D300 OKs $2.1 million in construction bids

By Suzanne Baker sbaker@stmedianetwork.com April 15, 2014 1:32AM

The School District 300 administrative offices have moved from this wing of Carpentersville Middle School to temporary quarters into Hampshire High School. This structure will be for special education and problem behavior students. | Sun-Times Media file

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Updated: April 16, 2014 2:36AM

ALGONQUIN Plans have taken a step closer to fruition by Community Unit School District 300 to build a new administration building in Algonquin and revamp the former central office space in Carpentersville for use by the districts alternative school.

The school board Monday night awarded the first of two sets of bids totaling $1.64 million for the construction of the new central office building, just south of Jacobs High School. The cost, which accounts for 31 percent of the overall projected $5 million to $5.5 million, will pay for excavation, site utilities, improvements, asphalt paving, landscaping, building concrete, masonry, structural steel, roofing and plumbing.

In addition, the school board on Monday also approved spending $489,637 on the first phase of work on the new home for the Oak Ridge Alternative School in the building adjacent to Carpentersville Middle School. The cost includes demolition, general trades, metal studs, drywall, acoustic ceilings, flooring and painting, and represents 40 percent of the overall project. The renovations are estimated to cost between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, which would be offset by the sale of the Oak Ridge property and a $50,000 grant from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Earlier this year, the school district closed on the Oak Ridge School property, on Lake Marian Road in Carpentersville, selling the site for $750,000 to the Childrens Home and Aid Society, which plans to build a preschool there. Starting in the 2014-15 school year, the 78 special education and problem behavior students who had been housed in a mobile classroom unit will move into the renovated space at 300 Cleveland Ave. With the work, the alternative school will have larger classrooms, more space for small group of students to work with teachers, a nurses office, larger cafeteria, and access to use the Carpentersville Middle School gymnasium for physical education.

School board member Joe Stevens, who is co-chairman of the boards Construction and Facilities Oversight Committee, said that while bids for the renovation work came in slightly more than anticipated, bids for the new construction came in less than expected.

In a memo to the board, Susan Harkin, the districts chief financial officer, said that based on bid results for the first phase and the estimated cost of the second phase, the central office building is $117,763 under original estimates, unlike the renovation work on the former administrative office building on Cleveland Avenue that is coming in $86,039 over budget estimates.

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D300 OKs $2.1 million in construction bids