At the Aug. 11 board meeting, members discussed multiple topics including Community Solar, a fund transfer, approval of the A&R Heartland Pipeline Project easement and some Kaneland High School student academic updates. Board members Jennifer Simmons and Ryan Kleisner and Vice President Aaron McCauley were not in attendance.
The meeting began with Superintendent Dr. Kurt Rohlwing saluting the district’s 12-month staff members, which includes the technology team, maintenance team, secretaries, administrators and the central office team, for their efforts to get the schools open for students on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
Afterwards, Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. Jackie Bogan discussed Community Solar. Community Solar was brought up in April, where district administration and board members started a discussion about different ways and programs the district can use to save energy. Becky Thompson from Community Solar was at the meeting to discuss further details regarding their company.
Thompson explained that Community Solar is an offsite savings program designed to make solar accessible for residents and companies where it is not yet admissible. She explained that using offsite community solar can help schools receive a discount on their utility bills. For a 20-year contract, the discount is 10 percent off. Thompson explained that it isn’t really a 10 percent off discount, but instead the developer bills the buyer for 90 percent of those credits that were generated, equaling that 10 percent. Kaneland would get to maintain and save that 10 percent difference. No action for the Community Solar discussion is needed at this time.
Next, Bogan discussed a fund transfer. The board members talked in July about fund balances for the end of the year. Since then, Kaneland ended with a negative fund balance of $307,000 in the operations and maintenance fund. The fund can’t be left negative, so Bogan discussed rectifying it by considering and implementing a fund transfer of $1,000,000. In order to do that, there are legal steps, including a public hearing. The earliest date for a public hearing is at the Sept. 15 meeting. At this time, there is no action required regarding the fund transfer.
Afterwards, Bogan discussed the easement agreement related to the A&R Heartland Project. Heartland is currently looking to expand a natural gas pipeline. It will be a major project covering thousands of miles going through five states. This project would cause disruptions to the property including, but not limited to, the distributions of the Kaneland United soccer fields for over a year, which would cause Kaneland United to seek fields to renovate elsewhere.
There are two easement agreements in place, including disruption on Keslinger Rd. and potential bus route changes. A&R would also compensate for the loss of FFA crops. The initial proposal is $36,000- $53,000 in compensation. Currently, Kaneland is working with the transportation and FFA departments to see if this proposal meets their needs. The board members approved for the district administration to move forward with finalizing the easement agreements relating to the A&R approval.
Afterwards, high school Principal Melinda Cattell gave an update about KHS student academics. She announced there will be seven new staff members at the high school this school year. Cattell also announced that two seniors (from the 2024-25 school year) were recognized as National Merit Commended scholars. They were recognized for their exceptional academic promise based on their performance on the PSAT and the National Merit Qualifying Test grade point average. Last school year, over $200,000 in scholarship money was put towards post-secondary education.
Cattell mentioned that Kaneland’s Advanced Placement (AP) classes continue to thrive. There were 236 students in at least one AP class last year, and 381 AP exams were administered to students. Of the 381, 180 students scored a three or higher on their AP exam.
She also said that 89.78% of freshmen are on-track to graduate, which is up from last year’s 87%. The graduation rate for the seniors last year was 98.0%. Out of 290 students in the class of 2025, there were only four students who did not meet the requirements to graduate.
After Rohlwing welcomed all staff members and students back, he introduced the new Student Representative, senior Sophia Schroll. Schroll talked about the different sports camps that elementary and high schoolers attended this summer. She also talked about the Kaneland Arts Initiative, which put on their annual summer musical, Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
The next Kaneland school board meeting will be held on Monday, Aug. 25.
