Township High School District 214 Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Testing one, two, three. October 9th. [Applause] [Music] 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. Yes. Here you go. Enjoy. Thank you.

My favorite part of working at Jerry's 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 great. I always am. 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 salad 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 URS 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. We're in Washington DC. [Music]

Prospect Marching Nights 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 uh 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. [Music] 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 careers and think and welcome them home was really impactful for me as well. You know, 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 Euima Memorial who was literally in tears watching the performance and just expressed to our chaperon 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 Ursy High School. As the truck arrived, we had Hershey 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. [Music]

Good morning. and I'd like to welcome you to the Stevens Silla Tunnel Towers mobile exhibit. We have a 50 50ft trailer approximately 1100 square ft exhibit. We travel our nation to commemorate the 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 large 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 Silla 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 lb of gear, ran 2 and 1/2 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 are in the Civil War or these other moments in American history, but they can. That I think is 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. It's nice to see

a special thanks especially the FDMY crew to the SL Foundation to Sing home to District 214 to all of Hersy. I I'm grateful for everybody. A special shout out to Bill Dustin for the for the magic spirit. Special shout out to Chief Harris from Hit 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. [Music] This year being the 40th anniversary of the Jazz and 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, ' 80s, early 90s. We have Bill Jastro and David Bogs from the '90s. And 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 a hug. Oh my god, look at you. I I'd have paid money to be here tonight. I really would have. It's is one of those things that I' I'd pay 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 that to 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 stopped 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's We ready? I'd like to call this um meeting the business meeting of the Township High School District 214 Board of Education to order for Thursday, October 9th, 2025. Uh Miss Marini, could you please uh call the role? Baldino Chung here. Dustling here. Fiorto here. Hinaman

present. Sager here. Kiter present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh I need a motion in a second to go into close session for the purposes of discussing the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in an educational setting or legal counsel for the public body. and uh superintendent and ev superintendent evaluation. Motion in a second, please. So moved. Second. Frito. Motion in a second. Please call the role. Chung. Yes. Fo. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Hineman. I. Sager. I. Citer. I.

Motion carries. 6.

Okay. We are now in close session. We will uh come back at 7 o'clock. Thank you. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat.

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music]

Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

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Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up here. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]

Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat.

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.

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[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat up here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat.

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Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music]

[Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat.

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Okay, we are back from close session and uh thank you for joining us and we're Can we all please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Next, we have uh an approval of agenda. Can I have the motion in a second, please? So, move for second, John. Motion in a second. Please call the roll. Fiorto,

yes. Chung, yes. Dustling, yes. Hinaman, I. Sager, I. And Kiter, I. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for approval of the minutes open and close from September 18th, 2025? Motion and second, please. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion. Call the role. Sager. I. Hinaman. I Chung. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Fido. Yes. Croitzer. I. Motion carries 6.

Thank you. We are next on the agenda is public comments. And I have 11 people that have signed up. And before I call the first one up, I I'm going to uh say a little bit here about our um public comments. The board of education and 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 all their comments to three minutes. However, if several people want to address the board on similar topics, the board president may limit the time to two minutes per person. The public comments on the agenda items will be the only time the board of education will hear public comments during meetings. Although comments may be made on almost any matter related to the operations of schools, comments will not be allowed identifying 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 openended forum. However, we do listen carefully. If requested, a written response will be provided. Please ensure that Miss Marini on the end, the board secretary has your full name and email address. To be fair and consistent to all addressing the board, the same protocols and procedures must be in place for everyone. Sean Collins, Sean, the um and everyone else. The green light indicates your time has started. The yellow light indicates 30 seconds remaining and the red light indicates three minutes have expired. So, if you could when you come forward, please clearly state your name for the minutes. Thank you, Sean.

Uh, my name is Sean Collins. Um, as you can see, I am a 214 employee. Um, I specifically work at Wheeling High School at Dr. Hubard. Um, so, um, that's kind of who I am. Um, first I want to thank, um, the district uh, and our partners at Wheeling PD for the extra support they've given us over the past month. Obviously, we know it's been a little difficult um with some extra challenges, but that support has meant a lot to the staff and students. So, I wanted to say thank you for that. It has definitely helped uh make my job as campus safety a little bit easier. Um so, that brings me to why I'm here tonight. Um I originally or most recently came from parks and wreck. So, my goal right now is to basically learn as much as I possibly can about the school system, the school district side of things and kind of the behind the scenes. Um, I've been at Wheeling for about a year and I feel like I've picked up a lot, but I want to learn more about, you know, how things work. Um, like at a higher level, bigger picture type stuff. Um, the reason I would like to do that is to ensure that we at Wheeling are doing everything we can to provide a supportive and inclusive environment for not just our students, but our staff. Um, so my goal is to try to attend uh every other meeting, maybe one meeting a month, whatever I can kind of manage, struggling with my own kids and everything else I've got going on. Um, so that's it. Just wanted to take a a few minutes to introduce myself and say thank you to everybody. So,

thank you, Sean. Yep. Thank you, Colin.

Is it Eert? Yeah, it is. Okay. Thanks, Colin.

Thank you for getting it right. Not an easy last name, unusually. Uh Colin Eert. I just wanted to say that uh I'm here for the Buffalo Grove High School removal of the prairie. I am a former Yeah, former bison. Go Bison. uh always been in the 214 system. I was one of the first interns with the PHNRC where I got hands-on skills as an intern learning about the native area. That combined with the AP environmental science got me exposed to the natural scene stuff that you would see at like Buffalo Creek and these native areas. It was just so important that I get exposed to a broad range of education, different views, perspectives, understanding how ecology works. I mean, it was just fundamental for my understanding and getting exposed to concepts that you just don't get traditionally. So, uh, thank you and I hope you consider finding a better plan for it.

Thanks, Colin. And, uh, I get my name wrong all the time. What's the last name? Not gonna try.

Thanks, Colin. Greg Eert. Hi, I'm Greg Eert and uh all four of my children attended BG 95, 96, 97, and 99. My son currently is uh doing the boys and girls diving at BG and the girls JV water polo. My youngest daughter, who's an FBI agent, also does um uh not coaching, but she uh judges different events for track and field in her time off. And um I'm here to talk about the uh the restoration of that field that they want to take down. And as a working member of the uh Prospect Heights Natural Resource Commission, I'd like to assure you that we'd be more than happy to take care of it as I'm sure that some of the other people here will tell you the same thing. Whether it's restoring keeping the height of grasses and stuff to a certain level or whatever it is, I'm sure we'd be glad to do it for you to keep that field where it is. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you sir. Marie related.

State your name please.

Marie Eckert. Mrs. Greg Eckert. And I'm a graduate of district 155 where I was a tenure teacher. I did my student teaching um and my graduate internship through district 214. and have so I have very fond memories and I'm very grateful for the opportunities that 214 provides as well as 155. I'm a volunteer for the Prospect Heights Natural Resource Center. It's life-changing, wonderful, enlightening, enriching, and I would ask you to um listen very carefully to what these well-versed people, more well-versed than the Latin English teacher have to say about ecology. It's really they're really wonderful. We've been volunteering for um I would say six to eight months. We have made great changes in our own property based on what we have learned about ecology. So, thank you for your attention.

Thank you. Thank you, Maria. Oh, it's going to be a hard one for me. Mookski.

Very good. I'm Maria Empolsski. I am a graduate of Prospect High School and I'm old enough to know that the only place where I could go to an equivalent of a prairie was Sponge, which was across Kensington and in what is now Regent Park. I can't tell you how important it was for me and my six siblings to have that opportunity. I can't imagine growing up without it and I would hate to see the children in our community lose opportunities to learn what we did there. So, I encourage you to do what you can to help preserve the spaces and I second the opinion that if you need help in maintaining this in a way that's safer and um better for the students, we'll be happy to help. Thank you, Linda. Okay, you're going to have to help me.

Hi, I'm Linda Wacy. Um, one of the priority for district 214 strategic plan is engage all students in meaningful learning. And I take a glance now at chemistry class. Besides lectures and reading, chemistry be besides lectures and reading. Uh chemistry lab provides a hands-on learning experience. Um the kids, you know, experience the liquids, the processes for themselves and the interactions that they um that come about because of their lab experience. This is hands-on learning. And the same way with a history class, you can have lectures and or read about history, but to experience the feelings and the emotions of a period of time through learning or seeing a movie or going on site for um uh on-site learning about a history uh location. And then there's biology class. It's not enough just to lecture on birds and plants and bees and their interconnectedness, but to go outside, experience the plants and the plants that attract certain bees, learning about the plants and their deep roots and how they fertilize the soil. The prairie of Buffalo Grove High School offers this special handson learning that all these other subjects also offer hands-on learning. We also know that students learn in a variety of ways and that's what meaningful learning is about. So

when we think about um learning through all these different hands-on types of learning, why do we why do we offer all the different varieties of ways of learning through art, through music, through science? The reason is is because hands-on learning ignites an interest in children. And what we want them all to do, isn't it? Is to find something that ignites their interest and wants them to learn more. So, we can't throw away the prairie. It's a vital role in the lives of many students. you would be taking away that important hands-on biology environmental learning and I'm asking you to keep the prairie. Thank you.

Thank you. Is it Ian? Ian, state your name, please.

Uh Ian Conway and volunteer with the Prospect Heights National Resources Commission. Uh otherwise, no other rank. Um, you have an incredible asset at Buffalo Grove High School to have this essentially ecology laboratory that's right outside the door. Um, I mean, I can't imagine if I had had that access to that a thousand years ago during my own heist term in high school and stuff like this. Um, also from the interns that I met uh who work with the Prospect Heist National Resources Commission who've also been involved with this prairie, it's an incredible group of people. they're not only getting they're able to challenge their minds, uh, take what they've learned in the classroom and put it to practical effect. And I'd also suggest that it gives them beyond just the STEM benefits, you know, and the sort of the showy green project of being able to show photos online of saying, "Oh, this school has this nice environmental project." getting involved, the students are able to just sort of embrace and take in some agency to doing some creative projects where they have responsibility and that's just so bloody cool. That's it.

Thank you, Dana. Okay. Okay. State your names. My name is Dana Severson and this is uh my wife Agnes Wjinowski and uh we are commissioners with the Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission. Last time we were here, we were presented with an award for excellence in the

D214 intern project and we love that. It's a great program. tonight and it's an we're a little bit out of sequence here. What we wanted to do is uh bring to your attention uh the movement to remove the prairie in front of uh the Buffalo Grove High School. Um there are incredible value as an educational tool for this prairie. Um the science classes use it, the art classes use it, it's being used to calm students down. Um there is a multitude of benefit to this prairie. Um it is not something that can be dug up and transplanted and moved. Uh prairie plants have very deep roots 15 20 feet deep at this point. Uh to try to move them is just execution. So we're asking we feel that having looked at um and there's some confusion there about what is actually the objections because we haven't seen the formal complaint yet. Um

some of those objections um we heard were rodents, beastings, and safety, which we know that this prairie just doesn't that those are um not based on any

in the three years that that this project has been in place, there hasn't been a single person stung. In the 12 years that we've been doing restoration work, we have never been stung by a pollinator. Pollinators are going after pollen. They're busy. They don't want anything to do with you. Um, as far as the foot traffic that goes past the prairie, we feel that it's just too much to have a population of rodents. You do have a population of bunnies that live there. Uh, there's birds, caterpillars, bees of all kinds. Um, and then the concerns about height. It's very simple uh to to manage the height of the the tall vegetation. We can help with that.

We can we can certainly help with that. But also if if uh safety is concerned uh with fire, we can mow a a border around the perimeter of the building to set that back. So be 10 15 feet from the building to where the vegetation starts and that would create a nice little buffer.

So what we're we're asking for is for someone who's in a position of authority to make a decision about this to actually come out and meet with us. We have one meeting scheduled next week with Aneta and the principal of the school. Um, and we're we're going to take that meeting, but anyone else who can impact this in any way, shape, or form, it would be really terrific and we would really appreciate the help. Okay. Um, the packet of information that we printed out, limited time, we only printed three. I'm going to email all of that stuff to all of you tonight. So, Great. Thank you, Agnes.

Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. You're right. Seth.

Hi. I'm Seth Marcus. Um I'm one of the commissioners of the Prospect House Natural Resources Commission. You know, we do a program uh with Anne Sullivan and Betsy Ross schools and we have kids from fourth grade, sixth grade come out to the prairie at a different area. And when the kids first come out, they go up to the prairie and we say, "It's the time to collect seeds." And the kids are all and they don't want to go into the prairie and they're scared. And these kids, you know, most kids, as you all know, are on their phones and they don't get outside and they don't know what it means to be outdoors. And when they come out to the prairie, they're so scared. And there are bees all on the flowers there. And we're asking them to harvest some seeds. And they're scared of the bees and they're scared. And by the end of the hour, the kids are running in the prairie unscared. They literally have learned in one hour that nature is not something to be scared of. And here we have an opportunity at Buffalo Grove High School where in order to get into the school, they have to walk past a prairie. And it's like experiential learning as as other people have talked about. They're getting to experience a prairie which frankly most kids don't get outside. And so this is an opportunity. It would be such a shame to take that away from them. The other thing I want to mention is um if you if you do a search in about careers of the future, ecology and environmentalism are expected to grow like crazy. So it would be something we want to encourage kids to learn about and this is one way to get them to at least get a tiny taste of it. Thank you.

Thank you,

Chris Wood. Good evening. My name is Chris Wood and uh I'm an opthalmologist in town and I'm also on the PHNRC, a very proud volunteer. Thank you guys. I'm going to talk about a different topic and I've already addressed it with certain members administratively in the district. Um I commute to work from Prospect Heights to Arlington Heights. I own my commercial building on North Al Heights Road just south of u Palletine and uh I ebike which I enjoy doing but I have to go by Hersy High School on Thomas. Now I've learned that Hersy High School um does not have a great traffic flow for the amount of traffic that you're having for drop off. It's very unsafe. And what I experienced was I had a doring incident. If you're not familiar with that, that's where somebody opens their door in front of you, knocks you off your bike, and could kill you or se severely injure you. And that's what happened to me. I was severely injured, no broken bones, but I'm still a month later having lots of pain all over my chest and back. It's been very, very traumatic for me. And it's taken me a month, you know, to get through the trauma and do my research. And I realized that there were three illegal things that happened. There was somebody opening their door on Thomas and stop traffic. Definitely an illegal act. The next illegal act was dooring me. You know, that's an illegal act, you know. And then the third thing was driving away without trying to help a shocked and traumatized person. The the father of this student, the student was shocked as well, but the father just drove away and the cars behind were honking because I was in their way. Very traumatic. And I would like the entire board to consider seriously educating every student and parent to the extent possible in this district of their liability. It's actually not the

liability of the district. It's a liability of the parent or student who causes these injuries and they must know about it and it's very important that I communicate this to you to make me feel like I've done my civic responsibility. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, that's um all that has signed up for public comment and we're going to continue with the meeting. Um so I'm going to pause for a second if people would like to leave. You're very welcome to stay because we have a lot on our agenda, but I'm going to give you a minute or two to leave if you'd like. You can all stay. I'm just going to give you that opportunity. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Have a good evening.

Okay, Dr. Row. All right. Uh, I have one topic I'd like to to share this evening. It's actually one I'm extremely excited about. As as you know, board members know, um, District 214 is recently engaged in a new partnership with the Family Action Network. Um, and the Family Action Network is a um a quite a sizable um group of districts and organizations uh focused on enhancing family engagement in in their organization. And uh Fan is connected with uh major publishers across the country that bring in authors when they're on book tour or sharing uh really interesting stories about uh modern life, modern society. Um as a way of of of like I said, increasing that two-way communication about important topics to our students and and our communities. Um, so we opted to become a member of FAN and we're going to receive a uh really immediate um big deal return on on that investment uh as we are one of two school districts in in Northern Illinois who will have the opportunity to host uh Dr. Mark Brackett on October 30th. Dr. Brackett uh as you may know remember from his book Permission to Feel uh took off in in popularity especially in education circles uh made a pretty dramatic impact. So, uh, we'll be hosting Dr. Bracken on October 30th as he is, uh, marketing his new book, Dealing with Feeling, Use Your Feelings to Create the Life You Want, um, with him on tour. So, but what's interesting and really special about this event is when we shared with the leadership of Fan that, you know, Dr. bracket is is not only you know are we interested in his book but um our our social emotional learning curriculum ruler that the district has recently adopted he's the author of and the founder of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. So we're going to have the opportunity to have um the author of our program in district um and he's offered to meet

with our PE staff that are actually implementing this year and and those gone through level one of training. So, they're going to have a a small group one-on-one session and he's also agreed to meet with all of our administrators across the district focusing on creating uh we have the ability to create the environment creating the environment for emotional well-being among our staff among our staff as well as our our students and how can we best support our PE staff as they uh they work to implement social emotional learning curriculum into the PE classroom. So, extremely excited about that. Then in addition to he'll be hosting at Buffalo Grove High School on the evening of October 30th uh a community engagement event where he'll be uh discussing his new book as well as just uh life in modern society recognizing the the emotions that we all experience and go through and how we can maximize uh a wonderful life by recognizing them calling them out and then use them to our advantage. Uh so we're excited about that. I'd like to invite all of you to that event though. It's open to the public. It's a free event. I encourage our families uh to join us. As you know, our strategic planning goal too, a specific area that we're measuring is increased opportunities for family engagement. And it's a perfect opportunity to come spend uh an hour and a half or so uh with a uh a worldrenowned author talking about something that's very pertinent and relevant in today's society and specifically supporting our our students and staff as we work to implement this. So, we'll actually have a a VIP session ahead of that event, a meet and greet. I'll invite all of you to. So hopefully you'll be able to join us, but to the public, anyone watching or in attendance, you're certainly welcome to join us, and I hope that you'll make that a priority. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Row. Uh, next is board member updates. Mr. Dustling, would you like to start?

Sure. Um, on September 27th, uh, the, uh, Prospect, uh, Night of Champions was held, uh, marching band. It was uh 16 bands from four from the district. Uh it's an amazing event. The co-chairs are Zela Pawaki and Liz Gracioso. They did a great job organizing. The number of volunteers they have is just amazing. I attended two homecoming coronations. They're always exciting. BG and Hersy. Uh both staff should be commended. Uh uh the work they put in and wonderful event for the students and certainly all during uh during a homecoming week. The Italians exchange students were at Prospect on October 3rd. It was good to be there to welcome them. That's a tradition that's gone on for for just a number of years. And then u event I've been at 10 years. It's been going for 10 years. It's called Prospect Gives Back where 25 different Prospect High School organizations classes co-curricular maybe two to 300 students. They do 750 hours on a Saturday, projects in the community, senior center visiting, park projects, other areas. It's truly visible and it's a worthwhile uh presentation to the community of what Prospect High School is about and the students. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ferto.

Yeah. Um I had the opportunity along with Mr. Dustling to attend uh voice. It was at Prospect High School and what it basically it was my first time. Bill's been there probably forever, but it was bringing all the schools together for a day and at the end of the day um they perform um songs that that they had an outside consultant teach them and it was really incredible to see all these kids from all these different schools all wearing the same pink shirts and it was it was very impressive. And like I said, Bill, everybody knew Bill and uh you know, he's a he's a veteran of it and and he just said that these this this performance is amazing. So, I just wanted to mention that. I'm going to leave the big game to the people that attended um down the down the road. But I I've had the um the pleasure of being part of both the president's council and and the student council. And in doing so, um it gave me a little bit of a taste of um from the students perspective today. Uh I'm blessed the fact that um I do get um invited to all the PTC meetings and um I enjoy listening to the parents from the different schools because um each school is is their own school and and their parents are you know similar to what I experienced at Hersy but also different and it's good it's a good way to hear what other parents are going through and what other schools are doing. And like I said, I'm very lucky that um my schedule is flexible enough that I'm able to attend some of these meetings. And I just say they're they're very fruitful. For those that are watching, if you're not part of your school's PTC, I encourage you to join because these organization mainly mainly ladies who do a great job in and giving back to their schools, whether it's grants or whether it's scholarships or whether it's helping the staff members out with recognition lunches and breakfast. So, if you're out there and you're watching

this meeting, please, you know, get involved with the PTC's. They really can use all the help and it is a great organization that help benefits all the stakeholders of the district. Thank you, Dr. Chung.

Um, yeah. So, um, there are a few events I want to highlight. First, um, earlier today, the Academy at Forest View held its first annual film premiere. Um, it was awesome. They had a they kicked it off with a reception. They had a red carpet. They had somebody taking photos and they served cookies and chocolate-covered pretzels made by the students. Um, it was delicious. I had everything. Um, and then we were invited into the theater and we watched three short films that the students wrote and filmed and directed. So, it was yeah, so fun. I just want to say congratulations to all the students at the academy for their creativity and hard work as well as their teachers Mike and Alyssa. Um, also the big game. I'll take this opportunity to um share about it. So to kick off their homecoming week, Hersy hosted the big game, which is a basketball game with students in their CLS program, the career life skills. Um so the students were uh the students were coached by Hersy students on the basketball team and the entire student body attended and I know many of um people in here in this room were there. So it was a great event and a wonderful way just to live out the district's values of inclusion and community. So that was really special. Um, also the District 214 Education Foundation held a special meeting last month which vice president Fiorito and I attended. So there's some really exciting and innovative things that the foundation is doing. And one of the highlights is that the foundation board um voted to approve a food pantry expansion funding plan that's going to benefit all of our schools. So um, thanks to Dr. Lopez and Shannon Silverman and everyone on that um, foundations board and staff. Um, and that's it.

Thank you, Dr. Sager.

All right. So, uh, on September 20th, I attended the Mount Prospect October Fest special needs happy hour sponsored by NSSEO. Just signing in families and, uh, getting a chance to give families an hour before the crowds show up for students to get an experience that they may not otherwise be able to tolerate. Um that same day several of us walked in the Elkrove Village uh parade that that happened since the last meeting. So uh and then on September 25th I attended the 214 rising art exhibition at the empty corner and I want to thank all the fine arts staff who helped showcase the artists from across the district. So it's specifically rising art exhibition. So, it's not the seniors, it's the younger students who are, you know, getting into the arts. And I just want to give a shout out. The cardboard hippo from Elkrove High School that's award-winning was there as well. And I always happy to see that. Um, on also on the 25th, I attended the D214 financial aid night at Prospect High School. And I want to thank uh Colleen Carroll, who's the post-secary counselor who helped uh run that. And uh Mark Anderson, who's the associate director of financial aid at Lake Forest College, uh spoke about all the different sources of financial aid available to families and students and the difference between a subsidized loan, unsubsidized loan. And he did a really good job of walking through the FAFSA application, which all our students should be doing. It's a requirement in Illinois that they do it or you have to get a waiver before you graduate. And it was very demystifying. It like showed you step by step that you're going to get an email. This is going to happen. You have to get your aid, federal aid ID first and all that stuff. I highly recommend for parents out there. The FAFSA is open now. Uh there's a recording and the slides of

this program are on the prospect high school website at if you go to the students tab postsecondary success center and scroll down there's a recording of his presentation along with the slides it was very useful um as a first-time parent doing this with my first my oldest being a senior it was extremely helpful uh I attended the prospect night of champions uh today I attended the IASB delegate webinar are and you all have copies of the 2025 resolutions committee report. Um, and this includes a single resolution I think this time around compared to the past where it's been several more and several constitutional amendments which change some of the functioning of how ISB uh behaves. I think we only have one more meeting before I have to go and vote in your in your name as a delegate and I wanted to kind of maybe ask what process we wanted to use for that.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was at um I was at the South Cook uh division meeting the other night and they talked about uh uh the director talked about how um she was encouraging boards to put it on their agenda for next month. And we've never done that here, but in talking with the association, we should put it on the agenda, even if even if it's a consent item, but we we need to have a vote on how we're how we are going to vote at the delegate assembly, but I I want to tell um board members here, and I'm not lying about this, I've sat through six meetings of going over all these resolution or the resolution constitutional changes hours I've sat through these and so we've word smith and and so on and so forth and I'm I'm um the uh at the board of directors meetings we we approved these the executive committee approved all these so I um but you can certainly tell Joe how you feel about them but uh I've been I don't want to talk about these anymore because I've been through so I've been through so much with this but um like before, you know, you can tell um tell us how you feel. Tell Joe how you feel about these. There's a ballot in back here, but I think that uh I'll talk to Dr. Ro when we have the agenda meeting about uh putting this on for next month. But yeah, there's 10 constitutional changes. Um it's been since the 1970s that they've really had a review of the constitution and that's why you see so many changes. And um I I I really put my stamp of approval that we we should uh move forward with this. But thank you, Joe.

I I have one more item which was the NSSO governing board meeting was last night. I sent everybody a report uh today because I thought it was important that we keep on track with the articles of agreement uh editing process here. So what's happening next uh or my understanding is everybody needs to get me comments ideally by the 14th which is next week and I will submit them by the 15th to Dr. Schnore. The they will then be taken into account when the final final draft articles are are presented to the board at the November meeting. I also sent you information about some changes that are already anticipated that some things that the superintendent recommended, some things that the governing board discussed that, you know, the the spirit is there, but they're just going to have the lawyers go over one more time and put those items in proper language. So, uh, I I sent that as well. Uh, so if if your question is, hey, what about who who signs off on contracts, maybe read that document I sent you first because it's it's listed as one of the things, right? Or who who evaluates the superintendent. It's all in there. If you have any questions about it, feel free to reach out to me. Uh, the next process would be at the next NSSO board meeting, the final version would be presented. Presuming that passes the NSSO governing board, it's transmitted to the member boards and then we have 90 days to ratify it at the member districts. That makes the timeline a little tighter than was anticipated. The hope was to be done by the December governing board meeting, but it turns out the December the governing board doesn't have any action to take after ratification. So, we don't need to like receive back the ratified articles or anything. So, uh, the hope is November and December member boards could

still complete the ratification process and we would be on track for a January start of the operations board. I believe based on the timeline of when an SECO's meeting is, we would have to go in the December meetings when we would target for you to take action. So, ours may have to be December. That's I think. But once we get once we get past this next round, we'll get it ironed out. It'll either be November or and I think a lot of it is triple eye is throwing off this triple eye and Thanksgiving being back to back is throwing off and then we only have one meeting in November and so does NS well they only have one meeting a month right

and and all the other member boards are in the same the same boat so I think we're we're working on it and then the last thing I have is just reminding all the parents out there who are listening it is October sign your child up for AP tests if you have a student in an AP exam you have until the end of the Yeah. Um, Dr. Sager, you sent the um link to the meeting that the superintendent had and uh I listened to about an hour of it and uh um I hope it was um informational and good stuff for you, Dr. Row. But what I didn't know was Sunrise Lake outdoor education that our pack students built

um the facilities out there back that was news to me as well. Yeah. As well as how is the agreement of of its value and if it was ever if an ever tried to sell it what they they could only sell it back to the state for a dollar for a dollar. They bought it for a dollar and they can only sell it to the state. incredibly great piece of property that is sought after by developers all over. Uh it's beautiful out there, but we we 214 use that. We do. Yeah. So, it it's it's a really good place for the kids. Okay. Okay. Moving on. 1011 budget update. Dr. Adaway.

Thank you. Um so tonight we are kicking off something that is um really exciting. So this is the first of future months where we are going to present the budget update in a little bit different format. Um so hopefully a little bit easier to read, a little bit easier to digest. I'm not going to spend a lot of time walking through numbers this time because there are only two months worth of data here. Um, so there's not a lot. It's difficult to glean any trends off of two months worth of data right now, but I do want to walk you through each individual sheet so you know how to read it u going forward. So there are five forms here, five sheets. Uh the first two pages are year-to- date revenue and year-to- date expenditures. Um, so that would be July 1st through whatever the reporting month is on the uh on the sheet. Across the top you've got local revenue, state revenue, federal revenue. On the expense you have salaries and benefits, purchase, services, supplies, and materials all split out on each of these. We compare the current year to the two previous fiscal years and the budget amount. So you're able to see trend across three years and compared to to our current budget. The third and fourth sheets in here are monthtodate. So that excludes any prior months. It looks just at activity in the reporting month. So you'll see it it looks very similar in this just because there's only so much data here. There's not there's not a lot to pull out from July alone. And then the final page is fund balance. So you're able to compare fund balance to the prior year um year to date and month to date. So there are a few things that I just want to highlight quickly. Um three things. One is you'll notice on here that it's August 2025. That's two months

ago. This is very similar to our treasures reports that we issue. Um it takes us a little bit of time to close the prior month. So similar to the treasures reports, these will always lag behind uh about two months. Um, the second is the colors on here are not great. Um, they're not easily readable. So, between now and next month, we're going to change the colors. We're going to do some branding on this so it looks better going forward. Um, and the other thing that I just want to note and the numbers that I do want to talk about, you're going to notice uh probably pretty obviously the local revenue on the first page, the changes in fund balance on the very last page. That is entirely due to the timing of property tax receipts. That's why you see that huge spike in the second year. So, property tax receipts were late in 2024 and 2026. They were on time in 2025, which is why you see that huge spike in 2025. So, I'm very excited that we're doing this going forward. This is the first step um in my eyes towards um uh transparency in financials, making it easier for the board, making it easier for the community um to know where we stand.

Well, I really like it. Board members, any comments about this? I'm finance guy. Oops. I'm a finance guy. I liked it a lot and I did notice the 24 and 26. Anyone else? Go ahead. Yeah. Um, thank you so much, Dr. Adaway. Just I'm sure this is the big question on all of our minds. Any updates or news about the um when that second installment property tax bill I wish I had an update for you,

Dr. Chong. I I I'm going to interject here. So, when I was at South Cook there, um speaker was the assessor Fritz Kegy and of course they asked that question and he pointed to the treasurer's office where they're waiting to update their software. Tyler, is that the name of it? Yeah. So, everybody's pointing fingers and nobody wants to give you an answer. So, uh yeah, I feel compelled to say, do you know what Tyl Tyler Technologies overseas infinite?

Some of our own frustrations. Um but um you know I also I just in that topic I just just I don't know if it'll go anywhere but I had a a scheduled legislative meeting with Bridget Peach today who um is with Ed and I asked her if we could collaborate on uh potentially a investigating a legislative solution to hold districts harmless when a county processes uh put us in this position. I just I feel as if school and I know some of our neighboring school districts are considering tax anticipation warrants in order to pay their bills until the county's process brings them their local property taxes. And we are in a position where it's not going to be significant, but we're we're we're missing out on investment revenue because we have to keep more cash on hand so that our bills can be paid because of a process that is out of our control. So, I think it's worthy to investigate a legislative solution where districts can be held harmless to get access to money and not play with our taxpayers resources. Um, and and and I'm not faulting Cook County. I'm not looking to place blame even even a new process. Sometimes they don't work. But our our school district should not be in a position where they have to pay increased fees and their local taxing bodies have uh interest that they must pay on a tax anticipation warrant to solve a problem that isn't we we didn't cause. I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but she was open to the idea is going to do some investigating for us. So, school districts need to be protected in when a process fails.

Thanks. Thanks for bringing that to her attention. I I brought that up to you a couple weeks ago and I I'm glad you u move forward with that. Any other questions? I I really like this. I think it's I like visuals like this, so it's good. Um, anything else? Okay. Um, 1021, is that you, Dr. Ro?

I will certainly uh take it and kick it off. So, as uh invite Mr. Corbett up up to the podium. as you know, um you we've been engaged with Eio Sullen and in working to engage with the community on some of our facility needs and uh and we've completed, you know, they've completed phase one and I'm grateful for for Colin and and Rich to be here with us tonight to kind of guide us through some of the process. So, the purpose tonight, they're going to outline what we learned in phase one um and then we're setting the stage to enter into phase two next week and I'm sure he'll do a little bit of highlighting as to to what that will look like as well. So, thank welcome Colin.

Thank you, Dr. Row, and thank you to the board for having us out. Uh, we've completed phase one, as Dr. Row said, and already we've seen really positive signs from the community. We're just getting started, but so far we've seen really positive signs in the engagement process, which I'll share with you uh this evening. You guys have seen the report. Uh, I believe you've got that available to you. I'm going to point out the key highlights and then, of course, that leaves time to open it up if you've got any questions. The main thing I want to highlight on page one is just the level of feedback that we've gotten from the community. So if you look in the second to last paragraph of the report, you'll see there we've already gotten 227 residents who have participated in this process. Context is helpful. Obviously, we do this with a lot of districts. And so just looking at the level of engagement we see just in phase one, what we see with 2727 respondents is um among the upper echelon of feedback in phase one. Phase two usually gets the majority of the feedback. So this number is going to increase exponentially in the next phase, but we're very happy to see already that 227 residents have engaged in the process. Uh so this is a really good thing to see. I'm actually going to come back to that uh last paragraph in the first page because I don't want to talk about phase two yet until we fully discussed phase one. During phase one, we developed messaging, which I believe you guys have seen, to explain to the public what has led us to this point, why we're having this discussion, uh, and to make sure that, uh, we, uh, the public understands what the process and what the discussion is all about. We also put together, of course, working with your team, a community committee of individuals from throughout the the community, all sorts of different stakeholders, uh, a cross-section, if you will, from parents, teachers, taxpayers without children, uh, in the district, business owners, seniors, civic leaders, elected officials. We had our first meeting. It was a great meeting, well attended, um, really constructive and a lot of dialogue back and forth. We will continue having meetings with this community committee throughout each

phase of the process. Um, but their feedback has been included in the feedback report which I'll talk about in a second. We also provided information in the district website and encouraged members of the community to go review that information and provide their feedback via the website which uh a number of community members took advantage of. What we learned from the community is then I'll draw your attention to the uh D214 community engagement phase 1 feedback summary. That's a summary as it's titled uh where we pull together all the feedback we got and gave give it to you in an easily digestible format in one page. Um we've also submitted to the district all of the raw responses. So you'll be able to go through that and review that. There's a lot of really helpful information in there about things the community feels are important and maybe some of the challenges that as they see them. What we'll go over tonight is simply the summary because obviously it's a lot easier to do that than 200 plus individual responses. We'd be here all night doing that. Of course, we asked questions about what are the schools doing. Well, you saw a lot of responses in favor of um academics. Uh I'm sorry, let me quickly explain how that page works just in case uh it's not clear. So, we've broken up the responses from the committee which you see on the left hand side in red and then the feedback responses from the general public which is in the in the black on the right. So those two are separated out. We continue to do that in future phases just because sometimes you might get different responses from each group. What we saw when we asked what the schools are doing well, both groups said academics at the very top by a significant margin. You see some other things listed there by both groups, teachers, extracurriculars, community, uh facilities, support services. Uh there's a lot of things that got called out by members of the community. Uh that speaks to the hard work that you all and your team are doing in the district. We asked about the challenges uh that the schools face and we saw a lot of responses about facilities which is of course why we're here. Uh challenges with budget and taxes. Uh a lot of people brought up

academics and supporting teachers and staff. Uh and um yeah, you saw see a variety of responses there that we got in. Next we asked what changes and improvements would you like to see to our schools? Overwhelmingly was facilities was the number one thing that was brought up again why we're doing this process. So certainly the community understands the need here for this discussion and this process. Um we also got responses back on things they'd like to see with teachers and staff. Um and in the curriculum and academics um just kind of going through this quickly. Um but you can see there that there's a pretty common thread between both groups. Facilities takes the lead, but there are other items. So we do encourage you to kind of look through those responses. It's hard to fully capture it in a summary here, but a lot of really positive and helpful responses and constructive responses from the public. We also asked, "What resources do our teachers and students need to be successful?" Um, and this one is definitely one you're going to want to look at the actual responses. It's really hard to quantify here. Um, but they did go through a lot of things they'd like to see support provided for teachers and staff. So, there's really helpful information. uh as you dive into that section, we then get into the facility discussion and ask, are you willing to invest more uh into achieving some of the improvements that you'd like to see in our schools? Um and we saw from the community committee uh pretty overwhelmingly a yes or a maybe, which is, you know, a positive sign. People want to know what they're supporting before they really dive in. So, this is a positive sign uh at this early stage. Same from the community. You saw yes and maybe um come solidly. There were some no responses there which of course we want to take note of but again that's common. They don't know what they're supporting yet. So it's pretty common at this stage. Uh we'll continue to have the conversation and see how they feel about specifics in the next phase. We get into some of the numbers. Uh you don't learn as much from this at this early stage. Again they don't know what they're getting and what the impact is. Um but you do see some responses. Most people simply choose not to answer that question which is okay. Uh and then we ask if we had to choose between specific

improvements which would you prioritize? Um and you see their uh responses coming in favor of um supporting teachers and staff, making sure we've got a stable budget in the district, um investing in facilities and academics. So we see a variety of responses, but all things we would typically expect to see at this stage. we do a deep dive into all the responses to verify there aren't things in there um that we haven't necessarily included in the next phase as we start talking about which projects should be considered to start talking about the work and the improvements that could be done throughout the district. We make sure that all the feedback from the community during phase one is taken into account as those plans are put together. And so what you're going to see looking forward in phase two is the feedback from the community, the individual feedback, not the summary, but all the individual responses plus the direction from um the district's experts like architects and buildings and grounds and construction teams, financial adviserss. All of that is going to be brought together in what's called a menu. The menu is going to have individual projects for the public to be able to consider. It's going to have funding levels and tax impacts. Everything's going to have dollar figures attached to it. It's going to be a very transparent process here in phase two where the public's going to be able to see the types of improvements that can be achieved and what those would cost and what that kind of an impact would have on their tax bills um as as homeowners throughout the district. And so phase two, as I mentioned, it gets really indepth. This is usually where we see the highest level of uh responses and and engagement. And so we do anticipate based on high levels of engagement already. Uh we're going to see that again here as we move into phase two. We're going to ask the public to give us their feedback on all of those projects and funding levels. And I'm going to explain how we're going to do that in a second. And then we will gather all of that data and provide it to you in a pretty robust report where you're going to be able to see how your community feels about which projects should be prioritized, maybe which projects shouldn't be prioritized and what their

comfort level is at different funding levels and tax impacts. So, you're going to get a tremendous level of data and feedback in phase two. Phase one is sort of our kicking off point to get people engaged and get them into the process. How we're going to do it in phase two is uh what we've discussed before. We're going to be conducting a phone survey of members of the community. We're going to be hosting another meeting of the community committee and we will be doing public engagement sessions where people can come out um and see this information, ask questions, discuss it, and give their feedback. We're going to be capturing all of this feedback. It's going to be a lot. we will summarize and analyze it but also give you all of it uh and present that to you all at the end of phase two. So that's what we're looking forward to and that begins next week. Uh so you guys can be looking forward to that as we move into that step of the process.

Any questions on phase one so far or how phase two might look? Board members, Mr. At what point do you get our feedback on phase two? Um we we are all stakeholders. We are parents. we are, you know, empty nesters, so we probably would have a say in it as well. Yeah, we encourage board members to participate in the phase 2 process, whether it's if you'd like to take the phone survey, if you'd like to attend one of the engagement sessions, um we certainly encourage you all to do that because as you said, you are absolutely stakeholders. So, we really do encourage that and ultimately the decision will be yours, right? If it's a yes or at what level.

So, but yeah, that is the point. We'll provide you the community data, but you're going to make the ultimate decisions as the elected leaders of the district, I think. Okay. Um, Mr. Heinman, uh, how many people are on the committee? That's a great question. How many people are on the committee? I'll just repeat it in case it didn't get picked up. There were there were 40, I believe 40 people invited. Uh there were a handful that were unable to make meeting one, but we were um near 30 in attendance meeting one and we expect I'm not sure what the RSVP is for this this next week, but uh we're expecting good attendance. When's your next meeting? Tuesday.

Tuesday here at Forsu. Okay. Anything else, Mark? Um yeah. Um how is Mckivik's interactions with this taking place or are they McKinstry? Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Um, McKinstry, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Le, but McKenry will be more down the road in terms of repairs once things get going. Um, the asset tagging of all of our mechanicals and what they what they need is is in motion. Correct. I was under the impression that they were providing priorities. Um,

yep. So, we're we're using their feedback. I don't know how much you're going to talk about phase two and I I don't want to jump anything. No, it's okay. But but there's there's these categories and that's where Mckinstry and Archon have helped establish the categories and the dollar amounts within those categories. So that's where McKinstry's data and feedback gets gets pushed in this process.

They've been incredibly helpful as we're building out this next phase in phase two. I mentioned that menu. It's full of types of projects that could be looked at. So, it's all that work that's been done um recently, but also in the months previously. It's all coming together here where we're going to get provide to the public the different types of projects that they could look at and they'll be able to prioritize and list. We believe these projects should be higher priority or lower. That's a lot of what's going to be happening here in phase two. The full menu of what will go uh be a part of phase two will be in your notes tomorrow. Okay,

Dr. Chong. Um yeah, thank you so much, Colin. Thank you, Rich. Um I had a comment and then a couple questions. My comment is um so um I live in district 57 where as you know both the school district and the park district had a successful referendums placed on the balance um last November and I've talked to a lot of people from district 57 who supported both referendums and who I will say love district 20 214 and they agree that our buildings are aging and are in need of some repair and they feel just financially maxed out. So, I just want to say these are super supporters. They love love love D214 and they feel maxed out financially. So, um I just yeah, I don't expect you to comment on that, but I just putting it out there that

be happy to if you if you'd like. So, there's a reason when you see the menu and you see how this process develops in phase two, we purposely separate separate out the funding section from the projects. Um, we do that on purpose because that way people can just give us their their full thoughts on exactly what you said. How do you feel about these different funding levels and we attach the average taxpayer impact to each of them so they'll be able to say, "I'm comfortable with this number, but I'm maybe not comfortable at that number or maybe they'll say they're not comfortable at any number." But that's why this fully transparent process is so effective within all the districts we've worked with before because you're you're letting them tell us. So, we will give you all at the end of phase two that data from the community and they'll tell you are they comfortable maybe spending a little more or maybe they're going to tell you that they're not. Um, but that's the good news is you're going to have that data at the end of this upcoming phase.

Okay. Um, my second question is about the um 203 people, the non community committee members. Um, is there information I didn't fill it out about like who they are? Are they parents? Are they are they community members? Do they? Yeah,

everyone was engaged through the community and we made sure they were actually within the district lines. They lived in this within the community. Beyond that though, we don't capture their personal information because we promise that it's anonymous. So, you're going to see that also in phase two. The phone survey will be anonymous. Uh because when it comes to capture, some people just don't want to give their personal information. Um whereas the public engagement sessions, the community committee, of course, their responses, they they're there, they're doing it. Um but in some of the ways that we capture data, we do promise anonymity and we make sure not to break that.

Okay. And then my last question which I would love to hear your thoughts on is um so of the of those 203 community members again not part of the committee uh 54% said no they would not support like um

uh giving financially to the district for um these endeavors. And I know it's still vague and everything and I know it's not representative of the entire district, but it is telling I think that these people self- selected, meaning they have, you know, they're engaged, they care, they're connected in some way, and they have strong feelings whether positive or negative. So these are the people who are engaged and care and know something. And 54% said no. So, I know the way you described it, it was more in a positive way. So, I don't know if you've seen this like this is typical or normal, but for me, this was alarming. I guess

I'm glad you pointed it out then because I probably should have spent more time on it. It this is common at this early stage. We haven't talked about the challenges, which we will in phase two as much. We haven't talked about what the improvements potentially could be. We haven't given them any dollar amounts. We've just said, "Hey, do you want to spend more money?" And who says yes to that? So, it's it's common. We usually see that at this early stage, but that's why during phase two, we get very specific and we're going to ask, are you willing to spend more? They may may say no at that stage and we will provide you that data. So, you will see very clearly in this next stage. Is that was that simply an early indicator um or was that a sign as as you say that it may possibly be. We don't know yet, but that is about what we typically see with other districts in phase one, which is why I kind of glossed over it. It's my fault for seeing, you know, hundred of these reports. So, I'm glad you pointed to it. It it isn't a concerning sign just yet, but it is something we know and obviously we do understand that taxpayers are burdened in the state of Illinois. So, we understand that completely. We will see in the next stage in the next phase exactly what that means when we give full specifics.

Yeah, I would add I appreciate you pointing that out as well. I'll add that in the in the community engagement group um that meeting started out when we were going through introductions uh with one of the community members uh on the on the committee specifically pointing out um and I am grateful that he did because that was our conversation that he says I'm coming to this committee as a no um but I'm open to learning and um and the committee is made up of people that were not all yes people that are not all whatever you want you can have. Um, and I think that's really important to note because it it provided a a robust conversation in the room. And when I looked at that report, I saw those that that became educated after a presentation um had a different viewpoint and and I think that that does matter. That said, I think we would be foolish not to fully recognize that everybody feels financially tight right now and we don't quite know what's coming if if if there's a recession on the horizon or or what is is is going to happen in the next 6 to9 months or a year. And and I think the process has to just play out and let our community tell us what they're comfortable with. And I think that's what we have approached this valuing the the scientific process of let's engage to talk about our needs. So even if now may not be the time, the community knows we these needs are here and and they're not going to go away until we address them somehow. So let's at least start talking about it to figure out if maybe it's a smaller chunk than what we would ideally like, but we can begin the process. We have to do something with our buildings. They need it. It's a matter of where we're not we know where our money's coming from, and that's not something that we uh take for granted. So that feedback is really important. And I think it's important to note that the directive from the board, Dr. Row, Mr. Mgi, and the whole team has been be transparent and open and include everyone in the conversation. Um, we've

seen some processes, not with our clients, but we've seen other people do processes like this where they try to pack the room with yes people and favorable people and make it seem like, look, see, we all love this. We're all favorable. The reality is this is a difficult conversation. This is a difficult thing for me members of the community. they need time to think it through and understand the challenges and think through how much maybe they might be willing um to be part of the the the solution for those challenges. Uh and so I I actually think it's a positive thing that the district is so actively including everyone in this conversation, including people who come in saying, "Yeah, I'm I'm probably not going to be for this." They everyone should have a voice in this process. So this is a great sign of the fully open and fully transparent process that's being conducted. And we're going to learn a lot about what that means during phase two. Dr. Sager.

Yeah. So, so thank you for your presentation. It's it's wonderful to see the data. I have a question on the ranking of various items. Is that everybody's first choice and doesn't include like any second choices? Do you mean within the report? So like academics, extracurricular, things you do well, things you don't do well. It's it's one choice for each person. Is it it's one for each, Rich, or is it if if there are people who bring up multiple things, we do try to tag it with multiple if possible. Um, but it's pretty common people will hone in on a single thing in their response because the totals are roughly 100%. Yeah, it's it gets close. But as you'll see with the full responses, which we do encourage you look through it because it is really helpful. It's tagging all of that. It is

Hi Rich. It is their least favorite job in this whole process because it's super labor intensive and you can't do it perfect. So this is their best attempt at summarizing all of it, but you'll really get the full feel as you look through the full responses. The good news is as we get to the next phase of this it's very easy because we say here's the question here's the answer so it becomes much easier to review that data at the back end right because I can see somebody who has you know this concern but right behind it is another one and which one gets we there's no first we'll tag it all if you bring it up we tag it and we add it in there perfect thank you Mr. F Riddle. Yeah.

Um I want to that's a followup. So you said in phase two you're I like the approach where you know here's the different projects and you could say yes or no to them. And then the second part is here's how much each will cost. So when you say for the taxpayers is it based on a percentage or is it based on actual dollars that you are showing what it would cost me as a as a a taxpayer. So the first part with the projects will be the total amount that that project costs. Okay. Um so that will be just the dollar amount that it would take to pursue those types of projects. Sure. And the second section where we talk about funding levels, we're going to provide a low, a medium, and a high and what the average tax impact would be at each of those amounts. So where the tax impact is going to come in is during the funding section where we talk about the different levels. So at the low funding level, for instance, it would cost X. It would allow us to accomplish some of the projects we've talked about and here's what that would cost the average household. That's how that's presented. We get into the dollars and cents more in that funding section, but we do provide the full dollar amount in the first section in the projects because if you say, "Hey, if you'd like puppies and sunshine and rainbows, who says no to that?" But then you say, "Hey, that might cost you $100 million." Now you're going to think about it. So, we do include the overall cost in the first section, but the tax impacts goes into the funding section. And do you have a uh an idea when when you say average taxpayer because like like me for example and I know a lot of my neighbors our property values went up almost 40%.

So and we we since we haven't got our tax bills we still don't know what the the exact impact is. So what I'm saying is that you know in calculating that number we use the experts from the district the financial experts because we don't want to guess at it. So they have a way that they do it and that's the number that we'll use for that. Got it. Yeah. That number comes from PMA based on median household value. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Kyle. You're done. Thanks, Rich. Thank you. Okay. The next one is just uhformational 1022. So, we'll move on to action items. Um 111 111. Um a motion in a second, please.

So, moved. Furo. Second. Chung discussion call the roll. Fiorino yes Chung yes dustling Hinineman I. Sager I. Quiter I. Motion carries 6. Motion in a second for 1121 please. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Anything to add, Mr. Julie? Long-standing tradition. I don't know how many years we're going on. I think it's over 20 potentially exchange programs. Dr. Row and I actually met the two Italian teachers at coffee and conversations last Friday.

Yeah. Um Mr. Dustling, myself and Dr. Chung were at their um welcoming lunchon and I asked how many is it your first time in the United States? And I think every single student raised their hand. Yeah. From Verona. Um discussion. Call the roll. Hineimman I. Sager I. Chung. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Fido. Yes. Crotzer. I. Motion carry 6. Motion in a second for 1131. Please. So move. Second. Discussion. Call a roll. Dustling. Yes. Chung. Yes. Fir. Yes.

Hineimman. I. Sager. I. Croiter. I. Motion carries 6. Motion in a second for 1132, please. So move Frito. Second. Motion in a second. Discussion. Call the role. Frito. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Chung. Yes. Hinineman. I. Sager. I. Croiter. I. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Motion in a second for 1133, please. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Anything to add, Dr. Adaway.

Uh yeah, I just want to note that this calendar lays out uh the full timeline for the upcoming budget development process for fiscal year 27. Um and it's designed to help ensure that the board, administration, community have multiple opportunities for review and input as we're designing the budget for fiscal year 27. Questions? Board members, call the role. Sager, I. Chung, yes. Dustling. Yes. Fido, yes. Heinaman, I. And Croer. Uh, can I have a motion for 1134, please? I make a motion to approve the updated musical instrument bid. Second.

Nothing. Um, there's been a motion in a second. discussion. I have one. Go ahead. You know, this is probably the third year we've done this musical instruments. I'm I'm I've been on the board a long time. I'm stunned that we haven't didn't do this 25 years ago, quite frankly.

Uh you know, we've been buying equipment for athletics, helmets, and all the rest of that stuff for years. And this first time uh three two or three years ago we started doing this which is delightful. So I appreciate the administration doing this. I think it's well past due and uh certainly I'm for it. Go ahead. Um just one quick question. Um I think there were one or two instruments with no bids. Um maybe not in the maybe one. I think it was air guitar.

Um we we've had that before, Dr. Chung, where um we get um no bids on certain things. Yeah, we'll likely be looking to source those from some other some other way either through a cooperative or we may rebid it. Okay. So, it's not a no, it's just a not this way. Correct. Yeah. Any other questions? I still don't know what I did. Um, any other questions? Call the roll. Vero, yes. Hinimman, I. Chung, yes. Dustling. Yes. Sager, I. Croitzer,

I. Motion carries 6. Motion and a second to approve 1141, please. So move. Chong. Second. Discussion. Call the role. Chung. Yes. Hinaman. I. Dustling. Yes. Fioro. Yes. Sager. I. Cryer. I. Motion carries 6. Motion in a second for 1151. Please. So moved. Fto. Second. Second. Dr. Hubard.

Yes. Good evening. Um I am here tonight on behalf of our teaching and learning team seeking approval for the substantive changes to the 202627 uh academic programs and pathways guide book. And so annually this is the guide book that goes out to students and families in preparation for course selection which starts here in a couple of weeks. Um it includes all of our pathways and courses that are offered and we take a a comprehensive review annually to do two things. Number one is to make any edits or changes. Make sure that courses that we are offering are in the guidebook. Courses that we're not offering are not in the guide book. Um and then in make other uh minor changes that we would call non-curricular, non-substantial. There are two substantive changes for this year that we're seeking approval on as we in the background make the fine-tune changes to the rest of the handbook. Um so we at the beginning of the year disseminate it to all of the division leaders and all of the associate principles so that they can look at their respective sections um make any suggestions for changes and edits. We've uh have a course proposal process that begins in the spring and throughout the course of the summer it goes through a series of conversations and a series of approvals. And we have one new course that's being proposed for tonight or for next school year called athletic performance physical education. And so it's a a physical education course for junior or sophomores, juniors, and seniors that are in an IHSA sport. that physical education course will be tailored to the individual students in their individual sports. And so their um fitness plans, their performance plans uh in through the advanced strength and conditioning course will be tailored to whatever sport they're in. Uh it's truthfully a a course that we are kind of pseudo running right now. We've got students that are in advanced strength and conditioning and we're just going to separate that from the the students that are there um working specifically on

physical fitness versus students that are there for uh hopefully improving performance in a specific sport. And so that has been uh proposed all the way through the the process that we have and it lands with the board tonight for approval. The other substantive change that will be in the 2627 handbook is just the um codifying the changes that we've made with respect to the semester and the graduation honors. We've aligned the the honor designations in addition to the GPA requirements for those honor designations. So they'll be recognized at the end of each semester and then those honors designations mirror the recognitions that that students receive upon graduation. And so that was something that Dr. Ro presented to the board I believe two months ago. Um the communication was sent to families and to staff right at the end of August and that will be memorialized in the 2026 27 handbook. And so those are the two substantive changes that we're just seeking approval on. And then once all of the edits and these changes are made to the book, the board will be given uh in addition to families the entire uh APG as we affectionately call it.

Discussion. Um so at the uh meeting we had the the student council meeting that that gym class that you're talking about PE class got brought up. Okay. In in a good way and a bad way. in a good way was he the the student did talk about that it seems to be more geared toward the the people that are athletes and he he is not one of them, right?

And and his thing was that in year the past year um it was a great class because you had 40 minutes of like you know the weight the working out, the weightlifting and then the 40 minutes you were like um doing cardio and it could be like uh something as simple as pickle ball or or another type of team sport. And so that he was hoping for some way to distinguish that. So, so that's the one point that I wanted to make to you because as soon as I said it, I looked at Dr. Row and and Alva, we were both there. So, the other one I wanted to ask you about was um and this is something I learned today from this group was they were talking about internships and and a lot of the internships if you haven't if you want so let's just take marketing for example. My daughter's in marketing and if she hasn't taken a marketing class right now, um if she wanted to try and get a marketing internship this summer between junior and senior year, she would be excluded because the current process says you haven't taken a class in that pathway, i.e. therefore you cannot apply for this internship.

Yeah. So that's one of the suggestions I have for this maybe this pathways guide book is somewhere there is to advise parents and students that if you somewhere down the line are looking for internships you know you need to take a class in that pathway in order to qualify or make yourself el the conversation I think was was was fruitful is there's a couple things there as we shared with the kids is there there are college and career pathways and you the the the culminating experience are some of these internships, but you have to be on the path to really gain access, right?

That led into the conversation that we have lots of discussions about um a schedule can only schedule so many things, right? And and this particular student was sharing his experience of uh orchestra, a foreign language, and then there wasn't room for the pathway. And so, right,

we talked about some of the conversations we're having around, you know, music and and and the decisions that have to be made of getting on the pathway. Um, but one of the suggestions that that he made that I thought is worth at least investigating was maybe investigate some of these entry level um pathway courses as summer school options to where you can engage that way. So, you gain may gain access because he was after the internship experience and I don't know if that's a possibility, but it's something that we can at least chase down to determine if it works. Yeah, that one student wanted to do medical internship, but she it she didn't have a course in that, right?

Because she wanted to see what it was like and she was denied. And then um um more at your sophomore or freshman and sophomore year level about what you need to take an internship because internships are only for juniors, right? Juniors and seniors. Yeah. Yeah. and and she one of the students said they found out by accident in their uh sophomore year. Oh, I need to take this if I want to do this internship. So, I I'm sure you advertised the heck out of it. But, um some of these the students really didn't know that.

Yeah. And I want to follow up with one more thing. Um, and I' I've heard this actually from my daughter and other students as well is that um there's such a nice selection of of classes that you even tonight in that meeting you had kids wanting to take more classes, right?

More electives instead of like I want to go home at 12:00 and hang out and then come back to school for my softball practice. It was more kids saying I I I would spend the whole day at school if I could take like a fun class, an elective that I normally wouldn't. Maybe it's not part of my career pathway, but I just wanted to see what that course would be like. So, I think that's something interesting down the line that, you know, we talk about kids not being engaged. Well, I can tell you there's quite a few kids that would like to see more of that opportunity.

Offer really quickly in response to the the internships and the pathways and stuff. uh Cara's team and and our team in teaching and learning just got done of two straight days of what we refer to as counselor articulation. So, we bring all of the counselors from the district here. um half of them in the morning on Monday and then the other half on the afternoon on Tuesday and we go through three hours of all of the different pathways and what are the requirements and the prerequisites and and so as counselors sit shoulder-to-shoulder with students through this course recogn or course selection process in the next couple of weeks they'll all have an opportunity to talk about hopefully the pathways and and my hope is that in addition to taking the feedback and potentially being more explicit in the pathway toward an internship and an apprenticeship that that's also a conversation. So if it if we tease out with a conversation with a student that they're interested in exploring that medical pathway, we can talk about the courses that will lead them to that potential internship availability. So, uh, Miss Kendrick's team and and the teaching and learning team did a great job with counselors and fully engaged and just so much to digest and and and take back to students, but it's really helped set our counselors up to have really quality conversations with students through the course selection process. And I just want to put a a bow on this to be sure that one it's received as it's deliver the delivery intent. This is an extremely positive thing. These were the feedback was was great from the young man and as well as um the classmates from across the district because it was we want more. We love what we're doing. We want to be at school. We want to engage in these opportunities. So it was it was a very positive conversation of just how do I access everything which just isn't possible. But there were some some tangible uh suggestions I think that he gave for us to chase down.

That's great. Dr. Chong. Um, thank you, Dr. Hubard. Uh, you mentioned that the changes um or some of the updates to the graduation honors and the semester honor role have been shared. Um, I just curious if you've received questions or any feedback from parents or students or not really.

Yes. Um, so from we've received questions from some staff members just having us articulate what the rationale is behind using the seventh semester GPA for graduation recognition and then putting the eighth semester GPA and recognition on the transcript. And I think that there's a difference there and and our hope is that we keep students engaged. We know that there are some students that will change graduation or they they'll change their their designation in that eighth semester. And for a student that may not have been recognized at graduation, but worked really hard eighth semester to achieve it, we want to be able to memorialize that on their transcript and give them that designation. And so we've had some questions from staff members about the rationale behind that. That was a conversation with principles and assistant principles. Um, and I think I'm I'm hopeful that we made the right decision and we'll see how that that goes. I heard from two uh parents. I I I personally have only received emails from two parents. Um, one was saying, "Thank you for aligning them." Um, it didn't make sense in the past how you could receive all these design all these recognitions semester and then not receive any recognition at graduation because the the numbers were different. Um and then there was a parent that uh asked us showed appreciation for us having gone through the process and then encouraged us to look at the uh criteria for our National Honor Society. Um maybe they were different between schools. And so actually in response to that I've worked with one of our associate principles um at Elk Grove uh Jackie Randall and we convened all the NHS sponsors probably were you I think you might have been there um probably six weeks ago and sharing all the uh the criteria that the different schools use for National Honor Society. Not that they're linked when you're talking about honors that parent just kind of

extrapolated it to the honors society and looking for some alignment there. And so we've pulled together uh with uh Mr. Julie and his team um some the APAOS and looking at National Honor Society uh entrance criteria.

Anybody else? Call the roll. Fiorto. Yes. Dustling. Yes. Chung. Yes. Hineman. I. Sager. I. Cryer. I. Motion carries 6. Um before we adjourn, I think uh everybody got a notice that uh the workshop on the 23rd is has been cancelled. So that our next meeting will be in November. Um can I have a motion in a second to adjourn, please? So move Fiorto. Second. Chung call the role, please. Fiorto, yes. Chung, yes. Dustling. Yes. Heinaman. I. Sager. Hi. Citer.

I. Motion carries 6.

We are adjourned. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]