It could be a noisy summer for the neighbors of Laura B. Sprague Elementary School, as the Lincolnshire Village Board prepares to give its final approval to the school district’s construction plans.
Sprague and the two other buildings that comprise Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary District 103 are scheduled for additions this summer, each to make room for expanding enrollments. District officials approved and announced their construction plans last year, but in recent weeks, the neighbors that surround Sprague on three sides have been voicing complaints.
Dan Servi is one of the adjacent property owners,and a Lincolnshire Village Board trustee, as well. He lamented that the district first sent communications out to its parents, and later mailed certified letters to the people living around the building — several of whom are not parents of District 103 kids any more.
“A lot of the neighbors were kind of blindsided by it,” Servi said.
But he said he also knew that some of his neighbors had not kept up with information that was available almost a year ago. He and his fellow Village Board members were scheduled to make a final vote about the district’s plans during a Feb. 22 meeting.
According to the district, Sprague will add a two-story, eight-classroom wing on the building’s west side, which is currently mostly open space occupied by its playground and sports fields. Superintendent Scott Warren said the structure, built in 1962, should expand to nearly 71,000 square feet.
He said its existing space — nearly 61,000 square feet — as well as his two other facilities, are crowded. Presently, conference and storage rooms have been used as classrooms, as well as parts of the library and computer lab, Warren said. The parking lot also holds two storage pods “that we want to get rid of,” Warren said.
“We’ve had to carve out learning spaces in our buildings, to make sure we’ll have learning spaces,” he said.
A group of nearby homeowners came to Village Hall for the Feb. 8 Committee of the Whole meeting. Servi and Mayor Liz Brandt said that group’s main concerns were early-morning construction noise, more classrooms meaning more deliveries and garbage pick-up, and diminished sight lines from the new wing’s second floor.
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Servi added that his neighbors were also worried about storm water runoff. He said rain from the site typically moves west, across the ball fields and toward Riverwoods Road, and eventually ends up in the Des Plaines River.
“It’s already a little bit over village code,” Servi said, “but the code was enacted after the school was already there.”
Servi said the trustees and district officials are working on limitations for nighttime light levels and possibly the addition of fences, as well.
District 103’s Daniel Wright Junior High and Half Day School both have construction projects this summer, but Half Day is in a business area and Daniel Wright’s nearest neighbors are spaced further away from that property than Sprague’s. Warren said he understood the worries of those who live near Sprague, but assured them that construction will never begin before 7 a.m., per village ordinance.
“It’s hard living net to a big facility, especially when there’s construction going on,” he said. “It can be disruptive to families.”
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