Here’s what’s going on at District 205…
By Chris Fox
For The Elmhurst Independent
The Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 Board held a meeting on Feb. 26 at the District 205 Center, 162 S. York St. Six of the board’s seven members attended the meeting. Chris Blum was absent.
There were no public comments.
Contracts with Wight & Co., Int’l. Contractors approved
Board members voted unanimously to approve the district’s contract with Wight and Company for architect services related to planning and conceptual design of future projects. Wight and Company has provided the district with architectural services for many years. In June of 2017, the board approved entering into an agreement with Wight and Company for planning and designing future projects. The approval at the Feb. 26 meeting approved the final contract, which has been reviewed by the district’s legal counsel.
The board also voted unanimously to approve the district’s contract with International Contractors, Inc. (ICI) for construction management and estimating services.
Staffing for special ed services okay’d
The board also unanimously approved the administration’s recommended staffing for special education student services. The recommendations called for the addition of a .5 dean at each middle school, the addition of a director of special education ED-5, a director of special education for grades 6-12, an assistant director of special education at York High School, an assistant director of students services, the elimination of four special education supervisor positions and the elimination of a .6 Local Educational Agency (LEA) representative at York. The updated staffing moves result in a net staff increase of .9 full time equivalents (FTE) and an estimated net cost of about $76,000.
According to District 205 Superintendent David Moyer, the changes will push primary responsibilities to the building level of each district school. The district office will continue provide support in areas including compliance and dealing with complex situations.
Agreement entered with AT&T for Internet services
The board voted unanimously to enter a three-year agreement with AT&T for 2 Gigabits per second Internet Service at the District Administration Center for $2,255 per month, plus taxes and fees. The district’s current 100 Megabytes per second service at the administration center was due to expire in June of 2019. The new agreement will extend the 100 Megabytes per second service for six months, until the end of 2019, to allow time for testing and a seamless transition to the new service. The district already has a 2 Gigabits per second link at York High School, which essentially carries all district traffic. According to Moyer, the new link at the administration center will supplement the existing link at York, and prepare the district for growing reliance on high-speed Internet service. The new link will also protect the district against the loss of service due to the failure of a single Internet link. The 2 Gigabits per second service (2 billion bits of data transferred per second) provides 20 times more bandwidth than 100 megabits per second (100 million bits of data transferred per second) service.
The district issued a request for proposal (RFP) for the 2 Gigabits per second Internet service. Seven vendors submitted proposals. The proposal from AT&T was determined to be the best overall option, primarily because it was the least expensive proposal.
The overall cost to extend the 100 Mbps service for six months is about $6,000, plus taxes and fees.
The board will hold its next regular meeting on March 19.
