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Unit 5 Board Officers Appointed

Unit 5 school board members standing up
Breanna Grow
/
WGLT
Returning Unit 5 school board members took oaths of office and elected board officers Wednesday night.

Unit 5’s six returning school board members took oaths of office and elected board officers Wednesday night.

Alan Kalitzky, Barry Hitchins, Mike Trask, and Meta Mickens-Baker all ran unopposed, winning re-election on April 2. Kelly Pyle and Amy Roser were appointed to the board last year; both beat out challenger LaNell Greenberg to hold onto their seats.

The board again appointed Hitchins as president. Board members also appointed Roser as vice president and Kalitzky as secretary.

In other business, the board approved school handbook updates for the upcoming school year, including a new provision for medical cannabis use.

Director of Secondary Education Dan Laboley said the change reflects legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly last year.

“It is relative to student medication under the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act,” he said. “That is something that is taken right from school code and we’re putting it right into the appropriate place in the handbooks.”

Also known as Ashley’s law, the act allows a parent or guardian to administer medical cannabis to a student at school, given that they register as a designated caregiver with the state Department of Public Health.

Laboley said while previously the code identified all cannabis use as prohibited, “We’ve inserted this language so that if the student meets the requirement of the code here, there would be no disciplinary action taken.”

Laboley said both the student and their caregiver will need to present valid registration identification cards and relevant authorization forms before a student can receive medical cannabis at school.

The board also approved a contract for nearly $800,000 of energy efficiency projects at Kingsley Junior High School.

A&R Mechanical will complete electrical and HVAC work at the school over the summer. The work is expected to wrap up by Aug. 15. Unit 5 Director of Operations Joe Adelman said the district will also put out a separate bid for geothermal work at the school.

Unit 5 plans to spend a total of $3.1 million in upgrades at the school that administrators say is one of the district’s oldest and least-energy efficient schools. The work is estimated to save the district about $170,000 annually on utilities. Kingsley is the fifth of six schools throughout the district slated for energy upgrades.

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Breanna Grow is a correspondent for GLT. She joined the station in September 2018.
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