Fencing has been put up around L.J. Hauser Junior High School, signaling work is about to get under way of the $3.5 million-project to revamp the play and parking areas of the Hauser-Central campus.
Construction work will begin next week after testing is done.
A roughly four-foot-high fencing stands in front of Hauser, and 10-foot-high fencing surrounds the field behind the school that will be replaced. The side of the chain link fence that is facing the street is covered with a black translucent fence cover to improve the aesthetics, although District 96 Superintendent Martha Ryan-Toye said that the 10- foot-high fencing looks like a prison.
Because part of the parking lot is blocked off, all pickups and drop-offs must now be done in front of the schools, adding to congestion. The first major work will be the digging of a large pit in the grass field to hold a storm trap, which will hold water runoff and help prevent flooding.
The construction of the storm pit should take four to six weeks. After the storm pit is installed, work on the new parking lot and play area will commence during the summer.
“June, July and August are getting all the regular drainage in line, getting the parking lot redone, getting the playground built out, the multiple aspects of it and that will finish in August,” said Ramesh Nair, who is overseeing the project for District 96.
While the construction of a new playground and parking lot is expected to be completed before the start of the next school year, the new field will be fenced off and off limits until at least the spring of 2025 because the new field will be grass, and the growing grass needs to be protected.
“We will want the construction fencing to be up there while the field is growing to indicate that it is off limits to use, otherwise people will go on it,” said Joel Marhoul, the chairman of the District 96 school board’s facilities committee.
School officials decided not to have a backstop behind home plate on the new field because a neighbor complained about the kids banging on the existing backstop. The kids who will play baseball on the new field will be small enough that a backstop won’t be necessary, according to Joel Marhoul, chairman of school board’s facilities committee.
With the field out of commission for the rest of the school year, principals are making adjustments for recess. Kids will play mostly in the grassy areas in front of the schools, although some paved areas will be accessible, such as where the two basketball hoops are being Central School.
“We’ll make it work,” said Central School Principal Pete Gatz. One possibility is to stagger lunch times for Central students so that fewer kids are outside at any one time.
Pick up and drop off is now more congested because it all must occur in the front of the school because the back area is no longer accessible except for staff parking.
Principals are encouraging kids and parents to walk or bike to school whenever possible.
While some staff parking spaces have been lost, the Riverside Masonic Temple has made a few parking spaces for rent available to teachers. But Gatz said that most teachers who are not able to find parking spaces in the lot have been able to find places to park on the street.