Lths Seeks February Referendum

Schools seek February referendum

September 27, 2007

By Duaa Eldeib, Staff writer

High school students in Lockport are having class in the cafeteria, conference rooms, printing rooms and a book closet.

Yes, a book closet.

That's how crowded the Lockport Township High School East campus has become, Principal Brett Gould said.

Administrators have drained all quick-fix solutions, such as installing classroom dividers, shuttling students to the Central campus when there's an open classroom and expanding an early-bird schedule that has students starting school at 6:50 a.m. and eating lunch at 9:20 a.m.

"It is now at crisis point," school board president Michael Petty said.

District officials are hoping voters approve a referendum this February to alleviate the overcrowding at the school. School authorities know they will need about $154 million for the project, which they will ask voters to finance with bonds. School authorities hope the new debt won't require a property tax increase, but they said they won't know whether that's possible until they borrow the money next spring.

The Central campus is near its 1,000-student capacity, and the East campus is at 200 students more than the 2,700 students it was intended to house.

After two failed referendums, board member Ann Holtz is confident this proposal is the strongest. Any previous questions or concerns she's had have been addressed.

But that doesn't mean it will be easy, particularly with the number of ballot questions voters will face in February.

"We could have a perfect plan, but with that much competition, it's going to make things difficult," Holtz said.

The current proposal is to build one high school to house between 3,300 and 3,600 students in Homer Glen at Cedar Road and 151st Street and expand the existing East campus in Lockport by building almost 21,000 square feet of additional space. Combined, the projects are just shy of $154 million, and both campuses would accommodate 6,300 students in the rapidly-growing district.

The ability to expand even more in the future also is worked into the plan, Supt. Garry Raymond said.