by Roy Taylor, Enterprise Correspondent

The Plainfield Board of Education approved a resolution that will grant a five-year, 50 percent tax abatement to a new business in District 202 at its regular meeting July 19. Board Member Joan Reed was absent.

Fleetwood Systems, Inc., is in the process of planning a 122,000 square foot office/manufacturing facility to be located at Windham Lakes Business park in Romeoville. The portion of Windham Lakes in which the new facility will be located is in the Plainfield School District.

Smith said the business requested abatements from Will County, the City of Romeoville, and District 202 through the Will County Center for Economic Development, which recommended the abatements be granted.

Estimating that the facility will be assessed at its construction costs of $4-$5 million, this site will provide the School District with annual tax revenues of $36,000 to $40,000 after the abatement, Smith said. “This is on land that in the past has generated the district zero dollars,” he added.

Fleetwood Systems, Inc., designs and manufactures material handling systems for container manufacturers and users and serves customers worldwide. Its current facilities are located in Countryside. In addition to the tax revenues, the planned site should add an additional 200 jobs, according to company estimates.

The resolution passed by the board will be finalized between legal council of the board and the developer, and will include a clause limiting Fleetwood’s ability to challenge its tax assessments. The limitation will provide the district a “guaranteed income level over the next five years,” Smith said.

In closing the issue, Smith added “We are very pleased that Fleetwood systems, Inc., is coming to our district, and we look forward to continued development at Windham Lakes.”

The board adopted the 1994-1995 Plainfield High School handbook, which includes several changes over the previous year’s version.

According to Plainfield High School Principal Dr. Edward Wardzala, after a long hiatus, PHS students will again be allowed to graduate in seven semesters. However, considering the requirements for graduation (21 credits, four years of English and physical education), this will necessitate a student taking summer school.

“This is mainly for economic reasons,:” Wardzala said. Because most college degrees are now requiring more than four years to complete, graduating in January gives a student an extra semester to pick up classes at a junior college before entering a university proper, he said.

Approximately five students would have been eligible to graduate early in the past year, Wardzala said, and seven more may be able to in the coming year. January graduates will still be encouraged to participate in June commencement activities, he said.

Another handbook change will allow suspended students complete class assignments for credit if the work is completed within the appropriate timeframe.

After briefing the board on the new handbook, Wardzala was asked to inform the members regarding the progress of the proposed new athletic conference PHS is to join.

Wardzala said Plainfield will be the host to representatives from 16 different schools on August 11. At 9 a.m., each school will give a yes or no vote. If enough “yes” votes are counted, the new conference will at that time be officially established.

The new conference will mean different things to each sport. For example, the football conference will consist of two eight-team divisions, grouped as a larger-school division and a smaller-school division. These divisions will then be re-evaluated at the appropriate times to check for increased attendance, then re-grouped. In the case of girls' soccer, Plainfield’s team will compete with the roughly six other schools that offer such a program.

When asked if he was confident of the change of the new organization actually forming, Wardzala said it may drop to as low as 12 schools, but that will still allow for two six-team divisions, which is more than adequate.

Little Seven Conference asked Plainfield to host the event, which Wardzala said proves that “Plainfield is on the cutting edge of providing educational facilities to its community.” The school board gave its overwhelming support to Wardzala in PHS’s quest to join the new conference. Currently, proposed members of the new conference are: Plainfield, Oswego, Batavia, Minooka, Morris, Riverside-Brookfield, Sycamore, Geneva, Herscher, Lemont, Evergreen Park, Elmwood, Yorkville, Risgewood, Kaneland and Westmont.

In other business, the board:

Directed staff to thank Will County officials for their speedy processing of property tax payments, which has put District 202 in a favorable cash position at this point in the year. Board President Smith said, "Being a tax collector is probably a thankless position, and Will County has done a remarkable job."

The next regular Board of Education meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. August 15 at the district office.