Burr Ridge CCSD #180 Board Meeting Summary

Summary of March 17, 2008
Board of Education Meeting

The Burr Ridge C.C.S.D. 180 Board of Education held their regular meeting on Monday, March
17, 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:

• Education Week published a report linking the arts and cognitive abilities and validates the
board and district’s efforts to retain these programs.

• The Suburban Life did a follow up story on the results of the referendum. The overall article
presents a nice overview of the direction the district will be taking financially.

• The Daily Herald wrote a very nice story on Principal Wesley Gosselink’s move to Tate
Woods Elementary School.

• A fourth grade student sent a letter to the superintendent regarding Mrs. Gosselink’s
resignation. The superintendent visited the class on Tuesday, March 11th to meet with all of
the fourth grade students and had an interesting visit.

• A letter sent to the DuPage Election Commission regarding the training of our secretaries as
voter registrars as a public service to our residents.

The board then reviewed the Principal’s reports included in the board packet. Of primary
interest was a report on the significant reduction in student referrals at Burr Ridge Middle
School.

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

A. Improving Student Achievement

• Over the next few weeks, Dr. LeBlanc and the middle school staff will be reviewing the
promotion standards at the middle school. We believe that there may be a need to
increase the requirements for promotion to the next grade level. In requiring a passing
grade in each quarter students will not be able to wait until the last minute to improve
their standing with an overall 60%. As mentioned, this is something that the BRMS staff
will be reviewing in the coming weeks, but I did want to give the board this information
as something that we are looking at very seriously.

• The district has been attempting to secure a commitment to producing the play.
Unfortunately, it does not appear as if there will be a sponsor for the play nor enough
time to prepare a production. Dr. Leblanc will continue to explore possibilities regarding
a student performance prior to the end of the school year.

B. Creating a safe and productive school climate
C. Serving the needs of all of our students
D. Efficient management practices

• In an effort to secure Federal Impact Aid the superintendent has been directed to attend
the Spring NAFIS conference in Washington DC at the end of the month. There is some
possibility that the district may have access to a continued leadership role in NAFIS with
continued involvement.

• The superintendent has been in contact with the Business Manager at Lagrange School
District 102 regarding the district’s possible membership in the milk purchasing
cooperative. Currently, the district is paying approximately seven cents more per carton
of milk than they are. While this past performance of the cooperative does not predict
future performance, similar results could result in a savings of five to seven thousand
dollars a year in milk purchases. The superintendent is continuing to work on
membership in a gas and electric buying cooperative, but most likely will not have an
answer on that until this summer.

• The district continues to explore the various options regarding implementation of the new
403B investment rules.

• The Superintendent and Financial Director have been interviewing various vendors
regarding the electronic placement of orders. In establishing an on-line procurement
system the district believes that we can increase the level of record keeping as well as
reduce the amount of time and money required to processing these orders.

The five vendors we have been able to work with are School Specialties, Lawry-
McDonald, Quill, Shane’s, and Staples. Each of the above vendors have offered the
district savings of at least 20% off of their catalog price, the ability to pay with the P-
Card, and variable delivery and billing options to fit the start of the school or fiscal year.
Going to this system will mean that the district will have fewer invoices and checks to
write as well as limit shipping costs.

The board of education believes that this is an example of some of the efficiencies the
district should be pursuing to save needed funds and demonstrate how seriously we take
our responsibility to manage taxpayer funds.

E. Future facilities planning

The Board of Education 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
February 11, 2008.

A. Improving Student Achievement

• The board approved several changes to the summer school program. The district can now
only afford three hours of summer school a day for four weeks. The time would be from
9AM-Noon. This program would begin the fifth week prior to the start of school and run
four weeks in length allowing for a week off prior to the start of the school year.

The program would be for students who do not meet promotion requirements or are our
lowest scoring ISAT students. There will be nine teachers (K-1st, 2,3,4,5,6,7 and a
special education teacher at the elementary and middle school level) and no aides. The
class size is anticipated to be between 12-14 and the emphasis will be on getting students
ready for the coming school year. Registration and residency for the coming school year
will be required prior to enrollment in summer school.

The superintendent has spoken with the chairperson of the Burr Ridge Educational
Foundation and they for this year, they are willing to provide the funds for this summer
school program. Even with this generous donation, the district will be responsible for
approximately $3,000.

• Mrs. Gosselink has been working with a group of teachers regarding the expenditure of
our Illinois Textbook Loan purchase. This year, the funds set aside for Illinois Textbook
Loan Purchase are for grades K-6. This year, the district has 598 students eligible for the
$35 per student reimbursement for textbooks. As a result, the district will receive just
over $20,000 in books from the state of Illinois.

AMJES have spent the majority of their funds on leveled readers that will serve as a
supplement to the reading textbooks they currently have on-hand. The team at BRMS
has determined that the best expenditure of these funds would be through the purchase of
a new Social Studies textbook by Harcourt for fifth grade. This purchase would exceed
the amount provided by the State by approximately $734.42, but would allow the district
to purchase the supplemental materials that went with the textbook.

The board approved the Harcourt Fifth Grade Social Studies textbook series at the fifth
grade level with the expenditure of Illinois Textbook Loan funds and additional district
funds.

B. Creating a safe and productive school climate
C. Serving the needs of all of our students
D. Efficient management practices

• The board accepted, with regret, the resignation of Wesley Gosselink and Maureen
Denja.

• The Board of Education then issued the attached statement (available on the district web
site) regarding the future of several programs at Burr Ridge C.C.S.D. 180 as a result of
the failed referendum attempt. Due to this unsuccessful referendum, the board will need
to make several budget cuts. Today’s meeting and the non-renewal of contracts for
twenty-three teachers is just the first step in that process. While some teachers may be
rehired at the April board meeting there will also be reductions in the number of aides
made at that meeting.

The board authorized, with regret, the resolution authorizing non-reemployment of first,
second, third year and part-time non-tenured teachers:

1.Beth Reynolds
2.Danica Burlingame
3.Michael James,
4.David Serpas,
5.Rene Pacyna,
6.Kim Leister,
7.Danelle Jordan,
8.David John,
9.Jill Jensen,
10. Jennifer Garst,
11. Katie Barkstrom,
12. Tracy Ritchey,
13. Brandy McCarthy,
14. Andy Wentling,
15. Jessica Torres,
16. Lara Lebedevs,
17. Megan Hickman,
18. Danielle Vita,
19. Maria Sarmiento,
20. Christine Bazon,
21. Rene Roth,
22. Melissa Dobry,
23. Diane Pahnke.

• The board accepted the job-sharing proposal for Ms. Kristen Drain and Ms. Candace
Scarpelli and acknowledges the request to return to full-time position of Ms. Ann
McVady.

• The district has received confirmation of the acceptance of its waiver requests for
Veteran’s Day and Pulaski Day for the coming two school years from ISBE. The board
then officially approved the 2008-09 calendar. The final version of the calendar for
publication is available on the district web site. The district will be publicizing the
calendar to our parents and other interested parties.

• In order to accommodate the superintendent’s possible attendance at the NAFIS summer
conference in South Dakota, June 20-24, the board voted to change the date of the June
23, 2008 board meeting to June 30th. This will also allow us to prepare any final bills for
board approval prior to the end of the fiscal year.

• In light of recent employee health issues, the board approved a motion to direct the
superintendent to an agreement with an Employee Assistance Program Provider. An
EAP program is available for employees to contact on a voluntary basis if they are
encountering personal difficulties. This provider would also offer crisis management
services for staff members as well as legal and wellness services. These services are

provided confidentially and provide an effective buffer between the employer (the
district) and the employee when seeking assistance. The district has received four quotes
(from our insurance agent, Gallagher) for EAP services.

• With the district’s current financial situation it is more important than ever that the
district is looking for any way to increase revenues and trim expenses in an effort to
become more efficient. Student fee increases have been used by several districts to raise
additional funds, and a comparison of local districts’ fees finds that Burr Ridge CCSD
180’s student fees fall at right about the average.

The board of education believes that by making the payment of fees more convenient we
can increase the number paying and subsequently see an increase in collected revenues
while limiting the amount of time and money the district spends pursuing bad checks.

To help increase our collection rate, manage the funds we do receive more accurately and
reduce the amount of bad check debt, the district is introducing the e-pay system which is
run through the State Treasurer’s office and no longer accepting checks.

E-Pay is an on-line credit card acceptance system that would allow parents to pay for all
student fees, lunch, summer school accounts and even band payments on-line. Parents
would no longer have to send money with their students to school and the funds are
deposited immediately in to interest earning accounts for the district (as opposed to
sitting in the safe until a deposit slip can be prepared and a deposit made). This system
would be set up as a link through our web site.

The board approved the increase of student fees $5.00 over current amounts and the
discontinue of the use of checks as a means of payment beginning July 1, 2008 with the
utilization of the State Treasurer’s system of E-pay.

• The board had the first reading of two 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. It is important that we have a policy for archiving
data in that it demonstrates a good faith effort to record electronic public documents.

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. It is hoped that by mandating a return to
modified work through policy that we will be able to reduce our workman’s
compensation claims, the largest and most expensive portion of which is lost days. This
policy has been created in consultation with our insurance carrier.

The effective implementation of this policy will require a series of forms, letters and
procedures, which have been created in the “Return-to-Work” handbook. This
information has been provided in the board packet and will become a part of the faculty
handbook next school year.

At our next meeting after their second reading, the superintendent will recommend the
acceptance of Board Policy 5:183 and 6:235-AP.

Item 9

BOARD MEMBER ITEMS/FUTURE AGENDA TOPICS/CALENDAR

A. March 21, 2008 District Holiday—No School
B. March 24-28, 2008 Spring Break—No School
C. March 31, 2008 School Resumes
D. April 8, 2008 Spring Picture Day
E. April 9, 2008 NJHS Induction—8AM
PTC Meeting at AMJES –9AM
F. April 10, 2008 AMJES Family Reading Night
G. April 11, 2008 Operation Snowflake at HSHS
H. April 14-18, 2008 BRMS Book Fair
I. April 21-25, 2008 AMJES Book Fair Begins
J. April 21, 2008 Board of Education Meeting—7PM

The Board’s next regular meeting will be held on Monday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the Band
Room of Burr Ridge Middle School.