Dist. 103 officials to discuss possible school improvements

Central air conditioning for two campuses and new science labs are among the possible improvements Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary District 103 officials will discuss at a meeting Tuesday.

The school board will meet in a committee-of-the-whole session to hear from their architect about the plans, which also include classroom renovations at two buildings.

No decisions have been made about the projects, which have been on the drawing board for a few years and could cost $2 million each, Superintendent Larry Fleming said.

One proposal calls for central air conditioning to be added to Sprague School, which serves kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders, and Half Day School, which serves third- and fourth-graders.

Neither has air conditioning now. The district's third school, Wright Junior High, does.

A second proposed construction project would renovate all the classrooms at Sprague and Half Day schools. Those campuses are quite a bit older than Wright Junior High, Fleming said.

"So at some point, we really need to update those classrooms," he said.

The third proposal would create science labs at Wright, which serves fifth- through eighth-graders. Science classes now are taught in traditional classrooms without special, science-related features.

"They're really not set up as labs," Fleming said. "We want to create four science labs."

If the projects move forward, they'd likely take several years to complete, he said.

Although the projects have been talked about for some time, money has not been available, Fleming said. At Tuesday's meeting, architect Colin Marshall will discuss financial estimates, Fleming said.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Wright Junior High, 1370 Riverwoods Road. Because it's a committee-of-the-whole meeting, no final decisions will be made Tuesday.