Bond Work & Sinking Fund Project Update: February 2024
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
District-wide Furniture Purchase - Bond
Furniture design teams have wrapped up their work. The next phase includes finalizing choices with the vendor and creating bid documents to put out to the public. The plan is to have all new classroom furniture purchased and installed by the first day of school in August 2024.
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.
Spring timeline update: Because the ground did not go through a deep freeze this winter, the Hurley track work can begin sooner than expected. Contractors will be onsite starting March 8 and will be removing the asphalt and placing the new aggregate base in preparation for the new track asphalt.
Lighting update: Due to the current large Bond and Sinking Fund workload for the professional partners and an expanded Hurley Field scope, Hurley Field’s new lighting project has been moved to Phase II for the Hurley Field work. Phase II will include updated lighting (Bond), a new sound system (Sinking Fund), press box (Sinking Fund), team rooms (Bond), restrooms (Sinking Fund) and concession stands (Sinking Fund). This work will go out to bid during Summer 2025 and installation will happen in late spring/summer 2026.
Parking update - Bond: A District team is working with the professional partners to finalize the expanding parking plans at Anderson/Hurley Field. The new plans will create separate entrance and exit points, a drop off and pick up outer loop and doubling the available parking spaces. This work will be completed during the track/turf construction this spring and summer. This work will go out to bid in March 2024, be awarded in April 2024 and will be complete by Summer 2024.
Phase 1: Burton & Pattengill Multi-Purpose Additions - Bond
Design meetings are complete for the Burton & Pattengill Multi-Purpose additions. Both projects have completed a detailed review with the District Bond team and professional partners. The drawings and scope of work are now being refined. Next steps include final review and cost estimates prior to the projects going out to bid which will take place in March. With this work, both schools will have additional work done on their gymnasiums and playgrounds.
Phase 1: BHS Performing Arts Wing - Bond
Design team meetings are complete for the Berkley High School’s Performing Arts. The architects will now take feedback from the design teams and create refined drawings. Those will be presented to the District Bond team for a detailed review in March and April.
Phase 1: BHS Science Wing - Bond
Design team meetings are complete for the Berkley High School’s Science Wing. The architects will now take feedback from the design teams and create refined drawings. Those will be presented to the District Bond team for a detailed review at the end of March and into April.
Phase 1: BHS BEAR Complex - Bond
The District Field House is now named the BEAR Complex (Berkley Education, Athletics and Recreation). Design team meetings are complete for the BEAR. The architects will now take feedback from the design teams and create refined drawings. Those will be presented to the District Bond team for a detailed review at the end of March.
Phase 1: BHS Pool - Bond
The District and BHS Bond team walked through the BHS Pool with the professional partners to evaluate the proposed work, take measurements and evaluate the space. The professional teams will now create plans and drawings for the space and meet with the BHS Pool Design Team to refine the work.
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 bids for the work were opened, reviewed and the lowest qualified bidders were selected. The District Bond team also completed a value engineering process to review each component of the work prior to the work being awarded to contractors. The lowest qualified bids will be presented to the Board of Education at the March Study Session and will be on the March Regular Meeting agenda for consideration to approve. The plan includes the Maintenance Building being completed by late Fall 2024.
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. This new varsity field will include lights, dugouts, concession area and a permanent outfield fence. The work will also include 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. The early timeline for this work is to begin construction in Spring 2025, with the goal of having our teams play their first game on the home field by Spring 2026.
Planning and discussions are continuing for baseball field upgrades.
Technology - Bond
New interactive flat panels and new classroom sound systems have been installed in all classrooms at Burton and Pattengill along with new clocks. The next timeline includes installing new interactive flat panels at Angell and Rogers over Spring Break. The Technology team is working with the District vendor to plan out the timeline for the rest of the school installations as well.
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
