The main foyer at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights that will welcome freshmen for orientation Friday and the rest of the student body next Wednesday is virtually unrecognizable from a year ago.
Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and Hersey officials formally unveiled and cut the ribbon Wednesday on the new entrance hallway, student services areas and front offices, following completion of a $6.3 million transformation that started last Thanksgiving.
“To those people who have been displaced and moved for that amount of time, isn’t it all worth it?” asked Principal Heath McFaul, noting the 36 front office staff members who were temporarily relocated. “On Wednesday when we bring 2,200 kids back into this building who can’t even recognize this space anymore, that’s going to be the most magical thing ever.
“We have had the band and some athletes and summer camps who have walked through here, and their mouths are open as they walk through,” McFaul added.
The renovated area — to the left of the main school entrance at 1900 E. Thomas St. — now has meeting space pods, a college and career center, reception areas, and the main school office for the principal, two associate principals and support staff.
Where the old principal’s office was is now a coffee shop and concession stand for events in the nearby gymnasium, a trophy display area, and Orange Crush student spirit group meeting room.
The project encompassed demolition and removal of old offices and construction of new ones; replacement of lighting, ceilings, walls, flooring, heating and cooling systems; asbestos abatement; and other aesthetic upgrades.
Among the surprises found when contractors started tearing walls and ceilings apart: a locker room shower and other plumbing connections for a restroom inside what had become a dean’s office, and 1960s-style skylights with “bugs in the bottom of them,” McFaul said.
“I did kind of think that was going to end up in my office,” McFaul joked.
The renovation follows the opening of the district’s first centralized student services area last summer at Elk Grove High School, and will be followed by similar upgrades at the district’s four other schools in the coming years.
Superintendent Scott Rowe described the Hersey and Elk Grove spaces as a “one-stop shop” where students and parents can meet with deans, counselors and social workers.
“It’s an intentional redesign,” Rowe said. “It represents a commitment to supporting all of our students as a whole child and a whole student.”
The capital projects represent just a fraction of what is projected to be upward of $900 million in renovation costs across the district. Officials in recent months have floated the possibility of a referendum to help fund the work.
“Even as we celebrate the completion of this project, we emphasize, yes, there is more work to be done,” said school board President Alva Kreutzer. “There’s a big dollar sign with renovations that need to occur, and we’re going to be diving into how we’re going to pay for those exhaustive facilities assessments that’s going to be coming. But we’re up to the task. We’re going to make sure that all our buildings are as wonderful as this is. We just have a lot of work to do.”
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