Dist. 200 board approves facility planning architect with 5-2 vote

Despite hesitation from two board members, the Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 board of education agreed Wednesday to move forward with the hiring of an architecture firm to work on master facility planning in the coming months.

The board agreed earlier this year to create a facilities master plan. The board's facility committee further determined there are three focus areas to address as part of that process: the physical conditions and deferred maintenance in all the district's buildings, the future of Jefferson Early Childhood Center and the need for "educational program-driven areas."

Twelve architects responded to a request for qualifications put out by the district, and the facilities committee recommended the board hire Perkins+Will for $73,044 to start work. The board agreed to hire the firm with a 5-2 vote.

The firm will be paid an additional $167,238 if it finishes later phases of master facility planning.

Board member Brad Paulsen, who serves on the facility committee, said aside from collecting data on each school, assessing the physical needs and educational vision at each school and providing options to the board, the architects will lead seven community engagement sessions to get feedback from residents on the master facilities plan, including plans for Jefferson.

"I feel very comfortable with the fee. You have to remember we're a very big district, so with 20 buildings there's a lot of work to do, a lot of time invested in this over the next year," Paulsen said, adding that the master facility planning is in line with recommendations given by residents during the district's Engage200 sessions last year.

Board member Jim Gambaiani voted no, suggesting that instead, the decision to pay the firm nearly a quarter-million dollars be turned into a ballot question for an upcoming election.

Gambaiani also said it might be best to slow down and let the architects start with a pilot evaluation of just one school to give the board a sense of what kind of recommendations the firm will make at the end of planning.

Board member Jim Mathieson, who also voted no, said he liked that idea of starting with just one or two schools.

"Do we need 20 studies done, on all the schools? I just feel like we're biting off more than we should be chewing," he said. "The age of our buildings are about the same ... it makes a lot more sense (to look at one) than looking at all 20 of the district's schools."

But board President Jim Vroman said he believes having the architects take a comprehensive look at what needs to be done at all the district's buildings will help avoid problems that arose when voters rejected the construction of a new Jefferson building in 2013.

Some of those problems, he said, included residents asking why the district was only focused on one building and a lack of community engagement.

Superintendent Jeff Schuler added that he believes the architects can help identify existing spaces in the buildings, such as libraries, that "probably could be reutilized to more effectively support the kind of educational environment we're moving toward" - namely, environments that will foster "21st century learning."

"You're already going to be make an investment in buildings, and you have to. We've got to find a way to make that investment," Schuler said, referring to the district's plans to spend significant money in the coming years on much-needed repairs such as roof replacements. "I think we ought to go through this study to see how do we insure that that investment that we're making doesn't just take care of the leaky roof."