Actually we've talked about all of them uh all of the needed work that is uh available here. So um we had the bid openings out of the 11 bid packages uh nine uh we received bids for nine out of the 11. So the two that we didn't excuse me were steel and demolition. So, uh, because we didn't get those, White is working on getting three, uh, bids for each of those, and then we'll we'll bring that back uh, hopefully at our next meeting that we can have, uh, approval for those two areas. But for the nine other total, um, you can see that the total amount is just under $3.8 million. Um, if you remember, we, uh, have a bond for $4.5 million to to cover the cost of this. Um, and I also want to remind the board of a couple different things. If you remember, last spring, um, we approved amendments at both schools to have energy conservation and paving work done.
>> Okay. >> And we're looking for feedback right now too. >> Yeah. And so I'm just asking so who are we partnering with like to make meaning um relative to what the policy is or just our protocols and how we engage in decision making. >> The the goal the recommendation would be really to either the board president or the vice president with that board member and then um I can always lend additional research support to the board >> as you look at a particular protocol that's coming up. What might be helpful? we can pull from other boards and consult as well as necessary. >> I just know we work very closely with our consultant from IASB and so I didn't know if he >> is willing just to support us in the work. I think that it's an excellent idea essentially we have board new board members and so for us to level set um one just for us as a board but also just um being transparent with the public in terms of how we make decisions and just even delineating between what's public facing and what isn't public facing.
Um, historically, you know, we have the 5% fee um, tax increase um, that went into effect. There was also Maplewood, $5.5 million cash payment this summer. And there's also the referendum that the community supported the district in for a $20 million uh, addition to our school district. So, right now, you guys are in really good financial shape. And I think that if you take that into perspective, uh, you know, maybe nickeling and dimming the parents who are just trying to have their kids in youth sports, maybe now is not the time to do that. It would be time to, um, support the community like they have for the district. So, thank you very much for considering. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Uh, next up, we have Amanda Bartier. >> Martine. I probably didn't have the best handwriting. Um, well, thank you. So, as um Stephanie alluded, I'm also representing the Kerry Basketball Association.
Um, and he'll walk you through all of that. there'll be one significant difference which will be all of the items that fall under the category of the referendum. Uh but if you were to remove that portion um items that fall under the referendum it would be very much copy paste from what it was last year. So with that I will turn it over to very slowly Mr. Simmons. There you go. >> I'm going to be working two presentations simultaneously and talking. So, this should be interesting. All right. So, uh we're going to start as we have in the past with a little rationale. So, uh what is pedagogy? And according to uh Michael Fulen uh it's the driving force for educational change. And uh he goes on to say that it's a dynamic partnership uh based relationship between teacher and student where both parties co-design the learning experience to achieve what he calls deep learning.
So only people going this way wanting to turn on Main Street and going west will be able to go that way. Or if you're coming this way and you want to go west. So that's a right in right out there. This road will actually connect. So Main Street will actually connect to this road. >> Yeah. >> And so Main Street will actually circulate through here. I see >> and actually come through the town center. >> Okay. Now, in addition to that, because your next question is going to be, well, what if people don't want to come through the town center and the town is doing additional road improvements on 525? >> Okay. >> Which is by Champion Chevrolet. >> Yes. >> And we are building a a southbound left turn and we're building a northbound left turn. So, people who want to avoid going through the civic center will be able to use that to get on 36 and avoid the civic center if they want.
If you just move it back a week, now we go to where students have to have one more day. [snorts] So we would be asking them to come back on June 5th for one day which is not ideal uh for students for finals for all the other things that go on on that last uh at the end of the school year. Uh teachers then would end on the 6th which is a Tuesday. Um again you can look at the difference in the second semester. The number of days with this op this option is 101 days as opposed to 96 for the second semester. Um which again is that five more days. But again one of the biggest downsides other than the the number of days being much being more for both semesters is again looking at that one day where they come back. Um, we looked at it round and round and said, "One day, surely we can find one day as we go through this calendar to make that up so students don't have to come back." We can't come up with a way to do that without taking away Martin Luther King Day or President's Day or Good Friday.
Uh, and some of it simple things. Do your substitute teachers have keys to the classroom? And historically in schools, subs don't aren't given keys to classrooms because quite frankly, sometimes the keys don't come back. So, but our point today as we've talked with every building administrator and will is if an incident happens and a teacher gets locked out with kids, you need to be able to get back in there. So, we our recommendations are just to make sure little what may seem like a little thing. We've talked with each building administrator and said, you know, do you give your substitute keys, the maps, general instructions on if I'm substituting in this class, what does a lockdown look like here at at this school? What are we expected to do? Doesn't have to be a whole manual that the sub's not going to read, but just doing that.
>> Yeah. >> So um for those reasons, I will be voting for the second option. >> Any more discussion? I'm glad that we're starting back and back for second. I am in favor of option. >> Okay. >> So, Jeff, no other county schools go out two years in advance. >> Correct. >> Do we share our calendar since we're we do? Yeah, we share we share with the other schools and we talk about it certainly share services with >> and you know each school district has some little nuances to the calendar with the date here or there but typically we are so we have a recommendation to accept option B. I need a motion. >> Need a second. >> Second. >> Any discussions? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? That carries website. >> Wonderful. >> All right. We have an approval request for permission to pay late arriving invoices for February.
Um, as compared to the previous year, we are down as I mentioned in in the previous report. Um, but overall that's still a very healthy cash balance for the education fund. And then moving on to the operations fund, um you can see we're at $4,113,71 cash balance as of December um the end of December. Again, that's down again from a previous year, but um it is still healthy. Um we just need to be careful in the future, projecting out into the future to to not make that a habit.
>> That's done. And I just I think it's important to know too and and I know as I look around and I see the buildings that we have in Lawrence Township, it's we are competitive in the facilities that we have, in the salaries that we're able to pay. And so that lower tax rate, I think it's really important for everybody to understand that that is not by accident that that is by the um judicious u budgeting that occurs by obviously you Mr. miles in our superintendent. And so just I think it's very important that um we celebrate that, but we also know that that's not something that happens by accident. Um especially when we look around and we have such I look at where we are right now. We have beautiful facilities, we have wonderful teachers, and we're able to pay staff um a salary that is um competitive in nature.
We will stand for any questions. I have one. Um, do you guys have any metrics on how the reteing is working? >> How the what? I'm sorry. >> Any metrics on you guys do the when and how are we reteaching the student? Do you have any metrics on how that's improving them and assisting them? >> So, reteing with them in the library? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, they track it on their classroom data charts as well as when we do our blinds, our hope is that we see that matching. So if they're giving their classroom assessments, we give benchmarks and their blinds. We hope that those numbers stay the same or increase. >> Yeah. Graph it. Yeah. >> So is the library intervention time that's like separate from their regular regular class? >> Yeah. So on Wednesdays they instead of going in their classrooms they all meet in the library once a week and they rotate them between.
Um, happy to report that that work looks like we're going to be about $69,000 under budget uh, for those projects. So that means that that's an additional $69,000 that's in fund 90 that we can use for other health life safety projects that that need to be done. Um that as well as if you remember when we sent that work last spring we tried to get solar approved for the ASC and for T99 which that did not get approved and that total was around $500,000. So we have about $550ish,000 in fund 90 that we don't have, if you will, like accounted for projects uh that we have built into uh this work is what we're planning on on doing. So we have more more than that $4.5 million that we had the bond for to get all of this all of this work done. So it's great that this came in at 3.8.
I think that that is critically important and not just because we've kind of made up rules as we go but like there there's a rationale um when there when we do go into close session and there are certain things that we are discussing versus what's in you know what we discussed during open session. So I think that it's a great idea. Um but I think to just kind of give just um just some rationale in terms of how we conduct business and >> really add to that not just what we what is public facing or not [clears throat] but also like what is within the scope of our work on the board and what is not >> and I think that that is really really important that the public understand that we are essentially trained um coming into this role just understanding not to get into the weeds like you know that is underscored quite a fit but instead just what governance look looks like for us.
I'm the vice president, co-vice president and scheduler for the program. And I'm also here as a parent of children who play in the league. Um, so as Stephanie mentioned, you know, we are here to talk about the increased gym rental rates and the significant impact that it will have on our community, particularly CBA, but other recreation sports programs as well who use the space. Um, our recreation and feeder leagues rely on school gym access to provide both safe and affordable sports opportunities for children and families. And as Stephanie mentioned, we have over almost 700 participants this year. And we have had to spill over to Fox River Grove and Crystal Lake because even within Kerry, we don't have enough gym space. Um, but having gym space in Kerry, you know, promotes more community with everybody who is participating. Um, and there's a lot of other benefits which I have to rely on my notes because I'm not very good at speaking in public.
Uh he goes on when he talks about uh educational technology. He says that pedagogy is the driver and digital which he way he references technology is the accelerator. So when the district was working on its instructional framework we referenced the work of Liz Cobb and her triple E framework. uh the chart that I provided for you uh in your in your document shows how that work also ties very closely to the work of uh Michael Fen. Uh I'm not going to go through each one of these but um it's it's important to realize I am struggling here. Hang on. It's important to realize that uh you know technology is not optional anymore. It needs to be part of the instructional strategies that we have with our students. um you know that they the way our students learn today uh and prepare to move into a technology centric society uh that they need to be exposed to this in a meaningful way that uh helps them with their deep learning.
they want to come through, they'll be able to do that. So, there's kind of three separate road improvements that are all happening this year that it will make much more sense once all those get done. >> And will those be done by the time that the civic center opens? >> Yes, they'll all be done. Yep. >> Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you. >> I was trying to envision that as I was over in that area, so that really helps me. Mhm. >> Um the 40% completion is that at this point in time where we thought we would be. >> Yeah. According uh we had a about a three-month delay before we could actually put start digging dirt in the ground. Um the the development was a little behind but based on the uh original schedule um the amount of duration. Yeah. At this and they're on on track.
How do we do where would we make that fit? Um, we've had so many positive comments and already can tell you that our attendance with staff has increased so much with having that Wednesday off and before Thanksgiving that that's not a great opportunity there to give that up. Um, the challenge of having students come back for one day um on a Monday along with the number of days in each semester makes that really challenging. I'm going to stop there and just open it up the floor for conversations. >> Before we begin, just just to give a little context to this first, we're not voting tonight. Understand that the administration is bringing this to the board for a discussion, which I think is good and healthy. So, thank you for doing that. It's it's easier just to say this is what we're doing and you guys have brought it forward to us for this discussion, which we really appreciate.
But sometimes the things that we look at are just those what seems simple but that there have been incidents where sub having or not having a key made a difference of life or death in certain situations. So substitutes are certainly an important part and the answer to that is as far as getting your key back. We just suggest building administrators remind uh the substitutes that when you come back at the end of the day to sign this paper to get paid, please return the key. And it's a great motivator to get your key back. But one of your building administrators had a great idea today. Just said u they give a lanyard to the substitutes to to ID. They said just we'll just attach the key to the lanyard because the lanyards always get turned back in. >> Having those conversations, practical stuff. So after after this plan is implemented, uh how often will it be reviewed or and scrutinized or updated?
>> Yep. This is kind of like how we handled handled December. So we just want to make sure our bills >> that allows me to go on vacation. >> You said you wanted to share where you're going on vacation. >> I already did go on vacation. No, I will not share. >> All right. I need a motion. >> I need a second.
Um any questions on the December financials? >> Of course. I'm looking here. It's nice to see you. Uh, thanks for being able to attend tonight. Um, what stuck out to me when I was looking at the reports is is the difference between what we budgeted uh, versus what we actually did on the budgets from an expenditure standpoint. It's a sizable difference. I one I want to thank the administration for doing that, but do you think that was because we overbudgeted in in salaries or or why do you think why was there such a disparity there? I did not develop that particular budget, but I can tell you from my standpoint um in developing budgets for many years now that you typically will build a budget high enough to be able to account for and a budget is considered an allocation. It gives you the authority to spend does not mean you really need to spend it all.