Lockport High School District 205 seeks community input for possible renovation of Central Campus

Standing on the stage at the Central Campus auditorium, Lockport High School District 205 Superintendent Robert McBride said there are three stories of space above and three stories of space below the auditorium.

The auditorium is used for a band practice one period a day and occasionally faculty meetings will be held there, McBride said. The cafeteria, below the theater, is used during three periods during the day, he said.

“You are standing in the absolutely most unused space in this building,” McBride said. “That’s a huge amount of space that really nobody’s in for most of the day.”

Central Campus, which opened in November 1909, is the district’s freshman campus, and every few years it becomes the center of community debate on whether to build a school or renovate the building. Annually, the district spends between $500,000 to $1 million on upkeep for central campus, he said.

The district has been gathering information from the community, McBride said, and officials are considering ways to renovate the building.

That includes other options for the theater space, such as creating a multipurpose center or gathering space with a cafeteria and auditorium feature. Or, a space with more modern classrooms. Or a more modern, secure and accessible main entrance.

“I think our public expects us to be smart about the assets and spaces we have. What we’re discovering is there’s a tremendous amount of space in this building that is not used or maybe misused,” McBride said.

Decision making

Between 2006 to 2012, district officials twice asked voters to support a new school, McBride said. Both referendums failed.

The district bought land at 159th and Cedar Road, in Homer Glen, for nearly $2.5 million in 2008. The board issued bonds for the purchase, and the bonds were paid off in 2018, said Jeannette Castillo, the district’s spokeswoman.

“Fast forward to now, we still have the issue of this building, but it’s almost now 20 years older,” McBride said. “You have a building that’s aging. It has needs. At one point, the district kind of made a decision that it really wasn’t going to invest major dollars. It would fix things, keep things running.”

In the fall, McBride said he established the Central Campus Advisory Committee, a group of 17 community members, and asked it to decide two things: if Central should continue as a school building and, if yes, than what renovations should be completed.

The committee met throughout the semester, he said, and decided the building should remain a school and that a larger scale renovation is needed.

“They came to the conclusion that there is so much space in this building that could be used differently, more efficiently, that it would make sense to do a more major renovation beyond the cost of just all the electric, heating and cooling,” McBride said.

The committee and district officials also agreed renovation would be cheaper than building, which is estimated to cost between $165 million to $200 million, McBride said.

McBride said he and district officials also toured other schools that renovated older buildings, such as Downers Grove North High School, built in the 1920s.

Ken Sorensen, associate principal for operations and technology at Downers Grove North, showed McBride how the district built a gym, science labs and culinary labs and addressed accessibility and safety issues.

“It was an opportunity for him to see the space and give his staff an opportunity to think about some ideas that other schools have done and have incorporated,” Sorensen said. “We’ve been really happy with the outcome.”

In the spring and summer, more than 300 community members toured central campus, as the district gathered feedback on how to best renovate the space, McBride said.

“We really started exploring renovation because it’s more cost effective. We found that people have a lot of investment in this building, and it’s history, and it’s story,” McBride said. “This whole project, if we do it, is all about preservation and renovation.”

School walk through

By the main entrance, McBride said the administration office should have windows into the hallway so students could look into the offices and for building administrators to view the main entrance.

Modern school buildings have that feature, he said, but district officials have preserved the original floor with the school’s crest in the main entrance.

Around the corner, a room that used to be a closet was renovated into the business department office.

Inside a business classroom, window air conditioning units keep the room cool and a corner of the room has servers and wiring.

“What you see a lot of in this building, because we’re trying to connect modern and old, and jerry-rigging things, you see a lot of mechanicals hanging,” McBride said.

Farther down the hall from the business classroom, the foyer built in the 1930s still has the original wood paneling, ceiling and stain glass windows.

The school was built in a square shape, with the middle forming a concrete courtyard. Within the courtyard, there is a cylinder-shaped building, built in the 1950s, that holds classrooms and the library, with the bottom floor now used for storage, McBride said.

One thing the district is considering, McBride said, is putting a clear roof over the courtyard. But it would cost between $9 million to $12 million just to install, and a design concept would have to be created, he said.

The district’s two important programs: Lockport Academy, an alternative placement for students with individualized education program needs, and the Career and Community Connections, for students with special needs to help them transition to work post graduation, are housed at Central Campus and quickly outgrowing their spaces, McBride said.

In the Lockport Academy space, in the basement, students walk through windowless hallways to get to class and the teachers work in windowless offices. To get to the entrance for the program, the students walk through a back gate and a side entrance.

Nearby, there is a space that used to house an auto shop that the district uses for storage, McBride said, which could potentially be used to expand the academy space.

“It’s a tight space for students with alternative needs. Could you open it up, brighten it up, could you have a proper entrance?” McBride said. “Are we sending the wrong signal to some kids who are pretty fragile.”

A look ahead

McBride said when he was brought on as superintendent in 2019, the board asked him to develop a plan for either renovating Central Campus or building new. First, McBride and his staff worked on a demographic study, which found the district’s population will remain steady through 2032. It would be hard to justify a new building, McBride said, if the district’s population isn’t growing.

The district’s architects are drawing up renovation plans with associated costs to be presented to the board in the fall, McBride said.

McBride said he believes the board will approve some form of major renovation, which will require a referendum given the cost, likely in March or November 2024.

“I think where they’re feeling is, they’d rather go to the community and say, ‘Hey let’s dream big. Let’s think big. Let’s give this iconic spot a second life,’” McBride said.

Board member Veronica Shaw said she was a freshman during the 1997-1998 school year and remembers there being a lot of stairs and steps to get to classrooms, spaces that were unused and no air conditioning.

Shaw said her children will one day attend Central Campus, and one of her sons has a disability, so it’s important to her that students with disabilities are able to access the building. The building also needs new mechanics and a rethinking of spaces, such as the auditorium and courtyard, she said.

“I would like to see updated learning spaces that accurately reflect students experiences after high school,” Shaw said.

Board President Ann Lopez-Caneva said the campus needs to be renovated but preserved, because it has a rich history. The mechanics and electrical need to be updated, Lopez-Caneva said, and space like the auditorium need to be reconstructed for a different use.

Lopez-Caneva and Shaw said they would support going to referendum if the community feedback supports a major renovation.

“It’s going to be less costly than a new building,” Lopez-Caneva said. “We just want to preserve that building.”