Security, science upgrades planned in Dist. 203

Naperville Unit District 203 plans to spend $9.3 million on capital projects next year, prioritizing front entrance improvements at five elementary schools and science lab renovations at three junior highs.

Deputy Superintendent Kaine Osburn said the district is working to improve security by installing two layers of entry doors at all 22 schools by 2017-18. The second doors require visitors to stop and check in with an office employee before progressing to the part of the school where children are present.

The district started this year using ID-scanning technology to enter the driver's license of all visitors into a database before issuing them a visitor sticker. In schools with two-door entrances already installed, visitors push a button to come in the first door, hand their ID to a staff member, then get their sticker before being allowed to enter the second door.

"It's an improvement to security for the building to make sure that we've properly identified people coming into the school for any purpose," Osburn said.

Work to add the second line of doors and reconfigure front offices at Ellsworth, Highlands, Maplebrook, Naper and Scott elementary schools next year will leave only Naperville North High School's entrance to fix the following year.

The improvements are estimated to cost $1.5 million at Maplebrook, $1.1 million at Scott, $700,000 at Highlands and $150,000 each at Ellsworth and Naper. Osburn said cost estimates vary because of the layout of each school.

Work will be conducted during the summer on the entry doors as well as science labs at Jefferson, Madison and Washington junior highs.

Osburn said labs will be updated to make sure each station has the gas, water and power it needs to be used for a full range of experiments, especially as educators prepare to align teaching to a set of Next Generation Science Standards that emphasize use of engineering techniques, such as asking questions, developing models and analyzing data, to solve problems.

Improvements to science rooms at Jefferson are budgeted to cost $900,000, while renovations at Madison are slated to cost $750,000 and work at Washington is budgeted at $600,000.

The school board approved the work unanimously as part of next year's $9.3 million capital improvement plan.

Including the $9.3 million, plans for the next four years lay out estimated spending of $29 million on facilities. Each year's plan allocates the majority of the money to specific projects, but leaves $2 million available for maintenance and improvements such as heating, cooling, pluming, electrical, carpet and painting work.

Next summer, library resource centers at Naper Elementary and Washington Junior High will be renovated as part of the maintenance and improvement budget. These schools are undergoing changes as fifth-graders from Naper will move to the junior high next year to alleviate space constraints.