Township High School District 214 Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Thursday, January 22nd. Yes. Hey, today we're here at Arlington Public Works. I'm working here and I'm showing you around my apprenticeship. This apprenticeship is really important to me because it gives you the hand that you will never learn in a textbook. There's certain trade indust like like trade secrets that you'll never learn just by doing notes, reading a book, but

also working here especially. I have all the guys here that are able to help me and just if I have a question on anything, they're always right there to help me. So, that's what's just perfect about this place. There you go. I've been working really closely with Ryan the last couple months u doing all sorts of different things. In my opinion, the apprenticeships are actually a really great idea because you don't know what the job is like until you actually go out and experience it a little bit, you know, with your own two hands. You know, some people love it and some people don't like it, but it's good to kind of test it out before you're committed to it.

Ryan doesn't know the trick yet, but we're teaching him. You use your right arm and sneak past it to the right. If you pull it out quick enough, you can

only get some on your hands. something like this, you can't just teach someone how to take a tire off, put a tire on, dismount a tire. There's kind of some tricks you learn by actually doing it hands-on. And that's some of the most important stuff here. And Ryan's he catches on pretty quick. We we signed up for the district 214 pathways program because uh we feel that it's important not just for us introduce um people to what we do as public works so that they see that as a career in the future but again to introduce them to the workforce get them some life skills to promote the career especially as an automotive technician. But yeah this is our traffic unit. So their job they maintain all of the traffic signals, the street lights. Um they're also electricians. They do a lot of uh electrical work in our in our buildings and things like that. This is all the the standard for all these signs and he has the ability to build most of these here in house. I would just like to say I I really hope that we can continue this partnership u because it's working out well and I would like to be able to help influence other students in the future with their uh future endeavors. I just love the environment here. Honestly, just being here, coming here every day, just I'm never dragging myself here to work. I'm here to learn and have a good time. And overall, the guys here give me a good experience. And I'd like to thank Arlington Heights Public Works for giving me this opportunity and being so like took me in as one of them and really showed me the ropes of everything. And I really appreciate that. We're at the 2025 Senior Olympics.

So today, uh, students from some of our LTS classes, leadership through service from Elkrove High School, came in as as a field trip to do some senior Olympics with the senior citizens. Yes, senior Olympics. It is it was a blast. Oh my god, this was fantastic.

We're doing a bunch of different games. Um, my team just finished throwing footballs in bins. We're doing bags, botchi ball, and I think we're also doing uh we bowling. So, that's fun. My favorite of all is mini rods. And I think to myself, what a wonderful now. That man is, by the way, if you see his wee bowling skills, out of this world. Okay. And he's a good coach, too.

This is great. Uh, you know, us to get together and exercise. And these girls and guys that volunteered their time for the high school to help us out. Awesome. I really appreciate this. Just thank you very much. And for your time and all the stuff that you do for us.

I'm just having a lot of fun and I think this is really nice and thank you. A big community effort at Arlington Heights today is making Chicago proud as students at Johny High School collected nearly 38,000 food items for localamilies. Donations will go to eight area food pantries as many families face those delays in SNAP benefits.

Today we have our annual food drive which is really exciting. The whole school is here helping out and the vibes are really high.

I think my favorite part is everyone coming together. Even if the people aren't in the SOS class, you see all your friends in their second period just helping with everyone as a whole school. Our teacher, Mr. Gunther, likes to call it controlled chaos. So, it looks chaotic, but our seniors in the SOS class have put so much work into this. We started at the beginning of the year planning. So, although it looks chaotic, everyone, it's just because there's so many people. But, as you can see, everything's organized and everyone's helping out. So, it's it's really cool to see everyone. I just think it's really so that we do stuff like this and we can get the whole school involved to collect cancer.

Hi, my name is Tony Rodriguez. I'm the community arborist with Oaklands and we're working with district 214 today to plant trees all throughout your campuses. One of our main focuses when it comes to working with schools is making sure that students understand the benefits of trees and the benefits that uh trees have on campuses. So, do you do y'all see this root that's coming out right here? Notice how it's nice and thick and it's a lot bigger than like this one that's growing out of here. So, this is what we call the first lateral lateral root. So, we want this lateral root to be right at ground level. Uh same as the uh root flip.

Um it's really cool being out here today because I'm learning a lot about what trees need to stay happy and healthy and about how to properly create a hole that's the right size for a tree to live in. um to make sure that it has a long and healthy life. This is one day.

Whenever we're working with the little kids, they love doing this part. So, today we're planting 19 trees on the on the school campus. There's going to be a variety of trees that are native to the area. So, we have swamp white oaks. We have some uh more ornamental um service berries and some smaller trees that are going to be going closer to the building. I wanted to do this because I wanted to help out my community and I wanted to get some hands-on experience especially with planting trees because you can't really do that every day and mostly because for FFA this is really good practice and everything. All right, so are we done? No. Why do you think we're not done yet?

Yep. We got a spreader out and the root flare is buried right now, right? So, let's go ahead and spread out the soil. I wanted to be a part of this because as an FFA officer, I'm very passionate about plants and agriculture and I thought it would really be a good opportunity to learn more about trees and planting because that's not an area I'm super familiar with. Not only am I an arborist and working with trees, but it's really important for me to be out working with communities and helping bring trees into their communities. So, it's really awesome for me to go to travel around a lot to different areas and help uh these communities get more trees. I think anyone who's watching this, if they could join your local FFA or just go out of your way to plant some trees, help out the community and the ecosystem.

Today we're here at Prospect High School and like we're going over some really good songs and stuff cuz I never met any of these people, but we all just came together and we're all singing it. Mr. music is pretty nice and stuff. He's teaching it really well. Just put your music down.

Teaching is feels like a calling for me and especially teaching the these concepts. That big difference and passing on. we are performing the oldest and in my arrogant opinion best art form uh and most human art form and that we're using our our human bodies to make art um that only exists in the space of time. The most beautiful part of humanity is when we do we're all together doing something uh in unison. And so that's that was the point of today. Yeah, I'm really excited to hear the final product because like um a lot of people here are talented. All of us are talented and I believe like someone out there is giving us this gift and we're using it to like empower and to also inspire other people and I hope we learn from each other too and miss our music. Draw a circle. Draw a circle.

Mr. music is really particular with what he chose as a song with songs cuz he chose like songs that are really meaningful and like for example like draw the circle it's basically kind of like it brings us together honestly I really felt that earlier Let this be our song. No one stands alone by draw circle. Yeah, I just like to thank Miss T uh and the whole team here for inviting me in to do uh and to do this. Everybody from the high schools around and and I I love, like I said, I'm living my dream. And so I love coming in and sharing this message of music and community with with everybody. And um I think it was I think it was a wonderful day. Let this be our stand alone standing side by side. Draw a circle. Draw the circle.

Can you describe today as inclusion revolution? I mean, this was such a big hit. You really see the students, they get to see how excited they are. And we're going to cut straight to the game. Marlon Johnson wearing number 58. He's on homecoming court this year. And he puts in the first basket of the game. Today we have the big game. It's one of the biggest events of the year. The kids love it. It's all about fun and just friendly competition and the kids all love it. They're going to try to give an eye on Andro who puts it in for a basket.

I mean, you could really hear the crowd here. This is one of the days of the year, especially if you're a Husky student. This is just great. Drier with his third basket already. We're ready. Okay, great. Thank you. I call to order the uh Township High School District 214 uh board of education business meeting for Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. Ms. Marini, would you please call the role?

Baldino here. Young here. Tustling here. Fioro here. Hinaman present. Sager here. Cryer present. We have a quorum.

Thank you. I need a motion in a second to go into close session for the purpose of discussing the employment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of spec specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in an educational setting or legal counsel for the public body. Superintendent evaluation. And the third item, collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedule for one or more classes of employees. Motion in a second, please. So move. Chung second. Sager. Call the role, please. Yes. Sager.

I. Baldino. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Fioro. Yes. Hinine. I. Citer. I we are now in close session and hope to come back at 7 o'clock. Thank you.

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up is the pledge of allegiance. Dr. Ro, do you want to introduce our guests?

I would love to high school to introd introduce line up here. the associate principal at Prospect High School and have the privilege of working so closely with our associated student body also known as ASB. Uh what is ASB? Cultural architects of our every night culture where engaged and empowered and they're the ones that shape a lot of those events. So, I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and they're also going to share one of their favorite events at Prospect achieve that objective.

Okay. Hi everyone, and my favorite activity that ASB does is the ASB pickle ball tournament. This was something that we ball and we ended up getting over a hundred kids to come and we involved some local organizations. The Pickler and Andes even came and brought frozen custard. So, it was a pretty cool experience and it was a great we it was outside of school, so it was really cool to see everyone come to this activity. Awesome. Okay.

Also a junior at Prospect. Um, one of my favorite events at Prospect that we just recently started was an event called Coco Canines and CRAM. Um, it's basically like a little study get together that we had in our library to kind of prepare everybody and de-stress them for finals. So, we have the cocoa where we offer hot cocoa to everybody as a nice little feelgood drink for everybody to de-stress. Uh, we had canines kind of comfort everybody to the school environment. And then we had cramming which was the studying for finals. So, that's probably got to be one of my favorites. Okay, great.

Hi, my name is Santiago Milani. I am a senior and my favorite activities of Prospect are the pep assemblies. I think they are really engaging and a great way to dimeify announcements and yeah, I mass the student body. Um, hi, my name is Mary Robinson and I'm a senior. Um, my favorite activity that ASB does is Prospect Gives Back where all the clubs and sports at Prospect get together on the first Saturday of October in the fall and we go out to the community and do different service activities.

Oh, very good. Very good. Hi, my name's Lee Beer and I'm a senior at Prospect. And my favorite event that we do is homecoming week. Um because we have a bunch of different events throughout the week that um promote inclusivity and school spirit like we did a trivia night and movie night and then we have our powder toss at the end which everyone loves.

Hi, my name is Sarah. I'm a senior at Prospect. Um my favorite event that ASB did was the sock drive this past November. We uh collected a bunch of socks for nearby domestic violence and homeless shelters and it really showed how our school is able to come together because we were able to raise um over a thousand pairs of socks in three weeks I think. So

hello everyone. I'm Sophia and I'm a senior and my favorite prospect event is multicultural fair. This is a special day of the year where a lot of people can share their culture. Some of the people can uh show their traditions also. We can taste some special foods from this cultures and I really like this event because I was part of this for two years. Thank you. Fantastic.

Okay. Um the board want to stand please and uh who's who's gonna lead us? Okay. of the United States of America and to the republic under God, indivisible, with liberty and okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank. So, does anyone wish to remove anything hearing? None. Uh, can I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? So, move for second. Chorito. Yes. Chong. Yes. Hi. Sager. Hi.

Thank you. Can I have a motion in a sec? Board of Education minutes from J. Open and close. Motion in a second, please. Motion is second. Please call the roll. Baldino, yes. Hinineman, I. Chung, yes. Dustling, yes. Theoro, yes. Sager, I. Cryer, I. Motion carries. 70.

Thank you. Okay. Tonight we have a partner recognition. Mr. Moi, please. Thank you. Tonight, uh, we recognize Castello and Deart Dental Excellence for their valuable support of our internship program. Uh, board president Kitzer and board member Sager, please join me for partner recognition. I'd also like to invite forward Dr. Ernest Castello and Caitlyn Manning. Hello.

Castello and Heart Dental Excellence became an industry partner with District 214 Center for Career Discovery in the spring of 24. And over the past two years, they have already hosted 15 of our health science pathway interns. Those students have all reported how much they've enjoyed the experience working at Castello and to Hart. And not surprisingly, the practice has become one of our most requested healthc care placements because of the reputation providing excellent internship experiences. Students consistently talk about how welcoming and kind the entire staff is, always willing to answer questions and hands-on experience at Castello and to heart. For example, learning how to mold teeth and sterilize instruments. They have been able to shadow staff and observe many different dental procedures. But beyond the exposure to the more technical aspects of dentistry, students comment upon how the staff treats their patients. They see firsthand what real professionalism and care look like in action. For many of these students, this experience has confirmed their desire to pursue a career in dentistry. We extend our sincere thanks to Drs. Castell and Deart and their entire team for their generos generosity and mentorship of District 214 students. Thank you so much. Sure. I'll just say a few things.

It's uh it's truly been our pleasure. I was invited to speak to the scrubs club at Hershey. I think it was in uh maybe the fall of 2023. And I think that may have been what kind of prompted this internship opportunity. I have two students at Hersie now. I'm a Hershey alum myself. And just hearing the Prospect students talk about everything that they have to uh participate in, it's great. I mean, I I was a proud Hershey alum. I was happy to have my kids coming back to district 214. But the opportunities they have now just make what we had, you know, 30 years ago look like something totally different. So, I appreciation to all the board members and everybody who put these things together. I have two kids in the CNA uh uh pathway program right now myself and I just think it's it's great and as far as I'm concerned I had a lot of great educators, a lot of great mentors. My father was a dentist and I know a lot of people come out into the field. They do not teach you how to run a business. They do not teach you how to interact with people in dental schools. And I know it's hard as educators. We're always trying to give as much of a real world opportunity as we can, but in a classroom it's really difficult. So, the fact that this program was put together and continues to be run so well, as long as you uh you need us, we're we're going to be happy to be there to support it. So, thank you. He's got a great smile.

Yes. No surprise. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Go Huskies. Thanks Kathy for coming. God,

he's talking about prospect. Oh no. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. Uh, okay. No one has signed up for public comment. Next up is Dr. row.

All right. Well, at this point, you give me the you're going to give me the to be at this point. This is the the midyear strategic walk you through some of so far and you're one of and as well as as back a little bit of how are we this into the culture around the the challenge roadblocks that uh There we go. All right. High level um overview of of where we are, highlight our progress, u preview some of the focus areas for the second half of the year. Um as we go through this presentation, I I I ask that you you keep your focus at at again this is year one. there are we we run into bumps every every single day and as you know bang our heads against the wall but it's it's where the good work is happening. Uh and so I'm going to share some of that. I'm going to share the good, the bad, the ugly, some of the um the positives and some of the the areas and how we're navigating those bumps. As a quick reminder, um obviously you you're familiar with the plan. Um it's it's based around two key documents. the the road map that has our uh our instructional vision as well as our aspirational beliefs that we try and hold ourselves to in all decisions that we make centered around the skills of the portrait of a graduate. Um there's a new wrinkle that's emerged in goal one that I think you're going to love um based on the portrait of a graduate. I'll get to that in just a moment. Um it's it's centered around four goals. uh

an instructional goal, a sense of belonging goal, an operational efficiency goal, as well as an innovation goal. I'm going to walk through each one of those um goals with you this evening. And just as a quick reminder, um the the the role of the board is a really important one. Uh it's one that that sits at at the mountaintop uh in the balcony, a 30,000 foot view looking down to hold us accountable in these conversations, remind us of where we're going if we um get ideas or start to veer as this is our road map um to improvement and to growth year-over-year and and continuing to uh to enhance and take our school district from a great school district to an exceptional one. as well as ask questions and flag any concerns that you have so we can provide you with the information you need to to feel confident in our path and the work that's happening. So, um I'll start with goal one. Um and in goal one, we established a district-wide instructional um vision was the big overarching task. uh we've clarified expectations around what high quality instruction looks like is going to be our focus for the year and then we focused on strengthening those transitions into and out of district 214. Um highlighting some of the work that's been done. It's you know huge um you know props to to Dr. Hubard and his team. This has been it has genuinely been the focus of the instructional administrators every time that we're together, which is is exactly where we want to go is when we have the the the energy and the talents of our instructional leadership team together. Having a a a guiding document of what we should be working on has really garnered a lot of energy and a lot of focus for that team. Um we've drafted uh an instructional vision. uh we have been working on what are the descriptors what does it mean to begin achieving these the skills that we are striving to achieve at the point of graduation and that and that point that I said I want I was excited to share with you is

something has emerged from those conversations which is a portrait of an educator that we'll be able to then begin infusing into our hiring practices of what are the qualities we're looking for in our in our uh classroom assistants or CMA members or um in teachers or administrators to ensure we're hiring the people with the right skill sets and mindsets maybe more importantly um to to guide our students and and our and our district forward. So I don't I'm not gonna I don't have examples of those because they are very much in the iterative process. um the the instructional vision as well as the porch of an educator. It's has gone through administrative review still getting feedback um and is we're on the verge of sending it to um some staff groups for uh for feedback and and continued iteration. The second bullet point is is deep conversations around maybe the most challenging work which is aligning the district. As you know, we've been we valued sightbased leadership for quite some time and over the years u differences in how we approach education have emerged and our this was the number one aspect that our community asked us to prioritize is alignment across our our six high six comprehensive high schools. And so what that means is aligning curriculum and identifying where common learning experiences will be. um what assessments should be common across the district, what what uh rubrics in terms of essays, what common learning experiences should we be I mean even down to the debates of should we all read the same book, should we value lit circles, should we have uh the same type of writing assessments so that we can then measure across the district are our learning experience are we all growing at the same rate? Are there pockets of excellence that we can learn from at one school that might help another? Um and and so in term then selecting resources. So we've made one of the decisions we made as a team that uh will be a part of that socialization socializing process is you know

chemistry is is chemistry in all six of our high schools. We should use the same resources in all of the chemistry classes. And so what um what Dr. Dr. Hubard is building and with his team is a curriculum review cycle where we'll be evaluating the standards alignment and making decisions on um the instructional experiences or the learning experiences, the assessments, selecting materials and then the continual review in a multi-year process. So that is uh coming back to the the February admin workshop for continued review and refinement. And then as we go through the spring semester, uh we'll push that out to PLC's and and building instructional teams where teachers will be able to provide their feedback and by the end of the year we'll have um a document that uh that we'll we'll prop up and use as our as our focus. The strength uh strengthening the freshman uh registration and scheduling process. As you know, we uh we have created a master scheduling team. Uh it's a little bit of goal two, goal one overlap. Uh that is ensuring that we're registering and and assigning classes and building our schedules in a very u similar way across across the district. Um college now is launching. We had our the the um orientation either just happened or it's coming up in a week or two uh with Harper. So that's on the verge. As you know, we had tremendous uh interest in district 214. We're excited about where that will go and we've completed the professional learning audit, which is how is our professional learning aligning to the desired outcomes that we're after. Um so what that audit is doing is aligning the professional learning experiences against where the instructional vision is going to ensure we're providing the right PD to help our staff focus their energies in the right in the in the direction that the district has set forward. And then uh you know LZ and the and the foundation team have have starting to build our alumni database. Uh they invested a lot of time and energy and and really really excited about that uh about that

progress. Any questions on goal one before I move on to goal two. If not we can certainly if they pop up we can come back at the end. Um goal two. This area we focused on the sense of student belonging and attendance. uh social emotional learning implementation major priority and then stronger transitions and family partnerships. So I'm excited to share on the next couple of slides I actually have the data um to show the progress that we've made um on actual the attendance front but maybe the most most important part is the consistent processes that are been implemented across the district. attendance intervention teams um at every single building uh their solution finding teams are meeting in a very similar structure teams uh Mary Kate meets to ensure that consistency it because if we start looking at look like a whole lot and you read that actually right to left but it's over a a percentage point uh increase of a better a average daily attendance on a on a daily basis. Chronic absenteeism also reads right to left, but it goes in the opposite direction and we want it to go the graphs to go down. We've we've seen a a solid decrease in chronic absenteeism, which is what we want. Um this is a as you know a really difficult needle to move. Um but through consistency across the buildings um and and accountability that started with uh with Cara and the um the associate principles of student services they've set the expectation uh and they're and they're they're meeting the mark and this is again it's first semester last year first semester data only not not yeartoear and then in terms of chronic truency we've seen it a little bit of a bigger swing in the right direction so attendance is all heading in in a really really positive direction excited to share

All right, we talked about trusted adult a little bit. Trusted adult is an a an infinite campus uh add-on that allows our our students to identify an adult in the building that that they say is this is by person. Um it's more of if a student is in a in a um personal moment and with that student it's easy for the to know who to go to uh for a particular student. The focus this year has been on identifying the students who did not identify someone last year and and working meeting with those students one-on-one to help them understand our why, understand the the reason for this and help them try and find someone. Um if they don't have that, then we can also alert their teachers. They're looking for one. Let's make some additional attempts to form a real connection with these students. Um our ruler training, as you know, we've adopted u Yale's Center for Emotional Talence. the ruler program as our social emotional learning curriculum. Uh we've we've completed uh two rounds of that training, some teachers, even even more. I attended the uh the the second wave um on the institute day right after winter break um with I think 60 or 70 other um PE teachers and and uh related service personnel. Uh it was really good. Alvin Alvin Lewis led that that group. I know Carol led another group. Um and this is our curriculum. and it's beginning to be implemented this month across all freshman PE courses. Uh our we're actually planning to turn our next board workshop into and give you the two-hour ruler training. So it's really important if this is if we're going to commit to this that it becomes systemic and it starts with this table. Um we all have to be on board so that way we understand the lingo, you understand the language that's being used and the why. Um, and

even if you're never in a position where you have to apply it, I think you'll walk away and maybe choose to uh just to understand where you are and when the emotions and uh rise from time to time as they do in life. And then finally, uh we've expanded eighth grade articulation for families and uh Kira added a few events from articulation events with our feeder and special education student services team members. we're really investing in understanding um what they're getting into when they're here so that that handoff becomes smoother. Um in in a lot of times there's this fear of going to high school and we want to add on supports for students especially students that have special needs. And when you add on those supports as they're getting older and going into high school we're trying to give independence. there's a little bit of fear and sometimes it's a the big bad high school is going to be tough on you and it's not going to be easy when all reality is we are wrapping these students in every bit as much support and and love and care as the elementary stu districts do. Um and we want their families to know that this it shouldn't be a scary thing. Um, but it is and but I think increasing our our our knowledge and knowhow. Not only was it going to save us some dollars is sometimes the additional supports are costly and they're not necessary. Um, but more importantly, we want our families and students to be confident in coming that they know they've got a great partner in district 214. and then the a special education facilitator have been attending those eighth grade transition meetings to help turn the temperature down if if they're in the nerves, but then also just be able to explain how um how seamless that transition can be. Any questions on sense of belonging? Yeah,

Frank, last night here. Um last night at the uh Buffalo Grove PTC meeting, um Jeff was not present, but the their board their PTC president mentioned uh the absenteeism and freshman sophomores or some whatever definite signs of improvement. one was kind of neutral like Switzerland and then the uh the fourth one was the senior class and the senior class was down.

So I was wondering do we have that type of information at the other five schools as well and um if we do if we see a pattern is it some way we can look at it and say I wonder what's going on with say say it's the seniors we'll just hypothetically say it's the seniors and four of our schools say have senior problems where they don't go to school as much as they should. So, is that something that we can use to possibly Sure. Absolutely. We meet as a district-wide attendance team and then there's an attendance committee in each of the buildings and that's definitely something we can bring up at the next

Yeah, I'll be honest. I do attend a lot of the PTC meetings at the different schools and that's the first one that I that I heard that type of u detail at that level to say okay well maybe if the other schools had this information maybe if there's some correlation between the schools that maybe Yeah. Sure. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. No, I I' I've seen that before, how it just goes down when they get to senior year. Um, you know, this attendance I think Dr. Hubard, wasn't it at Wheeling last year where you increased the number and it didn't show it didn't go up at all. Right? You know what I'm talking about?

With some significant work and this is some data that Dr. Ro has short shared in numerous times with uh almost nearly a percentage point increase just under a percentage point increase it equated to three 2,000 more class 5,000 more classes attended. Um and so 5,000 more periods attended. That's right. Um and so I think that there's to move the needle uh with respect to attendance. It looks on a graph to be incremental, but it's really really large steps. Uh, and it has a huge impact on students obviously their attendance, but more importantly their grade and their sense of belonging, which is really the aim of the district.

Yeah. And um I appreciate I appreciate these graphs. And then um I have a question. Uh I don't know if it's chronic absenteeism or uh chronic try. If a student is hospitalized, does that count against one of these? No. Okay. Okay. And the I can't read it. It's so too small. What What's the uh what does the state say? Is a chronic absent student um more than 10%. 10% 18 days or something like that. Yes. Throughout the year and truency what what's that? Truency is um I guess I'm not understanding the difference. Is unexcused,

right? Tru truency would be when students are not called out, right? So truency measures unexcused absences. Uh absenteeism measures students that are absent for any reason. Oh, okay. Excused and unexcused. Good. Good. And um ruler training, everyone will get ruler training this year. No, not everyone. Right now it's it's the uh PE teachers that will be delivering the curriculum and then our student services related service providers. Yeah. So all of our student services folks, right? But and I I appreciate that each school has their own unique way of improving attendance. Am I correct? Yes. Well, we're working unique way

tried to be consistent, but yes, we're supporting students in a positive way. We're send districtwide. We're sending out positive attendance improvement letters to families. We're doing a lot of things districtwide. But yes, there are things happening in each building. There are teams, the dean teams are competing to see who who does the best. They're doing a lot of creative things within the buildings as well, which is great.

I actually met with Mr. Feral, to your point, met with uh Mr. Wardle yesterday for uh just for a regular check-in, and he walked through some of their their mid-year school improvement data with me, and they had 5,000 more classes attended in the fall with their freshman and sophomores, which is their focus group. and it it doesn't move it very much, but it's moving in the right direction.

That's the point I wanted to make from what Alva asked and what Brad answered is that um the when you look at these, especially our our public that sometimes can be critical of us, um or just the public school system in general, you know, you sit there and go, "Well, it's like not even a percent." But realistically, we're not really focusing on what really that 1% or that 7% represents. And maybe that is what should be in some of these graphs is by highlighting that this, you know, this improvement is 5,000 more periods attended. A footnote. A footnote.

A footnote. Well, it's got to be more than a footnote because that could get lost, too. But it really needs to be a highlight to say, hey, okay, it's it's only8%. But that 8% represents the fact that we have 5,000 more classes attended by students. And to me, that's a big number. And it does represent something. Well, actually, if I could, I'll take that point

in a different direction because it's even it can be even more personalized than that. Uh, I was meeting with Dr. Kelly earlier this week for for a check-in and he shared a student success story from El Grove student that freshman year was failing all of his classes in with the wrong group. This the attendance team and and his behavior interventionist group, the dean group latched in and he's attending classes and has all A's. So, it's not just about always about the 5,000 more classes attended. It's redirecting a a student on a positive path and then beginning to gain confidence in themselves and taking ownership of their of their future. That's where the win is. And that's not going to find itself in a in a percentage on a on a chart. Yep. Right.

It results in graduation rates as well. That's right. I mean that's ultimately we want successful graduates and so every single um fraction of a percentage point is additional students graduating from the district without a doubt. Great point. Okay. Okay. Right. Yep.

Okay. Um goal three is our operational efficiency goal. Um and we talk you see that you probably see this one more frequently than anything because a lot of the the items that you've been approving lately um are directly related to this. So we're focusing on the district 214 way in goal 3A. Um improving our operational efficiency and transparency which is um you know operate on a operate do more and spend less because we're doing it uh in a more efficient manner. and then strengthening systems which has been our our primary focus u this semester um in in terms of this work. So, some of the alignment and examples of the alignment certainly not all-encompassing. This is a there's a big one. There's a lot here, but um I mentioned the master scheduling earlier. This is where this this comes back from goal one and goal two and is a focus on goal three. That master scheduling team uh we have we are this is also one of the frustration points is uh we have intentions of taking um uh registration to an online the website that we've created and shifting it over to Infinite Campus. Um, and there's a lot there behind the scenes that has made that work um, slower and a little bit messier because of some of the legacy systems we have to correct. So, good progress. It's just not going to happen on the timeline that we had hoped for. It's going to be a little bit longer because we don't want to rush it. As you know, the new website has launched. Um, uh, I use the chat feature or the the bot feature every time I go on there. And the search feature, especially Elkrove, is always the one I hear it from. Um, does not pull prospect athletics when I'm looking for the Elkrove uh, basketball schedule. So, it's a that's a major move forward. Um, and I know Mr. Mi has worked a lot on that with our new partner, Aptigy, U, which has been really positive. And then athletic uniforms is on here because it tells an interesting story just as an example of operational efficiency. Uh

Mr. Ul's worked out with u with BSN, which is a um athletic gear provider that if we buy Under Armour uniforms through BSN for all of our sports, we kind of like your credit card points. You develop points in their system that we then can use to reduce the cost of the next round of uniforms that we buy. So because we're doing things through a similar system, we're ultimately going to reduce the overall cost and all of our student or all of our students will have a regular rotation of new uniforms on the cycle that they should instead of having to rely on fundraising at each individual school to give them uh the uniforms and equipment that they need. So we've centralized a lot of that purchasing um purchasing power. And then in district transportation really comes down we're using cabs less and using our white buses more. So, that's saving us um saving us dollars and and transporting students when a course may not be taught at their high school, but they can attend in person at another high school. Um some major systems that underway that you've seen a lot of obviously tonight on our consent agenda, we're hoping that you when you hopefully approve that, we'll make the transition towards Skyward away from Infinite Visions uh formal. uh the expansion of Red Rover. You heard from a public commenter actually at the last meeting and she was just about two or three steps ahead of where we're going to go. U as we rolled out Red Rover and as we're beginning to sunset use of a legacy system um it's been a slow roll out and so we've continued to to increase use of Red Rover for hiring and onboarding and that will continue to grow and expand into some of the areas that she was asking us to investigate just uh for for the point business process review. Dr. Adaway is is investigating a more equitable way of funding our um our school budgets. uh he's got he's got a a prototype that we've been discussing that hopefully by by the end of the year will be ready to roll out that I think that you'll be very pleased with, but also this is how

do they build their individual budgets from a zerobased uh mindset of of not I have this amount of money what am I going to spend it on but what did I spend this year and how do I build backwards to ensure I get what I need and if they have a request there's a process um to go through that and then obviously you see well the records retention you just approved I think it was last month uh to shift the forest view and Arlington High School records online in terms of storage instead of keeping them. So there's obviously uh you know as a part of our board meeting that final bullet you see the uh the monthly um financial report as we're tracking against budgets to keep that very transparent um and show progress that we're making. Any questions on operational efficiency? No. Okay. Um moving on into goal four which is innovation and facilities. Um our focus this year has been on creating structures for responsible innovation and then listening first approach with our community on our uh facilities planning. So we've talked a little bit about the innovation and change committee uh high interest from staff and a couple of board members that have been on that committee that have talked about guard rails. How do we want to scale innovation? Um and then Katie Paige in our um instructional technology role has uh been focused on district-wide artificial intelligence professional learning. Um developing uh some some guard rails as well as um a framework of responsible use of artificial intelligence in the classroom setting. So those are being socialized, aren't quite ready for prime time, but we're working on rolling those out. Uh as well as partnership with the foundation for many grants for some innovations in the classroom. um our community engagement process that you know we were engaged in throughout the fall. Uh we got a lot of very um very positive and strong feedback. Uh we're in the uh the phase of refinement at this point. We listen to our community and when we begin phase three uh in late March or early April, we'll be able to uh I believe our community will see that we absolutely listen to the feedback

that they gave us and our conversation will be narrowed and very very specific about what the needs are so that the the conversation can continue um down the path that they've asked us um to go. And then finally, the final bullet point is one I'm actually really excited about is, you know, I talked about the the in all of my presentations, the one- arm band at the desks in the classroom. We want to refresh our classrooms. We really invested in this. Um, and we've we've launched a furniture pilot program in our buildings and two classrooms in every single building. They have uh more modern, flexible seating. And teachers were able to sign up and volunteer to be in that that pilot classroom um and then in a lottery. And if they were chosen, they're getting a um a a modern flexible seating classroom that they can play with. They can decide if they like it and then other teachers can come visit. And the whole idea is is we then decide we have a range of three or four classroom prototypes of this is the type of seating that the district will purchase. Teachers visit it, decide which one fits your style and what you'd like your classroom to be. and when it's and when then we can budget for it and when it's your building's turn and your classroom's turn, you can pick and choose what style you'd like in the classroom. So, uh trying to increase our staff voice while refreshing um some of the furniture in our classrooms questions on goal four. All right, as we move on, just kind of a what do we set out to do is this year is really about implementation um establishing routines. How do we infuse um the the strategic plan into our day-to-day operations? Um I feel good about about where we are in terms of the process. Um it's it's messy work on a day-to-day basis, but it's supposed to be. Um we run into that pretty regularly and and I I have to commend u this team that's sitting up here with you as well

as the principles because they've been leaning into the mess. Um and that's the only way to get through it is to uh to work through it. So our priorities are really embedded into everything we do. From the board agenda to uh to our meeting structures um in district, we are focused on aligning our work to accomplish these goals. Um we see teachers engaged in the conversations. When I'm in buildings, I'm getting questions about goal one and when are we going to see it? There there's there's, you know, a little bit of excitement about uh the feedback portion. And then um as I said, staff engagement is is strong and and year one is is right where it should be. Uh I think as as as we're as we navigate through. So I mentioned kind of already we we've we go through this process where things get a little messy and they're called stock takes and what happens is is is each goal gets a month of the semester and they present to superintendency and principles what are we working on? What's the progress? Where are the roadblocks? Um and what feedback do I need to move forward? And that's really our opportunity to kind to nitpick, to ask questions, to understand so that there's a shared understanding across all four goals as well as have you thought of um or gives me the opportunity of I'd like to see us investigate this or invest more here or push this faster or slow down here. Um, and it it it's we've only done one round, so after one round, it'll definitely um get tighter and and and more I can probably honestly roll our sleeves up a little bit messier as we kind of rumble through it. But uh I've been pleased with the way that it's gone and I think um that things are going exactly where there should be. There is natural tension. The the the way we've always done things is a is a is a phrase we hear. I'm hearing it a little bit less and I want to hear it less and less, but um the roadblocks are expected, but we're navigating them. Um and I think that u I mentioned the stock

takes already, but what I want you to walk away with is year one is foundational. We're focused on process. We're focused on system um as well as as kind of navigating some of the mess. But I want you to know I we are on track. Um, and what you'll get at the end when we do our year one reflection is much more detail and very specific outcomes. Um, as well as uh anything that's a a a specific percentage or measure. You'll see that, but you'll also have um supporting evidence of how we've achieved all of these so that give you the confidence that you need that um can either ask for more information or clarification or the confidence that we're headed in the right direction. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Board members, go ahead.

I don't have a question. Um, my comment is on on goal number three. Um, and it's really the first bullet point because it seems like on my in my um the one thing that um has become rather apparent is that we we Um the master scheduling was where where some schools had a some schools had a deadline at this date and because they difficult to for the technical team. Um, I think that's one of the things that is that we we really need in a lot of areas to have our schools all be on the same page because if we don't, we're going to consistently get push back from parents and other stakeholders who say, "Well, why is that school doing this when my school's doing that?" And and it just doesn't it's not a good look sometimes. And I do agree that each of our schools is different and sometimes you must must have you might have to have a little bit of differences but as we saw tonight in the student thing when they talked about the earned honors and you had kids from the other schools going what what what are they talking about? So yeah so to me no question I just want to say I love the fact that operational alignment but it goes deeper than that with being consistent throughout our schools. Thank you.

Well that that consistency comes from you know athletic directors and APAs in the weekly meeting that Mr. Julie has with them where they shared agenda of what should we be focused on the weekly dean meetings that that uh Mrs. Kendrick is having with them and and then I said that the counselors there's consistency and and support on this team. Um but then it's also comes from the principles. The principles have agreed and leaned in and and have developed a really really strong trust among the group. Um, and I believe it's a it's a really strong team and and you know Kate has has joined that weekly PLC in terms of like we call it the mini deck of uh the mini district executive council where they are just navigating problems that don't need to come to not problems but um projects or challenges that don't need to come to the full district executive council that they can work out on their own and then uh they can move a little faster. So it's it we're finding some ways to increase collaboration. They had one today actually. We're here a good chunk of the day and and but the trust among the team is is vital and and I I I couldn't be happier with the team that we have assembled

board members. Yep. Go ahead.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Dr. O. And to um Vice President Fiorito's point, um when you talked about Dr. Row, the athletic uniforms and um Mr. Ulie and building that relationship with BSN and that's really it's, you know, it's it's a matter of equity, right? So that and you know just the thought of one school not being able to fund raise to the point where there and another school is. So I think that's um wonderful. Um I I I had a couple quick comments and then a question. Um so I really appreciate all the work and the commitment that's written into our strategic plan about the relationship with our sender schools. Um, and just aligning and thinking through through what is it going to take to help our incoming freshmen be successful? Like how can we prepare them all the way from the registration freshman registration to the um the collaboration we have with the center districts on math curriculum. So I think that's fantastic. Um always so happy them you know and I see some really great work there. Um and I also appreciate your slide with the board's role. Um because I think and I'm speaking to myself, this is definitely an area where it would be easy to inadvertently step off that balcony to the dance floor and try to direct from there. So I do appreciate you reminding us that you know it's about governance and accountability. So I thought um that was great. It was a great reminder. My question is um so I appreciate on the website that we list our strategic goals and our metrics. Um I would love as a next step um if we could report milestones as they're being achieved. So one idea is could we do maybe a strategic plan dashboard where as we're achieving milestones we do have some charts up or we do report on this is

where we're at. This is you know the progress that we're forecasting just as a way for our community to know look at what district 214 is um achieving. It's a great way to build, you know, transparency and open those doors.

Well, I would just say we we do too. And I think that's uh that's a great next next step for us to begin investigating. Um not having this is no excuse by any means, but not having had a strategic plan. Our focus has been on implementation. Um but we will absolutely investigate that. I think that that is a great next step for us. and our partners actually just sent us a communication um sh celebrating a dashboard that they built with a district not far from here. So, we'll do a little bit of research and come back on that. Good call. Thanks, board members.

I was just going to comment that um you know, as I was reading through this in preparation for the meeting and thinking about where we're at at this early stage, um the emphasis on building kind of the strategic systems, right? This is systems work. It is transformational and it doesn't happen overnight, but it is exciting to see signs of progress. Um, and I agree with Dr. Chung that it would be wonderful to do some kind of a report out. I love that we're doing this. I'm also cognizant of how many people are never going to see this because we don't get like super high views on these meetings, but I would love to see something on our our district website that we could point people to so that they could check in on this as well. Um, where I think a lot of this work is leading and I see this theme throughout all of the goals is a more efficient district and efficiency really helps deliver excellence. So, I'm super excited about um some of the outcomes I think we can expect. So,

thank you. And I and I will we'll I'll start investigating that the dashboard and and build a Patrick and I will build a build a plan on how to get there. Good call. Thank you. Anybody else? Dr. Sager. Yeah. So, thank you. I know it's a mid mid year of the first year report, right? So, uh, a lot of it is designing these structures and talking about what we're going to do as we're starting to do it. And I just wanted to ask, um, you mentioned it slightly what the role of teachers will be in helping build that aligned curriculum because these are the folks who have been across our buildings. They may have slightly different ways of doing things, but they may also collaborating together have a way to build out that alignment.

Sure. happy to to talk a little bit about that and I may tag in a friend over here. But if you think about um we're viewing the curriculum review cycle as a vital point and and how that curriculum review cycle at least how we've kind of talked about it would be you know led by administrative facilitators and our division heads for that that subject area. But then teacher representatives from every single building that meet on a pretty regular basis talk about standards alignment. What does that mean? And then report back to the building for feedback. And there just that that continue feedback loop. Um and and I don't know if you want if I'm hitting on that or if there's anything that you would want to add.

The team would be pretty comprehensive with teacher representatives from um assessment, textbook adoption, all of that. That the teachers are vital in that process. It's not done without them at all.

Yeah, absolutely. the the the we're starting to socialize the vision that we came up with and the portrait of an educator and the eight high impact instructional strategies that we identified. Um that has been through an admin review that's been through a we called it a design team and then a refined team and that was our district-wide uh TLFS which are teaching and learning facilitators, our instructional coaches. Um and then we just had our first meeting at Wheeling High School earlier this week where we met with all of their PLC leaders um if and department chairs in the building and presented where we were at. So and we gave a preview in terms of the curriculum review cycle that really is going to be built and designed at the admin workshop on February 10th. And our plan then is to then subsequently bring it to the buildings for input and feedback. And really the the leaders will be the division heads in the buildings but really the PLC leaders when we identify that algebra one is going to be put into the cycle. There's a a pre-work uh part of the cycle and then there's going to be four stages that become cyclical and the the the PLC division the division heads along with the PLC leaders will really champion that work in their PLC time on Thursdays. Um and we started to to talk about that with them uh uh with wheeling and get some feedback and it was really really great to hear as they saw a preview of what's coming. Um chemistry teacher said well we already have align we already use the same assessments and uh the English teacher said we already use the same rubrics for our right. So they they're seeing that we are moving toward alignment, but there has been some work in years past and in recent um in recent months this year knowing that that's a cup upcoming, some of them have taken charge to do some of the work in advance. And just to continue on the the point of teachers being sort of the front lines

for our students, when we have uh teachers or staff members who are identified as a trusted adult or we're working on these um sense of belonging, uh do is there a way to in bring meaningful professional development to staff members around those issues in particular? Because it's it's a you you're becoming a teacher, right, in your college class. Yeah,

that's a great point. And we actually are working really hard as a student team. We have a lot of really really amazing experts across our district in our in all areas, but we identified things that our student services teams wanted professional development around this year. and the experts from across the district have become our leaders in those areas and they're providing professional development on days that we've identified across the district as specific to student services supports in professional development. And so that is one of them and how we're supporting our staff members. So we're working as student services teams to be able to provide that training for for our trusted adults so that they're able to feel comfortable in those situations. And we have in all buildings called on trusted adults at different times when students were struggling. And we bring in the staff member because that's who the student feels most comfortable with. But we absolutely continue to have the student services team members with that trusted adult when they're working with the students so that we're modeling what that would look like or could look like. And certainly want to make sure our staff members are as comfortable as possible before we would ever expect them to take that on on their own. But yes, that is something that we've been asked for and we will continue to use our experts across the district to help us with that.

All right. Thank you.

Okay. So, um you know, I just sitting here thinking it's almost um four years ago that we were interviewing for a new superintendent and I can clearly remember that we asked each candidate, we want a strategic plan. Can you do that? And they all said yes. and uh at our self-evaluation just before you came on board, we said, "Where's our strategic plan?" And of course, we had to wait for a year. So, here we are. And um and I know I remember Mr. Heinman, I'm not calling you out to be bad, but I but I remember your comment being, you make a strategic plan, you put it on the shelf, and nobody does anything. Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. So, I I don't think that's happening, Mark. No.

No. So, um I I'm just really happy that this is happening and uh um it's been a long time. Like when I went with Dr. Row to all the uh parent meetings, I said, you know, the last one was 1988 and none of us were around then. And I'm just really happy that uh we're really moving forward with this and I really appreciate these half-year updates uh because it shows that we're not putting it on the shelf. We're actually implementing it and I know this is hard work. I know I know this is hard work. This is something probably nobody in the district has ever done. But I I appreciate the in-depth uh uh update. Dr.

Ro. Oh, go ahead, Bill. Well, you got your There's a certain amount of trust that goes with what we're doing and you're right. We we looked at Dr. Ro for strategic planning, but but you know, we're trying to turn the saint the St. Mary around, if you will. At the same time, we're trying to do the decks from the bottom all the way up.

You know, getting reports and getting a whole bunch of things that there's a certain amount of trust that goes with the man is here that's going to run it. And if you don't trust him and the team that he's put together, we got a problem. I trust him. I trust we're going to turn this the boat around and we're going to build a decks and we're going to get a new flag up and everything else. So, as we move forward, I feel confident in you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Mean a lot. Thank you. Thank you, board members. Okay. Uh I hate to say this, but anything else, Dr. Ro? Uh no, I'm No, not at all. We're ready to go. Okay. Okay. So, board member updates. Uh, Mr. Dustling, do you want to start?

Do I have to talk again?

Um, yeah. One of the things I want to mention, I pretend I attended a number of things, but one of the ladies, young ladies that was here tonight mentioned from Prospect. I was at that. It was, it was they filled the fieldhouse with uh with students from various countries. It was really amazing. The other one last uh Sunday, January 11th, I was up at the BG cheering invite. Uh I was there all morning, started at 8:00 in the morning and uh went till I think 1 or 2 in the afternoon that that I was there and then it went on after that. But there were 141 schools there. If you can imagine, if you can imagine all the buses, the the whole fieldhouse or the gym was full on both sides all day. how the how Buffalo Grove pulled it off with all the students is is absolutely amazing. It went on till probably 6:00 7 at night. And finally, the thing was Wild Stang had their kickoff with the robot that revealed that they're going to have that was here in this room on the Saturday on the 10th. And um it looks like it's going to be a good year for them. Thank you.

And don't forget the um Midwest Regional here is here at Forest View. Um Miss Baldino.

Yeah. Um, I was able to attend Wheeling High School's um, production of Ride the Cyclone, which went to state. Um, it was pretty incredible. Um, an actual musical I wasn't familiar with. Um, which is amazing if you knew my kid. Um, and it was an the production values were some of the highest I've ever seen in any high school production. It was absolutely incredible. The acting was amazing and every uh lead had an incredible singing voice as well. It's not an easy um musical at all. It's difficult material to sing and it was fantastic. So great job to all of our schools that went to state for theater. Uh also was able to attend the honors musical festival and it was as usual amazing. As somebody who played music in high school um myself and didn't have access to those kind of opportunities, it was just um it's always so incredible um to see those students get the benefit of absolutely topnotch directors and that kind of a special experience and they were doing it before school was back in session. So that was also really cool. And then the last thing was um last weekend some of us were able to attend the Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance dinner which is um one of the things that we our community partner for and sponsor for and um it was really moving and it was very fun to um to dance with the Supreme Court justice. I thought that was pretty great. She gave a great speech, too. But yeah, she was she was out dancing.

And and she said, "Invite us to your school." That's absolutely true. Good. I'm like cuz she said it and I'm sitting next to Patrick Maggie and I said we got to invite her to our law pathways. I mean, absolutely. She was a great speaker. She was a great speaker and she was really enthusiastic about the Harper students that were there as well. So, um, you are inviting her. This is good. Uh, good. Mr. Fiorto, please.

Um, I will just touch upon the the one thing that Bill kind of mentioned. It was my first time attending the uh cultural fair at Prospect High School, and I did uh send off a uh email to Greg Mter and Frank Mandola. I was really impressed with the spirit of the student body. I was really uh shocked. Um, as I said tonight at the student thing, I I saw um girls and boys wearing cultural outfits that I would never have, especially high school kids. I would never thought they would be wearing that in school. And it was really interesting to see all the different booths representing all kinds of different cultures, even religion and um and sexuality. And I thought that was impressive as well. But like I said, the the enthusiasm and the spirit of the of Night Nation was was phenomenal. And uh it just left me with a really good feeling being there only during a lunch hour for 15 minutes. I just enjoyed seeing kids that were naturally happy. And and the other thing that I also was observant of was I didn't see I saw very few kids on their phones.

And when you have an event like that, it must mean something for kids to stay off their phones. So very proud of all the the Prospect people for what they did. Thank you, Dr. Sager.

Uh, thank you. So, um, I just wanted to add on top of the Wild Stang uh, release date, which was in this boardroom and very exciting, there was also the first Lego League regional held here the month prior where it was elementary students doing the same these challenges with little programmable Lego based uh, robots. And that was very exciting to see because a lot of the the folks running it were the students from the Wildstang program. And so a lot of our students serving as mentors for younger students. And it was it was wonderful to see and just watched, you know, fifth through 8th graders doing getting their feet wet in terms of programming and and learning about uh robotics. Um I attended the Buffalo Grove High School winter celebration at Charlie Brown Christmas which was very creatively done. Um, it was wonderful to see the combined band, orchestra, uh, choir all work together and tell a Charlie Brown Christmas story in a live performance. It was it was very exciting. I attended the honors music festival. I I was really appreciative of the guest conductors who came in and really worked with the students. they work with them for a very short amount of time, but they're such excellent students that they are able to sort of incorporate everything together in just a what's essentially a few days. And uh the guest conductors did a really good job, I think, inspiring the students and spending time with them, talking to them about what it may be to reach the next level. Um uh let's see. Today I attended along with Mr. Adaway the uh NSSO facilities and finance committee meeting. Um I just wanted to alert we didn't have an NSSO board meeting, governing board meeting this week. There was an operational board meeting, the very first operational board meeting or this month.

Um but the one thing that came up at the facilities and finance committee meeting is there's now a rule that um nonprivate uh therapeutic day schools are eligible for reimbursement of some of the tuition which had previously only been limited to private schools. But there's a r that's a new rule in Illinois, but it's there's a wrinkle in that uh ISBE sets some tuition limits and we don't know what those are until March. No, July, right? And so we're building the NSSO budget that so this is a new wrinkle and so there may be some interesting hiccups in the NSSO budgeting process around the tuition amounts we pay because there's a limit to what can be reimburseable as tuition. But that may be, you know, there there may be a wrinkle. There was a lot of questions that are not answerable at this moment. But the budget will be built out as usual with the normal normal tuition process and there may be tweaks that come that wouldn't have been needed in the past. This is the first year doing it and it's an iterative process. It'll hopefully get smoother in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Ch.

Yes. Um, so, uh, I I have a couple things. Uh, first, earlier this month, our district had three teams participate in the Special Olympics regional basketball tournament. So, the Huskys, the Lady Vixens, and the Falcons all had tournament games. And I'm excited that um, the Lady Vixens and the Falcons are moving on. They're advancing to state, which will be held in March at Illinois State University. Um, so congratulations to Nicole McCormack, um, their coaches, Lori, Steve, and, um, Miss, um, Dr. Sager mentioned, and the game reveal I know, um, member Dustling mentioned, um, I agree with everyone what they said about the honors music festival. It was phenomenal. Um, and the winter celebration. So, yes, that's it. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. You had something to add, Dr.

All right. You know, he sparked a thought of something I forgot to to add. Mark your calendars for Friday, February 6th. Um the uh District 214 um basketball, Special Olympics basketball team will be playing Bington High School's um team in their own version of of the big game. And Dr. Wkelman and I, Bington Superintendent, are going to have a halftime challenge, three-point shooting contest. But there's a wrinkle. And the wrinkle is is that our students will get to tell us how we're going to shoot the three-pointer, like one-handed or behind the back or something silly. So, but the point is is is at the fe our February meeting after that, the loser will be wearing the other school district's garb at the board meeting. So, let's hope I'm not wearing a Bington 220 shirt during um our February 26th board meeting uh where we have a self-evaluation. So, I'll hopefully he'll be wearing District 214 things at his. But a fun way just to to get involved um with our with our kids at a at a cool event. So, February 6th at Bington High School if you're interested

at Bington High School. Oh, okay.

Okay. So, um, yes, I I attended a a lot of the events that, uh, other board members attended, so I'm not going to go over those, but, um, I, um, went to my first, uh, association meeting down in Springfield as vice president, and I'm also on the core planning team for guess what, their strategic plan. They've never done a strategic plan. So, uh, yeah, it's like, oh, another strategic plan. Okay. So, we had our first uh Zoom meeting yesterday, but we're meeting in person in Springfield in March and then I think in April. And I hope uh so this will affect all board members across the state. And uh I'm I'm really looking forward to this uh Kimberly Small really is uh um doing a great job of uh uh trying to find out what the needs are of all board members across the across the state. Thank you. So um oh we have one department report Dr.

Ela before we move on one one more thing I forgot to mention January 31st NSSEO Sunrise Lake

the win annual winter wonderland at Sunrise Lake from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. All board members are invited. Families from the district because we're a member district are invited and it's a wonderful chance. Hopefully, it's snowy. Get to, you know, do outdoor snowing activities, sledding, uh go for a little hike, uh play broom ball, that sort of stuff. So, there's little fun activities for everybody. And it's especially good for uh students with and families with uh children with special needs because the staff is really good at handling uh the needs of all students. So, thank you, Mr. Mike.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Uh Dr. Adaway.

Thank you. Um, so I will keep the my comments brief. So on the expense side, there are no concerns um that we are seeing. Everything is running on track with the previous year's uh actuals. Everything is running in line with the budget. On the revenue side, this has been a long time coming, but on January 14th, we received an email from Cook County with a draft distribution schedule for the remaining fall tax payments. Um, these distributions will be the first out of their new system and they are scheduled to run between this week and February 7th. So, we did receive distributions yesterday. So, I'm hoping that at the February board meeting, I'll be reporting that we have received all of our fall installment tax payments.

So, to date, what's the percentage that we've received that we're estimating we've received? We're working through that still. So, before uh the distribution we received yesterday, we were somewhere between 60 and 65%. Okay? Because we run the Wheeling Township Treasury here, we receive money for all of the treasury districts and normally there would be some kind of identifier in previously of what money belongs to what schools. Oh,

that did not happen with these distributions. So, we received 24 payments yesterday with no identifying information on what money belonged to whom. I I believe that we received about 16 million of the 25 or 30 million that we received. Um but we're trying to get in touch with the Cook County Treasurer to figure out what money belongs to whom. Unbelievable. I was looking at the um I was looking at the financial statements with the um Wheeling Township Treasury and District 23 looked not good there. Yeah, it uh it was Was there a WJD on one of those checks?

I'm sorry. Was there a WJD on one of those checks? Because I could help you out. Um, wow, that's incredible. So, what is there, eight, six districts? Oh, Harper College is on there, too. The Willing Township treasurer not mixed up with with us. No. Okay. Well, yeah, that's not good news. Well, we're sorting through it and we we received money. We'll we'll figure out what belongs to whom, but hopefully by the middle of February, we will have received everything that's owed to us. So, really, our tax bill is going to be late this time. I can't believe it would be on time.

It will absolutely be late. Um, it went through the general assembly. Um, and so it's actually codified in statute now that this year the first installment is delayed by a month. If that's true, if that's true, it will be at least a month.

Yeah. Okay. Uh, I won't say anymore. Okay. So um we're going to consent but on uh 121 our first one I need to read this um resolution authorizing preparation and publication of a tenative budget. Whereas, pursuant to section 171 of the Illinois code, the school board shall fix the school district's fiscal year and designate a person or persons to prepare its tenative budget with such budget to be made conveniently available to the public for inspection for at least 30 days prior to final action thereon. And now, therefore, be it resolved that Township High School District 214, Cook County, Illinois, as follows. Section one that the board of education hereby find that the recital contained in the preamble to this resolution is full, true, and correct and does hereby incorporate it into this resol resolution for reference. Section two, the fiscal year of school district shall commence July 1, 2026 and conclude on June 30th, 2027. Section three, the administration is designated and directed to prepare a tenative budget and make such budget available for public inspection and to publish notice there thereof pursuant to section 171 of the Illinois school code. Section four, all other motions and resolutions or parts of motions or resolutions in conflict herewith be and the same are hereby repealed and this resolution shall be enforced and effective immediately and forth with upon its passage. Section five. If any section, paragraph, clause, or provision of this resolution shall be held invalid. The invalidity of such section, paragraph, clause, or provision shall not affect any other sections, paragraph, clauses, or provisions of this resolution. I said that word wrong. Section six, the resolution shall be in

force and effect upon its adoption today, uh, dated January 22nd, January, 2026. Uh, let's see. Uh, can I have a motion and a second for the consent agenda or consent items, excuse me. So, move Chung. Call the RO, please. H. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. have a couple action items here. Uh 1311 motion in a second, please.

So move. Chong. Second. Baldino. Call the roll. Chung. Yes. Baldino. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Fido. Yes. Hinineman. I. Sager. Hi. Critzer. Thank you. A motion and a second for 1321. Please. Some move furo. Second, Mr. Julie.

Thank you. This is the last board agenda item for summer 2026 construction projects uh which is exciting. We're capping a nearly $25 million commitment uh for summer work. Uh this is in regards to infrastructure in three school stadiums, Buffalo Grove, Prospect, and Hersy. Um just a quick review. Um the track in in all three of these schools are late 90s, early 2000s. So we're looking at a complete overhaul, grinding down the asphalt as well. New asphalt, curbing, fencing around the perimeter of of the track. Uh the fencing was in a previous board agenda item a couple of months ago. Um the turf all roughly installed around 2011 2012. Um typical lifespan of turf is about 12 years. So, we've exceeded some of that life expectancy there, but it is ready uh for replacement. With that replacement, we're able to repurpose and recycle some of the infill, the rubber coating. Um, newer technology allows us to lay down, it's called a cool play layer, which reflects more of the sunlight so it doesn't get as hot, which is a nice feature.

Um, we are retrofitting our lighting. Um, poles remain, but, uh, the wiring in the heads will be flipped to LED lighting. Um estimated savings about 30 to 50% on our utility bill. Um so that's just a it's not a difficult project, but it's a needed project. Um also additional capability with those lights. We're able to control those through an app now. You basically get a a code and you have to call in to turn on the lights or turn them off. Um also we've had some mouse issues, mice issues and and the hery poles chewing the wires up. So infrastructure for sure there. And then lastly, the scoreboards. Buffalo Grove has a new board installed in 2023. The other two schools, Hersy and Prospect, will get new stadium boards. And again, this is really the infrastructure and just the coordination of this, just laying it out. We have to lay new footings and new steel for these scoreboards and then bore for fiber to connect to our press boxes and internet. And so, you really have to coordinate all this work together. So, now is the time to kind of address this. We can also leverage the power ad agreement that's currently in place. Um our multimedia kids then can produce and really leverage those those new boards for for their needs as well. Um so we have begin court began coordination on these. Um but they are our schools have worked with us to release these stadiums in May. Um so so we've worked with our buildings athletic directors to kind of push some things off to give us an early start. Um, what also is applying pressure is the new IHSA football start date. Um, the most critical component for us. It's all weather dependent, but the asphalt needs a 30-day cure time before we can lay down the track surface. So, we really need to get in there and the buildings have been great giving us as much time as they can on the front end um to create a bigger buffer for weather. Um so some build two

of the buildings are releasing early May and I think prospect is May 15th. So um as soon as we're board approved and ready to go we are leveraging source well purchasing contracts for this work. Uh we're also utilizing Pepper in a supervision capacity. We will not have site superintendent uh in those locations but they will help supervise and coordinate some of this work as we move forward. You're talking about the lights that um that like Wheeling has in the stadium. Those lights are so cool. Yes. Unbelievable. I I remember at my park district when they were building the uh park across the street, they were asking about lights. I said, "These lights are so cool, you guys. You're just going to love them."

I'm glad you brought that up. But, you know, with the newer lights that we do light studies and we could really kind of hone in on the areas that we need to to light up. Also, with Wheeling, we're to goal three's point, district standard. This is all standardized across the district. So, what you see at Wheeling is basically what's going to happen in these other three stadiums. Um, just the layout of the track, the two different colors, um, the end zones, the the 50ard line emblems, that is all standardized AC across the board.

And when you say can hone in on the light, it allows us to be really good neighbors and and it will reduce some of the glare that that the neighborhoods feel from our stadiums, which is a really good move. And we we really lived that at with Buffalo Grove and that second turf field that was uh where we learned a lot about the capability of these new systems. Anyone

I do um first I want to say that I I like the idea of turning them on and off. I I do recall one of my daughter's games where it got dark out because of the cloud conditions and they didn't have the keys to get up to the press booth to to turn the lights on which was really crazy. But um I I know this is way late in the game, but um the the Hersy stands, they don't have they're not ADA accessible on the visitor side. I I don't know about Prospect and I don't know about Buffalo Grove, but it is it too late to even think about doing something like that or my I guess my other question would be is do we have to be concerned because I know how you educated us on the fact that you had to do the track and the turf at the same time because if you didn't you'd be you'd be a fool and you'd have to redo the track because you need to have equipment to get to the turf. So that's my question

and it's a and it's a good question. I think it really comes down to budget. I mean, you're looking at probably a3 to5 million commitment for new bleachers at one site. Okay. So, you couldn't just put a ramp in. It'd have to be So, we have ramps at every location now. We add the last school was Rolling Meadows, which we did recently. So, we added the ramp capability and we do have ADA access. Okay. It's the seating that has been and then we're grandfathered in from that perspective. Um we we have tackled the infrastructure. Now depending on how things play out, we could go back in and and discuss bleachers and press boxes. Okay.

Prospect is the only one with a newer kind of set of home bleachers and a newer press box, right? But but the Prospect would become that new district standard, that layout. Okay. So my last question for you, Chris, and I thank you for all your answers via email and and here tonight. um the summer camps. I know at Hershey it's like a Taylor Swift ticket. If you don't get in right away, you don't get in. And the question I have is um where are these teams going to go to do the summer camp? Are they Do we have a game plan for that?

We do. We're working through that. I think you'll see um at least Prospect and Hershey over here at at Forest View outside inside um and then our other schools are going to step in and help just like Buffalo Grove helped with Wheeling when we were doing the project. So, we're still going through all of that coordination now. We're in the in the middle of planning um summer camps now. We're still going to stick with our timeline of being ready to go and roll that out in March. Okay. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. Mr. Dustling, that's probably an unnecessary question, but everything points to starting off and being ready for the football season. False sports. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Chong.

Yeah. Um, thank you so much, uh, Mr. Ulie. I appreciated how, um, both tonight as well as in your memo, you outlined that this is more than just cosmetic changes. It's necessitated, whether by student safety or by infrastructure reaching its, you know, even past its lifespan and all of that. Um, or efficiencies that we're looking to institute. So, I appreciate, um, you mentioned about power ads. So, we signed our contract with them last year. Um, I don't need a dollar amount, but just in general, how is that going? Because, as you mentioned, we can see that expanding to the new scoop school boards that

Yeah, they they began their campaign canvasing the communities in in the fall, early fall, but September, October. Pat and I have been on a couple calls. Uh, they've provided us with a tracking document. So, we've seen that they've made roughly a thousand contacts to this point. Um, we have secured some agreements and I could pro provide an update. I don't have the number off the top of my head, but I'm certainly able to provide an update in a Friday letter.

Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. My second question is actually for you, Dr. Row. So, I believe at a previous meeting last year, you mentioned that these projects are funded um by a spendown of our fund balance or that was how the monies were earmarked. Um and um I just want to say if my memory is correct and that is what you said then that would be a great example of um the district you know um we made that decision last year to move the target fund balance um from 50 to 40% in order to use that for some strategic capital project expenses which is exactly what this is if I'm remembering it.

That is exactly correct. Um about a year ago, the the board made the decision to reduce the the minimum fund balance from 50% to 40% before it triggered certain actions. And in doing so, freed up some funds for us to strategically spend down for capital improvements. And as we adopted this year's budget, the board approved um I believe it was $10 million or so from fund balance to um to the 60 fund to allow us to use it for capital improvement. Absolutely. So this is a strategic spendown of capital improve of a fund balance for um our buildings.

Dr. To go a step further, I would also mention that all of these projects were listed on that original um archon um assessment with the the grand total that we don't mention anymore. Go ahead.

Yeah. So, I I just wanted to follow up. First of all, again, I appreciate that this is replacing at this point which are very old tracks and fairly old turfs. They've reached their lifetime and so this is uh something that has to be done. It's not an it's not a a want, it's a need. And I'm just going to always ask the same question. What's the lifetime? Are we going to get 20 25 years out of these tracks and 15 years out of the turf? Is that what we're looking at? Like, yeah, good question. The the scoreboard and lights come with fiveear warranties. Five years.

Um the the the the projected life expectancy of turf fields have expanded a little bit, 12 to 14 years. track is really about the maintenance. Um, so just regular maintenance of that and then sometimes they just need a resurface which is much more cost effective versus an overhaul like we're doing. A resurface could range from $2 to $300,000 which we might have to do every 10 years or so before the infrastructure starts to fail which is the asphalt and those are the issues. you've seen some of those pictures and you know the the the steel and the metal popping up and so that's our opportunity to address those infrastructure needs as well.

Our team's doing a really good job maintaining the turf fields as well. It it's like recoding a parking lot every few years but to so you don't have to tear it out maintaining it over a longer span of our issue is the infrastructure. We got roots coming up so we have to tear it all down. Yeah. U my other I had a couple other questions. So the asphalt that's around this, so there's the curb that goes around the exterior. How far does the asphalt extend out? So the the asphalt is underneath the track service. Oh, underneath the track surface. Okay. So we have you don't see it.

We have to go through that undercutting process again, which we did at Buffalo Grove. And so before we lay down the asphalt, we got to make sure that the ground is stable. Once that's done, they lay the asphalt and then it has to sit and dry for 30 days. And as we do that process, we make sure that there's no pooling spots or anything like that on the turf up. And then once we get the green light, it's the polyurethane spray uh track surface. So, okay. And then I noticed the there's this field turf genius that's included. Do do you know any I I've sort of researched it a little bit, but my understanding is it's to improve usage and maintenance on the turf fields. Do you care to say

it's a monitoring instrument? So, so right now what we do is they're called compression tests and we do them every summer and basically it monitors the bounce uh of the turf itself and when you get to a certain point you might have to add more filling to make sure it's safe. And so it's just a mechanism to allow us to kind of track and see the data over time versus just looking at a piece of paper uh from the test itself. A way to get a handle on maintenance before it before it occurs. And then I just want to say the LED lights are wonderful. Instant on, reduce light pollution. They save electricity. They're excellent compared to the old lighting. Yeah, they're really cool. Okay, anybody else? Okay, call the roll, please.

Fioro, yes. Dustling, yes. Baldino, yes. Chung, yes. Hinaman, I. Tager, I. Citer, I. Motion carries 70. Uh, thank you. Um, Dr. Adawaway, I think you're up.

Great. Thank you. Um, so this item introduces the preliminary budget guidelines and assumptions for the 2627 fiscal year. So, at this point in the budget cycle, we're not setting final numbers. Uh, instead, we're we're just starting to establish the principles, parameters, and decision-making framework that will guide the administration's work over the coming months with the budget. So, as the memo in your board packet outlines, budget development is a multi-month process. So, many of the significant variables like collective bargaining outcomes since we're negotiating two CBAs this spring, uh insurance renewals, state and federal funding levels, certain contractual costs, all of those have not yet been finalized. And because of that, the purpose of this discussion and this memo, it really is to ensure we're aligned on how the budget is going to be built rather than what the specific assumptions or the final budget is going to be. So the proposed guiding principles emphasize several key commitments. One is maintaining a balanced budget aligned with the board priorities and district strategic goals. Number two is levels. Number three is aligning and student needs. Four is prioritiz. And then five is using recurring rev avoiding reliance on one-time solutions. So from a revenue standpoint, property taxes continue to be governed by statutory limitations. Now, one of the factors that we do know going into this budget cycle is CPI. Um the 2025 final CPI is 2.7%. And that is going to be the maximum increase that we'll receive on all existing property in next year's tax levy. State and federal revenues will be monitored closely as updated guidance becomes available. And then our interest income assumptions are going to reflect

our cash flow realities and projections on the state of the economy going into next year. Then on the expenditure side, the guidelines acknowledge ongoing cost pressures uh particularly in benefits, transportation, utilities, and special education. Now, none of these current cost pressures are unique to 214, but they do require careful planning to ensure long-term sustainability. Staffing decisions will continue to follow the established calendar and be informed by enrollment projections, program offerings, and funding availability. So, as I mentioned earlier, tonight is about making sure we're aligned on the framework and the guard rails rather than reviewing specific numbers. And this gives the administration clear direction as we start building the budget, knowing that many of the underlying assumptions will continue to evolve over the next several months. So, as we get better information on things like course offerings, uh, negotiations, insurance, state funding, we'll bring back those specific assumptions to the board as part of the tenative and final budget process uh, in June and then September. So, if there are any questions on the memo uh, and the guidelines, I'm happy to to answer those.

Board members, Dr. Chung,

um, thank you, Dr. Adaway, I had two questions. The first, um, so as you just stated, um, it's, uh, one of the bullet points was assumptions related to property tax collections will be monitored and adjusted based on guidance from Cook County and other relevant agencies. And I know at our last meeting, we talked about how Cook County's property tax billing cycle has been delayed three of the past four years. Um so in forecasting for 2027 um what assumptions are we now using I guess and we do know a little bit about the spring about their distribution timing um particularly as it relates to our interest income projections and I guess this goes along with what you shared last week at the board of the Cook County Commissioners meeting about the financial hit that we and many other districts faced because of that delay. So, I just wondering,

that's a really good question. Um, so with what we're experiencing with Cook County this year, I'm not sure that we'll need to make any conservative uh assumptions or reductions to what we're anticipating for property tax income. It it's delayed. It turns into a cash flow issue, but we still receive the money within the same fiscal year. So, I'm not sure that anything needs to happen there. But your point about the interest income is a really, really good one. Uh we will likely be very conservative on our interest income projections going into next year. Um we know that we definitely took a hit this year. Um so we'll likely be looking at our projected actuals for this year and using that to forecast what next year is going to look like. So, just to be that guy and and do one of these, not only do we lose a million dollars of interest income this year, but we're we're going to lose the opportunity to have solid interest income next year because of an unreliable property tax dispersement system at a level of government we can't control. That is correct. Thank you. That's what I thought.

Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful news. Uh Dr. Sager, I had one more questions. I'm sorry, President Kit, sir. Um my second question, so this is under um the revenue framework. It states um and you you read this um property taxes will continue to represent the district's primary um revenue source. Um so I understand that, but I was hoping to revisit something we very briefly talked about at our last meeting um because I'm concerned and I know many of us are concerned with how heavily school districts need to rely on property taxes for our funding. And so we talked about that concept of a penny tax. And I'm just wondering um are there any viable either county or state level options? Um

did you say county tax or county level? Like it's not a district decision. It's something at a county level or something at a state level such as the penny tax or something tourism based maybe based on hotels or car rentals. something that could help diversify our revenue and just lessen that burden on our local homeowners and taxpayers.

Yeah. Um there are counties in the state that implement a tax. Unfortunately, Cook County is not one of them. And I understand that there's no discussion about uh us getting uh not this is a few months old that uh schools in Cook County would not be uh u would not have this tax. Do you have any other information? The only thing in in my prior district, one of the counties that did implement a one one cent or 1%, I'm not sure which one it is, sales tax is is Boone County out out where Belvadier, which is a county, couple counties beyond where where I worked, but I I I did hear about it and we investigated it in Mckenry County. And my understanding at the time was every school board had to like ratify to sign on to it in the entire county for it to get on the ballot. That's 120 school districts in Cook County. Um so that if that's accurate, that would be a challenge. I'm happy to investigate it um and bring it to this maybe this Cook County Property Tax Coalition or our state reps to just talk through what that that option may be, but um I'd have to do some research. Okay.

I'm happy to do that. And there's some other rural counties, you know, south of I80 that have implemented the tax, but uh I don't think it's something on their radar at the Cook County Board. I think it would be something has to be done to offset the yeah property tax burden, especially in this area. Um as they look at, you know, 62% of their property tax bill with us and and at the same time um the burden's real.

Yeah, it is. Yes. Yeah. And so, um, thank you so much, um, Dr. Rose, just and I guess I'm wondering if you find some viable realistic option. Maybe it's something that we as a board through IASB could advocate for. I mean, as an individuals as well, but yeah, I mean, it's something has to change. So, okay, you're up. Uh, so for several of us board members, this is our first time running through the the budget cycle completely here at 214. And so I just really appreciated this document because it's lays out here's the assumptions that we're going in. Is this new practice or is this how it's been done in the past or I was just curious.

It's a it's a pretty st like it's how it's been done in the past. Dr. Adaway has added tweaks to make it his own. Um and and a lot of that really is there's actually less specificity because we need the flexibility for him to build the budget with um wide ranging assumptions so that way um we end up with a do with a a a budget that we can live by and not ever have to deviate from. Right. So my follow-up would be what are the major changes compared to prior versions of this?

It it's pretty much just what Dr. O mentioned. It's that level of spec specificity. So in previous years and at least the documents that I looked at where I was very generic in a lot of the statements and just talked about guard rails and and guidelines there were actual dollars put to some of these assumptions which it my view this is very early to do that. Um there's a lot of information that we don't know and there's a lot of information that's going to change between now and July. So I struggled to put dollar amounts to this. knowing that anything that I would put in front of the board as a dollar amount or a percentage was likely going to be incorrect in a month. So this this turned into more of a generic frameworks conversation just so we had guiding principles as we were developing the budget instead of actually setting the real assumptions that are going to inform the budget going forward.

Right? which I appreciate it as a framework for me to know where there's future changes that are going to come and not be surprised by them in the future. I I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Dustling. You know, it certainly doesn't help to have two tax years that you're dealing with and trying to balance those out specifically when you we're we're coming out of a tax year which has turned into a total disaster in Cook County and going into next year. Uh I I don't anticipate it being any different. I would hope it would be, but uh but to be balance those out uh and and get something um understandable that can lead the district forward is extremely difficult. So, it's greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. So we uh have the freedom of information act with this uhformational item and we are going back into close session and just a note we will not have uh any action item when we adjourn from close session. So I need a motion to go into close session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent evaluation. Can I have a motion and a second please? Motion. Okay. I heard a motion and a second. Second. Second. Okay. Please call the role. question. Oh, yes. Is there a discussion item on business services? There was. That's was the budget conversation.

That was a budget conversation. Dr. Adaway, I'm sorry. Um the um uh freedom of information. I'm sorry. Oh, freedom. No, it's justformational bill. Okay. I'd like to say something about that if I might. Oh, sure.

Okay. Go ahead. I I I publicly want to thank Marilyn Graph for what she does uh putting these foyers together, not only putting the foyers together, but being uh professionally gracious when the people sometimes people don't receive the response they want, even though we're following the foyer regulations. I just want to thank her. She uh she works on this tremendous amount of time and uh I just publicly wanted to thank her. Ditto, please call the role. Baldino, yes. Chung, yes. Dustling, yes. Frito, yes. Hinineman, I. Sager, I. Critzer, I. Motion carries 70.

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