Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Oswego District 308 working to repair cooling system at Boulder Hill School
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- 0:05Speaker 1: Oswego District three hundred and eight working to repair cooling
- 0:08Speaker 1: system at Boulder Hills School. Written by Eric Shelkoff, This
- 0:15Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
- 0:17Speaker 1: you by Everlett. With temperatures on the rise again, Oswego
- 0:23Speaker 1: School District three hundred and eight is moving quickly to
- 0:26Speaker 1: repair a cooling system at Boulder Hill Elementary School that
- 0:29Speaker 1: is not working. Because the failure prevents the building from cooling,
- 0:34Speaker 1: especially during a particularly hot period, the district is treating
- 0:38Speaker 1: this as an urgent facilities matter, school district officials said
- 0:42Speaker 1: in a statement. Officials said the equipment had been identified
- 0:47Speaker 1: through a recent district wide facility audit as nearing the
- 0:50Speaker 1: end of its useful life, with fewer than three years
- 0:52Speaker 1: of service remaining. School begins in five weeks, so having
- 0:57Speaker 1: the building ready for students and staff is of the
- 1:00Speaker 1: most importance, district officials said in a statement. August twentieth
- 1:05Speaker 1: is the first day of school for students in kindergarten
- 1:08Speaker 1: through high school. This situation underscores the value of the
- 1:12Speaker 1: district's facility audit, part of the Long Range Facility Plan,
- 1:16Speaker 1: which was completed to quantify the scope of aging mechanical
- 1:19Speaker 1: systems across all twenty two district buildings. Officials said that
- 1:24Speaker 1: assessment gives the district a clear district wide picture of
- 1:28Speaker 1: which systems are approaching end of life, allowing leadership to
- 1:32Speaker 1: plan ahead where possible and responding quickly when necessary, as
- 1:36Speaker 1: is the case at Boulder Hill, the district said. On
- 1:39Speaker 1: June second, the district held a town meeting at Boulder
- 1:42Speaker 1: Hill Elementary School about a proposal to put a three
- 1:46Speaker 1: hundred and seventeen million dollars bond referendum on the November
- 1:50Speaker 1: third general election ballot to address aging infrastructure needs throughout
- 1:54Speaker 1: the district. The last time voters approved a district three
- 1:58Speaker 1: hundred and eight bond referends was in two thousand and six.
- 2:02Speaker 1: The four hundred and fifty million dollars referendum funded school
- 2:05Speaker 1: construction projects. Seventeen of the district schools are rated poor
- 2:10Speaker 1: on a facility condition index. As part of the proposed referendum,
- 2:14Speaker 1: seventy nine percent of the funds would go toward critical infrastructure,
- 2:18Speaker 1: including improvements to HVAC systems and roof replacement. Flooring, plumbing,
- 2:24Speaker 1: electrical and building exterior improvements also are being proposed. As
- 2:29Speaker 1: officials pointed out, the district quickly expanded from just six
- 2:33Speaker 1: schools to twenty two schools to meet the rapid growth
- 2:36Speaker 1: in Oswego in the late nineteen nineties and early two thousands.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Seventeen new schools were built in just twelve years. The
- 2:44Speaker 1: district's enrollment surged from about four thousand students in nineteen
- 2:48Speaker 1: ninety two to more than seventeen thousand students in twenty thirteen.
- 2:53Speaker 1: The school district serves portions of kendallwill and Kane Counties.
- 2:57Speaker 1: The referendum would fund facility improvements at all of the
- 3:00Speaker 1: district's schools. For a home with a fair market value
- 3:04Speaker 1: of three hundred thousand dollars, residents would pay about one
- 3:08Speaker 1: hundred dollars less per year starting in twenty twenty eight,
- 3:12Speaker 1: and an additional fifty six dollars less beginning in twenty
- 3:15Speaker 1: thirty six. The district said. More information about the proposed
- 3:19Speaker 1: referendum is available at SD three zero eight dot org
- 3:23Speaker 1: slash update three zero eight. The school board is set
- 3:27Speaker 1: to decide at its August tenth board meeting whether to
- 3:30Speaker 1: put the referendum question on the November third ballot.