Across the Board in D303

Recommendations during Committee meetings go to the full Board for consideration, with final approval taken during future Regular or Special School Board meetings. This issue of Across the Board provides summaries from the following meetings:

• Nov. 18 Learning and Teaching Committee
• Nov. 21 Policy Committee Meeting
• Nov. 21 Business Services Committee

Meeting memos, presentations and other documents in BoardDocs

Agenda items for Board discussion. There is no action taken at this time.

To provide the Board with an update on PLCs in Action: End-of-Unit Assessments.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Christine Igoe shared the work of the PLCs and highlighted how the district leverages the end-of-unit assessments to refine our practice to improve student learning.

PLCs in Action: End-of-Unit Assessments: Dr. Igoe was joined by school and team leaders for a presentation and conversation about Professional Learning Communities, which bring teachers together to reflect on instructional strategies and analyze student-achievement data in order to drive continuous improvement. The presentation also includes a summary of end-of-unit assessment results.

To keep Board members abreast of key initiatives within District 303 departments, Administration will provide periodic updates, similar to the monthly Superintendent's Report.

Dr. Igoe presented updated information on Student Achievement Reports (originally presented in September) and a status update on the Multilingual Program and Algebra 1.

Meeting memos, presentations and other documents in BoardDocs

Agenda items for Board discussion. There is no action taken at this time.

Dr. Gordon presented a series of updates to a number of D303 policies and recommended that they be approved by the School Board at its next meeting.

Meeting memos, presentations and other documents in BoardDocs

Agenda items for Board discussion. There is no action taken at this time.

Miller Cooper, the District’s independent audit firm, has been working for the past several months on the audit of fiscal year 2024. The audit traditionally includes several weeks of field work in the District, a thorough review of District financial statements and supporting documentation, and a review of controls and procedures.

The Audit includes an "unmodified" opinion on the district's fiscal outlook and management, signifying no major issues.

This summary combines both agenda items for the Mid Valley financial and District 303 financial agenda items.

Administration continually monitors the actual revenues and expenditures for Mid Valley and District 303 throughout the fiscal year, and reports them to the Board on a monthly basis.

• Mid Valley: Revenue received to date is 69.8% of the budget compared to 57.1% at this same time period last year. Actual expenditures to date are 23.7% of the budget, slightly lower than the 25.1% at the same point last year. The majority of the salaries and benefits have been encumbered and are shown as expended and encumbered on the financial statement. The FY24 beginning fund balance is unaudited and will be adjusted once the final audit has been completed. Currently, there are no areas of immediate concern within the revenue and expenditure budgets.
• District 303:

  Revenue: Overall, revenue is trending very close to the prior year at this same time. The state continues to make regular Evidence Based Funding payments. Administration carefully monitors all revenue sources and will notify the School Board promptly of any concerns. Currently, there are no areas of concern within the revenue budget.

  
  

  Expenditures: Current expenditures are also trending very close to the prior year. Currently, there are no areas of concern within the expenditure budget.

Recommendations: Administration recommends that the Board accepts the Mid Valley and CUSD 303 Financial Reports as presented.

Background

Annually the District sets a tax levy, which provides the District with more than 80% of its total revenue. The setting of the annual tax levy is governed by The Truth in Taxation Law, School Code, Property Tax Code, and Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL). Each of these laws has specific requirements that must be followed, or a District’s tax levy could be subject to legal challenge.

Discussion

The Truth in Taxation Law requires that at least 20 days prior to the adoption of the levy, the School Board must estimate the aggregate levy for the year through a Board motion or resolution, which the Board accomplished this year at its meeting on November 11, 2024. Because the 2024 estimated tax levy (excluding debt service) represents less than a 5.0% increase over last year’s aggregate extension (also excluding debt service), the District is not required to publish a public notice and hold a public hearing on said tax levy this year.

The District must adopt and file a tax levy by the last Tuesday of each calendar year indicating the dollar amount needed in each fund. The County Clerks determine the tax rate at a later date by extending the dollar levy against the actual assessed valuation for the school district; however, this extension cannot exceed the maximum legal tax rate in each individual fund or the overall limiting rate under the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law.

Recommendation: Administration recommends that the School Board adopt a resolution at its December regular meeting entitled "RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING FINAL AGGREGATE TAX LEVY FOR TAX YEAR 2024", approve the 2024 Certificate of Tax Levy, authorize the filing of the 2024 Tax Levy in the amounts indicated, authorize the President and Secretary to sign the Certificate of Tax Levy and associated documents, and file same with the appropriate County Clerks.

Discussion

In accordance with Section 8-7 of the School Code 105ILCS 5/8-7, below is a listing of depositories for funds of the School District. The naming of the official depositories follows our Board Policy 4:30 Revenue and Investments, guidance of periodic review, and approval for the overall cash management and treasury procedures.

A resolution has been submitted to the Board to authorize the Chief Operating Officer to take all necessary actions to assume and exercise the functions of the Chief Operating Officer as well as authorize depositories of School District Funds.

Recommendation: Administration recommends that the Board approve the attached resolution titled “Resolution of the School Board of Community Unit School District 303 Designating Depositories for School District Funds."

Discussion

There are two redundant units serving the data room at East High School. Both are inoperable and temporary portable units are currently being used to keep the room at appropriate temperatures for the network equipment within the space.

Due to the sensitive temperature regulation needed within the space for the network equipment, it is critical to get a permanent cooling solution in the space to properly cool and monitor. Staff worked with Helm Mechanical to obtain a solution that can be procured and implemented in timely manner. A proposal was obtained to install two mini split systems for this data room in lieu of replacing the existing units with like-kind since the existing units were oversized for the need. Staff did evaluate making repairs to the existing equipment, but the repair cost was nearly 50% of the replacement cost. This was deemed to be the least advantageous route since the units are already at their expected end-of-life.

Recommendation: Administration recommends awarding a contract to Helm Mechanical through the Equalis Cooperative for East High School Data Room AC replacement in the amount of $38,526.