The District 64 Board of Education held a regular meeting on Thursday, September 18. You can watch or listen to a replay of the meeting here on our YouTube page.
D64 Shining Star
We celebrated Emerson 7th grader Zainab Hakeen and teacher Emmy Pasier as our Shining Stars for the month of September. You can read more about them here and learn how they embody the D64 motto: 'Together we discover, learn, grow, and care.'
Studer Education
Members of the Studer Education team joined the meeting via a call and discussed their work with school districts, highlighting how they assist with strategic planning and continuous improvement. The D64 administration recommended moving forward with Studer as a partner to help in those areas. “We’re very, very excited about the potential and the work that we can do,” said Superintendent Dr. Ben Collins. “I think it’ll be a really great conversation for us, as a school board, as a community, and all of our staff.”
As the District leadership has been engaging with neighboring school districts and various other companies over the past 17 months regarding the strategic planning process, “the advice we received was, try to find someone who’s going to really hold you accountable all the way along the path,” recalled Dr. Collins. “So that it’s not something that you veer from, or start to add more to, and then it actually pulls you away from the things that you actually think are the most important drivers of student success.”
You can watch the Studer Presentation here.
Linked are the slides from Studer.
Board Committee Reports
Board Member Kurt Kuempel provided an update on the Finance and Facilities committee meeting, including the construction topics discussed. Board Secretary Beth Rankin gave an update on the recent Education Committee meeting. This part of the meeting can be viewed here.
Adoption of District Budget for 2025-26
Motion Passed
Assistant Superintendent for Business Operations Brian Harlan gave a brief presentation on the budget, which can be viewed here. This is a balanced budget, and we are looking to grow our operating fund balance. The District projects approximately $142.49 million in revenue, while projected expenditures total $175.29 million.
“When you look at the total fund balance, you see that we are projecting a lower ending balance, but this is 100% planned for this year because we will be issuing the rest of those referendum bonds," said Harlan.
The FY26 Operating Funds projections are $97,923,166, and the Operating Fund projected expenditures are $92,244,039. The Operating Funds exclude the Capital Projects, Tort, Debt Services fund, and Municipal Retirement (IMRF/SS).
Student Achievement Update
Assistant Superintendent of Student Learning, Dr. Samantha Alaimo, provided a student achievement update and shared a snapshot of early childhood data through 8th grade.
Student Achievement Update Resources:
Our District student achievement goals for 2025-2026 are:
- Kindergarten and grade 1 Early Reading and Math Assessments: 80% or more of students will reach proficiency (above the 40th percentile) with skills.
- MAP Achievement: Goals are an average of three years of pre-pandemic spring data.
- MAP Growth: A growth rate at the 50th percentile is expected. A growth rate above the 50th percentile is above average.
- 50% of middle school students will meet growth targets in the area of Reading.
- 60% of grades 2-8 students will meet growth targets in the area of Reading.
When looking specifically at the MAP Math achievement and growth, Dr. Alaimo said, “One thing I want to celebrate is that 88% to 95% of our students at District 64 are at the 40th percentile and above. That is just phenomenal. I’m so proud of our teachers and our kids for showing that type of success and progress. I anticipate that it’s only going to move up as we really start targeting some instruction through our strategic planning.”
Opening Enrollment & Staffing Report
Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, Dr. Joel Martin, provided an update on enrollment and staffing. As of August 31, 2025, District 64’s Pre-K-8 student enrollment is 4,491, a decrease of 98 students from the start of the 2024-25 school year. The enrollment change led to a decrease in six sections/homerooms throughout the District.
This decrease was expected based on our ongoing monitoring of enrollment across all grade levels.
For the start of this school year, the District’s overall FTE is 435.33. While the District's total number of sections is down by six, the District added 2.5 school psychologists, a special education coach, and a special education social worker to support the new special education program at Lincoln Middle School. As a result, the total number of certified FTE for this year is only down by 1.63 staff members from the previous school year.
In the category of Non-certified staff members, the District added one additional Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) who is funded through grant money. Further, two positions were added to the technology department, allowing the district to handle the increasing demands and growth of the department. Specifically, the additional support was needed for the installation of new hardware, updating wiring, etc. for projects that had previously been outsourced at a significant cost to the district.
The District is currently up four Educational Support Personnel (ESPs). It likely would have been necessary to add 3-4 more ESPs if we had not reassigned the two LRC/ESPs at the middle school and also changed the job description of the elementary ESPs to allow them to transition from the LRC to work with special education students when needed.
Finally, the District added two special education coordinators, allowing each building in the District to have a dedicated special education administrator. In previous years, Special Education Coordinators had to split their time between two buildings, resulting in difficulty in meeting the needs of students, staff, and families in a timely manner.
Construction Update
Michael Browning, Director of Facility Management, led the School Board on a tour of Emerson Middle School to see some of the upgrades and improvements from the referendum construction. You can view some photos of the tour here.
Consent Agenda
Motions Pass
- Bills, Payroll and Benefits
- Approval of Financial Update for the Period Ending July 31, 2025
- Approval of Recommended Personnel Report
- 2nd Reading and Approval of Policies from PRESS Issues 117, 118 and 119
- Approval of the Intergovernmental Agreement between Niles Township District for Special Education 807 (NTDSE) and Park Ridge Niles Community Consolidated School District 64 for the Provision of Certain Special Education Services and the Provision of Certain Staff
- Approval of Whiteboards for Emerson and Lincoln Middle Schools
- Approval of Studer Education Contract
- Approval of Semi-Annual Review of Closed Minutes
- Approval of the Destruction of Closed Audio Recordings
- Approval of Recommendation for School Board Member Expense Reimbursement Amount
- Approval of Minutes August 14, 2025 Regular Meeting and August 14, 2025 Closed Meeting