Kaneland D-302 hosts community engagement sessions to address proposed facility upgrades

Kaneland School District 302 hosted a virtual meeting for the community July 27 to help determine its path in alleviating facility issues plaguing the district’s schools.

In-person sessions were held July 21 and 23 at the Kaneland High School library. About 25 community members attended those meetings. About 50 participated in the virtual meeting. Additionally, a phone survey was used to gather feedback for the facility upgrades.

Participants in the community engagement sessions were invited to rank 10 potential individual projects along with possible funding levels in a brief online survey. The data will be analyzed and shared during the school board meeting Aug. 8.

“We will have a scientific survey that will be modeled and weighted based on the demographics of the school district,” said Ed Sullivan of EOSullivan Consulting, the engagement firm hired to work with the district. “By doing a scientific survey, we wouldn’t want to just call parents or students because the data would be way too skewed to really get a scientific analysis that would be competent at any level. Our margin of error will certainly be under five, just like you would do for any type of survey or polling type of question.”

Kaneland has capital needs exceeding $19 million over the next five years, but only has an available annual budget of $800,000 to $1.2 million for such expenses. As the presentation conveyed, without any other financial options to pursue these additions, renovations and repairs, students and staff will continue to suffer.

The individual projects include modern learning environments ($11.3 million estimated cost) student resources and supports ($2.6 million), the Fox Valley Career Center ($15.3 million), IgKnight Personalized Learning Academy ($2.8 million), collaborative spaces ($6.2 million), infrastructure and mechanicals ($11.8 million), improved athletics facilities ($16 million), new field house ($48.2 million), campus reorganization ($4.1 million) and a new high school entrance ($4 million).

Kaneland High School is much the same as it was when gas prices were 30 cents a gallon. Julia-Ann Fuchs, associate superintendent for Kaneland, said the high school boiler is original to the building, and limited and outdated spaces have forced students and staff to use hallways as collaborative workspaces and training and exercise for physical education classes and athletic practices.

“Our high school, which should be our capstone school, has instead been challenged through outdated facilities,” Fuchs said. “Some of our classrooms at the high school are still functioning as they were over 60 years ago.”

The survey also asked community members to rank the three funding levels, choosing between the lowest funding amount of about $31.9 million, which would allow for some improvements; a medium level of about $74.1 million, which would accommodate many improvements; and the highest funding level, which would allow for all 10 projects to be completed.

The approximate average tax impact for community members based on a $280,000 home would vary per year from $149, $349 and $583 based on the three funding level choices.