The Examiner U-46 News FeedTwo proposals slated for District U-46 board votes By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 will vote on a pair of expenditure items at its upcoming meeting on Monday, Feb. 4. The items were presented on Jan. 14.
A proposal with Trane, Inc. would cost $156,369 and would come out of the operations and maintenance fund if approved.
The proposal is to replace three chiller control panels, two at Streamwood High School and one at Bartlett High School.
“All three chillers are currently in working condition; but each of those units has an antiquated control panel for which the manufacturer can no longer source parts,” the proposal states. “Without the ability to repair these units, we are vulnerable if they malfunction. With lead times as great as eight weeks, this could result in the inability to control the building temperature during cooling season.”
The proposal continued: “Knowing that our current equipment can no longer be repaired gives us an opportunity to anticipate a future problem. Thus, this control panel upgrade would allow us to proactively avoid future service interruption.”
The other proposal that will receive a vote is a three-year contract with Comcast costing $150,480 (education fund) to provide SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)/VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) trunk services which “allow voice calls over the internet” according to the proposal. The district’s current contract expires in March.
The SIP services are contained in two U-46 locations, the Educational Services Center in Elgin and Kenyon Woods Middle School in South Elgin.
“The SIP trunks are an integral component of the phone system,” the proposal states. “The trunks carry phone calls over the internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network.”
Comcast came in with the second lowest price of four vendors, MetroNet coming in at $122,400.
The proposal states that MetroNet had a lack of response to technical requirements, no infrastructure at the two U-46 locations, inadequate references and no previous experience in the service.
“The reason they were not selected was because they don’t have network in that area,” said U-46 CEO Tony Sanders.
Laura Macias, information services director, said last year “we spent the whole summer moving from AT&T to Comcast” meaning Comcast has the network infrastructure in place.
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