District 15 Board of Education News

Interim Principal, Michael Coleman and the students involved in the Lincoln Video Club, and their sponsor, Mrs. Locascio were invited to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the Board of Education meeting.

Mr. Coleman shared that the video production team creates announcements that help begin each school day at Lincoln to help ensure their whole school community is informed and excited about the day ahead. We would like to thank this group of students for being positive role models at Lincoln and for their commitment to making everyone feel like a Lincoln Lion.

District 15 was both thrilled and quite proud to recognize the students who represented our district in the Special Olympics of Illinois recently. Each student qualified either through track and field or soccer skills by placing first in their sport during regional competitions this Spring.

Six talented District 15 athletes qualified for the games and four were able to attend the Special Olympics of Illinois hosted at Illinois State University. Congratulations to Saara G., Gehrig N., Adith L., Muhammad H., and Dayton B. for their hard work, skill and participation in the Special Olympics. We could not be more proud of each and every one of our student athletes.

An additional congratulations to the following students who placed at the state Special Olympics competition! Way to go:

• Saara G. placed fourth in her division in the softball throw;

• Dayton B. earned a silver in soccer skills;

• Nolan G. earned silver in the softball throw; and

• Muhammad H. earned a gold medal in soccer skills!

Thank you to our phenomenal coaches James Hermetet, Melissa Souden, Ana Garay, and Elizabeth Skylakos for their dedication, support and encouragement of our students!

At the Board of Education meeting, Diana McCluskey, Chief School Business Official, and Anthony Fashoda, Assistant Director of Fiscal Services, provided the Board with an overview of the tentative budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The budget reflects our commitment to the district’s strategic priorities, providing aligned

programs and services to meet our students’ needs.

Although the 5-Year Forecast presented at the February 21, 2024 Board meeting showed a possible ($1,994,521) deficit in FY25, we are pleased to note that the deficit in the tentative budget has been substantially reduced to ($1,109,340). As we shared on our Moving 15 Forward outreach roadshows, in educational materials, and at multiple Board meetings, the first few years of the Moving 15 Forward initiative will require utilizing available monies from the existing Education Fund balance to bring forth full-day kindergarten at no additional charge to families and move toward a teaming structure across our five, up from four junior high schools, middle schools. The 2024-25 school year reflects an overall full-time equivalent (FTE) increase from 1,020 staff to roughly 1,070 members with the CTC bargaining unit. Of the approximately $22M in Federal COVID Relief grant revenue received by the district, $1M is left to spend in FY25. As these critical COVID grant funds come to an end, either other funding sources must be identified or a reduction in services or a combination of both will be needed. In addition, Fund 50 and Fund 80 were under levied in levy year 2023 to absorb some of the accumulated fund balance and increase the levy in Fund 10. Both the ending of Federal COVID Relief grant revenue and the spend down of accumulated fund balance in Funds 40, 50, and 80 will pressure the expenditure budgets in future years.

District 15 will continue to use its long-range fiscal planning practices and conservative resource allocation and management tools to ensure the district’s continued fiscal health.

Members of the technology and business departments share that the District currently has a fleet of 63 Toshiba copy machines located in school offices, teacher workrooms, and throughout the ESC. In addition, an individual personal printer, purchased by the district, is located in many classrooms across the District.

The current 60-month Toshiba lease is set to expire at the end of July 2024. In light of the expiring lease, the increased cost of toner replacement for these individual classroom printers and many new classrooms being added as part of construction, the District proposed phasing in new office printers to replace the Toshibas and printer stations to replace the classroom printers.

The Board approved the Multi-Functional Devices and Print Solutions contract to Canon Solutions America, Inc.

This project will be completed in two phases:

• Phase One will take place this summer. Color printers will be added in each school office. Four schools (Willow Bend, Carl Sandburg, Walter R. Sundling, and Thomas Jefferson) will be early adapters of the print stations. Additionally, print stations will be added to new construction areas.

• Phase Two will take place throughout the school year (with early adapters taking place either over winter break or spring break). The plan is for all schools to be completed next summer.

The collaboration of print stations will provide easy access for teachers. These stations will allow staff to print from anywhere as the print job will be held in the printer until the staff swipes their ID to release the job.

This process will be phased in over several years and will provide confidentiality of printed materials, a reduction in waste, and allows the district to optimize school budgets.

ED-RED Committee

Board Member Annerino shared that the Illinois State Legislature wrapped up its spring session and that funding to support newcomers was not approved and will continue to be looked at next session. Additionally, they focused on school polling places and a bill to deny schools as polling places was opposed by the county clerks and will be reviewed again next year.

Bills regarding equalizing reimbursement for special education, fentanyl education, and climate change education passed.

one-five Foundation

Board Member Taylor shared there was no formal update from the one-five Foundation this month. He reminded everyone that the annual meeting will take place at the end of July and the Foundation will work with the district on its back to school events.

Finance Committee

Board Members Wang and Hunt shared that they met on June 3 to discuss the FY25 budget, the copier rollout, construction budget, and the new Palatine TIF.

Equity Committee

Board Members Khan and Ader shared that they met to discuss the next steps with their work in the strategic plan and will work with Dr. Heinz to determine next steps.