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Schools

College Of Lake County Gets Clean Audit

CLC receives a clean audit for fiscal year 2012; Science building construction to begin next year.

The College of Lake County has received an “unqualified” or “clean” audit for fiscal year 2012, according to a report presented to the Board of Trustees at its Sept. 25 meeting. The findings cover the college’s basic financial statements, state grants, claimed credit hours and federal grants, including financial aid.

John Weber, senior partner, and Robert Grapentine, senior manager, at Crowe Horwath LLP, presented the findings. An “unqualified” opinion is the highest designation auditors can give.

The auditors spent about six weeks on campus, reviewing the college’s financial documents, following the Government Auditing Standards set by the Comptroller General of the U.S.

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CLC Board Chairman Richard Anderson praised the professionalism of the college finance staff in working with the auditors. “It is always good to get a clean audit,” he said, indicating that it is important for trustees to receive this validation that the college’s financial systems and staff are performing “as they are supposed to do.”

In a related matter, CLC Vice President David Agazzi reported that the college ended Fiscal Year 2012 with a budget surplus of $5.2 million. The surplus, Agazzi said, was achieved because the college budgeted state revenues conservatively and kept expenditures under budget. Additional savings were achieved through lower costs for workers compensation and utilities. Agazzi said that $4.8 million of the surplus is being held in reserve towards funding the college’s facilities master plan or additional pension costs, if the legislature transfers funding pensions to local bodies.

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Science Building Update

Scot Parker and Vuk Vujovic of Legat Architects of Waukegan presented an update on work to plan for a new science building addition on the Grayslake campus.

The building was originally estimated to cost $23.4 million, with $17.6 million of the cost coming from the state of Illinois and $5.8 million from CLC.

Gov. Pat Quinn approved the release of state funding for the project in Dec. 2011, and CLC sold $19.9 million in bonds in January 2012 to fund its portion of the cost of the science building as well as a planned expansion of the Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan.

Architects have been working on detailed program planning and schematic design for the science building, and the project is now ready to enter the full design phase.

The architects and CLC administration are recommending adding two components to the project's geothermal heating and air conditioning and solar panels—at an additional cost of about $1.5 million. The cost of these features, Vujovic said, would be recovered over time through energy savings, and the college will seek grant funding to cover a portion of the additional cost.

Construction of the science building is scheduled to begin in 2013 and to be completed in 2015.

Contracts

The board approved a one-year extension of a lease with the Illinois Department of Central Management Services for the Department of Employment Security office on the Grayslake campus. The lease, which runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2013, sets the rent for the year at $232,613.16, a 2 percent increase from the current lease which expires on Dec. 31.

April 2013 Election

The board approved the appointment of David Agazzi, vice president for Administrative Affairs, as the local election official and assistant secretary for the April 9, 2013, election. Nominating petitions for two positions on the CLC board of trustees are now available in the Administrative Affairs office (A107) on the Grayslake campus. The term of office for each position is six years. The two positions are currently held by John W. Lumber of Ingleside and Barbara D. Oilschlager of Grayslake.

Submitted by the College of Lake County

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