Palatine District 15 to hire PR firm for $15,000

Palatine Township Elementary District 15 is hiring a public relations firm to help pitch a 10-year plan addressing the district's brick-and-mortar needs to parents and taxpayers.

The district will pay Palos Heights-based The Public Response Group $15,000 in a six-month agreement, a cost that doesn't require school board approval.

The firm's representatives and district officials will meet next week to develop a strategy that could include surveys and informational materials. The input will help the district prioritize about $119 million in construction projects identified by engineers and architects after a state-mandated audit of the district's 20 schools completed once every decade.

Of that, Chicago-based architectural firm STR Partners considered more than $20 million in projects as “urgent.” District officials have since reviewed the findings and moved about $1.7 million in repairs to a lower-priority list.

Superintendent Scott Thompson stressed to the school board Wednesday night that none of the code violations uncovered in the audit, still in a draft version, pose an immediate danger.

But after the district's second look at the study, Thompson asked the board to sign off on replacing fire alarm systems in five schools this summer: Thomas Jefferson, Gray M. Sanborn, Marion Jordan, Pleasant Hill and Frank C. Whiteley.

The board agreed to begin seeking bids for replacing the systems, estimated to cost nearly $750,000.

The district, meanwhile, has started a series of forums on the audit. After the final one Feb. 5, the district will create a committee of a dozen to 16 people, including parents and staff members, who will recommend a timetable for the repairs.

The district also hasn't determined how to pay for the construction work.

The Public Response Group also will help gauge interest in a proposal to form academies in elementary schools, where core curriculum would be embedded in a certain subject area — say, the fine arts or math and science.

“(Students) could really focus on the things that they're passionate about it,” he said.

A second committee also would explore whether schools can accommodate academies and how to fund the program.

“I think we also have an issue of space,” Thompson said. “We're at capacity at all of our buildings. We have to figure out creatively how to maneuver that.”