EMSA will be honored with the Heritage Commission's Henry Jensen Award at an upcoming Event to be held from 6 to 9pm on Tuesday May 7 at the Elgin Armory.  See attached award letter.  Board and admin leadership to attend...along with Wheeler Kearns Architects.

Also, on May 15th from 4:30 to 6:00pm, the Heritage Commission will be part of a tour of the Admin Building which EMSA will host.  That date coincides with the May Meeting of the Master Planning Committee, and its typical meeting time.  Perhaps that tour can precede or follow the Meeting?  

The Statewide association of architects will be holding its annual meeting in Elgin in October 2024, and conference participants will be touring EMSA to see our renovated buildings.  Details forthcoming.  

Administration has worked with Green Guerrilla to make EMSA facilities available for community environmental education over the summer 2024.

Proposed lectures to be hosted in classrooms:

Friday, June 7th

Forest Preserve District of Kane County

On Campus Tree + Leaf Identification

Friday, June 14th

Kane-DuPage Soil & Water Conservation District

Erosion + Rain Garden Grants

Friday, June 21st

City of Elgin Naturalist David Schoenknecht

Glacial Wonders of Kane County

Friday, June 28th    

Green Guerrilla

On Campus Native Garden Walk

Friday, July 5th

Holiday

Happy Birthday America

Friday, July 12th

Friends of the Fox River

Protecting Our Watershed

Friday, July 19th

TBA (Men’s Shed)

Cabin Bird House Auction

Friday July 26th

Kane County Recycling Coordinator Clair Ryan

Composting

Preston Consulting has completed the first phase of their work, surveying the campus, obtaining written information they have.

Preston has contacted a list of Board and staff members for discussion of current conditions, future needs and possibilities.  Preston will be doing both a survey, and interviews with committee members.  

The following is Preston's desired schedule - this does depend on the respond rates & pace, to their survey and their requests for 1:1 interviews:

1. Release Questionnaire:  3/18/24
2. Responses Due:  3/22/24
3. Schedule Interviews:  3/25/24 – 4/12/24
4. Draft Report:  4/12/24 – 4/26/24
5. Report Feedback:  4/29/24 – 5/3/24
6. Presentation could be scheduled for May 15th.

Staff has obtained a proposal for installation of solar panels in a leased structure for the Gym Building, as an alternative to panel ownership (attached).   This option is without a loan, and without capital investment.  

The Expeditions/Gardening Committee is a hybrid staff/parent/Board effort to promote expeditionary learning through gardening programs.

At this stage, kindergarden students are going to be helped to prepare the ground for and install a single garden bed, in the Kinder instructional area.  Kindergarten students will transplant seedlings they have grown indoors, to the outdoors and begin to garden there.  Materials were delivered for this today, April 10th.  

Another four garden beds will be installed by students through the Committee's efforts, for use with Karl Harris' gardening Club.  Another three garden bed planters will be installed by students for use by the Expeditions Committee itself.  Materials for this were delivered today, April 10th.

Troy Taylor, working with Dan and Green Guerrilla, is supporting all of these efforts.    

Dan Alexander spoke with Aaron Neal, City of Elgin Public Works Director who agreed to write on behalf of EMSA and the City of Elgin, to IDOT.  Dan's request was to reduce speeds near EMSA, to install striping and signage with blinking lights similar to the situation by Coleman  Elementary School.  Mr. Neal wrote then to Asad Zaidi of IDOT, who responded as follows on March 21st:

"I have forwarded this concern to our manager; bureau of traffic and my team section manager will correlate between different bureaus to investigate this situation. I would appreciate some patience because they would have to maneuver through different departments to get a coordinated answer for this concern."

Goals & Timelines