With a golden late summer sun gleaming off the highly polished handles and blades of the ceremonial spades lined up before a massive yellow front loader, officials, students, teachers and parents of Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 celebrated the long-awaited groundbreaking for a new addition to Brook Park School last Thursday.
Board members and government officials, including the village presidents of LaGrange Park and Brookfield and U.S. Congressman Daniel Lipinski (D-3rd), turned over ceremonial clods of earth where the front loader had been working earlier in the day, grading the construction site.
“This is the start of a consistent long-range plan tied with consistent financial support,” said District 95 board President James Landahl in his opening remarks at the ceremony in front of an audience of roughly 75 people.
Construction of the 19,000-square-foot addition at Brook Park School, 1214 Raymond Ave. in LaGrange Park, will continue through the 2007-08 school year with completion expected before the beginning of next school year. The new addition on the north end of the campus will provide seven new classrooms, two technology rooms and a multipurpose room that can be used as a lunch room, which the school currently lacks. The additional classrooms will allow the district to move fifth grade from the middle school back to Brook Park.
In the summer of 2008, District 95 will also embark on a major renovation of S.E. Gross Middle School, 3524 Maple Ave. in Brookfield, that will include three new science labs, two computer rooms, an expanded library, a new first floor school office suite and upgrades to the electrical service.
The total cost of construction will be some $9.2 million, financed in large part by a $7.5 million bond issue approved by the board this summer.
“We’re looking at getting District 95 [students] as many advantages as possible in getting prepared for high school and beyond,” said District 95 Superintendent Thomas Hurlburt.