United School Superintendent Tom Hawkins presented his budget at their public hearing on Thursday, September 11th and the board of education passed a motion to adopt the budget. Hawkins says rising costs are challenging for rural school districts:
“We saw our bus lease double. The total bus lease went from $300,000 to $700,000 a year in just one year. That to me is something that tells me that people are trying to get their portion of the pie that is out there. Just all the rising and supply costs across the board, they just continue to go up. A lot of things, as well as energy costs.”
Hawkins also pointed out that rising energy cost are also a challenge. Ameren Illinois residential customers have experienced a 50% increase in their power supply rate from June to September 2025, leading to an 18-22% jump in their total bills. This summer-only increase, from about 8 to 12 cents per kWh, was due to a new MISO methodology for pricing reserve power and high demand from hot weather. The supply rate was expected to return to normal levels around October 2025. Hawkins also said the campuses with solar energy that they sell back to Ameren, have been a lot lower in costs so far.
In other School Board news, a new math curriculum could be on tap for United Elementary thanks to a presentation by Principal Patrick Coate.
“Mr. Coate, our Principal at United West Elementary, gave a very detailed report on our math curriculum committee that we are looking at possibly. We haven’t changed our math curriculum since 2010 is what Mr. Coate said. The possibility of looking at new math curriculum to help our students in the primary grades.”
United also updated their membership with Delabar CTE which is a regionally organized system dedicated to delivering career and technical education programs to its member schools. Finally, the United Board of Education has plans to discuss new goals for the future and all bids have been released for snow removal.
The next United Board of Education meeting will be held October 9th at United Intermediate School.
