Schools show off new field house
It had been seven years since Kathleen Glockner, a former substitute teacher, paid a visit to Jacobs High School in Algonquin.
During her 15 years at the school, Glockner, an Algonquin resident, remembers a much smaller school with crowded classrooms.
What a difference $185 million can make.
Taxpayers in March 2006 approved a $185 million bond referendum for new school construction and renovations.
Community Unit School District 300 held an open house Sunday at Jacobs and Dundee-Crown high schools to show taxpayers how the district used its money.
Dundee Crown received, among other things, a new food lab, music wing and a hallway rearrangement that helps students reach the other side of the school more quickly.
Jacobs, received, among other improvements, a larger auditorium, a new gym and a larger media center, complete with a new computer lab.
The $185 million loan, which will total nearly $363 million with interest, will be paid off by 2024.
Glockner says the school's new features are definitely worth it.
"If we're going to pay more taxes on anything, I think education is where it needs to be," she said, marveling at the school's new media center.
Kim Pawlak and her husband, Dan, both of Algonquin were equally excited about the school's new facilities. Right now, two of their four children -- Alyssa, a senior and Garrett, a freshman -- attend Jacobs. In a few years, their two other children Blake, 10, and Hailey, 7, will attend also.
The Pawlaks view the referendum as an investment into their children's future.
"It was money definitely needed for our kids and well spent," Kim Pawlak said.
More than 300 parents and attended Jacobs High School's open house, said Francesca DiMaggio, the school's assistant principal and activities director.
Meanwhile, at Dundee-Crown in Carpentersville, only seven people had shown up to see the school's changes an hour into the event, said Principal Lynn McCarthy.
She blamed the poor turnout on the rainy weather, Sunday's Chicago Bears game, the upcoming parent-teacher conferences, which will give parents a chance to see the school later this week.