Lombard District 44 to renovate school for $7.3M early childhood center
The youngest learners in Lombard Elementary District 44 soon will have a new home, as the district prepares to rehab an old building for their use.
The district will spend $7.3 million on renovating Highland Hills School at 1519 Grace St. into a fresh space for its 130 at-risk and special-needs preschool students.
School board members on Tuesday said the project, expected to be complete by early 2018, will bring much-needed space when compared with the current setup that includes classrooms at Butterfield, Manor Hill and Parkview elementary schools.
The renovation will turn Highland Hills - which hasn't housed children for more than 30 years, despite recently being rented to the School Association for Special Education - into a space for youngsters ages 3 to 5 to get started with learning, school board President Courtney Long said.
"It's really exciting to see it come to fruition," Long said about the project, which has been in the planning stages for more than a year. "It is definitely money well-spent."
In addition to classroom space, the renovations will provide a gym, an all-purpose room and more areas to meet with parents and families within the 34,000-square-foot building.
"It'll be nice to have all that in the new setting," said Cathy Angelos, the district's early childhood facilitator who will become principal of the early childhood school.
Construction manager ARCON Associates, a Lombard-based architectural firm, presented 15 packages of bids for the school board's approval, covering work including mechanical and electric upgrades, plumbing, roofing, flooring, windows and fire protection.
While reviewing the bid packages, the school board decided to forego skylights, a playground renovation and a large canopy as part of the project, saving between $415,000 and $430,000, said Ted Stec, assistant superintendent for finance.
But board members added between $700,000 and $800,000 for a complete roof replacement instead of patching, along with $300,000 for parking lot repairs.
The changes approved Tuesday brought the project's total cost to $7.3 million, within the range of $6 million to $9 million Stec had projected.
Angelos said the early childhood program is not open to all 3- to 5-year-olds, but to students who qualify in one of two ways.
Students with disabilities who have been receiving early intervention services from the state automatically begin early education in the district on their third birthday. Other students who are deemed "at-risk" after a screening process also can enroll.
Angelos said factors that could make a child at-risk include speech impediments, low-income parents, parents in the military, grandparents serving as primary guardians or caregivers, living in a home with more than three children younger than 5 and not speaking English.
District 44 hosts four screenings a year for entrance into the early childhood program, with the next one set for Aug. 17.
Once the Highland Hills early childhood center opens, Angelos said she expects more parents will get their children screened for possible services. The space is expected to hold about 260 students - double the current capacity.
"The earlier we can get our hands on the earliest learners and get them set with a District 44 foundation," Long said, "the best it will be."