Most of Waukegan High School’s Washington Campus will get air conditioning at a cost of just over $550,000, one of a few summer projects approved this week.
Only five of the district’s 22 schools are currently fully air conditioned, and the district is in the second year of a five-year plan to get air conditioning into all of its schools, district spokesman Nick Alajakis said.
Air conditioning was added this past year to Lyon Magnet School, North Elementary School and Clearview Elementary School, and electrical upgrades have been discussed for another six elementary schools, he said. The goal is to get more air conditioning into those buildings by the time school starts in the fall.
Those schools include Hyde Park, Carman-Buckner, Clark, McCall, Little Fort and Washington elementary schools, according to board documents.
The age of the buildings and the age of the electricity systems sometimes have to be addressed before air conditioning can be installed, Alajakis said. Most of the schools have some sections like newer additions or front offices air conditioned, but the degree to which the remainder of the buildings have air conditioning varies.
“Our superintendent has been pushing money down to the schools, putting air conditioning into the schools,” board Vice President Rick Riddle said. “This is going to affect our east campus building. I think it’s great that we’re going to be able use that building when the weather is hot. Children and teachers will be able to study.”
Air conditioning will also help the district meet its goal of reviving summer school, board President Michael Rodriguez said.
The district is set to provide summer school to about 1,320 incoming kindergartners through freshmen via a new program this summer, district officials have said. Summer school was previously something only high school and certain special education students had access to.
The school board also signed off Tuesday evening on a roofing project, a track replacement and a $1.5 million package aimed at resolving issues identified in a state-mandated survey of infrastructure to be completed every 10 years.
“Each year, we look at the various projects that we do — roofing, air conditioning, repairs and everything — and this is on our list of things to do this year that we have money for,” school board member June Maguire said.
The survey had initially identified $3.8 million worth of building improvements that need to be complete within a year of the survey, but the district brought some of the work in-house, saving about $1.4 million off the price tag, district officials have said.
The contract with Waukegan-based Ernie Peterson Plumbing was approved in an unanimous vote Tuesday.
A majority of the work is plumbing related, so and the district decided to package all the work together, giving them one contractor to deal with, said LeBaron Moten, the district’s director of operations. The work will be occurring at 17 schools.
Among the other projects approved Tuesday evening was a new roof for a section of Clark Elementary School at a cost of nearly $379,000, about $26,500 of which will go to Hutchinson Design Group for design and consulting services, the according to board documents. The rest of the contract was awarded to Schaumburg-based Sullivan Roofing, which submitted the lowest of the three bids on the project.
The district also received cost proposals on replacing the roof at Waukegan High School’s Brookside campus, and that project will be coming before the board at a later date, Superintendent Theresa Plascencia said.
The school board unanimously approved a contract worth just under $113,000 with Midwest Track Builders to resurface the track at Weiss Field by the Waukegan High School Brookside campus to keep it in shape for competitive use, according to board documents. The district reached out to five companies, but the Wauconda-based company was the only one to place a bid.
“This is what is needed at our Weiss Field in order for our children to be safe when they are running,” board member Anita Hanna said. “I know I used to be a runner and I know that you can’t have a faulty track [if you want to] win competitions. This will be a plus and another example of our superintendent taking and putting our money to benefit the children.”
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