The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Varied items approved via District U-46 board vote

By Seth Hancock
  The Board of Education in School District U-46 voted 6-0, board member John Devereux was absent, on $3.4 million in expenditure and curriculum items at its Monday, Jan. 23 meeting.
  Included were several fire alarm replacement projects to be paid through the operations and maintenance fund.
  Those include $820,000 with Broadway Electric, Inc. for replacement at Bartlett’s Prairieview ($440,000) and Elgin’s Lords Park ($380,000) elementary schools, $557,016 with Low Voltage Solutions for replacements at Streamwood’s Ridge Circle ($308,000) and Elgin’s Ronald D. O’Neal ($267,016) elementary schools and $298,960 with iWire Technologies, LLC for replacement at the Illinois Park Center for Early Learning in Elgin.
  The proposals state life expectancy of the systems are 10 years while the current ones were installed between 1992 and 1999 at those schools.
  “The fire alarm system is a crucial health, life, and safety system and it is essential that this critical building system operates without disruption,” the proposals state.
  Other operations and maintenance fund items are $722,000 with Bear Construction Company for bathroom renovations at Elgin’s Channing Elementary School and Kimball Middle School, $298,000 with F.E. Moran, Inc. for cooling tower replacement at the Educational Services Center, $255,000 with Berglund Construction Company for a foundation waterproofing and regrading project at Illinois Park and $98,531 with Commercial Kitchen Equipment and Supplies USA for a cooler/freezer replacement at Elgin’s Abbott Middle School.
  Costing $120,750 from the education fund, a three-year renewal with Panorama Education was approved to conduct an “Equity and Inclusion survey” on students.
  Two items will use federal tax dollars, $94,356 with Action Fence Contractors, Inc. for fencing at Bartlett High School, South Elgin’s Clinton Elementary School and Hoffman Estates Timber Trails Elementary School and $57,222 with Alphaprime Communications to purchase 204 two-way radios.
  Also approved was a curriculum resource proposal to move from StucySync (in use since 2015) to CommonLit Schools Essential PRO as a literacy and K-12 libraries resource. It will cost $87,750 (education fund).
  The board also voted 6-0 on $13.1 million in itemized bills.