West Central Reporter

Calhoun Community Unit School District 40 Board of Education met Oct. 22.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

A regular meeting, of the Board of Education in Calhoun Community Unit School District #40, consisting of Calhoun and portions of Greene Counties, Illinois was called to order by Board President Luke Fraley, Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the Calhoun Elementary Library.

Upon roll being called the following board members were present: Jackie Baalman, Luke Fraley, Adam Gerson, Amanda Gress, Nate Sagez and Angie Tepen. Hannah Nelson was absent.

Others in attendance were: LeaAnn Klaas, Lori Young, Jean Heil, and Jeremy Pohlman. Christie Lorsbach and Pam Friedel arrived at 5:40 p.m.

A motion was made by Jackie Baalman, seconded by Amanda Gress that the Board of Education approves the agenda inclusive of:

I. Call to Order

II. Roll Call of Members

III. Pledge of Allegiance

IV. Approve Agenda

V. Recognition of Visitors, Guests & Public Comments

- To preserve sufficient time for the Board to conduct its business, it is our public policy that each individual may speak for a maximum of 5 minutes unless prior arrangements have been made to speak longer.

VI. Consent Items

a. Adoption of Consent Agenda

b. Previous Board Minutes

i. Regular Meeting – September 17, 2024

ii. Budget Hearing – September 17, 2024

c. Expenditures

d. Financial Reports

e. Activity Accounts Report

f. Transportation Report

VII. Committee and Administrative Reports

a. Calhoun Elementary School

b. Calhoun High School

c. Superintendent

i. District Services/Maintenance Report

VIII. Second & Final Reading of Press Plus Policy Update 116

a. 2:260 Uniform Grievance Procedure

b. 2:265 Title IX Grievance Procedure

c. 5:100 Staff Development Program

d. 7:20 Harassment of Students Prohibited

e. 7:185 Teen Dating Violence Prohibited

IX. Action Items Prior to Executive Session

a. Consider Approval of

i. Split Elem. Girls Basketball Activity Fund

ii. Updates to the 2024-25 District Strategic Plan

iii. Removal of Student Admission Fees to Athletic Events

X. Executive Session – For the purpose of discussion regarding the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employee(s); legal counsel, collective negotiating matters or deliberations; board vacancies; evidence or testimony presented in a hearing where authorized by law; purchase or lease of real property; sale or purchase of securities, investments or investment contracts; security procedures; student disciplinary cases or any matter involving an individual student; litigation; self-evaluation, practices and procedures, or professional ethics; minutes of meetings lawfully closed; internal control weaknesses, potential fraud risk areas; establishment of reserves, settlement or discussion of claims, loss or risk management information, records, data, advice or communications from or with respect to any insurer of the District. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)

XI. Action Items Following Executive Session

a. Consider Approving Personnel Recommendations

i. Substitute Cooks

ii. Volunteer Assistant Coach

iii. One on One Aide

b. Maternity/Paternity Leave

XII. Other Business

XIII. Communication and Announcements

a. November 5 – No School: Election Day

b. November 8 – Veteran’s Day Program

c. November 11 – No School: Veteran’s Day

d. November 19 – Board Meeting

e. Correspondence

XIV. Adjourn

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carried.

A motion was made by Amanda Gress, seconded by Jackie Baalman that the Board of Education approves items on the consent agenda which includes:

XV. Consent Items

a. Adoption of Consent Agenda

b. Previous Board Minutes

i. Regular Meeting – September 17, 2024

ii. Budget Hearing – September 17, 2024

c. Expenditures

d. Financial Reports

e. Activity Accounts Report

f. Transportation Report

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carried.

Executive Session:

A motion was made at 5:32 p.m. by Angie Tepen, seconded by Jackie Baalman that the Board of Education enters into executive session.

For the purpose of discussion regarding the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employee(s); legal counsel, collective negotiating matters or deliberations; board vacancies; evidence or testimony presented in a hearing where authorized by law; purchase or lease of real property; sale or purchase of securities, investments or investment contracts; security procedures; student disciplinary cases or any matter involving an individual student; litigation; self-evaluation, practices and procedures, or professional ethics; minutes of meetings lawfully closed; internal control weaknesses, potential fraud risk areas; establishment of reserves, settlement or discussion of claims, loss or risk management information, records, data, advice or communications from or with respect to any insurer of the District. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion was made at 5:39 p.m. by Angie Tepen, seconded by Adam Gerson that the Board of Education returns to Open Session to continue meeting and take any appropriate action.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

Reception of Visitors / Public Comment: N/A

Principals Report:

Calhoun Elementary School Principal Jean Heil Report

We had 91% participation for our Parent-Teacher Conferences on October 1st and 3rd. Lots of great celebrations and positive things shared regarding our students’ growth and progress.

We had a wonderful Homecoming week and lots of fun rooting for our Warriors! Thanks to our PTO for sponsoring the EPIC Rock/Paper, Scissors Tournament! SO MUCH FUN!! Congratulations to Devin Bean, our school-wide champion!

Our Washington DC trip was successful and lots of great experiences were had. Thanks to Andrea Pohlman and Pam Friedel who planned and led the trip.

We are proud of the work that has been accomplished in the first quarter and are looking ahead to next quarter for more successes and greater learning.

Our school ILT (Instructional Leadership Team) led grade-level data analysis meetings and helped teacher teams to develop goals (focused on our Targeted SIP goals) 1st grade: Reading goal - By the spring of 2025, 80% of the students will show growth in high frequency words; Math goal - By the spring of 2025, 80% of the students will show growth in number and operations. 2nd grade: Reading goal - By May 2025, 75% of 2nd grade students will show growth in reading comprehension; Math goal - By May 2025, 75% of 2nd grade students will show growth in the geometry domain. 3rd grade: Reading goal - By May 2025, 80% of the 13 students testing in red (10 students) will show growth in the area of overall reading comprehension; Math goal - By May 2025, 60% of the 9 students testing in red (5 students) in measurement and data will show growth of 10 scaled points. 4th grade: Reading goal - By spring 2025, 70% of the students will show growth in Comprehension of Informational text; Math goal - By spring 2025, 70% of the students will show growth in Algebra and Algebraic thinking skills. 5th grade: Reading goal - 75% of students will show growth in Comprehension of Informational text; Math goal - 75% of students will show growth in numbers and operational skills. Junior High: Math goal - Our goal will be for fewer than 25% of students to score below basic on winter MAP testing in the category of Real and Complex Number Systems. Our specific focus will be on ratios. We will monitor growth through IXL.

Area of concern for School Board’s consideration/knowledge: Since the start of the school year, we have had significant issues with various aspects of technology: Severe Internet issues (not working REGULARLY, which impedes teachers’ ability to do their jobs effectively). Equipment that was supposed to have been serviced or updated over the summer months was not. None of the student Chromebooks were serviced or updated. Major delays in addressing technology issues brought up by staff and administration. We currently have no extra student Chromebooks in our building. That means when a student’s Chromebook stops working (mostly because of its age) we have no way of providing them another one. Students in grades 1 - 8 use their Chromebooks DAILY for everything from assignments, projects, accessing Google Classroom, working on our school-approved progress-monitoring tools (iReady, IXL, Easy CBM) as well as our testing platforms (iReady, MAP, IAR, ISA).

Area of consideration for School Board: Adjustment of custodial hours at the Elementary School. There has been a struggle this year in keeping classrooms and hallways clean. Currently, we have two custodians who are here during the day only: 1 arrives at ~7:40 am (only a few minutes before staff and students are in the building) and leaves at 3:30 and 1 arrives at ~ 8:10/15 and leaves at 3:00. While the goal is to clean classrooms while teachers have their PREP time (no students in their room), it doesn’t seem to be working well: there are several teachers who have preps at the same time, so there’s just not enough time to get to all the classrooms to sweep, mop, dust, take out garbage, etc., also, teachers often have meetings or will work with individual students during their PREP times, so the rooms are not even “available” to be cleaned. Since we have students in the building all day, it is impossible to mop hallways during the day, which basically means that isn’t done regularly at all. With many athletic activities happening almost every afternoon/evening, bathrooms are being used (dirtied, products used) but there is no one here to clean them and so we start the day with dirty bathrooms and often a lack of TP or paper towels. I’ve had multiple teachers share that they are having to sweep and maintain their own classrooms. When cleaning is done, it is done well, I just feel as though trying to get done what needs to be done during the day when the school is full of people, is not allowing for the building to be cleaned and stay cleaned effectively. I would like to submit for consideration in the future that we have custodian work from 6:45am - 2:45pm and another custodian work from 1:45pm - 9:45pm. This would allow someone to be here in the building an hour before school starts to make sure that the building is ready for teachers and students, turn on lights, etc. Having the two of them overlap an hour allows them to work together in cafeteria cleanup. Then the afternoon/evening custodian would be able to work on classrooms and hallways without students present as well as be available during and after games.

Calhoun High School Principal Christie Lorsbach Report

HOCO 2024 – Congratulations to the football team on their victory over Pleasant Hill. The 2024 HOCO King is Jake Kress and Queen Josie Hoagland. First runner up for King was Sam Contreras and Queen was Maryah Baze. Other Court members: Jake Hillen, Al Hillen, Bo Lorsbach, Ava Clowers, Audrey Gilman, and Mary Pluester.

The Senior float placed first, Sophomores placed second, Juniors came in third and Freshman were fourth.

The Senior Night recognition will be held Friday, October 18th for football, band club, cheer club, and golf. These students will be recognized at 6:30 Friday evening before the football game. The Volleyball team is still going strong and will have Senior Night next Wednesday, October 23rd. The Freshman/Sophomore Volleyball team placed 1st in the Waverly Tournament.

The National Earthquake Drill was held on “The Great Shake Out”, October 17th.

The Senior trip planning and booking is going smoothly.

The weightlifting PE class has been able to purchase two new pieces of equipment for the weight room; a hack squat machine and a shoulder press machine.

Lucas from GRP was here last Tuesday, to check all the systems to ensure everything is working properly. New office furniture has been delivered, set up and looks fantastic! Feel free to stop by and take a look in person.

There were 17 students that attended the SWIC Manufacturing Day field trip. Students were able to tour the campus, meet with faculty, and view demonstrations from programs offered.

Scholastic Bowl practice has begun for Fall League and the team will start with their first match on 10/29. Family Conferences went well, there were 40-50 families in attendance.

Thank you to the district for allowing the students to have one free admittance to a game during homecoming week. There were approximately 50 students who used the passes to attend either the JV or Varsity Football games. Unfortunately, we did not have any home volleyball games during HOCO week. Thanks to James Jones with Thunderbird Hauling, as he challenged the football team to carry him across the football field and then donate $1,000 to the team.

On November 19, we will be having a student assembly with Julie Smith, from Webster University. She will be discussing digital literacy/AI. The presentation will be done in two sections; she will meet with Seniors/Juniors and then with Sophomores/Freshman.

Superintendent Lori Young Report

There has been a FOIA request by Science of Reading Illinois for information about K-3 Literacy Curriculum at the elementary building.

A letter of support was written for the IDOT Village Sidewalk Project.

Reported the September enrollment numbers to ROE #40. PreK has 33 students, K-8 has 299 students, high school as 170 students and 3 students attending alternative placements.

District Strategic Plan has been updated for the 2024-25 school year.

Elementary is in need of HV repairs. GRP quoted Kitchen Heart Exchanger $4418 and Girls Locker Room Gas Valve $1417.

A special meeting will need to be held before Dec. 15 for the Annual Financial Report.

District Services/Maintenance Report:

Maintenance Report: Rod and I have been going through the buildings getting ready for the winter months. GRP came in and did a preventative maintenance check on all the rooftop units at the elementary school. They found a bad gas valve on one of the units and a bad heat exchanger on another. They are scheduled to be here this Friday to repair the units. It will be nice knowing all the units are ready to go going into the heating season. Overall the units did fairly well last year after all the repairs the year before. Hopefully we can get a few more years out of them. All the units at the high school are now functioning properly with the exception of the gym units. They are still waiting on parts so the gym units can be hooked up and controlled off the monitoring system. GRP is also supposed to be here this week to finish up some small items on the punch list at the high school. They will also be repainting all the tee pees between the windows this week. The paint they had originally used was peeling so they are going to strip off the old and repaint them all with a new type of paint. There’s also supposed to be a painter working in the gym on Wednesday to paint the beams where the old panel clips were located. Also this week we have our Health Life Safety and State Fire Marshal inspections.

Transportation Report: Transportation has been very busy this month with all the ball games and field trips. We also have several students going to different schools in the area. The new van has really helped with transporting all the students out of the district for school. We were also able to find another van driver this month as well. Maintenance in the transportation department has been minimal this month. With winter right around the corner I will start getting the buses ready for cold weather soon.

A motion was made by Amanda Gress, seconded by Nate Sagez that the Board of Education approves to split Elem. Girls Basketball Activity Fund into 5/6 Girls Basketball and 7/8 Girls Basketball with the balance of $350.71 going to 7/8 Girls Basketball Account Fund.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion was made by Jackie Baalman, seconded by Angie Tepen that the Board of Education approves the updates to the 2024-25 District Strategic Plan as presented.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion to remove student admission fees to athletic events was tabled.

Executive Session:

A motion was made at 6:45 p.m. by Nate Sagez, seconded by Amanda Gress that the Board of Education enters into executive session.

For the purpose of discussion regarding the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employee(s); legal counsel, collective negotiating matters or deliberations; board vacancies; evidence or testimony presented in a hearing where authorized by law; purchase or lease of real property; sale or purchase of securities, investments or investment contracts; security procedures; student disciplinary cases or any matter involving an individual student; litigation; self-evaluation, practices and procedures, or professional ethics; minutes of meetings lawfully closed; internal control weaknesses, potential fraud risk areas; establishment of reserves, settlement or discussion of claims, loss or risk management information, records, data, advice or communications from or with respect to any insurer of the District. 5 ILCS 120/2(c)

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion was made at 8:13 p.m. by Amanda Gress, seconded by Angie Tepen that the Board of Education returns to Open Session to continue meeting and take any appropriate action.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion was made by Amanda Gress, seconded by Adam Gerson that the Board of Education approves personnel recommendations as presented for the 2024-25 school year.

ESP: Rose Meyer and Barbara Romain, Substitute Cook, Beth Smith, One on One Aide Coaching/Sponsor: Kortney Herkert and Haley Schnelten, Volunteer Assistant Coach HS Girls Basketball Substitutes: Natalie Berkholz

*All new hires are subject to completion of background check, EHR (Faith’s Law) check, fingerprinting and any other required classes and/or trainings.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion was made by Angie Tepen, seconded by Adam Gerson that the Board of Education approves the maternity leave for Anne Marie Hickson from February 24, 2025 to April 21, 2025.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

A motion was made by Jackie Baalman, seconded by Nate Sagez that the Board of Education approves the paternity leave for Dylan Ringhausen from September 27, 2024 to October 15, 2024.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

Informational Items:

November 5 – No School: Election Day

November 8 – Veteran’s Day Program

November 11 – No School: Veteran’s Day

November 19 – Board Meeting

Correspondence

With no further business to discuss, a motion was made by Amanda Gress, seconded by Adam Gerson that the Board of Education adjourns the meeting at 8:15 p.m.

Board polled:

Baalman – yes Nelson – absent

Fraley – yes Sagez – yes

Gerson – yes Tepen – yes

Gress – yes

Motion carries.

https://calhoun40.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/5-October-22-2024-Regular-Board-Meeting.pdf