College of Lake County students will see their tuition rise again this fall following a Board of Trustees vote Feb. 25 to increase the in-district rate tuition by $3 per credit hour.
The six present members all voted in favor of the administration’s recommendation, which brings the college’s per-credit-hour cost to $147 from $144, a college spokeswoman said. Trustee Richard Anderson was absent.
The decision keeps the other fees charged to students flat, according to board documents. Out-of-district and out-of-state tuition would increase 3.4% to $322 and $436 per credit hour, respectively.
The increase keeps CLC in the middle of other area colleges where the per-credit-hour cost next year is on track to range from $132 at Elgin Community College to $154.50 at Harper College in Palatine.
This marks the seventh year in a row the college has raised tuition on students, according to a staff presentation. The increases have dropped in scale over that time from a $9 increase in 2015, down to a $2 bump in 2018 and then slightly up to $3 each of the last two years.
The increase is expected to generate just over $700,000 in new revenue, according to a staff presentation.
Tuition and fees make up about 27% of the college’s income, less than the third envisioned when the 1965 state law establishing the modern community college system was enacted. However, the state’s share — also pitched in 1965 as a third — has fallen to about 7%.
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Local taxes cover the remaining 64%, according to a staff presentation.
Grayslake High School District 127 is taking out $9.2 million in new debt to fund capital projects at its buildings, some that will begin this summer, according to a district official and a financial consultant for the district.
The school board approved the move in a 5-1 vote last week, said Michael Zelek, the district’s associate superintendent and chief school business officer.
The new debt would be paid back over 15 years, said Elizabeth Hennessy, the managing director of the financial services firm Raymond James. The interest rate as of the end of January was 2.7%, she said, adding that the market has been moving a lot recently.
The money would go toward the district’s capital facilities plan, including mechanical system replacements; courtyard, classroom and locker room improvements; furniture replacements and repairs; and parking lot resurfacing, Hennessy said. Work could begin as early as this summer.
Taxpayers wouldn’t initially see their property tax bills go up to cover the debt, because tax bills are set to fall as old debt gets paid off, Hennessy said. The debt-portion of the district’s levy would then climb with inflation.
The district does not have to go to voters because the bonds fall underneath the maximum amount the district can take out without referendum.
Just over a week remains for the Kohl Children’s Museum’s pop-up in Waukegan, but then it’s on to Round Lake Beach.
The Glenview-based museum has been steadily growing its pop-up options — an effort to become a more sustained presence in the northern part of the county and to remove as many barriers to families as possible, said Stephanie Bynum, the museum’s vice president of programs.
Forty-five minutes is a long time for young children to sit in a car, so the thought was to bring the museum closer to families, particularly communities in northern Lake County where cost and limited free time might also be barriers, she added.
The Waukegan pop-up, moved from its previous home at the city-owned art gallery Urban Edge — which is now a craft brewery — to the College of Lake County’s Lakeshore campus at 111 N. Genesee St. The space is open to the public through March 21 from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, noon to 4 p.m. Fridays and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
Another pop-up is scheduled to open at the Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center, 2007 N. Civic Center Way, on April 2 and continue through May 23. It will be open to the public 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
This is the third year the pop-up has been in Waukegan and will be the second for Round Lake Beach. The museum rolled out a pop-up for North Chicago this past fall.
The goal is to have pop-up museums available mainly through the school year, though Bynum said a summer one is in the works, perhaps as early as this summer.
With the pilots deemed a success, the museum is having the program independently evaluated so that next steps can be determined, according to Bynum.