Bids Opened For South Campus Projects

LA GRANGE, IL – Lyons Township High School opened bids this week for an array of projects.

"We're going to get our real firsthand look at what the true costs of these projects are going to be," Brian Stachacz, the school's director of business services, told the school board Monday. "It's been a little bit of a volatile market in construction."

The bid opening was Thursday. The school has not released information on the numbers.

The school is going $27 million into debt for projects planned over the next three years, having recently issued bonds. The rest of the money will come from the school's bank accounts.

Nearly all the projects this year are at South Campus. The main ones are the addition of a new cafeteria and a renovation of the current cafeteria into the new music wing.

Next year, the school plans to modernize classrooms at North Campus.

The projects over the next three years are expected to cost $40 million.

The school estimates that a variety of other projects after the next three years, known as the second phase, will cost $85 million to $100 million. It has yet to identify a source of income for that work.

At the meeting, board member Elvia Nava asked whether any of the second-phase projects were considered critical.

Stachacz responded he didn't want to use the word "critical," but said some needed to be done as soon as possible after the first phase of projects are completed.

For years, the school has been expanding air conditioning. After the next three years, the only remaining areas without air conditioning will be the D wing at South Campus and a pocket on the northwest corner of North Campus, Superintendent Brian Waterman said.

"We're getting there," he said.