This Elmhurst School To Be 'Real Flagship' For District

ELMHURST, IL — Field Elementary School is more than 90 years old. Its library is relegated to the basement. The building is not handicapped accessible. Flooding poses a problem. And the principal says the school includes few good places to store a lot of its stuff.

"It's getting a little tricky to hide it," Principal Heidi Thomas said earlier this week.

The good news for Field: This is all expected to change.

Next year, Field, which is at North and Emroy avenues, is set to go through the same process as Lincoln Elementary is now: Demolition is set for June and July, followed by a year-long project to build a new school.

School officials and contractors spoke about the plans Monday at a public meeting.

In the designs for Field, the library will no longer be a second thought.

"It's actually the same concept that we're implementing over at Lincoln — the idea of making the library the focus, the heartbeat of the entire school," said Craig Siepka, an executive with Chicago-based Wight & Co., the project's architectural firm. "It really puts learning on display."

An executive with the Elmhurst-based construction management firm, International Contractors Inc., said the new school would be a big improvement.

"It's going to be very vibrant, very bright, very colorful, and something the community can be proud of, especially since it's on North Avenue," said Terry Fielden of International Contractors. "It will be a real flagship for the district."

Siepka discussed one of the key elements of the plan.

"There is no basement in the design. One of the issues we heard loud and clear through the design process … was all the flooding issues that have occurred on site," he said.

The school will be built for expected increases in enrollment, officials said. It is designed to make room for 600 students, while the school has about 400 now.

"You have extra elbow room as the population expands," Siepka said. "Through the years, you'll find the building can adapt along with the changing curriculum and programs for kids, much easier than this building can right now.

The project is expected to cost about $32 million, which Fielden said is around the average for such buildings these days.

The bids came in this week. At a meeting last month, school board members worried the bids might come in higher than expected, given escalating costs for materials.

On Dec. 14, the school board is expected to choose a contractor for the project. The plan is to insert eight months into the calendar for acquisition of materials. That is more time than usual, given supply chain issues, Fielden said.