Members of the Joliet Township High School District 204 board, administration and community held a ribbon-cutting for the newly renovated Pupil Personnel Services office area at Joliet West High School on Monday, days before students are set to return from their winter break.

The new area sits in the space previously occupied by the old culinary, child care, and fashion classrooms, which were replaced by new, modernized facilities at the start of the school year.

The redesign is meant to consolidate the previously disconnected collection of offices occupied by the school’s deans, counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals into a shared, centralized space.

“This new space will allow staff to better meet student needs in a collaborative space,” District 204 Superintendent Dr. Karla Guseman said. “It provides more privacy for students, and a welcoming atmosphere to promote connection, wellness, and student success. We want to thank our PPS staff for their patience with their displacement the last few months as we completed this project in an operating school.”

Work for the project began in June and continued throughout the summer and first semester, with the final pushes to complete the project made in late December while students were on break.

The new offices include an expanded waiting area like a doctor’s office as well as two large conference rooms, which staff can use to meet with groups of students or students and parents. The new modernized offices for PPS staff also includes more room and comfortable furniture for students.

The office suite includes two new, single-occupant restrooms for both staff use and for students who may need a moment of privacy after difficult conversations.

At the end of the school year, additional work will be done to further expand the space into two additional adjoining classrooms, creating more staff offices.

“We couldn’t give up that classroom space during the school year, so we had to do this in phases,” Assistant Principal Brett Marcum said. “Over the summer we will knock out one more wall and expand the PPS space into those rooms, and the old PPS space will be converted into new classrooms to replace them.”

When finished, the space will be 8,875 square-feet and accommodate 25 staff members as well as visiting mental health and substance use counselors from the Will County Health Department.

The reconfigured space, which sits between the cafeteria and the B building, also provides the benefit of improved traffic flow between wings of the building, something Marcum said has been part of the facility master plan for the building.

While students used to have to go around the old culinary and childcare classrooms to go from the cafeteria to the science wing, they can now move there directly through a new, wide corridor in front of the PPS office.

The district also took advantage of the construction in the area to renovate the two bathrooms across the hall from the new office, another master plan item the school has been gradually trying to improve throughout the building.

“I’m very excited about this improvement,” said Board President Matt Kennedy, who also works as a dean at Chaney-Monge School District 88. “Seeing how quickly our vendors were able to complete the work is amazing, and as a dean, I think it’s really important to have a space where PPS staff can all work together. A lot of time behavior issues aren’t just about what happened, there are other background issues that explain why it happened, so in those cases it’s helpful to be able to have the deans and social workers or psychologists come in together immediately and talk with the student.

“This is going to help our students with the highest needs and gives us the best opportunity for positive growth,” he said.

Joliet West students will get their first look at the new office and hallway space when they return from winter break on Thursday.