The Unit 5 school board on Wednesday approved an agreement with Wight & Company for architectural services for new facilities for the district's early learning center and 18-22 year old transitional program.
The action was part of the school board's regular monthly meeting. Contracts with firms for other two major builds resulting from the Unit 5 enrollment study were approved in August.
Unit 5 set sights on replacing the 18-22 year-old program, currently housed at Eugene Field School, because of a lack of accessibility and outdated facilities. Unit 5 found a new building to be a more cost effective way to fix those problems rather than remodeling the current site.
The early learning center will combine programs currently at Brigham and Sugar Creek schools into one facility.
Unit 5 has not set a location for either new facility.
Unit 5 considered Parkside Junior High and Towanda Elementary projects as being in the design stage as of the contract approval, while the early learning center and transitional program projects were still in the planning stage.
Budget
In other action, the Unit 5 school board approved the budget for the 2027 fiscal year. The budget was 3% larger than the prior year’s budget at $252.1 million.
Members of the school board said it was a balanced budget, aside from the transportation fund. Increases in Equalized Assessed Values [EAV], the education fund rate referendum and efforts to hold expenses in check when possible were credited as ways that happened.
The transportation fund was at a deficit due to another year of underwhelming state reimbursement for schools. Mandated categoricals are services a school district is required by the state to provide, and the state’s prerogative is to reimburse schools for these costs. State budgets have continuously come up short, especially for special education spending.
The school board is transferring $6 million in working cash funds to the transportation fund as a remedy.
Elsewhere in the budget, another bump in property taxes from another year of property value increases is expected. Projected increases over last year are at 9.3%.
The school board also approved a grant of permanent and temporary easements to the Town of Normal for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a public, shared-use path at Chiddix Junior High School. It gave the town the authority to construct and maintain the path, and gave Unit 5 the right to retain access to it.
