Glenbard West school addition on track to open this fall
Construction on a $10.5 million addition at Glenbard West High School is now 75 percent complete and on track to open to science students in the new school year.
Wearing hard hats and safety glasses Monday, the Glenbard High School District 87 school board toured the three-story, 28,000-square-foot addition under construction on the east side of the Glen Ellyn campus.
Board members stepped onto concrete floors and into chemistry and physics classrooms framed by metal studs, but they already were impressed by an addition they say seamlessly blends the “old and the new.”
The new science wing complements the Gothic style of the main, 1920s-era building, down to the brick and windows, Superintendent David Larson said. Connecting both is a glass atrium that leads onto a “green” roof.
“It's a great resource and a marvelous building,” board member Mary Ozog said of the original structure. “But we have to educate in the 21st century, so I'm just delighted.”
Last August, the district broke ground on a project science teachers have said will transform student learning and relieve overcrowding. The work remains on schedule and on budget, with crews aiming to complete the addition Aug. 12, or nine days before school starts, said Mike Powers, the project manager from Walsh Construction, a firm hired as the general contractor.
Performance Services Inc. also has begun to lay the groundwork for the first campuswide air-conditioning system at Glenbard West. This summer, they will be moving inside the school to do that mechanical work.
Six existing science labs also will renovated into eight general education classrooms, and the science department's offices — scattered throughout the main building — will be consolidated into one on the fourth floor.
Altogether, the addition, remodels and a new chiller plant — cooling off the entire school — add up to a $16.5 million estimated budget.
When the science wing opens at the start of the school year in late August, students will be greeted by bigger classrooms that educators say will foster collaboration. Movable furniture, for example, will allow students to easily transition from lectures to group labs.
Three quarters of the addition's roof will be covered with plants and a herb garden that students will maintain with the help of a rainwater barrel system, said Linda Oberg, Glenbard West's assistant principal of operations.
“It will be a good ecological experience for the kids,” she said.
The addition benefits not only science students. Via a new elevator, teens in wheelchairs now will be able to access art, music, band, photo and ceramics classes on the school's 100 level.
“Now those kids can all take that,” Oberg said. “They can get a more enriching environment there.”
Progress: Work begins on air-conditioning suystem