Capital Project Construction
On Oct. 25 the board of education approved bids for Phase 2A of the capital project, which will include new construction and extensive renovation at the Iroquois Middle School campus. This is a critical and exciting next step in realizing the district’s vision for a reconfigured and redesigned middle school program.
The work at Iroquois will include constructing 20 new classrooms and renovating 86,000 square feet of existing classrooms. The work will transform Iroquois into a future-ready learning environment for our district’s seventh and eighth grade students. Site work is expected to begin by December, and by next spring, construction will be well underway. Work at Iroquois is expected to be substantially completed by the summer of 2026.
Due to the historic inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions we are experiencing, the bids awarded by the board for the Iroquois work exceed the costs of the project that were anticipated years ago, prior to the pandemic. This phenomenon of higher-cost construction is a global concern that’s confronting schools, commercial clients, and homeowners across our country. As a result of this inflationary pressure, the board has approved allocating sufficient funding for the Iroquois project. That means that the planned work at Van Antwerp Middle School must be phased over two separate capital projects—the project voters approved in 2021 and a referendum planned for 2024.
The project at Iroquois, along with renovations planned for Van Antwerp Middle School (Phase 2B of the capital project), are necessary to get the buildings ready for the district’s planned grade-level configuration: five K-4 elementary schools, a grade 5-6 lower middle school at Van Antwerp and a grade 7-8 upper middle school at Iroquois.
Securing the funding needed to provide future-ready learning spaces for all 5-6 middle school students at Van Antwerp will require additional voter approval.
“When the district contemplated a reconfiguration of our middle school grade spans several years ago, district leaders acknowledged that we would need to make substantial new investments in our Iroquois and Van Antwerp campuses,” Superintendent Carl Mummenthey said. “We remain committed to a major investment at Van Antwerp and will be working very hard to redesign our construction phasing and our construction budgets to ensure that the work gets done.”