Walking onto the new football field at what used to be known as Rich South High School in Richton Park, Johnnie Thomas notes a sophisticated lighting system that bathes the artificial turf field in what appears to be daylight, and a digital scoreboard that might be found at an NFL stadium.
The field made its debut at Rich Township High School District 227’s homecoming game, a loss of 34-28 to Leo, and the last game of the season for 227’s Raptors.
To Thomas, District 227 superintendent, the field represents a new beginning for the district, which has grappled with declining enrollment that prompted the less-than-popular decision to close one of the district’s three schools.
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The district is also in the early stages of a multimillion dollar program remaking its two remaining schools to better align with current student needs, he said.
Now called the Fine Arts & Communication campus, the Rich South school and its counterpart in Olympia Fields are being overhauled to “get the school up to the 21st century,” Thomas said during a recent tour.
The Rich Central school is now the STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics, campus.
Both schools are in the middle of basic, but essential, upgrades such as new roofs and air handling systems. Thomas said at the Richton Park school, opened in 1973, simple things such as bathrooms and drinking fountains needed attention.
Thomas said that bathrooms were in such sad conditions at the Richton Park school, 5000 Sauk Trail, that students “would hold it for the entire day.”
A new main entrance that will replace the existing one, that is really not noticeable unless one is looking for it, includes concrete steps and landscaping that will allow students room to study, wait for a ride after school or simply hang out.
Work is underway at the school, just west of Cicero Avenue, on a 100,000-square-foot field house that Thomas says will be available for park district use after school hours.
The field house, expected to open in about a year, will include three basketball courts surrounded by a 200-meter track.
It will supplant the Donald Trimble Gymnasium, previously host to basketball games, which is being reconfigured to accommodate music, choir and dance programs.
Nearly all competitive athletic events will be held at the Richton Park campus, including football and track and field, Thomas said. A new football practice field and softball field are also on track to open by next fall, he said.
Rich East in Park Forest closed at the end of the last school year, after the board voted 4-3 in October 2019 to shutter the district’s oldest school, opened for classes in September 1953.
The following month, the board, also by a 4-3 vote, agreed to issue $105 million in bonds to refinance existing debt and to pay for work at the two remaining schools.
Issuing the new debt will mean a tax increase of $137 annually for a home with a market value of $300,000, and an increase of $86 per year for a home valued at $200,000, according to the district.
The closing of Rich East also brought an end to the distinct school names of the East Rockets, Central’s Olympians and South’s Stars, under the banner of the Raptors. That meant, for example, combining the football teams and other sports under the new name.
“We couldn’t do two new stadiums,” Thomas said.
The new turf stadium is expected to be available for other community sports activities, such as youth football, Thomas said.
Other projects funded by the bond issue included building a culinary arts classroom and a full-scale commercial kitchen at the Richton Park campus.
Future plans at that school call for a radio, television broadcasting program to be built near the culinary arts classrooms.
Student opportunities would include broadcasting football games and operating the audio and visual aspects of the games, Thomas said.
At the Olympia Fields STEM campus, computer science and manufacturing production labs should be completed by January, he said.
Thomas said talks are underway with other high school districts to convert the Park Forest campus into a vocational education center.
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It could offer training in areas such as construction trades, aviation and urban agriculture, he said.
The cost to see it come to fruition would be about $100 million, Thomas said, indicating the district is seeking private and public support for the project.
Thomas said that the cost of retrofitting the existing campus for such a use is about the same as tearing down existing buildings and starting from scratch.