The Evanston District 65 School Board tonight is scheduled to review a new capital budget, updated after costs of some projects were higher than expected, that delays or removes some projects and adds others.
The five-year plan adopted in 2017 for 2018-22 prioritized creation of double vestibule entries at five schools — King Arts, Washington, Lincolnwood, Bessie Rhodes and Orrington — asbestos abatement and various other safety-related repairs, at an estimated cost of $1.025 million per year.
Because costs of updating the entries at Lincolnwood, Bessie Rhodes and Orrington were significantly higher than expected, the Board requested an updated five-year plan at its meeting last month so it could get a realistic picture of the capital budget.
The updated plan includes the secure double vestibule entry for Lincolnwood and Bessie Rhodes schools, asbestos abatement in the construction areas in those schools and asbestos abatement at King Lab and Washington to be done in 2019.
According to the new plan, the secure entry for Orrington is delayed until 2020. It also defers asbestos removal at Nichols and Willard and structural work at Dawes and guardrail replacement at Oakton until 2020.
The plan postpones other projects, such as kitchen improvements at King Arts and Chute and asbestos abatement at the remaining schools and seems to remove some projects from the list altogether, such as installing new fire-rated doors at Lincoln.
Lastly it adds two projects for 2023 — updating the HVAC system at Washington and replacing classroom unit ventilators at Nichols.
The District 65 school board meets at Joseph E. Hill Education Center, 1500 McDaniel Ave., at 7 p.m.
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