Butler Elementary District 53 plans to complete the final phase of its $20 million, three-part Capital Improvements Vision project in August.
“We are excited about how this will continue to enhance the educational learning environments, safety, and accessibility of our buildings for current and future students within District 53,” said Superintendent Paul O’Malley.
In early 2020 Butler School District 53 began planning to review the District’s capital improvements needs at both buildings in early 2020, he said. The District 53 Board approved project funding in December 2021.
“Early master planning identified multiple approaches to address facilities that had aged significantly over the past 40 plus years,” O’Malley said. “The primary direction after reviewing over 10 options was to reinvest in the two buildings to improve safety, security, accessibility and enhance the learning environments into modern 21st Century spaces.”
O’Malley said that for Brook Forest School the final approved solution focused on additions that allowed the original open-plan design building to be redesigned to allow a secure entrance and logical circulation paths.
Also included is the creation of larger classrooms with permanent separation walls that provide acoustical properties, along with providing specialist office and resource rooms, moving the art room out of the basement, and creating STEM and other specialized spaces for modern learning, O’Malley said. In addition, a new three-stop elevator is added, allowing the full building to be ADA accessible.
Butler Junior High also received a new three-stop elevator for the same reasons.
“Butler Junior High also has been renovated to create a modern Fine Arts wing, the renovation of most classrooms, the addition of an accessible gender-neutral toilets for staff, added multiple resource rooms and significant mechanical upgrades across the entire building,” O’Malley said.
He said all three phases of the project, have been completed with summer work. address safety, security, and accessibility at both schools.
“And (we) also needed to account for systems replacements and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems replacements for these 50-year-old plus systems,” O’Malley said. “Additionally, the Brook Forest design improvements include strategic additions to vastly improve the student and staff flow to all educational areas. The classrooms were all modernized and increased in size to accommodate modern collaborative learning styles.”
O’Malley said the approach to financing the Capital Improvements Vision program was limited to utilizing cash reserves and then borrowing $18 million that would be paid by operational efficiencies over 20 years.
“This approach necessitated the administration review and commit to operational efficiencies to enable the bond payments,” he said.
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
