The latest
plans for the construction of a new Pekin District 108
school building and the renovation of another have been
approved.
District
108 School Board members viewed a model and plans for
a new building on the Wilson School campus and plans
for the renovation of the 1929 section of Washington
School at a board meeting Thursday.
The vote
was unanimous, but board member Dean Bacon was absent.
Bacon had opposed the projects because he believed administrators
misled him about whether a tax increase was needed to
pay for them.
The plans
reviewed were more detailed than those board members
previously examined.
"The last
time the drawings were conceptual," principal architect
Tom Wilson of Phillips Swager Associates said. "This
time they are refined."
Wilson said
so far the projects "are on budget."
Bids will
be let for the Wilson School project in August. Work
will start on the Washington project this summer, while
students are on summer vacation.
Wilson said
the Washington project will rehabilitate the exterior
of the building, and windows and toilets will be replaced.
An elevator will be installed and the technology center
renovated.
The following
summer classroom renovations will be completed along
with corridor renovations and the completion of mechanical/electrical
infrastructure.
Ongoing projects
over the course of the two-year construction period
include auditorium and classroom renovations. The gymnasium
also will be upgraded.
Wilson
School project
A two-story
building will be built on the Wilson School campus,
to the west of the existing school building.
The new building
initially will house 700 students and will be able to
hold up to 800. The new addition could be occupied as
early as the second semester of 2000-2001, District
108 Superintendent Perry Soldwedel has said.
Removable
walls between the 32 classrooms to allow for joint class
activities are an option that could still be included.
Classrooms will be 25 by 35 feet in size; the removable
walls would allow them to increase to 35 by 50 feet.
The upstairs
of the building will be 25,028 square feet, with the
lower floor 50,562.
Approaches
to the building will be separated for safety. A circle
drive will be constructed in the front of the school
to allow motorists to drop off passengers.
A second
entrance will be constructed on the west side of the
building for buses to drop off students at the rear
of the campus. A special drive will take teachers and
other employees to a special parking area.
