The District U-46 School Board signed off Monday on a proposal to move ahead with several Elgin-area school building projects, tentatively approving construction management contracts for two of them.

Under the plan, Kimball Middle School in Elgin and Kenyon Woods Middle School in South Elgin will be expanded, a new Elgin middle school will be built on land at 2604 Rohrssen Road, and Ellis and Abbott middle schools in Elgin will close at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

Contracts expected be approved by the board Oct. 2 will pay Oakbrook Terrace-based International Contractors Inc. $5.1 million to oversee the work at Kenyon Woods school and Gilbane Building Co., of Chicago, $5 million to do the same with the Kimball addition.

The former is expected to cost between $30 million and $40 million and the latter between $40 million and $60 million.

“With the size and scope of the projects that we have that will be coming on board over the next few years, it warrants a higher level of monitoring and guidance. And for that reason we recommended construction management firms,” Deputy Superintendent for Operations Ann Williams told the board.

International Contractors already is overseeing the $45 million conversion of Hawk Hollow Elementary School in Bartlett into a middle school that will roughly double its size.

The new middle school on Rohrssen Road, adjacent to Hilltop Elementary School, is to be built on 12.4 acres of undeveloped land at a price of $90 million to $130 million. No construction manager has been selected for that job.

Because of the construction work needed, the plan to move all sixth-graders into the middle school system will be postponed to the 2026-27 academic year.

U-46 Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm told the school board last week that it was urgent members make decisions on the projects being discussed because of the long lead times, supply chain issues and rising costs associated with construction.

The building projects come from recommendations made by the Unite U-46 steering committee, which were adopted last year by the board. A referendum approved by voters in April allows the district to issue $179 million in school building bonds to help finance some of the work.

District reserve money and a 3% property tax increase next year also will help pay for school construction work and other renovation and maintenance needs included on a long list of projects to be carried out over the next few years.

For someone with a home valued at $300,000, the property tax increase will add about $168 to the portion of the bill paid to the district, officials said.

On Monday, board members also approved a new $775.3 million budget for 2023-24, which is $48.8 million more than the 2022-23 spending plan.

All told, the district plans to spend $111 million on capital projects in the current fiscal year, more than double the amount spent last year.

Property taxes remain the chief source of district funding although a projected $21 million increase in evidence-based state funding and an additional $12 million in investment income will help, officials said.

To view the 2023-24 budget, go to info.u-46.org/FY24BudgetBook.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.