Recap of June 22 Board Meeting
Posted on 06/23/2021
Special Recognitions and Presentations
-The Board of Education presented a Resolution of Honor in recognition of Ms. Patrica Foley, a former Board Member and Board President who recently passed away.
-The Board of Education presented a Resolution of Honor in recognition of Mr. Thomas Morris, General Counsel for the school district. Mr. Morris is retiring after nearly 30 years in his role.
Action Items
-The Board of Education voted to approve the attendance of five employees at the National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Conference (2021) from November 29-December 3, 2021 in Orlando Florida. Total cost of transportation, hotel, airfare, conference fee, and per diem for Ms. Theresa Plascencia, Ms. Carol May, Ms. Amanda Patti, Ms. Pamela Crowell, and Ms. Laurie Winner will not exceed $14,000.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the one-year contract extension for Preferred Meals. The annual cost for FY22 is $6,459,334 plus the maximum allowable percentage of 7%. FY22 will be the last of the 4-year renewal option for this contract. Effective dates of the renewal will be August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022.
-The Board of Education voted to authorize the Superintendent to "piggyback" with Office Depot (Contract No. R141703) and CDW (Contract No. 2018011-01) to meet standard and computer supply needs at an approximate value of $24,589.27. Per the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (Administrative Code), Title 44: Government Contracts, Grantmaking, Procurement and Property Management, Subtitle A: Procurement and Contract Provisions, Chapter I: Chief Procurement Officer for General Services, Part 1 Chief Procurement Officer for General Services Standard Procurement, Section 1.5420 Governmental Joint Purchasing Act Contracts, State and other governmental units may agree to use each other's procurement contracts.
-The Board of Education voted to approve Professional Development for Juan Zamora, Operations Department, to attend a five-day training in Aurora, to obtain his Asbestos Contractor/Supervisor Certification. The estimated cost is $1,308 which includes mileage, meals and toll reimbursement.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the Continuing Resolution Authority for FY22 for an amount not to exceed $88,651,156.97. A Continuing Resolution Agreement (CRA) is an interim authority, enacted to provide authority for ongoing activities because the District's budget has not been adopted by the beginning of the fiscal year. This CRA has a fixed life and provides the authority necessary to allow operations to continue in the absence of budget adoption. This CRA will expire immediately upon adoption of the FY 2021/2022 budget. The need for this CRA arises from contractual obligations that exist with payments that must be made prior to budget adoption. The rate of execution for each expense reflects an estimate of annual cost and are included in the FY 2021/2022 Proposed Budget. Board and Manual Check payments will be disclosed at Board meetings as is customary. No change to this practice will occur.
-The Board of Education voted to waive Board Policy 3205 (Sales and Disposal of Property other than real Estate/Buildings) requiring sale of personal property with a fair market value estimated to be over $300 when no longer needed by the District in order to support restoration of an out-of-service, District owned Ford 6600 tractor that then will be raffled off as a fundraiser for the boys track team, with all profits going to the team.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the GLAD professional development contract for new and current teachers in the amount of $180,000. The Bilingual and Multicultural Department is seeking approval for the GLAD contract in the amount of $180,000. This will provide professional development for our new and current teachers. This provides effective strategies and techniques to promote student discourse and language acquisition to support Curriculum Mapping.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the purchase of Spanish Language Arts Materials for EL students in grades 6 through 8 in the amount of $112,868. The Bilingual and Multicultural Department is seeking approval to purchase Spanish language arts materials for EL students in 6th-8th grades.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the contract with the Center for Applied Linguistics to provide professional development for our EL teachers serving Immigrant and Newcomer students in the amount of $21,630. The Bilingual and Multicultural Department is seeking approval of a contract with the Center for Applied Linguistics to provide professional development in balanced literacy with 5-8 ESL 1 teachers who serve Immigrant and newcomer students.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the request to add a certified teacher position for Bilingual Preschool and Kindergarten screening with a salary determined by the teacher's contract.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the contract for the Infinite Campus - Student Information System in the amount of $197,000. Infinite Campus is District 60’s Student Information System. This system is used to track student demographics, attendance, behavior and grades.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the contract for the Hapara software in the amount of $75,000. Hapara provides visible, differentiated and secure instructional management for K12 online learning. Hapara Dashboard serves as the teacher's hub of all student work organized by class.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the contract for the Remind software in the amount of $40,000. Remind is the tool our teachers, counselors, nurses and all other WPSS staff uses to communicate with students and parents.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the contract for the Intrado and School Messenger System in the amount of $57,250. Intrado provides district website hosting services and district mass communication tool (School Messenger). The tool is used to communicate with staff, students and parents.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the contract for the Frontline Staff Development System. Frontline SDS will be used in the district as a replacement to the current homegrown SDS system.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the contract for the Tyler Technology iVisions ERP software in the amount of $135,000. Tyler Technologies (iVisions) is the District 60 Human Resources/Financial System. This system is used to track employee’s positions and pay, education and certification.We also use this system for financial reporting, budgeting, purchasing, accounts payables and accounts receivables. And a multitude of reporting options.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the Tableau software and licenses in the amount of $43,000. Tableau software is used in the district to create complex reporting and visual representation of complex data. It can utilize any data source like Google sheets, databases and Excel sheets etc.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the master cooperative procurement agreement with Johnson Controls Inc. for mechanical enhancements at 16 schools, as recommended by the Administration, and authorize the Superintendent or her designee to approve the associated statements of work for each building project with a total gross maximum authority of $10,757,815. This agreement supports the District's efforts to assess and upgrade its air quality and ventilation systems in the respective school buildings noted in the attached documents in order to provide an improved school environment to support student learning. The project funding is included in the District's approved ESSER II funding application and local funds allocated in Capital Projects Fund 60.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the partner contract with Education Potential,LLC in the amount of $110,000.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the partner contract with the Lake County ROE in the amount of $50,000. The Board approved the acceptance of the EIR Grant on 11/26/2019. These are required annual agreements with our partners who are assisting with the implementation of the grant in WPS60 and are paid using grant funds.
-The Board of Education voted to approve a partner contract with NEIU in the amount of $81,724.
-The Board of Education voted to purchase Lego Education materials to support the EIR grant in the amount of $194,317. This is a new Lego education robotic product that will be replacing Lego Wedo 2.0 in cohort 1 elementary schools. This product is a programmable robot that is capable of using both block coding, as well as MIT Scratch programming languages. This product is adaptable to be used with all other Lego products which makes it unique and essential equipment for STEM classes. This product will be used in grades 1-5.
-The Board of Education voted to purchase iPads/Cases/Carts to support the EIR grant in the amount of $140,897.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the contract with Powerschool in the amount of $31,255.88 for the 2021-2022 SY.
-The Board of Education voted to purchase 500 additional Chromebooks. These Chromebooks will be assigned to all elementary and middle schools. In total, 15 Chromebooks will be assigned as loaners for the students to use in the school. In addition, 180 Chromebooks will be assigned to the high school for students' assessment activities and 20 Chromebooks will be added to the Tech Depots inventory. The Cost for 500 Chromebooks is $183,000.
-The Board of Education voted to accept a bid from Ingleside-based Maneval Construction Co. for Brookside Campus South access road (Monroe street) paving improvements. Their proposal totals $619,400.00. Added to the construction cost is an Architect fee of 7% payable to IMEG corp. 4850 Grand Avenue, Gurnee, Il 60031, a project contingency of 10% of construction costs, and the advertisement cost of $300.87, for a total project budget approval of $724,998.87.
-The Board of Education voted to approve a contract with Employer's Claim Service to continue its third-party administration services for the District's self-insurance worker's compensation program in the amount of $31,750.
-The Board of Education voted to upgrade all district copiers (167) and the print management solution. This purchase is needed to reduce the costs of existing pay per click charges, copiers lease agreements and improve print services. The recommended company to provide the services is Proven IT. The cost for this project is $1,481,400 with a contract of 5 years. This contract includes the lease of the copiers, installation, configuration, maintenance, support, print management solution, training and click charges. Implementing this project will help the district with estimated savings of $2,000,000 within the next five years.
-The Board of Education voted to accept the proposal from Safety National for the District's excess workers compensation vendor, in the amount of $142,000.
-The Board of Education voted to
Personnel Items
-The Board of Education voted to approve the resignations, retirements and terminations of 19 employees.
-The Board of Education voted to to give a 4% raise to all Non-Union personnel, with employees with single health insurance coverage only, contributing .32% of their pay towards single health coverage, and those with dependent coverage paying 35% of any increase in dependent rates from FY2021, per plan type, as determined by Blue Cross Blue Shield, the District's Insurance Carrier at an estimated cost of $738,713.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the Year 4 "Me Too Clause Provision" salary increase for SEIU employees that is linked to the non-union District Administration at a rate not to exceed 4%. The Board of Education and the SEIU agreed to terms on a 5-year contract effective July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2023. Wage increases over the course of the five-year contract included 4%, 3% and 3% for years 1 through 3. A "Me too clause provision" was put in place for years 4 and 5 linked to non-union District Administration.
-The Board of Education voted to renew the consulting agreement with Dr. Anne Zahn to support the work of the EIR grant in the amount of $95,000
Information Items
-The Board of Education presented the District’s Consolidated District Plan (CDP). The CDP is part of the pre-planning process for our other federal grant application submissions and allows districts to answer one set of planning questions to meet requirements for the 12 other Federal formula grants. The purpose of the CDP is to promote meaningful collaboration among district administrators and coordinate efforts across district offices. The CDP also streamlines the federal grant application process.