Community Corner

OPRF Board to Look at New Pool Concepts

The District 200 Board of Education will hear a presentation of concepts for new swimming pools at Oak Park and River Forest High School at their Sept. 26 meeting.

Correction: This article has been edited to clarify the price estimates associated with long term planning, not construction of a new pool.

The Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education on Thursday will hear a presentation of two concepts for construction of a new swimming pool at the school. The district's finance committee on Monday heard a presentation of the preliminary plans. 

According to a Wednesday Journal report, the committee heard a few options, including an outdoor pool facility that would replace the tennis courts or an off-campus facility in the current parking garage location.

Two district committees in 2012 looked at the school's facilities to look at sites that could accommodate a pool as part of the district's long-term planning. The committee identified OPRF's parking garage, east pool and south gym location and the west pool into the field house, according to a District 200 staff memo.

District 200 is also working on long term facilities planning. The following concepts for OPRF's long term plans are below:

  • The first concept would cost about $40-46 million for a 167,000-square-foot renovation that would result in 85-percent utilization of classroom space.
  • The second concept would cost, according to the preliminary report, about $45-52 million to renovate about 80,000 square feet and construct a new, 41,000-square-foot pool. The project would result in 65-percent teacher utilization, or about one classroom per teacher.

OPRF Director of Buildings and Grounds Robert Zummallen told the Journal that while the school's east and west pools were renovated in 2010, both have had structural problems because of their age. 

Read the full Wednesday Journal story here.

The District 200 board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, at Oak Park and River Forest High School. 


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