Pupils at Clearmont School in Elk Grove Village will be heading back to classrooms next week, but not to the ones they expected.
Clearmont, at 280 Clearmont Drive, is undergoing a $4 million renovation that won`t be completed before classes start Wednesday, said Supt. James K. Fay of Community Consolidated District 59.
So Clearmont`s 460 pupils will attend classes at the former Ridge School, about 1 1/2 miles away. Ridge, closed in 1982, was used for classes last year when another school was being renovated.
It is hoped that renovations at Clearmont will be completed after Christmas, Fay said. But the decision then will be whether to move pupils back to the building from Ridge or keep them at Ridge for the rest of the school year, moving them back in Clearmont the next year, Fay said.
”Initially, we had planned on having 3rd, 4th and 5th graders assigned to Ridge from Clearmont, and the rest of the students (kindergarten through 2nd grade) would then attend Clearmont,” Fay said Tuesday.
”Because of complications with the construction project, the classrooms will not be available to accommodate the other students.”
The building is getting a new boiler and electrical system in the renovation, which began in June. Also, a large portion of the structure has been demolished and is being rebuilt, Fay said.
Plans call for a new learning center and library, a multipurpose room and the rebuilding of the kindergarten classroom.
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”The only thing that was left after the demolition was approximately 10 classrooms,” Fay said. ”That was where we hoped to house the primary grade students. We now realize that that`s not possible.”
The disruption caused by the noise levels of construction makes use of the school impossible, Fay said.
After Ridge School, at 650 Ridge Ave. in Elk Grove Village, was closed 10 years ago, the building was used for rental space and a district bilingual program.
Last year, however, the building was needed to house classes for children from Rupley School in Elk Grove Village while it was being renovated. At that time, the renters, primarily day-care centers, had to vacate Ridge, and the bilingual program was distributed to other schools.
The renovation at Clearmont is ”fairly well on schedule,” Fay said.
”We`ve had several delays that pushed things back . . . as the project has progressed it became evident that our estimation of our ability to place classes was in error.”
The renovations of both Clearmont and Rupley are part of a $30 million remodeling project that the 14-school district is undergoing, Fay said. Also being refurbished this year is John Jay School in Mt. Prospect, which will be completed, except for the school`s learning center, in time for classes. District 59`s renovation project is expected to be completed by 1996.