Minooka school district wants $90 million for construction

Minooka Community Consolidated School District 201 is asking voters for $90 million for new construction but the board's Jan. 22 meeting was quiet, with only one resident asking for further information about the March 20 referendum.

District superintendent Kris Monn said he has fielded many emails with questions on the referendum, and he and staff were in the final stages of creating a frequently asked questions page on the district website.

Monn said the goal was to have the information up by Friday.

Monn also sent out a message via TeacherEase to district parents on Jan. 11 to explain the referendum.

“As I'm sure you have read, our school district has a referendum question on the March 20, 2018 ballot to build two new schools and additions and renovations to existing schools, so we want to make sure that accurate information is getting out to our parents and community members," Monn said in the message, which went on to explain the proposal.

"The bottom line: our schools have been growing for five years and they now exceed or are projected to exceed their student capacity," the message said.

Board member Renee Thompson asked what the district will do if the referendum fails. Monn said the district will pay the design costs up until the referendum doesn’t pass with reserves from the capital projects fund. If the district brings the building back, those costs will have already been fronted and if codes have changed, then the district will try to negotiate those services on a flat fee.

In other news, the board approved the $108,000 contract to Trane for retrofitting and ongoing maintenance of the chiller at Minooka Junior High School. Kevin Smith, director of buildings and grounds for Minooka 201, approached the board with two options.

Smith said the board could purchase a new chiller with a $320,000 to $330,000 price tag and have that chiller for 25 years, or purchase equipment to refurbish the existing chiller for $108,000. The equipment would come with a five-year warranty.

Smith said he expects the refurbished chiller to give the school another 10 to 15 years. He said this was the best plan, as there were other maintenance items needed at the junior high.

NOTE: This story has been clarified to say that superintendent Kris Monn laid out the positives of the proposal but did not advocate for voting a certain way on the referendum.