The Examiner U-46 News Feed
U-46 Board approves policy, payments, pact
By Seth Hancock
School District U-46 has updated its concussion policy and Bartlett High School’s activity complex cleared its final hurdle to purchase a scoreboard as the Board of Education unanimously approved both proposals on Monday, July 18.
The concussion policy, under Section 7.290 of the board’s policies, was updated to align with new state law according to Miguel Rodriguez, chief legal officer, when he helped present on June 20.
“The changes that we are recommending to the concussion policy come straight from the law, and will go into effect the first day of the 2016-2017 school year,” Rodriguez said.
According to the policy, numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 3.9 million concussions occur annually across the country.
Among the changes to the policy, an athlete’s parents must sign a concussion form and a concussed athlete can neither practice nor play until being cleared after meeting certain protocols.
Along with a management plan being developed for student athletes with concussions, the district is also required to have a concussion oversight team.
Terri Lozier, assistant superintendent, presented those who will be on the oversight team which includes her, the district’s supervisor of health services Jeff Judge, registered nurses Patricia Kenyon and Cheryl Johnson, high school athletic directors Mark Orszula and Jason Ward, PE coordinator Tracey Jakaitis, guidance counselor Christopher Boden, health services secretary Caitlyn Van Dame and M.D. Ankur Chhadia who is with Suburban Orthopaedics. There will also be adjunct members including coaches and trainers.
One change was made between the presentation on June 20 and approval on July 18 as the original policy was titled specifically for student athletes. The title is now “Students; Concussions and Head Injuries.”
“We wanted to make sure the policy addresses any issues involving student concussions for any student involved with any sport at any of our schools,” Rodriguez said. “So we just broadened what we think is the intent of the law.”
“I want to thank everyone who’s involved in this,” said board member Cody Holt. “I think it’s a very, very important policy for protecting our student athletes and our students in general.”
The Bartlett activity complex efforts to try and host a home football game this upcoming season needed approval for a license agreement with the Bartlett Rotary Club which donated $25,000 to go towards purchasing a scoreboard. Jeff King, chief Operations officer, said the agreement is between U-46, the rotary club and the Bartlett Booster Foundation.
After the 7-0 approval by the board just a few days later on July 22 the twitter page for the project, @bhsactivitycomp, tweeted: “Scoreboard has been ordered!”
Jeff Bral, Bartlett’s athletic director, said back in June that the Hawks football team hopes to host their homecoming game against East Aurora in early October instead of their current home field at Streamwood’s Millennium Field.
Also approved by the board 7-0 was a $93,451 emergency expenditure, to be paid for out of the education fund, with Sentinel to fix the district’s phone system. U-46 CEO Tony Sanders said the district had recently learned that when 9-1-1 calls are made the operator would know which building was calling but not the location of the call within the building.
The board approved under their consent agenda contract renewals with CDW-G ($93,704) and Versifit Technologies ($40,000) as well as bid proposals with Mira Via, LLC ($37,200) and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ($32,650), all of which will be paid for out of the education fund. Also approved was an $803,778 expenditure, to be paid by the nation’s taxpayers through Title I funds, to purchase computers and iPads from Heartland Business Systems, Apple and Tiger Direct.
Itemized bills totaling $23.9 million were also approved unanimously.
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