February 17, 2026 Board Briefs

The Community Consolidated School District 62 Board of Education meeting was held on February 17, 2026. The full meeting agenda can be found on BoardDocs, while a livestream of the meeting can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Principal Xrisovalantou Garbis and Assistant Principal Taylor Ivan shared an update from the Westerhold Early Learning Center on how the ELC is focused on all five goals of the District 62 Strategic Plan. A copy of the presentation can be accessed here.

The administrative staff annually reviews district programming needs and projected enrollment for the upcoming school year. The expected outcome from this review is to make a staffing recommendation to the Board of Education for the new school year.

The following steps were followed to complete the task:

• Baseline staffing data was gathered by building and by position.
• Enrollment projections were developed. These projections consisted of progressing our current enrollment to the next grade level and using current kindergarten, special education and ML resource student enrollment.
• Meetings were held with assistant superintendents and directors to discuss programs and obtain their input.
• Meetings were held with principals, the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services, and the Directors of Student Services and Multilingual Programs to review individual building staffing data submitted to administration and review baseline data spreadsheets developed by administrative staff for accuracy.

Major factors in staffing projections for 2026-2027 included the addition of full day Kindergarten, changes to our Special Education programming, the changes to our Multilingual programming specifically the reduction of bilingual instruction, and equalizing class sizes across the district.

At this time the administration recommends no increase in FTE. Through a reconfiguration of the number of existing FTE we will meet our staffing needs based on current preliminary information. The staffing plan is based on current student enrollment projections and needs. As consistent with past practice, dollars will be budgeted for teacher and paraprofessional salaries in the event there is a need for additional positions. In the spring, the administration will be reviewing student assessment data to assist in refining staffing assignments. In addition, special education and ML staffing needs are driven by annual student reviews and student enrollment changes. The administration may need to make staffing changes as these reviews are completed. The administration will continue to collect data and evaluate staffing needs for the March staffing plan

The administration will bring a formal staffing request to the Board of Education in March.

As in past years, the Administration shares with the Board of Education the tentative budget assumptions that will be used to develop the budget for the next fiscal year. School district budget assumptions concern one of four categories: revenue, expenditure, enrollment and staffing. The information below provide detail about these categories.

Revenue: School district revenue sources are collected from three main sources:

• Local – property taxes, student fees, and investment income
• State – state aid (Evidence Based Funding) and mandated categorical grants
• Federal – federal grants

Expenditures: School district expenditures fall into the seven categories:

• Salaries – wages paid to the district employees.
• Benefits – benefits paid to or on behalf of the district employees. Those benefits include employer paid health, life, and dental insurance. It also includes government required retirement payments for TRS, IMRF, THIS, FICA, and Medicare.
• Purchased Services – amounts paid for personal services rendered by personnel who are not on the district’s payroll. These expenditures are typically for consultants, attorneys, architects, auditors, and other professionals.
• Supplies & Materials – amounts paid for material items of an expendable nature.
• Capital Outlay – amounts paid for the acquisition of fixed assets or additions/improvements to fixed assets.
• Other Objects – debt certificate or financing payments for our district.
• Tuition – amounts paid to other educational agencies for services rendered to students residing within the district’s boundaries (i.e., for students with special needs in which it is not cost effective for us to provide the specialized programming required by the student).

Enrollment: It appears that total enrollment will be up slightly over this year with our new arrival students. However, overall enrollment is down from ten years ago.

Staffing: No new Full Time Equivalent (FTE) positions are being recommended at this time. However, the staffing needs may change once spring assessments are analyzed and registrations have been collected.

The Pension Cost Shift & Property Tax “Freeze”: A major factor influencing the FY2027 budget, and the budgets in later years, is the possibility of a tax levy freeze and a pension cost shift. While the levy freeze and pension cost shift are unlikely to occur in the near terms, the chance of those proposals passing legislatively increases in the longerterm. The state’s budget issues will continue to impact the district in the coming years.

The Board approved the bid results of $7,230,568. The estimated final cost to this work is $9,393,680 with management fees, contingent costs, construction items, and allowances factored into the final cost.

As the final stage of the district’s Full Day Kindergarten implementation, bids were solicited for construction and renovation work at Cumberland, Forest, Orchard Place, Plainfield, South, and Terrace Schools. Based on design work conducted by STR Partners, the district’s architect, bids were prepared by Pepper Construction Company and were opened on February 5, 2026. As typical with this scope of work, bid packets were broken out by trade.

Pepper Construction reviewed and verified the bids results with each low bidder to ensure responsiveness.

The Board voted on the resolution abating the Recapture Tax Levy. The resolution was not approved, meaning that nothing will be submitted to the County Clerk and all $2,429,217 of the Recapture Levy will be received.

In 2021 the State of Illinois passed legislation that requires all counties in Illinois to determine the amount of tax refunds given to taxpayers from school districts and other taxing bodies related to property tax appeals. The total amount of these refunds is then available to be claimed by taxing bodies through a Recapture Tax Levy, which is not limited by the property tax cap. These refunds are almost always given to owners of large commercial and industrial properties. For levy year 2025 the amount refunded by District 62 is $2,429,217. At the January 2026 Board Meeting, Administration was directed to prepare a resolution abating half of the Recapture Levy.

Board President Liz Massa noted a prior discussion about reimbursing Board members attending conferences beyond Triple I. The discussion centered around determining what kinds of events require pre-approval. Additional discussion among the Board ensued regarding whether a vote should be taken to attend these events including paying for hotel costs. The Board will review policy,

In addition, President Massa began discussion regarding what talking points Member Garrett should be sent down to Springfield with in anticipation of Advocacy Day. President Massa noted that the ED-RED Mini Summit is June 11. Further information will be forthcoming.

Member Burton announced that the Youth Commission will be holding a Fun Fair on March 14 at Prairie Lakes.

Member Haring asked for the Youth Commission calendar. He shared that the Des Plaines History Center has staff. Orchard Place welcomed a visit from the History Center that included a presentation on indigenous peoples.

Member Morley announced that the District 62 Education Foundation will host a Trivia Night on March 13 at GENCenter. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the fun with games beginning at 7 p.m. The link is now available for those interesting in attending: https://my.cheddarup.com/c/d62-trivia-night/items

Member Garrett attended the ED-RED meeting last week and shared updates regarding various bills.

Member Duckmann announced the North Cook Division Meeting is on March 3 at Park Ridge.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Amadei acknowledged the members of Des Plaines Education Association (DPEA) and Des Plaines Education Support Personnel Association (DPESPA) in the audience.

In early February, District 62 Administrators and the Des Plaines Police and Fire Departments participated in a full day School Safety and Violent Event Incident Management (SSAVEIM) training led by the Illinois Fire Service Institute. The course is designed to improve incident management and response integration of school personnel and emergency responders in the unfortunate event that there is violence or other emergency incident requiring reunification in our schools. Overall, it was a highly effective training and the team left with ideas to continue strengthening protocols.

Dr. Amadei thanked the Cumberland staff for hosting the Board of Education meeting.

The district has maintained recognition status for the past 20 years. With the debt retirement in FY2020, the percentage of long-term debt capacity increase enough to give District 62 a perfect 4.0 Financial Profile Score. In 2025, the district’s financial profile score decreased to 3.65 due to increased expenses. If the district is to remain in recognition status, it will need to reduce expenses in a meaningful way. A copy of the Dashboard Report can be accessed here.