March 14, 2023 at 7:00 PM - Regular Meeting

Description:  Per Policy 2:230 Public Comments at Board of Education Meetings and Petitions to the Board:
At each regular and special open meeting, the members of the public and District employees may comment on or ask questions of the Board, subject to reasonable constraints. The individuals appearing before the Board are expected to follow these guidelines: 

1. Such a person shall submit a request in writing to the Board Secretary to address the Board. Such a request shall be received at least five (5) working days prior to the Board meeting and shall include said reason for the request.
2. At the meeting, a person who has complied with number 1 above shall inform the Board Secretary of his/her presence at the meeting.
3. Address the Board only at the appropriate time as indicated on the agenda and when recognized by the Board President.
4. Identify oneself and be brief. Ordinarily, such comments shall be limited to five minutes.  In unusual circumstances, and when an individual has made a request in advance to speak for a longer period of time, the individual may be allowed to speak for more than five minutes. 
5. The Board President may shorten or lengthen an individual’s opportunity to speak.  The President may also deny an individual the opportunity if the individual has previously addressed the Board on the same subject within the past 2 months. 
6. The Board President shall have the authority to determine procedural matters regarding public participation not otherwise defined in Board of Education policy. 
7. Conduct oneself with respect and civility toward others and otherwise abide by Board policy, 8:30, Visitors to and Conduct on School Property. 

Petitions or written correspondence to the Board shall be presented to the Board of Education in the next regular Board packet unless the Superintendent deems the matter to be urgent. 

Description:  On Tuesday evening we will be recognizing the Social Workers and School Counselor that work with our Milne Grove and Kelvin Grove students.

Description:  We will be recognizing the MG early learners student representatives along with KG students of the month and Nature Club members.

Description:  We received one request for information under the Freedom of Information Act since the February 2023 meeting of the Board of Education, please find the requests and responses attached.

 

Description:  Attached are the suspension reports for both Kelvin Grove and Milne Grove for month of February 2023. 
 

Description: 

Over the years, when any items needed to be moved between buildings or transported from one location to another, the district has relied on district staff to provide their own vehicle for transportation of district property between locations.  The district will reimburse those individuals at the current mileage rate as set by the state upon request.  In some instances, the district has also rented a van or truck to move larger items that could not be transported in staff vehicles.  

 

After researching other districts our size in the area, there are two that do have district vehicles that were purchased outright and have been in their district for over ten years for the purposes of transporting district materials.  In addition, we are the only district of our size that has two buildings on separate campuses that would require a vehicle to transport materials across town.  

 

On Tuesday evening the board should be prepared to discuss various options we have to be able to transport district items between buildings while not relying on district staff to provide their personal vehicles.

Description: 

Currently, the district requires parents to submit documents for residency verification in full every year. Residency verification is an important process to ensure the proper use of taxpayer money, however, the current process is a significant burden of time for both parents and school staff. 

 

To address this issue, we plan to use CLEAR, an investigation services tool that can verify residency using information from public records. Currently, around 230 districts in Illinois use this service, with those we have spoken to praising the tool and preferring it over the traditional process.

CLEAR will not only streamline the process for parents and staff but also provide more assurance that students attending our schools live within the district. Unlike the traditional process where we rely solely on what parents submit, CLEAR can also identify conflicting records and provide more insight. Going forward, the only times when residency documentation will be requested of families is if CLEAR flags them, or if they move in mid-year.
 

We have updated our registration materials and will be running some early reports before registration begins for the 2023-2024 school year to make sure we are familiar with the system in advance and not encountering any issues upon implementation this summer.

Description: 

Senate Bill 7, which was passed in 2011, requires that the school board, in consultation with its exclusive representative, each year establish a sequence of honorable dismissal lists categorized by positions and the groupings defined in section 24-12 of the School Code. The groupings are defined below.

 

Group 1

Shall consist of each teacher not in continued contractual service who has not received a performance evaluation rating.

Group 2

Shall consist of each teacher with a Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory performance evaluation rating on either of the teacher’s last two (2) performance evaluation ratings.

Group 3

Shall consist of each teacher with a performance evaluation rating of at least Satisfactory or Proficient on both of the teacher’s last two (2) performance evaluation ratings, if two ratings are available, or on the teacher’s last performance evaluation rating, if only one rating is available unless the teacher qualifies for placement into grouping 4.

Group 4

Shall consist of a teacher whose last two (2) performance evaluation ratings are Excellent and each teacher with 2 Excellent performance evaluation ratings with a third rating of Satisfactory or Proficient.

 

If a reduction in force were deemed necessary by the Board of Education, teachers must be dismissed in the order of their groupings, with teachers in Group 1 dismissed first and teachers in Group 4 dismissed last.

 

This list is confidential and will be distributed during the meeting.

Description:  The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the District or legal counsel for the District, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or against legal counsel for the District to determine its validity. [1] However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the Local Government Wage Increase Transparency Act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance the [the Open Meetings Act].  5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1), as amended by P.A. 99-646

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION
Accept the donation of a nurse’s office bed from Will County District 92, hand sanitizer from Kohl’s and various STEM supplies for the KG Makers Space.

BACKGROUND
We received a donation from Will County District 92 for a new bed in our Kelvin Grove nurse’s office.  This bed is similar to one you would find in a doctor’s office that can be easily sanitized in-between student visits.

Second, we received a donation from Kohl’s that includes brand new hand sanitizer to be used throughout the district.  The donation consists of 36 boxes that hold 12 x 34oz bottles, for a total of 432 bottles and another 18 bottles of 128oz.

Finally, we received a variety of donations for the KG Makers Space that includes sewing fabric from Nicole Bahnsen, a sewing machine from Dawn Magolan, and a Smithsonian Jet-Works from Lynne Stokke.  Please see pictures and descriptions of the items in the attached document.

Description:  RECOMMENDATION:
Approve the installation of a Door Security System in the amount of $99,824. 

BACKGROUND:
At its February meeting, the board approved moving forward with the door access control system installation, with a "not to exceed" dollar amount.  At this time we are requesting the board to approve the FY23 costs for the project in the amount of $100,000 to meet the purposes of the matching school maintenance grant ($50,000 from ISBE and $50,000 from local).

The lower of the two quotes for the exterior doors that we are recommending to be approved is seventy two thousand four hundred and six dollars ($72,406.00). To reach our maintenance grant threshold, we requested the start on interior doors that have locks in stock to continue the project.  The quote for all of the interior doors identified (hallways, gymnasiums, and office doors) is twenty seven thousand four hundred eighteen dollars ($27,418.00), bringing the total project to ninety nine thousand eight hundred twenty four dollars (99,824.00).

Attached is a detailed description from Mr. Pierson with the installation components of the project.  We are recommending the board approve the amount for the door access control system installation at $99,824. 
 

Description:  A final recommendation will be brought to the board on Tuesday evening.

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION:

Approval of items and submission of E-rate Forms 471.

 

BACKGROUND:

The E-rate program provides discounts to schools and libraries for internet and networking services based on their free and reduced eligibility percentage for the National School Lunch Program. At our current free and reduced rate, our discount rate from E-rate is 50%.

There are two projects we would like to get covered in this E-rate cycle, a network firewall refresh and battery backups for various network closets at Kelvin Grove.

Our current network firewalls are reaching their end of life and the security services license that was purchased alongside them will expire in July. The security services license provides features such as Web Content Filtering, DNS filtering, Network Antivirus, and more. Beyond these features is a good security practice to have, we are required to content filter our internet connections to comply with CIPA.

After working with our vendors, we found the most cost-effective solution was to replace the hardware and include a 5-year license. It costs less overall than just renewing the subscription on our existing hardware as most network security vendors do not want to continue maintaining old equipment.
 

Through the E-rate 470 bidding process we received bids from 4 companies, of which the winning bid is a vendor we have worked with before, SHI, but was also the lowest cost, with the effective price being $10715 after discounts.

There are several networking closets at Kelvin Grove that do not have battery backup. We would like to purchase 4 lithium-ion battery backups to cover this need. Lithium-ion battery backups are more expensive upfront, but the batteries should last 10-15 years, unlike the 3-5 years you may get with traditional lead-acid batteries.  We got 2 bids in response to our 470. Again the lowest bid was from SHI with an effective cost of $3930.

 

It is my recommendation that the Board of Education approves the items covered under E-rate Form 471 to request discounts from SHI and notify vendors.

 

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION:

Approval of Kelvin Grove Gym Floor Refinishing during the summer of 2023

 

BACKGROUND:

Attached you will find information from Mr. Pierson regarding the quotes received for refinishing the gym floors as well as copies of the quotes.  Based on that information, it is my recommendation that the Board of Education approves the gym floor refinishing for an amount of $3,450.

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION

Approval to post up to four (4) temporary full-time summer custodial assistants.
 

BACKGROUND

Based on the proposed projects and workload for this summer, it is my recommendation that the Board of Education employs up to four (4) individuals as temporary full-time seasonal summer custodial employees. Please refer to Mr. Pierson’s request is attached for further information.

 

It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the posting for up to four (4) temporary full-time summer custodial assistants at a starting rate of $13.00/hr. 

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION

Authorize local dollars to cover the cost of Title I services that might not be covered by the FY24 Title I allocation.
 

BACKGROUND

We do not know for sure how much our grant allocation will be for the coming school year. Each year, the Board is asked to approve local funding for any shortfall that may occur. Most years, the Title I grant pays for the full Title I teacher's salary, supplies, and most of the benefits.

It is recommended that the Board authorizes local dollars to cover the cost of Title I services that might not be covered by the FY24 Title I allocation.

 

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION:

Authorize the Superintendent to prepare a tentative budget for the 2023-2024 school year within the parameters provided by the Board of Education.
 

BACKGROUND:

Each year the Board authorizes the Superintendent to prepare a tentative budget for the coming year. This year I will prepare a draft tentative budget which will be updated and presented to the Board in August.

Some of the information required to build the annual budget will not be available until late spring/summer, therefore we will begin building the budget with what we know for sure will be included. We are awaiting information on EBF and grant funding from the Illinois State Board of Education and the financial impact of the proposed legislation. 

It is my recommendation that the Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent to begin work in order to prepare a draft tentative budget for the 2023-2024 school year.

Description: 

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION

The non-renewal of the contract for the certified staff is listed within the resolution and exhibited in accordance with the resolution.

 

BACKGROUND

Attached is a copy of the Resolution for Dismissal and Non-Renewal of Certain Non-Final-Year Probationary Licensed Staff (2023)

It is my recommendation that the Board of Education approves this resolution in its entirety.

 

Description: 

RECOMMENDATION

Approval to continue the employment of the listed non-tenure certified staff members listed below for the 2023-2024 school term.

 

BACKGROUND

Each of the certified staff members listed has done an excellent job and we look forward to continuing to work with them during the 2023-2024 school year. 

 

It is my recommendation that the Board of Education continues the employment of the individuals listed below for the 2023-2024 school term at their appropriate place on the salary schedule.

 

RECOMMENDATION Approval to continue employment of the listed non-tenure certified staff members listed below for the 2023-2024 school term. BACKGROUND Each of the certified staff members listed has done an excellent job and we look forward to continuing to work with them during the 2023-2024 school year. It is my recommendation that the Board of Education continue employment of the individuals listed below for the 2023-2024 school term at their appropriate place on the salary schedule.   Name Length of Service (towards tenure) as of the end of 2020 school term Colton Burdette Melisse Reynolds Nicole Richardson Jessica Bonner Jessica Maloney Alisha Carrescia Shannon Detman Francesca Velcich Kara Erb Nicole Kubik Rebecca Maly Julianna Murphy 4 years ** 4 years ** 3 years 2 years 2 years 2 years 2 year 1 year 1 year 1 year 1 year 1 year ** Tenure at the end of 2022-2023 school term.

Description:  The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the District or legal counsel for the District, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or against legal counsel for the District to determine its validity. [1] However, a meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the Local Government Wage Increase Transparency Act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance the [the Open Meetings Act].  5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1), as amended by P.A. 99-646