The Rend Lake College Board of Trustees met Tuesday night and they adopted the final Fiscal Year 2016 budget, which was provided in tentative form at the August board meeting. A public hearing on the budget was held prior to the regular board meeting and there were no comments from the public.In a related action, the board accepted the 2015 tax levy, which is payable in 2016. The levy represents a slight increase of 2.74 percent over last year. The Corporate and Special Purpose levy went from $3,083,318 last year to $3,218,520 this year, a increase of 4.39 percent. The Debt Service levy dropped from $1,807,794 last year to $1,806,469 this year, a decrease of 0.07 percent. The total of the two levies rose slightly, from $4,891,112 last year to $5,024,989, an increase of 2.74 percent.Because the total of the proposed Corporate and Special Purpose and Debt Service levies is not greater than 105 percent of last year’s levy, no Truth in Taxation hearing is required. The board employed Matt Jackson as Industrial Trainer effective October 1^st. Jackson currently is employed as the Illinois Green Economy Network Curriculum Coordinator. The board accepted with regret the resignation of Morgan Harner, Title III Project Assistant, effective Tuesday. In a related action, Heather Adams was appointed to the vacancy effective October 1^st. She currently serves as a data entry clerk for RLC. They approved a new Unmanned Aircraft Systems curriculum as well as several new classes and authorized their submission to the Illinois Community College Board for action. This curriculum is designed to provide not only the hands-on skills to operate unmanned aircraft, or drones, but also the cognitive information which will allow them to understand and operate within federal and state guidelines. It will prepare students to program the unmanned aircraft to operate autonomously while collecting geospatial data. The curriculum consists of a nine-credit-hour occupational certificate made up of three new courses, also approved Tuesday: Intro to Unmanned Aircraft Systems; Advanced Unmanned Aircraft Systems; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems Law and Test Prep.  In addition, two new business courses – Entrepreneurial Skills and Business Functions – received similar approval, as did the Trauma Nursing Core Course. A new online Statistics course also was given approval for development.  The Rend Lake College Foundation Children’s Center will soon be growing along with the children for whom it provides care, thanks to funding through the RLC Foundation. The Rend Lake College Board of Trustees granted permission to advertise for bids to build an addition on the north end of the center. The 1,526-square-foot addition will include a large open floor space for gross motor skill activities, a children’s library with half-height walls for monitoring the children, a restroom, two storage closets and a water cooler. The addition will be connected to the existing building via a small vestibule / corridor with direct access to the playground.  The total estimated cost for the project is $326,255, with construction anticipated to begin in February 2016. In a related action, the board granted permission to submit to ICCB the Locally Funded New Construction Application Form. The board also granted permission to submit to the Illinois Community College Board a Protection, Health and Safety project to replace the South Oasis roof and sidewalk and to bid the project once approved.