Facilities Community Engagement

For information and updates related to the building plan and process after the successful passage of the February 5, 2008 referendum, please see Building the Future. 

Following nearly four years of study by three different citizens groups, an architectural review of each of District 203’s 21 schools, and a year conferring with Naperville intergovernmental agencies - as well as months spent gathering input through the Touch the Future community engagement process - the Board of Education has voted 7-0 to place a referendum question on the February 5, 2008, ballot. Please see D203 Decision for the Future for ongoing details.

The information below chronicles the Touch the Future facilities community engagement process that took place from August through November, 2007.

Touch the Future 
meetings and tours

Touch the Future overview
How you can Touch the Future
The most pressing facilities needs
Key issues addressed by the Facilities Task Force
Next steps
Facilities Community Engagement resources

Online Touch the Future feedback survey

Touch the Future overview

District 203’s physical facilities encompass more than 2 million square feet under roof and represent a multi-million dollar community investment. Their upkeep is critical to the District’s ability to deliver its product: quality education for the 21st Century. The Board of Education invited the entire community to learn about the work that has been done by the Facilities Task Force, to take a tour, attend a community engagement meeting and give input via a feedback form. We need your opinion. Come Touch the Future.

• Facilities impact learning
• Quality school facilities affect real estate values
• Older buildings have higher maintenance costs that increase over time
• Facilities are dated and inefficient, inhibiting 21st Century learning

Note: Facilities ranked as most significant area of concern in March 2007 parent survey

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How you can Touch the Future

Facilities Community Engagement Meetings

District 203’s Board of Education invited the community to discover the facts about this valuable community asset. A Facilities Community Engagement process began in August and continued into September, involving informational meetings held at all 21 schools.  School administrators and parent groups worked with homeowner associations to invite people to come to a meeting where they viewed a video, heard a presentation, asked questions and gave feedback. Feedback was collected from each participant and shared with the Board of Education. An online Touch the Future feedback survey is also available.

Come Touch the Future Video

A video, Come Touch the Future, has been produced in partnership with NCTV17 that highlights some of the needs being discussed. 

Click these links to view Come Touch the Future through your web browser. (Note: requires web browser that plays QuickTime files; allow time to download.)

Come Touch the Future trailer (6 minutes)
Come Touch the Future full video (22 minutes)

For those not in the NCTV17 viewing area, all programming is streamed live on the website: www.nctv17.com.

Facilities Community Engagement Tours

Opportunities were available to tour Naperville Central High School, Mill Street Elementary and the Early Childhood Program, located at Elmwood Elementary School, to learn more about the facility issues in those buildings. The "Thousand Touches" tour campaign endeavored to bring 1,000 people through these facilities to get a first-hand look.

Further information about meetings and tours is available by clicking here.

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The most pressing facilities needs

Why Naperville Central High School?

• NCHS is a 60-year-old building, with multiple additions, that is inefficient instructionally and operationally
  • Outdated science labs
  • Classrooms too small
• Infrastructure insufficient to support current technological needs
• $18 million needed for ongoing repairs within next 10-12 years
• Safety and security problems: 47 entry points, no sprinklers on upper floors, handicapped accessibility issues
• Practice fields lost when lease of cemetery property expires - synthetic turf required for PE, athletics and band

Note: Renovation can include kitchen sufficient to provide space to prepare elementary lunches

Why Mill Street Elementary?

• Overcrowded - elementary school with lowest square foot/student (81 compared to District average of 111)
• Instruction in the hallways
• $2.7 million needed for ongoing repairs within next 10 years
• Traffic/parking requires students to walk between buses
• 5 sections of each grade level (4 sections of Kindergarten)

Why an Early Childhood Center (ECC)?

• Rapidly increasing numbers of young children with disabilities
• State and federal laws mandate early intervention programs
• Eleven classrooms at five schools encompassing four program areas
• Law requires services for students with special needs beginning at age 3
• Bathroom and playground facilities are not designed for younger students
• Students must be educated with “typical” peers
• Tuition from students without special needs offsets program costs

What are the other most important facilities priorities?

• The Naperville North High School pool is too shallow for swimming competition, as per state regulations (IHSA)
• Important safety/security/traffic issues need to be addressed at Naperville North High School, Prairie, Ranch View and Mill Street Elementaries and Washington Junior High

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Key issues addressed by the Facilities Task Force

• Fifteen to 30 years from now, we want to look back and say, “We did the right thing regarding our educational facilities.”
• How much should we invest in maintaining old buildings, versus significantly renovating or building new ones?

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Next steps

Community Engagement meetings held at all schools in August and September, 2007

Community Survey, slated for October 2007

Board of Education decision by late November 2007

For further details regarding District 203 facilities, see the District 203 website Facilities Task Force page at www.naperville203.org/departments/buildings/FacilitiesTaskForce.asp. Included are costs and possible referendum options.

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Facilities Community Engagement resources

Online Touch the Future feedback survey
Touch the Future Meetings and Tours invitation (PDF, 316 KB)
Touch the Future tour sheet for Naperville Central High School (PDF, 441 KB)
Touch the Future tour sheet for Mill Street Elementary School (PDF, 243 KB)
Touch the Future tour sheet for Early Childhood Center (PDF, 454 KB)
Touch the Future posters (PDF, 1.7 MB)
Touch the Future presentation (PDF, 222 KB)
Touch the Future trifold brochure (PDF, 307 KB)
Master Facilities Plan (PDF, 2.5 MB)

Superintendent's Memo to the Board
regarding Option C 10-15-07 (PDF, 1 MB)

Addendum to Superintendent's
Memo to the Board regarding Option C 10-15-07 (PDF, 2.8 MB)

Board President's Remarks to City Council
regarding Facilities Options 10-16-07 (PDF, 26 KB)

Wight Pre-Referendum Planning Summary
of Findings 11-05-07 (PDF, 3.83 MB)

Wight Pre-Referendum Planning Summary of Findings 11-19-07 (PDF, 1.51 MB)

NCHS Final Budget Analysis
for the Board of Education 11-5-07 (PDF, 66 KB)

Superintendent Dr. Alan Leis' Recommendations to the Board 11-19-07 (PDF, 272 KB)

The following videos require web browser software that plays QuickTime files; please allow time to download.

Video - School Scene 203 with Dr. Alan Leis, May 2007, Facilities Edition, Part 1 Guests: Jerry Kedziora, Mason Moore, Aimee Lathrop (15 minutes)
Video - School Scene 203 with Dr. Alan Leis, May 2007, Facilities Edition, Part 2 Guests: Tom Paulsen, Doug Wilson, Craig Williams (15 minutes)

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