Public gets a look at $123 million reconstruction project for Springfield High School

While the public got a close-up look Wednesday at the new estimated $123 million reconstruction of Springfield High School, district officials and architects admitted concerns remain about traffic flow and parking around the campus.

Superintendent Jennifer Gill said after the presentation that a session for parents and guardians about the issues could be beneficial.

Those concerns included drop-off points for students as well as students crossing Washington and Monroe streets to get to the school.

A rainbow in the storm: Erica Austin confronts cancer and inspires others along the way

Gill said that many of the problems that surfaced Wednesday were less about the construction and more about safely getting around the streets near the school.

"Those seem to be the major questions," Gill said.

Mayor Misty Buscher attended the session but didn't speak.

Acknowledging there have been at least a couple of accidents involving students and moving vehicles, Gill said flashing lights for pedestrians will be installed across Washington and Monroe streets.

Todd Cyrulik, the principal designer for BLDD Architects, Inc., said parking around the campus was going to be a challenge, especially when construction begins in the spring.

He said the most recent property purchases by the school district could cushion some of that blow.

The district had been at loggerheads with the owner of vacant lots on 521 and 523 W. Monroe St., but the parties recently came to a resolution on a purchase price. A vote by the board of education could finalize the deal Monday.

The most dramatic change in the school plan will be reorienting the main student entrance to Monroe Street.

"Getting folks into a school building has changed a lot in just a few years," Cyrulik said. "Having a place that is out of the weather, that allows large groups of people to move easily into the building safely over about a 10-to-20-minute period is a huge part of what we're doing."

Reconstruction will also include new competition and practice gyms, student common areas, classrooms, and band spaces.

Most of the classrooms' teaching walls, said Zoey Koester, the lead interior designer for the project, will have various technologies that can project images from laptops and chrome books.

The SHS auditorium will remain intact but will get some technical updates, architectural designer Kayla Peck said during the presentation.

Cyrulik said the exterior work will restore some of the grandeur many of the more recent remodels took away, including some of the cupolas around the campus. The mosaic murals will also stay, he said.

The reconstruction is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2026-27 school year, Gill said.

The funding for the project comes from the 1% sales tax increase that Sangamon County voters approved in 2018, netting District 186 an average of $13 million per year.

A $93 million project at Lanphier High School, including a new wing of the school along with a new gymnasium and auditorium, is scheduled to wrap up in January.

Next summer, a major renovation will kick off at Southeast High School, including a new entrance, upgrades to the gymnasium, and the addition of a district-wide indoor track.

Spartan Stadium will get a new track, along with upgrades to the field.

The public will hear more about the Southeast plan at Monday's school board meeting.

Five years after sales tax hike, district, county schools benefit; here's what it took

"One of our goals in all our facilities' plans was to have equitable opportunities for all students across all of our schools," Gill said.

SHS senior Harrison Gray said he won't be a beneficiary of the re-do, but his brother will. He's an eighth grader at Franklin Middle School.

Still, Gray said he was skeptical of the parking situation and where students might go while construction is ongoing.

"Inherently, there are going to be some classrooms that are going to be unavailable, and I think we already are in situations where classrooms are pretty much filled," Gray said. "But there's a solid group of people who will figure it all out."

The reconstruction brought up the question of the school's most famous resident, "Rachel," a ghost that was the subject of a 2009 documentary produced by SHS students.

"We've talked about Rachel," Cyrulik said. "So far, we're hoping she's in support of things."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: A $123 million remodeling of Springfield High School starts in spring