District 204 continues construction work funded by last year's bond referendum, with classes starting Tuesday

Chicago Tribune

7 hours ago

Students at Indian Prairie School District 204 returning to school on Tuesday for the first day of classes are likely to notice some changes to the buildings they learn in — in some cases, from the moment they walk through the front doors.
Over the summer, school buildings across the district have been undergoing renovations, from more secure entryways at 11 elementary schools to an overhaul of Waubonsie Valley High School's auditorium to LED lighting installations across district schools. Some of the projects have been finished in time for school starting, while others are still underway.
Last year, voters approved a proposal from District 204 to sell up to $420 million in bonds to pay for facility improvements, according to past reporting. Without the bonds, the district would have needed to cut the equivalent of 50 full-time positions to pay for some of these projects.
The bonds are to be paid for using a continuation of an existing 37-cent property tax per $100 of equalized assessed value that would otherwise have expired at the end of 2026. That means the tax rate for residents in terms of their contribution to capital projects would effectively remain flat.
Since then, the district has been preparing for major projects across district buildings that are set to extend through 2032, according to past reporting. The projects include school-specific renovations at Waubonsie Valley High School, Neuqua Valley High School, Metea Valley High School, the Birkett Freshman Center and Gregory and Hill middle schools, along with district-wide safety and security upgrades, LED lighting installations and other infrastructure projects.
Several of those projects got underway this summer.
The largest project in terms of referendum dollars — slated to receive $130 million in bond sale funds over the duration of its renovations — is the upgrades at Waubonsie Valley High School, which this summer has undergone a major auditorium overhaul that is set to be completed later this year.
That project, OK'd by the District 204 school board in March, is costing $7.6 million, according to past reporting. The project includes new seats, house lights, theater lights, sound systems, flooring and Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades meant to bring the building up to code, district leadership previously said. Waubonsie Valley High School Principal Jason Stipp said one feature of the new seating, for example, is adding aisles in its front section, which that portion of the seating didn't have previously.
Stipp also pointed out the ADA upgrades as one major change that's part of the project. Before, he pointed out on Thursday, attendees who needed an accessible entrance had to enter through a side door that takes the individual along the side of the stage and into the auditorium's house. Now, they can enter the building through the auditorium's main door to get to their seats. Student performers who need an accessible route can use either entrance.
The auditorium won't be ready for use when school starts on Tuesday, according to Stipp. He said it's slated to open later in the fall. In the meantime, the freshman play is going to be relocated to the library, he said, and the fall play may also have to be held elsewhere, depending on construction progress.
Another project the district has pushed for is upgrading the entryways to school buildings to be more secure. They did these upgrades at 11 schools this summer.
The idea for the 'secure vestibules' is to make it so that schools have a single and secure entryway that requires visitors to first interact with the main office before they can get into the school, according to past reporting.
Some schools — like McCarty Elementary in Aurora — also saw other renovations, like new flooring in parts of the school, replacing formerly carpeted floors.
McCarty is also in the process of getting LED lighting installed. But, since that work can be done at times when students aren't at school, those projects will be happening in the district throughout the year, Shipley explained.
That's another project happening district-wide. Shipley explained that they're prioritizing the schools located in Aurora first because of rising energy costs in the city.
'We are prioritizing things that'll save us money in the long run,' Shipley explained as to why the LED lighting project happened this summer. 'The energy efficiency piece and the LED lighting, that's something that really rose … over the last year or so when we really looked at where costs were going.'
He explained that the list of projects were rooted in the district's master facilities plan, which was adopted in 2023, according to the district's website.
The summer and fall projects were projected to come in at around $40 million across this fiscal year and next, Shipley previously said.
But, in addition to projects that are still underway, the district is also planning for the next phases of its renovations.
The secure entryways will be done at the rest of the district schools in phases in the coming years, Shipley said.
The district is also doing renovations at Neuqua Valley High School that will bring freshman students — who have for more than 20 years spent their school days at the separate Birkett Freshman Center — back to Neuqua's main campus starting in 2027, according to past reporting.
The Neuqua renovation is also set to free up Birkett for other district uses in the future, according to past reporting. For example, it's slated to house the district's STEPS and Gail McKinzie programs, district leadership has previously said. STEPS, or Supportive Training Experiences Post-Secondary, is a job training program for students with special needs. Gail McKinzie High School, also part of the district, offers a credit recovery program for students.
The district is also planning for Birkett to house its Pathways program, which provides career-oriented offerings, along with a welcome center for the district's community support and social service initiatives, labs for kindergarten through eighth grade STEM education and meeting and gathering spaces.
To fund future phases of the facilities upgrades, the district will be doing two more bond issuances, slated for 2027 and 2029, according to past reporting. Shipley said they're 'materially on schedule' in terms of the timeline and budget for work so far, and said that any impact from tariffs and inflation has remained 'in line with what (the district) initially budgeted.'
And the auditorium is just the beginning of the work happening at Waubonsie Valley. Shipley said that part of the reasoning for starting with that renovation is that it's 'pretty self-contained,' in that it wouldn't have a significant impact on the school's day-to-day operations or future construction work.
In the spring, work is beginning on Waubonsie's stadium, Stipp said. Part of that renovation involves making its field a turf field, so it can be used more widely. Right now, for example, P.E. classes are held on the practice field, rather than the main one, Stipp said. The stadium is slated to be closed starting after spring break this year.
In the spring, construction is also starting on Waubonsie's cafeteria, Stipp said. Much of the building's interior work, he explained, will be ongoing through the 2026-27 school year, and referred to it as the 'one real tough year,' as far as construction goes.
Getting used to a changed space is likely to be an adjustment. Stipp, who said this school year will be his 14th as principal, noted that Waubonsie is the oldest of the district's high school buildings. It opened in 1975.
'I think people will miss this building when it's said and done, just because they like the, kind of, the quirkiness of it,' Stipp said.
But he's enthusiastic about the improvements — including the fact that the work stretching over multiple years means students from different classes will get to see the results of the work going up around them.
'A lot of times you just go through construction and see nothing because you live through construction,' Stipp said. 'But every class will have seen one of the new areas renovated by the time they graduate.'