I call this meeting of the Township High School District two eleven Board of Education to order. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Barron? Here. Miss Cavill? Here. Mister Dombrowski? Here. Miss Lopez? Miss Russell? Here. Mister Van Dyke? Here. Mister Rosenblum? Here. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. To the republic for which it stands, one nation, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. K. The next item on our agenda is closed session. And the action item is that the board enter closed session to discuss minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the Open Meetings Act, appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, setting of a price for sale or lease of property owned by the public body and matter pertaining to an individual student.
May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call? Any discussion? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron. Aye. Miss Cavill. Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Good evening. Thank you. So welcome. The first item on our agenda at this time is that the Board of Education return to open session. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron. Aye. Miss Cavill.
Aye. Mister Dombrowski. Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next item on the agenda is that I'd like to ask you to please join me and stand for the pledge of allegiance immediately followed by a moment of silence. Pledge of allegiance. To the flag of The United America, to the republic for which it stands. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is recognition and we have quite a bit of recognition for this evening's meeting which is a wonderful thing.
First on our agenda is the National Merit Scholars. Doctor. Campbell? Yes, thank you President Rosenblum. Good evening District two eleven board members, students, staff, and community members watching, and community members that are in our audience. It's with great pride that we take time to recognize a total of 43 district two eleven students that are either national merit semifinalists and or are being recognized as having the highest possible ACT score of 36.
Did you all hear me? ACT score of 36. As we prepare to acknowledge these this amazing work that has been accomplished by our students, I will turn it over to mister Josh Shoemaker, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Mr. Shoemaker. Good evening. For more than six decades, the National Merit Scholarship Program has recognized the nation's most academically accomplished students. Those whose curiosity, determination and commitment to excellence distinguish them as leaders among their peers. This evening, it is my honor to introduce members of the District two eleven Class
of 2026 who have earned recognition as National Merit semifinalists. Each year, more than one and extraordinary group, only about 16,000 students nationwide, roughly the top 1% of all test takers, achieve semifinalist status. To put that in perspective, these 29 students here with us tonight represent not just
the top of their class in District two eleven, but the top academic performers in the entire United States. Reaching this level requires an exceptional level of intellect, focus, and perseverance. It also reflects years of curiosity, discipline, and a deep love of learning. Qualities that will serve these students well beyond high school. In District two eleven, we celebrate not only their achievement, but also the people who have helped them reach it. Behind each of these students student scholars stands a network of support parents, guardians, teachers,
mentors who have nurtured their curiosity, encouraged their effort, and modeled the value of persistence. To the parents and guardians who are with us tonight, we recognize and thank you for the countless hours you have spent guiding, listening, driving, and cheering them from the sidelines. This recognition belongs to you as well. To honor these achievements, each student will receive a District two eleven Robert Creek Excellence Award named for longtime Board of Education President Robert Creek, whose twenty years of service,
nineteen as the Board President, exemplified an unwavering belief in the power of education and the pursuit of excellence. As I read each student's name, I also invite their parents to stand and be recognized for the encouragement and support that they have provided throughout their child's academic journey. As you can imagine, our students are deeply involved in their schools and communities and a few of us were unable to be with us this evening, but we are proud of each one of them for this extraordinary accomplishment. It is with great pride that I introduce our twenty twenty six National Merit semifinalists.
Palatine High School, Charlie Bourgeois. Palatine High School, James O'Sullivan. Fremt High School, Sata Bimarasetti. Fremt High School, Sairam Bietro. Fremt High School, Kabir Iyengar. Fromt High School, Steven Long. From the high school, Daeta Mandal. From the high school, Mantra Mittal. Framed High School, Hannah O'Keefe. Fromt High School, Malavika Pisherodin. From the high school, Anika Palala. From the high school, Ronick Roy.
From the high school, Andrew AJ Song. Framt High School, Sophie Zelle. Conant High School, Nandini Indragatni. Conant High School, Dylan Jha. Conant High School, Anuva Shakhar. Conant High School, Cooper Julian. Conant High School, Elizabeth Kim. Conant High School, Priyanka Rosden. Conant High School, David Hsu. Schaumburg High School, Jack Alton. Schaumburg High School, Nick Dragomiroff. Schaumburg High School, Abraham Thomas. Hoffman Estates High School, Saude Khan.
And those are your National Merit semifinalists. We want to say congratulations to our students. We would like to take a picture with the students if board members could please students find your window, scrunch in, and we will join behind you for a big photo op. Here. Good evening again. It's my privilege to be back this evening to recognize and accept a different exceptional group of students from district two eleven, class of 2026, who have achieved one of the other rarest academic distinctions in the nation, a perfect composite score of 36 on
the ACT. Each year, more than 1,400,000 students across The United States take the ACT as part of the college admissions process. Of those test takers, fewer than one tenth of 1%. I'll say it again. Fewer than one tenth of 10 of 1% earn a perfect score. To achieve a 36 requires extraordinary ability, focus, and persistence, mastery across English, mathematics, reading, science, and writing, and the composure to demonstrate that excellence in a single setting.
These students represent the very best of what it means to be a District two eleven scholar, inquisitive, disciplined, and deeply motivated to reach their fullest potential. We also want to take a moment again to honor the parents and guardians who have supported these students along the way. Behind every perfect score is a foundation of encouragement, families who value education, model perseverance, and provide the balance and belief that allow your young people to thrive. To the parents and guardians who are with us tonight, thank you for your partnership, your patience, and your unwavering support.
You share in this accomplishment tonight. To commemorate this achievement, each student will receive the District two eleven medallion, which demonstrates excellence in a milestone achievement during their four years in high school. The 28 students invited to be honored tonight will join the previous list of 167 District two eleven students who have earned a perfect score on the ACT before them. As I read each student's name, I invite parents to stand again and be recognized for your role that you've played in supporting your child's educational journey. Again, a few of the students were unable to be with us this evening due
to other commitments, but we proudly recognize each of them for this extraordinary distinction. It is my honor to introduce you to the District two eleven students who earned a perfect score on the ACT. And I may just say, if you saw 11 of those students who were up here before are also joining their colleagues to get the second distinction. So first on our list from Palatine High School, Charlie Bourgeois. Also from Palatine High School, Dave Duper. From Frampt High School, Sriram Pitra. Frampt High School, Ashwarya Ethra. Fromt High School, Maureen Gufor.
Fromt High School, Neil Huff. Fromt High School, Riley Kwan. Fromt High School, Samuel Malcolm. Fromt High School, Daeta Mandal. Friend High School, Vishak Nilamana. Friend High School, Hannah O'Keefe. Friend High School, Malavika Picharodi. From high school, Katherine Chin. From the high school, Ronick Roy. From the high school, Andrew AJ Song. Fromed high school, Miles Svec. From high school, Marari Thodom.
Fromed High School, Sophie Zoe. Conant High School, Nandini Indragaddi. Conant High School, Dylan Jha. Conant High School, Cooper Julian. Conant High School, Jiho Park. Conant High School, Rian Patel. Schaumburg High School, Michelle Bujak Belzovska. Schaumburg High School, Sofia Mishler. Hoffman Estates High School, Yasmina Kokieva. Your District two eleven Perfect ACT Scholars. So we are we, again, we're gonna take another picture and I must apologize because
this first picture should have included all of the amazing principals that are providing the award. So charge it to my head, not my heart, but please join us with the board to take the picture with these amazing students. Well, first of all, I wanna congratulate all of our scholars and perfect ACT score students. What a phenomenal, phenomenal achievement. And thank you parents, because I know it's not easy being a parent because I've got two myself who are Saxon alumni.
And so I know the sacrifices that you and your family have made to get these students to where they are today. And it doesn't just happen in our schools, it also happens in your homes and in our communities, so thank you very much. We're gonna take a five minute break or pictures up here on our podium stands area or anywhere else in this boardroom that you'd like to take pictures of your students. So we're gonna take a five minute break and then we'll begin our board business after that.
Thank you very much again. If you could please stay here and just have a seat for just one more moment. So stick stick around. Have a seat for just one more moment. Have a seat. We have one more recognition item before we move forward. You're gonna wanna stick around. Okay. As I mentioned, we have one more item for recognition. And, for this, I will turn it over to doctor Campbell. Thank you. Could I ask miss Rebecca, known as Becky McNami, to please come forward.
If you could face the audience, we have some important words to state. Thanks to the quick thinking and calm response of miss Rebecca, known as Becky McNami, a valued member of Schaumburg High School support staff, a serious situation was safely resolved. When a student began choking during lunch, miss McNami quickly noticed something was wrong and stepped in to help, performing the Heimlich maneuver without hesitation. I want to add, not only did she perform the Heimlich maneuver without hesitation one
time, she did it twice. Her quick action and care made all the difference difference that day. We are so grateful for her courage, kindness, and dedication to keeping our students safe. Joining us tonight is chief Fabio Puccini from Schaumburg Fire Department who will assist us in recognizing miss Musnami this evening. Chief Puccini, could you please come up? I'd like to say thank you for inviting me out here. This is a, a special deal for us.
Also, we teach CPR and first aid and Heimlich maneuver to many people every year. It's not often, fortunately enough, that we have these opportunities to come face to face with a first responder, a civilian who actually performs it. I did some quick research. The last data I can find is from 2023. Choking took the lives of over five thousand people, five thousand five hundred people the year 2023. So from your actions, you definitely prevented a statistic from happening. We do have a civilian life safety award on behalf of the Schaumburg Fire Department.
Give me a moment here. I'll read what the award is, and we'll be happy to present it to you. So Schaumburg Fire Department Civilian Life Safety Award presented to Rebecca McNamee. Is that correct? McNamee. McNamee. Okay. In testimony of their contribution and service to the ability of Schaumburg And Schaumburg High School, this individual is awarded the civilian life safety award for their quick thinking and composure under pressure at the below described incident. When a student choked on a piece of food, miss McMenemy quickly and calmly took control of the situation performing the Heimlich maneuver and directing another staff member to call
for help. When the obstruction reoccurred, miss McNamee persisted with remarkable courage and determination utilizing every possible method until the food was dislodged and the student could breathe again. Miss McNamee was quick thinking, composure, and refusal to give up exemplify true heroism and compassion. Her actions embody the highest ideals of care, courage, and services to others. Congratulations, Rebecca, on successful efforts. They're resuscitating a life. We would like a pitcher also with Chief, also with Principal Mokahn.
Thank you and thank you chief and thank you thank you Becky for all that you've done and in saving a life of one of our students and a member of our community. Thank you all very much again. We're going to proceed with board business. You are more than welcome to stick around if you'd like. Is there any didn't get a chance. Oh, so we're gonna we're gonna take another pause before we move on for anybody who was really in line to get photos taken.
Okay. The next item on our agenda is public comments. The Board welcomes your participation and values hearing from our community. Please remember this is a meeting of the Board held in public and not a dialogue, so Board members will not respond or answer questions during this time. Comments should focus on school district matters. And to protect privacy, please do not mention or identify individual students. We ask everyone to speak with respect and civility so each voice can be heard. Vulgar, obscene, libelous language, or interruptions will not be tolerated.
If you have concerns about district staff or board members, please follow the district's communication protocols so they can be addressed appropriately. Please note, the meeting is recorded and being live streamed. It's being watched by people from across our community, including neighbors, staff, parents, and students. Therefore, we ask that you value the procedures and decorum of our meeting, being nice and respectful of those at the podium so they may be heard. When I call your name, please come to the podium and state your name for the record. You may also choose to state if you are a resident of the district.
You will have three minutes to share your comments. Please note that your time may not be given to another speaker. The timer on the screen will guide you. If you'd like a response from the superintendent, please leave your contact information with Teniper at the end of the table. Thank you. The first name on the list is Kathy Reesberg followed by Lee Bennett. Good evening. My name is Kathy Reisberg and as a resident of Palatine for the past forty seven years, I wanna thank you and the entire d two eleven staff for valuing
and respecting and protecting all of our students no matter their zip code, the color of their skin, their faith, their gender, or gender identity, and for making the safety of every student a priority in d two eleven. Since October is domestic violence awareness month, tonight I wanted to share a few thoughts and facts about domestic violence. More than 70. According to research, that's how many women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month in The US. It's so heartbreaking to read the research and learn that each and every month in The US more than 70 of our most cherished daughters, beloved sisters, dearest best friends,
fun loving cousins, and colleagues have their lives tragically and needlessly taken from them and from us and from our world by domestic violence in one of the most violent forms through the use of a gun. The impact of guns in the hands of abusive partners according to the same research has a ripple effect on all of us. The children who witnessed or live with it, the family members, coworkers, and law enforcement officers who respond to it. And the research is clear, domestic violence often hides in the darkness of silence and shame and is a tragic public health crisis impacting countless of families in our country
and our very own d two eleven community. We know from the research that a woman including our teen cisgender and transgender girls are five times more likely to be killed by an abusive partner if the partner has access to a gun. We also know that secure gun storage is so wisely being promoted by d two eleven and local police departments can prevent unintentional shootings and delay access by someone who wishes to harm themselves and others. Fortunately, thanks to Wings Program Inc, the largest provider of domestic violence related housing integrated
services and advocacy in Illinois, here in this room all of us here in this room and listening to this livestream stream can go to wingsprogram.com or call the wings twenty four hour hotline (847) 519-7820. That's (847) 519-7820 to learn how to break the cycle of domestic violence including teen dating violence and research indicates impacts up to nineteen percent of her teens. So my thanks again to you Doctor. Campbell and all of you on the board and the d two eleven staff for
looking out for the safety of every student and for this chance to speak tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Lee Bennett. Hello, doctor Campbell, mister Schumacher, mister Rosenblum, miss Cavill, miss Baron, mister Dombrowski, miss Lopez, miss Russell, mister Van Dyke, staff whose long work day will hopefully end before long, and other regular attenders. I'm Lee Bennett, proponent of a particular change.
I've used this forum to ask our district or rather our athletic conference to add a team. An older, wiser friend of mine advised that this might not be an effective use of my time. In his experience, it's usually difficult to convince a large organization to change course, especially regarding traditions like sports, the sports we play, which change very slowly. Now I ask each of you a question you can personally act on tonight. Would you sign a petition for more boys volleyball at your local public high school?
Hundreds have already signed petitions for the MSL school districts requesting another boys volleyball team the highest cut sport. This includes many expressing opposing views regarding our girls volleyball program. Please add yours as well. As this petition is from the voters, you need to sign it in the district where you live. In addition to the petition to our district, there are petition pages for the other MSL districts, Arlington Heights two fourteen and Barrington's two twenty.
Anyone living further west can sign a petition to start a boys volleyball program in Algonquin's district 300, Crystal Lake's district 155, McHenry's district 156, and Wakanda's district 118. Would appreciate your support for aligning our athletic offerings with the interests of our students. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is a presentation regarding district academic Goals Progress Report for the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five.
And, I will turn it over to Doctor. Campbell. Yes. The mission statement continues to guide our priorities, programs, and practices of District two eleven. This evening, we will lean a little bit into the continuation of the opportunities, innovative teaching, and exceptional learning that our students, we serve have. I will turn it over again to mister Josh Shoemaker, assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction in addition to our five principals from each of our high school sites. Mister Shoemaker. Good evening. As doctor Campbell said, Township High School District two eleven serves the needs of our
diverse community by providing rigorous relevant and rigorous learning experiences, opportunities for involvement, and strong support systems that empower all students to reach their full potential. This mission statement serves to guide the priorities, programs, and practices for our district staff as we seek to provide extraordinary opportunities, innovative teaching, and exceptional learning to the students from our community. The district academic goals serve as performance measures through which we can analyze the strengths of our systems as well as our opportunities for growth.
They also serve as an indicator of what matters most to our students, staff, and our community. Now, it does not escape me that we have the opportunity tonight to present to you the performance on the academic goals right after we just presented 48 of the top academic scholars in The United States. Because we believe that a culture of high expectations that is clearly communicated to our students and parents is fundamental to creating and fostering the most effective school environment. Our goals were developed with a holistic, comprehensive, and coordinated approach to ensure that every
District two eleven student is prepared with the skills, knowledge, and experiences for success after high school. The goals mirror our state accountability measures and also parallel what we know from both educational research and the experiences of our students in our schools and our community. We know that student learning is complex and nuanced and is thus affected by a myriad of factors. We have planned for this in the construction of these goals as we know that our diverse students come from many backgrounds and home experiences.
The multiple components of each goal allow students to demonstrate performance in different ways while still providing overall accountability as a school and a district. The goals are structured as an overarching goal statement that describes both what we desire and what we expect from students. Because of the diversity of our school community, each overarching goal can be achieved through multiple measures. The use of multiple sources of evidence gathered at different times during the year and across areas of performance allows a clearer representation of what student success looks like in
District two eleven. Tonight, we will present to you the goal performance for school year twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five. During that year, our school staff worked exceptionally hard to establish a sense of belonging in classrooms and school communities, foster academic curiosity and growth, and provide intensive interventions while expertly navigating the context of the world that our students live in. The devotion of our staff allows us to not only reach the estimated yearly targets for our goals, but also to exceed our own expectations for student performance in the
multiple facets of the high school experience. While the while the report you were provided has multiple data points, tonight's presentation is about the humans behind the data. We know that each number represents one of our students and we want to tell you the stories behind these numbers. Those that include the programs, the staff members, and the student performance that you won't see in a report. Tonight, you will hear these stories from the leaders that organize and facilitate learning, connection, and belonging. Each one will explain the goal, the overall district performance, and then share information about
what happened in their school in the twenty four-twenty five school year. But perhaps more importantly, what we have learned and how we will move forward into this year to achieve even higher levels of success. Starting us off is the principal of Schaumburg High School, Tom Mokhan. Thank you, Mr. Shoemaker. District two eleven's involvement goal is intentionally designed as a tiered approach ensuring that every student has a meaningful pathway to meet this goal based on their individual circumstances. Students can fulfill this goal in a variety of ways through consistent attendance, participation in
a sport or activity, completion of service hours, or through employment in the community. Every student's journey looks different and this tiered structure allows us to meet students where they are while still emphasizing the importance of being connected and engaged. We continue to encourage involvement in our clubs and activities and we also recognize that engagement can take many forms each contributing to personal growth and community connection. This goal is measured through four indicators: attendance, participation, service, and employment. As you can see on this slide, since implementation of the strategic plan, our student
performance in this area has increased by 4.8% over the past four years. As a district we have consistently improved the extracurricular opportunities we provide students, explored various interventions to support student attendance, and continue to enhance resources in order for our students to service their community and prepare for the next step in their journey. Tonight I'll focus specifically on Schaumburg High School success with strategic goal number one. Last year ninety three percent of Schaumburg students were connected in at least one of the four indicators. 72% of Saxons participated in a club or sport and we saw strong growth among
our low income students who increased participation by 5% and our multilingual learners who grew by 4%. These gains reflect intentional efforts from coaches and sponsors who adjusted practice schedules, offered flexible meeting times, and expanded transportation options to remove barriers so more students can have the best possible experience at Schaumburg High School. As for community service, fifty nine percent of our students met or exceeded grade level service expectations, a 3% increase from the previous year. Many students go beyond school requirements, volunteering through clubs and community partnerships.
A great example of our community of service to our community is our football program's annual Septemberfest cleanup, where where more than 120 students dedicate their time to service their community in the tall task of cleaning up at the conclusion of this massive annual community event. This example highlights how our students give back when offered purposeful opportunities to serve. Attendance remains a focus area with 73% of students meeting our attendance expectations. What is most striking is how students involved in extracurriculars have attendance rates 25 percentage
points higher than their uninvolved peers, which is clear evidence that connection drives engagement. However, every student's story is different and not all of our students are able to participate in extracurriculars based on their needs at home. One example is Cindy, a student who struggled last year with attendance and grades because of external factors impacting her ability to concentrate school. Through the ALOP attendance support program, one of our tier three interventions, she connected with trusted adults who believed in her. They equipped her with strategies to help her handle the challenges in her life that were making school difficult to navigate.
This year her attendance and grades have improved dramatically and her confidence has grown. She's standing taller both literally and figuratively showing how belonging and encouragement can change a student's trajectory. And now she's in a place where she's considering joining one of the over 60 activities we offer at SHS. We also recognize that many of our students work or intern outside of school, about 12% formally reported employment, and for many these jobs are more than a paycheck. They represent responsibility, family commitment, and preparation for the future.
Through our Passion in the Profession framework we're helping students see how their work experiences connect to future career goals. This year we're building on that momentum by continuing our partnership with North Cook's ALOP team to provide consistent attendance outreach, expanding involvement consistent attendance outreach, expanding involvement opportunities such as our Dungeons and Dragons Club and Majorettes Club that grew directly from student interest, and using Maya Learning to capture and celebrate the full range of student involvement across activities, service, and employment. We're also strengthening how we communicate and celebrate connections through our weekly This Week at SHS Smart newsletter which showcases classroom innovation, student achievements, and community partnerships.
At Schaumburg High School we are proud of the progress we've made and committed to continuing this work because when students are connected, they thrive. Up next to share about district goal number two is Friend High School principal, mister Mark Langer. Thank you, mister Mokhan. District academic goal number two's focus is on academic growth and the belief that every student in District two eleven will demonstrate meaningful progress during their time in our schools. This growth can be measured in multiple ways. One, by meeting or exceeding proficiency levels for all course CLSs on the district benchmark assessments in every course.
Two, by meeting yearly GPA benchmarks that are aligned with Harper Promise or three, by successfully completing advanced placement, dual credit, or accelerated coursework. When we step back and look at the data, it tells a clear story. The district met its target goal of eighty nine percent of students demonstrating academic growth using at least one of these measures. That's no small accomplishment. It reflects the strength of our systems and the dedication of our staff across all our schools. But the true value of this goal comes to life inside our classrooms where growth happens student by student. As the principal of Friend High School, I'm proud that nearly 94% of our Vikings
met this academic goal. One of the most impactful factors behind this growth has been our focus on acceleration, our commitment to placing students who demonstrate readiness directly into higher level courses. This work aligns with the state mandated Accelerated Placement Act legislation which schools across Illinois began implementing last year. The goal behind that legislation and our goal at Friend is the same, to ensure that opportunity isn't limited by circumstance. Automatic acceleration helps to remove barriers and the gatekeeping that can sometimes keep capable students from accessing advanced learning. And we've seen this already make a real difference at Friend.
I'd like to talk to you about one class in particular, AP English Language and Composition, commonly referred to as AP Lang. In the 2324 school year, 295 students took AP Lang. That number rose to 426 students last school year and the results were remarkable. Not only did students take on the challenge of this rigorous course, they excelled at it. The number of students earning at least a C went up from 294 to 425. Now you might be saying, but the percentage of these students had to have gone down. But in fact, we saw an increase in the percentage of students earning at least
a C. And the number of students who earned a three, four, or five on the A. P. Lang exam jumped from two thirty five to three sixty six. These numbers send a powerful message. When students who have demonstrated readiness are given the opportunity and the right supports they can succeed at the highest levels of rigor. That's a 131 more students with the potential to earn college credit than in the previous year. Now none of this happens by accident. The success of these students is the direct result of the intentional work of our teachers. These educators have built a true community of learners made up of readers and thinkers
where discussion, analysis, and reflection drive deeper learning. The APLane team has created an environment where all students thrive. Now let's look at the growth of one student in particular who I will refer to as Carrie. After transitioning out of our multilingual program at the end of her freshman year, Carrie was placed in English two her sophomore year. At that point, she was still finding her footing, building her writing skills, learning the language of analysis, and gaining confidence in her speaking. However, her teachers saw her potential and effort and she quickly became a student they would point to as an example for others. For second semester, Carrie moved up into accelerated English too.
And as a junior, she enrolled in AP Lang. At each stage, she not only kept pace but excelled. By now, her skills were so strong that her teachers regularly used her work as an exemplar for her classmates. Think about that growth. And although Carrie's journey wasn't a result of automatic acceleration, it reflects the same same belief system. As a multilingual learner, she went from transitional English to an AP Lang exemplar in just a few years. Carrie's story is powerful because it shows how access, support, and belief in students can completely transform their academic path. Acceleration gave her the opportunity. Our teachers' intentional practices gave her the intentional practices gave her the tools.
And in the end, it was Carrie's perseverance that made it all come together. She is now positioned for success in high school and beyond. And Carrie's story is not unique. It represents the larger truth we see across not only friends but across the district. When we open the door to advanced learning and when we provide the right structures of support, students rise to the challenge. This is what district goal number two is all about, academic growth. At Friend, we are proud of all our students, especially those who are meeting this goal, but even more than that, we are proud of how they are achieving it through the intentional supports of our staff and by embracing rigor and persevering through challenges.
And to talk about goal number three, here's Hoffman Estates principal, mister Michael Walther. Thank you, mister Langer. Good evening. I'm here to share our progress on district goal three, ensuring that all district to 11 students demonstrate college and career readiness. This goal is measured through four indicators, ACT proficiency, access proficiency for our multilingual learners, which is the Illinois State Board of Education required assessment for proficiency, and college and career readiness in both math and English. Tonight, I will focus on Hoffman State High School's results in access and in English
readiness where we saw encouraging growth this past year. The access assessment measures reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and a 4.8 composite score is required to exit English language acquisition supports. In 2025, 141 Hoffman Estates High School multilingual learners students met that benchmark. That's 38% of our multilingual population representing a 4% increase over the prior year or
an additional 32 students reaching proficiency. This growth reflects our students' resilience, the shift to a bilingual program model, and our staff's innovation. One of our class of twenty twenty five graduates approached me at the start of last school year concerned about the transition to a new bilingual program. She had already exited ESL programming and she wanted her peers to have the same opportunity for success she'd experienced in the now retired ESL program model. Through her own journey, she demonstrated grit, self advocacy, and adaptability.
The very skills that we hope all students develop. I'm happy to share that she graduated last spring and is now attending Harper College. And as I stated earlier, I'm happy to report that we had more students meet proficiency last year than the previous. Our multilingual students were challenged to speak, write, and think in both their native language and English daily, receiving individualized feedback that accelerated growth and even some advancing to proficiency levels. Behind this success is our multilingual team of educators who built the bilingual program and
curriculum over the 2024. They integrated access prep into daily instruction and created lessons targeting all four domains of the access assessment. For the first time, multilingual students received instruction in math, science, and social studies in their native language earlier in the year, transitioning to nearly all English by year's end. We will continue to refine our access administration and build on the bilingual program momentum through teacher creativity and collaboration. Students meet English readiness indicators by scoring an 18 or better on English or reading
score of 22 or better on the ACT, earning two or more English credits with grades of c or better, or maintaining a three point o GPA or higher as juniors and seniors. In 2025, eight thirty one students met this indicator. An increase of 3% or 90 more students than the previous year. This growth represents more than test scores. It shows students' ability to read critically, communicate clearly, and sustain academic success across multiple measures. Two key factors contributed to this progress.
First, the Illinois Auto Acceleration Act expanded access to honors and advanced English coursework giving more students, especially those previously overlooked, the opportunity to take rigorous classes that build post secondary literacy skills. Second, English professional learning team, groups of teachers align curriculum, assessments, and grading practice or practices around critical learning grading practice or practices around critical learning standards, improving consistency and feedback for students across all English courses.
We recognize that literacy is a is critical and extends beyond English classrooms. It's the foundation for all learning. That's why this year, we launched a literacy focus across all content areas, reviving our elite eight comprehension strategies. These strategies which include questioning, summarizing, inferring, visualizing, and evaluate evaluating are designed to help students read, write, and think deeply in every subject area. They equip students with the cognitive tools needed to engage with complex text, analyze information
critically, and express ideas effectively. The very skills that signal college and career readiness. We've extended this work to families as well encouraging parents to ask about their students, what their students are reading, nurture curiosity through dialogue and questioning, and celebrate growth. In short, our approach to English readiness is both comprehensive and collaborative. Together, we're preparing students not only to meet benchmarks, but to think deeply, communicate clearly, and realize their full potential for college, a career, and beyond.
I would now like to introduce miss Novak who will speak to district goal four. Thank you. You. Thank you, Mr. Alter. Academic goal four is focused on ensuring that every student is on track to graduation throughout high school. Track goal leads to perhaps the most concrete outcome of any other goal, graduation day, we know that graduation is not a single event at the end of four years. It's the culmination of intentional steps, monitoring, and supports before students even start their freshman year. Our goal is not for students to only reach the finish line, but to stay
on a well supported path, one step, one credit, and one success at a time. Research shows that students who meet the benchmark of being on track as freshmen are nearly four times more likely to graduate on time. It's about building the habits and structures that lead to long term success. To be on track for graduation, students must earn at least five credits each year. This includes passing specific courses and students must fill additional requirements throughout high school, such as passing a 300 level math course and participating in a state accountability assessment.
When we examine our data at the district level, we see strong performance along with areas for continued growth. Last year, the district exceeded our targeted goal for students on track to graduation by nearly 3% with nearly with just over 90% of students remaining on track. Over the past four years, performance on this measure has improved by 7%, reflecting sustained progress. One noted area of growth in all schools is the sophomore dip for on track
progress. While most students recover by senior year, focused efforts on sophomores who are navigating increased academic rigor along with the benefits and challenges of growing independence is one area of focus. Conant Last year, ninety seven percent of both freshmen and seniors at Conant completed their years on track. We also closely examine subgroup data. At Conant, we are very proud of one significant outcome and that is that our Hispanic and Latino students have nearly closed the gap for On Track from eighty four
percent to ninety six percent over the past four years. We recognize that graduation and on track status are lag measures. They tell us what's already happened. We're also mindful that sometimes the goal for a student is not a completion rate of four years. For example, some students with disabilities remain eligible for services until just before their 20 birthday. While these students' plans are reflected in our lag measures, they demonstrate our district's commitment to honoring each student's IEP goals and personalized pathways towards independence and success.
While lag measures keep the score, at Conant, our focus is on the lead measures, the proactive steps that we can take. These include strengthening our multi tiered system of support framework by by continuing to expand tier one classroom supports through impactful professional learning for all educators. Enhancing our tier two and three systems to provide more targeted interventions for students who are demonstrating needs with attendance, behavior, academics, and social emotional well-being.
Regular monitoring of early indicators for students who are struggling through our student support teams. And deepening partnerships with families, a By aligning our efforts with our strategic plan and a shared commitment to equity, we continue to move closer to our vision. And now, to Mr. Medina who will speak to District Goal five. Thank you, miss Novak.
In district two eleven, goal number five focuses on student wellness, which is measured through two components, physical wellness and social emotional wellness. The physical wellness component is assessed using the fitness gram test, which measures students across four key fitness areas. The PACER test consisting of 20 meter shuttle runs that assess cardiovascular endurance, the sit and reach, which measures flexibility, and sit ups and push ups, which measure, core and upper body strength. Students can meet this portion of the goal by either achieving the National Fitnessgram standards
or by demonstrating improvement on all four areas on the fitnessgram post test. The social emotional wellness component is met when students either report a favorable sense of belonging on the Panorama survey or by selecting a trusted adult within the school. To meet the overall student wellness goals, students must satisfy the fitness gram standards or show growth from their pretest and meet one of the two social emotional benchmarks. Across district 2 eleven, seventy eight percent of students met the student wellness goal, representing a 7% increase from the 2024 school year. At Palatine, we are proud to report a 19% increase in the percentage of students
meeting the student wellness goal during the twenty four-twenty five school year. This growth is a direct result of intentional collaboration among our students and our staff, particularly within the wellness department, which has focused on helping students familiarize themselves with the national standards, as well as setting personal fitness goals. This combination of clear expectations and personal motivation led to the significant progress. In addition, sense of belonging has been a long standing focus for Palatine High School, supported by our student services team, clubs and activities, and athletics programs. Previous school year, our administrative team used Panorama survey results to identify students who are
struggling not only with belonging, but also academically or behaviorally, allowing us to provide more targeted support. Our staff has taken initiative to expand student connections through groups such as the Advancement of Black Leaders and the Organization of Latin American Students. Both are led by staff members who are frequent frequently identified as trusted adults by students. These groups provide meaningful community, representation, and leadership opportunities while celebrating the diversity of our student body. Through these organizations, students have helped organize cultural celebrations that highlight both history and identity.
Events such as Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Women's History Month, and our annual CultureFest, which bring which brings students from all backgrounds together to share and learn from one another. These events often designed and led by students with staff guidance reflect the deep sense of connection and pride that defines Palatine High School. And finally, last school year, 100% of Palatine High School students selected a staff member as a trusted adult, a testament to our school's commitment to relationships and student support. From the moment students enter as freshmen, we emphasize the importance of having a trusted
adult through advisory programming and ongoing reinforcement throughout their high school experience. Our efforts are also reflected in the five essential survey, where the student teacher relationships category was among our highest areas of growth. Please listen to the following prompts and the percentage of students that agreed or strongly agreed. On our first prompt, my teachers treat me with respect. 95% of Palatine High School students agreed or strongly agreed with that statement. Next statement is, I feel comfortable with my teachers. 95% of Palatine students agreed or strongly agreed with that statement.
And finally, with the statement, I feel safe with my teachers, 97% of Palatine High School students agreed or strongly agreed with that statement. These results affirm that our students not only recognize the dedication of our staff, but also feel supported and valued in our school community. At this time, I'd like to return the presentation over to mister Shoemaker who will review district goal number six. District goal number six seeks to provide measurable ways through which we can increase equity in our schools and across the district. Similar to previous goals, this goal includes four different ways to measure equity.
The first is to access our assess our percentage of diverse staff members. The second is to monitor the percentage of students taking non developmental courses, the third is to reduce the rate of racially disproportionate referrals and suspensions, and finally, we seek to continue to improve the number of underrepresented students who meet district goals one through four. Performance on this goal is calculated differently with individual calculations necessary for each component. One of the things that we utilize to determine the progress on the overall goal is the overall number of District two eleven students meeting goals one through four.
This data is shown on the slide projected. Overall, fifty nine point six percent of all District two eleven students met the goals significantly above the target this year. Our district goals are the product of years of careful analysis, feedback, and a clear understanding of what student success looks like during and after high school. As you heard tonight, our performance data on each goal, when compared to both the yearly benchmarks and our previous year's performance, show positive results. These results, which on your report are numbers and graphs, represent both the amazing staff
members that build and foster student relationships, as well as the students that engage, attend, and consistently improve their performance. We are honored to have five of those staff members with us this evening to share the successes and stories from each of our large high schools. The principals before you represent the driving force behind the programs and efforts that they shared with you this evening, but also the strategic planning and countless interactions they have with students, parents, and staff members. We are incredibly grateful for their diligent work and passion for our schools and students.
As a district wide team, we continue to analyze the data in order to develop and refine our current programs and practices to more effectively meet the needs of our students. Thank you for your time and your attention this evening. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate the presentation and the time it took you to put this all together. At this time, I would like to open it up for any comments, questions, or discussion. Start to my left with mister Van Dyke. Go over some of the, the struggles to get the the students that aren't there yet. What are what are some of the things that we're doing to get them to
that point? I mean, we could talk all night about that one. So it depends how deep you wanna get into it. What I would say is overall, we have a well, as an overall district, we have what we call a multi tiered system of support. And so there are three tiers, that we put supports in place for students. And so I think really the ones you're referring to, those would be what we call our tier three students. Students that for whatever reason the the first two didn't work for and we have to put an individualized intervention in place for them.
And so I would say that's our highest level of support, that we that we put in place and a lot of times what that looks like is an individual counselor meeting with student or an individual teacher meeting meeting with that student or setting up a situation where there's reteaching. Before that though, there's lots of other things that are gonna happen to get up there. So I know it's a broad example, but it gives you a sense overall of how we organize and put our efforts in place. And then, one follow-up is as far as the students that aren't at the point
of of being ready for graduation, what systems do we have in place to get them there after the fact, GED or what have you? Sure. We offer all of those programs and so, probably the most specific one is just our prevention program and our graduation rate is very, very high, in the high 90s for every school and so there's a really small number of students that don't make that four year, so we put in what we call senior audits and junior audits
in place prior to that to identify when students may be missing the credits and we work really hard to get them credits during the junior and senior year. Could be through summer school, could be through a credit recovery program. If students do get to that senior year and they don't make it to the fourth year in May, we can also utilize summer school or utilize a credit recovery right away after that day in May to try to get them done as soon as possible. The longer it goes, the less likely we find that they are to finish it.
We also have, adult night school that we offer in district two eleven, which is an opportunity for any adult really in our community to come back and finish a diploma with us. Yeah. That that high nineties is very impressive. I don't wanna down to, present tonight and give us, this is my favorite presentation
of the year, so thank you. Thank you to our principals. Thank you to our teachers, our support staff, anybody who really contributes to our student success. Thank you so much. These are really positive trends that we are seeing after COVID. I think we're heading in the right direction, and so I'm really excited to hear and see the data. Let's see here. I love how we are continuing to use data to make sure that our activities are representative of the time. So, like, Dungeons and Dragons, who would have not?
Amazing. Thank you to our bilingual team who really took on that challenge. I think those were some of the biggest challenge that we saw in 2024. And so I'd love to see, that our students are learning in their language and then getting to, you know, you know, learn more in English and succeeding in that. I love to see that. And, congratulations, Mr. Mokhan, on your first presentation, as a principal. So I think that is all. I'm really happy with, what you all presented today. Thank you. Thank you.
Miss Russell? Very impressive. Thank you very much for all the staff, all the work that's being done to help all of our kids. I just have one question. Do we follow our students beyond graduation? And do we follow all of them as long as we can? Yeah. I was gonna say it's a really good question. The system that we have in place right now is every student is gonna they take a survey literally the day before they graduate with us and it's a post, District two eleven survey.
And some give us their contact information and want to be reached out to, others don't, but we have them put down what their plan is at the time. And so so we have a sense literally the day they graduate from us of where they're gonna go and what they're gonna do. And then there are systems, they aren't perfect systems, but they rely on something called the clearing house, which is data that, colleges and universities put together and share about where our graduates attend and then potentially graduate or finish.
And so we can use that, but we also have increased our use of alumni surveys based on the information we get before they leave us to reach back out at certain intervals and try to gain information about what you're doing now, how successful are you, and what are your perceptions of how District eleven prepared you for that future? Thank you. I would love to see some of that information. I really would. I know that doesn't make it easy on people but and I'm particularly interested in those that, go on to a career.
Maybe that well, they don't necessarily go to a college or a university but they do something else and I'm with the emphasis in the state university, but they do something else. And I'm with the emphasis in the state on, career college and career and multiple kinds of things, I just wondered if students are getting into the kinds of things that they wanna go into. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Cavill? Yes. Thank you, also for the presentation. Much appreciated. I record this one every year. I, as usual, I do have some questions. So, during the presentation, I heard that 73% of students at Schaumburg High School are
meeting attendance goals. And, so next year, I'm hoping that, because this presentation rolls on an annual basis, I'm hoping that, like other metrics in the presentation, the district wide, attendance percentage is given, as part of the presentation. So I appreciate the we got the one for Schaumburg High School, but I'd also like to see a district wide attendance statistic, like some of the other district wide statistics that were given about other goals in the presentation.
So my question about that attendance goal specifically is, is it really just talking about students who are absent from the school day either in full or in part? Or is it also applicable to students who are regularly hardy to their classes? So this is Josh. The particular attendance school is based on, the 90% attendance, and so it does not include tardiness. Only class or whole day absences.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you for that clarification. I also like to hear that 12% of Schaumburg High School students are employed. That's fantastic. My one of my children is attending Palatine this year. And as a parent, I got an email from, I can't remember exactly who it was. But I got an email talking about some career fairs. And then also there was a job board where a couple of local employers had posted they were actively seeking, student age employees and had posted within that job job
board for Palatin High School students who are of age and interested. And I was wondering if that sort of thing has been implemented at done at Palatine High School. Because I found it you know, I really I really like that. I know my son was interested. So I was wondering if that's district wide or if that's just a Palatine High School thing. Well, what I will say is this is Josh again. Palatine High School does an amazing job at that. I will agree. Kudos to mister Medina and his staff, but every district two eleven school does do that. And we actually just hosted our first skills skills trades fair on Friday, last Friday.
We had over 500 students attend there. It was amazing. That's fantastic. I love hearing that. That's fantastic. So then, you know, I I am gonna talk just about kind of there were there's a lot of good good stuff in here. A lot of good the presentation, a lot of our metrics most of our metrics are going the right direction, obviously. So that's fantastic, and I'm fantastic, and I'm really happy about that. There are, from from what I saw, like, three areas that are opportunities for improvement for sure. And I just kind of wanna ask some clarifying questions about those in act in
goal number three, the college and career readiness. What I'm reading, so it's the third bubble down on the right. We're looking at the district wide performance for the the 2425 school year with 65.8%. You know, that number is certainly not what, I'm happy to see, and I'm hoping that we see some movement from that number positive direction when we see this presentation, next year. And so I was wondering if, the data that makes up that statistic could be
made available to the board. I'm not exactly sure, you know, the amalgamation of statistics that produce that overall 65.8 number, I would be interested in seeing. Is that a combination of all of the numbers from the bubbles on the left? Are you working in the report, miss Cavill? I'm looking at the presentation slide here. I'm sorry. Because I'm not. So I'm on number 12 of the 25 slide deck. I'm on number 12. Sure. So the the college and career readiness goal was affected this year by the switch
in the state accountability ability measure from the SAT to the ACT. The way the goal the way the goal is set up, students can achieve performance on the goal in two ways. Number one, they meet the benchmark that the test is set. So in this case, let's say the ACT because that's our set. Illinois benchmark is very was very high for this and so students can either meet the benchmark or the second way they could meet it was to show growth from the previous test. And so our freshmen take a test, the pre ACT nine.
Our sophomores take a test, the pre ACT 10. And our juniors take a test, the ACT. And so if they didn't meet the benchmark, but still made the recommended yearly growth, then they meet that goal. And so the problem with this year is we only had one test because we've only given the ACT one time, and so we aren't able to gather that growth metric, which is why the percentage went significantly down. So it's not necessarily a represent representative of the actual student performance.
It's highly affected by the fact that the growth component isn't calculated in it. What we so I would say two things. One, what we expect is that number to be significantly higher next year as we have two tests to show growth from. And the second thing that I would compare it to is if you look at the first year of this goal in the report, the first year we did this, we also did not have a comparative or a growth test, but we're still above the first year, which I think shows Okay. Our students are still growing.
Fantastic. I appreciate that. So in goal number five so let me get to the right slide so that I know it makes it difficult that I'm having to do this from home. So I'm looking at number 20, student wellness. So a lot of a lot of really good stuff in here too. The one that stuck out to me as kind of like, I mean, it's a mild concern, but I also see it as kind of like a a really low hanging fruit in terms of opportunities for improvement is that, 66%, baseline so when we
see, it's to the right of number two. So the baseline for student to peer relationships is 84%. The district by performance is 66%. Because that really has to do it says, at least here, on the left, that it's directly correlated with the results of the five essential survey. So first of all, is my understanding of that right? Is that number produced by the five essential survey? That is correct. It comes directly from the five essentials, and that's another one where the way that
the University of Chicago who facilitates and scores the five essentials, they actually changed their benchmarks, because they had not changed their benchmarks since 02/2015. So they're on a ten year cycle. They changed their benchmarks, and so what happened is every single score went significantly down because of the new benchmarks that they set in place. So certainly, we've been on trajectory to hit all of our targets on that until they change the scoring system on us. Yeah. That's what I was that's why I wanted to ask about it because because it
seemed, not fitting with other metrics that we've seen from, this presentation in the past. Because I'm not familiar intimately with exactly how those benchmarks have changed, in your professional opinion, do you feel like, I don't know if it's benchmarks that talk about really the quantifying of the the data gathered from the survey or if it directly impacts the way that the survey is administered to students. Because if it's the latter, then to me, that would be low paying crude.
I know sometimes, you know, our students and our parents get lots and lots and lots and lots of emails. And the five essential survey, you know, by the time, their student is in high school, they've been getting these emails, sometimes many emails, you know, since the time their student was in kindergarten. So I I don't know if, it's just kind of easy to do, like, well, oh, we have to do this again. It doesn't really matter. I didn't know if it was, impacting the way that the student the survey is
actually given or received by the students, or it has more to do with the way that the data is extracted from the survey on the back end, which makes our metric low this year. Certainly both of those are valid hypotheses. And we have had many conversations about ensuring that when we do give our surveys that we try to make them as valid and reliable as we can by implementing them and facilitating them with fidelity. So we've had a lot of conversations on what does it look like to take a survey seriously and to demonstrate that to our students And so that could be
part of it. I think a majority of the change was due to the re benchmarking. And again, what we're seeing and experiencing from our students is still that really high level of positive relationships between them. And so we're all we're expecting to see a growth again, and also digging into further what does it look like with the new benchmark. Okay. Perfect. Then my last question for number six, the equity goal. I'm looking on slide 24. And it's that second bubble down on the right.
And so I would just like, clarification, especially for some of, perhaps, our newer board members this time around, more clarity on what what the district means by non developmental coursework. If you could clarify that, I'd appreciate it. Sure. So another way to say that the best way I could describe it, I think, is, credit bearing coursework. And so the idea that, that course is gonna get you the credit towards graduation, or in if we were to parallel it to a college setting, that course is gonna get you credit towards a degree.
And so a lot of, the students in our non developmental courses are potentially put there based on their individualized education plan. And so really looking at that particular group of students and seeing how we can also accelerate them into other coursework. Perfect. I know, I appreciate your, you know, everybody's willingness to answer my questions. I appreciate and I I really do appreciate the presentation and all the principals being here. I think in a lot of ways, the principals have the hardest job at the district.
So it's much appreciated. Thanks so much. Thank you, miss Cavill. Mister Dombrowski? I have nothing at this time. Thank you. Thank you. So a couple things. One is thank you very much again for putting this presentation together and delivering it. I was mentioning to our superintendent, in the last few weeks, leading up to this presentation that one of the things that, I always look forward to is hearing about individual student examples that you pull from your schools. It is a regular annual or or, you know, every time you do this presentation,
it's great to hear about very specific students, for a couple of reasons. One is, I know that you all work very, very hard on building relationships with your individual students. And I see that when I come to your schools, to be in your buildings, and I see it when I come to your sporting events and see you fist pumping or high fiving or just even saying hi to students. And you know them by name, you know about them, and some of the struggles and successes that they've had. So kudos to you for those relationships.
And thank you very much for, pulling together the the 29 pages of information and data that is in public comments. So anybody who's in our in our audience or watching this on video or live stream know that in the public comment section, if you wanna see some data, there's charts, there's numbers, there's graphs that really get into some of the guts of what the slides are showing. So thank you very much for that.
Mister Medina, you you you had mentioned, about the the trusted relationships. And I know that that's something you're usually the one that talks about that when when you're doing this presentation because I know it's something that that is very valued and, and your school tends to do a very, very good job of that. Could you share some of the ways that, that we encourage and help our students get, relate with, and maintain those trusted relationships and trusted adults in your school?
Well, thank you for the question. I appreciate it. Oftentimes it does happen just naturally, right? Students gravitate to certain teachers, certain coaches, you know, certain sponsors, it's if you have an interest in band, you know, I know you're gonna probably have mister Esquivel as your as your trusted adult. But we often times we, as freshmen, you know, during our freshman advisory program, we do discuss trusted adults, talk about what it means, give them the definition, and try to find them somebody, you know. And when we have students who don't, we have, you know, we call them down,
talk to them a little bit about that. Is there somebody you talk to? Is there somebody you can connect with, in the school? Oftentimes, you know, some a group that is underutilized is our teacher assistants. Some of our multilingual teacher assistants are some of our highest selected, trusted adults by our multilingual students. And this year, we've actually made a stronger focus on getting our our teacher assistants to go with these students, to get connected, to go try out for a club, to go or to try out for a sport, to be in an activity. And we'll send somebody with them who speaks the language and make them feel part,
make them feel comfortable within the school community. Thank you very much. Alright. I'm gonna repeat something that was said earlier. On slide number 24, which is the equity goal, under number one, it talks about the the staff. And and I know you all have heard me talk before, sometimes at ad nauseam about the importance of our staff diversity. And our staff, and part of that is around the trusted adults too with staff
that represent and can relate to our student population. And that's in many different ways. So my my question is, I I'm not seeing I'm seeing the the percent numbers of our staff here, but I'm not seeing that in relation to the students, maybe at the same location. For instance, where it says percent of of diverse teachers is 16%. Let's say at one school it was 8%. Right? My question is how does that how does that compare to the diversity of our
students in the same location so that we can do some some comparisons? And, and the the goal is to increase the percentage of diverse staff members across the district. So I'd be interested in seeing how we're how we're doing in in trend for that goal. And what efforts and and and ways and methodology are we doing to impact that. Sure. That's Sorry for all that.
No. That there's a lot there to HR guy. Right? Sorry. What I would say over the way I would answer it overall is the the principals and under their direction, of the hiring process are intentional about knowing the diversity of the school and seeking candidates that will represent the school diversity and that people that students can see themselves in. So they're kind of the first line that is very intentional about understanding the student
makeup and also the current staff makeup to improve the diversity. But then also Mr. Tenepur and his team, to do some recruiting efforts along with Ms. Sandifer, and really going out and identifying colleges and universities that are building our pre service teachers, and finding them getting them excited about coming to district two eleven and then finding good candidates and good fits. And thank you very much. And I know that, something that we've we've been doing for several years now and
I know we're gonna continue doing that is, is work with our students and encourage them to become staff. Right? Look at them, especially if they're identifying a trusted adult who's an educator, having that relationship and continuing that relationship. And, and, you know, as was was asked earlier about following the student after they graduate, making sure that those students who have expressed an interest in education, right, it's a recruiting tactic too, kind of selfishly, but helping them and and guiding them and
maintaining that relationship with them through their college experience and then encourage them to seek opportunities that we have, and encourage them to come back. One thing that has always always amazed me is when I'm in our schools and I'm meeting staff, and we hear it here in the boardroom during recognition, when when we have coaches coming up. The number of staff members who are are graduates from our district.
And it speaks volumes when they they actually you know, it's they're not running out of running away from school at graduation. I'm never going back to that school. But they they're encouraging to come back to teach where they learn. And that is so wonderful and encouraging. So kudos to all of you. And finally, I wanna thank, as was mentioned before, not just you all for being here and thank you, it's great to have our school leadership here, but to everybody in our schools and everybody in our district that supports our goals of of helping
our our students, our adults with the adult education programs that we offer, and the parent education programs that we offer, and our community at large, and the impact that our district has. So thank you all so very much and really appreciate the presentation tonight. Thank you. Alright. Well, thank you very much. We will move on to the next item on our our agenda which is the consent agenda. And we have three, we have two items that we're going to be removing from
the consent agenda this evening. One is item a, which is the approval of minutes of the regular meeting of 09/18/2025. And the other is item f, the State Property Tax Appeal Board resolutions authorizing intervention in proceedings. Those two items will be voted on separately. So, with that, the first suggested motion is that the consent agenda with the removal of the minutes of the regular meeting of 09/18/2025 and the removal of the State
Property Tax Appeal Board resolutions author authorizing intervention in proceedings be approved as presented. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any discussion or comments? May I have a roll call please? Miss Barron. Aye. Miss Cavill. Aye. Mister Dombrowski. Aye. Miss Russell. Aye. Mister Van Dyke. Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Next is that the minutes of the regular meeting of 09/18/2025 be approved as presented. May I have a motion please? So moved.
Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron. Aye. Miss Cavill. Goodstein. Mister Dombrowski. Aye. Miss Russell. Aye. Mister Van Dyke. Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. Motion passes. Next item is that the Board of Education approve the resolutions authorizing intervention on proceedings before before the State Property Tax Appeal Board, which seek assessed valuation reductions in excess of $100,000 for property tax year 2024, docket numbers 2024Dash37737.
2024Dash37883. Twenty twenty four dash four five nine four one. Twenty twenty four dash five two four one seven. 20 24512020 thousand 1 hundred and fifteen twenty twenty four-five 100 and 232020 thousand one hundred and twenty 3 twenty 20 four-five thousand three hundred and eighty six twenty twenty four-four thousand five hundred and eighty 632024 dash 51120, twenty twenty four dash five one
eight two eight, twenty twenty four dash five two eight seven three, twenty twenty four dash four eight seven eight two, twenty twenty four dash five one one two one, twenty twenty four dash five three two seven three, and twenty twenty four dash five three two eight four. And further authorize Francik and the Board of Education's as the Board of Education's legal representative to file request the request to intervene in appeal proceedings forms with the Property
Tax Appeal Board on the properties for which the district receives notification of appeal as submitted by Lauren Hummel, chief operating officer, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? To move. Second. Any comments or questions? May I have a roll call, please? Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? No. Miss Cabell? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next on our agenda is Freedom of Information information item.
Next, we move into unfinished business. The first item under unfinished business is a 2025 tax levy information and presentation. Doctor Campbell? Yes. Thank you. Districts are required to prepare an annual tax levy that sets them out of revenue necessary to local property taxes to support school district operations for the following budget year. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Lauren Hummel, chief financial officer, and Kathy Zalowski, controller treasurer, as they present the levy recommendation and financial forecast update.
Miss Hummel. Thank you. And good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about our upcoming tax levy proposal, which is vital to provide financial resources to help maintain high quality education and essential services for our district. Tonight's levy provides a recommendation for funding that will continue support continuous programming and align with our district's strategic priorities while recognizing that ongoing budget refinements will still be necessary to maintain an appropriate fund balance over the next five years. Still be necessary to maintain an appropriate fund balance over the next five years. Property taxes make up approximately 84% of our district's total revenue making this levy a
crucial component in sustaining funding for our programs and operations. In addition, about 80% of our district's budget is dedicated to staffing costs, highlighting the direct connection between levy funding and our ability to recruit, retain, and support the people who serve our students every day. The levy process in Cook County is subject to the property tax extension limitation law often referred to as P TEL or the tax cap. P TEL rule was implemented PTLL also allows for new construction growth to be levied
for in the year in which it is added to the tax rules. For the current tax year, the rate of CPI was 2.9% and will be used as a limiting rate for the 2025 tax year. Year. There is a lag in the measured rate of inflation and the time by which property tax funding impacts our budget. For the current year, the 2024 CPI limits the growth of the 2025 levy, and the levy drives 2026 tax collections with those dollars receded next fiscal year. Under the PTL limitation for the '25 tax year, the allowable increase is capped to
2.9% plus any new construction added to the tax base. For the '25 levy, new property will be known until next spring but is estimated at 0.7% based upon current trend in TIF assumptions. Taxes levied for new property growth do not increase taxes for existing taxpayers. The amount is added to the tax base as new property, meaning it generates additional revenue for the district on new property added to the tax rolls without raising the rate on existing properties. New property growth may only be captured in the year and that it comes on to the tax rolls or it will be permanently lost as revenue into future years.
In 2022, the district intentionally levied 3,600,000 less than the maximum allowed under P TEL and filed the required resolution to preserve the ability to recover those funds later. State law allows the district to look back and add those unclaimed funds, plus annual CPI growth up to 5% to future levies for up to three years. Last year, the board utilized $2,000,000 of that capacity and this year's recommendation includes $1,800,000 to continue restoring the district's tax base to the PTO maximum.
The 2025 tax levy is the final year that the district can levy under this provision to recapture funds that were not levied in 2022. The levy recommendation is made with consideration of both the upcoming fiscal year as well as considering the long term financial impact on the district. As we begin to discuss our recommendation, it's important to note key considerations in both the recommended amount as well as future financial assumptions. Inflation is projected at 2.9% for the upcoming, year and for 2025 with modest decreases between two to 2.5%
in CPI rates, for the outgoing years. One while the district continues to invest in staffing, competitive salaries, and high quality programs, costs are rising faster than revenues in many other areas outside of the district's control, especially as state funding, investment income, CPPRT revenue are projected to decline. With reserves expected to dip as expenses and facility improvements continue, this levy supports our goal of maintaining long term financial stability for students, staff, and our community.
Information. All scenarios assume the same CPI factor and new property growth. As previously mentioned, we have assumed 2.9 CPI for the current calendar year, 2.9 for 2026 calendar year, and 2.5% for years from '27 to '29. The first scenario illustrated by the blue line, it is our recommended model and it's based on the current economic situation and the district's operational and capital needs. It also assumes a status quo in terms of staffing, student enrollment, and programs.
It assumes that we will levy the full amount allowed under PTO, which is 2.9% plus new property plus the remainder of the look back levy of 1,800,000.0. The 2025 levy is the last levy this amount can be recaptured and added to the tax rolls, as well as the recapture levy. The recapture levy amount is unknown at this point and will be released by the County next month. Notice the projected decline in fund balance to 21 percent by the end of five
years. The second scenario represented by the green line, that's the middle one, we included the maximum CPI. We only included the maximum CPI under PTO and new property, but no look back amount or no recapture. That means that the look back levy will be lost in perpetuity and the district won't be able to recapture in the future. With all that uncertainty, national and state economy, decreasing revenues, and persistent inflation, this is
not recommended. Please note that the projected fund balance at the end of, fiscal year thirty one will dip below 20% to 16.9%. In the third and final scenario, the yellow line, depicted in the in the graph, we assume no CPI increase just new property. No look back or recapture levies. Under this scenario our operating fund balance will drop below 30% in just two years. This scenario will require drastic budget cuts to be implemented as soon as next year.
I would like to point out there are models include the estimated recapture levy revenues of approximately 3,000,000 in subsequent years. Without that amount, the scenarios would look far worse. Worse. We are recommending a levy of 200 point, $7,000,000 a 4.3% increase over the prior year extension. This represents a levy in the full amount under PTO, new property growth of point 7%, and an additional 1,800,000 from the look back levy and the recapture While you
see a separate line for the recapture levy, which is still unknown and it never becomes a part of the base levy. The look back levy is incorporated into the levy figures. On this slide we also break the proposed levy by fund. As you can see we are starting to levy, in the IMRF fund due to decreasing fund balance. It's a shift from the educational fund IMRF fund is getting low and we would
like to ensure, and make sure that we have sufficient funds to cover cover the district's obligations related to district's portion of IMRF, Social Security, and Medicare. We do not levy in the working cash fund due to sufficient funds. Each year when preparing the levy, the amount recommended is determined by ensuring that the taxes levied support our instructional and operational programs. The funding must support not only the current year operations, but ensure the district maintains
its stable financial position in the future. These priorities include supporting high quality student experience, creating system of support for current and future students, employees, community, and the board of education, allowing discussion and implementation for multiyear budget efficiencies to maintain a minimum fund balance of 33%, and finally continue to fund capital building projects while remaining debt free. These priorities may be accomplished at a levy amount that equates to an increase of
approximately $9 per month to, the average homeowner in our community. However, despite the levy recommendation, the forecast model predicts that our fund balance policy will not be maintained in the long term. Therefore, discussions are underway to identify and implement budget efficiencies to slow, the rate of growth in expenditures and declining of the district's reserves. At the time of the 2022 levy, financial projections were, determined to assess the recommended
levy amount for that year with a goal of sustaining operations for years to come. The approved levy was $3,600,000 less than allowed under PTL as I previously stated. And since that time, several key factors have changed that have brought us to our recommendation over the past two years to recapture these cost shown on this slide, were not included in the fiscal year twenty two projection assumptions and have since been reflected in our most recent long term financial cost updates and projections. The increased expenditures reflected on this side paired with declining revenue sources and uncertain state
and federal aid are conditions that are leading to tonight's levy recommendation to utilize the recapture levy provision. The district has committed to ongoing facility maintenance and improvement across the improvement costs across all of our school campuses. Priorities are outlined in the Board's strategic plan, in the ten year plan, and now included in those in the, our most recent facility audit. A comprehensive report on these items is included on tonight's meeting agenda, but the costs
detailed here are included in our five year financial projection model to provide funding for ongoing completion of these priorities. Annual property tax refunds that reduce the district's collections. These refunds result from property tax appeal board decisions, court ordered tax objections, certificates of error, and other adjustments, each representing revenue that the district ultimately does not receive. Because these funds occur after tax bills are issued, the shortfall is not redistributed amongst other taxpayers prior to tax bill distribution. Instead, the refunded amounts are simply removed from the district's current year collections as they
are processed by the county. Over the past eight years, the district has averaged approximately $7,100,000 in refunds annually. After a declining trend in refunds in fiscal years '23 and '24, property tax refunds were at an all time high last fiscal year ending at $14,800,000 A portion of these funds are automatically levied for taxing bodies under Public Act 100 and two-five 19. As we take a look further into Public Act 100 and two-five 19, it is
a supplemental levy that the county calculates and assesses to help offset a portion of the tax tax refund burden for taxing bodies. We also refer to this and as Kathy described the recapture levy. Refunds issued for select certificates of error, tax objection, complaints, and property tax appeal board decisions are levied outside of P tel. While the district will not know the amount of this year's recapture levy until after November 15, we are assuming that funds will be levied in the financial projection model. For the most recent tax year, year, the recapture levy amount for District 211 was
4,200,000 We have updated our projections with the levy recommendation to analyze the impact on our financial position for the next five five years. Preparing a multi year projection requires making many assumptions, a lot of which are subject to change. Several of these assumptions are fixed, other subject to other as subject to board decision. I wanted to specifically call out a few of these before we get into the numbers. One, we assume the board will approve the recommended levy presented tonight.
Two, we assume student enrollment and programs will guide staffing. The projections assume this instructional fee fees are reinstated at 170 doll dollars starting with the 2027 school year. We assume CPI will be 2.9 for the 2025 levy, 2.9 for the 2026 levy, and 2.5% for future years. We assume recapture levy will be received every year. And finally, we assume the capital projects will be funded in the future with budget
savings and reserves. And here's the slide with updated long term projections. The the table illustrates the current, budget which is the yellow, column and the five, the five year and the next five rows includes beginning fund balance, projected revenues, project projected expenditures, and surplus or deficit. We are projecting operating deficits primarily due to the scheduled capital building projects funded with district's reserves and expenditures outpacing revenues.
The next row is the ending fund balance. As you can see, we are projected to go from 156,000,000 fund balance projected at the end of this fiscal year to just 85,000,000 in fiscal '31. Finally, the last two yellow rows are fund balance percentages. The first one, total operating fund and then education fund balance. I would like to point out that the recommended levy scenario, which includes the full
CPI, the look back, and the recapture levy was used in this table to estimate property taxes. Please note that even under this scenario, the projected fund balance in Education Fund is projected to dip below the recommended 33% in f y twenty seven. While the district is has very limited options with growing its revenue base, we can control a lot of our revenue expenses.
Over 80% of our budget is spent on staffing. The the administration will have an ongoing review of its operating expenses related to capital improvements, salaries and benefits, technology, purchase purchasing efficiencies, and other large ticket items. The growth in several items such as third party transportation, specifically homeless and special education transportation, special education tuition or utilities that have been growing much faster than the rate
of inflation, have raised have have rates set by outside entities. Benefits is another area that has far surpassed the rate of inflation. Through the targeted review process, budget reductions will continue to be implemented to more closely align revenues and expenditures. The district implemented several staffing efficiencies this year already, reducing certified staffing through attrition. In any year that a taxing body requests a levy increase of 5% or more,
the truth of taxation requirements apply. This mandates that the taxing body determine the levy amount twenty days prior the adoption and publish the amount in the local newspaper. A public hearing must be held to allow for comments from the community. While the 2025 levy does not exceed the 5% level, we believe that it's prudent, that it's a prudent step to promote transparency and community awareness. We have followed this requirement in the past even when the truth in taxation statute
did not apply to us. This this is the case with the 2025 Levy as well. However, we recommend a hearing be held at the December 11 Board of Education meeting. The 2025, levy 2025 levy information is presented to the board over a series of meetings. Introductory, information was first presented at the September board meeting. Tonight's agenda will provide the board with additional information on the levy including the the,
2025 levy recommendation. The board will then set the amount on the tentative levy in November followed by the public hearing and levy adoption December. The levy must be adopted and filed with the county clerk by the last Tuesday in December. The levy, recommendation set set for tonight supports our strategic goals and puts on puts us in the best position possible to create financial stability in the future. We recognize that adding the look back amount of 1,800,000.0
is a big ask of you and of taxpayers. We are also aware that we are asking for additional revenue before implementing expenditure reductions. We believe we need both tax increase and expenditure reductions in order to accomplish our financial goals. But due to the reductions in order to accomplish our financial goals. But due to the tax loss, it is our final opportunity to ask for this revenue before it expires. Expenditure evaluation and interaction will be ongoing. This slide concludes our levy presentation and we will be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay. So at this time, I'm going to, ask board members if they have any questions or comments. Thank you very much for putting this together and providing us with the information and your recommendations. I'll leave my comments for the end. And I will start with, on remotely, mister Dombrowski. Yes. Thank you. I understand that you're asking us to, you know, trust that there's gonna be expenditure reductions after we approve what would would be considered the maximum under the PTO allow.
I'm just looking at your projections here, and I don't see any cost reductions considered at all. We have to submit to the State Board of Education a balanced budget. And from what I see, you're giving me projections and projections would continue deficit spending beyond the revenue, of a compounding amount of 14 you know, an additional 3.4
percent if if I'm looking at this with with the accuracy that that I see with the, CPI. At some point, you you have to say you you you can't spend money we don't have. Correct? Yes. The projection that you see is showing our continued assumptions in our expenditure categories as was, described in the slides. So, we have a large task ahead of us to be able to go through and identify reductions, some of which, were detailed tonight. I can tell you that, you know, we are underway right now to look at,
you know, what are the highest level priorities in our facility plan that we need to accomplish in the next five years and where can we make cutbacks. That we are always looking to make, you know, our first charge is to take a look at things outside of our classrooms. So that is a big area. Our insurance committee, I've shared information with the Board that our insurance committee is meeting right now to, take a look and make reductions. The reason that these reductions are not shown in and really what it's doing is
it's showing here's the amount that we believe that we need to reduce with the information that we know today to maintain a balanced budget. So that's the information that we're showing to the Board with regard to the levy recommendation that we're providing. We know and we will, continue to make these changes. The, I'll use the insurance as an example. There are some, items that are underway, that we are working on, one of which is an RFP for our prescription drug coverage. I don't know what that number is going to be yet, so once we have
that information we will continue to update our financial projection. You know, there are other things that we can look at. We've shared with the Board we have a number of retirements over the next several years. How do we, work through attrition to reduce our staffing costs? We are looking at different purchasing efficiencies. Kathy mentioned special education transportation and I'm talking with our transportation department right now about creative ways in which we can possibly, be more efficient with the services that we're providing to our students.
So, as we have information and we make these decisions, we will continue to update the projection. This is just showing you right now, so that you have an understanding of the charge ahead of us with regard to, making efficiencies to better align. The other piece that I will share is that we are making a lot of assumptions in this projection model. CPI could be more or less, which, you know, drives I would say that, you know, based upon, even with our historical trend with 5%, CPI increases in there, we're
showing pretty high rates of CPI. If they were to come in less, we have a larger charge. Obviously, I can, say that from the opposite as well that, you know, CPI could come in higher than 2.9% next year, but that's what it's trending through August right now. So, I understand your question and your, you know, the the charge ahead of us to make these reductions, but wanted to be able to show you what that looks like with with our current trends and assumptions so that we, all have the the common understanding of of what our charges are in front of us.
So I have one final point and question. For as long as I can remember, we've always received projections that show that we're gonna dip below our fund balance and then we wind up with surpluses at the end of the year and we have a growth on our fund balance. So in my mind, the the question I have then is if the BOE the Board of Education adopts a lower levy than recommended, how does that impact future buzz budgets? You're gonna have to find the cost savings regardless.
It then becomes mandatory and not optional. I would say the cost reductions under any of the three scenarios that we presented tonight are mandatory from a standpoint of we need to maintain fund balance above 33%. So we will be looking at those. Under if the Board were to adopt a levy that is less than what is recommended tonight, you saw a couple examples in front of you that provide what the
fund balance does. Really, what we're looking at then is a far greater amount of, reduction. I will share last year's budget came in, unfavorable compared to our budget plan. So and we had a deficit budget as well. The areas of, surplus that we were recognizing in the past years, a lot of which were in the categories of revenue, are things that we are seeing drastically drop off. CPPRT was close to $10,000,000.
We are projecting that and this year, it's budgeted at four. That is a year over year decrease from where we were showing, you know, surpluses in in recent years post COVID. So I I'm confused. So if the board approves a recommendation lower than the recommendation presented tonight, the fund balance will dip, and it'll be even more than what's being dipped even though this
doesn't take into account any expenditure reductions. So I guess my point was if we adopt a levy lower than recommended, we should see expenditures reduced to recapture that deficit and reduce the deficit. But what I'm hearing the response being is that it would all come out of the fund balance, and we wouldn't see any expenditure reductions. No. That is not what I'm saying. I've said that under any of the scenarios, we are making budget reductions.
What I am showing to you in the financial projection is that with a, with our levy recommendation, which includes the look back and the recapture levies, that we will That is the highest amount of revenue that the district can seek from property taxes next year. With that, you can still see the deficits. So, we will work very diligently to reduce those deficits. But that is with the maximum amount of revenue. Any amount less in that revenue category, further impacts our bottom line and, you know,
we're looking at alternate solutions. With our expenditures, when you look at the amount of our expenditures that are tied up contractually or things that are really, again, as as Kathy stated, there's many things that are outside of our, control. We did not know that our utilities were going to go up 3856%, in our most recent bid renewal. There are just things like that that have been, you know, special education tuition costs up 20%. Things that we are required to provide services for, that were not included in our
projection. So we are working with the items that we believe that we can control that don't impact the programming for our students. And if I may add, Lauren, we are hearing we actually, Lauren and I, we attended a seminar with PMA, a financial advisor that services basically basically, next year, every single source of revenue will be negatively affected, starting with interest rates, grant funding.
The CPI, of course, will is projected to go down, so we will probably fill it in many many areas, of the budget. So this still may be, optimistic and again as Lauren pointed out, the, projections are built on assumptions, and these assumptions are pretty much good as of today. I mean, they something may change tomorrow. And if we rerun them using new assumptions, this will, look very differently. And and I I appreciate that point.
My my, again, my issue is with presenting the assumptions that show increased spending above and beyond revenue compounded every year with no course correction in there over the next four years. I I brought this up when we were voting on the budget and what we were pushing forward for our capital outlay budget. And, you know, know, at some point, I'm I'm looking for some sort of action from the administration that shows they recognize that the expenditures are exceeding the revenue, and
they're going to present a plan. And what I'm hearing tonight, even after we had our budget discussion, is that, yeah, just approve this and the plan will come later. And and to me, that's not satisfactory. That's all I have. Thank you, mister president. Thank Thank you. Miss Cavill? Thank you for the presentation. I'm, you know, it's a real bummer, as well as most economic information, honestly, these days. So, I'm not surprised, and I I appreciate you putting it all together in a
way that makes it very, very easy to understand what our position is. And I'm glad to hear that the administration is obviously going to, take the revenue efficient the expenditure efficiencies conversation, very seriously because, obviously, with projections, like, we're looking at in this presentation and the fact that, the budget was already operating at a deficit
and that part of the spend down of the reserve that we were expecting, going to be very necessary. I mean, I I think that we also have to remember that when we're talking about these kinds of efficiencies, you know, none of this is these aren't hypothetical numbers. You know, we're talking about, local money that affects local staff and local families and
local kids. You know, so there are a lot of human beings behind each of these numbers and projections. So it's easy to sit at a board table and talk about finding revenue efficiencies. It's a lot harder to sit down and start making cuts that take loved and, like, beloved programs from the people that in the community that we serve.
You know, cuts to programs and students and the services that they use and, the staff that are there to serve them, particularly the staff that are in direct contact with those students everyday, classroom staff, instructional staff, assistant staff, student services staff, custodial staff, etcetera, etcetera. You know, looking for ways to save money by driving up, like, teacher to student
ratios, cutting the breadth of programs that we offer, cutting the extracurriculars that we offer, skimping on our facilities, and making them less functional and less safe for the kids that use those spaces every day and for staff that I'm required to teach them. Like, these aren't things that are are popular, and these aren't things that our community wants. So, even though this conversation is very necessary when we're talking about projections and managing the budget and the fact that facing projections like we are, we have to have
conversations about finding places to save money. I think, it's important to remember that, you know, just banding figures about the percentages at a board table sounds a lot more palatable, until you start to communicate to community members and to kids in particular exactly what you're trying to take away. So I appreciate that the administration is, having the locus of these decisions as far from the classroom as possible.
But with numbers like we're looking at, I think it's really important to take our financial position seriously and, remember that, every cut that we're making or proposing to make, or particularly casual references to budget efficiencies aren't casual to the kids that go to our schools every day and to the families who send their kids to our schools every day. So, it's something to bear in mind mind as we go forward. Thank you. Thank you, miss Cavill.
Miss Russell. So thank you very much. I appreciate this. And, you made it easier to understand as I reread things several times, wanting to make sure I understand everything that is being suggested or being said. As a retiree, you know, I understand that taxes go up and, but what's more important, I'm okay with paying those taxes because we have kids, our students that are gonna graduate.
And if I need a paramedic or if I need a doctor in the area, I wanna make sure that those are those kids have the appropriate education that they need. And by that, we need to continue to provide all of the different kinds of services that we have been so far. So I appreciate everything that you've said and there's still a lot to digest. I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions as I look over things. But, we are looking at the worst, but we can hope for the best.
Thank you. Miss Baron? Thank you so much for that presentation. Numbers do not look good. But when do numbers look good? Right? So I appreciate the effort, and I wanna see more effort and more discussions being brought to, like, or information being brought to the board as to what expenditures we are reducing, what are we looking at. I think it'll make me feel a little bit better, when making, a decision and right so I do wanna see kind of those those what those discussions look like.
You talked a little bit, right, about prioritizing our highest needs when it comes, like, to our facilities and those projects. I just wanna make sure that we're not cutting anything or making our buildings unsafe. Right? Like, I just wanna make sure that we're continuing the highest level of education and programming in our facilities, state of the art facilities for our students, and keeping that level of that we've kept all these years. Grant funding. You touched a little bit about that. We don't know where grant funding is, going with this administration.
So those are things that we also have to consider, and So I, you know, ask that we or the community take a look at that too, that we don't know where that's going. So when we're looking at these numbers, you talked a little bit about surplus. And we to mister Dombrowski's point. Right? There's been surpluses, and I believe there's that sometimes has to do when payments are coming in. Is that true? Or sometimes. We we have had times where we receive extra state aid payments, for example, in
a year. It's not that it's extra money. It's just the timing of when it's received. Same thing with, you know, several, myriad of things, TIF, surplus payments, things like that that can kind of fluctuate between years. But, again, last year, we did end in a deficit position. Yeah. So I just ask that the community also take a look at when we're looking at surpluses, really looking at is it really a surplus or is it just when payments are coming through the district. This is not an easy decision. It never is when we're asking, when we're increasing taxes, but, to those in the
community, right, everybody sitting on the board is also a tax player in the community. So these are hard decisions, that we do not take lightly. And so I think that is all my comments. And I have one question, so thank you. Thank you. Mister Van Dyke? Could we touch a little bit on the 33% that I keep hearing? 33%. Is that a $100,000,000 sitting in a council in place that we're not touching for anything, or is that something we're drawing on right now because Cook County, real estate taxes have been so far off balance that we had to tap into that 33%.
So the 33% is a somewhat arbitrary number that is in our fund balance policy. That was decided by the Board of Education at a point in time that said we want to preserve, you know, cash in the bank, right, that we can use in the event of, unforeseen conditions. So a August.
We have not received anything. As, in fact, tax bills are not even anything. As, in fact, tax bills are not even calculated yet. So, we are working, so yes, we are drawing I don't believe we're to the 33% mark today, but we are every every bill that we are paying, we are drawing down upon, reserves and investments that we have or these other sources of revenue. We still have some revenue coming in from, you know, grants or other other payments,
but our largest source has not come in yet. So it is it's to prevent against, uncertainties like that. There are oftentimes, we've been in, you know, there's been many conversations over the years about a shift of, TRS costs to a district or, just property tax freezes or any number of things that could impact year financial projection, what it's allowing us to do is to assess a trend and be able to react within a trend and
it gives us a little bit of time and that's what we're doing right now with these budget reductions. I will say, last year, at this time our budgeted deficit this year is, around $8,000,000 Last year, we were projecting that it was a million dollars worse than that. We implemented staffing reductions this year to the tune of a million dollars that you know, in a more favorable position. So we are doing things. We are continuing to work at it. Many of the items take time though.
We cannot just snap our fingers unless we are going to just cut off programs. Some of the things require timing and implementation such as the the employee benefit example that I provided. So has there been a time, obviously, this is a big time where Cook County is Cook County and they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, where we've been in dire need of that 33% and that 33% has got down to like 3% and we're, oh no, or has it always been hovering right around the 33
and we could look at possibly, can we reduce that and and not have to have that large amount of banked. I believe last year we got down we were in a very similar position with property tax receipts and we got down to 10 or 11 fund balance last year. So that's certainly not ideal, but I know that there are many districts in our surrounding communities that are already issuing tax anticipation warrants because, you know, we get paid twice a year and we're months late now on our our second paycheck. And and usually the interest rate, costs are are pretty steep especially in this, environment.
But I also I would like to say that to me, and I'm Newark, the district, 33% is, still a pretty conservative figure. Easeby recommends actually, six months of expenditures, which is 50% to have a recognition, as a financial, yes. And if you band rating agencies, Moody's, they recommend between 25% to 40% as a
stable fund balance. So it looks like, you know, the 33 just fits right in the middle. And right now, we we are using every penny of of that fund balance to meet our obligations to pay our vendors and to cover payrolls. And then, you know, to to the point of I'm I'm happy to pay my property taxes and and continue the services, up out there. Mhmm. People sitting at this board table or in this room, they have it better, they
have it worse. And my my personal property, I which is reassessed 20% higher, and I'm in a modest town, modest, home, and people that that aren't but aren't in a million dollar mansion, even the million dollar mansions, that people, I I'm sure are struggling. And to to say, well, we're we're just happy to continue with with, doing what we're doing in order to keep providing.
These these numbers aren't good. Just two, three years from now, we're we're dipping and we're dipping and dipping, and and that's seeking out the the max from our taxpayer, their tax base. If if we're struggling here, what are our families doing? And they're the ones paying. Not everyone's in the same same boat as some more abled people. That's the tax base that I worry about that are are struggling to keep food on the table, let alone pay their tax bill. And now, I I think mines glow at a 20% of what I've seen on
online. People are having their properties reassessed at 40% higher, and and now we're looking to increase that burden on them. And I I still have a student in this district. I don't want services to go down, not just for my kids but for the neighbor kids, for everyone we know, and everyone in the district, but something has something has to give here. And I don't think the solution is just to keep going for for more and more.
We've we've gotta do some drastic cuts outside the classrooms. And, again, to mister Dembracci's point, I I don't know where that's at. But thank thank you. I I really appreciate the way it was laid out. It's it's it's not sugar corning or anything, and I appreciate that from both of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mister Van Dyke. So tough pill to swallow. Tough pill to swallow. So, for anyone either at the board table or in our audience and the community,
there is a board policy that is available on our our board policy website. It is DCA operating fund balance. It outlines the 33% and it also says there's so it's a suggested amount, and there is a directive contained in the policy that says if we fall below that 33%, we shall do certain things. And so I encourage anybody who would like to see that, take a look at
that policy, which was adopted in 2008 and revised in 2011. And to your point, it's it's specifically, outlining the 33% back then as a four month reserve, you know, for for operations purposes. And, and so, so I think that that's something of value to to take a look at and understand. As was mentioned, we are all taxpayers and we're all struggling.
Some of us have been employed, some of us are retired. Some of us have been unemployed. Some of us have have struggling, households to to be able to afford. And, and, unfortunately, when and I I wanna make sure the public knows, as was mentioned, when we increase your taxes, we're increasing our taxes. And so when people say the board is doing this and the board is doing that and not listening to the taxpayers and considering the taxpayers, we are taxpayers.
And I wanna make sure everybody understands that as everybody else is struggling, we're And we feel this the same impact as everyone else. We have been elected to represent the community. And what I'd like to encourage everyone to do is as you see this information and you and you hear next month the recommendation and perhaps the the the, the adoption of the the recommendation for hearing, that opens up a window for community feedback.
Reach out to the board of education. Board of education at d two eleven dot org or com? Com...org. Okay. Board of education at d two eleven dot org. Give us your feedback. Give us your comments. Reach out to us as you you always have. There are other school districts in our area. I think every school district is struggling right now with the same types of things we're talking about here. And there are other school districts in our area that are talking about some very,
very difficult things on how to handle their situation. And and my hope is that, that we don't need to have those same dialogues here in our district and that we're able to to do some things, to be more effective and more efficient. And I know we've heard multiple times about the cooperatives that we're part of and the the collaboration we do with other districts and other associations to bring those expenses
down as we can. But when it comes to looking at the expenses going up each year, there are expenses we can control and there's expenses we cannot control. We cannot control the utilities other than joining maybe a cooperative to try to control and bring some of that down. We do that in our own communities. I know, for instance, the village I live in is part of a cooperative for water and for electricity and things like that.
So there's things that we try to do to bring those costs down when we can and where we can. And so so those are really, you know and we've had those passionate discussions about where can we reduce our expenses. And I know the greatest passion, and I think everybody at this board table does not wanna see any cuts in programs or educational opportunities for our students. So where can we find some expense reduction?
And you know what? I'm gonna open up an invitation to the community. If you have ideas, please share them with us because we don't have all the ideas ourselves. You may have some from wherever you came from or whatever you do that can help us be more effective and efficient, and and stay in a financially solvent way and and maintain our operations because that's what we all want.
So I appreciate your time in putting the presentation together. Like was said, very clear and explanatory. And we have some some tough things to to think about and consider especially when you look at the five year projection and where the the trend and your your thoughts are right now. So but thank you very, very much. Doctor Campbell, do you have anything you'd like to add? I don't. I just we appreciate presentation together.
Alright. Now we have a lot of policy things to go through right now so we're gonna go through those. Next on the agenda is an action item that the board approves to adopt policy file GAB equal employment opportunities non discrimination in employment as submitted by Kurt Teniper, assistant superintendent for administrative services and as recommended by Doctor. Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please?
Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Barron. Aye. Miss Russell. Aye. Mr. Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board approves to adopt policy file GBO staff qualifications as submitted by Kurt Teniper, assistant superintendent for administrative services and as recommended by Doctor. Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion please? Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call please? Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell?
Aye. Miss Barron? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to remove policy GCCB minority recruitment from active status as submitted by Kurt Teniper, assistant superintendent for administrative services and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Cavill? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Russell?
Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the Board of Education approves the to adopt policy DFC, school funding and title one as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call please? Miss Russell. Aye. Mister Dombrowski. Aye. Miss Cavill.
Aye. Mister Van Dyke. Aye. Miss Baron. Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to remove policy IGB correspondence courses from the active status as submitted by Josh Schumacher, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction and as recommended by Doctor. Judith Campbell, Superintendent of Schools. May I have a motion please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call please? Miss Barron. Aye. Miss Cavill. Aye. Miss Russell. Aye. Mister Van Dyke. Aye. Mister Dombrowski.
Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to remove policy IGBAA online courses from active status as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Aye. Miss Baron. Aye. Miss Cavill. Aye. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that please? Aye. Mister Rosenbloom.
Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to adopt policy I c IGCF credit for non school educational experiences as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call please? Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Campbell? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye.
The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to remove policy IGCFA, policy for accepting language transfer credit from active status as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Mister Van Dyke. Aye. Miss Baron. Aye. Miss Russell. Aye. Mister Dombrowski. Aye. Miss Cavill. Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to adopt policy IGDBA, management of student
athlete concussions and head injuries, as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. Motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to adopt policy IGBC Home Hospital Services
as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent superintendent for curriculum and instruction and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to adopt policy file IGDA, student organizations, as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and as recommended by
doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the board accepts to adopt policy IGD, extracurricular activities as submitted by Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and education and instruction, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please?
Second. Any questions or comments? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Now we move into new business and approvals. The recommended action is that the District two eleven Board of Education approve the participation in six foreign exchange trips as proposed for the 2026. District two eleven reserves the right to cancel any airline travel that the district deems unsafe or not to be in the best interest of district two eleven as submitted
by Eric Wankowski, director of athletics and activities, and Josh Schumacher, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Any comments or questions? May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron. Aye. Miss Cavill. Aye. Mister Dombrowski. Aye. Miss Russell. Aye. Mister Van Dyke. Aye. Mister Rosenblum. Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is, the summer school calendars and summer twenty twenty 2027, 2028, and
summer twenty twenty eight. At this time, due to further action needed on this item, we are gonna table this item for discussion at a future board meeting. The next item on the agenda is the ten year Facilities and Capital Improvement Plan update. This is an information item. Any questions or comments? Next item is an action item that the Board of Education approve the purchase of a one year licensing agreement for SWYE three sixty software for the twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six school year in an amount not to exceed $61,190.80 cents from the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six budget as submitted by Gary Gerson, chief operating officer, and Lauren Hummel, chief operating officer. That's not right. Chief Gary Gerson, chief technical officer or technology officer, and Lauren Hummel, chief operating officer, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? Second.
Is there any comments or questions around this? So I have a I have a quick question. It's a three year plan for full implementation, but we're only getting a one year license. What happens in year two and three? Yes. So I can respond and also mister Morrison can come up and and assist also. What respond and also mister Horace can come up and assist also. What what did it tells, it is a three year process. The first year, we are committing to as it relates to, reducing some expenditures utilizing
related to programs and looking to, again, decrease in that area. Year two will have a different financial obligation, but they do it does decrease over a three year plan in which in year three, we will be able to sustain and monitor the programs and, things that we are purchasing moving forward. So right now, we're just asking for the one year, so that we can display what the program has done and what we're able to capture in the initial year
and determine moving forward, but it does consist of a three year process. So if I I guess the question then is after year one, if we're not satisfied, how would we know if we were satisfied if we didn't fully implement it? Yes. This is Gary Gorse. And the the first year gives us a chance to evaluate the product and to do the analysis to see what's actually being used specifically, where there's redundancy and where
we suspect we can affect some savings. At the end of that first year, it'll give us a chance to see if the product performs as advertised. It actually does, give us an opportunity to recoup things. And then the following year then we can renew to do the second and the third phases, that refine the the analysis more so we can see if the impact on of what we retain as software and technology tools in the classroom and see
what the impact is on learning objectives in those remaining two years. That we have we chosen the correct the correct packages? That's kind of the focus of the second phase. And then the third phase is district wide. Are we achieving the learning objectives and, that we expect by using these technologies? And mister Dombrowski, I'll also add that many times, when partnering with vendors, we have a tendency to commit to three years or four years contracts where this allows the
opportunity to really, look at the return on investment, which this product does initially. So that first year, again, is looking at the ROI, and then the second year focusing on the the blended learning. And then the third year looking at how the learning, is getting the outcomes that we intend based upon the programs that we that that are being supported. I I guess my question is I mean, you're you're talking about losing three years of students in in this approach, and I'm just wondering why it isn't something that
can't be done within the first year, all of the all of the outlined metrics for year two and three. I would figure that if there's a student that's a sophomore, they'll have graduated by the time we figured out if the software they were using was effective for them or not. And and what I will say part of when when we're looking at connecting to devices and looking at programs for over 12,000 students in addition to the number of
staff in each building and what is being utilized, that information cannot be collected within just a, a few months. It has to be calculated and populated, for a significant amount of time to to see one again, this first portion is connecting to our devices to see if there's any overlap or duplication and also looking at the program use usage. So that that will cover itself within just the duration of of this school year.
And then going into the second year of now looking at the outcomes around the the return on investment as it relates to other programs and and what we are paying for. Is it doing what we've asked it to do? So that is just something that is gonna take time, and and it's been researched based upon this, organization that that is the, outline that gives the best results. Thank thank you for that response. Just one final point that from my perspective and and others, the expectation is that
that evaluation of that software usually happens in the curriculum committee, and that the the the end users as far as the teachers are evaluating whether or not that that is an effective tool before it's recommended to the board that we purchased those softwares to begin with. So, from my perspective, I I would assume this is an auditing tool, but I I just wanna make sure that we're not spending money on redundancies and that we're not looking for something to do, something that's already in place through our our proactive
committees within our curriculum. Yeah. And I think I think, it's an and. I think you're correct as as one piece when we go through the adoption process, and the feedback and and the results that we see and outcomes for for our student. When we look at as we listen to tonight, our academic, team kind of displaying the, alignment to the goals. But what I will also state is sometimes if you we don't conduct the audit, there are just some things that we don't know are taking place. When we are looking at technology being one of our most resourceful instructional tools that
are utilized and purchasing different, programs, there are just some things unless we do take a look and really drill down on, we would not be able to know what what we're using, if what we're using, and what we've agreed to use is working, or if there are some other components that are being used, that may not have been adopted by our our district that are is having an adverse impact. Thank you. My hope is that we spend $61,190.80
to find out that we're I don't wanna say the word wasting, but I'm gonna say the word wasting or use it or not fully taking advantage of more than that dollar amount. So the savings by identifying maybe something that we had purchased some time ago and we're paying a maintenance fee on, for instance, but we're not even using that that item or the full supply of those items. Or we have the opportunity to return some things and get a credit. So I'm looking at this as both an auditing and a potential expense reduction item
and tool and method. And perhaps we could see more than $61,000 in savings in the first year from just putting this in place. And and so what I would encourage is that the administration come back to us, when this one year is up. And I would think that that would be the right thing to to do if you want a if they want a second year and you want a second year is show us what they did and the the savings associated to that, to make
us not only less costly, but, you know, from a a student performance and outcome perspective, better. And and so I'm looking forward to that. I know that's the plan. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Cool. Alright. So Yes. I know our meeting's going long, so I'll keep my comments brief. I I look. I understand the purpose. I think it is likely to be a wise investment. I do have, as usual, when it comes to these kinds of things.
I do have privacy concerns. So I hope that, the administration, and using this tool, you know, protects the students, protects the district's privacy as well. And that means, of course, not giving any data collected by this organization, not not
allowing this data to go beyond this organization, so not allowing them to give it to any sort of third party company, any anything else. I know that they purportedly, in their privacy policy, say that those are once you have a contract with them, you have to opt in. I just generally am skeptical, when it comes to privacy protections in these kind of organizations. So, I I just wanna voice that concern and hope, that the administration in using
this tool, you know, does their best to protect, the privacy of the data that this organization needs in order to perform its service? Yes. We actually, to that point, we do have a signed, a fully executed agreement, based on the national, student data privacy agreement that's used as part of SOPA. So they are bound by the, the state's requirement to protect those, those privacy the
PII elements of of the users of that which are students. And the amount of data that they have access to is limited as well. It's mainly based on utilization of software packages and not the data within those packages or tools. Okay. Thank you. K. Anybody else? May I have a roll call, please? Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. Motion passes. Next is discussion and information item, board of education finance committee.
So I I guess I'll take this one. I brought it up Mister Van Dyke? I brought it up a couple of times. I think we'll, bring it up a third time here. Let let's change that, committee to a workshop. You know, change the name. You you, brought up mister Rosenblum, the the fact of, we're not all experts here and we don't know all. And where's our opportunity to hear from our teachers, from our our union leaders, our
tax base? Where's that opportunity in this whole process? They're all affected by this, and just who are elected by them, but at the same time, where do we get our input? We don't have any input here besides them up at the podium speaking to us. There's no back and forth. Back and forth is important in my mind. How do you bounce ideas off? I don't think there's a meeting held in this building or any of our buildings where you sit there and you listen the entire time. It's bouncing things back and forth. Our kids do that in our classrooms. They bounce back and forth. Tax base, with our students? In my mind, we should have a workshop where everything's laid out and things are
bounced back and forth. It could be, open meetings act compliant. Any board member that wants to come can come. And if we have two, three, four, or seven board members, great. But this way, we're hearing from the people. Right now, we're not. So whether you call it a committee, which that may not be the right word, or workshop, or coffee with the board, whatever. I I feel it's important to I don't hopefully, they're online here, but I don't
see any union reps here. I don't see any teachers. Our our audience is gone. They're probably in bed or doing homework. So if we could have some kind of workshop or opportunity at, say, 06:30 or 07:00 after dinner time before bedtime to where we can bounce things off. That's what I'm looking for in here. So whatever we wanna call it, that's my hope. Thank you for that, mister Van Dyke. I will just, state that it has been determined that we are working to organize
workshops for the board initially from the initial, request to kind of get an understanding of what, the learning, components are and also to be clear about kind of the the way we are operating as a finance team. We currently have outlined some Zooms in which a workshop model can be held with the board, but it will be to for the board to determine if we want to take it beyond, just the board, participating in the workshop and determine if we, host additional meetings.
Well, to to mister Van Dyke's point, it's it's he's looking beyond education. He's looking for interaction, discussion, conversation, and dialogue, around financials, both how we operate as a district and the future and the situation and and just an opportunity to to have that interactive environment. And I know there are some parameters that need to be followed around that, but,
but I think it's it's something worth looking into. I I appreciate the start of these workshops by doctor Campbell. And as she stated, stated, I I hope that they can progress to where we do include the ongoing. K. Thank you. Anybody else on this? I just I'll I'll chime in. I'm first of all, I'm just a little confused, because I'm experiencing a slight disconnect between the specificity of the agenda item, this being board of education finance committee versus
some of the more general comments that were made about coffee with the board, which feels to me to be not directly connected unless the coffee with the board event proposed is about finance specifically. It just it I I I so I'm a little bit unclear because to me, the agenda item is a finance committee. So, in my tenure on the board, this has been a discussion that's been bandied about, typically every time after an election.
Because, and I remember the first time I ran for the board, bringing such an idea up at a board meeting myself, for exactly the reasons described. Right? Like, dialogue is very, very important. Back and forth is very important, and that's the way this entire model works. You know, you're elected not to represent your personal point of view, but to represent the community that elected you, etcetera, etcetera. And in order to do that effectively, you have to interact with the community.
We live in a very large area, so that is just would this just difficult to do. And so I can certainly see the appeal, in theory of, like, a hybrid formal informal event such as the this. And I think in some context, it can it can really work. Like, village boards, for example, can do this pretty effectively, but they are structured differently, and they're not bound by exactly the same set of conditions the school boards are. And so in years past, when we've tried to organize such an event, we've run
into the same hurdles that, we continue to run into. Namely, that people who attend the board meetings are the same people who attend these events despite offering, you know, alternative time and days, remembering that, board members themselves may be employed and aren't necessarily available at, like, 10AM on a Wednesday, as an example. So if you're wanting board members to attend, you know, that limits your scheduling capability.
And then you're trying to also aim for community members to attend. And in our experience when we tried to do this, you see largely the same faces at these these sorts of events that you see at our regular board meetings. So if your intention is cast a wide net and have a dialogue with people, on this format in the past hasn't really achieved those ends. And so one of the things that I was thinking about, that might be, more efficient and this is where our again, I'm a little bit confused if we're talking
about specifically the finance committee. But for the purposes of my understanding of how the agenda works, I'm gonna limit my comments to such a such an event. Our feeder district, one of our feeder districts, district fifteen, doctor Heinz, over the last two years, has been, hosting hanging the kind event. And some of these took place at the actual schools. I attended one when I was employed at academy, and I was able to sat down with her for ten minutes over my lunch break. But I know that some of these have been happening in event in community spaces
on all different days and time, some in the evening, some in the day, or what have you. Some members of her administrative cabinet can attend. I've never personally seen a board member there, but that doesn't mean that, you know, subject to the open meetings act provisions, one or maybe even two board members on a rotating basis, I'm sure, could attend. But it's an open invitation for any community member or school community member. So that means student or staff, depending on where it's held, could attend and have this kind of back and forth. And then she has to report on those interactions regularly to the board.
And it's something I've taken part in and something that I've wondered, if that is actually a more effective way to achieve the purported goal that this board differentiations of this board has had over the years of trying to create a structure that would, allow for more back and forth. In terms of back and forth to board members, I find the most effective thing is to show up at the school. Like, to go to those events, talk to people who are there, talk to the
students who are, you know, interested in speaking to a school board member. But I find that to be very, very effective and certainly more effective than the attempts that we've made at the board to have these sort of workshops at alternative times just because of the structural issues that we've run up in the past. You know, the the original reason that the budget finance committee was eliminated was because, you know, no one was going. So, if we're trying to be efficient in our budget, to me, that's not just efficiency for financial resources.
That's efficiency our our resources across the board. That includes administrative time. So if we're gonna double up on administrative time to attend a finance and board committee meeting or try to set up a very complicated structure of a board workshop that is somehow informal but also, somehow informal but also, advised by the open meetings act. I just wonder if that administrative time would be better spent directing the superintendent to come up with something that, suits her, but in an inspiration like a hanging the times event or maybe a rotating cast of characters from her cabinet that would be
available in the community for anybody who wanted to talk and then report back to the board. Just a thought. Mister Rosenblum, may I interject? Absolutely. I I would, I deferred at the last meeting on on the suggestion by mister Van Dyke, but, the past committees that we've had, and and I would ask, miss Lauren Hummel to to chime in. Some of the benefit is providing the financial presentation to board members prior to the
full board meeting and having some feedback in the committee, and and getting sort of a heads up before, a full presentation shows up to, you know, the public and the rest of the board to kinda gauge some feedback from board members. I don't know if that's valuable to administration, but I'd I'd ask for feedback, from that perspective. Under the last committee format that we ran, that is essentially what happened.
We would share information, sometimes the exact same, information or or similar, which provided opportunity for board members who were present at both meetings to hear the information twice or as you, stated, it allows, for clarifying questions or additional information or just, as you said, to kind of get a pulse on a situation so that we could, incorporate any of those that information into the, discussion with the the whole board at the
meeting. So one of the reasons why we stopped doing that was because of duplication of effort and time. And to I don't know if hearing the same presentation twice was really useful because I went to some of those committee meetings. And we, as a a board, we do ask clarifying questions sometimes in advance when we see the presentation or the reports and be able to provide that prior to the board meeting for preparation and response during the board meeting.
And, again, the the committee meetings, back then weren't live streamed and they weren't recorded, for future play by the community. Maybe that would be different. But I'm also looking at this as if it is a duplication of effort, is it worth the expense associated to it back to, I think it was miss Cavill saying, you know, that it's administrators, It's the location that has to be secured and
open and available and managed and maintained for community members and the board to come and have either a dialogue or hear the presentation. And, and in those committee meetings, there wasn't there was not a community dialogue. It was it was like a a mini board meeting. And it was the board hearing the presentation, asking questions, asking for some clarity and it was and some of those some of those questions were, I'll get back to
you. Great. We'll hear about it at the board meeting. And then those those questions were able to be answered in in the in the board meet the regular board meeting and not the the finance committee itself. So, you know, in in the consideration of of what we just talked about with the levy, you know, I I understand the the value in having the information and being able to review the information and the information and ask clarifying questions and either receive those as a board in advance or hear the answers and and clarity during
a board meeting in open session so everybody including the community can hear the answers to those those clarifying questions that the board is asking. But I don't know the value of hearing the same information in advance of hearing it here in this meeting. Well, I I'm not looking to bring back something that didn't work. That's the whole point here. Something that didn't work, I definitely don't wanna bring back. It's let's reinvent the wheel because that wheel was flat, it sounds like, and it
didn't get us down the road. So that that's where I said workshop. You don't wanna call it committee because committee seems as though it has something different that is duplicate to what's shown at the board. So something different. Well, I mean we've done in the past that didn't work. No. I I like throwing, you know, throwing out ideas and having some dialogue and brainstorming. I remember also that to to miss Campbell's point, we tried to have a community I I want I don't know what it was called, community engagement meeting or something like that.
And it was held at one of our schools in the Media Center. And the exact same people that have been coming to were coming to our meetings at that time came to that meeting. And we heard the same concerns and we had the same we heard the same thing, as we do in a regular board meeting. And in fact, one of those was held on a Saturday, so that community members could come. And we had a really good turnout of board members for that, but it was
it was a challenge in that it really it didn't bring about new people coming and not having another opportunity to talk to board members. I I kinda like the you know, when I'm as a board member, I like to hear directly from constituents. And they reach out and, you know, I've I've met at Dunkin', I've met at Starbucks, had phone conversations with community members, and had that one on one interaction with with parents and students and sometimes together, to have dialogue around things that are going
on in the district. That's that's how I've been able to be successful in hearing back. But, you know, maybe maybe it's it's worth at least looking into to see what all goes into that, without expounding too much effort to propose something. I wanna just say thank you. Rosen Roux, I'm sorry. If I could just make one more very brief comment. I mean, if we're even if you if you think about holding such an event in whatever form that might take, you know, the fact that part is that there
are seven board members with seven very different lives. And if we are holding a workshop or a finance workshop or whatever, then that really needs to be offered at a date and time in which every board member has an equal chance of attending. And just by that very nature of having an equitable commitment, not even speaking about trying to make it accessible to the community members, which would be a thing that would be important. But if we're just trying to make it accessible to board members, you know, we
are already severely limiting ourselves to yet another evening slash maybe even a weekend. Some of us work weekends at this point. So, you know, as soon as soon as you start to to formalize this kind of a thing, if I'm understanding and and with a more focus on a dialogue between board members and the community without utilizing the administration in a respectful and efficient manner, then, just structurally, it is very, very difficult to come up with an event
that is equitable to board members in terms of participation and also achieve the purported goal. So, and with that, I'll leave off because it's almost 11:00. We pull stuff off like this in the school buildings for our students all the time. So I I don't really buy that we can't hold off, but thanks for everyone's input. And if I can just offer I I we do appreciate the dialogue, this evening around this topic. One of the things that, the team myself and the team have put put in
place, to attempt is a finance workshop. Right now, I think if we can start there, have the opportunity to see what this workshop entails, what the the first topic is is around the tax levy. It it will provide the opportunity for some dialogue and some discussion, while also sharing a different, additional information from our finance team. And then maybe we can come back and determine, you know, how that has worked. If it looks the same as it has in the past. If it's something that we think we can move forward on and also expand upon.
But I think if we could provide that opportunity, I think those dates helpful. Okay. Thank you. Next on our agenda is Board of Education student representatives. Yes, that was my request at the last meeting and, I think the pulse of the board was that they were interested and I would like to request that we
have Doctor. Campbell, begin, a plan, talking with students, talking with IASB, talking with other superintendents and board presidents who might be of help, to allow us to have student representatives on our board and, request that we consider this, for the next school year. So that would be what? 2627. So, I'd like to ask if each board member, if nobody minds, thinks that that
would be a good idea, and we can, so instruct our superintendent. So mister Van Dyke? I I really don't know what that entails. Like, someone's gonna sit next to us at the support table, a student. We're we're gonna have lunch with them, or we're gonna go to class with them. So I can offer so, what it it does, it tell a student representative that essentially is considered, a I'm not gonna say an official board member, but has, voice
and choice, at a certain extent. ISB already has outlined what bringing student representatives to the board entails. There are a few districts also in the state that are currently doing it. So if this is at the will of the board, what I would offer is that the team work together and we bring back two or three models to share with the board and what that can entail entail having a student representative. In my mind, that's still pretty vague to to it's not could you expand on it for me then, mister Karen?
No. I think that shaking your head like it wasn't big. No. I don't think it's vague at all. I think, doctor Campbell did a really good job of explaining exactly the next steps, which should be talking to ISAB, talking to her cabinet, putting three models together, presenting it to the board, and the board deciding what model we wanna go with. Right. I understand. Giving input to that. I understand that the next steps. I just don't understand the end game. So so I think that would be some this is an exploratory step to find out what are other school districts doing because I also know that there are school
districts in the Chicago Northwestern and North Suburban area that have students who serve as as, albeit not voting members of their board. And and so I think it's worth exploring what are other districts doing, and and that's either through contacting superintendents, I ISB, ISBE, other board presidents that have this going on in their district to find out what are they doing.
Because right now, I I can't say, you know, oh, this person will be sitting here next to me at the table and, you know, voice their opinion and sit in, you know, public comments and do all those things. You know, there's there's certain restrictions as well around closed session and things like that that, that we can learn what are other districts doing and what are those those guard rails. And and she can come back and say, here's here's three different options and give
us more detail so that we can ask those questions. And maybe it's here's option a, option b, and option c. And you know what? As our district, we'd like to do a blend. I don't know. Because I don't know the the details and the intricacies of of how it works right now. But I do know it's working. And I'm hearing from my board president colleagues that that they like it and it's working for their districts. And it's an opportunity to have student input at the board level. And it does a couple of things.
One is it gives input to the board, and us to to hear their perspective. And also it from my understanding is it helps build leaders, in the student body. And maybe somebody who wants to be on the board someday. So so let I think it's exploratory and we can request that she do some investigation and come back to us with some ideas on how we can implement it here as well. So that's the thought. I think it provides student voice.
And after all the things we talked about tonight involving students, to have student voice to our board, I think, is very important. And the district that I came from has had student representatives on the board for or coming to board meetings for the last ten years. So I've spoken with that superintendent and also the board president who said he would not have it any other way. So I think this will provide an additional, like I said, voice for students and
for us to be able to listen to what they have to say and consider all kinds of different things maybe that we we don't know about. The input from some of the stakeholders, our students. Great concept. Alright. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Yes. I'm so sorry if I cut I think I cut somebody. Authors will quite delay when you call in by phone. Thank you for the suggestion. I'm a big fan. I'm an enthusiastic guest. I'm I'm I'm hopeful that the administration will provide models that will be equitable for
all of our schools. You know, we have some big high schools across a large geographical area. And I'm hoping that whatever representation or opportunity that would be presented in those models would be, very would be ascertainable to a student from any of our Landmark schools as well as all our alternative program and our, alternative, like, certificate pathways too. So, our kids who have IEPs and our kids that are in the alter the
alternative academy, etcetera. I'm hopeful that it, the models that are brought forward are equitable in terms of our large district with, the rate of schools that we that we have. Mister Dombrowski, do you have anything? No. As far as the motion goes, I'm voting present. Okay. Miss Baron, are you in favor of requesting doctor Campbell to pull some information together and come back to us? This is a very wonderful idea. Right? All of the decisions that we make affect our students.
So having their voice represented here at the new kid on the block, so I'm happy to see us moving forward in this direction. Thank you. And I've brought it up before too, so I'm obviously in favor of it. So alright. I think you have consensus to to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Board of Education protocols. Doctor Campbell? Do you have anything you wanna add to the information that's been shared with the
board on protocols? I I don't. Okay. So so the board of education protocols have been shared and, they are in the public content so that everybody can see the information, in the protocols. And, and so if any board member has any question regarding anything that's here, here, please let me or doctor Campbell know. Otherwise, these are what we had discussed, during our closed session workshop.
So Mister Rosenblum, I I strongly oppose the addition online, to item 19. I I believe that the way that's written, that that's an encroachment on the freedom of speech for all board members. Did you say number 19? Yes. And he's specifically referring to the the vervision read. That reads the Board of Education president is the only board member that may respond to an individual and, as such, will be responding on behalf of the entire board of education.
I guess I could agree to some extent, my thought was that the the president would respond, but that that if an individual also To respond that they could. But that, in most instances or if not all, the board president would make sure that there was a response from him. But again, that The way that yeah. The the way it's written, mister Van Dyke, is it states is the only board member that may respond.
I I see it, Dyke. I'm agreeing with you. Okay. So we can have that that changed and still be and still say that I could respond on behalf of the board of educate on behalf of the board of education? I don't see the point, miss, mister president. The the any board member can respond. And as the president, you're still a board member. So I don't understand why it's specific to board of education president. Any board member may respond to an individual.
There there shouldn't be a response on behalf of the entire board of education because in some cases, individuals may have a have a a question or a concern that not all of the board of education members are are in agreement with. Plus, the only time the entire board of education may act or speak is when we're assembled in a board meeting. So I think that, part of the issue is that I I think that this I think, first of all, I think the wording does need to change, mostly because,
it's easily misunderstood. And I think that's what's happening here simply because the conversations that grew into this was at the board workshop and not everybody was present. And so I think the context, goes a long way into explaining, I think, the intent of this, but, not necessarily the execution just because the way that it's written. So, the conversation that this change came out of is, just to summarize it briefly,
that, when community members email, the board of education, sometimes they use the board of education group email address. Sometimes they email individual members in groups or in part. Lots of different combinations. But most of many times, community members email some or the majority or all of the board of education. And, it's up to individual board members, of course, whether they choose or not to respond. Which, yes.
Absolutely. It is up to everybody to choose whether or not to respond. I don't see any protocol effectively limiting that at all. Because these are protocols. These are suggestions. These aren't actually, hard and fast rules anyway. But regardless, because there's no organizing principle behind that, sometimes that also means nobody chooses to respond. And then a community member that emailed the board of education essentially goes without getting a response. And the response wasn't to have like, in this conversation when we were talking about
this logistical issue, wasn't to state some point of view, make an agreement, or do any such thing other than for the board president to say, thank you for writing to the board of education, and then forward that inquiry to the superintendent or the appropriate person. But, nowhere in the contextual conversation where this came out of was it anything beyond making sure that every single person that emails the board of education gets, at bare minimum, a polite acknowledgement of their email.
And without organizing designating a representative to do that function, then there's a decent chance that some people who email the Board of Education just get radio silence and not even a polite acknowledgment of their email. Simply because some of us are making the assumption that somebody else is responding. Or doctor Campbell then gets seven copies of the same email because we have no one person who's just doing those bay very basic admin tasks. So it was my understanding that the board president could do those very basic admin
tasks. The board president could be the one that forwards that email on to doctor Campbell so that she's not getting seven copies of the same email, or the board president can do a polite thank you so much for taking the time to write to the board of education, but not to express in a point of view. I I agree though, mister Dombrowski, that the way that this is written is not effectively communicating the intent behind what this was supposed to fix, if that makes sense. I agree. Miss miss Cavill, with all due respect, this is under, sort of tagged by community
members under open meetings act. It's not in our email protocol for item 17. It's not in our email protocol for 21 with reply all. This is directly tied to what appears to be social media and not emails. Additionally, I'd like to state that we do have a standing board policy that requires that every board member that sends an email is related to district two eleven business is, you know, required to carbon copy this the superintendent.
So the superintendent should be getting all of our emails and be aware of all of our correspondences per our standing board policies. So I'm not I'm not sure I understand what the board meeting emails the rest of the team is. Not the responses. So there's that. And, again, I don't know why the voice is so loud when I'm agreeing with you. It's not in the proper place, and it's not, eloquently stated. But you were not present for the conversation where this grew out of, and I am hopefully giving context.
So I think we can all just take a breath and have a reasonable logistical conversation about this. We're not and that's what we're here to do. We're here to fix it and make sure it works for everybody. I I I don't wanna fix it. I wanna remove it. Well, again, this the the purpose of this is to clarify how people will receive responses especially when they write to board of education at d two eleven dot org. And that there's at least someone who is, for lack of a better term, assigned
to acknowledge their correspondence. And, mister Rosenblum, with all due respect, every board member asked to be there. And when community members are sending emails, it's our responsibility. It's not a responsibility that we could delegate to the board president. That's not the the responsibilities of a board president are to, focus on the agenda, maintain the decorum during during meetings. It's not to be, basically performing remedial administrative tasks as as miss Cavill has stated.
So it's 11:00. Do we wanna move this? Do we wanna remove it? Do we wanna reword it? Do you have any suggestions, mister Dombrowski? I I suggest removing that last line from item 19. I would like to come up with a solution that fixes the issue that this was intending to fix, which is that regardless of, you know, everybody's thoughts on how these prior protocols were working, there were community members who were not getting even bare
minimum slight responses to their emails. I know, from attending the triple I conferences in years past, many other boards organize it this way. Again, not to express some sort of collective point of view, but simply to make sure that the board is serving constituents properly. And so I don't know how that is done without essentially, I mean, maybe maybe a person without being in the protocol. Maybe someone can volunteer, so it's not automatically the board president.
That's fine. But right now, there is an issue that some people who are emailing the board of education with a concern or an issue do not get a response from the board that they are emailing. One that's even polite and acknowledge in their email. And without organizing some kind of solution to that issue, that problem I'm I'm not even sure I agree that that's an issue because I no one's come up to me and said that I haven't responded to them. So I'm not sure where that that issue and concern is generated.
Do you do you have some sort of, you know, something that you can forward a documentation or something? I I haven't seen it. I've seen emails from community members that say, I've written the board of education and haven't heard anything. Nobody's responded to me. And then we get another email or they send an email to the board, don't get a response, and then they send an email directly to me as president of the board because they didn't get a response to their generic Board of Education email send.
I have also received emails from people who didn't get one when they sent it to another board member. And so they're reaching out to me as president of the board because they're not getting response from other board members. So so yeah. I there are examples of those and and they they do occur. And we're sure that's a a lack of response and not a filter or something. Because I've had emails wind up in filters that I've had to go and search and and locate. So it wouldn't solve the problem if it's a if it's a filtering issue as well. Oh, the board of education at d211.org,
then there's a filter problem for that email box or the sender. But it's senders that we've heard from in the past. So I think to the point of of this being clarity as to at least someone, and I have and for the next year and three quarters, have no issue with it saying, the board of education president, while I'm board of education president, that I will respond to emails sent to emails that are sent to boardofeducation@d211.org.
And if anybody else wants to respond, great. Everybody you know, then the person can get seven responses, and seven board members can forward their responses to the superintendent. But I think it's good and the protocols are good to outline how we behave as board. So as a solution, can we just, leave this as its own point? Don't add it with anything else and then reword it to the board. It say something like the board of education president will respond to, to emails received
by, sent to the entire board of education Mhmm. Regardless of whether it's sent to seven people. Yeah. Acknowledging like Just acknowledge you know, and and acknowledging re acknowledging their correspondence. And anything beyond that is up to each and every individual board member as they see fit. President Rosalind, if I may, add, I'm listening to, the concerns and also the intent. If I can offer, providing maybe this not be, folded up on today or approved
today and, bring back an alternative based upon what took place in the workshop, shop, the intent, and also maybe separating this from number 19 as recommended, by miss Baron. And with that also, I would just add the guidelines communication guidelines, is a portion I did want to speak on because that was something that was added. I think I've received responses back from each board member and that might be also
something else we look at. I can, refer back to to see if there's something in the guidelines that, have a little different, expectation as it relates to, us operating as a full unit as superintendent and board members. So if I can offer that, I would love to bring something back for the board to review. Great. Anybody else have any questions or comments on this? Okay. Moving on. Next is potential topics for future discussion. Yes. I I have a couple. The first that I'd like to add to the agenda next, meeting is board policy
BHD, which, covers our board member expenses. I'm not I'm not sure how we got here, but reviewing the expenses for the triple I conference, we have, like, nearly $400 in expenses for or $300, with parking and and mileage where our policy requires that board members take the least expensive mode of transportation. I know most people that travel to Downtown Chicago are taking a train, and you can and that is specified within our policy.
So that's one specified within our policy. So that's one thing that I'd like to discuss, and the other part is just making sure that the checks that are required in the policy are being followed for the board president's, expenses. Those should be be checked by the secretary and the vice president. So I I'd I'd like to discuss and ensure that those those checks are happening. So thank you for that recommended, requested item for future discussion. Policy BHD, as you pointed out, mister Dombrowski, it does say the least expensive transportation
shall be used. However, the full sentence, rather than taking it out of context, includes providing that no hardship shall be caused. So without fully understanding the expense request and purpose around the mode of transportation being requested. I think it's difficult for any any board member, or the board itself because I don't think that, board members would indicate, necessarily the whys as to how they've made
the decisions as to which mode of transportation they're choosing, is the best for them, individually, and that there may be hardships associated with that. As far as, approvals and reviews by other board members, that does not fall under the approval for board expenses. That falls under the, submission of expense reimbursement. And for that, and also, specifically for the triple I conference that you're referring to,
those expenses were, I might remind everyone, were approved during the May board meeting. And all board members had an opportunity prior to the May board meeting and during the May board meeting to review those expenses and ask any questions they had because they were broken down. And that there is a difference between review, the expense request or the preapproval request and the reimbursement. And the reimbursement is submitted on a form and the, the protocols associated to board
officers having those reviewed, is available and, and is a different process. So I I understand what you're saying, but clarify then final action. What is the final action by the board of education? Discussion. Is is this a future topic of discussion or are we hoping that for future discussion. That would be at the next board meeting. So do we wanna hold discussion at this time or do we want to Well, the the question's going to be, does the board reach consensus as having this an
item for future discussion? And I I feel as though there's enough new new board members that it would be good to just know them to to review it. Not necessarily for a particular case in this case. Right? So To how to sub to how to submit requests for future for, for preapproval? Well, the ins and outs and and, requirements for expenses for board members. Any policy that that's related to that.
So we do a policy BHD is is your thought. That's my thought. I I'm not familiar with it, so I'd love to get a review of it. It's gonna affect me. It may affect any other board member that is new or not new. Mister Dombrowski, I've does anybody else have any comments or questions on this? K. So, mister Dombrowski, I'm gonna take it that you would like to have this as an item for future discussion. Mister Van Dyke, you would like to have this as an item for future discussion?
Yes. K. Miss Russell? And I can read the policy. I have questions, I can ask. I don't know why we need a review during the board meeting, I guess. So, no. Miss Baron? I agree. I think it's a waste of time. People can read. People can ask questions. The superintendent is always available to answer any board member's questions. So if somebody has questions on how to do something, no one can ask. Miss Cavill? Yeah. I can read the policy, and I read every document that's attached to every agenda
before the meeting. So none of the reimbursement requests are a surprise to me as was implied. And I say no. So the request is not to move forward with this as an item for future discussion. Did anyone have any other items for future discussion? I had a second item. I'd like to request that we consider, mister Bennett's desire to explore, an additional boys volleyball team and just see what the logistics associated with that are in the past.
We've had items that at one point in time were more cost prohibitive than than was anticipated, and over time, some of those costs come down, depending on how things get structured. So, at this point, it'd be good to just benchmark what the burden on the district might be for an additional boys volleyball team. Any other comments or questions around this before Before we, pass the superintendent before that,
can we just get at least some I know there's been a lot of discuss or emails and information. So if we can maybe just start with kinda where we're at with is there interest, like, the data behind if this is even something that is needed? I know mister Bennett has shared a lot of information, but I just wanna and what some of that explanation has been because I believe he has also had discussions
with mister I'm gonna yeah. Wankowski. So I just wanna if we wanna move forward with something, just start there. I agree with miss Baron. I don't know that this needs to be a discussion for the board as yet. I think the board has the authority to direct the superintendent to to miss Baron's point, see what the current state of affairs is, what the rec like, what the administration's response is to mister Bennett's request.
And depending on what information we are presented with, perhaps at that point, it would be compelling to have a board discussion. But I I think if we just jump right to a board discussion, I feel like we're circumventing the process. I think we can direct the superintendent to essentially give us more information in response to mister Bennett's request. Isn't wouldn't that be putting just putting it on the agenda and getting I mean, it's just a process of I mean, versus mister Bennett trying to direct the superintendent.
The superintendent is responsible to the board. So all I'm looking for is just an agenda item that that answers whether or not it's something that's warranted. I understand what you're asking, mister Dombrowski, and I have respectfully given my point of view. But thank you for clarifying yet again how you see this. So I think I think what we could do is is ask doctor Campbell to, provide us with more information on on where we are and, things like, what our
current state is, and what the need does or does not reflect and provide that back to the board in a communication directly from her rather than bringing it into a board meeting at this time. And then from that, we can make determinations as to next steps if it's even if it's even something that comes before the board. You know, if there is an interest and need and desire to have an additional team, I don't know if that's something that needs to come before the board for
us to to approve an additional team because of the need and such. But certainly, she could communicate that with us and and we can learn more. And and the whole point of this new business agenda item is to find out if there's a majority of board members that want to expend the administrative energy to go forward with that. I I'm not assuming that the six people at this meeting are all on the same page.
Mhmm. Thank you. So, obviously, mister Dombrowski, I know where you stand. Mister Van Dyke, would you like to I'd like the information, but I I guess I'm kinda hung up on where that information is shared. Is it is it in a an email to the board, or is it is it just shared to the next board meeting? Hey. By the way, part of my report is is, here's the information so the public has it there. But I'd like the information. I just don't know where I stand on where that information is shared.
I I would like the public to know. The public should know information. That's always my default. Mister Rosenblum, if I can, just make a brief remark. I think, the board is generally speaks through policy, and we're not gonna make a policy about how many volleyball teams there are. So this to me is an operational issue. Therefore, we ask if the majority of the board members agree, ask doctor Campbell and her administrative cabinet to look into this issue, provide some kind of a response, and
go from there. A public response is clearly either not forming another volleyball team or forming a volleyball team or perhaps some other solution or issue that doctor Campbell would then bring forward. But this isn't an issue solved by policy regardless. Thus, I think that it's more appropriate to ask doctor Campbell to look at this information and provide a response. Thank you. Miss Kavil, would you like to okay. So so the thought is that her response to us would probably be in one
of her weekly emails that we get as a board as to the operational update that she provides us from her perspective as superintendent. So that would be the the way that we would receive the feedback. Miss Baron? Yes. I if it's just informational, we're just getting it in our weekly update from doctor Campbell, then I'm okay with that. Miss Russell? I agree. And and I would also like to see that and to have it communicated to us as a board from from doctor Campbell.
And, and doctor Campbell as as most requests coming from the board, if it's going to cause, a significant amount of time by you or your cabinet to pull this information together, then I think you need to to let us know. What I will say it will take some time. This won't be this week's update, and possibly not even next week's because there are many, variables to collecting information and capturing what we currently have and what the need
will be in in aligning to the request. So I will ask for some additional time. Thank you. Anyone else? Or mister Dombrowski, any additional No. I I I don't I don't wanna convey a sense of urgency with the item, but I I do want to try to close the loop as as mister Bennett has been at probably the last six board meetings, espousing the same concerns and to, be responsive.
I'd I'd like to have the correct information so that we as a board are are all on the same page with regard to to some of the comments he's made. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Next on our agenda, our committee reports. And I know it's almost 11:30, but, I have a sense of urgency around my NSSEO report. So, I'm gonna cut through the really quick things quickly. At the last board meeting, which was on the eighth, we had, seven what we
call shining stars. And I brought these types of people to you in the past. We had rising stars and shining stars. And the shining stars, there were seven people seven students, all district two eleven students that attend Kirk School through NSSEO that were recognized as shining stars. There is a property that is owned by NSSEO called Sunrise Learning Outdoor Education Center. It's in Bartlett. It is an outdoor nature center.
And its its goal is to provide resources for NSSEO and its member districts around education. And it has a plethora of different programs. It has summer programs. It's kinda like summer camp with archery and all these different challenge courses and things like that. But it also teaches these these students that are, that are in need for different educational opportunities from team building to, construction to working just with other people, to leadership.
And, last year, they had over 10,000 students participate in their programs. They had almost 450 programs and it increases, regularly. A lot of member districts are starting to use them for vocational and career readiness programs. And they also provide staff workshops. And then they threw out at me, oh, we also do board work shops. So if our board of education wanted to go out to this nature center and
have a retreat, they do have indoor facilities as well, so it's not just outside. And finally, regarding this particular facility, they have an event coming up, which every board member got a flyer for during closed session, but, it's also online. Harvest Fest is coming up on November 1, and it is at the facility. So it's a great way and bring your people are invited to bring their families, as well, to check it out and see what it's what it is.
In previous board meetings, I have asked board members to review the revisions to the NSSEO articles of agreement. These are the articles that they have with how they operate as a co op, of which we are, a paying member. And, they are coming up on the deadline for board, member board input. And, I've provided everybody on our board, with the the the suggested revisions.
They are once again being provided and they are also, in the public comment content section of this particular article. If you could please look at them because, the deadline is Sunday. Today is Thursday. So if you have any input with regards to those articles, they're meeting with the attorneys next week to draft a what's hopeful, to be the final copy. And then I will be coming to this board at the November meeting to ratify
the articles. So our board approving the new articles. And then in the December meeting, I will go back to the governing board meeting that I go to for NSSEO and, let them know how we vote as a member district to ratify and approve it, for for their, use. So, so please get back to me if you have any questions about that. As we all know, there was a big HVAC project at Kirk School, their high
school. And, our district and two fourteen are the primary high school districts that send our students to NSSEO as member districts. And we were on the hook for paying for some of those repairs because, really we are part owners of that building. As the member districts that send our kids there, they got a grant for $750,000 to contribute towards that project. So it helps relieve some of our burden of paying for that very, very significant repair. And so that's it on that.
And finally, also within the documents that you have, is a board memo, regarding the superintendent council meeting. So, doctor Campbell and I both attended the superintendent council meeting. And for the public content, there's a lot more information on here, that a lot of it came out of that superintendent council meeting, especially when it comes to the articles. And it was great feedback to get the superintendents to provide feedback to the governing
board as to what they like and don't like. So, so please take a look at that. And if you have any questions, please let me know. And that's it for NSSEO. Moving on to ED RED. Miss Russell? I'll be quick. As I suggested or told you in the last, at the last board meeting, the the actual meetings for EdRED begin this month and next month. Unfortunately, I will miss the first member meeting because it's the same night as our
board meeting. But I will, either review the minutes or hopefully it's on Zoom and, or it will be taped and I can listen and report back to you. I added the FOIA request, on a senate bill which I thought was kind of interesting and I hadn't even considered. But, they wanna make sure that FOIA request going to district are are actually come from real people and not something AI generated. I thought that was an interesting consideration.
And then I know we're all exhausted but they do have an executive board vacancy on Ed Red. And if you are interested, it's at the bottom of the Thank you. Next is Community and Family Services report. Miss Baron? There's no update at this time. The UP Coalition, Thank you. Next on the agenda, it's a district two eleven foundation report. Miss Cavill is currently our liaison.
Do you have anything to report, miss Cavill? Mister Rosenblum, as I let you know by email, I've recently had a job change. My schedule has changed, and I am no longer able to attend, the early Thursday morning meetings of the District two eleven Foundation. They meet at 7AM on, once a month on Thursday mornings, generally speaking. And, so, essentially, I've had to I can no longer continue as a liaison, as I let you know.
So we do need a new liaison for this particular, committee whose schedule allows them to attend those meetings. Thank you. I will, turn to doctor Campbell for an update. Thank you. Thank you, miss Campbell. I will hop in on as I have the opportunity to attend the Foundation Board meeting on 10/09/2025, the group acknowledged that the creation of two new scholarships that will be, available and that will be available coming this spring for our twenty twenty six graduates. The foundation, for some time, has served primarily as a curator of scholarships, awarding more
than $65,000 annually, but the trustees, increasingly want to be able to do more. Much of the meeting was spent in conversation regarding the potential of hiring a part time or full time executive director who could spend, focused time working to advance the foundation, create new relationships, and build fundraising capacity, and drive change. Trustees also discussed opportunities for outreach within their old networks and voted to officially join the National Association for Education Foundations to gain access to help for school specific nonprofit
toolkits and templates that can can move the foundation forward. So the group did voice a shared commitment to continuing the discussion and taking the next steps toward a paid employee with the continued goal of supporting district two eleven students and staff. So I have two more things to say. Number one, miss Cavill, I wanna thank you very much for your service as a liaison. I know you made some adjustments as did they to, to make that happen. And I appreciate your, your serving as a liaison for us, for the beginning of
the year. I know I've had dialogue with the president of the foundation and, they are looking at how best to accommodate, another person as a liaison and, still be within their bylaws, for for that need. So thank you very much, miss Cavill. Next is the ISB report. And once again, I will be brief. Please remember board members to take the ballot that, you were issued last time in
the resolutions and constitutional changes and please vote, and provide that information back to, mister Rosenblum, president Rosenblum, so that I will know how to vote in the delegate assembly as your representative. Thank you. Next on the agenda is doctor Campbell and the superintendent report. Yes. And I just want to first thank you because I know that, we are well into the evening, but this is one of the, highlights. We've entered in well, September passed very quickly and we've now found ourselves, in mid
October and there's some exciting developments, taking place within our school and in our district. In September, I had the opportunity to attend a professional conference that provided me valuable insight. There were two main takeaways that stood out for me. Number one, it's critical that all initiatives align with our district's mission and values supported by measurable outcomes that demonstrate our return on investment and that leadership should should focus on growth for every heart and mind, which means students, staff, and families alike through intentional collaboration and ongoing dialogue.
And I think that's some of the points that were brought up this evening. Additionally, earlier this month, I joined the students at Fram High School for a physics egg drop experiment. It was an engaging and hands on activity highlighting creative creativity teamwork along with the application of math and writing. While my egg didn't quite land perfectly, the learning and laughter made the experience very memorable. Additionally, from high school was is one of 28 schools recognized statewide through the governor's new Blue Ribbon School Program. This honor reflects the dedication and excellence of our students and staff.
This week, I also had the opportunities to attend a business development commission meeting where I conduct where I connected with community business leaders in Schaumburg. I learned about ongoing future, projects and about the scholarship fundraising event called the toast of Schaumburg kaleidoscope connections, in which several district two two eleven students will benefit by receiving a $2,500 scholarship. At month's end, we will launch the first superintendent student advisory council featuring student representatives
from each school. This group will ensure student voices are heard and reflected in decisions that shape their learning that directly aligns to one of our five district values, communication and accountability. And lastly, as alluded to a little bit earlier, during the conversation, I'm excited to introduce Coffee with Campbell that will be launched later this month. These small and former gatherings will offer an opportunity to connect directly with anyone within our community that may want to join me. So stay tuned as final dates and details will be forthcoming.
Thank you. Thank you. What What kind of coffee? No. I'm just kidding. Next on our agenda is upcoming items and calendar. We have the National Honor Society, and the next board meeting is November 6. And the next item is return to closed session. So, I believe that we've covered everything that we need to in the first closed session. So if you agree not to go back into closed session, please say no when, when it gets to you.
So the recommended action is that the Board of Education return to closed session, that the board goes to closed session to discuss minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the Open Meetings Act, appointment, employment compensation, discipline performance, or dismissal of specific employee, setting of a price of sale or lease of property owned by the public body, and matter pertaining to an individual student. May I have a motion, please? So moved.
Second. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron? No. Miss Cavill? No. Mister Dombrowski? No. Miss Russell? No. Mister Van Dyke? No. Mister Rosenblum? No. Next item is that the Board of Education, in accordance with the master contract of the District two eleven Teachers Union, approve the retirement request of John Fidler, effective May 2027. And in accordance with the master contract of the District two eleven United support staff, approve the retirement requests of Kenneth Herman, effective May 2026, Anne Ray, effective June 2027,
and Janice Siwa, effective May 2026, as submitted by Helen Miller, director of insurance and benefits, and Lauren Hummel, chief operating officer, and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Campbell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Next action item is that the effective 10/20/2025, Timothy Jensen be appointed as building and
grounds manager at William Friend High School at an annual gross salary of $121,000 prorated to his start date as submitted by Kurt Teniper, assistant superintendent for administrative services and as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. May I a roll call please? Mr. Van Dyke? Aye. Miss Campbell? Aye. Miss Baron? Aye. Mr. Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Rosenbloom? Aye. The motion passes. And the next item action item is that the board approve the district owned residential
property located at 1527 Louise Lane, Palatine be listed in the multiple listing service at an initial price of $925,000 further that the board approve the resolution as presented and that the property be listed for sale on the multiple listing service for a minimum of fourteen days up to one hundred and twenty days as required and that the superintendent or designee be authorized to sign a listing agreement on authorized to sign a listing agreement on the board's behalf as submitted by Lauren Hummel, chief operating officer and
as recommended by doctor Judith Campbell, superintendent of schools. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Baron? Aye. Miss Cavill? Aye. Mister Dombrowski? Aye. Miss Russell? Aye. Mister Van Dyke? Aye. Mister Rosenblum? Aye. The motion passes. Having gone through all items on our on our agenda for tonight, the board president declares the meeting of the Board of Education adjourned.