‘It’s so exciting’ - Yorkville schools complete $3.9 million temporary classrooms

Yorkville School District 115 is putting the finishing touches on its $3.9 million temporary classroom structures outside Grande Reserve Elementary School, Bristol Bay Elementary School and Autumn Creek Elementary School.

It was a tight squeeze finishing the four-classroom structures in time for the start of the school year, on Aug. 13, but tight squeezes are nothing new for the district.

The temporary classroom structures were devised because the district has been facing a capacity crisis with too many students and not enough spaces.

Cafeterias have been repurposed into band rooms, teachers lounges and coffee rooms have been fitted to hold students. New residential housing continues adding more students into the district every school year.

The district is designing a master facilities plan to expand existing school buildings and potentially build some new schools. With options that both result in tax increases and those that don’t on the table, ranging from costs of $159 million to $281 million, the plan is likely headed to a public referendum.

In the meantime, the district decided to spend money on temporary classroom structures that can repurposed for permanent use.

“Everybody’s going to be surprised when they walk in and see how nice they are, it looks just like a school building,” Heather DiVerde, executive director of facility operations, said. “We’re excited because of what we can do after with them. We’re not wasting money on modular units. These are permanent once completed.”

DiVerde said the district will use the temporary classroom structures for at least three years before students are moved back into whatever new buildings the public approves.

Once that occurs, the three buildings can be repurposed for everything ranging from music and band spaces, after school activities, rental spaces for outside organizations, indoor recess areas and storage space.

DiVerde said the extra temporary classrooms are crucial to helping the schools fall back into their regular operating with spaces and classrooms utilized the way they were originally designed.

The district also recently approved busing overflow students from their nearest schools to another school within the district that has available space. They believe this will help even out the enrollment increases across the district.

“It’s not increasing space because we still have students moving in and new houses being built, DiVerde said. “This is helping us stay at the same level we’ve been at. We need to build a new school. These are just temporary so we have enough space until we get to that point”

Getting the space ready

Providing that extra space in time for the school year was no easy feat.

• New water and sanitary lines needed to be extended to the structures

• Rebar extending 12 feet from the concrete foundation was designed to make the structures storm-safe, modern safety features were implemented for the students

• Everything was constructed ADA compliant

• Each structure, which is not attached to the main elementary school buildings, contains bathrooms

• Classrooms are large enough to hold between 25 to 30 students

There may be as many as 120 students taking classes in each structure at a time.

“From a few weeks ago we had no walls or drywall, and now it’s so exciting to see the ceilings up and our maintenance department finishing up the painting,” David Yodelis, director of facility operations, said. “It’s a huge bonus that the kids are going to enjoy it. It was my idea to do the temporary structures because you’re getting something better for your buck.”

Yodelis said he was extremely proud of his team for helping build structures that will continue serving the district for decades.

“In a tight timeline, we did it,” Yodelis said. “Our local contractors and Y115 maintenance team did a lot of late hours and effort into it. ”