District 99's Long Range Capital Plans
To prepare for the 21st century and to meet the essential needs of our community, District 99 maintains a Long Range Capital Plan for both its North High School and South High School campuses. This comprehensive plan addresses all facets of our indoor and outdoor facilities and infrastructures at each campus, with the goal of meeting the safety and educational program needs of our students and staff.
Current District 99 Bids
Construction Updates
The current Long Range Capital Plan includes our Outdoor Master Site Plan and an Annual Capital Improvement Plan.
Outdoor Master Site Plan
The outdoor environments at both North High and South High campuses have numerous challenges. The lack of available acreage is an issue at both schools, which results in students needing to travel off-campus for activities. Also, students must cross busy streets for their physical education classes. In addition, less than ideal auto, bus and pedestrian traffic patterns pose numerous safety issues. Much of the limited green space at each campus is also used for storm water detention, which greatly limits their use to students for physical education, athletics or other activities.
To address these challenges, in 2009 District 99 began constructing the Master Site Plan (MSP). The result is the creation of an all-inclusive vision of what the campuses will look like in the future. The three goals of the MSP include: 1) to improve the safety of our outdoor environment, 2) to enhance educational programming, and 3) to maximize the use of our limited space.
Working with Wight & Company, an architectural and engineering firm experienced in working with school districts, District 99 met with multiple groups over 18 months. Groups represented parent, student, community member, booster, park district, elementary school district, band directors, building and grounds staff, physical education staff, teacher, coach and administrator voices. During the sessions, broad concepts and ideas were transformed into detailed action plans for the future.
Improvements at both schools were identified and prioritized into “Tier 1” and “Tier 2” groupings. Tier 1 improvements have been made and include: synthetic fields at the stadiums at both schools, restored running tracks, additional or improved green space, campus expansion, water detention, replaced restrooms, and multiple projects to upgrade safety. Tier 2 improvements will include additional green space, facility upgrades, storage, seating and parking.
See the North High and South High plans that were used, and the Powerpoint slide presentation used at the Board of Education meeting on January 24, 2011 for more detailed information.
The total cost for the MSP is conservatively estimated to be $25.2 million. The total cost for the Tier 1 improvements is $13.1 million.
All students in District 99 will benefit from the MSP improvements planned. From students in physical education classes--to marching band members and athletes--all students will enjoy a safer and more useable outdoor space in the future with the implementation of the MSP.
Community Feedback
On October 27, 2011, District 99 held an Open House at North High to share updated concept information about the "Phase Two" improvements, including the following schematics:
Over 40 community members attended the Open House, and we collected valuable feedback as the design concepts move forward with the development process. On January 11, 2012, we held an Outdoor Improvements presentation to relate changes that were made after careful consideration of alternatives.
On January 23, 2012 the administration made a presentation on the Master Site Plan Improvements on the west side of North High School.
Annual Capital Improvement Plan
Another facet of the Long Range Capital Plan is our Annual Capital Improvement Plan, which is created each year and tracks annual capital projects needed to maintain site facilities and infrastructure. For more information, please refer to the following documents:
Capital Improvement Plan 2012/13
Capital Improvement Plan 2011/12
Capital Improvement Plan 2010/11
If you have questions about any component of the Long Range Capital Plan, please contact Marty Schack, director of physical plant & operations, at mschack@csd99.org.