CEL board hears updates on open meeting violation reports, updates from new district treasurer, reports on current construction projects and decides on pay raises for aides

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[June 21, 2013]  The Chester-East Lincoln Board of Education met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday night. There were no comments from the public this month, so the board moved right into the business at hand for District 61.

As the meeting began, Jeff Brooks told the guests in attendance that the board had received a letter from the attorney general's office. The letter was a notification that a violation of the Open Meetings Act had been filed by Leslie Starasta. Starasta filed the report after May 5, when the school board had a special meeting. The agenda had been produced at a previous special meeting on May 3. The other potential violation that had been reported was the meeting of the new board members and discussion prior to their election.

While the letter went on to say that no violation was found by the office, there are two other reports that have been filed on the district, and they are undergoing review.

Alan Schuch, who was appointed as the new district treasurer at another special meeting on May 30, was present to provide financial reports for April and May, as well as input on his new job.

Schuch said the reports for both months would indicate that the school's finances seem to be close in terms of balance. The report for April was off by about $2,100, and May's report was a little closer.

Schuch told the board members that as part of his newly appointed position, he will work on organizing the budget in terms of paperwork. For example, he said that with board permission, he would like to rename one of the accounts that the school uses, in order to avoid confusion with other funds. The working cash account would become the general account. Currently, there is a second working cash fund in another area of the budget.

On another note, Schuch said that Skyward, the software CEL uses for online services, is helpful, yet a little confusing, as it is constantly being altered by the creators of the program. Furthermore, the monetary figures are not updated as frequently as other aspects.

As part of her superintendent's report, Jennifer Hamm reminded any of the new board members who have not completed their mandatory board training seminars that they need to complete the training. Hamm also said that the district's Title I funds increased by $14, but the Title II funds dropped by $1,400. Title II funds are used for anything involving teacher improvement.

Mark Graves of CTS and Hamm told the board members that the asbestos abatement is moving along on schedule, and it should be finished by the end of next week. The engineers have also been working on finding other areas for saving money during construction. As an example, Hamm said the art room will use old skylights that were found in the ceiling during construction.

Graves said that working with Christy-Foltz, a general contractor working on the school, has gone very well, and that while the construction is going on, he would be happy to provide pictures of progress to the board. Hamm said the pictures could be put on the school website as well.

The district is also waiting on news of a maintenance grant that they applied for. The state offices in charge of the grant received a large number of these requests. As a result, CEL has new windows waiting to be installed, as the grant would be used to pay for that part of the construction.

After the update on construction, it was decided by the board that Lori Birnbaum and Tish Podunajec will be sent to the Triple-I Conference in Chicago this fall. Hamm expressed concern because the cost of registration has gone up from last year and the next budget will be tighter than this year. As a result, only those two will go to the conference, rather than three attending last year. Furthermore, Birnbaum and Podunajec volunteered to pay for their own transportation and food expenses.

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Ben Roland said he attended in 2011, and the conference is worth going to for learning what goes into being a board member.

The board also discussed the salary Schuch would receive as treasurer. He offered to volunteer for the position. Hamm said she was almost certain that a non-board member has to be paid for the position, but a board member would have to volunteer, according to the school code. The issue was tabled while Hamm looks for the solution in the regulations.

Roland said that the work the treasurer does is valuable to those on the board.

Hamm said the next board meeting has to be moved to July 17 in order to meet a time requirement for displaying the amended budget for 2013.

Hamm said it is time for the board to consider pay raises for the noncertified staff of the school -- those employees who are not full-time teachers. Hamm presented two options. The first option was for the educational aides who make less than $10 an hour to have their pay bumped to that amount.

"Every single one of our instructional aides has a four-year degree except for one. Many of those instructional aides have a teaching degree as well," said Hamm. "We have a lot of highly qualified employees here."

This option would also come with a 2 percent raise for noninstructional employees. That percentage is based on the raise that certified staff would receive. In total, those raises would combine to cost $18,234.

The second option would be a blanket 2 percent raise for all of the noncertified employees, which would come to $6,400.

"I think that for the type of instructional aides we employ here, they are highly educated, highly proficient in their field; many of them are teachers. I would just hate to lose them," said Hamm.

Hamm said that any of the aides making less than $10 an hour would be relatively new employees.

Birnbaum said that in her opinion, the first option was not the solution. Birnbaum also asked that the topic be moved into executive session, as she had specific employees she wanted to ask questions about.

After an executive session that lasted nearly an hour, the board members present voted unanimously to go with the second option for noncertified employee raises, which is a 2 percent raise across the board for the noncertified staff.

Board members present were Ben Roland, president; Jeff Brooks, vice president; Lori Birnbaum, secretary; Tish Podunajec; and Jason Toft. Superintendent Jennifer Hamm was also present.

[By DEREK HURLEY]

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