Bond Work & Sinking Fund Project Update: December 2023

With the passing of the August 2023 Bond, Berkley Schools teams are busy planning for upcoming construction projects. The Bond passage also allowed the District to dedicate Sinking Fund dollars to additional projects outside of the Bond scope to continue the work of updating facilities. 

These monthly Bond & Sinking Fund updates will be maintained on the District’s website. See below for updates on the Phase 1 projects that are taking place in 2024 and 2025.

Project Updates

Design

Baseball/Softball Fields - Sinking Fund

The District will be adding a new home varsity softball field on the Tyler Field, just north of Berkley Building Blocks. The design team, along with Foresite Design, is working on design details and a construction timeline. This new varsity field will include lights, dugouts, concession area and a permanent outfield fence. The District is also working to secure an outdoor restroom location near the field. An additional softball/baseball practice field will be added to the Tyler field in coordination with the City of Oak Park as well.

Planning and discussions are continuing for baseball field upgrades. The Board of Education approved an action item to enter into an agreement with the City of Berkley to renovate a field for high school baseball. More details should be ready to share in January.

District-wide Furniture Purchase - Bond

Design teams are meeting to plan for a District-wide classroom and media center furniture upgrade in Fall 2024. The District secured a vendor, MovePlan will inventory all District classroom and media center furniture starting in December. As part of the inventory process, MovePlan will assess the condition of all furniture and assign a grade to each piece. Once all the furniture is inventoried, the company will build a database for the District to utilize to sell, donate or dispose of the existing furniture. This process will be complete by January 2024 and will take place over the Winter Break. Design teams also continue to meet to talk about feedback from the pilot classrooms to narrow down the selections for the final furniture purchase.

Hurley Field Turf, Track, Lights & Parking - Bond & Sinking Fund

Phase 1 of the Hurley Field construction is part of a larger Bond and Sinking Fund project. It includes: turf, track, relocating discus and shot put, expanded parking and new lighting.

Hurley Field construction is now complete for the Fall/Winter. Below is a summary of the work completed so far:

• The areas behind the end zones have been removed.
• The south endzone concrete has been repoured.
• New concrete has been poured for the new shot put and discus pads.
• The turf has been removed.
• The top track layers have been removed.
• Parking update: A District team met with the city of Berkley and Spalding DeDecker (engineering and surveying firm) to begin traffic flow plans for expanding the Anderson parking lot.

Phase 1 (Burton, Pattengill, BHS) - Bond

Design team meetings are well underway for the Phase 1 projects. The Burton and Pattengill teams are working on needs for their new multi-purpose/cafeteria additions as well as gym updates and playground adjustments. Berkley High School has three design teams running currently with more to begin in the coming months. The Performing Arts, Field House and Science teams are meeting to share their needs and ideas for the new spaces with the architect and construction team. The design team meetings happen in phases of 3-4 meetings and then architects present drawings to the team to refine even further prior to going out to bid. Design teams consist of building staff, District staff, architects and construction management team. These teams are led by Stantec, the District’s architects, and a core team of Berkley Schools Administrative staff.

Maintenance Building - Sinking Fund

The new Maintenance building will be located at the Administrative Offices site in Oak Park, at the end of the parking lot, just north of the Norup playground. The design team is reviewing schematic drawings of the new facility, project cost estimates and are choosing finishes (colors, materials for tile, fencing, etc) for the spaces to be included in the final bid. Once the final design drawings are approved, the next steps include preparing the request for proposal (RFP) documents for construction trades to bid on.

Traffic Flow - Sinking Fund

The District engaged with Spalding DeDecker to complete a traffic study at Burton, Pattengill and Rogers to see if any additional parking or parking flow could be achieved. The design teams are reviewing the proposals and renderings with building staff.

Technology - Bond

New interactive flat panels have been mounted in the Burton 4th and 5th grade classrooms. This is the first wave of new technology to be installed post-bond. Students and teachers enjoyed learning the new equipment this week. Next up - new sound systems and clocks will be installed, and then the installation team will move to additional grades at Burton over Winter Break. After Burton is complete, Pattengill will receive their installations. The rest of the schools will receive the same classroom technology updates in future years of the Bond work.

Weekly Meetings

The District teams participate in weekly meetings with Stantec (architecture, engineering, design), McCarthy & Smith (construction management), and SES (engineering and mechanical systems) to plan timelines of construction, prepare bid documents, as well as pour over details of the scopes of work. Each project has a standard sequence of work: design phase, project cost estimating, bidding for contractors, awarding contracts, construction phase (demolition and building) and finally, project completion.

Owners Rep

Berkley Schools hired an independent Owner’s Rep to help the District manage Bond projects. With the retirement of Deputy Superintendent of Finance, Facilities and Operations, Larry Gallagher, the Bond Team thought it was best to add an additional team member to focus solely on moving the projects along and being a liaison between the construction team and the District. Mr. John Stoner has already joined the team as the Owner’s Rep and will attend all Bond meetings moving forward.