Township High School District 214 Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Testing 234 Welcome to Jerry's Cafe.

We are a destination cafe and we offer craft food and beverages, meaning we make everything fresh on site when you order. And all of our food and our beverages are prepared and served by adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And then lastly, just say the name. Tom. Here you go. Enjoy.

My favorite part of working at Dear Cafe is definitely interacting with friends I've met throughout the years and the expressing machine. My co-founder Amy Philpot and I opened Jerry's Cafe for job opportunities and a staggering statistic tells us that 80% of adults with disabilities are unemployed. I believe differently and this is the place where our employees can work and feel proud and contribute and can see that they have value and purpose and they are given the responsibility that anyone would be given in a job. And we expect nothing less than them to perform at their highest level. So we see great success in every single employee and their independence and their offerings and activities here at Jerry's Cafe. The large hot white chocolate pumpkin pie with whipped cream. It is to die for. It is delicious. It's amazing. Well, the uh favorite part of uh working here is that I I get to serve customers. I am a cashier. They understand to include people with us with exceptionalities.

I wanted to tell you I've been watching you today. You're really good at your job. You've been doing I always I always like to serve customers. Customers go first.

We are super proud of our partnership with District 214. District 214 has been a supporter from the very beginning of our foundation and several of the schools have done fundraising and helped us get our doors open to Jerry's Cafe. Proudly we have 12 or 13 graduates from the District 214 schools who will work at Jerry's Cafe as our active employees. This is where we do our salar prep. This is where we make all the salads. And then over here is the sandwich line. This is where we make all of our sandwiches. I have worked here since day one. I love it here. I love my supportive team members and I like serving customers. Here is one chicken Mediterranean trip salad. We know that our community members have lots of choices, but we're hoping that you will come and choose Jerry's Cafe.

Thank you. When you come inside and engage with our employees, you feel a sense of joy and you will start your day feeling the best way that you can with a joyful heart and knowing that Jerry's Cafe has provided you with delicious coffee, breakfast or lunch. [Music] Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese.

All right, welcome to our 55th year of putting together an incredible community service project through our SOS class here at John Hershey High School. As you can see around me, it is organized chaos, but it is an incredible day for our students to serve our community by packaging and collecting food that's going to be going to local food pantries in our area to support those in need. We're really happy to be able to do the food drive here at Hersy because it really just brings the whole school together and we are able to help our community and bring the energy with everyone here.

All right, take it out. For the past, I would say about two months, we've been kind of working together with SOS, Junior Leaders, baseball, and we've all gathered together. We've done bag and tag with 12 different communities, and we've all come together, and it's really amazing to see the turnout. And then later on, we're going to be visiting eight local food pantries, and it's really exciting. We're just thankful for everyone who's helped each other along the way. It's been really fun. It's a team effort, but it's been so fun. Prospect marching nights are heading to DC. [Music] We're in Washington DC. [Music]

Prospect Marching Knights were invited to travel to Washington DC this year for Veterans Day. So, we're taking the band out um to our nation's capital. We're going to do some great tours of some of the monuments and the museums and a lot of the sites of DC. Um, but it all culminates with performances on Veterans Day. Um, so we've been working really hard to prepare and we're so excited for our students to have this opportunity. Throughout the trip, we had a few opportunities uh where veterans would actually see our group of students out out and about and spoke to our students. Um, so in addition to uh touring these places, our students were able to actually interact with a number of veterans over the course of the trip, which kind of made everything a little more real and genuine and authentic. So, our first day in DC was really impactful and gave our students sort of a big picture overview of the city and some of the history and really set the stage for our performance day coming up. So on Veterans Day, our morning started off with a performance at the Lincoln Memorial. There we were right on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial facing the Washington Monument. Just a really special opportunity for our students to have a a really great place to perform.

It was an honor to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the PMK where so much of America's history has taken place. The experience was very impactful for me. It was a unique opportunity that I have never had before and it was something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. One of our students, Emily Pollock, was also asked to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial. I've always wanted to help people, so I'm going to serve my country. More specifically, I want to become an officer in the military.

Her speech was really wonderful and got a really great reception at the event. In fact, after the event was over, I had a number of veterans come track me down to tell me how great her speech was. And actually, they wanted to meet her and take pictures with her because they were so moved by what she had to say. My father served in the Navy and so he instilled in me like the value of um serving and like caring for our veterans and those who serve us. And so being able to thank them today and um place medals around their think and welcome them home was really impactful for me as well. United States Air Force. It was an honor to play at the World War II Memorial today. It was such an honor because music is a way to share emotions without using words.

Our performances in DC got a lot of really good responses. Um, one of them, a story was told to me by one of our chaperones that there was literally um, a Marine veteran who was at a performance at the Ewima Memorial who was literally in tears watching the performance and just expressed to our chaperone how much it meant to him that this group of teenagers from from the Chicago area had come out there and was was performing. Um, and he was just really moved by it and uh, I thought that was just a really neat neat story to hear coming out of the the performance. So any trip like this uh takes a lot of time and energy to put together. I feel really fortunate that our school was very supportive of this endeavor. We had a bunch of parents who traveled with us and did anything they could to make this a great experience for our students. Um I'm so glad we were able to bring our students to DC. Uh Veterans Day seemed like a perfect time to bring them and uh it really just in the end I think the whole trip turned out really really great and I'm so happy we were able to make it happen. [Music] We're super excited to have the 911 never forget mobile exhibit here at Hercry High School. As the truck arrived, we had her parents out front with some patriotic balloons. We had her students lining the the sidewalks. We had some, you know, many American flags like they would show on the honor flights. The spirit was high.

Good morning. and I'd like to welcome you to the Stevenzilla Tunnel Towers mobile exhibit. We have a 50 50ft trailer approximately 1100 square ft exhibit. We travel our nation to commemorate the brave sacrifice of the firefighters, police officers that gave their life that day in the greatest rescue and recovery effort in our nation's history. The reason we're here is at Hershey High School to come educate our youth uh on the happenings of that day, but also the the happenings of the days after and to let them know that it was a huge tragedy. It was the single largest loss of life day we've ever had. It was also the largest largest rescue we've ever had as well. but just all the good that has come from that tragic day. And they're they're going to learn things that they they can't read about. Uh they're going to hear stories that some have never been told, some have been told many times.

Steven Siller was uh one of the 343 firefighters that died that morning. He was getting off duty that morning. He was going to play golf with his older brothers. Heard the plane strike. heard on the news that the plane struck the building, turned around, drove back to his firehouse, squad 1, located in downtown Brooklyn. They had already been dispatched to the disaster. He got his gear, drove his own truck to the Brooklyn battery tunnel where he dawned 60 lbs of gear, ran 2 and 12 miles through the tunnel, mustered up with the rest of the firefighters, and gave his life that day, honoring his oath that he took to protect life and property.

So, this is about remembering. So we want people to remember obviously for adults to remember and for the kids to learn. So we don't want this forgotten. It's not taught in most schools in in America and they have the privilege of talking to people who are there. You know, we can't talk to people who were in the Civil War or these other moments in American history, but they can. I think that's pretty special. Thanks for having us. And this means more to us than you. This means a lot to these kids. And these kids have been great. They're very respectful. They listen. It's uh it's nice to it's nice to see.

A special thanks especially to the FDNY crew to the Silver Foundation to Solders Journey Home to District 214 to all of Hersy. I I'm grateful for everybody. Special shout out to Bill Dustling for the for the magic spirit. Special shout out to Chief Harris Arlington Heights Police. The coolest part about this project was there's like a whole bunch of people that were on it and did it. It wouldn't have happened without a whole bunch of people. The list is just too long. And to me, that's that's actually a good thing to celebrate. [Music] This is the uh Rolling Meadows band alumni event. So, we decided to uh get the band back together. This year being the 40th anniversary of the Jazz Meadows Festival. So, it was kind of an opportunity to, hey, can we bring people back at homecoming? I had talked to some of the previous band directors. That's Len King in the 70s, '8s, early 90s. We have Bill Jastro and David Bogs from the '90s. Then, of course, Chris Booty, who retired several years ago. Those people set the foundation for everything that we have here.

I'm giving you I I'd have paid money to be here today. I really would have. It's is one of those things. I I paid money to be here. This is the banner where your closest friends were really at in high school. So, you're with your closest friends and regrouping after 40ome years and going, "Holy cow." Yeah, Mr. King is the reason why I'm here today. Not just at the school, but what I do in in life. I owe everything to Mr. King. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have gone to college. And if I hadn't gone to college, who knows what I would be doing. You know, some of the stuff that we we're doing right now is like we never stop doing it, you know. You know, just to be around these guys again and just hanging out. 40 years seems like a long time, but it seems like it's kind of a short time, too. You know,

this is fantastic. I mean, I I knew it was going to be good, but not this good. 52 of my actual students are in this group. I get a lot of feedback from them telling me how much they they enjoyed the music program with me and how they appreciate music for for their lives. That's really special because to know that they are still thinking about me and what what we did here. It's it's just very satisfying.

Well, I flew back and I'm glad I did, you know, especially to see Mr. King. He meant a lot to us. He just brought in the jazz and I mean, we had world class, you know, experience that most kids never would have had, you know, a real depth of of exposure to great music because of Mr. King. I'm glad I got to see her. It's so fun to be back though. I love it. My family's here. They're so excited. So is my family. Yeah, my son's here. My husband's here. So, it's really great. If you are on the fence of coming, whether it's debating about whether to come or not, you should definitely come next time.

It feels like a long time ago, but in some ways, like you never left. Like I'm like, "Okay, we're going to go march over to the stadium and we're going to play for the football team." So, yeah. Okay. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Thank you to all the alumni who are coming here today. I mean, some people are traveling across the country. I know one of the directors came from Arizona. Um, and that's a testament to really what this event is about. And it's bringing people together through our shared love of music and how music has changed our lives and shaped who we are as humans.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] I'd like to call um the committee of the whole meeting for Township High School District 214 Board of Education for Thursday, September 11th, 2025. Miss Marini, could you please call the role?

Faldino here. Chung here. Dustling here. Fioro here. Hinineman present. Sager here. Croiter present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Can I have a a motion and a second to go into close session for the purpose of discussing the employment employment compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in an educative setting or legal counsel for a public body. Motion in a second, please. So second, there's been a motion and a second. Please call the role. Chung, yes. Hinaman I Valdino yes Dustling

yes Fioro yes Sager I quiter I motion carries 70

okay we will now go into close session and we'll reconvene in open session at 7 o'clock [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat.

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Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Uh we are out of close session and we are reconvening in open session and uh before we stand for the pledge uh today is a patriot day I think it's been come to known as and uh significance of today and all those people that have sacrificed for us on this very solemn day in history. So, if we could stand for the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I have a motion and a second for approval of the agenda? So moved. Fiorto. Second. Chong. It's been a motion and a second. Please call the role. Fioro. Yes. Chung. Yes.

Baldino. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Hinineman I Sager I andrer I. Motion carries 70. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for the open and closed meeting minutes from October 21st, 2025 and the open and closed minutes of September 4th, 2025. Motion and a second, please. So moved. Second. Please call the role. Hineman I Sager I Valdino yes Chung yes Dustling yes Fioro yes Kiter I Motion carries 70.

Okay, we're now part of the agenda where we call for uh public comments and I have three people that have signed up. So if I could just read this and then I will call uh Renee, you're up first. So, the board of education and the district value comments from the community at our meetings as well as emails. We appreciate everyone appearing before the board and treat all with courtesy and respect. The board of education asked each person to please limit their comments to three minutes. However, several people want to address the board on several topics. The board president may limit the time to two minutes per person. Public comments on agenda items will only be the time that the board of education will hear public comments during meetings. Although comments may be made on almost any matter related to the operation of schools, comments will not be allowed identifying individual students or staff members. As this is the board of education business meeting, the board practice is not to respond to public questions or comments at this time because this is not an open-ended forum. However, we do listen carefully. If requested, a written response will be provided. Please ensure that Miss Marini has your full name and address and email address on the signup sheet. To be fair and consistent to all addressing the board, the same protocols and proceers must be in place for everyone. Renee, you want to step forward? The green light indicates your time has started. The yellow light indicates 30 seconds remaining and the red light indicates three minutes have expired. Um, please state your name clearly. Thank you.

My name is Can you hear me?

Okay. My name is Renee Schlenhart and I'm a resident of 214. I have a recent graduate and I have a son that will be a freshman in 2026. I feel compelled to speak with you tonight given the national events of the last 36 hours. As we all know and was announced on the website, district alumni Charlie Kirk was politically assassinated. Prior to his death, many of us wondered often among each other why he was never publicly honored by the district. After all, he had incredible profess professional success. It was only post death that the district acknowledged his ex existence through an official statement. and the statement ended with when he finished high school, not what he did for the rest of his life. More needs to be done. Thousands of residents within this district consider themselves to be Republican and conservative. Shouldn't the district to be open to all minority voices? Wheeling High School, I have some requests. Wheeling High School reinstate any honorary plaques or signage for Charlie Kirk as a notable alumni. Charlie Kirk is going to be receiving the Medal of Freedom. This is the highest honor anyone can receive in the nation. The district needs to honor this achievement in a public appropriate fashion. I request the district-wide day on to honor be held in conjunction with the award. Any request for Turning Point USA high school chapters must be approved. After all, a key tenant of turn turning point is free speech. Shouldn't we all be encouraged? Shouldn't that be encouraged by all educators? Additionally, Turning Point organizes voter registrations, which brings me to my final point on that. The League of Women Voters has been welcomed in the school buildings for years. Given there is no reason that there is no reason that turning point should be

denied, the League claims to be nonpartisan, but that's just a talking point. They are political activists and because you've set a precedent with their organization, other organizations must be recognized. None of these requests are unreasonable in any way. Schools should promote healthy civil exchange of all ideas. All students should be able to find clubs and organizations that make them feel welcomed and not silenced to be their authentic selves. And I would suggest you review the vision which is stated on the website when considering my suggestions. My last point pertains to public behavior of a board member who appeared at a public protest, holding a poster depicting the president of the United States as Hitler wearing an SS armband. Additionally, her shirt said, "Education is a political act, which comes from a book of pedagogy of the oppressed, which is the promotion of socialism in schools. We all have the right to free speech, but when a board member refers to a president as Hitler, it implies that anyone who supports him as a Nazi, and that is divisive behavior. Thank you,

Renee. Could you spell your last name for me? S H L- N H A R DT. Thank you. Can I leave copies for the board of my statement? with with uh Miss Marini, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Kathy Michelle. Good evening. I'd like to say that it's time to stop the divisive one-sided political propaganda and educate students with different viewpoints and not only allow for civil discussions and debate, but to encourage it. I recall back a few years ago when parent when a specific parent was running for the school board and how that candidate had been slandered and called racist for merely analyzing the student outcomes broken out by each school. The debate and journalism teams were encouraged to speak out and continue the name calling. The debate team didn't engage in a debate. The journalism team never entertained the thought of interviewing the candidate, but rather joined in on a coordinated character assassination instead led by educators. When I asked those teams, because I had been standing out in the vestibule there, um why they hadn't done their jobs according to their teams and clubs, I was told board meetings are where we air our grievances or something to that effect. Um, the debate team student captain at the time even stated that she agreed with the candidates's facts, but she never indicated that in any of her comments. I believe it's high time to stop the divisive language and emotive reactionary behaviors and encourage logical, thoughtful, civil discussions. I'd like to just recommend replacing Charlie Kirk's distinguished alumni plaque at minimum at Wheeling High School. perhaps an educational school assembly highlighting his accomplishments as well as approval of TPUSA requests from students since in prior years this has been refused. My kids are long gone from this district

and would have been happy to join a TPA USA chapter at BGHS. Thank you. Thank you, John Cleta. Did I get that right, sir? I'm sorry. Did I get that right? Yes. Yes, you did. Thank you. Yes.

Uh, if I may proceed. Yeah. My name is John Sleta. I'm a resident of the district. I live at 204 South Illinois Drive in Arlington Heights. And I just wanted to second the words that were said previously that uh I'm I'm shocked that that Charlie Kirk's plaque would be removed from the wall of notable alumni. Uh, and it happened apparently in the middle of the night as these things tend to happen quietly without anybody noticing. Um, it it's it's frankly shameful. Charlie Kirk tried to build bridges between people and he did it using his intellect and reason and a quiet voice and he should be honored for that. Whether you choose to believe what he said or not, or whether you choose to cross that bridge and join him or stay on your side, that's not the point. The point was he tried to peacefully build bridges between people. And I I don't think it's appropriate that his his plaque be removed. I think it should be restored. Um I think he should be honored. He is going to receive uh the Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor this country can bestow upon somebody. And frankly, I think an explanation would be owed if he wasn't restored to that wall of notable alumni. Uh, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight.

Thank you. That's all we have for public comments. And uh next on the agenda is the uh administrator teacher salary report. Uh this is an annual report that is due to the state. Dr. Adaway.

Yep. So included in your board packet for approval tonight is the annual teacher and administrator salary and benefits report. Um this report details compensation for certificated staff during the 2425 school year. So following approval tonight, the report will be posted publicly on the district website to ensure transparency and in compliance with Illinois school code. Yeah, this is a uh this is a requirement from the state board and it'll be on our website. It is as as it has previous years. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Uh number nine. Oh, the college now program. Uh Dr. Lopez, welcome.

Thank you. Thanks. All right. Uh, I know they're going to get the slide deck up there. About 18 months ago, Dr. Ro came to me and said, "Laz, um, why don't we have a dual degree program here?" And I said, "I don't know why we don't." And he said, "Uh, why don't you get that done?" So, uh, I started work on it about 18 months ago. So, I'm excited now to announce college now. Uh, we, uh, set it as a goal, uh, as a region in order to begin the program. And the truth is I'm I'm very excited and proud that we were able to accomplish this with really in in 12 months. Some some regions take up to 3 to four years to make this happen. So it was led really through our Northwest Educational Council for Student Success uh which is led by the executive director Nancy Answick and uh really give her a lot of credit to bringing everything everyone together. uh Nexus as we refer to it is really this collaboration among uh among partners uh that direct career and teched programs and manage state and federal funds that support career and teched. And it was an evolution of our partnership uh over a decade ago in order to engage in other areas including this focus on the seamless transition uh from high school to college. And the goal was to focus on things beyond just career and teched and and that really was the beginning of an expansion of our early college program and why today we have 90% of the students graduating with early college credit. So what is college now? College now is this partnership between high school district 211, 214, 220, and Harper College uh that will allow students to earn a high school diploma and an associate of arts degree by the time they graduate high school at the end of senior year. Uh it is was not easy for everyone to to come together

and and really have one plan uh for students at all the districts. It took a lot of work uh but we did it. on the right there you see that's a one-page flyer that's going to be available uh for people to uh get a summary of the program. So to be considered it really is a very rigorous academic schedule. So there are some requirements in order for students to meet uh really by the time they begin the fall of junior year. uh they uh really are they're aligned with Harper Promise if you're familiar with Harper Promise where students are able to earn uh really their associates degree for free if they meet certain criteria. These requirements are similar to those and and are informed by those. Uh the students uh have to maintain obviously a C or better in order to remain in the program during junior and senior year. The way it works is uh students apply this fall as we often do for the following school year. Uh if they're accepted into the program, they will begin uh junior year at the college campus in the mornings. Uh they'll be there and they they're starting with college biology as well as uh uh college biology and uh college uh psych intro to psych ethics. a variety of courses in the mornings there at Harper College. Then they're going to transition in the afternoon with us where they'll take a lot of our own college courses including college composition, college speech, college algebra with us in the afternoons and they'll still participate in all of their co-curricular activities as they normally would. During senior year, they're going to be at Harper the full day taking a full academic load uh across all the subject areas and students will have some opportunities for electives. they'll still return back to our campus uh in the afternoons to

participate in co-curricular activities. So, oops, sorry. How much does it cost? The cost is shared by Harper College, the school districts, and the families. So, Harper College has discounted the tuition that they typically charge for students by 25%. Uh families will contribute $250 per semester for a total of $1,000 and the school districts will cover the balance of tuition. Uh obviously students who are approved for a fee waiver will not be required to pay the program fees and there will be transportation provided from the home school. Uh that will be a challenge for some as as the Harper schedule does start earlier than ours. So, they'll be beginning classes as early as 8:00 a.m. So, that means they have to be at school uh significantly earlier than they would on a regular schedule. Uh, obviously, all of this is an opportunity and a choice if it's the right fit for that individual student. There will be a website that will be launched uh very shortly in the next uh week or so by Harper College. On this website, there is an abundance of information including a frequently asked questions uh general information. It is one site for the entire region uh which is very exciting. So all the information for all families across this entire region is on this site uh because of the design of the program is is the same. October 1st we're going to host across this region each district its own a virtual uh information session that parents will be able to uh learn about the program and and ask questions really. Uh, I know this is a big decision. I have a high school sophomore and I know I would it would be a difficult decision to decide whether or not this is the right program for my student. Obviously, they'll want to talk with their counselors uh and figure out what's the right fit for them.

Applications are going to be due October 15th and then we'll uh have the deadline for accepted students to confirm their place in the program by November 1st. So parents will have about a month from the time that they apply and are accepted to really make a decision about is this the right fit for them. Uh we do have a district point of contact which is Jennifer Greer. She's our early college supervisor. I did also want to give a shout out to Mary Kate who hit the wrong ground running. She's our new director of student services. She's lead helping to lead the implementation on the student services side. obviously Jennifer and there were countless teachers and counselors from buildings faculty at Harper and deans uh department heads associate principles that have been involved in this entire process and its design. So with with that I'd be glad to entertain any questions you might have.

Okay board members Mr. Fiddle um is there any minimum or maximum in this program like minimum number of students maximum number of students? We we have put a cap in order to to plan and design at least an initial cap which is 50 students per district. Okay. Um that will be revisited each year. Part of that was just for planning purposes so that they know uh which courses to set aside because Harper is setting aside specific courses just for our students. Yeah, that was my next question. if if you know with their schedule, are they going to leave some openings for us? And clearly, you just said that

they're they're designing it so that particularly for junior year because it's meant to be a a transitional program that they are cohorted together during junior year with the idea that senior year they may be more independent and they might be more spread out in different courses. So my next question would be with for the juniors and seniors um can they provide their own transportation or is it a requirement that they have to use ours? No, it's not a requirement. Actually, we we already have students that travel to Harper College every single day for coursework and have had that for a number of years. Most do transport themselves. We do have a bus route that goes to Harper College uh on most days as long as there's courses schedules scheduled and students are in need of transportation uh and those will continue.

Okay. Thank you, Les. You're welcome. Board members, Dr. Chong.

Yeah. Um thank you so much, Dr. Lopez. I just want to highlight again, it's really an incredible opportunity that college now provides that students graduate not only with a high school diploma, but with an associate of arts degree as well. Um, so yeah, I mean that's amazing that they graduate. It's not just about earning college credit, which obviously is very important, but it means that they leave the district exactly like your slides express with two years ahead, whether they choose to enter a 4-year university or enter the workforce or even take some time off. It just puts them ahead, which is amazing. So, thank you so much to you for spearheading this. I know you mentioned a lot of other people, but um many thanks. Um, one of my questions um vice president Fiorto already asked. So my other question was I did see that college now um seems to be a nationwide program or there a lot of different colleges that have that um college now a lot of the partnerships. So is it is it a nationwide program where we would need to maybe follow the guidelines of what's like some nationwide program or are we free to kind of do our own thing?

Yes. So the first question they this really began at large scale in Texas I would say a lot of uh dual degree programs and also some programs in New York uh it has spread across the country. Uh there is not a central body that's directing the parameters of the program. We get to do that here within our own region with our in our own partnership with the college. Um there are organizations that inform best practices uh that I know Harper College uh abides by uh but there isn't sort of a centralized uh group that's directing how we do this. The reality is is we're going to see how it goes and I imagine we're going to learn about it every year and we might make modifications or changes if we as we get feedback from both students and families and how it's going on campus. I know Dr. had experience with this already in the previous district. So, I'm sure

I was just going to chime in and say that it's it's unique with each community college in the partnership that each governmental agency, you know, in their in their memorandum of understanding of how this functions. Um, in some predominantly the courses are taught at the high school based on however that partnership is. Just for instance, this one um we our agreement is is that they're there for their senior year, but that mean over the years that could evolve as as it as it uh as it goes. I I just wanted to, you know, echo some of your some of your comments, Dr. Chong. LZ LZ is a get it done person. We've all known that about him. I just appreciate it's still surprising to me that you were able to take a take a challenge and turn this many people into action and reach this end result so quickly. So, I'm really proud of this and I'm really grateful for the work that you invested into it. I think it's going to be tremendous opportunity for our students.

Thank you. Okay, thank you. Hold on. Oh, Miss Baldino, just one quick question. I um I did notice that there's Harper College placement scores required. So, would the students take that um prior to entering at the point of applying for the program? What's the timing of that?

So, placement tests are really associated with three courses. English, math, and world language. So, if a student's in the world language program and they're they're going to take, for example, Spanish, there's a placement test associated with that uh with Spanish to ensure that they're ready for college level Spanish. In uh junior year, we are actually delivering their college uh composition and their college algebra course here on our campus. And so, students do not take a placement test for that specifically. We use their uh scores on the uh statewide assessment in order to qualify them. If they don't meet the benchmarks through that statewide assessment, which is going to be the ACT this year, then we have additional assessments that we have in partnership with Eastern Illinois University, uh to help qualify them. Uh and so they do have a window. Uh there are students that may apply that we accept that maybe don't meet the benchmarks today, but we anticipate that they will meet it by the time they have to be in that classroom next fall.

Thank you. And as a parent of both a 214 grad and a Harper College grad, this is an incredible and very economical opportunity for students. Thank you. Thank you. Go uh Dr. Sager. So, I want to echo everybody's opinion that this is a wonderful program, a chance for students to get ahead, essentially graduate high school as a junior in college, right? Going into a four-year school if they choose to take that path. Uh, I guess my question is, what happens if something happens along the way for a student and they need to withdraw from this program? Are they paying like every semester? Is there a path to still complete their high school diploma?

Yeah. and and and I'll answer it and if uh if Cara wants to add anything from a student services len I I welcome her to to add to it but um we know things happen uh students uh there are students we're going to ensure that they graduate high school uh if something happens that they're not able to persist in the program then we're going to work with student services and their counselors uh to help them uh ensure that they transition back uh to our high school. I think that is the reason why it's so important for junior year to be this split experience. Um because they I can I can see some students where they they start it uh junior year and decide I I don't know that I'm ready to be out of the high school uh all day. Um we want them if this is really what they want. We we want them to be successful and we're going to support them. I'm sure student services will. Um and I I expect that uh the number the other reason for the cap and number is that because of that size when you're thinking of spreading it across the district and six schools it's a manageable number of students if we need to uh address any concerns or issues.

I think that to put just put it very directly this program is not for every everyone. It is you know I don't anticipate we will ever be to a point where we've got 500 of our seniors that are involved in this. is it's it's for a group of of highly motivated students that are um time management skills and mature enough to handle um life on a college campus at a younger age. So that it's not for everybody. So that that conversation with their counselor and their family is vital of do I want to try this because it you know you're taking a full a full college load as a 16-year-old and that's that's not for everybody.

Yeah. as somebody who advises college students and sees the changes they go through and when they're, you know, a few years older, knowing that there's flexibility is is is a relief. Yeah. Thank you. So, moving on from here, the the next step of this is Harper College um board of directors will be approving this formally as a as their program on the 17th next week. Uh actually a number of us will be at that at that uh at that meeting and I'll be speaking on behalf of of the school districts in support of the program. Um and then a press release will be issued uh that evening or the following day formally announcing the program to the to the community and media. So you you may not see anything out publicly immediately, but we were the kind of the first to kick this series of um of informal um announcements off. Uh so you know Bington I believe is uh early next week and then followed by Harper and 211 Wednesday and Thursday.

Okay. Thank you Dr. Lopez. Thank you very much Dr. Lopez. So we have uh two discussion items this night. Uh let's see. Solar panels. Is that you Mr. Julie? You want me to start?

Yes. Thank you. Um, as the board is aware, we've we've had an effort to um increase energy efficiency across the district for the last couple of years through replacing inefficient HVAC and mechanical units, our LED light replacements in classrooms, hallways, exterior stadiums. Um, and while that work was going on behind the scenes, we were vetting um the feasibility of additional options. And uh we've we've come to the point where we're ready to explore at the board's approval um the the solar solution um throughout the district. And so tonight we've invited Denia, our current uh energy adviserss um to come give a brief presentation to talk about the work that's been done, give us a brief history and and provide some context context and then also walk us through what we're calling phase one, which is a on-site solar solution at Rolling Meadows High School. So ideally we would get approval and then we'd start a request for proposal process um which then we would bring back to the board but we would like NAI to help us consult throughout that process to assess vendor proposals negotiate contract terms and then oversee the construction process. Before I turn it over, Dr. O, did you want to add anything I missed?

I I know I think everything will be covered in the presentation. I'm going to turn it over to Becky and Era. Erin, thank you for being here tonight. It's all yours.

Great. Thank you. Thank you for having us this evening. It's a pleasure to join you. My name is Becky Thompson and joining me is Aaron Rafter. So, uh, Chris, I think you did a a great job of introducing us. So, just a little bit about our firm and how we approach solar. Uh, first a little bit of background. We recently started working with district 214 on your natural gas and supply uh natural gas electricity supply contracts. Uh, we serve almost 50 school districts in the state of Illinois and we align with the idea of long-term energy cost management. So, if any of you have gotten your CMED bills this summer and have seen your cost go up significantly, you know the importance of that, especially in a district of your size. So, when we take a look at long-term energy cost management, what does that mean? There's really two facets that we explore. The rate that you pay and how much energy you consume. We addressed the rate that you pay earlier this summer. And so, this evening, uh, as we discussed the the on-site solar possibilities, we're addressing the amount of usage that you consume and how we can control those energy costs long term. So when we look at our process, we're unbiased uh energy advisors. So we are not solar developers. We are not installing the project. We do not sell solar panels. We are here to represent your best interest, sit on your side of the table, evaluate the options and determine the feasibility of does this make sense, which facilities it makes sense for uh and kind of guide you through that path as there can be a lot of information rapidly changing especi environment. just making sure that you're armed with the the most recent uh up-to-date information so that you can make uh in uh decisions in your best interest. So through this this just represents a bit of our process uh as a consultant for solar um solar for school districts starting with the feasibility study evaluating the different facilities. Does it make sense? Which parts of the roof make sense? Um where would we start if we were in your shoes? And evaluating how large of a system you could install. what is the potential offset? What are the potential costs for that? Then moving forward into overseeing a

competitive RFP process uh to help you really pit uh competitors against each other, make sure that you're aligned with the best possible developer if this was something that you were to pursue, assessing those vendor proposals, reading through Aaron has the unfortunate job of reading through hundreds and hundreds of pages of the RFPs to go over all the different technical components that that make up a solar system. And then finally going on if you wanted to move forward negotiating those contract terms especially uh with some of the models these are long-term commitments. This is a 20 to 25 year commitment at the financial electrical structure on your rooftop. Um so what does that look like from a contract perspective to make sure that your interests are are best served and then u acting as that liaison as the construction is performed to be that backboard of information. um you know having that technical expert expert again sitting on your side of the table and then finally with the energy savings verification that's where I come in uh having that energy supply piece that we do you know if if you are looking for a 60% offset of your savings or of your energy consumption is that actually being realized um you know that's a very critical piece that we often see uh ignored when we're these systems are installed. So that's just a little bit of backstory of of what we bring in. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Aaron. He is our solar wizard, as I call him, and he's going to run through the different systems at the different facilities for your district.

Okay. Thank you, Becky. I'd like it to go on record that I love my job and my part of it. It's not an unfortunate uh thing to read through the specifications, but um but yeah, so so I'll move relatively quickly through the solar studies because these are intended to be more of a preliminary analysis. These are not final designs that being brought before the board. It's it's really just to give you an idea of kind of what to expect if you were to pursue a solar project at at each of these locations. Um being a uh a suburban district, you don't really have much ground space and so we're really limited to the roof areas in this case. And that's going to be your main constraint. From our perspective, we would never recommend putting solar on a roof surface where we expect you to come in and need to replace that roof surface within the life of the solar array. And so we're really constraining our analysis to the the newer roof surfaces. Um and so just in alphabetical order for the high schools here, uh Buffalo Grove, you can offset about a quarter of your annual electricity needs through solar. U you see the blue the blue, it's kind of blue u I guess uh blurs in this case, but if you were to zoom in on it, you see blue rectangles. Uh that that denotes where the individual solar panels are are being contemplated. So Buffalo Grove is about a quarter um of the annual electricity needs. Elkrove is the smallest uh solar array uh that we'd be potentially recommending. It's only offsetting about 5% and again that's just because you have um uh less of the newer roof surfaces at the time of when the uh uh the analysis was done. Um John Hersy again about a quarter or so of the annual electricity needs could could be provided through on-site solar and then Prospect High School a little under 20% or so. Um Rolling Meadows is your largest opportunity as far as uh both the total system size, the amount of energy that can be produced and the annual offset at a little under 40% or so. This has, as you can see, the, you

know, a considerable portion of the of the uh high school roof surface is is newer and and ready for solar. And then wheeling uh down below uh 20% or so. Um so that so that's it for the studies. Um again, if there's questions, we certainly could talk more about those, but again, those are preliminary analyses just to give give you an idea of kind of what to expect. As far as the project financials, all of our estimates are conservative in in nature. And so if we were to oversee a competitive RFP process on your behalf, we'd expect those numbers to get better based on other RFPs, similar RFPs we've ran um recently. So we want to come here before you today and present kind of a worst case scenario. Um we have two two kind of main options as far as you can go about uh purchasing solar as a school district. On the left hand side in this in we're calling direct ownership. This is where you buy that solar project the same way you would any sort of construction project. you can pay for it with cash or any sort of debt instrument that's that's available to you. Um, you'll you'll you will own those solar arrays that are constructed on your roof surfaces. As such, you will also be responsible for any operations and maintenance. You can certainly contract that out to a third party, but ultimately the district as the owner and operator of those arrays would be responsible. The incentives that are available for the project will also come to you. We have a little bit more about the incentives on the next slide, so I'll come back to that. under this option. This is actually a little bit of an outdated this last bullet point here. You are going to save the most money under this direct ownership option compared to the other option, but with recent uh RFPs we've ran, it's really probably more around one and a half to two times as much. So, not two to four times. So, I apologize for that. Um, you're going to save one and a half to two times as much compared to the other option. Whereas the other option is a power purchase agreement. This is where a third party comes in. Uh, there's no upfront cost to the district. There's no debt obligation. They install the solar array and they sell you the power from the from the system at a predetermined energy rate. And what's key is you want

the energy rate to be lower than what you're paying for grid power. So you get savings through buying the power from the solar array. And all the incentives would go to the solar provider. The solar provider would also be responsible for all operations and maintenance. And here's a little kind of a sideby-side comparison. Um the generally speaking we NIA is is neutral in terms of which approach uh districts uh pursue. We've helped we've helped districts with either option. We think if the you know as long as the RFP is crafted correctly as long as the contract terms are are you know are are are negotiated appropriately. Either option can be good. We are we are recommending more of the power purchase agreement option um right now just because of what's happening with some of the federal incentives. The federal incentives are expiring a little faster than they were previously uh based on the one uh big beautiful bill. Um it calls for the expiration of the incentives for uh the project would need to start work by July of next year. So there's a little bit of an accelerated time frame. That's partially why we're here before you tonight. Uh recommending the project. If you did, if you did want to pursue it, we'd recommend that you pursue it um in a time frame to capture those federal incentives. There's still a little bit of risk. I say there's a little bit of risk associated with capturing those federal incentives. There's some compliance mechanisms that need to be followed. And for that reason, we are recommending the power purchase agreement a little bit more right now because you can push that risk onto the solar provider where that's really their where their expertise lies, right? is within uh following these these compliance requirements. Um but the main downside for the power purchase agreement again is just you're going to save you you will save less money under that option and the numbers are pretty small. I wasn't sure this is a big room. Um so um so this is the the project financials if you were to pursue that direct purchase option. Um uh but totals at the bottom the project cost again that's a conservative number a little under nine million if you were to do all all the

sites. We're not necessarily recommending that, but that's just gives you an idea of what to expect. Um, the year one incentives are the federal incentives and then a small most of that is the federal incentives and then there's a little small COMED rebate in there as well. Um, the federal incentives are about $2.5 million of that 3.3 million. The cost after incentives is just the project cost minus the year one incentives. There's some additional lucrative state incentives available for the project. Those are a more stable program. So those aren't as time sensitive, but um those would certainly qualify as well. See the the year one energy savings there. So your simple payback is about six years for the overall program. And each of the individual sites hovers right around six years as well. And if we after the projects paid for itself in the first six years, if we did a 25-year cash flow analysis, you'd be up about $8.5 million or so. And again, these are conservative numbers. So if cost of grid power gets considerably more expensive, um that would be additional savings for you. And then we contrast that with the power purchase agreement option where again there's no initial cost for this. So that's kind of a redundant first column or unnecessary first column but it's just kind of as a reminder. Um you're currently paying u a little over seven cents per kilowatt hour for the portion of your bill that can be offset by solar. Conservative estimate is we think we can get you about 5 cents per kilowatt hour through a a competitive RFP process. Again that's that's very conservative. We do think that number would be will be better as a result of competition. Um we have a 25-year term uh contemplated here and so you're saving over that 25 years about $5 million on this. So we're going to compare that to eight and a half million or so. So um a little less than one and a half times.

So one of my favorite things to talk about with school districts is the impact uh or how you can bring this to students. Right? So the curriculum tie-in um is standard offering as part of our request for proposals. Uh so students can actually engage in seeing the solar produced power real time uh including a kiosk or a mechanism for them to see how the power is being generated. Uh so that is kind of a cool thing that we can see to that we can bring to the students as well. So it's not just something on the rooftop that's helping operational costs, but it's actually something you can bring into the classroom. So with that, this slide looks a little familiar because we've already conducted that first bucket there, the feasibility studies that Aaron just uh talked about. And so the next step would be uh to approve us recom or moving forward with overseeing that competitive request for proposal process. So, as Chris had mentioned at the beginning, um our recommendation would be to initiate a phase one uh aspect to this, uh focusing primarily on Rolling Meadows High School up front, uh just because of the the roof situation, how that has a larger footprint that has been replaced would be a larger offset. Um and moving that forward relatively quickly just to cap uh capture those federal tax incentives prior to their their expiration next year. As Erin mentioned, uh, utilizing the power purchase agreement, which transfers that risk for those federal tax incentives on to the developer, does not require any out-ofpocket capital and would allow you to deploy this rather quickly. Um, with the release of that request for proposals as early as next month and awarding the contract with the developer in January to allow them ample time for product procurement uh, for an install next summer.

So, with that, we welcome questions.

Board members. Well, if I if I could before anyone begins, one, thank you very much for the time and effort you put into preparing this. Um, you know, what's missing from this that is in motion is forest view. As you know, we we have a lot of roof space um that needs to be replaced, but there's also a little bit of ground space that we're investigating um just to the the north of our our building on the other side of the parking lot. But but just for clarity, what you would be acting on is giving NIA permission to be our uh media intermediary to run the RFP. You're not committing to a solar project for sure happening. You're committing to let's get the details so that you can come back at a later date and see what the options are to make a commitment maybe in October. Okay? Okay. So, you're just you you would just be committing to let's go investigate this and see what the options are for us to consider next month.

Yeah. This is just a discussion item tonight. So, no action taken. U Mr. Fiorto. Okay. Um so, in our prior lives, Dr. Row and I had were at school districts where they had solar panels, River Trails 26 and Huntley. Um mine had them on the roof and his were on the ground. Am I right, Dr. Ro? That's correct. So, do you guys just look at the rooftop or do you guys look at possibly ground ground solar panels as well?

Yeah, we've actually run RFPs and conducted both. I think when we did the analysis for your specific buildings, they were landlocked or there was not available ground space when we originally conducted that, but if that becomes an option, then we can certainly, as Aaron mentioned, this is meant to be working. So, if there are additional sites you would like us to Okay, so that's a question for you. So, my next question is for Mr. Chrisi. So, um, if we did go with solar panels, um, let's just say at Rolling Meadows High School, would that in any way, shape, or form impact the facility plan that we're looking at with all the dollars?

That was part of the feasibility study. So, overlaying our building envelope assessment, roof assessments, um, to ensure that we're not voiding any warranties, one, but we're not going to put solar on any roof that needs to be replaced in in in a certain time span. And so that that's a limiting factor in some of our other buildings and why we're not pursuing that right now is we first have to get those roof replaced before we can consider putting something on top of those. Okay. The major and the major project on Rolling Meadows roof has already been approved by the board for this coming summer. Their cooling tower that'll be addressed. Yeah. So there's not, you know, this the space that they're considering. There's nothing planned to that needs to go on the roof other than this in the future. Does it impact the coolers and the boilers?

No. No. No. No. But something to consider is buildings have the two and four pipe systems. Some of those are on the roof. Yeah. Which limits your also your ability um to put solar because there's pipes on the roof. So yeah, there's a lot of factors in play that we've already vetted. Okay. Thank you, Chris. Thanks, Becky. Thanks, Aaron. Mr. Dustling.

Yes. Um questions on the um financial incentives. um once the uh obviously we can't do all of these buildings at the same time if we're going to do them. So, do they end at a point where we won't have any financial incentives from uh the federal or or are is it are are they pushing to get rid of it and then we won't have any for the further buildings?

Um it's a good question. The um the based on the legislation that's currently on the books, it does call for the full expiration of the federal incentives. uh for projects that so so projects need to either start by July 4 of next year or complete by the end of 2027. So any any projects that would not fit either of those two requirements, there are no federal incentives that are that are currently available. It would be interesting to hear when you come back to us what your plan is or or your forecast plan is to when to start, when to end, and how that fits in with the financial uh sure uh incentives. Okay. The other the other thing is uh with the roofs that we have and

when you look at the uh when you look at the pictures here of the roofs uh uh there's a lot of blue obviously where the uh solar panels I guess maybe I'm old enough it just bothers me to drill holes in roofs. Um what do we uh are we guaranteed? Uh our roofs are guaranteed and will these panels and installing guarantees at all.

Yeah. Um it's another good question. I think a couple things um couple things I'd say to that. The the roof surfaces that are currently being contemplated for solar are all flat roof surfaces. And so there the the um there will be what's called a ballasted array. So the solar arrays will actually be weighted as opposed to being uh as it being mechanically fastened to the to the roof surface. So there will be a few roof penetrations for like for example for the electrical um uh pipe and wire to enter the building for example, but there won't be you know there won't be it's not like a residential pitched roof where like you're actually you know you're actually penetrating that roof surface every every point of attachment. So, um, with that said, like I said, there will be there will be a few attachments, uh, few penetrations, and it's a requirement of our RFP and certainly requirement of the contract process that the all roof warranties remain intact as a result of the project. And so,

so you would do arrangements with the roof that have put these on or the roofers or the roof supply. That's that's right. Mo the the most common um it's um arrangement is just where the roofer is involved uh with the project. The roofing manufacturer certainly is involved with the project and we require certification paperwork from you know the the solar company winning the project needs to obtain certification paperwork from the roofing manufacturer stating that the roof warranties are are intact. We have about two million square feet of flat roof throughout the district. Obviously, these are all going on the roof. So, y Okay. Anyone else?

Dr. Sager.

So, uh specifically for the power purchase agreement, uh you've got the analysis sort of assuming that we get the incentives in time, right? going forward, if if we're looking at the future doing solar, does that power purchase agreement option kind of go away if there's no incentives? Are we like are we at a moment where we if we want to do that type of agreement, we should do it now? That's another good question. I think the um you know, it's hard to say for sure obviously, right? But I I think our state the most energy policy in the United States is at the state level. It's not at the federal level. And the ill Illinois does have favorable solar policy. And so um if you know had to do a crystal ball type of uh thing, I do think that there will be um favorable power purchase agreement terms that'll be available to the district beyond the expiration of the federal incentives, but they just probably won't be as a as lucrative. So it may go back to like four times advantage to own your own in the future sort of thing.

Yeah, I think it'll shift a bit and I don't know exactly how and then you know there is there is also um there's discussion at the state level to maybe increase some of the state incentives to compensate for some of the reduction of federal incentives. Um again I don't want to I certainly wouldn't like bank on that because that's not legislation that has even been proposed yet or you know written or proposed or um or or certainly voted on. And so, um, I think there's kind of a burden situation right now with the federal incentives, but but I do think that it's more likely that that the district will have additional power purchase agreement options in the future.

And then if we look at something like this roof that we don't use on this picture, right? In the future, if we replace that roof, we could come back and put in a system. Does it have to be the same kind of system? They both have to be owned or they both have to be uh power purchase or Yeah. No, there's no there's no Yeah, there's no firm requirement one way or another as far as that. So, whatever we do now isn't locking us in for the entire every surface in the in the district. That's correct. Yep. Mr. Heinman, got the impression that we've been working with Nania for a while. How long have we been working with you? Do you know

Chris? Everybody's looking at one another. Sure. There we go. Good evening. Uh yes, we working with Nania since last year. Uh because like Becky mentioned, Nania is our procure like they help us to procure to buy energy and electricity in the gas and they do the study we start working. Aon and Becky brought that opportunity for a free study uh for a solar opportunity. We did that for a couple months. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Um go ahead. And the energy that comes from the solar panels, does that end up being used locally at the school or does that get sold back or is there storage issues also? Yeah. Um, for these studies, we did not include a storage component, but this is what's uh called a behind the meter system. So, it's actually tied to your electric meter. So, it actually reduces your usage at the facility level. So for each system, so in the example of rolling meadows, it would lower the energy consumption at the actual district. It would not flow onto the grid um unless there was an excess.

Okay. So if there is an excess, uh in the net metering program with KMEMED, then that would bank extra credits for you. Um it's kind of like a virtual piggy bank that resets one time a year. Uh the system is designed so that we would it only offsets a little less than 40% of your usage anyway. So there would never be a position where you would be overgenerating. Um never want to overbuild a system because the the economics don't work out. You don't want to be a a solar generator or an energy generator. Um but if you had say for example in the summer months you're generating more than what you're using then those excess credits would bank in like a virtual piggy bank for you and would reset one time a year.

Okay. And then the solar panels that are above the roof, does that extend the life of the roofing? I'll let you answer that.

The uh we usually don't um you know, we don't say that, you know, we don't like uh want to create the expectation that it's going to extend the the life of the roof. And so our analysis is always just based off of the roof longevity estimations from your roofing contractor. So there's certainly a lot of speculation that it that it should, you know, in theory it is it is preventing hail and and UV, right, from striking the roof surface if the solar panels were not up there, but there's no like we don't have like good data or studies that we can kind of point to, to say that.

Um, last thing is what's the effect on I know on a lot of our roofs there's a lot of piping and stuff up there. If there's problems with the piping, is the solar panels in the way and result in additional expenses?

The um the the solar panels would uh the location of the solar panels would need to be adjusted around any existing piping on the roof. So, it wouldn't Yeah. Um and then there'll be there's like setback requirements off of you know HVAC units and other types of uh and so you should not need to um Yeah. So there shouldn't there should not be a need to to move the solar equipment in order to service any non-solar equipment. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Good. Dr. Chong,

um thank you again so much Erin and Becky for coming tonight and all the work that you did in preparing this presentation. Um, I love that you highlighted solar as an educational opportunity for our students. I think this is so exciting where our buildings can become, you know, hands-on, active learning tools and not just a backdrop to education. Um, one question I had, and I'm not sure if this is for you, Dr. Row, or someone else, but how do you see the district using this project in our STEM classes or career pathways? Have you um I I don't know. And I know that at Huntley had also a huge solar project. Maybe how was it used there that you can see it being used here for education?

Sure. Well, in my in my prior life though, those kiosks that they mentioned sit in the main entrance of of all of the schools um and you're able to go through an interactive and and just anyone can come engage with them. uh in terms of in terms of the curriculum and how they're used, it's really best used on um like a a unit or a unit opportunity in in a science class um to to go and and use those kiosk or investigate um you know how the solar panels are are obviously here it's a little bit different because they'll be on the roof and our students aren't going to be going there whereas in my prior district you could physically go out and not only see them but see the native plantings that are planted around them but uh best is a unit in the science class. Now Dr. Dr. Lopez and I have had some initial conversations around um kind of a um future energy type pathway where this could be an opportunity where our students can have the access to panels to work on and get hands-on as a as a as a a solar panel repair uh certification. So there's opportunities for us. We have to build that out though.

Okay. The opportunities are there. I think we have to dream it. Okay. First. So it's got to be here before you build it if they if you build it they will come kind of a thing. Thank you. Sure. Um I had one more question and maybe this is for the next meeting when we discuss this but um let's say it's approve you know we we approve it rolling meadows is phase one um is there going to be maybe a projected timeline in terms of the the next buildings after that like I don't even know is it realistic to say in five years all of the buildings will have some

I think that's a really good question um and I think this is one of those those situ situations where when you partner the the need for the incentive to really motivate and make this a worthwhile um experience, we it's kind of a wait and see what happens with the incentive. Um we have to replace a lot of roofs before this becomes a viable option. So, I think we're we're kind of this is an opportunity to dip our toe in, but we are a little late to the um I guess the solar craze of the initial wave because there have been a lot of projects because the incentives have been um there have been many. Um as we as we replace our roofs, I think we can update the feasibility studies and really then evaluate the numbers will be different. Okay. So then I think you know the way I'm viewing it is let's see how it goes at rolling metals an opportunity to offset over a third of our energy consumption. Um what's beautiful about some of this if we go with the power purchasing agreement there's a guarantee that we'll hit that even if we don't hit the number that they project we realize the savings that we project. I don't know if that'll be the route that we end up going. But it's a really nice way to dip our toe in and and learn and experience at a at a sizable uh fashion. And then as we have more roofs to work with, then we can determine is this is this the best route for us versus jumping all in with both feet across seven different buildings. Um it's just a different environment than my prior prior district where that we have so much land. It it was a no-brainer to go to go that route where we're just a little bit of a different scenario.

Thank you, Mr. Dustling. you had a follow-up.

Uh, yes I did. This is probably a question for Mr. Ulan. Miss Mistak. Um, if we looking at rolling do something with our roofs to fix that because there is a leak. How high off the deck on the roof are these solar? I think with um what I am aware and I learned so far about the solar system, the technology is changing and what the solars were like 10 years ago and how they were mounted and high high they were visible from like when you walk through the like sidewalk by the school now they are very lower the panels and I I also know with the RFP process we can include a lot of the language and a lot of like the terms that we as a district would like to dictate and one of them it will be how we will approach the time of the down time of the solar when and who will take the solar for example I have a leak owner then that then how we will do we will have to have pay and a penalty or we will have a time or they will have give us a credit because we will have to take the panel and I think it will be a lot of learning experience for our roofer you know the flat roofs and the roofs that they are on a rolling meadows they are not very concerning also the as the recent opportunity with the new roof on a forest view that we will be installing. Those roof are very easier to to maintain you know and to find the leaks and repair and the time of the repair it's completely different what we have on a existing like cold pitch roof it's big difference how we will maintain them and like Dr. Ro mention um you know which starting from meadows because it's the biggest opportunity it's also good learning experience for us and seeing which direction we will like to be

going. I would like to also mention from the perspective of budgeting and we all know that energy uh it's going up every year when I have to budget for electricity with a business office and we also recently shop for electricity with Becky and she can speak a lot more about that. We observe big increase. We know that we all struggle like they building a lot of different um you know system that they need a lot energy and we as a district like we do a lot small activities to try and save money and be proactive with that and I think for a long benefit of 20 25 years everything what we can do to save the money I don't think so the cost will ever go down with the energy. Yes, Becky. Yes, that I think that that's why the perfect world worst scenario. We would like to have the solars every everywhere, but we have seven buildings and we have to replace a lot of the roofs. But I think it's wonderful opportunity for a district and for a students and for our community members to explore that.

Thank you. But the question was my question was really uh I I don't I can't imagine us having this these panels low enough or or high enough so that we could have our people go in and fix the roofs that are there. I can't I can't certainly don't want to see people crawling on their stomachs going underneath there to fix a roof. Chris, you know what I mean? It I have the solar on a previous district. It doesn't work this way. The solars you have a space between them. You can easily walk. You can access everything. You can take the easily panel. They are not heavy and repair. Maybe part of the the the RFP process is the specs. Yeah.

And all the scope of work and all of that would be absolutely part of that that we bring back to the board in a few months. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Miss Baldino. So, this is probably a question for you, Chris, but um not necessarily having as much familiarity with your um contract with um your vendor here, how does the RFP work? Are we um paying a consulting fee? Is this part of our ongoing agreement with um you as our energy broker essentially? How I'm understanding it? Yeah, I I think it'd be better coming from NA to explain that process.

Absolutely. It's a great question. Yeah, um we want to be here out of the kindness of our heart, but actually how do we get paid? Uh so it is a consulting fee based um per size of the the array. It's so it's a per watt fee and it is part of the RFP spec and so it's actually paid to us by the winning developer. So we're not billing the district for our services. Um so the next question is what happens if you don't move forward? We don't get paid, right? Uh and so uh if you were to conduct the we conduct the entire request for proposals and at the end of it um you know we've conducted the interviews, we've done all of that at the process and then just pull the plug for for no reason other than just decide not to move forward. There is a $10,000 breakup fee as part of our services agreement just for the time that we have sunk into it for that process. But otherwise, you know, if the design doesn't work out or if there's another uh limiting factor that prevents the RFP from moving forward, then there's no cost to the district.

Okay. Thank you. Other questions? I think we're good. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate Thank you.

Okay. You're still not out of the woods, Mr. Julie. quite the shift from solar to steam trips. Uh that that time of year again um we bring our spring break international trips to the board of education for approval. Um that's board policy to be six months in advance for the approval on international trips. Um you will see in front of you six trips and I'm happy to say every single school is participating in a spring break trip this school year. Um, again, we use vetted and and pre-approved travel vendors agencies on these international trips. Um, we've had trips with them before. Um, and it's it's a very smooth process for us. Um, ASUS, Explorica, and EF Tours are the vendors we're utilizing for our six trips. Are there any questions,

board members? Pretty standard every year. Looks like we're going to Rome, France, London, Eastern Europe, and Spain. Yep. Thank you. Okay, this will come back uh as an action item at the next meeting. Okay, we have uh two roll call items. Can I need a uh I'd like a motion and a second for 11, please. Second. It's been a motion and a second. Discussion. Call the role. Dustling, yes. Chung, yes. Baldino, yes. Fioro, yes. Hinaman, I. Sager, I. And Citzer, I.

Motion carry 70. Thank you. Motion in a second for 112, please. Motion. Baldino. Second. Furo. Discussion. Call the role. Baldino. Yes. Frito. Yes. Chung. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Hinaman. Hi. Sager. Hi. Criter. Motion carries 70. Thank you. Motion in a second for adjournment. So move. Second. Chung. Call the role. Dustling. Yes. Chung. Yes. Baldino. Yes. Fiero. Yes. Heinaman. I. Sager. I. And Quitzer. I.

Motion carries 70.

Thank you. We are ajourned. Thanks for coming. [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] me. Hey. Hey. [Music]

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