Mt. Greenwood, Esmond Elementary to Get New Annexes to Ease Overcrowding

CHICAGO, IL - After community blowback to his proposed plan to ease overcrowding by shifting schools around, Ald. Matt O’Shea (!9th) and his friend Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans to build new additions to Mt. Greenwood and Esmond elementary schools before the community on Saturday.

Both projects represent a combined $40 million investment in the 19th Ward. Mt. Greenwood Elementary school, located at 10841 S. Homan Ave., will receive a new, 12-classroom permanent annex.

Esmond Elementary School, 1865 W. Montvale Ave., is also st to receive a permanent annex and new turf field. An existing, dilapidated modular building will be demolished. Saturday’s announcement of the two school upgrades came after CPS announced a 46-percent “spending freeze” to cover $215 million in state assistance that hasn’t come through.

O’Shea said both school projects are coming out of the city’s capital improvement budget. The Chicago Public Buildings Commission will oversee the projects.

“The money is separate to our budgetary crisis. Our capital improvement program is a separate entity,” O’Shea said after the announcement. We’re all doing belt tightening as was reported. Each school did receive cuts … but I’m not going to sit back and allow the overcrowding issue here to continue.”

The additions in 2011 and 2015 of an annex and modular to Mt. Greenwood elementary haven’t kept place with the schools increasing enrollment. The ideal capacity at the school is 990; currently there 1,100 students in the school. O’Shea said he expected enrollment to reach 1,200 in the next few years.

“They’ve had to make do with art on a cart and speech pathology in a closet behind the auditorium,” O’Shea said. “We need to correct that sooner rather than later.”

The Mt. Greenwood annex will built on the southeast corner of the campus. The modular on the north side of the building will remain in operation until the new addition is completed. Plans are to remove it when the space will become parking for the teachers and staff.

Plans for Esmond Elementary call for permanent annex and artificial turf field. Built in 1891, Esmond is the oldest school in the 19th ward and one of the oldest CPS buildings in the city. A new section was added to the school in 1937, and large modular building was erected on the campus in 1971. The modular has long exceeded its 20-year lifespan. During its 46 years as an educational space, the condition of the modular has steadily declined.

The unsafe and unsightly modular will be replaced with a small permanent annex. The crumbling asphalt lot surrounding the school will also be replaced with an artificial turf field that will be used for school programming and summer break. Improvements are also planned for the primary school building.

The alderman said the project will reduce the overall capacity of the school and provide a more pleasant atmosphere to learn in. About 93 percent of Esmond’s student enrollment come from low income backgrounds.

O’Shea said there are no future plans to shift school buildings or change attendance boundaries that were briefly considered in the fall. In an email blast to the community, O’Shea said reducing the number of unused classrooms would shield Esmond from future school closure actions.

Groundbreaking is fluid, but O’Shea hoped construction would be underway in late 2017 or early 2018.