Board of Education Meeting

All right. Good evening everyone. This is the regular meeting of the Downers Grove School District 58 Board of Education here on Monday, February the 9th, 2026 at 7 p.m. here at the Downers Grove Civic Center. This meeting is being live streamed uh for the public on the Village of Downers Grove's YouTube channel. Melissa, will you please call roll? >> Member Bernard >> here. >> Member Doshi >> here. >> Uh member Ellis is absent. Member Hannis >> here. Member Olic >> here. >> Member Thomas >> here. Member Hughes >> here. Just as a quick note for everyone, later on in the agenda, we had a spotlight on our education foundation that has actually been postponed uh until April because the presenter is out sick today. So, anybody that in case somebody was here for that, just wanted to give you a heads up. All right. And then uh another quick announcement tonight, members of the audience will have an opportunity to provide public comment. The board later on in the agenda. The board asked anyone wishing to comment to please fill out a card. They're over there by the uh main door. Uh fill out that card, indicate the topic to be addressed, and then place it in that basket. Uh I have allotted 30 minutes tonight for public comment. All right, we're going to go ahead and start as we always do with the pledge of allegiance. I'd like to welcome up the student of council from Henry Puffer School to lead us. I aliance 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. >> Thank you so much. Uh now I'd like to welcome up the principal of Henry Puffer School, Principal Leapart. >> Good evening everyone. Uh it's an honor for Henry Puffer to shine a spotlight on all the wonderful things going on in our school today. Uh we are going to have some of our student council reps uh talk to you as well as our PTA presidents and then uh I'll share off uh a few of our spotlights and some of the data that we've been working through this year. First up is Brook Vote. >> Sorry about that. I'm sorry. Um, good evening. My name is Medina Abbas. I'm one of the fifth grade student council representatives. This year, the student council board has several goals to make sure that we all have a fun and successful year. Our main goal was to take as many opinions from the student body as possible and not just come up with these ideas ourselves. One of the most important goals was to spread kindness throughout the school. We did this through a kindness themed spirit week and a kindness club. Everyone is working hard to spread kindness throughout the school and all the grades. Our most powerful goal was to have a fundraiser from many different organizations. One of the organizations that we helped was the fish food pantry in Downer's Grove. We did this to help families in Downer's Grove and close by areas with food and supplies. Last but not least, our final goal was to have better communication with PTA members. We were able to build a relationship with PTA members by asking our student council teacher sponsors to communicate to the PTA for student council as we donated to their event which helped many puffer families. Last I mean sorry next next you will hear from my fellow council member Brooke Vote who will discuss our exciting spirit week themes at Henry Puffer. Hi Brooke Bo. This year, student council has done many fun spirit days at our school. Some examples of these spirit days are Red Ribbon Week, Holiday Spirit Week, and PJ Day. These spirit days help students show school spirit, and have fun together. Some spirit days are also fundraisers that help support school activities. We ask students to participate and enjoy dressing up with their classmates. Spirit days are a win-win because students have fun and help the school at the same time. With student council this year, we hope to make school more exciting and create even more fun spirit days. >> Hi. Hi. My name is Carson Sandage. I'm on Henry Puffer Student Council. We have done a number of fundraisers so far this year. In December, we held a food drive for Fish Food Pantry. You could get a raffle. You could get raffle tickets. If you donated food, you'd get a number of raffle tickets to try to win a giant bear. In total, we collected and donated 835 pounds of food to help people in our community. We also set up a school shop to raise money in school spirit. The Henry Puffer Student Council is excited to support our school community and Diner's Grove community. Hi, my name is Elena Collive and I am one of the fifth grade student council representatives and Henry Puffer loves to help. We help by spreading kindness, handing out blue tickets, school spirit days, and our school store. Henry Puffer uses the system of blue tickets. Every time a kid makes a good choice, like finishing their homework or helping a peer, a teacher might spot them and give them a blue ticket. Then at school assemblies, our our principal, Mr. Leart, picks one from all collected tickets, and whoever that ticket belongs to gets a prize. This is our way of encouraging good choices. We have also set up our school store. Every other Wednesday, our representatives go to each grade level and kids can buy pencils, erasers, or pens. And fun school supplies makes learning even more fun. And these are just some of the ways our student council helps Henry Puffer. Next up are our PTA presidents, Jackie Okowitz and Carrie McTeer. >> Okay. >> Hi, thank you for having us. That is a really tough act to follow. Um, very impressive work by our student council. My name is Jackie Olitz. >> I'm Carrie McTagard. We are uh in our second year as PTA president at Henry Puffer with the Puffer Hefty PTA. Um want to highlight the rest of our board. Um for a couple reasons. One, we have a treasurer, Dan Hint, who's now in his unprecedented second term. Um I don't know if anybody knows, but it's not often you see somebody raise their hand to go another two years. So highlight to Dan. Uh also really impressed with Henry Puffer and our PTA in the sense that our dads are really active in our PTA and with all of our events. So want to make sure that we gave a spotlight to that. Emily Middle serves as our vice president. So she is in her first year. Um and then Sheila Brigette serves as our secretary and she is also in her second year. So with that, we're going to talk a little bit about the ways that we connect and support uh our puffer community. Uh first, this year we did our second Halloween bingo, but this year our chairs took it to another level and made it a no- waste event. So there was absolutely no waste as a result of this event that we held on site at the school which was really extraordinary. Great opportunity to show the kids that we can continue to do fun things without generating a lot of waste and creating a lot of garbage that we're disposing. So um want to highlight that long run we do a uh long run to honor Gene Pogue. Um but this year we added color to the run. So that was really exciting for the kids and they had a choice at the end of the run if they wanted to run through the color if they didn't if that was something that was overstimulating for them. but um an exciting new ad. And then this year, Carrie, uh orchestrated for us a poinsettia fundraiser, which was new and fun and was a really nice way at our waffle breakfast for families to uh pick up their poinsettias and have those for gifts for their families as well. Um we continue to do a monthly newsletter. This was new. I think one of the things that PTAs really struggle with is the fact that all different generations want to communicate differently. So there's email, there's parent square, there's Facebook pages, which we're now told are really archaic, but it's the easiest one. Um, but we are in our second year of offering a monthly newsletter for our families in addition to Mr. Leapart's puffer post so that we can continue to communicate all the things that are happening for um, our staff and our students and our teachers. And then uh, Kinder and new family outreach. So this is one of the things that Carrie and I are really, really proud about. Every year we call every single new kindergarten family to try and touch base with them and welcome them into Puffer. Um, and we also do that for all of the new families regardless of grade coming into our school. We want them to one know who we are, know who the PTA is and feel like they have someone that they can reach out to if they have questions versus I don't want to contact the school yet. That feels scary and what does this look like and what's the ice cream social and what is the dungeon if anybody doesn't know what that is at Huffer. All right. >> Uh, supporting our school and staff. So, um, these are just a list of things that we support, uh, within Henry Puffer that the PTA brings to bear. Couple of things I do want to highlight, though, um, that are sort of in addition to what you will probably hear from most, uh, parent teacher organizations. We do a a staff holiday gift drive. So, we want to make sure that not just our teachers who feel the love from their students every holiday season, we also take donations and then make a point that any um staff member andor teacher that doesn't have their own classroom has a holiday gift as well from the PTA. So, um that is that's a fun little thing that we add. uh enrichment requests. We take our largest fundraiser at the year and figure out how much sort of overflow we have from all of the events and um items that we do cover and then we take it and we give it back to the teachers as an opportunity to ask for enrichments for their classroom or things that serve the school as a whole. So things like wobbly stools in different classrooms, if that's something a teacher has extra need for, the PTA does what we can to make sure that we can provide that um at the end of each school year. Anything else you want to highlight in here? Um, oh, I the other thing that is new this year, um, that Jackie's actually eating, you said mine, I'll say yours. Um, is, you know, usually, you know, the students can do the school supply boxes and we usually, um, the PTA usually provides a box for each of the uh, teachers as well for extra supplies. What we've realized is there's like 25 pink erasers that the teachers don't need anymore. So, we are doing something new this year to collect um in January. What are the items that you are missing? What is the Kleenex? Mostly Kleenex. >> Mostly Kleenex and Expo markers. >> Markers. Um and then the money that we would have spent on the boxes. We're going we're using that to actually buy the supplies that they need to help the teachers in the classroom for the second half of the year. So, first year we're doing this, I think it's going to be perfect. So, we're really excited. Um, again, another litany of things that we do just to support our our students across the school. Um, one of the things I'll say about our PTA and our just our parent and, you know, caregiver community and as a whole, we do everything in our power to be able to say yes to every request that comes from our school. Um, we know that we have varying degrees of resources and exposure and access across our community and so the PTA takes it very very to heart to make the experience as equitable for all of the students that come into Puffer. So, um, here's sort of just a list of the things that we do. The class t-shirts are fun. Uh, Carrie made a made a huge effort to bring those back. So, each the PTA supports each class having their own color and every student having a t-shirt. These are super fun for our teachers on field trips because they can spot their people. Um, and they've also been a really fun way for each class to represent themselves during school assemblies. And it's kind of a rainbow and litany of colors across uh the gym while we have different assemblies, which is really, really fun. All right. Um, this is again just a list of things and sort of showcasing um, a lot of the the fun that we do have, but more ways that we're supporting the the family and the community. I talked a little bit about Halloween bingo and it being no waste. The other thing I would highlight, uh, we do a we do a holiday breakfast every year. It's usually a pancakes and pajamas type of deal. This year, our extraordinary parents took on making waffles, which we thought was crazy. Um, but they did it without a hitch and it was awesome and people loved it. So, both of those events though are sort of self-funded and uh we are able then to take all of the overage from ticket sales and donations and we give that money back to our our community members. So, folks that need a little additional support, we will end up purchasing gift cards with that that overage and then those are given out over the holiday season to families in our community. >> Anything else? >> That's the biggest one. >> Okay, that's it. >> Yeah. So, just talk a little bit our Panther Pride. If you weren't getting that from us yet, then we haven't done our job. This is >> Oh, this is you. >> Oh, >> I edited this so I apologize. >> I think I know where to start. So, I will steal your thunder. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it. >> So, just for context, the dungeon is not where we send misbehaving students. Storage in the basement. At Henry Puffer, our work truly starts and ends with people. Our students, teachers, families, and community. Our Henry Puffer families come together once a month, providing students with meaningful opportunities to build relationships with Puff Puffer Panthers across all grade levels. Students remain in the same Puffer family with the same staff member from the time they join us in kindergarten till the time they leave us in fifth or sixth grade, fostering strong connections and a deep sense of belonging. Our school environment is rooted in being respectful, responsible, and safe. And we intentionally cultivate a positive school culture grounded in uh the tenants of the happiness advantage. Our strong partnership with families is reflected in our collaboration with our amazing PTA and initiatives such as watchd dogs and puffer reunions. We're excited to welcome our Watchog fathers and father figures each Wednesday Wednesday as they spend half the day uh supporting classrooms and making lasting memories with their children. We also host reunions for former Puffer students who return to visit their old stomping grounds. We even had somebody come from as far as Hawaii this year. This year we were thrilled to partner with Lyman Woods to create the Henry Puffer Garden on the southwest corner of our building connecting with our already um Hannah's Hannah's garden. This special event included Mr. Maywin. He's one of our Puffer parents and a Lyman Woods member who taught students about native plants and worked alongside students and parent volunteers to bring the garden to life. We're hoping this is an outdoor space our school and community will enjoy for years to come. Students also thrive uh through a wide variety of clubs and activities including running club, podcasting club, photography, kindness club, student council, and our fifth and sixth grade buddies. Together, these opportunities create a vibrant, inclusive environment where students feel connected, supported, and empowered to grow. Our guiding beliefs center on the idea that all students can learn and thrive when our work is intentional, focused, and aligned. We use a funnel approach in which district goals inform our building priorities. Those priorities guide our classroom practice and instruction ultimately impacts each individual student. This alignment ensures coherence and clarity across all levels of work. We believe that what what what we look for is what we find, which reinforces the important of directing our energy towards strengths, effective practices, and factors within our control. When we intentionally seek out positives, we're better positioned to build upon them, just as overemphasis on negatives can limit growth. Data plays a critical role in informing instruction and guiding decision-making, allowing us to adjust practices in ways that enhance student learning through cycles of inquiry. We focus our uh our collective efforts on instructing strategies that yield greatest impact, supporting continuous improvement in literacy, math, and school culture and climate. Our first goal addresses an identified area need based on the ECRA and NWA MAP data and supports overall literacy development while aligning with the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan. Teachers use student work assessment data and teachers estimates of instruction from John Hattie to plan targeted instruction aligned to benchmark advance with an emphasis on intentional small groupoup instruction. Resources such as Scholastic News and Scope are incorporated across grade levels to provide regular practice for informational texts. Progress is monitored through assessment reviews, PLC plus data discussions, and instructional planning with effectiveness measured using our ECRA propensity model, MAP results, and ongoing feedback from our instructional coaches. Our second goal focuses on developing deep mathematical thinking, reasoning, and transferable skills through the intentional use of backwards design and deliberate practice. Teachers have integrated problem solving opportunities into daily instruction. You utilizing forefront map and acid data to monitor progress and adjust lessons and collaborate with grade level teams to ensure alignment within all the standards. Our instructional coaches have in uh supported planning, data analysis, and modeling effective strategies. Progress is monitored through student growth in the ACRA and MAP assessments as well as benchmark testing. Forefront reporting and team data discussions with ongoing accountability are provided through unit meetings, team planning, and coaching feedback. Our third goal has focused on strengthening trust and instructional leadership to support a positive school culture. Efforts have included structure ILT collaboration to build collective teacher efficacy, staff and committee meetings that provide opportunities for feedback and shared decision-making and professional learning sessions that incor incorporate teacher input into instructional planning. Classroom rotations during our staff meetings have highlighted teacher-led strategies, successes, and innovations. Progress has been monitored through ongoing check-in surveys, ensuring ongoing accountability and continuous growth in power culture and climate. Our winter map results so show some pretty strong progress for our students. In math, students achieved in the 82nd percentile nationally in the winter. That's an increase up from the 65th percentile in the fall. In reading, our students scored in the 78th percentile nationally, up from the 64th percentile in the fall. Student growth, student growth was also pretty impressive with math growth in the 84th percentile nationally and reading growth in the 74th percentile. Um, our our winter ECRA data provides another snapshot of our student performance and shows meaningful improvement from where we began in the fall. ECRA is going to offer a different perspective than MAP as its calculations are based on where students finished in the previous spring and do not include students in grades 1 through six who were new to us this year. Overall, 74% of our students met benchmark uh representing a 6% increase from fall and 86% demonstrated high or expected growth an increase of 9%. The overall growth effect size improved to negative.01 01 which was a 0.13 gain from the fall which is pretty significant. And in math uh 70% of our students met their benchmark which was up seven uh 7%. With 85% of our students showing higher expected growth which was an increase of 13%. Uh with the uh growth effect size u improving to negative.05 which is also a gain of.37. In reading, 79% of our students met benchmark, which was an increase of 6% and 89% uh demonstrated high or expected growth, which is up 4%. Uh with a growth effect size of positive 03, which is uh slightly lower than it was in the fall. uh breakdown. Uh as far as grade levels concerned, our winter growth data for Henry Puffer shows generally strong performance across grade level cohorts with uh clear areas for some targeted targeted support in math. Uh kindergarten, second, third, and fourth grade cohorts demonstrated positive growth in effect sizes with third grade uh our third grade cohort showing particularly strong growth. The kindergarten and first grade cohorts had high percentage of students meeting benchmark though first grade growth was notably lower uh likely influenced by uh uh this cohort finishing last year in the 99th percentile. In the upper grade level cohorts, fifth and sixth grades had fewer students meeting benchmark um but most uh demonstrated expected growth highlighting study progress alongside opportunities for learning uh and closing those achievement gaps. in reading. The kindergarten, second, third, and fifth grade cohorts posted positive growth effect sizes. The first and fourth grade cohorts had solid benchmark align uh attainment but slightly negative growth uh indicating uh closer to expected levels rather than accelerated. The sixth grade cohort de demonstrated expected growth for most students, though the growth effect size was slightly negative, suggesting a need for some targeted support to strengthen progress. Overall growth tends to show uh strong foundational performance across the school with opportunities to improve uh consistently and accelerate learning particularly in first, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade cohorts. One area that we continue to closely monitor is the growth of our subgroups. Uh winter growth data for Henry Puffer School shows that all student subgroups achieved growth within the expected range with some groups demonstrating particularly strong progress. In math are uh English learners, Asian students, and other uh student groups showed positive growth effect sizes while black, Hispanic, IEP, and low-income students had slightly lower growth uh but still within the expected range. Gender differences were minimal with male students showing slightly higher growth than females. In reading, our ELEL's, Asian uh and other student groups posted positive growth while black, Hispanic, IEP, and lowincome students had slightly negative growth effect size. Again, all with the in the expected range. Overall subgroup data highlight steady progress across student uh our school while identifying opportunities to accelerate learning for specific groups to further close those achievement gaps. One of the metrics our team tracks is percentage of students performing in the average quintile and above on MAP o over time. This provides us a snapshot of student achievement growth over the past three and a half years. We typically see uh the largest gains from fall to winter with slight regression from winter to spring um and more pronounced regression from spring to fall reflecting both summer slide and the impact of our more transient student population. Despite this, the overall trend line in both math and reading remains positive. Currently 92 and a half% of our students are performing in the average quintile and above in math and uh about 88% of our in the average quintile and above in reading. Um that's that's an increase of 7% in math and four and a half% in reading from last winter. Um I won't continue on with any more of these numbers, but I do thank you for the time and the opportunity to shine a spotlight on Henry Puffer School. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> THANK YOU. FOR ALL OUR STUDENT council members, we do have some gifts for you. So, thank you for being here tonight. All right. Listed on tonight's agenda are 20 communications received by the board. Are there any additional communication a board member would like to share at this time? >> Okay, that brings us to our spotlight. But we're going to start off tonight with our 10-year health life safety review with Kevin Bart. >> Okay. >> Hello. Um I'm Nishi Sha with Whiten Company. I'm an architect and project manager. I've been working on all of your referendum projects for the schools. So, um, every 10 years, the Illinois State Board of Education requires, uh, the district to have a licensed architectural professional walk all your buildings to make sure they're in compliance with applicable building codes. Um, so each building's on a 10-year cycle. The majority of your buildings are on uh 10ear cycles from 2015 into 2025 with exception of Henry Puffer as you guys acquired that separately. So that's on a 2023 um, cycle. So Henry Puffer was done two years ago and we completed that at that time. Um we currently have the remaining schools that we need to complete for the 10-year life safety because we have all the construction projects from the referendum. We uh have schedule these to happen after all those projects are done. So you're just kind of having minimal um violation items on there. So we at this round we are looking at nine buildings, your two middle schools that were completed this December and seven elementary schools uh the phase one and phase two elementary schools. So, Hillrest, Highland, Whittier, uh, Fairmount, Kingsley, uh, Leester, and I'm missing one. >> Highland >> Indian Trail. Thank you. I was like, >> that was still pretty impressive. >> Um, the remaining schools, the three elementary schools will be looking at the fall of this year after they're completed the summer projects. So, Bair, Elsier, and Pierce Town will be looked at after that those are completed. Um, we're required to complete four documents. The first is um existing building conditions. So we have to write narratives about what your building systems are now and what codes apply. We have to provide updated floor plans showing uh life safety data meaning what's the rating of the walls um what's the mechanical system and then what where are your smoke detectors and things like that. And then the main part of it is we have to provide violations. So we have to walk your buildings check that they the code of when they were built and verify that everything's um you know everything's in compliance. We um walked the buildings for these f first nine um after construction was done. So either the fall of this year or this uh this January um and we had the preliminary findings and we walked through that with um Kevin Bartau and Greg Harris a week or so ago. So um process and methodology. So we did a lot of you know projects already. So this we have a really a lot of your buildings in really good shape. So we have minimal amount but there's three different categories for um your violations. One is urgent. Uh so that means it's really immediate hazard or safe life or safety to the students. Um they must be addressed in one year. So that the ISB does tell you you need to address these docu these items within a year. Um this can be something structural something for exiting um fire detection to make sure all your smoke detectors are working things of that nature. So if there's some type of event students can exit safely and is safe in the building. Uh the next one is required. These are um you have to do within 5 years. So things like electrical outlets that don't have are near water and need that the GFCR. Um and then the last is C which is recommended which is within 10 years. Um these are not required but you can add them on there. They're typically accessibility sidewalks, playgrounds, things like that that might be in condition that maybe there's a tripping hazard or something like that. So generally these are uh in your building in really good shape. The middle schools because they had comprehensive updates during the uh the referendum projects don't have any violations. We really touched every part of that building. All you know everything's in compliance there. Um your remaining elementary schools had some minimal items. Um so we have about $50,000 in urgent. Um that is really um you might have a penetration in a wall that needs to be sealed. um there might be a door that needs to swing a different way. Most of these were items of in areas that we did not touch during the referendum projects. So, there were an addition to that. Um you have about 20,000 $3,000 in um five years. So, this might be um outlets and classrooms that are near sinks. You have a lot of sinks in your elementary school classrooms. There's probably an outlet there that's been there for 50 years that needs to be updated to have the correct um safety on there. And then C is recommended. So, there's the majority is in the recommended item. These are not required, but there are things like um wittier paving. We know that there's a lot of bumps and stuff in that in this asphalt there. Um or um areas where you might have fire or certain glass that if you break it, you'll need to replace it. So those are all 10ear recommended items. Um so these are typically the seven elementary schools are here. Um the two middle schools, we did not have any violations. So we'll be completing the remainder in the fall. I'll see you here about a year from now. >> Questions or comments at the stamp? We >> you're gonna ask the same question. I am. >> I'm assuming yes, but wanted to ask did we do a review of those items particularly urgent required and identify any that were in the scope of where we had I'll say enhancements over the past two years, three years of projects that we would have expected our contractors to be accountable. >> When we walked, we did when we walked those buildings, we did say, is this something that was part of the referendum that that should have been taken care of versus is it a separate item? So we did discern those items >> everything on this list then not within that not within that bucket and those things were then were handled by the contractors >> correct. >> I was going to ask if we can get the list. >> Yes, I believe that was on the agenda, right? >> I think it was on the agenda earlier but now all we see is the presentation but the individual reports were there this morning. >> They were let me check. And right now they're drafts. We'll have to upload it to um ISB once you guys approve it and it is a draft version currently. >> Is it the uh >> click the link? >> Is it the survey? >> So this should be the violations. Um >> yeah, but it's done by individual school then. >> Yes, it is. Okay. >> Yeah, if you click the link that says survey. >> Okay. Sorry, I didn't know what the main files Yeah, it looks like the top kind of got it. >> Nice. >> And then it takes you to the drive >> and then >> they're all in there. >> I see. Thank you. >> And if any board member wants more specifics on anything that you see in the list, um Kevin Bardau and and um Needy, we can get that to you in and an update. >> Right. Anything else? Any other comments or questions? Well, we appreciate your time. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Navy. >> All right. And like I said earlier, we're going to be skipping the education foundation presentation tonight. That has been moved to April. So, that brings us to the reports of the board. Uh we'll start with the superintendent report. Dr. Russell. >> Thank you. So, for my report tonight, I'll start off with personnel. Tonight's personnel report is more of a preview. At our March meeting, there will be two topics discussed. First, Justin will share a high level preview of staffing planning for next school year and an update on where we're at in that process. Additionally, we will discuss the 202728 calendar with the hope of approving that calendar at the April meeting. We're looking forward to more complete alignment with district 99's calendar because construction will no longer impact our start and end dates. As a reminder, the 2627 calendar has already been approved and that's up on our website uh that anyone can take a look at. In terms of curriculum and instruction, uh this past weekend the band and orchestra solo fest was held and it was a huge success. Um more than 495 solos and ensembles were performed at this event. I had to do a double take when I read that 495. Uh but we have a very robust uh performing arts program here in our district and uh they did just a great job. So of course we want to thank our instrumental music department for all their hard work planning and preparing and to our parent volunteers who helped uh keep this day running. As you can imagine, when you have almost 500 kids, it requires a lot of volunteers and um we're really grateful for everyone. It was a wonderful uh event. Speaking of wonderful events, we're looking forward to the District 58 Festival of Music, which will take place next week on February 19th and it'll be held this year at Downer South. We alternate the two high school venues. Uh this is always a fun event when O'Neal and Hera combine their bands, orchestras, and choirs. So, uh you don't want to miss that one if you're available on that evening. On February 23rd, we will also hold our curriculum workshop. Uh it will be located here. At the workshop, we'll share uh the winter data snapshot as well as updates on the middle school map pilot and the work of many of our district committees. We'll also have a discussion about athletics and activities for next school year at the middle schools. Finance, Dr. Harris is going to give that in his CSBO report, so we'll skip that one. uh for technology. This past Friday, District 58 sent benchmark assessment reports home via Parent Square via its secure document delivery system. Sending reports home digitally is more secure, efficient, and cost-effective than printing reports for all students. For security reasons, these reports are not sent as attachments. Instead, you are required to sign into your Parent Square account to view the reports. Uh but the nice thing about that is once you do that, they're always there and they're accessible for our parents. So, we appreciate uh that feature in Parent Square, and that's one of the new uh advantages of our new system for special services. District 58 looks forward to offering extended school year programming to eligible students with disabilities. Students who qualify for ESY uh through their IEP will receive a direct invitation and more information on this program for their child's from their child's case manager. Dates for the program will be June 12th through July 14th. Um, sounds like a long way away, but it'll come very quick. As today, as our kindergarten teachers will uh demonstrate, it was our hundth day of school. It's a little bit later this year because of our late start, but uh we're getting closer and closer toward uh the end of the school year. For public relations, just a reminder, our legislative breakfast that was postponed due to the extreme cold day. Uh we have the new date, so District 58 will host its annual legislative breakfast. It's it's really a forum. It's not necessarily a big breakfast. On Friday, February 20th at 7 a.m. at Eric Middle School. Several state legislators are expected to attend. The event provides an opportunity to engage in discussion around key issues impacting District 58 in the broader school community. I want to thank our legislative committee for their hard work organizing this forum every year. It's always a uh a good event and it's nice to speak with our legislators. We also have uh sent out both of our annual surveys. That's the district 58 climate survey as well as the five essentials survey. We encourage families to uh take both of those surveys and the five essential survey. Uh we also make that available to all staff and our students will also take that in grades four through eight. So those are coming up. That concludes my report. >> Fantastic. Any questions or comments on the superintendent report? All right. And that brings up our monthly business and treasures report. Dr. Paris. >> Good evening, members of the board. Um, tonight I will speaking I will be speaking on just two topics. Uh, the first one is the year-to- date report um, and the treasures report which is included in your packet. Um, of note I'd like to offer just a little bit of analysis on the year-to- date report. Um, on the revenue side, um, you know, the the, um, some of the things that are are drawing my attention are I think we're we're running low on our state specialed funding. Um, and we think we're going to be off there a little bit that that has to do with proration um, getting us a little bit more deeply than we thought it would. But there's there's some bright spots as well. Um, one of them being um, interest revenue. Um, and um, some of the big ones that we count on, EVF, property taxes are all running really well. um our our local revenue in the other column is also um something that is a a bright spot for us. So um you know there's there's some there's some places where we're off to the negatives, some places to the off where we're off to the good. It kind of balances out on the expenditure side. Um I'm looking very closely at um salaries and benefits since those are our biggest costs. Um I think we're probably a little bit off um on salaries, a little bit under um a little bit over on on benefits, especially in in the educational fund. But since um the salaries number is much much bigger than the benefits number, I'd much rather be off um on to the neg to to the good on salaries and than than to the bad on salaries. So I'm I'm I'm pleased with that there. I don't think there's anything to be concerned about there. Um, I'll pause for a second and just um see if any board members have any questions on any of the of the monthly reports. >> Okay. And the other thing is just an FYI item for the board of education for the community. Um, very soon the uh district will be putting out our request for proposals for our food service program. Um, we are acknowledging that the boards um has taken a uh has a new vision for what that program should look like, which would be um hot meals for all students K through prek through No, no, not pre-K, K through eight. Um, previously that only been available at the at the middle schools. Um, we do have currently two vendors who are doing our our our middle school program and our our elementary program. So, we are going to um be looking for one vendor to to take care of the whole thing. Since the scope of the project has changed, we are going out for an RFP. Um you will see um actually in in tonight's agenda the the the u the realization of this vision from the board of education in our construction consent agenda since we're purchasing a lot of equipment for our kitchens thanks to a grant provided by Representative Anstafa and um so this is just kind of an FYI there's there's there's no news yet just just that that we are in the process of moving forward on this and we expect to um bring a recommendation to the board at the May or the June meeting at the latest. Any questions on that? >> Anyone? >> Again, we're very excited to receive this uh kitchen grant um from Representative Saba Murray. Um like our playgrounds, this is a huge help. Um we had always scheduled to uh take the interest money from the referendum and to apply that for the kitchen equipment because that was something that we discussed after uh the referendum. Uh but uh this grant really really does uh help us out and almost erases the entire cost of um what it's going to cost to put this kitchen equipment in. As a reminder for the board of education, uh last summer we were able to complete the kitchen work for the phase 2 schools. So this summer we'll be doing the kitchen work at the phase one elementary schools and the phase three elementary schools. So we'll be back in the phase one schools. Uh some of the schools are bit easier to do. Uh Henry Puffer is a good example because they used to have a food service program when it was its own district. Um other schools are a little bit more challenging when you think about a school like Highland or Lester. Um the kitchen area is that small room off the gym and there are building code requirements that we have to squeeze in there. So I want to thank our architects for getting very creative with that. But um this is something that we have been hearing about. I know the board has heard about it. I've certainly heard about it since I've been the superintendent here. We are one of the only remaining districts around that um does not offer a food service program for our elementary students. With so many of our families having uh you know two uh two incomes and both parents working, this is a really good thing for our families. It's also a really nice thing for any student that qualifies for free and reduced lunch so that they're able to get a consistent meal uh day in and day out at our schools. So uh we're very happy uh to move this forward. Next year will certainly be a learning year. uh you haven't done something in 100 plus years and then we're going to implement it. I'm sure there will be some bumps in the road. Uh but uh with the new middle school kitchens, we're very excited about the plan and the roll out. >> Fantastic. Questions or comments? >> Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, onto our committees. The policy committee has not met since the last board meeting. Neither has the legislative committee. Uh the financial advisory committee has met. Um though you heard a little bit about that in the report. We went over the year-to- date report. Uh things in general were looking good. We talked about the the food service RFP. And the only thing I'd add is that uh uh just that part of this is Dr. Russell was alluding to we have very small kitchens in our grade school. So it's like a hub and spoke model and the dividing line will be the the train tracks. So each uh middle school will then be the starting point of the food and then it's going to be more like warmers and kind of finishers at the elementary schools. Also, a big part of that bid is going to keep the grade schools at least in the opening bid here to keep them on a most likely a pre-order. So they pre-order for the week. They'd get a menu. Uh that helps us keep down food waste um and stuff to the elementary schools. uh you know as we're bringing out delivering and making sure kids actually have the opportunity to get the meal that they were looking for as opposed to something running out um in the process. So uh the RFP bid is in there in our in ourh packet tonight that is uh this is that first phase which will go out and we're looking forward to getting one vendor to take care of this whole piece. If you remember, uh, Quest at the time could not kind of deliver to the great schools at a at a price that made sense and they were willing to just kind of hold back, but they they even shared, I think, their ordering system at that point to do it to help us kind of bridge this gap. And now we can't do a major change without going back out to RFP. So, this is one of those things that is required for us, even if it wasn't necessarily required for us in in timing wise. we had done a one-year contract and then extended it with um Quest currently. Uh the other big piece we talked about was policies. Um there's really two big policies that previously had come out of uh the financial advisory committee and that was our fund balance policy and our capital policy. Now that we're coming out of a referendum, we're really looking at um making some adjustments uh to that and really looking at ways to tie that to our long-term needs, specifically looking out five years and making sure that we're funding this in a way. We're looking at uh it's really looking right now at at starting off at about 750,000. Uh we've been looking at the language around that, making sure that we're within the boundaries of what is required by law as well as making sure that we are within the boundaries of what we're actually going to need to be able to cover over the next several years. As you may know, um uh our our DSAB, our actual bonding ability is going to be need needed to be used for other reasons. And so therefore, we need to make sure that we have the ability to maintain things. So, uh, a good frame of reference and one of the reasons why the 750 stands out so much is that's about a half a roof that we're sort of putting away per year and kind of in that cycle. Um, roofs are one of our expensive things that come up that we have to deal with at the spring league. The um, the other one is our fund balance policy. We're really looking at reframing that looking at as we've dialed everything into being now focused purely on a cash basis as opposed to toggling back and forth between acrruel and cash. It's going to make this approach a lot easier for us. And part of it is what can we cover now? What do we need to cover to because right now we still have our arbitrage dollars. So we're we're in in a position where we need to set ourselves up to be at that minimum number um in in a year or two. But what what should that exactly look like exactly how that and how should we define it? We were looking at sort of a blend of both talking about the overall percentage to expenses as well as tying that back to the number of days cash on hand because of the way that we get funded at the beginning at the end of our our our fiscal year. One of the nice things is if we can show at a given graph like at these points then this is where our our our low cash point comes uh it's easy for us to see whether or not we're capable of covering uh our expenses throughout the year. So, uh, we're going to be getting some language together over the next couple meetings and we'll be bringing that forward before the end of the school year this year. So, later on, you know, as we get into spring, we're going to get some new language around that that we think um, not only covers what we need to do, but sets us up to be successful. Uh, with that, Steve, did I miss anything? >> No, you you got it covered. >> Okay. Uh, questions or comments uh, from the board. Okay. And um the district leadership team has not met, neither is health and wellness. Uh we do have a SAS report. Dr. Russell, back to you. >> Yeah, the biggest thing that we're working on with SASID right now centers on uh SASID's facilities. Uh so shortterm uh figuring out all the leases for classroom spaces. As you know, district 58 will house more SAS classrooms. Uh so we're going over all those with the executive director, not only here in district 58, but for all of the members in SAS. long term, uh, SASID's facility and finance committees are working on, um, some options for the co-op, uh, in particular with their district office and transition program. Um, the current space on Octton Avenue and Lyall is not really the most conducive to not only the transition program, but to the office in general. Um so they are looking at uh different options of purchasing um a building uh that can now house their um administrative center as well as the transition program. Uh one of the things that I love to hear as a superintendent, I'm sure the board will love to hear this too, is we are only looking at costneutral options, meaning that member districts will not have to incur any debt uh as a result of what Sassid is trying to do in terms of the long-term uh facility plan. So, we're looking at um spreading the debt out over several years like we do in local school districts um to make sure that um SASID can be the one who issues any debt certificates and uh the local districts would not have to absorb that. So, more to come on that uh but we are getting uh closer. I do serve on the finance committee for SASID. So, uh, paying particular close attention to how that might impact, uh, member districts while still ensuring that we have a great facility for not only our transition program, uh, but for the administrative offices as well. >> Questions or comments? I just want to say that uh, I think that has been a concern of ours like the overall cost. Obviously, we're dealing with some financial challenges here in general. So, I'm glad to hear that that's been a priority in your conversations. Yeah, certainly the financial challenges of district 58 with um you know proration and categorical payments are not unique to our district. They're unique to many districts in DUP page um in all the other color counties and so that um was something that all member districts expressed concern about and so we're still working through all of that but um it is looking much better than uh the original plan that was uh put forward by SASID that several of us raised concerns about. >> Fantastic. >> Thank you. Um all right, that wraps up our reports today. We do have a discussion item tonight. It's called setting the stage for success in kindergarten. So, I'd like to welcome Mr. Sisle. >> Hello. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you. Um, tonight we're going to do a brief presentation and allow the board to to have some discussion and ask some questions around a couple of ideas to further enhance our ability to set our kindergarten classrooms up for success at the start of each school year. These aren't new conversations internally. These are things we've been talking about for many years as every grade level is unique. But that beginning of kindergarten presents some unique challenges and opportunities as we try to determine how we're going to begin the year for our youngest learners and how we're going to make sure that they are all set up for success in classrooms that are as well balanced and prepared for them as we can possibly create. And so those really are the two things we're going to focus on tonight. We want to make sure we're thinking about how to build that full school community for our kindergarteners and also make sure that we are taking advantage of every possible opportunity to gather the information that will help us make the most informed decisions about class composition and things like that. And so these, you know, these ideas that you're going to hear presented tonight come out of discussions, like I said, that have that have happened for many years, but really sort of rekindled this fall and have been the product of a few meetings with a number of kindergarten teachers and a number of administrators. really good dialogue, really open conversation, and an experience where the group kind of coalesed behind two significant um ideas that we're going to talk about tonight. These aren't things that the board will formally vote upon, which is why it's a discussion item tonight, but we certainly wanted to give some opportunity because it will have an impact on our incoming kindergarteners next year and potentially in the future. We think ultimately a very positive impact, but we certainly want to discuss that tonight. Um Liz is going to join me on the next slide and then we also are happy to welcome um a few guests with us tonight. You'll hear from Ally Hedman, kindergarten teacher at Whittier. Elizabeth Zawatsky, kindergarten teacher at Hillrest. Christy Hopkins, kindergarten teacher at Indian Trail. Marissa Sanderson, kindergarten teacher at Fairmont. You'll recognize them from their kindergarten based decor today of how 100 day teachers. You'll also hear from Dr. Lisa Niferatus, the principal at Fairmont. And again, this is sort of a representation of all of the folks that have been part of this conversation. So, we'll be excited to welcome all of them up and then at the end I'll kind of wrap things up for us and hear your discussion and questions. >> Good evening board. So, we wanted to start by sharing some of our current systems with you. We have a lot of really great um tradition um opportunities for our kindergarten families um that really give us a strong foundation. Um so, our kindergarten roundup is held in March. That is for parents and guardians. They will come to the school for an evening and get an overview of the daily structure, some building logistic information, and then kindergarten um information about kindergarten readiness skills um that they can work on with their students over the course of the remainder of the school year and um over the summer as they get ready for kindergarten. We also send out surveys. So, our um Grove um preschool teachers will fill out surveys and have collaborative time with our kindergarten teachers for our students that um participate in that program. but we know that that doesn't hit all of our students. So, we do send surveys out to families. Um oftentimes we'll ask that there um a student's preschool teacher fills that out, but um we also get information from the families in those surveys as well. We do offer leap into kindergarten, which is an optional summer school session for incoming kindergarten students. Um historically, we have about 75 students who participate in the leap into kindergarten program. We do strategically um group those students so that they are with peers from their elementary district or their elementary school, I'm sorry. Um so that they do see um some familiar faces when they start kindergarten, but of course that's not meeting all of the students um in terms of participation in that program. We work on kindergarten readiness and socialization. Our PTAs are fantastic. They run um summer programs for our families um summer meetups. They'll meet at parks. They'll meet on the school grounds, have popsicles, things like that, so that the students and families can interact with one another. And then we hold an annual elementary school meet and greet. Historically being a kindergarten 6 through sixth grade um event, this year um you know would be that first time of kindergarten through fifth grade. It's held a few days prior to school and it really is um a opportunity for socialization and supply drop off prior to the beginning of the school year. Hi everybody. Um, again I'm Ally Hedman. I am kindergarten teacher over at Whittier. I'm going to talk about the first enhancement idea that we came up with, which would be a separate meet and greet. Um, so meet and greet right now is so fun because it is this massive reunification for everybody back to school from the summer. However, it does tend to get towards the chaotic with um re visiting old teachers, you know, full hallways and things like that. So, we really want to try and separate the kindergarteners from that overwhelming experience and really make it kindergarten focused. Um so, we're thinking of potentially moving it a day earlier um somewhat in the evening or after work hours um to try and get as much engagement as possible. Um, and this is just an opportunity for the kindergarteners to see their new school. They can go in the classrooms. They can walk the halls and have it not be congested and loud and overwhelming. Um, and it gives them that time to be focused with the teachers. Um, teachers won't be pulled in a hundred different directions. Um, we can just really focus on getting to know those kids for that first meet and greet opportunity for them. Um, and then also it can potentially provide an opportunity for us to have the kids try a story on the rug with the teachers and the parents can then separate and try or learn some of those first day things and they can kind of get some logistics covered before that big first day of kindergarten. Um, and again, it's just another opportunity for the kids to get a little bit more comfortable with those teachers before that first day of school. I am going to pass it off to Elizabeth. >> I'm Elizabeth Sawadsky, um, kindergarten teacher at Hillrest and then I'm also a parent of an incoming kindergartener in a district 58 school. Um, along with providing kindergarten with their own meet and greet experience, we'd also like to adjust what the first few days of school look like in order to build more balanced classes. So what makes kindergarten unique is that we are building our classes with students from a very wide range of pre kindergarten experiences. Um student information that we gain right now mainly from the surveys. Um it's relevant to those pre kindergarten settings and not necessarily to our current classroom expectations. We feel that getting real-time information about students would be the most beneficial and that oftentimes within those first few days of school, we as teachers can already see adjustments that would be helpful in student groupings. And we recognize that um restructuring the beginning of the year would be an adjustment for parents and for students, but we're excited at the thought of creating a strong sense of community and to welcome kids into their home school. So um what this could look like um we have used the terms in our discussions um camp kindergarten or team kindergarten um to reflect that students would be assigned a team at the beginning of the year rather than a classroom teacher for the first two days and like camp student groupings would change throughout the day depending on the activity. So students could wear a lanyard with their team color on it to indicate their core group, but then have additional markings to show other groups that they would be a part of throughout the day. Benefits of this would be that the students get to meet and interact with all of their kindergarten peers and adults would be able to observe and interact with all students as well to gain as much information about how to create those balanced classes. Hi, I'm Christy Hopkins, kindergarten teacher at Indian Trail. Um, during the first couple days of kindergarten, our primary focus is really teaching our new kindergarters how to be a student within the school community. Um, we want to focus on routines, relationships, building um, learner behaviors that help our students feel safe and confident um, ready to learn rather than conducting some of those more academic or skill-based um, assessments. So, this structure um is designed to create a predictable and welcoming start to the school year for our kindergarters. And by focusing on those relationships and routines, we can really help students build confidence and feel secure in this new environment. So, after those first two days of camp kindergarten, families would receive communication, sharing their child's um classroom teacher assignment for the remainder of the year. And this really again allows us time to use um the information that we have gotten from those two days um and the experiences that we've had to support balancing um classroom communities. Um beginning on that third day then students would get to join um their assigned classroom teacher and begin building their classroom communities. This is where um individual classroom routines, relationships um learning expectations um would all be started and um would hopefully support a strong and successful school year. Both um Marissa Sanderson and I are just going to highlight some things from our pre um prior camp kindergarten experience. This was a while ago. This was back in 2019. So what I would tell you is when we successfully did this um initiating that process really did involve a lot of strong collaboration at the building level. And just like with anything new, communication was really key to that. um and really took on a couple different forms to make sure that the parents and all of our families were getting the information that they needed. So, this included an initial introduction letter about what the program or camp kindergarten would look like, what they could expect, what their child could expect, and really the why behind the process. So, making sure that was very clearly communicated and some time in between those different communications. The other important thing that um came to fruition with that was um ensuring that our families and parents had points of contact during those first two days. We get a lot of contact from um incoming kindergarten um families. So, they didn't have that one point of contact with the teacher, but they did know who to contact and really it made um really those communications back and forth very fluid and included both teachers. Our school team built a system where we were really all hands on deck for that unique experience those first two days. that included our of course our kindergarten teachers, our specialists, our student support team and really um that added to the success of the um program just those first two days allowing everybody to be involved in this unique experience at Fairmont and Whittier was similar. We only fielded really about one to two um additional phone calls from parents about kind of just logistical questions. It wasn't concerns by any means, but just asking a couple more questions about the process, which we obviously were happy to do, but it wasn't a storm or a large amount of parents um with questions and really speaks to, I think, the importance of that pre and proactive communication being intact prior to starting anything new. Marissa Sanderson is going to kind of go into some really detailed highlights. Um, but I would just say from a global or building level, uh, the program of camp kindergarten was centered around kids versus the class for those first two days and really provided students with an opportunity to learn about the school as a collective unit and it was a fun and supportive way to start the school year for them. Hi there. There's some benefits that I would like to highlight for my experience with camp kindergarten from 2019. So, first was a comprehensive knowledge of all of the students that came in. So, it really allowed for both of the kindergarten teachers uh to develop a shared understanding of the child's the children in the grade level and not just the students that were assigned to your classroom. Um, and this really included information um that was really important such as their medical needs and the allergies, learning styles, social emotional needs, and family dynamics. And at the same time, the opposite was true where the students got to become familiar with both of the teachers, both of the classroom environments. um and they just got a great knowledge of both um classes. And then after the placements were finalized, students already felt a sense of familiarity and safety across the kindergarten wing. Um and it, you know, helped to reduce some of that anxiety with coming into kindergarten um at the beginning of the school year. Next, it, you know, there was a stronger kindergarten community feel. It truly fostered a grade level approach rather than a my class versus your class model. um we were able to get more eyes on the students and we were able to see if there were more needs quickly. Um and we got to have extra staff in the classrooms too. So the reading specialists, the OT, speech pathologists were able to push in early and observe the students in their setting and begin supporting right away. And this collaborative approach really emphasized that kindergarten is a shared responsibility. Um and it helped to build a cohesive supporting learning community for the students from that first day. Um, third was increased flexibility and stronger instructional collaboration. So, because both uh teachers were able to work with all of the students, instructional grouping felt more natural and fluid. Um, while collaborative grouping can happen regardless, camp kindergarten made it more effective because the students had already been formally introduced to both of the teachers, both of the classrooms, and the shared routines. So, it just created a stronger sense of teamwork and made instructional decision-making more informed and intentional. Um, I do want to also provide some context about kindergarten placement and articulation. So, in most grade levels, teachers spend a great deal of time at the end of the school year articulating with the following grade level and the grade the teacher um sharing detailed information about the students growths, their needs, and some strategies that might have been helpful for them in the previous year. Um, and this process really allows um that next teacher to get a valuable head start and insight to the students needs and successes. Um, and in kindergarten, we just simply do not have that opportunity. So, while a small number of kids may come from the Grove Preschool, a majority of the students that are coming into our classroom are brand new to us. Um, we've tried to bridge that that gap through parent surveys that we talked about um and outreach to the preschools, but participation there really, you know, it varies. Um, and as a result, kindergarten teachers often begin the year with very limited or no information on any of the children that are walking into the classroom. So, Camp kindergarten helped to create a form of articulation where one just naturally does not exist. And even in a short time frame, it allowed teachers to collaborate, observe students, and begin discussing support strategies and skill development before the students were permanently placed into a classroom. This early insight helped us make more informed decisions and allowed students to begin their kindergarten experience on a stronger footing. Um, I do also want to acknowledge that camp kindergarten did require additional planning on the front end. So, my teaching partner and I at that time had met over the summer to kind of go through and coordinate some of those logistics and prepare intentionally. Um, however, we felt that that upfront investment resulted in a smoother, more natural flow once the school year began and it ultimately increased our ability to be more proactive and less reactive as the year continued. Um, it really has been a topic of heavy discussion within our grade level and my colleagues have continued to advocate for um, some form of camp kindergarten and continually have brought up the idea during our grade level meetings. Um there seems to be a strong willingness to invest that time early if it means providing a more seamless supportive transition for our youngest learners. >> So from here you've heard the the shell of some of the logistics. There's obviously a lot more to build out but we wanted to make sure that we are all kind of in alignment with conceptually moving forward on this so that we can begin to build out further details. And really, you heard about the importance of communication that would begin at our kindergarten roundups, which will begin to occur next month. And so, that really is kind of our target to be able to launch these ideas. We've been in in communication with the entire kindergarten team, but we really want to take some collaborative opportunities to make sure that everyone is a part of this. That helps to ensure the consistency of experiences across the district. And, you know, all of that work, some of that pre-planning work that Marissa was just talking about, some of it can be done now. Some of it obviously we can't do until we have those that list of kids and all of that information. And then our goal and our recommendation would be to implement both of these enhancements beginning this fall with the recognition that just as we do with all new things, there will need to be time to reflect upon the experience to gain feedback upon the experience from families that have gone through it and and really see you know is this yielding the benefits that we hope it will in you know knowing that there is some impact. But I think one of the things that is is important to re-emphasize is that when we did do this in two buildings, there there really wasn't that um hesitation in the parent community that we might have been concerned about. We had a couple of questions, but they were they were there was there was not a strong parental concern or familial concern that came out and it ended up being a very positive experience that people still do remember and and occasionally talk about. So that would be our our plan going forward. So at this point I want to open it up to board questions or any discussion that you would like to have around these ideas. >> Thank you. Uh I'll open the floor. Anybody have a want to start with a question or kind of >> Only question I had was I think it makes sense. It's exciting for not only the teachers. I think parents especially I've got a little one that'll be coming into the kindergarten shortly. I think it makes a lot of sense. It would be exciting to know that this will help inform the decisions in their classroom. Only question I had looking at it was was two days determined to be enough and we've got experience it sounds like with the two days and and deem so but I just wanted to gut check if if they could have longer. >> That's a great question and we actually we actually did have a slightly longer experience at Whittier one of those two years where I I believe they went all the way to 5 days. The feedback we got was that that might have been a little you we were we were ready to move forward after two or three. And so I think the the looking at next year's calendar with the way it works with Thursday, Friday, and then Monday kind of being that, you know, that start after the weekend. That's why we're looking at a two-day model for next year just because there's some natural alignment there. But the consensus in conversation from the limited number of people who had experienced it was two or three felt felt right sized. >> Thank you. I had a similar concern with that, especially that um families would be finding out that Friday. It it it seems a lot to put on our kindergarten teachers to survive those two days and then put into writing and have the families have it on a Friday, which then they don't really have a point of contact for the whole weekend. So, I would just suggest maybe a little more thought of uh could that Monday help I transition. We've had some of those conversations, but I appreciate that perspective. We will, like I said, that's these are our next steps to kind of finalize those things. >> Would all of our schools be having this? Do we have schools that would only have one section of kindergarten that then wouldn't I mean, they would have camp kindergarten, but they'd already know who their teacher was? >> That's a great question. So, this year, we don't have any schools that have a single section of of kindergarten. So, that but we don't we don't know that. So, you're right. There could be some uniqueness. The one other spot that will be unique is the LCRA dual language program. Like there is only one dual language kindergarten teacher, but we also have talked about how to incorporate the some of those camp kindergarten experiences for all of the students even though some will know where they're going where where they're ultimately going to land prior to that. So similar and I think you said exactly what we would look at is if we were in a one section situation, how would we incorporate similar experiences knowing that in the end there is one kindergarten classroom. >> You just made me think of the when you brought up um the dual language in terms of special program kindergarters, best rise DLP. I'm assuming those students would also be invited to attend their with their with the regular education kindergarten teachers, but would those special programs teachers also be there? Like how would that look for those kids who might not be full time in the regular ed kindergarten? >> So, that's a great question and obviously yes, we want to work to balance some of those experiences, but we also want to be cognizant of the level of inclusion that's planned for those kindergarten students in those programs and make sure that we are setting them up for success in the best way that we can. So, you know, I think yes, certainly we would want to join those experiences where possible, but also, you know, the establishment of of some of the routines that some of those students will benefit from based on their individual plans may lead us to some different ways of thinking about that as we as we get to the final preparations. Again, that'll be sort of that as we're getting into the the true lists of students, making some of those determinations. the other programs that were mentioned that as like the traditional programs such as the kindergarten roundup and the leap into kindergarten, would those still be in place and not affected at all by this change? >> Right. Absolutely. You know, the roundup is is primarily a family information night that would continue and be where we'd communicate some of these things. The leap into kindergarten program is planned as part of our summer experience. I think what what's what's important to recognize in all of those things is that it is very challenging if not impossible to reach all students in those across them you may actually touch all the students but what we're trying to accomplish is those moments where you know at the beginning of the year when we know all you know meet and greet is definitely most if not all but then those first two days are truly all and I think that's the that's the difference and that was really a big part of our conversation with this working group was that whatever we do we really want to make sure that It is it is affect it is touching all of the students who are coming to us at the beginning of the year. >> One of the the big events that we know is attended very well is kindergarten roundup. And that's why we wanted to have this conversation tonight before we move forward because as Lisa shared, communication is just so important with this one. Um especially if if families have a child entering kindergarten, but they might have an older sibling. And if you don't get that class notification in kindergarten, we want to make sure that families know about any potential changes, especially at the roundup. And of course, we'll communicate it a hundred different ways. But we wanted to make sure that we have that conversation at the roundup so parents know um you know over the summer that you wouldn't be getting a kindergarten list uh and your other children may. >> Do those roundups typically happen during the school day or after school? >> They're all in the evening at school. >> All in the evening. And do we provide a virtual option for families or recording? >> We don't provide the the information that is presented is available. We don't we don't do it we don't do it virtually live or anything like that and it's and I and I don't believe we have a recording at this point then during co we did that but we have not but now now it is more of a live event but all of the information is it's it's sort of the launch of a lot of information and then it's all very easily discoverable and then as Kevin mentioned pushed out in several different ways as we go through >> perhaps just an option if we are going to go with camp kindergarten of having some sort of video versus a handout of what it should look like. I think the team did a great job of uh making it very student centered and that it really is going to be meeting the needs of students and where they're at by matching them with a classroom that's going to help them grow as much. But I think it's translating that into so families can understand how student centered it really is. And it seems like there's a good amount of collaboration happening in these kindergarten classrooms anyway because then it becomes less of a who gotah who they're getting the same experience across 58 and they see that partnership from the beginning is such a a powerful instructional tool. >> Absolutely. >> Other questions or comments? >> Quick question then for you. Um cuz we had done this uh in some spots previously. Uh just knowing some of the history here in Downer's Grove. uh how have families and students handled now they've got a taste of of the school and they might start to get an opinion on I want to be in this class or I made a friend with this friend and you know how is that handled happening after they started the experience where people might start to form stronger opinions you know in that process as opposed to getting that notification understanding talking with your student in advance and they're coming into the room because there is sort of a routine that families have of going like, "Oh, we're going to check and this is who you have and we're going to introduce that person and there's sort of like a, okay, I've now got my momentum. I'm going to start to build a relationship." How did that go in these two years at one location and the one year at the other location? >> So, we we did not experience any of that because again, those are things we've all kind of anticipated. You know, what happens when you get that comment or question or concern on day three or four? And we didn't we truly didn't have that experience. So I I I can't tell you it will never happen, but it it was not part of that experience. And as we reflected on, so why might that be? There was definitely a lot of conversation about the deliberate efforts to make sure that every everything was balanced during camp kindergarten. So no one group spent more time with teacher A than teacher B. That the groupings were moving around during the day. So the kids were interacting with multiple other students instead of sort of being in a core group consistently. And so I think it was that deliberate exposure to everything in a really balanced format that helped to make sure that those relationships were growing across the board and and we you know we kind of minimized the the risk if you will of that that more focused you know I am spending more time with teacher A and therefore I'm going to feel a certain way if I end up in teacher B's classroom. So, a lot of deliberate planning to make sure that that's balanced. But, but honestly, that again that is that is not we did not experience that concern coming out of the the initial experiences. >> Perfect. >> Look like you have a question. >> No. >> No. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you to our kindergarten team. >> Yeah. Thank you all for being here tonight. All right. Uh public comment time. This is an opportunity for members of the audience to share public comment with the board, but is not intended to be a time for members of the public to enter into a dialogue with the board. Uh, issues raised during public comment may be addressed uh uh in by administrative staff as appropriate or added to future agenda items. The board has allowed 30 minutes for public comment this evening. We ask you to keep it to a three-minute limit. Give everyone an opportunity to speak. Uh, do we have anything in the basket? We do not have anything in the basket. Is there anyone here wishing to make public comment? If so, please step up to the mic and state your name and attendance area or your uh person of employment. All right, then we'll move on. Uh, next up is going to be the approval of minutes. Are there suggested revisions to the minutes as presented in the packet of materials? All right. If not, is there a motion to approve the minutes from the January 12th, 2026 regular meeting as presented? >> So moved. Second. Okay. >> All those in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion carried to approve the minutes of the January 12th, 2026 regular meeting as presented. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the January um 26, 2026 financial workshop as presented? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All right. Um all those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? The motion carried to approve the minutes of the January 26, 2026 financial workshop as presented. We have a consent agenda tonight. Are there any items a board member would like to have considered separately? All right. If not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of the personnel report and the financial statements consisting of the list of bills and summary? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Thank you. Melissa, please call roll. >> Member Thomas. I >> member Bernard. >> I >> member Doshi. >> I >> member Hannis. >> I >> member Olic. >> I >> member Hughes. >> I The motion carried. Uh consent agenda has been approved as presented in the packet of materials. And as part of this consent agenda, we did uh the board has hired a new principal for Whittier School. So I I I'd like to hand it over to you, Dr. Russell, to introduce him. >> Thank you very much. This is always one of the most exciting things I get to do as superintendent. I want to thank so many of the Whittier staff members who are here tonight to welcome our new principal. As you know, Whittier principal Michael Krugman will retire at the end of this school year after 15 years of dedicated service to our school district and Whittier in particular. We will miss his leadership and will also um just miss his presence and and everything he does for Whittier. We certainly wish Michael and his family the very best in a well-deserved retirement. Because this was a planned retirement, uh we began the principal selection process early, which ensured a strong pool of candidates and will allow for a smooth transition. This process included multiple interviews with administrators and staff as well as input from Whittier staff, support personnel, families, and even a student council focus group. That was a lot of fun uh during the process that I got to do that. From this collective feedback, Mr. Brian Bolton emerged as the strongest candidate and we were pleased to recommend him for his appointment as principal of your school in the personnel agenda. Brian brings more than 13 years of experience in education. He currently serves as the principal of Fullerton Elementary School in Addison school district 4. He's also served as an assistant principal in both Itasa and Lions school districts and a middle school social studies teacher. He began his career right here in district 58 as a student teacher at Heric Middle School. Mr. Bolton holds a master's degree in educational leadership from NIU and a bachelor's degree in secondary education from Lewis University. Brian also has strong ties to our community. He attended Indian Trail Elementary and O'Neal Middle School, graduated from Downers Grove South High School, and currently lives in Donner's Grove with his wife and children who joined us this evening. Nice to see you kids. He is eager to give back to the community that shaped him and to get to know our students, families, and staff in the greater or greater Whittier School community. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Brian Bolton to Whittier School and as our new principal. >> Well, thank you Board of Education and uh District 58 community. Um this is a bit of a surreal moment for me to to be back here after all these years. Um for a district that kind of gave me so much and you know my daughters are are going to be going through Kingsley. So it's it's really exciting to be able to contribute to um the Downers Grove community in this way. Um you know I'm really looking forward to working with Mr. Krugman um the Whittier community and uh the Whittier teachers and staff um you know who are here you know today and really hit the ground running to ensure a smooth transition build on some traditions and um you know really just kind of uh transition into the future. So um you know again my sincerest gratitude uh thank you for you know giving me this shot and I won't let you down. So thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. All right, we have a couple items up for action tonight. First up is the uh 2026 2027 school fees. Is there a motion to approve the school fees for the 2627 school year as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? All right, let's please call roll. >> Memberic. >> I. >> Member Thomas. >> I. >> Member Bernard. >> Hi. >> Member Doshi. >> Hi. >> Member Hannis. >> Hi. Member Hughes. >> I. The motion carried to approve the uh the school fees for the 2627 school year as presented. Next up, we have a resolution for the dismissal of custodial maintenance employee for reasons other than reduction in force. Is there a motion to adopt the resolution for the removal uh uh I'm sorry, for the dismissal of custodial maintenance employee for reasons other than reducing force. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Um close. >> What's the please go row? >> Memberic. >> Hi. >> Member Thomas. >> I. >> Member Bernard. >> Hi. >> Member Doshi. >> Hi. >> Member Hannis. >> Hi. >> Member Hughes. >> I. The motion carried to adopt the resolution for the removal, I'm sorry, for the dismissal of custodial maintenance employee for reasons other than a reduction in force. I have a construction consent agenda tonight. Are there any items a board member would like to have considered separately? All right. If not, is there a motion to approve the construction consent agenda consisting of elementary school kitchen equipment purchase? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Melissa, please call roll. >> Member Bernard. >> Hi. >> Member Doshi. >> Hi. >> Member Hannis. >> Hi. >> Member Olick. >> Hi. >> Member Thomas. >> I. >> Member Hughes. >> I. The motion carried. The consent agenda has been approved as presented in the packet of materials. I have a couple of announcements. Uh, Friday, February the 20th at 7:00 a.m. will be our legislative breakfast and then Monday, February 23rd at 7 p.m. that will be the curriculum workshop and that'll be right back here at the Downers Grove Civic Center. The board will now meet in close session. Is there a motion to move to close uh to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of a specific employee of the district? It's 5 ILCS 120 to C1 and uh the collective on negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. That's five LCS122C2 and for the discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for the purpose uh or the approval of the body of minutes or the semiannual review of the minutes is mandated by section 2.06 06 5CS 120 that's 2C21. >> So move >> second. >> All right. Any discussion on that? All right. Melissa, please call roll. >> Member Johi. >> Hi. >> Member Hannis. >> I. >> Member Olic. >> Hi. >> Member Thomas. >> I. >> Member Bernard. >> I. >> Member Hughes. >> I. The motion carried. The board will now move into closed session after a short recess. It's 8:24. Let's try to be in there. Give it four minutes. 828.