District 100 School Board Meeting 2/27/2008

[Shelley]

Here are my notes:

Enrollment as of 1/31/08 is 3,603 which is up 15 students from last year. 
ISATS start next week.
Health Fair was a big success.
Early Childhood Screening begins April 8th.  Call district to make appointment.  795-2300 ex. 4037.  All 3-5 year olds should be screened.
Drama Club Praise.  1st place in the West 40 competition for the 6th year in a row.
Blood Drive produced 84 pints of blood w/ over 100 donors.
See other good news here: http://www.bsd100.org/news.htm
District 100 just received a $250,000 grant for staff development (extensive mentoring program) for this spring/summer.
South Berwyn Education Foundation has given about $40,000 back to Dist. 100 schools
Something about getting bids for putting a fence around the lot across from Heritage
The District has received 2 FOIA requests regarding cafeteria, bus and custodial services
President Bush is cutting $300 million (basically after school programs) and Joanne Zendol encouraged people to call Lipinski telling him you do NOT support the cuts. 

After student awards, the business portion of the meeting focused on a presentation by Tony Griffin of the BDC along with a Phil McKenna and another gentleman who, I think, were Financial consultants.  The BDC needs letters of support from the School District(s) to extend the Cermak TIF for another 12 years.  The current TIF district began in 1987 and is set to expire in 2010.  Since 1987 the EAV of the TIF district has gone from about 25 million to about 43 million.  Mr. Griffin gave 3 examples of TIF projects, though only one was in the Cermak TiF (Superblock approved 2/12 by CC, Depot District Parking Garage, Sedgewick).  BDC/City is asking to enter into an intergovernmental agreement w/ school districts that would allow negotiations of a % of TIF surplus going back to city (county?) to be redistributed back to the different taxing entities during the 12 year extension.  Earlier talks had focused on a 20% of surplus divided up with about 12.5% of that going to District 100.  A conservative estimate was about $91,000 per year.  Apparently the same presentation was given to the District 98 board meeting tonight where questions of a "bottom", say no less than $80,000.  All of this is just talk and the terms of any intergovernmental agreement would be worked out after the letter of support of the CONCEPT of extending the TIF were brought to Springfield on the 12th of March.  Dawn Rinehart asked about the current surplus and I don't think it was ruled out that a percentage of that amount ($3 1/2 million) could be on the table in any negotiations.  The Intergovernmental Agreement sounds crucial if we are to avoid changes at the whim of a new City Council as without the IGA the City Council would have to /be able to vote on the extension terms yearly?  I was writing quickly and the discussion was complicated so I hope I am getting this right.  JoAnn Zendol asked Michelle Skryd what the city's position was.  Michelle spoke in favor of the extension stating that the TIF extension will be good for the business development and good for the kids (I guess in terms of future dollars when/if the TIF ever expires in 2022)  There was another woman (Main Street administrator?..new, just hired?) who spoke enthusiastically about the Main Street program.  Lots of other information, but that is about the gist of it.  The School Board will hold a special meeting to decide on this issue (whether or not to write a letter of support of the concept of extending the Cermak TIF for 12 more years.)  Oh, and someone brought up the fact that there are 2 other TIF districts in District 100 and would all be asking for extensions and when do they all expire?  I didn't hear an answer to that Q.

Agendas and MInutes can be found here:  http://www.bsd100.org/boe_meetings.htm

Oh, I almost forgot.  Mr. Griffin mentioned the idea of a Children's Museum instead of retail in the Depot District Parking Garage so as not to compete for the retail space with other private developers, but still attract people...Wonder where he got that idea?  http://www.berwyntalk.com/smf/index.php?topic=25.msg635#msg635

[Bear]

Hmmm....The mayor was not there??? given discusion?

[OakParkSpartan]

I was up in East Lansing, MI this past weekend...three parking garages, all with retail on the ground floor.  Attract good tenants and more will follow.  A rising tide lifts all boats.