Carpentersville Middle School addition nearing completion

Renovation and construction of an 11-classroom addition at Carpentersville Middle School is expected to be completed by the end of July, officials said.

Carpentersville Middle School will become a sixth- through eighth-grade building, adding 400 sixth-graders who previously attended Lakewood Elementary due to boundary changes. The middle school's enrollment will be about 1,175 students after the move.

Lakewood will become a traditional prekindergarten through fifth-grade school. Boundary changes approved last fall also affect students at other Carpentersville-area elementary schools - Golfview, Meadowdale, Parkview, and Perry - that will become prekindergarten through fifth-grade schools.

The roughly $2.6 million in improvements at Carpentersville Middle School will transform an area that housed conference rooms, the district's technology staff, an oversized computer lab, and the former industrial arts room at the south end of the building.

"We were only utilizing two of the spaces on a daily basis - computer lab and art lab," said Chuck Bumbales, Community Unit District 300 assistant superintendent of operations. "It is being broken into more usable, traditional classroom space and a large boys and girls washroom."

The art room will be moved to another area.

Construction began in earnest in late March while students were moved into other parts of the building.

"We are shooting for July 30 to get everybody moved in prior to the start of school," Bumbales said.

As part of the construction project, the district also is building a community food pantry to the rear of the school, which also is expected to open this fall. The pantry is funded by the Northern Illinois Food Bank and a local nonprofit.