Burr Ridge CCSD #180 Board Meeting Summary

Summary of April 21, 2008
Board of Education Meeting

The Burr Ridge C.C.S.D. 180 Board of Education held their regular meeting on Monday, April
21, 2008. The meeting was held in the Burr Ridge Middle School Band Room.
After approval of the previous month’s minutes and expenditures, the Board then reviewed
several recent communications. Highlighted items are included below:

• The School Administrator published an interesting story on systems reform. This article was
shared with the new administrative team as it speaks directly to the issues facing our district
and the direction the board and superintendent would like to take the district with our newly
organized administrative team.

• The Doings covered Mrs. Gosselink’s move to Tate Woods and our district’s search for a
replacement.

• The Suburban Life published a story on the use of e-pay which we will have in place soon to
process payments as a part of our effort.

• The Doings had a story about the restoration of summer school thanks to the donation from
the Burr Ridge Educational Foundation.

• The Doings wrote a very nice story about the latest GATE activity involving problem solving
related to a food borne illness.

• The ISBE notified the district that it has received “Financial Recognition” in the State’s most
recent Financial Profile. This recognition is based upon the influx of Impact Aid funds last
year and not the operating budget deficit with which the district is actually working under.

• The district received the latest poverty count numbers from ISBE. These numbers are used to
create Title I poverty counts. It appears as if the poverty numbers have increased for the past
three years but the latest information shows that the poverty levels in the Small Area group
has dropped in the most recent preliminary data. This will impact the district’s Title I funds
somewhat, but as these funds depend upon other issues related to federal and state funding, it
is difficult to predict.

The board then reviewed the Principal’s reports included in the board packet.

From the Superintendent’s report the board learned of the following items:

A. Improving Student Achievement

B. Creating a safe and productive school climate

• Early afternoon on Wednesday, April 16th, the phones at AMJES were out for a large part of
the day. We were informed by AT & T that they would not be repaired until nearly 2:00PM.
At around noon, the district utilized our new ALERTNow automatic calling system. While
not a true crisis, it did provide us the opportunity to try the new system. We found that
ALERTNow was as easy to use as we had hoped and did provide us with some interesting
information. In nearly ten minutes all of the parents at AMJES were called and received a
message about the phones being out of service. One of the really neat features about the
system was that it allowed us to see how successful our calls were. From this we were able
to correct a few items in the database to be sure that everyone with an operating number on
file would receive a call. This system was also used to notify parents of a neighborhood alert
on Friday, April 18th with similar success.

C. Serving the needs of all of our students
D. Efficient management practices

• The board heard the superintendent’s report on the NAFIS conference in Washington. While
the superintendent has submitted his name to be on the Board of Directors of the 8002 group
in NAFIS, there appears to be a strong feeling among other member districts that there have
perhaps been too many Illinois representatives in the past. The final vote will be taken on
this at the June meeting in South Dakota. The superintendent was directed by the board to
attend.

At the Washington meeting, the district also learned that the remaining 8002 funds from
2005 will be distributed before the end of the fiscal year. There is $9.2M left to be
distributed, but it is unclear how much is left for each individual district. Additionally, the
district has received our first payment for 2008 in the amount of $267,910.

The superintendent was able to re-establish connections/contacts with Durbin and Obama’s
office as well as meet with Judy Biggert’s education staffers.

• The district has been able to secure a spot in a consortium for 403B vendor services. There
are nearly sixty districts participating in the SSCAC consortium to purchase 403B vendor
services to ensure that we are compliant with IRS regulations for investments and that our
employees are following these new rules. We will have more information after the IASBO
conference in May. There is little doubt that the agreement that the consortium is able to
negotiate would be better than anything we could find on our own.

E. Future facilities planning

The Board of Education then opened the floor to members of the public to present comments.
Hearing none, the board then met in closed session to discuss the appointment, employment,
compensation, discipline performance or dismissal of an employee, legal counsel for the public
body, collective negotiating matters student disciplinary cases, and closed session minutes.

• Upon coming out of closed session, the board approved the Closed Session Minutes from
March 17, 2008 and that they be made open to the public along with the February 11, 2008
and January 14, 2008 closed session minutes.

Item 8

CURRENT BUSINESS

A. Improving Student Achievement
B. Creating a safe and productive school climate

• The board approved the resolution confirming Tom Schneider as the district Representative
and Lou Ebert as the district’s Alternate Representative to the SASED Board of Control.

C. Serving the needs of all of our students
D. Efficient management practices

• The board accepted the resignation of Special Education Paraprofessional Aides Kathy
Ludwig, Helen Bohlig and Food Service Staff Carmen Obondo.

• The board approved the employment of Ghadi Hamdan as a Part-Time Food Service worker.

• The board authorized, with regret, the resolution authorizing the honorable dismissal of
Educational Support Personnel for financial reasons:

1. Donna Miladinovich (Special Education Paraprofessional)
2. Ronielle Clapp (Special Education Paraprofessional)
3. Ruth Livingston (Special Education Paraprofessional)
4. Julianne Dabrowski (Special Education Paraprofessional)
5. Malgorzata Gomez (Special Education Paraprofessional)
6. Marilyn Burr (Special Education Paraprofessional)
7. Carolyn Collins (Special Education Paraprofessional)
8. Carla O’Shea (Part-Time Special Education Paraprofessional)
9. Maria Hruby (Part-Time Secretary)
10. Kelly Krohn (Special Education Secretary/INSPIRE)
11. Tenille Jefferson (Sp. Education Paraprofessional/INSPIRE), and the dismissal of
JoAnne Kuhr, effective for the 2008-09 school year.

• The board authorized the re-employment of the following non-tenured teachers:

1. Beth Reynolds
2. Jill Jensen,
3. Melissa Dobry,
4. Tracy Ritchey,
5. Brandy McCarthy,
6. Jessica Torres,
7. Lara Lebedevs,
8. Megan Hickman,
9. Maria Sarmiento,
10. Christine Bazon,
11. Rene Roth, as presented.

• The board approved a resolution to extend the superintendent’s contract through 2012 as
presented.

o With regards to ESP and Administrative contracts for 2008-09 the board approved:
a 2.5% cost of living adjustment for all ESP and District Administrators,
o the freezing of the base salary for newly hired ESP’s at the 2007-08 rate,
o the elimination of ESP longevity increases but the one year renewal of insurance
benefits,
o the authorization of a twelve-month contract for the District Technology Director and
Building Secretaries,
o the employment of Dr. Debbie LeBlanc as the Principal at AMJES for the 2008-09
school year,
o the employment of Mrs. Julie Bartell as the Associate Principal of BRMS for the
2008-09 school year,
o the employment of Mrs. Cathe Smith as the Curriculum Coordinator of Burr Ridge
CCSD 180 for the 2008-09 school year, as presented.

• With the administrative team in place, the board then approved the goals and objectives
for the 2008-09 school year. These goals and objectives are available on the district’s
web site. The board restated its belief that it is important to identify what achievement
towards these goals looks like throughout the year. To that end, the performance
objectives have been prepared and each member of the leadership team will be
responsible for a portion of those goals.

School improvement plans will also be tied in with these goals in an attempt to unify all
district efforts towards the accomplishment of the districts goals in a way that is
measurable.

• The board officially enacted two new policies. The first is an administrative procedure
for the archiving of data. This is a protection to the board and the district in that it
outlines the times that data is archived. The second policy is related to a recent personnel
issue and involves “Return to Work”. This policy outlines the steps and procedures
regarding return to work after a work related injury or illness. The intent of the policy is
to aid recovery of employees through finding accommodations to regular work duties.

• The board then heard the first of two new policies related to the creation of two new aides
positions. In reviewing the district needs for next year, it is evident that we will need a
bi-lingual aide for the early childhood room and an aide trained in physical management
of students. These are additional qualifications for which we do not currently have a
classification of employment. The policies creating these categories will be officially
approved at our next meeting.

Item 9

BOARD MEMBER ITEMS/FUTURE AGENDA TOPICS/CALENDAR

A. March 22, 2008 Hinsdale H.S. Feeder Track Meet
B. March 24, 2008 BRMS Jr. NHS Induction—8AM
C. May 1, 2008 BRMS Band Concert
D. May 5-9, 2008 Teacher Appreciation Week
E. May 6, 2008 AMJES Drum and Choir Concert—7PM
F. May 8, 2008 BRMS Choir Concert—7PM
G. May 14, 2008 PTC Meeting—9:30AM
H. April 14-18, 2008 3rd/4th Grade Play—7PM
I. May 19, 2008 Board of Education Meeting—7PM
J. May 22, 2008 8th Grade Dinner Dance
K. May 23, 2008 8th Grade Great America Trip
L. May 26, 2008 Memorial Day—No School
M. May 28, 2008 8th Grade Graduation—7PM

Item 10

ADJOURNMENT