Cary CCSD 26 meeting: iReady transition, SEL screeners and routine financial items approved

The Cary CCSD 26 Board of Education met Monday evening and covered a range of routine and policy items, including public comment on social-emotional screening, a curriculum update on a new benchmark assessment, the superintendent search, and approval of routine business and the treasurer's corrected report.

During public comment Nancy Swart raised concerns about social-emotional learning, diversity-equity-inclusion materials and what she described as a recent state change. "Parents are their children's first teachers, and they know their child best," Swart said, citing what she called "Senate Bill 15 60 amending the Illinois School Code" and a June 2025 Supreme Court decision she identified as Mahmood v. Taylor. Swart urged the board to prioritize academic fundamentals.

At the curriculum update, Miss Rivera said the district recently completed its first round of iReady assessments, which differ from STAR testing. Rivera said 116 families signed up to attend or receive the recording of the district's iReady Parent University and that the assessment is one of three benchmark measures used to track growth. "It is one assessment out of many," Rivera said, adding the district will continue to use multiple data points for instructional grouping and goal setting. Rivera also reviewed social-emotional screeners: a teacher-facing eight-question screener (referred to in the meeting as the DESA) and a student-facing survey for grades 5–8 (the CICA). She said opt-out forms for the screeners are available on the district website and that teachers flagged by the screener are reviewed by the district social-work team for follow-up.

Superintendent search activity was ongoing: staff said student forums were taking place that week and a community forum was scheduled the following evening. The search survey is open through Oct. 3, staff said. The district reported eight Freedom of Information Act requests this month; the FOIA filings are posted on BoardDocs.

On business matters the board approved a consent agenda that included minutes, resignations and new hires, disposal of assets, destruction of closed meeting recordings, a change to the December regular meeting date (to Dec. 18) and the policy on prevention of bullying, intimidation and harassment. The consent agenda also included the monthly bills and payroll totaling $3,396,176.14; the motion carried with all seven board members voting yes.

The board also approved a corrected treasurer's report after staff identified an input error in the district's forecast model that had overstated salary expenditures in an earlier presentation. Staff said there were no revenue changes and that the corrected projection shows salaries and benefits year-to-date at about 3.42%, not the higher figure previously shown; staff also said certain transportation expenditures remain conservatively stated pending final allocation of bus-lease and claim funding. Staff reported the district had invested a portion of excess cash into short-term instruments that will mature in February–March and that recent investment yields were in the high 3% range.

There were no additional agenda items after the board approved the items above and the meeting adjourned at 6:34 p.m.