The Examiner U-46 News Feed
U-46 to vote on expenses totalling $10.9 million
By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 is set to vote on $10.9 million in expenditure proposals at its meeting on Monday, Feb. 24. The items were presented at the Feb. 10 meeting.
The largest proposal is a $6.8 million item, which will be paid for from the operations and maintenance fund if approved, with Troop Contracting, Inc. for an interior buildout at an Elgin building, 1019 East Chicago St., which was recently purchased as a satellite office for the transportation department. This is the second phase of the project.
Board member Melissa Owens said originally there were plans to move the district’s welcome center to the building and Jeff King, deputy superintendent of operations, said that’s “still the plan, but that will be in the third phase.” Sheila Downs, director of plant operations, said that should happen in the next fiscal year.
King added that buses will move to the facility likely in July when asked by Sue Kerr, the board’s president.
A three-year contract with Trane Chicago costs $1.8 million (operations and maintenance fund), which is up from $1.4 million from the previous three-year contract. It is for preventative maintenance of the district’s heating and cooling equipment.
The contract includes additional items accounting for the increase, according to the district. It includes new performance software for five schools costing $71,000 a year as well as an end of the year chiller shutdown costing $20,000 a year while the district added an additional 26 days of on-site automatic support annually. Additional service calls cost the district $203,900 last year.
“We went above and beyond our service contract quite frequently, and so we actually imbedded things that we know will come up into the contract which should result in an overall savings,” Downs said.
“This sounds like a good deal,” Kerr said.
The winning low bids on three proposals, all operations and maintenance funds, came significantly lower than the highest bidders according to Owens.
Those include an asbestos abatement project at Elgin’s Larsen Middle School with EHC Industries, Inc. costing $78,880 compared to the high bid of $204,000, the third phase of a domestic water piping replacement project at Elgin High School with Holian Asbestos Removal costing $74,000 compared to the high bid of $341,575 and a pathways asbestos abatement project at Larkin High School in Elgin with NES Environmental costing $45,400 compared to the high bid of $141,000.
Downs said all three winning companies were properly vetted and noted that both EHC and Holian have “done a lot of work” with the district.
With Veterans Floors, Inc., the district is proposing classroom wood floor sanding and refinishing costing $32,820 at Elgin’s Washington Elementary School, floors originally installed in 1893, and $28,400 at Elgin’s Lowrie Elementary School, originally installed in 1887, for a total cost of $61,220. A lower bid, $58,086, came in, but the district stated the lower bid was due to the company recommended not refinishing two rooms.
Owens said the wood floors are good esthetically, but asked if it would be cheaper to replace them with floors that would cost less to maintain.
“We’ve discussed it,” Downs said. “Eventually we will have to replace them. Right now, they can be saved. There is an esthetic quality. Obviously, they’re part of the culture of those buildings. They also have fire places. We are trying to salvage them as long as possible, but the day will come. This is probably the last time that we do a full refinishing of those spaces.”
A paint removal project, with the use of chemical stripper, for common spaces on the second floor of Streamwood High School has a price tag of $235,000 (operations and maintenance fund). The third floor was done last year.
Kerr said “we’re moving down” and Downs said that was correct, and the first floor is planned for next year. Downs said the project will take the whole summer when asked by board member Kate Thommes.
With Sentinel Information Services, the district is proposing to spend $324,539 (education fund) to purchase program network switches. Laura Macias, director of information services, said when asked by board member John Devereux, that the nation’s taxpayers will pay for 80 percent of the purchase through e-rate. Macias said: “We pay for it, and they give us back 80 percent… the government.”
Similarly, the district expects the nation’s taxpayers to fund 80 percent of $368,183 (education fund) for a wireless access point purchase proposal with Sentinel, also through e-rate. The same is for the purchase of uninterruptible power supply with Applied Communications Group costing $262,354 (education fund).
From the operations and maintenance fund, the district is proposing to spend $246,000 with Happ Builders, Inc. for a gym floor and bleacher replacement project at Streamwood High School and $406,000 with Northwest Contractors, Inc. for the first phase of a gym renovation at Larsen Middle School.
Costing $56,695 from the education fund, U-46 is proposing a storage area network maintenance renewal with Storcom.
The district is asking for $106,500 from the nation’s taxpayers through grant funds to purchase 30 interactive boards from Dell EMC and 30 board stands from PACE Systems.
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