September 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Meeting

Description: 
Our Mission, Beliefs, and Values

Board Agreements and Protocols

Vision 2025 Strategic Plan

 IASB Code of Conduct 

Description:  This is an opportunity to welcome guests, make announcements, and share Board correspondence.

The Board received a FOIA request from Jacob Long of Public Data Research and Dr. Gluck of D.G. Counseling, Inc.

Description:  This month we are shining our spotlight on our IT professionals Mike Van de North and Mark Pragides for National IT Professionals Day. These two do great work to ensure that our network and countless devices keep running smoothly for our students and staff. We also want to give a shout out to our fall athletics coaches, including baseball coach Craig Damrow, cross country coaches Scott Kondraschow and Sarah Leganski, softball coach Danielle Hosman and her assistant coach and father Mr. Trezzo, as well as golf coach Landon Mitchell.

Description:  This is the first opportunity for any guests to comment, per Board Policy 2:230.

Description:  The consent agenda allows for approval of routine action items together in one motion when discussion is typically unnecessary. Upon the request of any Board member, a consent agenda item can be withdrawn and placed on the regular agenda for independent consideration. Questions in advance of the meeting are appreciated in the event any background information needs to be obtained.

Description:  There are no personnel recommendations for the consent agenda this month.

Description:  After a motion for the Board to enter the public hearing, I will briefly review our Recommended FY26 Budget and answer any questions from the Board or the public. There are no changes from the tentative budget presented at the August meeting.

The ISBE State Budget Form is required for Board approval and adoption, and we need to have all Board members present sign the form in the order of the vote that is held later in the meeting under recommended action item V.A. At the end of the hearing, we will need a motion and vote to close the public hearing.

Description:  We will briefly review our current enrollment numbers to start the year. We are down a few students from last year with another smaller kindergarten class, but overall holding pretty steady.
 

Description:  The recommended policy updates are mostly five year reviews. Policy 2:80 is the Board Member Oath and Conduct, which includes a question related to members who violate their oath of office. Don’t do that!

Description:  As I shared in my communication earlier this week, I believe we will well exceed 30 applicants, and so far the quality of the pool appears to be strong. Our screeners already have planned dates for the screening interviews, which will be held confidentially and off site. The consultants will review the final candidate pool with the Board at the October meeting, after screening has been conducted.

Description:  I would like to have a brief discussion regarding potential Phase III projects for the summer of 2026. We recently updated the Facility and Safety Planning page and a summary of our recent and potential work is provide under "What are the facility and safety plans?" Obviously, these are still just ideas, but I believe all things we have discussed at some point as we prioritized our work.

Before proceeding with any preliminary planning with the architects, it would be good to hold a Facilities Committee meeting to prioritize a bit more, particularly now that we have a better handle on the funds available. Some potential items for consideration include installation of remaining energy efficient LED lighting, replacement of related ceiling panels, replacement of the secured entrance system, installation of flooring, improvement in the courtyards at both schools, and replacement of parking lots and drives.

Description:  To refresh everyone’s memory, the Board provided previous authorization for me to make decisions and approve change orders in real time to ensure a successful project that finishes on time. Change orders inevitable in a renovation project, but sometimes that leads to good outcomes and unforeseen improvements, such as the replacement of old plumbing. While in most cases they are added costs, change orders can also result in credits.

The following links are long and detailed, but if you wish to keep your reading concise, I would suggest reviewing the first couple of pages that provides a summary of the added (or credited) work. For the summer 2025 Phase II projects, we ended with only one change order request for the exterior site work, and there are four so far for Board approval for the interior renovations.

Following are the links to the details, as well as the total change in cost to date:

Exterior Site Work
Change Order 1 Exterior Site Work 8-25-25 - ($29,363.71)

Original Exterior Site Work Contract -            $300,000.00
Total Change Order Requests                       ($29,363.71)
Final Exterior Project Cost                            $270,636.29

Interior Renovations
Change Order 1 Interior Renovation 5-28-25    $1,194.00
Change Order 2 Interior Renovation 7-2-25   $194,855.00
Change Order 3 Interior Renovation 7-15-25    $31,552.00
Change Order 4 Interior Renovation 8-25-25  ($17,577.00)

Original Interior Renovation Contract          $1,485,000.00
Total Change Order Requests                        $210,024.00
Final Exterior Project Cost                          $1,695,024.00

Total Project Cost To Date
Original Summer 2025 Phase II Contracts   $1,785,000.00
Total Change Order Requests                       $180,660.29
Grand Total Phase II Contract Cost             $1,965,660.29

I anticipate one final interior renovation change order that shouldn’t be too bad, but I am very happy with where we are ending up, not to mention the value added to the project for the $180,000. As we being thinking about and potentially planning Phase III, this will help our remaining budget come into focus on work that the Board wants to prioritize.

Description:  As I previously shared with the Board, we received our 18 month Blue Cross Blue Shield renewal from our new agents at Gallagher, and we are overall pleased that we came in at 14.4 percent. As a reminder, to join the Educational Benefit Cooperative (more on that on the next action item), we first needed to transition from a January 1 renewal to July 1, leading to the inevitable 18 month renewal cycle that is planned for January 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.

This naturally led to concern with what that premium increase would be, knowing that industry wide there have been significant increases, and it is for a much timeframe. While we never want to see double digit premium increases, this is locked in through the second half of this school year, and all of the next. If you annualize it, the renewal is an effective 9.6 percent for 12 months.

Regarding the smaller lines of insurance, this has been a little more frustrating to pin down. After some negotiating from our new agents at Gallagher, our SunLife dental renewal is at 12 percent. However, we are still getting clarification on whether or not we can stretch this to 18 months, as we obviously want to get all of our lines of insurance on the same timeline. There is no increase with EyeMed Vision and the Standard Life and AD&D is pending.

This is all happening in real time, but we should have the final renewal proposals for health, dental, and vision insurance ready for the meeting so that the recommendation is clear. One thing about this change that I am already so happy with is that I am making this recommendation in September, rather than November. This is a huge help in our decision making and planning, not to mention planning for the open enrollment period for our employees.

Description:  We are down to the final steps in being able to join the EBC. Besides the change to the 18 month renewal, our Board must approve this resolution for submission. Also, for your reference, here are the EBC bylaws. Once approved by our Board, our acceptance will then move to the EBC Board of Directors. From all of our conversations, we do not anticipate our acceptance being a concern. If all goes as planned, we are officially members of the EBC on January 1, and our next renewal will be July 1, 2027 and each July 1 thereafter. I believe that we are making a smart long-term decision for the school district, as well as our staff. Any questions are very welcome.

Description:  Per Board Policy 7:305, we are required to annually appoint Concussion Oversight Team members. I recommend that we maintain the following members, with the addition of junior high nurse Amy Lesnicki, for this purpose:

Katie Beringer, Concord Nurse
Amy Lesnicki, Cass Nurse
Christine Marcinkewicz, Principal
Dr. Rinku Patel, Medical Community
Mark Cross, Superintendent
Landon Mitchell, Coach
Amy Pollitz, Athletic Director
 

Description:  This is the second opportunity for any guests in the audience to share public comments, per Board Policy 2:230.

Description:  This is the opportunity for Board members to share any comments, as well as to announce the next meeting date, time, and location.