May 21, 2026 at 6:45 PM - Amended 2026-2027 Budget Hearing/Board of Education Regular Meeting 7:00 PM

I am recommending changes to the following School Board Policies based on direction from the Illinois Association of School Boards and legal counsel:

Section 400   Operational Services

4:165           Awareness & Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse & Grooming 

The PRESS Update Memo is included to provide supporting information for all proposed changes.  Policies with non-material changes, including those with legal reference and footnote updates only, will be modified administratively and are not presented for change.  The proposed policy changes are presented as a first reading only this evening.  They will be presented for a second reading and potential action at the June meeting. 

I plan on recommending the adoption of a resolution to place a school funding initiative on the November 3, 2026, general election ballot for Lake County voters, authorizing the public to decide whether to create this dedicated funding stream for school safety and facilities. If approved, the revenue will be legally restricted to three key areas: improving school buildings and infrastructure, funding School Resource Officers for campus safety, and hiring mental health professionals to support student well-being.

Recommend approval of the resolution directing the Regional Superintendent of Schools for The County of Lake, Illinois, to certify to the County Clerk of said County the question of imposing a retailers’ occupation tax and a service occupation tax to be used exclusively for school facility purposes, school resource officers, and mental health professionals, for submission to the electors of said County at the general election to be held on the 3rd day of November, 2026.

The administration is recommending we pilot the following 2 clubs in the 2026/27 school year:

• Dawg Pound

• National Alliance on Mental Illness

Recommend approval of the 2 pilot clubs for 2026/27 school year as presented.

Recommend the employment of the following individual(s):

• Lindsay Clarke, Bilingual Teacher, MA, Step 5, 2026/27
• Ryan Martin, 15 hour/week bus driver, $26.53/hr., starting April 20, 2026
• Benjamin Quint, Bilingual Teacher, MA+45, Step 11, 2026/27
• Amber Whitmer, Administrative Assistant to Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, $20.19/hr., starting June 1, 2026

   Recommend the position change of the following individuals(s):

• Mary Beth Adamek from 15 hour/week bus driver to on-call substitute, effective April 20, 2026

   Recommend accepting the resignation letters from the following individual(s):

• Kevin Connerty, Part-time food service, effective immediately
• Tom Dubois, On-call Substitute Bus Driver, effective May 1, 2026
• Linda Jacobs, Bus Driver, effective May 31,2026
• Rachel Lesiak, School Psychologist, effective at the end of the 2025/26 school year
• Ryan Martin, 15 hour/week bus driver, effective April 27, 2026
• Dulce Olmos Ocampo, EL Teacher, effective at the end of the 2025/26 school year
• Kyle Whitman, Asst. Football Coach, effective immediately

   Notification of an FMLA request from the following individual:

• Mallory Whitman, Athletic Trainer, effective August 19, 2026 - December 7, 2026

We’ve begun building the 2026/27 Budget.  I will bring what we have so far to the meeting for you to review.  The budget is a shell until we finalize the salaries and benefits.  As well, I’m still waiting on a couple departments to get their budget proposals back to me.  Additionally, we have the renewal rates for health insurance on our agenda this month and those will be updated upon your approval.  There are less than 30 days between both the May and June meetings and the June and July meetings, so in order to meet the statutory requirements, we are recommending we put the tentative budget on display now, with a hearing and approval request in July.  I will have a full tentative budget presentation for you at the June Board meeting.

Recommend the 2026/27 tentative budget be put on display for the statutory 30 days.

As I mentioned last year, the Lakes Region Benefit Cooperative has undergone some changes the past two years.  We have a new benefits consultant, USI Insurance Services who is working to consolidate the plans across the cooperative.   Last year, Grant consolidated with other districts on the HMO plans.  This year we are recommending consolidating with the other districts in the cooperative to offer the Delta Dental plans and the EyeMed vision plan.  This coordinated well with requests that we received during negotiations for more options in dental plans.

For health insurance, we are recommending a slight rate increase, 2.9%, this year on all our PPO plans and our High Deductible plan.  For the HMO plans, we can’t control the rates as we purchase those fully insured off the shelf.  This year, the rate increase is 16%.

I am recommending the monthly rates for 2026/27 as shown below:

Plan B                          Current 25/26                Proposed 26/27
Employee                      $   806.09                     $   829.47
Employee+Child            $2,081.86                     $2,142.23
Employee+Spouse        $2,250.28                     $2,315.54
Family                            $2,637.07                     $2,713.55

Plan C                          Current 25/26                Proposed 26/27
Employee                       $   719.25                   $   740.11
Employee+Child            $1,874.37                    $1,928.73
Employee+Spouse        $2,024.69                    $2,083.41
Family                            $2,173.50                    $2,236.53

High Deductible Plan     Current 25/26             Proposed 26/27
Employee                      $   436.67                    $   449.33
Employee+Child            $1,130.83                    $1,163.62
Employee+Spouse        $1,221.16                    $1,256.57
Family                           $1,310.59                     $1,348.60

HMO Illinois                   Current 25/26              Proposed 26/27
Employee                      $   828.54                     $   961.93
Employee+Child            $1,606.71                     $1,865.39
Employee+Spouse        $1,674.27                     $1,943.83
Family                           $2,485.86                      $2,835.02

Blue Access HMO         Current 25/26                Proposed 26/27
Employee                      $   768.14                      $   891.81
Employee+Child            $1,518.95                      $1,683.98
Employee+Spouse        $1,450.45                      $1,763.50
Family                            $2,255.24                      $2,618.33

Ryan Geist and the Student Services Department have provided a quote to continue our relationship with the SchooLinks program.  This is the program that is being used in multiple activity schedules throughout the year for students to complete schoolwide College and Career Readiness activities.  A recent example of what each level of students did on one of these days was the activity schedule in March had freshmen completing activities related to post secondary planning including how to fill out job applications and create resumes as well as learning about college searches.  Sophomores spent time learning about 2 and 4-Year colleges as well as how the college application process works.  Juniors explored colleges, set goals for which colleges they wanted to apply to, updated their resume, and completed a college financing activity.  Seniors had a year-end activity, they did their FAFSA survey and learned how to confirm enrollment in colleges.  Additionally, all students use this tool to track their volunteer hours.  The quote is a 3-year commitment with 5% increase each year.  This is a valuable tool for our students.

Recommend the Board approve the three-year renewal quote with SchooLinks as presented.

As I mentioned earlier, we are aligning with the Lakes Region Benefit Cooperative in changing our dental and vision plans to the same as the rest of the cooperative.  We didn’t do this last year because we were already locked into rates with Guardian for dental and VSP for vision.  These new plans will give employees more dental options and better vision coverage.  

Delta Dental High Plan Proposed 26/27
Employee                   $     48.80
Employee+Child        $   121.48
Employee+Spouse    $     97.60
Family                        $   170.73

Delta Dental Low Plan Proposed 26/27
Employee                  $     43.10
Employee+Child        $   106.15
Employee+Spouse    $     86.21
Family                        $   149.67

Delta Dental DHMO Proposed 26/27
Employee                 $     18.34
Employee+Child      $     38.32
Employee+Spouse  $     33.94
Family                      $     53.82

EyeMed Vision Plan Proposed 26/27
Employee                $      6.08
Employee+Child      $    12.16
Employee+Spouse  $   11.55
Family                      $   17.88