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 regular meeting on Tuesday, May 14 at the District 205 Center, 162 S. York St. Board member Courtenae Trautmann was absent.
There were no public comments.
Students honored
- The board recognized the three district students who advanced to Reflections, the National PTA arts program that invites children to create works of art in any of six different categories—dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography and visual arts. The theme for Reflections in the 2018-19 school year was “Heroes Around Me.” Twenty-four district students advanced to the state competition. The three district students who advanced to the national competition were Jackson Elementary fifth-grader Lily Tompos for her dance choreography piece, Lincoln Elementary School second-grader Nick Deligiannis for his music composition and Edison Elementary School fourth-grader Chelsea Pinto for her visual arts piece.
- The board also recognized the Churchville Middle School students who made up the school’s two Coderz teams that competed in Code Rush—a nationwide competition hosted by Codemonkey Inc. The event exposes students to coding in a real programming language and requires teams to take part in a total of 141 different challenges. The two Churchville Coderz teams competed nationally against other students in grades 6-8. One of the Churchville teams earned second-place honors. The other team won a third-place award.
- The board recognized the eight members of York High School’s Class of 2019 who have been named as finalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Those students are: Michael Bindeman, Joseph Black, Calvin Carta, Christian Glosner, William Phillips, Edward Ryan, Hayden Snyder and Cecilia Stumpf. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s mission is to recognize and honor academically talented students in the United States. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist level.
Lincoln’s Cohen receives ‘Shining Star’
The board also presented a Shining Star Award to Emily Cohen, a social worker at Lincoln Elementary School.
Board approves $1.16M for paving projects
The board voted unanimously to award a bid for Troch-McNeil Paving Co., in the amount of $1,159,000 for paving projects in the district this summer. The district received five responses for the project. Troch-McNeil Paving Co. submitted the lowest qualified bid. The projects related to the bid include the parking lot at Churchville, the west drive at York, the northeast lot at Bryan Middle School and the entrance at Jackson.
The board also voted unanimously to approve a bid in the amount of $220,000 with Archon Construction Co. for sewer work related to the four summer paving projects.
Moyer: Graduated income tax could hurt revenues
Near the end of the meeting, Moyer talked to the board about a bill in the Illinois State Senate—Senate Bill 690. Moyer said the Senate recently passed the bill, which allows for a graduated income tax if approved by voters in 2020. An amendment to that bill reportedly includes a property tax freeze, which would take effect in 2022. Moyer said the district’s property tax extension limitation, which is set at the lesser of 5 percent or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has averaged about $1.6 million in recent years. If Senate Bill 690 went into effect, the district’s extension limitation could be set at zero. Moyer said the district could lose close to $1 million a year in revenue if the bill is enacted.
The board will hold its next regular meeting on May 28.
