The Rochelle Township High School board heard an update June 15 from Board President Jeff Tilton on ongoing talks about a potential future shared facility with the Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District.
Tilton said the district has been having conversations with the park district “over the past few years” regarding the need for more indoor space for warm weather sports and the feasibility of a joint facility.
“As the park district continues to grow its membership and community programming at The REC Center, the need for more space continues to grow,” Tilton said. “At the same time, the schools continue to experience the same facility challenges as warm weather extracurricular activities struggle to find indoor space from October-April each year. With these challenges in mind, the schools and the park district came together over the past six months to consider the feasibility of a joint facility which could meet the ongoing and changing needs of both organizations.”
A survey was recently done of RTHS extracurricular coaches and advisers on the matter and space availability at RTHS. Securing indoor space was the chief concern seen in the survey, Tilton said.
“Born out of these conversations came an opportunity to work together on a new joint facility which could meet the needs of both organizations’ stakeholders,” Tilton said. “In working together, both organizations’ goals would be to bring additional indoor facility space to our community and schools while not further burdening our taxpayers at any level.”
RTHS District Superintendent Jason Harper thanked both entities for their work so far and said talks with the park district have been positive and optimistic and work on a potential timeline is underway.
Truck
The board unanimously approved a $65,000 bid from Schimmer Chevrolet for a new 2024 dump truck. The Schimmer bid was the only one the district received. The truck will replace a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado dump truck that will be traded in on the purchase.
“This type of truck gives us flexibility because we can take one bed and switch it off and put a different one on for hauling salt,” District Business Manager Kevin Dale said. “It’s a little bit larger truck so we can haul more salt and handle that work better. The other truck was 15 years old and we were ready to get something new.”
Food
The board approved a pricing contract with Whitsons Culinary Group for fiscal year 2027 for the RTHS cafeteria that will see all food and drink items stay the same in price as last year.
Whitsons recently bought out Arbor Management, RTHS’s longtime food and drink provider for lunch operations. A survey was done in the spring that gathered feedback from students and families on likes and dislikes.
“A consistent thread was pricing,” Harper said. “Our students and parents gave a strong voice to their desire to keep pricing flat and steady.”
Compensation
The board unanimously approved compensation plans for noncertified staff members for the next fiscal year. It also approved a four-year compensation plan with the district transportation department.
Administrative contracts with Assistant Principals Brett Zick and Alison Vrana were unanimously approved for the next fiscal year as well.
Personnel
The board unanimously approved personnel matters, including the resignations of Troy Doetch (English teacher, 2026-27 school year), Justin Otte (boys assistant track coach) and Sarai Uecker (boys assistant soccer coach) and the employment of James Hall (volunteer assistant football coach) and James Linsey (bus driver).
End of year
The board approved end-of-fiscal-year matters, including the appointments of district auditors and legal counsel and establishment of bank depositories, all of which stayed the same from the previous year.
The board will continue to meet on the third Monday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the district office boardroom at RTHS. The board will not hold a July meeting, and it gave unanimous authorization to the district office to conduct summer business operations until its August meeting, including hiring and bill payment.