Good News
Principal Bill Walsh provided the board with the good news report for Hinsdale Central. This report included the following information:
- A blurb about the presentation that teacher Laura Milas gave at the 2021 Illinois Art Education Association Conference.
- Details about Jui Khankari being one of 300 high school seniors who were named scholars by the Society for Science in conjunction with the organization's annual science and math competition.
- The names of the teachers who either earned or renewed their National Board certification.
- The list of students who were recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in conjunction with its Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
Principal Arwen Pokorny Lyp from Hinsdale South wished the school's danceline team the best of luck at state and the cheerleading team the best of luck at sectionals. She also provided the board with the good news report for South. This report included the following information:
- The names of the 15 students from South's Business Professionals of America (BPA) organization that qualified for the state competition.
- Details about the speech team's third place finish at the Wheaton Warrenville South Tournament.
- The list of students who were recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in conjunction with its Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
- The names of the school's World Language Students of the Month for January.
Summer School Program
The board received a presentation regarding the district’s 2022 summer school program that included the following information:
- Details about the key dates, location and transportation
- Registration for summer school will begin March 15; link will be included in the program of studies
- First semester will take place June 13-30
- Second semester will take place July 5-21
- All in-person courses will be offered at Hinsdale Central
- Drivers education will be offered at both campuses
- Bus transportation will be available to all students at no additional cost
- List of flexible format course offerings (available in a hybrid, blended or online format to better accommodate people's summer schedules)
- Consumer Economics
- Etymology
- Health
- Science Inquiry and Research (SIR) 1, 2 and 3
- Integrated Algebra and Geometry Extension
- Introduction to Precalculus
- Skills Review for French 2 Workshop
- Computer Science Camp/Hybrid - will be offered in person and online for three one-week sessions; students can take one, two or all three of these sessions
- List of in-person course offerings for credit/advancement
- Speech and Communication
- Algebra 1 - Part 2
- Geometry Accelerated
- Guitar 1
- Drivers Education
- Chemistry
- Biology
- List of in-person course offerings for skill building and credit recovery
- Freshmen Reading Strategies
- Freshmen Algebra Strategies
- Filling Algebra Gaps
- AP History Writing Workshop
- Skills Review for Spanish
- All credit recovery courses in English, math, science, and social studies (except civics)
- Descriptions of the new course being offered
- Introduction to Precalculus
- AP Writing Workshop
- Computer Science Camp
You can access additional information about this agenda item, including the summer school program of studies, by visiting
https://bit.ly/3AxBc9o.
Committee Reports
Members of the Insurance Committee provided the board with a report from their
meeting on Jan. 12. During this meeting, the committee:
- Received an update on open enrollment. There was no significant change from the prior year.
- Discussed performance concerns with the third party benefits administrator. A meeting will be scheduled to address these concerns.
- Received legislative updates from Alliant.
- Discussed options and ideas for an employee wellness initiative.
Members of the Deferred Compensation and Investment Committee
provided the board with a report from their
meeting on Jan. 12. During this meeting, the committee:
- Learned that the plan has approximately $50 million in assets.
- Reviewed market and fund performance with Graystone Consulting.
- Learned that 17 employees scheduled information meetings with Empower in December.
- Learned that there are approximately 100 grandfathered accounts.
- Discussed changing the name of the committee to "Deferred Compensation" and making it a superintendent committee instead of a board committee. Talked about the need to make updates to policy 4:52 (Deferred Compensation Policy) in order to implement these changes.
Members of the Finance Committee provided the board with a report from their
meeting on Jan. 19. During this meeting, the committee:
- Reviewed a request from the Hinsdale Central Booster Club to refund a $6,900 donation that was made in May 2020 to fund running utilities for a future video scoreboard at the stadium. After discussing the request, the committee agreed to recommend to the board that the refund be issued. The board approved this refund as part of the consent agenda for its meeting on Jan. 27.
- Discussed the current state of the renovation budgets for the district's operational and capital projects.
- Discussed the district's transition to a new student information system for the 2022-23 fiscal year. This system has the capability to replace PushCoin, which is what the district currently uses to process fee payments and transactions completed via student lunch accounts. While the change will result in significant improvements overall, there are higher processing fees associated with the use of credit cards. The committee reviewed a variety of options for addressing this issue, and recommended that the board approve a new credit card processing fee of 3.85% in conjunction with the implementation of the new student information system. The board approved this fee as part of the consent agenda for its meeting on Jan. 27.
- Reviewed the monthly reporting and consent agenda items that are generated by the business office. This was completed in conjunction with a standard process improvement review that occurs on a periodic basis. After the review, the committee determined that no changes needed to be made to the current reports, with the exception of the monthly salaries (payroll report). The committee talked about the possibility of condensing the current report to a summary-only report, but wants the full board to weigh in on this idea.
Members of the joint Facilities and special committee for community engagement with construction provided the board with a report from
their meeting on Jan. 21. During this meeting, the committee:
- Received an update on the status of the construction schedule, including work that has been completed, is in progress, or is planned for Phases 1, 2 and/or 3.
- Received an update on the financials and contingency balances for Phases 1 and 2.
- Discussed RFP 22-013 (E-Rate Low Voltage Structured Cabling System) and the recommendation to award it to the contractor with the highest evaluation rating.
- Discussed the Phase 3 bid results and the award recommendations for projects that required rebidding.
- Reviewed and discussed the updated referendum project budget and the value engineering recommendations from the construction team to help align it. The recommendations received the support of the committee members.
- Talked about the window problems at Hinsdale Central and the results of Bid 22-009 (Window Replacement at Hinsdale Central) that was issued to address them.
In addition to receiving the reports mentioned above, the board voted to release the draft minutes from these meetings as part of the consent agenda.
Future Ready Facilities
The board took the following action in conjunction with the district's ongoing Future Ready Facilities work:
- Bid Package 74 (Structural Steel/Metals at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South) to to K&K Ironworks at Hinsdale Central for $434,000 and S.G. Krause at Hinsdale South for $274,179
- Bid Package 75 (General Trades at Hinsdale Central) to LJ Morse Construction Co. for $794,490
- Bid Package 79 (Hard Tile at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South) to Northern Illinois Terrazzo and Tile for $106,990
- Bid Package 81 (Floor Prep/Resilient Flooring/Carpet at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South) to Douglas Flooring for $1,339,000
Consent Agenda
The board approved the consent agenda as amended. The consent agenda includes personnel, stipends, board bills and meeting minutes. Please visit
https://bit.ly/3r3ueGb to access the consent agenda items beginning under number nine.
Approve Contract with Finalsite
The board approved a contract with Finalsite to redesign the district’s family of websites and provide services to manage/maintain them going forward. The total setup cost for performing the redesign is $6,875, and the total cost for the district's annual subscription/services is $9,900 per year for five years.
Board President's Report
Board President Terri Walker said that she hopes the start of second semester is going well for the members of the District 86 community. She also thanked the principals for their good news reports.
President Walker then shared information about educational equity from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB). This information included the following text from the introduction featured on
ISBE's Equity Information and Resources webpage:
"ISBE is committed to equity – in our agency, in our board, in our school districts and classrooms. As we state in our Strategic Plan, 'Illinois has an urgent and collective responsibility to achieve educational equity by ensuring that all policies, programs, and practices affirm the strengths that each and every child brings within their diverse backgrounds and life experiences, and by delivering the comprehensive supports, programs, and educational opportunities they need to succeed.'
Above all, the Strategic Plan offers this concise definition of these goals: 'Equity means having high expectations for every learner and providing supports and resources so each learner can meet those expectations.'”
"School board members are responsible for the 'equitable and quality education of every student in the school district' and must act accordingly in their collective work as a board of education to foster excellence for every student. IASB undertakes equity work to provide its members with resources to develop their competence and confidence in support of educational equity."
It also included information about two EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) webinars that she and a few of the other board members participated in. The first webinar was "Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and the Language We Use," and the second was "Being Right or Being Effective: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Leaders at the Crossroads."
President Walker finished her report by stating that the district's focus on equity is in line with the direction from ISBE and IASB.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Tammy Prentiss shared that a total of 511 people participated in the vaccine and booster shot clinic held at Hinsdale Central on Jan. 24. She thanked Jewel-Osco for its continued partnership, and the district's security team for helping the event run smoothly.
Superintendent Prentiss talked about her most recent Wednesday visits to Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South. She stopped by a few career and technical education classes at South with Principal Pokorny Lyp, and social studies classes at Central with Principal Walsh.
Superintendent Prentiss also recognized Josh Stephenson, the district's chief financial officer, and the other members of the business office for earning the Meritorious Budget Award (MBA) from the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) International for the 2021-22 budget year. This is the sixth consecutive year the district has won the award, which promotes and recognizes best budget presentation practices in school districts.
Treasury and Financial Reports
Per its regular cadence of reporting, the administration provided the board with the treasury and financial reports for December 2021. You can access the treasury report by visiting
https://bit.ly/3g0muyj and the financial reports by visiting
https://bit.ly/3KRvTGP.
FOIA Requests
The board received information about the FOIA requests that have been processed since its last regular action meeting. This information included the names or titles of the individuals and departments who helped respond to the requests, a summary of the records that were requested and who asked for them, and trend data about the number of requests that have been processed and the legal fees the district has incurred in responding to them.
Future Agenda Items
The board identified the topics that will be added to a future agenda for discussion:
- The process for adding/addressing future agenda items.
- Possible revisions to policy 4:60 (Purchases and Contracts) - this will come to the board after it is discussed by the Policy Committee.
- Addressing student scheduling options to provide more equitable access to courses across the district.
The board also identified the topics that will be presented to the group during the Future Agenda Items portion of an upcoming meeting to determine if a majority supports discussing/exploring them further. Those topics include:
- The three-minute pitch process that is used to determine if items will be added to a future agenda.
- An overview of the Culture and Equity Leadership Team (CELT), including the future work and direction of the group.
- The potential impact the current lawsuit regarding mask mandates may have on the district's COVID-19 protocols and procedures.
- Clarification about the handling of social media posts that are deemed to be responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests received by the district.
The board adjourned to closed session following the second scheduled audience communication. After this session, the board approved a report regarding a complaint that was filed in accordance with policy 2:260 (Uniform Grievance Procedure).
