SE Illinois News

Community Unit School District 200 Board of Education met Oct. 13.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

A special meeting of the Board of Education of Community Unit School District 200, DuPage County, Illinois, was called to order at the Wheaton Park District Community Center, 1777 S. Blanchard St., Wheaton, IL, by Board President Rob Hanlon, on Friday, October 13, 2023, at 8:03 AM. Local legislators were present at the meeting to discuss issues surrounding public education with local government officials who represent the school district.

ROLL CALL

Upon the roll being called, the following were present:

Board Members: Mr. Rob Hanlon

Ms. Julie Kulovits

Mr. Dave Long

Ms. Angela Blatner (arrived at 8:06 A.M.)

Mr. John Rutledge

CUSD200 Staff: Jeff Schuler – Superintendent of Schools

Matt Biscan – Asst. Superintendent of Administrative Services

Erica Loiacono – Director of Community Engagement & Communications

Melissa Murphy – Asst. Superintendent of Educational Services

Brian O’Keeffe – Asst. Superintendent of Business Services

Chris Silagi – Asst. Superintendent of Student Services

Jason Spencer – Executive Director of Innovation & Technology

Elected Officials: Betsy Adamowski - Wheaton Public Library Director

Robert Berlin – DuPage County State’s Attorney

Erica Bray-Parker – City of Wheaton Councilwoman

David Brummel – City of Warrenville Mayor

Jeff Castle - Milton Township Trustee

Bradley Clousing – City of Wheaton Councilman

Kevin Dahlstrand – City of Warrenville Director of Finance

Michael Dzugan – City of Wheaton Manager

Grant Eckhoff – DuPage County Board Member

Amy Emery – Warrenville Director Community & Economic Development

Gwen Henry – DuPage County Treasurer

Marty Keller – Milton Township Community Emergency Response Team

Matthew Larson – Wheaton Sanitary District Executive Director

Chris LeVan – Milton Township Assessor

Steve Massie – Winfield Park District President

Terry Mee –Wheaton Park District Commissioner

Laurie Metanchuk – Wheaton Public Library Board President

John Monino – Milton Township Supervisor

Amber Quirk – DuPage County ROE Superintendent

Lynn Robbins – City of Wheaton Councilwoman

Sheila Rutledge – DuPage County Board Member

Greg Schwarze – DuPage County Board Member

Joseph Soto – Milton Township Trustee

Jason Stuhlmann – Warrenville Public Library Executive Director

Scott Weller – City of Wheaton Councilman

Christina White – City of Warrenville Administrator

Judy Wilkie – City of Warrenville Alderman

MOTION

Member Rutledge moved, Member Kulovits, seconded to suspend the rules and adjourn to a workshop setting. Upon a roll call vote being taken the vote was: AYE 4, NAY 0. The motion carried 4-0.

Welcome and Program

Superintendent Schuler and Board President Hanlon welcomed and thanked everyone for coming to this annual event – an opportunity to tell the story of the District and hear feedback from our community partners. District 200 Board Members, leadership team, and elected officials shared their names and who they represent to the group.

Dr. Schuler shared information on the Vision 2026 Strategic Plan, District 200 Profile, Finance and Facilities Overviews, as well as SEL (social-emotional learning) and Career Pathways. This included information on the following:

● Student Enrollment – at a stable place; enrollment at younger grades (K-5) is up significantly; the biggest Kindergarten class in years; a number of development opportunities throughout the district and turnover in the communities.

● Student demographics – continue to shift; low income is above 30% threshold for the first time; increase in Multilingual Learners and newcomer students; creates both an opportunity and challenges for our district.

● Portrait of a Graduate (POG) – the desire to graduate kids who are academically excellent, good strong communicators, resilient learners, kids who can collaborate and work with other people, and those who can solve problems.

● Focus on Learning Acceleration moving out of the pandemic altered experience – adopted a new math curriculum (K-8), a new ELA curriculum was introduced this year (elementary), and are reviewing ELA at the middle school level; also looking at a new Social Studies curriculum.

● State Report Card Data – coming out in about a week; will see significant growth in some of the academic measures and outcomes.

● College and Career Pathways Work at the High School level

o Workplace Internships – Recognized City of Warrenville who hosted eight students interested in civic government from WWSHS for a day working in different civic departments. This translated to other opportunities.

o Share pathways information with one person to consider hosting a HS student for an internship.

o Others that have/will host students – accounting firm and a manufacturing company.

● Dual Credit Program – early college opportunities; expanding opportunities with a stated goal; cost savings for students and families; more flexibility for students in college.

● Foundational Work – investing additional resources for teachers – coaches in math and reading; working hard in the SEL space so every student has supports in our buildings and has a trusted adult inside of their building.

● Referral GPS program – as mental health challenges increase, helping families that need support to connect to the support they need; works directly with the families.

● Vision 2026 strategic plan - District dashboard on the D200 website; will see the current focus in the district and see every piece of data being monitored. The importance of seeing the trends and making sure they are moving in the right direction.

● Niche ranking (organization that ranks school districts) – overall A+ ranking.

● A national study measuring learning loss (as a result of the pandemic) from 2019 to 2022

o The average student lost half a year in math and a quarter of a year in reading.

o 87% of school districts in Illinois showed learning loss.

o D200 results – students in District 200 actually achieved gains during this time.

● Learning space areas of focus – Learning Acceleration, College & Career Readiness, SEL, and Artificial Intelligence.

● Challenges – wrestling with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the impact it is going to have on the learning environment; helping staff understand AI and putting appropriate parameters around it.

● Finance – 14th consecutive balanced budget, highest possible “Financial Recognition” designation with the State Board of Education; AA+ S&P credit rating; debt restructure, investing heavily in facilities, investing in playgrounds and LLC opportunities.

● Intentionally looking at three of our middle schools (Edison, Franklin, and Monroe) – how to go about addressing that work, what we want to focus on, and how we want to focus on that. Potential individual projects include:

o Infrastructure and mechanical needs

o Safety and Security

o Science Lab Classrooms

o Classroom Improvements

o Building Layout & Collaborative Spaces

o Special Education & Accessibility

o Student Services Spaces

o Library Learning Centers

o Indoor Athletic & Physical Education Spaces

o Performing Arts & Music Spaces

● In less than two years, the District will make the last bond and interest payment. The community has an opportunity to determine how much of the amount they would like to see in tax relief and how much they would like to invest back in the schools without raising taxes.

● Municipal partners that helped with renovated Library Learning Centers – a capital grant last year from one of our state legislative partners to invest in Johnson Elementary School and developer donation dollars to help with Whittier Elementary School project. These are spaces that support learning experiences for students outside of the classroom.

● The three options for the community – low funding level, medium funding level, high funding level. All three of the options would not mean an increase in taxes.

● The district is in the process of getting feedback on the options.

● The Board of Education has not identified a plan. The administration will be bringing feedback from the surveys back to the Board in December.

● The Engagement site (together200.net) and the QR code were noted to provide additional information and for the community to give feedback. Those in attendance had the opportunity to take the survey to rank the potential projects and rank the funding level options.

There were comments/questions on the following:

● Will the District have to go to a referendum for the projects mentioned?

● The increase in expense per student from 2021 to 2022 and what this is attributed to.

Dr. Schuler and President Hanlon thanked everyone for attending and sharing feedback.

PUBLIC COMMENT

None

MOTION

There being no further business to come before the Board in Open Session, Member Long moved, Member Kulovits, seconded to adjourn the meeting. Upon a voice call vote being taken, all were in favor and the motion carried 5-0.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:38 AM.

https://core-docs.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/3696/CUSD200/3711683/Minutes_Oct_13_BOE_spec_mtg_with_local_officials_rev.pdf