Lake Zurich 95 sets tentative $77.6 million construction schedule

Roughly two months after voters approved a $77.6 million bond issue to improve its facilities, Lake Zurich Area Unit District 95 has drafted a plan to finish all the projects by August 2022.

Construction of a new May Whitney Elementary School is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2019 and finish in January 2021. The school will be built on the grounds of the existing building at 100 Church St. in Lake Zurich and cost an estimated $42.3 million.

Superintendent Kaine Osburn said officials are going to engage the May Whitney community in the design process.

During the run-up to the March 20 vote, the district presented renderings of what the school could look like, but the final design may be different. Osburn said that work will be done over the summer and the board will vote on the final design in the fall.

"It will be a huge undertaking, but we're creating a high-quality learning space for a community," Osburn said.

Although the work on May Whitney should be done in January 2021, Osburn said officials likely will wait until that fall to welcome students to the building.

The list of projects also includes installing air conditioning in five schools. The schedule calls for Isaac Fox Elementary and Middle School South to be the first to receive air conditioning in the summer of 2019.

Osburn said the district can't tackle all five schools in one summer and doing those two first would help with its summer school program.

Currently only Spencer Loomis Elementary and Middle School North are equipped with air conditioning and thus are the only K-8 facilities that offer summer school.

"We wanted the most students to be positively affected as much as possible as soon as possible," Osburn said.

Seth Paine Elementary and Sarah Adams Elementary are to receive air conditioning during the summer of 2020. Air conditioning will be included in the new May Whitney school.

During the summer of 2021, the libraries at Sarah Adams, Isaac Fox and Middle School South will be renovated. In 2022, the libraries at Spencer Loomis Elementary and Middle School North will be renovated.

The work on the library at Lake Zurich High School will be done in two phases, the first in 2021 and the second in 2022.

Osburn said the construction list isn't final and will be assessed periodically.

The tentative construction timeline is available on the district's website.