The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Expenditure proposals slated for U-46 board vote

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education in School District U-46 is set to vote on $659,674 in expenditure proposals at its upcoming meeting on Monday, Aug. 23.
  The items were presented on Aug. 9.
  Included was a $494,348 proposal, paid from the operations and maintenance fund if approved, with F.H. Paschen to replace an emergency exit staircase on the west side of Elgin High School.
  “Those stairs have exposed rebar and are showing significant signs of atrophy, which is allowing water to seep beneath them into an interior storage room,” the proposal states. “Although the concrete has been patched multiple times, the stairs have deteriorated beyond Plant Operations’ repair capabilities.”
  The district is asking for $108,000 (education fund) with Northern Illinois University (NIU) to “strategically build a leadership pipeline through their Principal Preparation Program,” the proposal states. Taxpayers will pay for the tuition and a “paid residency for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years” and the “resident administrator must commit to serving as a site-based administrator in U-46 for 5 years.”
  “The goal for the 2021-2022 school year is to identify up to six elementary school sites that will host a ‘resident administrator,’” the proposal states. “The resident administrator will take on a similar role to an assistant principal, and will learn from the host principal as they work in their buildings and simultaneously pursue a master’s degree in educational leadership from NIU.”
  For Microsoft Dynamics GP2016 software, the district is asking for $30,431 (education fund) with Unified Business Solutions. The software is used for purchasing and financial operations department reports.
  The district is also asking for $26,895 (education fund) for a three-year contract with SchoolMint which “provides a digital platform” for “a lottery system to manage admission into the Magnet Academies,” the proposal states.