When Evanston Township High School students and faculty begin a new school year later this summer, they’ll be greeted with a wealth of new signage designed to make navigating the sprawling facility easier for new pupils and first-time visitors.
The district recently announced its intention to expedite the installation of new interior signage and room numbers on all floors of the school building. District staff previously said they intended only to make the changes on the first floor of the high school in time for the start of school in August, but Evangeline Semark, director of communications and engagement at ETHS, said the district decided to broaden the scope of what could be accomplished this summer.
“As we finalized our sign installation strategy, we discovered a plan that would allow us to install new room signs while keeping the existing room signs (located above the door) in place temporarily,” she wrote in an email.
Semark said the new room signs will be installed by Evanston-based company, Allegra, at a height that is compliant with the American Disabilities Act. The old room numbers, she said, will remain in place until ETHS staff are able to complete the necessary updates in the district’s technology and building operations systems.
Semark said the entire way finding and signage project — which includes a revamp of the school’s exterior signage in addition to its interior — is expected to cost between $250,000 to $300,000.
“Multiple design concepts have been vetted and approved by school stakeholders, including students and staff, with final approval given by the superintendent,” Semark wrote in an email. She added that the district’s Board of Education would receive regular updates on the project as it moves forward.
At a ETHS District 202 Board of Education meeting last month, Semark presented elected officials with an update on the project’s progress. She cited a host of reasons why the changes were necessary, including that much of the current signage is outdated, room numbers that are “illogical and confusing” and which are not ADA compliant, inconsistency in fonts and terminology and no clear markers to indicate what wing students and visitors are walking through.
The changes approved as part of the project include dropping historical monikers used to mark the separate wings of the facility in favor of north, west, east and south for each of the school’s central wings and cafeterias. The H Corridor, on the first floor of the building, will be renamed Heritage Hall and will serve as a space to tell the facility’s “many stories,” Semark said. The number of colors that currently distinguish the separate areas of the building will be pared down and the room numbers will be changed to make the system more logical, she said. As part of the exterior portion of the project, the doors currently numbered 50, 31 and 1 will be renumbered to Door 1, Door 2 and Door 3, and the school’s “back drive” will be named “Wildkit Drive” to make finding the right parking lot easier for visitors during sporting events.
Interior room number and signage installation is set to begin on June 6 with completion expected in time for freshmen orientation on Aug. 15, according to a release from the district. The release also states that students, faculty and visitors will begin to see changes in building hallways beginning this school year as preparations for the installation work begins.
Updates will be provided throughout the process to inform the public of any impacts to programming or access to facilities at the high school during construction this summer, according to the release.
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Information about the project can be found on the ETHS website: http://eths.schoolwires.net/Page/1108.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.