Board Highlights feature a brief description of the action items and discussion items on the meeting agenda. Board Highlights do not replace minutes. The minutes are approved by the Board and posted after the next regularly scheduled Board meeting. Present: Jay Bastian, Margaret DeLaRosa, Hetal Lee, Martha Mueller, Pete Nolan and Jim Shannon. Absent: Kermit Eby.
– the October 14, 2025 regular meeting minutes.
– destruction of closed session audio recordings of January 8, 2024 to March 18, 2024.
– invoices for payment.
October 27, 2025
Education Fund $ 1,064,439.94
Operations & Maintenance Fund $ 137,658.09
Debt Service $ 775.00
Transportation $ 8,401.30
Capital Projects $ 295,654.93
IL Munic. Retire/Soc Sec. $ -2,200.00
Interim – Checks $ 0.00
Interim – Wire Transfers $ 0.00
TOTAL $ 1,504,728.76
– the following personnel items:
SUPPORT STAFF – EMPLOYMENT:
Name School/Position FTE Effective Date
Balger, Julie South/Special Education Assistant 87.5% 10/17/2025
Garcia, Katherine North/EL Bilingual Interpreter 100% 10/27/2025
Ramsey, Alexandra DIR/Special Education Assistant 87.5% 10/24/2025
Schmidt, Jamie DO/HR Confidential Specialist 100% 10/20/2025
SUPPORT STAFF – POSITION CHANGE:
Name School/Position FTE Effective Date
Alcazar Ocampo, Flor DIR/Administrative Assistant 100% 10/24/2025
Haque, Saleha DO/HR Confidential Specialist 100% 01/05/2026
SUPPORT STAFF – LEAVE OF ABSENCE:
Name School/Position Term Reason
Miller, James DO/District Engineer 10/08/2025-12/03/2025 Personal
SUPPORT STAFF – RESIGNATIONS & TERMINATIONS:
Name School/Position Effective Date
Wells, Laura West/EL Bilingual Interpreter 10/16/2025
– accepting the following donations: DuPage County Farm Bureau, $750.00 to agriculture class at South. Glen Ellyn Titans Basketball, $2,145.00 for basketball bags at West.
– serious safety hazard zones – 2025 annual Board approval. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) standards for the serious safety hazard zones include: Type 1 hazard (walking along a roadway); Type II hazard (walking on a roadway); and Type III hazard (crossing a roadway). With these criteria, during this year’s evaluation, no additional areas have been identified with change. The current Glenbard District 87 serious safety hazard zones remain as presented to the Board.
– School Maintenance Project Grant application approval. The School Maintenance Project Grant (SMPG) is a dollar-for-dollar state-matching grant program providing awards up to $50,000 to grantees exclusively for the maintenance or upkeep of buildings or structures for educational purposes. Ongoing operational costs, including in-house labor for SMPG projects not contracted out, cannot be included for any school maintenance project grant. A project may involve different types of work on a single building or structure or may involve a single type of work (e.g., new roofing or windows) on several buildings or structures. There is no limit to the cost of a project; however, grant awards shall not exceed $50,000 per grant award, and applicants shall provide a match from local funds equal to the grant amount requested. An applicant must not obligate funds or begin work on any of the projects listed on the application prior to submission of the application. However, submission of the application does not guarantee a grant will be approved or awarded. All project activities must be expended or legally obligated within two years of disbursement by the State. If funds have been obligated by the grantee but not fully expended two years after disbursement, 90 calendar days will be given to liquidate all obligations.
Any school district, cooperative high school, Type 40 area vocational center, or special education cooperative may apply for the grant. Glenbard has identified the remodel of first-floor restrooms in the educational tower at Glenbard South that we anticipate will qualify. This is a project that we have already identified for this upcoming summer capital project list and a grant award of $50,000 would help offset the total cost estimated at $500,000.
– intergovernmental agreement – Village of Lombard. As part of the Glenbard East construction projects, we have been working through several design options to optimize the athletic fields and parking around the physical structure. There has long been a lack of parking available on the Glenbard East campus. Student parking in particular is not sufficient which leads to students parking along Wilson Avenue in one of the approximately 55 spots available each school day. Oftentimes students arrive up to two hours prior to the start of the school day to get one of these spots.
The Village of Lombard has interest in supporting our work in an effort to increase safety along Wilson Avenue. With cars parked on Wilson, the traffic heading eastbound is forced to veer along the yellow center line as cars heading westbound must shift over towards the curb to allow for safe passage.
This agreement would provide for up to $200,000 of cost-sharing for two additional parking lot sections to be added on-site. We are estimating that these parking lots will cost approximately $600,000, but the actual amount won’t be known until bids are opened in the next several weeks.
Should we be able to move forward with the proposed parking lots, it would provide sufficient parking on campus to have all Glenbard East staff park on the south side of the building and all students on the northwest side of the building.
– policies and procedures for second reading and adoption. 2:200 Types of School Board Meetings and 2:220 School Board Meeting Procedure.
– acceptance of resignation of Board President, affirmation of Board Vice President becoming Board President and election of a new Vice President. Board President Margaret DeLaRosa asked for a motion to accept her resignation as President of the Board of Education, and, in accordance with Board Policy 2:110, to approve the assumption of the role of President by the Board Vice President, Hetal Lee. The board approved the motion. DeLaRosa was recently appointed as Illinois House Representative for the 42nd District on Oct. 12. DeLaRosa will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Education.
The board then made a motion to fill the subsequently vacant position of Board Vice President. The board appointed Board Member Jay Bastian to the seat of Board Vice President.
– academic Board goals report for Glenbard East. Principal Antoine Anderson and the East administrative team presented the Glenbard East Board goals, including the following data:
– athletics and activities report 2024-25. Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Josh Chambers presented information on the district’s athletic participation and activities performance for 2024-25. Glenbard Assistant Principals for Athletics Matthew Bowser, Timothy Carlson, Joseph Kain and Tony Millard presented brief reports reviewing the athletic seasons at each Glenbard school. The Assistant Activity Directors Elizabeth McGann, Margaret Quinn, Linette Chaloka and Marissa McLean also presented on how activities went last year.
The data shows a strong trend in increasing participation. This aligns to the Board goal for engaging students in activities outside the classroom. The Board goal was 80 percent for 2024-25. This year, 75 percent of students participated in at least one extracurricular program – students in multiple sports or activities are only counted one time in the participation reports.
– school facility advertising procedures. Dr. Chapman and Mr. Chambers discussed the potential use of advertising and sponsorships as a means to generate revenue for additional school facility improvements. This initiative could help fund upgrades such as new scoreboards, press boxes, and other athletic facility enhancements, many of which are 10 to 20 years old. Current Board Policies 8:25 and 8:85 permit the Board of Education to approve advertising, sponsorship, and corporate donations on a case-by-case basis, ensuring that all partnerships align with district standards and maintain the integrity of Glenbard’s educational mission.
– new textbook adoption 2025-26. The proposal is for the adoption of a test preparation workbook for the AP Italian course. This course is offered exclusively at Glenbard North, and there is currently no AP exam prep book for it, unlike the resources available for AP Spanish and AP French. This recommendation has been reviewed and approved by all four world languages department chairs, the Glenbard North Assistant Principal of Instruction and the Glenbard North Principal. The Student Performance and Achievement Committee has also vetted the proposal.
– new course proposals 2026-27. We are committed to the continuous improvement of our curricular offerings in order to better meet the demands of student interest, postsecondary preparation, and career pathways. Each year, we follow a review process for new course proposals submitted by teachers. This year, our new course proposal includes one new Advanced Placement course, two new dual credit courses with the College of DuPage (COD), and a new English course for seniors.
These proposals were approved by the four department chairs for the department, all four assistant principals for instruction, and all four principals. Additionally, they were reviewed and discussed at each of the four schools’ instructional councils. They were reviewed by the Student Performance and Achievement Committee on October 1, 2025 and recommended to go to the full Board for approval. We recommended that the following courses be approved for the 2026-27 school year:
AP Cybersecurity
This is a new Advanced Placement course that is being offered by the College Board for the first time. AP Cybersecurity is a capstone course for students interested in computer science, and offers a broad introduction to the field and aligns closely with a college-level, introductory cybersecurity course. Students learn about common threats and vulnerabilities and how they combine to create risk. This is a year-long elective course from the Business/FACS Department and counts toward the Applied Arts requirements for graduation. This course aligns with our goals of increasing early college course exposure, career pathways and earning college credit before graduation from Glenbard.
Dual Credit Introduction to World Music 1115
This college-level course provides an introduction to the great variety of musical styles from around the world. This course examines representative music of the non-Western world, with an emphasis on its function within the culture of which it is a part. No previous musical experience is required. The course emphasizes an understanding of basic musical terminology and the development of improved listening skills. This is a dual credit course through the College of DuPage and is designed to fulfill general education requirements at the college level. This course is offered at no cost, is a part of the Illinois Articulation Initiative, and is widely transferable to many colleges and universities through a COD transcript. This is a semester-long course from the Fine Arts Department and counts toward cultural arts requirements for graduation.
Dual Credit American Politics/AP US Government and Politics
This course analyzes the dynamics and processes of the evolving American constitutional democracy: its origins, structure, and problems. Areas of study include an in-depth discussion of the U.S. constitution, federalism, civil liberties, interest groups, political parties, campaigns, elections, mass media, Congress, the courts, and the presidency. This is a dual credit course through the College of DuPage and is designed to fulfill general education requirements at the college level. This course is offered at no additional cost, is a part of the Illinois Articulation Initiative, and is widely transferable to many colleges and universities through a COD transcript. Additionally, this course prepares students for the Advanced Placement Examination in US Government & Politics and replaces that course. This is a semester-long course from the Social Studies Department and counts toward the civics requirement for graduation.
English 4: Advanced Composition
This year-long English course is for seniors who do not yet meet literacy benchmarks and is designed to prepare them for success in college. English 4: Advanced Composition is a college preparatory course that develops student skills in reading, critical thinking and analysis, and writing to support student success across majors and career pathways. Upon completion, students should be able to adapt their approaches and strategies as they engage in reading and writing tasks; analyze, evaluate, and synthesize while reading and writing; and demonstrate information literacy skills as an engaged reader and as a contributing writer. This course is offered by the English Department and counts toward the English requirement for graduation.
– Glenbard College Core. The district is pleased to launch the Glenbard College Core, a dual credit program designed for Glenbard students to earn up to 15 hours of highly-transferable general education credit from the College of DuPage. This initiative directly supports our goal of preparing students for college success by offering the rigor of college courses within the familiar and supportive environment of Glenbard. The courses, taught during the regular school day by qualified Glenbard teachers who are also adjunct faculty at the College of DuPage, are provided at no additional cost to our students. This program is a significant advantage for our students, demonstrating their college readiness to universities and allowing them to gain confidence, and strengthen critical thinking, communication, and time management skills before they graduate from high school.
The Glenbard College Core will consist of five IAI General Education Core Curriculum courses: Dual Credit English Composition 1101, Dual Credit English Composition 1102, Dual Credit Fundamentals of Speech Communication 1100, and the proposed new Dual Credit Intro to World Music 1115, and Dual Credit American Politics 1101/AP US Government and Politics. We are proud to offer this program as a vital pathway for our juniors and seniors, ensuring they are well-prepared for their post-secondary journeys.
– transportation services update. The district currently contracts with Safeway for its regular education and special education transportation services. This past week, we were notified by Safeway’s leadership team that they may be unable to fulfill the duration of our agreement. We have identified several options to ensure continuity of our transportation services.
– tax levy 2025. Annually, District 87 sets a tax levy, which provides the district with more than 75 percent of its total revenue. The setting of the annual tax levy is governed by The Truth in Taxation Law (the “Act”), school code, property tax code, and Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL). Each of these laws has specific requirements that must be followed, or a district’s tax levy could be subject to legal challenge.
Truth in Taxation Law (the “Act”): requires that at least 20 days prior to the adoption of the levy, the school board must estimate the aggregate levy for the year through a Board motion or resolution. The resolution provided to the Board complies with this requirement.
The 2024 year-end Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at 2.9 percent. This will be the maximum amount the district can raise the tax levy (excluding new property growth and bond and interest payments).
School Code and Property Tax Code: require that the final levy be adopted and filed with the county clerks on or before the last Tuesday in December, which is December 30, 2025 this year.
The following timetable will satisfy the requirements of the above laws:
October 27 Levy presentation (Finance Committee & Board meeting)
November 10 Tax levy hearing (Board meeting)
December 8 Adopt 2025 tax levy (Board meeting)
December 9 File the levy with County Clerk (must be filed by 12/30/2025)
Property Tax Extension Limitation Law: PTELL limits the amount the tax levy (aggregate extension) can increase over the prior year’s tax levy. Debt service levies are not included in this limitation. Three factors determine the allowable tax growth under the PTELL laws: 1) amount of the prior year’s tax extension; 2) the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban (CPI-U) as of December 2024 (was 2.9 percent); and 3) new property growth. The first two items are already known, but the new property growth will not be known until April 2026, so the district must estimate the amount of new property growth and the county clerk will adjust the tax extension once the final number is known. We have prepared two calculations to account for this projection.
Most Likely:
We have calculated our most likely extension based on a 2024 calendar year CPI of 2.9 percent and an estimated new construction amount of $40,000,000. This calculation represents the total tax extension that we believe the district will most likely receive. Based on this calculation, we believe that our total property tax extension revenue will increase by $8,805,154 or 5.44 percent – year-over-year (2.9 percent increase due to CPI; 0.51 percent increase due to new construction and 2.03 percent in bond and interest). We have estimated an increase in property equalized assessed value (EAV) of 8.0 percent.
Manual Override/Submitted Levy:
School districts generally levy a dollar amount higher than the expected or most likely amount for three primary reasons: 1) Actual EAVs and new construction amounts are unknown at this time and will not be finalized until the spring of 2026. 2) If the district’s levy request is lower than what the county calculates, the district is only entitled up to the amount requested (it is prudent to request a higher amount to ensure that we do not under-levy). 3) At this point in time of the year, we have not finalized our required levy allocation by fund. Therefore, we intend on requesting higher amounts in each fund to make sure that when we finalize our levy allocation by fund (March/April 2026) that we have the opportunity to levy the requisite amount.
Fund Most Likely ‘Override’
For education purposes $125,870,000 $126,790,000
For operations, building & maintenance purposes $25,940,000 $26,130,000
For transportation purposes $9,070,000 $9,140,000
For IMRF purposes $770,000 $770,000
For Social Security & Medicare purposes $1,620,000 $1,630,000
Total $163,270,000 $164,460,000
Year-over-year increase 3.41% 4.17%
Our proposed property tax levy submission, excluding the Bond and Interest Levy, is $164,460,000 which represents a 4.17 percent increase over the prior year’s aggregate tax extension (Override Amount). For reasons mentioned above, it is prudent to levy a higher dollar amount than expected.
In the spring of 2026, DuPage County will calculate our actual property tax extension pursuant to the tax cap, taking into account the CPI and new construction and all approved abatements.
– IASB Resolutions Committee report. The 2025 Resolutions Committee Report to the Membership will be acted upon at the annual meeting of the Illinois Association of School Board’s (IASB) Delegate Assembly on November 22, 2025. Participating in the resolutions process by submitting new resolutions and discussing the resolutions gives member districts ownership in the association and the opportunity to establish the direction of the association and its major policies.
This year delegates will vote on:
Members of the Glenbard’s Board of Education have been provided a copy of the report to review and were asked to note any suggestions or revisions. The district’s IASB delegate will submit any suggestions or revisions to the IASB Resolutions Committee.
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