Community Pulse: Coal City Unit 1 undergoing summer work to prepare for upcoming year

As students begin their summer break, work is already underway across the Coal City Community Unit School District to prepare for the upcoming academic year. From building improvements to curriculum planning, district staff are focused on ensuring schools are ready to welcome students back in August.

Over the next eight weeks a number of projects will be taking place at our various school buildings, to name a few, there will be a boiler replacement at the early childhood center, mechanical upgrades at the high school, roof repairs at our middle school and electrical improvements at the elementary school.

At this time, the district continues to move forward with repairs to the north gymnasium at Coal City Intermediate School, and we expect construction to begin in late August.

As we have shared, the building was closed in late October 2024 when structural damage in the wooden roof trusses were uncovered. The building has been unoccupied since that time and over the course of several months district administration and the Board of Education have been coordinating with architects on a plan to replace the gym roof and repair damage to the building’s north wall that occurred as a result of the damaged roof trusses.

Construction bids are due this month, and the current timeline outlines materials to be sourced during the months of July and August ahead of the construction. Per architects with Performances Services, the project remains on schedule to have our fourth and fifth grade students and staff back in the school building at the start of the 2026-2027 school year.

Until the doors to the Intermediate School reopen, students will continue to learn and grow at Coal City Elementary School. As I have said many times, we are so grateful to our elementary staff and students for their understanding and kindness in welcoming the fourth and fifth grade classes.

In addition to a wide range of planned projects, the district’s custodial and maintenance staff are hard at work preparing the interiors of all school buildings—ensuring that students and staff return to clean, safe, and welcoming learning environments.

Along with getting our buildings ready for a new school year, a significant number of hours are put in by our faculty to update curriculum and assessments. Over the

course of the last two weeks, faculty members have logged numerous hours working on these updates with our director of curriculum and assessment.

From facility upgrades to curriculum development, summer remains a critical season of planning and progress.