On Monday, July 25, Kaneland school district 302 conducted their regularly scheduled board meeting at Kaneland Harter Middle school with most district board members in attendance, excluding the Board Secretary Julie Orphal. Following the Approval of Agenda, the board acknowledged the maintenance and transportation staff members for their help repairing the damaged East Gym roof due to a recent storm.

     During this meeting, there was little community involvement which led to no public comments during the allotted time frames. 

     One of the more significant points of the meeting was the approval of the 1.3 million dollar Working Cash fund bond. With a unanimous vote, the bond was approved, and there will be a 30-day petition period in August. 

     The board also approved an additional .5 full time enrollment (FTE) for Kindergarten at Kaneland Blackberry Creek Elementary and Kaneland McDole Elementary School. With this approval of extra FTE, the listed schools will be able to accept more student enrollments as the school year approaches. 

     “By adding that .5 at both locations, it also does increase the capacity to accept the final couple of registrants that we get every year at various sites. That’s not to say we’ll get a ton at each building, but we have the capacity to enroll more students as we get closer to the school year and throughout the school year,” Director of Human Resources Dr. Chris Adkins said.

     There was a request for a stipend for the Graphic Communications Manager for the rest of the 2019-2024 Kaneland Education Association (KEA) contract. This will help the manager because they will not have any Fox Valley Campus classes during this upcoming school year. The graphics program has significantly grown in past years, and the manager is spending more time with this program. The stipend was approved and will continue through the 2019-2024 contract period. 

     As for how COVID-19 procedures will look in the upcoming school year, the details are still unclear. While there is a plan from the previous school year, some aspects of the procedures may shift depending on the recommendations from the Kane County Health Department and Regional Offices of Education.

     Superintendent Dr. Todd Leden expressed the urgency of hiring more staff in the Kaneland district after thanking the administration and the Human Resources Department for what they have done so far in this challenging time. 

     “We are working feverishly to hire in probably the most challenging hiring climate that we’ve had in a long time, so we appreciate all the hard work. [If] you look at those postings and know anybody that could fill those, let us know,” Leden said. “We are truly using word of mouth, colleagues and past coworkers. [We] are doing our best to get all those positions filled before school.”

     While the facility plan is still undecided, the goal is to get input from the community to understand what they are concerned about the most. District Associate Superintendent Dr. Julie-Ann Fuchs announced the extent of just how many responses they have gotten so far. 

     “In terms of feedback, I am pretty happy to report [that], as of today, we have received 512 responses to the phone survey. Those are complete responses. Otherwise, it does not count. We are approaching 100 responses to the online feedback form,” Fuchs said.   

     Online feedback forms, registration for the upcoming community virtual engagement session on Wednesday, July 27, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM and a presentation for those who cannot attend the meeting can be found at www.kaneland.org/community.

     The next board meeting will be held on Monday, Aug. 8.