Area schools get ready for summer maintenance work

Area schools get ready for summer maintenance work School districts across the southwest suburbs will spend millions of dollars while children are gone this summer to maintain and upgrade their buildings. The bathroom renovations will involve two sets of bathrooms for boys and girls on the first floor near the school's cafeteria, and two sets in the main hall. The $200,000 project will be completed by Aug. All of the bathrooms will be getting new plumbing, new sinks, and new toilets, energy-efficient hand drying machines, new tile and new paint, Hart explained. "We are going to be fixing some drainage issues at Kolmar," said Superintendent Art Fessler. Our storm drains have been overflowing, and we haven't been able to handle the capacity of flooding. We were told the two floods last year were 100-year floods, and do not happen that often, but it happened twice in 1 year. Fessler said the gym floor at Kolmar was out of commission last August because it had to be dried and sanded. 5 million in life safety funds. The media centers at both Sandburg and Stagg will be getting acoustic walls this summer. "Now, the media centers roposed science wing expansion for 2013. We are in the design phase, and may be adding 10 science labs to Shepard. Brand new roofs will be put in place at Delta Summit alternative school and Richards, a collective $4. The district is also putting in 50 new unit ventilators in all of the classrooms at Shepard. High School Dist. Safety improvements make up most of this summer's projects in District 230, said director of communications Carla Erdey. The project will cost $1. 02 million out of the district's life safety funds. "Right now, it gives a section of the building, but it will be pinpointed more, and firefighters will have the location information before they get into the building," she added. Stagg High School's fire alarm system was upgraded a few years ago, Erdey said. The parking lots at Sward, Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle and Kolmar schools were seal-coated and painted last year, he said. Fessler said all of the projects will be finished by the time students return to school in August. Worth School District 127 The district plans to spend $450,000 this summer to renovate bathrooms at some of its schools and refurbishing the locker room at Worth Junior High. Hometown Dist. District 123 will be tackling drainage issues, sealcoating, some painting and safety improvements this summer. Oak Lawn Community High School District 229 is thinking of three summer projects including a roof replacement, installing new lockers, and adding a security entrance projects in the next few weeks. "They are pillars that come out of the ground that stop cars from entering areas," Fessler said. Kids are walking on the sidewalk as parents are driving their car onto the entryway, and if a parent loses control of their car, we want to eliminate the possibility [that someone could get hurt]," Fessler said. About $3,500 of painting work will be done at Hometown School. Hart is looking forward to being able to have swim team practices, water aerobics classes and swimming lessons resume in the pool, she said. 1, she added. We will put in walls which will wall off those areas for better sound insulation. Erdey did not have a cost quotation for that project. "We are making it smaller to widen the hallways to reduce congestion," Graham said. A second project will be upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units in the main gymnasiums at all three high schools. 51 million, Erdey said. "Most of our buildings are very old, we have plumbing fixtures that do not work, plumbing that leaks, and the water supply to the urinals is 50 years old and runs all the time," Wegele said. It is a plain concrete floor, and the lockers are in very bad condition. Wehope to put tile on the floor and install new lockers. District 122 Assistant Superintendent Eric Trimberger said the roof at Lieb is about 15 years old. Trimberger said the district is taking a break from construction, having spent about $50 million on facilities improvements since 2000. The district added a gymnasium, office wing and many classrooms at Harnew School in 2000, and rebuilt Dearborn Heights is easy to copy a key, but not a card. The district will be busy this summer, he said. "It got to the point this year where our students couldn't dive at all because of the work on the pool," Hart said. Electrical work, structural improvements and tuck pointing are on Chicago Ridge School District 127s said. Area schools get ready for summer maintenance work Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 18/05/2012