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the northbrook tower | April 12, 2018 | 3
Students toss first dirt ahead of new school construction
Chris Pullam
Contributing Editor
“This project means a great deal
to us. It means that our students
will have access to technology
and learning spaces that will
benefit their education, and it
means we will have a consistent
climate from classroom to
classroom.”
Dr. Nathan Carter — Maple principal on the
importance of building a new middle school for
Glenview and Northbrook students.
Twelve Maple School
students wielding golden
spades broke ground for
their new school against
a backdrop of industrial
bulldozers, excavators and
backhoe loaders.
Wearing red, plastic hard
hats and winter coats, the
Mustangs dug their tools
into the ground and flung
dirt into the sky amid a
chorus of cheers at the
end of Northbrook/Glenview
School District 30’s
groundbreaking ceremony
on Thursday, April 5.
Then the D30 Board of
Education took its turn,
followed by district administrators,
staff, teachers,
village leaders, local
politicians, former board
members, the architectural
team from ARCON Associates
and representatives
from Nicholas & Associates
Construction.
The ceremony began
inside the school, where
Maple Principal Dr. Nathan
Carter and D30 Superintendent
Dr. Brian Wegley
addressed a gymnasium
packed with students, parents
and key stakeholders.
Local dignitaries at the
event included Northbrook
Village President Sandy
Frum, Northbrook Village
Manager Rich Nahrstadt,
State Rep. Jonathan Carroll
(D-Northbrook), Shiva
Mohsenzadeh from the office
of State Rep. Laura
Fine (D-Glenview), State
Sen. Julie Morrison (D-
29th District), Northfield
Township Supervisor Jill
Brickman, Northbrook Library
Director Kate Hall
and Glenview Park District
Director Mike McCartney.
Also in attendance were
former D30 board members
Karen Roloff, Scott
Margolin and Carlo Cavallero,
as well as former Maple
Principal Steven Waitz.
Carter spent most of his
time at the podium thanking
the countless individuals
who dedicated their
time to actualizing the project,
while Wegley outlined
the fruits of their labor via
a PowerPoint presentation.
“This is truly a community
that cares about its students,
and they showed that
during the referendum and
how they voted,” Carter
said after the ceremony.
“This project means a great
deal to us. It means that our
students will have access
to technology and learning
spaces that will benefit their
education, and it means we
will have a consistent climate
from classroom to
classroom.”
According to Carter,
the current school experiences
year-round heating
and cooling issues, and
students often move from
warm classrooms to cold
classrooms and back again
throughout the day. To
make matters worse, parts
Maple students and stakeholders celebrate the construction of the new middle
school during the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, April 5. PHOTO SUBMITTED
The new 111,000-square-foot school will replace the existing 89,000-square-foot
facility that was built in 1949. IMAGE SUBMITTED
of the current building
leak when it rains, forcing
educators to use sandbags
to keep water away from
learning areas.
“These are environmental
distractions that our
students shouldn’t have
to deal with,” Carter said.
“Our teachers have done a
great job managing these
issues, but they shouldn’t
exist in the first place.”
While 14 classrooms in
the current building lack
windows and, as a result,
natural light, the new design
stresses open space
and floor-to-ceiling windows.
It also encourages
exploration through a number
of convertible areas,
such as stairways with attached
benches for collaboration
on group projects,
and innovative learning
environments, like a twostory
science space for
gravitational experiments.
Several components of
the old school, such as the
sports wall, will find a new
home in the new structure.
Others, like the area
celebrating the Six Pillars
of Character, will be completely
remodeled.
“We live those pillars
every day here at Maple,”
Carter said. “Our students
embrace the concept
as they live their lives.
They’re not taught separately
from other subjects
here. They’re taught parcel
to everything else at Maple.
It’s just who we are.”
Voters in District 30
overwhelmingly supported
the construction of a new
Maple School, with a threequarters
majority voting in
favor of the $36.3 million
bond referendum in April
2017.
The District will also
spend $5.2 million of its reserves
on the project for a
total price tag of $41.5 million.
The majority, $40.6
million, will go toward the
new school, with another
$369,600 and $508,480
for STEM, classroom and
parking improvements at
Wescott and Willowbrook
schools, respectively.
In February 2018, the
board officially signed off
on the new school, approving
four contracts tied to the
construction of the facility.
The new 111,000-squarefoot
school, the future
home of District 30’s sixththrough
eighth-graders,
will replace the existing
roughly-89,000-squarefoot
facility that was built
Please see maple, 6