Kaneland schools need $3 million in repairs

The Kaneland school district will have to make almost $3 million in life-safety repairs to its buildings, with or without a successful referendum push.

Architectural consultants ARCON Associates recently completed its list of improvements the district needs to make as part of checks that are required every 10 years by the state.

The most pressing issue -- and about half of the total cost -- is a new roof for the middle school. The current one is about 40 years old, while the normal maximum life for a roof is 25 to 30 years, said Steve Hougsted of ARCON Associates.

"You're on borrowed time right now," he said.

Once the list is approved by the state -- likely later this year -- the district has five years to make the repairs.

The district can't levy enough to make those repairs without a referendum, said Tom Runty, assistant superintendent for business.

The repairs are included in the $65 million building referendum question that's on Tuesday's primary election ballot.

If that tax-increase request fails, the district might consider pulling the repairs out of the referendum question and running it separately, Runty said.

But doing the repairs at the same time as the improvements to the middle school, another part of the proposal, would be the most cost-effective, school board member Elmer Gramley said.

The bulk of the work -- $2.2 million worth --needs to be done at the middle school, $1.6 million of which is for the roof.

The rest of the work includes: $664,000 at the high school, $30,000 at John Stewart Elementary, and $30,000 at John Shields Elementary.

The work includes replacing doors, floor tiles, exhaust fans and glass, as well as installing more fire alarms and emergency lights.

Although the two elementary schools were only built 10 years ago, the building codes required for them have changed twice since they were built, Hougsted said.