Naperville School District 203 administrators presented a $30 million capital improvements plan for the next five years that could include new tennis courts and stadium scoreboard at Naperville North High School, a new floor at Naperville Central and water main replacements at several schools.
The idea would be to spend about $6 million every year on work that needs to be done at district schools and facilities, which is the same amount they spent this year, Director of Buildings and Grounds Pat Dolan told the school board this week.
Board members are expected to vote on the five-year plan at a meeting later this month. If approved, it will include these projects to be done next summer:
Renovation of the Kennedy Junior High interior courtyard;
Remodeling of Naperville Central High School’s horticulture classroom;
Irrigation upgrades for Naperville North and Naperville Central high schools’ soccer and practice fields;
Window and door replacements at Washington Junior High School.
They would also do some playground upgrades, replace HVAC condensers, do some roofing/flooring/parking lot work and other smaller jobs, according to the proposal.
Beyond 2022, District 203’s the list includes replacing the Naperville North High School tennis courts and stadium scoreboard; several boiler and chiller replacements; electrical upgrades at Naperville Central High School; domestic water main replacements at multiple schools; and continuous improvement and maintenance requests.
Capital expenses for 2021-22 came just under budget, with an estimated $5.8 million spent, Dolan said.
“As you can see, despite the setbacks we experienced with schedules, costs, labor availability and supply chain disruptions, we generally met goals set for us by you, the board, and school administrators,” Dolan said.
The capital projects completed in 2020-21 included:
$813,000 to upgrade the learning commons at both Jefferson Junior High and Meadow Glens Elementary School;
$461,000 to replace the Naperville Central fieldhouse floor;
$243,000 to replace the Mill Street and Highlands playgrounds;
$588,000 in flooring upgrades;
$1.2 million in summer building modifications, among other projects.
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“Jefferson’s learning center has four distinct teaching spaces where the (learning commons) director and other teachers can hold classes concurrently. This provides the school with enormous flexibility and scheduling and curriculum,” Dolan said of the upgrades at Jefferson.
Toward the end of the five-year capital projects plan, they will initiate planning for a 10-year comprehensive district facilities assessment, last conducted in 2013, Dolan said.
They want to complete the projects in that last assessment before moving onto long-term facilities planning, he said.
“(Chief Financial Officer Michael Frances) and I proposed delaying a comprehensive new facilities assessment report until we were at the end of completion of some really important and substantial infrastructure projects, knowing that the next report would actually probably reflect future goals as well as future issues like resiliency, renewable energy, curriculum changes, changes in demographics,” he said.