Mendota High School has similar in-person numbers for second semester

Mendota High School Principal Denise Aughenbaugh reported Monday that the school is in the process of finalizing numbers for the spring semester, which begins Wednesday.

She told the board during its monthly meeting the school will have about 400 in-person students – similar to fall semester numbers – and 92 fully-remote learners.

“We’re about 55% of our building capacity,” Aughenbaugh said. “The custodial staff is in the process of going room to room moving desks we don’t need, adding desks and flip flopping some classes. Some classes are tight so we have to relocate to another room or the media center.

“We’ll be ready to go on Wednesday.”

Superintendent Jeff Prusator told the board athletics will be starting up with the state’s COVID-19 Region 2 moving to Tier 1 mitigations.

“We’re still waiting for more guidance from then IHSA now,” Prusator said. “Starting Monday we anticipate some open gyms. Bowling will be starting [its season] relatively soon – probably within the next week.”

Stimulus money

Prusator told the board the district will be receiving a second round of federal stimulus money, this time a little more than $425,000 after receiving $130,000 in the first round.

“It comes with some direction from the state,” Prusator said. “The Illinois State Board of Education is encouraging us to channel funds toward our most urgent needs – mitigating learning loss through supplemental learning opportunities, closing the digital division and addressing the mental health of students.”

Prusator said the ISBE wants districts to consider longer school years, before- and after-school programs, summer learning opportunities and expanded days to help make up for lost learning opportunities last spring and this fall.

“We introduced it to our school improvement team last week and brought it up at our faculty meeting [Monday morning],” Prusator said. “We’ll continue to work and come up with ideas on how to spend the money.”

New phones

In an informational item, Prusator presented to the board about the need for a new phone system.

“The phone system has been in and out throughout the school year,” Prusator said.

He told the board the system is original to the school, making it 20-plus years old when the typical lifespan is 10 to 12 years.

“I was pleasantly surprised by some of the bids we received,” Prusator said. “We’re talking in the $10,000-12,000 range for a replacement.

“With newer technology, it will be more user friendly, and there are more benefits.”

Prusator raised the question of whether it should be bought this fiscal year or held off until July, as it was not budgeted for this year.

“It will come out of the same fun in the end,” Prusator said. “We need to have a phone system that is reliable.”

He’ll present a formal recommendation to the board next month.

Budget update

Prusator reported halfway through the fiscal year that the district is at 47.92% of expenditures.

He told the board transportation expenses are down with seven to eight fewer drivers since the elementary school district was remote for large portions of the first semester.

However, Prusator reported that the building fund has exceeded what was budgeted because of preparations for opening the school and a new gym floor, among other expenses.

“The overall budget at the end of the fiscal year should be within what we budgeted,” Prusator said.