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205 Board approves agreement with city for Lombard playground, amending tax levy

The District 205 Board of Education approved an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Galesburg to build a new playground at Lombard Middle School, as part of the city’s masterplan for Parks and Recreation.

Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Hamm informed the board that in November the city approached the school about building a playground on the Lombard property that would be accessible to the neighborhood, and be in compliance with the American Disabilities Act.

Hamm told board members that the city’s goal was to have a playground within 1.5 miles of every resident in Galesburg, with Lombard being the one hole in the plan. Hamm said the city had $200,000 to apply towards the project.

“We’ve been working with the city since then to come up with a plan that would incorporate a lot of different needs,” Hamm told board members.  Originally the plans for the Lombard playground included a fitness area, but she said that the city pushed for the space to be ADA accessible, “but the need for an ADA accessible playground for some of our students that have accessibility issues was even more important than a fitness area and that we had to balance those two needs.”

Aside from the $200,000 that the city is contributing, the District will receive $75,852 from a Health Community Investment Grant through the Illinois State Board of Education. Leaving the district responsible for the remaining $12,857, which will be paid through the Capital Project Fund.

Superintendent Dr. John Asplund gave Hamm a lot of credit for finding the ISBE grant so that the operating budget won’t be severely impacted by the playground.

Once built, the playground will be open to the public except for when school is in session.

The board also discussed and approved an amended budget and tax levy for 2019.

While the Equalized Assessed Valuation for the district has not been finalized, the district has seen new numbers come in that led them to ask for less on the tax levy.

Asplund said that back in November they asked for a levy estimate based on the early EAV numbers they were seeing. He said it’s advisable to ask for a higher amount early to capture any possible dollars that could come in for a higher EAV. However, now that more time has passed and the assessor’s offices for Knox and Warren County have gotten more time to get more accurate numbers, it was time to look at the levy again and make sure it is more in line with the EAV changes.

Board members in December approved the tax levy of $22,035,693, which was one of two different options the board considered. On Monday, the board approved an amended levy of $21,201,094. The change in the levy will lead to a decrease in the tax rate from $4.94 to $4.83

The board approved the amended budget, which sees about a $300,000 increase in total expenses. Some of those increased expenses were offset by an increase in revenue in the Education Fund.

On the subject of revenue, the board also approved the reduction of activity fees for next year.

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