DeKalb District 428 plans for 2024 building improvements

DeKALB – Summer improvement projects could be in order next year for several DeKalb schools.

The DeKalb School District 428 board approved a series of bids this week regarding projects to tackle in summer 2024.

The projects’ bids were approved in a 6-1 decision, with Board Vice President Steve Byers casting the lone dissenting vote.

Byers said he couldn’t throw his support behind the bids knowing it wasn’t fiscally responsible in his view.

“The projects would have to wait until we have the money or at least until we have it in the budget,” Byers said. “It’s not in the budget right now. Some things like the parking lot here [at the Education Center], it doesn’t directly affect our students at all. No students really come here.”

“The projects would have to wait until we have the money or at least until we have it in the budget. It’s not in the budget right now.”

—  Steve Byers, DeKalb school board vice president

Among the improvements the district is eying are sealcoating and striping at Clinton Rosette Middle and Lincoln Elementary schools, concrete and asphalt repairs in the district, restroom renovation at Jefferson Elementary School, domestic water heater replacements at Huntley Middle and Clinton Rosette Middle and Founder Elementary schools, roof replacement at Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School, HVAC upgrades at Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary and Clinton Rosette Middle school, and new cooler/freezer at Cortland Elementary School.

Two items struck from the list were parking lot replacement at the district’s Education Center and renovations at Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School, according to school board documents.

Tammy Carson, the district’s director of facility and safety operations, said the district has four different funds it is relying on to pay for summer 2024 improvements: Elementary Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, Life Safety Budget, Food Service Budget and Operations and Maintenance Budget.

But she said the district is not committing itself to these projects by the board taking action this week to approve the bids.

“They could all be considered to wait because right now we’re just bidding them,” Carson said. “We’ll get actual numbers and make a decision. The board will approve or reject the decision to move forward to do them or not. None of this is a commitment to do these projects, for sure, in the summer. It’s strictly an approval to go out and seek bids to see what they would come in at, what we could contract for.”

The board is expected to begin considering contracts from the bid results for summer improvement projects as early as October, officials said.

Carson said it was important that the board move ahead with approving the bids.

“Depending on the complexity of each of the bids, some of these go out earlier such as the mechanical, the HVAC bids,” Carson said. “Those are the ones coming in October because we need to award those contracts sooner because of the lead time for the equipment. We wouldn’t get it in time to be able to do the projects for summer, if we do not approve those projects around that October 14th mark.”

Not all the contracts, however, are expected to be ready for board consideration this fall.

“We could be approving as far out as March on some of our projects because those don’t have the same type of lead times and the bid specs haven’t actually been drawn out yet,” Carson said. “Many of the HVAC bids were considered in previous years and we didn’t approve them, so now they’re being brought forth and we’re able to just revamp those things and get them out into the market to see what we can get for bid results.”