The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Joy Swearingen, Quill Correspondent
As Illini West High School students begin enrolling for the coming school year, the IWHS board of education is working on the budget for the 2023-2024 year to fund the education for those students.
At their meeting July 19, the board authorized Superintendent Jay Harnack to prepare a tentative budget for the coming year. After that budget is prepared, it will be available to residents of the district. A public notice will be published in the newspaper on Aug. 16, announcing the public hearing about the budget on Sept. 20, prior to final action.
The board approved hiring Roth & Co. of Chicago to audit the 2022-2023 school year finances. Due to the increased amount of federal money received by the district, Illini West will need to conduct a single audit for federal funds, in addition to the standard audit. The previous Illini West auditor had notified Harnack in June that they could not do the audit for the 2022-2023 budget year.
“We contacted a large number of auditors, and this (Roth) was the only proposal the district received,” Harnack said. The fee of $30,000 is twice the previous cost.
Harnack said auditing firms are facing a combination of issues including staff shortages, which limits the number of schools they can assist. Firms may have been affected by the number of schools that have received federal funds during and after the Covid pandemic, requiring more of the lengthy, single audits.
During the meeting, Harnack reported on progress of summer work at the high school.
The cafeteria and selected classrooms have been repainted. The LED lighting upgrade is completed. The vape detector system has been installed.
“The vape detectors can do far more than that. We have had alerts of smoke from the wild fires coming through, alerts of the air quality not being good,” Harnack said.
“When we were waxing floors, the volatile substance alert kept going off. If someone says ‘help’ or ‘emergency,’ we get an email for that, and a message is sent to the area, saying that someone has been notified.”
It can sense other environmental factors such as an overall health index, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, temperature and humidity.
In other security improvements, the door access control is mostly complete. Rehabilitation of portable classrooms is underway. They are working on getting entry phones installed for the doors that lead to both the north and west portables.
Following closed session, the board approved a five year contract extension for Superintendent Harnack. They appointed Sid Huls as a volunteer football coach. The board accepted the resignation of Kent Rambo from maintenance and transportation.
In other business, the board: