Dupage Policy Journal

The Bensenville school board discussed renovations at Blackhawk Middle school at its Nov. 16 meeting.

"Construction costs would be a lot higher by the time we get to the summer of 2024," said Paul Novack, the district's chief financial officer. "So right now, sitting here 18 months from that, it's a little bit difficult to predict what things are going to cost."

The board did not take action on the renovations but were given input on which funding options they felt were best. The administration had prepared a list of projects, grouped together based on popularity of the project and then based on ease of adding on the project. 

The CFO explained some of the funding options that the district has, discarding some that the board and administration were not in favor of. He explained the different ways and amounts that they could pull from cash reserves, borrow money either in taxing or nontaxing, or various combinations. There is also an option to borrow no money at all, which would give them a budget of around $11 million to $11.5 million. 

Some of the difficulties in deciding which projects and method for funding were that the board and administration are trying to plan these projects for summer of 2024 and estimating prices for these projects is almost impossible 18 months out.

 The board ended up deciding to give the building planners a budget of $11-12 million and ask what they could do with that maximum budget, then afterwards will decide which of the projects they will move forward with.