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Procunier AssessmentDist. 146 Space Woe for 2 Years?By JOY KAMPEIt may be two years before relief from overcrowding in some District 146 schools will be felt, district officials said Friday.Now that the school board has voted against year-round school, double sessions or the use of mobile units for the immediate future, a December 6 referendum will decide whether a building program can beginEven if the $350,000 referendum does pass, Supt. Robert Procunier said, Central Junior high school “will be seriously overcrowded for two years before the remodeling there is finished.”The board voted Tuesday not to adopt any of the options considered in a feasibility study, after more than 300 persons voiced their opposition to the plans at a public hearing on October 21.“WHAT WE heard was that we’ll put up with crowded conditions until we can build — at least that’s what I think we heard,” Dr. Procunier said.“They seemed to say that they want what they have now. But we can’t go on with the facilities we have now. And it may be two years before we reach the light at the end of the tunnel.”The superintendent said the district’s current enrollment is approximately 3.000 students. Village and school district figures show that at least 5,000 students can be expected when planned housing developments in Tinley Park, Oak Forest and Orland Park are completed.Year-round school could have handled a total of 4,000 students district-wide, but housing the remainder would have still have been a problem, Procunier said.ON AUGUST 16, a month before the feasibility study was released, the board authorized an architectural firm to draw up a facility master plan for the district Architect Frederick Matthews and a consulting team from K-M and Associates spent a week in September and anotherweek in October gathering information for the report It was presented to the board on October 23, two days after the feasibility report public hearing.The master plan cost $5,000, Procunier said, and the money may be reimbursable from the Illinois Capital Development boe.d (CDB).“I have been asked whether the feasibility study was made to insure passing of the referendum,” Dr. Procunier said. That’s impossible. 1 wrote the proposal for the feasibility study last October. The CDB application wasn’t made until January and we didn’t even know until May that we were being considered for a construction grant.”A GRANT for more than $1 million wasapproved at the June CDB meeting for construction in the district The money was appropriated on the premise that the 1924 portion of Central school would be replaced and the 1931 and 1948 additions would be renova ted In the final master plan report, Matthews wrote, “During the course of this investigative study, it was realized that this initial preliminary' request could and should be modified. However, the intial request should be formulated for comparison, since it has already been initiated and approved for funding.”The option approved by the school board Tuesday was the modified version of what the CDB lias already authorized.“WE HOPE the CDB will allow us tosave the original building at Central, as in the option the board chose, and not reduce their entitlement,” Dr Procunier saidIf they reduce it and we can t hack it, we'll have to revert back to option one. And the CDB will only get officially involved if the referendum passes Until we have our money deposited, they sta away.”Procunier said he was unsure of when the district would receive a final approval of the modified project from the CDBOnce we get a contract between CDB and the architect we'll get some kind of notification Right now, we’re going on the assumption that the board’s option will he approved We really have no reason to think it wouldn't.”
Newspaper Details
Tinley Park Star Tribune
Tinley Park, Illinois, US
Sun, Nov 02, 1975
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Poplar C.
IL, USA 29 May 2025
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