North Cook News

Members of the Arlington Heights School District 25 Board of Education are taking a closer look at the progress of major expansion projects within the district.

Members were updated on some of the district's big construction projects during a presentation at their April 11 meeting.

"There will be some site work, there'll be some surveying work, some light engineering, there might be some slight utilities being relocated, but major construction is not anticipated to commence until sometime in August at Dryden," Ryan Schultz, the district's Buildings and Grounds director, said during the meeting. "So again, there'll be some lighter stuff going on in the sites. It's kind of behind-the-scenes types of things that'll be occurring there until August. Westgate, again, similar set up. The site mobilization will be in June and July. With this site and Dryden, we kind of want to have the site kind of set up the way it will be for construction before school starts, just so we don't have to flip it on parents or students and staff so that we're kind of set and get into the ways of the way the site will be for the next year or so. So they don't have to make changes consistently throughout the school year."

The district recently took on the Build 25 project, which is a schedule of construction and expansion efforts at several buildings so the district could house a full-day kindergarten program that both it and families in the community wanted to pursue. The shift to full-day kindergarten means the district will need to have the room to accommodate twice the number of kindergarteners since morning and afternoon classes could no longer be held in the same space. It's a reason why the district is adding new classrooms onto many elementary schools.

Schultz told the board that the district will be adding three classrooms and a gym at Dryden, two classrooms at Greenbrier, four classrooms to Olive-Mary Stitt, three classrooms to Patton, ten classrooms and a gym at Westgate, and two classrooms at Windsor. The classrooms will be designed for K-5 usage to be able to adapt to whatever numbers and arrangements the schools deem best in the coming years with changing enrollment levels and distributions. The district has been working with the Village for approval on the site plans. Full clearance has been gained for Dryden, Olive, Patton and Westgate, with conditional approval for Greenbrier and Windsor.

Construction at the four approved schools will be going out for bid in two different sections, each going to the lowest bidder for that pair of schools. The first bid period will open on May 5. The second bid for Greenbrier and Windsor will open on June 6. Construction will start first at Olive in mid June. Dryden, Westgate and Patton will follow in August. Greenbrier and Windsor will see construction starting in the spring of 2024. Buildings will be completed in varying stages, and all construction in the district is expected to be finished by August 2024.