The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Expense items on table for next Dist. U-46 meeting

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education is set to vote on $628,352 in expenditure items at its upcoming meeting on Monday, April 25. The proposals were presented on April 11.
  Included is $210,911, from the operations and maintenance fund if approved, with Game Time c/o Cunningham Recreation for playground equipment for Elgin’s Harriet Gifford, Hanover Park’s Parkwood and Streamwood’s Ridge Circle elementary schools.
  The current playsets “are in extremely poor condition due to age and require replacement to mitigate safety issues,” the proposal states.
  With Northern Illinois University, the district is seeking $144,000, paid by the nation’s taxpayers through grants, for staff to obtain bilingual/English as a second language endorsements.
  Two proposals, both from the education fund with Warehouse Direct, were presented to relocate staff offices at the Educational Services Center, which is being reconfigured. The district wants to spend $101,271 to move financial operations from the first to second floor and $67,156 to move the teacher effectiveness initiatives and teacher mentor program from the third floor to the first.
  Also, with Warehouse Direct, the district is asking for $74,514 (education fund) to replace 462 elementary school bench-style tables and 594 secondary stool-style tables.
  “In order to replace aged lunchroom/cafeteria tables that have unsound structural and mechanical integrity issues and deficiencies that create operational efficiency and safety concerns related to the functionality of the folding tables,” the proposal states.
  The district is also asking for $30,500 (education fund) with Group Travel Planners to send 40 students from Elgin, Larkin and Streamwood high schools on a summer college tour of historically black colleges and universities in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.
  Board member Dawn Martin asked, prior to the meeting, how the students are selected and why Bartlett and South Elgin high school students aren’t included. Students must have at least a 2.0 GPA, pass spring semester classes, be in good standing and recommended by a counselor or administrator, a memo stated.
  The memo added: “This College Tour is the result of collaboration between our three Title 1 high school sites -Elgin High School, Larkin High School, and Streamwood High School. The cost of this tour is being paid for through Title 1 funding. Bartlett High School and South Elgin High Schools do not receive Title 1 funding.”