ROCHELLE — At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Rochelle Elementary School District Board of Education held a public hearing concerning its intent to sell an amount not to exceed $10 million in school fire prevention and safety bonds in the future for upcoming work at Tilton Elementary School.

The board plans to pursue $14-16 million worth of needed renovations at the school after finding in a health life safety evaluation that an estimated $7.8 million worth of work is required at the school for those issues. Health life safety concerns the physical safety of the building for students and staff to occupy. The district plans to issue bonds for that money in the coming months and wants to utilize an additional $6-8 million from its reserves for other improvements involving security and spatial concerns including its pick up and drop off areas. The work will be done in a three-year plan, which would begin in 2024.

"We do not have a finalized dollar amount, so that's why it's not to exceed $10 million," Superintendent Jason Harper said. "We have yet to officially sell the bonds. This public hearing gives us a long window of time to be able to actually do that. This is the process towards the eventual act of going out and securing those funds. That will take place in the coming months. We are still getting firm numbers on what it will cost. Now that the board is going through the process, we're still waiting on architects and engineers to come back with more firm estimates on the project concepts we've been reviewing."

Harper said numbers will not be finalized until the district goes out to bid for the work, which will address health life safety issues and the potential plans relating to the expansion of Tilton School's footprint.

The board heard a presentation last month on the district's bond and debt service review from Bob Lewis of PMA Securities relating to the borrowing for the Tilton work. The district has submitted for approval from the state to borrow bonds for the work. Lewis said the current municipal bond market is good for borrowing.

In December, the board unanimously approved a $939,000 bid from QC Geothermal for the geothermal borefield project at the school. That bid was the lowest the district received. The work could start in March and will be away from and cordoned off from students. 

Over the past year, the board established a facilities committee to evaluate the needed improvements at the school. It also considered alternatives to fill the needs of Tilton School students including additions at other district locations ($25-30 million cost estimate) and a new school ($30-35 million cost estimate). The renovations path was chosen due to the costs of those alternatives being high. 

Tilton School was built in 1949. District Business Manager Kevin Dale said at the September board meeting that the goal of the planned renovation work is to get "at least another 20 years" out of the Tilton School building. Work will include removal of asbestos tiles, and roofing and window repairs. Renovations and painting will be done to interiors of classrooms to provide a “fresh look.”

Personnel

The board unanimously approved certificated personnel changes including the employment of Jasmine Mondragon as a HUB Program teacher and the transfer of Deb DaCosta (first grade dual language teacher to first grade teacher at Lincoln School). It also unanimously approved the support staff employment of Monica Gonzalez (part-time lunch supervisor at Lincoln), Kevin Norris (food/mail delivery driver) and Lisa Norris (paraprofessional at Lincoln).