Naperville School District 203 has approved bids to update rooms for Family and Consumer Science classes and Project Lead the Way engineering sessions at two junior high schools.
The work scheduled to take place this summer at Washington and Kennedy will complete about four years of exploratory classroom renovations to support programs known as FACS and PLTW across all of the district’s five junior high schools.
Kennedy work to remove mobile classrooms, improve safety
Approved bids for the renovations total $3.8 million and will allow Washington to receive an updated PLTW classroom, with more extensive work planned at Kennedy.
School board members delayed the work at Kennedy for a year to allow for a thorough review of opportunities to maximize space and improve safety, said Melanie Brown, director of buildings and grounds at the Tuesday night school board meeting.
Plans now call for crews to convert the courtyard into a PLTW classroom, create two new classrooms in the current PLTW space, and remove the temporary mobile classrooms.
School board member Holly Blastic said she is relieved that the district can combine the exploratory classroom updates with renovations to improve safety at Kennedy.
“Having students outside the building and swiping in and the condition of those (mobile classrooms) is a security concern for me,” Blastic said. “I’m glad you were able to think ahead and move this back to support those (changes).”
Work to complete junior high updates across the district
Work to update the FACS and PLTW rooms at Jefferson, Lincoln and Madison junior highs is already complete, so “this is finishing the plan,” Brown said about the project, which gained school board approval with one member objecting and board President Charles Cush absent.
Board member Melissa Kelley Black voted against the renovations, saying she has concerns about adding more capital spending in the face of a projected $12.3 million deficit in next year’s budget.
But board member Amanda McMillen said capital funding is specifically “set aside to help enhance our facilities based on what we need,” and she doesn’t recommend skipping or delaying planned improvements.
“What we really need to do is find a way to stay within our operational costs of the revenue we have consistently coming in every day,” McMillen said.
Fund balance to support renovations
Administrators have said some funding for the FACS and PLTW renovations at Kennedy and Washington will come from the district’s fund balance, which is projected to be about $66.2 million at the end of this school year.
Superintendent Dan Bridges said bids for the work came in at and under budget for “what was previously approved by the board.” He said these facility updates are required to support overall junior high programming, and spending from fund balances to complete the work is in line with board policy.
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