The Chicago Public Schools and four south suburban school districts cleaned up Wednesday when state officials announced the winners of the $30 million state construction jackpot.
Of the six school districts that received the much sought-after matching construction grants, five are in the Chicago region. Savanna School District in Carroll County was the only other district that landed an award.
The big winner was Dolton School District 148, which received $8.3 million. The Chicago Public Schools came in second with $6 million, followed by Kirby District 140, Savanna, Dolton District 149 and Lincoln-Way High School 210. The six districts were among 52 that applied for construction grants, a program that was part of a broad school reform package adopted by the General Assembly late last year.
Although the news did not come as much of a surprise–state education officials released a list last month ranking the districts–it did come as a relief for school districts facing tremendous overcrowding problems.
“We’d been holding our breath for a while because we felt pretty good about our chances, but you just never know,” said Arnold Drzonek, superintendent of Kirby School District 140, which received a $5.7 million grant to help build a new school in fast growing Tinley Park. “When we found out this morning we were ecstatic.”
Supt. Jim Cunneen, of Dolton District 149, said he was so excited by the news he wanted to call every resident.
“This means so much to a community like ours that struggles everyday to make room for our kids,” said Cunneen, whose south suburban district was ranked as the state’s neediest. “Without this money, I’m not sure what we would have done to solve our problems.”
But, while a handful of superintendents celebrated, many more walked away empty-handed. Overall, school officials across the state applied for a total of $315 million in construction funds.
“I think this is a good first step, but this may be a journey of more than 1,000 miles,” said Lloyd Lehman, superintendent of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education. “It is estimated that it would take $9 billion to $11 billion to fix up all the schools in the state. So, while we are happy that the . . . schools received $30 million, this is only a fraction of what is desperately needed.”
The $30 million–the first state construction grants offered in 20 years–is the first phase of a state infrastructure package that will provide a total of $1.5 billion over five years. More than $240 million will be given out next year. About 75 school districts already have applied for that money.
Under state law, Chicago schools received 20 percent of the construction grant money off the top. The rest of the school districts had to compete for the remaining $24 million.
To be eligible, school districts had to prove they could come up with matching funds. For many, that meant putting a bond referendum proposal to voters. Then, state officials used a complicated formula that considered, among other issues, overcrowding due to population growth to award the grants. The state will pay 35 percent to 75 percent of the project’s costs.
Under the formula, Dolton School District 149 came out on top. According to the state’s formula, the district does not have enough classroom space for 46 percent of its 3,800 students.
The district–which has seen its enrollment climb from 2,500 in 1990 to 3,800 today–already uses numerous mobile classrooms. Art lessons are taught in school kitchens and media centers are used as classrooms. Even the district’s staff was forced to move to an abandoned funeral home to make room for students.
“We’re about ready to start teaching classes on the streets, we’re so short on space,” said Cunneen, as he sat in his new office–a former embalming room.
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Dolton officials will use their $3.2 million to build an addition to Dirksen Middle School, which will serve kindergartners through 5th-graders. The new space will allow the district, for the first time, to offer a much-needed full-day kindergarten.
Kirby School District 140 officials will use its $5.7 million to build a new elementary school at 179th Street and 84th Avenue.
The district, which covers Tinley Park and a portion of Orland Park, has an enrollment of almost 5,000 students, and every year it grows by an additional 150. Without the state grant, Kirby officials had planned to build a core building with 12 classrooms. With the grant, they can build 36 classrooms.
“And we’ll need every one of them with the way things are growing,” said Supt. Drzonek.
Lincoln-Way officials will use their $15 million grant to help pay to convert the district’s freshmen-sophomore East Campus in Frankfort and junior-senior Central Campus in New Lenox into two four-year high schools. The expansions are needed to avoid overcrowding as enrollment skyrockets.