Lockport District 205 celebrates reopening of Central campus on Friday

Lockport — Lockport Township High School District 205 will host a reopening celebration for its Central Campus on Friday, marking the completion of a monthslong renovation project.

Members of the community are invited to come celebrate the milestone with school and district officials at 8 a.m.

In the statement announcing the event, the district stated that contrary to earlier expectations, all the construction work by Berglund Construction and DLA Architects will be completely finished by the start of school Monday.

“We wanted to mark the occasion that some serious work was completed here. This is the most work that’s been done on the building since 1958, and almost half the structure was impacted.”

—  Dr. Robert McBride, superintendent of Lockport Township School District 205

Despite early predictions that parts of the school would remain inaccessible to students for a week or two upon reopening, the district said no construction operations will remain on the premises when the students return for the 2024-25 school year.

“In July we anticipated the north side of the building wouldn’t reopen until Aug. 30,” Superintendent Dr. Robert McBride said. “We found a problem on the north wall that needed some major masonry work, so we thought we wouldn’t be able to have students in there, but the best thing is we’ll now be able to open the whole thing on Aug. 19. It’s a great accomplishment and we’re very happy about it.”

The Central campus building, which serves as the District 205 freshman center, suffered a third-floor ceiling collapse in November 2023 and has been closed since while it underwent inspections and necessary replacements.

Freshman students were then bused to the former Lincoln-Way North building in Frankfort for most of the 2023-24 school year after District 205 entered into an agreement with School District 210 to use the campus. The building had been closed since 2016 after only eight years of use.

McBride said that district officials had been through the building earlier this week and gone over the punch list of small missing items or minor repairs, which he said he anticipated would be completed by Friday as the teachers finish moving their belongings back in.

“We’ve been moving back gradually since July when they finished the first floor,” McBride said. “We’ve had four trips with tractor trailers to bring the furniture and boxes of teachers’ materials back from Lincoln-Way North.”

McBride noted that teachers had been brought in a day early Wednesday to set up their newly renovated rooms and would have another opportunity Friday to finish.

Aside from moving in, one last piece of work is being finished on the school’s exterior, which is re-pouring concrete in a courtyard that was badly damaged.

“That won’t have any impact on the students because they don’t go out there,” McBride said. “That should hopefully be finished up on Friday, if not early next week.”

McBride and Central Campus Principal Dr. Kerri Green will deliver remarks at Friday’s event. Guests will be provided coffee and donuts as the 115-year-old building is rededicated.

The reception is expected to last about 30 minutes and will take place outside the building’s main entrance.

“We wanted to mark the occasion that some serious work was completed here,” McBride said. “This is the most work that’s been done on the building since 1958, and almost half the structure was impacted. We rebuilt the upper ceilings in the dangerous areas, but the whole building has new LED lighting and acoustical tile drop-ceilings inside, and the whole building has been thoroughly cleaned. It’s all much brighter in there now.”

Overall, the demolition, engineering, reconstruction and maintenance cost the district about $5 million.

McBride said about $4.5 million was spent on the construction itself, but that the final bills for extra change orders and small projects are now coming in to be paid.