Zion-Benton looks to replace aging, mostly unused original high school campus – Chicago Tribune

Plans are moving forward to replace the nearly 80-year-old Pearce Campus at Zion-Benton Township High School with two additions one on the current site and another at the New Tech High campus, a school official said.

The District 126 school board signed off last week on a list of projects, an initial step that will allow district officials to move forward with a goal of starting work as soon as next school year.

The move followed a state-mandated review of district buildings, required every 10 years, which estimated that it would cost anywhere from $8 million to $12 million to bring Pearce Campus the district's original high school building that dates to 1939 and is mostly vacant up to code now that the structures are no longer grandfathered in, said Audrey Liddle, the district's business manager and chief school business officer.

The building requires repairs to the plumbing system, a very costly prospect, Liddle said, since it would have required getting behind walls and under floors all over the building. She added that heating was a concern, as one of the school's boilers is unusable and the other two are getting old.

The board decided it "would not be in the best interest of the taxpayer or the students to put money in that building," Liddle said, pointing to the building's lack of energy efficiency and the dated layout.

The building would instead be demolished and replaced with a 200-space parking lot with a maintenance garage at the north end and grassy areas along the east, according to district documents.

The programs currently housed at Pearce Campus use about a quarter of the building's space, with the remainder left empty or rented out, Liddle said.

They include Project Recovery, a non-traditional, online-based education program for students at risk of dropping out; two special education programs, including a transition program aimed at students older than 18 but not yet 22, and a therapeutic day program called Zion Alternative; and the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps' rifle range and drill space.

A proposed 18,800-square-foot addition at the main Zion-Benton campus would house a fitness center and weight room on the first floor, tripling the size of the existing weight room and allowing that space to be turned into a dance studio, and a rifle range and drill space on the second floor, according to district documents.

A second proposed addition, larger at 23,500 square feet, would be added to the north end of New Tech High at Zion-Benton East, according to the documents. It would house the special education programs currently at Pearce Campus on its first floor and a two-story gym, storage and a weight room and fitness area on the second.

The timelines remain fluid, but construction on both additions could start as early as next school year, Liddle said.

Other proposed projects include purchasing or building a maintenance building, constructing a 750-seat fine arts auditorium at the main campus and renovating the pool, according to the documents.

Much of the work will be paid for using $11 million saved up in the district's capital project fund, Liddle said. Some projects, including the auditorium, will be paid for using debt and other cash reserves, though the amount won't be finalized until the district goes out to bid on the work, she said.

The district does not need voters' permission to move ahead with any additional debt, since the plan is to refinance and keep the annual principal-and-interest payments under the existing ceiling, Liddle said. The district's current debt is expected to retire at the end of budget year 2030-31, and new debt could add an additional nine years, depending on what the construction costs are and when the district takes out the debt.

The goal is make sure taxpayers overall don't see an increase in how much they're paying in property taxes for the district's debt annually, Liddle said.

"There's always things that need to be repaired and replaced," she said. "It's the natural consequences of maintaining facilities. If we weren't doing this, it is highly, highly likely that we would be doing something else throughout the district [that would require taking out debt]."

emcoleman@tribpub.com

Twitter @mekcoleman

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Zion-Benton looks to replace aging, mostly unused original high school campus - Chicago Tribune