September 29, 2024
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DeKalb High School track resurfacing, elementary school playground replacements could be coming

DeKalb School District 428 considering $4.5M worth of infrastructure improvements in 2025

By Megann Horstead
Shaw Local file photo – Hudson Fisher of Huntley leads the pack during the 800 meter run Thursday, May 17, 2023, during the sectional meet at DeKalb High School.

Shaw Local file photo – Hudson Fisher of Huntley leads the pack during the 800 meter run Thursday, May 17, 2023, during the sectional meet at DeKalb High School. (David Toney for Shaw Local/David Toney)

DeKALB – DeKalb School District 428 is considering about $4.5 million worth of infrastructure improvements in 2025.

The upgrades could include DeKalb High School track resurfacing, Littlejohn and Tyler Elementary Schools playground replacements, Huntley Middle School roof replacement and HVAC work.

The DeKalb school board was briefed at a recent public meeting on whether to grant the district permission to proceed with requesting bids for summer 2025 improvement projects.

The district is working under the assumption that the projects’ cumulative costs could be about $4,528,132, school board documents show. Improvement projects would be paid for using a combination of operation and maintenance funds and life/safety budget.

Tammy Carson, the district's director of facility and safety operations, briefs the DeKalb School District 428 Board on facility improvement projects that are being eyed by staff for summer 2025.

Tammy Carson, the district's director of facility and safety operations, briefs the DeKalb School District 428 Board on facility improvement projects that are being eyed by staff for summer 2025. (Megann Horstead)

Tammy Carson, the district’s director of facility and safety operations, noted that the district is still finishing up 2024 improvement projects, but said officials need to start looking ahead.

“We are already planning for summer 2025,” Carson said.

Carson said the district is always looking to do its part to think long-range about its facility improvement needs.

“We do have a five-year plan that we work off of to identify projects that we consider priorities,” Carson said. “Some are projects that we haven’t moved forward with on previous years.”

Board President Deyci Ramirez noted that a lot of the district’s improvements the past couple years have been paid for using pandemic-era Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. That emergency relief provided under ESSER has expired and is no longer available to District 428.

Carson said these projects are now all operations and maintenance funded.

“We’ve been very fortunate because the ESSER funds have been able to accomplish many projects, especially in our HVAC, that we would not have been able to accomplish and have been as far along in our HVAC replacements as we are today,” Carson said.

Ahead of the board’s Sept. 3 meeting, Carson is urging school officials to support the district in going out to bid for summer 2025 improvement projects.

If approved, bid results could then be presented to the school board for consideration as early as February or March.

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