School officials have provided the final green light on a project to revamp the entrance, learning resource center and school office at Lincoln Middle School in Park Ridge.
The Park-Ridge Niles District 64 Board of Education on Monday night approved a bid from Construction Solutions of Illinois totaling nearly $1.2 million for the project during a special board meeting. The project has been under consideration by district officials for more than a year.
The project includes a redesign of the school’s main entrance on Crescent Avenue that would replace the existing stairs in the entryway with a ramp, in addition to the installation of a secure vestibule that would allow visitors access to the interior of the building only after being buzzed in by school staff. A glass bulletproof wall will be constructed to separate student traffic headed to the school’s learning resource center, which is adjacent to the main entrance, from visitors entering the school building.
The main office makeover includes changes to the layout and location of the nurse’s and principal’s offices. School officials have said the redesign does not increase the size of any Lincoln administrator’s office space.
The school’s LRC will receive a fresh coat of paint on the walls, new carpeting, a new ceiling and tuck-pointing. The space will also be redesigned to accommodate three different configurations, including a “basic library with tables and chairs; collaborative study areas for three different groups of students; and a large team instruction space, among many options that will be used in the coming years to better meet the educational needs of Lincoln students and staff, and its community,” according to a memo addressed to the board and District 64 Superintendent Laurie Heinz.
The project was initially estimated to cost about $1.6 million, said Luann Kolstad, chief school business official for the district. She said an earlier project proposal included a small addition to the school and that the architecture firm hired by the district, Chicago-based Studio GC, tweaked the design to omit the addition.
Because the lowest bid for the project came in about $400,000 cheaper than what the district expected to pay, the savings will be invested in other projects included in the district’s five-year plan, according to the memo.
The Lincoln Middle School project is included along with a slew of other health and life-safety repairs and capital projects scheduled this coming summer and the next that will be funded through approximately $3.5 million in cash already set aside by the district and the issuance of $9.25 million worth of debt certificates school officials said.
The board voted 5-1 in favor of the bid, with member Tom Sotos voting against.
Sotos said he supports the idea of “adding extra levels of security to our schools” but he believes the district isn’t doing enough to perfect security measures already in place. He said the installation of a secure vestibule “may be assisting in not perfecting security measures by adding to a false sense of safety.” He said the money spent could be on this project could be better used elsewhere and that the new vestibule won’t do what it’s intended to “if we haven’t really owned our other security measures.”
The remaining board members approved the bid for the project with no discussion.
The LRC revamp, installation of the secure vestibule and office makeover will be completed this summer, said Bernadette Tramm, public information coordinator for the district, in an interview following board approval.
In other board business, a public hearing is slated for the board’s next meeting on April 24 concerning school officials’ plan to sell $20.7 million worth of working cash bonds to fund mandated health and life-safety repairs to district facilities. Officials have said their intention is to issue the bonds in stages over the course of several years and that the public hearing lays the groundwork for that process.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.