The science wing under construction at Homewood-Flossmoor High School will be available for student use in March. The building will not be fully occupied, but Superintendent Scott Wakeley said it will operate as “a remote teaching site.”
Wakeley said asking teachers to relocate to the science wing mid-semester isn’t feasible. He sees that move happening in summer. But once the contractors leave “we want to start using the building right away,” he said.
The District 233 Finance Committee got an update from Ryan Kelley of DLA Architects on Nov. 14 on the progress of the work on the science addition. The building on the east side of the South Building is visible from Flossmoor Road. Kelley said the construction contract also called for improvements in the North Building where the new kitchens for the culinary program were completed in late summer, and fashion design and interior design spaces were completed in 2023.
Reed Construction won the $29-million bid for the projects. The school board borrowed $20 million and is using reserve funds to finance the remaining $9 million.
Kelley said as of mid-November the outer skin of the science addition was about 90% complete. Once that shell is done, crews will begin work on the interior spaces.
“I think we’ll have substantial completion by mid-February,” Kelley said. Then faculty will have training sessions on the Net Zero operations in the building before starting classes in the new spaces. Net Zero buildings use on-site renewable energy sources to offset the energy consumed by the building on an annual basis.
H-F will be one of only a few Illinois high schools that have Net Zero status due to its green technologies. H-F received a $2-million grant through the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to cover those costs. The board also will receive a $40,000 ComEd New Construction Grant, and a $500,000 Illinois State Capital Improvement Grant.
The science wing will connect to the South Building at G-Building which got a new roof as part of the construction work.
Construction crews ran into a few issues with utilities, Kelley said. The water line outside G-building cracked when it was being extended to the science wing, and then when a valve was being inserted the rest of the pipe cracked. Crews also found that the sanitary line from G-Building was broken, and the storm line south of the South Building was undersized and had to be updated.
When working on the culinary project, Kelley said drawings for the North Building didn’t show the sanitary sewer where it was. Once the sewer line was located, it was eight feet deeper than expected. Crews needed to get that connection so the sinks in the culinary kitchens would work.
These utility improvements and updates are considered change orders to the original contract and add up to about $60,000, but Kelley said there has been a $20,000 savings in paving costs and another $20,000 in roofing costs, so overall the district is likely to see an increase of only $20,000.
“On a typical project (you have) maybe 5% of change orders,” Kelley said. By comparison, this H-F job has had “less than a half of one percent.”