A new cafeteria and common space, as well as a new music wing, will be built next summer at the freshman-sophomore South Campus of Lyons Township High School.
Those are the two biggest parts of a roughly $21.7 million to $24.1 million facilities upgrade planned for South Campus.
In 2025, school officials plan to spend between $10 million to $15 million to modernize and add air conditioning to 64 classrooms at North Campus. Actual costs will not be known until the projects go out to bid.
The cost estimates for the projects have increased since first discussed earlier in the year.
“The scope of this project has grown,” said LTHS Director of Business Services Brian Stachacz.
DLA Architects outlined the most recent iteration of the plans at the LTHS school board’s Dec. 4 Committee of the Whole Meeting. They plan to build a new two-story combination cafeteria and common area in the area that is now a courtyard and build a new music wing where the existing South Campus cafeteria is.
The new cafeteria and common space would replace the rather dark and cramped current cafeteria, which hasn’t been significantly upgraded since the South Campus building was built in 1956. The cost of the new cafeteria and common space alone is expected to be between $11.5 million and $12.5 million. Bids are expected to go out in January. The school board is likely vote to accept bids at their March 4, 2024, meeting and work could start as soon as April.
The new cafeteria will be more efficient and have multiple serving stations and should reduce the time students spend standing in line, which should lead to a less rushed lunch. Students at South Campus often spend most of their 20-minute lunch period waiting in line to get food. The common area will include a second-floor drop-in help center to replace the subject-specific help centers that are now scattered throughout the building.
The new music wing is expected to cost between $6 million and $6.5 million and will include three new flex classrooms. Air conditioning chillers on the top of the existing cafeteria will also be replaced.
Some exterior and interior doors will also be replaced at both North and South Campus to bring them up to modern standards. The current metal halide lights at the South Campus Fieldhouse will be replaced with energy efficient LED lighting at an estimated cost of $350,000 to $425,000.
And 24 unit vents in the E wing at South Campus will be replaced at an estimated cost of $750,000 to $1 million. The portion of the courtyard that will remain after the new cafeteria is built will be renovated at a cost of $300,000 to $500,000.
Two alternate add-ons are also expected to be part of the bid package. New accessible bathrooms could replace existing bathrooms throughout much of South Campus building at estimated cost of between $1.65 million to $1.9 million. And the school board might decide to build two ticket booths for Bennett Field at an estimated cost of $90,000 to $100,000.
LTHS plans to pay for the facility improvements by issuing approximately $26 million in bonds and using cash reserves for the rest. LTHS has about $57.7 million in cash reserves.
“The district is in great financial shape and I think we’ll remain there going forward,” Stachacz said.
LTHS routinely issues general obligation bonds every 10 years as the old bond issue is paid off. LTHS is selling bonds in two batches. The first batch of about $14.4 million worth of bonds were sold on Oct. 17 at an interest rate of 3.875%, not including the cost of issuance. The all-in true interest cost is 4.13%. LTHS plans to sell a second batch of about $12 million worth of bonds in January.
Stachacz told the school board that he was happy with the way the first bond sale went. LTHS maintained its AAA rating from the Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency, enabling it to get a very competitive interest. Mesirow Financial purchased the entire batch of bonds. Mesirow was one of six bidders.
Construction work is expected to begin in April. The new cafeteria and music wing is expected to be completed by August 2025. Next year, students at South Campus will have to eat lunch in the gym.