh breakix support and maintenance of school devices along
with other related tech support services. The focus of this agreement is to provide equitable access to cost effective tech support services. So in school year 2223, IT implemented the district funded tech support services um program where
all schools received or were offered weekly to bi-weekly um tech support visits from their assigned vendor teams. So this year and as we look to the next school year, um the spend for this program is reduced due to the budget
deficit. However, it is committed uh to continuing to provide um some district-f funed support hours to those schools who cannot afford a dedicated techco resource. Um for next year, we are looking to provide a baseline of four hours to those schools that need
support. All schools though I want to note all schools with or without a dedicated techco resource will continue to have the option to issue a school funded purchase order with their assigned FSS vendor uh should they choose. The anticipated spend for this
year um was 6.8 and will come closer to 6 million. For next year we are anticipating being closer to 5.2 million. And if this agreement is not approved, the district will not be able
to provide these services to schools who may need the support. Any questions? Yes. Yeah. How I mean what is the percentage of schools that I know we're trying to provide a service if it's needed, but how many
schools like uh in 2024 actually um use this service? Yes. So, we offer the district funded school services to 366 out of the 518
um schools and it is um those numbers um specific numbers I will have to follow up with you. Thank you. Because I think that's important especially with the you know the budget and the things that we have to do. you have to really see what works
and uh and these programs like every year uh there's upgrades or whatever that's necessary or maybe not necessary and we really need to look at them very closely. So, thank you for your report. Absolutely. Thank you for your report. Thank
you. Board members, we will continue. Sorry. Board members, we will continue with the following facilities item number 12. Amend agreement with CDW government LLC. Uh, good afternoon board members. Uh, my name is Paul Valente, the facility
automation architect for Chicago Public Schools, and I'm joined here with Caleb. Hello. Caleb Berber, director of facilities management operations. We're here to uh uh present to you um an amendment to the current building automation and uh installation
maintenance and repair and resource uh agreement. This is a commodities agreement uh for the district to support HVAC modernization, repair and support activities um as well as indoor air quality monitoring. Uh this contract uh
provides us the ability to uh secure goods and services to repair the critical HVAC and indoor air quality uh systems for the district. And we're uh looking to extend the authority here uh to an amount of $40 million. Um now just
note that this is a commodities contract. So we're not asking for $40 million. This would be coming through uh various capital projects uh that would be uh then spent on contract for it. Uh you'll look at the historical spend. Uh in FY24 we we did roughly about 14
million on this particular contract. FY25 it it's hard to calculate the year-to- date exactly. Um but because of the weird budgeting that was going on um we're proposing to spend up to 14 million. Uh so we have a number of contract a number of uh purchase orders
that are being held and um waiting for this amendment to be extended. And then in FY26 we're looking at roughly about $11 million. There's uh some options to renew on the contract afterwards. But the to give you sort of a sense of what these uh these services are. What we're
doing here with this is there's the server components. There's the electronic components to these systems. There's the uh diagnostic and troubleshooting of all the different parts and pieces, actuators and valves and things like that in order to make sure that we provide um proper heating,
cooling, and and ventilation for our students. Um, coupled with that, we're we're also doing a lot of indoor air quality projects where we're monitoring the various indoor air quality for the for the district and working to extend that. Um, Caleb, did you want to just a few just a few other notes on
this particular contract? It is funded through multiple different departments. So, it facilities operations and facilities capital all um have investments against this contract. And the one of the driving factors for the increase in authority is this is a brand this was a brand new contract to the
district a couple years ago. There was no contract with any other school district like it. So our estimate of $8 million a year was just that it was an estimate. We were below our actuals which is why we're here today to um increase the authority.
Thank you. Um, also this contract serves the entire district. So any school can put a request in for services. We have a support mechanism for that and then we can deploy services out to to those schools. Um, yeah, I guess any questions or
comments? Um, thank you for the presentation. when there is a repair request put in for like a HVAC, um how do you analyze whether it can be like just to repair it, which could be a lower cost than potentially replacing it with um
something that long-term is more cost effective like a heat pump. Um how do you make those decisions and how does um this proposal in front of us here allow us to maybe do more of the long-term investment in things like heat pumps? Uh great question. Um, so we we're the
support mechanism for capital and facility operations. So the capital team through its bannual assessment assesses all of the condition of all of the uh mechanical and physical assets within the district uh building assets I should say because there's physical assets, comput assets as well too. Um and so in
with that they build out their condition grade uh for that and then that goes into the overall capital plan um for you know when certain things are going to be replaced. So, heat pumps in exchange for boilers or new boiler systems, new chiller systems, things of that nature.
Um, we serve on the support side of it. Um, we will then if we find something that was maybe overlooked or graded wrong on that, uh, escalate that to the capital team through a capital needs request process that they maintain in
order to say, "This is what we found. This is the condition that we're we're dealing with. What direction do you guys want to go go with this? Do we look at replacement and then put that on the capital replacement list or do we triage it with repair process? Does that answer
your question? Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? Hi, I was wondering the building automation system. Uh I understand that if it were to go down, you can still manually do it. Could you give us an idea of the the benefits and and cons of
having the automated system versus just doing it manually? Great question. Um, so it's kind of a misnomer to say you can manually do it. There are ways of maggyvering a solution and coming up with something to make it work. um that
should be a very shortterm solution because what what generally happens if a system fails for instance you depending on the age of the system I I should preface this depending on the age of the system and the and the complexity of the building uh because more modern
buildings have very very complex uh ventilation systems if that if that building automation system goes down such as like the system that's here in this building um there's really no way of manually doing anything the older systems, you can sometimes get by by
putting it into manual mode. Um, and there's different levels of triaging at that point, but it's basically that it's going to be you're going to be maggyvering it with duct tape and bubble gum and shoe screenings in order to, you know, make it work. Um, in some cases,
it's needed because, you know, the cost of repairing might be astronomically expensive. Um, and there there will be short-term uh things that we look at, maybe portable uh heat or cooling for that particular building to supplement
it. Um, you know, things of that nature. So, it's kind of a kind of hard to give you a real specific answer to that. Um, the less complex buildings, uh, you can force it into what's called hand mode, which is where you flip a switch on the
different devices and then that forces it on. But that's 100% on. Um, if you're feeling the ventilation that's in this space right now, this is probably like 10%. When you go full 100%, you're you have like just constant air flow, noise,
and things like that. So, you're going to get dramatic shifts, you know, in in the comfort in those spaces. Does that answer the question for you? Very much so. Thank you. My question is, can you talk a little bit about the shelf life of current
systems? I mean, I think uh you know, we're thinking about big investments um both in the current term but also long-term um that would be probably good for us to know in terms of what is lifespan currently. Yeah. On the
systems. Sure. Uh so quick little history lesson before we get into the shelf life. Uh building automation systems as we know it as computerized systems are about 30 years old. Um so just keep that in your mind from like a a frame of reference. Prior to that, you had what are called pneumatic systems.
So, it's air pressure that runs to control it. And that was developed by Johnson Controls a long time ago, about 100 years ago. And then before that, you had nothing um other than people manually opening things. So, with the computerized control systems, they are just like the devices that we have in front of us. They are computer devices.
Um we are roughly in the third generation of this technology, sometimes fourth depending on the the vendor. and you get roughly about 10 to 15 years on them. They are built more resilient than a cell phone or a laptop because they're
in not the most hospitable environments in the buildings. Sometimes very very warm boiler rooms um very cold pen houses you know mechanical spaces. So I mean realistically um to stay current you can you should about every 10 years
refresh all that electronics redo it and and go through it. Industry is it it usually recommends 10 to 15 years. You generally don't want to go more than one generation of life past end of life. Um once you go past that then the
options for doing upgrades repair become much uh much harder everything. Does that answer your question? No problem. Any other questions? Thank you for your presentation. Thank you so much.
Board members. We will continue with the following finance items numbers 13 through 15. um since they are being presented by the s uh CFO and uh deputy CFO, I'll go ahead and read the titles and then they can start um going through the each item. 13 is authorized
placement of the board's FY2026 excess liability property and specialty insurance programs. Item 14, resolution providing for the issue of one or more series of unlimited tax general obligation bonds in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 650
million for the purpose of paying the cost of capital improvements. And item number 15, resolution authorizing the issue of one or more series of unlimited tax general obligation refunding bonds of the board of education in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed
1 bill800 million for the purpose of paying the cost of refunding outstanding bonds of said board of education. Good afternoon uh board members. Moslava Mahia Krug, chief financial officer. I'm here with Walter Stock, treasurer and
deputy chief financial officers that will introduce the resolutions. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Slava. Good afternoon, everybody. The first item like to talk about is the insurance
renewals. So, this is a request for the annual placement of all the CPS insurance outside of our health care and and benefits uh to employees insurance. Uh we do this each year and we utilize a
broker Mezero Financial Services in Chicago to help us assist with the placement of the policies. It's a this is a non-procurement item technically, but Mezero was picked through a procurement process. Um and in order to get these
types of insurance, we have to go through an insurance exchange and that requires us to use the broker to do that. So, we can't go do that directly like you might go online and go buy a policy from Geico. This is a a broad big marketplace and um we need to use sophisticated um brokers to be able to
get the types of policies that we look for. We start the process prior to coming to you for the authorization. This is the authorization to actually spend the dollars in the FY26 budget and we need to put the policies in place starting 71 so that we don't have any
lapse in coverage. And really we started this process back in February. We go through a a lengthy due diligence uh kind of converse back and forth with different departments and the broker and the carriers submitting various applications. is there's probably 20
lines of insurance that we need to purchase uh for the district. So, some of the bigger ones that you know might be easy to to recognize would be things like our property insurance. So, we we make sure that we have enough property insurance that if there was some catastrophic event at one of our buildings, we would have some coverage
for that. Uh we also have general liability insurance and that's important as well. That's for slips, trips, falls, any kind of lawsuit, any kind of death, dismemberment, all kinds of terrible things that can happen. But essentially coming in to help us remediate that with
insurance. Um, we also have policies for, you know, student travel when we go out of the country or we go out of the out of this out of the state with different trips. We have some auto policies because we have a number of different vehicles that our employees
use or that our students get on. Uh we also have special events. We also have officers and directors that covers some of the you know things that you do as a board. And then we have some fiduciary liability that covers things like we
have a in addition to our pension plan we have a 457 and a 453 plan that people can participate and we have insurance related to that. And uh another policy that's come into vogue recently that we started to purchase in the last few years is cyber liability insurance. So we you know we
often work very closely with with um Chief Fleming's team um if there's a cyber incident and try to avoid all the things that we can do in order to prevent that type of thing. But in case there was something we try to have some coverage that would be there for us. And
uh I think the last policy that I would mention to you is something called student catastrophic injury. And that's required by law. We must purchase that. So the state of Illinois mandates that all uh schools have some type of policy if somebody were to be hurt in a in a football or a basketball incident. So we
have some pol uh coverage related to that. So um overall we're kind of seeking the same types of coverages that we had last year. We know we're very conscientious of our budget and um we're looking to kind of cut costs. Last year on the top tier we did eliminate some
policies in order to save some costs. We're always evaluating that. Um, generally, you could think about it as we carry up to $200 million in property insurance. That's the biggest policy. And we we carry up to $55 million in general liability insurance. We also
have large deductibles. They're called self- insurance retention. Uh, but on the property side, we have a $5 million deductible. So that means that any fire or flooding or anything that happens, we have to first pay the first $5 million
out of pocket and then the insurance would come in. But that's a standard. That's really a standard um across the board that you would see with other districts our size. And then on the general liability, we even have a larger self- insurance retention which is $10 million. And that's on a single
incident. And so a lot of the things that you know we work with the law department on that they litigate u all the claims all the terrible things that happen a lot of those things we pay out of pocket and the insurance policy is really there as a backs stop if there were what was one terrible thing that happened but it's it's prudent and I
think it's it's you know financially uh something that we do need to do each year and and renew the insurance. So that's why we're asking you to do that. And um it's an $18 million figure. So we're requesting 5% less than what we requested last year. We hope to not have
to go up to that amount. Um but that's what that's what we've determined would be appropriate to try to at least maintain the same types of insurance. Are there any questions on insurance? necessary e board member
Thomas. Good afternoon. Uh thank you for your report. Uh I wanted to ask about the uh the amounts that you're carrying for deductibles. These are standard in the industry because it almost seems like um
they're so large that we're self-insured in in many ways. You're very you're very spot on. Um it's very studio to recognize that it's a balance uh really. Um you may find folks that have smaller deductibles, but
there's going to be an associated cost with that, right? So, if we were to say we think we would like to have uh a property uh deductible at $2 million, well, instead of paying $7 million, and I'm just rounding things and making a
generalization, but instead of paying roughly $7 million for property insurance with with a $5 million deductible, we may have to pay $9 million or $10 million to have that $2 million deductible. So, you know, and and the same thing goes for the the
general liability. Um the general liability and the property are the two most expensive policies that we have and they both have high deductibles that have been I guess walked up over the years uh in order to help save on the
costs because when we we look at the losses and my team, you know, works very closely with the law department to keep track and the facilities team to keep track of the losses. um we see that really we we we can absorb some of the
costs that we're we're we're having um and and strike a balance between, you know, having an $18 million request and say a $30 million request. But um we we do look at that, you know, quite strategically and we think that where
those where those self- insurance retention limits or those deductibles are placed is is appropriate for an organization of our size. I I might just add also that some school districts, you might go out to LA uh or or even other school districts and
they've lost some of the policies that we have and um that's also a balance. It's not a given that you go out and you're able to purchase insurance. So, they always they highly scrutinize everything that happens across the district and I think we're we're still quite lucky to be able to obtain some of
the insurance that we have. But, um you know, we're always we're always definitely looking at that. And I I thank you for your question. I hope that answered it did. Uh secondly, are cash reserves uh um in anticipation
of catastrophe somewhere? Uh sure. Let me say that part of our budget for the insurance um component is not only the purchase of the insurance itself, but the expectation that there
will be certain types of costs uh that we may have to experience during the year. So, um, you know, while we don't want to come out and and see a a $10 million one-time cost hit, we do put in
the budget millions of dollars uh in consideration of what kind of litigation is out there or we put on the facilities um side some type of reserve for repair, maintenance, and some types of things,
unexpected things that happen. And we also part of the risk profile or part of the the risk team is to also ask vendors for insurance depending on what they're doing in the district so that if there's an accident or some kind of liability
that occurs, we can potentially go back to the district or back back to the vendor and we can say we want your insurance to pay for that. So we we do those those types of things too. So, I don't think we quite have the luxury to put all the dollars aside that we would
like to do, but we're trying to plan for that as much as we can. Thank you. And of those uh dollars that let's say that were reserved just in case, you know, there was a catastrophe and it wasn't used. So, what happens to that
money? So, I've been doing this for many years now, and we've always used all our dollars that we've actually put aside. So, um, and there's two folds to this, too, I will say. So there's kind of a
reserve on the budget line and this can get kind of wonky with accounting, but there's definitely a reserve on the budget line for dollars that we expect to go out and there's also something that we put on our balance sheet for some of the cases and you know some of the lit more so the litigation. Um
property damage is kind of hard to estimate, right? We don't know if there's going to be a hail stom or a tornado or a fire. But a lot of what the team does is look at the litigation that's outstanding and try to make a mark and a determination. We meet with the law team to say we think this case
is worth X dollars and we put a reserve on our balance sheet for that so that it's kind of we have some cushion on our financials to absorb that. Um but generally those aren't hard dollars that are put aside. They're just a reserve amount and we look at kind of
historically where we've been to, you know, kind of make sure that there's a balance there and, you know, hope hope that nothing catastrophic. I mean really the big catastrophic ones would be the loss of an entire building and you know
on a on a property side but that insurance is a little bit I don't I don't want to be so brazen as to say more more black and white and obvious but it's it's a little it will be a little easier for us to be able to to um be made whole on some type of damage
like that. Thank you for your report. Welcome. So then moving into the next two items, these are for the bonds and there's a request for two bond
resolutions. So the first is to finance capital improvements that have been previously budgeted and authorized by prior capital budgets. And then the second is a bond resolution to refinance certain existing debt for budget savings
related to the FY26 budget. So let me explain on the first one on the capital side. So we're looking for $650 million in bonds to be sold. It's a maximum amount up to $650 million.
And when I think about the bonds, they uh they play very closely off of the capital plan. So something like 95% or 95 95% or 96% some some high 90% number
of the capital plans are financed by bonds. But for the most part, when we approve a capital plan, it takes several months, if not a year, two, three, for those projects actually to go to flight and
and happen, right? And there's typically a backlog of projects. It's there's only so many boots on the ground, the capital team works very hard. Even the the lovely room that we're sitting in took several months, if not a year, to complete, and it took planning prior to that to do, but that was put in a
capital plan at some point. So, there's hundreds of capital projects across the district from prior capital plans that are in flight. And essentially, we need to sell bonds to help finance those because those are projects that were
promised all across the communities of the district and all the different schools. And it would be kind of terrible to be have to stop those projects. We want to continue the commitment that the prior boards have made to fulfill those those projects. We also have the summer months coming up
and that's when a lot of work is going to start to be done because a lot of the work that the facilities team does is when the school when the schools are empty and that the students are are elsewhere. They can't sometimes get into the the schools and do the work when the students are there. Um so we typically
sell bonds each year somewhere at least since I've been doing this at least $500 million or more for capital. Um it it it feeds off the size of the capital plan. So capital plans have ranged in size since I've been here for $900 million to
$150 million, but they're generally in a you know a $500 million a year range. So you can think about it that we need to sell bonds of that amount to be able to pay for those projects. The last time we sold bonds was um it was in uh October of 2023.
And in 2023, uh, we sold $575 million bonds, uh, in one part in February. Then we sold $520 million bonds. So we sold roughly a billion dollars in bonds in 2023, and we haven't
sold any bonds in 2024. So it's a we we try to balance the timing of the bonds. Every time we borrow the money, we have to start the clock starts ticking on the interest that we repay. So, we try to not load up on the bonds and a bunch of of cash in the bank that's sitting there
um until it's spent um but instead kind of try to buy fi find that balance between having enough money for 12 to 15 months and then going to the market and and getting bonds again. So, we're currently out of bond money. Um so, we're not stopping capital projects.
Capital projects are paid by the operating fund until we reimburse from the bonds. But we hope um to be able to get authorization to sell the capital bonds and potentially get in the market in the next few months. The summertime is a really good time to sell bonds. Um
but we we I also want to be you know full disclosure we have been facing some headwinds with everything that goes on between internally some of the things we can control with our our our budget and externally with some of the things we can't control such as the rhetoric in
Washington and tariffs and basically the bond market adversely reacting to that. There was a lot of disruption and dislocation um in April and March. the bond market was was quite dysfunctional at that time and it basically shut down for a week or
more. But um we're always in contact with the investment banks that help us do these transactions and the the markets is functioning much better now. It's not at the best point it probably was at back in 2024 uh before the elections, but it's it's
better. It's much better than it was when it was dysfunctional back in in April. So we we we're optimistic that in in the summer months ahead that we'll be able to sell these bonds at rates that'll be you know they'll make sense to the portfolio and be able to
reload for capital. So I don't know if there's any questions but I you know that's a kind of a long- winded but I think this is an important item explanation for what what it entails. Member Bennett. Can you be a little more
specific on first of all I want to go back and say thank you for finding the same reason in the insurance it's refreshing to hear costs are going down instead of up. Uh so thank you for that. Um and for your discipline in doing that. Um on the bond sales um could you
be more specific on the rates you're expecting? I mean obviously you can't know for sure until you go to market but um compared to our current portfolio do you expect those rates to be in a similar range or Yeah. Yes. And and let me say I I also want to explain the this
this the second item. So um but I I will answer answer your question and maybe maybe um if I could ask for board members let me answer and then talk a little bit about the refinancing and then maybe I can field the questions. But um the rate so our portfolio is $9.1
billion roughly of existing par principal amount of debt that we have to repay back. That doesn't include the interest. That's just like you know you borrowed these amount of dollars for your car and you still have to pay the interest back. So $9.1 billion is the principal plus the interest. So the total is in excess of that that we have
to pay back. It's 31 series of bonds. The oldest one goes back to I believe 1998. Um and overall the interest rates. the highest were probably in the the terri terrible years of you know 16 and
17 when things were really dislocated for us and we were trying to find our way before state EBF formula got changed and we experienced 37 bond downgrades but those so those rates might be up at the 7% range but then other bonds where
prior to everything that was going on and if you go back to 200 uh8 or 2009 the district was a highly rated entity at that point in time and we may have bonds that are outstanding at 4%. So it's it's a little bit of a a gambit on
when the bonds were issued and not only what our credit rating was but what the market was doing as well. And I guess that feeds into the the next question or the next item if if I will if I could explain that a little bit unless you have any other No, that's fine. Go ahead. Okay. So So the next item then is
the refinancing, right? And it's 1.8 8 billion up to $1.8 billion. And with the portfolio that I just explained in all the interest rates each year, we're always evaluating whether the current market is lower than
some of the existing. So for instance, those bonds that have the 7% on them, the market is much lower than that right now and our credit rating, which still needs a little bit of improvement, it's still better than that. So, we think that there's some considerable amount of
money that could be saved by refinancing those bonds. There's also several other series of bonds that could be refinanced. And so, we've been evaluating this. Um, it's a little tricky. Um, when you can refinance bonds, there's a lot of legal IRS rules.
Um, but you can think about it generally as it's like refinancing your mortgage on your home. I think many of us us have done that. So we often look when it's advantageous to do that, lower the interest rates. We try to not extend the
debt past when it originally was paid. We try to not increase it in particular years. We try to just take an interest rate that was at 7% and put it at somewhere like 5 a.5%. And then enjoy the benefit of paying less interest. And
that's what this resolution is all about is doing that. and we think that it's very strategic to do this at this point in time, we've all heard about the $529 million deficit that we're facing. So, one of the options that the finance team
is is brought to the table, is refinancing the existing debt. So, we hope that if the market cooperates, this will be able to save us up to hund00 million in fiscal year 26 by refinancing the debt. And that's that's much of much
of what this does. So, we're just seeking the authorization to be able to do that. And much like the first bond resolution, kind of get into the market maybe over the summer months when we think that's kind of an advantageous time to do that. I guess the other thing I would
say is that the bonds are repaid by state aid. So, they're paid out of the operating fund. And so, um, you know, it's a it's a balance to the size of the capital plan and the amount of debt that
we would issue. So, each year, if we're adding on $500 million, $600 million of debt, that could cost just interest alone, $30 million to repay that. And so, that that's that's always the balance that we strike. So there will be
some incremental new cost associated with the capital, but then where the refinancing is concerned, it's really just recycling that existing debt and not adding and in fact trying to lower what's outstanding. Are there any other
questions or any other concerns on anything that I presented? No, I don't believe so. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much for your support. We truly appreciate it. The following slides list the standard monthly reports and motions that are listed in the agenda review committee
meeting agenda and posted online. Board members, this concludes the board reports on the public agenda. Are there any comments or questions or any other items? We'll now move into executive session. Board member Banning, do you have motion two?
Move for the passage of motion number 25-0514-2 and the commencement of a closed session to consider matters permitted under section 2C of the open meetings act subsections 1 and 11 are spec as specified in the motion. Is there a second?
I second the motion. This meeting will now go into cold session. Um I need to take a pro call. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Thank you. U member Lozano. Yes. Member Smith. Hi. Member Lopez. Hi.
Member Thomas. Hi. Member Bole. Yes. Member Wallace. I. Member Pope. Yes. Member Rias. Yes. Member Brown. Yes. Member Bannon. Hi. Member Gutierrez. Hi. Member BS. Hi. Member Thorakura. Yes.
Member Blae. Oh, she started. Member Zachor. Yes. Member Dberry. Yes. 15 eyes, zero nazs. This motion is adopted by the board. Now we will go into close session.
There's Is Michaela coming? Oh, okay. We're ready. We're ready. The agenda review committee of the board of education is reconvened. Board secretary, please proceed. President Harden, I would like to note for the
record that there are no items to vote on from executive session. Thank you. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I I we are journed. Thank you everyone.