Glenbard West adjusting expansion plans to address Zahrobsky garden

George Zahrobsky looks past the rotten stairs, the poison ivy, the weeds.

He doesn't linger too long at what used to be a short, stone path his students put down from Glenbard West High School to his namesake botanical garden.

Instead, he pauses at the trees. The "little sprouts" he planted decades ago.

There's Vivian Ball's white pine, now taller than the school. Roberta Porter's European black alder. George Ware's elm.

Some of the trees no longer have the markers. But Zahrobsky knows which are planted as memorials for former teachers, students and benefactors.

"Even though it's not been kept up, it's just like being in a different world," he says. "It's so serene and quiet."

If you went to Glenbard West between 1961 and 1994, you probably remember Zahrobsky, the science department chairman for much of that time. He often went beyond the job description, taking students on bike rides to the Morton Arboretum, planning dinner and a trip to the theater for fellow teachers and nourishing another school garden, this one for Shakespeare.

Two decades after he retired, his name has resurfaced again, invoked by neighbors and alums opposing plans to break ground in August on a $12.2 million science addition they say will raze much of the George Zahrobsky Botanical Garden.

In the 1980s, Zahrobsky and his students fought to preserve the woodsy land on the east side of the campus known affectionately as "the Hill" from housing developers and eventually would use it as a mini arboretum.

"It's just sad to me. Those kids worked so hard and had so much ownership," said Zahrobsky, 81. "It's like throwing a beautiful pearl into acid and watching it dissolve. You'll never get it back, you know?"

Zahrobsky, who won a presidential award and led a national group of biology teachers, fully supports new science classrooms and labs. He knows Glenbard West, one of the few suburban schools still within steps of a downtown, has space constraints. But he wishes more understood the garden's value, both educationally and ecologically.

It's a surprisingly diverse ecosystem for its size, botanist and Glen Ellyn resident Gerould Wilhelm has said.

He and neighbors also are upset that more than 200 trees and shrubs will be removed to make way for the addition and new utilities for the entire school.

"I don't see why they have to move the loading dock," he said. "I don't see why they have to put the cooling tower there."

Though the village has already signed off on the project, Glenbard High School District 87 officials say they are working with architects to revise some plans, with Zahrobsky's legacy and concerns about noise in mind.

Using the village's standards - not required for this project - the total number of fallen trees would only be about 50 because the village wouldn't count those that are small, dead or diseased.

The district is looking at whether it can preserve more trees by shrinking a mechanical area with the cooling tower, backup generator and Dumpsters.

"If we can fit things in tighter, we wouldn't have to eat into the hill," board President Rich Heim said.

The cooling tower, along with indoor chillers, will bring air conditioning to the 1920s-era school. While neighbors have suggested the tower be put on the addition's roof, district officials say it would be more costly to build the necessary structural support. They also say there would be nothing to absorb its sound, but on the ground, a retaining wall - about 20 feet at its highest - will border the utilities on three sides.

Glenbard West's assistant principal and longtime residents also will complete an inventory of the memorial trees that will be removed and rededicate new ones, said Chris McClain, assistant superintendent for finance and operations. And the Sierra Club will do a "plant rescue" this July, setting aside some species to replant after construction.

Plans for the addition's layout, though, will stick. It won't attach to the main building partly because it would block light and air flow for existing classrooms, McClain said.

Why not build up?

"The biggest reason is the structural concerns and the code requirements would have made it virtually unrealistic to do that," McClain said.

The location also will allow students who use wheelchairs or crutches to access the school "at the 100 level and we've never had that before," he added.

At its July 20 meeting, the school board is expected to award a general contracting bid for the three-story, 28,000-square-foot addition. The project also calls for an estimated $1.4 million to renovate six old science labs into eight classrooms in an overcrowded main building.

"I understand that people have an attachment for the actual botanical garden, but I think our educational mission is really gong to be enhanced significantly by this addition," school board member Mary Ozog said.

Though it won't be as large (the district can't quantify how much will remain yet), the garden should have better access and allow more students to use it, McClain said.

Zahrobsky takes comfort in the phone calls and emails from alums and an online petition with more than 2,000 signatures, all in support of his garden. He still lives in Glen Ellyn and he's still a Hilltopper, with three original windows from the school in his home.

"It was really touching to me to have so much support from former students," he said, "but time marches on."