Ensuring the safety of children during upcoming construction at three elementary schools was a primary concern raised by parents in School District 21 on Thursday night.
The board was presented with detailed architectural plans for remodeling and expanding Longfellow School in Buffalo Grove, Riley School in Arlington Heights and Field School in Wheeling, work scheduled to start in April.
The district plans to spend $5.2 million to add multipurpose rooms, renovate libraries, reconfigure office space and improve traffic patterns outside for buses and cars.
Children’s safety was uppermost in parents’ and board members’ minds. Parents said they wanted to ensure that problems that occurred in the past did not recur in upcoming construction projects.
Previous problems that have been cited included construction workers coming and going unidentified, doors unlocked at all hours of the day, dust, and a lack of water and electricity in some parts of schools during remodeling.
The board directed the architects to come up with plans to deal with those concerns.
Districtwide building projects, including the three projects discussed Thursday, are the result of projected enrollment increases of up to 651 additional pupils by the year 2000, which could bring the district’s enrollment to 7,271.
