##VIDEO ID:Pf2F47Jtkbw## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e and call the uh General portion of the November 18th 2024 Board of Education meeting to order if I could have everybody stand as they are able for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you everyone first item on our agenda is Accent on achievement Dr Johnson thank you president oh okay I thought I thought it was mine I was like oh shoot okay uh in recognition of American Education week uh which is November 18th through the 22nd of 2024 prac of appreciation is going to pre be presented to several of our team members and uh teams tonight but we're going to begin by presenting the Elgen Teachers Association also known as the ETA with a proclamation uh tonight we have ETA vice president Scott sternal and POS ETA vice president Scott sternal uh in attendance to accept the proclamation of appreciation all right so good evening I will read our Proclamation so American Education week whereas the teachers who work in public education make a difference every day in the lives of students who come from all backgrounds abilities and incomes and and whereas the contributions of these dedicated individuals are recognized as part of American Education week November 18th through 22nd 2024 and whereas U 46 teachers are trusted respected professionals who prepare our students for success in life and to help build School communities where all students feel they belong and whereas you 46 employees more than 2,300 teachers now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education recognizes its teachers as part of American Education week November 18 through 22nd 2024 and asks administrators students parents and the community to join in recognizing and thanking these individuals for their dedication efforts and service on behalf of Children and Youth presented this 18th day of November 2024 signed by our board president Melissa Owens and our superintendent Dr Suzanne Johnson just so you know we appreciate all of you and the work you do here as our school board and uh we appreciate all the work that went into the last agreement and we're implementing it and a lot more to come this upcoming year and next so thank you very much and then right additionally then in recognition of American Education week we also have proclamations uh to recognize our National Education support uh members as well this coming Wednesday is National Education support Professionals Day annually following on the Wednesday of American Education week and this evening we have a proclamation of appreciation that's also going to be presented uh to the following groups and their their leadership so I'm going to I'm going to identify the person that I I think I was supposed to be be coming uh tonight from leadership and then if you have additional members of your team that you would like to bring forward tonight as well to join you please do so um so from jya so our district g46 education um support team we have Lori anasto L did I say that anywhere close and Stanis laau I am so sorry please come forward and Lori if you have anyone else you would like to as well welcome forward please do so I think you can go ahead and read the read the proclamation once but then we'll bring all the groups up separately to be presented their Proclamation if that's okay all right um whereas educational support professionals including secretaries PA professionals Food Service workers operation staff bus drivers and assistants serve students on a daily basis and many capacities that contribute to the quality of Education whereas the contribution of these talented and dedicated ated individuals are recognized as a part of Education support Professionals Day November 20th 2024 whereas School District u46 employs more than 1,800 support staff and whereas u46 support staff members work to serve our children and communities with care and professionalism now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education recognizes its talented education support staff in honor of Education support Professionals Day and ask administrators teachers students parents and the community to join in recognizing and thanking these individuals for their dedication efforts and service on behalf of Children and Youth presented this 18th day of November 2024 awesome than I also want to thank the board and u46 district for all the collaboration and the progress that we are doing over the years and especially I'll have to say for professional development so I I really appreciate that so um thank you again for this honor okay so we have the same Proclamation for doing next dusa so we'd like to welcome Shelby Aina up and Shelby you have a you have team members to come with you is the same would you like to share anything thank you I say thank you too I mean we I've been here for 24 years and I love it so couldn't ask for a better career being Us app and then we also have a proclamation for uh du2 and ESO as well but I know we do not have representatives from du2 Oro to accept their proclamations tonight but we want to make sure that we recognize them and thank them for certainly all of their work and support as well along with the rest of our team members tonight so thank you and the next item on our agenda is facility planning update Dr Johnson thank you president Owens uh this evening Brian Lindholm chief of staff and Dr Anne Williams Deputy superintendent of operations will present to the Board of Education an update on facility planning good evening and thank you for this opportunity to provide yet another update on our ongoing facilities work next slide please tonight's presentation includes the following a construction update on our Middle School in Bartlett continued discussion on the Middle School transition options a reminder and timeline for the naming of the new Middle School in Bartlett information on the special board meeting that it that will be scheduled for December 9th to discuss the preliminary boundary recommendations and unite you 46 next steps while we don't have visuals to show our progress at all of our Middle School sites today the planning and design phase for both the Kimble and the Kenyan Woods projects are nearing completion additionally we are pleased to report that the annexation process for the new Middle School for the new Middle School in Elgen is on track as the petition was submitted to the city of Elgen just earlier this month now let's move on to the visuals that reflect our progress at the new Middle School in Bartlet we are really excited to share that construction on the new new building addition is making great progress as relates to the exterior work the installation of exterior windows is underway and will continue over the next few weeks the glass for storefront systems like the one shown here in the middle of the slide is expected to arrive in early December while the roof has been airtight for a while full roofing installation is nearing completion as indicated in the aerial photo on the right Crews will then move on to installing copings and panels along the building's perimeter which contribute to the durability weather resistance and aesthetic appeal of the building's exterior as it relates to Interior the interior masonary walls on the second floor are almost finished with the first floor following close behind metal framing for sofits ceilings and various enclosures is also being completed throughout the addition the picture on the top right shows the completed metal stairs for our learning stairs collaboration area the renovation updates throughout the existing building will soon start to take shape as painting flooring and Cabinetry installation are scheduled through the end of the year and of course our mechanical systems our electrical systems and our Plumbing Systems continue to be installed as well now if we go on to the next slide we can show you some Drone footage of all of the great progress there so if we could play the video please e d as you can see we had a great summer and fall we were able to take advantage of the wonderful weather and so that concludes the update as relates to our middle school projects and I'll turn it over to Mr Lindholm to provide an update on options for our Middle School transition unless you want to watch the video again that's kind of get you pumped up though right even the the music it's kind of like u i of the tiger or something kind of get everybody really the right frame of mind here so uh so the next few slides then are an update and a preview on how we are addressing the transition of our sixth grade students into our schools so in recent updates we shared the updated construction timeline for the new midal school in Elgen and indicated that that building would not be ready for occupancy for the 2627 school year as we had originally planned this obviously has a significant impact on our overall District plans to shift sixth grade close Abbott and Ellis and adjust our attendance boundaries for the 2627 school year so in response we introduced three options for managing this transition that we will review again in a few minutes along with preliminary thoughts on some of the questions and feedback that we've received on these options from the Board of Education as well as at our last unite u46 session Dr Johnson Dr Williams and I also had a chance recently to share our scenario with several other large Suburban districts to get their perspectives since many of them have lived through similar transitions they provided some great considerations that we've incorporated into our planning as well our goal is to finalize a recommendation along with details like grandfathering options sibling preferences and more at the special board meeting that Dr Williams mentioned on December 9th next slide please so to review are three options for the transition are option A postpone the entire shift until the following year meaning the 2728 school year all boundary changes and the shift of sixth graders into the middle schools would not occur until August of 2027 to coincide with occupancy of the new school to be located on Ron Road in Elgen under this scenario our current middle schools including Ellis and Abbott would continue serving only grades seven and 8 under the existing attendance boundaries for one additional year last month we shared that one consequence of this scenario is that the new Middle School in Bartlett would be in its second year of operation in 2627 meaning it would be serving approximately 500 students students in sth and 8th grade Approximately 80% of these students would have previously been assigned to East View and their remaining 20% would have previously been assigned to Kenyon Woods this means that Eastview particularly would have a very low enrollment of approximately 350 students in 2627 Kenyan Woods would also be impacted uh but to a lesser extent it would see its enrollment decline somewhere below 700 students option b the second option would be to implement a two-year phase transition of our sixth graders to middle schools with schools on the east side of our district moving as scheduled in 2627 and schools on the West Side the following year of 2728 when the new middle school and Elgen is completed under this scenario the following schools would transition sixth grade to the Middle School in 2627 under the current attendance boundaries East View teft Canton and the new Middle School in Bartlett our other schools on the West Side including Abbott and Ellis would continue serving only grades s and 8 in 2627 and six graders that feed into those schools would remain in elementary school for that year then the following year in 2728 the new attendance boundaries would go into effect across u46 Ellis and Abbott would be retired and the following schools would then begin serving grades 6 seven and 8 Larsson Kimble Kenyan woods and our new Middle School analist and then option C which remains our preference and would be would allow us to maintain our current schedule of implementing new boundaries and shifting sixth grade to the middle school for the 2627 school year in this scenario we would need to use Abid and Ellis as transition spaces for the first year for the approximately 1100 students that would eventually be assigned to the new Middle School in Elgen as it would not be ready for occupancy next slide please so because I know it's not always easy to follow all of the intricacies of each of these options I'd like to again review in more detail what option C would look like for the transition year of 2627 as I shared previously the new attendance boundaries would take effect in 2627 across all of you 46 but our new Middle School in Elgen to be located on roson road adjacent to Hilltop Elementary would not be ready to serve students so as a result we we would need to find alternative sites for those students assigned to the new Middle School to attend in 2627 the scenario that we are describing tonight includes keeping Abbott and Ellis open for an additional year to help serve those students in this case seventh and eighth graders who are assigned to this to the new Middle School's attendance area would attend Ellis meaning approximately 350 students per grade level for the majority of these eighth graders this would not represent exra transition as they would have likely attended Ellis as seventh graders the previous year then the approximately 356 graders residing in this attendance area would be would attend Abbott for the year we realized this would mean slightly longer and more complex complex bus routes for the for those students for a year but we are confident we can make it work Abbott would then also keep its own eighth graders that year to allow those students to complete their middle school experience without an extra transition because the updates to Kimble and Kenyon Woods are scheduled to be completed prior to the 2627 school year those schools would be able to pick up the additional Abbott students that will be assigned to their schools under the new boundaries meaning that the sixth and seventh graders who would have previously attended Abbott can instead start their middle school years at their newly assigned School meaning Kimble for the northern portion and Kenyon Woods for the southern portion next slide please so this page details some of the tradeoffs of each option including the number of students who would experience an additional transition year under each scenario under the first option where we delay the entire shift by a year students who attended Ellis and Abbott Middle Schools as seventh graders in 2627 would all be moved to a new school the following year as those schools would be retired based on our current projections of those cohorts this would mean approximately 550 students would attend four schools in four years between grades six and N this option also has the primary disadvantage of delaying the Middle School experience for an entire cohort of sixth graders but it would provide an additional planning year and help drisk some of our construction related um uh items and ensure that we deliver a consistent experience for all of our students the second op allows us to shift our middle schools on the east side of the district to include 6th grade in 2627 as none of those schools will have construction projects completing in that time frame the same group of eighth graders would have an extra transition year when Ellison Abbot are closed after their seventh grade year and under this option the transition of the four schools on the east side would serve as a sort of Large Scale Pilot to allow us to complete the construction projects on the west side and sure that those buildings are all fully ready to receive sixth grade students the following year when construction is complete the final option where we would transition all students in 2627 using Abbott and Ellis as transition space creates an extra transition for the approximately 700 of our students who would be assigned to the new Middle School on rson road that would not be ready the first year however because we are keeping Ellis and Abbott open for an extra year it would allow the 550 eth graders in those buildings to avoid transitioning to a new school to complete their middle school experience so in this scenario the net effect is 150 more students with an extra transition than in options A or B we've also started looking into options for minimizing transitions for our students in specialized student services programs for example the ILP students at Abbot we realize these students are often impacted more profoundly by this type of change so we would take every measure to keep them in the same buildings if at all possible next slide please uh next an update on establishing a name for our new Middle School in Bartlett last month we shared that we are nearing a point where we need to finalize the name of our new Middle School in Bartlett this is required for several reasons we need to establish new school codes with the State Board of Education enroll students for next year in our student information system and as well as begin purchasing and installing signage and other branding elements into the new building last week we sent communication to families and residents in the immediate area reminding them of the established board policy and inviting them to submit nominations by November 20th or later this week we've also shared this opportunity via social media and on our website at this point I'm I'm happy to report we've received dozens of responses uh including several official nominations as well as many other short responses indicating a preference to retain HW Hollow as the school name or suggesting Bartlett Middle School and I can say we've received nominations from parents from community members even from a lot of students so I've kind of had fun going back and forth with some students this week um so that's always interesting next slide please so following the due date for submissions this Wednesday November 20th our board policy calls for administration to hold a town hall meeting to view nominations with the public within the next 30 days we would then bring recommendations to the board in January such that the board could take action by the end of that month and we're working now to schedule the town hall meeting in the month of December and we'll share the date and location shortly we'd like to do it somewhere in the immediate area in Bartlett next slide uh so next just a short summary of the special board meeting um that will happen here in 3 weeks that Dr Williams uh referenced uh Administration has confirmed with the Board of Education we will hold a special board meeting on Monday December 9th to review our preliminary boundary recommendations that will also be shared with the community at the upcoming unite u46 sessions this will be the only item on the agenda that evening and it will include preliminary boundary Maps timelines and recommendations for our Middle School transition next slide then following the special board meeting on December 9th we will initiate our next round of unite u46 Community engagement sessions to share our preliminary boundary recommendations with the community and get their feedback next slide we'll host a dedicated session in each of our High School feeder networks over December and January to review the potential impacts in different areas of our district these sessions will be interactive and allow participants to review detailed maps and attendance zones for that particular portion of the district following tonight's meeting we will send our families an update with the dates times and locations shown here and links for them to RSVP we will also share information about these sessions via social media and the district website in the hopes of encouraging wide participation as a reminder our commitment is to bring boundary recommendations to the Board of Education in the early to mids spring of 2025 such that we would provide well over one year's notice to our u46 families for changes that would take effect for the 2026 2027 school year this is something that we plan to honor regardless which of the Middle School transition options is selected and to reiterate the only boundary adjustments that will take effect for next school year meaning 2526 are for the new middle school and Bartlet that were approved by the Board of Education earlier in the spring none of the other attendance boundaries across u46 will change in 2526 next slide so that concludes tonight's update are there any questions at this time thank you both for the presentation do board members have any questions Kate um thank you as always for the very detailed presentation lots of information I'm just curious with these options for shifting have we um communicated with the different unions to see how the teachers the PA of professionals do they have a strong preference because it's not just students that have to transition teachers are going to have to pack up move to a building for a year pack up move to a new building so just curious we talk to them uh We've shared just very preliminary information um during region 63 meetings which include the support groups that were present here this evening have provided uh some of those updates and summaries about what's being cons uh considered similarly uh with the Elgen Teachers Association uh during during monthly contract meetings um but but nothing in in great detail at this point yeah and was looking for their feedback as well I I was actually going to share probably ETA we've probably had more conversations with because after we presented these options the first time I know their their leadership team sort of sought us out kind of right away to understand these options a little bit better so we've probably had more conversations with them than with all the other groups I think that's fair thanks any other questions Don thank you for the presentation um as far as the construction for the renovation of the Hawk Hollow building um it was mentioned that glasses coming early December to finish kind of completion of the shell how does that put us on our timeline for um interior work we are we are actually doing very well on the timeline for the interior work we have um temporary heat I believe it went in late last week um so there are no issues as relates to that that's we're we're on schedule okay and budget I just got concerned knowing that it wasn't fully enclosed yet so I figured i' I'd ask so okay oh no they're installing a lot of the windows but the storefronts um okay are coming just a little bit later so thank you but everything's boarded up and perfect thank you samine I have a question I forgot are we moving any student stents for 2526 into the HW Hollow building we are we'll start with a class of seventh graders seventh graders okay any other questions I have one question on the the um unite 46 um sessions that will be happening at each of the high schools um and at the the Elgen Welcome Center are those going to be substantially the same presentations at each one so the way that that we're going to try to structure these it's going to be more of sort of an openhouse sort of format so um people can will give a window of 90 minutes or so where they can come and go um kind of anytime during that um and then we are preparing um different sort of videos that we'll play at each of those uh much of the video will be the same at all five sessions because it'll just kind of uh give some over overview and context of like how we got here between the you know the referendum how this is all being financed the projects that have already been approved some of the same things we've been sharing here and then the last part would be very specific to that specific Network um and it would tee up some of the potential boundary changes that would impact schools in that area of the district okay and then the rest of the session would be an opportunity for them to come up and and provide us feedback at ask questions review the maps for that particular area kind of in more detail Okay the reason why I ask is because I think it's it's great and I thank you for including some Saturday um sessions on here because I know that the more accommodating that we can we can make it for for everybody in their schedules to to be able to come to this meetings the better um but you know if somebody say would not be able to make the South Elgen session they could still come to a Saturday session at barlet high school or Larin and be able to get their questions answered even though it's it's a little bit out of their Network correct for sure okay yep thank you Don I do have one last question so we have seen the options for the transition now a couple of times what um is the administration looking at for getting like timing on getting feedback and consensus from the board as far as the transition options well I think this would be part of what we'd be presenting to the community to to get their feedback at the next unite sessions but when we bring our boundary recommendations it would also include a firm recommendation for which of these three options that we would purs so they would come together perfect thank you but I I think again um just to to highlight or emphasize at this time we've we were still sorry recommending option option C so if it were tonight we'd come forward with a recommendation for you on option C with some additional details and considerations for that that transition plan so I know we have a few weeks to go yet um but I I also don't want anyone to be surprised if that is what gets presented to you on December 9th any other questions thank you thank you okay the next item on our agenda is the public hearing for the 2024 tax levy and while Dr Frank is coming up to the de I I will remind everyone that um this is a a public hearing the agenda for this will have a presentation on the tax levy substantially the same presentation that board members had at the finance committee meeting um where board members had opportunity to ask questions regarding the tax levy proposal um we'll have additional time to discuss this later on in the agenda uh but after the presentation by Dr Williams and Dr Williams we will have public comments from the audience and then we will close the hearing so I will declare the uh hearing open and you can go ahead with your presentation thank you Miss Owens um good evening again tonight Dr Frank and I will present the estimated tax levy for tax year 2024 our agenda includes a review of the timeline if we can go to the next slide please a review of the timeline and key factors impacting the levy an actual highlevel overview of the actual estimate as well as next steps in the process on the next slide thank you on the next slide you'll see um the timeline listed here as you can see by the dark green boxes we are about at the halfway point earlier this evening during the finance committee meeting a presentation um was provided as well as a thoughtful discussion on the levy estimate and then later this evening that item will come to the board for consideration again at the December 16th meeting we will present the actual Levy and recommend adoption and then in the spring the counties will determine the actual values and tax rates and issue the bills this slide speaks to the difference between the levy and the actual extension and I think it's important to remind everyone that a tax levy is simply a request a request for funds and it is an estimate we use that word often throughout this presentation because there are several aspects of the process that are unknown at the time that we are required to create this estimate um the extension on the other hand is the actual dollar amount extended to taxpayers throughout um The District boundaries and what I'd like you to remember most about this particular information is that every district will receive no more than they request in the levy and no more than we are entitled to by law in the extension on this slide you can see some of the known factors in the process that I mentioned our tax extension from the prior year is the base used to determine what we can ask for this year and we have that base and we multiply it by an indic indicator of inflation um the Consumer Price Index and that indicator for this year is 3.4% uh when you take the extension from the prior year and add an additional 3.4% that gives you the amount that we are entitled to for the new Levy for existing property only now if we jump down to the unknown factors we don't know the value of the existing property we don't know the limiting rate for that property and most importantly we don't know the new property that is within our boundaries so this shows you how there's a lot there are a lot of factors that come into play and about half of them we don't know when we get ready to go through this process with that I'm going to turn it over to Dr Frank to provide a high level overview of the levy great thank you Dr an and good evening board and public there are three main variables in determining our tax levy the Consumer Price and index the assessments and the new property that Dr an had just mentioned having an understanding of these will definitely allow us to help build our tax delivery request TN San CPI let's first start with the law that dictates why it is so important for our counties the property tax extension limitation law or pel was enacted in 1991 pertains to all of the counties that we are in cook Kane and D page the law limits the amount of extension or the new revenues Dr an did a good job of explaining the new revenues to CPI or 5% whichever is lower it sets rate caps on even certain levies there are 39 out of 102 counties in Illinois that are impacted by this law outside of cook and the five bordering counties all other counties throughout Illinois actually have to vote on the law essentially the law limits the amount of Revenue our district can receive on existing properties on an annual basis to CPI or 5% whichever is less the main component within the formula is the CPI within the pel is CPI this chart shows the history of CPI remember a district under pel can only receive the lower of 5% or CPI in new Revenue here we can see the CPI average during the last 3 10-year periods when considering the average of these three periods this means the district only received about 2.4% in new Revenue this percent as we know has not necessarily kept up with salary increases considering that we in a very tight hiring market for Education requesting a 5% increase last year helped us to stay competitive the CPI comes in at 3.4% this year and in future years predicted to even be lower the district will only be able to receive an increase of new revenue of CPI so if we think in order to stay competitive and if increase were 4% per year and the CPI dips below that 4% the district may not receive an increase in Revenue that actually matches or raises however this is a factor we take in seriously when considering our fund balances and as we've talked about before the board has done a very good job in anticipating those in summary this law places limits on the amount of new Revenue we receive limiting us to CPI regardless of the percent increase in property values this diagram shows a direct correlation between CPI eav and the tax rate due to pel focusing on the bottom left if the eav decreases the tax rate must increase in order to generate the revenue needed if we think back to that Great Recession of 2008 assessed values of your own home were decreasing right the property values were going down during that time however the district still needed to operate at the same level we still had to pay bills we still had to make salary during that time frame so in order for us to maintain that level of Revenue we saw tax rates go up in the in recent years in the past three years when we've seen home values increasing then we start to see the tax rate itself go down as home values go up then the tax rates go down this sh this slide shows the exact correlation between those District u46 we are unique period I'll just stop right there we are unique in that our tax base resides in three different counties every year we analyze the revenue and percent realized in each County this input helps us to recognize eav Trends and have an understanding of where proportionately our Revenue comes from for 2023 tax year D Page County property valuations saw an average eav increase of about 133% King County property valuations solent average eav increase of about eight and Cook County solent average of six when discussing eav the key term is assessment this term refers to the township Assessor's determination of the value of your home D paage and Cane County reassess properties annually which means annually your home's value is determined because of this we are able to gain an estimated increase in property values from these two counties so they actually do provide us with estimates whereas Cook County Cook County reassesses an individual every 3 years the map here shows the three different portions of Cook County this year Cook County is reassessing the city of Chicago according to the Cook County Clerk's Office historically it is not uncommon for the assessed valuation of properties and the other two portions so the non City portions to see a decrease in values following the city of Chicago property value determination now that is historical averages not a guarantee but just a historical average because of the sheer size of this effort Cook County does not provide us any estimates so we have to conduct historical analysis to determine an educated estimate of property values in Cook County using the estimates provided from Kain and D page along with our historical analysis of cook were able to determine an estimated assessed valuation of all u46 taxable properties for this tax year we are estimating that property values will increase an average of 9.77% across all three counties and have an evaluation of 7.2 million for the purposes of the tax levy this estimated assessed valuation along with new property will be used to determine how much estimated revenue is generated from all u46 taxable properties this chart shows the history of eav and new property so last year we experienced a planned expiration of a tiff and an unex unplant expiration of a tiff in Streamwood this is why we see our new property from last year at 96.9 million this property is now being included in our total eav similar to the assessed property values we do receive some guidance from Kan and DuPage so can page do give us some guidance on new property and we have to use historical analysis for cook so cook does it doesn't give us any estimates we have to do some historical analysis based on these inputs for tax year 24 our new property estimate is 55.1 million and now I'll turn it over to Dr Williams Dr an Williams to talk about tiffs talk about tiffs tiffs are tax increment financing districts and they're a tool that's used to restore jump start economically challenged parts of our communities as you can see here on this slide we show all of our tiffs and what we'd like you to think about is the section shown in blue that is the initial value of the property before the Tiff period Begins the value is then Frozen for a 23-year period And while property values grow the municipalities utilize that growth to improve the area so if we're looking at the first as an example you can see the value was roughly 80 million and it has doubled um since the initiation of that Tiff so as you can see here we have seven tiffs and three of them are scheduled to expire at the end of next year so we will have two I'm sorry two of them are expected to expire at the end of next year and we will have additional information as it impacts the tax levy because we will likely need to Levy much higher to ensure that we obtain the value for the that portion of the [Music] property now that we have an understanding of the three main variables the CPI we talked about that 3.4% the assessed valuations we have the estimates from Kan andage and and educated analysis of cook and the new properties again an estimate from Kane and page and estimated value of cook let's take a look at the impact that the pel has on our Revenue remember the levy is our ask when setting our Levy we always ask for more than we are entitled to because we have to account for the unknown factors that Dr an had discussed a little earlier as you can see here the blue columns show what we requested and the yellow shows what we actually received historically the district's Levy in extension have been pretty close with the ention consistently coming in right around the finance department's estimation this tells us the inputs we are using for our calculations are the right variables and the historical data we have is accurate so we've educated you on the key terms we've talked about tax levy tax extension CPI assessed value new property so let's take all of those and let's actually talk about the estimated tax levy itself so u46 receives revenue from local state and federal sources the revenue received from our property taxes Still Remains our largest course uh course of income to note on this slide federal revenue is just a little bit higher still because of Esser right we're still whing that Sesser down in FY 25 so when considering historical percentages break down local taxes so typically from our property taxes is about 50% of our Revenue using the estimated assessment and new property we're able to calculate an estimated tax levy here's our first look at the tax levy for 2024 just a reminder 50% of this will be collected and paid in in this fiscal year and 50% in the upcoming fiscal year the bond and interest Levy is determined by our replacement schedules which are known by the counties the counties know that u46 currently as of today needs 23 million to service its debt because of this those things are not subject to pil so the why why do we ask for the additional 3.4% the why starts with knowing where we are today this chart shows our most upto-date estimated yearend fund balances for FY 24 for our operational funds if you think back again to we talked about how CPI at 3.4% however we have raises within our collective bargaining agreements that that are more than that so this fund balance that we've strategically done over the years helps to plan for that the actual fy2 24 fund balances are not known at this time because the audit is still in process knowing the fund balances creates a good Baseline for understanding if additional revenue is needed the district has created a purposeful Surplus with foresight focused on building Construction and building improvements as well as educational objectives created around our instructional priorities of literacy numeracy and conditions for Lear learning of note is the ratio present at the bottom of the slide this is a new requirement for school districts to display our cash and Investments to expense ratio for our operating funds the expenses are calculated using a three-year average a ratio over two means the district could be in violation of the reserve reduction plan act you can see that our FY 23 ratio is 71 we looked at the operating balances which is where 83 % of our expenditures come from our operating funds so now let's take a look at the total fund balances again the why starts with knowing where we are today this chart shows our most upto-date estimated yearend fund balances for all funds fy4 knowing the fund balances creates a good Baseline for understanding where revenue is needed to support the goals and strategic plan of the Board of Education having a fund balance is important for our Financial Health educational impact for Bond ratings as well another key focus of analyzing the fund balance is understanding the difference between our restricted and our unrestricted funds restricted funds can only have expenditures that are specific to the purpose of that fund so this here this chart shows our imrf and our Social Security fund the expenses out of this fund can only be used for imrf and and soci security can only be used to pay for those so think of if you want to buy supplies you can't buy supplies out of this fund have to be only you so it's restricted to that because of that we want to ensure that our fund balance is is stable enough we have been spending down that fund balance over the past year purposefully been spending it down a year over a year ago we had over a Year's worth of fund balance in there again it's a restricted fund so so the Strategic plan is to continue to spend that down another restricted fund is the tort fund which is intended for expenses only associated with managing risk and liability last year we strategically work to create a fund balance and as we start to work on our risk management plan we plan out specifically the expenditures in the tort fund with anticipation of an increase in expenditures in future fiscal years this year's Levy continues our efforts to increase the fund balance with the foresight to meet our goal of having a fund balance that meets 6 to 12 months of expenditures so we've talked about some of the the lingo that goes along with the tax levy we've talked about the inputs the known the cpis and understanding our why so here we'll wrap up our Our Truth and Taxation hearing the law requires a taxing district to compare the amount of its proposed aggregate property tax levy without bonded interest to the amount of taxes extended for the district in the prior year if the percent increase is greater than 5% than the district is required by law to publish in the newspaper and hold a truth in taxation hearing this year the administration's tax levy is under the 5% law at 4.95% so technically we are not required to hold a tax levy hearing however in an effort to be transparent to our taxpayer communities we want to still hold this hearing the public was notified of the hearing on November 11th in the daily Herald's publication of the Fox Valley Paper the DuPage County and North West suburbs this publication met the requirement of not more than 14 days nor less than seven additionally starting on November 5th we published a banner which is required for up to 30 consecutive days on the homepage of the website the banner will remain on the website through December 16th lasting longer than 30 days again in the effort of transparency and the board will not take final action on approving the levy until December 16th board meeting which meets the requirement that a district estimates the amount of money needed from the levy at least 20 days prior to taking official action this chart shows an estimate of the impact the tax levy could have could have on homeowners the estimated change shown is for the u46 portion of the tax bill only right so when you get your tax bill you know there's all types of other entities on there this is just for the u46 portion a few notes Cook County assesses home values at 10% while Kane and DuPage assess at 33.3% which is how the vast majority of counties in Illinois do it 33.3 cook just decides to do it at 10% the state Equalization multiplier is the state of Illinois's attempt to equalize home values across the entire State because cook is assessed at 10% its multiplier is typically around three in order to equalize the home values with the rest of the state the Cook County equalized for tax year 23 was 3.01 63 so they're at 10% typically it's around three because it gets it up to that 33.3% Homestead extension is provided to homeowners who reside in their home as seen here this can be different from County to County and in tax year 2023 Kan and DuPage actually raised Theirs to the $88,000 again these are estimates only and will vary per home based on additional exemptions and fair market values we've discussed all the details that go into our educated estimate for the levy which is our request which is our ask this year our ask will be for a 9 4.95% increase in Revenue however because of pil as Dr an had mentioned because of pil the County Treasurer will reduce our amount so that it does not exceed the pel limit of 3.4% in summary Illinois school districts request more than they receive due to the unknown factors u46 is requesting an increase of 4.95% once the final eavs are determined by the county in the spring the County Treasurer will reduce the total amount extended to 3.4% in accordance with pel and in the spring again the counties will determine the final extension and the rates for tax year 2024 in conclusion this Levy discussion reflects our commitment to providing a high quality education while being mindful of our taxpayers we don't take this responsibility lightly as we understand the direct impact on taxpayers we believe this Levy reasonably balances our district needs we welcome your feedback and are available to answer any questions thank you for your time and continued support thank you for your presentations so does have on the agenda that board members are able to ask questions at this point I will remind everyone that we also have a a discussion on the agenda um later on in the evening but if there are any clarifying questions that anybody wants to ask at this moment okay hearing none then I will open up the hearing for public comments we do not have any public comments for this hearing okay and I will declare the public hearing closed the next item on our agenda is public comments from the audience thank you president Owens and this evening we do have public comments uh coming forward is Brenda Gomez to provide an overview of our procedures for taking public comments good evening and welcome to the Board of Education meeting we are now at the public comment portion of the meeting attendees wishing to make a public comment in person or via Zoom tonight were asked to complete a request to speak form in advance those who chose to speak via Zoom were provided with a webinar ID number to call in promptly at 700 p.m. tonight as always speakers will be given three minutes to share their comments the board listens to the speakers but does not respond to individual questions questions or comments during the meeting a written response will be mailed to the speaker if requested on the form public comments may include the speaker student name if you wish however we ask that public comments refrain from mentioning any other student by name or personal information if your public comments include other students information we will need to end your public comment at that time Those Who provided a public comment but chose not to speak publicly in the meeting were asked to submit an email to board at - 46.org those emails were posted on the board agenda for public viewing for thank you our first speaker this evening is Matthew puse thank you and good evening so for years the lottery based system for the u46 magnet has needed to be fixed to provide a frame of reference School Board isn't based on a lottery the u46 administration doesn't hire based on a lottery the schools don't based don't hire based on a lottery we don't assign grades or test scores based on a lottery so why would we possibly think that a lottery system would be appropriate for our magnet cies a couple of initial observations number one instead of adding resources to identify and help disadvantaged communities rise to the merit-based standards the district seems to have taken the easy way out by changing into a lottery based system and not even addressing the original issue number two it seems seems condescending of the district to assume that disadvantaged communities would want lower standards for their children which only hurts them in the long run in fact we would argue the opposite that they have equal or higher standards it is imperative that u46 makes the manies more Equitable by moving away from a lottery based system we have an opportunity in front of us to significantly improve the magnet cies which can result in students and teachers wanting to move into the district instead of out of the district requests for the district number one through the Freedom of Information Act we are requesting data from E46 on educational results for the magnet Academy's before and after the change to Lottery based system including average and median GPA average in median scores and standardized tests percentage of students who drop out of the magnet cies annually and percentage of the top 10% of students of each grade who annually move out of the district prior to high school number two through the Freedom of Information Act we're requesting data from E46 on annual teacher turnover at the magnet before and after the change to Lottery based system number three we are requesting the school board to conduct an anonymous survey of all u46 teachers asking whether they believe that a magnet system not based on Merit is optimal for students additional qu questions for the district to consider is the 2.2 minimum GPA for the magnet academies the standard that q46 implicitly wants all of their students to strive for this year which I think I think would be number two on the board back there is the in the Magnet Academy application process do recommendation letters even matter if a recommendation letter was negative instead of positive would it matter because acceptance is based on a lottery anyway and I think that's number four up there if taking AP classes instead of being in a magnet academy is a suitable alternative for students why doesn't each school have orientation programs in eth grade to explain the AP system to the other students just like they do for the magnet academies I think number one on the board up there and we realize that fixing this broken system will take a long time and we'll be here at every school board meeting going forward until we can improve it and we look forward to working with all of you on that thank you thank you our next speaker is Paul tribal who is online so Paul I'm going to work to unmute you thank you can you hear me okay yes okay I'm calling because we're questioning the recommendation of The copier RFP based on the districtwide copy rebid worksheet Marco was the lowest bid by we scored the same in every scoring criteria except experience and references this was based on the scoring ref now marro is a partner that's been servicing Elgen for over 20 years the surveys and feedbacks that we've got from the end users have all been positive now currently Marco is servicing 106 copiers that are on contract at Elgen so as far as references we service Elgen Community College who just reup with us and we serve as Rockford public schools which is probably the most comparable sized School District a proven it was a recommendation has never had a significant portion of the copy of business at Elgen u46 so we question the scoring on the experience and references when we gave our finalist presentation we were told it was al46 intention to go with the lowest responsible bidder we feel the grading rrick proves that we're responsible and the pricing worksheet proves we are the lowest bidder um is it still the school board's intention to move forward with proven It On The copier bid that is all my comments for now thank you our next speaker is Scott Duxbury who is uh also supposed to be online I saw that he was online earlier but I do not see him at this time okay so we'll come back to Scott we're going to move on then to our next speaker uh who is Ellen Smith hi my name is Ellen Smith and I am a recently retired fourth grade ignite teacher I taught fourth grade ignite for 10 years being there from the Inception of the program and I have seen changes throughout the year in the students placed in my classroom the students in the first two classes of night current fresh freshman and sophomores in college were performing at a different level as a whole than the more recent students these initial classes really challenged me to Advance the curriculum to meet their needs then it seems the district really focused on admitting students based on local norms and there was a shift in the overall ability of the students being admitted yes there were still the students in the 96 percentile and above who really drove me to differentiate to meet their Advanced needs but there was also students in the 7 percentiles who were not ready for any advancement of the curriculum a student who is now a current seventh grader was admitted into my class having an 8% in math and a 25% in ela on her third grade map tests needless to say she was not at all prepared for any part of my class I used resources from second and third grade throughout the year to Def differentiate for her as a teacher and ignite I was offered the opportunity to attend the iagc which is the Illinois Association of gifted children conference every other year at one conference there was a presentation on using these local norms and I asked a presenter an expert in this area a question about my classroom I stated that how local Norms were being used to admit students and thus I had students in the 96th percentile and those also those in the 70th percentiles this presenter stated that this wasn't really the best way to serve their needs and thus the district should have two levels for this program giving them equal opportunities in recent years I am now hearing from former students who were in the 96 percentiles and above some of them being in the 99th percentile that they are not being accepted to any of the districtm since students only need a 2.0 GPA and two letters of recommendation the pool is much larger and with the lottery system the most qualified students are not being accepted I know for a fact that two of these families their sons would be sophomores this year moved out of the district so their child's academic needs could be best met this is very sad and actually appalling that some of our brightest are leaving I would think that that would be a concern to the board and superintendent I want to ask what the point of the letter of recommendation is if it is simply given straight to the student how honest can teachers be if the students are going to see the letter it would be more appropriate if the letters were submitted straight into a portal that the student uses to upload their application I wonder if these letters are actually read are students removed from the process before the lottery occurs I also am curious what the gradu uation rate is for the students accepted into the academy as freshman what percentage of the students actually complete the four years of the academy has this rate changed in recent years I've heard there are also been resignations of teachers from the academy since the lottery system started due to the fact that the caler of students has decreased and thus they have had to adjust the level of their teaching for students who are not prepared thank you and again we're going to return now to Scott duck who I believe is back online so Scott I'm going to um give you the opportunity to talk Scott are are you there I Scott are you able to speak now Scott are you able to provide comment at this time hi can you hear me yes okay sorry about that I was getting a notification to unmute uh and looks like I figured it out so my name is Scott duckberry and I am the parent of a first grader at Centennial Elementary in Bartlet Illinois I'm here today to express my support for Matthew pulser and to request his reinstatement as the principal of our school based off personal experience I found Mr pulser to be a tireless everpresent force of good for our kids I will share just one antidote and that is before starting at sentennial my daughter wanted to be an artist when she grew up now after just a year and a half at the school she says she wants to be a teacher to me that is a sign of a great institution with awesome Educators as role models that up until October 28th was led by principal pulser it's one of the many many reasons why I trust his leadership and to be honest it's one of the reasons it's difficult for me to trust that this district and this Administration has our school's best interest at heart by removing him because we are worse off without him it's also difficult for me to trust this process because of the lack of transparency I acknowledge and I understand your reasons but I hope that you acknowledge what's happened to our school and that is that the structure of authority that we have enjoyed for years has been for lack of a better word decapitated and we weren't given warning and no public justification for this and for the past three weeks I feel that the stakeholders that make up the Centennial Community have been locked out the students Educators parents and Guardians have no clue what is happening at our school right now and it is scary with the little time I have left I just like to thank the Centennial parents and teachers who previously spoke up at the November 4th meeting it gave me courage to do the same today and I'd ask that if anyone's listening and you know principal pulser and you're willing to please also publicly share your support as as this drags out I'm becoming more concerned that principal pauler needs our help and if it were my child or me or my family and we needed help I know that he'd be there to step out for us thank you thank you that concludes public comment this evening okay that brings us to our next item on our agenda which is board other business board member and superintendent update does anybody have any information they'd like to share Dr Johnson I I want to um thank our partnership our ongoing collaboration with Gail board and Public Library last week uh we celebrated recognized Veterans Day and throughout the entire week we uh through our program uh with Gail bordon for veterans voices had veterans in our classrooms and in our schools uh sharing their stories talking with our students talking with our team members so I want to thank um Gail bordon I also want to thank our veteran our u46 uh team members who have served our nation those who are still serving uh so thank you very much uh for your service and thank you for supporting our students okay the next item on our agenda is Boyer request Dr Johnson this evening we have five Freedom of Information Act requests that are all available on the public domain of board dos they will also be available on the E46 website later this week okay the next item is report to membership 2024 iasb delegate assembly um just to refresh where we left off at our last board meeting we had come to a determination on all of the resolutions that will be presented at the delegate assembly on Saturday um except for the resolution number two ebf authorized charter school funding we do do have a memorandum from Dr Williams regarding uh her conversation with um other members of uh Advance Illinois and the uh Center for tax and budget accountability um recommending that we do not accept or do not approve this resolution based on the fact that there's still a lot of missing answers and additional research that needs to be done at the state level so we all in agreement with that or anybody have any questions that they would like to present to Dr Williams okay the other item is that so we'll mark that or Don will Mark that as a as a no correct so that would mean I will have it pulled from the consent agenda so that is voted upon separately correct correct and I will use what we got from Dr Williams to put together a statement so I can make a statement as part of that process correct so you're okay with what you need to have fine I'm gonna bring up real quickly because uh there was a process to go through to appeal the resolutions that were on the docket for uh the iasb resolutions committee had recommended to do not adopt so three resolutions were appealed successfully so they will be considered those items are resolution number seven which is the cell phone usage um we had marked on that last board meeting to not pull that as a as an item to be considered and then to not approve that if it was pull to be reconsidered same thing for resolution eight officer of Inspector General and then resolution number 10 criminal background check so those resolutions will be considered on the floor for individual votes my understanding so in the sorry to interrupt go ahead it'll be two votes um because we'll vote on the appeal so it's like so how it is on the sheet that we got um in our email it is two votes so though those school districts passed the appeal process they'll speak about why we should give their um their resolution and opportunity so we'll vote first to see if it should be voted on and then if it and I forget it doesn't need I think it needs 67% I want to say it needs two-thirds on the appeal yeah if it passes that then we vote on it like we would a normal resolution so it be it'll be two votes um but now yeah we had NOS down the board so that is how I will vote so unless anybody wants to provide uh a reasoning or wants to have a discussion regarding those three resolutions we do have it marked to vote no no in the event that they do get reconsidered it's possible they won't even come to the floor as a vote because that's a a higher hurdle to to be put back onto the floor for a vote are we still okay with the decisions that we made then last week regarding those resolutions okay so don you have what you need then for Saturday morning as far as I all of the considerations go yes I have all of our votes and I if someone else does gets doesn't get there before me I will pull um resolution number two the ebf charter school funding um resolution I will have that pulled from the consent agenda okay all right very good thank you thanks for being the delegate again this year be super exciting it usually is speaking from experience it usually is okay so that brings us to the next item which is finance committee meeting overview and we'll call up Dr an and Dr Frank again and also will be joined by Elizabeth Hennessy from Raymond James hello again um earlier this evening we had a finance committee meeting and there were two topics two primary topics one was the um 2024 tax levy which um Dr Frank provided a riveting um presentation on and he also provided another summary today during um the public hearing um and we also had a very thought conversation as it relates to the funding plan for unite u46 um that plan consisted of a thorough review of two options um the first option being issuing $60 million in referendum bonds this January and issuing the remaining referendum bonds as well as 32 million working cash Bonds in January of 2026 that is the option that was recommended by District administration based on the fact that it car carried lower interest cost provided more flexibility to respond to market conditions it provided the capacity to adjust for changes in the project timing and scope um it allowed for the preservation of debt capacity and fiscal health and it provided better alignment with the phase construction schedules attached to all of our projects so in addition to consideration for those two options there was a conversation as relates to the County facility sales tax um that is being discussed throughout C Cane County and um I believe that well there was also some discussion as it relates to the tax increment financing districts and the fact that one of the tiffs is likely to come up with a recommendation for extension and those were the topics that we discussed in roughly an hour and 15 minutes and we'd be happy to provide any additional information that you'd like to hear at this time anybody have any any specific [Music] questions no just thank you for the great presentations so thank you and we can defer uh the the public to the recording of the finance committee meeting yes to detail regarding both again conversations about the the lovey uh for this year and then also the the financing for our ongoing facilities projects and we will be addressing these yet again later in the agenda so we may have additional questions at that point alrighty okay thank you thank you okay that brings us to the consent agenda can I have a motion to amend the consent agenda to remove item 14f proposal information Services copiers from the consent agenda and included as a new discussion action item as item 15f so moved second second roll call please I'm sorry I any discussion roll call please miss Kerr yes Miss Khan Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owen yes motion carried do board members have any other items on the consent agenda that they would like pulled hearing none can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second any discussion roll call please miss Kerr yes Miss con yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes motion carried next item in the agenda discussion action first item is itemize bills Dr Johnson Dr Frank Williams assistant superintendent of finance will respond to questions from the Board of Education regarding the attached bills Administration recommends the Board of Education approve the list of bills in the amount of 34,7 6,267 cents read all [Music] so I apologize we did not read through the consent agenda before we uh called for the motion to vote on the consent agenda so I'm going to go back and restify the contents of the consent agenda this evening on the consent agenda we have personal report and workers compensation cases minutes of board meetings termination of DeAndre Mullen Student Success Advocate termination of Dale Tetra bus driver bid plant operations HVAC filters proposal school safety Elementary Network two-way radio Replacements contract postsecondary success skills USA contract renewal specialized student services festar interpreting cont contract renewal postsecondary success Universal production music contract renewal curriculum and instruction Ed puzzle contract renewal plant operations sow removal thank you and my apologies again so we will go ahead with the uh item 15a itemized bills go okay go ahead and read it again all right it's so good we're going to read this twice tonight Dr Frank itemized bills November 18 2024 Dr Frank Williams assistant superintendent of finance will respond to questions from the Board of Education regarding the attached bills Administration recommends the Board of Education approved the list of bills in the amount of 34,7 6,2 $673 okay can I get a motion to approve the list of bills in the amount of 34 m762 6.73 so second any discussion roll call please miss Kirk yes Miss Khan yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss schwar yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes motion carried next we have board policy updates Trisha Olsen Chief legal officer presented proposed changes to the following board policies in the board policy committee meeting on November 4 2024 Administration recommends adoption of the proposed changes okay can I get a motion to approve P Board policies from the board policy committee meeting on November 4th as detailed by iasb press issue 116 so moved second any discussion or questions roll call please Miss K yes Miss KH yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes motion carried thank you our next item minutes of board committee meetings attached to the board of educations review are the following board committee meeting minutes September 9th 2024 Board of Education finance committee meeting October 7th 2024 Board of Education community relations committee meeting Administration recommends the Board of Education accept the minutes can I get a motion to accept the minutes of September 9th 2020 2024 Board of Education finance committee meeting and October 7th 2024 Board of Education community relations committee meeting so moved second and any discussion he roll call please miss ker yes Miss KH yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owen yes motion carried next we have a bid plan operations snow removal services Dr an Williams Deputy superintendent of operations will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends award to the lowest responsible biders a PEX Landscaping Incorporated and mark1 Landscape in the a total amount of $797 40 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure was charged the operations of Maintenance fund the cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year and I have a a motion to approve the lowest responsible biders Apex Landscaping Incorporated and Mark one landscape for the total amount of $79,700 so move to Second any discussion roll call please miss KF yes Miss Khan yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes motion carried uh next we have proposal plan operations Alis Middle School emergency abatement and domestic pipe repair uh Dr Anne Williams remains to to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Weaver Consultant Group in the amount of $2,655 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure was charged the operations and maintenance fund and can I have a motion to approve the proposal from Weaver Consultants group in the amount of $ 42,65434 some move second any discussion s it I see it it not we started November 4th on this project is it completed we don't I know they can't run the boiler until it's done well there are three steps to the process and we anticipated that it would take two weeks and um I brought my team with me I needed to phone A friend is this project completed the emergency abatement it is not because the abatement did so has not started yet but we are in doing we get all done thank you could you recap that just so we we get it on the yes for the record of course um the abatement we have started the planning process for this emergency abatement which is why we're bringing it to you today there is scaffolding required due to the height and the location of the leak um and there are three phases of the project so it will go quickly but there was some preliminary work that needed to be done which is why we are trying to expedite it this point any other questions okay roll call please miss ker yes Miss Khan yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes motion passes next we have a proposal from Information Services C years uh again Dr Williams remains at theas to review the proposal summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education okay can I get a motion and I apologize I'm bringing it up on my computer which is slow can I get a motion to approve the can I get a motion to approve the proposal from proven it and the amount of $17,730 for an annual total cost of6 38,6 12680 over 5 years SEC second thank you I'd like to um highlight some of the aspects of this proposal um that you may recall from our discussion at the last board meeting we are transitioning from a 10-year copier purchasing program to a 5-year copier lease and as part of that we actually did a request for proposal um copy machines are exempt from the bidding process so this was actually a request for proposal which is not just based on price it's based on several other factors in this instance it was it considered price as well as um how the plan to integrate equipment into our current system and our current servers they looked at mapping procedures per building and lead time for deployment experience and experience and references and service offering so there are several elements that they looked at they developed a rubric prior to evaluating all of the proposals to determine how they would evaluate them and of the five proposals that were submitted proven it ranked the highest so again this is this does not require acceptance of the lowest responsible bid it is an ception to the Illinois school code specific to copy machines I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you have about this proposal board members have questions Su it looks like the only difference between Marco and proven it is experience in references could you elaborate on that at all you may not be able to give a lot of information but um Mr Wolf I believe is here and he could probably elabor elaborate a bit more as it relates to the experience and references good evening um yes so with respect to um experiences and references um with the experiences we did have some negative experience with Marco um with regards to paper cut paper cut is the software program that um that holds your documents in place until you you fob in um they had uh a technician had come out one of the instances where a technician had come out had reset the machine and the paper cut um they didn't basically turn paper cut back on and when our level two Tech brought it up he said that's not I don't do that you guys have to take care of that so we contacted them and they said oh no you have to go to another company to take care of paper cut and the incident incidents like that happen more than once with them and what happens is then we have downtime on our copiers which we have longer downtime than we would if they just sent the technician out to service the machine and to reinstall paper cut when it needs to be reinstalled um with respect to um I'm sorry theen experience and references experience what with respect to references there there The Proven had references that were more in line with our size District more more copy machines um whereas Marco didn't have you know who who they gave us um were were good references but we're looking at the sheer the sheer size of what we do here and having references that are more in line with Who We Are I mean I get it we're the second largest but but there are definitely um other districts that you could reference that are closer to us in size and what we're doing here so that was one of the other issues that that we found um we found more we more aligned with proven than we did with Margot yeah any additional questions roll call please miss kerk yes Miss Khan yes Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes motion carried thank you thank you okay that brings us to other business Dr John thank you president Owens our first item tonight the June financial report Dr Frank Williams assistant superintendent of finance will review the attached financial report and respond to questions from the Board of Education all right good evening again June wraps up our fiscal year and it is a important reminder that the district's accounting method is modified acral this means that we charge expenses and receive revenues when the action occurs not when a bill is paid or when a deposit is received because of this finalizing the end of our fiscal year takes a lot of time as we have to seek out every transaction that took place in July and in August and determine when it actually occurred so we know whether we leave it there or we have to move it back to the previous fiscal year Additionally the audit is is occurring concurrently so while the audit is still ongoing the numbers we see here are un audited actuals from a revenue perspective our local Revenue came in higher than budgeted primarily due to interest earnings that came in higher than normal in this tax rate environment I'm sorry in the interest rate environment got taxes on my mind apparently federal revenue came in under budget as grants such as Esser had a remaining balance that we did carry over and budgeted for in FY 25 from an expense perspective salaries came in right on budget so this is due to our fiscal year 24 methodology of budgeting actuals with an assumed percent remember at the start of fy2 24 and it was referenced earlier tonight as well remember at the start of fy4 we were still in negotiations that did not know exact raises so we use an assumed percent to actually determine that budget all other expenses in fy2 24 came under budget then closing in total revenues without financing came in 10399 per the budget while expenses came in without financing at 87.6 n% a budget you will also know on the treasurers report you'll also know on the treasures report a column for the end of the year transfers such as the interest movement from working cash to Tor and capital projects these movements only occur at the end of the year which is why you only see it on our June Treasures report so moving forward you probably won't see that column up until June again next year when we have to make any transfers beyond that as well with that I'll take any question questions or members have any questions s so so the big item on an expenditures that came in way below was Capital expenses I assume that's just because we're we've delayed some of the construction and we'll catch up with that this year yeah so you when when you had the budget for the capital expenditures at the beginning back in June of last year right we anticipated what we thought we would we would have expensed throughout the entire year um as those projects have been kicked off and rolling around right we've been billing things as bills have come in so we anticipate as high as we can or to as as uh conservative as we can and then we just have to let the the bills come in when they do so yes that is one that definitely came under okay any other questions so I have one so the the total amount that the state currently owes the district that currently owes is as of the end of June that's correct correct y guess my question is the given that the state is is currently projecting a shortfall for their next budget cycle and that that number is very low I mean I don't know how many times in my history with this District that I've seen a number that is it's missing three digits I mean it's it's not just it's not you know six digits it's it's at like you know it's below 30,000 which is unbelievable so my question is is what do we expect do we expect to start seeing any delays in our categoricals or or the the money that the the state owes us given the fact that they are now looking at a fairly substantial budget shortfall for the next year yeah that's a that's a great question and one that we continue to monitor we have not heard anything uh coming out of ISB or any other departments that are saying that this is impacting us this fiscal year you know important it is important to remember that with the evidence-based funding that even if for some reason they decide not to put the 300 350 into it we do have the hold harmless and we automatically get the exact amount that we receive this year but we will continue to monitor it as those things are being tossed around in the media and in other circles we'll continue to monitor okay thank you good thank you uh so our next item is the secondary school's financial report for the fourth quarter and uh Dr Frank is going to stay uh right where he is to review the attached secondary school's quarterly financial report and respond to any questions from the Board of Education great this report allows us to look at our activity funds associated with our high school and middle schools activity funds are designed specifically for a cause for example each sports team has a separate activity fund that is used to support each team these dollars are meant to supplement the budgets provided to these schools supplement not supplant in the fourth quarter a good amount of activity at both the middle and high school as is typical towards the end of the school year was regarding field trips so if the highlighted activities you would see a lot of the field trip money being collected and field trip dollars being paid out as well as end of the year dances such as prom shown in this handout our highlights on revenues and expenses that flowed through these funds the end of the quarter we saw both a decrease in balance of about a million dollars again going back to the fact that there's a lot of outflow going towards the end of the year when you talk about dances and you talk about field trips as the school year started back up and activities such as fundraising take place we anticipate to see this balance increase the fundraising is to support the club and the teams and activities throughout the entire year and with that I'll take any questions board members have any questions okay thank you for that one all right and he's going to stay for one more uh we have the investment report for the first quarter and so Dr Frank will present the attached investment report for the first quarter and respond to questions from the Board of Education great they first quarter investment report for July through September provides a comprehensive overview of our investment activities and portfolio composition as of September 30 the district's Investment Portfolio totaled $81 million representing a 10.22% increase or about $74 million from the previous quarter this growth and fund balance is largely driven by the timing of tax revenue collection our tax revenues really start to hit and that May June July time frame but particularly in that July and August time frame these receipts are essential to sustain The District Operations throughout the entire fiscal year as we expect experience a five-month period when there are no taxes coming in at all so December through April we don't receive any tax dollars and going back to a tax presentation that's 50% of Revenue so investing these dollars when they come in is super important to make sure we got the right maturities we're investing the best interest and to make sure that it's not impacting our cash flow so during the fourth quarter the investment mix was 39% liquid in cash portfolio so those are things like your money Market in 61% fixed rate so that was in their fourth quarter maintaining the anticipation of potential Federal interest rate reductions the district continued to proactively adjust our fiscal year first quarter allocation to 34% cash so about 5% decrease in our cash and a 5% increase in our fixed rate portfolios as we sought to grab the interest rates that were more advantageous to the district with the anticipation that the rates are going to drop this strategic allocation aims to optimize returns while maintaining sufficient liquidity for members have any questions soon how do you know off the top of your head how much interest we earned the first quarter on investments I do not know off top my head okay thanks any other questions okay thank you it brings us to work session Dr Johnson thank you president Owens uh this evening we have the elementary Health curriculum proposal C Celia Banks director of curriculum and instruction Tracy jakaitis student wellness coordinator and Mary Jingo student wellness teacher leader will provide the Board of Education with information relating to the elementary Health curriculum proposal do I have this somewhere good evening thank you for having us we are here to um share you through the elementary Health curriculum proposal the purpose of our presentation uh is to recommend the adoption of the elementary Health Frameworks and resources for students in grades K through six it would be a one day a week um course it would be 40 minutes per class and we would like this to begin in the 2025 26 school year we will align this um to the Strategic plan when focusing on Student Success and the culture and climate of and culture climate and Community the rationale for the k6 elementary Health proposal is to ensure that we meet the requirements s forth in the Illinois health education school code mandates um we surveyed in 2013 all of our schools um asking about the implementation of the mandates and we found uh different schools doing different things and so we we feel the need to provide a common districtwide learning experiences and opportunities for our students as well as ensuring that our community has transparency about what we are doing um with the school code mandates the process began with this team of teachers who reviewed mandates and put together um a proposal or a curriculum so in 2013 we did the survey we get teachers together to create the curriculum documents brought it to instructional cabinet for review instructional Council for review and then we pushed it out to Pilot in our 12 schools for rigor and Equity since that push out we have brought the curriculum resources back each year reviewed the teacher feedback made revisions and are coming forward with our final curriculum temp templates resources assessments and Mary Jingo is going to share with you the alignment okay so stage one is talking about the Knowledge and Skills in each trimester so one two and three so on the next three slides it's going to have the state goals uh 24 23 and 22 are the state goals um that the curriculum is aligned to so it's really the foundation of the entire curriculum um it's going to help determine the assessments that are going to be given to the students in the forms of the formatives the summatives and the intentional practice the learning targets and success criteria will also be shared on that document so that we know what students will be learning um for example we'll go with 24 um if a student if a family has a student in fourth grade and a student in first grade they're going to be talking about the like communication in decision-making so they'll be talking about the same like kind of thing but it'll be an age appropriate um curriculum program for them so the fourth grader will learn the age appropriateness for fourth grade and first grader will have age appropriat for a first grader um so that's that our resources is the fun part because this is how it's going to supplement um what the students are going to be learning so we have a few resources that we have adopted or we're looking to adopt for this um it's going to help to guide the cre creation of sample lessons um that we have within the documents that are aligned to the Illinois standards and the mandates that we need to follow um so content lessons and activities are going to be done so Health Smart is one of them that we are going to use Health Smart is really cool it's got a h guardian and Family Resource that is going to be helpful in allowing the caregivers parents Guardians whomever at home to take an active role in supporting to health education to discuss different topics um that students are learning about in class so that they can be supportive so there's um something that's called a table talk and something that's called got a minute where parents and caregivers can talk over with their children what is happening at home uh Brain Pop is another uh resource it's age appropriate there's videos there's quizzes activities which is going to help to supplement the topics that are discussed in class and the next one is class hook these are mini video clips that capture students attention uh really quickly to set the stage for like what the lesson's going to be about it's relatable and it's also going to be age appropriate for the students we believe that the curriculum that you had the opportunity to review uh is age appropriate it's rigorous and it's aligned to the Illinois mandates and the Illinois learning standards for health we do understand some of our families may not want their student to participate in some of the mandated content and that's why we have an opt out option when it comes to uh errands law or sexual abuse prevention in grades K through three as well as fifth grade and sixth grade puberty topics the professional development plan will would begin um this summer we have provided a variety of different options to allow um our new staff uh several opportunities to access the the professional development around the curriculum the templates the assessments as well as uh the resources uh Brain Pop class hook Health Smart catch my breath uh the equipment and teacher resources we have uh a list of that you're were able to review of equipment and different books or texts that teachers would read uh aligned to each content topic uh the Brain Pop resource the Health Smart resource classic resource those are only teacher resources there those are not student access it will be teachers accessing that to to create lesson plans and then um a lot of our content or a lot of our resources or the things that we do in class there's a consumable and so teachers will need to replace like we have some sun beads to go outside and test about UV so those different kind of products we have a germ kit we have you know brushing your teeth so there's there's different equipment that is we can consider consumable so we would like to put in this um allowing teachers um different funds each year to replace those experiences for our students and then the total cost of professional development the supplemental equipment the teacher resources and then the consumables is on this slide $174,500 always doing student wellness um our teachers always provide us feedback after every trimester we send out surveys how did it go what do we need to fix um and then we make those adjustments uh so we'll do that we will do that at each trimester and then we'll have the adjustments made for the the following school year we will collect uh data from the trimester from the assessments how do they feel the assessments went we'll look at the data um and also make those adjustments and then we are always available um to visit teachers in their classrooms to have conversations or support instruction and we are happy to answer any questions you might have about elementary Health thank you for the presentation do board members have questions Don thank you for the presentation I actually have a couple questions I'll you know let everyone else speak if they need to um so one it's we're talking about elementary Health but we're actually going to be rolling sixth grade up into the middle schools um is it safe to assume that how we're teaching sixth grade health the structure of the class is going to roll into our Middle School format okay yes okay yes like I material would change but the setup of classroom I don't know if there'd be a lot of Need for there's there's going to be need for more content um because Elementary sixth grade health is 36 36 classes okay it's once a week for the school year right middle school health is going to be 90 classes right so we are we are already in the process of writing the Middle School sixth grade house so we go back to oh what do we have in sixth grade now yeah let's pull that but then we need to add this this and this so it's going to be a just an enhanced version so we would probably see something enhancement what you see in sixth grade you will see okay in the new sixth grade when they go to middle school with some other things yes makes sense thank you you will just as a a site uh to interject here for a moment you will receive lots of curriculum proposals and resource adoptions in preparation for middle school so it it will come back to you yeah it will look familiar that's fine go again yeah um so slide 15 is the opt out option yes I am it's been a long time since I've had a kid doing Elementary Health how are the opt out forms either communicated to parents how was the option communicated to parents what we do is at the beginning of each trimester there we have parent letters that we sent out to our parents that say here's the content that's going to be covered in this trimester um during that trimester uh for Aaron's law which is uh during first trimester and then um the puberty is second trimester the content is there and then it it's noted if you have any questions or concerns please contact your teacher we like for the parent or Guardian to call us and say hey what what are you really going to talk about and be able to ask us questions because if they ask the teacher questions we can kind of dispel any misunderstandings and have a conversation about this is what what's really going to be said in this classroom and I would say 90 99% of the time our parents are like that's great I want I want my child to be a part of that but if they're still very uncomfortable with it and they don't like it then we will then we will send them the opt out form and they have to fill that and send it back because we have to report to the state how many parents opt out we don't like to just send the form because we need that let's talk about what's really happening not what sometimes people hear is happening that's fair thank you that makes sense any additional questions I just have a clarifying question then so so thinking about that integration between you know when sixth grade goes into middle school and then the rolling into seventh and eth grade we can expect to see along with the sixth grade proposals that we're going to see it's it's likely that that there'll be shifts in the curriculum for seventh and eth grade as well in middle school yeah we will need to we are we are in the process of rewriting eth grade also so they're GNA have one semester and I don't want to tell you stuff yeah secret stuff but they'll have one semester in sixth grade one semester in eth so we're going to change what we have in eth grade okay okay thank you yep any other questions thank you thank you okay the next item on our agenda is work sessions resolutions thank you president Owens uh we have a resolution providing for the issue of bonds and coming for Ward we have Dr Anne Williams Deputy superintendent of operations an Elizabeth Hennessy managing director of Raymond James to respond to questions from the Board of Education Dr Williams do you want me to read this or do you want to read read this I know we were having a little bit of like back and forth on on who's reading what do you want me to read the the the intro for you um I can read it if you'd like do it either way I don't want to steal your thunder we we've been waiting all night for this moment I have I have I've been waiting all night to say good evening again um the administration recommends that the Board of Education adopt the resolution providing for the issuance of General obligation School bonds not to exceed $60,000 for the purpose of funding capital projects approved by referendum 60 million what did I say 60,000 oh maybe I'll start over Administration recommends the Board of Education adopt the resolution providing for the issuance of General obligation School bonds not to exceed $60 million for the purpose of funding capital projects approved by referendum and Miss Hennessy from Raymond James is here to answer any questions and provide a brief overview of the parameters resolution that is included in your packet for this evening Miss Hennessy thank you Dr Williams the resolution authorized is uh up to 60 million of General obligation bonds as part of the 179 million referendum subject to certain parameters there's a maximum interest rate uh not to exceed 5.5% there's maximum principal principal amounts annually maximum levies and the resolution is good for six months we presume the bonds will be issued in January of 2025 even though this resolution once approved is good all the way through June and um the final sale of the bonds is subject to the parameters set forth herein as well as the final approval of the uh Deputy superintendent for operations and the board president so happy to answer any additional questions board members have any questions and we did review this uh somewhat during our finance committee meeting um and especially the the timing of this proposal okay thank you thank you thanks the next item on our agenda is work session 2024 tax levy uh so joining Dr Anne Williams is Dr Frank Williams uh to review the estimate of the 2024 tax levy uh from November 4th 2024 okay um as we discussed during the public hearing the 2024 estimated Levy with new property is estimated at 353 m8493 which is a 4.95% increase over the prior years extension as Frank discussed in detail that um extension request will be decreased once the final tax values and rates are known to comply with the property tax extension limitation law which would allow us an increase of 3.4% for this year um Dr Frank and I are here to answer any additional questions that you might have regarding the process board members have any additional question questions last [Laughter] chance thank you thank you next we have the truth in taxation certificate so Dr an and dror Frank rain uh to review the truth and Taxation certificate and respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends adoption of the truth in taxation certificate do you have any explanation that you want to put to this or should I just ask board members for any questions um nothing to add just a reminder that we were not required to have a hearing this year but in the interest of ensuring that all of our stakeholders are informed we will continue that practice moving forward much appreciated thank you board members have any questions okay next we have the certificate of tax levy so again Dr an and Dr Frank uh will present the certificate of tax levy and will respond to questions from the Board of Education the attached certificate is the final draft of the levy amounts that will be filed with the county clerks the certificate must be filed by the last Tuesday in December Administration recommends the Board of Education adopt the certificate of tax lby do board members have any questions on the certificate of tax Lobby okay okay and finally we have the resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy again Dr an and Dr Frank will review the resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy and respond to questions from the Board of Education the certificate of tax levy and the resolution authorizing the adoption of the certificate of tax levy are being presented an adoption will be requested on December 16th 2024 Administration recommends adoption of the proposed Levy resolution okay this really is the final time I'll ask for you tonight for tonight anybody have any questions okay thank you thank you thank you for all your work on this thank you no problem thank you that moves us to work session bids and proposals Dr Johnson thank you we have a proposal for plan operations Sycamore Trails Elementary School HVAC project Dr Anne Williams Deputy superintendent of operations will present the attached proposal summary and will respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends approval of the proposal from Train Commercial HVAC in the amount of 4,423 420 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure will be charged to the operations and maintenance fund and health Life Safety fund the cost will be included in the budg for the 2024 2025 fiscal year board members have any questions about the HVAC project at Sycamore Trails okay thank you uh next we have a proposal for school accountability Creekside Elementary School needs assessment Brian Tennison assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and Matt Randi director of assessment accountability and Student Success will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education administ ation recommends approval of the proposal from the American Institute of research in the amount of $38,600 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure will be charged to the education fund the cost will be included in the budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year board members have any questions about the school accountability cric Side Elementary School needs assessment so so so this is mandated by ISB and we have to use a I'm not saying that's bad but this is just yes corre okay thank you any additional questions okay thank you work session contracts over 35,000 Dr Johnson thank you president Owens we have a contract renewal for multilingual and Multicultural education department Ready set go Continental Dr lrice satwi assistant superintendent of equity and innovation and gisala pel director of multilingual and Multicultural education department will present the attached proposal and summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with Continental Press Incorporated in the amount of $739 4.40 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure will be charged to the education fund cost is included in the budget for the 20242 25 fiscal year Who members have any questions about Ready set go thank you we have a contract renewal for curriculum and instruction Career and Technical education co-s spaces edu Brian Tennyson assistant superintendent of teaching and learning syia Banks director of curriculum and instruction and Doren Roberts coordinator of Career and Technical education will present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal with co- spaces edu edu edu just edu okay was sorry in the amount of $455 625 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure will be charged the education fund the cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year any questions about Co bases in my defense it's a it's a capital E Little D little U and so I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be edu or proun so anyway I'm right there with you thank you thank you next we have a contract renewal for multilingual and Multicultural education department Roosevelt University dual language teacher leadership program cohort 7 Dr lrice satte assistant superintendent of equity and Innovation and Griselda Cel director of multilingual Multicultural education uh returned to present the attached proposal summary and respond to questions from the Board of Education Administration recommends approval of the contract renewal of Rosevelt University in the amount of $222,700 and requests authorization for District administration to execute related documents this expenditure will be charged the education fund the cost is included in the budget for the 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 fiscal years board members have any questions okay thank you that is the final item on our agenda I will take a motion to adjourn so moved second roll call please miss Kerr yes Miss K Miss Martin yes Miss Nolan yes Miss Schwarz yes Miss Thomas yes president Owens yes we adjourned at 9:09 pm thank you everyone