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How Glenbard West addition will address space, learning needs

If you're a freshman headed to Glenbard West High School, you'll want a map and walking shoes to get to your science classes.

Biology, physics, chemistry - all the department's classrooms and offices are spread across campus on different floors.

It's a physically challenging configuration - the result of additions dating back decades on the 93-year-old school - but it also presents instructional challenges.

"We strive to be more like math and English, where we have a three- to four-year program where kids see a clear progression from one to the next," said Sean Byrne, the science department chairman. "In some cases, I worry that our kids see us more like the world languages department. French is one area, Spanish is another area, Mandarin's another."

Providing science students and educators with a centralized location is one of the motives behind the first addition to the original building since 1963. The Glenbard District 87 school board plans to hire a general contractor at its Aug. 10 meeting, then begin construction on the three-story, 28,000-square-foot science wing.

While the plans have drawn backlash from neighbors and botanists upset about noise and what they see as the destruction of a diverse, wooded garden, Byrne believes the project is long overdue.

The addition, he says, will encourage collaboration between disciplines, one-on-one instruction in bigger classrooms, outdoor learning and more flexibility for teachers.

"What's going to happen as a result of this is we're going to bring the whole department together into one area," Byrne said. "It's going to make for a lot of good, cross-curricular work between the teachers, between the students."

The T-shaped addition, not directly attached but connected to the building via a glass atrium, also will alleviate overcrowding.

Roughly 2,300 students attend Glenbard West, designed for 1,900. That enrollment should hold for the short term, Principal Peter Monaghan has said.

"We're going to relieve a little bit of the pressure," Byrne said.

Now, anywhere from 28 to 30 students squeeze into science classes, when, ideally, it should be 24 to 28, Byrne said.

The addition will feature four chemistry and four physics classrooms on the second and third floors, along with prep labs.

The department, as a result, will gain two new classrooms. Next summer, six old science labs also will be renovated into eight general education classrooms.

Including those remodels, the project is expected to cost between $12.5 million and $13.4 million, based on early estimates.

Construction will take about a year, with students moving into the addition in August 2016. Deliveries also will be relocated to a utility area on the 100 level that will, for the first time, air-condition the entire school.

Biology classes will remain in the main building. Before this school year starts, those rooms will get new sinks, countertops and, eventually, floors. Teachers there will be testing two kinds of lab tables on wheels that will replace dated furniture.

"As a science lab, it's not an efficient use of space because we have both the desks and the tables," Byrne said. "If we have 28 to 30 kids in this class, it gets very crowded in here."

Also in the original building, offices scattered across the school will be consolidated into one on the fourth floor, with a resource room for students looking for some extra tutoring.

"Every other department in the school has all the teachers in one area," Byrne said.

The office will be steps from the entrance into the glass atrium that leads into a "green roof" on the addition. On one side of the atrium will be an outdoor space, about the size of a classroom, and on the other, a bigger area that could hold multiple classes.

Teachers haven't decided how they will use the roof, Byrne said, but some options include adding solar panels, vegetables and a rain water collection system.

"Similar to what happens in the classroom, the more versatile it is, the better students are able to use it in order to do experiments," he said.

Glenbard West addition proceeds despite neighbors' concerns

Glenbard West adjusting expansion plans to address Zahrobsky garden

  Biology classes will get new lab tables that allow students and teachers to move into different configurations for experiments and group learning. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  Glenbard West High School's Science Department Chairman Sean Byrne shows where a stairwell wall will be knocked out to make way for an entrance into a glass atrium that leads to the new addition. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  The three-story addition will be built into the George Zahrobsky Botanical Garden just east of Glenbard West. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
The latest rendering shows plans for the T-shaped, three-story addition. Courtesy of LEGAT ARCHITECTS
A rendering, presented to the school board in April, shows the addition from Memorial Field. Courtesy of LEGAT ARCHITECTS
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