Glen Ellyn District 41 seeks bids on Hadley expansion

Glen Ellyn District 41 will seek bids next month on a project that would add special education classrooms to Hadley Junior High School and be partially funded by federal stimulus money.

The estimated $1.4 million addition would allow the school at 240 Hawthorne Blvd. to reorganize non-special education students and minimize the use of portable classrooms, which were added in the district to ease crowding in 2001.

School officials say the proposed addition would provide more modern special education facilities and could open in time for next school year.

"It'll provide the most up-to-date classroom space for special education students," Assistant Superintendent Bob Ciserella said. "That's what is driving this whole conversation."

The district has been approved for $800,000 in special education funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The approval came several months after a study indicated the need for more space in District 41, which uses 32 mobile classrooms, including 10 at Hadley.

"Without the ARRA funding, this would not have come up for discussion," Ciserella said. "As soon as we found out about the money, we went to work and created a solution."

The board will take bids in October and expects to review them in November.

The proposed project would include three 900-square-foot classrooms with handicap-accessible restrooms. Storage space and lockers also would be included.

Students in the Modified Instructional, Guided Instructional and Behavioral Disorder programs would be moved into the addition. Following state law, the behavioral disorder classroom would include a resolution room.

The board is expected to select a contractor in January and, if that happens, construction will begin in March.