Schools
District 41 Approves $300,000 for ‘Innovation Lab’ Designs
The new labs could be in place by 2017 and are considered a key part of the overall task of replacing aging portable classrooms.
The District 41 Board of Education voted unanimously on Monday to approve $300,000 for design and pre-construction studies for new “innovation laboratories” at the four elementary schools in the district, the Suburban Life reports.
According to the paper, the project itself could begin as early as summer 2014, would take about three years and cost between $8 and 10 million, starting at Franklin Elementary; the idea is to replace extremely outdated facilities with labs that conform to the new STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) system that the District is adopting.
"It's going to be flexible learning spaces that we're going to decide whatever the challenges are of the day, whatever the programs are that drive the facilities of the day, how to use those flexible spaces," the paper quoted Board Secretary Dean Elger saying.
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Board President Sam Black also called the labs “phase one of a master facility plan that will eliminate the portables in our district,” the paper said.
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