Most schools will benefit with Feb. 5 referendum

In last month's column, I focused on proposed renovations and additions to Naperville Central High School.

Of the $114.9 million in proposed facilities improvements, the Feb. 5 referendum question asks voter approval for $43 million, with the remainder to be paid by Naperville Unit District 203 using past and future operating revenues, land sale and monies from the transfer of the Cantera TIF (Tax Increment Financing district) to the district's tax rolls.

The impact of the proposed referendum on the average District 203 residential property owner is $82 per year, flat-funded for 20 years.

Since more than two-thirds of the facilities proposals being presented ($87.7 million) are devoted to a major renovation of Naperville Central, it is easy to overlook other significant aspects of the proposed facilities plan, as described below.

First, the district recommends building an Early Childhood Center to address the needs of our students with special needs, ages 3 to 5, who are also often the most medically fragile children. Right now this program, required by federal and state law, comprises 11 classrooms housed at five different sites in whatever space is available.

In too many cases, the spaces currently being used simply weren't designed for young students (e.g., bathrooms, playgrounds that are not age appropriate).

Because these programs are dispersed across the district, our youngest students are often on long bus rides and frequently need to change schools as their educational needs change. One center, on the Huntington Estates site, will change that, providing a more efficient way to give these students the strong start they need to succeed.

Second, the district-wide architectural study of all of our facilities resulted in the recommendation that Mill Street Elementary was the elementary school most in need of attention.

The current plan calls for remodeling the core of the building, as well as the administrative area that is now substantially too small. Traffic patterns outside the school jeopardize safety, with students, parents and buses all sharing the same pathways.

Finally, although Mill Street School has a wonderful array of programs and services to meet the diverse needs of its students, these programs need small, but adequate, space inside the building so that students no longer are being tutored in corridors or other noisy areas.

Naperville North High School, although not exhibiting the same infrastructure problems and science lab issues experienced at Naperville Central, still needs several substantial upgrades to the pool (now too shallow for high school competition) and related locker areas, as well as to the outside traffic patterns.

Too frequently there are safety concerns related to student drop-off/pick-up with students passing between buses to reach either the building or parking lot.

With North situated on limited acreage, also planned is the installation of synthetic turf in the football stadium, which will increase its usability for other sports, physical education classes and marching band.

Fourth, the proposed referendum will allow us to make several important security modifications to Ranch View and Prairie Elementary schools and Washington Junior High. Likewise, the proposed plan would make it easier for monies annually budgeted in the Operations and Maintenance Fund to be used for other needed upgrades (such as at Maplebrook, Scott, and Steeple Run elementary schools).

It is that fund that is used annually for necessary infrastructure upgrades and system replacements (for example for fire alarms, roofs, HVAC, etc.).

Finally, the renovation of Central will provide the district with a kitchen that is large enough to make hot lunches for students in all our elementary schools. This program would be financially self-supporting, but requires a larger kitchen space than we now have in any one building.

These are the highlights of the total proposed facilities package about which voters will decide on Feb. 5. Whatever your final decision, please become informed (see www.naperville203.org, "Decision for the Future," for more information and for answers to frequently asked questions) and be sure to vote.