'New house' in store for Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South
Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South students and teachers returning for the 2022-23 school year are likely to discover a whole new environment.
A facility improvement seven years in the making, which already has debuted in some learning spaces, the District 225 board on Monday previewed the Total Classroom Initiative to be completed this summer for 196 classrooms in the two high schools.
It also includes improvements to the schools' combined 33 study halls, peer group rooms and resource centers.
"It's a huge thing, it's very exciting, it's transformative," said district President Bruce Doughty.
The goal of the initiative is to create a flexible learning environment focused on well-being.
Ryan Bretag, the district's director of Instructional Innovation, said: "How do we create a teaching experience that allows the students to feel a sense of comfort, feel a sense of connectedness to not only the teacher but the room and their classmates, but also just invite a whole different level of engagement?"
The plan's answer: new furniture, color palette, lighting, carpeting, projection walls and vertical surfaces - those white boards people write on. All will be overhauled in the classrooms in a process planned to be completed before the start of school in August.
It is not cheap, which is why the board wanted to give people the chance to examine the initiative before pending approval at its next meeting on March 14.
The amount of bids presented Feb. 28 totaled more than $3.9 million, minus a $62,500 rebate from ComEd that'll knock it down to around $3.86 million.
Eight "pilot" rooms had been treated in 2017-18 and 32 more the next term at a cost of about $1.2 million. The schools' 33 science rooms, not yet redesigned but expected to be completed in the summer of 2023, will add approximately $975,000.
District 225 Associate Superintendent R.J. Gravel noted that due to adjustments between the 2018 and 2022 plans, the district has sliced about $3,400 per classroom from the costs.
The initiative will be supported by the existing capital projects fund balance, by FEMA reimbursements for COVID-19 and also money from The Glen TIF fund that expired at the end of 2021.
"As we all know, the students in the school spend the majority of their time in the classroom, so I think it's definitely a worthwhile investment to put into the schools for now and the future," said Michelle Seguin, on the District 225 Facilities Committee along with fellow board members Matt O'Hara and Skip Shein.
Bretag said the whole process began by realizing laptop computers couldn't fit on a student's metal, single-arm desk.
The new furniture for students and teachers will blow those out of the water, a combination of teachers' podiums, individual and two-person desks for seated and standing-height use, round tables, student chairs with wheels and some ergonomic Hokki stools. All can be arranged or adjusted in multiple scenarios, depending on the need of a classroom or subject.
LED lighting supported by dimming and occupancy sensors will replace existing fluorescent lighting. Low-profile carpet "planks" provide orthopedic benefits and can be switched out when soiled.
Accent wall colors of eggshell, soft yellow and tones of blue and green promote color theory suggesting increased student attention, creativity and calm. ADA-compliant vertical writing and projection surfaces will be placed on two or three walls per classroom depending on what's needed.
"This is going to make a difference in the lives of our teachers and students," Bretag said.
Shein went further than that.
"The change is so substantial that staff will go home from a very challenging year and they're going to walk back into a new house," he said.
"And I think emotionally that's a really big, powerful thing. It might not seem like it today but, in August, it's going to be, 'Oh, wow.' I think that's worth a lot."