Any idea what is being proposed?

An update on the possible Hadley addition will be discussed during the Finance and Facilities Committee meeting (see agenda here ). Note that the meeting is at 6PM at Forest Glen, not at Central Services.

The short story is that there is a proposal to add either a 2-room or 3-room addition to the northwest corner of Hadley. The addition would house certain special education programs.

A majority of the funding would be from federal stimulus dollars which are earmarked specifically for bricks and mortar associated with special education. Other funds would come from developer donations to the District collected over the years, and the capital improvements portion of the annual budget.

Also note that, due to the holiday, the meeting (and the regular BOE meeting) is on TUESDAY not Monday.

quote:

Originally posted by Bob Solak:

A majority of the funding would be from federal stimulus dollars which are earmarked specifically for bricks and mortar associated with special education.

As follow-up . . . I recently happened to catch an E-News report on the D41 website indicating that on Feb. 1, 2010, the Board of Education approved this approximately 5,000 square-foot special education addition to Hadley.

The report detailed that "The project will also include underground detention to provide stormwater capacity for the addition and for the Hadley site as a whole. In addition to three classrooms, the project will include handicap-accessible bathrooms, a resolution room as required by state law, lockers, a storage area, and an office space."

The report went on to say, “Twenty-four contractors bid on the project and the BOE accepted the $1,147,806 low bid from Lite Construction. The project total including professional fees, furniture and equipment is estimated at $1,371,106. District will pay for the project with its $773,294 share of federal stimulus money (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), which must be spent for special education; the rest will be paid for out of accumulated developer donations and operating funds.”

I have always appreciated the manner in which Bob Solak consistently jumps in here to “fill in the blanks” and answer our questions. As such, I don’t mean to semantically split hairs, but I was a little surprised to learn that federal dollars will only pay for slightly more than half of the project, or $773,294. Perhaps I overestimated the phrase “majority of the funding,” but I did not interpret that figure to be one that leaves the District's contribution at an equally robust $600,000.

Vis-à-vis the “accumulated developer donations and D41 operating funds” that will make up the District’s portion of the funding . . . it would be interesting to see a breakdown as to how much is coming from each of these two sources.

Any possibility that Bob, or another member of the Board, might get back to us with that info?

quote:

Originally posted by Melbourne:
Vis-à-vis the “accumulated developer donations and D41 operating funds” that will make up the District’s portion of the funding . . . it would be interesting to see a breakdown as to how much is coming from each of these two sources.

Melbourne,

From the 2/1 Agenda and Packet.

Developer Donations: $425,000
District Contribution: $172,812

The district contribution is included in our 2010 Capital Budget of $762,212. Developer donations is money 'donated' by a developer when they build a new neighborhood/condos/homes that will contribute additional residents that will utilize school services. The 'donations' are to be used in a manner that benefits all residents in a district. Using these at Hadley accomplishes that (versus putting an addition at say Lincoln which only benefits residents that attend Lincoln).

Not only is this project a good idea in that it benefits our special needs children, but it also will free up one regular sized class room and 2 smaller size class rooms that will be used for academic support and other activities.

Dan Smith, Jr.

What about the future teacher costs (salary & pension) for the new teacher we will be hiring. Will they require any more ongoing expenses?

I wish they would simply put the ESL kids in English speaking classes from day one and let them learn English that way.

It worked for millions of Mexicans (my wife included) and would save our state probably $100,000,000 in ESL teachers.

A "donation" implies that it is freely given. This is not strictly a donation but rather a tax or fee on new development. Why not just call it that.