HUNTLEY – About a decade ago, School District 158 officials were certain they would have to build a second high school. Enrollment at Huntley High School was soaring swiftly to more than 2,000 students.
The high school building was built for less than 1,000 in the ’90s and was rapidly becoming overcrowded. Overall enrollment in the K-12 consolidated district was setting growth records annually.
Then, a couple of things changed as district officials tried to be as proactive as possible to deal with the expanding number of students and the resulting increased costs.
First – enrollment growth, after a decade of frenetic expansion – started to slow down around 2006-07. The numbers continued to increase, but at a slower rate. Growth also slowed in the elementary and middle schools.
Then in August 2012, the State of Illinois sent the district a $39.4 million capital development grant.
“We didn’t expect the state, in the middle of debt and pension funding crises, to do that for us,” Mark Altmayer, the district’s chief financial officer, said. “These grants are designed to help us abate local property taxes and pay for capital expansion projects.”
So, with a state grant in the bank and student numbers starting to stabilize, educators made a big decision: With 3,000 students anticipated in the high school by 2018, they decided they did not need a second high school – they could build an addition to the current one.
The state grant will pay for it, and the district’s share of local property taxes will not be increased.
“We have used about $1 million of the grant to abate some property taxes for local residents, and we are studying ways to abate more of them in the future,” Altmayer said.
“A new high school would cost us at least $80 million, and we believe we can renovate our Harmony Road campus and construct an addition to the current high school for less than half that,” John Burkey, district superintendent said. “We have a state grant to pay for the facilities necessary to serve our growing high school enrollment.”
Now, the district has embarked on a two-level planning effort – short and long range.
The short-range part is renovation of the athletic facilities on the south side of the Harmony campus. Sun City residents living near the campus probably have noticed that the bleachers on the football-soccer field are being replaced and artificial field turf is being installed. Also, the natural turf softball and baseball fields nearby will be re-landscaped and upgraded. All of this work will be completed this summer, in time for the fall sports season that begins in late August.
“These facilities haven’t been touched since the campus was built in the ’90s,” Burkey said. “Beyond any enrollment challenges, they badly need to be fixed. They are not irrigated, and in many places grass has disappeared, and we have too much mud and dust.”
The long-range plan involves renovation of many areas of the high school and construction of an academic addition. This is in the design stage and the beginning of construction is 12-18 months away.
“The architects are preparing at least three options for this phase, and the board of education and staff will choose one. And then we will advertise for bids by contractors,” Burkey said.
He added, “The completion date is not known yet, but is probably 2-3 years away. We need a high school that comfortably houses 3,000 students–that is what is being designed. There is no reason to build a second high school, given our current and projected numbers of students.”
Property tax revenues from district taxpayers are used to pay for ongoing academic, athletic, and administrative costs of the district.
“We don’t have any detailed recommendations or plans from our architects yet,” Burkey said. “But we know we need more classrooms, more physical education teaching spaces, another gym, an expanded library, larger cafeteria facilities, and upgraded entrances and exits. Our cafeterias will probably be constructed with a food court theme like you see in shopping malls. We also need more hallways that are located better so we can spread our students out in a wider area, instead of crowding them together in our existing hallway system.”
“We have grown from less than 1,000 students just before 2000 to 2,500 now,” Burkey said. “We believe this plan is the best way to meet this challenge.”
The district now has almost 10,000 students in grades K-12 in eight buildings on three campuses located in Huntley, Lake in the Hills, and Algonquin. The district serves all of Huntley and portions of the communities of Lake in the Hills and Algonquin.
