NILES — While students will be released from school for the summer break on June 12, four district buildings will be anything but quiet, as bond construction continues throughout the summer months.

Niles Community Schools District Superintendent Dan Applegate and Director of Operation Lewis Evans said renovations to the district’s buildings are about 60 percent complete. Still, there are a number of projects left on the itinerary to complete the $40 million bond construction project that began in 2016. 

This summer, crews will work to finish updates on Ballard Elementary, Niles High School, Oak Manor and Eastside Connections. Those upgrades are expected to be complete by the fall. 

“Everything has been pretty much on time, other than a few hiccups,” Evans said. “We have found ways to adjust the schedule and keep everything on track.”

When students at those schools return for school next semester, there will be updated cooling and heating systems, refurbished classrooms with new furniture and a host of building security upgrades, including new fire alarms and a public announcement system.

The construction project is being funded through a pair of bonds that voters approved in 2015. While progress is underway, Applegate and Evans lamented that construction has not been without a few challenges. One of the major hurdles was finding labor to complete projects, because of the high saturation of projects on the construction market.

“It’s an ongoing issue,” Evans said. “If you ask about any small delays or quirks, that is probably the area it has happened in most is having labor available.”

Additionally, because of the age of many of the schools, construction crews also encountered other needs for upgrades, such as replacing old walls or equipment that was not initially planned for updates.

These issues have meant the school board has had to strategize ways to keep on budget. They have also had to prioritize construction plans.

“Anything that we have had to take out because of the high cost of construction has been added to a list and we will be looking at using our sinking fund that we are fortunate to have had the community support last year,” Applegate said.

One effort that helped the district to save money was moving Eastside Connections students to Oak Manor this school year so that construction could be done all at once, instead of in phases, which costs more. Because students were moved, renovations to Eastside are expected to take half the time to complete.

Applegate and Evans said they were hoping to have construction begin this summer on Southside Special Education School and Northside Child Development Center, but they had to reject the bids for the projects at a recent board meeting, because the bids were a collective $1 million over budget. In the fall, Northside and Southside will go out for bid again, with the goal to start construction in the spring and wrap up in October 2019. This will be the last phase of construction.   

In September, two of the completed buildings, Ring Lardner Middle School and Howard-Ellis Elementary School, hosted re-dedication ceremonies to celebrate the finished construction.

For many students and teachers, the upgrades have made for a better learning environment. Evans said one of these features is the upgraded heating and cooling systems, which all schools will get, that consistently bring fresh air into the building.

“Everyone is excited about the new classrooms for sure,” Applegate said. “We have gotten a lot of compliments from the community about how the schools look on the outside. And then you go in the classroom and see the new furniture and the new floors.”

When overall construction is completed, Applegate said the upgrades will continue to provide a positive classroom environment for years to come.

“No one is going to walk into any of these buildings and say ‘what were these guys thinking 10 years ago?’” Applegate said. “This is quality stuff that we are putting into these classrooms for years to come.”