Addition planned for Clear Stream Ave. School

At the District 30 Board of Education’s March 24 meeting, the board discussed its plan to add two new classrooms to Clear Stream Avenue School, with construction scheduled to begin in the summer of 2016 and expected to finish by the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

“We’re still in kind of the infancy stages with this project, so the real start of the project is still a ways away,” said Superintendent Nicholas Stirling. “When we do this kind of project, the vast majority of the construction obviously has to be done during the summer, when the building isn’t being used every day for school…Construction will most likely begin in the summer of 2016, and should hopefully be completed by the start of that school year.”

The $4-million, two-story addition will include two classrooms, two resource rooms and a new elevator. Stirling said the expansion was brought on 25 additional parking spaces, the repaving of an asphalt play area and the installation of six dry wells to protect the school from flooding. The structure is planned for the northwest portion of the school, adjacent to the parking lot on Clear Stream Avenue.

“Our enrollment numbers are growing, and we’re nearing the maximum class size in some of our grades, so we need to have a plan in place to adapt to that,” Stirling said. “The problem is, we are using all of the available space in our district. There are no unused resource rooms or classrooms. In order to prepare for future enrollment and offer the best learning environment possible, we need to expand.”

More than 1,500 students are enrolled across the district’s three elementary schools.

“We saw a very large growth in our enrollment figures between last year and this year,” Stirling said at the opening of the 2014-2015 school year. “Much larger than anticipated.”

The rooms’ exact uses have yet to be determined, he added.

“There are a lot of factors that go into who will be using that space,” Stirling said. “After the construction is completed, we’ll decide, based on the district’s enrollment and needs, what the space will be used for.”

On March 24, the board voted to name itself the lead agency on the project, ensuring that it would have final say in decisions about the work. Plans will be subject to review by the state Education Department, and reviews of the proposed expansion’s environmental impact are still pending.