Plans for summer construction projects are underway at Indian Prairie School District 204, where the school board on Monday approved bids for renovation projects totaling over $17 million.
Indian Prairie is currently undergoing a major facilities overhaul after the passage of a bond referendum question in 2024 meant to help pay for renovations across the district.
In 2024, voters approved a proposal from the district to sell up to $420 million in bonds to pay for facility improvements. Without the bonds, the district would have needed to cut the equivalent of 50 full-time positions to pay for some of these projects, officials have said.
The bonds are to be paid for using a continuation of an existing 37-cent property tax per $100 of equalized assessed value that would otherwise have expired at the end of 2026, meaning the tax rate for residents in terms of their contribution to capital projects will effectively remain flat as a result of the referendum question’s passage, according to officials.
Since the referendum question was passed, the district has been preparing for and proceeding with work on projects across district buildings that are set to extend through 2032. The work includes school-specific renovations at Waubonsie Valley High School, Neuqua Valley High School, Metea Valley High School, the Birkett Freshman Center and Gregory and Hill middle schools, along with district-wide safety and security upgrades, LED lighting installations and other infrastructure projects.
Among the major bond referendum-funded projects touted by Indian Prairie is the building of secure school entrances at a number of the district’s buildings.
The district has said that safety and security improvements were its highest priority in using the bond funds. District staff has previously explained that the “secure vestibules” are meant to ensure that every school has a single and secure entryway where visitors must first interact with the main office before they can get into the school. The projects are being completed in phases over several years, District 204 Chief School Business Official Matt Shipley has said.
Plans call for the building of secure entryways at 11 district schools this summer.
Last month, the school board approved contracts with two construction managers for the secure entryway projects, along with bid packages for six of those schools’ renovations.
Pepper Construction Co., based in Barrington, will be managing the secure vestibule projects at Welch Elementary, White Eagle Elementary, Young Elementary, Kendall Elementary, Crone Middle and Scullen Middle schools. Bids for those projects were approved by the school board last month.
Chicago-based construction manager Bulley & Andrews will be the construction manager for the secure entryways at the remaining schools slated to get them this summer: Still Middle, Gregory Middle, Granger Middle, Fischer Middle and Metea Valley High School.
On Monday, bids for those five schools were approved, coming in at almost $9 million.
The school board also approved on Monday additional bid packages for the secure entryways being managed by Pepper Construction, in the amount of $373,300. The total cost for the secure entryways at those six schools is around $6.1 million, which the district says is under its original construction estimate.
Also approved Monday were bids for renovations to the Birkett Freshman Center, to the tune of about $8 million.
Part of the district’s facilities overhaul is a plan to make additions to the Neuqua Valley High School building to accommodate freshmen students, who will be brought back into the main high school building in 2027 after many years of taking classes at the Birkett Freshman Center. Doing so will free up Birkett for other uses, like housing the district’s STEPS and Gail McKinzie programs.
STEPS, or Supportive Training Experiences Post-Secondary, is a job training program for students with special needs. Gail McKinzie High School, also part of the district, offers a credit recovery program.
The bids approved Monday are for summer work at Birkett that will be managed by Bulley & Andrews, and, per a memo from Bulley & Andrews, will include things like electrical, plumbing, mechanical and carpet and flooring work.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
