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Construction contracts to begin soon
on junior high
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[OCT. 16, 2003]
David O'Brien, project
executive with the S.M. Wilson company, and his co-worker Court
Coles addressed the District 27 Board of Education at their monthly
meeting Wednesday night. Bids have been received for the building
project the district has undertaken for the new Lincoln Junior High
School, and O'Brien requested approval to begin contracts with seven
contractors so they can get started. They will be building the new
school on Broadway Street, where the old junior high was just torn
down this summer.
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The board has called a special meeting
for Oct. 29 at 6:30 to sign the contracts so that workers can get
started on the construction.
Preliminary bids seemed to be below
those expected, and many of the problems encountered in the
construction of the Central building have been figured into
projected costs already. Hopefully this will reduce some of the
excess costs and the unwelcome surprises that the district had to
deal with when building the new Central School.
The board also discussed enrollment
issues, which may cause some problems in meeting the state standards
required by the No Child Left Behind Act. The district has gained
many new students this year over last year's enrollment but has not
hired teaching staff to make up the difference. They also have many
more students enrolled full time in special education classes, and
this makes it difficult for the teachers in the crowded classrooms
to be able to do as much.
The board approved the annual audit,
although they discussed several problems with the budget, including
overdrafts caused by the overruns in the budget for building the
Central School. They said they are in pretty good shape right now,
but the budget still depends on outstanding money that the state has
not sent yet.
There were no student suspension
hearings, and Superintendent Robert Kidd said that he appreciated
the extra work that teachers and staff are putting into filling out
the new suspension forms being sent home with students. The new form
explains the reason for the disciplinary action and has resulted in
more favorable responses from parents than the old form letters,
which merely announced the suspension without explaining why the
action had been taken.
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this article]
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The board approved a policy presented
in August that will require fingerprinting of new employees who work
with the students, as part of a more in-depth background check
designed to protect our students. They also discussed a no-weapons
policy, which is necessary to maintain safe school status.
As part of the new state guidelines
under No Child Left Behind, the district is offering a chance for
educational support staff to return to school and obtain degrees
through Lincoln College that will improve qualifications. Teachers
will also be offered a chance to become more highly qualified, so
the district stays within the state guidelines and remains one of
the better districts in the state of Illinois.
Superintendent Kidd also requested an addition to the agenda and
asked the board to consider bids on technical services for the
district. The board voted by roll call, with a margin of 6-2 in
favor of hiring a company out of Bloomington to provide technical
support, troubleshooting and repairing computers for the district at
a rate of $38 per hour for 35 hours per week. This will actually
save the district a couple thousand dollars over what they paid last
year and provide more service hours. Last year the serviceman was
coming in only one day out of the week.
[Ruth Halpin]
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