By: Diane Benjamin
Of course nothing is on line about presentations last night. I did attend and told them again I wanted the board packets on-line, I was asked if I wanted all 120 some pages. Duh. One board member said she looked at Unit 5 and District 87 and Tri-Valley was giving the same information. Wrong, Unit 5 has more windows that open on the Agenda. Tri-Valley agendas say nothing, the minutes are just as bad.
Some bonds will be paid off in a few years, so now is the time to talk about spending money to keep the tax rate the same.
That is the same logic used for the last bond issue, the Middle School was paid off so they needed to spend the same amount on NEW and tell taxpayers is won’t cost you a cent. Taxpayers fell for it, but the High School now has a lot more room and lots of amenities.
What are they dreaming of now?
The track around the football fields will need replaced within a couple of years. The base is deteriorating which causes cracks in the surface.
Why stop at the track? Dream bigger!
- Turf football field so it’s never muddy
- New visitors bleachers because they need more room
- Concrete paths to the bleachers for ADA compliance
- New Home bleachers with more seating
- Storage under the bleachers
- New press box and coach room
- restrooms and concessions stand including locker rooms
Can’t stop there however!
The softball field needs amenities too. Another building just like football gets with restroom and locker rooms,
The price tag for all this wondrousness ranged from $6.8 million to almost $9 million. Some of the amenities mentioned I probably forgot to list.
Still not done
The District wants to expand early childhood education. I bet Pritzker is handing out money, public education needs to wrangle the kids early. A facilities assessment was done, they don’t have enough room. A 15,000 square foot new building was shown.
Everything is subject to change, I’m sure the architect who made the presentation will continue working on the project.
The bond debt presentation and the architect were at this retreat because they go together. The Board needs to know how much money they can spend when current bonds are paid off. It’s the architects job to create a project within the limits available.
Attending meetings is the only way to find out what the district is up to. Only 3 of us did last night, one was Casey Misch who is running for School Board.
Planning to vote?
It’s a small town with a bunch of adults who are obsessed with high school sports…they all think that was the best time of their life and haven’t moved on. So, they’ll vote for it. Pretty sad.
For some, it was the best times of their lives..A solution to ” the sports problem” would be corporate sponsorship of their athletic facilities. As you probably know, it’s done in many communities in Indiana. The naming rights don’t pay for everything but it does make a significant reduction to the taxpayers. That said, Illinois schools would never consider it. Too much work and besides, they are entitled to your money.
TV has a booster club that has paid for many things, the latest being new scoreboards. They won’t be paying for dreams however.
No kidding…every school has a booster club that pays for items they can handle. I’m talking about high ticket items for extra curriculars that taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the entire bill. Scoreboards are a relatively low small ticket item vs. a major construction project. Again, it would take to.much of an effort for any clowns in McLean County to figure any of this out or try.
“The bond debt presentation and the architect were at this retreat because they go together. ******The Board needs to know how much money they can spend when current bonds are paid off.” ******Very interesting.