Greenbriar students enjoy new gymnasium opening
By Nick Katz nkatz@pioneerlocal.com February 7, 2012 2:34PM
Greenbriar School held activities to mark the completion of the new gym Monday. Cody Wright (center) dances in the new gym. | Tamara Bell~Sun Times Media
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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:15AM
Though it just opened its doors Monday, the new gymnasium, at Greenbriar School is already getting a workout.
The school held special programs Monday to inaugurate the facility and the Northbrook Park District, which helped pay the cost of building the gym, had programs already scheduled to begin this week.
“We’re very pleased with the design, layout and craftsmanship that’s been put into this,” said Larry Hewitt, superintendent of Northbrook Elementary School District 28. “The partnership with the park distinct means it will be used all the time.”
The new gym is part of a three-phase construction project at the school.
Work began last summer and the addition that includes the gym as well as two new classrooms has been under construction during the school year. A final phase is slated for the coming summer break.
Hewitt said the entire project is on schedule for completion next summer.
The new gym is designed to address shortcomings with the current space, which is more like a multi-purpose room. The new, larger gymnasium will allow students to participate in the full range of physical education activities.
The new space will also be able to accommodate the entire student body and staff for assemblies, something that cannot be done in the existing gym, Hewitt said.
He said the existing gym which is about a quarter the size of the new one, has been “very cramped. “It (new gym) increases the range of programs we can run for physical education classes,” he said.
The district plans to retain the current space for use as a lunchroom and multi-purpose room to host other events such as the book fair so those programs do not conflict with physical education classes.
The Greenbriar project also features a new front entry, with a secure vestibule. In addition, the district is renovating existing small-group instructional space and adding seven new spaces for specialists. The new spaces will allow the district’s students to work with teachers in gifted education, English as a Second Language, reading, speech and social work in spaces that are designed for small group work. Also the school’s existing classrooms will be remodeled to better allow technology integration. Another portion of the project involves completing remaining life-safety work.
The project also includes two classrooms for a revenue-producing extended-day kindergarten program to serve the district’s kindergartners. The optional fee-based program will be designed to provide care for students during the portion of the day when they are not enrolled in half-day kindergarten.
District 28 officials say extended-day kindergarten is a documented parent need. The facility will be to accommodate approximately 80 students per day, or about 40 percent of kindergarten enrollment.
Under the agreement with the park district, the park district paid $1.3 million of the approximately $7.3 million cost of the project. It included more than $50,000 in alternate work including replacement of an old water main and resurfacing rather than patching a playground that will be damaged when the water line is installed.
For its share the school district used reserve funds rather than selling bonds.
Prior to the school board’s approval of the project last year a small group of district homeowners asked the board to consider instead using its reserve funds to abate property taxes, but the board in a 5-1 vote agreed to go ahead with the project as planned.
The district received a total of five bids for the work, which went to Fredrick Quinn Corporation based in Addison.
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