First look: Harlem High School to build $16M addition for career and technical education
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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MACHESNEY PARK — Harlem High School plans to break ground on an expansion this spring designed to improve students’ access to career and technical education that better prepares them for life after high school.
The 27,000-square-foot addition to the high school’s southeast side would allow students to have more time in the classroom because they’d no longer need to be bused about 3 miles away to a building near the district offices where automotive, small-engine repair and welding classes are now held.
The district could also use the addition as a means to resurrect its defunct construction program, in which students formerly worked to build homes in the area, district administrators said.
“One of the big things we’re trying to do is maximize the time our students have in being able to get career experience,” said Jake Hubert, the district’s director of secondary education. “This will provide our students with more opportunities to get involved in those high-need jobs, to get experience and to explore.”
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The roughly $13.5 million expansion will include bays for automotive repairs, a welding lab, learning spaces and a construction lab. It will also include an on-site health clinic for district staff and their dependents. That clinic can provide preventative care that helps reduce district health care costs and lower rates of absenteeism.
“We hope it provides more flexibility for our staff to be able to schedule around what works for them,” said Jason Blume, the district’s director of equity and community engagement.
As part of the project, the district would make about $2.5 million in additional renovations to the high school’s culinary class space and renovate the child care area. Those improvements would cover about 11,000 square feet of the high school.
The district aims to break ground on the project, which will take up part of a practice soccer field, in April. It plans to open the facility before the start of school in fall 2024.
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The project will be funded in part by $5 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan, the federal coronavirus stimulus package that included relief funds for schools across the nation. The district also plans to take on debt through bond sales and spend about $1 million from its fund balance, as well as take private donations to pay for the project.
The bond sales would extend the district’s existing debt payments from roughly 2026 to 2030, but it’s not expected to increase the property tax levy, according to Josh Aurand, the district’s chief school business official.
The total project is anticipated to cost about $16 million, but it has not yet been put out for construction bids. The district is waiting to learn how inflation may affect the scope of the project before it finalizes construction plans. It has hired Ringland-Johnson Construction to manage the project and DLA Architects is designing the expansion and renovations.
The district is also working to establish partnerships with local businesses so it can offer internship opportunities to students as part of its college and career pathways.
Hubert, the director of secondary education, said he hopes the expansion helps bolster career and technical education and broaden students’ horizons.
“If all I’ve ever been exposed to as a young man is video games and athletics and I take a career-interest inventory, that’s what I’m going to say that I like to do and that’s where I’m going to be geared toward,” Hubert said. “We don’t want our students to be pigeonholed. We want them to know and understand there’s a lot of opportunities in a lot of different areas.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.
