Kaneland ready to jump into planning

The Kaneland school board will start moving on plans for a new middle school at its meeting Monday.

The plans for a new 1,200-student middle school are complete, and the district plans to bid out the project shortly.

If all goes well, contractors could be breaking ground at the site on Harter Road in Sugar Grove by April, said Lisa Wiet, school board president.

"We are going to be moving as quickly as possible so we can get the middle school open in August 2009," she said.

The district's $65 million tax increase request was successful Tuesday by a vote of 4,156 to 3,723, according to unofficial vote totals.

About 3,500 more voted on this year's tax increase bid than on the failed request last year. That made the results coming in less predictable, Wiet said.

Last year, when the same referendum package cost $53.2 million, it failed by a vote of 2,266 to 2,040. District officials said construction, labor and fuel cost increases led to the jump in price.

Officials want to finish a renovation to the current middle school by fall 2009 as well, to make the two buildings equitable, Wiet said.

Currently, the eighth-graders spend mornings at the high school and are then bused to the middle school for afternoon classes.

Administrators at the high school and middle school are working on school schedules for next year now, Wiet said. They are trying to figure out if some students could stay at the high school building for the whole day.

That would be the only change to class locations for next year.