City Council Minutes 2008 01-14-08 Joint Special Meeting Appendix C:
MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
YORKVILLE COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT NO. #115
KENDALL AND KANE COUNTIES ILLINOIS,
AND THE UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE CITY COUNCIL
ON THE 14TH OF JANUARY, 2008 AT 7:05 P.M.
At Roll Call, the following members were present: For the
School District, Dr. Burks, Mr. Dockstader, Mr. Fahey,
Mr, Fisher, Dr. Sullivan, and Dr. Brenart. Mr. Gengler
arrived at 7:10 p.m. For the City, Mayor Valerie Burd,
Mr. Golinski, Ms. Spears, Mr. Besco, and Mr. Leslie. Also
in attendance was Dr. Engler; Mr. McLaughlin, City
Administrator; staff members of the United City of
Yorkville; staff members of the United City of Yorkville
Parks and Recreation Department; and recording Board
Secretary, Mary Lou McKenzie. The Kendall County Record,
Prairie Times Newspaper, and The Beacon News were also
represented.
The pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Dr. Brenart began the meeting by welcoming everyone.
Item #1: Mr. wyrot, the City Engineer reviewed the Game
Farm Road Project. He says they are in the middle of phase
two, and then construction will begin approximately March,
2010. There were some concerns regarding some complaints
by senior citizens, eminent public domain, and much concern
for the safety of students [both pedestrian and busses]
using Game Farm Road during the construction phase of the
project. Mr. DeBolt has been in communication with
Mr. Wyrot throughout the progress and will continue to do
that in regards to student safety and the District.
Item #2 and #6: Dr. Brenart commented that there is
great usage of the school's facility and thanked
Mr. Dockstader and the Park and Recreation Department for
working cooperatively together to come up with an
agreement. They are meeting quarterly to solve various
issues that arise. The group discussed the pros and cons
of a future field house; particularly funding.
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Appendix C Continued:
Mayor Burd said there is a new foundation being set up and
that could be a project. A suggestion was to examine all
opportunities, not just a field house per se. This could
be a topic for future meetings with the School Board and
the City. They briefly discussed the relationship with the
Park and Recreation Department. It seems to be working very
well, with the addition of the new staff.
Items #3 and #4: Mr. Miller, Community Developer, gave a
brief review of the transition fees, saying they were last
updated in 2002 and wouldn't be a bad idea to re- evaluate
the demographics as to whether these fees still makes
sense. Dr. Engler added that they have been doing that but
the per pupil expenditure has decreased and the costs
haven't changed a lot. The District thought this might not
be a really good time to increase them with the slow down
in real estate. Mr. Miller thought that land /cash would be
a good thing to look at, as well, that hasn't been changed
since 1998. The concern is, also, that a lot of what the
District does is with local monies. Also, a concern was
expressed that at what point will developers decide to go
somewhere else.
A concern was raised about the District's test scores and
the long term goals. Dr. Engler commented that the K -6
scores are very positive and the District is very serious
about making adjustments to the secondary math and reading
curriculum. The Ell programs and special education
programs have required a lot of additional teachers and
impact the test scores, and the mobility rate affects the
scores. There are many things in progress aimed at raising
those test scores where they are low. The failed
referendums have presented problems with class sizes that,
in turn, impacts test scores.
Councilman Leslie wondered if the City could be of any
assistance to the school district as they deal with their
business items. Mr. Fisher said he is concerned with the
high density housing that puts a lot of pressure on the
school district, dealing with a greater influx of students.
He would like the City to give greater consideration to
those kinds of developments. Mr. Leslie responded the
Council had great concern in those areas as well.
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Appendix C Continued.:
In summing this issue up, Dr. Brenart said test scores are
important but when you are "chasing dollars ", it is
difficult to put all of the programs in place, but they are
definitely working on the high school curriculum, where
scores are low. Dr. Burks added that the high school staff
will be coming to the Board with a report on a change in
the philosophy of teaching high school students. With the
recent referendum, they've just been able to get class
sizes down, plus, she pointed out that the School Report
Card data is at least a year old and in some cases longer
than that, and at one point, the State was very late
returning the data for any changes to even make an impact
for that year. Mayor Burd wondered if the District could do
more partnerships [businesses). Dr. Brenart said the
District was certainly looking into that area.
Dr. Sullivan felt the gifted program was working very well
now, with the addition of the two full -time teachers
working with gifted students. That program is expected to
expand. Also, parental involvement has been shown to have
an impact on student scores. Mr. Dockstader said another
problem is that the State and Federal governments fail to
fund their mandates.
Item #5: in regards to the item of sidewalks or lack of
sidewalks in the older part of town, Mr. McLaughlin, City
Administrator, said there is nothing planned for next
summer, but the year after that, they will start the next
phase in two of the critical wards where studies have been
done. He commented the City doesn't have a "Cash Sharing
Program ", but they are looking into that. Dr. Engler added
that, at times, the District have put in their own
sidewalks just to have safe places for students to walk to
and from school. He said especially in the older part of
town, he is encouraging the City to repair those sidewalks
as soon as possible.
Item 7: Dr. Brenart said that work needs to be done on
the communication and solving scheduling conflicts with the
Park and Recreation Department. Dr. Engler commented that
the addition of Tim Evans has been working out really well.
one suggestion is that the Park Department give them their
schedule as far ahead as possible in the summer; then sit
down again during December to see what the needs will be
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Appendix C Continued:
for the rest of the year. Mr. Rollins, Park District,
commented they had looked back at the records and out of
1600 hours of scheduling, there were only about 7
conflicts. They also don't want to see scheduling
problems, as that impacts their services too. Dr. Engler
would like to see most programs be 100% available for
Yorkville students and not bring in so many outside
traveling clubs, etc. One suggestion was to look at an
automatic scheduling system that both entities could look
at. Councilman Golinski commented that there isn't a
school district representative at the park department's
meetings right now. Dr. Engler pointed out that Mr.
Schoonover, Athletic Director, had been on that Board, but
there was so much of the business that didn't pertain to
the District. Mr. Rollins added that it was too time
consuming for the athletic director, but could someone else
be appointed that would assist with the flow of information
back and forth. Dr. Engler said much of the placements of
parks work is done with other City officials at the time
they meet with the developer and the school site is
established. He said there is certainly an opportunity to
collaborate a little more with future park development, but
the school district is at the end of these referendum
monies, so it could be a future consideration.
There being no further business, Dr. Brenart thanked
everyone for coming and adjourned the meeting at 9:05 p.m.
APPRO February 25, 2008
D . Robe nart, President Dean Fisher, Secretary
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