AMBOY – Meetings for the Amboy Community Unit School District #272 have been busy the last few months wrapping up all 2024 transactions and projects.
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AMBOY – Meetings for the Amboy Community Unit School District #272 have been busy the last few months wrapping up all 2024 transactions and projects.
Fall flew by quicker than students cruising the hallways to their next classes and January is doing the same.
“Knock on wood, but things are rolling pretty smoothly so far this school year,” said Amboy Schools Superintendent Joshua Nichols. “The Christmas concert was awesome. The staff did amazing. Athletics have been going well. The district is in a good place. I’m very fortunate to be here.”
Here is what has happened during the last three meetings:
Thursday, Dec. 19
The school board made a purchase for 370 Dell Chromebooks and 46 ASUS Chromebooks.
“In previous years, we leased Chromebooks. All of a sudden, over the last few years, they were starting to nickel and dime us on dings and scratches,” Nichols said. “We started buying them out right. This year is our largest purchase of Chromebooks. This includes all of the staff and a large portion of the student’s Chromebooks.”
The 2024 tax levy was approved. District #272 requested 12.44 percent, but all school districts in the state are capped at 3.4 percent.
“The tax cap, 3.4 percent, is the max the district can go off of the extension. If you look at the levy request, it says 12.44 percent,” Nichols said. “Then you ask, ‘Why is it more than the cap of 3.4 percent?’ It’s because new property is taxed differently. The windmill farm in the Maytown area is coming online and bringing $17 million in new property taxes.
“We asked for a bigger request to hopefully capture the full 3.4 percent. We can’t ever over levy, but we can under levy. If we under levy, those dollars don’t go back to the taxpayers, they go to any other Lee County taxing body who over levies.
“We try to get as creative as possible. We try to be smart with our money. We are very property tax dependent in this district. The levy is capped at 3.4 percent, but expenses are not capped.”
Also at the meeting, the board approved the abatement resolution.
“We did work worth about $1 million, six or seven years ago, at Central School. That is tied to the sales tax revenue,” Nichols said. “We abate the bond and then we pay for the payment on the debt out of sales tax revenue.
“If we didn’t abate it, it would be put on people’s property taxes. But since we have the sales tax revenue and we can pay it, we went that route.”
Tuesday, Nov. 19
The Amboy school district discussed the 10-year safety agreement as it has taken care of big projects over the last few years.
During the 2025 summer will be the next safety agreement.
“Every 10 years, schools have to have architects access the building for health, life, safety (HLS). They say what is meeting code, what isn’t meeting code, and what needs to be brought up to code,” Nichols said. “When they say you need to do something like get a boiler up to code, you then have 10 years to do so.
“Our last 10-year assessment has ended and we did all of the recommended updates. The old junior high building used to be 75 percent of our 10-year assessment. Now, with the building upgrades, it will change what we need to do next.”
Thursday, Oct. 17
Projects, projects, projects…was the main focus of the meeting.
“There is a lot of work that goes on in the background to get projects done such as the secured entrance at Central School, the high school track, and the demolition of the old junior high building,” Nichols said. “I liked the old junior high building, and I liked being in there, but when you drive by it and see other communities with old schools or hospitals, and they’re rotting away, I’m really glad we don’t have something like that on the west side of town with the old junior high. It’s kind of bittersweet.
“There are so many different groups and different needs. We were able to do quite a bit.”
The board discussed future missions such as replacing exterior windows and doors to the original building of the Amboy Central School.
The new materials and labor is estimated to be just shy of $1 million.
The west part of the school, constructed in the late 1990s or early 200s, will not have to have new windows and doors, but the original portion of the school will.
Russ Gewin came to the meeting to talk about the Community Solar Program and how placing solar panels on the rooves of the three Amboy schools would save the district revenue. Many questions were asked by Amboy board members as they pondered the possibility.