march 12

The bOARDBuzz is put together following District 25 School Board Meetings and serves as a recap of what occurred.

• For the full agenda of the Regular Meeting, please click here.
  

The Regular Meeting was recorded and that recording can be viewed here: www.sd25.org/0312FullMeeting.

As always, the bOARDBuzz is archived at www.sd25.org/BoardBuzz.

A. PTA Reflections Participants

The Board celebrated and congratulated the students who participated in the Arlington Heights Council of PTAs Reflections art program! The Board also thanked Megan Worthington, AHCPTA President and Shelly Daley, Reflections Chairperson, and the AHCPTA for their support.

The following students were celebrated and recognized:

Dryden

Mikayla Carlson | Nadia Heckard | Mila Johnson

Greenbrier

Shreyan Bera | Elizabeth Hess | Molly Hess | Dominic Zanini | Maya Zbrzezny

Ivy Hill

Darina Bogoeva | Samarah Chaharbakhshi | Anna Davis | Riaan Rajesh | Rivika Rajesh

Olive-Mary Stitt

Thomas Andrews | Adelyn Swartz

Patton

Elle Boylan | Blayke Bucciarelli | Henley Donaldson | Ava Duski | Tess Finnegan | Isla Fox

Addie Hendrickson | Skylar Lichterman | Sara McCarty | Cassidy McKown | Dylan Milewski

Aashvi Parekh | Ananya Parekh | Kaitlyn Peterson | Joe Scapillato | Austin Sudol

Logan Sudol | Nadia Wojtaszek | Olivia Wojtaszek

South Middle School

Addie Daley

Westgate

Matthew Cohodes | Gannon Daley | Alexandra Dziedzic | Blaine Eichstaedt

Savannah Halliday | Hope Manola | Ellie Martin | Thomas Pifer | Vincent Pifer | Scarlet Zapart

Windsor

Katarina Macho-Cierna | Rilla Puckett | Sunaia Amala Soni | Suneri Soni

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

In this portion of the meeting, Board members catch one another up on the happenings each member has experienced as an individual since the last meeting. Also, some Board members are appointed as representatives to attend meetings on behalf of the District 25 Board of Education for different organizations. Those members convey relative information to the entire Board at the monthly meeting.

• Board Member Updates
• ED-RED Education Research Development
• Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB)
  
• NSSEO

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

Community members are invited to address the Board during this public comment portion of the meeting. According to Board Policy, public comment is heard for 30 minutes at Board of Education meetings and members of the community have three minutes to address the Board.

There were no community members who addressed the Board at this meeting. To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

Please remember that the Board can be reached outside of Board Meeting hours by emailing boardfeedback@sd25.org.

In this portion of the meeting, the three organizations below addressed Board Members.

• AHC PTA
  
• ABC25 Foundation
  Board Member Gina Faso spoke on behalf of the ABC25 Foundation and showed a video highlighting the Fork Farm efforts. Click here to watch that video.
• ATA (Arlington Teachers' Association)

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

MOTION: APPROVED

That the Board of Education approve those items on the Consent Agenda as follows: (A) Personnel Report and Addendum to Personnel Report; (B) Treasurer's Report (C) Invoices; (D) Fixed Asset Disposal Report; (E) Regular and Closed Session Meeting Minutes of February 13, 2024; (F) Board bills.

With the approval of the consent agenda, the Board welcomed two new Administrative hires:

1) Andrea Luessow was welcomed as the new Director of Student Learning.

2) Casey Latal was welcomed as a Student Services Coordinator.

The consent agenda documents can be seen by clicking here to visit BoardDocs.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

There were no items presented by the Department of Student Learning.

There were no items presented by the Department of Student Services.

MOTION: APPROVED

A. STUDENT FEES, 2024-2025

That the Board of Education approve the Student Fees for the 2024-2025 school year as presented.

As they do each year, the Administration brought recommendations to the Board of Education regarding student fees. Assistant Superintendent of Business/CSBO, Stacey Mallek reported the following recommendations:

• Technology Fee: None at this time. Parents still have the option to purchase insurance on their child's device.
• Transportation: Increase the amount that the contract increases with the Cook County Bus Company (approved 7% or $38 increase). This fee only applies to families who do not qualify for free transportation, but wish to pay for transportation and there is a route with availability already going through their residential area.
• Food Services: There was no recommendation to change school lunch fees for the 2024-25 school year. There was no recommendation to change school breakfast fees for the 2024-25 school year.
• Annual Student Fees: Based on recent analysis, and having not increased student fees in over 15 years, Mrs. Mallek recommended an increase in some of the student fees for the 2024-25 school year. - Early Childhood: $35 (up from $0)
  - Kindergarten (1/2 day): $31 (no change)
  - Kindergarten (full day): $51 (this is the first year of this charge)
  - Grades 1-5: $75 (up from $55)
  - Grades 6-8: $78 (no change)
  - Middle School Participation Fee: $30
• Additional Fees: Additional fees are charged for items that are purchased in bulk by the district and then sold to students such as gym shirts, gym shorts, goggles, etc. The proposed fees are based on vendor estimates. The actual fees charged to parents will be the actual cost rounded. Student fees are waived for students qualifying for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. These fees are slightly going down for next year.
• Children's Circle Tuition: No increase due to the Early Childhood Fee listed above in Student Fees.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

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MOTION: APPROVED

B. JOINT PURCHASING COOPERATIVE RESOLUTION OMNIA PARTNERS

That the Board of Education approve the Resolution Authorizing Participation in the Omnia Partners Joint Purchasing Cooperative.

OMNIA Partners is a national cooperative purchasing program that requires the District to sign off on their “Master Intergovernmental Cooperative Purchasing Agreement”. As a member, the District can access competitively bid and awarded vendor contracts for numerous items. Assistant Superintendent of Business/CSBO, Stacey Mallek, brought this to the Board for approval.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

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MOTION: APPROVED

C. FURNITURE REPLACEMENT PROPOSAL

That the Board of Education approve the furniture replacement plan and authorize a volume purchase under the OMNIA purchasing cooperative through Frank Cooney.

This was delivered by Assistant Superintendent of Business/CSBO, Stacey Mallek. The presentation described the steps taken to accomplish the task from the District's Strategic Plan to measure current furniture throughout the District and propose a plan for updating it. The purchase recommended was authorized under the OMNIA purchasing cooperative.

For a PDF of this presentation, click here.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

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MOTION: APPROVED

D. BANK DEPOSITORY

That the Board of Education approve the amended bank depositories.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

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MOTION: APPROVED

F. EXTENSION OF BUS TRANSPORTATION CONTRACT

That the Board of Education approve the Extension of the Bus Transportation Contract with Cook County School Bus Co for 2024-25 and 2025-26 as presented.

The District negotiated with the Cook County School Bus Co on two contract options. A one year contract renewal with an 8% increase for the 2024-25 school year, or a two year contract renewal with a 7% increase for the 2024-25 school year and a 5% increase for the 2025-26 school year. After research, which included conferring with other districts who are also seeing double digit increases, it was the recommendation of Assistant Superintendent of Business, CSBO, Stacey Mallek, to bring a 2 year contract to the Board for approval with an increase of 7% for 2024-25 and 5% for the 2025-26 school years.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

E. CONSTRUCTION FINANCE UPDATE

This presentation was delivered by Assistant Superintendent of Business/CSBO, Stacey Mallek and Director of Facilities Management, Ryan Schulz. This was a summary of the financial status of the projects funded by the #Build25 referendum.

For a PDF of this presentation, click here.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss this item, click here.

There were no items presented by the Department of Facilities Management.

MOTION: APPROVED

A. MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

That the Board of Education approve the Memorandum of Understanding "FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN AND ELEMENTARY PHYSICAL EDUCATION" as presented.

Assistant Superintendent of Personnel & Planning, Dr. Brian Kaye, presented this memorandum of understanding between the Arlington Teachers Association and the Board of Education to address the impact of the increase in the amount of elementary physical education per week beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

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MOTION: APPROVED

B. RESIGNATION AGREEMENT 1

That the Board of Education approve the Resignation Agreement 1 with Gail Rategan as presented.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

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MOTION: APPROVED

C. RESIGNATION AGREEMENT 2

That the Board of Education approve the Resignation Agreement 1 with Heather Rehm as presented.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss and vote on this item, click here.

A. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REPORT

Superintendent, Dr. Lori Bein, updates the Board on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the public. The following were the FOIA requests:

• Sheri Reid, Data Acquisition Specialist at SmartProcure, requested information on vendors; a response was provided on February 16, 2024.
  
• Karen Garcia, Data Acquisition Specialist at SmartProcure, requested information on employees; a response was provided on February 22, 2024.
• William Boodro requested information on invoices related to work paid for by referendum dollars; a response was provided on March 6, 2024.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in Board Docs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

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B. SET DATE FOR BOARD ORGANIZATION MEETING

The Board set the date for their yearly organization meeting. The Board set the date of April 9, 2024. On that date, the Board will elect officers for one year terms, and set meeting dates and times for 2024-2025.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

To watch the Board discuss this item, click here.

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C. FIRST READING OF POLICIES

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

To view this in BoardDocs, including any documents associated with this item, click here.

The District 25 Board of Education often offers a second opportunity for public comment at each Board Meeting that takes place once all the agenda items have been presented, discussed, or voted on.

No one elected to speak at this Community Input.

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

FUTURE TOPICS & TOPICS WITH DATES TO BE DETERMINED

• Student Representatives on the Board of Education | Discussed at this meeting

• eLearning | TBD

NEW TOPIC

• NONE

To watch this portion of the meeting, click here.

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 @ 7:00 PM

This meeting will be held at the Dunton Administration Building and broadcasted live and recorded. The link for the livestream can be found on the Board Agenda page (www.sd25.org/BoardAgenda) the week of the meeting.

Public Comments

Anyone who wishes to make a public comment can do so, in-person, at our Board of Education meetings. The Board hosts two public comment opportunities on their agenda: 1) at the beginning of the meeting, prior to any agenda items, 2) at the end of the meeting after the agenda items have been discussed/presented.

Meeting Recordings

A video of the meeting will be recorded and uploaded to our site the following day on the 'Board Agenda' page and on our 'Catch up on Meetings' page.

The Board Buzz is not the official minutes from a Board of Education meeting. The official minutes can be found on the District's website on the Catch Up on Meetings page: www.sd25.org/CatchUpOnMeetings.