Thursday, May 22

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District 27 school board focus on progression of new buildings

[MAY 22, 2003]  The Central Elementary School and Lincoln Junior High School projects made up the bulk of information and discussion at the District 27 Board of Education meeting on Wednesday.

Representatives of the S.M. Wilson company stated Central School should be completed by the time school begins for the 2003-2004 year. The work is progressing well. The floors in the main educational area of the building should be waxed and finished during the first two weeks of June. The gym floor should be delivered on about June 16 and should be installed beginning July 1. The bleachers, which were already delivered on the 20 of May, will be ready for installation once the floor is finished.

During Superintendent Kidd's report, he discussed a request presented by board president Bruce Carmitchel before a city council meeting of committees to consider squaring off the corner at Union, Seventh and Pulaski streets. The city engineer and street superintendent will review the intersection and report their recommendations on this to the city council. While the problems with the traffic at that corner are acknowledged, there may be a problem with the storm drain at that corner if changes are made.

The architect working on the junior high plans says 95 percent of the structural drawings are completed. The plumbing and electrical plans are also basically completed. There was discussion by the board of getting a progress report on the junior high written up and sent out to the taxpayers of the district to keep all those paying for this well-informed of the proposed timetable on the project. Placement of this item at the public library was also seen as a way of dissemination the information to the public. The possibility of a concept drawing of the project being done and posted on the website was also discussed.

Demolition of the junior high is expected to take a couple of weeks. The noise involved in this phase was talked about in relation to the nearby funeral home. Steps will be taken to ensure that funeral plans during that time are taken into consideration when demolition occurs. This may be in about a month. Plans to sell the gym floor from the junior high to Carroll School for $10 were approved by vote, contingent upon Carroll authorities deciding if they do want it.

 

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Also during the superintendent's report Dr. Kidd said that he is planning to ask the board next month to make a loan from the working cash fund to the transportation fund so that the year does not end with a negative balance there. This has been necessitated by state being behind on their transportation fund disbursements. The state owes the district $66,049.76, which includes payments that should have been made through the end of April.

The superintendent also stated that, with Lois Lee, plans are being made with Lincoln College for teacher's aides to earn associate degrees. This is needed to meet requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act that these Title I school aides be highly qualified. He believes this might encourage some of them to go ahead and complete their bachelor's degree and be fully certified, which would be of help to the district.

Concerning the 2002 year's incoming tax money, the superintendent says the news is good. The tentative total assessment for the district is $105,127,449, up from $100,403,505 in 2001. This happened while the tax rate decreased from 3.0370 percent to 2.9723 percent for district taxpayers.

In other moves, the board voted to approve hiring a teacher for the addition of an enhanced kindergarten class for which state Title I funds will pay. This provides for one smaller class in addition to larger ones for students who need the extra attention. It was approved by vote to eliminate one nurse's assistant position, which is no longer needed. Approved, also, was the creation of a half-time curriculum coordinator position to work on getting the curriculum in line with ever-changing state standards.

Oberlander Communications of Peoria gave the low bid to provide Central School with its new phone system. The bid was $6,118 with the possibility of a total outlay of $8,900, if the board decided to approve it, which would include a phone in each classroom. Such phones would allow teachers to contact parents of children and receive calls in a more convenient and private setting. Besides this, there would be direct access to the 911 system from the classroom. This extra outlay was approved 5-2 by the board.

Acceptance of a bid to place a new kitchen exhaust fan in Northwest School also passed. Work to bring certain electrical problems in the kitchen up to code was included in this. There was also discussion of taking bids for possible remodeling of the bathrooms at Northwest at some future date.

[Keith C. Wilkerson]

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