Enrollment Growth Spurs La Grange Highlands Projects

LA GRANGE HIGHLANDS, IL – Enrollment growth is the main reason for $16 million in building projects this summer at La Grange Highlands School District 106, the superintendent said Monday.

As of last year, the elementary district's enrollment was 982, up from 870 a decade earlier, a 13 percent increase, according to state statistics.

One of the drivers of enrollment is new developments such as the Timber Trails subdivision in Western Springs.

The district includes the unincorporated area known as La Grange Highlands and parts of Indian Head Park, La Grange and Western Springs. The elementary and middle schools are on the same campus on Plainfield Road. With the projects, the schools are now connected.

The work includes 10 new classrooms in the middle school, renovations to the library that both schools share and a new elementary school center for science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

The projects also feature new roofing and the replacement of rooftop air handling units.

In an interview in his office, Superintendent John Munch said the district did not need a tax increase referendum passed to do the work.

"We wanted to update learning spaces without creating a big burden on taxpayers," Munch said. "We were completely out of available classrooms with (enrollment) growth on the horizon. We had our reading specialists working out of the principal's conference room."

So far, Munch said, the projects are on time and on budget. As for the schedule, it is tight, as is often the case with school projects, he said.

"They're working Saturdays and Sundays. They'll be working right up until the last day," Munch said. "It's looking like we'll get a week with the new space before students show up."

Lombard-based ARCON is the district's architectural firm. Mount Prospect-based Nicholas & Associates is the construction manager.