Champaign Schools Roundup

On the Champaign side of school news there's a bit of housekeeping with the referendum construction and various City of Champaign rules and planning details to be agreed to. From yesterday's News-Gazette:

City to talk Unit 4 referendum plans
Two days before school starts in Unit 4, the city council will review a plan for Champaign schools' referendum-related construction, one that includes chopping down trees, removing streetlights and making room for buses.

The proposed regulation plan between the city and school district, to be discussed Tuesday night, addresses general construction aspects with an emphasis on Central High School, McKinley Field and Dr. Howard Elementary.

Bruce Knight, the city's planning and development director, said the plan only covers early phases of the referendum, and that more regulations will be drafted as the five-year, six-school, $183.4 million project goes on.

One point the proposed plan touches on is zoning. It states that Unit 4 will make a good faith effort to comply with Champaign's existing zoning regulations...

Other regulations being proposed, according to the plan:

— Unit 4 will uproot historic landmark streetlights along Lynn Street, store them in the city's public works facility and reinstall them between Hill and Church streets when construction is done.

— The city will enforce restricted school-hour parking in areas around Central to make room for student pickup and drop-off. There will also be a new bus loading zone on the east side of New Street, between University and Park avenues.

— Historic streetlights by Dr. Howard will be removed and stored by the city, which will then install new conduits, junction boxes and wiring for streetlight reinstallation. If a streetlight is in too poor condition to be reused, Unit 4 will replace or pay to replace it.

— The city will design a rain garden near Dr. Howard as part of its West Washington stormwater project. Unit 4 will construct it and the city will pay additional building costs, as well as maintain the garden after completion.

— Unit 4 will construct a circle drive south of Dr. Howard, accessible by University Avenue, for student pickup and drop-off.

More at the full article here. There was another article today about football games and "Friday Night Lights" scenarios being unlikely on Central's field. More on that here: Champaign council member seeks assurance: No 'Friday Night Lights' at McKinley.

Also it appears that a disagreement on a land easement may result in a land swap between the Park District and the Unit 4 school district. From today's News-Gazette.

Park district's proposal for Centennial drainage has Unit 4 thinking land swap
Talks between the Champaign Park District and Unit 4 officials may turn to land-swapping after a $60,000 price tag for 1 acre of land was floated at Monday night's school board meeting.

Previously, Unit 4 officials had hoped to come to an easement agreement that would allow them to use park-district-owned land for necessary stormwater detention north of Centennial High School. But Elizabeth Stegmaier, Unit 4's director of capital projects and planning, told board members Monday night that the park district didn't see such an agreement as "being to their benefit" and had instead proposed selling the acre to the district for $60,000. That number is $32,000 more than the district's initial $28,000 offer to the park district on Aug. 1.

Part of the reason for that uptick in price, Unit 4 real-estate lawyer Pat Fitzgerald told board members, was that park district officials knew there were deadlines to meet, which board President Chris Kloeppel emphasized wasn't a result of poor planning or a sudden realization on the district's part that additional stormwater detention would be necessary...

To circumvent spending extra money, board members proposed finding an acre of school-district-owned land to swap with the park district. Fitzgerald said such property had already been identified, and they were ready to sit down with park district officials "as early as tomorrow morning" to propose the swap. Kloeppel called for more discussions that include solutions other than the district buying the acre for $60,000.

More at the full article here, including issues of precedent and liability with other options such as purchase of the land.