Community Consolidated District 181
Among other business Monday, board members:
• approved the three-year purchase of the Actively Learn digital curriculum platform for middle school language arts classes at a cost of $43,120. Actively Learn will be implemented during the 2020-21 school year after having been piloted at Hinsdale and Clarendon middle schools from January to March. Officials said the resource will support literacy instruction at the schools and provides pre-existing content and the ability for teachers to upload their own material.
• awarded the districtwide building automation system update project to Precision Control Systems Inc. for $191,000. The update will allow systems controlling the HVAC in all district schools to be visible remotely. According to officials, the district’s building automation systems were installed as early as 2002 and upgraded as late as 2008 and lack many characteristics common to modem computing.
• learned that 99.4 percent of the budget for the construction of the new Hinsdale Middle School has been awarded, with 97.9 percent of the $53.3 million in project funds having been expended. Owners representative Kerry Leonard reported that the contingency for the project had been increased by $55,000 in the last month and signaled work is going smoothly.
“The project is also under budget and projected to complete under budget,” Leonard said, highlighting that construction costs are 1 percent under budget and giving credit to all involved in the project’s management. “To be in that good of a situation at this point in the project with that large and significant of a budget line item, I think, is very important.”
Some items were over budget, he said, including in the areas of technology equipment, stage equipment and extending the rental of and moving the modular units. Signage and landscaping issues still need to be finalized, and Leonard said restoration of the Washington Street athletic field, expected to take six weeks, can begin once the village completes the parking deck in late June or early July.
Hinsdale Village Board
Among other business June 16, trustees:
• discussed a draft ordinance designed to promote preservation of historic homes by offering zoning relief and other incentives to dissuade purchasers of the properties from demolishing them. Village President Tom Cauley said he crafted the incentive with village attorney Michael Marks. The ordinance was on the agenda as a discussion item only and would need to go through two board readings before being enacted. Concurrently, the plan commission is holding a public hearing on a proposed moratorium for tearing down historic homes to give the village time to consider and implement changes to its historic preservation ordinance.
• held a first read on an agreement with Avolin LLC for software licensing fees and to provide hosting and maintenance services for the village’s financial accounting applications for $89,470
• approved the reappointments of Keith Giltner and Gary Moberly to five-year terms on the village’s zoning board of appeals, and the appointment of Leslie Lee to the ZBA to complete the unexpired term of Kathryn Engel through April of 2024
