Glenbard News for Dec. 3, 2024

In this issue:

• Giving Tuesday donation 
• DuPage County resources
• Highlights of Dec. 2 board meeting

Giving Tuesday donation 
On Giving Tuesday, please consider donating to our foundation, Partnership for Educational Progress (PEP). PEP provides financial resources to support programs that enhance student achievement and enrich learning opportunities. You may donate to PEP at this link.

DuPage County resources
Check out a variety of resources available to DuPage County residents:

• Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is open, and DuPage County residents can apply online. They also have Saturday appointment hours from 9am-3pm. Please call to request an appointment. Walk-ins are allowed if heat has been shut off.    
• 211 DuPage is a free, confidential information and referral service that provides local health and human services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. www.211DuPage.gov features more than 1,200 resource records for more than 600 providers offering services to residents in DuPage County. Trained specialists are also available to answer questions and provide resources by dialing 2-1-1.  
  • For more information about 211 services, contact Kathryn Kosloski: [email protected] or 630-407-6416 
  • 211 Team email is [email protected].   
• The website for Community Services is www.dupagecounty.gov/community and includes all of the county’s programs and services.

Highlights of Dec. 2 board meeting
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: Margaret DeLaRosa, Kermit Eby, Bob Friend, Martha Mueller and Jim Shannon. Absent: Hetal Lee and Rosemarie Montanez.

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT:

1. The district received the following donation: Anonymous, $100.00 to Special Olympics basketball at South.

 

2. We are offering a free ACT prep course for all Glenbard juniors. The ACT prep course is provided by Academic Approach, a leading test preparation provider. Scoring well on the ACT affords students with post-secondary opportunities, including scholarships and admission to competitive colleges and universities. The ACT prep classes start the week of January 13. Based on feedback from students and families regarding conflicts with extracurriculars in the past, students now have the option of in-person or virtual instruction.

3. On December 6, we will welcome more than 200 educators to our SOAR Conference. SOAR stands for Supporting Opportunities & Access to Rigorous Coursework. This annual conference provides the opportunity for educators and administrators from across Illinois to share best practice on a variety of topics. Among the areas they will discuss are Advanced Placement, dual credit and dual enrollment; college and career pathway endorsements; reducing summer melt; increasing college enrollment; career and technical education; strategies to transition to the ACT; enhancing curriculum and student achievement in literacy and math; using data to inspire adult change and increased student achievement; and partnering with middle schools. We appreciate our partners, College of DuPage and Equal Opportunity Schools, joining us in providing valuable opportunities that change the trajectory of students’ lives. Equal Opportunity Schools provides customized insight into identifying students who have the skills to succeed in AP coursework. Among the many features of our partnership with the College of DuPage is a growing number of dual credit courses available to our students.

4. Congratulations to Glenbard West student Ruby Metz on qualifying for the IHSA girls swimming state final tournament. Ruby qualified in the 200-yard freestyle (sectional champion) and in the 500-yard freestyle. Head coach is Miles Ritchie.

5. Congratulations to Glenbard East student Ryan Kropidlowski on achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. To fulfill his requirement for Eagle rank, Ryan built and installed 25 fish cribs for the Forest Preserve of Cook County at the Busse Woods Forest Preserve in Rolling Meadows. Fish cribs provide a habitat for all levels of the aquatic food chain, and they are effective at increasing the population of fish in the lake.

6. Congratulations to Board of Education Vice President Bob Friend on earning the Agricultural Education Advocacy Award from the Illinois Leadership Council for Agricultural Education (ILCAE). The award recognizes individuals for their advocacy, efforts, dedication and support for quality education programs in and about agriculture. Mr. Friend’s efforts in supporting our Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and, specifically, agriculture education at Glenbard have been nothing short of impressive.

7. We encourage community members to attend the following GPS Parent Series events. The links and details are available at the GPS Parent Series website.

• December 4 at noon and 7 p.m. – Autonomy/Balanced Parenting: Reduce Parent Burnout and Raise Competent Kids
• December 5 at 7 p.m. – FUSE and B-PAC event – First a Dream: Find Your Future at College Night
• December 10 at noon and 7 p.m. – A Blueprint: Essential Skills For Better Grades, Less Stress and More Free Time
• December 11 at noon and 7 p.m. – Preparing Students with Disabilities for Success at College

8. The transition to a new third-party transportation company this year provides the opportunity to review the impact of our attendance boundaries on the enrollment at each of our four high schools. We are in the process of collaborating with Safeway Transportation Services in gathering data to determine the actual transportation times based on existing bus routes. The three key objectives of this study will be:

• Given our current and future enrollment trends, determining the necessity and opportunity to balance school populations.
• Identify opportunities to reduce route times for students with longer travel times to/from their assigned high school by analyzing route times and feedback from families.
• From our study, determine additional opportunities and avenues to better serve one of our largest communities, Glendale Heights, which does not have one of our four high schools.

As part of our process, a meeting was arranged with Safeway on December 2.

9. On October 21, 2024, the district received a Freedom of Information Act request from SmartProcure, Sheri Reid, requesting any and all purchasing records from August 21, 2024 to present. The district has responded to this request.

10. On October 30, 2024, the district received a Freedom of Information Act request from Katherine Schlueter, requesting Glenbard West student attendance information from the past 10 years, as well as disciplinary data related to student attendance during that time frame. The district has responded to this request.

THE BOARD APPROVED:

– the November 11, 2024 regular meeting minutes and closed session minutes; the November 13, 2024 closed special meeting minutes; the November 18, 2024 closed special meeting minutes; and the November 19, 2024 closed special meeting minutes.

– 2024 tax levy. The district presented a proposed tax levy that included a board resolution to abate (reduce) the tax levy by $750,000 to provide tax relief to our communities. Over the past three years, a cumulative total of $4.25 million will be achieved (last year, the board approved a $2.0 million abatement).

The result of this year’s abatement will be a shortfall in the debt service fund; which will be covered by fund balance (cash reserves). There is no impact on the operating budget and the financial profile score rating. This approach ensures that the district is able to fully fund instructional programming while ensuring that Glenbard is fiscally responsible to the community.

The 2024 tax levy will be the formal request to the county that will generate a 4.76 percent year-over-year increase to the tax levy; the abatement will reduce total impact (inclusive of the bond and interest levy) by approximately 0.50 percent. This is in line with the district’s strategy of limiting year-to-year increases to no more than 4.5 percent.

The anticipated levy extension request to the county will be further reduced to an estimate of 4.08 percent by the DuPage County Clerk prior to the tax extension being finalized in the spring (when new construction amounts and equalized assessed valuations [EAVs] have been determined). The district anticipates issuing its approved referendum bonds in the spring of 2025, which will not go into effect until next year’s (2025) levy.

The district sets a tax levy on an annual basis, which provides Glenbard with more than 75 percent of its total revenue. The setting of the annual tax levy is governed by the Truth in Taxation Law, School Code, Property Tax Code, and Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL).

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.

After experiencing hyperinflation the past two fiscal years, 2023 marked the first time the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell below the 5 percent PTELL cap. The 2023 year-end CPI came in at 3.4 percent. This will be the maximum amount the district can raise the tax levy (excluding new property growth).

Property Tax Extension Limitation Law 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: amount of the prior year’s tax extension; the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban (CPI-U) as of December 2023 (was 3.4 percent); and new property growth.

The first two items are already known, but the new property growth will not be known until April 2025, 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 2023 calendar year CPI of 3.4 percent and an estimated new construction amount of $50,000,000. 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 $8,224,733 or 5.29 percent – year over year (3.4 percent increase due to CPI; 0.68 percent increase due to new construction and 1.21 percent in bond and interest). We have estimated an increase in property equalized assessed value (EAV) of 9.0 percent.

Manual Override/Submitted Levy: School districts generally levy a dollar amount higher than the expected or most likely amount for three primary reasons:

• Actual EAVs and new construction amounts are unknown at this time and will not be finalized until the spring of 2025.
• 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).
• 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 2025) that we have the opportunity to levy the requisite amount. 

Education fund = $121,500,000 (Most Likely); $122,310,000 (‘Override’)

Operations, Building & Maintenance fund = $25,050,000 (Most Likely); $25,200,000 (‘Override’)

Transportation fund = $8,770,000 (Most Likely); $8,800,000 (‘Override’)

IMRF fund = $720,000 (Most Likely); $730,000 (‘Override’)

Social Security & Medicare fund = $1,550,000 (Most Likely); $1,570,000 (‘Override’)

Total = $157,590,000 (Most Likely); $158,610,000 (‘Override’)

Year-over-year increase: 4.08 percent (Most Likely); 4.76 percent (‘Override’)

Our proposed property tax levy submission, excluding the bond and interest levy, is $158,610,000 which represents a 4.76 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 2025, 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.

– establish closed special meetings for the purposes of consideration of superintendent candidates, preparing for and conducting interviews of superintendent candidates and selecting the new superintendent. On October 14, 2024, the board took action to approve holding the following closed special meetings pursuant to section 2a of the Illinois Open Meetings Act for the purposes of consideration of superintendent candidates, preparing for and conducting interviews of superintendent candidates and selecting the new superintendent on November 13, 2024; November 18, 2024; November 19, 2024; December 3, 2024; and December 5, 2024. There is a need to cancel the December 3, 2024 meeting and to reschedule and relocate the December 5, 2024 meeting to be held at the district offices, beginning at 4:00 PM.

– policies and procedures for second reading and adoption. 4:90-AP3 Use of the Check Signing Machine [delete]; 4:90-AP4 Signing Activity and Imprest Checks [delete]; and 4:90-E1 Building Activity Account Transfer.

BOARD INFORMATION/DISCUSSION ITEMS INCLUDED:

– awards and recognitions. Congratulations to Glenbard South student Thomas Jochum, who was a boys cross country All-State honoree after finishing second at the Class 2A state final. His coaches are Doug Gorski and Chris MacTaggart.

– South academic board goals report. Principal Jessica Santee and the South administrative team presented the Glenbard South board goals, including the following data:

• Overall passing rate
• Cs or better grade
• Rigorous course sequence
• SAT 1010+
• Early college experience
• Early college credit
• Post-secondary plan
• Athletics and activities
• Staff diversity

– policies and procedures for first reading and discussion. 4:20-AP1 Handling of Money; 4:20-AP2 Convenience and Trust Accounts; 4:90 Student Activity and Fiduciary Funds [new name]; 4:90-AP1 Student Activities – Funds and Management [new]; and 4:90-AP2 Student Activity Accounts.