D203 renovation plans advancing

District, architects ironing out the details

It may not look like much has happened since voters approved $115 million of facility improvements in February, but Naperville School District 203 has been busy.

The District 203 board received a comprehensive update on each of the projects that will be undertaken over the next four years during its Monday meeting.

Over the past three months, the district and its architects have been working with staff and parents to refine conceptual designs presented prior to the referendum.

"We are reaching out as much as possible, making sure there's enough lockers here, that it's practical to put something there, etc.," Superintendent Alan Leis said.

This input has actually allowed architects to improve on those plans. The district opted not to spend money on finalizing those plans before receiving the community's vote approval earlier this year. As these improvements are being made, the district is still paying close attention to the bottom line, Leis said.

"Living within the budget has been an absolute important guideline, and I think the community is entitled and should have that reassurance," Leis said.

Mill Street Elementary School's $7.3 million expansion and renovation project will be the first to enter a more detailed, "deep design" phase during which the details surrounding its new gymnasium and multipurpose room, remodeled learning resource center and classroom space, and expanded offices will be finalized. Construction on some of the additions at Mill Street is expected to begin in the fall.

When the project is complete in the fall of 2009, Mill Street's space crunches and safety issues will be solved. Instruction will no longer need to occur in corridors, and vehicular traffic on the site will be reconfigured so that students no longer have to pass in front of cars and buses to get to and from their classes.

Meanwhile, the district is still sorting through several concepts for the construction of its $11 million early childhood center on property it owns in the Huntington Estates subdivision. The district is working to preserve as much green space on the property as possible so that the current Park District activities that take place there will not have to be relocated. It also is exploring designs that would make the school fit in better with the residential uses that surround it, but such a design also must allow for safe and efficient traffic flow on the site.

Inside the building, plans call for dividing the center's 16 classrooms into self-contained neighborhoods designed specifically for the instruction of early childhood and special needs students.

Work on the early childhood center is slated to begin next summer.

The $87.7 million expansion and renovation plans for Naperville Central High School have undergone the most tweaking since the referendum. Architects have revised the floor plans for the three-story academic loop that will be built on the southeast side of the campus. The new "pin wheel" design with classrooms on each side of its corridors no longer preserves the school's original three-story, brick facade.

Instead, it expands off that portion of the building with a gently curving three-story row of classrooms to the north side of the loop. On the south side of the loop, that design will be mirrored on just the second and third floors. This will create a dramatic overhang at the student entrance on the southeast corner of the building, and a wing of classrooms that overlooks the adjacent football stadium follows the contours of track directly beneath it.

But the new plan no longer situates the library next to the cafeteria, which will be on the first floor, at the center of the academic loop. Plans now call for the library to be carved out of what is now cafeteria space - a central location between the academic loop and the remodeled "flat wing" on the northwest portion of the property, which will house business and technology classes and the art and music departments.

This design change preserves existing athletic and physical education space that was once to be transformed into the library, and thereby eliminates the need to create new homes for these displaced programs by expanding off of the competition gymnasium.

Work on Central is slated to begin next summer and be completed in stages until the entire project is finished in the fall of 2012.

The $5.2 million in improvements to Naperville North High School's parking areas, pool and football field are slated for completion in the fall of 2009. The redesign of traffic patterns to prevent backups and minimize conflicts with pedestrian is the focus of this project, which will bring additional parking and a separate drop-off/pickup area for buses to the school.

The project also calls for the installation of artificial turf in the stadium, as well as the deepening of the school's pool and the remodeling of its surrounding facilities.