West Aurora voters OK funds for construction
West Aurora School District 129 voters have approved a $84.2 million plan to tackle a to-do list that includes building a new school, according to Kane County and Aurora Election Commission websites.
The sweeping capital improvement plan will pay to replace Hill Elementary School and improve most schools in the district.
With all 51 precincts reporting, tallies show 3,396 voters supported the plan, while 2,237 opposed it, according to unofficial results from Kane County and the Aurora Election Commission.
The most expensive project on District 129's list is building a replacement for Hill Elementary School in Aurora at an estimated cost of more than $18 million. The current building is 127 years old.
Besides building a new Hill, a portion of the money would go toward installing geothermal heating and cooling systems at nine schools - Freeman, Goodwin, Hall, McCleery, Nicholson and Schneider elementary schools; Jefferson and Washington middle schools; and West Aurora High School.
The capital plan adopted by the school board also calls for installing air conditioning at Todd Early Learning Center; adding classrooms at Fearn Elementary School and Jefferson, Nicholson, McCleery and Freeman; renovating locker rooms and adding a field house, a multipurpose space and a corridor connection at West Aurora; building a combination early childhood education center and district administrative building; putting a canopy over the student drop-off area at Hope Wall School; and building tornado safety zones in Herget Middle School and Greenman Elementary.
Though the school board has approved the capital plan outlining the projects, none of the projects has been let for bid. The geothermal work and Hill School likely will be the first projects, according to district officials. The new Hill would be built on the rear half of the current Hill site in Aurora.
Several of the schools slated for additions, as well as Hill School, now have mobile classrooms to handle their enrollments.