School district leaders in Rock Island have their work cut out for them now that voters have given their overwhelming blessing on a plan to overhaul the district’s elementary and junior high schools.

The Rock Island-Milan School District hopes to finish

construction on a new elementary school and significant additions to Eugene Field and Longfellow elementary schools and the Primary Academy in time for the start of the school year in August 2009. That is when leaders expect to implement their “Building Excellence” plan to restructure the district’s elementary schools.

But to make that happen, they will have to worry about more than bricks and mortar.

In the next 18 months, the district will need to develop partnerships with three area

colleges and curriculum for a math and science magnet school and liberal arts lab school. Leaders will work to prepare students to transition from their current schools to new ones and to reassign displaced staff.

In addition, they will flesh out building design plans for 11 schools, hire construction crews for the projects and figure out what to do with furniture from schools that will close.

“It’s a very tight timeline, but at this point in time we still believe it’s viable,” said Mike Oberhaus, Rock Island’s associate superintendent for operations and quality. “Right now, the district is appreciative of the community for their support. We will work diligently to maintain the commitments that we have made to the community.”

Voters signed off on the district’s $22 million plan Tuesday by overwhelmingly supporting a 10-year extension of the current property tax rate, which was set to expire in 2017. The money generated from it will pay for Rock Island’s first new school in more than 30 years and renovations to its eight existing elementary schools and two junior highs.

Nearly 70 percent of the almost 11,000 residents who cast ballots voted for the referendum. Its passage also means Audubon Elementary, Horace Mann Choice School and the Intermediate Academy will close.

In addition, the “Building Excellence” plan calls for:

n An elementary math and science magnet school at the new building, which will be built at the Villa de Chantal site. 

n A liberal arts lab school at Longfellow Elementary.

n Combining the Primary and Intermediate academies to form “The Academy.”

Leaders are close to finishing the terms of a partnership with Augustana College and Western Illinois University, which will help the district create the liberal arts lab school and math and science magnet school, respectively. They also plan to move forward with their partnership with St. Ambrose University, under which the college would aid in establishing The Academy.

The district has not yet started to draw up its agreement with the college, said Rick Loy, Rock Island superintendent.

As leaders have worked on the academic changes in store for schools, they have also spent the past several months in weekly design meetings planning how the new school and additions to the Primary Academy and Eugene Field, Longfellow, Thomas Jefferson and Ridgewood elementary schools will look.

District officials waited to start designing additions to the remaining elementary and junior high schools until after voters gave them the nod. That’s because the remaining projects are smaller and don’t have to be completed by August 2009 for the district to implement its plans, Oberhaus said.

He said a group of school and district staff, architects, engineers, parents and community members will now begin work on those designs.

“We will definitely push very diligently to get those critical projects completed on time,” Oberhaus said. “We will try to get the others done as soon as possible.”

The district hopes to bid out the larger construction projects, which it has already hired architects for, this spring. Leaders plan to break ground no later than this summer. Students at those schools will still attend them next year, despite the construction, Oberhaus said.

“They will have to work during school time,” he said. “We will try to minimize disruptions during school and will work with the contractor to make sure we provide a safe environment that allows us to conduct our business while allowing them to do the work they need to do at the site.” 

Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com.