Referendum poses $29M question for D-116 parents

ROUND LAKE — Parents of School District 116 students will soon get a say on whether Round Lake High School should expand. The district will conduct a referendum March 18 on whether it should borrow $29 million dollars through bond sales for the expansion of the high school.

The district’s assistant superintendent for business, Bill Johnston, said the board decided the question be put to voters at the Dec. 16 community meeting where, he said, the sentiments of many parents were that the school’s expansion is long overdue.

Originally, Johnston said, the high school was built for 1,370 students, and now more than 2,000 attend.

Round Lake High School freshman Jazhane Smith of Round Lake Park said she thinks the expansion is a good thing because some of the hallways are overcrowded during her passing periods.

She is a first-bell student, which means she starts her school day one period before other students. The two-bell schedule was put in place as a way to alleviate congested hallways. There are also two portable buildings used for classrooms.

Smith’s mother, Connie Odoms, agrees that an expansion is needed.

“I just wish they wouldn’t have waited to the last minute to build,” Odoms said. “If they saw the town growing, they should have added more space to accommodate that before it got bad.”

Odoms said she believes students from other areas outside of the district also attend for reasons unknown to her and this only adds to the overflow problem.

At its estimated date of completion in the 2015-2016 school year, the expansion of the high school would not only relieve the crowds in hallways, it also would add 33 teaching stations and classrooms. One of those would be an additional gymnasium.

The two-bell schedule will end, and students will have eight class periods.

Four of the new classrooms are slated for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and will have “state-of-the art technology,” Johnston said.

Projectors on walls and vents for fumes from science classes are some of the features the STEM rooms will most likely have for students, but those plans are still not defined, Johnston said.

“At this point we’re still trying to determine what will be added in the STEM rooms,” he said.

This month a committee will start to develop fliers with information to help residents understand what they will be voting for in March.

Johnston said parents of students in middle school and even younger grades should pay close attention and get informed since the vote will affect their students at some point in their education. “We want to be transparent so [parents] can make the best decision for their student or future student,” he said. “In doing this, we’re trying to prepare our students for college and help them succeed in the workforce.”