Workers Moving into New District 300 Office

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Written by Suzanne Baker, The Courier News. January 15, 2015

http://couriernews.chicagotribune.com/2015/01/15/last-workers-move-new-district-300-offices/

Last workers move into new District 300 offices

Chuck Bumbales is beaming these days, and he’ll be even happier in a little more than a week.

Community School District 300’s assistant superintendent of operations watched the last group of employees move into the new District 300 Central Office building this week. More than 100 district-level employees now work at the administration building at 2550 Harnish Drive in Algonquin.

“It was great to get the last people in here yesterday,” Bumbales said Tuesday morning while giving a tour to show off the office space.

At 28,000 square feet, the new building brings together the administrative staff, business office, information technology, student services, human resources and curriculum development under one roof.

Because the former Central Office building next to Carpentersville Middle School was only 15,000 square feet, some of the district-level staff were scattered around the district in another 5,000 square feet of office space. “My goodness, we were everywhere,” Bumbales said.

Now rather than video conference or spend time driving across the district, people in multiple departments can meet in an office or conference room down the hall. As a result, Bumbales expects better communication.

“The personal touch or in-person touch will improve communication,” he said.

A few last-minute details have to be made before the building will be ready for Bumbales’ biggest showing ever: the Jan. 26 School Board meeting.

A couple of metal nameplates, clocks and video monitors still need to be installed. Furniture to fill first-floor conference rooms and the chairs and tables for Board of Education meeting room are scheduled to be moved in this week.

District 300 already is accepting reservations from staff for use of two conference rooms and training room on the main floor and two conference rooms on the second floor.

The district also has room to grow. “In the past, we’ve moved into something and we were at capacity immediately,” Bumbales said.

A carpeted, 3,000-square-foot room is available on the second floor. “We really haven’t work through its purpose right now,” he said.

Bumbales said it’s been suggested the room could be used for small concerts, a meeting room for the community, or used down the road as offices.

While the district had to buy some additional furniture to fill the added number of conference rooms, staff cafeteria and a few cubicles, the majority of the office furnishings are the same desks, tables, chairs and cubicles used by the staff.

What proved most amazing is how the old furniture appears in the new digs.

“It’s the same things, but they don’t look the same,” Bumbales said. He said perhaps it’s the color choices for the walls, the larger size or configuration of the rooms, the light from all the windows or a combination.

“We brought in a lot of natural light,” he said. “The biggest comment from people is that they just love the natural light.”

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District 300 Unveils New Administration Building

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Written by Stephen Di Benedetto, Northwest Herald. January 14, 2015

http://www.nwherald.com/2015/01/14/algonquin-school-district-300-unveils-new-administration-building/a2ou5oc/

Algonquin School District 300 unveils new administration building

ALGONQUIN – The newly opened $3.9 million administration building gives administrators from Algonquin-based School District 300 a centralized location that is nearly twice the size of their old office in Carpentersville.

The different administrative departments from District 300 also will be housed together at the same location for the first time – the primary motive behind officials’ decision to build the two-story, 28,000-square-foot building, said Chuck Bumbales, assistant superintendent of operations.

“The goal is better communication amongst all of our departments,” Bumbales said. “We are really hoping that in-person touch is really going to improve communication.”

But for parents and students, the majority of the building at 2550 Harnish Drive, Algonquin, will be off-limits, excluding the new district board room. Located near the main lobby, the larger meeting area can fit between 30 to 40 additional people.

It features four 70-inch TVs that add a visual component to board presentations and includes a raised seating area for board members. It’s a larger, more flexible space for the community than the board’s former meeting location at Westfield Community School, Bumbales said.

As staffers were settling into their new office and waiting for the final pieces of furniture to arrive, Bumbales showcased the new board room, five conference rooms and various office spaces during a media tour earlier this week.

The nine-month construction project forced administrators in the spring to move from Carpentersville to Hampshire, before they permanently relocated to Algonquin last week.

The project coincided with a $1.17 million renovation to the former Central Office in Carpentersville. The renovation converted the office into classrooms for the district’s alternative Oak Ridge School.

Officials should complete the move into the new Central Office by the end of January, Bumbales said.

“Everything operates – the phones, the Internet, the security systems, the fire system,” he said. “It’s really now about the final move-in touches that will really make the place become home.”

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Huntley High School Expansion Phase II – First Electric Newspaper

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Written By Staff at First Electric Newspaper. January 2, 2015

http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2015/01/hhs-further-expansion-waits-for-thaw.html

HHS Further Expansion Waits For Thaw, Summer Break

Huntley High School students returning from Winter Break Monday will find themselves greeted with a new HHS main entrance sign meant to reinforce a “Red Raiders” identity.  Bolted up during the break, the new sign marks a milestone in District 158’s HHS expansion to handle another 1,000 students.

Most of the Phase I remodeling work’s finished, according to D158’s Operations and Maintenance Director Doug Renkosik  including revamping the main entrance for better security and repurposing four instruction areas including the school’s weight room.  Parking changes and a student entrance to the Harmony Road campus are finished and work’s approaching the halfway point on the new Huntley High Field House.

Phase II construction’s due to begin this Spring (“just as soon as the ground thaws”) for a classroom addition on the high school’s west end with interior work on a larger cafeteria, multiple common areas, and a redesigned library scheduled to start as soon as the Summer Break.  “It’s going to be a very busy Summer,” said Renkosik.

The entire project is being funded by a $39 million construction grant from the State that had originally been planned to pay for the District’s Square Barn Campus almost 10 years ago.

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Oak Ridge Ready for Students- Courier News

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Written by Suzanne Baker, The Courier News. August 12, 2014

http://couriernews.suntimes.com/2014/08/12/oak-ridge-ready-students/?utm_source=Elgin+Courier-News&utm_campaign=dfd588ebf5-Elgin_Newsletter_August_138_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_53cae08a8e-dfd588ebf5-78871401

Oak Ridge is ready for students

CARPENTERSVILLE — Jeffrey Holstein’s students will be in for a big surprise today when they arrive at Oak Ridge School.

“I think they’re going to be shocked,” he said.

Holstein’s students are among the 56 who will open the newest school building Community Unit District 300 has to offer.

The community got a sneak peek on Monday when the district hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at the 300 Cleveland Ave. site.

Gone are the outdated, mobile units on Lake Marian Road that housed the alternative school since it opened in 1998. Those were demolished two months ago.

District 300 sold the 7.2-acre site to Children’s Home & Aid for $750,000. Proceeds from the sale were used to offset the cost of renovating the building at 300 Cleveland Ave. from office space back into classrooms.

Students now will attend a school with classrooms with shiny walls, polished floors, and huge windows; state-of-the-art restrooms and drinking fountains; thinking rooms for times of reflection; a cafeteria with an optionfor hot lunch; and access to a gymnasium.

For the staff, there’s a work room, conference room, and plenty space for the school nurse, principal and other office staff.

Holstein, who is has worked at Oak Ridge School for 13 years, said over the years he’s heard numerous plans to move Oak Ridge from the mobile classrooms. Greeting visitors who stopped in his classroom on Monday, Holstein said he’s thrilled the move finally came to fruition.

Equally thrilled is Shelley Nacke, assistant superintendent for education services. Before taking on the district administrative role, she worked as a teacher then principal for nine years at Oak Ridge.

“It has been a long time going… 17 years to put Oak Ridge in a building that you don’t have to go across the street for a drill,” Nacke told the crowd in attendance at the ribbon cutting.

School Board President Anne Miller thanked the community for its support.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be here. It’s a day that we knew was going to come,” but it just took 17 years to accomplish, she said.

“To take gym classes inside a mobile classroom was pretty challenging. We had excellent staff that adapted to that,” Miller said. She said now students will have access to the gymnasium at the adjacent Carpentersville Middle School.

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Oak Ridge School’s Permanent Home- Courier News

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Written by Suzanne Baker, The Courier News. August 7, 2014

http://couriernews.suntimes.com/2014/08/07/oak-ridge-school-show-permanent-home/

Oak Ridge School to show off permanent home

CARPENTERSVILLE — Two months after a demolition crew tore apart the mobile classrooms that once housed Community Unit School District 300’s alternative school, district officials will proudly show off the permanent home for Oak Ridge School.

A community ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house is planned from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Monday at Oak Ridge School, 300 Cleveland Ave.

The ceremony ends a process that started more tha

n a year ago when District 300 put the 7.2-acre site of Oak Ridge School on Lake Marian Road up for sale. The property eventually was sold for $750,000 to the Children’s Home and Aid, which is building a preschool on the site.

District officials were eager to move the more than 70 students from sixth through 12th grade from the cramped mobile classrooms. Although the mobile classrooms were intended to last 10 years, the district has used them for 17 years.

Oak Ridge serves students whose special education needs cannot be met at their home schools. Students who commit an expellable offense also can be referred or transferred to the school’s Safe Schools program.

Moving Oak Ridge to its new home adjacent to Carpentersville Middle School will allow the district to reach more students. Because of size limitations, the mobile classrooms could serve a maximum of 78 students. The new space will allow up to 130 students.

At the same time the district was looking for new space for Oak Ridge, the District 300 leadership was eyeing places to house the central office staff under one roof.

In February, the School Board approved moving forward with plans to construct a new office building for administrators and move Oak Ridge School to 300 Cleveland Ave., where the district offices were located at that time.

Over spring break 2014, administrators moved into temporary office space at Hampshire High School, where they will stay until the building just south of Jacobs High School in Algonquin is finished sometime in December.

Work began immediately tearing apart the 300 Cleveland Ave. office space to turn it back into classrooms.

In addition to room for more students, the new school building gives students access to hot lunches, creates more space for group activities, and gives students the opportunity to participate in active physical education daily.

The results of those efforts can be seen during the open house planned on Monday.

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Work on District 300 Projects – Courier News

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Written by Suzanne Baker. The Courier News. July 17, 2014.

http://couriernews.suntimes.com/2014/07/17/new-district-300-offices-taking-shape/

New District 300 Office Taking Shape

ALGONQUIN — While the rain in recent weeks set back school parking lot repairs in Community Unit School District 300, work on various projects throughout the district should be finished by the deadline, a school official is saying.

Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chuck Bumbales gave a brief update this week on the progress of the summer construction projects underway throughout the district.

The most noticeable change is at the site of the new administration center. What just weeks ago looked like a slab of concrete on vacant lot the corner of Golden Eagle and Harnish drives in Algonquin, now is starting to take shape as a building.

Bumbales said the steel was delivered and the basic frame for the structure took two days to erect. As of Monday, the roof was installed as welding crews moved onto the decking for the floors. He said the work should be completed by the end of the week so the concrete for the floor can be poured early next week.

Bumbales estimated the building will be fully enclosed within the next month and a half. He said after the concrete is poured on the second floor, the crew will move onto wrapping the steel around the building and then install the outer walls. The roofing would start after that, he said.

“Probably within a month and a half we should be water-tight in the building and then we should be moving quickly on the inside,” he said.

Work is projected to be completed around winter break.

With just weeks left before the Aug. 4 date to turn the building over to teachers, Bumbales said work on Oak Ridge School also continues to run on schedule.

He said work is continuing on the electrical, heating and air conditioning, sprinkler heads and system controls.

All the work in the ceiling passed inspection with the Regional Office of Education last week giving the green light for the construction crew to begin work on the drop ceiling, he said. With work on the tiling the floor already started, the next phase will be applying a final coat of paint and installing the doors and signage before cleaning up the facility.

With the start of the school year less than a month away, district officials expect air conditioning work and parking lot repairs to be done well before students arrive.

Bumbales said the air conditioning replacement at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Sleepy Hollow Elementary in Sleepy Hollow, Neubert Elementary in Algonquin and Lake in the Hills Elementary in Lake in the Hills is on track to be finished before opening day of school Aug. 13.

While the district is on track to finish parking lot repairs before the start of the school year, Bumbales admitted a few locations will come down to the wire, particularly if the area is hit by frequent rain in the upcoming weeks. “We are on schedule, but it has been, well not even a little, a lot challenging,” Bumbales said.

The good news is that work is finished at Golfview Elementary, Lakewood Elementary, Perry Elementary and Dundee-Crown High School, all in Carpentersville; as well as Westfield School and Jacobs High School, both in Algonquin.

He said progress is being made at Parkview Elementary and the deLacy Family Education Center in Carpentersville; Lake in the Hills Elementary and Lincoln Prairie Elementary in Lake in the Hills; Sleep Hollow Elementary; Hampshire Elementary and Middle Schools in Hampshire; and Algonquin Lakes Elementary in Algonquin.

Construction is expected to start late this week to early next week on Neubert Elementary and Eastview Elementary in Algonquin; Dundee Highlands Elementary in West Dundee and Liberty Elementary in Carpentersville, according to Bumbales.

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District 12 Picks Construction Management Firm- Northwest Herald

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Written by Emily Coleman, The Northwest Herald. July 15, 2014

http://www.nwherald.com/2014/07/16/district-12-picks-construction-management-firm-to-oversee-improvements/aldich1/

District 12 Picks Construction Management Firm to Oversee Improvements

JOHNSBURG – An Elgin-based construction management firm will oversee the referendum-funded overhaul of District 12 facilities.

The School District 12 Board unanimously picked Lamp Incorporated at its meeting Tuesday evening to serve as the construction management firm for the planned improvements and maintenance at the district’s schools.

The work also will include the closure of James C. Bush Elementary and the upgrading of Johnsburg Junior High School campus to accommodate those students.

The approval doesn’t come with a dollar amount yet, Superintendent Dan Johnson said. That number will be negotiated once the architecture firms finalize their plans as soon as this fall.

The estimated $41 million worth of improvements will be paid for using voter-approved bonds. The exact amount the district can take out will be based on a cap that ties how much districts can borrow to property values.

The School Operations Committee recommended Lamp Incorporated to the board after 45-minute interviews with three finalist firms, board Vice President Scott Rowe said.

Rowe was impressed by the firm’s “extensive experience” in northeastern Illinois, its experience with schools and its emphasis on site control and safety – an important point, Johnson added, due to the public nature of the buildings, which are accessed all the time by different groups.

Lamp Incorporated worked on the addition and renovation at Algonquin Middle School, the District 158 expansion to house full-day kindergarten, the Jacobs High School addition and renovation and the Huntley High School athletic improvements, according to its website.

It also conducted District 12’s facilities assessment three years ago, Johnson said.

Ian Lamp, the firm’s vice president of marketing and sales, also highlighted the way the firm ends the project: by digitally providing the district with all the bids, qualification reports, equipment manuals and training videos so they are completely accessible and usable after the project is done.

“I think we [the School Operations Committee] were comfortable that we would get what we expect,” Rowe said, adding that he feels “not the least bit tentative” about the pick.

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Harvard High School Progress- Northwest Herald

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Written by Shawn Shinneman, The Northwest Herald. July 10, 2014

http://www.nwherald.com/2014/07/10/harvard-high-school-in-second-phase-of-face-lift/awz0fos/

Harvard High School in second phase of face-lift

HARVARD – It’s been more than 20 years since Harvard High School received substantial work and nearly a century since it was built. So, yes, District 50 officials are excited to be closing in on the second phase of a major sprucing up of the place.”It’s very much needed – the original part of the building was constructed in 1921, and then it had additions in 1955 and 1993,” said Steve Miller, the district’s director of facilities. “So yeah, the older section of the building really did need some updating.”

Update it, they have. Contractors started last year building 10 new classrooms, which opened by Christmas break. They did the exterior of the kitchen last summer, and completed the interior throughout the school year. Equipment was installed in the spring.”That was a new addition to the building,” Miller said. “It’s completed and ready to go when the kids come back in September.” The old kitchen is being demolished and rebuilt as cafeteria space, expanding seating and adding a “senior cafe” that will incorporate “restaurant-style” seating, Miller said.
Crews also will build a fitness center with cardio equipment and an area for yoga, and redo the administrative area. The high school also will get installed a secure entrance, along with four other schools in the district this summer.

In the new entrance, a first set of doors will open into a small atrium where guests can speak with school staff through a video screen before being buzzed through a second set of locked doors. The district’s fifth school, Richard D. Crosby Elementary, already has a secure entrance. Additionally, both the high school and Jefferson School are getting new HVAC systems. The high school’s upgrades have been a long time coming. The school was the district’s only building not to feel relief from a $22 million referendum in 2008, which allowed the district to build Crosby school and drop a grade level at the others to create space. But that referendum was leveraged for a $13.8 million grant, which officials are using to complete the high school renovations.
So far, the completed projects have gone over well with students, Miller said. “They’ve been very good,” he said. “The modern rooms are very nice.”

lamp incorporated current projects
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D300 Parking Lots Improvements- Courier News

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Written by Suzanne Baker, The Courier News. June 30, 2014

http://couriernews.suntimes.com/2014/06/30/19-school-parking-lots-getting-facelift/

19 School Parking Lots Getting a Facelift

The parking lots of 19 schools in Community Consolidated School District 300 are getting a much-needed makeover this summer.

District 300 Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chuck Bumbales said this past winter was particularly harsh on school parking lots throughout the district. He said work already has begun repairing the lots filled with potholes.

The $3.3 million project to fix the holes ranges anywhere from completely tearing out all asphalt surfaces at one school to paving small areas at other schools.

Among the lots getting work done are:

  • Hampshire Middle School
  • Algonquin Lakes
  • deLacey Family Education Center in Carpentersville
  • Dundee Highlands Elementary in West Dundee
  • Eastview Elementary in Algonquin
  • Hampshire Elementary in Hampshire
  • Hampshire Middle in Hampshire
  • Lake in the Hills in Lake in the Hills
  • Liberty in Carpentersville
  • Lincoln Prairie Elementary in Lake in the Hills
  • Perry Elementary in Carpentersville
  • Sleepy Hollow Elementary in Sleepy Hollow
  • Golfview Elementary in Carpentersville
  • Neubert Elementary in Algonquin
  • Parkview Elementary in Carpentersville
  • Lakewood Elementary in Carpentersville
  • Algonquin Middle in Algonquin
  • Westfield Community School in Algonquin — (track original to the building)
  • Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville
  • Jacobs High School in Algonquin.

In addition to parking lots, Golden Eagle Drive adjacent to Jacobs High School will get facelift to repair the numerous potholes.

While the top layer of asphalt was ground away in the parking lot at Parkview Elementary School in Carpentersville, the community still was able to use the lot for public parking at the Rock the Fox Music Festival June 27-29 in town. Drivers did have to navigate the lighted traffic sawhorses marking the manholes that jutted up from the scraped surface.

The paving work was bid in early March, and the School Boards approved the bids from the lowest contractors in April.

Contracts went to Abbey Paving Co. for $1.8 million, Schroeder Asphalt Services for $371,685, Arrow Road Construction for $647,095 and Accu-Paving for $240,065. The total amount for all contracts, including oversight services from Lamp Inc. and allowances for unforeseen conditions, was $3.3 million.

Money for the work will be paid out of District 300’s Capital Projects Fund.

The budget established for this work was $3,516,281.

lamp incorporated current projects
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ECC Life Sciences Building achieves LEED Silver Certification.

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Lamp Incorporated is honored to announce that the Health and Life Sciences Building at Elgin Community College has achieved LEED Silver Certification! Congratulations to all who worked hard to accomplish this success.  Click here to read the full report.

lamp incorporated current projects
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