District 203 tells workers: 'Get it done faster'

For months, the mantra around Naperville Unit District 203's weekly facility subcommittee meetings has been "Get it done fast" when referring to the $87.7 million renovation project at Naperville Central High School.

On Friday, the message was slightly more urgent.

"Basically we met like we do every Friday but this morning we said 'just get it done faster,'" Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said. "We just got an expedited timetable that reflects the workers being on the job on Sundays and working the double shifts."

Mitrovich said the new timetable is separate from, yet a result of, the deal the district brokered Wednesday night with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 and the Laborers' District Council of Chicago and Vicinity. That pact exempts the Central project from the labor strike that has crippled hundreds of construction projects across the region in exchange, in part, for a pledge that the district will use union workers on all its projects for the next seven years.

Workers from both unions will pick up second and third shifts and work seven days a week to ensure the necessary summer work on the Central renovation project is completed in time for the school's scheduled Aug. 25 opening.

Mitrovich said he remains confident after Friday's meeting that the school will open on time.

"That's our end date. We're still shooting for it so that's the target," he said. "I think we were always pretty aware of what the challenges were and I feel that the decisions we have made to date will get us where we need to be. And that is having kids in desks on Aug. 25."

The work at Central, 400 W. Aurora Ave., includes a three-story addition that will house all major subject areas. The 3,000-student school also will get infrastructure upgrades, a new learning resource center, new athletic and music space, improved traffic flow and synthetic turf on its football field. It is scheduled for completion in December 2011.

Officials had explored options such as split shifts at Naperville North High School, petitioning the state board of education to delay the opening of classes, or even using vacant space at the nearby Alcatel-Lucent campus in Lisle.