##VIDEO ID:https://youtu.be/u7vWSjTxRvw## Alright. Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to call the board operations committee meeting to order, for 01/14/2025. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Alright. We can move on to item two, which is the approval of the previous meeting minutes. Did anyone have any changes to the meeting minutes from 12/10/2024? Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on to item three, public participation. We have four people signed up for public participation. The first up is mister Tennis. Thank you. My name is Mike Tennis from Sleepy Hollow. On Friday, the Daily Herald published an article titled Suburban Schools Using PowerSchool Software Affected by Data Breach. District three hundred uses PowerSchool's student information system. According to The Daily Herald, PowerSchool's data breach was reported to their suburban school clients last week. Three questions come to mind. Was the breach reported to District three hundred? If reported, was information regarding the breach posted to the district's website? In addition to names, birth dates, email addresses, and medical information which may have been accessed, did the district also choose to input Social Security information? Looking at the statistical section of the district's annual report, the following observations were noted: demographic and economic statistics indicated the district's population decreased from 136,000 in 2020 to 120,300 in 2024, a 15,700 or 11.5% decrease in population in four years. District operating indicators showed that student enrollment in 2024 of 19,861 students was identical to enrollment in 2015, '10 years earlier. During that same period, area employment of principal employers decreased by over 1,200 employees or 8% to 13,771, while district employment increased by four twenty personnel or almost a 19% increase to 2,671. Types of employment that grew included administration up 44 to 147, a 43% increase. Teaching personnel increased three twenty five or 24% to sixteen seventy six, primarily driven by support staff that grew 188 to three fifty six, while nonunion support staff increased 33 to 183. In summary, the statistics in the annual report tell me there is an imbalance between the area's population, employment trends, and student enrollment compared with the substantial growth of district personnel. The operations committee of the board may want to recommend the administration prepare a comprehensive evaluation of staffing, especially in administration and support staff. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker we have is Michael Gall. Good afternoon, members of the board. So as stated, my name is Michael Gahl. I live on Barrett Drive. I've been a resident of Algonquin since 2018. I am here and a couple of my neighbors are here as well. We are just south of Westfield Community School and, as our understanding, there's a proposal for a driveway connection to the field on the South Side of Westfield, to the Leonard development that's going in near the corner of Randall and, Longmeadow Drive. So, I'm here to speak and, basically oppose the, building of the road through there. Since we've moved here in 2018, I have, two daughters that have one has gone through Westfield, and one's a current student in Westfield. So lovely school and community, done great things for our family. But I believe that, putting a road through that field would be, detrimental to the Westfield School and to the local community. A number of children in the neighborhood walk through that field to get to school. The houses along Barrett Drive there, their lawns back up to that field, and it'll inhibit their enjoyment of the area and their space. During the school year, particularly in the fall and spring, maybe not so much in January, but in in the fall and spring, you'll see that field used by club sports, baseball, football. The school itself utilizes it for their cross country sporting events. And, you know, I've seen other adults in the community use it to walk dogs, personally walk, ride bikes, seeing kids back there playing. I've even seen the boy scouts utilize that field when they have events at Westfield Community School. I think putting a road through there would be detrimental and make all those activities either fully prohibited or, make it dangerous to to have a near roadway with traffic. Furthermore, the the diagram I saw of the proposed road, doesn't go all the way to Sleepy Hollow. It turns and connects to Westfield's parking lot. So this is the location of the pickup and drop off lane. So I think it would be a substantial negative impact on, you know, kid, parent drop off and pickup operations, in the morning before school starts and in the evening when school lets out. So basically you know in summary I think, I think you're going to see that putting a road through this field it just it disrupts the connection between the school and the community that's right there and along Barrett Drive. And so I urge the board to, disapprove that use and, keep it as an open green space for the community. So, any any questions? Nothing further here. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Syed Hussain. Hello, everyone. Syed Hussain. So like Nick mentioned, I'm his neighbor and I have another neighbor sitting right there as well. Basically, I'm opposing to the same road as well. I live basically, the construction that's proposed is running right behind my house, which is 1950 Cosmon Way, right? That's the proposed new road that would connect Westfield to the new Leonard development from my understanding. This area previously is an open field, right? It provides a quiet, safe neighborhood for me and my kids. They go both of them go to Westfield. With the introduction of the new road, though, it causes serious concerns about the impact this will have, both on the privacy and safety, of my family, my neighbor's family, in addition to, environmental risks, safety concerns. Right? So a couple of other I had suggestions I have had is, like, there was no need to build this road. Right? The proximity of this to residential properties is very close. It's super close to residential properties. My question is, like, so what what safety plans have we have in place to mitigate risk for the people that are living in the community? Second is the impact on green space and athletic programs, right? There are a lot of different, programs that are used by District three hundred programs. And then the cost of justification of this, you know, the project is in its early stages, but transparency regarding the potential cost, the funding resources of it is essential. It would be helpful to receive like any financial analysis that's been conducted, to better understand the trade offs between various options. And then what can we have an alternative solution to it instead of that? Can we build the road behind the hill that's there, instead of building it right behind the residential properties? And also even if it's, when I send the email, the response I've gotten is that it's only going to be used for during school open and, when kids get off those hours. My concern is, you know, how are we gonna monitor that? That it's not gonna be used on a regular basis as well. Right? So those are some concerns I have. I oppose buildings are sold as well, and I really appreciate your consideration on this. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have David Rodriguez. Good afternoon. I'm David Rodriguez. I've lived in Algonquin since 02/2012. I have a a a kid at, Jacobs High School and a daughter at DMS. So thanks for allowing me to speak. I have two key points about the Westfield Access Road. First and foremost, I wanna highlight an important figure, from the traffic study that was presented last, operations meeting by, I think, it was Kimberly Horn. She when I was looking at the slides, it said this road would divert only about, 100 cars from Sleepy Hollow Road, at an estimated cost of $2,500,000. That breaks down to $25,000 per car. When you consider that this is taxpayer money, I believe it's essential for us to ask, is this really the most cost effective solution? Spending such a significant amount of money to achieve a relatively modest reduction in traffic seems hard to justify, especially when these funds could potentially be used for other pressing district needs that directly benefit our students and community. Secondly, I think it's critical to question the necessity of the new road. Before we make a multimillion dollar investment that is primarily designed to accommodate the new development and the company, Leonard, why not first try more modest cost effective solutions? Improving and optimizing the three existing parking lots as suggested by the traffic study at a significantly lower cost might provide meaningful improvements in traffic flow. We can then analyze the impact of those changes over time. If those steps prove insufficient, we would at least have concrete data and a clearer understanding of what whether a new access road is truly the best solution. So, basically, what I'm asking is that we slow down and approach this in a more measured and data driven way. Let's make smaller, smarter investments first. Let's make changes to the three parking lots first and see how those adjustments will attract will affect our traffic patterns before we commit to building a road who, again, whose primary beneficiary is the new development and the developer. Thank you for considering these points and for your ongoing commitment, for what's best for the school and the community at large. Thank you. Alright. Thank you. And I encourage you all to stay because we will be talking about the road as an agenda item. So it might answer some of your questions, there as well. Okay. Moving on to items for discussion. Item 4.1 is the disposal report. Great. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments on that? Nope. K. Moving right along. Item 4.2, treasurer's report. Great. Anyone have any questions or comments on that? Okay. Moving on to item 4.3 donations report. Great. Well, thank you to our, partners and our PTCs and PTOs for helping to raise funds for some of these, extra things that help the schools. Anyone else have any comments or questions? No. Agree with you. Thank you. Yes. It's always appreciated. Hey. Item 4.4, CTEI equipment bid. Great. That's exciting that we're getting some new equipment and that it's grant funded. Does anyone have any comments or questions about those? Great. Thank you so much. Item 4.5, ground supplies and equipment bid renewal. Okay. Does anyone have any questions or comments on that? Alright. Sounds good. It is exciting to think about, some of these future projects and warmer weather for sure. Item 4.6, seal coating bid. Great. And I write in the packet, but I know Nancy you always like to ask. This is the non coal tar sealant. I beat you to it this year. One time I wanted to get it in. Yeah. Any other questions or comments on that? Okay. Item 4.7, playground equipment contract. Another question. What is the difference between this rubber surface and the turf? So it's not like it's better than turf, it's just preference? I would say yes and then yes. Okay. And we already use that in our newer playgrounds, like Big Timber? We, no. Actually, Big Timber is mulch. Okay. And and is that rubberized or is that turf? It is not. That was just that was just, mulch. It's just mulch. It's the 88 mulch, right, the mulch. Okay. The first the the the, the company that was picked for this, have they done playgrounds in our facilities before? Absolutely, yes. New joints and then landscape structures, we've used them. I believe the vendor, they've been they've worked in the district for twenty years. And they've done playgrounds? Yes. That's exclusively what they've done, yes. Same kind of material? Okay. I think it'd be good to get some feedback as we get these playgrounds in using the material for the first time just to make sure that it's working out the way that we think it will and and having all the benefits that we, think it will have especially for being more accessible. Go ahead. And oh, no. So I would like to, maybe if we can, keep us posted on how this works since this company has not done that for us before. Yes, absolutely. To know, I mean, how good how good it is and and feedback from, like, how it works? No. Probably not. Okay. I'm just I'm just I just wanna make sure we we get it we get it right. Correct. Absolutely. Mhmm. I I do think it's exciting that the, rubberized, surface would make it easier for, kids with, special needs than to get there and participate to. Yeah. Ends up in somebody else's yard, some hundred feet away. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I had a couple questions. So, the price for the these include also, like, relocating the playgrounds as well. So as we talk about moving forward for playgrounds, I know you can't have a crystal ball and know, like, if prices are gonna go up, but would this be maybe on the high slightly higher end since we're also relocating? Or is this kind of what we're gonna be looking at for the the cost for the cycles of playgrounds? Okay. So this is kind of what ballpark what we're thinking. It will be cost cost as we move forward updating other playgrounds. And then you mentioned that we have a plan, so we'll have a schedule to move through. Do we have a set amount that we think per year or will that be flexible based on what we approve with the plan? Are we going to include this company when we do the inspections to make sure? There's multiple inspections we use, we'll vet those and we'll have a lot of that plan as well. They will be And we and you would include that in that plan? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. And I have to say I really like that the design is gonna be similar so that we have some, equity across all our schools about what what what a playground should look like and what it will look like as we as we work to improve them all. I know that someone's still always gonna have the oldest playground, but as long as we're fair and working through a cycle, we'll we'll get there. That's great. Any other questions or comments? Thanks, John. Yeah. It's exciting to kinda, like, get a jump on our master facilities work moving forward already. Item 4.8, technology services related contracts. Great. It's always good when we find something that might even work better and it is more affordable. So I appreciate that. Anyone else have any specific questions? I'll go last. Go ahead. I have one question for you, John. Just wanna find out, like, are other districts using this kind of, this memcast? Oh, was there was there a reason why you went that direction as opposed to what we have currently? I just okay. I'm just hoping that we're doing due diligence and researching what we're picking as opposed to, I mean, in regards to, like, best practices and, I mean, in order to just reusing them and knowing, like, picking I mean, looking at the pros and cons. No. I'm sure you don't. I just want to make sure that that's done. Okay. I I was on the front not this specific topic but that I wanted to ask him to address. Okay. You can go. I'll let you have it. John, can you answer the question if we were breached during the PowerSchool issue? And we did send communication out last Friday to families to let them know that we did we were not one of the districts that had a breach. Correct? Correct. Thank you. That was what I was going to ask as well. I have a question. Yes, go ahead. I'm sorry, it's like off topic a little bit. Going back to the, playground, do you have like a would you like in the plan that you're putting together, would you have like a because you picked two schools right now, like, and then we've we've heard some of the schools that that been having issues with their playgrounds. Are you gonna put put in there some kind of a schedule or some kind of, like, a timing on on when those schools are gonna be, done? As a result of the master facility plan, we'll have a schedule just like we have the schedule for the order that we did auditoriums in, the order that we replaced roofs in, and the number one thing we will assess is safety and age. And this year we started with two, and then each summer after we will replace one playground unless the board deems more than that as a result of the master facility plan, correct? Thank you. Alright, I think that handles that one. So item 4.9 exterior marquee sign project. Good in our availability to get those different types of components. In front of you up on the board is the a rendering of what this project could end up looking like. We did work with our department of purchasing, to make sure that we were meeting the standards that the district provides. Any questions on that? Looks nice. Are they similar to other schools within the district? Yeah. It looks nice. K. Item 4.1, initiate design phase for parking lot and traffic pattern improvements at Dundee Middle School. And this is beyond the Recreation Drive stuff? It has nothing to do with Recreational. Okay, got it. Okay. How safe is that gonna be for the kids that are getting dropped off? Were they were they bus bus places as well? Oh. Okay. Oh, got it. But the yellow side is where the bus stop is? It's kind of the opposite of how it is right now. The students enter, when the parents drop them off with the by the yellow area and the buses are in the front currently. So just switching it around. So the so the the cars we go off of 72, wrap around, and then drop them off on the side over there? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yeah. I see that. Okay. Does this, require additional like, it shows there's staff control and police control. Is that currently already happening or is there gonna be added cost there? Okay. So based on this diagram here, pretty much there will not be traffic when buses are dropping off the kids, like right in that section over there. I just wanted to be safe for the kids that are getting dropped off by the bus. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There will be no traffic there will be no traffic coming through where the where the where the That's and that's what I was saying. Okay. Okay. Okay. Got it. Any other questions or concerns on that? I mean, it looks like being familiar with the school, it looks like it will help a lot. Although, I have to say, I just completely avoid drop off be because of this currently. So I think this looks this looks this looks better. This looks better. And I'm just actually through the past school, so I definitely Yep. Yep. Yeah. I think this it it looks like it for sure should help, the situation. And it, you know, the main thing is getting the the cars off of, the the road. So this will accomplish that. So it looks it's exciting. Any other questions on this? Okay. Item 4.12, master oh, I'm sorry. 4.11, initiate design phase for parking lot and traffic pattern improvements for Westfield. Yeah. So, in 2023, the village reached out to the school district and asked them to to meet with them over some, over the the new the new, development that was going in, I've witnessed I've witnessed that arrival. Just pull in real quick right there. You turn right in that same space and straight back out. So, I I just have, a question about the roads. So is it only gonna be buses that are on the road or cars as well? So would that require a person to be there to stop, like, a car from trying to come through? Okay. Yeah. John, I think we talked about this in our other discussion, but can you remind me why we can't break break this project down a little bit and do it in bite sized pieces instead of doing it all at once? Yeah. But isn't it possible that we would do one or two of the lots for instance and find out that that sufficiently takes care of enough of the problems that we can not bite off the additional expense? Well, benefits is we're defining benefits though. So clear we so it's not a benefit. There are other, you know, other perspectives about that. So right. Okay. Thank you, John. Any other questions? It doesn't matter. No. I'm just I just wanna say, like, from your from what you said earlier, it's like, currently, if we do the whole thing, it benefits the village a little more than than us? Is that what is that what you're No. I just no. They no. Okay. Because I I was just gonna say the same thing, Leslie said, if we can maybe break it down. Because for right now, we don't have that issue to need that I mean, to to require that road right now. So I think I mean, like, maybe breaking it down a little bit and and do the do the, the parking lot to get the the additional space and whatnot, and then maybe do those other works later just to see what the benefit is. If it solves, like, like, let's say, as mentioned earlier, if you solve the problem, maybe we do maybe we wouldn't need to put the road there because 2.4 is kind of quite of a bit. It's a lot. Yeah. I don't If you can do like in in phases, you know, like phase one. Yeah. I get that part. It has the budget at the North Parking Lot, 7 Hundred 50 7 Thousand 8 Hundred 60 9 Dollars. The East Parking Lot, only a hundred and 41, four, and the South Parking Lot with the connection at $649,399. And then just with the store management, all of the other items at 300,000. So there's not an option for doing the South Parking Lot and not doing the road currently? Like price wise price wise, we don't know what Yeah. Yeah. If we can. Yeah. I think that would be helpful so we could really isolate how I do just wanna clarify the first two recommendations were two separate projects that can be broken off to do parking, and then the South 1 includes the connection, which it was a one other presentation now that we can pull off the parking lot with the road connection. Thank you. Yeah. I think that would help us to understand the the true cost of just, like what are we saving by not doing the road at this time if we chose to do that or what does it cost to do the road at this time as well? Yes. So you're saying it's possible that we can break up the parking lot and the road connection? Okay. Okay. I mean, it would be nice to see what the, the amount is for that. And I think just to clarify from before it was addressed that it was 2,400,000.0 to only impact a certain number of, you know, it it wasn't just that South Lot though. It's the, that's the whole project, all the parking lots. So, that that that figure wasn't quite accurate because you were only factoring in the road and the South Parking Lot. Parking lot. There are other buses and traffic that will be impacted by improving all of the parking lots if we should go forward with that. Yeah. I have a couple questions. So I live by there. My kids went there. I've been in those lines. I know what they're like. And I know that there's always a problem with people not wanting to stay in line. And my experience is some of it I believe is traffic control because if you go in there, I came out of there last year one time and for because I was there for another meeting and I went to park into where I parked. And those cars had they were leaving a car laid space in between each other so they could zip out. And yes, they're having their kids run through the parking lot to get in the car or run down the street. To me, I mean, I would like to see what all that would look like if we actually made those people drive the way that, you know, to go stay in the line, give up the fifteen minutes it's gonna take and then, you know, because I I think a lot of it, especially with that street across the street across from the, the Stonebridge. Yeah. Stonebridge. That they they're doing the same thing there. They don't wanna stand in the queue because their kids can run over there and they can zip out. Also, I don't I think you're gonna have the same problem with the East, parking lot if you put a way through. People People are gonna go, oh, I don't have to turn around. I could zip through. Okay. So that's just meant for traffic for the staff? Okay. Let's see. I'm about as thrilled as this about this road as I was about DMS for a lot of the same reasons. Has the, village offered any money going to or the developer going towards this? 813, I think. We would go a long way to doing the traffic parts. I mean, honestly. Yeah. Right? I'm not convinced that that's, I mean, I'm just not convinced that that's gonna do anything more than having the buses go down Causeway. I know where they would have to go on to Sleepy Hollow, but that's just a short hop, skip, and a jump to get into where they would come in. And I don't I just I'm I'm not convinced that this is something that would be beneficial to us. And honestly, I know that they came from they came from the village, but I'm a little put off by suggesting that we don't have enough access for emergency vehicles and, you know, kinda pushing that. Sure. Okay. Well, I mean, I would like to see other people putting some money towards this thing just other than us. I mean, I'm we're starting to feel like we're everybody's, you know, pot of gold that they can come and take whatever they want from. And and to say that this is not gonna benefit the development, is again, I think it it defies common sense and, you know, so, the other problem I have is we've been talking a lot about the master facility plans and there's all kinds we sat with, you know, we had meetings where we were talking about the various issues at various schools. And there are other schools that have various, like, very serious traffic issues like Celestial has. And and I know that these are these are other schools we're talking about now in conjunction with the master facilities plan but is there such I mean, is is this really something that needs to be done now compared to some of the other, schools that we have that have traffic problems too and parking problems too? I would say that the the condition of the North Lot, yes. Condition in addition, regardless of whether or not we're gonna make changes. Yes. Okay. Okay. Alright. And I just always have to add in there and John hears me say this all the time with the number of years I was a building level administrator, arrival and dismissal are always going to cause some traffic backups for, you know, at least for the seven minutes until the buses leave. Right? So that is not ever going to completely go away at arrival and dismissal. And people, you know, people have to start realizing that they have to be part of the system as opposed to trying to get around the system. So because we we can do whatever we want to some of these, parking lots. Doesn't mean that people are gonna do, you know, follow it the way they're supposed to. So, I mean, maybe we have to ask the police department if they'd be willing to, help us out by doing some traffic control during those periods of time, especially on that intersection because that that's crazy. I mean, we need to have a woman. I do wanna acknowledge they help us quite a bit in many of our villages during arrival and dismissal. Okay. Well, that's good. That's good to hear. But, you know, obviously, there's there's a problem there. Yeah. There's words to do. Thank you. We used to have a woman, though, who's been out granted. This was a long time ago, but, that went out there. She was she was just the person that controlled traffic, and I swear she did better than the police did when they had to fill in for her. I mean, she was really, really good, but unfortunately, she was in Arizona now. So alright. Thanks, John. Yeah. I had, a couple more questions just to address some of the concerns that were brought up. Would there be an impact to, you know, like it was brought up that cross country uses that area with this if we put that road in, is there a plan that's been figured out for how to accommodate, you know, cross country meet with road in cross country, we have people so as a bus, they're on that road would be shut down. Okay. Okay. It sounds like those would both mostly be after school as well. So that road would not be in use. It just would be there. So it'd just be locating the field so that they're not too close to the road for having the right size field, not because there's gonna be traffic on that road. Okay. I think that was it. I had one more but I I've I've lost it. Well, this won't be our last discussion on this. So if you have more questions, we will, Oh, I wanted to say thank you for taking our feedback about worrying about the parking being too close to the track. I think that seems like that was like a good compromise with feedback and, because that was a concern of mine as well. So I'm glad to see those spots will be just gone. Yeah, that is good. Did you just say this is our last discussion or this won't be? No, it won't be. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. Just wanna clarify. Can I ask for this, has there been any, progress on the, intergovernmental agreement with West Dundee on that? Okay, okay. Okay, so any more about the road at, the road and parking lots at Westfield? Okay. Item 4.12, master facility plan update. You're up again. You got one more. Yeah. Sure. I guess it'll be fun but not money wise. I'm excited about that part. So, we're still working and planning with our partners. And at the next operations meeting, we plan to bring a very deep dive of good, better, best in some of the prioritization of that. And then, also present at the February board meeting as well. Great. That's what I was gonna ask is like, how do we get from here to there? So we will now come next with that project wish list in a good, better, best format and talk a little bit about what that is. You saw the preview to good, better, best here and how we kinda how do you address safe, secure entrances and, address places where we know every inch of the building is being used currently and kind of where how do you prioritize that? We think we got a pretty good progress, process in place for that and plan to bring that to the next meeting. Okay. Great. Look forward to it. Looking forward to it. Alright. Your last item, if you you probably thought you'd never get there. Item four, four thirteen construction update. Great. No, that's exciting as well. Okay, we can move on to item A, which is announcements. Next Can I say one thing real quick? John, we we know you've been working really, really hard on this and the the whole team has been working really, really hard. I just wanna say thank you and that we appreciate it. I mean, unfortunately, there are several people that should be here tonight that aren't because of various illnesses. But, you know, we we we do appreciate all the hard work and all our answering all our questions, get us information, and all that other stuff. So just wanna say thanks. And and everybody else who's been involved in the process sitting out there further too. I mean, you guys you know we all appreciate you guys. Okay? So, great partnerships. Very good partnerships. They do. And they get really excited when they get to do fun things like, you know, they'll give us, yeah, give us different, you know, different, additions and things like that and stuff for the schools that are gonna help, make our kids experience even more enriched. So thank you for everybody for everything you do. And thanks for answering all my numerous questions. It's our job. It's our job. Alright. Thank you. I was trying to let let you go but Okay. No. I agree. Thank you very much. These these presentations have been great, and they're very informative and helps us to make the important decisions that we have to make. Alright. Now item eight, announcements. The next board operations committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 11 at 04:30. So a lot of this, I think, will be continued at at that point. Thank you for everyone for attending. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.