September 28, 2026 at 5:00 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Description:  Move to convene in Closed Session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1).

Description:  The Board will reconvene in open session.

Description:  Recommended Termination of Administrator Employment Contract

Description:  The Board President or designee will review the agenda.

Description:  This month's Community Champion recipients will be presented with their awards.

Description:  Brief committee updates will be provided.

Description:  The Board will accept public comment related to current agenda topics or other items limited to three minutes (time may not be ceded to another). Anyone wishing to speak is asked to complete the sign-up sheet provided at the meeting. The Board, typically, will listen, but not respond. When called upon, citizens are asked to come forward to the podium to provide their comments. Visit this link for complete guidelines for public participation.

Description:  Student School Board Representatives will report on current activities in their buildings.

Description:  FOIA requests received since last month's report: 38 and 67.35 hours were spent processing these requests.

Description:  The Superintendent will acknowledge awards, honors and recognition earned by students and staff and other items of interest or necessity.

Description:  Director of Campus Safety Todd Williams will provide a high-level update on his position and progress since starting on July 1.

Description:  Ben Rodriguez, Director of College and Career Readiness, who also serves as D128 Summer School Principal, has submitted a written report providing the annual review of D128 Summer School. At the Board meeting, Ben will share a brief overview of the new District 128 Academic Enrichment Camps. Academic Enrichment Camps are being created and designed to help meet our District 128 Strategic Plan Priority 1, Goal 2 (Academic Excellence, Future Readiness) by strengthening connections between curriculum, career pathways, community partnerships, and postsecondary opportunities.

Description:  Four Board policies reviewed by the Board's legal counsel are presented with proposed revisions.

Description:  Included is the FY26 Site-Based Expenditure Report. This is a required annual report for public transparency on how much each site, not just the school district overall, spends per student. This data, along with the public narrative, are included in the district's public report card. There is no approval required for this. This is being presented at the Board meeting for public transparency.

These figures are not audited; they are taken directly out of our financial software and input into an Excel sheet that calculates the amounts based on the various calculation requirements from ISBE. 

Consistent with prior years, Vernon Hills spends $1,778.3 more per student than Libertyville. Also consistent with prior years, this is due to three factors:

1. Building Adminstration - Both schools have the same administrative structure, including principals, assistant principals, athletic directors, department chairs, and team leaders. With fewer students at VHHS, these fixed costs translate into a higher administrative cost per pupil.
2. Teachers and Support Services - While LHS has more students overall, VHHS serves a much larger percentage of English Learner students. This requires more EL teachers and support staff, increasing staffing costs depsite a smaller total enrollment.
3. Transporation - VHHS runs more bus routes and has a higher share of students using district transportation, increasing transportation expenses.

Transition Pathways serves a unique and small segment of our student population, resulting in significantly higher per-student FTE and spending. This is consistent with prior years.

 

Description:  See attached memo and report. It is required to be presented at a Board meeting, but no action is required.

Description:  See attached report along with the LHS pool schedule. The practice schedule goes through 12/5 as the schedule beyond 12/5 has not yet been finalized, particularly due to the new LHS coaches.

Also included is the presentation shared at the August Board meeting that included the developed schedule and contingencies.

Description:  The consent agenda includes items that are routinely approved by the Board with a single motion - minutes, destruction of closed session recordings, educational tour requests, employment matters, disposal of obsolete capital equipment, bills payable, and financial reports.  Documentation concerning these items has been provided to all Board members and the public in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any Board member.

Description:  Closed session minutes remain in the closed file.

Description:  Closed session minutes remain in the closed file.

Description:  Employment of Employees

Description:  1. LHS Marching Wildcats to London 12/2028
2. LHS SnoCats to Wausau, WI 1/2027
3. LHS Wind Ensemble to Western Illinois University 2/2027
4. VHHS Varsity Baseball to Martin, TN 3/2027

Description:  See attached bills payable

Description:  See attached financial reports for June 2026 along with a FY26 an analysis of budget-to-actual.

Description:  IT takes great care to ensure that any equipment planned for disposal has had all data remnants removed using various methods including overwriting, degaussing, manufacturer provided tools, or physical destruction prior to it leaving district facilities.  

The items will be picked up by eWorks Electronics Services, Inc. sometime in early October. As a reminder, eWorks recently began working with some of our Transition Pathways students to assist them in learning marketable skills and pursuing employment. Additionally, eWorks holds several responsible and sustainable certifications including R2V3 and ISO 14001.

Description:  The D128 Strategic Plan for 2026-2029 is a comprehensive plan that outlines the district’s strategic goals, core priorities, and key actions designed to guide District 128 over the next three school years.

Description:  In accordance with Board Policy 2:240, this is a second reading and adoption of Board Policies as recommended by PRESS (Policy Reference Education Subscription Service) from regular reviews and updated Illinois Public Acts.

Description:  In accordance with Board Policy 2:240, this is a second reading and adoption of Board Policies as recommended by PRESS (Policy Reference Education Subscription Service) from regular reviews and updated Illinois Public Acts.

Description:  The District will work with IASB to produce an administrative procedures policy manual. There are two additional options for purchase:  Administrative Procedures On-Line (APOL) a digitized version of the manual with links to legal references, external websites and cross-references with other procedures and Administrative Procedures Plus (APP) a maintenance update service for us to submit procedure updates. The committee recommends approval of the project contract in the amount of $10,200 and the additional services, APOL for an annual fee of $1,680, and APP for an annual fee of $1,250.

Description:  This IGA outlines the partnership between the College of Lake County (CLC) and Community High School District 128 in terms of CLC providing a "College and Career Navigator" (CCN) to support our high school students. The CCN supports high school students with exploration, application, and enrollment related to CLC programs.  The IGA includes background check processes that the CCN must undergo before working with CHSD 128 students. 

Description:  Included are the recommended updated rental labor rates for FY27. These are the rates charged to renters to recover the District's cost in having its staff work the rental. The rates are based on a blend of people currently in the role.

Description: 

Public Act 104-0430, effective August 20, 2025, made several changes regarding student interactions with law enforcement, including prohibiting the use of municipal ticketing as a school disciplinary consequence and establishing new requirements for school resource officer (SRO) agreements. Beginning July 1, 2026, school districts utilizing SROs are required to maintain a memorandum of understanding with the applicable law enforcement agency that addresses the role and responsibilities of SROs, training requirements, student ticketing prohibitions, data collection and reporting, and regular program review.

The District has worked with the Villages of Libertyville and Vernon Hills to update its respective SRO agreements to reflect these new statutory requirements. As part of this process, the District also sought to align the two agreements so that, to the extent practicable, the terms and language are consistent across both communities. The updated agreements are presented for Board review and approval. These same agreements will be for approval at the respective villages in their upcoming meetings.

Description:  This is the final updated agreement with Rise Aquatics. John Woods and I met and reviewed each word of the agreement with Jeff Arce directly. We have updated several sections for clarity and to match existing operations. All parties agree this agreement is accurate and good to go. 

Part of our discussion included affirming that we both have an interest in each other being successful and that we will work together for any issues that might come up. We all agreed that Section 5B governs any changes that might occur including, for example, adjustments based on the VHHS Pool project.

Description:  It is exciting to see ESP progress in their careers and roles in the district. Several have moved up into positions with more responsibility. When those changes occur, a vacancy is created in the position the ESP is leaving. At times this vacancy can be very challenging to manage, and we will direct the ESP to cover the responsibilities of both temporarily until we are able to fill the vacancy. This might last a few weeks on average. Currently, the only mechanism we have to pay them is overtime. However, the administration and the union agree that this is not sufficient and we are recommending a differential adjustment of $2 per hour for the period of time they are assigned to cover both. The $2 per hour is an existing differential we have in our current agreement for a variety of circumstances. 

Description:  Board members may provide general comments or report on events.

Description:  Board Secretary Austin may have information to report on activities related to the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB).

Description:  Board Secretary Austin may have information to report on activities related to the Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL).

Description:  Board Vice President Polen may have information to share related to ED-RED.

Description:  Board members and District Administration may propose future agenda items.
October 26, 2026
-PE Exemptions Update
-VHHS Pool Update
-2026 Estimated Tax Levy
-Summer Capital Projects - 2027
-Board Governance Handbook

Description:  The meeting will adjourn.