District 203’s Board of Education gave emergency authorization to fund the removal of one of Naperville Central’s exterior walls at their meeting on Aug. 7. Central Principal Jackie Thornton announced that the wall would need to be removed in a Talk203 communication.
All costs for the removal up to $206,731 were approved by the board.
“We deposited some additional corporate personal property replacement taxes we received [over the past few years],” said Michael Francis, District 203 Chief Financial Officer, at the board meeting. “We put some of that into Fund 60 specifically for something like this. So while we may have to amend the budget on the expenditure side, we have the funding available for it.”
The emergency authorization allowed the district to skip the usual bidding process for large expenditures under Section 10-20.21 of the Illinois School Code.
“We would always prefer [the formal bidding process,] but we think that time is of essence right here as well, because it is a structural matter and we want to ensure safety at the building,” Superintendent Dan Bridges said at the board meeting.
According to a District 203 report, the construction will be divided into three phases.
The board approved the costs for “phase one” of the construction, in which construction crews will “remove the face brick and windows, stabilize or shore up the exterior wall construction and weatherproof the affected areas,” according to the report.
Expenses for the latter stages of construction will need to be approved at a later board meeting.
After the bricks are removed, “the second phase will include a structural/architectural evaluation of the existing conditions to determine the extent of the work for the phase three rebuild of the exterior,” according to the report.
This news is still developing. The Central Times will continue to publish stories on the matter as more information becomes available. Read more about classroom closures at Central here.
