Could an Agreement With the City Be Imminent? TIF 4 On School District Agenda Tonight

The intergovernmental agreement between the city of Elmhurst and Elmhurst Unit District 205 regarding the district's share of tax increment financing money is on the School Board's agenda Tuesday. The city and school board have been in negotiations for months over the TIF agreement, and this is the first time it has appeared on the School Board's agenda. It is not clear from board documents if an agreement is imminent.

But first, the board will meet in closed session to discuss student residency, pending litigation, negotiations and approval of closed session minutes.

A public hearing to discuss a waiver of driver education rules also precedes the regular meeting. The district is seeking a waiver from the State Board of Education "to allow for consideration of personnel costs in setting the district's driver education fee and to assess a fee not to exceed $250," according to information in the board packet.

Following the public hearing, the School Board will recognize York business students Jakob Gratzianna, Eric Hoff, Zaccaria Miller, Niki Passaris and Jack Polte, who placed second out of 541 teams in the 2012-13 Econ Illinois Stock Market Game. The statewide competition is run by the Illinois Council on Economic Education and allows students to use Internet research and news updates, making the simulation a mirror of the real marketplace. The team finished with a $22,104.25 growth in a three-month period, which was more than 24 percent above the S&P 500 stock index over the same period.

Also on the kudos list Tuesday is York High School Girls Tennis Coach Tres Heimann, who was named Coach of the Year for 2012 by the Illinois High School Tennis Coaches Association. Guided by Coach Heimann, the girls earned six consecutive sectional championships. Five players made All-State and six qualified for the state tournament. The team had the best finish in York’s history and ranked in the Top 10 in state for the second straight year.

The board will then receive comments from the public. Community members are invited to speak for up to three minutes on any topic.

In addition to a quick review of Freedom of Information Act requests, the superintendent's communication also includes a discussion on the fiscal year 2014 budget and the intergovernmental agreement with the City of Elmhurst regarding TIF 4.

The board will then approve meeting minutes from Jan. 22 and Feb. 12, and hear updates from the Finance and Operations and Performance Management committees.

In addition to approval of financial and personnel reports, the superintendent's consent agenda includes the following items:

• Approval of the drivers education waiver application that was the subject of the public hearing
• Approval of a donation of a golf simulator worth $3,000 to $4,000 to the boys and girls golf programs at York High School
• Approval of a donation of two Smart Boards worth $4,400 from Jefferson PTA to Jefferson School
• Approval of a donation of soccer goals and balls worth about $2,500 from Team Elmhurst Soccer Club to district elementary schools
• Acceptance of a bid from AT&T to upgrade bandwidth, connections and fiber optic transport throughout the district and maintain the district's wide area network at a cost of $12,129 per month through 2018. AT&T, the district's current provider, was selected from six vendors. WAN capacity will increase by 20 times and the cost will decrease by $900 a month, according to a memo to the board.
• Approval of a five-year agreement with AT&T for 500 megabit per second managed Internet service at a cost of about $3,500 a month, and a month-to month agreement with Illinois Century Network for 100 Mbps Internet service at a net cost of about $17 a month
• Approval to display K-5 social studies instructional materials
• Approval of policy revisions

The board will then review its upcoming meetings and take action on an item out of closed session, student residency. After any additional reports or correspondence from board members, the board will adjourn.