The Examiner U-46 News FeedSchool conversion costs top ratified U-46 expenses By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 unanimously approved of $53.7 million in expenditure items at its meeting on Monday, Nov. 6.
The vote was 5-0, board members Samreen Khan and Dawn Martin were absent.
The largest item was $52.4 million, from the capital projects fund, to George Sollitt Construction Company for the additions and renovations to convert Bartlett’s Hawk Hollow from an elementary to a middle school.
“The project consists of renovation of the existing 58,000 sq. ft. Hawk Hollow Elementary School, plus a 92,000 sq. ft. new building addition for the middle school program,” the proposal states. “Upon completion, there will be space for [sixth to eighth grade] students. Each grade will have dedicated science labs, grade-level teacher planning spaces, and flex teaching spaces. The addition will include a new library, new gymnasium, auxiliary gym, and cafetorium with a full-service kitchen. Additional classrooms will include Culinary Arts, Music, Band, and Choral rooms.”
Two agreements with DLA Architects were approved for architectural services for an addition and renovations at Elgin’s Kimball Middle School and to construct a new middle school in Elgin off Rohrssen Road.
No exact numbers were given, but DLA will be paid 7.85 percent of the cost of work for the Kimball project and 6.5 percent for the new middle school which have respective “conceptual all-in budget” costs of $56 million and $100 million listed in the DLA agreements. That would put the DLA payments at $439,600 and $650,000 for the respective projects.
Also approved were a $675,829 (education fund) bid with DHE Computer Systems to replace staff laptops, $176,433 (school safety funds) with Alpha Prime Communications to replace two-way radios and a $119,849 (operations and maintenance fund) with Peters Electric and Technology to conduct emergency lighting inspections across the district.
Contract renewals were approved with TNT Landscape Construction for snow removal services ($171,465, operations and maintenance fund) and MusicFirst Classroom for secondary music resources ($51,397, education fund) as well as a contract extension with MDQ14Kids for professional development ($19,200, Title I funds).
The board also voted 5-0 on a contract renewal of a mutual-use of facilities agreement with Judson University as well as $14.7 million in itemized bills.
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