A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly renovated and expanded Kimball Middle School in Elgin was held Wednesday, with the highlight for many being the building’s new “cafetorium.”
The room includes a stage, a kitchen with a nook area where food is prepared and served, tables adorned with a tiger logo or the words “Home of the Tigers” and a large swath of windows, a section of which overlooks a courtyard.
“This space, with its natural light, deserves its moment of celebration,” Kimball Principal Charlotte Coleman told the crowd gathered at the school for the event.
State Sen. Cristina Castro, D-Elgin, said she graduated in 1992 from Kimball, where she was a guard on the school’s undefeated girls basketball team. She recalled that back then — and until the addition — students ate lunch in the school’s basement.
She has been watching the improvements being made at Kimball and other U-46 schools since district voters in 2023 approved a $179 million tax referendum to provide the money needed for the Unite U-46 projects, she said.
“It’s an amazing experience to feel it here today,” Castro said. “This shapes the future, and you students here today are our future leaders.”
U-46 Chief of Staff Brian Lindholm said the Kimball project cost about $60 million. Work took place over 18 months, with much of it happening while classes were in session, according to Ann Williams, deputy superintendent for operations and chief school business official.
Not only was 53,000 square feet added to the building at 451 N. McLean Blvd., but major changes were undertaken. New features include more classrooms and science labs, an auxiliary gym, changing rooms, collaborative learning spaces and two gender-neutral restrooms.
The campus’ underground stormtrap can hold enough water to fill 1½ Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to information provided at the event. Crews added more than 114,000 bricks to Kimball’s exterior, installed 1,270 light fixtures and planted 100 new trees.
The work was undertaken as U-46 adds sixth-graders to its middle school buildings, which previously housed just seventh and eighth grades. The switch takes place when classes start next week for the 2026-27 school year.
Coleman, Kimball principal for eight years, said about two-thirds of the school’s 966 students and about 100 teachers will be new. Eighth-graders will be called upon to show younger students “what it means to be a ‘Tiger,’” she said.
Parent Maria Gomez said her son, Alexander, will be in eighth grade and her daughter, Evelyn, a sixth-grader at Kimball this year.
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“It’s very exciting to see the new additions to the school, especially the cafeteria and all the light in there,” Gomez said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.