Lockport — Lockport Township High School District 205 has big plans on the line in next week’s primary election with an $85 million referendum to renovate Central Campus being put before voters.
The district hopes to drastically renovate the 115-year-old building, which is undergoing construction to remove hazardous ceilings following the collapse of one third-floor room’s ceiling Nov. 1, which has rendered the building unoccupiable for months.
Plans to renovate the school were underway before the ceiling incident because of the building’s aging facilities, including an antiquated HVAC system, aging windows and roofing, outdated classrooms, and a lack of ADA accessibility.
Previously, the district tried to pass six larger referendums to build a new school to replace Central Campus between 2006 and 2011, which all failed to pass. The hope with the renovation plan is to avoid the larger bill and extensive construction work involved in creating an all new facility by salvaging the historic freshman center.
For several months, the district has been giving tours of the campus in hopes of persuading the community to vote for the referendum and invest in restoring it to modern standards, while maintaining much of its historical character. One final tour will be given before the March 19 vote at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, however, it will be truncated from previous tours due to the ongoing demolition of the ceilings.
“It is an active construction zone, so the tour will be limited,” interim Director of Public Relations Janine Wheeler said. “We are asking visitors to come in through Door 15 by the auditorium, because most of the session will be a Q-and-A meeting, though we will try to show some parts of the first floor.”
Additionally, the district planned to host a live Q-and-A session on its YouTube channel at 7 p.m. Monday for the public and will hold two final in-person informational sessions at its feeder schools Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Tuesday session will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Fairmont School in Lockport, and the Wednesday session will be held at 7 p.m. at Richland School in Crest Hill. The Richland meeting is intended for members of the Richland and Chaney Monge School districts.
“That will conclude everything we have scheduled for the referendum,” Walker said. “Otherwise we’ve been trying to continually answer questions from the public as they come up by posting videos and updating our referendum FAQs on our website.”