On Monday, June 26, Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 hosted its regularly scheduled board meeting at 7 p.m. in the sixth-grade team room at Kaneland Harter Middle School. All board members were present at the meeting. The meeting began with a moment of silence held for Kaneland social worker Lisa Campise, who passed away on June 15, 2023. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, roll call and the approval of the agenda, the board recognized the accomplishments of Kaneland’s spring sports teams.

     KHMS teacher and track coach Alyssa Galvan gave an overview of the accomplishments of the middle school track team. Kaneland High School Director of Athletics and Activities David Rohlman followed her by recapping the baseball, softball, boys lacrosse, girls soccer, boys tennis and girls track and field seasons, as well as congratulating 2023 graduate Ethan Yost on his first-place finish in the floor exercise at the State tournament for boys gymnastics. Recently graduated track and field athlete Jake Gagne talked about the boys track and field team’s successful season. 

     “We had probably one of the best years in a long time, and our program has been nothing but consistent for a lot of years now,” Gagne said. “This year was a really spectacular year and very successful, to say the least.” 

     After that, all members of the board approved the consent agenda. 

     The next topic that was discussed was the Fox Valley Career Center (FVCC) budget. District Associate Superintendent Dr. Julie-Ann Fuchs went over the revenue, expenditures and state and federal grants for FVCC. Although the superintendents of the school districts that have students enrolled in FVCC had already met and approved the budget, Kaneland is the administrative agent of FVCC, so the board needed to approve the budget as well. The board approved the tentative budget and moved on to the Kaneland school district’s budget. Fuchs summarized the budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2023. Kaneland is ending the year with an approximately $1.2 million deficit, which will have to be balanced using money from the fund balance. She then detailed the tentative 2023-24 budget, which includes a $74.5 million operating budget with an $88.6 million total budget. The board approved the tentative budget.

     The board then moved on to the school safety update from the 2022-23 school year. They discussed the FVCC bathroom fire, the multiple fights that occurred during the school year and the restrictions on punishments due to Illinois Senate Bill 100. The board mentioned that they cannot disclose information about the fights for the protection and privacy of the students involved. The board talked about hiring a school resource officer at KHMS, obtaining traffic control at the intersection of Harter Road and Esker Drive and addressing the ever-growing problem of vaping and fighting in our communities’ schools. 

     The final topic was the approval of change orders. The board discussed options for repairing the Kaneland Meredith Academic Center parking lot. They were presented with three options to respond to an unforeseen problem in the foundation of the lot. A civil engineer hired by Kaneland recommended the second option for the lot. The first option was to add a layer of CA6 stone, which would cost approximately $70,000 and give the best results. The second option was to add a layer of binder asphalt, which would cost approximately $25,000. The third option was to do nothing about the problem. The motion put forth by Fuchs of accepting the recommended option two did not pass, with four out of the seven members voting no. President Addam Gonzales gave his opinion on wanting to take a chance.

     “I would like to go with option three, and so to speak, ‘roll the dice,’” Gonzales said.

     After a discussion, the board decided to approve option three along with other change orders, including sidewalk repairs at KMAC and repairs to Kaneland High School’s roof. This approval was carried out with six out of seven members in support.

     When discussing topics for future agendas, Vice President Bob Mankivsky brought up questions regarding whether technology funds could be redirected to other projects. He also introduced the idea of hosting a skilled trades night, which would be similar to a college night. 

     To end the meeting were two public comments. First, Sugar Grove resident Scott Stalcup asked for differentiation in the budget for the Kaneland Meredith Academic Center and whether discussions from previous board meetings had been planned. He also urged the board to rethink their decision about Meredith’s parking lot and offered to help with connections for the possible skilled trade night. The second public comment was from Maple Park resident Tonia Groezinger, who brought up concerns regarding the current medic responses for Kaneland. She explained that while many different emergency response teams will come to Kaneland for a fire call, only one ambulance will come for a medic call. This ambulance comes from Big Rock, which Groezinger urged the board to switch to Maple Park or Elburn. 

     “I personally do not like the fact that when my kids, my family or anybody is at the high school [and] a medic call is necessary that they have to wait for the response time of Big Rock,” Groezinger said. 

     The next board meeting will be held on Monday, July 31.