On the sidewalk in front of Hillcrest School in Hoffman Estates, a rolling blackboard, an upended teacher’s desk, file cabinets and cartons wait for a mover’s muscle.
Inside, teachers work feverishly to finish converting the gym into three normal-looking learning spaces, under the hulking presence of 10-foot-high basketball hoops.
And farther away on village streets, empty yellow buses make practice runs to ensure kids will arrive for class on time Tuesday morning.
After a four-day weekend of hard work, Schaumburg Elementary School District 54 is bracing for the first day of makeshift classes for 750 Armstrong Elementary School students and staff, who were abruptly evacuated last week after lab tests revealed potentially harmful levels of mold in the wall-to-wall carpeting.
Testing began last fall when some staff complained of allergy problems at the 25-year-old building. The decision to close Armstrong came Wednesday after a private environmental firm informed the district that high levels of mold and mildew were growing in some areas of carpets and might be aggravating health problems, including allergies and asthma.
The district had tried treating the fabric, but those attempts failed, so the district decided to rip up the floor covering.
The renovation could take four to six weeks, District 54 Supt. Lynne Rauch said. The students did not have school Friday or Monday.
Rauch said the district doesn’t know yet how much the moldy carpet problem will cost, but she said she will provide preliminary estimates at Thursday’s school board meeting.
Meanwhile, the Armstrong students and staff will relocate into three other schools within the school district: the 3rd-, 4th- and 5th-grade students will move to Hillcrest, 500 Hillcrest Blvd., Hoffman Estates; kindergarten through 2nd grade will go to Twinbrook School, 1025 Ash Rd., Hoffman Estates; and 6th graders will go to Campanelli School, 310 S. Springinsguth Rd., Schaumburg.
The move will mean some drastic adjustments.
The most significant changes will be at Hillcrest School, where 328 Armstrong students will share the building with 265 pre-schoolers. To accommodate the newcomers, the library will be used as a classroom and the gymnasium will be subdivided into three classrooms.
In just a few days, workers built a partition in the gym and used a curtain to create the three 3rd-grade rooms. Movers hauled in bookshelves, books, desks, chairs and computers, while staff hung maps, artwork and other objects to remind them of Armstrong.
Physical education classes will be held outside, unless it rains. Then, there will be no gym those days, Rauch said.
Some parents and students joined the teachers to help set up the new classrooms. On Monday, there was a friendly debate going on between 10-year-old Amanda Pellus and a few other fellow Armstrong students about how to arrange a makeshift room with belongings from their old class. On a teacher’s desk were bags of cookies made for the students by the Armstrong PTA.
“I think that things are OK. Things are progressing,” said the 5th grader.
Because Twinbrook is currently vacant, the relocation of students there should go relatively smoothly, Rauch said.
Campanelli had three empty classrooms it will use for four classes of Armstrong students, Rauch said. This will increase the number of students in the former Armstrong classes to 34 in each room from about 27.
It is not yet known how bus travel times will be affected. Those who normally ride the bus will be picked up at their regular times and spots. Those who normally walk should arrive in front of Armstrong by 8:30 a.m. to take buses to their destination.
“We had two dry runs today,” said Rauch on Monday. “We’ll run tomorrow and make further adjustments.”
Also, shuttle service for before- and after-school care, normally held at Armstrong, will bring children to a temporary site at MacArthur School, 1800 Chippendale Rd., Hoffman Estates.
So far, parents have been contacted twice via a phone tree and fliers to keep them informed of changes and other details.
Amanda Pellus’ mom, Cheryl Pellus, said, despite the hardship, the school community will stick together.
“It’s all going to work out. These teachers are wonderful,” Cheryl Pellus said. “This is like an adventure for the kids. And if the parents are supportive, the kids will be too.”
