The folding doors that separate the band room from Brockman Gymnasium at Kewanee High School have been there since the school was built in the late 1950s.
But now the doors — known as the “acoustic partition” — must be replaced. The Kewanee School Board Monday hired MSI contractors of Kewanee to do that job, at a cost of $139,575.
Supt. Chris Sullens said MSI was the only contractor that bid on the project.
It won’t be easy to replace the partition, as each panel weighs about 300 pounds, Sullens said.
Also at Monday’s board meeting:
— Sullens reported on how the state’s new Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) has benefited the Kewanee School District.
In the past, he said, state aid was based solely on the number of students in a school district.
EBF uses a complicated formula that takes into account enrollment, as well as the size of the faculty and the number of employees in the district.
“Nothing has been more of a game changer for our school district,” Sullens told the board.
When EBF started during the 2017-18 school year, Kewanee schools were receiving just 52% of what the EBF formula said they should be getting.
Rather than increase state aid the whole amount needed, the state has been providing smaller increases most years since then. Now, Sullens said, Kewanee schools are at 71% of the EPF target.
Still, he said, Kewanee is worse off than the nearby school districts.
“We have the lowest adequacy amount in the area,” Sullens said.
The goal, he said, is for the state to be funding schools at the level recommended by the EBF formula by the 2033-34 school year.
— Board resolutions noted KHS student accomplishments in two areas.
Kashen Ellerbrock was honored for earning first place in FFA District 1’s ag sales entrepreneurship competition.
And the KHS band and chorus students were honored for winning the school’s first-ever Illinois High School Association state championship.
— The board approved hiring a second resource officer. This officer would work at Belle Alexander, Irving and Neponset elementary schools.