The Examiner U-46 News Feed
U-46 Board approves variety of expenses, bills
By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 unanimously approved of expenditure items totaling $1.7 million at its meeting on Monday, June 15 which was held electronically due to the COVID-19 shutdown.
Included was a four-year pact renewal with K-12 Insight for it’s customer service tool Let’s Talk! The cost was $320,000, from the education fund, which is the same annual cost ($80,000) from the previous three years.
With AmeriPak, the district will purchase two food packaging machines costing $291,066 (food and nutrition fund). They will replace a pair of manufacturing production tray lines purchased in 2010 for the central commissary.
“New machines will allow staff to implement processes for higher resolution heat sealing film using stainless steel rollers, printing tracking production codes, ingredient/product code tracking, and allergen identifiers,” the proposal states.
Costing $274,652 (operations and maintenance fund), U-46 will purchase playground equipment for four elementary schools from Game Time. The cost includes $83,083 for a primary playground and $29,473 for a preschool playground at Elgin’s Huff, $54,345 for a primary playground at Bartlett’s Prairieview and $53,876 each for primary playgrounds at Streamwood’s Oakhill and Elgin’s Garfield.
It will replace playground equipment that is “in extremely poor condition due to age,” according to the proposal.
Five pickup trucks will be purchased from Roesch Ford costing $184,890 (operations and maintenance fund) to replace plant operation’s vehicles that were purchased between 1996 and 1998.
Costing $144,503 (education fund), the district will renew its Microsoft licenses from CDW-G. The cost is down from $146,426.
A five-term contract with Northern Illinois University in a not to exceed amount of $144,000, which will be paid for by the nation’s taxpayers through federal grant funds, was approved for teachers to receive bilingual or English language learners (ELL) endorsements.
“The purpose of this second cohort is to continue to build the capacity of our own ELL teachers by supporting their efforts in attaining the Bilingual/ESL Endorsement, in compliance with ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education) regulations, and for teacher retention in the program,” the proposal states.
With Illinois Communication Sales, Inc., the board approved $132,067 (transportation fund) to replace the transportation department’s two-way radio system which currently is nearly four decades old, according to the proposal.
For a contract renewal with Mindsight, the district will spend $115,998 (education fund), up from $114,314, for Cisco SMARTnet license renewal which “enables the operation of the district’s phone system, including voicemail, emergency responder, and contact center express (call center management),” the proposal states.
U-46 will spend $61,750 (education fund) for a contract renewal with CDW-G for AirWatch mobile device management software.
The proposal states: “Mobile Device Management software, AirWatch, allows U-46 to deploy and manage tablet devices (iPads) in an efficient manner from a central administrative console.” This is an increase over the licenses managed last year at $38,200.00.”
To pay annual dues to the lobbyist group Illinois Association of School Boards, the district will pay $33,240 (education fund), down from $40,000.
The board also unanimously approved $8.1 million in itemized bills as well as a list of authorized depositories which will be PMA Securities, LLC, the Illinois School District Liquid Asset Fund and JP Morgan Chase and Company.
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