Highlights of the two meetings include:
- Legal agreement for School Resource Officer (SRO) middle school program revised - The Board reviewed a draft of the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) needed with the City of Park Ridge and Village of Niles to launch a pilot program to place an SRO at both middle schools for 8-10 hours per week during the 2017-18 school year, as approved by the Board in August. The Board also discussed a memo prepared by counsel Ekl, Williams & Provenzale that shared best practices for SRO programs and offered recommendations on the IGA. The Board reached consensus on several modifications to the draft, which will now be updated before approval by District 64 and the local communities.
- Enrollment pressure expected at Emerson and Washington schools for 2018-19 - Emerson: At the District's biggest school, enrollment for 2018-19 is expected to exceed the current classroom capacity by one section. A wide range of potential options to handle the school's space needs were discussed, including a proposal to add a single classroom to a corner of the existing, large LRC and to update the remainder into a flexible learning environment similar to Lincoln's new configuration. The Board requested an additional cost estimate focused exclusively on the classroom, which will be presented to the Board at the February 26 meeting. The District also is surveying current Carpenter 5th grade families to determine their interest in attending Lincoln Middle School instead of Emerson for grades 6-8 beginning in 2018-19; Lincoln does not currently face the same enrollment pressure and space constraints. Washington: The District reported that enrollment is being carefully monitored and might exceed the school's current homeroom capacity by 1 or 1.5 sections. Several potential solutions that might be considered were discussed on a preliminary basis, such as repurposing a classroom and placing a program on a cart, among other options. The District will continue monitoring enrollments carefully through the spring before determining whether any changes would actually be required for 2018-19.
- Partial retrofit of Carpenter School HVAC system proposed - Due to continuing problems with the HVAC system now in its fifth year of operation, the District's engineering consultant recommended replacing/retrofitting two zones that primarily serve grades 3-5 classrooms and the office, which have consistently experienced the most problems. The estimated $1.5 million project could be completed in summer 2018. The Board will be asked to authorize the preparation of construction documents for the proposed work at the February 26 meeting.