Dixon’s Dempsey Therapeutic Day School to get $366K in updates, inside and out

DIXON — After opening in August, the final touches are being made on the Dempsey Therapeutic Day School.

The Dixon School Board approved three bids for new flooring and ceiling tiles in the gym and a playground at its meeting Wednesday, April 16. The updates to the gym had been planned since before Dempsey opened; the board tabled the bids at its June 27 meeting to wait for grant funds to become available.

All three projects are being funded through an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant from the Illinois State Board of Education.

[ Dixon Public Schools make progress on new therapeutic day school ]

“I’m excited. This is kind of a final culmination of everything,” Superintendent Margo Empen said Wednesday.

Dempsey Principal Janine Huffman said she’s excited to get the playground installed because it’s been a challenge to run a school with kindergarten to eighth grade students without one.

The new flooring will be completed by Boss Carpet for $62,000 and the ceiling by Bertel Peterson for $74,879. Originally, the ceiling bid was $72,000, but the cost of materials had increased since June 2024, making the price go up, DPS business manager Marc Campbell said.

The district has worked with both companies in the past and has a positive relationship with them, Campbell has said.

As for the playground, it’ll be $229,886. The district didn’t go through a public bidding process and instead used OMNIA services, which the district has used in the past and has belonged to its partnership program for about a decade, Campbell said.

OMNIA has already won the bid at the state level, meaning it has the lowest prices for products across Illinois, he said.

The playground was created alongside Huffman, Student Services Coordinator Shari Eddinger and Director of Buildings and Grounds Kevin Schultz. What sets it apart from other district playgrounds is that it will have poured-in-place rubber rather than mulch, Campbell said.

That material “is significantly safer and more forgiving during falls. It is our intent over time to have these surfaces installed at all of our playground facilities,” Campbell said.