Bond Work & Sinking Fund Project Update: November 2023

With the passing of the August 2023 Bond, Berkley Schools teams are busy planning for upcoming construction projects. The Bond passage also allowed the District to dedicate Sinking Fund dollars to additional projects outside of the Bond scope to continue the work of updating facilities. 

These monthly Bond & Sinking Fund updates will be maintained on the District’s website. See below for updates on the Phase 1 projects that are taking place in 2024 and 2025.

Project Updates

Finance

The District’s independent financial team (PFM Financial Advisors, Thrun Law Firm, Stifel and Huntington Bank), along with the District's finance team, have secured buyers for the $10M first series bonds. The District was able to secure excellent interest rates and pricing and will close on the Bond sale on December 5, 2023. The $10M in bonds is the first series for the District to receive the $88 million total that was approved by voters. The second series for $78M will be sold in Spring/Early Summer 2024. 

Design

Baseball/Softball Fields - Sinking Fund

The District will be adding a new home varsity softball field on the Tyler Field, just north of Berkley Building Blocks. The design team, along with Foresite Design, is working on design details and a construction timeline. This new varsity field will include lights, dugouts, concession area and a permanent outfield fence. The District is also working to secure an outdoor restroom location near the field. An additional softball/baseball practice field will be added to the Tyler field in coordination with the City of Oak Park as well.

Planning and discussions are continuing for baseball field upgrades. More details should be available by the December Bond update.

District-wide Furniture Purchase - Bond

Design teams are meeting to plan for a District-wide classroom and media center furniture upgrade in Fall 2024. The District secured a vendor, MovePlan, who will inventory all District classroom and media center furniture starting in December. As part of the inventory process, MovePlan will assess the condition of all furniture and assign a grade to each piece. Once all the furniture is inventoried, the company will build a database for the District to utilize to sell, donate or dispose of the existing furniture. This process will be complete by January 2024 and will take place during non-school days.

Hurley Field Turf, Track, Lights & Parking - Bond & Sinking Fund

Phase 1 of the Hurley Field construction is part of a larger Bond and Sinking Fund project. It includes: turf, track, relocating discus and shot put, expanded parking and new lighting.

Hurley Field construction work is well underway. The field is closed to the public and construction crews have been on site since November 6. Below is a summary of the work completed so far:

• The areas behind the end zones have been removed. 
• The south endzone concrete has been repoured.
• New concrete has been poured for the new shot put and discus pads.
• Parking update: A District team met with the city of Berkley and Spalding DeDecker (engineering and surveying firm) to begin traffic flow plans for expanding the Anderson parking lot.
• Next up: Track surface removal and then turf removal.

Spring Sports Season Update

The BHS girls soccer program will use Ferndale High School as their home field for the spring 2024 season. The Athletics Department is continuing to work on securing the temporary track and field location for spring meets.

Phase 1 (Burton, Pattengill, BHS) - Bond

All design teams have had kick-off meetings for Phase 1 work. Additional design team meetings are scheduled for early December to plan and shape the Bond work for Burton and Pattengill (multi-purpose/cafeteria additions, gym updates, playground adjustments) as well as BHS (performing arts, field house, pool, science wing). Design teams will consist of building staff, District staff, architects and construction management team. These teams are led by Stantec, the District’s architects, and a core team of Berkley Schools Administrative staff. 

Maintenance Building - Sinking Fund

The new Maintenance building will be located at the Administrative Offices site in Oak Park, at the end of the parking lot, just north of the Norup playground. The design team is reviewing schematic drawings of the new facility and the project cost estimates. Once the design drawings are approved, the next steps include preparing the request for proposal (RFP) documents for construction trades to bid on.

Traffic Flow - Sinking Fund

The District engaged with Spalding DeDecker to complete a traffic study at Burton, Pattengill and Rogers to see if any additional parking or parking flow could be achieved. The design teams are reviewing the proposals and renderings with building staff. 

Technology - Bond

At the November 13th Board of Education meeting, the Board approved the funding for new classroom projectors, sound systems and clocks for Burton and Pattengill. Classroom projectors will be replaced with interactive flat panels that will be mounted to the wall. The classroom sound systems will be updated and the clocks inside classrooms and in hallways will be replaced as well. The Technology Department is working with the vendor to plan the installation of the new equipment that will happen inside of this school year. The rest of the schools will receive the same classroom technology updates in future years of the Bond work. 

Weekly Meetings

The District teams participate in weekly meetings with Stantec (architecture, engineering, design), McCarthy & Smith (construction management), and SES (engineering and mechanical systems) to plan timelines of construction, prepare bid documents, as well as pour over details of the scopes of work. Each project has a standard sequence of work: design phase, project cost estimating, bidding for contractors, awarding contracts, construction phase (demolition and building) and finally, project completion