The Weekly Update #4

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The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.

The agenda was approved.

Katerina Schroeder presented the What's Good in 109 report.

Caruso's eighth-grade basketball team took the championship title in the IESA Regional Championship game!

Early Learners had a "When I Grow Up Day," where they dressed up according to what type of career they wanted to have when they grew up.

Wilmot held their annual talent show. Each year, many students show courage as they step up in front of their peers and perform their talents. It's a wholesome event to witness because of the support the audience gives each performer.

We celebrate the Shepard and Caruso students who made the District 7 Junior ILMEA Band, Choir, and Orchestra in November.

The main What's Good segment introduces a long-standing tradition in the Walden third grade, their Walden Wax Museum. Student presenters crowd around the boardroom dressed as the characters they did their report on. Board members move around the room, pushing the button and listening as the wax museum character comes to life! The wax museum first began as a biography reading unit. With the implementation of the new social studies curriculum, the third-grade team came together to combine the units. Students interview a member of their family and select a person who first immigrated to America. A huge thank you to Ms. Alissa Blanco and the entire Walden third-grade team.

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Mr. Simeck presented the February Superintendent's Report.

Kindergarten registration for 2025-2026 was open. On Friday, Jan. 31, we held an in-person registration event where families registered their kindergarteners, met some soon-to-be familiar faces, and asked any questions they had. The event also had a college signing day theme. Incoming kindergarteners signed their names with extra-large pencils and had their pictures taken with the "Welcome to Kindergarten" banner.

Pending the Board of Education's approval that evening, we welcomed a new Wilmot Elementary School principal. She had been a previous 109 employee and was joining us from Glenview.

Mr. Simeck attended the National School Board Association Equity and Advocacy (NSBA) conference in D.C. last week. There, he expressed that this may have been the most difficult time for public education he had witnessed. He discussed the NSBA's top legislative priorities, which included fully funding IDEA (special education), increasing five different title funds, supporting E-rate, addressing teacher and staff shortages in the country, and opposing vouchers and charter expansions.

With the multitude of executive orders that had been implemented, Mr. Simeck noted that a top priority of this new administration was to create a voucher program for public schools as broadly as possible. It could take many forms, including a focus on states with "Educational Savings Accounts." This is a means to funnel public funds to individual families, not directly through the state but through alternative means. This effort is set to start in Indian (BIE) and military schools and then be extended to state public schools.

More conversations about eliminating the Department of Education had taken shape. The department holds a lot of roles. The history of this battle dates back to the beginning of the republic, focusing on states' rights, as states had significant control over education. The Department of Education was adopted during the Carter administration, and now there is concern that the federal government has been playing too big of a role in state education. While there was talk about eliminating the Department of Education, it is more likely that consideration will be given to dividing its responsibilities among various departments instead of eliminating it entirely.

One of the many items the executive orders addressed was the increased use of block grants. A block grant would be a large sum of money given to individual states, allowing them to decide how to use it rather than having funds sent directly to organizations. IDEA and Title Funding might be converted into block grants.

Other priorities of the administration included anything and everything related to culture wars.

There had been an IDEA Full Funding Bill in the last Congress. Senators Duckworth and Durbin were co-signers on the bill last year, and they are expected to co-sign it again this year. Representative Schneider in the House was also a co-signer last year. It is unclear whether there would be a hearing, but even introducing the bill was a positive step.

The 109 Board would likely support Senator Blumenthal's Kids Online Safety Act, which was proposed last year. It passed in the Senate but not the House. However, there has been significant movement on this issue. At the time, eight states had enacted statewide cellphone bans, eleven states had introduced legislation to that effect, and ten had policy recommendations or pilot programs.

We held our third Community Advisory Committee at the end of January. We asked the questions:

• In an ideal world, what would you most like to see children doing?

• How are we preventing this vision?

We worked on ways to come together as a community to create a more welcoming environment for children to have more independent and unstructured play. People said they would like to see children interacting with local businesses, riding their bikes around town, and playing in parks.

A reminder that students were not in attendance the next day, as it was a teacher institute day. There was no school on Monday, Feb. 17. However, school will be in session on Monday, March 3, as a make-up day for an emergency day used back in August.

World Read Aloud Day took place on Wednesday, Feb. 5. We went around District 109 and had the story The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore read to us! You can check it out on our YouTube channel, @deerfieldpublicschools109.

Shepard held its 3rd annual Pack the Place event last Wednesday. The eighth-grade Shepard basketball team played against the Deerfield Police and Fire Department. The goal was to raise money for the 100 Club of Illinois, an organization that helps support the families of fallen first responders. They were able to raise over $4,000!

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There were no speakers present.

Dr. Arnold presented the winter data review.

This was an assessment update for Winter 2025. There was no Social Emotional Learning (SEL) data in this assessment due to the state accepting the Panorama survey as a replacement for the 5 Essentials Survey. This survey will be administered towards the end of February. Checking winter data is more of a temperature check. This allows us to gain insight into how our students are going to show their growth by the spring.

The important part about cohort data is that you want to see growth over time, and that is what we are seeing in our cohort that we are serving. Please note there are larger jumps in the earlier grades, and as students get older, the growth begins to narrow.

We tend to look inward at how our students are doing compared to students across the nation.

We are in an implementation year of a new curriculum. They predict a decline in numbers when introducing a new curriculum; however, we are not seeing that in our students. We are seeing the same cohort growth data as math.

We have seen great student growth by grade for ELA. We have every grade level set to meet their expected growth by the end of the year. Staff have mentioned how helpful the professional development has been in teaching these skills to their students.

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There were six FOIA requests that the board reviewed.

Glenview District 34 has filed a petition to withdraw from the TrueNorth Cooperative. For the withdrawal to be consensual, the districts in TrueNorth Cooperative are required to pass a resolution approving a withdrawal request. If a single district votes 'no' to the petition, it will be rejected. If District 34 were to withdraw, then District 109 would have to pay the difference (similar to the other districts in the cooperative). Other districts in the cooperative have already voted 'no' before this board meeting. Mr. Simeck's recommendation is to vote 'no.'

Dr. Filippi is requesting board approval for an amendment to the 10-Year Life Safety Report. The board initially approved the report in the fall. Since then, some items were identified as needing attention within the next year. However, there are certain code-related issues that we believe should be addressed sooner. These are code compliance matters rather than immediate safety concerns.

Amending the report helps prevent unnecessary spending on items that may soon be replaced or removed. After consulting with our architects and engineers, they were comfortable making these adjustments to the report before submitting it to ISBE.

Dr. Bialk is recommending the board approve upgrading classroom projectors this summer. The current fleet we have was expected to last around eight years, and we have hit that eight-year mark. After already replacing several light bulbs in current projectors, it is recommended to have a full replacement this summer.

These dates are for the board's consideration for the upcoming board meeting schedule. Thanks to Mrs. Becky Rudd for creating this calendar.

The report was approved.

The administrative contract was approved.

Summer work for 2025 was approved.

The minutes were approved.

The minutes were approved.

The policy final readings were approved.

The board voted in alignment with the superintendent's recommendation.

The report was approved.

Mr. Morrison mentioned there was a policy meeting this evening, and there will be more excitement to come.

Mrs. Jakymiw said that TrueNorth had a board meeting back in January where they focused on updating safety and security, the student handbook, and their threat assessment. They are also looking at ways to reduce costs; one way they are doing that has been to make the switch over to Zoom for all video conferencing and traditional phones. That package will save several thousand dollars over the next four years.

President Montgomery mentioned that an Executive Development Committee meeting will take place in February.

Mr. Dornfeld mentioned the policy committee is meeting again to discuss fees.

There were no speakers present.

Mr. Simeck gives a big thank you to Joanna Ford and Dr. Danielle Arnold for their work behind the scenes of developing engaging professional development. The staff has shared how impressed they are with the training, and that is all the work done because of Ms. Ford and Dr. Arnold.

President Montgomery expresses her gratitude to several individuals. She first thanks Dr. Fisher for his work on district policies and preparation for the upcoming ROE audit. She also extends appreciation to those who organized the kindergarten signing day event, calling it adorable and noting how wonderful the pictures turned out. She thanks Kat Schroeder for stepping in to present this evening's What's Good in 109 segment. Additionally, she acknowledges Dr. Arnold for her presentation tonight and her leadership in implementing the new ELA curriculum. Dr. Bialk is recognized for her efforts in creating new displays for the middle schools. President Montgomery also thanks the board, with a special mention of Mrs. Jakymiw, for the careful consideration given to the TrueNorth vote. Lastly, she expresses her appreciation to Mr. Simeck for his advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Morrison speaks to the stressful times we are living in, and he's reducing the size of the aperture that he is looking at and bringing his view closer to home. He wants to thank the board for focusing on the local issues and bringing solutions home. He appreciates the joy and tenor that the school and board operate in.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.