Renovations to the school will take place as the community voted April 4 for the Board of Education to use a $37.5 million bond to make improvements.

The referendum will replace mechanical systems, renovate the 1926 and 1955 wings of the building, and build a second-floor addition on top of the social studies wing to allow for more classrooms.

Prior to the elections, the community took a survey through UNICOM ARC, a company that surveys whether or not people support referendums.

“They are the gold standard for schools to try and get the support of an issue. When UNICOM ARC did the polling, many members of the community were in support of the things that have been going on,” Superintendent Doug Domeracki said.

Many people supported the referendum.

“Over the course of the past few months before the election, people recognized that the board is using the funds wisely and demonstrated an understanding the current financial situation in the state of Illinois,” Domeracki said. “At the end of the day people were in support of us, we polled well and the results of the election were right on target with the survey.”

According to Domeracki, the average number of voters in District 94 was 4,305 people. This election had 3,945 voters.

“We were about 10 percent less than the typical number of voters that typically come out at consolidated elections so when you think about it (the referendum was) the biggest thing on the ballot,” Domeracki said.

The construction of the building will begin the summer of 2018.

“This summer structural engineers will survey some of the building in the 1926 and 1955 section and be doing massive plan development,” Domeracki said.

According to Domeracki, the school has been working with an underwriter to structure the referendum. Bond councils are also helping the school in taking the next steps in the referendum.

“It was a small school in that time. Materials and equipment are not meant to last forever. We have a lot of infrastructure needs in the buildings and all of that needs to be addressed,” Domeracki said.

Boilers, temperature controllers, heat exchangers, pneumatic systems, electrical systems are some of the infrastructures that need to be replaced.

In the field house, roughly eight heat exchangers will be replaced which were installed 1977.

“In the summer of 2019, that is when the new second story on top of the social studies wing opens up. In the summer of 2020 we are now doing what the structural engineers find in the 1926 section,” Domeracki said.

The school is expecting to have a longer summer in 2019 for the construction of the second floor.

“We are going to have to start early and get as much time as possible like what we did with the new science area. We ended one year early and we started the next day after Labor Day,” Domeracki said. “There is a high likelihood that we will have that same type of calendar that year to maximize the number of workdays for the contractors to go at it while students are not here.”

The renovation is a step by step process that will need time to happen.

“We are going to take advantage of the opportunity to take a step back and look at the flow and functionality of the building and trying to address that,” Domeracki said.