Decision On District 30 Offices Delayed Ahead Of Demolition

NORTHBROOK, IL — Now that a plan has been approved by voters and money has been budgeted for a new Maple School on Shermer Road, the District 30 School Board is considering where to put offices for district administrators, the Northbrook Star reports. The district's current offices are being demolished, and it planned to use temporary offices for the next three to five years until more tax money became available.

At a July 13 meeting, the project's architect offered board members three different options for where to put more than 6,000 square feet of office quarters for D-30 staff:

• Convert the current cafeteria into offices for $2 million. (The board dropped this idea quickly, according to Pioneer Press.)
• Build a $1.5 million stand-alone office building beside the new soccer field on the school's east side.
• Add office space to the second floor of the new school for $1.9 million, including $141,000 that would be required right away to reinforce the roof.

The board decided to let architecture firm Arcon Associates come up with a design to see how much the total cost of second-floor offices would wind up being and allow the District 30 Superintendent Brian Wegley to decide if they are needed, according to the Northbrook Star.

According to Wegley, the school's designs will continue to evolve as architects begin drawing up plans. More information about the current design and how the plans are developing is available at the D-30 facilities website. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Northbrook — or your community. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Wegley said groundbreaking will occur by April and said officials aim to occupy the new Maple School in the fall of 2019. In an announcement last week, he said the district's bond sale was quite successful, and although the actual cost to taxpayers will not show up on tax bills until next fall, it will be lower than it was advertised during the April 2017 referendum, which passed with more than 75 percent of votes.

According to Wegley, the actual cost to D-30 taxpayers in Northbrook and Glenview will be 4 percent lower than advertised: $45.63 per thousand dollars paid in taxes, instead of the previously projected cost of $47.55.

» Read more on plans for the new Maple School from Irv Leavitt in the Northbrook Star

Images: Exterior rendering of the new Maple School | Courtesy District 30 facilities website