Workforce Development Board – Meeting Minutes – February 2026

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD

OF ROCK ISLAND, HENRY AND MERCER COUNTIES,

NOT-FOR-PROFIT CORPORATION

Board Minutes

8:30 a. m. – 9:30 a. m., Wednesday, February 24, 2026

In-Person

Present: Cory Bergfeld, Teresa Cherry, Christine Gosney, Lori Warren, Mark Evans, Christine Caves, Meg Pfoutz, Steve Walzer, Abbey Cox, Dr. Daniel Marvin, Jenny Miller, Russell Hensley, Kathy Marshall and Richard Nagle 

Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 8:31 AM 

Action Items

• Approval of Minutes- The minutes of 11-19-2025 were reviewed and a motion to approve was made by Kathy Marshall and seconded by Meg Pfoutz.  The minutes were approved with no corrections made.

• Audit Report for Fiscal Year End 6-30-2025- Teresa Cherry reviewed and presented the Financial Audit Report to the Board and stated that the audit was given a clean opinion and no material issues noted. Corey Bergfeld congratulated the staff on all their hard work throughout the year to receive a clean audit.

• Fiscal Agent reports-Teresa Cherry presented the financial statements as of 12-31-2025 along with an accounting of all checks paid from 10-1-2025 to 12-31-2025. The WIOA Formula grant 2024 in the amount of $2,311,305 which currently has $2,123,954.40 in funds spent and another $149,322.66 is obligated to be spent and has a remaining balance of $38,037.94 to be spent by 6-30-2026.  The WIOA Formula grant 2025 in the amount of $2,715,441.00 which currently has $160,276.86 in funds spent and another $207,094.46 is obligated to be spent and has a remaining balance of $2,348,069.67 to be spent by 6-30-2027. A Pre-Apprenticeship dated 1-1-2024 and expires 12-31-2025 grant in the amount of $569,000 of which $365,199.48 funds spent, with another $1,117.11 obligated with $202,683.41 to spent by 12-31-2025. The organization has decided to let this grant expire as of December 31, 2025, as there was difficulty getting repayment from Illinois Job Works. The JTED grant in the amount of $562,325.00 which is to be used only on individuals from the re-entry from Prison that currently has spent $316,3412.74, and another $18,031.47 is obligated to be spent and has a remaining balance of $227,951.79 to be spent by 6-30-2026.  In addition to those grants, the organization has a 1E grant in the amount of $342,225.00 for the purpose of training workers laid off in the Quad Cities which currently has spent $246,591.29 and has a remaining balance of $103,391.94 to be spent by 12-31-2025. This grant also has expired as all the funds were not needed and is no longer in available. Teresa Cherry also stated that there are 3 new grants effective 7-1-2025 and they are as follows: Supplemental State Funding in the amount of $71,988.00 of which $7,628.56 has been spent and has a remaining balance of $64,359.44 by 6-30-2026. The organization has hired an instructor to teach free digital literacy courses that started in February 2026 and these funds should be fully expended by 6-30-2026. A new Apprenticeship Expansion Grant in the amount of $145,000.00 of which $44,185.93 has been spent and has a remaining balance of $100,814.07 by 6-30-2026.  The last grant is a Job Training Economic Development grant in the $562,325.00 with $316,341.74 spent, another $18,031.47 obligated which another $227,951.79 to be spent by 9-30-2026. A motion to approve was made by Christine Gosney, seconded by Abbey Cox to approve the financial statements as presented.

• Occupational Therapy Assistant Training Program-Teresa reviewed the Occupational Therapy Training Program that was prior approved in November 2025 by e mail vote of the Executive Committee as classes for this program started in January 2026 and ask for a confirmation vote of approval to reflect in the Oversight Committee meeting minutes. A motion to approve was made by Meg Pfoutz, seconded by Christine Gosney to confirm the prior approval. 

 Reports

• Programmatic performance – Lori Warren presented the 12-31-2025 preliminary performance goals in two forms, one that was the original way the organization was previously graded and the new State of IPATS Performance Model. The new performance goal model will be used going forward. It has three components which include achieving 70% of negotiated goals for individual category for Dislocated Workers exit for second quarter, the next is 70% of negotiated goals for Adult, Dislocated Workers, and Youth exit for 2^nd quarter and the last of 90% of negotiated goals for exit second quarter for Adult, Dislocated Workers or Youth. Lori discussed the State Supplemental Grant in the amount of $71,988 which is being used for a remote digital training within the 3 counties. The program started in February 2026, currently has 31 classes scheduled with a maximum of 50 classes to instruct.  They are holding 2 meetings per week for 2 hours for each class. This is another training going on at demolishing project an opera house in our area and the rebuild will begin by 4-1-2026. Lori also stated that Scott Terry in charge of Business Services has been very busy working calling and meeting with various businesses to see how our organization can help their businesses. Since he started this initiative, there are currently 3 businesses using our services with the focus on smaller businesses that don’t have the resources within their own organizations

• Memorandum of Understanding-Teresa Cherry informed the committee that the organization hired Jeff Marcella to oversee the update of the 2026 update to the Memorandum of Understanding and all partners agreed to that. She stated that we have already had one meeting of three meetings, one happened in February 2026 and two more scheduled for March 2026 to finalize the process.

• Regional and Local Plan-Teresa Cherry stated that the Local and Regional Plans are due again this year as it is an every 2-year process. Both plans were the same except the State of Illinois revised the language in a few questions and answers needed to address those changes. These Local Plan was posted on our website as of 2-15-2026 and the Regional Plan is now also posted before the deadline of 2-28-2026.

• The draft minutes from the prior Youth, Joint Services and Oversight Committees were given to the Board for informational purposes.

Additions: Teresa Cherry commented that the organization has hired a new career planner to help take some work off Lori Warren and she is working out great. Richard Nagle presented some documentation of the Website and Social Media outlets he has created to increase the number of people that can use the website and the hits keep growing. This information is a rolling 90-day snapshot of the past transaction history. This is giving the organization much more exposure within the three counties.

 Public Comment: None

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 9:31 AM, a motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Christine Gosney and seconded by Corey Bergfeld.

 Next Board Meeting is May 27, 2026, at 8:30 AM