The Examiner U-46 News Feed

U-46 expense initiatives approved via board vote

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education in School District U-46 voted 6-0, board member Melissa Owens was absent, on a series of expense-related items at its Monday, July 18 meeting.
  Included was a law firm rate increase, $2.3 million in contract renewals, a curriculum item, a resolution detailing the budget timeline for the Fiscal Year 2023 budget and $19.1 million in itemized bills.
  The rate increase was with Chicago-based firm Nyhan, Bambrick, Kinzie & Lowry P.C. The item stated that Trisha Olson, chief legal officer, would “present the rate increase,” but no public information was provided with no board discussion nor attachment detailing how much more the firm will be paid for this rate increase.
  The contract renewals included $592,800 and $261,175 from the tort fund for property insurance coverage from CAN and excess workers’ compensation coverage from Illinois Public Risk Fund respectively, a three-year contract renewal with Tyler Technologies costing $630,344 (education, operations and maintenance and transportation funds) for Versatrans which provides bus routing, a three-year contract renewal with Learning A-Z for English and Spanish online reading materials costing $594,720 (education fund) and a five-year contract costing $252,500 (education fund) with Clevr for its forms and workflow software.
  The curriculum item is for post-secondary plan strategies, for juniors, and post-secondary preparation, for seniors, courses. The total cost of the proposal is $3,905 including one-year teacher licenses for the Purpose Prep resource ($2,205) and professional development ($1,700).
  Curriculum for the Study Skills course for freshmen and sophomores was approved last year, and this provides standards-based curriculum for upperclassmen, according to the proposal.
  As for the upcoming resolution vote related to FY 2023, it sets Aug. 22 for presentation of a tentative budget which will be put on public display on Aug. 23. The resolution sets a public hearing for Sept. 12, and the board is expected to adopt the budget Sept. 26.