Press Release: 07-23-2012

Waukegan Community Unit School District # 60 celebrated the groundbreaking of its much-anticipated Capital Development Board grant project with a special ceremony Monday morning, where District administrators and construction project leaders trumpeted the significance of the project to both students and the Waukegan community.

Several dozen community members, local dignitaries, construction, architecture and school district staffers attended the groundbreaking at Waukegan’s Carman-Bucker Elementary School, where construction has already begun on the first phase of the $37.7 million project.

Among those to address the crowd was District 60 Superintendent, Dr. Donaldo R. Batiste, who spoke about how adding 116 rooms to 12 elementary schools will greatly benefit the students in Waukegan.

“Our children are, in fact, the beneficiary of our efforts. We are doing everything we can to put students first,” said Dr. Batiste.

The Capital Development Board grant was applied for by the District in 2002, and was awarded by the State of Illinois in 2010. District 60 is contributing $9.4 million to the project, while the State grant will cover $28.3 million. Schools slated for classroom additions include: Washington Elementary and Whittier Elementary, each with 16 new classrooms; Glen Flora Elementary with 12 classrooms, and eight classrooms at Carman-Buckner Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, North Elementary, Clearview Elementary, Glenwood Elementary, McCall Elementary, Hyde Park Elementary, Little Fort Elementary and Oakdale Elementary.

The large scope of the project is proving to be a big benefit to the community. Using industry job-creation standards, a project this large stands to create up to 300 jobs. That point was not lost on School Board President Mr. Michael Rodriguez.

“We look forward to seeing a number of local citizens employed by this project,” said Mr. Rodriguez.

The project has required extensive research, design and planning by District 60 administrators, members of the Board of Education, and the architectural firm Fanning Howey Associates. Representatives from Fanning Howey have worked extensively with Academic Design Teams and Building-Level Design Teams throughout the District, in an effort to create classroom environments that will best fit the needs of Waukegan students and educators.

The new, state-of-the-art classrooms will prove to be of the biggest benefit of the project, said Mr. Christopher Urban, Project Manager for Fanning Howey. When Fanning Howey unveiled a model classroom for 22 students last winter, the praise was universal. By the time construction is complete, nearly 2,000 students will be in new classrooms.
“The most exciting part of this project is the students, and what they will get out of this,” said Mr. Urban. “This project and these classrooms are now an inspiration and model for all school districts.

Carman-Buckner, along with Washington Elementary and Whittier Elementary, are the first phase of the project, known as the Gold Package. Construction on those sites began this month. The second and third phases of the project, known as the Green Package and Purple Package, are expected to break ground later this year, with the entire project expected to be completed by fall 2013.

Waukegan-based Stuckey Construction has been hired for the first phase of the project. The company already has several local residents at work, said Mr. Edwin Stuckey, President of Stuckey Construction.

“We are really working quickly and vigorously. We feel so grateful to be working in a community that we are domiciled in,” said Mr. Stuckey.

Email Contact: nalajakis@wps60.org