District 99 students describe volunteer work at Transition Center T 99; county to reimburse $75,000 for vehicles

Lisa Bauer, director of special services for Community High School District 99, introduced students from the district’s Transition Center T 99 at the board’s business meeting, saying the program “serves students in the district 18 to 22 who have finished their 4 years at Downers Grove North or South High School, or some of them return from a therapeutic day school.”

Bauer said T 99 focuses on “life after high school, getting them as independent as possible,” and preparing students for vocational and community connections. Students and staff described volunteer placements that the program uses to build vocational and life skills, including Meals on Wheels, Sharing Connections, a greenhouse program at College of DuPage and Project CURE in Woodridge.

“The work that they're doing, as you can see in the pictures, is very meaningful in many different ways,” Bauer told the board. She said the program builds opportunities families can continue after students exit T 99 and gives students “outlets in the community to work on those skills.”

Student Yvette Folito spoke about meal deliveries: “At Musa, we also we speak up for seniors. Deliver food to the home,” and described greeting recipients and “making the senior smile.” A student who volunteers at the College of DuPage greenhouse described watering plants, replacing soil and sweeping — duties she said she enjoys. Staff described Project CURE as a physically accessible warehouse site where students sort and re‑sterilize medical supplies for international shipments; students later receive emails showing where shipments have gone.

Board members and staff also flagged a related consent-agenda item: the district’s agreement with DuPage County to reimburse part of the cost to purchase vehicles for T 99, including a wheelchair-accessible minivan. Board members said the district had been told earlier the county would reimburse $50,000; at the meeting, administrators told the board DuPage County had increased the reimbursement to $75,000 and that documents had been updated to reflect the new amount. The consent agenda, which included that agreement and several donations, passed on a unanimous vote.

Jerry Powers, identified earlier in the meeting as an administrative assistant for T 99, was mentioned in the students’ presentation for creating an AI-generated T 99 song that was shown in the meeting slideshow.

Board members thanked the students and T 99 staff for the presentation. The meeting record shows the district will proceed with the vehicle purchase agreement as amended in the consent agenda.